tamara b

[Friday excitement]
L has become our pseudo little sister at home. She works with my husband at the vet clinic and I work with her mom. So hubby sees her during the week and when she’s not at work she comes to my office to have lunch. Plus, she’s part of our small group.

L has been working at our vet clinic for almost a year. She does quite a bit with hubby on farm calls and in the clinic. Wanting additional experience, we hooked her up with our vet buddy in the neighboring town so she could shadow him and run calls. That was scheduled for Friday.
Friday at noon at get a call from Dr. R and he has zero interest in talking to me. He stated that it was an emergency and wanted to speak with L’s mom. I’m not sure who was more shook up: Dr. R, L’s mom or me. L had been out on a farm call and was at the back of the truck when the farmer saw her pass out and fall to the ground. Pretty scary for everyone, especially Dr. R who debated on having someone ride around because of liability.

Meanwhile, L’s mom is diabetic and since this happened at lunch, L’s mom skipped lunch and rushed off to the hospital. On my way out the door for an early afternoon off, I stopped and got D some food and dropped it off at the hospital.

Thankfully all turned out fine. Dr. R kept the tired L awake by making her do her ABC’s and other easy things. The emergency room visit found nothing wrong and sent her home to rest up.

[spoil the spouses]
Preface – When you are employed by the government there are no Christmas bonuses, gifts from clients, etc. The government doesn’t give Christmas bonuses and gifts would be considered bribery. With that said, let me share about my weekend of getting spoiled
One of the drug companies held a meeting for a handful of the veterinarians to do business as usual. Only the salesman responsible made it very clear that the purpose was the spoil the spouses. And we sure did get spoiled.

We made it a family weekend. That in itself was a debate – do I have a nice weekend alone with the hubby or do I take the kiddo and have him around for entertainment in case I don’t like the “wives club”? We all went. We arrived at our rural destination a bit early so that we could clean up before supper.

Friday night we had hors d’oeuvres, supper and dessert at an old Feed Mill that has been restored and remodeled. The food was fantabulous! It was a bit awkward at first not knowing any of the couples. We sat alone at a table before one of the wives sat with us. We ate and had nice conversations before heading back to the hotel after a long day.

Saturday, while the guys had their meeting, us women headed down to the local bakery for quiche and baked goods over breakfast. We then headed down to the local boutique (which utilizes the upstairs portion of the feed mill and still has working machinery in it) for some shopping. The drug company had presented each woman with a $50 gift certificate to the boutique. For those who know me, a boutique is a place that I find cute, but not a place that I’d spend money. I have enough crap in my house and the style of clothes aren’t my style. So, I spent MY money on a barn book and several children’s books for Scott. As I pulled my gift certificate out of the envelope, I noticed a second certificate. I was sure it was there by accident and waited to inform the salesmen that there were accidentally two certificates in my envelope. As I wondered around the store though, I could hear other women announcing how close they were to their totals; all of them near $100. Not much later we joined back up with the men to head to lunch when I asked about the certificates. It was not a mistake. The original plan was for $50, but they decided to add another $50 to it. THANK YOU! I had $100 to spend. Only problem was that I didn’t know what to spend it on so I purchased another $50 in children’s book for Scott (now we have his birthday gift taken care of).

Lunch was at a nearby restaurant that was originally and old barn. Although I appreciated the food, it was no comparison to Friday night’s meal. Following lunch, the group went on a tour of the Amish. At this point, I was a bit disappointed. Because I live and work near Amish, this was nothing new to me. So, a “tour” which was really stopping at several Amish farms and going into their little stores where their goods are sold wasn’t impressive to me. I had no plans to purchase anything and didn’t get to visit the people so for me it was just a bunch of getting in and out of a van. I do appreciate BI’s generosity in paying for the tour but it was like home to me and so I didn’t find it as interesting as other’s.

Supper was at a local place. It was good food and we gathered outside for our meal. Of course, we were spoiled with whatever we wanted off the menu – appetizers, drinks, meals, desserts. A light rainstorm made it’s way through while we were eating but the umbrellas were enough protection. Following supper, BI treated us to a play at a local venue. By now, my child desperately needs a nap, its hot and sticky out and we go for a walk before the play. As we get into the hall for the performance, I realize I forgot small-fry’s bottle. This meant getting a nap in would be near impossible with a tired and hungry child. Needless to say we didn’t last long at the play before we left. The kiddo was behaving wonderfully (as he did all weekend in public) but he was being a chatter box and we didn’t want to be a distraction so we left.

Another night’s stay in a cute little motel provided by BI before hurrying home for Sunday church activities. Thanks to BI for spoiling this spouse. I mentioned to them that I wasn’t this spoiled on my honeymoon! They hadn’t been either so I’m sure it was enjoyed by all.

[joined the church]
We officially joined the church on Sunday. Fortunately the members graciously accepted us. After the quarterly meeting, we met out at a local picnic shelter for church potluck. Next thing on the church list is VBS and I’m teaching the pre-school kids. That will be interesting!