Born 'n Bred Country Girl

Today was a fantastic day. It was preluded (is that a word?) by my friend Lisa visiting last night while her husband and mine went to a work related meeting. We stayed up way too late...again. But this time for a legitimate reason-our husbands were out late.

After about 6 hours of sleep, I dragged myself and my son out of bed to go and meet up with my dad who happened to be trucking by our place. We met him at the local truck stop at 6:15am and proceeded to hop aboard to go pick up some cattle from a sale barn. He drives transport during the winter to supplement their income when their isn't any cash crop to bale or harvest from his farm. So today was a special treat for my son since my dad lives almost 4 hours away and it isn't every day that you get to travel in a big rig like his. Oh and I forgot my camera. I am beating myself up over this.

So we hopped aboard to accompany him to a local sale barn to load some cattle that he would be transporting to Pennsylvania. It was sheer bliss for both my son and I. My son was very quiet at the beginning, yet super bug-eyed and observing every thing and I was in my element. You see, we don't live in the country right now although, that is where my heart lies and that's how I was raised. Often I am compelled to take a drive north of the city to get my fill of the fresh air and scenery. I look forward to the day when I will return to my roots and once again relish in the country life. But for now this is what we can afford.

It had been a while since my last drive so today was the day. The smell of dead skunk and manure, bumpy narrow roads, lights on in barns as the farmer does his chores, small towns that were gone in a blink of an eye, good company and my son snuggling on my lap drinking it all in just as I was. I can't tell you how great it was to be able to see my dad and be out in the country both at the same time.

Once we arrived at the sale barn my son, by then, had become a little more talkative. He has watched the movie Barnyard numerous times and was so excited to see "Otis". *No photo ops this time* Only seeing that we were in a barn full of cows there were lots of Otis'. He then became a little concerned when he saw his friend Otis being loaded into the back of Grandpa's truck. "What they doing mom?", "Where's Grandpa?", "What's that noise?" and "MOOooooo-ooo!" were frequent words from his mouth.

I don't know about you, but what do you tell an almost three year old when his new buddy Otis is being loaded into the back of a trailer to be taken to a slaughter house x-number of miles away?

I chose the easy route-"Grandpa is taking them with him on a big trip". End of questions. But wait. "Me go too!" My son pipes up. "Ummmm.....not this time honey". Did I mention I can't believe I forgot my camera.

Moving on. While we were waiting for my dad to finish up some paperwork, my son got a little more comfortable in the cab of the truck. He decided he was the new driver. Man I wish I had had my camera. For those of you that aren't familiar with the insides of a transport cab, there are loads and load of buttons and switch and electronics. My son is a button boy! It was mayhem.I finally convinced that only Grandpa is allowed to touch 99% of the switches and that my dear son could be in charge of signaling. Phew.

When my dad came back he let my son help him shift and gave him the job of telling him if the lights were green or red. We were returned to the truck stop, we said our goodbyes and my son had his turn at the big horn. Ok so he was allowed to touch three things.

Next on the agenda was stroller fitness. I had invited my friend Pam to come with her two kids. The one who has a son who shares the same name as mine and who also shares similar personalities (ie. loves running). We had decided that I would borrow a double stroller from the mall to keep the two boys in so that they could amuse each other and if they did take off running I could be the runner to retrieve them.

So to say the least, I got my exercise today. Once they both warmed up the idea of having a partner in crime they got really comfortable running around after one another. Praise the Lord for money spending contraptions located at each entrance of the mall where we stop to do our respective exercises. I am now in love with lockers, Coke machines, photo booths, pay phones, and mall information computers. If only I had remembered my camera!

I am also in love with Sears. They have parked their lawn mowers outside their entrance to the mall which happens to be where we do some abs. Of course, boys being boys, they were all over those things like bees to honey! Just priceless.

What a wonderful morning......that I payed for the rest of the day. Both my son and I were zombie's when we got home. Only to find out that my daughter had decided to sleep in until 8:30 this morning. What are the chances of that?

Since I was the loser who forgot her camera on one of the best mornings in a long time. Here's a picture of that side of the family at Christmas.

Back: My Great Aunt, Dad, Son & Husband
Middle: Dad's Wife
Front: Me, Daughter and My Grandma