Sleepovers - Then and Now

There are five words that I bet will strike terror into the heart of any parent -

"Can I have a sleepover?"

I don't even have kids, but the thought makes me cringe.  I remember being in 3rd and 4th grade going over to a friends' house with a group of 5-6 other girls. Usually our nights consisted of loud raucous laughter and practically zero sleep with various activities in between.

While I'm not particularly looking forward to chaperoning my future children's sleepovers, it's still fun to be the one having the sleepover.
On Friday I went back to my hometown.  Dad was having surgery that morning to fix the herniated discs in his neck that were causing him a lot of pain. While Dad recovers from surgery, my brother, Casey, will be helping out with a lot of the chores. Friday night, Casey was going to be bach-ing it.  His wife had planned to take their two girls to visit one of her best friends for the evening. So since Casey was going to be by himself, and because he would be coming up to Mom and Dad's to help with chores the next morning anyway, Annie and I told him he should just have a sleepover with us.  Mom was going to stay the night with Dad at the hospital, so it would just be us kids.
After we left the hospital Katie came over and brought her two kids and we all watched a movie together. Then Katie and the kids went home and Casey, Annie, and I stayed up until 2 a.m. chatting and listening to music videos.  The entire evening was a blast!  I feel sorry for any person who doesn't have a close relationship with their siblings - they make the best friends in the world! :)

Mom, Dad and their kiddos at the hospital

Watching a movie on Friday night

Before we left the hospital Friday night, Mom joked that if we had sleepover, then we had to pick up after ourselves.  The next morning while Casey did chores, Annie and I picked up the house, swept, vacuumed and did dishes. (Now I just need to figure out how to make my kids and their friends do that someday!) :)

Dad came home the next day, and we were all relieved to see how much the surgery had helped.  The pain in his back, neck and arms was gone.  Now we'll just have to figure out how to keep him from trying to do too much too fast.  Poor Mom is going to have her hands full.  I think the doctor should have prescribed some sedatives she could give him when he starts getting restless. :) Dad is definitely not one to sit idle and the doctor said he shouldn't lift anything heavier than a full milk jug for the next 4-6 weeks. The day after his surgery Casey already had to get after him for trying to lift something too heavy. Casey told him, I think that's more than 10 lbs, to which Dad responded "9 and a half." Stubborn old fart.

On Thursday I'll be flying out of Denver with my mother-in-law and some friends to go to Nashville to run.  I'm getting really excited. I just hope I can beat last year's time. I'm also excited to be done training in bad conditions.  The weather has seemed rather tough to run in this spring. We've had a lot of cold and windy days.  Personally I hate running against a strong wind.  Several times when I've had to go longs distances, I've run with the wind to my back and had Taylor come pick me up when I got done.  Today I wasn't so lucky.  The weather started out nice, and I had to do 8 miles, but by the time I went to run a strong north wind had picked up. I don't know for sure but I'm guessing we had a sustained wind of 30 mph with stronger gusts. I felt like most of my energy was spent trying to keep from blowing sideways.  Also, it's been so dry here that any wind seems to pick up a lot of dirt.  At one point, while running past a bare field, the dirt was blowing so much that I couldn't see anything in front of me, and I had to run with my eyes closed. By the time I got home I was completely dirt covered and taking a shower was my first priority. Oh well, at least running in conditions like that should make Nashville seem like a cake walk.

The dirt especially collected in my shoes and in the crevices of my arms.

Western Kansas Fact: Weeds can be a blessing (as long as they're not in a field). With the drought we've been having, weeds seem to be the only thing that will grow (and even they are having trouble). But anything that helps hold the dirt down is a good thing. However they cannot be tolerated in a field because they will rob moisture from the crops.

At dawn on the first day Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary went to look at the the tomb. Matthew 28:1
I got a new perspective for this Scripture the other day. The lesson talked about these women's devotion to Christ. Even after they had seen Him die, they continued to devote themselves to Him and serve Him. They served even though they felt as though their hopes had been dashed. This gives me a new standard to aim for. I pray my devotion to Christ may be as strong as theirs.  Strong enough to endure even when hope seems like a distant dream.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Lyndee

Shopping? No thanks, I'll take a calf shed.

When I was young, I was a definite tomboy.  I loved helping my dad, being outside, messing with animals, etc., and I didn't care what clothes I had on - clothes didn't matter. What mattered was having a pocketknife in my pocket. As I got older, I learned to appreciate more feminine things as well, but I never completely outgrew my tomboy-ness.  

For instance I know a lot of women who love to go shopping. Personally, I have to be in the right mood for shopping.  On the rare occasion I am in that particular mood, generally after a few hours I have a headache and am ready to leave the mall/stores and go home. Furthermore, I cannot stand to go window shopping.  Nothing feels like a bigger waste of time than browsing through stores, while at the same time knowing I'm not going to be buying anything. (The exception makes the rule - I could spend hours in a Barnes and Noble looking through books and getting ideas of ones I would like to read.)

Shopping may not be the blood-pumping stimulate for me that it is for some other people, but I do get excited about some new things.  For instance, right now, I can hardly wait for Friday to get here.  That is when my new, pre-fabricated, three-sided calf shed is coming! This shed will give me more room so I can keep my bucket calves longer and get them bigger before taking them to the sale. (Exciting - I know!) :)

With five bull calves at the moment, I definitely could stand some extra room.

My newest calf "Hamish." I named him after one of the three princes on the Disney movie Brave. 

Well - Taylor and I made it all the way through Lent without watching TV. It felt a little weird the first week, but it was pretty easy to get used to after that.  I used to like having the TV on just for background noise, but I've come to enjoy the quiet a lot more.

After Easter, I sat down to relax and watch a recorded episode I had missed out on during the past couple months, but watching TV wasn't nearly as satisfying as it used to be.  Even now Taylor and I both are a lot more inclined to leave the TV off in the evening.

This past weekend Taylor and I went back to my Mom and Dad's for a visit and also to go to Taylor's sister's final dance recital at K-State.  We got to give Kolden his birthday presents, too.  As always, I loved getting to see my family and play with my nieces and nephew. When I go home my nephew, Kolden, is my little buddy, and he likes to spend as much time with me as he can (I definitely don't mind - I love spending as much time  as possiblewith him too).  Anyway I had to run four miles for my training while I was at home. When I told Kolden, he said he wanted to run with me.  I laughed and told him that he had to take his afternoon nap instead, but I promised that when Mom, Katie, myself and the kids went for a walk later, we could run the last little bit together. About 30-40 yards before we finished our walk, I let Kolden out of the stroller and we started running. He ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, and I stayed next to him to make sure he stayed off to the side of the road. I guess Kolden thought it was a race, and was willing to cheat to win.  As we ran together, he kept trying to cut me off! Little turd. :) By the time we reached the mailbox, Kolden was panting hard, saying he was tired. I was glad I had convinced him to stick with 40 yards rather than 4 miles. Later that night he told Katie that he had won the Holton Piston Cup. :)

At one point Kolden was giving his sister a wagon ride, but she decided she wanted to walk.  Kolden then told me he would give me a wagon ride. That lasted all of two seconds before he told me I was too heavy.  I'm going to have to teach him the art of building up a woman's self esteem! :)

Got lucky to catch such a good picture of these three. Pretty darn cute in my opinion!

Western Kansas Fact: Cleaning your ears is EXTREMELY important. With the especially dry conditions we've experienced lately and the strong winds that have blown the past few days, the joke about being able to grow potatoes in your ears becomes a lot less funny and seems more like an actual possibility. 

A lot of times when someone is speaking or when I am reading, I simply see or hear the words with my brain. But occasionally I feel like words speak to my heart as well. The Scripture lesson I read the other morning did just that:

I have given you power... that is greater than the enemy has. Luke 10:19

The lesson for this Scripture said that while there are many, many characters in the Bible, most simply stated, the entire Book is the truth of the battle and triumph of God over Satan. I especially loved one line in the lesson, "Hell will have to get through Him to get to you." Most often I think of Christ's love as a peaceful thing, but this lesson reminded me that He loves me fiercely, too.  So much so that He will battle and defeat the power of hell for me. 

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Lyndee