No Eating of the Horses....Er, What?

Ah another week is upon us.  Last week was wickedly cold for a few days.  Monday was great to get a bunch of outdoor chores done and then...bam!....cold front Tuesday.  I didn't do too much Tuesday.  I was actually pretty sore from doing all the chores on Monday.  I think I put out 7 round bales and their corresponding hay nets which are a pain in the royal....whatever.  Between that and cleaning the upper barn, my shoulders and upper back were hurting on Tuesday.  I did ride for about 15 minutes which was enough to freeze my face.  After that I kept putting some Lego ships together.  Amie and I spent most of the rest of the night doing that....sorting pieces, finishing ships, going crazy from looking for itty bitty tiny parts in a BIG pile of Legos.  Wednesday was fun as we trekked back to my alma mater (am I old enough to say that?) of Purdue University....Boiler UP!....to do some recruiting.  I love walking into a job fair in jeans and a camp shirt with all the dress suits and high heels looking at us like we don't belong.....THEN we start to set up our display, attract a lot of students, and then they wonder to themselves, "How do they do that?"  Guess what, we have had a few companies come up to us and ask how we get so many students to come to our table.  :-)  Yeah, we're kind of a big deal.  After a long day of talking about what we do, it was back home.  Thursday was a pretty good day as Amie and I went to our weekly Bible study.  It was fun this time as a woman in our small group and I talked about evolution vs creation and how to use that in apologetics. As I go through the study, I don't always follow the line of reasoning with some of the material, but when it comes to "arguing" a case for God using creation/science.....I'm comfortable with that.  I am a scientist, a logical intellectual (something that some people say that you can't be religious and a scientist....I beg to differ), and after all that I've learned and continue to learn, I just find that everything points to a Creator, a moral Law Giver.  Nothing contradicts.  I wish I could relay that conversation that she and I had easily but I can't.  Just take my word that it was a good one.  Afterwards, Amie and I bought out Sam's club and Walmart and, as usual, had fun doing so.  That night we wrapped up the Lego project as we watched Grey's Anatomy and waited for the sleet/snow to begin.  Friday morning was a 2 hour delay for Delphi (not for big people..why not?).  After a weekend off of trail rides, Saturday and Sunday were filled with riders.  A few funny things along the way.  I usually tell the riders that there is no snacking on the trail rides.  No gum or candy for us and no eating of the horses.....wait.....yeah, I wrote that right because that's what I said....twice.  I usually say, "No eating for (or by) the horses" but I said "of" instead.  I started cracking up while giving the demo and I got confused looks from the dad.  In an almost movie-like scenario, I stated, "Oops, I said eating 'of' the horses, not eating 'by' the horses....I don't want you to eat my horses" and they all just stared and my laughs became....non existent.  Really folks?  You didn't see the humor in that?  Come on!  I did it in another demo the next day and started to laugh when I stated, "I did it again.  I said 'of' not 'by'."  Even weirder looks that time.  Where's your sense of humor?  I also have a great team of folks working for me right now.  It's two college aged kids (Abby and Alex) and a high schooler (Franki) and the three of them get along so well, giving each other a hard time but laughing all the while.  Alex has decided that our group should have no secrets and if you tell one thing to someone, the whole group will have to know.  Mostly this is to have material with which to tease one another.  As Abby said, "Forgive but never forget!"  These guys crack me up.  We will never forget the breakfast where Brandon got skipped for his snack order OR the breakfast where Abby gets her hair in the ketchup.  Then there's ear muffs for Alex.  Don't mention the word "fence posts" to anyone.  And Alex is working on his $.01 pay raises all the time.  Just a great group that make it fun on the weekends, one of the least liked portions of our job.  I'm grateful to have them around.

I finished book one of the Ashes series.  That book was pretty intense but a great read.  Hard to put it down.  I've got the second one and am ready to read it.  One thing that sticks out to me is how much we rely on our technology.  In the book, all technology gets wiped out by a huge EMP (electromagnetic pulse-thank you Stargate for my knowledge in this, all correct I'm sure), at least that's what the characters are thinking, and they have to survive in a new world.  Makes me wonder if we could live with less.  I often have the feeling to get rid of a bunch of my "stuff", to not feel burdened with possessions, to live out of a backpack.  One look at my house and you'll find that I'm not doing that now.  Ignore the room with all the ebay stuff from Amie and others.  But I do want to simplify.  I think there would be a release to get rid of stuff.  I'm not talking about getting rid of everything, but to just not feel the need to have stuff around.  Maybe that makes sense, maybe it doesn't.

Not too much else going on right now.  Working hard on selling ebay stuff.  :-)  I surmised last night that this was my hobby.  I like it.  Yep, kinda weird but we're all kinda weird in some way or another.  This week will be busy.  Tomorrow I get re-certified to save lives (CPR recert)  and Friday we are headed to Terre Haute for more recruiting.  Off to Louisville on Saturday and Sunday.  Busy Busy!  While my Monday was a sleepy, unmotivated one, I hope you had a great start to your week.  Until we meet again....