The life of a first year teacher

Since it's been 200000 years since my last post I thought I'd write again. Life is so crazy right now! We welcomed our sweet baby Elsa into our family back in February.  Jacob got a new job in July after 7 months of unemployment and I got a job in August teaching 5th grade. I love my job!  It was crazy how it all happened though. I was going to be long term subbing for a friend in 1st grade and the secretaries at the school asked if I was interested in a full time gig. There was a 5th grade position open and they said I should apply for it. My friend gave me the go ahead so I applied. This was 1 1/2 weeks before school started for the year. I interviewed on a Monday, got hired that Friday, and school started the very next Tuesday. I have never felt so much stress and joy all at once. It has been a crazy roller coaster of a ride but we are making it through and the girls are adjusting to both of us working. I'm grateful for the blessings Heavenly Father brings us.  

Baby!!

I wanted to save the video we took of us telling the girls we were having another baby.  I love it!  They were so cute whe

n they found out. :)

Well, it's been almost a year...

I was sitting here just now looking at myself after weighing myself on the scale and feeling like I need a serious kick in the toosh. I've gained 12 pounds back that I had lost this last year and if I keep up how I'm eating and not exercising right now I'm on track to gain it all back. I had trained so hard and for so long the last few years that honestly I was/am sick and tired of it. I'm burned out.  But I'm also not happy with where I am.  It's so frustrating to me that I'll "Get it" and have this huge burst of energy and just go hard and then I'll have times like now where I don't get it. I laze around, eat whatever the heck I want and don't workout.  The real frustrating thing right now is I know that unless I start eating clean going to the gym isn't going to do a whole lot for me.  It will get me in the habit of going again but I'm not going to see the results I'm used to if I don't clean up my eating habits. I know what to do, but for some reason it seems like too much to ask right now (even thought it's totally not). I'm not happy like I used to be.  I mean I'm still a happy person but I'm not complete like I was when I was eating healthier and exercising. ugh. I'm hoping that by putting this out on the blog it will somehow motivate me because it's now here for any and all to read. Accountability. I was just looking through my old training papers and noticed one thing that I really suck doing when it comes to diet.  Snacks. I try to only eat 3 meals a day but then find myself gorging on stupid things because I'm starving because I haven't had a protein shake, or carrots, or an apple in between meals.  I gorge myself after the kids go down because I'm starving since I didn't eat the right things earlier that day.  It's a horrible cycle. I'm going to visit my family in 3 weeks. I want to lose 4-5 pounds before that time. Totally doable if I can just pull my head out. 

Some people who I call Family.

We had the opportunity today to go over to a friend's house in our ward and sit and visit with them.  Their son just got back from serving a mission.  It was so nice as other members of our congregation came over and sat around the living room too to just sit and enjoy being in each others company. As I was sitting there talking to my friend Pat I took a quick moment to scan the room and just soak up everything.  I had a flashback to my own family gatherings as a kid.  It struck me that the feelings I was having that that exact moment were the same feelings I had as a kid sitting around my Grandparents house chatting with my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.  We have lived here for 5 years this March and these people have become my family.  They have seen my kids grow from babies to the sweet little girls that they are now.  We have seen kids grow from the age our kids are now and now some of those kids will be entering the Youth program.  It was such a peaceful feeling and a safe feeling tonight sitting in the living room of the Shannon's house surrounded by a handful of people that I have come to know and love over the years.  This is home and will always be home no matter where we move.  I'm feeling very fortunate to have been given this opportunity to meet the people I have and I hope and pray that I will be allowed to continue to live in this great area.  

First day of Kindergarten

Dear Emma,

Today was your first day of Kindergarten. Last night around midnight you came into mommy and daddy's room because you had had a nightmare.  I let you curl up in bed with us and we snuggled and slept until morning.  Your alarm woke us up and you jumped up to go turn it off.  As you started the water for your shower I laid in bed thinking about how quickly you have grown up.  I couldn't believe that I had a Kindergartner.  I remember vividly the morning I went into labor with you. After the shower you got dressed and we blow dried your hair and you sat down for breakfast.  Your breakfast of choice?  Two bowls of Rice Chex Cereal.  We had packed your lunch the day before that you chose : Half of a turkey sandwich with cheddar cheese and pickels, cinnamon applesauce, carrot sticks, capri sun, homemade apricot fruit leather, and a granola bar.  You watched Dora with Linnea and then we put your lunch in your bag and went out the door. As we walked to school you walked with such assurance that it made me a bit more confident in this whole situation.  When we got to the school you asked if the rest of us were going to leave you now and go back home.  You were very eager to go! We took a few more pictures and then it was time for you to go to class.  Your teacher came out and immediately started speaking Spanish.  (You are in a dual language program so the first half of the day you will only hear Spanish and the second half only English).  I hope you have a good first day of school.  You are turning into a very beautiful young lady. 

Summa Summa Time

Chasing Seagulls at the park

Climbing up the slide

T-ball

Cousin's wedding

Snoqualmie Falls

Playing with sidewalk chalk

Kitchen remodel.  New sink, counter tops, faucet, cabinet hardware and pantry door.

It's been a busy summer already and it's not quite the middle of July yet!  Can't wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store.  We just wish Jacob could be here to enjoy it with us.  He's working up in Canada again.

My girls being my girls.

The girls were playing around on the coffee table this evening and I thought I'd capture them being who they are pretty much all the time.  They are a crack up together.

Dear Linnea

This is a couple weeks late.  You turned 3 years old on the 27th of May.  I can not believe how much you are growing up!  I absolutely LOVE your personality.  You are full of light and energy.  You are beginning to talk a lot more clearly which is nice.  I still don't understand a lot of what you are saying but I've learned to ask the questions "Where is it?" and "Can you show me?".  Between those two questions we figure things out pretty well.  You are interested in My Little Pony, Dora and Strawberry Shortcake.  Your favorite My Little Pony is Rainbow Dash and your next favorite is Apple Jack.  When you grow up you want to be a Zoo Keeper with Emma.  You are all about doing everything and anything with Emma.  You are beginning to be more kind to those around you and are less likely to hit or push people.  You and I talk quite often about what it means to be kind to others.  Everyone at church just loves you.  I am constantly getting comments from people about how happy you are and how silly you are.  I believe that one of your purposes in life was to come to this Earth to make people laugh.  You do it so well.  I hope that your strong personality will stay with you throughout your life.  It is a bit annoying at times when you dig your heels in and refuse to do something but at other times I have to sit back in amazement as you stand your ground for the right reasons.  I look forward to helping you determine which things you need to let go and which things you absolutely should stand your ground with.  You have been given the gift of a strong personality.  Don't let anyone ever break you of that.  Somethings that you don't like are taking baths and then when I finally convince you to get in the bath you will not let me wash your hair.  I have had to be relaxed about this and we have come to a compromise that your hair gets washed Saturday evening before church.  Mommy and Daddy's favorite way to describe you when we talk to you is "Tiny but mighty" you are so small for your age and I love it.  People see this petite little girl and don't expect you to have such a big personality.  We also call you our little firecracker.  Please remember that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you and wants the best for you.  Always be kind to others and don't judge.  Remember to include others in your activities so they don't feel left out and be a better listener than talker. I love you little Nae Nae.

Love,
Mom

Pictures from last year

Thanksgiving Point Museum.  The girls LOVED it.

Linnea and Great Grandpa Willey. 

Emma loves her Great Grandpa Willey

Aunt Kathryn

Aunt Jessica

We went down to Utah the last part of October to visit Jacob's grandpa.  It was a fun trip.

Rowan and Linnea= BFFs

Emma and Niev= BFFs

We went to the pumpkin patch right after we got back from Utah and Jacob left that afternoon to go up to Canada to work for 5 weeks.  He did this a lot last year starting in July and going through November.  His schedule was 5 weeks on 10 days off.  It sucked.  Bad.

A look back on 2011

I made some resolutions this year and thought I'd post what they were again and match them up and see how I did.

• Go at least one month without any junk food. (I'm working on being healthier and I hope that this will help curb my appetite for those things)
• Run a triathlon  (I'm also working on being more fit.  I wanted to do this last year but didn't get to)
• Run a 5k in under 38 minutes (my 5k last year was run in 44 minutes... I was out of shape and had shin splints)
• Read the Book of Mormon in its entirety.  (I suck at reading my scriptures but KNOW that I need to in order to become the better person I want to be) 
• Keep up with the house work for one month (It seriously makes me sick to have a dirty house)*Edited:  I will actively clean the house for an hour per day.  Thanks for the idea Roxanne!
• Learn a new skill (Maybe knitting, or something else, I don't know yet what exactly I will learn)
• Drop 2 pant sizes (Who doesn't want to do that??)
• And finally again thanks to Roxanne I will also work on having a date night every week. 

Here's how I did:

• The one month without junk food goal... yeah didn't happen.  I did go a week without junk food though.  I've decided that it's one of those things that is okay to indulge in.  Just not every day. 
• Run and Triathlon:  Did that one!  It was amazing!
• Run a 5k in under 38 minutes:  Didn't officially do this one.  I worked on my base mile and shaved 2 minutes off and then started feeling those dang shin splints coming back so I stopped.
• Read the BOM in it's entirety:  yeah... I probably should have re-read what my resolutions were from time to time to remember this one. Didn't happen.  I did however, read my scriptures more frequently than I have.
• Actively clean the house for an hour per day.  Check that one off the list!  DONE!
• Learn a new skill:  I learned how to make those cute flower clippies.  Not sure that counts as a skill but it's something I didn't know how to do before.
• Drop 2 pants sizes:  I dropped one!  
• And finally go on a date with Jacob every week:  Done!

So this next year 2012 my new goals will be:

• Compete in at least one 5k and work toward a 10k.
• Read from the scriptures daily
• Reach my goal weight
• Spend more time serving others
• Work on not being so quick to get angry with my children.

Here's to a GREAT 2012!

Personal Training starts... tomorrow!!!

I decided to get serious and get a personal trainer.  I start training tomorrow and I'm super nervous.  I am going to start a blog that focuses sloely on my training progress and the tricks I learn.  I met with my new trainer last week and he explained a few things to me about weight loss.  50-70% of weight loss is diet.  And there is something called a "target heart rate".  When your heart is beating within your target rate you are burning fat.  If you go above that rate you are just burning off sugar and other simple nutrients.  He said that it's good to get your heart rate up above the target rate but if you want to burn fat you need to stay within your target heart rate range.  How you figure it out is you subtract your age from 220 which is the maximum beats per minute your heart could beat when you were a newborn.  The number you get give you your current maximum heart beat.  Then you multiply that number by 60%  and that is the low end of your target heart rate.  My range is from 116-136 BPM.  I'm not sure how he calculated the high range of my target heart rate... probably just added 20 to the low number.  But I thought that was interesting information. Stay tuned for before and after pictures!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Today we celebrate the birth of my sweet husband. What I love about Jacob:

• He is kind to everyone
• He is willing to help those in need.
• He makes me laugh
• He is a wonderful father
• He puts up with my sense of humor
• His smile
• His eyes
• The way he looks at me still after almost 7 years of marriage.  
• The great support he is to me and our daughters
• That he is a great provider

I love how no matter who I talk to they only have good things to say about Jacob.  He is my best friend and I love him dearly.

Dear Emma

Today we celebrated your 5th birthday.  I can hardly believe it's been 5 years already!  You continue to amaze me with the capacity you have to love others.  You are beautiful on the inside and out.  Your love and concern for others far exceeds your years.  Your testimony of the gospel is so strong!  You are the one who always remembers we need to pray before eating and when Monday night rolls around you make sure we have Family Home Evening.  You love order and organization.  You volunteered to scrub the toilet and wipe down the table for your chores.  I love how you can keep track of things I've done better than I can.  Today I couldn't remember if I had worn a jacket to the church and you assured me that I hadn't.  You're so cute when you remind me of things.  Everyone always comments on how well behaved you are and how sweet you are.  You are very soft spoken and I'm consistently having to tell you to speak up.  I hope that doesn't come back to bite me in the butt!  Lately you have become concerned with others actions when they don't act in an appropriate way towards you or someone else.  We've had many long and in depth discussions about how to treat other people and I love that you listen and take the things we discuss and put them to action.  The world needs more people like you in it.  I hope that you will always be kind to everyone around you and befriend those who need a friend.  Always remember that everyone has a story and we need to not judge them.  I'm grateful every day that Heavenly Father sent you to our family. Your smile makes me smile.  I love that you still want to sit and snuggle with me.  I hope that will continue into your teenage years.  You are a wonderful, beautiful and intelligent little lady.  Always remember that you are of Divine heritage and therefore a princess of your Heavenly Father.  Daddy and I love you so much!

Some things you are interested in this year:

• Barbies
• Coloring (you have started trying to stay in the lines and use different colors to show greater detail in your pictures)
• T-ball (we had you try T-ball this year and you are so excited to play again next year)
• Reading!  You are sounding out words and with a lot of encouragement are reading simple books.  We have you read a sentence and go back and ask you questions about what you just read.  You are for the most part able to read and comprehend what you just read.  It may take you a couple times of re-reading to understand it but that's the hardest part of reading.
• Dancing.  You love dancing to music.

Thoughts

I can not tell you the number of people that have been asking me "when's the next one coming"?  It really frustrates me when this question comes up.  I don't know why people feel the need to ask it.  What if the person you are asking is struggling to get pregnant?  Or what if their marriage is falling apart?  You never know a person's personal circumstances and so I'm always troubled when people ask me this question.

Now I am not struggling to get pregnant nor is my marriage falling apart but I do have a fear of being pregnant again.  Let me re-phrase that.  I have a fear of delivering a baby again. I have a text book pregnancy.  I LOVE being pregnant.  I would be 9 months pregnant the rest of my life if it meant I didn't have to deliver.  Now I have friends (many of them) who have way worse deliveries than I do and who have health problems during their pregnancy.  I was in labor with Emma for 22 or 23 hours (the details are kind of fuzzy now).  During that time I had to be put on antibiotics because I developed a high fever.  After all that time going through labor my wort nightmare happened.  I had to have a c-section.  Emma was stuck in my pelvis.  I absolutely did not want a c-section.  I would've rather died than had one (which would've happened if I hadn't given in).  When the doctor came in to prep me for the c-section and gave me the epidural increase I SWEAR he had taken off with my feet.  I was screaming and trying to get out of the bed to go after him (and apparently according to Jacob I almost succeeded in getting out of the bed).  I could not feel anything from my chest down and I hated it.  I kept having Jacob touch my feet and show me my feet and even though I could see that my feet were still intact I did not believe it.  I continued to hyperventilate all the way down the hall and into the operating room.  I was out of control.  I couldn't tell if I was breathing or not.  I could see my chest rise and fall but since I couldn't feel from my chest down I was freaking out that I wasn't breathing.  It's find of funny to look back now when I think about this because of course I was breathing but at the time I was afraid I was going to die.  Finally one of the nurses made eye contact with me after they had strapped me down to the operating table and said "Jennifer, you need to calm down".  After that I snapped out of it and lay still for the rest of the operation.  Scariest moment of my life to that point.

Fast forward to my second pregnancy.  I was determined to have a VBAC.  I did not want to go through that hell again.  I hated the recovery time for the c-section.  And I was afraid that even though this time around they would schedule the c-section I would still think the doctor stole my feet when the epidural hit me.  I went in to be induced with Linnea and had the doctors coming in every half hour and reading me the risks of the VBAC and asking me if I wanted to continue.  I'm a very stubborn person and despite the risks (which to me weren't good enough) decided to continue on.  I had a text book labor.  The delivery went smoothly.  I only pushed for half an hour and my baby was in my arms.  A couple hours later I called the nurse because I thought I needed to pee.  The nurse came in and told me I shouldn't need to but I insisted that I had pressure in that area so she helped me out of bed.  On the way to the bathroom I passed 5 clots the size of a large grapefruit. I passed 2 more in the toilet.  I was hemorrhaging and I was fading fast.  I still remember the feeling of knowing I was going to pass out and trying to prevent it.  Thank goodness the nurse that was holding me up kept talking to me and making me look her in the eye.  I ended up not passing out after all.  There were at least 10 nurses in my room when I went back to my bed.  The doctor came in and told me he needed to check my c-section scar to make sure it hadn't ruptured.  I thought he meant from the outside of my body.  Oh no.  He meant from the inside.  He proceeded to shove his hand up there and feel around to make sure everything was alright. I tried so hard not to cry or make a big fuss.  The doctor kept apologizing to me and I kept repeating over and over out loud "It's okay.  It's going to be okay".  Thank goodness nothing was wrong up there. 

Which brings me to this point in my life.  No I am not pregnant but I would love to have another baby.  I'm sure that in the near future we will be trying for another one because it's time.  But that doesn't take away the fear I have of delivering a baby.  Do I try again for a VBAC or have a scheduled c-section?  If I go with the VBAC option then I risk having an Emma incident over again.  I also risk hemorrhaging again. 

Need to get it off my chest

I have felt frustrated all day long today.  I'm probably being overly sensitive (it is almost that time of the month) but I'm just tired of people feeling sorry for me and then not offering to have me come over.  Now I know that most people probably don't know what to do to help someone out whose husband is not at home so I can't get too upset, but I hope that by writing this it will help someone else down the road help someone else.  When your husband is gone it gets lonely.  The next time you come across someone who has a spouse gone don't just give them an apologetic smile.  Invite them over to hang out, for dinner, for something.  Just because you see them out and about during the day doesn't mean they aren't lonely. If you are thinking about them during the day call them up and tell them and invite them over.  If you're thinking about them chances are they need someone. 

Life without my better half

Jacob has been gone for 2 weeks now on our second round of him working in Canada.  I can not tell you how amazing this experience is.  The first time he was gone it was horrible.  The girls and I all cried multiple times a week and I felt so alone and helpless.  This time around on the other hand is night and day from the last.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude for pretty much everything in my life.  My family and friends are amazing.  When we moved here I knew we had moved for a reason.  We bought the house we did in the ward we did for a reason.  I knew as soon as we pulled up to our home while we were house hunting that it was the house we needed to buy.  It was plain as day and an amazing feeling.  As the years go by (going on 4 in March) I am seeing more and more why we were placed here.  The people that I am surrounded by are some of the most giving and spiritual people I've ever met.  Our ward is one who would do ANYTHING for one another and they do do anything.  There is something to be said about having regular family prayer, family scripture study, family home evening, weekly date nights, personal prayer and scripture study and couples prayer and scripture study.  Jacob and I are horrible at reading our scriptures together and on our own.  As a family, we are spot on.  We do everything the prophet has asked us to do as a family and we do it on a daily or weekly basis depending on what it is.  Personal and couple things however... yeah, not so much(except date nights.  We've got that one down). But this time around Jacob and I both sat down and promised to read scriptures and says our prayers every day and when he calls every night, even though we only get to talk for 10 minutes we each take a few seconds to talk about what we read the night before and what we thought about it. I know without a doubt that this alone has helped things not suck this time around.  I know the Lord blesses those who do all they can do follow His commandments.  In no way are we perfect.  Our marriage has more than it's fair share of hiccups but I know that as we have built up our spirituality things have gotten better.  All the things we are good at now were a huge struggle for us to do regularly.  And as we kept trying and failing in those things the Lord knew our hearts and as we have become stronger the blessings have been poured on us.  I can't wait to see the people and family we become and pray that we can keep up this momentum. 

Grateful

We have been flooded with blessings lately and my heart is so full!  This whole year Jacob's work has been super slow.  Money has been tight but we are making it through.  The blessings that come from paying tithing truly are there.  Not once have we had to dip into savings and to me that is a huge miracle.  Jacob and I have become so much closer through this.  We have continued to go on dates but with the lack of money we have swapped babysitting with some friends and then gone on bike rides together or hikes.  It has done wonders for our relationship.  Before we were going to dinner and a movie which is good to do too but for us I've learned that we connect more when we do active things together.  We both love being outside so it works out perfectly. 

I have been going through a big transformation since the beginning of the year too.  With every pound I lose I feel like I'm gaining my life back.  I told Jacob tonight on our date that it feels like I've been asleep for the last 4-5 years and I am starting to wake up.  A lot has happened in my life up until this point.  A lot of it I'm not comfortable talking about but it has all shaped me into a new and improved person.  The trials that have come my way have been very challenging and I'm not out of the woods yet with some of them but I am seeing the Lord's hand in them more and more and am so thankful for this learning experience I have been given.

My brother and best friend has just asked his amazing girlfriend to marry him and I am so excited for them!  I love my brother dearly and am so grateful to see him so happy.  I look up to him and love the relationship that we have with each other.  We fought like cats and dogs as kids but now we are the best of friends.  I just really love him. :)

Jacob is going to be leaving for Canada in a couple weeks for a couple weeks.  Then he will be back for about a week and then gone for 6 more weeks.  During this time we've learned that we will have almost zero contact.  It's going to be hard but I believe that is why we have grown so close together lately is to help us both through this time. It is going to be a great experience for him and I am so thankful for that.

Life right now is so unpredictible and crazy but somehow I am at complete peace. I am grateful for the area we live in and for the people we have met and have welcomed us into their lives. I'm grateful for such a wonderful and amazing husband.  He is my best friend and my biggest fan.  And I really love my mom and dad and am so thankful for their love and support too.  They all help me get through the rough patches in life. 

Recipes

I came across these recipes and needed to put them somewhere where I will remember them.

Almond Joy Cake 

Magic in the Middle Cookies

Key Lime Bars

Linnea Turned 2!

I can't believe I'm a mom to a 4 1/2 year old and a 2 year old.  I don't know where the time went.  Linnea's birthday party was Cookie Monster themed.  She loves Cookie Monster (and cookies).  The cake was really fun to decorate and only took me half an hour.  Emma's Sesame Street cake that I did for her second birthday took me 7 hours!  The kids had a lot of fun running around the backyard, coloring with sidewalk chalk and eating cake and ice cream.  I made English Muffin pizzas for lunch and they had blue milk to drink with it.  The blue milk was a big hit.  For the decorations I bought some balloons off of Ebay (A big Cookie Monster, 2 chocolate chip cookie balloons and some blue and brown balloons) and had the local party store fill them, put up blue and white streamers and blew up 50 blue and white balloons and had them all over the floor.  Then since Linnea was only turning 2 her friends came over and they just played in the backyard.  Super low key and easy.  Happy Birthday Linnea!

In other news, work has slowed WAY down for Jacob and it's not looking very good for the rest of the year.  Lucky for us though there is work up in Northern British Columbia on a copper mine and so he will be heading up there to work.  We aren't quite sure how long he will be up there (he thinks between 2 and 4 weeks) and how long he will be home in between his off days but we are just thankful that he will be working.  We've done this before so I kind of know what to expect and I am having a hard time complaining because it's work and we need it.  The only thing that really sucks is we were going to run a sprint triathlon together on the 2nd of July and now he won't be here to race with me.  He is my major support through this whole thing so I've taken a bi emotional hit with that.  But in the end I think it will be good for me to race it without him.  It will prove to me that I can do it.  I just really wish he was going to be there.  We were going to stick together during the race and that was a big comfort to me.  I will just have to get over my fear now.

Random funny memories from when I was a kid

For those of you who don't know, I grew up on a small family farm.  A lot happens on a farm some sad, some funny and some gross.  I was just thinking about being a kid the other day as I was digging in the yard and my neighbor called over the fence "Wow!  You've used a shovel before!  I haven't seen anyone attack the ground with a shovel like that in a long time." It's true, I have used a shovel before.  My parents bought an old 1920s farm house when I was going into 3rd grade and fixed it up.  I remember one VERY rainy day being outside with my dad digging out a foundation so we could add on to the house.  We were drenched and we were digging.  I was in 4th grade.  The cement truck was coming in the morning and we needed to dig down x amount of feet and across x amount of feet.  We had started the day before but the cows had gotten out so we had to round them up and mend the fence.
Another time I remember using a shovel was when we were digging out the porch.  The porch that was on the origional house was crap.  So dad was going to build a covered porch that went the length of the house.  So there we were again.  Mom, dad Tyler and myself digging out another foundation for a porch.  I was in 7th grade.  Tyler was really pissing me off and it just so happened that he walked behind me as I was throwing a shovel full of dirt behind me.  The blade of the shovel hit his eye and cut it open.  Work stopped while a trip to the Urgent Care was taken.
That wasn't the only time Tyler walked by me while I was shoveling and regretted it.  He and I were cleaning out the hog barn one Saturday morning when I was in 7th or 8th grade (he was in 4th or 5th).  I reached back and got a heaping pile of pig poop and swung back around to hurl it out of the barn and down the hill.  At that very moment Tyler walked in front of me and saw that I was in the process of hurling the shovel.  He opened his mouth to yell at me to wait and a big pile of pig poop went right in his mouth.  While he ran to the house crying like a little girl I continued to shovel the poop all while laughing my head off.
There was another time when I was a sophomore in high school that I went with my dad to get a couple cows.  One of the cows was PISSED and did not want to go in the trailer.  How we corralled him in there is a mystery to me but we got him in and he thrashed around in that trailer the whole way home (about 40 minutes from the place we got him to the pasture).  As soon as we opened the trailer door that cow barreled out and went right through the high voltage electric fence and down the road.  Un. Believable.  So dad yells at me "Don't lose sight of that blankity blank cow!" So I take off running after the cow who is by now making his way into the woods.  Dad unhitched the trailer, grabbed his gun and drove after me.  I stopped at the edge of the tree line and waited for dad.  He got out of the truck with his gun and we went looking for the cow.  We found him and dad held his hand up for me to back off a bit.  So I took a couple steps back while dad took aim and shot that stupid cow dead.  Now we had a dilemma.  How to get that cow out of the woods.  The truck had 4 wheel drive luckily so dad blazed a trail through the woods and got as close to the cow as possible.  Great.  Now what?  We tied a rope around the cow and tried to pull it up.  We got it about 10 feet to a tree and stopped.  Then dad called his buddy who came with a come along and pulley system.  They set up the pulley on the tree branch and lifted the cow up into the air. Dad backed the truck up under the cow and the cow was lowered into the truck.  The thing was so long that we couldn't shut the tailgate.  So then dad and I were off to the butchers (in downtown) so he could skin and cut up the meat.  The cows tongue was hanging out of his mouth and blood was dripping from the bed of the truck as we pulled up to the butchers store.  I was mortified! I'm pretty sure I hid my head the whole way there.  Never mind that the truck we were driving there was the truck I drove around and to school with and if anyone I knew saw it they would've known it was me.
Some other funny memories I have are of my dad sticking his shot gun out the kitchen window and blasting the crows that were eating the corn out of the garden.  Every once in a while I would come down the stairs to dad, shot gun in hand  trying ever so carefully to open the kitchen window without making a sound.  (The screen on that window was just left off for such an occasion).    Then he would whip his gun out the window and BAM!  A couple crows would fall while about 20 others would scatter and fly away.  He would do the same thing off the dining room window with the barn rats.  If you've never seen a barn rat you are missing out.  These things are the size of a cat.  I remember being out back playing with my brothers and coming across a dead barn rat that was missing a head.  Tyler and I would look at each other and shake our heads and laugh looking towards the dining room window.
I always joke around about how much my life sucked as a kid because I could never go out and do what I wanted to but you know what?  It's okay because if I had done whatever I wanted I wouldn't have these stories to share with you.  Theses are only a few of the stories that come to mind but I have many many more and as they surface I will be sure to write them down and share them.  I look back on these stories and it makes me laugh.  I had a great childhood.  It may not have been ideal to me at the time but now looking back I wouldn't have it any other way.