He Arose!!

I had a wonderful Easter break! I got to go down to Oklahoma to visit my family and it was just a wonderful time of refreshment and not worrying about school and everything else. I left Springfield on Thursday and drove the long drive to Warner, Oklahoma. I had to stop in Pryor to fill up on gas, get something to drink, and give Julie Bates a little shout-out but otherwise I had the pedal to the metal to get the drive over with. I made my first stop at my uncle's tractor supply & feed store to let them know I was there and I helped my aunt work on a mowing machine a little bit. When it was closing time we all went back to the house. A storm was blowing through so we sat and waited for the storm to pass and hoping that we didn't get hit by a tornado! No tornado though, and no serious damage was done except for the power being knocked out for a couple of hours and one tragedy...the old wooden outhouse they had in their backyard was blown over. :( Then my cousin, Staci, and I took off for Checotah, OK (the nearest Wal-Mart, about 20 min. away) to get her a new cell phone since hers was murdered by her horse. Evidently a couple days before I got there she was riding one of her horses and she was texting at the same time...well the horse got spooked by something and reared up, knocking her off, and stomping on her phone! I couldn't help but laugh when I heard this because she killed another phone when she was riding her horse and he went in the pond and she forgot about her phone being in her pocket....in case you can't tell, she's a little blonde! :)

The next day while Staci was off at school, Aunt Sharah and I lazied around the house for once in the morning, then went to check all the cows to make sure they weren't having trouble calving. Then we went to the store. Ray had just got a shipment of feed in and it all needed to be sorted out and moved inside. Let me tell you, this was a FUN job...not! We ended up moving about 3 tons of 50 lb. bags of feed!!! And I guess we even made more work for ourselves than we needed to because we didn't realize that we could stack 1/2 full pallets on top of themselves to send to the other store in Porter. Ray got a big laugh out of that and needless to say, I was a little sore the next day. The rest of the day I helped organize the shelves in the store and move some stuff around to make more room and label shelves. After the store closed we all went back out to check cows, move some over from the house to a different field, and feed them. We had several new babies and they were all so stinking cute! I'm always surprised when I got out ther at how well behaved their cows are...they're almost tame! Our cows at home hate when we mess with the babies, but their's are actually okay with it as long as they are right there with them. Of course, all this meant that we didn't get to thinking about eating dinner until like 8:30 and we were too tired to make anything, so we had to settle for the only thing open in town...McDonald's. Staci went out to go bowling in Checotah and then spend the night at a friend's house so it was just us and we spent our exciting night watching a Hallmark movie. :)

Saturday we got up, checked cows, and went to the store. That afternoon after the store was closed, Ray, Sharah, Papa, and I worked on a cattle chute that Ray and Sharah were going to put out on some land that they were leasing for their cows. It was an old, rusted thing that we were going to fix up and put some casters on so we could roll it a little easier than trying to carry the heavy thing into place. Earlier that day, Staci was telling us all about her night in Checotah and discovering "cruising". It was so funny cause she thought this was such a cool, new concept...but really, all of us had done it. So she and her friend Meghan got this brilliant idea to go cruising in my uncle's old junky Chevy truck because the guys were so impressed the night before with her truck. "Whitey" is a 1978 standard Chevy truck that's white...but with lots of rust spots, a hay spear in the back, and it's getting on it's last leg of life. The girls took it to fill up on gas and it died on them after they got there because it was a little too hot. :) It reminds me of my dad's old truck that's an '81 standard Chevy. Staci's friend had never driven a standard before so she took her out in the pasture to teach her. Then my aunt decided to relive her childhood days and teach us all how to properly do donuts in the field! It was so much fun speeding around there and leaping over the terraces...but I was a little afraid for my life when she told us not to hang on to the doors because she's had them fall out on her before (and I was on the outside edge and kept hitting the passenger door)!! My aunt is so cool. She was telling us about all the trouble she used to cause and her tricks to evade the cops or make her truck sound louder and make the pipes rattle! Now I kinda want to take my dad's old truck out into the pasture and drive around in it. :) It was so funny! That night we delivered the chute, checked cows, and finally made it out to eat at a decent hour. Sharah and I had to make a quick run through the grocery store before heading home to watch a new Hallmark movie. Then, we had some drama when their little rat terrier, Bucky, chased down a possum and Papa and Ray had to go shoot it. I swear this dog must think he is big stuff because this possum was probably twice his size, but he got right in there and grabbed it by the tail to drag him out and then grabbed him by the neck and shook it around! Crazy dog.

Sunday, we all rose very early to go to the sunrise service at their church. It was pouring down rain almost all day, but we still went to the service and then we all made breakfast afterward at their church. The spirit was just amazing that even though it was gross and raining outside, everyone was so joyful and happy to have been saved by the great sacrifice that Christ did for us and that He rose again to conquer death so that we might all live! Amazing!!! I am so thankful that the God did not give up on us, but yearns for all of us to be with Him and made that possible through His Son! After church, the joy continued when a bunch of my family came over for a late lunch and Easter egg hunt! Papa, my aunt Della, Uncle Shawn, their kids Elliott, Tiffany, and Steven, Tiffany's boyfriend Blake, and her children Clark and Avori all came over. It was my first time meeting Tiff's new boyfriend Blake and their brand-new (literally...just born on Tuesday) little baby, Avori. He was so precious! I actually liked Blake too, better than any of my cousin's bf's/gf's/husbands/wives. He just fit in with the family so well and didn't just sit there not talking to anyone like some others have. He talked with all of us and was interested in getting to know us, plus he really seemed to care about Tiffany's other son and their new baby. My family may be a little disfunctional and not the traditional family, but I love them just the same! It's what makes us unique and brings us closer in those hard times. We then all hunted Easter eggs in the yard...which was interesting because it was all soggy and gross outside, but fun just the same. We all got really competitive and whenever they would give us a clue, we would shove each other out of the way to try and get it! No one got hurt though...and it was all in good fun! :)

I really loved my time at my "second home" this weekend! It's always a humbling experience and pushes me to be a hard working person just like all of them. I'm really eager to learn new things whenever I'm down there. My dad didn't really show me how to do some of the things I've learned down there, like mowing hay, because our haying is mostly a one person job. But I always like learning more about farm life and getting in there and getting my hands dirty right along with them. My country roots and the values I've learned from them are an important part of who I am!