Joe coming home...

So, Julie and little Joe should be home any minute now. I will put in a few pictures of him as soon as I get a chance. I took about 180 of them last night, and a lot more than that earlier. When we went to visit them last night they were both doing really well. He is just the most beautiful newborn imagineable!

We were blessed with a good dose of rain last night and some cool weather! Hooray!

Now I need to get back to scrubbing the kettle with CLR!

baby

I just watched a brand new life open his eyes for the very first time in our world. I watched him take his first breaths, his first cry, and his first little poop.

Jospeph was born to Charlie and Julie Robertson this morning at 4:35. At that point Julie had been in certain labour since about nine. That is when we started timing contractions. He was the most beatiful baby that I have ever seen, although I could be a little bias I suppose.

I will post a picture of him as soon as I can.

When Klay Farts

Ahhh, today seemed to be a long day. We have heat back... I am actually looking forward to a break from it; realize, this is something that you will rarely hear me say. It has been so hot that I haven't gotten much horsework done, which isn't really good, because I have a lot of it to do. The horses all look so good.

So, today, I got in trouble. Can you believe that? I actually got in trouble! Ah! I was flabbergasted really. Utterly upset. The indecency of it. And all I did was beat my little brother up, on the trampline. Imagine a mother getting upset over seeing her son tossed around a few times, held down by his neck, smothered a little bit, rolled on, tossed down and smothered again. Really, how could some poor mamma bear get a little worked up over watching her son get a sleeper hold, a choker hold, a "what the heck ya call it" hold, and a "jump in the air and land on him" hold. Huh, I can't imagine what in the world she would have been upset about, it's not like I got make-up or perfume out and really tortured the poor kid. He weighs more than me now anyways! I guess trouble must just like following me around.

What he did to me was far worse. He farted while I was holding him down.

Allow me to educate you. Dad fluffs, his farts really don't stink at all, but they make a lovely sound. If you were deaf, you would never know that he had farted. Cody, well, he toots. You can smell it a little bit but it isn't really unbearable. He also makes a noise. If you were deaf you would certainly have an inclination that someone had farted when Cody lets one rip. Mom and I, well, we only fart in the bathroom. As long as you leave the door shut and let the war zone alone for a few minutes, you'll never know either of us had ever farted. Now Klay, on the other hand; HE FARTS! You're eyes water, your nose thinks that it died and went to a sulpherous, wretched version of nose hell. You're ears are assaulted by this sound that makes me quake in my boots. It's like cannons compared to pellets, or buckshot. It is an all out war weapon. ( He is reading this. My eyes just started watering, my nose and ears assaulted by his deadly weapon. That I continue writing is an act of God, really.) And then there's the one that is silent but deadly. You don't hear it coming. It's like a silencer on a gun. You're standing there, smelling a daisy, and all of a sudden you wonder why it smells like a dead gopher who's been lying in the sun after eating rotten potatoes and rotten eggs and week old fish guts lying next to an angry skunk by a malt plant. You swear you will never smell that particular kind of flower ever again. You're nose feels like it might have just fainted, and fallen off of your face.

The miracle of this stinky story is that I didn't give up. I really ought to recieve a military medal of honour for that. And he smothered me a little too. It was blessed relief.

RAIN!

Rain, at long last, we have rain! A flash flood hit us today at about five, and we had a couple of glorious hours of rain. The trees look greener already, the feilds have been washed of their dust, and the clothes on the line are dripping wet! I actually took a good jump in a puddle. The smell of it is intoxicating, wonderful!

I feel as though I may be sleep walking. I am having a hard time holding my eyes open and my head keeps fighting me to loll over onto my chest. I think that my night of four hours of sleep last night may have affected me. Who would have thought I would get so into Lonesome Dove?

Mom and Dad and Klay should all be back within the hour. I was really looking forward to seeing them and I am so glad that we can surprise them with the downpour of rain. I miss my long talks with mom, and I missed her at church today.

Well then, off to jump gleefully into muddy mud puddles for a while!

latest rumour

I just heard the latest rumour that is spreading about me in Clive. Apparently, I had my ex's child, and that's why no one has seen me in so long. These are getting so out of hand! I am seriously considering going to talk to this girl, the trouble maker, and talking to her about it. I need to wait a little while before I do though, to simmer down. I think when I first heard it steam rolled out my ears. Grrr.

Here we go, at last the picture of me that I was waiting for. I'm on a mare named Sugar here in the Ram falls area.

So, today My bro and I went shopping for heavy horses. I can's believe how cheap the auction horses are going. It must be because everyone is worried about not having rain.

We had one horse picked out that would have worked. Not a team, like we wanted, but if we could have found one that matched him, we would have been set. Even if we couldnt find one to match him, he would have made an amazing breaking horse. 17.3 hands high! ( That is about 6 foot 4 for you non horsie people).

I noticed some funny looking marks on the back of this horses pasterns, before the sale, and I asked the gentleman who was selling him about them. " Ahh, they're just hobble burns, maam. This horse is broke to hobble well." This gentleman was an outfitter, with the funniest looking, oldest cowboy hat I have ever seen, two very entertaining grandsons, and a lopsided grin. He talked as though he had a permanent western accent, and he obviously thought that I must not know much.

First of all, a horse who is well broke to hobble will not fight the hobbles, therefore they will not have hobble burns. Second, the marks were on his back legs as well. So, I go around, picking the gelding's feet up, and discreetly having a good feel at these marks that I see. They were, without a doubt, scratches. A common skin disorder/disease in horses. My horse had it once, it just means you have to clean out their stall a little more often and treat the wounds.

" This horse has scratches," I tell Cody, loud enough that I know the gentleman can hear me. He pretended that he didn't, but he sure treated us like we knew a little more after that.

The man led the horse into the ring with this itty bitty little kid on him. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. We bid up pretty high on him, but the damn meat buyer bid us out. I was so mad. That meat buyer bought like 50 horses that day, why couldn't he leave one that was obviously a little kids favourite, and well broke, to go to a good home? I left outraged, Cody was telling me to calm down, laughing that it was a good thing I didn't know who the meat buyer was.

I agreed. I'm sure he's bigger than me.

darn computer

So, the time has come to put a picture of myself in my blog. Maybe a few other ones, too. So far I have spent most of the morning trying to get pictures from mom's computer onto mine. My college application is finally gone now, so my breath is bated, even though I am quite sure that I will be accepted. I'm watching out the window by the computer here, and it's a little bit scary when I realize that the grass is more yellow than green. This lack of rain is not good for us at all. I'm still waiting for that week or so of rain, slow and steady. That is what we really need.

I got mad the other day, because I heard someone complaining about " those farmers b*&%^ing about needing rain, I like this weather." Yes, well, while I enjoy suntans as well, I do realize that it is important to have both sunshine and rain to form crops, grass... bread, cereal, eggs... ultimately most everything that we eat. People like that frusterate me.

I heard that there are still rumours being spread about me by my ex's ex turned girlfriend again. I am almost to the point where I am ready to confront her about it. I would be very polite, but the stuff that is being said needs to be stopped. I am hopeful that all I will need to do is let her know that I know who is spreading them. Perhaps it will ease her troubled mind to hear that I never want to see my ex again, or talk to him. I don't want what she's got, so there is no reason for her to be threatened. I think that if she had a little bit better self esteem she would have never gotten together with him again either. They treat each other so badly.

Mom, Dad, and lil bro have finally gotten the heck outta dodge, thank goodness. Not that I wanted them gone, really, but their frantic running around like chickens with their heads cut off was driving me absolutely crazy. The house still isn't quite clean, but I just realized that my very pregnant auntie may need to phone me at any minute and I have been on this darn computer the whole time! Ahh! I better run the half mile down the road and visit her. Maybe I should give her that extra lasagna in the freezer for after the baby is born too.

Grrrr! It's taking forever to get this darn picture on here! Maybe it won't work?

looks like it won't. I'll try later.

Once again...

Ahhh, we had rain today. Not a lot of rain, but enough to dampen the crops a bit and give them a wee chance to recover from this heat that has been burning them up! That is exciting! Today has been pretty uneventful, which you will rarely hear me say. I, once again, have been attacked by the merciless monster of PMS. Walking around like a zombie on cocaine, I am still attempting to be productive. I feel a little bit like someone took a football filled with horrific pain gel and shoved it into my abdomen. Yes, fun stuff.

So, Mom and Dad are leaving sometime tommorro morning for a few days in BC, which should be interesing and fun for them. They are taking my youngest brother with them, so it will just be my 17 year old brother and me for a few days. That won't be so bad! I'll let you know how it goes, I have to go feed this darn PMS monster some chocolate.

Wasting Time

I realized something today. It was something that I already knew, to a point; it hit me anew today, with the strength of an ocean wave rushing over me. I realized how much time we waste. Some of us waste much more than others, but I think each of us has struggled with this to a point. For, " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:8

I thought about Jesus, Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, and so many other amazing, influential people. What would have happened if they had wasted their time? What if Jesus had sat in front of a TV playing video games every chance he got. What would he have accomplished? Would he have been able to save us from our sin? Absolutely not. Jesus never wasted a single minute. He took every chance he got to sow seeds for his father in heaven. What if Billy Graham had fallen into a slump and allowed himself to become addicted to " his soap" or " daily movie night?" Would he have still been able to be God's instrument to bring thousands of people to know Christ? Of course he wouldn't have! If Mother Theresa had have sat in her room reading her novel every night, would she have established the kind of mission, and the kind of reputation that she had? No.

Mother Theresa said once that " we are all pencils in the hand of God." For most people who follow after God, this is our greatest desire. We all want to be used by God, to produce his fruit. Imagine that God came to you, his pencil, so that he could write a beautiful love letter to someone who needed to hear from him very badly. He saw, however, that you were busy, busy doing things that would not benifit him, or you in any way. He tapped on the wall and called your name, softly, but you didn't hear him. So, he walked away, sad because he couldn't use you that day. It isn't that the pencil is any worse because he was busy. Maybe what he was doing was good, even; but it was not best. We are not saved by our works, but working for God is how we become full of joy.

The older I get, the more I think about how short our life is. I wondered, if I died tommorro, how much would I regret? How would I think about the way that I spent my time here? Was it productive? Sometimes I think we treat life like a credit card with a sky high limit, thinking that we can waste as much of it as we want to, because we have lots left. We need to realize that we do not have sky high limits on our life long credit cards. For every hour that we do something that is completely unproductive, we could be doing something else that we will look back on later and smile. We do not know how long we have here. It is a mystery to us. I would love to build a legacy while I am here, and the only way that I can do that is to be careful with how I spend my time.

Taking my little revalation one step farther, it is really no wonder that so many of us fall into the trap of wasting time. What better way for the enemy to stunt our growth. Many of us are very strong in our belief and faith in God, so the enemy can't steal, kill, or destroy our salvation. How clever of him to invent things that seem fun, or even harmless, and esspecially the ones that are addicting, to keep us too busy to put our knowledge to use! The bible says that the enemy came to kill, steal, and destroy. He came to kill us physically( murder, suicide, self induced sicknesses), to steal our usefulness to God ( wasting time, poor financial management, etc.) and to destroy what we have ( friendships, giftings, etc.). Through tempting us to throw our time away, how much of that does he accomplish? I have a picture in my head of a virtual zombie, sitting, addicted to a video game where he or she is killing people, and stealing things. They reach into a bag of potatoe chips empty mindedly, not realizing they have already eaten the whole bag. The hours seem to fly by, and the person feels that so much has been accomplished! They have passed five levels in four hours! They look up at the clock and realize that they should really go to bed, the house is still dirty, and they didn't feel like answering the phone to talk to their friends, one of whom called with a prayer request. ( I realize this is an extreme example but I am making a point.) Their spouse has given up on them and gone to bed already. With a sigh, they turn the TV off, glancing towards the window... and see Jesus has been sitting there the whole time, without being noticed. He wanted to chat, but had to turn his face away from the blatant sin that the person had so easilly excused of their TV. How would they feel...

The chronicles of Ugly the bull.

Oh my goodness! I just realized that it has been a long time since I last wrote in my blog. A long time. I may need to remedy that. My life is simply so interesting that I can't bear to not write it all down. Actually, the truth is that my life has slowed down a lot since I lost the use of my car. I don't really mind that much though. . . which is interesting because my car used to be more important than oxygen to me. I guess age really does change things. I wonder what I'll be like when I am eighty?

So, during the time that I neglected my keyboard, I went riding in the mountains, and then settled back into a normal daily routine. Normal, dear people, is a loosely used word here. The mountains were great! So interesting! We were only out there for five days, as opposed to our usual ten days to a week, but it was still exhilerating. It was one of those holidays that you need to recover from. I rode a horse that was driving mom crazy, a little palimino mare, beautiful on all counts. I got a lot of compliments on her, and a few offers of sale. She got a little skittish a few times, the worst time was when we were about six inches from a hundred foot drop off cliff... one wrong move would have spelled death for both of us, but thankfully that story had a happy ending. I met a lady who had been with almost every man camping in the Ya Ha Tinda area. . . which was also interesting. For the rest of the trip we called her the Ya Ha Tinda bicycle, and I glared at her pretty good when she asked dad for some advice.

Today was a bit of an adventure. I saddled my palimino mare at about seven this morning, and rode out to the field to sort a bull out of the neighbor's field ( organic field, we were worried that the bull might poo non organic poo on the field... oops). I wasn't too worried, I have done a lot of cattle herding, sorting, and cutting in my nineteen years of life. I must add, at this point, that this is no ordinary bull. He is huge. We call him ugly. He is one of those bulls who has been around for a while and knows that he is the toughest bull out there. He's slightly intimidating. So, back to the point of my story, Klay and I are trying to sort this bull out from amidst the neighbor's cows. Of course, the horny sucker doesn't want to leave these cows. I walk onto him with my horse, and he charges me! The nerve, the absolute nerve! Then our trusty border collie bites him in the nose, trying to get him to back off and head in the direction that we are pushing him. Our trusty border collie flies through the air off of the bulls nose, and the bull goes to charge him too! Thankfully, the dog is faster than the bull and he didn't get hurt after his initial nose dive. So, Klay and I get off of our horses and throw stuff at him, you know, big, ten pound rocks and stuff. He charges us. The wonderful thing about bulls is that they close their eyes when they charge, so we had time to get out of the way. That said, we decided we might need a little more man power and left the bull with his little cows until later on.

Then Klay and I had to ride all the way to Dad's shop, a four mile ride, in half an hour. By this time the horses were pretty tuckered out. We had to sort one heifer out of the herd and load it into Grampa's horse trailer. That took us a good deal of time because of the adolesant type stupidity of heifers. At least this was one job that we accomplished pretty thourally.

The rest of the day, while busy, was uneventful so I will spare you the boring details. Tonight, however, the bull entered the picture again, and spiced our evening up a little more! When the boys got home from the shop I was able to explain to them the awful deeds of our most annoying and intimidating bull, Ugly. They were outraged! Charge at their girl! I didn't bother mentioning to them that " their girl" had been so mad that she thought about going head to head with the bull, but thankfully she remembered in time that the bull outweighed her by about 2,300 pounds! Action had to be taken. The boys saddled the biggest horses, and headed out to the field with a shotgun loaded with strong buckshot. ( Please don't think us inhumane, if the bull had continued this behavior he would have had to be shot in the head with a much larger gun) They shot him in the... ahem, behind with it, and strangely, he didn't charge anyone again.

So that is my story of the day, the chronicles of Ugly the bull.