What a week and weekend

This past week and weekend was a lot of fun, especially the weekend. I'll start at the beginning. Little Zach's school was on spring break so he was here for most of the day on Monday, Tuesday and part of the day Thursday. I got to be big brother on Monday and Tuesday. Monday, he helped me clean the apartment, he mopped the bathroom floor, scrubbed the shower and did one of the mirrors, because we couldn't go fishing or play video games till I had got the apartment cleaned. After cleaning Zach decided he wanted to go fishing so we went and fished for probably close to two hours till lunch time and didn't really catch much. During lunch we watched Spider Man 2 and just as it was getting good the power got turned off, because Jim was working on something, so the put an end to our movie watching. We got the BB guns out and shot those for awhile and then went fishing again to end the day. Tuesday I was in class till lunch time, so we ate lunch and then went fishing for a awhile. Zach caught a good sized bass and ran inside to tell his mom and to get a camera. So we got a picture taken, I was holding the fish because he is still afraid of them, go figure, and that was how we ended Tuesday.

This weekend was wonderful. Thursday night Sara B and her roommate, Audrey, got in for the weekend. Ray and I helped them bring their stuff in after everyone said greetings and gave hugs. After that pretty much everyone went to bed except me because I was watching tv and waiting for Sara B and Audrey to get unpacked. They came out and we watched AFV and chatted for an hour and a half, mostly laughing, and I was really enjoying hearing Sara B laugh, she was cracking Audrey and I up because she was laughing so hard.

Friday, I got up and cut some more cedar logs and put them in position to be picked up. After that I got cleaned up and eat my lunch and visited/listened to Sara B, Audrey and Rebbecca talk and we worked out when we could go riding, which was Saturday. After lunch I my haircut by Erin and while that was happen Zach and his dad come over to go fishing and Zach wanted me to go with them. After I got my hair cut I went and got a pole. Sara B and Audrey came out to see Zach and Sara B wished me luck with fishing before they left to have lunch with Ray. The wind was blowing pretty good and so I was working my way around the pond to get the wind at my back and didn't get and nibbles or anything till I got to the far side. On the far side I caught a smaller bass finally and a bit later I had a bass come up a bump my lure just as I was pulling it out to cast again. The next cast I hook a monster four or five pound bass. She didn't put up much of a fight because it was so cold out but man I was really surprised at the size, she was a monster. Has to be the biggest fish in the pond. It was a really nice gift from God to catch such a big fish after not getting anything in the past several days. I fished for a bit more but the sun went away and the wind kept blowing, which made me get the chills so I went in to warm up. Around three Luke called so I talked to him while he was on his way home from work. We had a good visit, just talking about stuff. Anyway while talking to Luke I got a phone call from Montgomery and figured it was Rebbecca, so I waited till Luke and I finished before calling back. Turned out it was Sara B asking if we could go riding, so I called the Jacksons to make sure it was ok and the three of us, Sara B, Audrey and I, headed out there at about 4:30. We got the horses and I had the girls brush them while I got the saddles ready. We rode around the field for a bit so I could see how Pedro was going to be and to see how Audrey would do on Heart, because this was only her third or so time riding. Everyone was doing good, so I asked if they wanted to go ride in the woods and of course they were up for it. We heading into the woods and right near the start Pedro started getting freaked out over a pile of leaves, so I was talking to him and got him to cross them after a few tries. Pedro has definitely not been in the woods much, because he was like, ahhhhhh nature! get it off get it off!!! Anyway I had a lot fun riding him in the woods. We rode around in the woods dodging trees and branches and listening to Audrey "talk" to Heart, because he likes to take you under trees with low branches, as she was dodging branches and getting him to go where she wanted him to go. We survived the woods and got some good laughs, so we headed back to the field to do some loping and galloping. I did some galloping on Pedro and a lot of trotting, man his trot is brutal, bouncy, bouncy. Sara did a lot of loping and some galloping on Jake. It was beautiful to watch her ride and the motion of the horse as his tail and mane are flowing in the wind. The harmony between rider and horse is just beautiful to see in motion, thank you God for such a privilege. While Sara B and I were doing that Audrey was riding Heart around a bit and Heart decided he wanted to go to the lower gate. I rode over to assist in encouraging and directing Audrey to show Heart who was boss and that he could not get away with what he was doing. After a bit of a battle Audrey won and Heart was much better about listening for the rest of the time. We rode some more and before we headed back to the barn we did a cooling off lap around the whole field to get the horses cooled of, mostly for Jake though. After riding we went and got the horses brushed and put back and before leaving we went and said hi to the Jacksons and chatted a bit. We ended up riding for about two and half hours. Everyone had a lot of fun, Sara B and I could barely walk but it was all good. When we got back everyone had eaten dinner already so the three of us had dinner together from the left overs and it was nice.

Saturday we had breakfast and sat around the table talking till about noon, before doing some other things. About one I was going to call and make reservations for Georgetown but first I had to find out if Sara B and Audrey could come. They where going to go to Spring Sing because Sara B didn't want to waste the tickets she thought her parents had bought. When she found out they hadn't paid for then the decision was easy. I made the reservations for 7pm since that was the earliest they had open for eleven people. About then Ray called seeing if Zach and I could help move some wood and Sara B and Audrey wanted to come. We piled into the Explorer and headed to Al's to load up some wood. They were big trees cut in to about ten foot chunks. We had to make three trips because the were so heavy. Sara B and Audrey were are moral support team since most of the wood was so big. Zach and I surprised them in what we could lift and we got called Hercules :) hehe. Anyway it was fun and a good work out. It was about 4:30 when we finished so I changed clothes and got some food and came and watched Hidalgo and after Sara B and Audrey had finished getting there food ready they came back and joined me. At first Audrey didn't want to sit on the couch because she was afraid of spilling beans on the couch, so we gave her a bad time about it and got her to move to the couch hehe. We watched Hidalgo till it was time to leave. Sara B, Audrey, Dan, Abraham, Zach and Bethany all piled into the van and Erin, Hannah and Amy got in to her car to follow us. We got to Georgetown a little early and had our picture taken out front. Oh yeah, it was Audrey, Amy, Bethany, Dan, Hannah and Zach's first time coming to Georgetown and they all liked it. On they way back we had to go over some railroad tracks and bit of a dip right after them and I did it a bit fast and everyone got a good laugh out if it and later one we got back to Searcy I did a break check at the stop light and that really made everyone laugh. It was a really good day.

Sunday was good but a bit sad at the same time. We had a big easter lunch and got easter baskets that we had to look for. We also had family pictures taken before lunch and looking for the baskets. The reason it was a bit sad was it was time for Sara B and Audrey to go back to ACU. Audrey told me she didn't want to leave :( I definitely would have liked them to stay around longer, but that's life. We said our goodbyes and gave hugs and wished safe journeys. I was glad to finally meet one of Sara B's ACU friends and she was a really cool girl. After they had gone Zach and I went fishing and didn't catch anything :( I did find a baby turtle, which was neat. I think that is pretty much all the big stuff that happened. It was really a wonderful weekend and I had a great time hanging out with Sara B and Audrey, riding was the best part for sure. God is good. ~Semper Fi