Kayaking weekend-NOT for me

So Saturday Claude had three guys come over for breakfast and then they loaded up their kayaks on the trailer attached to the mule and off they went to put in at Indian Creek. The girls and I had things to do and were working in the yard when Vicky came with the phone saying Baba wants to talk to you...he asked if we would call our dog, Coal, who was following them. So we all stood out there in the yard yelling Coal, Coal, come here Coal...no dog and finally I told the girls enough...

The next phone call was Claude saying that now the dog was swimming after them in the Spoon River and would I bring the 4-wheeler down and get him? Gee sure...let me drop all my things I have scheduled and go get the dog while you have fun...yes honey, I will come and get the dog...so off I go on the 4-wheeler looking for this area that they are at and when I finally find them the dog is in the middle of the river and the guys are all back paddling to stay in that area while I am being Queen for the Day and getting the dog. Without painting a actual picture just imagine me sliding down the river bank in my new flip flop, yoga pants that are also new and my favorite Eddie Bauer sweater...to try to lift the darn dog (Coal is a black lab) up the bank to the top. I have thrown away the sweater, praying that the laundry pre-wash will fix my flip flops and who knows about the yoga pants?

So I get home with the dog who is just beat and tell the girls I have to go take a shower as I am covered in river bank clay dirt, all the while delivering my cell phone messages that have piled up to hear this very cheerful voice of the lady at the post office saying " we are so sorry that your 25 baby chicks did not catch the early morning ride to the post office that is much closer to you and they are here in downtown Peoria, can you please make arrangements to pick them up before 4 today?" Well this is 40 minutes away from me...I go take a shower and am in the bedroom to get dressed to go get the chicks when I happen to glance out the window and OH MY GOD THE COWS ARE OUT! Really I think my whole being slumped just a bit at that moment...but being the great wife and mom that I am I got all the girls inside so they would not get trampled and accessed the situation a bit more to see that only one of the cows was out...I went over to the barn and got a bucket of grain and got the cow back in with encouraging words from Vicky who was standing at the opened window telling me there she goes that way! No now she is coming with you...she is almost in! She is in, shut the gate, hurry mama!

Then we head to Peoria with a cup of water along with us, get the baby chicks and all of us sit on the sidewalk and dip their beaks in the water to save them (they should have had water about 7 am) and put them all back in with the lid on and head home. Addie only asked 15 times to make them quiet down that they were making her head hurt...I think we were all glad to get home and have things settle down just a bit!