An Animal Themed Weekend

The theme of my weekend was animals.  Well, it starts with animals and ends with animals, with a middle of various other activity.

I’ll just start with the saddest thing that happened a few days ago.  One of our miniature horses died.  He was acting funny the day before so we planned to call the vet the next morning, but when we went out to feed him he had died.  I had to gather the kids up and tell them the sad news….many tears.  Then James had to figure out what you do with a dead miniature horse.  Our city upbringing didn’t prepare us for this possibility.  A goldfish, yes.  Horse, no.

He figured it out, but it wasn’t easy.  It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear the other horse crying all day.  He misses his friend.

On Saturday James and I drove a few hours to the other side of Austin for a meeting he had to attend.  I sat in the lobby of a hotel all day while he and a dozen or so other people made important business decisions. You don’t want me in those kinds of meetings.  While someone is showing a chart of the income from last year I just look around and think about straightening all of the crooked pictures in the room.  My attention span is equal to that of a 2 year old.  Except when it comes to the crooked pictures.  I can’t stop thinking about the crooked pictures.

After the meeting was over I somehow convinced James to take me to IKEA, which was only half an hour away.  I sealed the deal by telling him that we are 4 chairs short for Thanksgiving and I thought we could get the cheapest chairs there.  That’s his love language, saving money.  If I said anything like, “They have the cutest Swedish Christmas trees made out of cardboard that you assemble yourself,” he would have driven right past IKEA with me hanging out the window crying.

The problem, however, was that his back was hurting.  When James’ back hurts he can’t stand still…he has to keep moving.  I had to glide around IKEA without stopping.  I’d circle tables and Expidit shelving…..pace back and forth past the glassware….all to keep him from noticing we were actually shopping.  If I let his back start hurting it would all be over and we’d have to leave.  I felt like a shark that can’t stop swimming or it will die.

We did find some $9 folding chairs and a few other little things.  I made it all the way through the store before his back started to hurt.  Score one for my expertize in constant motion.

Sunday morning while we were having family breakfast the unthinkable happened….we heard a little clicking sound in the kitchen.  Click-click—-clickclick.  My radar signals immediately started going off.  I knew what it was….the thing I hate the most about country life.  The thing that sends me into a frenzy of sleepless nights and terror.  A mouse.  James and the boys investigated and sure enough that’s what it was.  Don’t doubt the power of my radar.  It never fails.

I rushed to my room to hide while they set traps.  I considered dipping into my coveted truffles to help the sounds of the clicking get out of my head.  Thankfully, within an hour there were rumors that it had been caught and the hole where it was getting in had been covered.  It turns out that mice don’t have little rounded shaped “doors” in the floorboards behind which they build teeny furniture out of your old spools and matchboxes.  They are just gross, creepy, nasty little things and we will have no more discussion about it.

I spent the rest of Sunday sleeping.  Well, sleeping and/or watching movies and hanging with the kids.  I just decided it was time for a day off.  It was a much needed rest after the drama of the weekend.  That’s just too many dead animals for me.

Let’s have a better theme for next weekend.  By the sound of it my next weekend theme will be, “shopping for bargains at 4 in the morning.”  My four girls have Black Friday on the brain.  That may be just as tiring, but much more pleasant.

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