Calling all Mothers!!

All right all you mothers out there I am in need of some advise. How do you make a BOY stop being a class clown when all the other BOYS wont stop laughing and encouraging him???? We started Vacation Bible School this week and for the first time Jake is old enough to attend. My son is enough like me in the fact that he likes to dance, sing and TALK, that we are having a little problem. The preacher is trying his hardest to tell the kids a story of how amazing Jesus is and my son just wasn't getting it. The preacher asked if the kids knew who God had sent to save them? The other children were being kind of quiet, being as it was the first day and all, but not my son! He yells out "Someone did", to at which the preacher agrees with Jake and says "yes Jake someone did and his name was Jesus". The preacher then asked the children how it was the Jesus paid for our sins? Jake yells out "with lots of MONEY" at this point all the boys behind Jake start laughing and mimicking his answers (there were more then just these two). Being as Jake was up in the front and not easily grabbed I had to just sit in the back and try to get his attention this best way I knew how...Telekinetically. You know those thoughts like..."stop, please stop. Who's child is that? Must be Brad's side coming out in him" (Sorry Papo Mike). Later when another helper was telling a story about missionaries in China she made the mistake of asking "What do you think they do while they are in China?" My son once again offers up his expertises and yells out "Running around eating Chicken!" My son loves chinese food and to him chinese food is chicken and rice so I guess he was being thoughtful when he suggested that they all might be running around eating chicken. Of course the other boys thought this was hilarious and it was still being talked about this morning. So mom's out there what do I do? I "talked" to him yesterday and then he didn't want to go this morning. I don't want to make him just become a stump on a log but it's also not good when everyone knew what Jake's name was 20 minutes after arriving at the church :O)

This bring me to my next story... Brad and I apparently still can not work together at times. I was starting to get cocky and believe that we were doing well and that we could conquer anything. This was until we came up against one very large bull that decided he had no need for the ladies this year. Either that or he was too stupid to know that that was where we were going to be taking him. The layout of land here is so different from what we are used to. This bull was in a nice little ravine (and I do mean little) that water runs down. There are lots of trees and lots of mud and lots of good places to hide if you weigh 2000 pounds and have no desire to go anywhere. Brad and this bull had a nice conversation that consisted of mainly four letter words and then the conversation turned to ME! Unfortunitly for my husband unlike the bull, I can Converse Back!!!

At first I calmly allowed Brad to do his yelling because I know that I have no idea what I am doing and Brad has tried to explain to me before that apparently the ONLY way you learn what you are doing is if it is being YELLED at you, at least that is the way he said he learned. After awhile though it was getting OLD so the yelling started coming from both sides.

At one point I asked (yelled) where he wanted me? To at which he called (screamed) "on this side, it doesn't do any good for you to be over there when the $%^& *&^% Bull is on this side!!" So through the ravine I go over to the other side. As soon as I get over to his side guess what?? Yep you guessed it, the bull went over to the other side!! :o) I would have laughed if I would not have been so mad at that point. Brad then yells at me to start walking the bull out of the ravine and that is when my problems really began. As mentioned earlier this ravine drains water and this water is the main source for a pond at the bottom of the hill. I took probably 5 steps before I knew I was in trouble. The fifth step found me knee deep in mud, and it was with this step that I lost my shoe (for those of you keeping score this was the second pair of shoes I have lost in the past year!) The next step found me somewhat stuck. Stuck enough that in order to get unstuck I had to lay on my right side to get out. During this time my husband continues to talk (yell) at me wondering where I am and where the bull is. He starts to head down the bank (or at least it sounded like he started down, I can't be sure since all the trees blocked my view) and I get a little scared. I have not been talking to Brad at this point because now I'm as mad as he is and I don't care to talk to him anymore but I get a little scared that he is going to cause the bull to come back towards me and my butt is about as stuck as it can get. So I inform him that if he sends the bull back my way he is going to run right over the top of me. Brad then "asks" why I didn't ask for some help. Once again though I am through talking to him so I ignore the question, other then to tell him that "I'm Done". So I climb out of the ravine and limp my way back, in my sock, to the four wheeler. By the time I reach the four-wheeler Brad has the bull out of the trees and headed to the gate. So out of the kindness of my heart I stayed around to help get him out the gate and on his way. Later though when Brad came up to talk to me I informed him that I loved him and therefore I would stay to help him but I was NOT talking to him.

When all was said and done the bull ended up with the ladies and thanks to my recent trip to CO I had a spare pair of shoes so all was harmonious again...at least until the next time I hear these words "Would you come help me for a little while?"

Brad and I may cuss the rain and mud but we can't argue with the fact that it sure does make everything nice and green.



*With all the rain we have received in the past week, about 4 inches or so, our "little" river is really running.

* And our yard is once again full of puddles :o)