Weekend

For the sake of my sleep and to keep from borning you I am going to lump my weekend together.

I worked Friday morning. After doing chores, I headed straight out to the baler and rake and got started greasing. By the time I was ready to take off Merle had caught up with me. We got started on the big field over by Bravehawks and didn't have too much trouble or major obstacles other than some steep spots here and there. Merle had arranged for Johnny to come and take over for me at 10am so I could finish packing up my stuff and get on the road.

Johnny is the renter that lives on Dick's place. She had never driven a full sized tractor before so I had to do a little lesson for her to get her started before I took off. Raking isn't rocket science, but when you teach someone else it seems like there are lots of details! lol...pretty sure it's not that hard to catch on. I went a round with her, which took almost another hour. Then, ran home an switched the pickup for my car, showered, threw my stuff in the car, and took off for Kimball. I ended up not getting there until about 3:30- which was later than I wanted, but there really wouldn't have been much to do anyway. I met up wtih friends and the bride's house when I got into town and then we went out to the friend's bunkhouse we were staying in and got ready for the rehearsal and dinner.

After getting ready to go (yes, I wore a dress..it was rather painful, then I got over it). We got there and tried to get everything figured out and good to go. I got some duties assigned to me as personal attendant (since i was the only one of the four at the rehearsal) and then we went and ate with the wedding party. I knew it was going to be a fun wedding because I knew both the bride and the groom, some of their families, and lots of friends they have from school. After the dinner we all went across the street to "Club Vega"....THE bar to go to in Kimball. They had a dance that night, so I kicked on my boots with my dress and we went dancing and hung out. By the time midnight rolled around, we decided to head home because tomorrow was going to be a long one.

The next morning Kayla (the friend I stayed with who was a bridesmaid) and I left by 7:15 and were at Sam's (the bride's) house by 7:30. Kayla had to be there to get her hair done so I just went along to help out. When we got there the place was packed. There were more people in that house than I have ever seen in one families house before. I now know that if or when I get married...my family will not be invited to come and stay in the house! But, after hiding in a bedroom to actually have two feet to get ready in and getting Kayla's hair done (and having Kayla do mine because I'm not that talented) and helping Sam finish getting ready, we got out of there and to the chuch. The rest of the day is pretty much history. I just ran around in my dress and heels doing random things to try and help out. It got to be a long day, but it was fun. In fact, at one point they needed a needle and thread for a button on the best man's tux. Guess who had a sewing kit in their bag?? yep...I am a fabulous attendant! lol..that just kinda happened on accident. But, it was fun and the wedding went pretty smoothly. It was like an hour and 20 minute mass- but to each his own. I had the lovely responsibility of telling the bridesmaids and groomsmen when to walk down the aisle so i had to sit in the back pew the whole time...but it worked alright.

After the ceremony it rained for a short bit and then quit. We decided there is some saying about good luck if it rains on your wedding day, so I guess they are supposed to have good luck now? After cleaning all of the stuff in the church up, they came and got us in the wedding party bus and Melissa (another attendant) and I went bar hopping aroudn Kimball until the reception started. That was pretty entertaining...we left people here and there but they would beat us to the next bar...goes to show the montrosity of a town Kimball is! But, by the time we hit up the reception all of those folks appeared to be feeling pretty good. I met up with Jennifer and her boyfriend Ty and our joint friend who came as "our" date, Zeb and a few other friends from school and ate. Shortly after we wandered aroudn for a while and then danced the night away.

The dance was outrageously fun. And, because I was sober cab I had to drive people to the bars and all over the place afterward and didn't get home until 2:30 or something like that! We went to bed and woke up about 8:00 the next morning and ate some pancakes. Then, all of us staying over from other places packed up and hit the road. I headed east and the others went their own directions.

On the way home I thought that my tacometer was shwoing my RPMs wayyy too high so I just took note of it and watched it, but I made it home alright and went straight to the farm to do some checking on things, give Joel (my friend and neighbor) a ride and some help, and vistied my aunt. And then finished off the evening with nothing other than mowing...how exciting. After I mowed I went up to Brookings and visited a couple friends, ran some errands, and went and surprized my sister and stayed with her. She had no idea that I was in town so I caught her off guard...that was kinda hillarious. So, I stayed there for teh night and then got up in the morning and decided to get my car looked at in Sioux Falls. On the way down, I had to make a couple stops and then I took it to the rapair show to get the transmission looked at. They couldn't get the computer to pull a code and after a drive they decided that it may just run like that sometimes and that it should be ok. I thought maybe a switch, converter, or cellinoid was bad but I guess not. They didn't charge me anything for their time, so I just left and decided they must know waht they are talking about!

Then, I ran back up towards home, looked at a few cars with my sisiter, and then headed west. On the way back out, I stopped in Chambelain at Al's Oasis for supper with my friend Jennifer that was at the wedding. She had spent the night at her boyfriend's house in Winner and was now headed back east and I was headed west so we just decided to catch up real quick. After chatting over some tasy burgers we parted ways and headed out. I got here fine but just barely before dark- I was just glad my car didn't give me trouble. There were people all over the Hisle road and I was following a super slow and swervy car, but I made it anyhow. It was pretty late, so I just unpacked and went to bed.

It sounds like the weeked pretty much consisted of haying. When I left there were about 260 acres of hay laying down in front of us and that was all baled up by the time I got back- so some significant progress was made.

Overall, the weekend was fun and it was great to see people that haven't seen in a couple months. A few days off are nice, but it's always good to come back to the ranch!