OKLAHOMA!

Well I have been home three days now and there is not an hour that goes by that I am not thinking about my last trip to Oklahoma. It's probably a good thing I am at work alone this week because someone would be getting an ear full about the Morris Family! ;) I had the best time while at their house and it wasn't only FUN but also so encouraging. I never expected to learn the things I did, but I am thankful I did.

I was afraid that when I showed up Sunday night the little ones would be really shy again and it would take a few days for them to warm up to me, but that wasn't the case so much! Which I was SO happy for! Mercy let me hold her that first night I think and Siah talked just like normal! :) Right away I got to see all the babies around the farm! First the chicks, then the kittens, then the baby goats and lastly the puppies! After feeding the baby goats, it looked like it could storm so we were back in the house and Mr. Morris was staying up to see about tornados. Anna, Beshu, and I had talked about it and they said the last time they had gone in their storm cellar thing had been over a year ago, so what were the chances of that happening, right? :) Well, if you recall, my day hadn't been going so well already, so I figured it'd happen! And around 2:00 am someone came in our room and did get us up, telling us we had to get down to the shelter thing. Funny how all the bad things happen right in a row. Everything was fine though, we all got down there and no one got bit by spiders or scorpians. The guys kept killing brown recluse spiders, it was pretty scary, but I was so thankful they were down there to do it. It didn't seem like we were down there very long and then the storm passed, so we all got to go back to bed. No damage had been done and everything was fine. Praise God!

The next morning was my first experience with milking a goat, milking anything for that matter! :) I was pretty scared about it. I had no idea the "things" looked like that and well...I was afraid of them having veins in them. The thought of squeezing it just really didn't go over well with me. So, Bethany put her hand around mine and she squeezed it, I jumped at first, but then tried again. Feeling it was SO weird and pretty gross at the moment, but I ended up trying to milk one of the things. I was not good at all...it took me forever and I couldn't get the pinching part down, so no milk was really coming. It was fun to try though. The next day though, Andrew let me try milking his goat and I got to use two hands and I loved doing it. Since that time, I wanted to milk everytime we went up. I still never got fast, but I wasn't afraid anymore. It was just so neat! I'm gonna have to live close to Bethany when I'm older so I can go over and milk her goats!!!! Planning on moving to Missouri, Bethany? :P :)

Rook became a favorite to play this last time I was there. It was a lot of fun. Usually it was Beshu and me on a team and then Micah and Andrew, but Anna and Elijah would switch in sometimes too. It was a lot of fun. Almost always Micah would end up with the bid and get SO lucky cause the rook would be in the nest..which WASNT fair. :P I'm gonna have to buy a deck to have here because I miss playing it, it was lots of fun!

Tuesday we got to spend a lot of the day playing Ping Pong!!!! I LOVED IT! I had played twice before and it was fun, I've always enjoyed it, but I never got to play so much. They were all eager to play me cause they knew they could win! Andrew and Micah spent a lot of time trying to teach me how to hit the ball on these really hard serves that Micah does. Well I guess it was actually Andrew teaching me.... :) It helped a lot learning from them, but I still was never able to beat Micah, maybe next time...I doubt it though! :) That night we had a tournament too! Everyone was involved and it was so much fun! I was out right away but it was a blast to watch everyone else. It got down to Micah and Andrew actually and Andrew had to beat Micah TWICE to win, and guess what! HE DID!!! They were both champions though....they played so well! After that night we didn't play ping pong anymore! Maybe more next time! :) I'm gonna practice too, so I can get better! ;)

Oh earlier that day they all wanted me to go across this huge brush pile. I kept telling them I wouldn't because I was afraid of the ticks but as soon as I saw the pile I changed my mind. I wasn't going to not go cause of TICKS, but because I could kill myself on it possibly! This thing was massive.

After just climbing up a little bit I had my first scary jump to make. They all just went across efortlessly, but it was a different story for me. I can't remember what shoes I had on, but I'm pretty sure it was my flip flops. Oh wait, no it was not! :D Regardless it was scary!
Right after this picture was taken, I just went ahead and did it, I jumped and you know what! I jumped right into this big tree thing and scraped up my leg. I COULD have cried...but I didn't! :) It hurt though and proved my point that the pile was dangerous! ;) It WAS fun though, shhh...they better not see that I wrote that! :)
Wednesday was Josh's 10th birthday! Mrs. Morris does really neat things for each of their birthdays, so this time Josh wanted an Indian Party I guess. It was a lot of fun helping put together some decorations and headband things! The little ones wore "indian shirts" and then most of us had the headbands on and had some sort of face painting! There is a family picture of all of them, as soon as I get it, I'll edit the blog and put it up! It's good and you can see all the Indians! ;)






Thursday evening it was planned to go to the Naylors house for a small get together for Anna's birthday. We had such a good time! I loved seeing their family again and some other friends. We spent the first part of the evening playing volleyball and then played Taboo. It was a lot of fun! Sad to say bye to such great friends, but it was getting late!

Oh one thing that I keep forgetting to mention was all the pranks that were done to me while I was at their house! Bethany and Micah were the MAIN ones and boy they got me good sometimes! I'm not even sure how they all started and I can't mentioned about 75 percent of them, but I'll share a few! One thing was the trick about Micah hurting his arm. I was in the, what's it called??? Container?? I always wanna say cabinet! Anyway...I was somewhere and was talking to Sage on the phone. Well, in walks Micah and I thought he had just hit his arm. I freaked out, I put Sage on hold and checked his arm and he just started laughing hysterically...turns out it was red food coloring and ink! That boy.....then...Beshu and I were cleaning the studio and we knew they were going to scare us someway when we came out, so I figured they'd jump out at us....nope! Instead he let off some sort of explosive, cause if BOOMED, when we walked out! Besh and I both jumped...so scary! Then one morning, I was just sitting in the recliner or as they say, rocking chair, reading my bible. It was just a peaceful morning and all of a sudden my chair goes tipping over backwards, my bible flies out of my hands and I'm sure my face was priceless...I was terrified. There are SO many more, but one might be a good one to do to other people so I can't spoil it and the others are just...well..yea, can't talk about those! :)

Friday afternoon some of us were supposed to go up to the goat show place and get the goats ready for the show on Saturday. The guys were working late though, so we had to go pick up Elijah to take him with us, which was neat, because I got to see the job site. I had heard a lot about this build block stuff, but never had seen it. It's very interesting to me. They had been pouring concrete that day though, so they were quite busy. We were there only for a short time. Brought them some food and then left with Elijah. We got to the goat show place by like 4:00 or so, my memory is going, and after like 3 hours Bethany was just finished with ONE goat! :D The goat sure looked pretty though! All of it fascinated me. First the goats had to be washed, then blow dried. Then clipped, brushed, and stuff done to their hooves. :) A pretty involved process. Later in the night more of the family came up to meet us, I think they were quite shocked with how long it was taking. :) It was a lot of fun though, I really enjoyed it! I'll have to say though, the show was probably better! ;)

The show was supposed to start at 8:00 am, so we were there close to that time, but they didn't end up starting till later. Since Bethany's goats were a little older, not old...but like 12 months or so, they were later in the morning. We got to sit and watch the other classes go, which was neat. It seemed like I'd see the same people win though. Then it was time for Andrew to go and show a goat! Unfortunately though, his got sent out in the first round. Not sure why though, the goat looked so good! :) Right after his class, it was time for Bethany to show! Her's did very well! She didn't get sent out like some did, but she wasn't in the top 3 either....I think she was pleased with her rank though!


While sitting and waiting for the goats to show Anna got some really cute pictures! This first one is of Andrew being a "dude" ;) We had lots of discussions on what a dude was, so he was showing us I guess! :D Looks cool huh?? Cool dude! The goat show ended for us around lunch time, so we were able to get home early and have time to do some stuff. Something really sad happened when we got home, but my next post will be about that. After the sad news though, Mr. Morris had asked Besh and I to help plant some corn. I really enjoyed doing it. I needed some time to just think anyway, so it was good for me, and I learned how to plant corn! :) Mr. Morris gave us an illustration too. As he was making the rows for the corn, he would look forward at the stake to make a straight row and one time I guess, he looked back behind him and when he was finished the row was crooked. Well, he told me the verse about, "No man who has put his hand to the plow and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of God" It really made a lot of sense when he said it. We need to keep our eyes forward, press on toward the goal, and no looking back! And if we can do that, we'll stay on the straight and narrow path!



Well Saturday night was our last night and we had to be up early for church but we wanted to make the most of the night that we could. I guess it was Mrs. Morris, I think she was the one that suggested that we recorded a song in the guy's studio. It sounded fun but I was sick and would have been SO embarrassed I thought to even do it, but well...we did! :) It was SO funny! We had decided to sing, "Living For Jesus" I had heard the song once maybe, so I didn't know it very well so I messed Caleb and Bethany up a lot I think. We tried singing it by ourselves but the timing didn't work and then we tried us together, and then Daniel did the piano over and then we sang again all together. It was a lot of fun! Beshu was getting SO tired so it was so funny to see her and I guess when I get overally tired I just laugh, so at least once we had to stop the recording cause I just started to laugh. Also, Caleb, Daniel and I are perfectionist so we wanted it to be just right, although we never got it to that point, but Bethany was fine with whatever! She was so funny to be around that night! Oh, and I guess I got over my embarrassment pretty quickly. So many things have happen in front of all of them, I should be over with it now! Anyway, after singing it like 150 times... (not sure to be exact), we finally got in bed around 2:30 am but it was such a great night!

Sunday was sad for lots of reasons! Mainly because it was the day for me to go home! ;( I did not want to leave, at all. I was thankful it was in the afternoon though, so I got to go to church with them in the morning. I really enjoyed it and the message was very good. Saying goodbye was so hard though. Saying bye at the airport helped a little I guess though, I didn't want everyone to see my cry, so I held back the tears and was just hoping I'd be able to see them all again soon! Their family is really a blessing to me, hope I know them a long time!!!!

Something doesn't look right here, does it???? The only socks I had left were these fuzzy purple ones my Grandma had got me, and I didn't realize it but they had a little puff ball at the ankle part. :D Soo...when I put on the boots with them, this is what it looked like! :D Crazy, I know...

Love you lots Beshu!