Awesome

I've been a little under the weather... along with most of the rest of my house. Well, what do you do. Pull out the clorox wipes and stay in bed all day watching t.v./sleeping. I'm just so so so grateful that my kids are old enough that when I'm sick too, we can all just hunker down together. It's a beautiful thing.

The other morning, the day started off well. Really well. It wasn't as freezing as it has been, all the kids were off to school and it was just Four and me, playing Chutes and Ladders. I was looking forward to a lovely morning of playing with my littlest. I didn't need to be at the school until lunch time (a small miracle). I wasn't feeling well, but wasn't feeling horrible either.

When you play a game with Four, you really just sit there and keep her company. She likes to spin for you, move your guy for you, cheer for you, etc. As I lay on the floor next to her, watching her play 'our' game, I happened to look out the window to our back deck. I could see our dog, Lady, standing up. All I could really see of her was her back, but that was enough. The hairs on her back were standing up and she was not moving.

Lady doesn't get like this often, I mean goodness, we have all sorts of wild animals roaming through our yard all the time. We joke, sort of, that if someone were to break in, she'd make a new best friend. I sat up to see what she was staring at. I could hardly believe my eyeballs. There, in my backyard, grazing on my mostly dormant grass, was a cow. And not the female moose kind which we've had before. A farm cow.

SHTO?????

(That's Russian for what?!)

And if that wasn't weird enough, he proceeded to get stuck on our swing set. No kidding. He tried to walk through the swings and kind of harnessed himself on one.

I wasn't sure what to do. Did this warrant a 911 call? Not really, but kind of. I mean, there's a cow in my backyard on my swing set!!!! Right now I'm sure you are thinking that I live in the middle of nowhere and how weird is it really that I have a cow in my backyard. Just to set the record straight, it's really weird.

Anyhow, I bypass 911 and instead call my neighbors who have lived up here for a very long time. They're the next best thing to 911.

me: "Shawn, this is Stephanie. How ya doin'?"

him: "Good. How are you?"

me: "Good. Except there's a cow in my backyard and I'm not really sure what to do about it."

him: silence for a few seconds. "A cow?"

me: "yes. Like a farm cow, not a moose cow."

him: "Wow. Is he just walking around?"

me: "Actually, he's stuck on my swing set."

Probably one of the more weird calls he's had in a while...

Shawn knew of a couple farmers that would run their cows sort of around here in the past. He called one of them for me, but it wasn't this farmer's cow. He suggested we call another man because, get this, 'from the number on the tag, I'd say it belongs to _______, and he's been missing a cow for awhile."

And that's when you know you live in a small town. When the local farmers know each other's animals by the number on their tag and when somebody's been 'missing a cow for awhile,' like it's a sock or something.

Anyhow, the cow eventually got off the swing, managed to not break the swing, I called the local sheriff who came out but couldn't do anything about the cow because by now the cow was on someone else's private property and that someone was not home so the sheriff couldn't go on his property (good thing this wasn't life or death). I called the second farmer who wasn't home but I left him a voice mail, and the cow eventually wandered off, but not until after he used my neighbor's front yard for his business.

I should/could end there, but the day just continued in awesomeness, heavy on the awe. I ended up getting called into both schools for various 'situations,' then two other kids called to come home sick. On the way to dance (it was my day to drive carpool), I forgot to pack a snack for the kids-don't ask, just accept that this is what we do, so I stopped at the grocery store in town and ran in to grab some granola bars. When I got back to the parking lot, the kids had locked the door to the suburban and wouldn't let me in.

And then I realized that I was at the wrong suburban. Oops. Seriously, though, my car is the same light tan color of just about every other suburban or tahoe around. Anyone could've made that mistake. maybe...

That night I made German pancakes for dinner. I was thinking: quick. easy. my kids all love pancakes and this way I don't have to make them individually, which was a HUGE bonus as I was now officially sick. Well, turns out the little preciouses only like the ROUND kind. Sheesh.

And then, to top it all off, that night Huz says I should've lassoed the cow and kept it. I know he was mostly kidding, but it made think I should have at least tried. Sure was a pretty cow...