What You Want vs What You Can Have

Yesterday, Kara and I went down to the cities and had a lot of fun. We met Ash, her grandma, my friend Beth and her daughter Malory for lunch, then we took Ash with us and headed to my little sister's baby shower. 

I don't think I ever looked that cute pregnant.  My cousin Erica was there and they are due around the same time.  Both adorable. 

I even got to meet my little brother's girlfriend.  It was a great time. 

As hard as it was, I stuck to my diet.  I only screwed up a few times on my diet, I was proud.  I needed those few extra calories to help my brain figure out where I was when I got lost in Minneapolis 4 or so times.

After the shower, I spent a little bit of time with my siblings before I hit the road to head for home.  I was already excited to get closer to home and follow a oversized tractor and digger and not locked into a swarm of cars going who knows where (really, who knows where I was going...I was lost half the trip).

In Robbinsdale, we spotted an Old Navy in a complex of stores and my travel buddy said that we "just had to stop".  I was sure that my rural gravel hadn't ever graced the sides of the Mercedes parked next to our 2000 GMC pickup covered in it.  I actually wanted to wipe some cow poop off the bottom of my door and put in on the fender of the princess automobile in the next parking spot, but then I thought that I'd be arrested for a terrorist act or something so I thought,  "even though it would be funny at our place (cow poop is the source of many a good time here) it wouldn't be here".  So I kept on moving.

We got in the store and I have to admit, there was a lot of great stuff in there.  For me.  Sure for my kids, I looked at cute dresses for them, then put them back on the rack.  Knowing them, they'd love them too but they'd sneak out of the house while wearing them to chase the geese, pick up kittens or try to tame hogs in them and they'd be nothing but a stain in an instance. By the way, I speak from experience...hogs don't tame easy.

I never buy stuff for me.  It's a mom thing.  You take care of others first.  Mom comes last (sometimes even after the dog)...but in this non-Walmart store there was so many things that I liked!  When you live out here and you have eight kids...it's Walmart. (We have a love hate relationship, Walmart and I.)

As I was lured to an end cap with pretty scarves and sweaters, I thought of how I haven't bought a sweater since I was pregnant with Grace.  As I touched my favorite one, I remebered that I just bought Kara a pair of jeans earlier.  Oh well.  Someday.  After all, I have a transmission for my Yukon to buy. 

THEN I remembered my socks didn't match when I took off my boots at the shower and with my sister Jenn laughing at me, Ash yelled, "HEY!  That polka dotted one is mine!"  So I bought myself a few pair of socks and a pair of jeans.  I felt like I had won the lottery. 

Then the phone the phone rang.  "Hey guess what?  I lost reverse in the green pickup.  It needs a new tranny.  See you when you get home."

ARGH!


So I got in the last vehicle that we owned that worked and headed for home.  It wasn't the Mercedes next to where I was pulling out of, but it's a good one all the same.  After all, mine could haul hay and a ram sheep.  It can also push a Webb bull back in a feedlot pen with me safely inside it.  I don't suggest pushing a bull from the WEBB cattle company in on foot. 

With the cities in my tail lights and farm country in my left headlight (the right one just went out) we stopped at McDonalds for supper and laughed all the way home.  Especially about how I had to put oil in at Glencoe and didn't use a funnel and old trusty smoked like it was going to light up.

You know what? It's always nice to visit...even nicer to come home. Even to all this crap.

Sincerely,
The Thankful Fairchild Farmgirl