The Saturday 7

1. Last weekend, my sweet cousins invited me to join them for a night away to celebrate Esther's birthday. So we piled into my van and headed down south to Flora, Indiana where we stayed at a working alpaca farm. Lol. We rented out their 1850s-esque cabin that has modern conveniences like electricity and running water, thank goodness. And we had so.much.fun.

We happened to be there on "shearing day." As you can see from the above pictures, it was necessary! Haha.

The guy on the left hadn't been sheared yet in this one, but the one on the right had.

We watched a bit of the shearing, then got an unusual lesson in their unscientific method of finding out whether or not the females are pregnant. Apparently they'd been bred recently, and in order to find out if they're pregnant, they put one female in a pen with one male. If she lets the male mount her, that means she's not pregnant. If he tries and she spits at him, that means she is. We definitely got more than we bargained for out of that "farm-life lesson." Lol.

We had fun exploring the grounds, which included going over this rope bridge:

On the bridge. This picture cracks me up so much. The sun was hitting me right in the face, so I look like I have a terrible disease or a blistering sunburn.

We also walked the hiking trail just before sunset.

Proof I actually went hiking!

Then we went back to the cabin to hang out for the night.

We played Bible trivia, and Telestrations, and Heads Up, and laughed until our cheeks ached.

2. The next day, after saying good-bye to the alpacas and checking out of the farm, we decided to hit up nearby Kokomo (and had the Beach Boys' song stuck in our head all day). We found a cute Victorian antique shop, and had our Sunday dinner at Cracker Barrel. Then we visited the Siberling Mansion. My cousins and aunt love history, and I've been on trips with them before where we always end up touring some mansion or another. It cracks me up how different families can be. My sisters and mom wouldn't dream of spending any of their vacation time seeing how people in the 1800s lived. But I'm all for it. The Sieberlings built this mansion in 1889, which is just 20 years after the book series I've been reading is set, so it was fun for me to have a historically accurate picture in my mind as I've been reading.

I love spending time with the crazy crew, and feel honored to have been included.

3. In other exciting news, I started my second job this week. Thanks to Niki, I was able to get hired at Once Upon a Child.

Right now, while school is in session, I'm working 9-2 on the days I don't work in the library. And for these first few weeks, they're easing me in by letting me assist Niki. She's the backstock manager, and is just starting the daunting project of a storewide clearance. It's easy for me, because I just put stickers on the tags Niki tells me to put stickers on. But it's difficult because it's more physically demanding than I'm used to . . . which isn't saying much, but is still painful for me! I worked Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and put 2,000 stickers on tags for 5 solid hours each day. It's a lot of standing and reaching and using my arms/back/shoulders in ways I'm not used to. I had told Esther how nervous I was about the physical demand it would be for me, and she showed up on my first day with iced coffee, M&Ms, and IcyHot patches. 😂 That's what friends are for! The first day wasn't too bad, but by the second day I was really feeling the soreness. I sent Esther this picture on my lunch break with the caption, "1.5 more hours. I can do this."

Honestly, I'm more nervous about working the real job after I'm done helping Niki. There's so much to learn about how the clothes are organized and hung, not to mention stuff like running the register and dealing with customers. I'm dreading it a lot, but telling myself that I'm a reasonably intelligent, college-educated 37 year old woman. If the teeny-boppers they have working there can do it, so can I!

4. When I haven't been working this week, or napping to recover from working, I've been reading. I've plowed my way through the Cheney Duvall series, reading 10 of the 11 books. It's one of the few series I own in full, so as soon as I finish one installment, I go to my bookshelf for the next! They're still not the greatest books ever written, but I they bring me great joy. Especially book 7. I think I might start reading that once a year just for the emotional thrill. 😂 These books came out when I was in high school, but I keep hoping the authors will write more. You can imagine my devastation when I discovered that both of them (it's a father/daughter team) are dead! How dare they! Guess I better cherish that last book this week.

After finishing book 10 today, my book total for the year is 49. I'm definitely on track to reach my goal of 100! Although I'll probably slow down after consuming this series so rapidly.

5. Today was the first Saturday in months that we didn't have anything on the calendar. Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to go to Rockford for lunch and a walk on the trail. We ate at the Corner Bar first.

Then we watched some turtles sunning themselves in the water by the dam . . .

Then we walked on the trail for a while. I would've liked to go farther, but my stomach started churning ominously, which is always a bad portent of things to come. We had already told the kids they could get the Pump House, so I walked back to the car while they got ice cream. Then I lay in the back seat in agony until we got home. This stomach issue is really getting out of control. I seem to have the worst reactions to restaurant food, which is very unfortunate, considering my love of eating out. I'm still hoping there's some common denominator - like when Lucy used to puke if she ate fries fried in soybean oil. If I can just avoid certain restaurants without cutting them out entirely, that'd be great. I'm still keeping my food/bellyache log. I'll call the doctor once school is out and see if they can do anything for me, but I don't have high hopes. She's just going to tell me I have IBS and need to cut out dairy, gluten, and sugar. Fat chance of that happening.

6. Last night was one of those perfect summer evenings, where it's 7:30 but the sun still hasn't set, the weather is not too hot and not too cold, and there's no humidity. Lena, Levi, and I went for a quick walk/bike ride down our street (did I tell you Levi has finally gotten the hang of riding a two-wheel bike??)

When we got back, I sat down on the front stoop and watched Lena do gymnastics on her beam, while Levi bounced a basketball and shouted "Watch this!" 147 times. Then they asked me to take pictures and we laughed at all their antics and outtakes.