Well, crap.

So, I had this nice long update post planned. It was going to be great.

Ok, maybe not great. I was just going to post some pictures and skip the writing because I've been a regular AP writer at the office the past month and I just wasn't so into writing a long post and spending the time to upload pictures. It was going to be a one or the other kind of thing here, people.

Anyway. I had the post half written (all two sentences of it) and got ready to post some pictures and realized, I didn't have the pictures I wanted on my computer anymore.

Why, you ask?

Well, I don't have the pictures of my computer anymore because I'm in the process of cleaning off my work computer. Usually, when we go home, I take my laptop with me so I can get some work done in the car on the way. And, that means, when we take pictures, I upload them to my work laptop so I can get them edited and posted.

Anyway, I'm cleaning off my work laptop because...drumroll, please...I got a new job! Ok, let me rephrase:

I. GOT. A. NEW. JOB.

Yep. I'm pretty excited because:

WE. ARE. MOVING. BACK. TO. CLINTON.

Oh, yeah. I'll be working for the Illinois Farm Bureau and I'm super excited to start. Of course, I'm sad to leave my BR friends - especially because I really enjoy all the people I work with. But, I don't think they were surprised at all to find out that I was leaving for a job closer to home.

More details later, but for now, I'll leave you with these:

This is what you get when you live in a one bedroom apartment and you're moving in 8 days.

Yikes.

NEWS!

OH. MY. GOSH. I seriously have the greatest news. Like, the best news in the world. It's so exciting, it will quite literally blow your socks off. Are you ready?

Really ready?

Good. Because you'll have to wait until I complete an update post that is long overdue.

Besides, if you know me at all, you probably know the news already anyway.

Past Due.

So, while you're waiting for the next super exciting post about the 4-H Horse Show, the holiday weekend and our four, cute little babies, I decided to put together a post with some past due information. You know, just to give you something to do. I'm sure you needed help coming up with ways to keep yourself busy - just like me.

Yeah, right.

Anyway, I intended to write a post about our cow/calf adventure in Northern Nebraska quite a while ago, but I just never made the time to do it. After letting so many weeks pass, I thought I would let it go and just write a more current post. However, the pictures are just too darn good to pass up. In fact, they're almost unbelievable.

That's right, folks. That's my husband - the one in the Bears coat - walking cows down a road in Northern Nebraska.

A few weeks ago (okay, like, the end of May), my best good friend, Rachel, said she was headed to her boyfriend's house to help move some cattle - and David and I were invited.

Of course, I was game. Rachel said there would be cows, a hot tub, and even a few adult beverages. Sounded good to me. David wasn't quite as sure, but said if there was a hot tub, he would be happy to go.

Rachel's boyfriend, Ace, and his family, have a cow/calf operation in Orchard, Neb., and it was time to move the cows and calves to the summer pasture. The plan was to load up the cows and calves early Saturday morning and make the hour-long drive over to the summer pasture.

We woke up Saturday morning to bawling calves and loaded trailers (yes, we left Ace and his dad to do the hard work of loading the cattle). Rach, David and I got ourselves ready and headed out the door, joining Ace in the last truck and trailer.

After about an hour on the road, we made it to our desired destination. Once we got everything unloaded into some holding pens, we ate some lunch and then headed out again to walk the cows and calves a mile or so down the road to the pasture. I figured David would want to ride in the truck that Rachel was driving, following the herd, but he cowboyed up and walked the ditches with Ace and I.

And, you know what, I think he even enjoyed it! My husband grew up in the country, but he's never been much of a farm boy. Still, he walked those cows every inch to the pasture - and even seemed interested in why we were moving the cattle and details of Ace's operation.

I'm sure it's no surprise to you that I enjoyed myself - I got to be with cows all day, take pictures of the cute little calves (and my cute little husband) and spend some time with good friends.

Anyway, once we were done, we headed back to Orchard to cook some steaks for dinner and spend some time in the hot tub. All in all, it was a pretty relaxing - and entertaining - weekend.

I am aware...

I am aware that I haven't posted since May 18. I know it's terrible. I know that makes me a bad blogging person. I know you're all waiting with baited breath to read what I have to say next.

Wait, scratch that last one.

At any rate, I've been keeping the road hot recently, and just haven't made time to post. But, the good news is, I'm coming home for the Fourth of July weekend. And, the 4-H Horse show is this weekend. And, I'm bringing cameras home.

New material is on its way.

They came. They saw. They shopped.

They were here. The General and her Lieutenants.

They came. They saw. They shopped. And, they got lost.

So, true to form, the General left a bit later than she intended. I got a text message from her at about 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning asking if I had room for some meat in my freezer and saying that they were planning to leave about 10:30 a.m.

I called at noon to see if they were on the road and couldn't get a hold of her.

At 2:00 p.m., she called me and said they would be there about 8:00 p.m. Because I can add, I figured out they left Clinton at noon - a bit later than their scheduled departure of 10:30. But, hey, in the General's world, that's just about right on time.

Anyway, that evening, I headed out to the barn a bit later thinking I would just ride Abby until they got there. Knowing how the General drives (mach 3 with her hair on fire), I figured they would end up getting into Lincoln about 7:30 or 7:45.

So, Abby and I rode. And rode. And rode. At 8:10, I got another phone call from the General. It went a little something like this:

"Hey. I thought I would let you know we're going to be a little bit later than 8."

"Okay. Why?"

"Well, I missed I-29 coming into St. Joseph."

"Seriously? How did you do that? How fast were you going?"

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I figured I could just hit I-29 on up the road, but it was business 29 and I didn't want to take that. So, we just kept going and took Nebraska Route 75 north. We're just now getting into Nebraska City."

"YOU'RE JUST NOW GETTING INTO NEBRASKA CITY? You're still an hour away! I was going to ride Abby until you got here, but I'm not going to do that now. I'm going home. Call me when you're getting into Lincoln."

Of course, about the time I got home and sat down on the couch, the General called and said they were just getting to the outskirts of Lincoln. I jumped in David's car and headed for the stable, already having armed the General with directions to get there. Ten minutes later, another phone call:

"Was I supposed to take Nebraska 77?"

"No, I told you NOT to take 77. Did you take 77?"

"No, I'm pulled over in a subdivision. But this just doesn't seem right. I still haven't seen Lee's Chicken."

"You probably haven't gone far enough."

"I don't know. I just don't think I'm in the right place."

"Alright. Just stay where you are and I'll come find you. This shouldn't be this complicated."

"Well, hang on - I'm at 23rd street."

"Then you should be right on top of the stable. Geesh...okay, I see you."

This was quite a process. At any rate, they finally arrived a little after 9:00 p.m. Tuesday night. We headed into town for a late supper and then back to our apartment to turn in. The General decided to stay with me for the night and let her two lieutenants have the model apartment. So, we drove over to the model, got Grandma and Grandpa into the building and got them set up for the night. Then, the General and I headed back to my apartment to settle in for the night.

In my case, it was a short night because the General snores.

The next morning, I got up and headed to work for a few hours (way too much stuff to do to take off a full day) while the General and her lieutenants made breakfast, chatted for a little while, and headed into town to meet me at the office.

And that started our day of antiquing. A lot of antiquing. We spent the afternoon cruising around Lincoln, looking for and shopping in every antique shop we could find. And we found a lot of them. And, the General found a lot of stuff, too. Finally, after a long day of shopping (and a little bit of riding, too), we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to our respective apartments, trusting that Grandma and Grandpa could get into the building and find their little abode.

We apparently trusted them a little too much.

After the General and I got into our apartment, I headed for the shower and the General settled into a phone call with Chuck.

By the time I got out of the shower, it was just past 11:00. I plugged my phone in and noticed I had a voicemail. Since I had already called and talked to David, I couldn't imagine who would have left me a voicemail (especially since Grandma and Grandpa don't own a cell phone). I listened to the message and this is what I heard:

"Uh, Rachel? This is your Grandma Shirley. We can't find our apartment. This nice young lady has let us borrow her cell phone, so please call us back."

I was half way out the door when I called the number they had given me. A very nice lady answered the phone and said that she had helped them out and they found their apartment.

Oh geez.

The next morning, they were on the road by 9:00 a.m. I was stuck at the office until 6:00 that evening, so I called the General to see if they had made it home yet.

"Oh, no. We aren't home yet. We just went through Cameron."

"Uh, mom. If you just went through Cameron, you have more than four and a half hours left to drive. Did you get lost again?"

And, that's the story of how the General and her two lieutenants visited the great state of Nebraska. They dropped off a horse. And probably took home what equates to the weight of a horse in antiques. And, they got lost.

But, it was fun.

Ahhhhhhh.

We went home last week and it felt good. Like, really good. It was so good to see my little babies, hang out with my sister and spend some time with my family.

Did I mention that it felt really good to be at home?

We ended up driving home Wednesday night because David had to be up in Chicago Thursday and Friday for a doctor's appointment. After a barium swallow Thursday to check how well food was going down and having his esophagus scoped Friday, the doctor gave David a clean bill of health. When she came back to talk to Denise and I, his doctor told me (because my skinny redhead was still knocked out from the crazy relaxation cocktail beforehand and the anesthesia during the procedure) he needs to make sure he's drinking plenty of liquids when he eats, is really chewing his food and isn't inhaling his food in giant bites.

That translates into this: I can now add "Nagging Wife" to my resume. I'm sure David is thrilled.

Anyway, you should have seen the attention this kid got while we were at Children's Memorial in Chicago. It was like walking through the hospital with a superstar. As we were checking in, Denise saw one of David's old nurses and yelled at her across the lobby. Donna, the nurse, recognized Denise immediately and ran over to say "Hi" and spend a few minutes catching up. Of course, I was introduced as David's wife and immediately realized my purpose on this trip: To make all of his old nurses and doctors feel ancient.

We spent the next hour making the rounds to different floors to visit nurses that had worked on David when he was little. Each one gave me the once over to make sure I was good enough to be married to "their boy," and proceeded to tell me all kinds of stories about how polite - and funny - their little David was.

As David got ready to go in for his could-be dilation, more doctors and nurses filed into his room to see how "little David with the red, curly hair" had grown up and gotten married. They exchanged stories with Denise and got caught up with David's life thus far. It was so neat to see so many people who had a hand in putting my husband back together as a baby. I'm sure glad they did such a good job on him.

Of course, that meant after all of the visitors - and the crazy drugs they gave David - he was wiped out. Really, really wiped out.

We got back to Clinton late Friday afternoon and spent the next couple of days recovering from our Chicago trip.

Of course, I had to go see my babies. Mom had sent me a couple of pictures, but I hadn't been home to see any of them yet. I headed out to the house Friday night to take pictures of the horses and ended up doing chores.

While I was home, my beautiful Linny girl decided to have her baby! I was so happy I was home when she had it. If I hadn't been, I would have had to wait for months for pictures of my newest little boy.

I think I'm going to call him Jack. Or Herman. I haven't decided.

Anyway, Saturday we took it easy. Janell and I did a little shopping for her internship and David caught up on some sleep.

Unfortunately, we made the drive back to Lincoln Sunday.

But, it was good to be home. Even for a few days...

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I promise to have a post that explains this:

And this:

And this:

Don't worry. These pictures are unrelated. Mostly.