Sabbath.

There is just nothing like Sabbath. The older I get the more I appreciate it. I look forward to it every week because it means that I can simply relax with out feeling guilty. The tv isn't on and I can just play the piano (my therapy) and sing. I love that I can just spend time with my family and enjoy all the blessings that God has given me. This Sabbath is a little quieter than usual. My mom is in Washington D.C. for NAD meetings so it is just my dad and I. Luke is in Honduras. He has been coming over Friday nights to sing and play his violin with me. It's quite amusing sometimes. :) Kody is on duty so he had to stay in Arkansas. Anyway, I love Sabbath. I'm not sure what I would do without it. I don't know how my classmates study all through the weekend and then can keep going through the week. God knew what he was doing when he gave us Sabbath. It definitely allows me to regroup after a long week.

Last Sabbath was so much fun I don't know how this one could get much better but it's gonna be pretty close. I think Kody is going to be able to come over and my church is having a hayride tomorrow night at Ernie and Sharon's. So my afternoon will be spent out at there house. I know it will be a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to it. It's just great to be able to relax and get away from the stress of life. I hope everyone has a perfect Sabbath and gets to spend it with people they love. 

Happy Sabbath! 

palpation lab.

Warning: This may gross some of you out but get used to it. :) There will be a lot of gross things on this blog. ha A group of us went to a palpation lab yesterday evening and it was so fun! We started out with Dr. Dawson explaining to us what we should feel and then we got to feel some tracts from slaughtered cows so we could see what we were supposed to be feeling. We learned to find the cervix and go from there. We headed out to the barn where the cows were and it was a little chilly... but bearable. I will just let the pictures tell the story, but I will say I learned a lot and at first I was feeling pretty confident but it seemed like the more people that had a turn, the harder it got to feel stuff. I definitely need to practice! :) 

Julie and Leslie feeling some cow cervix.

Getting ready! Erin (girl on the left) had never done anything like this.

Gotta have lots of lube.

"Am I really doing this?!"

Concentrating

Learning what to do.

I guess I was really concentrating... ha

"I can't feel my arm anymore! Get me out of here." 

Cracks me up how far they are standing away. hahahaha 

"I'm supposed to do what?!"

I had to post this cause I know Julie will love it. ha (I don't like my profile either.)

"Maybe if I had some leverage."

"I'm glad someone warned me off the contracting part. That was really weird and would have totally freaked me out." Julie (paraphrased by Allyson)

"Why yes of course I have no idea what I'm doing."

My arm was a bit sore after we were done and I have a random bruise on my wrist that may have no connections but I enjoyed every minute of it. I also kept getting distracted and putting my arm down by my side between cows, so I was solid cow poop on my right side. Also there was one really big cow that I had to have my arm completely in to feel her ovaries and I forgot to make sure my plastic sleeve was up all the way. Oh, and it got in my hair but I just think of it as some kind of hair therapy. :) 

Hope I didn't lose any readers by that hair part. ha

All of these pictures except the first one were taking by one of the 3rd years and I can't remember her name but I think she did quite a good job for never using a camera like mine before. 

downer.

This morning I woke up thinking it was going to be freezing but it wasn't. Turns out the cold front just hadn't quite arrived yet... When I left the vet school it was a bit chilly to say the least and I had on a flannel shirt and jacket. The downer part was that we talked about euthanasia today. I was fighting tears a few times in the lecture. So to make a long story short, it's cold, it's supposed to rain so it's very cloudy, and we talked about euthanasia. I am kind of excited about the weather but I wish it would make up it's mind. Yesterday it was 80 and today it's around 55 with crazy north winds. So the morning wasn't the best but this afternoon will be spent talking about cows and palpating cows. Things are looking up! :) First, I have to clean my apartment though... then bundle up for standing outside in the cold! Check back for pictures of the afternoon soon. :) (if you dare, it may gross some of you out. ha)

halloween.

I really want to dress Gus and Jake up for halloween. (especially Gus, he is more cooperative with my weirdness) So I found this costumes a couple of weeks ago but they are on sale now. Well they are back ordered online and our Petco doesn't have them. Petsmart is selling them. I guess it wasn't meant to be but how fun would it be if I showed up at the hayride next weekend with Gus dressed in one of these?!? Jake would probably just freeze and not move. Oh, and they are only like $4.00!!! Boo backorder... 

lovely weekend. Part 2.

Sunday Amber and Leslie joined us at the farm. We made applesauce and toured the farm and did fun "farmy" things. 

Yummy!

Working hard. :)

Work is way more fun when you have friends to share it with. 

Even my dad helped us out.

Brett and Emma got tired of helping us and went out to play with the dogs. They had them all on leashes, including Piper. At one point we looked out the window and the dogs were practically dragging them by. It would have been a hilarious picture but everyone's hands were sticky. 

 We took a little break while the apples were cooking, and headed over to the farm to check things out. 

Lots of pictures were taken. 

Dad joined our tour to fill in the gaps of info I didn't know/couldn't remember.

Explaining the scales.

 After our tour we came back to work on applesauce some more and visit the horses. We took some of the apple peels and cores out to them.

Gus is a little weird and eats everything. He ate a lot of apple cores. I'm surprised he didn't get a tummy ache.

Amber put poor Gussy in a box... he wasn't to thrilled.

That afternoon we headed out with Robert and Grandma to see some cows. Robert has been doing a lot of work on my Grandma's land and it is really looking nice. He brought an extra 4-wheeler out so we could ride around. Amber and Julie had never ridden on a 4-wheeler before so it was a lot of fun.

I love fall and Oklahoma.

Amber was like a little kid. :)

After our adventure.

Robert showed us the barn, pens, and chute he built. He is proud of it and he deserves to be. I am impressed! I did give him one idea he was going to change though. ;)

We had a lot of fun. We introduced the girls to some new food as well, haystacks and peanut butter, applesauce toast. 2 of my favorite foods! I think they liked them. :) We also went on a wild goose chase for Gus and Piper. They disappeared for awhile. I gave Julie a heart attack on the 4-wheeler because I was in a hurry. I also didn't know she had never ridden on one before. ha But we found Gus way out in the pasture and Jake found Piper and brought her back (literally) I have the best dogs, except for when Gus wanders off and Jake finds skunks. 

I'm sure I have forgotten something because we did so much. But I hope they all had fun because I certainly enjoyed having them over. Also, all of this really made me ready for Thanksgiving when everyone will be home! :) I miss having people around to do stuff with.

[You can probably see a lot more pictures on my profile that Amber and Julie took.]

lovely weekend.

Soo... as I said before, last week was midterms and things got crazy. So this weekend I had some fun! I'm going to divide this into 2 posts because we did so much I have a million pictures to share. Macy was home, and my friend Julie came home with me on Friday evening. I'm so glad she was able to come. :)

Julie brought her puppy along so when got home we let the dogs play and get to know each other. Gus and Jake were very uncertain of Piper's "puppiness." But Piper pretty much had the time of her life. Friday night Macy and I serenaded Julie for a long time. Poor Julie probably thought we were some kind of crazy people. But we like to sing on Friday night's. (and it's a good thing we "practiced"because special music didn't show up for church so Macy and I were volunteered.) 

Sabbath morning we got up and went to church then headed home for some outside fun. It was a gorgeous day and we took full advantage of it. Gus got another bath and we played with the dogs for awhile. Then we headed to the farm to climb the grain elevator. 

Julie climbing. This is the scariest part to me... but she made it just fine.

My mom and Mitzi look pretty tiny from the top.

There are 2 different levels and the highest one had a lot of wasps around it for some reason. They were weird looking insects. Like a cross between a bee and a wasp.

We made it.

Brett and a barn kitten.

After climbing the grain elevator. Julie and I headed to Ernie and Sharon's house to see all there babies and other animals.  We went on an equine "safari" as Julie calls it. :) We ran out of time to ride so she will just have to come back soon. ;)

Mule babies of every color.

They like there butt scratched. If you try to pet them around there head/neck area, they whip there butt around for you to scratch.

We headed out in the Kubota "tour bus"to see the donkeys and some more mules and horses.

Donkeys

I think they wanted to eat her.

It was a wild safari.

They pretty much just surround you if you stop. Even once they realize you have no food.

 We headed home for a bonfire and mini hayride. We passed a stormchaser, which I'm pretty sure completely freaked Julie out but I tried to reassure her we were fine and that my dad was practically a weather man and would have called me if we were in danger. ha

We had planned to have a bonfire and mini hayride that evening with family but it started raining as soon as we all got there. 

We had the fire lit and everything...

But we moved in the barn and it was still a lot of fun. We sang a lot of songs that I hadn't sang in ages. It definitely took me back and was a lot of fun.

Having so much fun! 

It was a little tight.

The master chef making hot chocolate after we had devoured all the food.

Visiting

yep! It was yummy! Homemade caramel apples, all different flavors of popcorn :), hot dogs, homemade apple cider (amazing!!) homemade pickles (yum), and smores. 

Playing in the rain! Love her!

Improvising for our smores.

Sabbath was a perfect day. The weather was amazing and it was great to just relax and spend time with family and friends. 

I'm going to work on a post for Sunday, which was another very fun filled day, but it takes a while to get all the pictures uploaded so check back for that. :) It involves cows, applesauce, four-wheelers and more family and friends.