Exhausted

It's 9:08 on a Friday night and I'm ready to go to bed. Pretty pathetic. Brooke is spending the night with Rachel, and Blake has a friend over to spend the night, too. I wish I could say it was quiet around here. It's far from quiet though. Blake + friend = LOUD! He was bummed when I told him that the girls were staying here tonight.... they love to torture them! Darn.

This past week was ISAT testing at school. It is so exhausting. The tests are so hard for my students, and we all get so frustrated. Of course I don't think they try near as hard as they should. I know Brooke has been tired at night, too, because of the 4th grade tests. She voiced her opinion several times that the tests were "stupid" and "hard" and "stupid" and "hard". Thank goodness Blake isn't old enough to take them, I suppose he'll just make designs on the answer sheets with the answer dots.

We bought Blake a new mattress and it was delivered today. It is sooo much thicker than his old one. His old one was from mom and dad's house, was probably 30 years old, and weighed probably 200 pounds. It was hard as a rock and Blake complained of his back hurting, so we broke down and got him a better one. A nice pillow top.... maybe he'll sleep in tomorrow. Of course, last weekend he slept in until 11:00 one day.

Chores are still consuming a lot of my time. Jeff is wondering why I don't pay even half the attention to him that I pay to my (I mean the kids') calves. Brooke's heifer, Jewels, is being treated for an inflamed hock so I've been keeping a very close eye on here. This could make or break her as far as showing. She doesn't have a natural stride and is very stiff in her walk in her back left leg. The vet (who comes 3 x a week to give her a shot directly into her vein...cha ching! I hear the vet bills piling up!) thought she was doing better today. I sure hope so. She is so sweet and we are so attached to her, looking forward to having a successful showing season with her. Say a little prayer that she will recuperate quickly and be back to her old self.

Speaking of chores, this weekend poses another busy one for us. Tomorrow I have to wash/rinse all 3 calves, which should take about 4 hours by the time I'm all said and done. We have to get the trailer packed up for a show on Sunday, too. Brooke is showing in a March Madness Beef Blowout show in Tipton, Iowa on Sunday. We could go tomorrow, too, but I really need one day at home this weekend to get some things done. While we are in Tipton, Blake will be racing 4 wheelers at Sandy Oaks. Luke is taking him. This is the first race of the season, and Blake is thinking that he's going to go to all of them. Of course I don't understand why he would want to do that instead of show calves, but we gave him the choice, and he made it.... despite his mom's recommendations!

Wish us all luck!