I was off of work for Good Friday last Thursday and Friday, so I ventured home to hang out with my family in Clinton. Chris couldn’t come because he had to work; I missed him but still had fun. On Thursday afternoon, Mom and I putzed around town and ran errands. We stocked up on Easter candy for the weekend at Walmart before heading home to make dinner. I had requested gumbo, and somehow I got conned into making it for myself. I spent a better part of the afternoon brewing it up for the rest of the family.

We didn’t do much Thursday evening. Mom and I watched the new episode of CSI, and I worked on a crochet project. Friday morning, Mom and I slept in long enough for Dad to drive all the way to KC for work, get rained out, and drive back home. He decided to get a hair cut, and the rest of us met him in town for lunch at Pizza Glen. I’m sure this pizza isn’t the best in the world, but I have a special place for it in my heart. I love their pizza!

After lunch, Dad and Jacob worked on my Blazer in my Grandpa Norman’s shop. The plan was to have Dad replace my rotors because a mechanic in Springfield told me that the rotors had so much wear that they could no longer be grinded smooth. Dad and my brother Jacob got the tires off and discovered that my rotors were fine. We measured the difference in width between the new and the old rotors: 15/1000th of an inch! So much for the self-touting “Christian” mechanic I went to. This is the fourth industry where I’ve experienced Christians as the worst people to work with: design, construction, car repair, and food service. Not happy.

We made good of the day, and Dad changed the oil in the Blazer instead. O’Reilly’s took the rotors back, no questions asked. While Dad and Jacob were wrapping up, I shot the other end of Grandpa’s shop. I know it looks gross and dirty and about to fall down at any moment (which isn’t far from the truth), but I have some found memories of “helping” Grandpa and Dad with their projects and “working” in the office.

After we finished with my car, Mom, Dad, and I went to Calhoun to visit the babies on my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Martin’s farm. This first picture is of my dad holding one of the baby goats. They were so inquisitive and curious; they reminded me a bit of Mowgli.

Again, here’s Dad. This time he’s with Brassy and her new colt. Brassy is sort of bossy, so we had to be careful with her in the pen. Daffy, Kathy’s other mare who foaled with week was also in the pen; I have some video of her and her colt that I hope to put on YouTube this week.

And here is another fun shot of the baby goats. They were not camera shy whatsoever.

Mom got a hold of Brassy, too.

And this is my favorite picture! It has the funniest story! Aunt Kathy took me and Mom into the barn where the kittens were, and while she was looking for the other litter, Mom and I checked out this basket of cats. It was dark, so I couldn’t tell exactly what I was looking at, but I said, “Uh, I don’t think, I mean, this isn’t a cat.” What I saw were two sets of ears that were not in any way kitten ears. They were bunny ears! Goldie, the momma cat, had evidently found them and adopted them. We figured she was saving them for dinner, but she was letting them nurse, and they were in perfectly good health!

After the farm, we went home for dinner and hung out with my brother and his girlfriend Brandi. We watched Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace while playing Sorry! and Clue. Mom says it’s happened before, but this was the first time I remember Dad playing board games with us. We had to teach him how to play Sorry!, but he caught on quickly and had to say “sorry” to Mom quite a bit.

Saturday morning, I met my best friend Jenny and her boyfriend Matt at Ben Franklin’s Coffee House in town. I worked there when I was in high school and have a few fond memories of that place. We drank our coffee and ate our pastries and chatted for about an hour before heading our separate ways.

For lunch, we piled into the Suburban and headed to Martin City for some famed Fiorella’s Jack Stack barbeque. I live for this stuff. Seriously, when I die, doctors will find Jack Stack’s BBQ sauce flowing through my veins. I’m sure there are plenty of other fantastic restaurants in Kansas City, but I will never know because eating at Jack Stack is mandatory when I go to KC. We split a rack-and-a-half of onion rings, and I ordered a Hatfield sandwich with ham and turkey. Yum!

After lunch, we headed back home, taking a detour in Harrisonville to stop at the Family Center (for martin houses) and then to Chilhowee to see the school where Jacob will be working as an ag teacher next fall. And after all that, we were still too full to get dessert at Dairy Queen, so we went home. Once packed, I hit the road again and headed back to Nixa. And that was my whirlwind weekend at home!

And lest I leave Easter Sunday out, that was quite the day, too! I had 12 kids in my KidLife class, but we all survived. For lunch, my in-laws brought sandwiches, and then we played Canasta for a few hours. And there was lots of coffee drinks and desserts, too. I crashed on the couch around 5 PM and slept for 2.5 hours! I was so tired!