Hoofprints: Uncle Ben's House

Labor Day weekend was a time of mixed emotions for us. Lately, Josh's job has become sporadic at best. He was going on a day to day basis for the most part. When he started, it was a great job. He got a work van, cell phone, laptop, work clothes, fax machine, and all the benefits that come with a good job. As the economy started to fall, so did work. So, we got word that Josh's parents were headed to visit Josh's brother and his family. We figured that we might not get a chance to go again for a long time due to the lack of work. So we agreed that if Josh was off on Friday, we would head to Uncle Ben's house (that's what Alex call's it) as well for some long overdue family time. Wednesday Josh got a call that he might have some work, and about one hour later got another call. He gave me the universal sign of the finger across the throat and I instantly knew. He was laid off. They figured it was best to give him a better chance for the union to find him a better job.

Ouch.

Major ouch.

I had my massive meltdown. You know...how will we feed our children, pay our bills, not lose our house, etc.? So we said, what the hay, and headed to see the family on Friday. It would be the beginning of the indefinite weekend. We left Friday so that we could come back on Sunday. (I was due to haul hay in the hay field that afternoon.)

So, here we are, jobless and filled with mixed emotions about the weeks ahead. It was rough, but we still managed to have a good time visiting family. Alex, after his initial ten minute meltdown, had the time of his life. He adores all of his cousins on both sides of the family. I have some great pictures of him with all his different cousins between both sides of the family that I'll be hanging in his bedroom when I can find some frames. Abby did pretty well with them too. She was still rather clingy, but managed regardless. They jumped on a trampoline, watched lots of The Wiggles, played house, and ran amok outside. Josh got some great bonding time with his brother. Heather (my sister-in-law), said that you can actually see them glowing when they get to see each other and I agree. It was fun to get to actually see Heather too. She works weekends, so if we didn't go up on Friday, I wouldn't have got to see her much at all. It was nice for all of us to get away.

So, true to form, the weather was a massive pain in my royal rump. As I mentioned before, I was due home for hay hauling on Sunday. Let me start by saying that the weathermen in this world are highly overpaid, in my opinion. Okay...so I'm grateful for their dedicated storm coverage. But I'm highly disappointed in their storm prediction accuracy. Supposedly we weren't due for rain until tonight, but last night, after the entire field of hay was cut and ready to bale, it was a constant torrential downpour. If you know anything about hay, then having a cut field that hasn't been baled is very very bad. So bad, in fact, that we now have to find a way to get another source of hay for the winter for my three super-old and highly overweight cows and our jointly owned two horses. Ugh...this was just another moment of crapness to grace our week of non-joy.

But there is always a silver lining to every dark cloud. Josh was called this morning and, thanks to the union, he has been found another job. We aren't getting our hopes up for a permanent job. he won't know more until tomorrow morning. It may be a one week job, a one month job, or who knows how long. So keep us in your prayers. Until then, we will be thankful for what we have and what work comes his way.

Without further ado, I give you the few pictures I manged to capture of the weekend at Uncle Ben's house.