Happy Thursday

I began my day by fighting with a cow over our garbage. The same cow I fought with over the garbage yesterday afternoon. The large, horned, gray cow, who insisted on knocking our trash receptacles over and scattering our trash all over the street and front end of our property and the neighboring property. Again. I think I won, but it was hard to tell when I was elbow deep in slobbery trash and super-fresh cow patties. I did feel pretty good about nailing her in the nose with an empty milk carton, though.

The rest of the day was tremendously better. Obviously. My high school friend/college roommate/bridesmaid and her hubby, who live in Michigan now, were passing through and stopped in for lunch and a very nice visit. I keep up with Katie through her blog and Facebook, but it was so, so good to have a long overdue face-to-face meeting.

A special friend

Ruth and Weston had their music lessons today, and Ruth came out bubbling about all the things she learned and the good feedback she received from her teacher and the things she was going to work on in the coming weeks. This was certainly exciting for all of us, since last week she came out with an I-don't-really-care-if-I-ever-go-back attitude.

Horse riding was canceled for today, which meant that Ruth and I got to join the boys at the homecoming parade. Weston and Max both felt pretty big riding on those floats and throwing candy just like the high school boys. And, Clay learned the art of smiling and waving at pretty girls to get what he wanted. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this new skill.

"The Big Show" Number 99

Mighty Number 5

Max's painted sign

Ready for some candy

After the parade, I got to go to my once-a-month Mom's Night Out, with several very sweet ladies from our CC group. We enjoyed delicious food and wonderful (grown-up only) conversation. And, after that, I got to go grocery shopping all by myself, which in Mom Land is sort of like going on a mini vacation.

Aside from the early morning cow incident, it was a truly lovely day! I hope you had a happy Thursday as well!