Hey Hannah! This one is for you.
Today is one of those days where I woke up all misty-eyed and groggy, ready to get up, eat, and go right back to bed. So with that, I rolled–yes, I literally rolled–out of my top bunk just fifteen minutes before I had to get in a van with my team (ZΦN) and team Kids Out Back to go to the ranch to scoop many, MANY wheelbarrows full of horse poop. Yeehaw!
Directly across from Jen and my rickety white bunk bed in the kitchen, I spied the loaf of bread. Fumbling through the plastic, I finally reach two pieces and tossed them into the toaster. Now of course the outlet wasn’t turned on so I sat there pressing down the “toast” button for at least a whole [precious] minute of my morning before switching on the outlet. Good start, Court! I stumbled to the bathroom, bumping into at least three of my teammates and narrowly avoiding my face in the mirror, brushed my teeth with all the energy of a zombie, grabbed the t-shirt and shorts closest to the top of my pile of wrinkly, semi-dirty belongings, tossed them on whilst praying that the outfit didn’t clash too badly, and continued to walk out the door, munching on my cold toast with a pear and a soggy PB&J in hand for my 12:00 lunch.
Off we go!
Still rubbing my eyes, I mumble some good morning’s to the other team as they climb in and we get back on our way to ministry. Papa G, our super dedicated, fun, and trendy van driver smiles and turns up his tunes, helping a bit to pull me into the land of the living. We stop at the baby clinic first, dropping Maria off with Alyssa. Next stop: Featherfoot Ranch.
Bumpin’ down their long driveway, I toss my lunch into my backpack and get ready to hop out. Today Jen, Sabrina, Jake, Noah, and myself are the lucky bunch who get to spend time with the horses. KJ, Britt, Hannah, Cec, and Lucas, yet another lucky bunch, get to go to the Global Leadership Academy site and keep helping to build the school.
Fast forward a bit and we’ve situated our things under the tree as per usual. Sunscreen has been applied, nalgenes are full, and headphones are in, but only in one ear so we can still laugh at whatever witty thing each other comes up with. Marius (head honcho, also known as “Morris”) gives us the task: muck the paddocks. A’ight! Nothing we haven’t done before. Grabbing the two-and-a-half shovels and two wheelbarrows, we get started. And by started, I mean we trudged into the first paddock and looked at all of the little mountains of brown. Slowly. Very slowly.
So, you guessed it! We began shoveling and ‘barrowing and sweating. Yee! Now I know, that probably doesn’t sound very “hype” to y’all, but good company really does make it fun. That… and the horses were feeling abnormally social and cuddly today. We had a good time to say the least. After boggling our minds with extremely long and satisfying riddles, noon came around real quick. As soon as we reached the shade, we all collapsed onto the miniature picnic table under the tree and whipped out our lunch boxes. As we crammed our faces with our last minute sandwiches, silence ensued only to be broken by the occasional whinny. Bless.
Second shift sneaked* up on us and we trudged back to work once more, bellies full and sunscreen reapplied. The sun upped the ante at that point and decided to show us what the word hot really meant but we carried on with our work and got the job done. Our only hindrances were a spilled wheelbarrow and finding giant mutant larvae that Jake then began torturing with his ever present Workman. That got freaky real quick. But alas, the time had come to hop back into the van and head back home. As soon as Britt got in the van with us, she wasted no time in telling us that we smelt. We knew, of course, because we could smell ourselves. Better yet, we could smell ourselves and all of the “dirt” that covered us. Try sitting in a van with us for more than five minutes!
Upon arriving home, the line for the shower grew as everyone began calling dibs. And you can bet I went last! Who really minds smelling for another hour if it means you get the longest shower? Not me! But at long last, I was clean. It was finally time to do the one thing I have put off for the past month: BLOGGING.
As you can hopefully tell, it’s been going well. But as I opened up my laptop to begin typing the blog I had zero ideas for, I saw what day it was and my jaw hit the table. Was yesterday not just the fifth?! Apparently not! Today is February 8, 2016 and its Hannah’s birthday!!!!
So Hannah Elise, I wish I could be there to celebrate with you. I want to wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! :)! It’s an important one. You just broke into the double digits! Big 10! But since I can’t be there, I wanted to give you some thing more than just a silly email. I hope the upgrade to a blog will do!
I love you so much Hannah Banana. I’ll see you soon!
*(PSA: snuck is not a word! Learning new things every day here).
