Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone! I haven't heard if he saw his shadow or not, but we aren't celebrating that day. We are celebrating Rebekah's 7th birthday!!! Hard to believe my baby girl is 7 years old today. I think she's enjoyed her day: no school, swimming, lunch out, calls and texts from friends and family and an afternoon nap (oh, maybe that one was for me;-) This has been an eventful 3 days. We finally made it into the barn Tuesday around 7:00pm. We quickly unloaded, left the kids to tend to the steer and Rob and I left to park the trailer. We had to drive about 2 miles away to a special lot the Stock Show has for parking trailers. Then we went back and got the kids. We checked into the hotel around 9:30 (see, I wasn't too far off), they got to swim a little while mom ordered pizza and had some lovely time alone! I actually laid out everyone's pajamas and toothbrushes! That never happens at home! We were up and at the barn by 7:30 Wednesday. Buddy, the steer, had to be weighed and classified. Now, I must explain this process, as we've only been through it 2 other times and we usually go as a Misc./ Crossbred animal so they just let you through. But THIS time we had a Hereford and he has to go through and let them declare that he is a Hereford or not. Aaron had to walk the steer through a tunnel that leads to the arena. Then he turns in his weight card to one set of gentlemen. Then he walks across the arena to another set of gentlemen who are there to decide your fate. We all went with him so we looked like his entourage tagging along behind him.  Here's how it works: 3 men all have on a utility apron with pockets (my dad used to keep nails in it). Inside those pockets are black and white chips or marbles (I think). Anyway, it's something that indicates their vote is yes or no. I'm not sure what they have, but for now I will assume it's a chip or marble. They look over your animal and determine if it is truly the breed you say it is. We watched this with the Angus breed. The men decide, then reach in their little apron, pull out a "marble" and drop it in a coffee can that a 4th man is holding. They do this in such a way that we can't tell how they are voting. The coffee-can-man looks and if at least 2/3 are yes, he shakes his head yes and waves you through. HOWEVER, if he walks up to the exhibitor and shows him inside the coffee can.... this is BAD! He tells you basically "sorry 'bout your bad luck, have a nice day" Then a 5th man chases you down, basically says "sorry 'bout your bad luck, have a nice day..... oh and by the way give me your exhibitor number!"At one point they did this to 5 kids in a row! This was worse than watching a movie on the Lifetime channel!! It was killing me! I actually had tears in my eyes. I thought, "This can NOT happen to Aaron. I'm not sure I could handle it." Because then you are done! You don't get to show and you can't leave yet because they don't release the steers until Friday! But Aaron got through! The good thing about this process is, it does prevent some from cheating and trying to pass off an animal for one breed when they know it isn't. We were up at 4 am today to head to the barn and get Buddy ready to show. Aaron didn't make the sale. That's okay. He did an excellent job showing his steer! There were about 30 steers in his class and only the top 10 make the sale. So it was a  good day, a little disappointing, but we learned a lot and it's been a good experience for all of us AND we did have a little bit of fun:-)
OK-----quick update on the boys. They are doing so good!!!! Keep the prayers coming because they are working. Gideon is doing really well on his canula. He was awake a little last night. His brain scan went very well. We met with the doctor last night and he said the ventricles in Gideon's brain were getting smaller, which is what they want them to do. The larger they are, the more the risk for hydrocephalus. He would have been concerned if the fluid had built up causing the sutures of his head to separate, but that is not the case for Gideon. Praise the Lord!! He is now trying to fatten Gideon up. Josiah is doing awesome! He is not on any oxygen at all!!!! and hasn't been since yesterday! He is doing very good. I got to put him in a cute brown outfit AND I got to feed him a bottle!!! Woo-Hoo! That little turkey ate 20 ml's of milk. He was awake and alert, looking around and trying to hold his head up. The nurse tonight said she fed him 29 ml's by bottle---that's almost his whole feeding!! WOW! I better stock up on formula now! God has truly blessed us! Hopefully it won't be long before I'm giving Gideon a bottle.