Wishing My Life Away

I'm sitting here watching a video I recorded last year.

Over. And over. And over. And over. And over.

I don't think I'll ever get sick of it. Or stop laughing when I watch it.

And I can't help but be reminded of something my mom used to always say to us kids while growing up.

 Whenever I'd say something like, "I want it to be a week from now so this stupid test will be overwith!" or "Ahhh! I can't wait until it's two years from now so I'll be done with school!!!" she'd usually always respond with:

"Don't wish your life away, Anne."

To be honest, it always kind of annoyed me when she said it. (I love you, mom!!) Mostly because I really thought that she really thought that I was literally wishing my life away. But I wasn't. I just wanted it to speed up a little bit. And skip over the crappy parts. Like school. And acne. And awkward dates.

I'm 100% sure that I was completely miserable on every date I went on in high school.

Every. Single. One.

Ok, so maybe I kinda sorta actually only went on one date in high school.

But it really was awkward. And miserable.

Hmmm, not really sure how this blog turned into an embarrassing confession of my lack of dating in high school. Interesting. I honestly don't know how to smoothly transition back to my original blog topic now.

Soooo.....

<insert smooth and really funny transition here>

I went out to the hills west of our place the other day with Reed and Eli to check on the cows and open some gates. Eventually the cows are supposed to find the open gates and make their way back to our place. And at some point in the next couple weeks (I think), Jared and his family will go out and bring in the cows who didn't come in on their own. And then come March 15th, just six short weeks away, they'll start having their calves!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!

I remember last year on one of my many weekend visits, Jared and I came out to our future home before church on Sunday to feed. I giggled and grinned from ear to ear the whole time because of all the calves running all over the place. Have I mentioned recently that calves are just so stinking cute??

On one of my later weekend trips, I was able to experience the joy and pain of branding. Talk about an adventure.

Ok, so that last pic of Jared wasn't part of branding, but I had it saved in the same album and couldn't resist sharing it. Mainly to show off how ruggedly handsome and fashionable he is. You know, just in case the floppy hat he was sporting in the previous pictures wasn't proof enough. His t-shirt says 'Game Over' btw. A little gift from yours truly. At the time he thought it was a joke. Little did he know....

Anyways, back to the branding. Near the end of the day, it was the bigger calves' turn and after watching the first two go down, I knew I had to start recording for the next one.

I'm so glad I did.

There are sooooo many things I could say about this recording, but I'll refrain. I just ask that you watch it enough times to watch each individual person's contribution toward bringing this calf down.

Jared and Jake bring the calf out, and then....

I think I've watched this video at least 50 times. There's just so much I love about it! In addition to the number of men it took to bring this calf down, my top three favorite parts are:

1. When Jared falls, gets back up, and then whips his floppy hat back like he really means business.

2. Watching Jake (the guy in the white tshirt) get dragged the last half of the fight.

3. Seeing Spencer, Jared's brother-in-law, trip backwards over Jake near the end of the recording.

Hilarious.

Is it bad that I laugh at other peoples' pain? In this case, I'm gonna say no.

And I'm also gonna say that...

I want it to be six weeks from now.

Really. Really. Bad.