Being A Mom

If you are a mom, you can probably remember the first day your child got on the school bus or the first day you left them at daycare and that feeling of "letting go." Well, I can tell you that none of the compares to the day your child drives off in his first vehicle. A feeling of complete and total helplessness.

Ben is starting college here locally tomorrow and will be commuting, so he needed to have a vehicle. We did some shopping on Craig's List last weekend and Monday we went out to see a couple of them. He fell in love with the first one he saw, but we looked at a couple others and "slept on it" that night. The next day we went back and made it his. It's a 1994 Ford Ranger with a new motor and transmission ... and a Pioneer stereo (and speakers) that allows you to plug your iPod into it. That was the clincher. For some unknown reason, he decided at the 11th hour of shopping that he wanted a manual transmission even though he's only ever driven one twice. Are you sure??! Ok.

So we drove to the BMV with the seller, got the title transferred and new tags. Then I followed him home in my car. We were about 50 miles from home and I don't think I was able to breath much of the trip. When I saw cars tailgating him, I wanted to drive up beside them and sideswipe them into the guardrail. They are being idiots with no clue that the guy in front of him has only been driving for 6 months and just bought his first vehicle 10 minutes ago. (So if you are reading this, please don't tailgate ... it might be my son or another new driver.)

As an aside, when we were at the BMV waiting in line for the tags, there was an older man there with a walker renewing his license. He couldn't hear the woman instructing him through his vision test. She was literally yelling at the top of her lungs so the man (and the rest of us) could hear her. Don't you think that people who drive should be able to not only see, but to hear as well? How will they know when there is an emergency vehicle approaching? How will they hear someone honk a horn if he's about to pull out and get hit? Just made me wonder.

So here is Ben modeling his new truck. Please keep him in your prayers.

So, Ben got his truck, Colton had to settle for new sneakers as his mode of transportation. We went last weekend to my favorite sneaker outlet store. I took him about 6 months ago and he'd grown from a size 12 to a size 13. He tried on a pair of 13's and they were too small!! I had him try on another brand in case they ran small ... nope. He wears size 14 shoes! Amazingly they did have a few pair in that size. They were having a buy one/get one 1/2 off, so we got two pair and did have to have the other one shipped from the warehouse. Ben's feet stopped at size 12 and he's about 6'1" , so I wonder if Colton is going to grow into his feet and be taller than Ben. Ha! Wouldn't that be the payback he's been waiting for for 14 years!! Here he is modeling the new sneakers.
Our other mode of transportation on the farm are tractors of all age, color and model. The older ones need to get "exercised" regularly to keep them running ... I won't make any comparisons to people here. So I was walking across the lawn and received my own personal parade ... Ben on the 1949 John Deere Model A (which is for sale by the way) ...
Preston on the 1940 John Deere Model B...
and Colton on the 4-wheeler (ya, I know it's not a tractor, but it goes a whole lot faster!)

On the topic of farm equipment, Preston gave the hay baler a complete overhaul, replacing worn parts and fine tuning moving parts. He cut one pass of hay a few days ago and we baled 10 bales yesterday just to be sure it was working properly. It did well and sounded a whole lot better. So now I'm back to my watching for a 4-5 day stretch with no rain.