02/18/08

Today was a day off from school and it was wonderful. I have needed a day to "chill." I was planning on scrapbooking all day but my Daddy changed those plans and wanted us to go have lunch at the stockyards about an hour or so away. click on today's photos to make them larger... some aren't the greatest but you can't do a photo shoot in a stockyard. lol

When I was a little girl we used to take cows to sell up there on Friday's. It was always a treat to go there because we got to go inside and see the cows that were bei ng sold as well as eat their famous cheeseburgers. I just can't describe to you how awesome these cheeseburgers were... and still are today. We began taking the kiddos up there when they were old enough to walk around and understand where we were... maybe around 3 years old. We began talking about it ye sterday and apparently Wesley brought it up again last night while they were eating supper. Daddy thought he'd surprise us all today and we'd go have lunch. :) We had to pick him up from a haul and we headed to Siler City, NC. Boy... that is a wonderful place to visit because it brings back a lot of c hildhood memories.

The place isn't much to look at... in fact, I think it has pretty much stayed the same in the 30 years or so that I have remembered going up there. Now, everything AROUND it has changed, but the building and all outside areas look the same. We got there and the kids were surprised because we didn't tell them until we were almost there. When we got out it smelled like a farm, if you can imagine, and Wesley got out and said "That smells GOOD!" We have a little farmer... We went inside and I took my camera a long as you can already see. I am sure those country/ farm folks were wondering what a "city girl" was doing there with a high falutin' camera. lol It is a shame but I guess I have turned into a city girl... the country is no where near me anymore.

We ordered our cheeseburgers and couldn't wait to sink our teeth into them. They are just as good now as they were when I was a kid. You may laugh at the pictures of them. lol I couldn't help myself. This day will definitely go in the scrapbook even though we've been there many times. I felt the need to capture the cheeseburger on this visit!! I finished off what the kids didn't finish of theirs... couldn't waste them. lol I know it wasn't the healthiest thing, but if this will give my children a sweet memory like it gives for me... then that is all that matters.

After we ate we went up to the boardwalk area. That is where we are in the first picture above... the kids were walking with my Daddy as he was looking at the cows below to be sold. I used to be so scared up there, especially around the "mean bull" pens. I was always afraid I would fall in on top of them. lol Wesley and Mikayla don't seem to be scared at all. Wesley was loving every minute of watching the cows. I told Daddy I wondered if we should get him a calf to raise to learn how to take care of a larger animal. He thought that would be a great idea in a year or so. Wesley has talked so much about being a farmer lately that I want him to experience some of it. We'll see what happens.

Before we left we went into the area where they actually sell the cows. I always love to go in there to watch the farmers bid. I love to watch them as they make their decisions about which cows to buy.

The people that were there today are not people you would see around Raleigh. They were simple folk who love farming. There were young guys in there who looked like "good ole boys" and you could tell they were hunters and fisherman. Simple things in life but yet still hard working. I felt out of place today. I used to be one of them. I find that quite saddening on my part.

The whole process of what we went to see today is becoming something we don't see much anymore. Everything I knew and loved growing up as a child is changing fast. It makes me sad. I want to hold on to it as long as I can. Steve and I were talking the other day about how things have changed so much around here in the last ten years. We can only imagine how things will be in the next ten years for our kids. I know I have said this many times on my blog, but I hate "progress" as they like to call it. I long for simple days where we are not so much in a hurry but we still work hard. Where we can labor without feeling the stress of life... to know you have put in a hard days work without having to watch the clock to make sure you are not "going over time." I say a lot that I should have been born in the 1800's. lol My brother doesn't think I would handle that very well, but if it was all I knew I would do just fine. The world is so competitive now that you "HAVE" to do this and that in order to succeed. I know plenty of smart men and women who didn't have to deal with all of that. Society doesn't see it that way, though.

Well, off my soap box. I didn't realize I would get so sentimental with this today. I had so much scrapbooking I wanted to accomplish today but making a memory with my family was much more important. I still have that scrapbooking waiting, but today I have more to put in it. :) Today is what life is all about.... the simple pleasures.

Enjoy your evening and go find a simple pleasure of life.