When last we spoke, there was a calf dying in my basement on the eve of my formal observations for teaching.
Reader. I regret to inform you that around 2am, David and I were awakened by the sound of Oliver making some noises and so we got up and then he promptly died. So that was a bummer and, no, I never went back to sleep.
The school day went well and the observations went fine, but that evening, David brought another calf into our house to die in the basement. And no, of course he is not bringing them to “die.” He is bringing them in to save them, but, well, sometimes they die.
This one was all black and in the morning, he was a little more lively than we would have thought, so Colton and I moved him into the bathtub.
Why?
I don’t know. Why not?
It was at this time I decided to call him, “Tubby Buddy.”
Tubby buddy wasn’t super interested in bottle feeding. Each morning around 3am and each evening around 5pm, David and I would try, but he wasn’t having it. So, David would tube feed him while I held him tight, closed my eyes, and prayed that he was shoving the tube down the correct pipe.
Can you imagine if we filled his lungs with milk?
The horror.
He lived in our tub from Wednesday until Friday night.
We then tried to reunite him with his mother, but it wasn’t working. He finally started to take a bottle and we sold him. So, hey! We saved one!
My first graders enjoy hearing stories about the cows and calves. After telling my students about Tubby Buddy, I found this drawing of a calf in a shower on a student’s math quiz.
And I have noticed one of my boys draws our cattle brand on his papers. 
Life has been plugging along. Carson (HD) is getting married in less than 2 weeks! Crazy! And exactly one week ago, our well ran dry.
Yup. That’s right. Dry.
So, we are waiting for answers on that and meanwhile, David has set up our trailer for showers and we have a plan for dishes and drinking water. And my wonderful mom has been washing our laundry for us. Colton (LD) takes dirty laundry to her and picks it up freshly washed.
Such service!
Just the other morning I packed a huge dirty load for him to take to her and after he left with it, I thought about its contents. And you see, dear reader, one night we had a newborn calf born during a torrential rainpour.
At first we were excited about the rain because we have no water and we have a bunch of cows to water. But then a calf was born.
David took a towel out to dry off the new calf and stuck it in the dirty laundry. This is a normal happenstance for myself and I think nothing of it, but I began to think about my parents and how they live in town and have never dealt with farm animals. So here’s how that conversation went.
Me: Mom! There is an atrocious towel in the laundry pile. It was not used by humans! David used it to dry off a newborn calf.
Mom:
Me:
Mom: So . . . bleach?
Me: Sure.
Isn’t she great? I should get her a gift card or something.
Life without water is not easy. These are trying times, my friends. But what can you do? At least I have a David. David makes things happen. He has ideas. He has solutions! He is a real problem solver. So much so, that one night, when David looked stressed, I said to him:
“You know what you need? You need a David in your life!”
***
Colton, our last baby, had his last basketball game ever. His team made it to the championships and took second place. His girlfriend’s team also made it to the championships and took second.
And that is officially a wrap for the Maliblahblah family and basketball seasons.
***
We just finished “The Tale of Despereaux” in the fabulous first grade. Have you read this book yet, Reader? If not-why not? It is truly the best. We had our soup, which is Campbell’s condensed chicken noodle, and here are a few of the comments I received:
“This is the best day ever.”
“This is the best soup I have ever had.”
“It’s like we are in the story!”
We have a time during the school day called “interventions.” Every day for about 20 minutes I work with the same two boys. These boys are sssstttrrruuuugggllliiinnnggg readers. Every day we read the same two texts. We start on Monday and finish on Thursday. Today was Thursday, the 4th day of these texts.
One boy cannot and will not read “they.” He says then every time. Every day. Every time. The word shows up in both texts several times, and we still cannot get it. During the last 5 minutes today, he finally read it. We were all three shocked and the other boy high fives him. It was all very exciting.
The last sentence of the last book reads: It was a success.
It is the same last sentence every day. And every day we struggle with “success.”
Today was no exception.
Me: Ok. Let’s read the first syllable.
Student: s-u-c . . . suc
Me: Yes. And now the second syllable . . . remember soft c.
Student sounds out sounds and works it all out and then triumphantly looks at me and the other student proudly and with more confidence than he should and proclaims the word to be:
“Suckfest.”
Other student confirms this is accurate and high fives him.
I have to bring them down from the clouds and say no. It was not a suckfest. It was a success.
Happy Thursday!
Awwww, you saved a calf! I love the ‘calf getting a shower’ picture! Such a kind mother-in-law!!! I feel for those boys working on their reading. You are not giving up, good for you. How fun to read The Tale of Despereaux in school! Congratulations on your son getting married soon!! Hope all goes well that day.