My Life Feels Like the Great Llama Escape

I watched this video today and laughed so hard I hurt myself!  The entire time I was watching, I was armchair quarterbacking and telling the people in the video who could not hear me how to catch the llamas. Honestly, it looked like a Keystone Cop movie for a while there! Having been raised with and among cowboys much of my life, I kept wondering where the ropers were!?!  It's Arizona, right?  No shortage of ranch hands and cattlemen and horse trainers there, so surely someone in the area had a rope and could use it!

(video courtesy Fox News 10)

Then, like magic, right at the end of the video the cowboy comes to the rescue!  He didn't ride up on a horse with a big ten gallon hat.  He actually arrived in the back of a work truck wearing a ball cap and a tee shirt. But you could tell by the way he swung his lariat that this wasn't his first rodeo. Just a few turns of the wrist, a quick flick of the rope and the loop landed right over the top of the llama's head.  Cue fist pumps from his buddies (and probably half of the citizenry of the Valley of the Sun) as Dude leaps out of the bed of the truck to hold the rope so the llama doesn't run off.  It was a triumphant, albeit humorous live TV moment that made me and the boys giggle and cheer!

After the boys went to bed tonight, I started to think about the chaotic, traffic stopping scene that had unfolded when the llamas escaped.  I feel like one of those llamas right now - actually, ever since we lost our home in Phoenix and ran helter skelter to a new home in Idaho. I thought it would be a good move for us. I pondered and prayed about the move for 6 months before we left and felt in my gut that this is where we needed to be.  So we took off down the highway like the streaking llamas and landed here in Boise. That was almost 4 years ago.  And I don't feel like we've actually ever settled down to live here since we arrived!

Instead, I feel like I'm the crazy llama in traffic, running full speed while dodging cars, spin moving past people who want to get to know me, and wildly darting from one street to the next, all while looking for a place to rest for a few minutes until I can figure out how to get home. Or at least get to a nice patch of grass where I can relax for a bit.

I don't want to be trapped by someone or something I don't know, but I don't want to run around in traffic any more either. This lost llama needs to find her her family's place in the world.  Running through the streets without a plan isn't fun and it isn't getting my family anywhere! And while it may look like an adventure for some, right now it feels like a freaking circus to me!  I need a good roper to ride up (or drive, or fly, or even appear out of thin air...I really don't care how they arrive or if they are human or angel or an inanimate object!)  and toss the lasso of stability and calm around my big, fat, mama llama waist so I can stand still long enough to figure out where home is and what the hell I'm supposed to be doing right now!  The grandiose escape isn't fun anymore!

I hope the llamas go home and laugh about their "Big Day in Town!"  I hope when they get back to their green field that they recognize the blessing of having a nice home where they can chill and eat grass and hang out with their llama buddies.  Because as this Mama Llama is finding out, while adventure and escape adds variety to life, there's a lot to be said for a tranquil life of peace and stability.
  

I'm HOME again!! For a few weeks anyway...

I made it!  My Census job is done and while I am sad at how the whole "ending" thing went down, I can honestly say that I am completely relieved to be done with the drive and the 2nd shift schedule.  Sometime I will go into detail about the pros and cons of working at the Census.  Right now, none of that matters.  What matters is that I am back home and have had 3 glorious days of time with my family.  Kind of.  Actually, my husband has been working the entire weekend, so I haven't seen him much, but the work is good, because it is the first real job his demolition business has had since he started it a few months ago.  YAY!!!  Whoo-hoo!! 

And the weekend hasn't necessarily been glorious.  It has been...well...it's life.  Injured kids, housework, bills.  All that stuff that makes work seem like a good place to be some days.  So maybe glorious is the wrong word. I'm not sure I have the right word to explain how I have felt the last few days, as I fold clothes and load the dishwasher.  I just know I'm home. You know that feeling?  The one that makes you feel like you are right where you should be, even if your circumstances are chaotic and stressful?  That's what my weekend felt like. 

I have to be truthful though...it took me a few hours to get to the point where I was glad to be home.  When I woke up Friday morning it was the most awesome feeling in the world...no work today!  Then I opened my eyes.  The house looks like a bomb hit it.  There are dishes and clothes everywhere.  I don't have a clue what's dirty and clean with the clothes, so I'm spending hours rewashing and folding and putting things away.  The bathrooms are seriously in need of a major hosing down.  Like with a fire hose. 

But inspite of all the extra housework I have to do, along with finding a new job?  It feels so nice to be here and to be needed.  My house needs my attention.  My kids need my attention.  My husband needs my attention.  I feel like I have worth and value as a wife and stay-at-home mom that I never felt before.  My people actually appreciate me!  My kids hug me...like all day long.  For no reason.  They just walk up and hug me and tell me they love me.  My husband thanks me for trying so hard to get the house back into shape.  (Funny, it was never in that great of shape to begin with, but it really looks bad now!)  Everyone is so excited that I went grocery shopping and that there is actually food in the house again!   

Now I'm not stupid.  I know the appreciation won't last.  My being home all day again is still new.  In about a week (maybe two if I work really hard to stretch it out) I will no longer be a novelty in our house and things will go back to the normal lack of attention and proper appreciation.  But a woman can hope, can't she?  And in the meantime, I am going to suck up all of the praise and glory I can from my male family members and remind them constantly about how lucky they are that I have a few weeks off between jobs to nag and complain at them and make them do chores care for them and nurture them and teach them. 

So...I'm back home.  For a few weeks.  And the house is a wreck and my kids need haircuts and my husband is working 2 jobs and life is...normal again.  I'm kinda diggin' on that.