It's 12:03 a.m., and I should probably be in bed, but I figured I'd share MY side of Gathering. (As I'm on my computer, I hear Mt. Rider tap-tapping away her response on her little Ipod. )
Wormie got here on Monday and didn't see me in the daylight until Wednesday, haha. It was decided on the first night that he was here that a haircut was in order. Then, on Tuesday, MomM and her husband arrived, bringing many yummy goodies. Half of the frosted dark chocolate brownies were gone by the time I got home on Wednesday! Wednesday night, GP got here. Thursday, when I came home, Lovinit and her husband were here. We all gorged ourselves on homemade chili. Ma&Pa Steele arrived after dinner, and after I had gone to bed, Granny arrived. I missed out on Friday's day antics (whatever they were.... ) for school, but when I came home Friday afternoon, Jessie and Stephanie were here. The gravel guy left a huge pile of gravel in the middle of the driveway, so GP happily hopped in the neighbor's BobCat and put all the gravel where it was supposed to be, while Mr. Mom M, Jessie, and my brother Jason raked the gravel out. In the process of bringing the gravel into the pen where it was supposed to go, our two Nubian does got out. Mt. Rider and I had to chase them away from the blueberry bushes several times, and I ended up goat sitting our free range ruminants for about an hour (maybe even more!). Jessie and I fed the animals that night. That night we had homemade baked Ziti with fresh cheese, bread, and butter. Saturday morning Ma&Pa Steele and family unfortunately had to leave, but the time I spent with them was wonderful! Saturday was gun day. I listened to GP's gun safety talk, but actually spent my day learning how to Tunesian crochet from Stephanie. She later demonstrated how to use a drop spindle, and we somewhat successfully tried out our Lendrum double treadle spinner. Saturday night, we ate Thanksgiving dinner. It was so good! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, gravy, corn (which apparently isn't a vegetable???), and stuffing. For dessert MomM whipped out more of her amazing baking skills and made pumpkin and chocolate pecan pies, and Stephanie made enough dump cake to feed Gideon's army (I don't think we've even got half of it eaten yet!) Then, mom pulled out her hair scissors and played hairdresser. Sunday morning was very relaxed. Everybody was exhausted from the weekend. Wormie and Granny left early. Stephanie's message on Gideon was very good, and we sang Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (played by Mr. MomM) after the message. Then, Lovinit and husband (hopefully soon-to-be proud owners of a Jersey cow ) left. Stephanie, Jessie, and Mr. and MomM hung out for a little while longer and made sugar scrubs and body butter with mom while GP worked on the garage and Mt. Rider sat in her comfy couch chair eating chocolate pecan pie out of the pie plate . Steph, Jessie, and the MomMs left Sunday evening, leaving the house very empty feeling. My brother's best friend and wife came up Sunday afternoon. We finished off the humongous pan of baked ziti that night. GP left today, leaving us no one to sarcasticly banter with anymore. Mt. Rider may or may not leave tomorrow (well, technically today, considering what time it is!).
-All in all, the gathering was a lot of fun, even with the multitude of pig chases that occurred (We "pigged out" in more than one way)! I can't wait until next time. I enjoyed seeing old friends and some new people this year, and I hope to see even more people next time!
-Oh, and of course, we would have a 2.5 magnitude EARTHQUAKE in our area while the Mrs. S gathering was going on. Apparently it sounded like a huge explosion... I slept riiiiight through it. Then, 2 nights later, we had a crazy storm!
-(Excuse any weird grammar I used in this... did I mention that it's now 12:33? lol.)
Remember... Men are waffles and women are spaghetti!
I want to give a big, huge, genuine thank you to everyone for all the work that they did and for all the kindness that they showed to us!