Playing With Josh

Yesterday was one of the best days I've had in a long time with my husband. He and I don't get too much time away from our kids. While neither of us mind,sometimes its GREAT to just be Sarah and Josh, not Mama and Daddy.
We got up bright and early. Actually, it was not even bright yet. We got up at 5 and got ready for dove hunting. I had never been and when he invited me to go hunting with him and some of his buddies yesterday,I took a chance. I was very suprised he even asked me. Since Mel had been at our house all week, I thought maybe he'd want some time with "just the guys". But nope,he asked me to GO! So we take off for his friend Matts Grandpa's place. Its some property out in the country. There wound up being 5 of us hunting and i was the only girl. His friends are great,let me tell you. Oh,they're he-men , and dont censor themselves too much just b/c Im a female. Learned recently they dont consider me a "lady". Maybe I need to work on that,lol. They treat me like one of them. Sometmes I wish they didn't. lol. So Josh and I took off on the 4 wheeler for just the right spot. He had his 12 gauge and I was carrying his 20 gauge. The day before I had practicced with it. Shooting skeet is NOT my strong point, but you give me a stationary target and I can blast it with a shotgun. I only hit like 2 out of about 20 he threw for me. But Josh on the other hand never ceases to amaze me. That man of mine can throw the skeet himself, and shoot it into bits all in about 20 seconds. I am impressed! AND I think after 3 1/2 years of being toghether that he can still impress me is awesome. lol. I had impressed him earlier when I told him sure Id go hunting. None of the other wives do that. and Ive never shot with them either, but I like guns and stuff, so I dont see the big deal.
Josh set us up a makeshift blind, we parked the 4 wheeler away from us, set up camp so to speak and waited for the illustrious dove. I only will hunt what I intend to eat, and I fully inteded on eating whatever we shot! Ive never had dove before, and my mouth had already begun to water for it. We sat there, kinda shot the shit for a while. When you dove hunt, you dont ahve to be quiet inso much as be kind of still. It was beautiful,watching the haze dirft over the trees as the sun snuck over the horizon. The birds {not doves} were chirping, crickets were humming and the occasional slight breeze made leaves drift to their early fall resting place. Suddenly a shot rang out from where Matt and the other guys were hunting. Then a dove near us took off. Josh missed it, but I at least got to see what I fully intended on trying to make supper. It was beautiful watching him stand, aim and fire. Very exhillartating to be sure! He was pissed he missed it, but I was impressed at his fluid movements. Almost like instinct. Wow, I thought, hes sexy standing there all mad from missing! We sat there for 3 hours and only saw a few more high flying birds too far out of our bird load shot guns. Matt and them had been shooting,and we were hoping they at least got a few. That was not the case. Yesterday for them it was hit and miss. So at 8:30 Matt called and said they were going in at 9 if nothing was flying. At this point I was ithcing to shoot! So Josh told me to aim at anything that flew, so I did, missed whatever I aimed at,half hazardly by a mile! But then, knowing I had one more shell left laoded already, I told him I was gonna shoot a morning glory off the top of a sunflower. And Ill be derned if I didnt! Blew the top right off of it! Felt good to aim at something and do what I intended to do. So after that we moved a feild over, me driving his friends borrowed wheeler, Josh told me it was hte first time a girl had ever driven him on a 4 wheeler. Awe,honey! We wnet for breakfast and headed back out to his parents house.
Joshes Dad and Uncle were smoking some shoulders {pork} for todays labor day BBQ. If you've never been around smoking pork,you really cant describe how WONDERFUL the smell is. Hickory on the small side of the big grill creating a smoke to make perfect lil smoke rings on the big shoulders. Man alive,it dont get any better than that! Well, my MIL, went on a beer run. I think she bought the store out! She came back with a couple of cases,all total, and those he men commenced to start drinking at noon thirty. Now, its like 85 degrees and we were all sweating, so even though they wound up drinking most of the beer, between about 6 or 7 men, Nobody really got drunk but Josh. lol. I think he drank MORe than his fair share,lol. But he rarely does that,and I didnt mind at all. The man works hard for us,and had spent time with me,and I felt like he deserved very much to "tie one on",as he says. Well about 4pm, Joshes cousin decided to take his 1 year old daughter for a spin on PopPops big ole John Deere. All the babies in the family have had pictures taken on the antique,beautifly restored tractor. And yesterday was her turn. She loved it! So next it was Calebs turn with Josh {he was not hammered at this point,btw}.But Caleb hollered and hollered. He had not gotten his nap out and then was in a rotten mood. So I told Josh I wanted him to take me for a ride on the big green tractor. But he hopped off and told me to get on. So I climbed into the driver seat, and took off my flip flops. If Iw as gonna learn to drive a tractor, I had to get a real feel for it,and barefoot is the way for me to do that. So he told me very breifly how to ease out the throddle,and ease onto the gas. What do ya know, the massive tractor lurched forward and I was DRIVING it! All by myself. Ive ridden on my fair share of tractors and driven a few lawn mowers,but nobody ever took the time to teach me how to drive one before. So after I made a turn around the garden doing my best Miss America wave, I told Josh i wanted to go faster. So he hopped on and put it in a higher gear and off we went. He was laughing and carrying on. We were kidding around like a couple of 16 year old kids,still trying to impress each other. It was GREAT! He told me a girl had never driven that tractor before, esp not with him on it. {later found out I was female #2 to drive it, his first cousin had helped with hay cutting}. But still, It was a first for both he and I. It was great.
After almost 4 years of being together and almost 3 of being married, we learned we can still not only have fun toghether but impress and teach each other things. While Im always "in love" with him, it grew yesterday. Ive been under a lot of stress and so has he. Just normal life stuff,but being broke, 2 kids,mortgage,me going back to school,him no overtime at work, it can get to you sometimes. But yesterday he taught me that in a dove feild you dont think about all that. You just think about #1 that your saftey is on your shotgun,and let the world ride. take in the beauty of nature around you. Soak it all in.the peace the tranquility and the sheer joy of being with someone you love. It was awesome. I love my husband for the man he is,and the woman he helps me be. He truly is the best friend Ive ever had and I can not see my life without him. ANd I think its great that he and I can still find ways to connect,that have nothing at all to do with sex. Not that that is our only glue, hardly, but that is a wonderful part of our marriage. But its so much more. Its getting up at 5, no makeup, camo all over, sitting around with the family,shooting the breeze, swapping stories, smelling and tasting BBQ, watching the kids run around and dogs play. Its simply enjoying each others company and taking a moment just to breathe! Let life roll. I really needed yesterday and hope today is just as good!