The Intuitive Reasonings of Jessica

isn't one of my hobbies. In fact, I've never even tried it. Therefore, it came as quite a surprise yesterday when I received a membership kit in the mail from the BASS Club, a club devoted to bass fishing. Upon opening the large envelope, I found several decals and stickers with the BASS logo, my membership card, and a couple of other things. As I began reading the enclosed letter, I quickly decided that it was scam. The letter began by thanking me for my payment (I had certainly not sent them any money!) and suggested that I extend my membership by another year for only $12. However, as I continued reading, BASS assured me that even if I didn't extend my membership now, I would receive full membership benefits for the upcoming year, including a subscription to their monthly magazine, Bassmaster. Suddenly I remembered that Bassmaster was one of the magazines that I had purchased with my frequent flier miles (as explained in a previous post). However, I had been expecting it to be about playing bass guitar. Of course the idea that the magazine was about fish had briefly occupied my mind, but I honestly didn't expect anyone to publish a whole magazine about bass fishing. Guess I was wrong. :-S

took off with a bang when Mia picked me up at approximately 3:45 on Friday afternoon. The excitement heightened about an hour later when we pulled to the side of the road just outside of Bloomington to switch drivers. The next five miles were immensely enjoyable. The excitement continued to escalate as we arrived at our destination--the Wegener home. Three adorable children were playing outside upon our arrival, but several more spilled out of the house as our presence was announced by almost-nine-year-old Faith. The rest of the day was a blur of exciting adventures, beginning with a tour of Kara's beautiful yurt

and ending with Uncle David's exciting 50th birthday party.

The following day we awoke to the delectable scent of pancakes--a sure sign that it would indeed be an exciting day. And exciting it was! The first adventure of the day was driving Kris to the church office in Kara's beautiful car
so we could see her and Mr. Hobbs (and a bunch of people I didn't know) off on an exciting high school youth group mission trip to Mississippi. Next, we went to an exciting hardware store to buy rabbit food. Much to our elation, the store gave out free popcorn! Next, we purchased a rabbit, which we promptly brought home to surprise Faith, who was quite stoked by the furry birthday gift. Her stokedness continued into the evening, when she was presented with an ice cream cake and more presents. We also played an exciting game of pin the tail on the bunny using cotton balls and a sketch I had drawn of Faith's rabbit.

Sunday also proved to be a day full of excitement. It began with a trip to CGS, where Pastor Stephen Baker preached a thought-provoking sermon on "Salvation from God's Perspective". Following the service, I came to realize that my beloved phone was still in Kara's room. It remains there till this day, and likely will continue to reside there until Saturday (when Kara is coming to visit me :-D) so if any of you dear readers wish to call me this week, please kindly use my land line number.

Well, back to my exciting weekend: Directly after church, we paid a visit to Ben and Kyla's immaculate home. From there we traveled to Kyla's parents' beautiful home, where we enjoyed a delightful pitch-in cook out all afternoon. The final adventure of the day took place in a parking lot, where I discovered that driving a stick is quite difficult. Shortly thereafter, the adventure was over and I found myself back in the city where not only can one see one's neighbors' houses from one's bedroom window, but one can also see right into the neighbors' bedrooms since the houses are only a few feet away. How sad.

Oh, well, next weekend shall be another grand adventure! Stay tuned, my dear readers!

Last night, Laurie and I went over to Ben and Dave's house, and I rode the pregnant mare bareback (and barefoot). It was great fun until I fell off and twisted my ankle. Right now I can barely walk.

So what's the lesson to be learned here? Jessica should not ride bareback and barefoot at night? Or, Jessica needs a lot more practice riding so she won't fall off again? I would have to vote for option two. ;-)

So I spent the rest of the evening on Ben and Dave's couch with ice on my ankle, thinking of names for the colt. I decided on Daisy for a girl, but I couldn't think of a boy name. I wasn't too worried though, because Ben assured me that she wouldn't give birth for at least another three weeks. Consequently, it came as quite a surprise this morning, when Dave texted me that the mare had had a girl this morning! I was quite stoked, as I am sure my dear readers can imagine.

I can't wait to go see Daisy dear for myself this evening! Perhaps I shall post pictures if I can borrow my father's camera. However, my most allegiant readers probably know not to get their hopes up for pictures from me, as I have not yet put up the pics of the Italian boys. They're coming guys, I promise!*

*If my aunt, cousin, or sister ever emails them to me.

...a little girl asked me "why did you just blow your whistle?" I responded "because that boy over there was just running. You're not allowed to run at the pool. You have to walk." "Oh. I didn't know that," replied the little girl. She then went running back to her mother and said excitedly, "Mommy, did you know that you're not allowed to run at the pool?"

Oh, well.