If you think back to the beginning of this month, MFH (My Favorite Husband), #1 Son and I went on a vacation to Des Moines, Iowa, to visit my In-Laws.  We had a wonderful time and did every touristy thing possible to do.

There was one rather large hurdle to cross before we could leave.  I had to find somebody to take care of the chickens while I was gone.

I had contacted the place where I took Paxton, my dog, when we went out of town.  They gave me the name of a lady who did house sitting and animal care.  I called her, she came out to meet the animals (she fed the cats, too), I liked her, so I hired her.  She needed to feed and water the animals for 10 days.

When we were driving home, she called to see if I minded if she penned up the chickens earlier in the day than usual.  See, she and her husband were leaving for their 2 week vacation that day and wanted to leave before dark.  I told her that would be fine.  She said that I could pay her when they got home.

Last night, she called.  She was home and wanted paid.  $380.00 for feeding chickens and two cats for 10 days!  I about died!!!  Holy cow that was a lot of money!

If you also recall, I had received a phone call from my sister the second day we were gone.  She and my nephew had stopped by to cut my grass.  The chickens had not been let out or fed and they were out of water.  This was at 1:00 PM.  This was bad!

My sister took care of the animals that day (a Saturday).  The next day, my parents stopped by the house after church to check on the chickens.  Things were better that day.

The next day, Monday, my sister made another trip to my house to double check on the animals.  By then we were thinking that things were going to be alright and that the lady was doing her job.

See, after my sister called me, I called the lady and asked her how the animals were doing.  She vaguely said that things were just fine.  Uh-huh.  I think that is when she realized that I knew that she was not doing her job.  Things improved dramatically after that.  Good.

But $380.00!?!  Holy cow that lady has an inflated opinion of her work!

Yes, I did pay her and I will not use her again.

Other stuff…

Today was my second (out of three) 20 milers for the Chicago Marathon.

I set my alarm for 4:00 am.  I got up when it went off (amazing in and of itself!), made some grits and coffee, got dressed and was out the door by 5:40 am.

From the very beginning, the run was awful!  Holy Cow…my legs felt like bricks!  I felt like I was barely moving.  It was dreadful.  It really, really was.

I found myself more thirsty than usual.  I went through 95 oz of Gatorade before, during and after the run.  I just could not get enough to drink.  I had lost 10 lbs in my 4 hr run.  Something was wrong.

MFH and #1 Son and gone to the store while I was on my run.  They brought back a pizza for lunch!  I love pizza!

The guys asked me to get lunch ready.  I could barely move.  I was soooo tired and felt lousy~but I got stuff on the table and we sat down to eat.  I could hardly eat one piece of that pizza.  I felt worse and worse.

My tummy started rebelling.  Oh man!  That’s when I knew I was sick.  That was why my run was so terrible.  Made perfect sense.

So, I took a shower, put on my PJ’s and went back to bed.  For 3 hours.

I am awake now.  It is almost time for me to make everybody dinner.  I’m hoping they will decide to go out and get something for themselves.  I don’t want anything.  At all!

That is my two stories of the day.  Both sad but true   🙂