Facing Fears

I don't think I've ever mentioned this but Monte has a rock climbing wall in his garage.
Well my family had come down for a visit last week (my sister was graduating from George Wythe University in Cedar City). Well the van lost it's power steering on the Bledsoe's street. So Laura and Monte let us borrow one of their vehicles so that we could make it to the graduation. Because the van broke, my family was forced into visiting me a little longer (there is only one auto shop here in Overton and it is not open on the weekends.) Julia decided that before they leave she wanted to climb the Rock wall. She did it too. Well I can't be out done by my little sister so I had to climb as well. I have been here almost a year and never wanted to climb the wall. I am terrified of heights and falling. But I had been challenged by my big sister Margret to face all of my fears head on. So I climbed. It was the SCARIEST thing I have ever done in my entire life. I was 1/2 way up and was taking lots of shallow breathes. I was trembling all over visibly. I kept climbing. My hand touched the second highest hold and then my foot slipped. Monte helped me to fall slowly. However I knew that I had made it that high before falling. Even though I was now safe on the ground I was still shaking and having a hard time resuming normal breathing.
I climbed on Monday May 2nd.

I tested for my Orange Karate Belt on the following Tuesday (May 3rd) I passed! The test didn't seem near as scary after having to climb that wall.

Rewind to less scary, yet still plenty scary when I did them.
Monte has built some stilts for his grandchildren to play on. I had never worked up the courage to even attempt walking on them. (they are a foot off of the ground.) On Sunday May 1st I showed them to Julia (my AWESOME little sister) I knew that she would be able to do them. But to show her it was possible I had to do it first. We spent the afternoon walking on them and keeping track of who got the most steps. I got a total of 69 and Julia got 66.

A couple weeks ago.... I'm no longer sure of the date. I helped Monte go through his hives. I got to get all suited up. We went over to the hives and started going through and getting rid of un-needed queen cells. Bees were all over my suit. "Bees can sence fear and if you act all panicky and jittery they love it and will continue to get bigger and more of a response out of you. I was nervous. Yet remained calm even when I got stung (through my bee suit) on my shoulder. I only got one sting though. Monte got some bees in his hat somehow and got around 5 or 6 stings on his head.

Another super scary thing (this is on a similar level as rock climbing) I had to ask for a mentor meeting with Laura and Monte. Though this sounds like a super easy thing, it was one of the hardest things I've had to do.


Now to change the topic....
How would you like to hear a story of me being cunning, conniving, and a damsel in distress?
I think I can guess your answer. So I will begin...

Once upon a time (Monday April 25th) there was a farm girl with the wonderfully unique name of Lark. Also on this farm were two hired hands to help with the harder work named Bronze and Brodie (I did not make up their names) One sunny warm day they were given the task to dig a rectangular hole 12 feet long and 3 1/2 feet deep (somewhere around that size). Well the farm girl had been harvesting Carrots for the share holders and had just finished that and was on her way back up to the house to relax until chores. Well Bronze beckoned for her to come over. He wanted to show her how much he had dug compared to his younger brother Brodie, even though they had been digging the same amount of time. (Bronze's favorite hobby is to dig randomly deep holes. I know you are thinking that is a crazy thing to do for recreation. Bronze is a little crazy. When I went over there they booth told me that they were going to call it a day and leave within the next ten minutes. They had what looked like a small section left, I didn't want them to leave until that was done. (They don't come on Tuesdays) So then a plan struck me. I asked would they work for 1/2 hour longer if I was to sit and keep them company. They agreed and said only half an hour longer not a minute more. Well the 1/2 hour went by rather quickly and they still had a 3'x3' area. They threw down their shovels, and I couldn't let them leave yet. So I became extremely conniving. I asked if they could work 1/2 hour longer if I worked with them. They said "NO!" Seeing that just asking wouldn't be enough I picked up one of their shovels and attempted shoveling some out. My shovelful was extremely pitiful. I moved to another part of this small space and had a bit more success not much. I then said "are you really going to just leave a damsel in distress to finish this?" A small batting of the eyelashes. Another pathetic shovelful. (I wasn't doing small shovelfuls on purpose it was just really hard dirt.) Brodie said "You're really going to keep shoveling aren't you?" I answered his question by shoveling some more. They both declared that they hated me and picked up their shovels. We did finish that section in 1/2 hour. They had been digging for 3 hours before I came over. I felt so good and happy that I had been able to get another full hour of work out of them. Now before you think ill thoughts of the heroine of this little tale. I got what I deserved a week or so later.
(Friday May 6th) I was put on the digging crew to help level all the earth around the hole. After about 1 hour I was feeling truly repentant for making them work longer than their first 3 hours.
I was miserable. And I am still sore. To tell them how sorry I was I saved them some no-bake cookies (from the batch I made yesterday.) In case you were wondering what the hole was for it was the start of our New Rabbit Housing. The hole has been lined with cinder blocks and will be like a little burrow for them to stay cooler in when the summer heat kicks in. The cinder blocks have a pipe tunnel leading up into some cages that have their water and food. We got one side of the Rabbit apartments finished today. I have decided that when rabbits are being wiggly and annoying they are rodents and rabbits mixed into one word which is Robbits. (Yes I invented this word as I was carrying one feisty rabbit to it's new cage. )
This is the end of my little tale and I hope it made you smile.

TTFN :)