"5 Small Things Friday" No. 28

Go back and read this post for the story behind "Five Small Things Friday".

For this week, here is my list:

1. Sight: Little Plants Growing In A Hole In Our Concrete Basketball Court

2. Hearing: Archer Laughing

3. Smell: The Country In The Spring

4. Taste: A Ripe Dewberry / A Root Beer Float

5. Touch: Kittens

The stories behind the list:

1. For my 18th birthday, Dad put up a basketball goal and poured a concrete slab in front of our garage as a 'court'. We've had the best of times with it! But when the concrete was poured, one of the little .5x1 inch stakes Dad put in it to use as a gauge for levelness got the concrete scraped off the top of it, so when the slab hardened, there was a little wooden spot where the top of the stake was. I called that my 'lucky spot', even though I don't believe in luck and have probably only made two or three baskets from that spot all the years since it was poured! But I still liked that little spot of wood. It finally rotted out, and now there's a little .5x1 inch hole in the court.
Saturday, Dad, Trissy, and I went outside to play some volleyball for a couple of minutes, and as we crossed the 'basketball court', Trissy noticed there were two little weeds growing in that hole. It was like they had taken shelter there in that protected spot (they were hardly tall enough to reach the top of the hole). I just thought it was kind of cute :) .

2. There's a long story here, so if you just want the short version: I locked my keys in my car and Archer laughed at me, but it made me feel good that he was such a good sport, even though I was holding them up.
If you want the whole story, it is told in detail below :)
Ok, so when I first started college, I locked my keys in my car. Alot.
Thankfully, I never had to call the police to open my car. I did it so much that I finally got a string and tied one end to my keys and the other end to one of my belt loops. My problem was that I would pull the keys out of the ignition and drop them on the seat beside me (instead of putting them in my pocket) while I gathered my books or whatever. So I figured if I tied them to me, until I could learn to remember to put them in my pocket, at least this way they'd follow me out of the car!
Well, I finally learned and, until a couple of weeks ago, it had been ages since I'd locked my keys in my car. Well, that Wednesday evening I left work and headed over to the church. As I've mentioned before, the young musician's group practices again on Wednesday about a half hour before playing for class. Well, the last kids were late getting picked up from the school, so I didn't get to leave as early as I like to, and was afraid the others would be waiting on me to practice. As I went to the church, I saw Archer's truck was still at the place he works, so I knew at least I wouldn't be the last one they were waiting on (Archer plays acoustic guitar in the group). But he drove up right after I'd gotten there, so I was hurrying to get in before he did, because the gang picks on me mercilessly if I'm the last one, even if I'm not late (not that I mind - it's all in fun - I just truly don't like to be late. A pet peeve of mine.). Well, I was in such a hurry, you guessed it, I locked my keys in my car. Mom was kind enough to bring the remote when she came to church. But the gang (especially Archer, who knew about my trouble in college) really teased me about locking my keys in my car.
So, on to my mishap this week. It was Tuesday evening this time. I don't usually work on Tuesdays but I did this week because the other girl had an eye doctor's appointment. Anyway, I was late leaving work again, and Mom wanted me to run into Wal*Mart for her between work and music practice. It wasn't until I was finished and crossing the parking lot that I realized I didn't have my keys. Sure enough, I'd dropped them on the seat beside me, locked the doors, and gotten out of the car. I was supposed to be at practice in minutes. I called the house, and Trissy was going to bring the remote, but I knew it would take at least 15 minutes to get into town from our house (it ended up being about 30). Right about 5:00 (the time we meet to practice) Archer called to see if I was coming. I was standing in the front entry of Wal*Mart waiting on Trissy and didn't really want to just say, "Yeah, I locked my keys in my car." where everybody could hear me. So I said, "Yeah, I'm coming, I'm just going to be a little late. You'll never guess what I just did."
"What?" I could tell from the sound of his voice that he already had a pretty good idea. Rascal.
"You wanna guess?"
"You locked your keys in your car?"
"Yeah..."
"BAHAHA! Oh, sorry."
:D His reaction made me laugh even though I felt so bad for holding them up. I told them to go ahead and I would just get there as soon as I could. He said they probably would. But it made me feel alot better for him to be such a good sport about it!

3. I went out to feed the chickens one morning and was washed over with the wonderful smells of the country. The warm smell of the cows across the pasture. The cool smell of the dewy grass under my feet. The freshness of the breeze, and the smell of the warm sun on the tender leaves of the poplar trees. I think if I lived in the city I would die of suffocation.

4. I have two 'taste' things that I really wanted to include this week.
The dewberries are just beginning to ripen here and Trissy picked a little handful one day when she was outside. I didn't care for fresh dewberries 'cause every time someone says, "This one will be good!", it isn't. But I still try every year... So when Trissy offered me one of hers, I took it. That dewberry was perfect!
Thursday we went about an hour away to the closest 'big' town to go to Sams for our bulk groceries. Mom got us root beer floats while we were there. They were so good! Also, there were some people (what looked like a family - maybe the grandparents, parents, and their grown daughters, with a son-in-law) at a couple of the tables beside us, and something about their conversation and mannerisms made me wonder if they were believers in the Lord. They seemed like kind of interesting people, like maybe from up north. But they seemed like neat people too. They acted like they might have been traveling, but I would have liked to meet them and talk to them. If they are Christians, I guess I will - one day!

5. Magnolia had four kittens: two boys and two girls. One has short, black, sleek fur like her, two have fuzzy dark charcoal gray fur, and the other one has striped gray and black fluffy-ish fur. If you want one (or two, or three, or four), let us know ;) !
She's got them in a cardboard box of camping gear in the loft of our metal garden/storage shed. I don't think I'd ever realized that really young kittens are actually kind of ugly. Their heads are huge, their necks are long, their legs stick out everywhere, and they have monster toenails. But they are so soft and cuddly too!