Another something that is no joke is the amount of pain Max has been experiencing. We're not sure what is going on, but he is having terrible pain in his left shoulder radiating into his chest. He said that it feels something like a stinger he used to get in football, but it doesn't go away, and that it feels like there is an electric current shooting right into his lung. He woke up with it a week and a half ago. When we were at the big ranch for spring break, Max pretty much lay around and took several hot showers a day to try and alleviate the pain. We came in a day earlier to get him to the doctor to get things checked out. He has been to the cardiologist, had an echo performed on his heart, and had a CAT scan. The echo looked great--the valve looks fine, the aortic graph is holding up beautifully, and his heart has minimal fluid accumulated around it--all fantastic news. The doctors are baffled at what could be causing this.
The intensity of pain let up at the end of last week. Although he was still hurting all weekend, it was nothing compared to what he had been feeling. Sadly, the pain is now back ever worse that before. The crazy thing is that the pain moves around. ??? One minute it is on the top of his shoulder, on top of the clavicle, and the next it is in front. Even stranger is that the pain suddenly shifts to his right side. Max said he can feel it do a total switch. He's been poking around on the Internet trying to see if this is a common thing after heart surgery. He found a forum where several people complained of nerve damage after having an open heart operation but most felt numbness. There was no one complaining explaining of his exact symptoms. If you wouldn't mind, Max could really, really use your prayers right now. It hurt him so bad today he even missed Garrett's second ever baseball game. (It hurt them both.)
The cardiologist has asked that Max do nothing until they figure out the cause of his pain. He specifically told him NOT to go out to the ranch. (He hasn't exactly followed that order, but he is taking it very easy.) Therefore, we have decided to hold off the opening of Galloping Grace for a few weeks. This only makes sense. It is awfully windy and still cold out there anyway. Now that we've looked around at similar ranches' websites, we see that their open season is from May 1 through November.
It has been exciting hearing from a slew of people interested in getting their children involved in Galloping Grace. We cannot wait until the day we can actually serve them. If you are one such person, please hang in there. We hope to be up and running soon.
I hope you have a fool-proof day.
By the way, I'm pregnant.
These kiddos were part of our work force yesterday. What cute kids and great helpers! They rolled many, many pumpkins off the trailer before the day was over. It was a wonderful example of child labor at its best!
This sweet lady is Barb. She and her husband Tim went to the pumpkin field with us last weekend and brought a load of the smallest pumpkins back to Albuquerque. Barb called asking if GG was set up to receive donations through United Way because she went to donate and couldn't find us on their list. I told her we were, but that someone else had mentioned they could not find us when they went to donate. Barb took it upon her self to go down to United Way and get everything situated. Yesterday when we were exhausted and weak from unloading pumpkins, she drove by and saw us working. That prompted her to head to the store and come back with Popsicles for everyone! Barb, thanks a million. They really hit the spot! 
We asked if she would mind too terribly painting the pumpkin tower Max created inside the hay maze. Even though she always has a million and ten things to do, she happily agreed. Barb, I love you!
She just got in town yesterday from Utah to visit her family. Isn't painting a pumpkin tower exactly what everyone likes to do during their vacation time? I'd also like to add that she has a little baby growing in her belly. (No reason for adding that besides the fact I'm excited for her and her hubby.)
Mikki is one of my favorite teenagers on the planet. So is her younger sister, Bailey.
You can just look at their smiles and tell how wonderful, positive, and loving these girls are!
I didn't get any super cool pictures of Renee (in the pink shirt) working on the pumpkin tower. I should have--she spent a lot of time stapling foam up to keep the kiddos safe.
I did, however, get a shot of her using the post hole digger. Renee, thanks for working at the stand ALL day, making dinner for us the other night, and always being there whenever we need you! We love you and thank you for all you do!
How lucky are we that a super cute, super cool sixteen year old would sacrifice his ENTIRE Saturday working at our pumpkin stand?! I don't know why people are always complaining about teenagers--the ones we know are absolute delights! Zack, thanks for lugging all those giant pumpkins for us today! Your muscles are welcome any time. (And your company isn't so bad either!)
Any guesses, my wise readers? 
Here, the owl is obediently making a fist to show off those beautiful talons. Steph knows how to get the most out of birds. (Hey, why don't her fingernails have any dirt under them?)
And just so you know, he does have a lot of expertise on the matter.
If you plan on painting your horse anytime in the near future,
he highly recommends that you...
refrain from using tempera paint!!!
Although it is non-toxic and "washable", it sure stays on there longer than we'd like.
I, obviously, am not the only person in our family who dreams of being an Olympic athlete. My husband not only dreams of being great, but he takes steps in achieving his dreams. 
You can see him here gaining momentum. Garrett is watching in amazement. Who knew his father could perform such tricks...and in public... while wearing boots and a cowboy hat!?
This one was a bit of a mess. I think the judges would take off big time for his legs coming apart like that. Yikes! It's a good thing it happened so fast. I think the spectators at the preschool didn't even notice. In fact, I think they were too shocked that there was a cowboy performing a high bar routine to even care.
Please note the exceptional form in the picture above. His feet are together, toes pointed out. It just doesn't get much better than that.
I love seeing Cambria and Claire foolishly hanging out below the action. I'm going to pause and thank God they didn't get hurt during his routine. (Thanks God!)
Here he is beginning a tricky release move.
His smile says it all--success!
All we have left is the dismount....
Max, his father Jerry, and two of his brothers, Roy and Tom, all used to be home builders together. (Max also has another brother and a sister, Terry and Alicia who were not in the home building business.) Jerry wanted a piece of land to house a mule he would use for hunting, so he started looking around at different properties. Before we knew it, all four of them were looking at large chunks of land--a great tax write off they reasoned. Almost nine years ago they purchased what we call the Wade Ranch. It is located out in the sticks of New Mexico, outside a town called Vaughn. Know that there isn't much to Vaughn--at all. We always laugh that the original idea was to have a piece of land for a mule, but now we (the whole family) have a large ranch (near 100,000 acres--a capacious place) and not a mule in sight! How that happened, we still don't know. But we do know the ranch is an amazing place for our family and friends. A great many of our very favorite memories have happened at the ranch. In fact, it is my children's very favorite place on Earth! (No exaggeration!) Have a quick scroll down memory lane.
The ranch has about 1900 mama cows, about as many calves either already born or still cookin' in their mama's bellies, and about 100 bulls. Yep, life is really good for a bull. Every summer we have a large cattle branding/really fun weekend. Last year there were over 180 people in attendance. People come from all over the country come to help out. What used to take five weekends to brand even fewer calves than we currently have, now takes about five hours! It is a sight to behold! We laugh that crews made up of primarily city slickers (ourselves included) can do such a fantastic job. Our ranch manager has had cowboys on other ranches call him a liar when he told them how quickly we (using that word lightly--I'm behind the camera the whole time) get the job done. Good, good times!
2006 Group Picture
