Miles Of Chocolate!

This morning after the thunderstorm, Tony ate his oatmeal and I drank my breakfast smoothie then he went outside to help Ben with the daily chores while I took care of some ranch paperwork and then returned several phone calls. Then I took a break sort of.

Yesterday when Ben was over here, he gave us two more giant bricks of Miles of Chocolate to enjoy! So this morning for 'my break' I decided to cut the delicious chocolate bricks up and vacuum seal them into smaller servings for us and it took me less that thirty minutes to do! Then I decided to walk the walk with Leslie Sansone even though my back was still aching, because I have a lot of miles to catch up on.

After I unwrapped the packaging on the new replacement DVD I shoved it into the DVD player and started walking with Leslie and her crew, in hopes that the walking would help my back feel better. I took it real easy and didn't push myself and I ended up walking eight miles and my back felt much better when I was done.

Late this afternoon Ben, Will and Sam came over to see if Tony wanted to go fishing with them down on the creek. After Tony told them that he would love to I said, "Can I go, too?" The men laughed and teased Tony about him having to be the one to babysit me on their fishing expedition, then we left the trailer and went down to the barn to get the fishing equipment.

While Tony handed out his rods and reels for the guys to use, I looked around for my lavender colored rod and pink reel. As Tone told them about which plastic worms worked best I found my rod and reel. "Tony, will you fix mine up?" They laughed and teased T. and me as he put a big hook and a pretty hot pink plastic worm on it. "Y'all, in this fishing tournament we..."

"It's now turned into a fishing tournament?" Ben teased.

"Yes! It will be fun, Ben! First fish, Second fish, Third fish, Biggest fish and Smallest fish," I said as Ben got into his truck and Sam and Will jumped into the back of it. Tony and I followed them in Kermit to the fishing hole then the tournament began.

At first we all fished pretty close together talking and laughing, then the guys got serious and took off to find a better place to fish or because I was talking too much. Here is a picture that I took of Ben, Tony and Sam fishing off of the dam while Will went further down the creek and I stayed in my same place.

In less than two minutes Tone caught the First Fish and then the Second fish which of course he threw back into the water as soon as I took this picture!

Then we jumped into the vehicles and drove further down the creek and within five minutes I caught the third fish! "OMG!" I half-hollered with excitement. "I've got a big one! Help me! It's gigantic! Tony! Help me!"Tony was pretty faraway and I think he pretended not to hear me so Will came running to my rescue. "Be careful, Will! It's really big!" Will threw his rod and reel down on the ground and then he grabbed my line and reached out to pull the fighing fish out of the water. "Hurry, Will! I think my rod is fixin' to break!"

Seconds later, Will had unhooked my giant fish and he was holding it in his hands, so I dropped my rod and reel and quickly took this picture of it before Will put it back into the water. As we watched it swim away I asked Will what kind of fish it was. "A Bass, Nance," Will said as he picked up his rod and reel. 

"I bet it weighed over five pounds! I bet I win the Biggest fish!" I said as Will shook his head no.

"Sorry, Nance. It might have weighed a pound." Will said with a laugh as he walked off further down the creek beyond Tony so he wouldn't have to rescue me again.

As I continued to side-cast all alone by myself near the bridge and continuously caught nothing, Ben hollered from faraway, "I got one!" So I quickly reeled in my pink worm, leaned my pretty rod and reel against a tree and took off to take a picture of Ben's prize catch before he released it back into the creek. Ben had caught a pretty big Perch which might put him in first place for the Smallest Big Fish award.

 Fifteen minutes later we decided the fish weren't biting that great around there anymore, so we went back over by the dam where we had started the fishing tournament. Will and Sam walked across the dam and started fishing from the dock, while Tony went off to fish below the dam. Ben and I decided to put our fishing gear up and we sat on some big rocks underneath some tall shaded Oak trees and we visited back and forth with Will and Sam across the creek. To say the least, there was a lot of laughing and teasing going on back and forth across that creek. And I was having a blast.

"I got one!" Will hollered as Sam, Ben and I excitedly watched him wrestling at the dock with his big catch of the day! Here is a picture of Will and the Biggest Fish before he released it back into the creek.

Ten minutes later just as all of us were fixing to quit fishing Sam hollered from the dam, "Hey y'all, I've got one!" We all watched as Sam worked to reel it in his big fish which ended up breaking the tip off of Tony's rod. This is a picture that I took of Sam's fish before he returned it back to the creek.

"Tony, I am really sorry for breaking off the tip of your rod," Sam said. "I feel really bad about it, man."

"Don't worry about it, Sam. It's no big deal, really. That rod was my great grandfathers handed down to my grandfather, handed down to my Dad and then to me. I was going to give it to my nephew in a couple of years. Seriously, don't worry about it, Sam," I said jokingly and everyone burst out laughing and then they took turns teasing Sam about it. When the fishing tournament officially ended Kermit took Tone and me back home and the guys went back to the Lodge.

This afternoon has been so much fun for me. I really enjoyed taking the afternoon off. I've needed some time off and to laugh out loud and I want to thank the men for filling that prescription for me. Thank you, Tony, Ben, Will and Sam. I love y'all so much. 

P.S. The mystery of who sent that delicious 'Yahoo Cake' from Sherman, Texas, to us has finally been solved! Even though the Texas-shaped cake has already been entirely and happily devoured, Tony told me this morning that Nancy and David Lemon had sent it to us! And Nancy told Tone on Facebook that she personally removed all of the fat and calories from it. Thank you, Nancy and David! We loved eating it and I am so glad that it was y'all and fat-free. I knew it was from y'all. Nancy and David Lemon Rock! And so do Nicki and Tom!

Y'all have a great evening!