My Best Valentines Day Ever

As many of you know, I am a Veterinary Technician, and I went to Purdue for my degree. Spring Semester of our 18 month rigorous program was by the worst. We had all of our hardest courses like micro, parasitology, pharmacology, etc. lumped together, and we spent 8 hour days in the classroom, went and changed into our smelly uniforms and then put in long hours down in the clinics.  One of the courses required that semester was Large Animal Medicine with the infamous Bill Reese, who my dad still quotes, "Don't work hard, work smart!"  This class shouldn't have been that hard, but because Bill tended to make things a little difficult, and make our labs run over 2 hours, we all were pretty sure we were going to fail.  Thankfully, sweet Bill gave us a chance to earn some lousy extra credit points by offering one night of our hectic lives to do "lamb watch." Lamb watch required us to drive out into the boonies of West Lafayette, sit in a cold barn and help the pregnant ewe's give birth to their little baby lambs!

Two of my classmates and I decided we were desperate for the extra points, and wanted to get our lamb watch out of the way, so we signed up on the least popular night of all: Valentines Day.  Not just Valentines day, but Valentines day that fell on a Friday. Which possibly made us the most pathetic people at the vet school.  Needless to say, after a long week of classes, exams and clinical rotations, staying up all night with a bunch of sheep led to a lot of slap happy moments.

First of all, we pulled into the gravel lot and FOR SURE saw a werewolf run across the field. We found out later that it was possibly the 150 lb Great Pyrenees that guarded the sheep farm, but I think Molly, Jess and I would all agree that it was definitely a werewolf and not the kind in the Twilight movies. So with the impending threat of a werewolf, we ran to the barn to find it locked. Another hour later we were finally let in and began our duties (aka photoshoot).

In all seriousness, we did get to see twin lambs born and help the ewe's who had just given birth earlier that week by stripping teats (thanks to Jess' 4-H days with her goats) and making sure everyone was healthy and happy.  The highlight of the night had to be when good ol' Bill showed up to check on us because he "worried about young girls being in the country all night alone."  The best part was that he was dressed in an old fashion farmer outfit and he had just gotten back from taking his wife square dancing for Valentines day. I mean, you can't make this stuff up! That's why as much as you got mad at the guy for making up impossible exams, he was so stinking sweet you couldn't possibly hate him!  He was even so sweet as to take pictures of the three of us so we could commemorate the moment.

As much as it doesn't sound like a typical romantic Valentines day that all girls would hope for, it was one of the most fun nights during that crazy 18 months of tech school. I look back at these pictures and remember how stressed out we were about our grades and worrying about getting things signed off in our books, and feeling like the worst student ever because you didn't get one catheter out of the 10 you had placed that week....now I look back at these pictures and I am so thankful we found ways to relax and let loose a little, because we really had it good then!

cute little lamb babies!

So snuggly and sweet...too bad they don't stay this cute forever!

Jess gets a smooch! I remember making fun of her in this moment that she would get trichuris ovis (a parasite from sheep) and then I ended up actually getting crypto and salmonella at the same time during a visit to the dairy farm (you can look it up, its too nasty to describe on here!)

...and then it became very late and things got crazy!

Twins! 

During a high school field trip to a sheep farm I learned the
hard way that I am highly allergic to lanolin. Thank goodness for Benadryl!

Nobody would notice if one was missing, right?

riding in the Bobcat with little lamb chops!

though foggy, this picture makes me laugh so hard as Jess follows good ol Bill down the hallway...I don't think he once noticed that she had a lamb in her arms the entire time he spoke to us

I love and miss Molly and Jess with all my heart! This was honestly the best Valentines day memory so far! These girls were both by my side through all of school, at my wedding, and together to visit me after having Eli!