Noodling

I've been noodling around the internet.  My mom says "noodling" so that's where I got it.  I like to eat noodles too.  I like all shapes and sizes of noodles, especially in chicken soup.

I'm getting a good idea of how to create a podcast from a CD.  I gather making a podcast from an MP3 would be better, but I don't have an MP3 player.

My husband wanted the soundtrack from The Big Lebowski so I bought it for him, but it was missing the song he wanted called "Viva Las Vegas" by Shawn Colvin.  Why do they sell film soundtracks missing the exact song everyone wants?  This is where I noodled.  I looked high and low for a converter and finally it paid off.  I found a free online converter so I didn't have to spend a cent and the quality is great.  It's the cat's meow.  What I did was I found the song on YouTube but that's video and I want only audio.  I downloaded it in WMV format and converted it to AAC for the iPod which I will burn to CD so he can listen to it in the truck. I wondered if it was legal and I've read that as long as it's strictly for personal use it's okay based on the Betamax case.  I like the Cohen brothers style such as in O Brother, Where Art Thou, but I don't care for the Lebowski movie.  I like the part John Goodman plays so the only section I watch is where he throws the ashes of his friend into the air and it all blows back in their faces.  That's pretty hilarious.  And John goes off on a tangent talking about the Vietnam war because he's a vet, but the guy who died was never in the military.

Aunt Helen passed on.  Eighty-five years.  She was such a neat person.  Traveled around the world till she was 80.  She was in Egypt the day before the kidnapping and murder of some tourists.  She wore magnets in her shoes.  She's not having a memorial or anything and she donated her body for medical research. I think it's very cool that she's not having a funeral.  Funerals are for the living.  I should think it would be very unpleasant going to a funeral.  I've been to one or two and I don't like them.  At my Grama's I cried like a blithering idiot and I don't need to do that in public.  I wouldn't particularly want to go to a homegoing service either although I do like the Irish wake concept.  When I go I instructed my husband and son to drop my cremated remains from a plane over the plateau of nearby Kettle Top Butte.  Just dump me out of a Maxwell House coffee can.  Don't even buy a fancy urn or I'll be mad!  Mmm hmmm, oh yeah.  I'm serious.  Course, Ted Turner owns that land.  I hope he doesn't mine old Liliana ashes and bones on his fancy dan property. 

I've been having really good thinking thoughts lately.  My mind is a swirl.

Bella is doing better at her new home.  She has room to walk about and we like that.  She's still a wee bit anxious and not 100% her old self.  I'd say she's 85% her old self.  I was a little nervous to brush her so our son did most of it.  She was a little mouthy, I think, because she's a baby.  My husband flicked her because she put her tongue out toward him.  You can't let the baby do that because she won't always be a baby.  We saw a flock of sandhill cranes across the street in the chile field and more in the sky.  The area is famous for its hot chile crops.

February is going by so fast.

Mud in your eye

I like horse's eyes. They are beautiful even with mud on the eyelashes.  

My baby afghan after three months of effort turned disastrous.  I made knots to attach the skeins and I guess that's not the way to do it.  I read instructions that said knot or hold the two yarns together and knit and I decided to knot because I didn't think the other way would hold.  Evidently, as in apparently, I picked the bad way to connect skeins.  

I washed it before I gave it just to be sure it would hang together.  I was so sad when I took it out of the washer and saw it didn't hold together.  There were so many ends sticking out.  I reknotted three or four places because I have no other choice.  I guess I'll still send it and explain that it might not make it through another wash.  Great.  A no wash baby blanket.  I was real blue today because it took so long make.  I'm gonna break out singing MacArthur Park "Someone left my cake out in the rain" any minute now.

I am never, ever using Lion Brand Homespun again.  One skein I had to cut because it had a blob three inches long of a completely different color right in the middle of it.  And one place had the string from the center of the yarn showing.  I don't know why.  I didn't do it.  It was like that already.  When I laid it flat for photo time it was wobbly looking. I cursed my blanket out loud and my husband didn't blink an eyelash.  Couldn't he have at least looked shocked?  Then I read my pattern is the same as a dish cloth pattern, so that means I made a giant dishcloth baby blanket.  Spose I'll quit thinking about it because it doesn't do me any good to think about it.  I'm gonna try laying it on the sofa for a photo or folding it for a photo.  Something, anything, to make it appear half way good.  Three months.  All those hours.  What for.

This little piggy

We went to Leah's property yesterday to see what it looks like.  She's out in the country! There are two pigs where Bella is going to live.  They're very friendly pigs too.

Today we three bought rubber boots at Wal-Mart so we can walk through the muck and not have to wash our shoes every day.  We'll keep them in the tool box in back of the truck so we don't have to stink up the inside of the truck or leave our regular shoes outside when we get home.

Pig noses look soft, but they're very strong!  They root around with 'em.

People situation

My husband astutely made the observation that it's not a horse situation we have.  It's a people situation.  Yep, I guess that's true.

Bella will be going to Leah's house tomorrow and that's an hour from here.  We're bummed.  We called about a house we saw for sale near here with a couple acres and found out the house is 2400 square feet.  Crossed it off our list.  Bummer.  I knew having a horse would pose some challenges, but I wasn't expecting one after only five weeks of ownership.  I'm going to just wander around the campground loop in my cowgirl boots.

Our friend in San Diego is back in the hospital for chemotherapy and another stem cell transplant.  The leukemia returned after a year almost to the day.  She can't see her kids at all while in the hospital and she's pretty tore up about it.  They took 12 vials of blood today.  Her posts are heartrending.  She went in yesterday and will be there up to three or four months and her physician told her she has a 30% survival chance. She has lots of wonderful people around her standing the gap with prayer and taking meals to her family and taking care of her mini horses.  She's a wonderful talkative girl. 

Finished my baby blanket.  Tomorrow I want to wash it and dry it to ensure it hangs together before I give it and make it smell clean and nice.  It took a long time to weave in the ends.  I forgot about that.  One of the ends wove in better than the other.  I made sort of a bloop on the edge with my first end.  Hopefully it won't be too noticeable.

A horse situation

Hmmm.  Life sent us a curve ball.  The landowner phoned Leah and said move all your horses.  She asked why and he gave no exact answer but said his water bill is $500.00.  Leah phoned Cecilio and Cecilio said, "We'll do it now."  Cecilio does not procrastinate.  He told her take off work and they'll move all four horses today.  And they did. Leah phoned us and we met them at the stable area.  We fed and watered Nike and Bella and talked over what to do.  Upshot is, we don't know what to do.

Baby Bella has a place to be until the 10th, but it is a tiny stall.  We're going to go see her twice a day instead of once. We feel bad her being in there cooped up.

We have to find a place for a horse to live. 

Today we drove by a place where we think we can board her, but it's not a pretty place.  It's not like Rush Rancho where the horse whisperer lives.  It does have a feeder so the hay we buy won't get wasted.  That's a point because at the pasture 25% - 40% of the hay was getting wasted when the horses used it as a toilet.  I'd look at that old rotten pooey hay and see dollar bills lying there.  It has a cover so she could stand under it from sun and rain.  The enclosure is large, maybe 16'x20'.  But it's not a pasture.  It's a paddock.  On the other hand, it's minutes away and there's a great open area next door where we can walk her.

I would like a pretty place for her though.  We want a pretty place for her to live.

We went to Cruces today and with finding out about Bella's situation we left at 9:30am and got home at 6:00pm.  

Small town life.  Hanging around talking about our Bella and what to do, someone mentioned the landowner got red tagged today by the utilities company.  Unpaid bills apparently.  For $500 bucks it's gotta be more than one month and there's gotta be a leak somewhere.  Doesn't make sense and I've learned when things don't make sense it's because sumthins missin'. Anyway, I told our son not to repeat it which could shame the property owner.  I feel bad for them.  It kind of turned out badly all the way around.  It happens.

But I know God knows of a good place for Bella.  I have to find it.  

Leah has a ranch and so kindly offered for Bella to live there, but it's an hour from here; too far for a daily visit.  Another friend has land close by, but it's got barbed wire all the way around.  I've read up and down and keep finding the same thing.  Barbed wire is one of the worst types of fencing, if not the worst, for horses.  As of right now, the unpretty place is my lone option.

There must be something else.

Twenty rows to go on the baby blankie.

Deer

I pulled out of our site last night at dusk and saw eight deer crossing the road.  Eight!  I've never seen so many together at one time in the park.

Caltrate

Whoops.  I don't take my pills out every day.  My husband does.  Apparently I'm not taking Centrum.  I had to double check because if they came in chocolate, I'm getting chocolate.  But I'm taking Caltrate Calcium & Vitamin D.  Who knew!  I get my names of things mixed up sometimes.  The flavors are cherry, orange, and fruit punch.  They're still not pulling the wool over my eyes though.  Cherry can't be purple.  Orange can't be purple.  Fruit punch is supposed to be red.  Grape is purple.  They're sneaking grape flavored tablets and calling them fruit punch.  I should send them some mail.

Pastor was preaching up a storm today.  He said he's preachin' himself happy!  He preaches us all happy.  I recorded church today and finally got it on my iPod tonight so I can listen to it again when I go to bed.  The .wav format has to be changed to .aac for iPod to play it.  I was using free software to cut out parts I don't want and it wanted me to upgrade to a paid version to change it to .aac.  I thought I remembered doing it with iTunes and sure enough.  I googled it and you don't need to buy software to convert an audio from MP3 to iTunes.  Why I oughta.  Buyer beware!  I haven't done it for so long I have to re-remember how to do everything.

Son went sledding with friends and about half a dozen people at church asked where he was.

Seemingly good news on the insurance.  The woman who hit us, her father found out his wife's car is damaged (their daughter was driving it when she hit us) and that our truck is damaged.  He wants to cover it with cash and not involve insurance.  That would work fine for us.  Apparently the daughter was afraid to tell her folks.  She's a full grown woman and I don't pretend to know what dynamics are going on in their family, but is a shame she didn't deal with it in a timely manner on the 15th  8th of January, immediately after it happened. Oh what a tangled web we weave.  I am not feeling much sympathy anymore.  She should have been honest with her folks and taken her lumps from the git-go.

I'm buying cowgirl boots.  They look like this.  I hope they will fit.

 

The toe is called a snip toe.  It's not exactly pointy and it's not round either.  I wanted a more square toe initially, but I like this pair.  If they don't fit I'll be sore disappointed.  I wanna be a cowgirl!

Leah said I can show one of her horses at the fair this year.  I told her I'll think about it.  I don't like getting nervous and I know I'll get nervous.  She was surprised that I didn't say yes.  I should say yes.  No guts, no glory, my husband says.  I'd be showing a small horse so I wouldn't win, but it would be a neat experience.  And, I do wanna be a cowgirl.  (I already said that.)

Bella walked toward us and whinnied when we got to the pasture this afternoon.  A whinny greeting.  It's very amazing to be greeted with a whinny.  Merriam Webster's says a whinny is : to neigh especially in a low or gentle way.  Wow.  That does describe what she did.  I tried to mimick the sound at dinner tonight but I sounded like I was choking.  When I get my cowgirl boots (and don't the clothes make the cowgirl?) I suppose I should try not to look around in wonderment and awe when our horse whinnies.  Hey, hey, didja hear that?  Didja hear that?  She whinnied!

Row 58

My granddaughter's hand knit baby blanket will be done in a matter of days.  I finally got the last skein I needed a couple days ago.  The post office had it but must have misplaced it or something.  They've had it since the 19th and I ordered it on the 13th.  Serenity Now!

Today we're going to our archaeological site steward class.

I ate toast and coffee and made meatloaf sandwiches for lunch and here we go!

Horse greetings

 

When horses greet one another they breathe into each others noses.  People can blow softly into a horse's nostrils to say hello too.  It's horse language!  The Little Brown Girl on the left is still too standoffish, but we exhale into Bella's nose and she likes it.  She will be still while we do it.  Her mama, Nike, will blow back to us.  If you think Bella has a big nose you should feel Nike exhale into your nose!  It smells of warm hay. I like it so much.  Their muzzles are so soft.

The other week-end we drove by the Rush Ranch on the way to our horses.  At Rush Ranch they raise thoroughbreds and have a very, as in very, nice layout.  As we drove by I saw a man with one single horse in the center of a large open area.  They were both very still and he was sitting on a big upside down bucket and the horse's head was hanging way down toward him as if he was having a conversation with it.  It appeared as though the horse was listening intently. My husband said, "Look, it's a horse whisperer!"  Is that what he was doing?  I think so.  I want to know more about what he was doing.

Today was duperly cold.  It began to snow on us while we were feeding the horses.  The photo above is from earlier in the week.  The two fillies were curious about my camera and were crowding me (in a nice way).  That's a change because at first they were shy of the camera and would look alarmed and would go away when my camera clicked.  Guess they got used to the clicking sound.

Our insurance and truck repair thus far has been a headache.  Our insurance sent out an estimator who says we can get the damage popped out for $600.00.  Puh-leeze.  Husband said he'll get three estimates and all three are twice as much as this insurance guy says and one of the places is one he recommended to us.  He's talking to his managers now.  Sheesh.  Yeah, he better talk to his managers or we want arbitration or something.  We'll contest it.  Six hundred dollars my eye.  It needs a new quarter panel.  People say to me that there's no way someone wouldn't know they hit the truck.  Even one of the estimators said the way she hit the axle would stop her so abruptly she would know she hit something.  Well, I told them, I'm taking her at her word.  I refuse to discuss it further because a lie is known by the person who's lying.  It doesn't matter what I think.  I just want to get truckie fixed.  We finally opted to go through our own insurance because she took two weeks to call her insurance and now we have to wait for her mum to call her insurance because she was driving her mother's car.  It's all very tiring, yes.  By going through our own insurance we can get the repair done now and not have to remind someone umpteen times to call their insurance.  Our insurance company will pursue them and get reimbursement.  Of course, six hundred dollars is a joke.  No one will fix us for that unless I take it to a high school auto shop.

Then I got a computer virus yesterday.  Luckily, Eset caught it and I did a system restore to the 21st and everything has been good.

Centrum tablets

(Bella says, "Tell me the joke so I can laugh too!"

The other day when I was gone somewhere my husband was vacuuming and something plugged up the hose.  He uses the big vacuum first then a little hand held one for the perimeter of the rooms.  He figured it must be clogged with dust and dirt but he got in it and out popped one of my Centrum scientifically-advanced complete multivitamin pills.  I use the term "pill" loosely.  It's a chewable tablet that I started taking a few years ago when I found out my aunt has osteoporosis.  It's ridiculously large.  It's not even a pill.  It's not oblong.  It's disc shaped.  I can't find a photo of it online because it's so big they don't want people to see how big it is.  It's so big that if Bella ate it I'd have to massage her neck to make it go down.

I have to chew one everyday.  It's sweet and kind of chalky.  Takes me like two minutes to consume the thing.  It comes in two colors: orange and purple.  The purple one is grape and I hate it.  I think they put in mostly grape flavored ones because people don't like grape.  When my husband hands me one, if it's purple I ask him if he's mad at me.  "What'd I do?"  I say.

Sometimes I don't eat the purple ones.  Sometimes I put them in my pocket and sometimes they get lost.  Sometimes I put it back in the bottle when my husband is gone if I'm feeling guilty about being wasteful.

Well I got busted when he found the one in the vacuum.  I didn't want to tell a lie or anything so I said all perplexed-like, "How did that get in there I wonder."  My husband wondered pretty loud.  He came up with several scenarios all of which show he knows me far too well.  I really don't know how it got in there though.  Maybe it fell out of my pants pocket somewhere.  Or maybe I was going to take it and I set it on the sofa beside me while I ate my toast then it fell on the floor by accident.  That sounds plausible.

If I get osteoporosis I'm going to sue Centrum for all the years of eating these stinky pills.  I ought to start saving our receipts as evidence.

My hair turned out quite silky after washing it today.  Hmmmm.  That makes it a good day in spite of the evil purple pill that got me in trouble.

Bella got her hooves trimmed and she was wormed yesterday.  There are four, count 'em, four horses out there now.  Oh my, it's a lot more manure.  Bella is doing well with her lead training and well with lifting her feet for us.

I almost got bopped in the head by a horse head and I screamed.  Good thing she missed me because between a swinging horse head and a standing still people head, I'm sure the horse head would win.  There is a new filly, older than Bella and Baby Brown, with us now and Nike is the oldest.  Nike is definitely the lead mare.  Nike nipped at the new filly and she swung her head away from Nike real fast.  I have to be aware of what's around me all the time.  She missed me and now I don't stand by those two any more.  Horses sure can move lightning fast when the want to.

I'm going to miss Jeremy's memorial on Saturday.  We have our archaeology site steward class that day and if we miss it it would be months before another is offered.  I'm disappointed.  But we are going to contribute a few dollars for Jeremy's funeral expenses.  If everyone who visited his Facebook page gave $10.00 each it would cover the cost of the funeral.

Today I cooked albondigas (Mexican meatball soup) for Leah and Cecilio because they were so nice to do Bella's hooves and to worm her.  I wrote on the note - To Leah and Cecilio from Bella - and left it on Leah's desk.  I hope they like it.

Pretty snow

We went to the ranch and there was snow.  Snow!  We saw the wind blowing snow across the road.  Blowing!  It was neato.  As we were driving, my husband commented about how Californians would be bumper to bumper to get a look at this view and sure enough.  At home he saw an article about bumper to bumper traffic backed up with people wanting to see the snow on Mount Baldy (that's in Southern California). 

I was excited to get some photos and reached for my camera . . . I left it at home on the sofa.  What a dope.

Lifted baby Bella's hooves yesterday and my shoulders are sore today, boy howdy.  I hurts good though. I did what Leah recommended which was to hold her front hoof lightly yet firmlly until she stops the pawing motion and stands still.  Holding the hoof of a 600 pound horsie is not that easy for a small woman.  I held it though.  Her back hooves are much easier to do.  Usually I'm a teeny bit afraid doing back hooves, but not with Bella.  So far she stands real well for the back ones.  I didn't get much picking done because first I need to get her used to lifting her feet so she knows what we want her to do.  Manny gave us two rasps today!  For free!  Rasps are like giant metal emery boards that you use to file down their hooves.  Hooves are just like fingernails only tougher.  After she gets her hooves trimmed we will be able to maintain them ourselves by filing them monthly.

Bird sightings.  We saw a bald eagle today.  We saw bright blue bluebirds too.

Windy

It was so windy today that we didn't do much with the ponies.  We got plenty of sand in our eyes.  We did empty and refill the water trough.  That took awhile and it really needed it.  The water was green and yucky.   The metal trough is so big and heavy and not easy to empty.  We ended up using buckets to take the water out then we dragged it to the concrete gutter and emptied the rest.

My church, this church in New Mexico, is amazing.  Here we are in the midst of a serious recession and our income for 2009 doubled.  Doubled!  At my church there are no rich people.  The ones who are able, give, and the ones who I think look unable to give; they give too.  Every week.  I didn't learn to tithe till we came here. 

We drove to Cruces and back and that took most of the day.

Siamese

At the dinner table I appeared deep in thought during dessert so my husband asked me what I was thinking.  I started singing from the Disney movie Lady and the Tramp.

We are Si-ya-meeze if you pleeze.  We are Si-ya-meeze if you don't pleeze.

 He said, "Well, that's what I get for asking."

We forgot to take our grooming tools to see the horses so that was a bust.  Nice thing is, picking up after two horses is faster than picking up for three.

It was extremely windy last night and some windy today.

We filled out applications for all three of us to be volunteer site stewards.  It's our son's first filling out of an application.  We go to a meeting later this month and we'll get a site assigned to us and we go out there to check and be sure there's been no illegal digging activity.  It's to preserve the archaeological sites in the area which evidently there are quite a few around here.  Should be interesting.  There are secret paleontological  sites in the area too.  We can't tell anyone where our site is because it's secret! Or rather, it'll be a secret after they assign us a site.  The reason why they're secret is to discourage the public from going out and digging things up to sell or to take home to keep.  The treasures belong to everyone for always and should be left alone.

I'm waiting for a skein of yarn to get here so I can finish my Christmas baby afghan.  I have about 77 rows to go, but I ran out of yarn.  It appears to be too late to be a Christmas afghan now unless it's Christmas 2010.  I will make it a Valentine's Day baby afghan.  I am flexible.

We're into chocolate chip cookies lately.  We thought we finished the second batch, but my husband looked in the cupboard and found two more baggies full!  He's taller than we are.  Wow, we were excited!

What can I say.  It's winter and things are kinda slow around here.

It's a night

A great night too.

Well, the day was okay.  Son didn't go with us so I got to brush Bella for a long time.  She likes it I think.  She never walked away.  Tomorrow I'm taking my whole grooming bucket in the pasture to use the rubber curry on her and hopefully spray her tail with some spray to make it shiny and easy to comb out.  She has some icky stuff on one back leg that I tried to brush out but it's going to need some water.  I wonder if I dare pour a bucket of water on it.  I might try.

She was fussy about lifting her hooves yesterday.  Today she was a bit better but I did it quickly so that I could have a successful finish.  I don't want her to learn to be difficult so I held it up for one second which is how long she's good!  Leah told son we must simply hold it till she stops the pawing motion.  We'll try that tomorrow.

Yesterday I fasted and prayed 24 hours.  It was the most effective fasting of my life.  I fasted for our eldest son and for other needs that came to my heart and mind.

This morning an email told me our friend in San Diego who went through chemo and umbilicord stem cell transplant one year ago has been told she needs a bone marrow biopsy because the doctors think the cancer has come back.  She's so young.  She's only 31.  Married with two young children.

The lady who hit our truck still hasn't contacted the insurance company still.  She's called them twice and left a message she says but it's very discouraging to us.  The insurance company calls us every day.  We sure want to get this over with and done.  My husband's going to just go and get it fixed if they don't hurry up.  If it were me I would go to whatever measure necessary to meet my obligation.  I would feel bad otherwise.  I know him.  He won't drive a crushed vehicle for long. 

That reminds me.  I forgot to post the picture of it.  I was going to post it with the title: While I was raking pooh. . .

A horse's dust bath

Nike was full of herself today.  She sniffed around and found a place she liked and started rolling.  It was awesome.  Then she ran!  She ran toward us, stopped, turned tail and raced the other way.  It was an exhilarating sight.  She's a happy horse!

Horses cannot roll all the way over, but I saw a video of one rolling completely over.  It's unusual.

 

 

Son got a lesson in lead training on Thursday.  We were stoked.  Today he helped load horses into a trailer.  He did get stepped on by Bella.  Cecilio says it's okay because bruises heal.  Cecilio has broken just about every bone in his body at one time or another.  He even broke his back once.  He's been a horseman for 47 years.  He doesn't break horses any more.  I'm guessing the breaking in of horses is difficult with the wild ones because Bella has been easy to work with.  She's an angel.

They transferred the baby brown horse so they can bring Joey The Horse here.  Joey is Bella's sire!  Imagine, I will be able to get a family portrait of the mum, the dad, and the baby!  Gymkhana is coming up in March and son wants to participate.  Gymkhana, I looked it up, means horse games.  The kids do things like barrel racing and other things (I don't yet know what other things).  A lot of the kids here participate.  Leah says son can try out Joey and Nike and choose which horse he wants to ride for barrel racing. She will teach our son how to do barrel racing.  Leah has blessed us tremendously.  We have to think of something special to do for her.  We offered to pay Cecilio for the lead training lesson and he waved his arm and said, "That's just life."  Well now, just life if you're a New Mexico rancher, but a spectacular life experience if you are us.

I'm looking for a new small camera.  The Canon I have in mind has no viewfinder though.  That's odd.  It only has an LCD.  I wonder if I would do okay with that or if it would feel strange.  My old one won't come back to life and it could take movies for me.

Church is tomorrow.  I think Pastor is going to be on fire.  I have a feeling he will be.

New phone

Got a new cell phone and they're taking forever to activate it.  I hate phones.  I hate cell phones.  I hate driving down the road and seeing people texting and talking on their cell phones.  But alas, I need one.  Occasionally I do talk on the tellyphone.

Sweet sleep

Tonight I will sleep the sleep of the righteous and I will float in a happy dream.  I put my trust in the Lord.

Content

We spent Sunday day at the ranch.  Son went horseback riding and I watched a movie called "Radio" that was very good.  It was so cold I did no grooming.

Church Sunday night was simply amazing.

The person who hit our truck is a friend of ours and she didn't know she hit anything.  That's why she drove off.  I'm so glad I never spoke an accusatory word.  Her Kia showed damage and they're good people, so their insurance will cover our damages.  Great relief though I feel really bad for the wife.  It was her birthday too.  Bummer!

Baby Bella is so good about putting on her harness.  Today she put her nose right into it.  Poor thing has to suffer me trying to buckle the thing closed though.  Our son had to come help me.  I'm seriously uncoordinated.

I went for a walkety walk jog.  Felt great.  Spring is coming.  Gotta get ready.  Today was 60 degrees and sunny.  Very nice for a change. 

Was so pumped up from church Sunday night that I couldn't sleep most of the night.  Church.  The body of Christ.  The Holy Spirit.

We finally have a new youth pastor and I have a good feeling about him.  He's already had a positive impact on our son.  I hope his reach will be far and wide in the community.  The youth here need desperately it.  I was thrilled to see a large group of teens at evening service and at the altar call.  It's rough being a teenager.  So many here appear directionless.

Doctor's office phoned and the biopsies show no skin cancer.  Well, I didn't expect any cancer, but it's nice to know for sure.

Hit

Someone hit our truck while it was parked and they drove off.  I feel bad all over.

Felt well

I petted Bella for the longest time ever today and combed her mane, and I think she liked it.  I need to be able to put my hands on her everywhere and I haven't done everywhere, but I'm getting there.  I felt well when we left the pasture.  I love the smell of horse. 

Son got his braces adjusted which took all of ten minutes.  We can see progress already in only three months.

I shopped.  I bought two cute tops.  I also saw a foxy mama walking in the mall and I was suddenly enveloped by this overwhelming sense of envy.  Completely green envy.  I hate that feeling.  Where did it come from?  I was wearing a polo shirt, jeans, tennis shoes, and hair in a tight bun looking quite frumpy.  That's where it came from.  Ergo, the attack of envy ensued.  I only wore tennis shoes because I knew I'd be shopping in the mall.  The polo shirt - I have no excuse for that part.  I've never been one to dress up to go to the mall, and I only saw her from a sideways glance, but that's all I need to recognize good lookin' when I see it.  She was curvy and casual and even pushing a baby stroller.  Seriously, I never looked like that when I was pushing a stroller. Okay, I concede, kudos to her for getting her cute on.  On the up side, I'm inspired.  I will wear my cute top soon.  I still hate those Ugg kind of boots though.  They're so urban.  So commercial.  So over with or at least, they should be.  I only wear mine at home.  I saw straight leg pants at the mall.  Not again!  Are we doing the '80s all over again?  (Which I guess was doing the '60s over again.)

Other than that, pretty plain day.  Headache came back in afternoon.  I don't know where these headaches are coming from.  I think the hormones are doing something.

Ow

Brutal headache.  Got it while I was making my calendar and it's been with me ever since.  I made brownies after dinner and just now ate one.  My husband said it will help.  Now we're going to watch an episode of Seinfeld which always makes me laugh, then I'm going to bed.

Tomorrow braces get adjusted.  I hope to go to the mall because I want some cute new tops.  I will happily settle for even one single cute top.

My library book came in.  I'm starting "Lyons On Horses."  Lyons is a well known horse trainer.  I need any horse info I can get.  Today I put Bella's harness on her correctly and I took it off.  She's real good about wearing it so the practice was strictly for me.  You stand on the horse's left side by her neck, facing forward and then you put it over her nose and buckle it.  What would I do without YouTube!

I told son no more keeping treats in his pocket because it was making the horses get mouthy and I've read in several places that bites are often preceded by snack feeding.  No more snacks, said I.  I don't wanna chance it.  A hand fed snack when we leave is okay, but not in your pocket while we're in the pasture.

We saw Bella lying down in the hay while her mama was eating.  It was neat!  We shoveled seven wheel barrows of manure.  We didn't go yesterday on account of I had to go to town to work on my calendar.

Calendar done

I finished our 2010 calendar last night.  We'll receive it by the 15th.  I bought two for my sister because she keeps one at home and one at work, one for my mom and one for my Aunt Gail.  Our upload speed has been so poor I had to go to the senior center to use their connection and upload my images.