First milestone reached

Calendar mom and daughter (with no make-up).  Bella with her new halter on.

Today son put the halter on Bella. She's an amazing filly. She got slightly annoyed when he was having trouble with the buckle, but other than that she was easy. It's his first milestone reached. It's her first milestone reached. They say you must teach a horse to be well mannered or they're dangerous. Also they say, if a horse does not mind you well when you're on the ground they'll be as bad or worse when you're in the saddle.

We have to get our:

• Goals
• Objectives
• Milestones
• Strategy

worked out. I'm only up to learning how horses think at this point.  I think that goes under strategy.  I have to work out all the rest. We'll work it out together because son started a ledger to track everything from purchases to time spent with Bella to milestones attained.  He will use it for 4-H I think.  Isn't it great getting a free horse for a gift?  In five days we've spent $251.82.  Didn't even try very hard either.

I'm working on our calendar at Shutterfly, but my connection is so slow I'm going to have to abandon the effort for tonight.  Tomorrow we go to Cruces for dermatology appointments.  I have a small little bump on my nose that has to go.  At first I thought it was a zit, but it's not.  Why do these things start happening when you're 50 years old.  Whazz up?   Today for instance - I reach down to pull up my wrinkled socks, but I found out I wasn't wearing socks!

What a great day.  It was a great day today.  Tomorrow we will attach the lead (the rope) to her halter and test that out.  I have to read up on how to properly lead a horse.

Hay, sniffs, and plans

School seemed long! We both got drowsy at about 2:00pm, but we forged ahead and were glad when 3:00pm arrived. It was frightfully cold and I think the heaters made us warm and sleepy.

Son dogsat one of his favorite dogs for the first time and the owners paid him with two baseball caps (which he collects). He really expected and would have preferred cash and I don't know why the people didn't ask him if he'd rather have caps than money. If they ask him for his services again he's going to specify cash payment only. Odd. And he was disappointed.

Bella! Bella, her mum, and the brown filly which the kids are calling "Runs So Fast," all three came to greet me today. I was exceedingly pleased. I expected they might ignore me since I never give them treats. They are as curious as children. I could barely rake at first because they all three were sniffing and checking out what I was doing. I don't want three horses around me at once, so I retreated to the shelter and petted them one at a time. I am very cautious. Accidents seem to happen so fast.

Bella, I think maybe she was putting her lips on me too much today. It's normal foal behavior I think. In fact I cannot tell if she's just sniffing a lot, but you have to not let them put their lips on you or it can turn into nipping. I get worried when I see her lips start to move. I do not want a horse nip. No, no! I have a plan for tomorrow. I will say, "Shhhh" and flick her face to move it away. I read it in the advice forum and also was instructed to do it.

She let me pet her a lot today. I spent an hour out there. It was cold. Tomorrow I'm taking her harness to introduce it to her and let her sniff it, then rub it on her so she gets used to it and isn't afraid of it. If I can I'll put it on her. If not, I will try putting it on her another day. I'm in no rush.

We bought hay for her today. I saw them deliver it. A ton of hay doesn't look like as much as I thought it would. Eek!

Bella

I think we might name her Bella. Bella is Italian for beautiful and she is as beautiful as a little girl horse could be.

Our son greets the pastor on Sunday mornings and Pastor will every so often say very casually, "So do you have a horse yet?"

This morning during greeting time he went up to our pastor and told him we got a baby horse for Christmas. Pastor Mike said when he can ride her they will go riding together. I thought that was awful nice.

Today we did a lot of clean-up in the pasture and my husband helped. He did the things that you need a man to do like remove a piece of lumber that stuck out into the middle of the shelter. Now the horses have a nice, clear, open shelter to get into. We'll be raking and scooping up pooh for days. Should I say manure? Maybe cowgirls say manure! I'll google it and find out. I have to admit I do not mind the smell of manure. When we lived in California I'd have never stepped anywhere near a pile of manure and now I'm right in there scooping and wheel barrowing like nobody's business.

Here comes Monday. Tomorrow's a school day and son has a new project to begin - writing his first history paper. I'm curious to see what topic he chooses.

After school at 3:00pm I'm going to see the horses.

The most amazing day

 

I wished for a horse, but I didn't imagine we would ever have one. Horses are expensive. How can we have a horse?

But we have one! We have one. It was a Christmas gift from Leah the ranger who owns 16 horses. I can't believe she gave us one and it's Nike's baby. Nike is the horse our son showed at the fair last October. Nike has won champion in fairs across the state. She's a beauty.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime amazing gift. We were standing on the property where the two babies are. Leah had given us a box, but we were going to open it on Christmas. We got out of the truck and Leah said, "So did you open your present?" And she was excited. We said, "Noooo." She said, "Open it. Open it now!" Our son opened it and inside was a halter and lead. Purple. My favorite color. But I still stood with feet frozen, dazed, half suspecting, but dazed, because I couldn't connect the dots. She gave us a halter, but we don't have a horse. She had us open it not at home, but where the horses are. I just stood there mute. Utterly dumbfounded. You really have to explain things full out to old Lil. Next she said, "I'm giving you Nike's baby."

I was floored. I started to cry right off! I couldn't help it. It was so unexpected. I looked over and pointed, and said, "You're giving us Nike's baby?" I was incredulous. I think I might have been more excited than our son was. The baby is for both of us and for our whole family. She gave us the black and white Paint in the photo. The brown colt is one year old and our new baby girl horse is nine months old. One day she will look like her mama. . .

Bella will look like this, her mama, some day.

And I have been floating in heaven ever since. I can't believe we have our own horse that I can groom any time I want. Well, technically, I can't groom her yet. She's like a baby in diapers and she doesn't know anything. We first have to let her get used to us and it's only been two days, but it's going well. She's taken to our son and vice-versa. Today the colts literally ran to him when he entered the property. Do horse children recognize people children? I wonder.

How can we afford a horse? I don't know, but Leah checked it all out with my husband first and he gave his approval. He's very wise with our money. I can tell he's happy too. We are truly blessed to know the people that we know here. They are kind and helpful and I'd say extremely generous.

My husband did say one thing I didn't like and that is, "You know Liliana, this means we're going to have to get a house here." I said, "Whaaat!" Because since when does having a horse equal needing a house? That does not compute. I ask you, did the Native Americans need a house because they had horses. No! They lived in teepees. I could live in a teepee too if it had a microwave oven, hot water, electricity, and DSL. I digress.

Our son will get to go to a 4-H camp for a week in the summertime. He will learn so much about horses - I told him he'll have to teach me what he learns.

I'm so happy. All my heart is happiness. And I didn't even pray for a horse. I never asked the Lord for one because I thought it an impossibility. Silly me. I wanted a baby from my husband too, and I never asked God because I thought it was an impossibility too, and whattya know - his vasectomy from 17 years earlier reversed itself all by itself. Hehe!

Our son is a lean mean working machine. Together we did a lot of clean-up today and I'm sore from cleaning the shelter area, but I will sleep well and joyfully. Maybe I'll even snore!

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

It's beginning to feel

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Two more sleeps to go.

I had a very productive day. Our son got a job, in fact, two jobs, dog sitting, so he's a happy guy. The last Christmas gift I ordered came in today and that's good.

I have a new memorization done. This is it. Do you know who said it?

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

March 23, 1775, speech by whom? Extra points if you know where!

Someday I'm going to use it.

House cleaning

Ohmygosh. I've decided to add categories. I have photos and posts that are hopelessly lost amidst 1600+ journal entries and they need to be organized. Also, when I started blogging there were no categories. They didn't exist, so about two years worth have no category at all. It's like I cleaned a spot on the wall and now I have to scrub and clean the whole wall plus the other three walls, and then the ceiling.

It'll be good when I finish though. It's a worthy cause. I've wanted to get my photos put in order by state since forever, and finally I'm doing it.

My brain is numb from the repetition!

Julianne Jones, Christian author, my friend

I know a published author.  I don't mean self-published either.  I mean published by a real publishing house.  She had a book signing in New Zealand this week and lots of people came to get a signed copy.  I'm getting a signed one for myself too!

There's still time to get in the drawing for one free copy of To A Distant Land.  Go to Blog Giveaway on Julianne's cool personal blogging site, On Eagles' Wings, and leave a comment.  That's all you have to do to enter the drawing.  Such a deal!  There are ways to get your name in more than once if you want.  Check it out.  It's free, free, free!

Severe hackage

Shoot, I got hacked again.  Got myself fixed the first time and three days later, bam!, woke up this morning to the same syntax error.  Oooooh, an evil person got me.  I think there's some malicious code hidden in my WordPress.  I upgraded to the newest version which fixed it for about 20 minutes this afternoon and I got the error again. Seems to get worser and worser! Yipes.

I'm not yet wise enough to find the evil string, but I'm gonna delete the whole blog, reinstall a clean copy, change my password for WordPress and, this time, on my FTP program too.  Methinks that might help.  In the meantime I'm returning to the trustworthy Blogger blogworld.  I'm  fascinated that I got pegged so quickly. My theory is that I've done something dumb, in a noob way, and once I figure out what it is I'll be all better.

So I'm here till things settle down at the new place.  Mwah!

Poor wittle blog

My poor wittle blog, all by itself here!  I had the flu.  I got it, it got me, and now I'm getting better.  I sound froggy now though.  I'm drinking tea and Gatorade and eggnog and water to soothe my throat.  My husband put up a cot outside for me and I slept there all this morning till afternoon.  I listened to country music and the quail.  I breathed out all the bad germs and breathed in only good fresh air.

I see Jen came off of her furlough whilst I was gone.  It's about time because it's been pritty slim reading for me since she's been gone!  ;)

Well, I have dishes to do.  [Yawn, yawn.]  I have to get sharp and do something useful.  My husband helped me shred a chicken for chicken soup last night.  I thought I could git her done myself, but I plum run out of energy.  I had to make it to get well.  It's proven that chicken soup helps you get well.  That's not just me saying that.  That's science!

“And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world” 1John 2:2  Man, I like this verse.  It keeps ringin' in my mind.  He is the propitiation for our sins.  He, who?  He, Jesus, of course.  It's Jesus who "un-angers" God for us.  It's our sin that angers God.  He's not a fan of the sin.  But Jesus came, glory hallelujah, the propitiation for our sins, and He smoothed everything over for us.

I don't know if I'll go to church tomorrow.  People are a little fussy about the coughs lately.

Uh-oh, scratchy throat

I have a scratchy throat.  A tickle in my chest.  A small cough trying to get hold of me.  I'm getting achy.  I feel like I might be getting a little fever. 

Everyone liked my bun design at The Loom and I'm really happy about that.  Elated.   I replied to everyone and I enjoyed reading each person's reply.  Even Elvea came by and she has limited computer time.  I have a couple more replies I wanna make, but my connection keeps dropping.  I'm going to go lie down, so I'll go back tomorrow.  I told a friend at lunch about my new 'do today and she was rather nonplussed.  I told her all about how to make it and she said, 'Oh.'  See, that's why we need places like The Loom so we can connect with other peeps who care about long hair.  Not everyone gets it.  We are a unique group.

Oh dear.  Hope I'm not getting sick.

Horse grooming braided bun 'do

I have hair photos today.  I'm at 45" again finally.  That's how long it was in March when I got a 3.5" inch trim.  My ends do look better than they did then.  Yay!

First two hair down photos. In the first one my hair is uncombed.  I washed it yesterday.

So I downloaded the photo and said to myself, I've gotta comb it.

Having gotten the hair down pics done, I really wanted to show my new style that I've been wearing to groom the horses. It holds well! I have to bend down quite a lot and it's never fallen down. This is about four hours after I fixed it, but it lasts all day too. Here it is to the left:

Here it is to the right. It shows there are two loops of braid on this side whereas the other side has the end of the braid tucked.  I know I have two hair pins showing, but with a little finesse you can easily hide the pins:

Here's the front. It stands out a bit on the top which I like, but you can situate high or low where ever you like best.

This is a side view to show some scale.  Look at that glorious bun, will you!  It's the best bun of my life.  Remember, I do not, do not, have thick ends.

If necessary, you can fly in this bun.  Zzzzzooom!

Now then, instructions.  Does anyone desire instructions?

I reiterate, I do not have thick hair.  Oddly enough, in the far distant  past when I used to have my hair cut and styled regularly, I've often had hair stylists tell me I have thick hair (the worst stylist I had complained that it took so long to dry) and yet when I compare my length to other women's it's hardly thick.  It's very slick.  It's extremely straight.  It will not hold a curl.  And when I put up a bun of only my hair people never guess how long it is.  Sad, I know.

Sooooo. . . . I have a bun form in this bun to fill it out!  Suddenly, with this bun form in my bun I feel like I have the most completely womanly bun I've always wanted.  Haha!

1. Pull all hair and hold in a pony at the back of your head a few inches above nape.
2. Hold it in place and braid it - no elastic band at top.  Place elastic band at the end of your braid.
   
3. Get your sock bun.
4. Press it against your head and pull your braid straight up to the ceiling.
5. Spread the sides of the braid across the bun form and use two jumbo hair pins, one on right and one on left side angling down forming an X with pins for better hold.  Takes a wee bit of practice to pin hair only and not the bun form.
   
6. You now have the pretty criss-cross design covering the bun.
7. The rest of your braid is at top of bun.
8. Circle remainder of braid around bun.
9. Pin in place at points you prefer.  Remove band and pin and tuck end securely.  I have used four jumbo pins and one small one.  I use the small one to hold up the long hairs at my nape tightly against my head otherwise I get a bloop out the bottom.  Sometimes I leave the bloop, sometimes I pin it up.

If anyone knows if this style has already been done, will you drop me a line and let me know?  I have read lots of instructions and I think maybe I made this one up.  My husband liked it so I wore it again and again and now it's a frequent style of mine.  With so many styles out there, it's not bloody likely I made up a new creation.  But then, maybe?  Maybe?  Possibly?

A two horse day

We went to the ranch and I groomed Tiger, my favorite girl.  Best news is, her owner commented on how pretty her tail looked last week.  I was happy to hear it because I think it took me a full half hour to comb it out.  It was in sort of long, spiral dreadlocks.  I groomed a new horse today too, Pinta.  She's new to me, but she's not new.  She's about 26 years old.  She's the one that got gored in the thigh by a crazy cow a couple weeks ago.  Did I mention that incident?  I'm not sure if I did.  She's infected now.  She needs a shot of penicillin.

She's the fussiest of all the horses they have, plus she's got a hurt leg on top of it.  I curried her, brushed her, combed out her mane and tail.  She gave me a start though!

To get hold of the horse's tail to brush it you stand very, very close to their side, not behind them.  I stood very, very close, like glued to her, because that way if they get spooked and kick, you're so close the kick hasn't got enough space to hurt you.  That's what I'm told anyways.  Seems logical.  I got hold of Pinta's tail, gently pulled it aside and sprayed it with my new whoop-de-doo mane and tail conditioner that the Queen of England uses.  Pinta did fine.  I set down my spray a few feet away with my bucket and walk to her side again, reach for the tail, and she jumped up on all fours simultaneously.  Woo, got my attention! I went to her front and petted her and talked to her, but I was nervous then!  So I asked Mary Lou to please hold her (the rope and harness) whilst I try again.  I cain't be scared and quit, right?  I already bought my grooming kit.

I finally, softly, worked up my nerve, got hold of her tail and brushed it all out nice and purty.  It was much easier to comb out than Tiger's was the first time.  She didn't jump again. I picked her front hooves and she was quite good, but I tried to do one back hoof and she was jumpy so I left it alone.  The bad leg I didn't touch.  Tiger picks up all four feet like a princess.  Phil helped me with the back hooves.  I keep forgetting what my stance should be.  They are much harder to hold and pick up than the front.  After I do a back hoof I'm huffin' and puffin'.  I gotta do some cross training, I tell ya.  I need to get out for a jog or something. Groomed the two horses and I was toast. That's my equine story of the day.

Oh!  I learned to tie a hitch knot.  Phil taught me.  You make two or three of these hitch knots in the rope and the amazing thing about it is that it's a quick release knot.  If the horse is down or something (why a horse goes down I cannot say, but he said for example, if they're in a trailer) and you need to free them quickly, the beauty of the hitch knot is that it both holds and can be yanked hard for a quick release.  And you should never tie them with enough rope hanging that they can nibble the ground and possibly trip on the rope.  I didn't know that.  I had been leaving them with too long a rope.

Three people have shown me hoof picking and they each do it a little differently.

I thought my kit was complete, but it's not.  I need to buy three more things.  I need soft towels to wipe faces and bodies.  I'm using my husband's rags that he uses to clean the truck, but sometimes I can smell car stuff on the cloth even when they're clean and I don't like that.  Plus they're not as soft as I wish for.  Second, I want a net bag to hold hay so I can let the horses nibble whilst I groom.  And lastly, I need a metal curry comb.  Of all things, today someone wanted to borrow my metal curry and I had to say I didn't have one.  Bummer.

I thought I'd have to wait to buy any more stuff, but my husband said go ahead and get what I want now.  I love him so terribly much!

My hair has been holding exceedingly well in a brand new horse grooming bun braid style.  I will get a photo to go with some narrative for a blog post because words only are not as much fun.

Still looking

I stayed up way too late looking for the perfect Wordpress theme last night.  I think I should accept the fact that there won't be a perfect one for me. I'll have to look for one with the columns and layout that I want and then download it and fiddle with it.  It's like a pedicure.  I don't get them anymore because I can't find anyone who can do my toes as well as I can, so I just do them myself.

I took the Cuteblogger layout off just now because the flowers were touching my words on the sides.

Kelly brought us some yummy chocolate cake today.  Today was his birthday.  And our neighbor said she made some fresh chocolate cake the other night, but our lights were out at 8:30pm so she didn't bring any over.  I told her from now on she must know that if she has fresh chocolate cake she can knock on my door even if it's 1:00 in the a.m.  She laughed.  We were probably watching a movie because we're never in bed or asleep at 8:30pm.

I keep thinking about horses.  I hardly have enough space in my mind to think all my thoughts.  It's very crowded and I like it.

Overall, I feel generally happy.  I am happy.  And it is good.

Room to grow

Today was okay.  It was super cold.  We even got about eight snowflakes.  I hope tomorrow is partly sunny so we can go to the ranch.

I ordered some mane and tail conditioner and I told my husband it's the official mane and tail conditioner approved for all the stables of the Queen of England.  I'm serious.  Don't believe me?  Check out Valley Vet.  Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it, I tell ya.  When I get it I'm gonna use it first on Tiger the horse at Manny's ranch.  She's a working horse who lives outside 24/7 and she can head 'em up and move 'em out with the best of them.  She knows how to  make a stray cow get back with the herd.  I'm gonna give Tiger a gloriously shiny tail fit for a queen.  I don't think her name should be Tiger though.  If I named her I'd call her Starlight.  It's a pretty name and fits her because she's a light colored silver like starlight.  And Starlight reminds me of the story of one of Kate's first horse experiences.  When it's just Tiger and me together, I'm calling her Starlight.  Shhhhh.  We won't tell her owner.

WordPress.  I got it installed today and I have my new domain that I'm moving to someday.  It's pitifully plain because I am as yet mystified by WordPress.  I see everything I need in the control panel, but I have to select a theme.  There are literally hundreds, thousands, of free themes.  I need one I won't outgrow too fast and one I can customize with ease.  I've been swimming in themes tonight. 

And we have a cactus wren hanging out here.  Saw her two days in a row zipping around the camp site.  She is so cute!

Geocities just closed

I know they just closed because I've been checking periodically to see whether my old site is still up.  It's not up now.  It's the close of an era.  A free Geocities exists no more.  Sad!

All my swimsuits

The month is flying by.  We can't believe it's almost November.

I'm sleepy.  I see I wrote I'm sleepy in my last post and here I am.  Sleepy again!

We haven't gotten to see the bunnies yet.  Leah's busy.  I ordered some horse mane and tail conditioner and one sponge today.  Can't wait to get them.  The sponge will be especially to clean under the dock (the tail) and the behind part.  It's a quick swipe that you do.  You need one sponge dedicated to behinds so you don't use it on their face.

Last night I got to thinking.  I was thinking about Evelyn.  She was 28 when I was 12 and I liked her a lot.  She was our family friend.  She had two daughters, Suzy and Shannon.  I miss Evelyn.  She died unexpectedly of hepatitis so young.  And I got to thinking of all my bathing suits I've owned, summer by summer, since I was about eight.  My first semi-swimsuit I remember is those ugly sunsuits from the 60s.  Evelyn's, the last summer I knew her, was a two piece pink swimsuit.  She was built like a brick house and she had a dark tan that summer, 1971. 

When I was about 9 or 10 I had a stretch polyester two piece that seems as I recall to have had a mock belt.  It was a raspberry color.  I remember it because I pushed myself from the shallow end to the deep end of the pool with a life preserver ring around my waist, only I accidentally pushed myself right through the ring and ended up in the deep end splashing frantically to get to the edge.  I didn't yet know how to swim.  I made it to the edge somehow.  My dad was watching me.  He can't swim.  lol.  I said, "Dad, what would you have done if I didn't make it?"  I think he said he'd jump in or get someone, I forget. It didn't exactly give me warm fuzzies.  Haha!

When I was 11 we lived in an apartment with a pool.  Funny I don't quite remember my suit, but I think it was a two piece blue and white plaid cotton swiss fabric.  When I was 12 I got a lime green one with my first cups.  I was so proud.  The dog ate it after I wore it only a couple times.  Just as well because I don't know how my folks let me wear it anyways.  I remember some guys looking at me at the pool and I wondered what they were looking at.  Not good when you're 12.  Good thing the dog chewed it.

The next one I remember is a gold/yellow one with flowers and white plastic rings in the bottoms and a nicely padded halter top style.  It made me look a little bigger up top and I loved that.  I must have been 14 or 15.  We went with Mrs. Poorman to the pool on the marine base as often as we could.  It was quite an ego building pool for two 15 year old girls.  My friend, Debbie, had a super cute swimsuit.  I think she let me wear it.  Did she?  I'm not sure.  Hers was with firm cups and ties on the sides of the bottom.  Purple and blues, flowers, I think,

When I was 16 I had a stripey one with bandeau top.  I remember it because I was with my schizophrenic boyfriend at his foster home and I got out of the pool to give him a hug and my top left a wet spot on his shirt.  We both blushed.

When I was 17 I stole one for my sister, a white one, and got caught.  My dad had to come pick us up.  I stole stuff a lot less often after that.  I quit when I was 19.

When I was 18 I was at a Jehovah Witness meeting at a stadium and my best friend's brother bought me a swimsuit because I didn't have one and I needed one because the whole family was swimming except for me.  In a rush, I got a white one with a flower pattern silk screened on it.  He was so sweet to buy it for me.  I didn't like it a whole lot, but it was okay.

I had an orange swimsuit with a cover for the belly when I was pregnant when I was 18.  I remember my sister's friend laughed at me as we got in the water at the beach, but I don't think it was a mean laugh.  I thought I looked pretty good for being round and I sure didn't want to stay home just because I was pregnant.

When I was 23 I had a really cute red and white striped bikini with white ruffles on the top.  That's the summer I met my husband.  We'd cruise Huntington Beach.  All the people did - checking each other out head to toe.  The sun felt good.  The sea felt good.  Water droplets evaporating from our bodies as we lay on our beach towels listening to "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits.

I don't really have any standouts after that.  I had a purple bamboo and flower pattern one piece bandeau top that I bought to wear to Tahiti in 1990 or so.  I liked it a lot and wore it till it wore out.  It and the stripey when I was 16 are the only two bandeau tops I ever had.  And when I was 35 it was a trip because my sister and I picked the exact same swimsuit except we lived in different cities and we didn't know each had selected the exact same suit.  Bright green with tiny flowers and padded push-up bra top.

I didn't write down any of the bad memory suits!  There was one.  That's my prerogative.

Not doing much

I was so sleepy today.  I got up late and was still sleepy.

Today son had a friend over and they played with trucks and worked on a 'city' in the sand.  They added water and that makes. . . mud.  Boys.

I made tacos for dinner.

We did go to a volunteers meeting.  I went expecting to sign up for some work, but they had no sign-ups.  I walked away with no work!  Now that's my kind of volunteer meeting! 

Tomorrow I hope we can go to Leah's to see brand new baby rabbits.  I like to say "wabbits."

Homeschooling for Preschool

Homeschooling for preschool was my passion when our son was a tot. I loved every moment of it. Our lil' homeschooled preschooler is in seventh grade now. He's very outsidey. He rarely stays inside if there's anything he can find to do outside. I attribute it to the fact that we went out for walks a lot when he was small. He's engaging and conversational. He's articulate because we talk with him a lot. We converse. That's novel, eh! We get comments from older people who say things like, "Keep doing what you're doing." It's very encouraging when we get such positive comments from people.

I have a record of the time we spent homeschooling for preschool. It's at:
Abecedarian Academy - Homeschooling for Preschool.

He's 12 now and the preschool years seem so long ago. They were wonderful days. We're still homeschooling too. :)

Hey, whose blog is this

Noodled around a bit and still, if I use the better templates I get no comments.  I like the CuteBlogger layouts I see everywhere.  But I feel like I'm at someone else's blog.  Where am I?  Who am I?  This layout is really not me.  I saw it as I was surfing around today and I liked it so I got it.  If in real life you ever see Liliana with little white daisies and bubbles you'll know she's gone over the edge.

Today my arm is a little sore from all that rotating yesterday.  I want to go to Manny's ranch and groom horses tomorrow after home-school, but Kelly hasn't called me back.  I don't want to go alone.  There's no phone service of any kind out there, so I don't spose I want to be all by myself.

Fantastic news.  I successfully moved my old homeschooling for preschool site.  I had a few false starts, but Bluehost has a forum where users help other users, kind of informal, and I got great late night help from a great guy.

The only thing is, he failed to tell me how to transfer a lot of files all at once by highlighting the first one and using the shift key and selecting a whole list down to the bottom at once.  Consequently, I manually uploaded 300 files.  Yes, I did.  That's two clicks per file x 300 = 600 clicks.  I am hardcore I tell ya.

Now I'm hopped up to do WordPress.  Now that Abecedarian is moved I can try it out.  I have to buy a domain, then I have figure out how it goes on my control panel and in the FTP panels. I've gotten to where I recognize sites that are using WordPress.  They're all over the place.  I didn't know that.

I think I'll use the name that I picked and used briefly a couple years before I had this blog.  I'd like A Little Grace, but it's taken.  I'd have to use Just a Little Grace or something like that.

As I was cleaning up links at Abecedarian, and sadly there were lots of dead links, it was kind of a hoot looking at some of the other Geocities sites.  Some of their designs look so dated now.  It's kind of funny to see the old banners we used to trade and stuff.  Gosh, it defines a time of my life so much.  I was all into Stay-at-Home Momhood having quit my job.  Figured if I'm going to do it, then I'm going to do it right.  Question I had was, how do you be a good SAHM.  Then I got turned on to homeschooling and attachment parenting from surfing the web.  Many links to resources I used and loved are gone and some turned into pay sites so I deleted them.  Time marches on.  Updating is good.

Thank you for the lovely comments you left.  I have the best followers.  I wonder if someday I will look back, and this will be a defining time in my life.

Brushed two horses

I found two horses to practice on and they live only 15 minutes away!  Gary was super nice to let me brush both and he helped me with picking their hooves.  One was easy to work on his hooves and the other, the female, it was hard to do her back hooves.  Gary had to hold her back ones while I picked because she was sorta trying to kick and move her feet. You can't pick 'em if they're moving around.  He showed me how a farrier holds the hoof between his knees.  I didn't find it that comfortable so I held the front hooves next to me.  He reminded me to stand close to the horse so that if they get spooked and kick, they can't hurt you if you're standing close.  I don't wanna get kicked.  Many years ago, 35 years ago, my orthopedist told me if I ever broke my legs again I'd need metal rods in them.  I don't want that, for sure.  I must remember, stand close to the animals.

Cheyenne is a beautiful paint with brown spots.  She won Grand Champion is a horse show once.  She has a bad complexion says Gary.  I could tell that lots of dander came off of her when I brushed.  The other horse, Dundee, is a brown horse, a bay color almost, and he had no dandruff at all.  Interesting.  And Dundee had a finer coat that felt softer.  He's older. Cheyenne kept nibbling on Gary's wife.  She laughed and giggled.  It was really cute and their muzzles are oh so soft.  But then what happened next?  Cheyenne gave her a little nip.  A little nip from a horse smarts.  I haven't experienced it yet.  I have heard that you ought not let a horse mouth you because it's a bad habit.  It does tickle and feel soft, but horses do mutual grooming and a nip when you have a tough horse hide is of no consequence.  A people hide is soft though! 

I highly recommend Shutterfly for their photo books.  We got ours today and I gave it to Leah already.  She was right pleased with it.  I'm so happy I did it.  The photos turned out nicely - not too dark.  I wonder why all my photos were dark in that last calendar I made a couple years ago.  Next time I won't pick putting the photo on the right side of a page and text on left because the text is too close to the binding making it a little hard to read.  And one of my photos was in the wrong order.  I guess I didn't check it well enough that very last time.  I suppose it's best to leave it to the next day for one more, last review before buying.

I downloaded WordPress.  Ain't opened it yet.  I realized I need to get my other site transferred before I start playing with WordPress.  I downloaded Filezilla for FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and got that set up.  But I've published twice to my new domain and there still ain't nuthin' there.  Something in my settings is wrong.  I'm glad I have a few days before Geocities goes down to get this done.

A fruitful day

We did school and it went well.  Did I say yesterday I had a blow up?  Yes.  Our son messed with the bull and got the horns as my husband would say.  He was much better behaved today.  It must have been Mom's explosion got him to thinking twice about submitting an assignment that he put zero effort into.

I sewed after dinner.  Got his pajama shorts done and he's extra pleased with them.  Tomorrow I'll sew the top.  Doing it after dinner fits my schedule nicely.

It was like Christmas.  I got two books I ordered and the rest of my horse grooming supplies today.  I'm very happy with everything.  One book is about angels by Billy Graham and the other is the MLA for writing research papers.  I figured he may as well learn to use it now.  I got a splendid idear from someone online.  The MLA is really not very user friendly, so I'm going to make up a game for him to look some things up.

The biggest thing of my day is I downloaded WordPress.  It's on my desktop as I write.  It's staring at me.  I have to unzip it but I have no unzipper software.  I used to use Winzip, but they're not free anymore and I already used up the free days on it.  I need to go to bed at midnight so I guess it'll wait till tomorrow.  One step at a time.

And I put a notice on my Geocities site so people can bookmark the new URL.  I need to move that whole site.  It shouldn't be too hard after I figger out how to do it.  That's what I'm figgerin'.

We had rain today and I witnessed the biggest complete rainbow I've ever seen in my life.  We had thunder too.  It rumbled and crackled for long intervals.  It was neat!

I did it

I bought web space.  I plan to move my old homeschooling for preschool site to its very own home.  No more being tossed around by the waves of.  Of.  Of something.  It was on the tip of my tongue, but now I don't know how to finish the sentence dramatically.

Geocities.  The famous and beloved (or not so much) Geocities is closing all free sites on the 24th.  To be honest I knew it had to happen sometime.  Had to, right?  People shouldn't talk bad about a free host.  I've had a site there since 1997.  I got a pretty good deal with Bluehost tonight.  At least, I hope I did.  It's been around a long time and I saw favorable reviews for it at three different, unrelated places.  I once bought space real cheap and got ripped off.  One day I went to my site and it was gone.  No domain name, no content, no nothin', and the company didn't answer their phone or their email.  Buyer beware.  I hate to spend very much moolah because it's only for personal use.  It's not like I need speed or ginormous web space.

One thing I liked is that they offer domain registration privacy.  You can always check whois.com to find out who a domain name is registered to.  One time someone called me at home.  You know I didn't like that.  With Bluehost, everything will say Bluehost instead of my home address and phone number.  Yay. 

And.  I read on their forum that I can transfer this here blogger blog to my new domain.  Now there's an idea.  All I have to do is learn WordPress.  Oh mercy.

Rodeo princesses

A slice of small town life.

Other people and their stories

I found out about this when our son was in the horse show.

There is a lady here in town and she is a horsewoman.  She is the wife of Bill.  She had a beautiful horse.  Well-trained.  She and her horse were so good that they were on a team scheduled to represent the United States for the equestrian events at the summer Olympics.  She didn't do western riding.  She did the fancy kind called dressage (which, by the way, rhymes with massage).  It's very elegant and the riders wear black boots and helmets and coats with a small waist and tails. I like to watch dressage and synchronized swimming.

One day, here in New Mexico before the Olympics, a rattlesnake bit the horse and the horse died.  Her chance and her dreams for the Olympics gone. 

I know someone else.  She's a hard working woman.  One day she was pitching hay.  A spider was in the hay and got into her sock.  It bit her and she nearly lost a foot.  She got skin grafts.  The spider was a brown recluse.  It could have left her with an amputation or it could have killed her.  I've watched her and I've seen an old foot long scar on her leg and a scar on her hand.  More stories there.

And I know a guy who fell down while playing golf.  Broke his back.  What are the chances of that?  He was in a body cast for a long time.  He got all better.  Later on, a fire cracker went off on him and he was hospitalized for burns.  He got all better.  He's a volunteer fireman, but apart from that last week he got an award for life saving at his job.  Saving lives is part of his work. He saves lives while he does everything else.  I almost told him once that I've been in a body cast too.  He's got a heart of gold.  He doesn't take offense and he'll help anybody, and I do mean anybody.  Of all the people I know, he's one I think is definitely going straight to heaven.  Although I will add, I'm sure the LORD would not mind one bit if he could curb his cussin', off color remarks, and visits to Las Vegas.  I was really embarrassed when he made a woody joke once.

Sewing day

Today I cut out pajamas to sew for son.   He won't wear store bought pajamas.  I'm making them with John Deere fabric that he picked, but I forgot about nap and so he's going to have tractors driving south on the front of his pajama shorts and tractors driving north on the back.  He's says, "Mamma, I don't care.  Just make me some new pajamas."  Haha!  Darn it.

While I cut out the pattern pieces my husband washed and waxed the truck.  I'm gonna look good driving to church in it tomorrow morning.  The ruby shine is so pretty it looks like I could dive in it and swim.

Tonight we watched one of my favorite movies, Elmer Gantry.

The day

My photo booklet is all done and I hope it turns out.  In my last calendar all my photos printed dark, so if the photo booklet prints dark I'll know something is wrong with the settings on my machine.  That zit popped out and it's big and it's red.  Everyone is ignoring though.  That's nice of them.

Yesterday we went to Cruces and I got the laser hair removal started that I've been wanting to get done.  It'll take four treatments, three to five weeks apart, and I paid $600 up front so I get one treatment free which makes it five treatments.  I thought it was going to cost much, much more so I was happy with the price.  The laser simply felt like a rubber band snapping against my skin.  It was a cinch and only took about 15 minutes.  Fast.  I won't have any results to show till after the second treatment says the technician.  She was very professional, which I'd expect because it's a dermatology office not a beauty spa.  I flinched a few times, but small price to pay.  It's far better than waxing or electrolysis and I can say that because I'm an expert.  I had a mustache when I was 15.  May I say it was really a drag?

Took son to a presentation about jaguars.  It was interesting.  I used the hour as practice to teach him how to take notes.  He was rather surly about it.  I was unhappy with his awful attitude.  No one else could see his attitude, but I could.  I advised him to write down today's date, the main topic, the name and job title of the speaker.  I told him to write down main topics from the audio-visuals the speaker used, and add supporting ideas that interested him.  I explained it'll take practice to be able to listen and write at the same time.  I explained that note taking skill is imperative to attaining good grades in college.  My sister's son has started college and his grandparents bought him a special techie pen that remembers what it writes.  Sounds like a neat gadget.  But I impressed upon son, there are no gadgets or gimmicks to help you if you don't know how to take good notes.  I said if I miss a class and I need to ask someone for notes, I ask the person in class who has the highest grades because the person with the highest grades is going to have the best notes.  Good notes equals good grades.  There's no way you can remember all the information from a one or two or three hour lecture.  You have to write information down.  Don't ask for notes from a poor note-taker because poor note-takers get poor grades.  After an hour of unpleasantness with him I reviewed his notes and they were quality notes.  Why then, must he be such a pain about doing it? 

I have decided what school I'm going to shoot for for him to attend.  Texas A&M.  Nice location, we're already Texans so it'll be less costly as a resident, there's a solid Christian presence on campus that he can tap into, he's interested in engineering or mechanics, Texas has fair weather, it's not too far from here, and all that makes Texas A&M a good pick.  Could change in six years, but I have to have a target.  The goal is the degree, I gotta target a campus.  I've read that they do accept home-schoolers.  I'll have to hire someone to keep official, acceptable home-school records for me when he reaches high school.  I've carefully filed documents that might come in handy to submit with his college application like the letter a park ranger wrote when he became a volunteer when he was ten (and I am sure now that she wrote it with that in mind), and the recent newspaper article, so I don't lose them.  I have to get myself educated on how home-school parents ensure their kids get into university. Applying for university is a lot of work and I only expect extra work for a home-schooled person to request admission.

My aunt decided to stop the chemotherapy.  She'll be 85 next month.  She has lung cancer that non-smokers get.  She never smoked.  The chemo was so hard on her.  It's hard on a young person.  Think of an old person getting chemo.  It's just not right.  I have a feeling she might just choose to live out the days God has planned for her without the chemo.  My other aunt arranged her own funeral.  She has had a few small strokes and she has a small aneurysm in her aorta.  I almost never see my aunts, but I can't imagine them not being here.  It's strange to think all Grama's six children will be gone one day.  A whole generation born and raised in Nebraska.  They are each delightful in their own way.  One went to Idaho, three to California, and two stayed in Nebraska.  My dad is the baby of the family, born in 1932.  The eldest was born in 1918.

Well, now I've gone and made myself blue thinkin' about the old days.

A photo booklet

I have to say, if this soft cover photo book that I'm making at Shutterfly comes out, then Shutterfly rocks. I will finish it tomorrow.  It's 5"x7". Actually, it's finished but needs review with a fresh eye - or preferably two wakeful eyes that aren't tired.  I've been working on it for hours and I have to go to bed and get up at 7:00am tomorrow.

Finally

I have been agonizing over which brushes to buy for horse grooming.  Obsessing really.  Finally, tonight I placed my order.  It went through at 11:59pm.  Thing is, I don't quite have my horse grooming jobs set up.  I believe the potential is great, but it's not in stone yet.

There's a big zit thinking about popping out on my chin. I hope it doesn't come out.

I have an announcement. 

I'm going to continue wearing sleeveless tops.  If I want to wear a sleeveless top, I'm going to wear a sleeveless top. And that's final.  I've read and I've heard no more sleeveless tops after age 50.  I don't like it.  I don't like it a bit.  I notice ladies my age and I don't see them in sleeveless tops.

I'm 50.  I'm not trying to be 20, or 30, or 40.  I've had my day in the sun and do not seek attention.  I have a really good man and I don't care what any others think.  So that's about it.  My imperfect, woggly, yes, wiggly-woggly, upper arms will be seen by the general public and I will do it with my chin up.  That's what I think about that.

Exhilarating

This evening I brushed Nike and! and I cleaned her hooves.  You use a hoof pick.  I ordered one of my own that has a brush attached to it, so I thought I ought to actually clean a real hoof before mine is delivered.  Haha!  Buying the basic brushes and things you need isn't that expensive I found out.  It gets expensive when you start buying fancy products, but the fanciness is for the people.  The horses coat doesn't care what brand the brush is.

It's kind of hard cleaning the hoof.  You have to pick hard and I'm a naturally soft touch person.  Finally, on the third foot I did it hard and got a giant chunk out and after that I realized what it ought to feel like.  I did three feet and Leah did one.  The front feet are easier than the back feet.  The back foot you sort of set on your knee so the horse can rest it while you pick.  It's hard on your back.  I was about ready to break a sweat.  I'm very girly you know.  I try from time to time to act like a bad mambojambo, but it's just show.  I finished the last foot, straightened up my back and finally got upright, and they said, "Hard work, isn't it!"  I said, "Yeah!"  My face was probably turning red.  That's lame.

And Leah asked me if I ride.  I shrugged my shoulders and said I have a couple times at Manny's ranch.  She asked me if I'd like to and I said yes.  Between you and me, it was big, giant, yes, but I didn't want to seem childish or uncool.  She said she's gonna take me out riding sometime.  Whew.  I can't wait!  Leah was sure grinning so I think she knows I'm sincerely up for it!

Tomorrow is the county fair.  Our son practiced walking Nike today.  I have my camera batteries charged up.  The arena is shady.  I hope I'll get some nice pictures.  I ironed our son's cowboy shirt and he shined his belt buckle.  We're all excited for the day to come.  We'll be at the fairground at 10:00am and the horse showing is at 4:00pm.  We're washing and purtying up the horses at 11:30 and it'll take an hour for sure for each horse and I think we're doing two horses.  I'm waiting to buy my own brushes till after tomorrow.  This way I'll have a feel for which tools I like before I buy my own.  We have to wear old clothes because guess what we're using to whiten Nike's white patches.  Mrs. Stewart's Bluing!  I used to use that on my own hair!

I am so sleepy

I got up at 6:00am and we all went to Cruces for an early orthodontist appointment.  He got his braces!  He looks so cute.  He's complained vociferously for months about getting the braces then when he got them he got happy.  Go figure.  Now his mouth is very sore.  It does hurt a lot.  I remember shooing everyone out of the dining room so I could eat dinner in misery by myself when I got mine.  He had scrambled eggs with cheese for dinner.  He's making himself another right now.

Tore out my baby blanket tonight.  Restarted.  There was a mistake so close to the beginning.  I would never be happy giving it as a gift. This time, it feels like I've got it.  I think I like it.  I think it'll be a keeper.

I'm so sleepy.

The article

I had to scan it quite a few times to get it right because the article length is longer than an 8.5"x11" piece of paper, but I got 'er done and pieced it together in Photoshop. 

Chuck, the newspaper reporter, did a wonderful job.  We didn't have any expectations for the very nice things he said. We're not sure, but we think it was Leah who called the newspaper. We were bowled over!  I noticed he even included the URL for our curriculum and he noted that it's accredited.  He did that on his own and that was thoughtful.  It says that we work other places, but actually here is the only place where we volunteer.  When we're not here we're just traveling wild and free.  At first I was tiffed that he described being with no tv as a sacrifice, but then he did rather change it around in one of the following paragraphs.  Very artful, I thought.  Because as anyone who knows me knows, I think Satan owns the television waves.  Just last night at our friend's house, when we first arrived the mom was resting on the sofa with the telly on.  You know what was on?  Beautiful, shapely, young, women walking around in skimpy outfits. They were too lacy to be swimsuits. I do not know the purpose of the television program. I'm pretty darn sure they were wearin' panties and bras and gallivanting across a stage though.  So I ask you, should I (I'm 50), she (she's 39), and her daughter (age 11), take off our clothes and walk about the living room area thusly dressed, or undressed I daresay.  Well, cut me a break, then why is it okay to have images of women you don't even know walking almost nekked in your house?  Do ya think the men and boys in the home are made of stone? That wasn't on television when I was growing up!

Anyhoo.  What was I saying?

I just about cried when I read the article about our son.

A wasted Saturday

I had a premenstrual, peri-menopause, hormonal headache all day long.  It wasted my whole day and ruined all my plans.

Friday

Leah had to mend a fence at her ranch, so I didn't get to do any grooming.  Some other day.  Her boyfriend's ranch is close and that's where I went.  It's only 15 minutes from here so it's no big that she wasn't there.  Course, I was disappointed a little.  My stupid phone doesn't work very well and she called to cancel, but I didn't get the call.  I hate telephones.  I called my husband the other day and he didn't answer.  I called about five times before he picked up.  Today I called and he didn't pick up and I said, ferget it.  I ain't dialin' on this stinker again.  I have a recurrent dream of taking my cell phone, throwing it to the ground and jumping up and down on it.  Actually, it's a made up on purpose kind of dream.  Then I imagine myself grabbing other people's phones and throwing them on the ground and jumping up and down on their phones too.  Unlike my real self, I'm much more assertive in my imagination.  And then everyone says "Hooray, hooray," just like in Norma Rae, the movie that Sally Fields was in a long time ago.  But in the movie everyone was cheering because Norma Rae got carried off and married.  Or, no, I think that was in An Officer and a Gentleman.

I once considered setting up a blog that consisted of nothing but my made up imagination dreams. 

Leah  is a maintenance person for her job.  She does all the same work that the men do.  She's a tuff buff and I admire that she's in a nontraditional job for a woman.  She's my age or younger.  She's deeply tanned from working outside and her hands are working hands. 

The article about our son came out today.  We were all completely surprised.  We expected a brief blurb underneath a photo - and not until next week.  I can't believe it's a photo with an article.  A whole, entire, article!  I think I will put it up here tomorrow.  Maybe I forget sometimes that our life is not the usual, the norm.  I'm so used to us that I rarely give it much thought.  Perhaps I should appreciate life better.  My sister tells me I should.

Horse dreams

When I was a teenager one of my cousins was married to a young woman named Debra.  She was pretty.  Pretty on the outside, that is.  Not so much on the inside I would find out years later.  I remember she and my cousin had a list of things she wanted to do.  It was a list of things she hadn't done and wanted to do.  The thing I remember most from her list was to fly a kite.  At the time I thought it quite dorky.  I was 15 and far too composed to partake in any such silly activity.

Now here I am getting to do something I've always wanted to do.  I daren't even dream of it before now.  When I was drawing horses forever and a day in fourth grade, and all the kids in class were bringing me paper, wanting me to draw horse heads for them, I thought that was as close as I'd ever be.

Tomorrow at 4:30pm I get to brush a horse.  The means groom a horse.  Leah will meet me at the ranch!

Today our son lunged Nike for an hour for practice.  Nike is Leah's show horse.  Lunging is when you stand in the center holding a rope that is tied to the horse and the horse runs around you in a circle.  It's good exercise for the horse.  He practiced stopping and starting and setting her feet in the right position for judging. She sneezed on him three times.  We said he had horse boogers on him and we all laughed!  Nike neighed too.  I like that.  It is, I think, sublime.

An interview

It was a surprise this afternoon when a man from the newspaper knocked on our door.  He said he heard that we travel and he heard of our son who is home-schooled and is going to show a horse at the fair.  He asked to take a picture of him with the horse later this week, and to interview him for an article in the paper right now!  Knock me over with a feather.

I sat nearby for a few minutes then went into the trailer.  I peeped through the window and could see them laugh and smile and talk at the picnic table.  Our son talked more after I left them alone so I'm glad I decided to come in.  I imagine the newspaperman got enough talking done to write whatever blurb he's going to put with the photo.  We shook hands and he left.

Wednesday

My aunt is.

This sentence is missing a complement.  There's nothing to complete the subject. It needs a predicate adjective or predicate nominative..

My bones are grim.  I will write her.  She wears magnets in her shoes. I love her so much.

She got her dress!

Baby Lily got her dress and it fits!  I feel?  I feel happy!  Our son sends us pics from his Blackberry.  That thing does everything.  I worried that the dress would be too big, but it looks like it fits her just right.  I thought the hat might be too big too, but it's not.  They said when they can get her all cuted up they'll send me more photos.  I can't wait!  I hope she liked unwrapping her gifts.  I used purple tissue paper which is fun when you're one because it crumples easily and makes noise, and I used only one small piece of tape so each item was easy for little hands to open.  I think Lily's parents liked the gifts too.  I think they got Lily all happy about it, bless their hearts.

The bunnies are gone.  History.  My husband said he should have made bunny rabbit chili out of them.  Very funny.  Actually, the rancher whose home we returned the buns to says that rabbit is very good on a plate but he can't bear to kill them himself.  I'm glad I don't have to look forward to getting any more scratches on my arms.  Sometimes I could hold them just right and sometimes not, and they would kick.  I will miss them a little bit.  I liked seeing them outside.  But I didn't like all the clean-up and moving around.  You really need a bunny hutch I think.  We put them at night in the storage compartment of our trailer so the coyotes wouldn't get them.  But I could hear them moving around early in the morning (at 6:15am) and I felt guilty for not wanting to get up right away and clean their night time bed and put them in the bigger daytime cages.  It would take me 45 minutes to do it all what with fresh food and water, cleaning bowls, cleaning inside of two cages, hosing off the table to put the big cages on, not to mention actually picking up the bunnies and moving each.  This morning was very windy and would have been uncomfortable for them to be out in it so I told my husband we need to return the rabbits.  It's just isn't working very well and son is not warming up at all to picking them up.  He sees us get scratched and he's like, no way!  He hasn't said so, but I can tell.  Leah was very kind about taking them back.  She didn't mind at all.  She said maybe next year he could start with a baby and a kind that won't get so big.  He's going to ask also if he could do only one bunny instead of two.  We'll see.  I think a hutch would be needed.  Maybe we'll be in a house by then.

My body is still tireded out from the triathlon.  Gosh, I'm such a wimp.  There were nearly 700 entrants.

Saturday night

Well, we've been fussing over the bunnies.  Not fussing in a good way.  There's more clean-up than our son expected I think.  I see why so many 4-H projects are done by the parents!  Not at our house though.  I'm going to help him more the next few days, so I won't feel like I could have done more to get him set-up, but if it doesn't go well we're telling him no more animals.

Tomorrow is the triathlon.  There are 360 runners signed up.  That's about 100 more than last year.  It's been successful and the athletes like the route.  I'll be at the bottom of the hill encouraging and directing athletes and my husband will be at the top of the hill at the main gate.  Last year it was fun and I enjoyed it.  It's supposed to be in the 90s tomorrow though.  It might be a little hot.

Friday night

Thursday Leah phoned us and we got to meet and groom two of her horses!  I brushed Jake.  He's a brown horse with the prettiest tail.  It looks like his tail is partly bleached blonde, but it's naturally blonde and brown. Wish my hair looked like that. He moved around a lot though.  I am too shy and I have to practice being more assertive.  Horses will boss you around if they know you're scared of them.  I'm concentrating on not being a-scared.  Heh.  I used first a rubber curry comb which is a rubber oval thing with nubs and they call it a brush.  It loosens up the dirt.  There's a lot of dirt in the coat.  Then I used a brush (which looks like the kind I used to use to wash the tires on my red convertible back in the olden days when I had a red convertible) to  flick the dirt away.  My arm got real tired.

Our son brushed Nike.  She's a Paint.  Paint is a kind of horse with big splats of spots.  She's very pretty.  Black and white.  She had a baby this year so she is a little thin and needs to put on 100 pounds, Leah said.  I saw her stretch out with her two front legs sticking straight out in front of her and her rump in the air just like a dog.  It was so cute!  She also went pee.  You better not be close when a horse goes pee because it makes a huge spot!  As a city girl, I have never been so close to a horse that is relieving itself.  The man who owns the ranch walked right by her and I know he got pee molecules on his pants.  I stepped back a full 30 feet.  I didn't want any specks of horse pee on me, not even invisible ones.  Leah flicked a couple bunny poohs out of the way on the tailgate of the truck while we were talking.  It froze my brain momentarily.  There were chickens and roosters walking everywhere.  Leah saw me walking very slowly.  One step, two step, look around, three step.  She said, "Lil, it's okay.  They won't bother you."  And she was laughing.  I don't know, but I worried they might come peck me or something.  Hey, you never know.  Turns out, they weren't interested in me at all.

Our son will show Nike at the county fair in October.  He will also show two bunnies, a male and a female.  They are meat bunnies, but they won't be sold, plus they are used for breeding.  At the show the judge will feel the haunches and you want to set your bunny on the table in a teardrop shape.  I've never eaten rabbit and I don't think I ever could. I can't say enough about how generous Leah has been with her time and with the animals and supplies.  Incredible.  Ain't nobody in L.A. who would ever give us all this stuff.

She has given our son two bunnies, he got to choose them out of all her rabbits, and he has to prepare them for showing.  That means he needs to handle them a lot to get them used to human handling.  They've been outside at a ranch in a hutch so they're nice, but one is quite edgy about being picked up.  I got scratched a little today picking up the female.  Not bad, but you have to be careful.  You have to grab them by the skin on their back like a cat.  It doesn't hurt them.  Then you have to hurry to put your arm underneath them so their legs won't flail and kick and to make them feel secure.  That's what they do.  Their legs kick like crazy and it makes them mighty hard to hold onto if you're a newbie.  I'm so proud that I've just about mastered picking up and holding a rabbit.  I'd never be doing this if we didn't have a son. 

One time I was at a friend's house and she showed me her pet rabbit in her back yard.  It was huge.  She picked it up by the back of the neck and said, "See!"  She was seemingly proud of the bunny  hanging midair in front of us, but I didn't appreciate what the big deal was.  Now I do!  The bunny let its legs hang free, didn't thrash, and was relaxed and trusting.  He was used to being handled.  He had been given a lot of attention.

So.  We are in rabbit training.  Leah has lent us food, cages, water bottles, food holders, a bag of cedar shavings for bedding, and the rabbits.  Unbelievable.  She and the other rangers are such an encouragement to the youth.

Thursday we missed school because of the orthodontist appointment.  We did shopping in town and didn't get home till 3:00pm.  There's good news and bad news.  The good news is all he needs is braces.  He doesn't need head gear like our eldest did and he doesn't need an expander for the roof of his mouth or teeth pulled like I did.  Just braces.  Just braces - to the tune of $6200.00.  I'm grateful we can get his teeth fixed.  He gets them in two weeks and will have them for a little under two years.

Today was a normal day.  Uneventful.  I was tired because one bunny got the bottom of his cage wet and poor thing was jumping around at 2:15 am because his feet were wet and probably cold.  I went outside and changed his whole bedding.  I startled my husband when I came inside from outside and thought he was going to kill me, but he realized it was me and didn't cold cock me in the nick of time.  I told him three times as he was coming at me, It's just me, It's just me, It's just me!  Yipes.  Good thing he's not a Vietnam Vet!  Then he helped me get the bunny fixed up. He didn't get mad at me either.  At least I know I'm well protected.

The stars outside were incredible.  Son slept right through everything of course.  Homeschooling went swimmingly and at lunch and after school we both looked forward to holding the bunnies.  Son has named them.  Bucephalus for the male (after the story about Alexander The Great's horse that he heard in the movie The Black Stallion) and Talulah for the female, after a bulldog he fell in love with who was with a camper here last week.

Bummer day

Leah was busy transporting horses so we didn't get our class today.  Truth is, son has a bit of a head cold and wasn't in tip-top shape for it energy wise anyways.

I pulled my baby blanket apart completely and am starting anew.  I wanted to take out only one row, but I couldn't get my needle through the row right, so I pulled out another.  I knitted one row and there, big as life, a giant boo-boo is in the middle of the row.  So I pulled it out and well, sigh, I ended up pulling out the whole thing.

Very.  Bad.  Not.  Happy.

Tomorrow is a new day though.  Son has an orthodontist appointment.  They'll tell us how they can fix his teef and how many grand it'll cost us.  Of course, we're looking forward to that.

It's the first day of fall

It's fall, or autumn as my husband says, and it's ten degrees cooler than yesterday.  I read Wyoming and Montana have skipped fall entirely and gone straight to winter.  Bummer!

My baby blanket looks very ugly somewhat unattractive so far, but I'm not discouraged because my stitches are getting better.

I woke only an hour and a half after I went to bed.  It's was 1:30am.  It's the kind of wake up where my eyes pop open but it's dark so I cannot see.  I also took one short breath inwards like a very small half gasp.  My heart wasn't skipping at all though.  Well, immediately I was trying to pray but my mind was a jumble because I was asleep.  I didn't know who to pray for so I prayed for who I thought of and then I fell asleep again and slept heavily till late morning.

I'm knitting tonight

I'm starting a lavender sachet (that's a color) baby blanket for Christmas.  Last night I started three times and pulled it out three times.  Tonight I'm going to keep going no matter what. I think that's what Reta would tell me to do.  It's an unofficial practice run. I can tell my stitches are improving, and in fact I was doing a yarn over backwards till a few minutes ago.  Now that I'm doing it correctly I can see it's getting an edge like it shows in the example photo. 

Leah spoke with me a few minutes this afternoon and we're all set to have our son's first meeting to wash and brush horses.  It will be 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening and there will be 4-H kids there too.  Leah said she thinks I'm more excited than our son is.  I let my guard down for a mere moment and my real feelings of anticipation showed brightly.  A leetle bit too brightly! Yikes.  I have to be careful or everyone here may realize the secret truth that on the inside I am a complete doofus.  Currently, it is confidential information available only to those who read this blog.

So I'm going to sit on the sofa and knit and pretend it's winter.  I wish it were cool enough to turn on the space heater but it's not.  My feet are cold, but my husband will throw a king size fit if I turn on the space heater and point it at me.  It's about 74 degrees in here. Oh he's so fussy.  And I'm going to think.  And pray.  I have prayers calling me and I need to say them. Or is it, I am called to prayer?  Yeah, I think that's the way you're supposed to say it.

One baby dress and hat

Ta-da. Or as I prefer to say, "Taa daa!" I finished it. There are also matching panties to go over the didee. They're nothing fancy. The bodice was a little tricky, but not what I'd call difficult. The hat was tricky too, but fun. I hope to make another set sometime. The hat is nice because you can flip the front brim up or leave it down to keep out the sun.  What does a kitty say?  Meow, meow!

I added grosgrain trim. The pattern calls for the bodice facing to be hand sewn all the way around and that's not happening on my watch so I put the trim on to cover the machine sewing instead. Turned out well!  I still had to hand sew the shoulders when I turned the bodice facing, and the hat to close the seam where you turn it right side out.  Am not crazy about the hand sewing. The post office here was closed today so we can't mail it out till Monday.  Shucks.

I tried and tried to upload these pictures last night but they just wouldn't go.

Next!  I have yarn, purple!, to make a baby blanket for her for Christmas.  It's a super simple pattern - garter stitch which is plain (the beginner's stitch) but it has a nice border to give it interest.  This is my next leaf that I'm turning. I will tell you when I start because although the instructions are easy, I'm not sure I understand them.  Hence, I need help.  But Reta who taught me to knit is not here so I'm asking around at churchity-church for someone who knits who would consider helping me a bit.  I'm taking my instructions in my purse tomorrow.  I asked last week and got a lady's name but she wasn't there.  I'm being a good grama.  Trying to be.  I want to be yia-yia, pronounced "ya-ya" which is Greek for granny.  I learned about yia-yia from Mrs. A.  She's has a funny yia-yia video called "This is no ordinary yia yia"  Cracks me up.

And I have one more leaf which I'm going to write about now which is a little too soon to be written about but I'm excited.  I found out that I like to brush, that is, groom, horses.  Okay, I brushed one horse one day and decided I want to learn how to groom horses.  There are lots of horse people around here.  One is a ranger who has sixteen horses and she says I can come out and learn to groom and groom till I fall over.  Is that a dream come true or what?  I'm breathless I'm so looking forward to it.  I'm not sure which day yet, but she is going to schedule a day where kids, 4-H kids, will learn about washing horses' legs.  Some of her horses are quite tall I gather, so the smaller kids can only do so much.  I get to learn with them.  And our son too, of course.  Actually, it is all more for him and I am an appendage, but I'm so excited.  I prayed for this and I prayed the Lord will give me a way to make it happen and it's happening.  Like the chorus of that song we sing at church - All things are possible!

I should warn.  I'm feeling real scrunched in this web page.  I might be going back to all white with no comments soon.

Osprey

It was a lucky shot today.  Was disappointed I completely missed the shot of him flying away.  All I got was sky.  He was magnificent. The light was good.  I have a few other images of him, but this is the one closest to him.

It's raining and thundering now!

And I have to go to bed.

Bible look-up thingie

I carry my Bible in my purse, but it's getting heavy on my shoulder: Bible, camera, big ol' honkin' wallet. It's too much.

Sometimes I know part of a verse, or all of one, but I don't know where it is in the 66 books of the Bible. My index doesn't always help me. The best option is Google, but amazingly, I'm not always at my computer. What to do? I searched for an electronic Bible and found this Franklin one! It has the NIV and KJV plus a Holman Dictionary. Actually I wish it had the New KJV on it but it doesn't. I'll be able to find correct pronunciations easily! How excellent is that. I can look up the difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and expiation and propitiation. It has devotionals (which I have aplenty right now) and memorize-a-verse and other doodads on it. I hope it's as good as it sounds. Best of all, it supposedly will fit in my back pocket. That would be perfect. I used my birthday money to buy it. I've been holding on to that money for two months.

Homeschool went poorly today. It was our first day of 7th grade and K12 failed to activate my account. All the fun parts online were unavailable. Sheesh.

Five (5)

I received five compliments on my hair in church this morning. Five! One from a man and four from women. That's the most ever, anywhere, anytime. The man said it reminds him of Crystal Gayle's hair. Crystal's is jet black and down to the floor while mine is silver with two other colors and to the top of my thighs, but anyhoo. We don't look a gift-horse in the mouth.

For a change I got up early, showered and washed my hair before church and blow dried it and wore it down. I wore my new blue India top and an ankle length denim skirt. I wore my same old flip flops, but my toes are purple with glitter. No earrings for although I love long earrings I don't wear any jewelry or make-up on Sunday mornings.

I say for a change because usually I go to church looking like a homeless person. Well, not that bad, but maybe a little unkempt. Well, not unkempt, but not neat. I sniff my shirts and pick the cleanest one on Sunday morn and figure if my husband washed my jeans last week, I'm good. And I look sleepy because I always roll out of bed at the last possible moment and that's not my best look. I lost my sunglasses at the car show and now I have to enter church without cover for my naturally bloodshot morning time eyes. I'm deeply disturbed about that. When I was 20 I looked fine first thing in the morning. But now that I'm 50? Ah well. That's life in the old lane.

It was great to be back at our home church. Awesome.

For evening I wore my hair in a smooth French roll. Got no compliments. I like it up. Seems everyone else likes it down. Hhhmph.

Love notes

Yesterday husband and son went to watch football and I had the place to myself which was nice.  It was beautiful outside but a little chilly inside.  My husband runs hot.  He's got the air conditioner on so much in the summertime that I have to go outside to warm up.

After they left I was sitting at my computer getting cold toes. And then a light bulb went off in my head!  I'm by myself.  I can turn the A/C off!  So I did and I was comfy all evening.  You know, like a normal person would be.

And I decided to send my husband an email.  I titled it "Rawr!" and I wrote:

I rule the ROOST and I just turned off the A/C.  How d' ya like THAT! Because he's always accusing me of turning off the A/C when actually the thermostat has turned it off, not me.

And I included a cute ducky animated gif in it.

The next morning he emailed me back.  He said:

And I am madly in love with you!!  

I have no idea how he puts two and two together like that, but I thought it was nice.  He made me smile.  He's a hopeless romantic.

The day was nice.  I turned over one of my leaves.  I'm sewing a baby dress for my granddaughter!  Indeed, I'm not easily discouraged.  My purple skirt didn't turn out, but that's okay.  I'll try this baby summer dress.  It's the littlest thing.  The bodice is doll sized.  This time I'm waiting till it turns out before I post pictures.  Tonight I cut out all the pieces.  But wait.  I ordered her little shoezies to go with it.  

 

Are they darling or what.  They just make me sigh out loud.  They're handmade in New Zealand and they're especially good for baby feet because they don't enclose the toes too tightly like regular shoes.  I think they're like wearing moccasins if you're a grown-up. 

I got her a Ruby Rabbit bath towel too. I couldn't find a photo of only the rabbit one. Technically, I like the frog towel best, but being how she's a girl I went for the safe bet. Purple.

Did I say it's my grandbaby's birthday. Yes. Also, I'm late on the present. I'm a flaky grama I guess, but I wanted to package it up myself so I had to wait till we got out of Wyoming. When I have it all ready I'm wrapping them separately and putting it all in one box. Our son said he won't tell Lily I'm sending something so she'll surprised. She's one year old. Haha. She doesn't even know it's her birthday. Not yet anyways.

The topmost photo is yesterday's rainbow. I liked how the sun was falling on the butte. You'll see the dumpsters by the road and the outhouses near the shore. I'll say I 'captured' them like the photographers say on PhotoSig. Haha!

A day

My little sister had some vertigo. She threw up too. A virus, says the doctor. I think so too. But our dad has tinnitis and our mom has Meniere's so my sis is slightly freaked out. I think she'll be okay. I hope so.

We both have Skype and when she gets online a little bubble pops up in my status bar and tells me she's online. She works so she's supposed to be at work all day. I noticed she was online today. When we were making up the bed this morning I told my husband about it and I complained that she took a day off work and didn't even let me know. He agreed with me, I thought, till he said, "Yeah, who is your sister to take a day off and not keep you informed?" I declare. People. Well, I have to cut her some slack because she couldn't even get out of bed. Her husband had to make a doctor appointment for her. My sister never, never stays in bed. She's my polar opposite.

Speaking of which, our trailie is kind of clean. The men dusted everywhere. They dusted the fan blades, the walls, the ceiling, the cupboards. They dusted so much I got a headache from watching work being done. I went to bed and stayed there a couple hours till the ruckus quieted down.

I've turned one of my leaves over. I went for a walk-jog on my old route yesterday! That gave me a headache too. My thighs are a little sore today and that's a good thing. Two months of brownies have got me a little hefty, but only on my tummy really. I can work it off fairly easily. Gotta git sleek.

Had a big rainbow today. We just finished dinner and we saw it. I jumped in the truck and drove down the road to find a place to shoot it. It didn't fully arc. It just went upwards and disappeared, but it was very wide. Often rainbows aren't nearly as pretty in photos as they are to your real eyes.

The Hubble Space Telescope images of the butterfly and the soap bubble - they are magnificent. Tonight I will picture in my mind: wide rainbows, little white lambs curled for sleep on a wooden step, and galaxy sized Hubble butterflies suspended in the heavens by God. I will fall asleep. Infinity. And I will dream.

I will wake and start a new day!