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.