Leaving CA

Tomorrow morning is it. It'll be about a seven hour driving day not counting stops.

My poor husband, he wanted to go home the first week. He misses the horse. How do you like that? A while back we heard that she was pacing. The people she's with will take excellent care of her I know for sure, but the pacing is because she's alone. Horses are supposed to be with other horses or at least a goat or a friendly kitty. When my husband heard she was pacing back and forth a lot he asked a friend to move her. I said, "What! You're having her moved immediately and you don't even mention it to me?" And he roared, "Well, we can't have a sad horse." Well, true enough. We can't have a sad Bella.

He let's us stay a whole month so I can see family and I had a nice time and possibly the best time ever with my sister. She and I exchanged a couple gifts tonight before she left. I gave her a pocket color wheel. I didn't have paper or a bow so I gave it to her plain. I did think to scribble out the price with a black marker. She liked it a whole bunch. She overlooks my shortcomings and inadequacies such as when I hand her a thing and say, "I got this for you!" Then she went to her car and came back with what? A gift bag all prettified with a bow and pretty print tissue paper inside. There were three things inside; two Avon things and one set of purple Skull Candy ear buds. Purple! Sigh. We must be sisters. Sort of opposites, but sisters nonetheless.

Her husband got her a load of seed beads for Christmas and wow, she split them with me. For free! I have a load of seed beads in my cubby now and I decided to make a simple seed bead bracelet out of Stretch Magic elastic. I made one that's three and a half feet long and I wrapped it around my wrist about nine times. I love that it doesn't move around on my wrist. I like bangles but have never been able to wear them because I find them too annoying on my arms. Plus I have small wrists so everything is too big for me. It took me about two and a half hours to make it.

Then today, shazzam, I bought a seed bead spinner gadget and it's fantastic. It really works. I can bead an inch of seed beads in a few seconds. Instead of picking every single bead up one at a time, centrifugal force pushes them onto a j-hook. I made another yard and a half long bracelet. And then I made a six foot long necklace. I ended up putting them all on my wrist. I think it looks delicious. I want to make another six foot long one for a matching necklace. I've always liked the look of being drenched in tiny beads, but I kind of thought Stretch Magic was too babyish. It's so easy and requires no skill, but there ya go. Efficient. Wearable. Simple pleasures for simple minds.

When we go home I hope to see Ivan soon because I really need a trim. And I can't wait to wear my cowgirl jacket somewhere. It was too warm to wear it today. I better wear it a lot or my husband is going to kill me.

Our eldest son has a highly stressful week coming up. It's the last week of academy. There's a shooting test and if you don't pass it, you lose your job. I'm confident he'll pass it, but it's still nerve wracking to be sure. And there's going to be a lot of marching one of those days - marching that will be watched by some mucky muck high up people. Our son will be the one shouting cadence. Cadence is when they holler "Left, left, left right left," and that sort of thing. He's done it before, but next week he's doing it for four miles. He's only done it for one mile at a time when he was in the Marines. He said he's going to have to think of enough things to say for four long miles of marching and running, keep the men energized and powered up the whole way, and of course look good doing it. There will be questions when all 31 of them are in a line-up and it will not be a time to choke. He said if anyone chokes they won't lose their job, but it will affect their placement if they show they don't handle stress well. I'm so proud of him. I can hardly believe he's my own baby. How can he do all this? And when he begins work he'll work 12 hour days; three days on, four days off, then four days on and three days off. He will get eight of those hours as overtime. Sweet.

I've heard there have been high winds while we've been gone from New Mexico. Part of the Interstate 10 from Las Cruces to Demming was closed down because of 65mph winds! That's a lot of wind.

I've been listening to a group called Los Lonely Boys. They're a small band that plays what's called Texican music which mixes Spanish and English. I like one called "Heaven." It reminds me of Manny. Sheesh. I miss our ranger and I'm sure he doesn't even know I think of him.