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.