High School

Wow. I just received the first email about my 10 year high school reunion. I can't believe it's been that long already. But at the same time it seems like a completely different life. A more carefree, fun life where friends and Friday night football games, a part time job and a boyfriend were my life, though probably not in that order. When my biggest concern was finals. At the time, that was a big deal. Ha! Makes me miss that life. Almost.

I was a teenager and not particularly proud of some things that I did, though I do laugh about them now. It's annoying to look back and realize that mom really did know best, so many times, when I refused to believe that. Oh well, you live and you learn. I know I wasn't a horrible kid, I didn't get into too much trouble, but I think I was a pretty typical teenager, attitude and all.

Up until I got that email I really had no intention of going to the reunion. I didn't hate high school, just wasn't a big fan of it looking back. I had no desire to see all of those people again. None. And it's not because I got fat or became an alcoholic or am still working at the lame job I had in high school or any other reason that I'd be embarrassed to show them what I've become. On the contrary, I'm pretty proud of my life right now. I just really had no desire to socialize with all those people that I didn't socialize with back then.

To explain that, I suppose I need to tell you (well, those of you who don't know me that well) that I'm shy. Really shy. Generally. Once you're my friend, I'll talk your ear off, but if I don't know you and don't have a good reason to talk to you, I probably won't. It's nothing personal, just me. I joke that I'm anti-social. It's funny cuz it's sorta true.

Apparently, this gives people the impression that I'm a snob, which is apparently what a lot of people thought of me in high school. I was totally floored when someone pointed this out to me. I did not understand how people could think I was a snob! And then I started thinking about the people that I thought were snobs. I think some of them really are snobs of the highest order, but some of them, I realized, were probably just shy, like me.

Because of all of this, I was really surprised when I got the email and started looking thru the list of names from my class and realized that I want to go to the reunion. Ok, maybe saying I want to go isn't exactly accurate, but I wouldn't mind going. We'll see if it actually happens. I'm still trying to swallow the fact that it's already time for my 10 year high school reunion. One more thing to add to the list of things making me feel old lately!

It's amazing...

...what a little time with my horse and a girlfriend, a couple glasses of wine and a good chick flick can do for my attitude! I suppose I should include the mostly decent weather (for this time of year) that I got to enjoy for a bit yesterday also.

I think my pony was enjoying some "mom time" too. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking. I swear she got a pretty good attitude adjustment out of it, though I suppose that could have been because she knew she was getting fed when we were done. :-)

I was a lazy bum and just threw her bridle on and jumped on her. I didn't have a lot of day light when I got home and I didn't want to waste it all dealing with her hairy, muddy self so I took the easy way out and just rode bareback. Probably not the most brilliant move, considering I hadn't ridden her in a week and a half and it was a sunny, cool day and I was home by myself. I figured I had my cell phone in my pocket and there are two neighbors who can see my round pen from their house. Besides, it's Midori. I trust her. Mostly.

It was so great being outside, getting some fresh air, not freezing my butt off and having only a few layers on. I'm sore from my ride today, which is always fun. Midori was totally in tune with me, even though she was feeling spicy and wanting to go-go-go. She was stopping and backing off my seat, she was moving her hip for me, which is my current project with her, she was having a blast rolling back and picking up her shoulders. It was great!

Then when I was done with that, I got to get out of the house for a change! I had date night with my best friend and we just relaxed in a boy-free house with wine and one of our favorite dinners and wine. Did I mention there was wine? I have only recently started enjoying wine, but it's really growing on me and it sure did treat me well last night. We watched Monster-In-Law, which is such a great chick flick, and had her dogs for our side show.

I think it was darn near a perfect night. I got all of my favorite therapies, which I think I needed. It's amazing how the short gray days, long dark evenings, gross rainy weather and being house bound can just get to you sometimes.

Hibernating for winter

What is it with this time of year and my complete lack of motivation to do...well, pretty much anything?

It's annoying, that's what it is! I'm sick of it. I'm tired of being in hibernation mode. I want to not have to fight with myself to get something done in the evening. I want to be able to go out and jump on my horse when I get home from work and not dread the cold or decide I don't feel like being out in the weather because I'm a weenie and bag the whole idea. Again. I want to look outside at the sun and blue skies and not get shivers because, while it is a nice day, I know it's also 20 degrees out there. I want to see green leaves on trees and flowers coming up and hear birds chirping. I want to have more then 45 minutes of day light when I get home, though that is an improvement over the 3 minutes of daylight I had just a month ago. I want to be able to wear my new heels (see previous post) without having to worry about stepping in a mud puddle with them or my feet turning purple in the 15 seconds it takes me to walk to my truck because I don't have thick socks on and it's freezing cold out.

I miss my horse. I miss seeing more then her head and her legs from the knees down because she's all bundled up in her cozy water and weather proof blanket. I'm ready for her to not be a muddy, extremely hairy mess. Not looking forward to the actual shedding part, but I'm definately ready for the summer coat.

I'm tired of winter. I'm tired of cold. I'm tired of darkness. I'm also just tired. I want summer already! Or atleast spring. I need some vitamin D.

On a not so depressing note...it's only partly cloudy today, no precipitation in the forecast and a somewhat mild 40 degrees. I might actually stay motivated to get on my horse tonight. Yeehaw!

Best. Shoes. Ever!

Oh my goodness. Does life get any better then having cow print, hair on, pointy toed, high heeled, super sassy shoes?! Ok, I realize that life does get better then that, but these shoes make me smile. Actually, I may be in love.

I made them their own safe little spot in my closet and visit and pet them regularly. Sadly, I'm not joking. I even wore them around the house with my pajamas the other morning, just because I wanted to walk around in them.

As soon as I saw them (in a shopittome.com email *pure evil*) I knew I had to have them. I did try to talk myself out of them for a few hours, but every time I looked at them I got a big shit eating grin on my face and resistance was futile. I had to order them. They are just soooo great!

No clue what I'll wear them with, but I love them and that's all that matters.

These are the best shoes ever.

Brrrr!

I think maybe I was meant to be a southern Californian.

It has been darn cold around here lately. Most mornings for the past week or so it's been 27 degrees. This morning, after I froze in the 10 seconds or so it took me to get from my house to my truck, the temp gauge in my truck said 27 and then started dropping as soon as I pulled out from under the car port, eventually bottoming out at 23. 23!!!

Now, I know I'm just a big weenie and it could be a lot worse, and was just a few weeks ago, but that is just way too darn cold for me. I'm more a fan of a nice 75+ degrees. Hence why I think I belong in So Cal right now. Even though I'm not blond (and don't ever plan to be) and everything on me is 100% real, I still think I could fit in just fine down there. :-)

Naked ponies frolicking

Since it was so sunny and pretty out on Sunday we decided to turn the ponies out naked for a bit. Boy did they have fun!

Midori went out first. This is her "I'm an Arab" look.

This is her "Yeehaw, I'm free!" run.

This is her half assed "Yeehaw, I'm free" buck. I don't mind that she's not a great bucker. :-)

This is her "wohoo, MUD" roll. Check out that lip! Must be a good spot.

Then out came Sugar. This is her going, "sha, FINALLY! I'm outta here!"

And literally, about 3 strides later, she just dropped and rolled. And then got up, switched sides and rolled again.

Then she jumped up and took off towards Midori. I think she was trying to buck in this pic. She can't buck to save her life. Usually about all she accomplishes is a couple really loud farts. It's hilarious!

And a couple of laps later, she's still going strong.

I think they had a blast out there. They came out sweaty, muddy gross messes, but it was worth it to watch them play. And I had a ton of fun with the continuous shoot mode on my camera!

Mister did not have quite as much fun. He isn't as insanely respectful of our dinky fence as the girls are (he likes to walk right under it) so he got turned out in the round pen by himself. Poor guy. He didn't romp around too much. In fact, I don't think I saw him get into more then a nice jog.

He was a dirty, muddy mess by the end of the day though so atleast he got a couple good rolls in!

Sun!

I was SO excited to wake up to sun yesterday morning!

It's been foggy and gray and gloomy around here all week, so Sunday morning when I woke up to a strange bright light in the sky, I could hardly wait to grab my camera and enjoy a bit of it.

Actually, I have to admit, I was a total camera nut yesterday. It's going to take me a while to go thru all of the pictures that I took, but here are a few from my first trip outside. In my jammies. Because I had to catch the early morning sun. Like I said...camera nut!



Unfortunately, with the clear skies came the cold. I don't like wearing gloves while I'm taking pictures, so my hands were pretty much popsicles by the time I came back in. At first I just went out in my slippers and a sweatshirt. That only lasted about 5 minutes.



I had tons of fun taking TONS of pictures though and it didn't take too long to defrost when I got back inside so it was a great day!



And I've discovered my new favorite thing...taking pictures of the sun. It's a bit of a challenge to get it to peek thru something just right for the picture, but boy did I have fun experimenting!

Oh my

As if I haven't been having enough issues lately, now my eye balls have to join in on the "Let's make her feel really old" party that everything else in my life seems to be having.

I know, relatively speaking, I'm still pretty young. But 30 is now looming on the horizon and I gotta tell you, it kinda scares the poo outta me. I don't want to be 30! I like 27 just fine. It's been treating me pretty good. I liked 25 even better. It seems like a good age. I realized that as of January 1st I'm officially closer to 30 then I am to 25. I don't like that.

Soon, the boyfriend will be able to return all the crap I've given him since he turned 30. He's now 31. For his 30th birthday I got him a card that said something along the lines of, You're 30 years old! on the outside and then when you opened it up it had a big face with a tongue that stuck out as it opened and the inside said And I'm not! hehe That was a great card! He can't exactly get something like that for me when I turn 30, but I'll still be 30.

It seems like I've been contemplating my age and the fact that I'm truly an adult a lot lately. Not just an adult, but seemingly a mature, responsible adult with a full time job, furball kids, a significant other and my very own home. I'm still not exactly sure when it all happened.

This latest round of contemplation was brought on by my sudden realization that maybe the reason for my headaches, exhaustion and difficulty with my computer screen at work is my eyes. My eyes have never failed me before. I've always had perfect vision. Never needed glasses or contacts. But lately, especially after all of my recent reading marathons in not so great light, my eyes just haven't been the same. A couple days ago, after much fretting over what the heck was wrong with me, it suddenly occurred to me that I should have my eyes checked. Sure enough, I need reading glasses.

Now, I know nothing about vision problems, since I've never had them, so maybe it's really nothing and I just got the prescription to make me feel better (sort of like a placebo), but I am getting reading glasses. My mom's reaction was pretty much the same as mine...but you're only 27! How can you need reading glasses already? My parents didn't get their reading glasses until they were in their 40's! Reading glasses just seem like something that is only for old people. When I hear reading glasses I picture the little half glasses on the tip of some wrinkly old cotton ball's nose looking over the early bird menu at Denny's. So you see where my complex about this is coming from.

When I really think about it though, I know the majority of my friends have glasses. They have always had them though. Atleast as long as I can remember. I'm not worried about wearing glasses, I'm actually kind of looking forward to being able to sport glasses, I've always wanted to. Kind of like straight haired girls always want curly hair and the curly haired girls always want straight hair. But it's not an "old age" thing for them. Mine is an old age thing. Or atleast that's what I'm classifying it as. I know 27 is hardly old, but it just seems to be adding to the pile of things that are making me feel old lately. Is it too early to be having a mid-life crisis? hehe

My brand of heroin

Wow. I feel like I'm 12 years old, obsessing over the cute boy in math class or something. I really, really cannot get Twilight off the brain lately. Again. I finished re-reading the entire series a week or so ago and have been trying to focus on other things since then. I was doing pretty good for a while. Ok, like 5 days, but still, that's pretty good. Then I started missing Forks and the Cullens. Missing them like I miss my horse when I don't ride for a few days or like I would guess I'd miss the boyfriend if he ever left for any length of time.

Finally, last night I couldn't take it any more. I needed a Twilight fix and I needed it bad! Somehow I ended up at Borders. I didn't need to be there, I hadn't exactly planned to go there, but I found excuses. Then Borders just happened to have a whole table dedicated to everything Twilight right up front. I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell. I walked out of there with the magnet set and Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion. Cuz I needed them and all. I am such a nerd. It worked though, I got my fix. I was a happy girl last night.

Then I see this morning that Twilight the movie is available for preorder on dvd already. Crap. The frenzy started all over again.

So now I've got the dvd preordered, along with the Official Guide and I threw in a soundtrack (already available) just to be thorough. I don't know when I will actually get either of the preordered items, I didn't see any actual release dates, but as soon as they are released I'm going to have one in my hot little hands! I can't wait!

On a not entirely unrelated subject...one of the "other things" I've been trying to focus on is The Host, Stephenie Meyer's other book. I've been struggling to get into it though. It starts out a little slow and weird. Plus, after Twilight, I figure reading anything else is going to be something like eating hamburger after filet mignon. After I was satisfied with my Twilight fix last night I decided to force myself to read just one more chapter in The Host before I went to bed. Over an hour and 4 1/2 chapters later, I realized I had reached the "BAM, you're hooked" part of the book. Twilight had it and I guess it shouldn't surprise me that The Host does too.

Up until last night I wasn't terribly worried about The Host. I figured nothing could touch my Twilight addiction. But now I'm not so sure. I hope I'm not finding another brand of heroin that I can't put down. I don't know if there's enough room in my head for both addictions and I'm pretty sure there isn't enough time in my day for either!

I wonder...

...does Mother Nature get P.M.S.?

I think she must. Why she has chosen Western Washington to pick on for the past few weeks I'm not sure, but I do know that she is being rather nasty. First there was rain. Then there was snow. Then there was melting snow. Way below freezing temps. Ice. More snow. More ice. Rain. Rain. More rain. Some wind thrown in for kicks. Then more snow. Then non stop rain on top of suddenly warm temps causing way too much snow to melt and come gushing down the mountains. Add that to lots more rain and we've got quite a mess out here!

I'm very thankful that it was rather soggy and near flooding when we were house shopping so that we were concious of how wet any land that we looked at got. Our house is up on a hill and the whole property slopes just enough that it doesn't get too terribly soggy. Atleast I hope not. I guess we'll be finding out for sure here shortly. There is a creek that runs thru the front of our neighborhood that is now more closely resembling a raging river and I think I heard we have a new lake down there too. Things are getting pretty dicey down here by my work too. Sounds like there are evacuations going on all around me. Good times.

Could someone please tell me where I might be able to locate good ol' Mother Nature so I can pass along a big bottle of Midol? Thanks!

Totally cleaned up!

I'm beginning to like this snow/cold/bad weather and roads stuff! Apparently it keeps all the good people home from the shows so we can clean up! :-)

Yesterday I did sorting for the first time ever. I've been hesitant to try it out because my horse gets a little amped up around cows and being in a small pen with a bunch of them just never really seemed like a great idea to me. After our work last summer with cows/buffalo and watching the boyfriend sort at a clinic and the last show I was itching though. It looks like fun and I was beginning to really understand it. I hadn't ever really paid too much attention before, but when I actually watched closely and figured out what they were doing it started to appeal to me. So I decided to take a stab at it this weekend. I figured I would either get it or totally suck and never do it again. Apparently I got it. My very first sorting run ever I ended up tying for first place with a couple other teams. My first run was also with the boyfriend so we both came home with pretty first place ribbons and a small jack pot. It was kind of fun!

The exciting part was, Midori was great! She was mostly quiet and went into the herd just fine. She picked it up really quickly and we did awesome for our first time, in my opinion, placings aside. During all three runs she was cooperative and did great shaping to the cow I wanted and cutting them out and pushing them. I didn't feel like a fish out of water trying to get the cow I wanted, like I've seen so many people do. I was thrilled. She wasn't so happy sitting in the gate, but she did alright. Until the big black baldy charged us. She didn't quite know what to think of that on the second run and we ended up letting him thru so we got a no time. But when the same cow tried the same thing on our third run we were able to stop him, twice, and we got 3 cows.

Yes, that's right. 3 cows in 90 seconds. The sad part is, our "winning" run was 4 cows. Love the small shows! I'm still very excited with how well Midori did sorting and I think I may be hooked now. I can't wait til the next one to see if it was just a fluke! :)

We cleaned up!

This weekend the boyfriend and I went to another reining show in the winter series that we're participating in. We're both doing the beginner reining class and so far this series we are pretty much stuck in the middle of the pack. We had debated even continuing with the reining since the sorting is way more fun, but decided that since we started it and it's a pretty inexpensive class we may as well finish the series just for kicks.

This weekend in particular we were really debating going since we hadn't been able to ride much because of the weather. On top of that, the few oppurtunities that we did have to ride I had passed on because I was just burned out. I wanted to stay home and clean my house (yes, I do realize how crazy that sounds) and just relax instead of being outside freezing and riding. I was going thru some major pony withdrawals and would stick my nose in my horses neck any chance I got, but I just couldn't bring myself to actually ride.

The weather was still bad and the roads were a little icy since temps had dropped way lower then they had predicted over night, but we still braved the elements and headed out to the show. I went into it with the attitude that I really didn't care, I just wanted a good ride on my horse. I had ridden once in the past 3 weeks and that was just briefly so I wasn't expecting anything. Of course with the weather a lot of people decided to not chance it and stayed home so the show was tiny. There were only 4 people in the beginner class that usually has 8-10.

We got there extra early to have plenty of time to warm up and get their kinks out. Midori was being an angel. I didn't ask for much since I hadn't been on her in a while, but she did everything I asked. I think she was excited to be out. I even got a flying lead change out of her, though it wasn't pretty and sort of by accident. lol

The boyfriend went third and I went last in the class. I didn't watch the first two, but the boyfriends pattern was much improved over what he had been doing. I was really happy to see that. I felt pretty good about my pattern, in relation to my other patterns. We got our leads, our "spins" weren't any worse then they usually are, the stop was good and she backed nicely. She launched into the big fast circles. I was afraid I wasn't going to get her back to slow down for the small circles, but she did. I think she knows the pattern, even though I never do it except at shows. Brat.

Since it was so freaking cold we put them away as soon as they were cooled out after the class. While we were at the trailer untacking we heard placings for our class. The boyfriend got 2nd and I got 1st. We wohoo'd and high fived eachother and laughed. We rocked that show! But only because everyone who usually beats us were too chicken to come out. Oh well, I'll take what I can get! Atleast I was happy with my pattern that I won with! We're both improving and that's all that matters. The ribbons and jackpot are just a bonus!

My Midori

While I was out taking pictures of the snow, Midori decided to come say hi. She's usually pretty camera shy, which is the one characteristic that I can surely tell you is not like her "mom" (me).





She let me take quite a few pics before she got completely bored of me. I credit the new camera. :-) I can't wait to take more pics of her when she's not a shaggy, hairy, soggy mess!





Speaking of a shaggy, hairy, soggy mess...here she is in all her glory. She is perfectly dry and warm under that blanket, believe me, I check. A lot. But still: barn is priority this summer!!!!!! We are pretty darn sick of the hair (and dreading shedding) and swear next year they are getting lights, heaters, heavy, heavy blankets, the whole 9 yards because they will not be hairy next year!!! Maybe.



Here she is with the sun behind her. She was drying off a bit.





Here she is trying to decide if I'm really important enough to come say hi to. Notice Sugar peeking at me under her neck. Sugar is a peeker. I rarely see her look up and over the fence, she always peeks thru it. She's funny like that.





Midori finally decided to walk over and see me and she was greeted with a big glop of melting snow from a tree above falling right on her head.

She still stayed and visited for a few minutes.

I love my pony. And I love horse's eyes. Can you tell? :-)

More snow!

We got more snow the other night. It was a complete surprise to me this time as the last forecast that I saw only included rain, rain and more rain. I wasn't terribly upset about it though since I had a long weekend ahead of me, no commuting required, and I didn't have anything better to do with my time then go out and take pictures with my new camera! I was particularly thrilled when I saw that there were also sunny blue skies. Wohoo!

So almost 200 pictures and very numb fingers and toes later, these are some of my favorites.

Chey had fun digging things up to play with. Crazy dog!

The ponies weren't so amused by the snow. They were actually pretty darn soggy.


This threw me for a loop. The snow was accumulated on the bottom of the rails... ??? How does that even work?

Happy New Year!

Wow. It's 2009 already. I think I may be in shock. I really can't figure out where the heck 2008 went! I swear it just disappeared. I guess it was a pretty darn busy and BIG year though. We bought our first house. My best friend got married. My sister bought a house (she got hers first and was probably most of our inspiration to get off our perfectly-sassified-renting-butts and go buy a house). We moved. We cleared our property. We started cutting and reining and chased buffalo. We got a new horse and a puppy. I was introduced to the world of blogging, eventually starting my own, even though it's more for my own amusement then anything. I started getting into photography. I came to know and love all things Twilight. I'm sure there is plenty more, but that's what sticks out in my mind at the moment.

It's hard to imagine (and even harder to really appreciate) how far we've come in the past year. Looking back over my list of resolutions and goals for 2008 I'm sure I didn't imagine myself in my own home, living out here in BFE with all that I have now. I really didn't do very well with my goals and resolutions in 2008, which is hard to not be disappointed with myself for, but I'm pretty sure I didn't factor in actually buying a house and all the work that being a home owner entails. I've decided to not beat myself up too badly for not accomplishing my goals and just try to set more realistic ones for myself in 2009.

So far my 2009 resolutions and goals include:
~Getting our credit cards paid all the way off
~Making a budget and savings goals and sticking to them

And a very ambitious list of home and property improvement projects like:
~Painting the rest of the interior of the house - bathroom, office, living room, bedroom and extra bedroom
~Getting our barn finished so that the ponies have real shelter next year
~Getting some sort of arena in, even if it's just footing for now
~Fencing for our perimeter and pastures
~Finish grading and seed our pastures

It's already shaping up to be a busy year, but I think it will be a good one. Hopefully we'll be a little closer to having our property functioning the way we want it to for the horses, which is a very exciting prospect. And I'm sure we should be able to accomplish more this summer because I think we were still kind of in shock that we actually bought a house last summer. The whole clearing the property with 3 days notice thing certainly didn't help that either. I'm thinking this summer we'll be a little more prepared and really be able to dig in and get things done. That's my plan anyways.

So here's to a fabulous, happy and productive 2009! Cheers!