Remembering...and hoping...

I remember a year ago, almost to the day, I went to my riding teacher's house to help with the horses and lead them around so the "fresh air" kids could come out and have a blast. I am just remembering the little girl who wanted to ride Sassy. She was such an amazing little girl. Here is the post for that day. I was just remembering talking with her. I'm hoping that she remembered that conversation and maybe even remembers me. I hope that I made an influence on her life. I hope more importantly that Jesus made an influence on her. I really hope that she will have that with her the rest of her life. Oh, Lord, please make it so.

She is nine now. I wish she had come back this year, but she didn't. I just really, really hope and pray that God used me in her life so that she could come to Him. I remember talking with her about treating others at her school kindly, because Jesus said to. I remember her asking why Jesus died on the cross. I remember her talking a lot. It makes me want a little girl of my own (haha). But seriously. I fell in love with that little girl (call me sentimental or whatever you want). I don't think I'll ever see her on earth again, but I sure hope I see her in heaven. I wish I remembered her name...

Brain washed

Washed out. I can't seem to stop memories coming.

Even though the rain has stopped for now, my brain is flooded.

I've decided "dance" and "rain" may go together, but "horses" and "rain" don't mix at all. =( Hopefully I'll get to go riding soon. I'm looking forward to helping out at the farm with a preschool group that is coming out. I can't wait!

I made cookies yesterday, and I'm almost done with 10th grade. =)

I dunno. This is a brain dead (err...flooded) and incoherent post. =\

The absolute best feeling in the world...

has got to be when a horse nickers and walks to you without being asked.



If you don't know anything about horses, they don't normally(there are a few exceptions) walk up to you unless you have a treat, and even then, sometimes, you have to go to them. Horses, by nature, would rather spend their time with their equine buddies and just chillin' in a pasture. But under normal circumstances, they would rarely choose to be with a person unless they really love them.


So yesterday, after I had ridden her and then ridden Sapphire(another Arabian), it amazed me when I walked around the barn to take Sapphire back to the pasture, Angel gave a low nicker and came over to the fence to see me again.



When I had been working with her earlier, I had her galloping around a ring without my using a lunge whip or lead rope. She just ran on my voice command. Then she followed me right back to the hitching post almost without the lead rope. I was totally thrown for a loop(haha, another unintentional pun). I never expected her to follow me around. It was the coolest feeling ever!



So, other than that, Colleen got her eye surgery yesterday. I can actually see her eyes, now! I would take a picture, but I'm gonna have to wait a couple of weeks until I go riding again, because I left my camera at my riding teacher's house. I will give a before and after picture soon.

Wishing Grandma were here

I have been missing Grandma lately. I miss going to her house and walking in the woods. I miss swimming and eating her cookies. I miss baking bread at her house. I miss listening to just the sound of her voice. I miss the dings of her clocks when we were visiting. I miss her garden and her canning cellar. I miss her swing. I miss Thanksgiving dinners. I miss her coming for Christmas. I miss her teaching me about birds and gardening. I just plain miss her.

I wish she were here. There are so many questions that I have wanted to ask her. So many wonders I've had about her. So many things she could have taught me. I miss the things that she didn't have time to teach me. Like more about gardening and what her younger years were like. More about baking and bread and recipes. More about herself. I think of things I want to ask her all the time. And then I realize that she's not here to ask.


I wish she were still here.

I can't believe it's over.

I thought that maybe I would have a horse last spring.

A whole year has passed since I thought that.

Now I don't even know if I'll ever get a horse.




Wow.

This has been a really different year.


I can't believe Christmas is over. I can't believe this year is almost over.

Wow.

Mom's birthday party

Okay, so the whole story behind this is Mom and I were out shopping one day. She happened to go by a new candle store in the mall and saw this little tiny tea set she absolutely loved. She started oo-ing and ahh-ing over it. I made a mental note to buy it later and hoped she wouldn't buy it. She finally said, "okay, I'm not buying for myself," and then she took one last longing look at it and we went out of the mall. The next day, she ended up going shopping and I mananged to talk her into taking me. We went to a couple of places and then she went to her doctor's appointment. Then we went to the mall. When we got there, I asked Mom for a twenty dollar bill and told her I had some shopping of my own to do. We figured out a place to meet and I took off. I stopped in Claire's looking for something for my sis, then I continued down to the candle shop. I found it closed down. I was pretty annoyed. Then I saw the note that said, "I will be right back" and I went to a couple of stores around it. About the fifth or sixth time I went back to it, it was open. So anyway, I picked up the tea set and looked around for a minute and then went to the checkout. I was telling the cashier that I was buying it for my Mom and I hoped she wouldn't come back in there. He told me that he would just tell her that he sold it. So I left and hid the te a set in my purse and then went to Jcpenney. Since Mom wasn't there yet, I went back to Claire's. We met there anyway. I told her that I didn't find anything and then we looked in Jc Penney for a minute then left. On the way out of the mall, Mom told me "that little tea set was gone! I went back to buy it and the guy told me that he sold it yesterday! I should have bought it yesterday!" I hemmed and hawed trying to pretend that I was all upset about it. We got to the car and Mom asked me if I still had the twenty she gave me. I told her yes, because I was not about to give the tea set away. Then we went to Hallmark. I looked there for something for my sister and since I only had ten dollars, I asked Mom, "Mom, if I wanted something more expensive, do you have another ten?" She only had two ones. I took them anyway. The next day, Mom was asking me how much I spent at Hallmark and I told her, "Well, I had the twenty." Ahhh!!!! Anyway, Dad and I were planning secrets all this week and she never knew about them. We had to stop a couple of times to pick things up for this cake in order to keep it a secret. I had a friend over for "baking" on Friday and we actually made her birthday cake! Well, I made the cake the night before, but we made the frosting and put roses on it since we ran out of time. So anyway. It's sooo hard keeping secrets from your Mom! I even heard that she took Dad back to that candle place again, but she couldn't buy the other sets, because she liked this one too much!

Well, this is the cake. I liked it, but I didn't like the fondant recipe I used. So I'll probably find something else next time.

This is my Mom when I told her I was supposed to get a picture of her.

Then she got to the glasses case. =D

She finally got to the bottom.

Then she had to ask Dad if he had anything to do with it.

Then of course, she hugged me, very excited and happy someone else hadn't bought it and she continued to play with her toy.This is it.

Just a random shot I really liked that took of the extra roses.

Anyway, she told me it was the best birthday she's had in a long time!
=) =) =)

Candle making(or rather "mess making")

So...guess what I did this afternoon?

Melting the wax...

Starting the candle...

Dipping the candle...

Cooling the candle...

Cooling...

More dips...Kerynne said these looked like pickles...

More dips and cooling...

Putting it in the stand...

Lit!!!

Two of my very own homemade candles...

Even though they look terrible, at least they burn!

Fall is coming!

Fall is my favorite time of year. The smells in the autumn time are so nice. I love all the beautiful colors, as well. The reds and yellows are my favorites. I went outside this morning and took some pictures of the start of fall. I smelled that oh-so-familiar scent that I love to smell every fall. The smell of the crisp, cool air. The smell of dying leaves. The smell of horse drifting on the breeze is the best. The temperature is perfect in the fall. I love wearing hoodies or sweatshirts, with horses on them of course, that's a given. The temperature is just perfect for that. And sitting down in the evenings with a cup of coffee or tea or wassail(my personal favorite, except we have it at Christmas) is just awesome with a warm comfy throw. I'm so excited. I can't wait until Christmas, either. I will have to post lots of our Christmas recipes up here. Our wassail is wonderful. So are our egg casserole, coffee cake, Christmas cookies, etc. Especially cream cheese walnut muffins. Those are the best!

My favorite thing to do is in the fall, too. Autumn is the best time of year to ride horses if you ask me. The horses are giddy and excitable. They are so much fun to ride in the the cool weather. And the horse or you don't get hot either(unless you're wearing too much clothing). The horses generally have fun in the cooler, brisk weather. It's also so much fun to watch them gallop blissfully in their pastures. They are truly showing their spirit and love of freedom.

Anyways, on to pictures...

Evidences of Autumn

By the way we have 120 days, 11 hours, and eight mins. until Christmas.

Yesterday..and Friday

After visiting what seems like the millionth church yesterday morning, We came home and rested for a little while. Then, we headed out the door. We decided to go look at my Grandmother's house about two years after we sold it. I miss grandma and her house so much. We used to go to Grandma's house after church a lot. Especially on Mother's day or grandparents day. We drove the hour it took to get there and took about five minutes to look. The people who moved there had horses. It looked like they were keeping it up pretty well. It was beautiful, though. It still reminded me of visiting grandma, so they didn't make too many changes. Then we went to eat in Farmsville. Guess what? We got gas for $3.60 a gallon! It was quite amazing.
On Friday, I got to go to my riding teacher's house to ride. She gave me a free ride in exchange for helping her around the farm. It was one of the best rides I'd ever had. I rode Rocky and it was the first time I'd been allowed to be on my own. It was really cool. I took him over some jumps and we both loved it. He was being an angel, except for the fact he refused to get his bridle on and was being a brat about getting his cinch tightened. I told him I deserved him. Sadly, he's being leased out to someone else. He will still be on the property and everything, so I might get to see him again. Don't get me wrong, he's gonna have an awesome leasee, but I can't help wishing it was me. Anyways, So I had an awesome ride and we went on a trail ride after that! I am very thankful to my riding teacher for letting me have that ride. My riding teacher is awesome!

Interesting facts about my family...

We love God.
On my Father's side, we are descended from the line of Attila the Hun. One side note is that my family tends to have nosebleeds a lot. It just so happens that Attila the Hun died from choking to death. The cause: A nosebleed.
On my Mother's side we are descended from the Vikings, and several people on the Mayflower.
We like to keep traditions.
My Father is a very good engineer.
My Mother is a very good housekeeper.
My brother-in-law is a lawyer, passed the bar the second time.
My oldest brother is a very good business man.
We like to cook/bake.
We enjoy recreational activities.

Good morning...

I feel like I actually accompished something today! Well, this morning I managed to get up at 6:15 and do my Bible time. Then I went for a half hour walk. At 7:00 am, I made Dad's breakfast and did the dishes for Mom. I got breakfast and the dogs are taken care of. Now I'm off to make bread. I'll post the recipe later.

Also, a few days ago, we went to my aunt's house after dinner. I was remembering going to Grandma's house and the walks in the woods and baking bread, and we used to all run down to the railroad when we heard a train to see if we could get there before it left. We got Christmas trees there some years, and I remember having hot chocolate one year because my hands were so cold. We played catch with the football and we helped Grandma in her garden and we swam and picked strawberries and blueberries. We always liked to eat blueberries after swimming. We also liked to play civil war. It was such a wonderful time going over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. They died in October 2003, just five days apart, my Grandma from lung cancer, and my Grandpa from pneumonia at a nursing home. I realized just how much I miss going to Grandma's.

More Pics

These are awesome...Credit goes to my sis...way to go sis!

This is the little girl we used to babysit


These are pics of our puppies the day they were born.


This is Molly and my sis...

I will try to get more pics later.

One year ago, today...

I became an aunt. My niece was born I believe at 8:56pm, last year today. She is a beautiful girl. I can remember waiting all day last year to hear from our parents. When they actually called and told us she was born, I remember feeling tired(from a long day), and yet very happy. Pics of her birthday party below.

Memories

I am obsessed with horses. Not that anyone cares. For anyone who does, I LOVE Hanoverians! I am kinda depressed(silly I know) 'cause it's impossible to have one. If you go to this link and in the search engine, in the "horse breed", select Hanoverian, you'll see what I mean...

horsetopia

But I can't help dreaming. I love Hanoverians. They're gorgeous! Not to mention they're horses. Okay, I admit it, I'm obsessed. by the way, my boyfriend (see post below) is actually not a Hanoverian. *sigh* But I love him anyway! He was the first horse I ever met. I went to my riding teacher's house for the first time and I met him first. I was dieing! I saw him and wanted to ride him that very day! But my riding teacher said I had to be a good rider before I could ride him. Sadly enough, I had to wait until March 12th, 2007 to be able to ride him. But that was the best day I ever had! I had the awesomest(prolly not a word) ride ever! I have recently quit riding lessons(not exactly my choice). But, I went riding for my birthday this year. I chose to ride Rocky(that's his name). I actually got to ride bareback for a little while! Then, after warming up, I got to learn a little bit of jumping. That was totally the perfect birthday present. I'll never forget my boyfriend (incidentally, we're kinda moving around the world right now...). I told my riding teacher that if she ever considered selling him, she'd have to call me first. I miss riding so much!
I also miss my little girl. She's two. I got to babysit a little girl over the school year three days a week. She was so funny! I miss her so much! On the last day I had her, I was having a particularly bad day and was talking to her, asking her if she would miss my sister (she and I split the work) and me. She said, "Yes, I'm going to miss you." Then she added, "I love you!" At this point, I was already ready to cry 'cause it was a horrible day and that did it. I broke down. Then, she said, "Don't cry!" and she came and hugged me. I miss that little girl. We baked cookies together, we played in the leaves last fall, we went for walks in the neighborhood, we ate lunch together three days a week, we read stories, we watched movies (one particular favorite was "Milo and Otis"), we played with play dough, we played with musical instruments, we played the piano, we played with a stuffed version of Noah's Ark, Oh, how I miss her! We still have some of her stuff that she left with us on the last day, so I can't wait until the day we get to drop it off. One memory I have of her is every time someone would mention something about baking, she'd already be pulling a chair over to the counter to help. We baked breads and cookies and Christmas cookies. It was such fun! She and her older sister, Kayla even stayed overnight with us so that her parents could have a night alone.
Anyway, for those of you who don't know, we're moving from Lynchburg. We don't know what's gonna happen 'cause Dad needs a job in the place where we want to build a house. We're moving from rental to rental in Lynchburg, cause our house sold and we still haven't got a job out there. But we're kinda stuck in the middle. So...anyways, I miss horses, Delaney, and a house that we actually aren't renting!