My Pride

You Know Its A Bad Day When... made me think of my first horse, Pride. She was a wonderful horse and a pleasure to be around, although when we first got her I wondered if we made a huge mistake. She had a lot of energy and freaked over everything. My dad's friend that helped us find her helped us turn her around. We bought her in late March and by May we took her to our first show. She wouldn't even back up (a requirement for the class) and she still won 7th place. It took lots of patience and time, but we finally taught her to back up. This was more of a trust issue than anything. It was as if she thought we would back her into something. By October she was falling me around like a puppy dog and my dad's friend was calling her 180 (as in she did a complete turn around from what she was). The name nearly everyone called her was "Big Mama". She was 16.2 hands and very fast. Most of the other kids were showing horses that were at 6 inches or more shorter than her. We would lap the other horses in the show ring. My dad and I still laugh about that and some of her crazy antics.

Big Mama will forever be in our hearts.

The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horses ears.
Arabic proverb

Tearing Up For Pillar

Pillar or Matt is bound and determined to make me cry! His brother CaveBear (Chris) had to leave today to go back to Minnesota. And in Matt's last paragraph here got to me. Of course this isn't the first time I've teared up for this family over the past week and I'm sure it won't be the last.

"Sorry that it took this kind of incident to bring us closer, but I think I am beginning to understand why ... Because Dad's journey is changing people all over the world, including me. Why us, Lord? Why not?"

Cliff and I continue to pray for Pastor Ray and the whole family.

You Know Its A Bad Day When...

The only thing you did right all day was wrong.

How can something be right and wrong at the same time?

The day got off on the wrong foot from the beginning. Everything was taking twice as long as it should. I finally set the alarm, locked the door, and got in my car. Then felt my pocket... no keys. I looked in my purse... no car keys. Ok so I just need to get back in the house to get my car keys. Fine! Not that big of deal, right? Looked for the house keys... Nada! Great! No car keys. No house keys. Then I remember Cliff left through the front door and I didn't lock it behind him (the one and only time actually)!

Today did have good parts though. Thanks to my fellow bloggers. Matt from G&G says that Pastor Ray is improving. Then I went to Jeanie and read her fabulous "Write on Wednesday". She made me stop and appreciate the small things in life.

1) The feeling I get when I'm less than a mile from my house. The green grass, beautiful trees, and rolling hills I call "home"

2) The smell right before the sky lets loose of a hot summer rain

3) How the smell of horses always brings me back to my first horse, Pride. Thank goodness Lady finally got used to me burrowing my face in her mane

4) The sound of Saber's claws skidding across the hardwood floor as she chases after her toys

What are a few small everyday things you appreciate?

Praying For Pastor Ray

Who is Pastor Ray?

Pastor Ray is many things to our family. He is the Pastor at the church my brother Jay and his wife Mandy go to. Cliff and I went through pre-marital counseling with him and he was the minister at our wedding. The counseling was really great. I was a skeptic at first, but let me tell you it as well worth driving into Nashville once a week for 6 weeks at rush hour. I know in my heart that the counseling has made our marriage even stronger. PR is a great man with a wonderful wife, Pat. We have also been camping a couple of times with one of his son's families. Matt and Courtney from Growing and Growing. Matt, Courtney and their kids also came up to my mom and dad's for Hailey's birthday and the kids had a big time with the horses and 4 wheelers. He is this and so much more.

Pastor Ray and his wife Pat.


Here he is at our wedding with us.


Please continue to pray for Ray and his dear family. Matt is posting regular updates on Growing and Growing.

Prayer Request!

Please pray for Pastor Ray and his dear family. See Growing and Growing for updates. News on Pastor Ray starts with "One out... One in" on Sunday.

The Girls

The other day while at the barn I was able to get a photograph of each of our mares with their ears up. This is rare for Em and Mae because of their "whatever" attitude!

Em


Mae


Lady

And Then I Passed Out

I was on my way home today when I got off the interstate at my typical exit. I made the mistake of looking over at the gas station saw that gas was $4.29 and then I passed out. Ok so I didn't pass out, but I don't look forward to the next time I need to fuel up. The gas prices even have Saber throwing her "arms" in the air.

Surprise!

Cliff took me to Cumberland River on our Anniversary. It was supposed to be a stop on our way to his parents so that they would have time to get ready before we stopped by to pick up our cooler to have a picnic at a park. It turns out it was our stop and he rented a boat for us! Here are some pictures from our boat ride.






Good thing we didn't anchor here.








The birds...






The River Goats... The goats? We thought the goats were funny.






New barges...


A rental house with a beach theme.


River volley ball.








New apartments.




Hope you enjoyed your sun-burnless river excursion.

Yes, Its That Bad!

As my subjects says... It is pretty bad. It could always be worse, though. In fact it is better than a month ago, but it is still bad. It is so bad I didn't feel very coherent this morning to the point I feel the need to apologize to the people I saw this morning. It is so bad that when I was on my way to one of my schools this afternoon I thought "man! I need to hurry up and get over there. I'd hate to make them stay late on a Friday!" That was immediately followed by "Today isn't Friday! It is TUESDAY!" which was then followed by "Waa!!! It is ONLY Tuesday!" Yeah, It has been one of those days weeks months.

On the brighter side... I hope to be posting pictures of my anniversary surprise from my husband tomorrow. I've been away from blogland for the most part for about a week because my modem went down. We finally got the new one and are up and running again. What I don't understand is that was the 3rd modem we have had go down in two and a half years. I just don't get it!

As you can see... I am expermenting with html codes. I'm lovin' it!