Life According To A Ranch Kid

Life IS Good

2009-01-30T11:37:00.002-07:00

I need to give my blog a whole new makeover. I'll get on that. I want to redo the picture, load more pictures onto my little slideshows, redo my Playlist.... yes. I'll do that. Maybe today, we'll see if I can find a good pic...

Anywhosie. I am in the most optimistic, amazing mood ever. I'm just... joyful. That's it! Joyful! I got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart! Down in my heart!

-bounces around singing at top of lungs-

I've just... Sort of renewed my relationship with the Lord. And He has been so gracious as to instill a joy deep down in me. I've turned on Air1 (local Christian alternative radio station) for the first time in ages and just ahhhh. Me so happy. LOL.

Hummmm dee dummm.

So. I'm hoping that we can go to the movies tomorrow or Sunday. Because Tyler and I want to see Mall Cop. And J., a friend, wants to as well but can only go on Sunday, not Saturday. N. and A. may go too but I am not sure, we have not discussed it, since N. doesn't have a phone right now. Making plans are exhausting! Which is exactly why I don't do it very often. :D

I may ride ol Wyatt this evening... Dingbat horse. Rode him yesterday, we gathered and moved some beef yearlin heifers, and then rode through a pasture and got a count on our Corriente bulls. He was being such a goober! I mean at one point he just boogered and humped his back and when to spinnin in a circle when I pulled his head around... And for no apparant reason! I mean really. -sigh-

Ooooh I'm sure you all know that song played on the Peanuts? Yeah, the Peanuts Theme Song, although it's officially called "Linus & Lucy". Well anyway, my piano teacher, Mrs. M., got the ORIGINAL version for me. Not watered down or anything, and it's like 2 levels above me, but I'm learnin to play it! I just got down the first part, and I'm playing it over and over and over. LOL. My poor family is gonna be so sick of that tune, but it's so cute and fun! I can't play it very fast just yet otherwise I get my counts mixed up but I'm working on it!

Okay so my oh-so-happy post is done now. Oh wait.... Hold on... -screams- Ha sorry. Gotta get my joy out somehow. So I've been dancing and singing all morning! WOOT! Hehehe. Okay I will leave you with a Bible verse and say adieu and hopefully get to work on my blog makeover soon...

"O God, you are my God,

earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you,

my body longs for you,

in a dry and weary land

where there is no water."

-Psalms 63:1

Hum dee dum...

2009-01-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

Okay so... Yes. I am ashamed of myself. I sorry. I abandoned my blog completely. But I'm here now so... Maybe I'll gain interest in posting regularly again. =]

Um so... Not a whole lot to talk about really. Had a good Christmas and all! =] My three little cousins were here for two days with my uncle (whom I lufffff), geeze do they just suck the energy out of you. I told my friend Adam it was like we had 3 little tornadoes ripping through the house. He said he knew how I felt because he had 4 little tornadoes in his house that never left. (4 little siblings.) I didn't feel too misfortunate after that.

Right now I have my MySpace playlist playing. I love music. Music is my drug of choice. There are no health hazards involved and there is a song for every day and every mood and every situation. Music is just ah-mazingggg. Mmm. Wonderful stuff, I'll tell you! It's better than coffee and chocolate combined. =]

I get addicted to songs. Like... seriously addicted. To the point where it's ridiculous. Right now I'm not... uber addicted to anything. But I have several songs I am listening to every chance I get haha. These are the songs:

Drink, Swear, Steal & Lie -- Michael Peterson (it's not like it sounds, I swear!)
Nobody's Girl -- Reckless Kelly
When You Say Nothing At All // Don't Close Your Eyes -- Keith Whitley

Keith Whitley is... Oh, man. Keith Whitley is just... Haha there are no words! I love his songs and I love his voice. He died way too young. =[

Anywhoooo. Yesh. Oh! There's a dance tonight! Wooot! -dances- Ha will be fun. :D Sara and I were gonna go to a movie before and she was gonna come home with me after but both those things are still a wee bit uncertain. But the dance will be pretty cooool. Ha I'm excited!

Okay well I'm running out of things to say. Seriously. I'll try and post tomorrow. Adios.

I Got Tagged!

2008-12-20T20:31:00.003-07:00

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? either/or

2. Real or fake tree? real all the way!

3. When do you put up a tree? we try to put it up two weeks before Christmas

4. When do you take it down? usually New Years Day

5. Do you like eggnog? ewwww nooooo!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? probably my dog =]

7. Hardest person (people) to buy for? my Daddy

8. Easiest person to buy for? Sara!

9. Do you have a nativity scene? yupp a mini set =]

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail for sure!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? haven't really gotten a horrible one

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I like most of them!! Smokey Mountain Christmas, Christmas With The Kranks, just all of em really.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? usually one to two months beforehand

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? haha no

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas? cranberry poundcake!

16. Lights on the tree? of COURSE! white ones :D

17. Favourite Christmas song? "away in a manger"

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? HOME!!!!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? i usually can but if i did here, that would give it away to the next person!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? mmm star =]

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning! but one on Christmas Eve

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? ugh lots of stuff. the pressure! the rush!

23. Favourite Ornament theme or color? i like eclectic assortments. =]

24. Favourite for Christmas dinner? just about anything!

25. Favourite Decorations? lights and nativity scenes

26. What do you want for Christmas this year? got some spurs already! hahaha and moosik

I can't think of anybody to tag who hasn't already done this. Ummm... JOSHUA! You ol scrooge, you, do it!

I'm Alive! I'm Alive!

2008-12-06T13:39:00.002-07:00

I did not fall off the face of the earth.

I have just been a bad blogger.

Oops.

Let's see what happened since I wrote... Ummm.... Well nothing much interesting.

And I actually have NO blog muse. At all right now. So... I just wanted to let ya'll know I am alive.

I will try to gather my muse this afternoon and return this evening. Yesh.

=]

Okay. Well off I got. And Sara is right... Kyle Park is awesome. But, sorry darlin, he is mine. I discovered him first. Bahahaha.

Bowling With Da Goofs....

2008-10-30T11:05:00.002-06:00

Alright so Sara already blogged about this but it was a ton of fun so ya'll get to hear another version of it. Baha.

Basically Mama is going in to Bible Study on Monday nights, and Sara gets off work at 5:00, and Bible study starts at 6:30. Sara is close to town, we are IN town... Hang out time! I never get to hang out with her. The only thing I could think of that would be much fun was bowling, and I thought it would be more fun with more people. The more the merrier right? Well I could only think of two people in town who I was pretty good friends with... Adam & Nelson. (When I told Nelson that, he thought it was downright hilarious that my only friends were two guys. >.<)

Nelson called me that morning to say he and Adam would be at the bowling alley at 6:00. Alrighty! Sara and I planned to meet at the church at about 5:45 and we would go to McDonalds or something and get a bite before hitting the bowling alley. But Tyler had just a little fender bender coming out of town just minutes before Mama and I got into town. So she ended up coming to get me so Mama could stay with Tyler. We first stopped by the ATM. Ha that was funny.... For reasons that will remain unknown. -cough cough-

Then to McDonalds. We were waiting in the drive-through line thing and the car ahead of us was being so slow. Sara hits the steering wheel and goes, "Hurry up lady!" We then proceeded to laugh our butts off upon realizing that the 'lady' was a burly man with a mustache. I don't know why it was funny.... But at the time we found it downright hysterical.

Then to the bowling alley. We had agreed at 6, but it was like 6:20 when we were about to get there... And see Nelson's truck pass us going the OTHER way. (Ha they got tired of waitin on us gals and was gonna go get some food.) Well we are sitting at the intersection in The Booger, and here comes Nelson behind us... And he HONKS at us. LOUD. I start laughing, Sara like freaks out and turns on her windowshield wipers AND the right turn signal. Which made total sense, seeing that we were in the left turn lane. >.<

Then she almost ran over the curb because she was trying to turn off all her gadgets, in the meantime I had the giggles and the fries and burger spilled. It was quite the ordeal.

So we get out, give the guys some heck, Sara eats, and in we go. Immediately they point us to Lane 1: at the very far end of the building, like 4 lanes from everybody else. I don't think we looked that rowdy, but maybe they recognized Nelson & Adam from times before, LOL, I dunno.

It was hysterical. I haven't had that much fun in I don't know when. It was absolutely awesome, ha, I have never hung out with friends like that, but it's happening again.

I was in stitches the whole time. Sara did the little "Flintstone walk" with Nelson providing sound effects. Adam acted like some mental kid for one turn. And... it was just hysterical. Of course we all had our special little names.

Adam: Buckner; that's just his nickname all around
Sara: Smithereens. Because I love her to smithereens! But Adam can't spell so of course it was Smithirinzz
Me: Chipmunk. yeah, I dunno, ask Sara.
Nelson: Stud Muffin.

I really don't know how he got that. All I know is that we all found it pretty amusing. One of the high points was when Adam went to go order he and Nelson's food. About 7 minutes later over the loud speaker you hear, "Buckner, your order is ready, Buckner." We all laughed because it was funny that he used his bowling name. Well about 10 minutes after that, for all to hear over the loudspeaker came, "Stud Muffin, your order is ready, Stud Muffin".

Poor Nelson had to go get his food in from of all those people who now knew him only as Stud Muffin, the man with the fried mushrooms.

Then they got some bright idea to shoot ice chips from their drinks at me through straws.

O.o

Real mature, yeah I know, that's just what I thought. I had to steal their straws, all FIVE of them, goosshh....

We went to the front door, and the guys made a run at Sara's pickup and... That was interesting. You couldn't see poor short Booger, all we see is Adam duck behind something (the truck) and Nelson make a flying leap (into the back of the truck) and disappear. Ended up spilling soda in the bed of Sara's truck, and on the hood. =P Poor Sara. I'm sorry.

Needless to say, it was severely amusing. And we must do it again in a few weeks. =]

2008-10-24T09:18:00.005-06:00

PALIN! WOOT!

2008-10-20T08:18:00.002-06:00

Well I guess I better blog. Since somebody is calling me a slacker.
Which is not only totally untrue... But not appreciated, my friend; not. appreciated.

So we had a pretty hectic weekend. Saturday about 10:00 we headed out to Abilene for my cousin Bethany's wedding. We got there, checked into the hotel, said 'hi' to my Aunt Deanna and Uncle Bruce (my favorite relative BTW) and then we went to HEB in search of some jam Mama likes, but returned empty-handed. As Daddy would say... it was a 'dry run'. =P Then we changed into our wedding clothes. Mine consisted of a green sweater, a pair of black dress pants that were like 2 sizes too big and about to fall off my butt, and a pair of too-tight black slides. Haha. No worries... after the ceremony, I was allowed to change into jeans and Fat Babys. YEAH.

It was a beautiful ceremony. They had it underneath trees, right at sunset, it was green all around with cattle in pastures on both sides, oh it was perfect. They stood underneath an arch with candles, there was a guy about my age playing piano and singing, it was very cool.

Then I changed. YAY. And went to eat a supper of cole slaw, mashed potatoes, beans, brisket, sausage and bread. Tasty. I ate at a table with Mama, Daddy, Tyler, Uncle Bruce, and my three little cousins. Jake (10), Jade (8), and Jace (6). Then we all sat around for like... an hour. =P They were playing good music, but everybody was waiting for the newlyweds to dance first. It's just tradition I reckon.

They finally came out- oh and by the way Bethany had a gorgeous dress, and Patrick looked handsome himself. =] The colors were like cream and chocolate brown; the bridesmaid's were like silk, chocolate brown, with cream waist ribbons.

Their dance was to "I Cross My Heart" by George Strait and "Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy?" by Chris LeDoux and Garth Brooks. Good songs! Sara and I have agreed that we like "I Cross My Heart" and "Keeper Of The Stars" for wedding songs.

Anywhosie. They played the father-daughter dance for Bethany and Uncle Bert (who I hadn't seen since I was about 7!!!) and that was "Stealing Cinderella" by Chuck Wicks. I LOVE that song. And then there was the mother-son dance which was "I'll Always Be Your Mother" by I have no idea who. I thought it was a terrible song. Lol. But anyway... And then there was the "Dollar Dance". HA... Like somebody would pay a buck or a few bucks to dance with Bethany, or Patrick. Then somebody else would come up, pay, and steal the bride or groom to dance with. It went on for like 3 songs! They had to see how much money they each made, and the money was gonna go to a good cause. Bethany made $48 and Patrick made $36.

Then they commenced with all the regular dances. I danced like 4 times with Jade, haha. And then like 3 times with Kiley, my 19 year old cousin (he's at Texas A&M) like 3 times... And then Tyler once, and Daddy twice. They played good music! Some Texas Country like "Wrangler Butts" (Aaron Watson), "Shutup And Dance" (Aaron Watson), and "Wear My Wring" (Bart Crow Band). And they played a really cool A&M song by Ranger Smith about "The 12th Man" and all. It was very cool too.

SO then we went home and went to bed. I couldn't go to sleep until about 1:00 TX time. We got up 6:00 TX time and were outta there by 7:00 TX time; 6:00 ours. We ended up stopping at McDonald's for breakfast. They have nasty regular meals, but I dare say their breakfast is dang good. Daddy got sausage McMuffin with coffee. Tyler got these 2 burritos with orange juice. Mama got this one big burrito, and I got an egg McMuffin (w/ hashbrown) with an iced coffee which was VERY delicious. Mmmm..

We got home about 11:00. We unloaded our stuff, ate a quick lunch, then Tyler loaded up in his truck to go to town and get Jed (a friend from NMMI) and go to the PALIN RALLY! Mama and I went in the Ford.

I guess I should explain. Yesterday afternoon Sarah Palin made an appearance at the air port and tickets were free. Auntie L. went, and Auntie M. and Sara and them, lotsa people I know. But there was SO many people I couldn't find em all. I could see John (Jennifer's hubby) and Randall across the fence- they're tall, lol. I finally caught Nathan's eye (sitting on poor Buck's shoulders) and was able to wave to Sara.

When we first got there (it was in a hanger, but we had to stand outside it by the fence they had put up) we saw Mr. Hett, Tyler's guitar teacher, and his wife. We basically stood there for like 40 minutes. I then saw Nelson (a friend of Tyler's) and Adam (another buddy) and Ty (a guy from 4H) standing not far off. So off I go! Haha so for 3 hours... I hung out with them. This girl named Rachel came up, and Camille for short periods, and Molly was there. We were quite the bunch. Ha. I got tired of standing and sat down leaning against Rachel's legs, and Nelson poured water on my head!!

MY HEAD!
How rude!!!

See I had straightened it before we left for the wedding because I was too lazy to wash and style it. I didn't have time to mess with it before the rally, so it was straight. "I'm gonna have POODLE HAIR now Nelson!" And then I hit him in the shoulder. LOL. And he's all "Yeah well, no offense, but you look better with curly hair anyway, so I did you a favor."

Whatever. -glare-
Later he told me he didn't recognize me at first. LOL he had never seen my hair straightened, and I was wearing sunglasses I never had around him before. He said "I thought you were some New York photographer or something who had mistaken me for a model!" LOL. Wow...

So yeah it was fun. The best part was, I didn't know Hank Williams JR. was putting on a concert!!!! YEAH it was awesome!! I got some pictures, but I wasn't very close to the podium, so they weren't great. And when Palin finally came my camera died. =[ She was only on for like 30 minutes, it was disappointing. But it was awesome to see her! Afterwards, Mama- well I'll let her tell you. =]

Anyway. I'll try and post pics later. For now... I'm gonna go... Do something... I dunno. I'm tired. I couldn't sleep well lastnight. I was getting ready for bed, got a phone call, so stayed up a little longer then had this massive headache (I blame the person I was talking to!!!) ha so anyway.

I'm going now. Adios!

Back Online!

2008-10-10T10:26:00.002-06:00

I am blogging.

Thus, I am on a computer.

And it is 10:30 on a Friday morning.

So I'm not on a computer at the library.

Which means?

We have our new computer! YAY!

Ha we got it in yesterday, earlier than we expected. We set it up this morning; the only thing we have left to do is get the speakers working. I already create an account; I like having my own account. That way all of my pictures and everything can be organized the way I want them to. Anyway... The screen is stinkin huuuge! It's a 22 inch screen. The only thing is that it stretches like pictures. Which is horrible. I bet there is something we can do about it though. Hm.

The keyboard works so great lol our old one had so much junk between the keys, this one is pretty smooth. I'm having fun on it. =D On the desktop it has weather for Roswell and yeah it's all pretty cool. =]

So we have been working cattle. I am DREADING when the day hands leave. It's going to be awful. I mean... I love living out, and on a ranch. But when your Daddy is your boss, Mama your teacher, and Grandpa and brother your co-workers, and you never see other people... It can be quite miserable at times. I see skeet range people, none near my age, and lately haven't even seen them. Then I see my piano teacher, and then just sometimes people we know like at WalMart and such.

I have alot more fun riding colts and working cattle with other people around. They make it so fun, I can't believe tomorrow is our last day. ='[

Ya know what's funny? My name is Caitlin, and everybody calls me that but my Daddy and Grandpa. If anybody starts to, I ask them not to do it. Except like ranch folk. Like when Will was here, he called me Katie and I had no problem. Same with Clint. It makes me feel... special. Haha! And now Wade calls me that, and Jered some. I just feel like they are.... I don't know, my big brothers or something. I know that sounds weird, but seriously!

Lathe cracks me up. Every time he sees me almost, if I accidentally let a calf out, or if I'm not paying a whole lot of attention, he says "Caitlin! What are you doing?" And it's the way he says things that cracks me up. Oh goodness...

Lathe is really cool. He lives like in Portales and he is Christian. In fact they host a Cowboy Fellowship that he started every Monday night in their barn, and he sometimes preaches. We were sorting cattle in a trap the other day and there was absolutely nothing going on in the middle, where we were stationed, so he rides over and we talked for like 40 minutes. He was telling me how he got saved and everything, it was pretty cool. Ha I drove a rig over to them one day, and I'd had a country music station on. Charlie Pride's, "I've Never Been So Loved In All My Life" was on, but when we all piled in the truck it was Kid Rock's crappy new song "All Summer Long". Lathe asks, "You like Kid Rock?" I'm like "Heck NO. Charlie Pride was on." He asks if I like Charlie Pride, and I said yeah I love all that old stuff like Chris LeDoux and the Oakridge Boys and he turns around in the seat and looks at me and goes, "Really?! Aw you and I need to ride together!" LOL.

So yeah the crew is pretty cool. I'm gonna miss em when they leave but I guess they can't stay forever. I'm off today because if I would have gone they would have needed to take 3 trailers instead of 2 so I was off. Which is okay I guess. Hm.

It's been a pretty good week. We have lots of good help. Wade, Jered, Dewey, Lathe and like every other day another Jared and a guy named Seth.

At the start of the week we gathered North Adobe and South Adobe and threw them into Adobe Trap. Then we gathered Adobe Trap, and drove it through Silmon, up to North Camp, where we sorted, weaned, processed, etc. Well when coming out of Silmon on our way to the pens, the crew (not ME, mind you, I didn't spill a single darned thing) spilled a few head; they were being kinda pushy. Well there was this one black Brahma-looking type cow who got real hot and just has a nasty disposition, so we dropped her to get her later.

So the next day, we gathered Silmon, the pasture the cow got dropped in. I got to take the outside fence on Alfred, and I saw nothing until we hit the overheads where Silmon, Racetrack and the North Trap meet. She was hanging right there; she had buddied up with cattle across the fence. I go riding up on Alfred (who has gotten better all week) and those cattle move off. She turns to look at me and I knew right off she was still ticked. I was about 100 feet away and she takes a few steps and Alfred gets tight and raises his head. He has never had a cow come at him, never been around them a whole lot, and she just had that air about her. Well she comes to trotting and this poor sucker goes to running backwards; Daddy could see it from a hill he was on a ways off. I didn't want to let him turn because I didn't want him running off. So finally I turn him to the side and she makes a run at us, blows by, and off down the fence she trots.

Well. It was obvious I wasn't about to get Alfred very near her, and I doubt anybody even well-mounted could have gotten her alone without roping her.

So no black cow that day. But I guess today they are going back through that pasture and will try to pick her up the sorry critter.

I've had horses spooking all week with me. Alfred is pretty green so he spooked at that cow (I mean he was running backwards now), he has also spooked at an ant-hill (I am not kidding), a fence post laying on the ground, and a deer shed. Gosh. I mean not just booger a little, spook as in suck back and run to the side. Sheesh. And then yesterday I was trying to ride Wyatt up into the crowd tub, where he had never been, it was awful. I had some Jolly Ranchers and Lathe was whining about it (lol) and I couldn't get that horse up to the side to save my life, so I finally threw one at him. Then I hollered and Seth about the candy, and he comes and jumps right up on the walk on the side of that tub, spooked Wyatt, golly that horse can suck back when he wants to. I ended up throwing candy to everybody lol.

Okay this has been longer than I intended. I now must go and resume my temporary position as kitchen slave. Adios!

The Day The Computer Died

2008-10-01T11:42:00.004-06:00

Our computer is old. And slow. And forgets things

Much like people when they age.

The Internet is so slow that when I go to the Library (where I am right now, as a matter of fact) I am sincerely shocked at the speed of the Internet. My grandparents' computer is so fast it's unGodly.

And today... Our computer... Died.

It was unevitable. -faint sniffle- He just... he was so old...

He had trouble moving. And processing new information. It was... his time.

-sob-

Luckily, we recently backed up all our information on an external drive. And today we are in town doing many random errands. I hate errands. So we are looking for a new computer as well, not that there is much choice.

But... If we fail in our desperate search for a new computer, I shall apologize in advance for my lack of blogging in the meantime.

Now my mother must go to the hair salon.

And I must leave this gloriously fast computer.

Adios.

Woes of Moi

2008-09-30T15:18:00.004-06:00

Ya'll think if I chop off Alfred's head he will stop slinging it?

Yeah, me too.

Gosh darned that sorry, rotten, good-for-nothing, pitiful, pot-bellied pony. This morning I was liable to hop off, break off a mesquite branch, and every time he'd go to slinging his head just BOP! Right between the ears!

Naw. I wouldn't do that. In fact I'm not aggressive enough. I have a problem with making a horse do something; I tend to offer it to him and then just kind of bug him til he does it. Which is bad. Very bad. Don't ever do that.

See, Tyler is too aggressive. He's just a demanding rider. I've heard Daddy say if he mixed us together, he'd have a good horseman on his hands. Haha. If only, if only... But I am getting alot better! I think I've ridden like 25 days out of 30 in the past few weeks.

He doesn't know alot. But Alfred, being the lazy bum he is, tends to throw these tantrums to get out of doing stuff. It's like him saying, "Well I don't wanna, I'm not gonna, and you can't make me!" I just have to say, "Oh you will and I can!" I have a hard time being... A disciplinarian. If that's a word.

Enough of my horsemanship woes. Next week we will have a huge crew; as big as 14 on some days! Yippee! =D That will be fun. And it will be easier on everybody.

Oh goodness I'm tired. And worn out. I need to wash clothes. And... I'm too tired to write much more. I just decided I should write. Before I get out of my blogness. Since I'm kind of on a roll.

Oh, and I need comments on my new layout.

Adios!

{-->R.A.N.D.O.M.N.E.S.S= Bloggynesss

2008-09-29T17:18:00.010-06:00

Alright so the blue jean template was cool to begin with but I decided it was too dark. I'm not a... dark person. I'm more in the light soothing colors; and I'm not talking pastels. Like sage and beige and such... I love bright colors too. But not on web pages.

[/end rambling]

Tomorrow we get to start working a little more. -sigh- I love working cattle, don't get me wrong. But that means I have to ride Alfred and that little horse is driving me crazy. Just toss his head, and pull on my hands, and URGH. I seem to be doing all the right things; anchoring my hands and not giving to him, but he is persistent. Last Friday when we brought some cattle in he saw his buddies he was running with 2 weeks previous. They were running off, and he goes to humping and throwing some sort of little tantrum. It was pitiful, I lost a stirrup. LOL. Luckily he's just a little pot-bellied doof and all ended well. But the point is I am getting quite perturbed with the creature.

I hope Wyatt continues to hold up. He was ridden pretty hard as a youngster and usually breaks down during fall works and gets lame. But tomorrow we have to start moving stuff back to their pastures, and we have to work our good herd in West Bull.

Then Sunday evening the 3 Goofs come back in. Ha... We have the 3 Amigos and the 3 Goofs. Seems that day hands travel in threes. Huh. That's funny.... So does bad luck.

Hehe. So Monday we will start working the North side, the beef cattle; for some reason I hate the North side more than the South side. Racetrack is pretty good to work but I hate North Adobe. -shiver- Mountain is a pain in the butt too. Ahhhh wells.

And now I will end this tiny pointless blog post with one of my favorite Bible verses of all time.

"When I am afraid,

I will trust in you.

In God, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I will not be afraid.

What can mortal man do to me?"

Psalm 56:3-4

Bow Howdy!

2008-09-28T10:06:00.002-06:00

Well this has been a long week and I'm kind of glad I can finally rest a little bit but it was fun!

On the 23rd we started our Fall Works. We went from Tuesday-Saturday (not quite a week) with a crew of 8. We worked the South side of the ranch, which is strictly Corriente cattle. This week we still have some little stuff to do; work West Bull (our good herd) and move some stuff back around to where they belong. But the hard stuff is over.

It was Daddy, Grandpa, Tyler, moi, Dave (Tuesday-Thursday), Adun (pronounced UH-DON, Thrusday-Saturday), and the 3 Texas boys. Dewey, Waed & Jered.

Oooh boy it was fun. I think Comedy Central should have a show called "Day Hands". These boys have the best stories, I'll tell you what. Wow.

That first day we were all sitting at the dinner table eating. Seth (the guy who found these guys for us, they're all buddies) had called Wade probably 20 times that morning. And 3 more times at the dinner table. So when Wade finished he called Seth.

"Ya know, it's not rude or anything to talk on the phone at the table", says Dewey.

So Seth answers and oh my gosh.... Wade is all "Well we are packing up... Yeah, Gary fired us. No, I'm serious. He's a hateful man, Seth! Really... Yeah, he got real mad. We got two cussins before we even got outta the truck!"

And this goes on, and we are all about to fall out of our chairs laughing. LOL I guess Seth was just shocked. He was like, "Well I've worked with him and he seems like a real great guy! I have never heard him raise his voice!" Ha Jered is all "Well I guess we just bring out the worst in him."

That was funny stuff. He calls Daddy that afternoon and Daddy didn't know them well enough to keep it goin, he didn't want to get in the middle of it and he told the truth. LOL. Seth said he was gonna have to get back at them, but they made it sound like it was vice versa.

I tell you what these guys have some hilarious stories. I'll try to remember a few. It was funny though, that morning, Jered walks in first. And he is a big boy now, pretty tall and big. I'm like, oh hey, there's a big one. Then comes in Wade... just a little shorter and a little less around. "And a medium sized one..." And then comes in Dewey who is probably like 5'3 and 10 inches around. "And there's a tiny one!"

Dewey reminds me of one of those chihuahuas who think they're a Doberman.

He's funny though, just the way he says stuff and just cracks me up. One of his favorite things to say is "Booooy howdy". LOL the way he says it, he kind of has a husky voice, oh boy.

They were telling stories yesterday about this one guy they know who talks in his sleep, and bad.

I guess they were all in the bunkhouse one night and...

Eddie: "Jered... Jered!"
Jered: *wakes up* "Huh.... what Eddie?"
Eddie: "There's a horse, he got loose, look over your right shoulder!"
Jered: *sits up in bunk and starts looking around room for horse*
Wade: "You're in the bunkhouse, boy!! Go back to sleep!"
Jered: "Eddie... you're asleep."
Eddie: "No I'm not! Where's Chance? He'll help me!"

LOL!!! I mean I find it highly amusing that people can do this in their sleep. One night a couple of them were up and they hear Eddie from his bunk going, "One bull.... Two bull... No, three bulls!" And they kind of chuckle then Wade asks, "Ya get your bulls penned, Eddie?" And he retorts, "Yeah, no thanks to ya'll!"

Oh wow.... They had so many stories. But they are 20x funnier in person. Like I said, just gotta hear em from Dewey.... He's got like the opposite of cross eyes though, so you can never tell if he is looking at you and if he is, you don't know what eye to look at. =P He has a wife and a kid, and his kid's name is Cedar. I thought that was a pretty dang cool name.

I guess once Dewey went to a bronc riding and Wade came along, only to find out Dewey had secretly entered him. And not under his real name, but under Willy Everride. Say it aloud. LOL. Oh, and he was from Rooster Poot, Montana.

Well he had to ride, he didn't want to look like a wuss. So he draws the best horse in the bunch, and that horse just wasted him, just laid him down. And you can hear the announcer say, "I guess the question still remains- Will Everride? We may never know..."

Ha. I can't wait for them to come back next Sunday.

Rammmbllleeee

2008-09-16T06:39:00.002-06:00

Sara. I realize you are jealous of the fact that I have been presented with the oppurtunity to aquire the title "Bronc Stomper". Don't be.

The grass is always greener on the other side, my friend, always greener on the other side...

You have a job where you can work under the air conditioner; or, considering the approaching months and weather accompanying them, heater. There are no serious hazards; sure, you cut yourself with a blade while opening a box.

But... you're a clutz. (Sorry-but you're my friend, so I'm allowed to say that.)

You don't have to worry about your shirt-tail flapping wrong sending a 2 year old sorrel into a fit.

You needn't worry about not reaching up too far with your stirrups to tap the colt in the "knuckles" (they're elbows Daddy, elbows! Say it with me- EL. BOWS.) and thus kicking him in the belly resulting is a chastising from your bronc stomping coach.

There are no hazards of your mount suddenly deciding, why no, he does NOT like loping and he thinks he will just stop. Because he wants to. And he's a frickin colt.

It's annoying. It's stinkin annoying.

Don't ask what encouraged this rant to spill from my fingers onto the keyboard and thus to the computer screen. Because it is rather difficult to explain, and rather... Well, ridiculous. So. You will only sit in awe of my unexpected rampage and ask no questions. Understood? Yes. Good.

Moving on.

Yesterday I got up to help Daddy and CJ get in about 20 head of yearling Charlois (I can never spell that word) steers. That was rather easy, a very nice ride indeed; there was that Fallish-Winterish smell in the air, it was cool and ah just very pleasant. We got to the house and.... The pleasant-ness ended. In that very pasture we keep our loose horses that are crippled or we don't use or something. For example there is a grey that is not broke, a horse that requires alot of riding but Daddy doesn't have time for, a horse that has something wrong with his neck it seemed and is now crippled, etc. And we just got two sorrels up; a 4 year old and a 3 year old.

The 4 year old is a pot-bellied little creature by the name of Alfred. When he was a weanling and we broke him, he was so ugly. It as pitiful. Scrawny and ugh. So we decided he needed a dorky name. What is more dorky than Alfred? (Sorry for any of ya'll named Alfred out there, I mean for a horse, and... Well we couldn't name him something regal like Charlemagne.) So Alfred it was. But at 2 years old he became lame; suspensary I think. We get alot of those. Most heal, some don't. His did and this spring Daddy put some rides on him. Then didn't have time for him again I think. So out he went. But now here he is, 4 years old, pot bellied, filled out alot, but still not the purtiest horse in the ring.

Then there is a 3 year old we call Kansas, because Clint started him and Clint is... Well he's from Kansas. Clint started him I guess like early this spring. Or late this winter. However you want to say it. Anyway. He started him and didn't end up riding him much at all. Maybe put 15 rides or so on him. There are pictures on MySpace of this horse bucking. Not crow hopping, mind you, bucking. Needless to say, I was rather glad that Alfred was my project, and Kansas CJ's. But this horse was really skittish and weird. Clint can dang sure ride, about as well as anybody I have ever seen. But I'm not sure if he took this horse too fast or what. He ended up not riding him hardly at all after those first few rides. I wonder what happened.

Anyway. So we saddled up the two beasties and warmed them up in the round pen and then CJ was to work this Kansas.

It was awful; CJ would just put his toe in the stirrup and not even get up on the side, and this horse would booger and go to bucking. But in an hour, Daddy helped him and he was lined out real nice. It was a BIG change. CJ was able to trot and lope him around both ways, without a mere hump. Then Daddy gets on Alfred for about 5 minutes (he's gentle and lazy) and decides they were gonna frickin ride all the way across the pasture we gathered this morning on two horses that hadn't been ridden in like 6 months, to get a rig.

Are. You. Frickin. Crazy. (?).

Apparantly so. But off they go. I watched them as far as I could, then they got on a rise and I could no longer see and my horse wasn't up. So in the house I go to do school.

They were gone a while.
Then longer.
It's not that far to the corner, is it?
Hmmm.

Finally, here they come. I go outside to see if Daddy wants me to unsaddle Alfred or something. CJ doesn't get out of the truck (he's on the phone), and Kansas is in a war bridle.

Ha. Uh. No. What happened?

Apparantly Kansas did buck CJ off the dirty sucker. I guess it was when they were almost to the rig; wouldn't it suck to make it all that way??

Daddy says there is something wrong with CJ's arm. Kaitlin (CJ's wife) is in Portales where she has a college class twice a week, so Daddy takes him into the ER.

Mama and I are sitting in the house hoping and praying it's not broke. Not only would that stink for CJ, he would be pretty much out. We figured he can ride with a broken arm, but if it's his right he couldn't shift the pickup. Or do just about anything during Fall Works which start next week.

Daddy comes back from town a couple hours later. CJ DID break his arm. And it's up high; like upper arm. Which means no he cannot ride. But it's his left arm, so yes he can shift the truck. Gosh dangit Kansas.

So yeah. Ya'll just pray that it heals well and that when Daddy gets on Kansas (he will I know dangit) he won't get hurt.

Alright. Well I must go eat breakfast now. And brood over what I must do the rest of the day. Probably gotta ride the dang colt.

-sigh-

Adios ya'll.

The Bronc Stomper... Got Stomped.

2008-09-11T06:51:00.003-06:00

That's right. Sorrelly dusted me.

Laugh.
Tease.
Do as you will.

I will only shed a tear for each bone jarring jump.

Which.... would only be like.... 3 tears.... I guess.

Alright, alright, so it was like completely and utterly my fault. It was actually a good thing it happened. I was always afraid he was gonna do something.... But now that he did, I feel better. If that makes sense.

Again. It was my fault. When we started 'em in the round pen it was fine. That first ride outside scared the bajeebers outta me, and ever since, I'm scared to death to even move. I don't know why, and I know it only makes everything worse rather than better. Being scared to move, for him to move, is what got me bucked off in the first place.

We were in the arena, and I was scared for him to move out much. But I finally started to trot circles. This horse has a real neat way of moving, but he will sure get down in the dirt and duck off and surprise ya now. That's what he did; ducked to the left at the fence. I got outta shape and.... jabbed him with my left spur. Great. I go to grab my right rein, but the spur of course encouraged him to duck off to the right. Already outta shape, the right spur got him, and well, off we go. I was really outta shape in that saddle, it was sad. I half bailed half flew off. But since I kind of bailed (he wasn't bucking THAT hard), I didn't hit the ground very hard. I kind of.... slid off. Neither CJ nor Daddy saw it. Anyway the worse damage was a pretty scraped up finger and a sore knee. We got it all figured out and since then it's been better.

A friend on MySpace, Jennifer from TX, told me "the important thing is you get back on and spur the fur off the danged critter!" HA I love it.

Anyway. So all is well now in the bronc stomping world.

And I must go now. I am adding songs to my Playlist, but need to get breakfast and get started on school. We have been spending ALL morning, EVERY morning working with the colts, and I have gotten hardly any school done. I need to today, since I got the morning off.

Adios!

Semi-Rant and Fish Pix

2008-09-04T13:10:00.005-06:00

Whatddya know, I actually managed a healthy amount of sleep last night. -congratulates self-

Well, since nobody else is going to... You know, being appreciated and rewarded for the small things really matters in life. But does anybody thank you for the really small things? NO! You have to do bigger, more noticable things.

Well maybe if somebody would thank us for the little things, the big things would HAPPEN MORE OFTEN!

Wow. Don't think the caffeine wore off just yet.

Um. Sorry. Just on a little rant. My ride on Sorrelly this morning (my 5th) wasn't as superb as the others. I got on, and we are done with having other people flag us around so we have to make them move on our own. Which is okay because I have my handy dandy little dressage whip.

-cracks tiny whip and Rawhide themesong comes on-

BUT.... Sorrelly is, for whatever unGodly reason, one sided. In a manner. He is smooth and moves out really freely (the only horse in the bunch that does that at all) to the left. It's his going to the right we have problems with. He is really sticky to the right, and wants to turn his head into the pen walls, and his butt into the center. Or, if I bother him enough doing that, he will turn the other way. I was getting SO frustrated because I was trying to pull his head to the right, kick him in the elbow with my right stirrup (which is harder than it sounds), pop him with the whip in the right side of his butt, and process whatever Daddy was barking at me at that time.

All at the same time: pull on right rein, cue with feet, whip, think, I CAN'T HANDLE THIS PEOPLE!!!!

So finally Daddy got frustrated with me enough to get on Sorrelly, which really made me feel sorry because I'm glad he got Sorrelly lined out, but I felt like I was incapable. Ug. Anyway when Daddy stepped off, poor Sorrelly had steam just rolling off his coat like you wouldn't believe. Then CJ got on Bay Boy, and he is really tight moving out, so he bucked with CJ for about 5 seconds; CJ lost his left stirrup, but stayed on. It was funny, that poor horse didn't know where the heck his feet were, I bet it was a rough ride. Then Daddy got on Yeller, who did really well considering how we thought he was gonna be. He's probably doing the best of the 3 horses just because Daddy is riding him. But I'll get better!

Then we led them into the pens and set them up so we went in a circle through the pens, with the old round pen, crowd tube/chute in the middle. So yeah. We trotted them around, went over a log, all that good stuff. Tomorrow we are taking them into the frickin pasture! -cringe- Oh well. Atleast I won't have to worry about my stinkin horse not going RIGHT. Dangit Sorrelly, how hard is it???

Sorry. Still a little steamy. I've always had some issues when working with horses around my Daddy; it seems all I ever get from him is negative feedback, while with CJ he compliments what he does well. Hence the first little rant at the beginning of this post. But I'm trying just to not lose my cool and learn from him instead of popping HIM in the butt with my little dressage whip like I was desperately wanting to this morning.

Moving on. My fishie... Uh still doesn't have a name. I was thinking maybe Ritz or Leo or Cash or something along those lines? Suggestions are welcome. Sara wants me to name him Bob. But she thinks EVERYBODY should be named Bob. FYI, she has a ghost named Bob. She wanted me to name my cat Bob until I told her it was a girl. Then she suggested Bobbi.

Really creative Sara.

So anyway, I was bored after lunch, so here are a few pictures of the little dude. (It's rather hard to take pictures of a fish through a crappy plastic bowl.)

Haha those Bettas crack me up, with their little grumpy faces. Hehe. That's how I felt this morning. -makes fishy face- Grrrr. Ha try walking up to somebody, making a fish face, and go "grrr". See if they're intimidated.

Seriously.

It'd be funny.

Or.... retarded....

But hey, that's just how I roll. =D

Random...ness....

2008-09-03T20:14:00.002-06:00

Ugh. I just spend about 6.5 hours in town. Forgive me if I seem a little... disgruntled.

Got up this morning, got dressed, and went outside to ride my colt. (It was frickin cold without a coat; I need to buy one. It even sprinkled a little and remained real cool all morning.) Uh... Not much to say there. I couldn't get Sorrelly to move out real well by myself, since we had made my halter lead into reins. So he went and got me something he got specially for that occasion.... A dressage whip. LOL. I felt like a little English person. But it worked well! It's small and light and did the job. Hopefully tomorrow I can get him moving off my cues alot better.

Uh. Then I came in, no time for a shower (we were doing other stuff in addition all morning). So I ate, changed clothes, got my piano stuff, and out we went.

So yeah. I was in town. But good news is I got 2 new pair of jeans, and with my gift card I went to PetCo and got some Hamster bedding & chews, these little jingle ball toys for Harley, and a Betta kit! I used to have a 10 gallon tank with lots of cool stuff. But after I didn't have a fish, I accidentally broke it. Plus, it was a pain in the butt to clean, and Betta don't like to swim around that much either. So I have this little bowl, and I bought some of those pretty round smooth rocks, they're green and clear. And this little snail with a sign that says "NO FISHING". Haha. Yeah. And then we went to WalMart, where I got my fish. He's like this salmon color. Purty. =D I already had fish food at home. So yeah, now he is happily swimming around.

Then we went to Starbucks and I got a much needed mocha frappuchino. Ahhh... yummyness. OH and at Target I was craving strawberry licorice aka Twizzlers. But there was this kind of licorice in a paper type bag that said it was Australia's favorite licorice. Hmmm. So I got it. It's really really good! Really chewy and kind of soft, and... strawberry-y. Very yummy.

Yeah. So... I probably won't sleep much tonight. Due to the caffeine from the frappuchino, and sugar fro those licorice... Which are like death in a chewy stick. They are PACKED with sugar and calories. But to heck with calories! THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY PEOPLE!!!

Uh. Wow. Caffiene has negative effects on me.

Yeah so. Oh I saw a shotgun range dude at the local livestock place. He came once, his name is Terry. I didn't recognize him at first, and he walks up to me in line and is all, "Hey shotgun girl." Ha. So anywho.

Oh I wrote a poem this morning. In like... 15 minutes. See the WRCA is coming up, and I get tickets and hotel rooms provided if I travel with some close friends of mine (their daughter is my penpal) around various schools in Amarillo, doing Cowboy Poetry and music stuff on behalf of the WRCA. I do this one little poem is all. And then last year they started doing a show in the... show part of the building.... With young kids. Hallie plays fiddle and does some poetry, Cody does poetry, Tyler plays the guitar, they had this one other kid playing guitar I think, and then I do my own poetry and one or two of other people.

Well I was needing some new stuff. So over the past week I've been struggling over a stinkin legal pad, with a fairly good idea in my head, straining over this poem. It was so hard to writhe out, and I only have 4 stanzas. It ticks me off. I just couldn't get it to flow.

But this morning, Daddy said something that reminded me of something he told me like 1 or 2 years ago when we were halter breaking colts. And... I decided to make a poem out of it. So I sat down after working with Sorrelly, and just started to write. It just all kind of flew out, I only had to really stop and figure out some of the rhymes like 3 times. In 15 minutes, I had hardly- decipherable scribbles on both sides of a legal pad page - 11 stanzas. I put it on the computer and did some editing and lengthened it to 13. Turned out pretty well. I'm gonna do a little more editing then maybe I'll share it with ya'll. ;]

Okay well. I guess I'll go clean my room some since it's a mess and take a shower and mess with my poem a little. Adios ya'll! (And sorry for boring ya'll to death.)

Muse & Meese

2008-08-31T16:47:00.004-06:00

Okay so I've been sitting here doing various things on the computer; chatting with Debbie on MSN, chattin with Sara on MSN, replying to mesages on MySpace, checking other blogs. And inbetween these... essential and difficult tasks, coming back to this blank little box. And... desperately racking my mental warehouse.

See. I have one of those; a mental warehouse. Unfortunately, the average amount is 2.
I only have 1.
See the problem?

Anyway. Yes, I was searching the warehouse for a little silver tin that read, "BLOG MUSE". I came across, "MOTIVATION FOR CLEANING", and a few little bitty packages that contained things like "FORMULA FOR CIRCUMFRENCE OF CIRCLE". Once there was a tin that I thought was Blog Muse, but it turned out to be "BEDTIME PONDERINGS". I shoulda known better; Blog Muse has a blue label, Bedtime Ponderings is red!

Anyway, finally on the very top shelf above a box of "CAPTIALS OF US STATES" I found one of those glorious tins! I found a ladder and scrambled up, popped off the top... Only to find it was near empty.

How sad.

So I scraped out what little muse was left, and here I am. I'm so sorry you only get that little handful of muse. But I did the best I could, honest!!

I mean, Bedtime Ponderings would have been the next best thing, it makes for a fair substitute... But I'm not sure ya'll want to hear my Bedtime Ponderings. I mean, you never know what you get when you pop open one of those tins. Sometimes they just really don't make much sense.

And everybody knows that I always make perfect sense.

Okay. So anyway.We went skeet shooting today, it was alright. I shot 3 rounds but I was just having a really bad day. Oh well. It was nice and overcast.

Uh. Really there isn't much to write. Nothing. So sad. I think I'm already running out of muse; there wasn't much left. But I have just enough to write one more thing. Some little thing....

Something, something, something... Uhhh...

Purple polka dotted peanut-butter mooses.

(I think that tin's due date was expired. It's not very good anymore.)

Wait.

If "mice" is plural for "mouse", then....

Oh. Excuse my spelling error. I usually don't make such ridiculous mistakes.

Purple polka dotted peanut-butter MEESE.

Cannibal Cats {And Other Random Thoughts...}

2008-08-30T16:43:00.002-06:00

Okay I'm gonna try to go for a new post everyday. Even when I have nothing to talk about. {Try being the optimal word here.} So you get to hear my random ramblings.

Rain has been circulating in our area over the past several days; it's sure nice to see those clouds, dark skies, or that hazy horizon that is a sure giveaway for rain not too far off. I get this really excited feeling in my gut when I see those clouds rolling in. Especially horseback; there is just something about being rained on while horseback. Mmmm. Without the thunder and lightning of course. Because... well that takes all the fun out of it. Now if I'm laying home in my bed, thunder and lightning is all fine and dandy so long as the country isn't too dry at that present time. Then lightning scares the bajeebers outta me. But just laying there with my lamp adding a rosy glow to my room, all curled up nice and cozy under my flannel quilt, with a good mystery novel, watching the lightning, ahhh.... Ain't nothin like it, I'm telling you.

So moving on from rain. We shot 2 rounds of skeet each this morning; it was a registered shoot and we shot unregistered, but still only got to shoot 2 rounds. Tomorrow we can shoot all we want. I shot a 17 {EWWW} and a 19 {ehhh}. (Outta a possible 25.) 20 is my personal best, and I'm sure trying to get better. The 19 was acceptable I reckon, since it was the first time I've really shot doubles on 2 and 6. {Stations 2 & 6 are awkward angles and the skeet shooters enemy.} Alot of people have problems with station 4, but I find it fun. You have to have like 4 foot of lead, and now I am rambling on about something that some of ya'll know next to nothing about and I'm probably confusing you.
Anyway, when Cody goes out there to shoot, he's fun. We enjoy making up excuses as to why we miss.

"The cloud formations in the background distract me."
"It's too bright today!"
"It's sure gotten green, hard to see those birds."
"Dadblasted breeze."
"Rib on my gun is bent."
"Bad reload."

And that's only the beginning. We are expert excuse-makers.
Then there are Bruce & Gloria, who I love. Bruce never fails to pick on me, but he's real nice, I love 'im. Haha... Gloria is totally sweet. Somehow it's more fun when there is another girl out there. Dara comes most weeks too, and boy is she fun! LOL both she and Gloria!
The other day, we were actually scoring the rounds on a sheet for the League. Bruce {who was also pulling, aka pushing buttons on this little remote thingy} was scoring at the table under the roof thingy, and told Dara she would have to speak up when she said "pull" because he couldn't hear her "itty bitty voice" all the way over there. They proceeded to give her a hard time.
So we were sitting there, scored like 2 people, and Daddy, Bruce & I were talking when all of a sudden we hear this blood-curdling, top of her voice screech: "PUUULLL!!"
Yup. I was Dara. Scared Bruce half to death and he dang near pushed all the buttons, and she missed she was laughing so hard, so we gave her another bird. LOL it was funny though; Dara is like 5'1 or 5'2 or something, itty bitty thing, it was frickin hilarious.

Oh and anybody want a cat? Harley is driving me insane. She is about 2 months now, and has come to rule the house. When she is hungry, she doesn't go unnoticed. She screams and screeches, and regardless of whether you have jeans on or not, will crawl your leg to let you know she is just so starved and malnutritioned. And she is EEVIIIL. Golly dang, I'll just be sitting there, minding my own business, she comes up and crawls into my lap. I won't move a muscle and she just attacks me! I swear it, she's just the most evil little sucker. Sharp teeth, I am telling you know, and claws?? Holy cow! She evenutally gets sweet and falls asleep on your chest, purring... She has the funniest habit. I don't know if she wants her bottle {she only gets one bottle feeding a day now} or if it's a comfort thing, but she sucks her thumb. Or her toe or whatever since cats don't neccessarily have thumbs. Or do they? Is that top claw a thumb? I guess it could be....

These are the things I wonder...

Yeah, it's pretty cute actually, you can hear her little sucking noises. She was sitting on Mama's shoulder today, about to go to sleep, and starting sucking on her neck, it was the funniest thing, making smacking noises and all. It's a kitty hickey! -laughs-

Rotten little thing. But no, seriously... I will PAY somebody to take our cats.
Please.
I'm begging you.

The dogs live in fear of mobs of cats.
They are forming gangs now.
Seriously.
There's the Yard Crew.
Alpha-Chicken House.
The Wanderers.
Barn Gang.

Folks, I, a 15 year old, live in fear of a 2 pound kitten.
Please.
Take pity.
Save us.
I beg of ye.

SHE'S A CANNIBAL CAT!!!

Bronc Stomper

2008-08-29T09:53:00.004-06:00

Alright so I got up this morning to work with the horses again.

Every time we start colts or halterbreak a set of 'em, it becomes clear to me again just how much there is to working with horses. I think everybody who works with horses in any way, even as a hobby, should have to start a horse. You can never fully understand just how a horse's mind really functions until you do that, if you ask me. There are just so many things involved, it would take me forever to write about all we do and why.

But one of the rules Daddy has set in stone is "NO SNEAKING". Alot of guys sneak around a horse to get the saddle on or to get up to them, then when you go to riding them, it's all such a big shock; eventually you want to be able to just walk right up to your horse, catch him, throw a blanket on him, well now's the perfect time to start.

So anyway, Ol Yeller is still having problems. He went to bucking around the pen minutes after he was saddled while CJ and I easily just worked with our horses. Daddy is out right now I think with him; he caught Jesse and is riding him while working with Yeller; one thing a colt has a lot of problems with is changing eyes. Their vision is different from ours; there is a blind spot right in front of them. But when you get on a horse, you have their head turned towards you, so they see you. But when they straighten out, they see you on the right side, and well that just scares the bajeebers outta them and they spook pretty badly generally. So we put our foot in the stirrup on both sides and hop up and down and step up on the side, rub them on the opposite side, lots of stuff.

So ol Bay Boy was doing real well so Daddy asks if CJ wants to put a ride on him. He sure does, so off we go to the round pen. I watch as they move him out a little, then CJ gets up on him, it's all just smooth, goes really well. So CJ gets off ol Bay Boy and I'm anticipating Daddy asking if I wanna ride Sorrelly. But he looks at CJ and point to Sorrelly, askin, "You wanna ride him?"

My heart stopped. My jaw stropped. I stare in wonder.

Wha- but- hey! Daddy- Sorrelly is....

-bawls-

I mean he's been after me for years to start my own horses, make my own horses, etc etc. And NOW he puts CJ on my first chance?

EXCUSE ME??!!!

There is something seriously awry with this!!

So I slump against the side of a telephone pole and watch wtih teary, glazed-over eyes as CJ steps up on MY colt.

What has the world come to?? Grown men stealing young girls' first rides on colts?? It's an abomination I tell you!

I felt a little better when he realizes the stirrups are too long, and goes to get off, but his foot brushes Sorrelly's butt and he gets startled and takes a jump. Naturally, since he was completely out of position, CJ pulls on the reins (well it's a halter) and Sorrelly feels trapped and crow hops around a little bit, does a little rear, then it was done. All this while he had no right stirrup. So anyway the ride went pretty well.

CJ steps off and Daddy motions me in saying, "Your turn."

Well I was just so durned happy! Only problem was, I wasn't wearing my boots.

Lets take a little writing detour here. I got a new pair of boots about 2 weeks ago when we went to San Antonio. I love em! They have a riding heel, are square toed, brown bottoms with a cream colored top and golden yellow, red and black stitching high tops.

ANYWAY. I had my Fat Baby's on. I was going to wear my riding boots, but didn't think we were gonna get on the colts today, and I get chewed out when I wear my boots for no reason. =P

But Daddy tells me it will be fine. I give him a glare and tell him if something happens and I can't get off I'll blame it on him.

CJ tells me Sorrelly won't buck unless I kick him in the behind like he did. LOL.

So I step right up there and gather up my rein and step right in the saddle. I felt so proud! Haha... Daddy flagged him around the round pen into a trot and even lope! Sorrelly is pretty... well he likes to move out. So when he lunges through the sand it's pretty rough, but I loved it! And he already reins around a little bit, it was great.

-beams-

But since I will only ride him for about 30 days then send him off to Bill, Daddy said we might get up a filly and I'll break her. Because we will sell the fillies, or most of them, anyway. If she's broke, you get more. And I have time on my hands, I'll get paid for it- why not?

If I get good enough at it, Daddy once tried to get Tyler into buying colts, breaking em, then selling them. He was interested in it; I might be eventually. But now I have earned the name... Bronc Stomper.

Has a certain ring to it don't it? Bronc Stompin Kate! HAHA...

Okay so I better go now. Just thought I better post. Adios ya'll!

Ol' Yeller, Bay Boy, & Sorrelly...

2008-08-28T17:34:00.003-06:00

Alright so I promise I would post again today, and I am a gal true to her word!

This morning I was rather rudely awakened at approximately 6:30 am by my father. Now I have lately been up at about 6:00 am, so I slept in slightly. But, I hadn't slept well that night. Thus my reason to complain!!

Daddy informed me that we were gonna put the first saddle on the colts. He brought them up yesterday and he and CJ I guess got 'em haltered and worked with a little bit. These colts are 2 years old and there are three of them; we halter broke them last fall. Now you should know something about my Daddy; when it comes to horses, he's rather brilliant, and surely thorough. When he halter breaks a weanling... It isn't just breaking 'em to the halter. When we are done, they are ready to have a saddle on them, with the exception of the fact that they are... well, weanlings. But we can trim their feet, prepare them for a rope swinging over their ears, the cinch, we flag 'em out, it's a very thorough proccess I assure you. That way when we get them up to saddle break them, we just have to refresh their memory a little bit. They have already been prepared for the saddle.

Of course, you could always just throw a saddle on the horse, cheek 'em down and step right up. But you sang sure better be able to ride, and it's hard on the horse.

So anyways. I get dressed, feed Harley {I am so proud of her~ I bottle feed her once at night, once in the morning, and she eats, actually eats the rest of the day!} and head outside.

There is a bay, whom I have nicknamed Bay Boy until he gets a proper name. This is CJ's project. He says he's never really had to break a horse like this, like work with 'em like we do, but he's doing good! Bay Boy is pretty tall for his age; 2 years old, and about 15.2. He's pretty nice looking, is really docile, a little bit sticky with his feet, but overall pretty nice.

I'll brief you on being 'sticky' in case some of ya'll are reading that don't really know ranch slang. ;] Some horses will move out real well, and some are lazier and just want to brace and be sticky. When they move out, it's better, in my opinion. Or so I was taught by my Daddy, and his theory makes perfect sense. When they are sticky, they tend to brace against things. If they get scared, they just brace and don't know how to move their feet and relieve themselves of the pressure. So... they buck. Because they know not what else to do. The other kind of horse, will react. He will move his feet and go somewhere. You can work with this. If a horse is scared, or nervous, but will move his feet, you can work with that. If he won't, he just freaks out and bucks or something. Not good. SO....

There is this little sorrel horse, who gets the norm name for a sorrel, Sorrelly. That's what most of the fellas I know call a sorrel; Sorrelly. I probably won't give him a better name, since I won't keep him. A guy I've known all my life named Bill had this mare. Well he gave the mare to DK {our boss} to use as a brood mare. The catch is, he gets the first horse colt out of this mare. Well Sorrelly was the first colt. The deal was, he was broke when he got him. So he called up Daddy earlier this summer and asked if I would start that colt for him.

WHAT THE HECK?!?!

I've ridden colts before, but never started one by myself. Bill- are you INSANE??

Furthermore, he wants to pay me. Hmmm.

He has ridden lots of horses my Daddy has started, and sure likes the way he starts his horses. And I guess Bill knows that Daddy would help me out, and said he would rather have me break this colt out of anybody.

SO. I have a job. LOL. It will be fun! He is probably the best minded out of the 3. When he was nervous about something, he would move away from it, but wouldn't just bust outta there or try to run off. When he danced away, he would keep slack in the rope, was real soft in his neck, it was great. He bucked when we saddled him, I mean, you rarely find one that won't. But when he got his 20 seconds of bucking out, he was done. He just totally relaxed and forgot he even had a saddle on.

And then there's... Ol' Yeller.

-dreary music-

This little fella is the cutest darn horse you ever did see. He's a palomino with a blaze, and he's probably about... 13. or 14 HH. I'm dead serious. He is the the most compact, stockiest muscled little critter, just as handsome as can be. I need to get pictures of him.

But there's always the dumb blonde.

This horse has a wacko mind. He's really difficult. I mean... like Daddy goes at him with his handy dandy little plastic WalMart flag on the end of a stick. He just braces up SO hard, and then blows out of there like nothin. I mean good Lord... Daddy tried to saddle him; we had no problem with the other two. We prepared them with the blanket, so the saddle, they only took two steps. Well Ol' Yeller blew outta there and Daddy lost his grip on the saddle and it fell off. So we ended up hobbling the poor sucker and getting him saddled. He reared up and went to pitching around. When he finally settled down, he'd busted the hobbles off, and when Daddy went to flagging them around, there he went again. He'll dang sure be interesting...

I told Daddy that if he had a completely different disposition, he'd be a great kid horse; he's the perfect size! Daddy replies with, "Yeah, right now he's a great step-kid horse."

LOL.

Okay well now I must go. All of ye must comment on Bloggy's makeover! Adios!

I Am Alive! I Am Alive!

2008-08-28T14:10:00.002-06:00

I swear it- I did not fall off the face of earth, despite what you might have assumed due to my major lack of blogging. Due to my serious neglect of poor Bloggy.

I felt bad for abandoning Bloggy. So I had to make it up to Bloggy. I gave Bloggy a new wardrobe! Ya'll likey? I couldn't find one I liked very easily, until I saw this one. Unfortunately, it was a download. I had to download, then extract files, then go through instructions about 12 steps long. It was slightly confusing, but I got 'er done! Oh and in the process, found a site where you can change your header to a pic. Niiiice!

Okay. Well. I had to let ya'll know I'm still in existence. I must now go continue school. I started my first colt this morning, so I'm behind on my... academics.

More later!

Harley

2008-07-24T20:28:00.002-06:00

So it has been... About... forever. Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Would love so say I've been madly busy, but alas, that is not the case. So I don't have much time to write but figured I'd better drop by and atleast say 'hi'.

So. Hi. =]

Got our new hand in, CJ. Yeah....

Uh. Baby kittie! In short, we have a 2 week old baby kitty whose Mama abandoned him {thus the death of his poor little sister} and now he is in my care. Bless his heart. I bottle feed him about 5 or 6 times a day, Mama gets up once at night to feed him, although the past 2 nights he has been sleeping all the way through. Yay! He is solid black and purrs insanely, therefore I have named him Harley. =D

Harley has these big adorable eyes that bring tears to your own because when he is nursing on that bottle, he is just looking up at you and all you see in those big pools of blue is absolute.... trust. That's it. It's like, "My mama left me and now the only way I can survive is if you take care of me. I trust you." It's the most heart breaking thing. I swear even if you don't like cats, you just look into this baby's eyes and I swear you can see God's pure love. I don't know how, but that is what I see. And just half an hour ago I was looking into those blue eyes and thinking, "If only I could learn to trust God like this kitten trusts me."

He was hungry. He called out. I came, took him into my arms, and fed him and loved him.

We have been left and abandoned by this world and it's material things. We are hungry for what only God can give. So we just call out to Him; and He comes and takes us into His loving arms, and feeds us His word and pours unconditional love into our hearts.

Whenever Harley needs a feeding, he just cries out and I come right away to feed him, no matter what I'm doing, I leave it to feed the little guy.

No matter what else is going on the world, nothing is ever too important for God to pay attention to us, and give us exactly what we need; His word and His truth, when we call out to Him for it.

If only I could be just a little more like Harley.

"To the Lord I cry aloud, and He answers me from His holy hill."

-Psalms 3:4

Rain, oh praise be to the Lord!!

2008-07-10T08:37:00.003-06:00

I haven't been very blog enthused lately. Hm. In fact I haven't been spending a whole lot of time on the computer, period. I get on MySpace, look through threads at a Photo Forum, and email Sara. Anyways.

Rain. Ahhhh the very word and I begin to squirm and yearn with anticipation. The smell, the sound, the feel, the sight, rain just makes my every sense come alive with joy. And joy... so different from happiness. I truly believe that rain is joy in liquid form, I honestly do. God's happiness falling from the sky.

It rained yesterday late afternoon and continued to rain in the area I suppose through the evening and into the night even. And this morning it rained again, and it is still sprinkling here. I am just so alive with excitement! Oh how I love thee, o rain, how precious thee sound is to my ears! Mmmmm. I can't be in a bad mood when it's raining, honest.

Take this morning for example. I woke up late, about 7:50 to be exact. And Tyler comes in my room and lays down on it and I didn't do a darned thing about it! Shocking, I know! Usually I would stick a toe in his ribs and a pillow in his face and tell him to get the heck off my bed! Well okay I'm not THAT bad.... I usually say please first. =) Hahaha.

And we layed there in PEACE for about 10 full minutes. Fascinating what rain can do to one's soul. And Youth!

I got to go to Youth lastnight! YAY! They changed it to Wednesdays so we all go in and worship while Brett sings and plays guitar and then all us kids go to the back. It was just me and Grant, then Jessica and Justin of course. We studied Mark, as we have been for quite some time. It was really really good! =D As ALWAYS. I love Justin, I just love him to pieces. And I met some really cool people since I hadn't actually ever been to a service there.

Anyway. I love rain. That's the point of this post. I would love to write more and discuss a Bible verse I read in Romans but I now must go. Granny is coming to take Grandpa to Deanna's wedding soon and I need to clean the kitchen. Yayyyy. Cleaning. Kitchen. So fun.

Bye-bye happy mood.

Bibles, Shades & Gloss

2008-07-08T08:21:00.006-06:00

Oh dear. I fear I have begun to neglect my blogger responsiblities. So I reckon I had best write something before the neglect writhes out of control!

Yesterday was a town day. -sigh- We haven't been going much, since piano and everything is out. But we were in dire need of some groceries, and I had to get some stuff. It had been quite some time since I had been able to get to the bank, and I really needed to get there. I withdrew [is that a word?] some money- I paid Mama what I owed her and took some of my own. Then Mama went to the post office to send some things. I then had to go to Hastings, in search of a Bible. I have a hardback Teen Bible, NIV, but I have been wanting a smaller, leather-bound Bible minus the devotions and commentary. Leather bound, so it can stand up to wear and tear longer. Smaller, for easier carry-around and traveling size. And without other wording because, well, sometimes when I open a Bible and start reading I just want to be reading God's word and nobody else's, and when there is commentary and such, I feel like I'm not relying on God's word completely. It's a bit difficult to explain. Anyways, no luck at Hastings. On to Target where Mama got a friend a birthday present and I tried on some clothes. We are going to San Antonio this summer, and a ranch gal's everyday wardrobe simply isn't 'appropriate' for a large city such as San Antonio. It gets very hot and humid there anyway, so I picked up this pair of little khaki like... pedal-pushers. They aren't quite capris, they only reach my knees. Anyway, got that out of the way.

On to Office Max. Where we got an external hardrive. Our computer is about 5 years old and we have a lot of pictures and music on it, and some of Tyler’s games, and it is COMPLETELY full. This thing should solve a lot of our problems. Oh, and I got a little 3 pack of pens. They are like little gel pens, but they are non-smear ink pens. Any of you who write in your Bible would understand my dilemma; with regular pens, you will start to underline a verse, and a big blob of ink comes out and you have to blot it out, it is extremely frustrating. But if you use a highlighter, it goes through. Unless you get Bible highlighters, available at Hastings or the Christian Bookstore, but I don’t really like using highlighters anyway. But if you use like a felt-tip or gel pen, it smears. What is a Bible-underlining chick to do?!?! Go to Office Max and get non-smear pens! I used them lastnight and this morning, work like a charm. =D

Anyway. Then on to the Christian Bookstore when I searched around a little bit and found a Bible. It’s two-tone leather, I really like it. Plus it was cheaper than same-brand ones at Hastings! Yay! Got my Bible, pens, and khaki capris. On to…. PetCo!

I used to love PetCo. But since I got my little hammies I spend so much money there, I hate it. Well not hate. But I don’t like spending money! I spent a lot of money yesterday, but oh well. Mama bought my pens and capris by the way- isn’t she awesome?! =D But I have decided that if I wasn't spending money on innocent little critters, I would be spending it on myself, and I definitely don't need to do that. If it's for the benifit of animals, I'll give in. So there I got some Aspen bedding, food, chews, and a tube for Dex. Which will all last a very long time, so I won't need to go there for a while.

On to WalMart! We spent like 2 hours in WalMart, we had two baskets, it was ridiculous. We had to get alot of bathroom stuff and some shotgun shells. At WalMart I picked up this simple little brown dress thing, some realyl cute khaki pants, and a short-sleeved hoodie thing that I LOVE. I love love love hoodies, and this is the new style I guess, I love them. When I have more time I need to go back in there and get some more of those because I really like those. Oh, and we went kind of crazy on the snacks. As in crackers and granola bars and stuff, yeah. Mmmmm.

So we are all set! Sam's for a block of cheese, and homeward bound!

Oh and I got some cool shades at WalMart too! Aviator glasses, heck yeah. =D 10 bucks!! Baha. Oh and I got some lipgloss. Haha okay I know I know, I am not a city person, but I do like lipgloss, I really must admit. But hey, I don't wear globs of lipstick, or eyeshadow or eyeliner or even foundation, so let a girl have her lip gloss!!!

So I got a new Bible, some cool shades and strawberry lipgloss- I'm ready to take on the world! Hehe.

I will now leave you with an excellent passage. I am going to read through my Bible, starting with Psalms and Romans; about 2 chapters in Romans per day, and 3 or 4 in Psalms. [One Romans in the morning, on the evening, one or two of Psalms in the morning, one or two in the evening.] And this morning I started Chapter 2. This passage is definitely something we should all think about.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will espcape God's judgment?

-Romans 2:1-3

Have a wonderful Tuesday, everybody!! =D

\m/>.<\m/ [<--Haha do you see it? "Rock on!!"]

Cracker & Peanut

2008-06-30T08:49:00.003-06:00

Okay well not alot has been going on around here. I guess there has been some stuff but I'm just not motivated enough to go into detail about little random things. I'm rather tired this morning, and I honestly don't have a clue why. Hmmm.

Well then I guess I will discuss Peanut. I had an entire post written out about this whole thing but then dadblamed Blogger wouldn't save it, cursed thing. So you won't get as much detail. Basically last Saturday morning we found Peanut tangled up in the fence. Daddy had to cut him loose, and there was no telling how long he had been down, anywhere from 12 to 24 hours probably. So we dosed him with Bute, Banamine and Dexamethasone. We kept an eye on him but Sunday morning he was doing pretty bad. So we brought him up to the house where we squeezed about a pint more of Dex down him along with some more Bute. We also put some "Proud Flesh" on his wound, which is basically Nitro-Furizone with steroids. That was the only place he was cut up, was that right hind leg, and luckily it appears he didn't cut into any tendons or anything, just tissue. Well he was literally on 3 legs Sunday evening, ole leg swollen up like a balloonm, and Monday morning he was a completely different horse, and I mean completely, putting full weight on that leg. Well we took him off the antibiotics and just started Bute-ing him and putting some of that Proud Flesh on him about every other day or so. Well yesterday we put him in the stock thing (I call it a vet stall) and washed out that wound and put some goop on it. This morning he is pretty bad and won't even lead, we regret taking him off of antibiotics so soon because now the swelling is back (not as bad as it was at first though) and it looks like it's infected. It's oozing alot more too. So we gave him some Bute and put him on Penicillin, for the infection.

Anyway while he has been up I have been grooming him out. His poor tail hadn't been groomed in years it appeared, so I got it all smooth and shiny and his mane too, just as purty as can be! [Thanks to a hardy hoofpick and can of WD-40!!] He's a little horse, about 14.1 of 14.2, bay, cute little thing if you were to ask me. Got some respect issues but he was just never given a chance to learn; I'd like to ride him if he ever gets better.

So anyway I was out there the other day trying to get pictures of him, but I'm like his favorte person now so he kept following me and I couldn't get any good ones really of him. So I just took pictures of his eye in sepia. The horse's eye is just... wow. I don't know. It's full of so much. I was holding Cracker this morning while Daddy shod him and I was just looking into his eyes and ya know I just saw... Trust and loyalty and total innocence. It's amazing. So I took some of Peanut, and below are a few that I cropped on Adobe Photoshop.

Yesterday morning I got up and went out to check on Peanut, and I see Cracker tied to the fence, with an ouchie on his nose and above his eye, and above both hind hooves he was bleeding a little. And part of the halter was through his mouth. The part that goes from the Fiador knot at the chin up to the cheek strap? It was through his mouth!! (???) So I tried to take it out but couldn't. So I tried to undo the halter, but the knot was too tight. Well I knew Daddy had something to do with it of course so I marched inside and demanded what he did to Cracker, and he stated that he had done it to himself. Cracker has always had problems with being shod, I don't know what it is. But I guess he was being a real brat about it and every time Daddy would pick up his foot he would just jerk and he couldn't do anything. It was really hurting Daddy's back and he couldn't shoe him at all. So Daddy tied his foot up via a Scotch hobble and the poor sucker went down and went to kicking himself and banged his head up on the fence.

Well needless to say I was pretty ticked at Daddy. I mean I know horses need to learn respect and I don't discipline them enough, but he is the opposite. And I mean there are some horses that need that, the dud horses ya know. But Cracker is different. He was just scared. But Daddy admitted he shouldn't have done that but nobody was around to help him so he had to do something, but it was wrong. Poor Cracker. He probably needed it but then again didn't. And he isn't a feeling horse. He's a reacting horse. He doesn't feel of what is happening and react accordingly. He just knows something he doesn't like is happening and reacts negatively. So we went out and I held the poor boy while Daddy shod that hind foot, and he did great! He just freaks out when Daddy ties him up to shoe him. I guess it's comforting to have somebody up there, I don't know. But we put some Scarlet Oil on his scrapes and did the other hind hoof this morning, he was awesome. He will just need to be held every time he is shod, poor boy.

Okay well anyway I'm going now. Need to put some laundry in and stuff. Adios!

It's A Great Day To Be Alive!

2008-06-23T06:18:00.002-06:00

Ya know that song, "It's A Great Day To Be Alive" by Travis Tritt? Well I woke up singing that song and it just certainly applies to my day. At-least the first hour of it; it's only 6:20. =P And I don't know why it's different from yesterday or the days before; I've had a long chain of not-so-cheery days. But today... ahh today it truly is a great day to be alive! I woke up early, got out of bed, fed the kittie, had an excellent breakfast of nectarine, grapes and strawberries. And now here I sit, just singing that happy song. "There's some hard times in the neighborhood, but why can't every day be just this good?" It can be. It's just my choice but sometimes that choice is mighty hard to make.

But today I am just going to enjoy my happy day, and I am not going to let it writhe out of control and slither over that fence into Bad Day Territory. No sir, that is not going to happen, on my honor! I have a choice and I have made it, so HA.

I know what part of it is; yesterday when Mama and I went to WalMart I got three new shirts. They are those kind that are really loose and flowy around the middle. Now I know I'm not fat or anything, but I don't have no bikini body or nothing; but hey every teenage girl gets a little paranoid about herself, right? And these shirts are just so comfortable and they just boosted my self esteem up about 10 notches.

That's right, folks, I am feeling pretty darned good about myself today. I got great self-image clothes, a happy tummy, a beautiful day outside, and a good ole friend I call Jesus to walk right by me. What's not to be happy about?

So off I go to get dressed, make my bed, clean the bathroom and start on the kitchen. I hope I can get it all done in time, it's already 6:25 and we have a guy coming to look at the job at 7:00. Mama went for her walk but isn't back yet and still needs to shower. So off I go to perform my duties in a lightning fast performance.

Everybody have an excellent Monday; not good, not great, excellent. I expect nothing less and neither should you!

-skips away singing-

These Are The Things I Think About...

2008-06-21T10:12:00.004-06:00

While I am riding my horse. Yes, that is right, you are going to get a brief peek into the mind of Caitlin (a scary concept alone) while she is horseback.

I think everybody has a weird place where weird things just pop up in their mind. It's just one of those things; for me it's riding. When I'm riding it's like... perfect freedom. And so I guess that somehow releases my mind and funky thoughts along with it that I have subconsciously locked away. And when I step up on my horse, all those weird little thoughts just go flittering around and... Well you get a blog post out of it.

Yesterday I got up to help Daddy and Grandpa get some mamas and their calves out of Mountain Pasture. Which is a rather large pasture. We trailered to the back of the pasture, and split up. Grandpa went to cover most of the East side of the pasture, Daddy took the West fence and I just meandered in the middle. We were looking for 3 pair; there were, of course, many more than 3 in the pasture. But there were 3 smaller, unbranded calves. So off we went! Daddy found two in one bunch, and I could see that, so I trotted off to count cows in another bunch- 11. Then on I went some more til I reached the basin. I could see Daddy coming up with the cows and their calves and we herded them on up to the mountain and tossed them into Adobe Trap. Grandpa had the other pair by a dirt tank, and we tossed them in there as well. Then Daddy went to get the rig and Grandpa and I gave the cows and calves a push towards water, then drifted on into Plains. Where I mostly went along the road and checked cattle at the dirt tanks; all seemed to be well. Then we got to the corner where Daddy met us right on time, and we were done.

While I was still meandering between Grandpa and Daddy, I was- what was I doing? Oh yeah, singing. Don't laugh! That's something I do when I ride.. alot. I always sing. Always. It's very strange really. This time I had, "I Wanna Be Loved Like That" by Shenandoah in my head. Ever since I heard Joey and Rory sing it on "Can You Duet" it has been lodged in my brain and I can't seem to get rid of it. So here I was, just walking along, minding my own business, singing a beautiful ballad, stunning the entire creation with my star-quality voice when I heard the unmistakable sound of... a rattler.

That's right folks, about a yard from Wyatt's front feet was a mature rattler writhing under a javelina bush. Scared the liver outta me but Wyatt just sits there and stares at it, the dunce. I turn him away and walk on; every time I see a snake I think of Mama. I know everybody has their fears, but Mama is deathly scared of snakes. I don't know why, I guess she doesn't need a reason. I'm not paticularly fond of them but I don't despise them, I mean, I leave them alone, they leave me alone. Well, every now and then you get the stubborn one that doesn't mind it's own business, but that's no biggie. You just go get a shovel or hoe and... "Off with your head, I say, off with it!!" But after seeing that snake I got to thinking... I bet those women snakes feel pretty good about themselves. They're long and skinny, isn't that what most women folk desire to be? Long and slender without a care in the world, eh? Except for that mad woman with the shovel. Quite unlike toads... See toads are fat and squishy. I bet those toads have a complex, being all chubbers like that. But it's cute on a toad. I mean you go pick up a toad, poke it's belly and say, "Awww ain't she cute?! Just look at how fats she is, awww...." I don't believe I've ever heard of a man saying that to a woman.

I told you I had weird thoughts.

More snake thoughts. Do snakes get headaches? I mean really, humans do. Do snakes? Or dogs or horses for that matter. I mean I get headaches when I read too much, don't wear my glasses, are around loud noises for an extended period of time, in the heat too long... Or run into something. Yeah it happens all the time. The other day I was mixing the chocolate chip granola bar dough with the electric mixer, and Mama was seasoning something. Chicken I think. And she got the seasons out of a cupboard tot he left of my head, leaving the cupboard door open, which swings away from me. I turn off the mixer, and turn and walk- right into that cabinet, that's right, knocked me right in the dang forehead, made a good BONK too. I had a headache for an hour.

Do snakes do that? I mean I can just imagine one just slithering alone, hum dee dum, maybe singing "Delta Dawn" or something, right, and then BONK it just runs into a mesquite tree trunk. I can imagine it telling it's buddies, "Man that mesquite just came outta nowhere!"

And then I was trotting after counting that herd of eleven, and just enjoying the cool breeze while it would last, and I thought about Sara. And how she must miss riding so badly and how right about then, normally, she would be at work riding a horse. But nope, right then she was in Budapest. Buda and Pest are two seperate towns right? Well something strange occurred to me; Pest. Pesto. Pesto is like a garnishing paste stuff. It has basil in it, and olive oil I do believe. So did pesto originate from Pest? Sounds like a job for Google.

And then I was just riding along, la dee da dee dah, when one of those dang tarantula spiders comes whizzing up. I had seen them all morning; you know those huge fuzzy black wasps with the orange wings? Yeah I've heard many a tale of those things, and they aren't a creature you fool with. So here comes this tarantula wasp, I figured he would just whizz on by like the rest of 'em had. But noooo this tarantula had to land right on my dang rope, right there by my leg.

Well yea, heck yeah I freaked out! I bailed from my trusty steed, abandoning all thoughts of snakes with headaches, toads with a complex and pesto's native country and stood and stared at the dang creature, hoping it would fly off. It didn't. So I snapped a branch from a javelina bush and swatted at it, and off it went. Mission accomplished!

As you can tell, I have a warped mind. With that said, I must bid adieu. Have a wonderful Saturday!

Anti-Summer

2008-06-19T10:25:00.009-06:00

I hate summer. I honest to goodness despise this nasty season just stuffed to the brim with hot nasty weather and despicable winds. It's disgusting.

It's safe from about 5:00 to 9:00. Then we become little house hermits until about 6:00 when it is safe to venture out once more! Golly I just hate it. I get bored to pieces hanging around the house so I decide to go outside and do soething and am greeted with an outdoor furnace. The sun just beats down on everything, and the 108 degree heat causes everything (man, horse, and plant alike) to wither under it's harsh gaze. And on those days when the wind is gusting- oh don't get me started on this dang wind! The heat alone is bearable; not pleasurable to be out and about in, mind you, but it is not excruciating. So long as you have a big jug of water, you're good. But when that wind starts, oh man- it will burn you up, I'm telling you. A cool little breeze is sure nice but when that hot wind gets to blowing- talk about miserable, folks. I just hate summer.

Alot of the kids in town I know are all, "YAY! It's summer! Vacation, no school, swimming, mall, hanging with friends" and blah blah blah blah. I hate it. It's hot and miserable.

That's right, I am anti-summer. Ya know what? I should form an organization and call it, "Anti-Summer Association"!! ASA. That's right and we will protest and take a petition and eventually succeed in eliminating summer alltogether! HA!

Uh. I mean.... I hope fall gets here soon. =]

I have lately gotten into these two shows: World's Most Amazing Videos, and Animal Cops (Houston, Miami, South Africa). That WMAV is awesome! Man they caught some insane stuff on video tape; some makes you stare in awe, and some makes you just cringe. And sometimes you're just, "What on God's green earth was that idiot thinking?!?!" I don't think they were.

Like this one dude, is a professional at lighting himself on fire. That's right- who in their right mind would wanna light themselves on fire? Oh, but it gets worse. For his 21st birthday he wanted to light himself on fire at his party for all of his friends. The difference between this and one of his shows was that, he didn't have his professional crew with him. He was probably slobberin drunk too. Anyway he puts on his handy dandy fire proof suit, and has a buddy drench him in gasoline; being unexperienced, he poured way too much gasoline on his friend there. When they lit him on fire, the dude started to stumble around, and everybody thought it was part of the show, unaware he was in excruciating pain. Man they tried to put him out when he blacked out from the unbearable heat and collapsed on the pavement, but it took forever. Luckily he was alright- man was Somebody watching over him! Idiot.

That Animal Cops is pretty awesome too, although a bit sad. But it's cool because there are all these animals that have been beaten, abandoned, starved and neglected. And they would all die if it weren't for these guys. Isn't that awesome? I mean you are literally saving lives of innocent animals. Critters who never did anything to deserve a life like that, and they get a second chance. It's so cool! I mean they lose alot of animals which is real depressing, but they save alot too; if I could save one animal's life a day, just one, just one difference, it would be worth all the sadness. Don't you think? That would be a neat thing to do.

I saw this one dog on it that.... it was just a miracle he was alive. You could see every bone in his body, skin and bones... Literally. He couldn't walk, which isn't much of a wonder; not only that he was weak, but it was as if his muscle had just wasted away. I mean this dog was like skeleton dog. You see alot of starved dogs on that show, but man this was bad. They named him Triumph and he ended up recooperating and getting adopted!!

Well I need to go. Gotta clean my room up some; Aunt Lora & Katie are comin over this afternoon. I guess I will leave you with some pictures. Baha. As always. This is taken with my camera, but Mama took it when I was giving Tucker a bath. Ain't he a cutie pie?

And this is Huckleberry, haha, he is a total pest, sometimes I just wanna shake him, but he's such a suckup and I always fall for it.

And this pic Mama took of me about a week ago holding all four of GK's kittens.

Enjoy and everybody have a great Thursday!

Okay, I Admit It... I'm Addicted

2008-06-13T15:28:00.008-06:00

As most of ya'll know... We are overrun with cats. But I won't go into that. Let's just say that... They make great subjects! Really, they do! The baby kitties are always playin and hiding in funny places, and some of the bigger cats will just flat out pose for you and will even hold a position for as long as several minutes so you can get a good shot. So here are more pict-

Oh my goodness. I just realized that... I've become my mother!

-horrified gasp-

I mean... I used to chew her out for posting pictures every stinkin post, I thought it was ridiculous. But now that I have my priceless FZ18 I... I... I just can't help myself! It's like an addiciton. And it works like this:

Have camera = Must take pictures

Have really good camera = Must take ridiculous amount of pictures

Have blog = MUST. POST. PICTURES.

Oh dear. Well then, I admit it. I am addicted to taking pictures. To my beautiful new camera. Every time I look out the window or walk out the door and see something semi-interesting, I go running for the camera. I can take 50 pictures of the dog sleeping in the flower bed; try different aperture ranges, focusing methods, color, b/w, sepia, angles, center, off-center... It's pathetic.

Well... While I fret over becoming my mother (not that you aren't a wonderful woman, Mama, and I really do look up to you, but really- no teenage girl wants to really be her mother; good thing I have this fantastic attitude, eh? ;D) I'll show you pictures of these kitties!

First up is G.K.:

Next is Ange (short for Angel) in b/w:

"I tink I see a putty tat..."

"I do see a putty tat!" Just look at that face! Awwww!

Now here is a little white kittie that was in the apricot tree the other day; love love love these two pics:

Tucker began to dig furiously in the dirt to make a little bed for himself, and this kitty got very curious and approached him. Then she puffed up and spit at him; Tucker just plopped down and stared:

Haha her expression; she was dang sure all puffed up, hair on end and all:

Tucker after digging. Haha!

And here is Tucker giving a good shake after a nap. I didn't have time to switch to Sports mode so it's blurred:

Hope ya'll enjoyed!

Missin' Sara =[ (Sunset Pix!)

2008-06-12T10:55:00.006-06:00

I find it hard to believe that Sara is actually in Hungary! She is overseas, thousands of miles away, in a foreign country. I mean, we've been talking about it for forever, and it was just sounding all awesome. But now that she is actually there... It's just so surreal! Of course, even more so for her. When I get up in the mornings, there is an letter sittin there in my email for me. I am so thankful for the Internet; it's the only way I can keep in touch with her for 2 whole months!

I'm already going into Sara withdrawls. Seriously, lastnight, I just got so mad and frustrated and every little thing anybody said just ticked me off. And I have no idea why! Usually when I get that way I just call up Sara and rant and rave a little bit, she tells me she understands completely and feels the same way sometimes, and then we go on and talk about stupid crazy stuff. I get off the phone, and everything is all better. Now... well now I can't do that! -cries- It's devestating. Really, it is.

This weekend there is a horse sale. WOOHOO! I love horse sales. =D I don't really know why; I mean this local horse sale is kind of trashy. Really; this is where all them lying horse traders come to get rid of the junk horses they can't sell (or it would be perfectly ridiculous to sell them there) at the good horse sales; like the ones in Las Cruces or El Paso, or even Clovis. So we get all the crappy stuff, although there are always a couple good horses that go through, and a good bit of decent ones. Daddy and I always go; on Friday is the catalog sale. You have to pay a certain fee to get your horse in the catalog; you get a little section that has your horse's name, gender, color, breed, bloodline, and a little description of him. Oh, and the horse's number, of course. These catalogs go out to people and these horses are always the decent ones, because, well you wouldn't pay money to put a junk horse is a catalog. Forgot what the fee was. So anyway, on Friday the "Show Me Session" begins at like 8 or 9 I forgot, and you can show your horse in this little pen, then lope him around a big one, drag a log on him, open/shut gates, etc. Then they have an arena where you can rope off the horse, or cut. It's pretty cool. On Saturday... Saturday is pretty sad. Every now and then you'll have some good horses go through there; people who couldn't make the catalog deadline, or who didn't know about it, or just didn't want to pay the fee. But usually it's pretty sad.

We see almost everybody we know 'round here at a horse sale, they're always fun. I usually run around with... -sniffle-... Sara.

*bawls*

It's okay, really, I'm fine, it's cool.

Okay so just yesterday, Tyler and I were sitting on the couch. He was being completely ridiculous... As usual. And some kind of preview for a movie or something came on, a commerical... I forget. Oh yeah! We were watching something on ABC Family (8 Simple Rules?) and a preview-commercial thing came on for that new show, "The Middle Man". Looks like the stupidest thing ever, without a doubt. I shake my head and say, "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stuipid!" Tyler pats me on the leg and says, "Aw now, don't be so hard on yourself."

I wanted to hit him. But it was so funny I was laughing too hard... I have to give him credit, he is really a funny guy. But usually only when he's trying not to be.

Well I guess I'll just end this with a few pictures I took of a sunset the other night. Sometimes you get real nice colors, pinks and purples and such, if there are clouds and the sun wants to be purdy. Sometimes you barely get a little glow, and sometimes you get a real nice golden color. I was able to capture the latter the other night. Enjoy!

More Pictures. Baha

2008-06-10T19:23:00.003-06:00

Yup, more pictures. I bet your just trembling with anticipation. ;)

The FZ18 keeps getting better and better; it's macro capabilities are outstanding. In the evenings I like going out and snapping pictures of anything that looks at all interesting. Take last evening, for example. I went out, and ya know, it's just amazing what you can find if you really look. When you get up close to stuff, you discover things you never would have noticed if you just hadn't have taken the time. Or been a picture nerd.

Just like this. I saw this little cactus-type plant and thought it would be neat to get up close on them thistles. Or thorns. Whatever you wanna call em- the prickly thingies! And what'd'ya suppose I found?

That's right, just look at that little fella nestled right up in there. I was able to get pretty close, but not super, since a branch of... prickly thingies... was in the way. And upon closer inspection...

Two of the little fellas! Turns out that's the local Ladybug Hut. I went back today and saw 4 of them in there. Ya know, I feel bad for the little ladybug dudes. They're called ladies all the time. Must not do much for their sense of masculinity. Masculinity. Is that a word?

Anyway. And in the same evening, I went to zoom up on this purty little purple flower. And discovered this little dude sittin right there:

You have to look to see him; he was kinda transparent-ish and very tiny. But ain't he cute? I mean, I reckon he could be... If you were fond of... arachinids. Haha! "I love tornadoes... I love arachinids!" Okay. Uh. Moving on.

I went on out behind the house to the dirt tank and started snapping some more. Ya'll are gonna get sick of my nature pictures.

Okay, those little flowers were ridiculously tiny; as in a centimeter in diameter. So it was kinda cool to get such a close picture.

Looks blurry on here, but when it's bigger it looks very very clear. Odd. But purty! =D

Okay that's the end of the torture session for today. =]

Rodeooooo

2008-06-08T09:25:00.002-06:00

So this past weekend there was a rodeo! Woohoo! =D Haha it was awesomeness.

The PRCA came to town, however... the roughstock kind of sucked. Mainly the saddle bronc and steers, bulls and some of the bareback broncs. But the same night there was also a rodeo in Stephenville and all the good stock went there. Phooey. =[ Guess we just weren't important enought. =P

Nonetheless, it was awesome! Friday night we went and I hung out with Jess, Sara, Tyler, Kayla, and Nelson so it was pretty cool. Haha we were being really.... strange. Okay so maybe I was being really strange. I think Nelson was worse. Anyway. Moving on.

So that night after the rodeo, Tyler and Kayla had walked off to go for a walk I guess (during the rodeo they left), leaving Nelson and I all by our lonesome. Well I kind of had to find Tyler because at that point I thought he was Nelson's ride, and also because my parents didn't want me wandering around the fairgrounds alone. =P So, off we go to find Tyler. Which we did. He was by his truck. So we then.... *thinks* Oh yeah! Nelson and I walked quite a ways to his own truck (hahaha which is totally beat up and stinkin rocks) to... get his hat? I think, yeah that was it. He was wearing a baseball cap and wanted his hat. He then pulled the truck up to the fence, because it was in the middle of the parking lot; he didn't bother to find the road, just ran over all the stinkin curbs. =P

Then we went to Tyler's truck where he got out his guitar and somehow they got to talkin about ACDC. Sad, I know, I had never heard them. Nelson was absolutely shocked. So he had to cure me; he ran to his truck and got a couple CDs, ran back and cranked up the CD player in Tyler's truck.

This is the part where I wish so so badly that I had had a video camera. Or atleast my camera. Because it was absolutely... wow. He was doin the whole air guitar thing, and dancin around to it, and it was just so stinkin hilarious, we were all laughing pretty hard (Tyler, Kayla and I). He claims it was dark and nobody was around... But actually there were like 4 people in the next row LOL I'm surprised they didn't think he was... drunk or something and call the cops. Then he wanted ME to dance with him and I was all, "Noooooo way; I'm not gonna embarass myself!" But... I did. It was gonna happen eventually anyway. =P Then my parents came and took me home. How sad. Haha.

Saturday night (last night) was the second and final night of the rodeo. This time it was Sara, me, Nelson, Tyler, a girl named Alex (he and his chicks LOL) and her little cousin Keeley, whose family we know pretty well. The rodeo still kind of stunk. Haha. Actually it really stunk. And Sara and I were dancing while sitting down to all the stinkin cool music!! They were playin stuff like "Mustang Sally" and old cool rock songs. It was.... very amusing to say the least. Sara was "Cousin It" hahaha she totally has the hair for it when she flips it over. Nelson and I decided we were "Cool Dorks". Loooong story. Well not really if you know us. MOVING ON.

So that was pretty fun the the rodeo ended and it was dancin time!!! Wooo!! So Sara, Nelson, Tyler and I just made our way over to the Farm Bureau building, right there next to the arena, got in for 5 stinkin bucks each, before the dance had even really started. They had a live band there that played a lot of songs without singin, kind of classic country, but not songs we know, just.... songs. In between they put on a CD mix I guess of regular country, then they came on again later.

That was the most fun dance I have ever been to! Because usually Sara and I just.... stand there. You can't talk, the music is so loud at the 4H ones, and we don't get asked to dance a whole lot. See when everybody walks in there they form their own little 'cliques'. We know people inside those cliques, but we don't 'belong'. So we just... stand there. This time we had a group! Woohoo! Haha it was Tyler, me, Sara, Nelson, Stefanie, Molly and I guess Michelle was there part of the time, and then Ty and Andrea for the most part too. It was cool! And very amusing. Nelson was my dance partner so we danced... A dozen times. Atleast. Probably a few more than that. Haha yeah. And it was really hot in there. I mean really bad, it was awful. We wanted to open the big doors but they only had two guards stationed (sad you need guards at a country dance anymore) and if they did that, apparantly everybody would sneak in. So they decided to just steam us. My shirt was stickin to me, I mean it was pretty dang awful. But we survived. Somehow.

The rodeo was over about 9:30; and we left the dance at almost 12:00. So all in all it was pretty awesome and tons of fun. Awesome weekend! =D

First Day Pictures With The FZ18

2008-06-06T10:52:00.018-06:00

Okay Sara, I promised you pictures as soon as possible, so here they are. (Even though Blogger took forever to load them!) They are not that superb as I am just learning to use it, but I am posting alot of pictures just because... well, just because! Haha but thus far, I absolutely love love LOVE my FZ18. It's really cool and easy to figure out!! It's so very light, as I previously mentioned. It works quietly and though it has a vast menu, it's easy to navigate thanks to the handy dandy joystick. The macro is very very nice and overall, I just love this camera, haha! I have been having alot of fun messing with the shutter speed and aperture.

I don't have an SD card yet, so I can only take 6 pictures on the built-in memory, 8 or so if they're in black and white, and every time I fill it up with pictures I have to run to the computer, load the pictures, delete them off the camera, and run off to take more. =D Haha tonight when we go in for the rodeo I'm gonna pick up an SD card.

I did take a lot of pictures though. First up - baby kitties! Jenny brought her babies to the house and they have been running around and climbing the bird house and being all... cutesie. Haha. These are all of the same kitten because he was the only one that would stay still! And he was the most photogenic.

(And I realize some of these may look "blurry" but it's actually aperture. Where you focus on one thing and blur out the rest. Daddy said they look blurry and went on about it; it's obvious he just doesn't have what it takes to be a photographer!! LOL... And some just look blurry for some reason on here.)

Here he is sitting in the birdhouse:

A close-up view of the little guy, still in the birdhouse:

One of my favorite pictures I have taken yet; love the composition and lighting of this one:

You can't tell me this isn't hilarious. One of GK's babies who looks like, "Oh no she didn't!!" or "Good Lord!"

Tucker looking all adorable:

I like this one how the light is shining through the tree:

Old leaky water faucet in sepia:

Faucet again, up close, in color:

Apricots! Very.... unripe... apricots. =P

Feathers!!

Gorgeous bird of paradise out by the chicken coop:

Some.... kind... of flowers. Haha. The first is just like a little daisy, the last in a teeny tiny one on a bush, no idea what it is:

And a few pics of water droplets on these tiny plants in the yard. I took a TON these are some of the better ones; the last one is cool because it focused on that one tiny drop:

And last but not least, Sam. I love these because of the sincerity in his eyes, I just really love these alot:

That's all I have for now. Off I go to take more pictures!!! Baha.

I GOT MY NEW CAMERAAAAAA!!!!

2008-06-05T20:08:00.002-06:00

IT'S HEEEEEERE!

*dies*

I have been tracking my treasured camera on UPS.com for the entire past week. I came from Illinois. =D Anyway lastnight it was in Albuquerque, and when I got up and checked, it had already left for delivery! So, I, of course, was very excited all day. We live so far out I knew we would be the UPS dude's last stop, but I was just hoping so earnestly for an early delivery. Every time the stinkin dog barked I would run to the front room to see if it was here.

So this evening I was on the phone with Sara, and there comes this annoying tune-like tap on my door, in an annoying, quick little rythm. I was dang sure it was Tyler, he does that a lot just to annoy me. "What, Tyler?" I ask in an annoyed voice. Tap tap tap. "Tyler, what is it?" (Even more annoyed now.) Tap tap tappety tap. Grrrrrr. "Tyler! Go away!" Same little tap. Gosh darnit! So I go open the door and demand, "What!"And there is Daddy, standing there with a box in his hand. A box that had a golden glow, a box so precious and beautiful...

A box with MY new camera in it.

I earnestly apologize them proceed to beg and jump for the package which he refuses to give to me until I am able to snatch it away from him with my super fast reflexes. How dare he?! How utterly cruel!!! It's just... torture to make a girl wait to open her new camera, I mean, come on. Have a heart.

Moving on.

It is beautiful! =D It's small and lightweight and takes great pictures with good color. I understand it won't take alot of pictures I can blow up poster-size being a superzoom, but I don't do that. So it will suit me very well for my situations. I still haven't figured it out, obviously, I've only had it for like an hour and a half. It's kind of frustrating for me that it's more complex than your every day point and shoot because I, well, I don't like to read instructions. I just don't do well with them. I have several faults, this is one of the larger ones, and I get it from my grandma. They don't help me much and I can never seen to understand them. I bet if they were written for a third grader, I wouldn't be able to understand the dang thing. So tomorrow I will have Mama help me with it, haha. She is too tired tonight. (Long story, she'll probably tell it to ya in the morning, I'm just too lazy and tired to tell it myself.) It has all these modes. And the joystick is awesome!!! So is the zoom, that thing just rocks it goes forever!

Anyway. Just thought I would let ya'll know that my new toy has arrived. And nobody is safe. That's right... NOBODY! Baha!!! If you are within a 100 foot range of me, your photograph will be taken, and possibly used as blackmail... Depending on what you look like in the picture. Or what you are doing. So I would be very very careful.

Anything you do can and will be used against you!!

That's right. Fear me.

Be afraid.

Very....

very...

afraid.

Favorite Songs

2008-06-03T10:42:00.003-06:00

I didn't go to Ricky's. I can't believe it, I didn't get to sleep until about 4:00. It's ridiculous. Absolutely absurd!!

Anyway. Since I was so incredibly bored lastnight. I went through my iPod and was making a list of favorite songs and thought I would, well, share them with you. =) Since I'm just so wonderful and generous that way.

Now I love a lot of songs. I'm a musicholic. It's kind of sad, I am always listening to music, always. And if a radio or iPod isn't around I just sing. Haha. Anywho. There are alot, but check em out! Alot of them are on my playlist, here on my blog. I have a wide variety of genres I enjoy. And some of these songs are sung by various artists, but sometimes I like a song by a paticular person/band.

Let It Fade - Jeremy Camp
My Desire - Jeremy Camp
Take You Back - Jeremy Camp
My Best Friend - Everyday Slumber
Praise You In This Storm - Casting Crowns
Who Am I - Casting Crowns
Lifesong - Casting Crowns
Voice Of Truth - Casting Crowns
You Know Where To Find Me - Matthew West
You Are Everything - Matthew West
History - Matthew West
More - Matthew West
Glory Defined - Building 429
Dare You To Move - Switchfoot
Strong Tower - Kutless
Draw Me Close - Kutless
The One - Everyday Sunday
Only You - David Crowder Band
Let It Be - Brooke White (American Idol 2008)
Dream Big - David Cook (American Idol 2008)
Sharp Dressed Man - David Cook & ZZ Top (American Idol 2008)
Shout To The Lord (American Idol 2008, Top 8)
Over You - Chris Daughtry
All These Lives - Chris Daughtry
What I Want - Chris Daughtry
Used To - Chris Daughtry
It's Not Over - Chris Daughtry
What About Now - Chris Daughtry
Crashed - Chris Daughtry
Bad Day - Daniel Powter
Spoken Like A Man - Blaine Larsen

Told you there were alot. =P These are my very top favorites right now:

My Desire - Jeremy Camp
You Are Everything - Matthew West
Dare You To Move - Switchfoot
Dream Big - David Cook
Spoken Like A Man - Blaine Larsen

Listen to that Blaine Larsen dude. He is 18 now, all of his released songs were recorded at 15. You won't believe it.

Okay, well I seem to have lost my muse. So until next time... adios!

So. Stinkin. Tired.

2008-06-03T00:18:00.002-06:00

I'll brief you on the past few days. I....

Saved a birdie that could, well, could fly.
Cursed innocent baby kitties.
Bought liquor cookies with Sara. (That's what that stuff was- something you put in alcoholic drinks, Sara. o.O)
Discovered the "Creepy Cashier" at WalMart.
Decided summer is Satan's season.

I said it was brief. Forgive me. It's 12:22.... I went to be at 10:00 and can NOT go to sleep no matter how I try. Musta been that mocha frappuchino I had SIX HOURS ago. I have to get up at 3:30 to day work at Ricky's. I may just pull out. I may still be up by then. Psssh. I have lately had problems with sleeping. Like bad problems. I can't sleep. I either can't go to sleep, or can't stay asleep, or wake up 8 or 9 (no exaggeration) times a night. It's ridiculous and I'm getting sick of it. And I can sleep for 9 or 10 hours and I am still exhausted all day. Mama wants to take me to a doctor. And get blood tests.

Needles? -shudder-

Anyway. If it'll get me to sleep I guess I'll survive.

Now off I go. I guess. To do... nothing. Try to sleep maybe. Read. Listen to music. Daydream. Wait. I guess it would be nightdream. But.... while I'm awake. Like... awake dreaming. At night.

NEED. SLEEP.

Need... cookies?

Wow. I'm going now.

Oh, and I'm gonna sue Starbucks.

Not only for creating the best beverage ever but for making it absorb all sleep abilities!

Stupid frappuchino. Stupid Starbucks.

Well, night.

Or morning. I don't know. Good bye. -collapses-

Random Things About Muah

2008-05-30T11:35:00.004-06:00

No I haven't been tagged again. (Thank goodness!) But... I want to blog today. I'm trying not to fall behind on it again. Don't wanna starve ya'll of our daily blog portion. So... here I sit. I have been staring at a blank screen racking my pea-sized brain, grasping for something, anything, to write about! So instead of writing about something, I'll just write about... everything!

I'm a very random person. So. I figured I would just entertain ya'll will random facts about the quirky Ranch Kiddo. They aren't as good as my Mama's but.... just in case ya wanna know more about me.

1) I sing in the shower. Every night. There is not one tune-less shower. Sometimes it's "Delta Dawn" and other times it's "East to West". It varies. But I always sing in the shower. Something about the shower tiles or something magnifies sounds... So I sound better in the shower. =D

2) I love and hate Dr. House at the same time. Ever seen that show? House? It rocks. Anyway, yeah. I just love him to pieces and at the same time I wanna strangle him. Haha. Good actor.

3) I never played with baby dolls as a child. Well, okay, so I'll take that back, I did play with baby dolls. But Tyler had to "kidnap" it from me and then take it as hostage. I then turned from the babysitter into a private investigator and had to go save it.

4) I will eat peanut-butter with anything. Or nothing. I will eat it on tortillas, I will eat peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter banana sandwiches, I eat it with apples, celery, crackers, or just eat it straight from the jar. Ahhhh peanut butter. My creamy delight!

5) I have eaten prunes at 1:30 in the morning. I won't go into detail here. Let's just say I slept over at Sara's... and yeah.

6) I love to bake, hate to cook. Well, okay so I don't exactly hate to cook. It's just not something I really like doing. However, I love to bake! I will bake anything if you give me a recipe. Pies, cakes, cookies, bars, brownies, cupcakes, muffins, anything. I love it! Sometimes I just get a boxed cake mix and add random things to it to see how they turn out.

7) I am easily scared. Tyler knows this all too well. He used to hide behind doors and stuff and jump out and scare the living daylights outta me and then I would be jittery all stinkin day. Movies used to really bug me. I saw 2 minutes of this "Haunting" show one time, and there was this ghost dude called Mr. Gordy. I was freaked for months.

I have no muse. That is all I can come up with. So... There is this really cool Discovery Channel commercial. It's awesome haha- I like it when the dude from "Future Weapons" blows up the shack. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxymuiAxQ

I love tornadoes, I love arachinids... LOL I love it. Enjoy!

I'm Gonna Get A New Cameraaaaa!!

2008-05-29T11:33:00.003-06:00

Cameras. Ahhhh how I have been abused by such a device. Amazing isn't it? That such a beautiful piece of technology is capable of dealing out such torture. Tsk, tsk.

Well, I can't really get upset at Mama for all the pictures she has taken over the years, because I can honestly say I enjoy looking at them. And, I myself enjoy taking pictures.

My first real camera, a digital, I got when I was 10. It was my second year at Cal Farley's and the only year they ever had this competition (which is a darn shame). It was a poetry competition and the winner recieved $300. Guess who won?

Baha. Me.

And I knew just what I wanted, so when I went to Omi & Opa's not too much later, I went in search of a camera! I ended up with a Canon Powershot A85. What a handy little bugger it is! It was very possibly the most versatile camera of it's time. You could just turn it on with it on "Auto" mode and just go to clickin pictures. It was great, and then it also had modes like Nighttime, Sports, Manual, Aperture, etc. It was a beginners, and an advanced amateur's camera. Not only this but it also has the option of adding a longer zoom lense onto it, which I never did. And now the poor thing is 4 years old (which is pretty decent in camera years, especially for the amount of times I, er, well, um, dropped it) and it's not worth it to buy a lense. My point is- this is a dandy little camera. It's small and takes excellent pictures.

But... it's starting to go out. -cries- The buttons won't really work- the zoom out gets stuck, and the little toggle buttons you have to push half a dozen times. Sometimes they work, sometimes not, and the flash doesn't always work and woe is me! But, that's alright. It's about time I moved up in the camera world anyway, right? Right.

So Tuesday Mama and I went to town, as always. (Last time though- piano is out for the summer!) I didn't think about it until we were out of WalMart and in Sams. But I did look at Sams, and found two that interested me. Then we stopped by Target and OfficeMax and found two more. Well, that was enought to get me started, and I just jumped on the handy dandy Internet and... I...

Well. I became swamped with so many cameras, conflicting opinions, and lengthy reviews that since Tuesday evening I have just been stuck in a little camera fog, I tell you.

I considered a Sony H7, Sony H9, the Canon Powershot SX100, Kodak Z712 & Z812, several Olympic E-series, the list goes on and on. Each and every time I would eliminate one for various reasons.

The confusing thing is... the conflicting opinions part. Yeah, everybody uses a camera for different things, that is why there are so many cameras; so there is one for everybody. But if a camera isn't right for one person, they bash it. And it's confusing. Which is why I really don't like to read the "User Reviews". Instead I read the expert reviews on places like popphoto.com, digitalcamerareview.com, imaging-resource.com, again, the list goes on and on. I bet I read 75 reviews, easy. It's really really awful. That camera world, I tell you, it's a dog-eat-dog place now.

So I finally narrowed it down to two cameras. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 and the Canon Powershot S5 IS. Two very nice cameras within my price range.

That's another thing. It is possible to get a camera with tons of nice stuff, just not down there below $300. So you have to compromise things, and weigh out the pros and cons. This is where I was stuck.

The Panasonic has an 18x zoom (I was shooting for atleast a 12x), wider angle lense (28 mm rather than 36 mm), and this cool little joystick thingy. =D

The Canon (which I was leaning towards because I love my own Canon so much) had a swivel/foldout/twist LCD (which I really liked), and Canons are known for their quality.

I found several forum threads relating to a debate between these two, and seemingly they are very similar, except for those points I mentioned. They both have 2.5 inch LCDs, image stabilization, face detection, 8 megapixel. So it came down to image quality. I had a hard time finding out which was better.

I finally found out that the Canons are known for their picture quality, but the S5 had a downfall here. The image noise was more, where there was less in the Panasonic, and the Panasonic had overall better colors and image quality.

So there we are. After 7 or 8 hours of research, over 70 reviews, 3 major headaches, about 10 cameras later, we have decided on the Lumix.

Then there was another terrible decision to face. Color. Silver... or black? Silver... or black? Black... or silver?

Hey! I have to live with this camera for quite a while, gimme a break!

I finally decided with black and got on Amazon and ordered the dang thing. It will be shipped tomorrow and should be here mid-late next week.

I is so happy. =D

So the camera search is over! Whew! And this post is way too long. But just for the heck of it, here is a link to a review on my current Canon Powershot A85:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A85/A85A.HTM

And here are only a couple that I read on the Panasonic Lumix:

http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=3162&review=panasonic+lumix+dmc-fz18
http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-FZ18-Digital-Camera-Review-16104.htm

I've bored you enough. Adios!

Ha. Haha. Hahaha. Guess what I'm gonna be when I grow up?

2008-05-27T06:14:00.003-06:00

You know what happens when I get bored? I find stupid quizzes and surveys to do online... among other things. Such as call Sara up, start texting random people, go and brush out a random horse (whoever happens to be in the pens), draw stupid doodles, etc. But yes, I am guilty of taking those ridiculous things.

So lately, I have been wondering... What the heck do I wanna do when I get out of school?!?! Ya'll, I have no stinkin idea. I know I'm going to college; I want to. But even if I didn't, I wouldn't have a choice. And it's always been just an unspoken deal that I'll go to A&M. My parents aren't making me go there, but... I dunno, I didn't really know there were any other colleges besides Texas A&M until I was like 9.

I digress. I'm pretty dang sure I want horses to be in my life somehow. (Oh, and I'll just insert here that yes I have been praying about it, but the good Lord just hasn't revealed His master plan yet, soooo... I'm still wondering.)

I was thinking along the lines of... equine massage therapist? That would be cool. Working with horses and yeah that would be pretty awesome I think.

Being an equine veterinarian would be pretty awesome too but that is just really something you have to be really dedicated to, and I'm just not sure that is my passion. There is 3 more years of college in additional to the 4 years that make up my Bachelors degree. Gosh dang, that's alot of school.

Being an equine nutritionist is also an option... Making horse food. Haha. Horse food... sorry, that just sounds funny.

Anyway, back to my original point. Those surveys. So yesterday I Googled "how to choose a career". Lame, I know, like I said.... Boredom seized me once more and off I went to find my life-long career through Google!!

So this survey thing came up....

Aaaaand yes I took it. It asked for a name, state and zip code. I told them my name was Heidi Berg and gave them the zip from where I used to live. Baha. Then I answered like 25 questions "yes" or "no" and they said the results would be emailed to me (yeah I had to give them that too, but I gave them the old one).

I didn't get to check my email til this morning.You wanna guess what it said my perfect career was, based on my answers to the questions?

A LAWYER! A STINKIN ATTOURNEY!

o.O

Can you believe that?!?!?! They told me that I was destined to be a lawyer. Are you kidding me?!

I don't like people. Hel-lo! I mean, not to offend ya'll reading this. Mama, Sara, Aunt L., Auntie M., I mean I love ya'll but I mean... like... other people. Normal people.

Wow I should stop talking.

My point is, I don't handle most people-type situations very well, I just don't. And lawyers are like little brain-sucking, decieving rats. At least that's what my Mommy tells me. =]

So yeah. I'm destined to go to Harvard. Or Yale. Or Stanford or something, one of those Ivy-League, preppy, argyle-sweater, lawyer schools. Psssssh. A ranch girl? An attourney?

I mean, sure, I get pretty determined to make people see it my way when somebody starts arguing with me. I have an opinion, and when anybody challenges that opinion in an argumentative way, I have been known to defend it just... the slightest bit... maybe. *cough cough*

Okay. I'm going to go have my breakfast and take a shower now. I'm really glad I didn't read that email lastnight. I would have had nightmares of... blood-sucking lawyers with fangs, and red eyes, and clawed hands, and... and...!!!

Well. Have a nice day everybody!

5 Random Things

2008-05-23T16:39:00.004-06:00

5 Random Things

What I Was Doing Ten Years Ago:

1) Still living in Texas (as a 4 year old!)

2) Riding Poncho nonstop

3) Rescuing and pampering baby kitties (not much has changed)

4) Watching "Winnie the Pooh" regularly

5) Enjoying helping Mama around the house (okay so that has definitely changed)

5 Things On My "To-Do" List Today:

1) Do a math lesson

2) Rope the dummy for atleast 20 minutes

3) Play with Dexter

4) Find that baby kitty

5) Ride Wyatt

5 Snacks I Enjoy:

1) Peanut butter banana sandwich

2) Apple (peeled, with peanut butter)

3) Ritz crackers

4) A chocolate (chip) granola bar

5) Tortilla with cheese

5 Things I Would Do If I Were A Billionaire:

1) Scream hysterically, run in a circle, do the happy dance

2) Give to St. Judes hospital & animal shelters

3) Buy one of them fancy new Hybrids

4) Buy a ranch in Texas =D

5) Save the rest

5 Bad Habits:

1) Leaving clothes in the bathroom

2) Not washing clothes until I am totally out

3) Not washing my retainers in the morning

4) Chewing on my pinkie (it's weird)

5) Not doing the silverware when I do dishes

5 Places I've Lived:

1) Ojo Grande in Texas

2) Bankie Stocks Ranch (did I spell that right Mama?)

3) Timber Mountain Ranch in Texas

4) L/E Ranch here in NM

5) The moon

I now tag... Auntie M. Aaand... Mama!!

Chapman Family Needs Prayers

2008-05-23T02:34:00.002-06:00

(Yes I already posted but this is more important.) I'm sure you've heard about Marie Chapman's recent death. It's really, really tragic and I don't know how her brother is getting through this. Just please keep them in your prayers. This is just... unimaginable.

They have created a blog in honor of their 5 year old daughter, Marie. The following is the blog, with as many details on the accident as you will find anywhere else, and a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_MmOUZ085s

Devil Hamster aka "Gosh Darned Good For Nothing Fluffball"

2008-05-23T01:35:00.006-06:00

Once again, I sincerely apologize for falling behind on my blogger duty so tremendously. I swear, this just comes in spurts. But... in my defense, we have been very very busy. Last week was the last of our busy stream, or atleast the main one; last week was fall works. I won't elaborate on that, just say we were short handed, which really reall stunk. Some days we were working cattle, Spring Works, with a 5 man crew. Most days a 6 man crew. 2 or 3 days we got lucky and had 8! Thing is, alot of people wouldn't dare think of working cattle without atleast 12, some are ambitious and go for 16. Nothin' wrong with that, just making my point that... We were short on hands. 2 dudes backed out so yeah. We also picked the best week this spring for working cattle. This week has thus far been incredibly hot, and I hear it won't improve much. It has been very warm, very windy, not fun. Last week, when we worked cattle, was awesome because two nights we got like almost 2 inches one, and 6 tenths the other night. And during the day it was overcast and calm, and we got sprinkled on, off and on, most of the days, it was just very cool and very nice. And we didn't have any extremely wild bovines, thank goodness.

Enough of that. Devil Hamster. Are you curious? Check out the picture below.

He goes by the name Dexter. Don't let the fluffy fur, cute little hands or seemingly innocent face decieve you. Inside, he has a teeny tiny heart made of ice, and a brilliant little mind.

I haven't had much time to handle him, well, at all since before last week. I was always exhausted in the evenings during working and I would just stick him in his handy dandy plastic runabout ball and off he would go!! Now Zoey has never been bad about chasing the hamsters. Sassafras has only escaped from her ball twice (not sure how she does it, must put her teeny little paws in the grips and twist it open and voila, she's an escapee) since we've had Zoey (twice more before that) and we always found out soon enough and kicked Zoey out of the room and caught the evil little bugger. Dexter has yet to escape. That is... until tonight. Or this morning. Whatever.

Let's set the scene, shall we? It's 1:07 am, I'm all snuggled up cozy in my bed, enjoying a pleasant dream about... I can't remember what it was about, but I was dreaming and it was pleasant, isn't that enough details people?!?! Moving on... Zoey was being obnoxious, knocking at Sassafras' ball (which I just put on the floor by the keyboard stand on which she resides) into the gun case and some shotgun shells, making a terrible racket. In addition, I could hear her scratching at something and pawing at my nightstand. I tried to ignore her, but much to my dismay, she continued. Well dangit you stinkin kitty!!! So I get up, and see she is pawing under my nightstand. I suspected a hamster had gotten loose, but quickly dismissed the idea.

I retrieve my flashlight...

Peer under the bed...

And I see-

OH MY GOSH! AAAHHHHH! DEX IS LOOSE! CALL 911!!! ANIMAL CONTROL! HEEEELPPP!

I struggle to calm myself down and prevent a heart attack. Okay, stay calm, just grab the hamster by his sorry little fluff and toss him in the cage and be done with it. First things first, throw the cat out. Next, turn on the light. Get the hamster ball. Back to the nighstand-

HE'S GONE.

Okay, it's okay, don't panic but AHHHH HE'S GOOONNNE! I frantically search about, to no avail. Finally I roll over to the other side of the room, near his cage, at the foot of my bed, and no Dexter. Well I can't neccessarily move the trundle underneath because the wheels could squish my precious little hammy. So I pick up the frame and move it back and peer behind the bed, but the mattress is in the way. I finally get smart and pull the mattress out, leaving my free to see-

There. There he is. Bwaha. You can't escape me now!

Well okay so maybe he can. See there is about 2x4 inch square mesh on the trundle, and when I try to reach through them to get the hammy, he moves and I can't get a good grip. I try to push him to the side of the trundle into the ball. Ah, there he goes, he's walking towards it-

NOOOO!

He avoids the ball, and skitters away out of sight. Why, you gosh darned, good for nothing little fluffball!!! I move the mattress back some more. Aha!! There he is. I try to pick him up by his fluff, but he flails his little bitty limbs frantically, claws at my hand, catches me by surprise, I bang my hand against the bed by accident, and, well, hurt myself. Evil little hammy. (Emphasis on evil.) I try to scooch him in the ball one last time...

AHA! You are mine, bwahahaha. I have finally caught the terrible beastie. I dump him in his bin, and latch it tight. (Yeah, Dexter's mama was very careless when feeding him lastnight, forgot to put the lid on the bin so it fits, and... well...)

ANYWAY. The hamster is safe and sound in his bin. And yes, I have Zoey to thank for it. And for not catching and eating him. I saw her catch a mouse once. (Outside, I assure you.) So yeah.

I remember when Sassafras first escaped. This was about a year and three months ago or so. I had had Sassy for a very little amount of time, maybe two months if that. I used to keep her bin on the floor, without a lid. It's high topped, she couldn't get out by crawling on anything, I didn't have a cat, why bother? Well, I'll tell you why. I have a very, very strange hamster. Not only is she excessively aggressive, biting relentlessly and seemingly untamable, she also has strange habits like chewing on the water spout (which is extremely, extremely annoying). And not only this, she crawled the water bottle. Yes folks, she did. I have done a LOT of reading on hamsters and never have I heard of such an account as this, and neither did my hamster people on Hamster Hideout (a forum). So I come home from shooting sports at about 11:30 (I forgot what delayed us) and she is gone. Of course I frantically search every room in the house, and don't forget that I post a frantic, panic post on HH about her escape. There are alot of things you can do when a hamster escapes, but luckily while I was on the computer trying to calm myself down by reading fellow members' reassuring posts, I heard a strange scratching that continued and continued. (It was about 1:00 at this point.) I finally just knew she was in the office. So I made a bucket trap. I took a bucket, put some bedding in the bottom, and some food. Then I made a ramp out of a cutting board covered with a towel and put apple and cheese all the way up the board, and in the bucket. Hamsters have terrible eye sight, and this has worked countless times, so I'm told. The hamster smells the strong-smelling food, crawls up the ramp, pouching and/or eating, and falls in the bucket, and is caught. But Sassafras wasn't interested in eating. Well I kept checking on the bucket and finally went in there once... And there she sat. I grabbed the hamster ball and put it in front of her, coaxing her into it, but she refused. She skittered away. I herded her back, between two boxes, and into the ball she went. It was 2:00 at this time. A.M, yes.

Needless to say, it is 2:06 A.M. now. I am wide awake with not a thing to do... But blog. Yessirree, so you can thank the hamster for this post.

Dadgummed fluffball. He didn't get a craisin tonight. And he won't get one tomorrow night. Heck he may never get a craisin again!!

Hey, he did the crime. He will suffer the consequences.

Shooting Sports Weekend // Imprisoned By Braces No More!!

2008-05-08T09:40:00.004-06:00

Hola me peeples. =D

I know, I know I haven't been a very good blogger lately, and I am deeply ashamed of my lack of responsibility. =[ I sincerely apologize and am greatly determined to have higher standards when it comes to my blog. Honest!

Well this past weekend we were up north of the state at the State Shooting Sports competition. It was pretty awesome! The down side was that we had only practiced about 6 times; we used to practice at Dow Hall, but the hall is currently under major construction. Coach and the team could come out here as often as they wanted; except that we didn't have a safe place to store the equipment, and it was alot of work to keep loading and unloading it. Also, it was quite a ways out here, thus a bit inconvenient. So yeah we could have done alot better if we had practiced; but as it is, we did not have that privelage. It was however, an excellent experience, and I believe helped us all so that we could be even more competitive next year, accompanied with practice!!

So we went up there earlier than the team. Thursday afternoon, we left. It took us about 4.5 hours to get up there. Why did we leave to so early, you may be asking? Well there is a very excellent gunsmithing school near Raton, where State would take place; Raton is right near the border of Colorado, and we could just cruise on up there in CO and visit Trinidad, home of the best gunsmithing school in the nation, perhaps world! (So they say.) So yeah we reached the Whittington Center that evening with perfect intentions of grabbing our key and heading on up to our cozy little cabin for a good night's rest.

Ohhhh but no way! That would be way too easy. Psssh.

We got our key to Cabin 3 and drove on up there (about 2 miles I'm guessing it was) to our little cabin. Well we just shoved that nice little silver key right in the lock, turned it, and....

Well. Nothing happened. The door refused to open. For several minutes we fought with that door; then we tried the backdoor. No luck. (Oh, and it was very very cold; not the perfect temperature to be standing around fiddling with a stupid cabin door.)

So we just cruised right back down there and told Roger (the guy on night duty) all about our cabin dilemma. Well he was real nice and apologized about it and all; he gave us a different set of keys for Cabin 3. Up we go with high hopes of a cozy bed (it was dark by now)... But nope. Stupid key still wouldn't do the trick. (At this point I suggested somebody hoisted me up and I could just pop through the window but neither Mama nor Tyler went for it.)

Back down to the entry gate, where he told us to just run into Raton and get something to eat, and he woudl go up and try all the keys for Cabin 3. Alright, so into town we went where we stopped by a little Subway and had us some supper. (Which was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself.) We headed back to the Whittington Center; I was pretty tired by now and dang sure ready for some sleep.

Roger told us that none of the Cabin 3 keys worked, so he checked us out of Cabin 3 (oh and by the way, our team had reserved 3 & 4) and we registered for Cabin 5. (Some cabins were used that night that wouldn't be the next day, including Cabin 4.) So we piddled on up there and guess what?

Yup. It didn't open. Down we go... again.

We were pretty dumbfounded by now. Cabin 3 and Cabin 5 had faulty locks. Eh?

He gave us the keys to Cabin 9 & 10.

Well heck, why break the pattern? Those didn't work either. It was absolutely ridculous, but to the point that Mama and I were almost hysterical with laughter. But hey, it was late, it was cold, we had no place to sleep, we were tired; it's better than the alternative- throwing a hissy fit and bursting out into tears.

Well poor Roger sure apologized and we were just all clueless. We told him that we would sleep in the gift shop if we had to, we just needed a cabin for one night if they would fix the locks to the other cabins. Which they had better, because they had a LOT of people coming in to stay in those cabins the next day. So... there was a founder's cabin open that night. (Oh, and it turns out they changed all the locks but didn't get keys, so they had to get keys made on Friday, and it all worked out.)

See, there are 3 different types of 'cabins'. The first are 1500 sq. ft., with 5 bunk beds (meaning 10 beds); 4 of the bunks in the main room, and one in a tiny room off the main one. Then there was the bathroom, and that's it. They're kind of pitiful, but they hold us and it all works.

Then there are the founders cabins; these are really big and really nice, as we found out. (We got to stay in the newest one; it had never been slept in.) There are 4 bedrooms, each accompanied by it's own bathroom (complete with heat lamp!), 2 beds, and 2 nightstands. One of the bedrooms was the main one, and it had a gigantic bathroom. The shower had one of those little benches and a hand-held shower head, it was just amazing. The furniture is really cool, all out of wooden posts; the main room/kitchen is enormous with a really long bar accompanied by swivel chairs (which really excited Mama, don't ask why, it was a strange fascination she developed while there). The view was spectacular from our cabin too; Whittington Center is one of the best shooting facilities with many ranges, probably a dozen, and is set up in the mountains.

Oh, and there are also what they call Condos which are really cool looking with I think 8 bedrooms and a huge main room, and yeah. Never been inside of them, but they were dang awesome.

So we stayed in there for the night and in the morning packed up and drove off towards Colorado. I don't really remember all that happened that day; but the gunsmithing school ROCKED. Man the people were so personable, including the students, and it was really interesting, I loved it. Haha the lady we met up with introduced us to two of the students: Lyrch and Tank. =D Haha and one of the main professor's name was Speedy Gonzalez. It was just really really cool.

So yeah, Friday night our team came in and it was all good. The next day we were up at 5:30 for a light breakfast and to go shoot! We started out with Air Rifle which is my best event, same as Leanne. We were next to each other and able to help each other out; we were also on the first relay of 3P. Meaning it was very early. And very cold. Coach Hugh said it was 31 in that building, but I didn't really notice. Anyway, that went pretty well; there is this one girl named Bethany we were told to watch out for. She beat me by 10 points on prone, but Hugh said I beat her on kneeling and standing. =D Woohoo, go me!

Then came Air Rifle Silhouettes- which were awesome!!! I love doing the AR Silhouettes. You have 5 little chickens on a little platform thing and you get five shots; if you miss one, you just move to the next one. And you have somebody scoring for you; my scorer was Jerry, Leanne's step-dad so I was pretty happy about that. Anyway, after your first 5 rounds, you go set the chickens back up (which are really small and made out of metal) and shoot your next 5. Then you exchange the chickens for pigs, and you move back. (I forgot the exact measurements, but you move back quite a good ways each time you change animals.) Then came turkeys, then rams. I got 26 out of a possible 40, which I was told was excellent. Yea me!

Then came .22 3P which really really stunk. It was very cold and very windy, which was just terrible. The last event for us was .22 silhouettes which was even worse than 3P- I think I got 8. Out of a possible 40. Craaaaap. But the scope messed me up! Yeah with air rifle we were shooting with iron sights and on .22 silhouette Hugh let us use scope guns. Leanne & I hated them stupid scopes. Anyway, yeah. Tyler, Cody & Wade went and shot shotgun too.

I could have done alot better with more practice, but that's okay, it was fun. The girls who won Air Rifle 3P got a 97 and a 98 on their prone targets. =O *faints* That is just... wow. But Leanne and I have already decided we are gonna be first next year. Heck yeah!! Cody got 4th high in air rifle, and I got 9th high. Lane, Leanne and Wade got 16th, 17th and 18th respectively. In .22.... I don't even know what we got, I don't think I want to. our team got 4th high in AR. And Tyler placed 10th in shotgun. Overall, it was pretty good.

On Friday night, after all the shooting was done, there was a dance! YEAH! We gathered up Dakotah, Cody, Wade, Tyler, Leanne & I and got in Lucy's vehicle and off we went on a grand adventure!

That was the most fun 10 minute car ride EVER. Wow I thought I was going to die of laughter. Cody, Wade Leanne & I were taking pictures of each other and... just... wow. Haha and Dakotah (who is a really big guy) had the classic rock station on and was singing to it in a high voice. Hahaha! We were about 1 mile from the cabins when he all of a sudden hit the brakes REALLY hard, swerved off the road, and totally unnerved us all.

"OH MY GOSH! Holy crap, did ya'll see that UNICORN?!?!?!?!"

Maybe it was one of those had-t0-be-there things but it was stinkin hilarious. Another half mile, and we came across an antelope right on the side of the road. (Oh, the wildlife up there are really tame; deer, antelope, rabbits, they're all tame; they have bears up in those mountains too.) Dakotah rolled down the window...

"And here we have an antelope, otherwise known as the two horned unicorn." =P

As we drove by, Cody stuck his arm out the window and gave the antelope the peace sign saying, "Peace DUDE!"

Wow it was pretty funny.

When we got to the dance it was barely 8:00, when the dance started, so it was pretty sad, but in a half hour it really filled up. I was kind of disappointed, it was just like the 4H dances; everybody joined their own little groups and didn't ask other people to dance. Me, being a girl, don't walk around asking guys to dance. The guys should ask the girls, IMO. But most guys at these dances just stink and won't ask girls they don't know to dance. Phooey on them.

So I danced with Wade twice. Some guy from Colfax County asked me to dance once. And Dakotah and I danced like... a dozen times. Seriously. It was insane. But see Dakotah is like 19 or 20. Meaning he can't legally go asking young girls at a dance to dance with him, that he doesn't know outside the building. Which really stinks for him. But Dakotah is like a big bro to me, so yeah... but he improved my dance skills! I can now spin and twirl. YAY. Lol. Thank you Dakotah. =D

We left the dance at about 11:15, after the last song, got home and jumped into bed. The next morning we had breakfast, went to the awards, then headed for home. And that was that. A fun weekend!!!

Oh, and haha, Leanne and I renamed all the guys. With girl names. See, we were going to have an all girl team, and then an all boy team- Leanne, Cheyenne and I. Then Wade, Cody and Tyler. But Cheyenne couldn't come, so we had only one team: Leanne, Wade and I. (We ended up getting Cody too but we didn't know that at the time we came up with the girl name idea.) We were going to be the Chaves Chicks- and we were determined we still would be. We just had to pretend that Wade was a girl. So we gave him a new name, and then all the guys earned new names, and then most of the parents got them too.

Wade = Winona
Tyler = Tiffany
Cody = Cindy
Dakotah = Deborah
Jerry = Joanna
Tammi = Timothy
Coach Hugh = Captain Marshmellow

The last one is a whole other story in itself. Oh, and Leanne and I renamed ourselves as well- Leroy and Curtis. =D We walked around all weekend saying, "It's you, me and WINONA!" I don't think he'll ever forgive us for that.

Ooh ooh ooh ooh! Guess what happened yesterday?

I GOT MY BRACES OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heck yeah! I have declared it a National holiday. Some things you just remember... on January 7th, 2007, I got Sassafras. April 15th, 2008, I got Dexter. August 4th, 2005, I got my braces on. May 7th, 2007, I got my braces off!!! Woohoo!

It almost didn't happen though. See, I could have sworn the appointment was at 10:45, then back at 12:00 to get my retainers. But.... the appointment was at 10:10, back at 12:45 for retainers.

Oops?

As soon as we got in the truck at 10:03, Mama looked in her wallet for the appointment card and we kind of freaked. I called the office and asked if it was okay if we were about 15 minutes late; she said sure, if we were like 30 minutes though, they would have to reschedule.

*gulp*

Reschedule? Getting braces off?

I about passed out ya'll, I'm telling ya right now. That just.... would.... that would... be a tragedy!!!!

So I demanded that Mama put the pedal to the medal and get to the office ASAP, cuz those things were coming off! My Mama doesn't speed, she just doesn't, she's a good little citizen. But it was an emergency! So yup, we got there 20 minutes late, but they took me! YAY!!!

The first thing they did was pull the brackets off, and that was the worst part. They take these rusty-looking pliers and just pull them right off. Yes, it hurt. It hurt pretty badly, in fact. But I lived to tell the tale.

Then Dr. Taylor takes this little mini grinder to grind off the cement while Nancy (one of the assistants) hold this little mini vacuum thing to suck up the cement. The grinder thing wasn't so bad as the vacuum. See it sucks all the saliva (ew) and cement out, and it really dries up your tooth and makes it cold. And my teeth are really sensitive... that part was pretty bad too. But anyway. Then Nancy takes this purple stuff and puts polish on my teeth. Then I go rinse and spit. Now for the mold.

They put this pink putty stuff in a mold and put it on your top jaw and bottom jaw (a mold for each) and put it up there. Then I was told to go brush, then wait for x-rays and pictures.

They took 2 different xrays of my teeth, but it was really awkward. Because of the radiation, pregnant women can't have x-rays.... So, as procedure they have to ask all girls if there is any chance you're pregnant. A little bit awkward, yes.... I was like HECK NO!

Anyway, then they take pictures of you. One of your face, no smile. One smiling. One side shot. then they have to put these stretchers in your mouth to pull your lips away, and put a mirror in your mouth too (I have no idea why). I almost gagged on the mirror. Anywho. Then I was told we could leave.

We ate at Pizza Hut- my first meal without braces!

Mama said when she got her braces off (that was like decades ago, LOL) it felt like there was too much room in her mouth. But the braces I got are really small brackets, not the regular kind, so it wasn't that so much as my teeth felt really smooth and slimy almost. Just very weird. I kept trying to suck food out of my braces after eating a slice of pizza but... There was nothing to suck out! Hahah. =P

Then back to the office where I recieved my retainers, my wonderful wondeful retainers. They just look like nightguards or something. I have a top and a bottom one. I have to wear them every night and one day a week. They're a pain to clean. I have to scrub them with a toothbrush and toothpaste, ugh it's annoying. Oh well.

So now I have purdy, straight teeth!!! =D I took a piccie- ya'll wanna see?

So there it is. Anyway, when I left there, they gave me this huge thermos full of candy!!!! Laffy Taffy, Snickers, Caramello, Peanut M&Ms, Bubblegum, yummmmmyy. And we also picked up a big bag of chewy caramels on the way home, since I can't eat those with braces. I am munching on them now. =D

Okay well this was a really really long post. So I'm gonna go eat more caramels. Adios!

*-Ranch Kiddo

Over The Fence: Part I

2008-04-30T16:35:00.006-06:00

Well I need to write something. And I don't want to write another post. I'm either a) too lazy, or b) not motivated. Maybe both. Maybe more a concentrated. Anyway.

I am going to entertain you with a story! Hahaha I wrote this about 8 months ago, and abandoned it. Like I do most of my stories. I have no problem at all coming up with the first part, I just can't seem to keep it going through the middle. Haha. But I picked this one up again and I just finished the third part to it. So I guess I'll let ya'll read it. Since the next 2 weeks or so are going to be absolutely hectic. Anyway. Here is the story. I have no idea why the title is what it is, I just needed one (I've been putting it on a writing site for critique) and it just kinda fit. Kinda. Sorta. Anyway- and you pronounce the girl's name as, "tuh-nay-uh". Yeah. And I almost didn't post this because I don't think it's that good, it may be a little sappy, the bronc riding scene is definitely dubious. Well anyway. I'll post it for the heck of it. No making fun of my amateur writing skills! So here you is:

Part I

Mitch winced as his leg was rammed against the side of the chute gate.

“Sit tight!” advised one of the men gathered round the chute.

Like I’m not already, Mitch wanted to snap, though he was really too nice to do so. His free hand gripped the gate tighter; ignoring the pulsing pain in his leg, he gritted his teeth and breathed jerkily.

“Hurtin’ a little bit, Rhodes?” Mitch wedged his eyes shut in an effort not to leap out of the chute and tackle the speaker to the ground as the hoarse voice literally whispered the phrase in his ears, like an insult from the Devil himself.

“Leave him be”, snapped Evan, double checking Mitch’s saddle. The horse reared in the chute and pawed at the pipe before lunging backwards and settling in the chute, quivering with anticipation.

“I won Jackson on this horse with an eighty-se-"

“This dadgummed horse is bout to flip over”, a very alarmed somebody shouted, cutting off Jerry Lane’s threat, much to the relief of Mitch. He could feel the muscles in his neck tense, already throwing off his balance.

Don’t let ‘im get to ya Mitch, focus, darnit, focus!

“He’s gonna go over backwards!” somebody warned, as the horse reared and pawed at the gates, snorting and anxious for what he knew was coming.

“Muddy Moon’s notorious for that”, Evan replied, sounding both calm and concerned .

“Well, dangit, then just let me out!’” cried Mitch. Two seconds later, Mitch was high in the air, and he came down with a heavy seat, jarring his spine and gnashing his teeth together… but he was still in the saddle, and that was all that mattered. Adrenaline, which felt quite comparable to lightning at the time, raced through his veins; every breath seemed precious. That gut-wrenching feeling gripped him again, as the bronc beneath him kicked high and came down hard before sucking back heavy and going again. Get your licks in Mitch! he told himself. A cold shiver tickled his bones as he felt his rowels connect with the horse’s thick shoulder; he raked his heels up and was rewarded with a lunge-twist combo. 8 seconds seemed more like 8 minutes when you were atop of a bucking bronc, riding like hell to win that $750 for first prize. Every ounce of his belief in himself, every ounce of his strength, self-respect, any emotion at all, drenched every second of that ride; every time he rode a bronc, it wasn’t just for the money, it was what he loved. He would not settle for second!

“What a snappy horse this is, Mike!”

“Yes-sir-ee, Paul, watch that horse kick; he’s a rank one, alright. Rhodes should score high on this’n.”

The announcers’ voices never seemed to reach Mitch’s ears as he rode good and hard. When the buzzer sounded, Mitch’s heart sank; Not yet, I didn’t get enough in, no!

When he hit the ground, the first thing racing through his mind was, ‘Was it good enough? Did I beat ‘im?’ Still ignoring the pain in his right leg, his eyes lifted to the score board, eyes fixed on it as if those numbers were his lifeline… The lights flickered… 82.5. Shoot. One point. By one point!

“Hey, Rhodes, nice try.” Mitch didn’t look up as he stalked over to the fence and easily scaled it. He managed to take some comfort in two old fellas who had propped themselves up against the fence, muttering between themselves.

“…dang judges…”

“…don’t know nothin ‘bout no bronc ridin’… that Mitch boy can sure ride one…”

“ Appreciate it”, Mitch mumbled to Lane. That disgusting gravelly voice just laughed and spoke once more:

“But you can’t beat the best.” Mitch bit his lip and walked away. The best is coming, Lane, it’s coming…

*---*---*---*---*

Easy, don’t rush the steer… Perfect! Now watch ‘im, he’s starting to duck… dangit! Get back in position! Okay… watch your delivery, Tanaya! Don’t jerk your slack too soon… Great, both horns!

Tanaya dallied skillfully, her grey eyes not dismissing the steer in order to take her rope twice ‘round the horn. She tucked her leg and rein into her horse, turning the steer for Riley to take the heels. The crowd cheered when the heel loop snaked around both hocks and caught, perfectly. They stretched the steer out on the ground for a full 2 seconds before Tanaya herself whooped and turned her rope and the steer loose, watching the latter trot haughtily towards the catch pens. Tanaya couldn’t contain her excitement of being in the arena, performing what she loved to do; roping, and being the best at it.

“I think that takes it”, Riley grinned, coiling and strapping his own rope to the saddle swells.

“I sure as hell hope so. The prize is five hundred, two-fifty for the each of us.” Both looked up hopefully at the score-board… 6.4.

“And Riley and Tanaya West take the team roping with a 6.4!”

The congratulations a'waiting at the chutes soon got old. Tanaya mechanically said thanks as CJ, bless his soul, walked calmly through the chaos, seemingly without a care.

“Fantastic, kids!”

“Thanks, Daddy.” Tanaya leaned over to hug Jim, and as she did, some fellow sitting a ways off on a hay-bale caught her eye. He’s the one who durned near won the saddle bronc riding. Lost to that durned idiot, Jerry Lane. He wasn’t much older than her own 17 years. There was something about the way he solemnly leaned over his knees, staring at his boots, large hands clasped together. Something about that thoughtful expression that somewhat intrigued Tanaya…

“You took it, hands-down!”

“Thanks Brandon…”

*---*---*---*---*

“Durned ole bull… I hope one o’ these days some of this wire gets tangled up round your throat and kills ya!” This is what could be heard if you had happened to be wandering around… well, the Middle Of Nowhere, rather. These haughty words echoed across the range, empty, except for cows, antelope, jackrabbits, rattlers, and other range critters. Oh, and yes, the meaty Angus bull grazing about 50 yards off, seeming to enjoy watching Tanaya West mend the fence that he had just happened to bust up.

“Every time…” the teenage girl continued to mutter, to no-one in particular, unless perhaps the bull. “Every stinkin’ time, you’re pulled off cows, you run through this fence. And every stinkin’ time, I have to clean up after ya! It’s a curse!” she moaned.

Tanaya continued muttered nonsense remarks under her breath as she fumbled with the awkward stretchers. The 4 of the 5 wires were busted clean through, and one of the posts was broken. Tanaya gave the stretcher several cranks, and was groping in the dirt for her pliers, when the distant roar of an engine distracted her from the current task. She glanced up to see a cloud of dust approaching her on the dry ranch road, obviously caused by a vehicle, but belonging to who she couldn’t begin to assume. The vehicle came closer, and she soon realized it to be a red feed truck, which stalled in the middle of the road near where Tanaya was fixin the fence. She stood slowly, watching suspiciously as a young man jumped out. Eh, he’s wearing a hat. Surely he’s not the worst of company.

“Howdy”, she said, pulling off one of the leather fencing gloves.

“Howdy”, returned the stranger. Tanaya honored him with a once-over with her grey eyes. Scuffed brown cowboy boots, with spurs… interesting. He’s one of us, she thought, chuckling internally. Faded jeans, cracked brown belt with ranch rodeo top hand buckle, blue working shirt, light brown felt hat with stains around the crown and a hawk feather propped jauntily in the band. And smiling brown eyes; he couldn’t be very old, yet laugh lines had already nested in areas around his eyes and mouth. Square jaw, black hair peeking out from under the hat; in fact, he could be called rather handsome. And he looked so familiar… but for the life of her, Tanaya couldn’t recall where she had seen the friendly face.

“Tanaya West.” She offered a hand and a slight smile over the busted wires she had begun to mend.

“Mitch Rhodes, nice to meet ya’.”

“Likewise.”

“I reckon that’s Uncle Kenny’s bull”, Mitch commented, gesturing towards the grazing beast with the Curtis Creek Ranch brand on his left hip. He surveyed the bull with experienced eyes.

“Kenny Fields? You his nephew?”

“That’d be me”, he replied with the slightest trace of a smile and a cocked head.

“Ah. We heard ‘bout you.” Tanaya bent to twist the wires she had begun to stretch together. Mitch laughed.

“Is that good or bad?” Tanaya squinted up at him and smiled.

“He speaks pretty highly of you.”

“Ah, well…”

There was a slight, perhaps awkward, pause. Mitch fumbled with the cuff of his shirt, seeming to think of what to say. Doesn’t seem like the talkative type, Tanaya thought. Not altogether a bad trait.

“Could I give you a hand here?”

“I reckon I wouldn’t reject such an offer.” Mitch retrieved his own gloves from the truck and the two proceeded to mend the fence together.

“Where you from?” Tanaya asked casually, tightening one of the ties.“Texas. Mostly the Panhandle.”

“Mmmm. What brings ya to this desert wasteland of New Mexico?”

“Just graduated-" Mitch paused to set the new T-post he’d dug out of the back of Tanaya's truck. “-Uncle Kenny suggested I come down these parts, maybe get a job. Enter some rodeos, see if I can get a start in that somehow.” Tanaya fixed her eyes on Mitch with renewed interest.

“You rodeo?”

“Some.”

Suddenly, it clicked. Tanaya shook her finger at him, recalling just where she had seen this Mitch Rhodes.

“I saw you at the Esther County Amateurs Rodeo a month or so ago. That’s right… you didn’t look too amateur to me.” Mitch blinked in surprise.

“Oh, hey! Yeah, you and your brother, Riley was it? Ya’ll took the team-ropin’. Darn good ropers, you two.”

“Thanks. You didn’t look like you sat a horse too bad either”, Tanaya commented, squinting up at him.

“Eh, well…. I’m working on it.”

“Do you think you’re any good?”

“I reckon I’m decent.”

“You took second.”

“Exactly… not first. You took first.”

“Dang right.” Mitch chuckled, clipping the last tie as he stood back with Tanaya to survey their work.

“I reckon it’ll do till the idiot busts it down again.” Mitch turned to look at the bull.

“He do that often?” Tanaya glared at the creature with pure contempt blazing in her eyes, and laughed sarcastically.

“Oh yeah.”

“Well, reckon I’ll be back round first thing in the mornin’ to take him to the East side of the ranch instead.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Huh. Thanks.”

Tanaya tossed the coil of wire, stretchers, and pliers into the truck.

“Well, it was nice meetin’ ya Mitch Rhodes. Thanks for the help.”

“You bet”, Mitch returned, shaking hands.“Reckon I’ll git. Suppose I’ll see you around?” Mitch asked, mid-step.

“More’n likely.”

*---*---*---*---*

Bleh.

2008-04-26T12:21:00.002-06:00

Been a long hard morning.
Last night was pretty bad too.
But it's okay, may His will be done!
I'm probably confusing you.

Hehe.

Just asking for prayers about a baby kitty who was an inch from death this morning, but I think we saved him.
Thank you Lord!

And for Jenny, who had 2 kittens, but is nursing 5, of 3 different ages. What a great Mommy cat, several kittens would be dead without her.

And I have my piano recital at 3:15- ehh I don't think Arabesque is ready. I kind of want to get it over with.

Anyway. Just wanted to pop in. If not tonight, I'll try for more tomorrow.

Prayers please! Have a blessed day!

In His Grip, Ranch Kiddo

Photoshopped Pix

2008-04-24T12:11:00.009-06:00

I haven't posted in a while, but I just can't seem to get really.. blog inspired. Dang I need to start getting some more of those blog nutrients... So I'll just post something real quick to satisfy your blog cravings.

I was at Sara's all day yesterday, it ws hilarious. I will merely say that she has a laptop, with a webcam. Yes. It was terrible. We made all these hilarious videos like we had our own little online "show" and uh yeah. And one where we would just stick our faces up in the camera real abruptly and scream. And... yeah. Hahahah and we took pictures and warped them oh my gosh... In one I looked like a male cartoon character, in another Sara looked obese. It's hard to explain, let's just say it's one of those "had to be there" things, but be glad you weren't.

Like I said, this would be short. But I just wanted to put something up. And when I don't feel like typing... I put up pictures!!! And I have been messing around with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and loving it. So here are a couple LOL Hams. Remember those LOL Cats? Well on my hamster site, they have a little contest where you make LOL Hams and put them up. Here are a few of my favorites I made myself:

And here are a couple "signatures" I made. You put them in your "signature" on sites which show below your posts. Yes they are all of my hamsters because I have been a little obsessed with them lately, since I got Dexter. And I have been making them to put on my hamster site. So yeah. They are smaller because they have to be sized properly to be in a signature. Oh and one the second one, Dexter is saying "Hey HHers" because the site is called Hamster Hideout, and we call the members HHers. Haha.

And this is a picture (the original) that I took when we went to feed mares one afternoon; I didn't have it on sports mode and didn't even mean to catch the colt jumping, she just did it as soon as I snapped the pic:

Then I altered it to make it into a little avatar/sig. Here is the signature version (my name is ranchgal on the hamster site:)

So there are my latest creations. Not that spectacular, considering what some people can do on the same program. It's absolutely phenomenal, it blows my mind! But I have fun playing. =)

Oh, and Dexter is pretty much tame! Yup I can pick him up, hold him, feed him, he doesn't pee on me anymore, lol, so yay! He gets a little skittish at times but that's okay. He doesn't bite! Woohoo! Yay for nonbiting hammies!

In His Grip,

Ranch Kiddo

Hamster Habitat Perfection

2008-04-18T11:35:00.006-06:00

Just for the heck of it, I figured I would give you a visual of a bin cage. Hamster habitat perfection, if you were to ask me. This is Sassafras' bin. I used to use Carefresh, a bedding composed of recycled material, it's great for odor control, very absorbant, but very expensive. And it's too clumpy to burrow in. I now use Aspen which is like 4 dollars a month per cage, and it smells nicer, nice and woodsy, and is fairly absorbant, and they like burrowing in. Aspen is in her bin in these pics. I change around the layout of her bin occasionally. I clean it out completely every 2 or 2 and a half weeks. The white stuff is toilet paper for nesting material, the green thing is a Greenie, for her to chew on.

I think this bin is 32 inches by 19 inches. I think. Can't remember. It's on my old keyboard stand.

This is the lid. I've put more holes in it since then. You can also cut out part of the lid and attach wire mesh with rivets, but seeing as my cat loves to perch on the lid, I'm not sure that would be such a great idea in my situation.

The inside of Sassy's bin. She was in her ball at the time.

Now for Dexter's bin. (Yeah I named him Dexter, aka Dex.) The lid cracked when I drilled the holes. Zoey loves sitting on this one because she can watch him through the top. The bin is on top of Tucker's crate at the foot of my bed.

The inside of his bin. They like to chew on toilet paper rolls. Since this pic he has made a nest under the water bottle and in the wooden house.

So yeah, there ya go. =) There are alot nicer cages than this. Some people use tanks or bins and add them together and put all sorts of cool stuff in there. This is pretty simple, but satisfactory to a hamster. I think.

Now I must go continue school. Blech.

New Addition To Zoo (Needs Name)

2008-04-17T06:15:00.006-06:00

Yes, I have another hamster. But... it wasn't planned! Honestly, it was an unexpected addition to the zoo.

See, Sassafras is virtually untamable. I don't know what it is, but she is a very rare hamster. She is Syrian, beautiful, but she will bite repeatedly when intruded upon and chew my fingers bloody raw. She will not give my hands a chance, she merely bites when I offer her it to smell. What a darling. Here is a pic:

So Tuesday, Mama and I went to town. I was only considering getting another hamster, within the next couple months or so. And I was just gonna go in and see if they had the right wheel size, honest!!

Now in petstores, they label hamsters with fake names just to get money. "Black Bear" hamsters, are merely black shorthair Syrians. "Teddy Bear" hamsters, are golden shorthair Syrians. "Fancy Hamsters", are shorthair Syrians of various colors. "Longhair Fancy Hamsters", are longhair Syrians, various colors. Then there are dwarves, but they are easily distinguished from the Syrians. Anyways.

In the little box labeled "Longhair Fancy Hamsters", was a little dark brown fella and he was so cute I think my heart stopped. Back out to the truck I went, starstruck... Into WalMart we went for groceries. I emerged with... a bin.

The best cages for hamsters, in my opinion, are bins. Just a simple Rubbermaid, Sterilite, etc. bin- very large, mind you. Then you can drill holes in the lid for ventilation, and a hole to accompany the water bottle. It's very clever as they are light, easy to clean, and roomy. The plastic tubey kind of cages are unsafe and crowded, wire cages are okay but usually too small, aquariums/tanks are great except they are heavy and expensive. I like the bin cages.

Back to PetCo we went. I asked the "hamster guy" who came up, if I could handle the hamster, explaining that my previous purchase was... faulty. The answer was 'yes'. =D

He explained that they tried to handle the hamsters 10-15 minutes a day, but these had just arrived the day before and hadn't been handled much. Now there was a little banded cream (cream colored with a white band around the middle) in with the brown, that I hadn't seen before. (They are nocturnal, you see, and sleep most of the day.) He was definitely a cutie. The 'hamster guy' said the brown always just hid and was shy and a little fiesty, while the the cream was nicer and a bit more friendly. Well, I wasn't taking my chances on another Sassafras, so he caught the banded cream for me, and let me hold it.

During the transfer from his hands to mine, the little guy jumped, and, well... kinda did a flying-saucer leap through the air and landed with a little plop! on the floor. The guy just scooped him right up, checked him, and this time the transfer was complete. He was soooo soft and I was so excited, because after over a year of having Sassy, I could never hold her. He sniffed my thumb and bit it once, but that's okay because first of all he had been awoken from his peaceful slumber, and when you do that you are almost asking for a bite. Plus, he wasn't being mean about it at all. We humans see something, then touch it, to check it out. (Unless it's a snake or some such thing.) Well hamsters have bad eyesight, so they smell, then taste it. It drew blood but I didn't really care.

So into the box he went and I gathered up my supplies. A wooden house, wheel, ball, water bottle, and food dish. And home we went with a new critter!

At home I set him up, drilled the holes, and he was home! I tried offering him my hand, but he won't come to it, and he won't take treats. =\ Oh, well, he's still settling in. He lets me pet him fine, and I think tonight I'll try to hold him. =)

He also needs a name. I am thinking about Dexter, Sammy & Sonny. I really like D'artagnan and Muskogee but neither fit him. Any ideas?

Ya'll ready for some pictures?!?!

First pic I took, I think it's the best too. Yes, he is sitting in his food dish. Just look at that face!

By his house. It was hard to take pics, he kept scurrying out of the picture. =P

Getting a drink. A little blurry.

In his wheel. He runs on it like a mad-ham!

Water spout's in the way, but it's still really cute.

So there ya go, my newest addition. I'll let ya'll know how taming goes. Hopefully he won't eat me alive like Sassafras. Gee, my first ham had to be so evil... Most people get sweet and cuddly. I got the rotten rat. The ungrateful, evil, full-of-attitude, vicious rat.

I guess Mama could say the same thing about me.

In His Grip, Ranch Kiddo

Extra Crunchy Peanut-Butter & The 5 Missing Somethings

2008-04-14T18:21:00.005-06:00

Algebra.

The very word sends horror and dread seeping through my body. Just begin to speak of factoring binomials or adding variables in fraction form using the distributive property and watch my eyes glaze over and my body begin to sag with boredom.

Today... we had to go over algebra. Meaning, we must grade the papers. And I will admit I have a insy-winsy, teeny-tiny issue asking for... well, help. If I don't completely undertstand a concept I just... well... skip the problem. I'm working on it!! But anyway yeah. It was absolute horror. Torture. Agony.

But there is a strange thing with Mama and I when we sit down for one, two sometimes three hours to grade algebra. I don't what it is, but we get into giggling fits and we say the most ridiculous things that just... well they simply don't make sense. Now we often say things that dont make sense at all... But I mean really it gets quite ridiculous. And we seem to lose quite a few brain cells over the ordeal, which is quite a terrifying ordeal seeing as we don't have enough to start with!

Take for instance, the "negative one" situation. There was a problem that was -1, with -1 as an exponent. So I asked her if it would be negative one (because at this point I just couldn't do math as simple as this) and her reply went like... "Well it's negative one... multiplied by negative one... with a negative one... which would make it a negative one."

Did I mention multiplying? No! It was terrible really. And there was a word problem that went something like...

Travis peeked around the corner and saw 140.This was 65% more than Eric saw- how many did Eric see?

Now that is not the exact problem but I don't feel like getting out the book and copying it out. Anyway the answer was 275. Well I came up with 270. "Well where did the other 5 go?" I asked, scanning my work for a mistake, searching for the missing numbers.

I mean honestly. We can't have 5 missing... somethings. It didn't say what they were it was just... somethings. but they were missing.

While I searched vigorously for the 5 missing somethings, Mama said... "Well the other 5 must be around the other corner."

Oh dear.

So at the end of our grading session I was quite certain I could not stand for my mother to be my teacher another semester. It's just not a healthy relationship between woman and child, especially in the teenage years. These are very delicate years of my life, you see.

So we went online where we are seriously considering enrolling me in Texas Tech. They have online classes for highschoolers and that may be a good option for me. I'm gonna be praying about it I think it would be pretty cool. And alot less stressful on both me and Mama!!

So yes. Anyway. While we were struggling through problem after problem of arithmetic, I was becoming quite agitated and when I become distressed so, I... well I eat. So with a spoon and a jar of extra crunchy peanut-butter, we fought our way through four lessons. There are 18 more waiting to be graded, not including tests. Oh my.

Peanut butter is my main comfort food. There is also chocolate, homemade tortillas, and others. But peanut butter is my best friend of the food category. I love it on peanut-butter banana sandwiches, plain bananas, apples, tortillas, cheerios, it's really delicious with a variety of foods. Peanut butter cookies are utterly tasty, and chocolate chips added to the dough makes them even more irresistable.

Okay. Enough of algebra and peanut butter. I must now go and... well I don't know. I would like to continue my research on laptops (just looking Mama) but I have been told my computer time has passed. So away I go. Have a fantastic evening!!

In His Grip,
Ranch Kiddo

Nice Warm (Albeit Dry) Days & Kittens

2008-04-13T16:18:00.004-06:00

It did not rain, it is not overcast, there is no prediction of a storm. Today is just a nice, warm, sunny day with a light breeze (and yes one of those dadgummed blue skies) but I choose not to complain, and to enjoy it for what it is. Because it ain't changing anytime soon. And I can learn to live with that. Lord knows how we would all love a good rain and I swear to you I will dance in it when it comes. But until then I shall relish in warm sunshine and lay beneath blue skies and pray for Him to keep our ranch safe from fires.

So seeing as I'm motivated to be a person of such optimistic character, I will not complain of what I set out to complain about in today's post. No siree, I shall not entertain (or bore) you in such a manner as to even mention the previously set subject for today. For what do I have to complain about? I mean sure, anybody can find things to complain about, but the good far outweighs the bad. People are far worse off than I am- so I shall only speak of positive things this afternoon. Things like...

Baby kittens!! I have been suspicious of the fact that Bobbie had her kittens for a while now, and sure enough. In the hay barn, in a gap between the bales, there are 3 baby kitties, about 2 weeks old. A black, a smokey grey, and a white. That is right, solid white but I think the ears are gonna be orange. Not sure of the genders yet. We have 3 more litters on the way, that we know of, I have no doubt atleast one or two of the wild cats are pregnant as well.

Up until we moved up here, I thought baby kitties just naturally smelled like hay. That they just popped outta there smelling like hay. Down on our ranch in Texas, the only sensible place to have kitties were in the hay barn, and that's where they all were, and they always smelled like alfalfa. On more than one occasion the mamas would put their babes together and nurse all of them, babysit all of them, and take turns. I was obsessed with the kitties when they came. Those poor critters weren't sure who was their mama, that cat or me. Tyler and I would build little forts out of bales and flakes of hay, and then I would find pipe and put it in the little playpens for them to crawl through. Believe it or not, they loved it! We would tie strings from sacks of cubes to cow cake and hang them or drag them... We obsessed with the kittens. But they are honestly too cute to not obsess over, they are just adorable. Sara, Marquita, Joshua, I know you don't like cats, but these kittens are irresistable, just one look at them and your heart just melts.

I can't wait for Jenny, Gracie and GK to have their babes! Land's sakes, they are just stuffed it's a wonder their bellies don't just pop open and let those critters out. There has to be atleast 5 in there! Both Jenny & Gracie, poor things. I wonder if cats get stretch marks? If so, these two are in for it, I have never seen Jenny so heavy with putty-tats. My, my... Hussie cats... You wouldn't of gotten knocked up if you'd just avoided that black stranger that prowls the ranch, tsk tsk... Now we have to find homes for all these babies! Anybody interested??

We'll almost pay you to take them. Please. I'm begging you. This is a cattle ranch, not a cat ranch. Honestly you can't walk outside without being greeted by 5 or 6 of the beasts and Huckleberry will follow you out as far as you will walk. All around headquarters, they swarm our feet... Please... Save us! Take pity, have a heart!

No pictures today of the ferocious, but extremely adorable, critters, but next time I promise I'll try to have some. You'll survive won't you? I think so.

Well I'm out. Maybe I'll go... read... or chill to my iPod... or call up a friend or some such thing. Until next time... Adios!

In His Grip,
Ranch Kiddo

2 Teenage Girls Trampled By Mares At Local Horse Sale

2008-04-12T17:58:00.004-06:00

^^I can see it in the headlines now!^^

(Just keep reading.)

Today was funnz. =D It was the spring horse sale!! The local sale barn has cattle sales every Monday, and horse sales four times a year. Well the spring sale was Friday and today.

Horse sales are real fun for me- tons of people we know we get to meet up with and chat with there. It's awesome, haha I can't hardly take three steps without going, "oh hey, I know what person". It's pretty cool. =)

So at 6:30 we were out loading horses. We sold 6 today. 2 mares- a palomino and a bay, that were givin fillies I think it was. 2 fillies- a 2 year old and a yearling, just not interested in them personally for brood mares. Jose- a chestnut ranch horse, who has a suspensary ligament injury and is probably permanently lame. And Mitch. Mitch is a big stout feller, gentle, handles real fair, but gets sore in the left front when ridden too hard. Well the way we need to ride horses out here on the ranch, he just wouldn't do, so we had to sell him. =(

I was pretty heartbroken because I have a love-hate relationship with horse sales. Today was the "junk horse" sale. On Friday, they have the catalog sale, and you have to pay a certain fee to get your horse in the catalog, which has a short description as well as the bloodlines. The stuff people don't want to pay to get in the catalog, sells on Saturday, and is usually junk although a few good horses go through there.

It's a sad deal, because they are shutting down the kill shelters. Now I know this is a very touchy subject. I jsut think that only the permanently injured horses should be humanely put down (meaning the kill shelters should have better conditions) and that people need to feed their animals and take care of them properly. But nope we have too many idiots running around the place for that. Jerks. Which is the sad part. But I won't dwell on that.

I just hung around a little while after getting the horses unloaded and in the pens and the paperwork and Coggins and everything worked out, then Sara showed up and I hung around with her. Then we went and caught Mitch and I got to ride him through the ring. =D We had several people asking about him, and they all seemed like pretty decent people. I was praying really hard (silently of course haha) that the Lord could let him go to somebody who took care of their animals and had a good heart and would care for Mitch properly. He had never been in town or around so much excitement, so he was pretty excited. Once he kinda rammed my leg against the fence... Uh yeah it's kinda sore. I'll live. Anyway, in the ring he was good. We made some nice sharp turns and he went for $1325 which is great!! After he sold I went and got Jose and as I was standing in the alley waiting my turn in the ring, a lady walked up to me and started asking me about Mitch. Turned out she had bought him and was wanting some information on him.

The Lord is good! She wanted to use him for trail riding and pleasure riding, needed him to be gentle, but he wouldn't be ridden hard or super often. A perfect home for Mitch! =)

Anyway, then Sara and I led the fillies through. I led the yearling and she led the 2 year old. The yearling was giving me heck, running into me, sometimes snapping at me, walking all over me, and freaking out. Of course I can't blame her; she's young and all that stuff was just overwhelming. So in the ring I just kinda turned her around a few times then turned her loose. Sara did the same. Then came the mares.

Ohhhh joy.

We had to tie them up with halters in the pen, because that dadgummed palomino mare will kick the snot outta anything she can. Sara had the palomino mare and was leading her behind me, meaning I of course had the bay. Well up the winding alley we went... The alley was closed off by a gate, and right by the gate was a gelding, me thinks, tied to the fence. A guy was standing there and said, "Oh he's alright, he won't do nothing to bother you." I was thinking, "Well he might not kick, but that mare does for sure." Sure enough, I walked by the gelding to open the gate, and the palomino kinda freaked out and pinned her ears at the gelding then whirled to kick him. The bay got spooked of course and kicked and pinned her ears and I just ran into the corner about to jump the fence because I was about to get kicked or bitten by one of the three somehow. But then it all calmed down and I rammed that latch open so hard and man was I glad to be outta there! That was danged near an accident, Sara and I were both kinda spooked, man... Whooee.

And then standing right there in line, there was a young stallion (Arabian it seemed) in a pen. And right across the fence were a bunch of mares. What idiot did that?! You don't put a stallion right by a bunch of mares, especially when a couple of 'em are in heat. As you can imagine that stallion was goin kinda wild and my mare was getting a wee bit excited herself.

But we survived. Barely. Ole bay gal did step on my foot. Coulda been worse. Aren't'cha glad I survived to tell the tale? I bet. Accidents happen all the time at that sale barn. A couple weeks ago Dave got bucked off recieving a concussion and a some stitches to the back of his head. 2 days before that, Sterling got it too and impaled his leg on the fence, then that got infected. See? Happens all the time. But we is safe. We is sound. We is not in the newspaper.

Nothing too exciting happened with the exception of those mares. Sara and I had a Dr. Pepper and a package of mini chocolate donuts for breakfast. =D Then we had a cheeseburger and fries for lunch... Yeah it wasn't that exciting. I still had fun though =D I saw Dave, Dickie, Shana, Brett, the Pierce boys, Mike, Clay, just alot of people we know. So that was cool...

But today the shooting sports team also came out to shoot. Well I went to the horsesale instead, but it's okay because the range is still set up here and I can shoot plenty of times just whenever. But Brett had bought a horse and since he lives only about 10 miles from us, we just loaded up the horse and went to his place with his wife, stepson, and we met Mama on the highway and took her too. We were there a little over an hour, and came back home. Well Mama had left the ranch Chevy at the cattleguard (she had to get to the highway somehow) so I jumped in it. It's a stick shift so it's fun to drive. =D Well I thought the team was still at the rang up at the big shop, so I high tailed it up there to find... Nobody. Hmmm. Niiiice. So back down it was and everybody was about to leave.

Well anyway they did and now I'm sitting here eating carrots with Ranch dressing and... writing this out. Not a very interesting post just kinda typing out whatever comes to me. Well, I better git then. Still need names for the birdie!! I shall now bit adieu and stop snacking and go eat lunch. Au revoir!!

In His Grip,
Ranch Kiddo

Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! [Name Da Birdie!]

2008-04-11T12:55:00.004-06:00

Hey just wanted to let ya'll know I finally found a good blog template site. They don't have cowboy, western, or Christian themes but they have pretty good ones. Well I take that back. They had one cowboy template. I helped Mama set up hers and put that template on it, and helped her set up a playlist and stuff. Her blog needed a makeover. ;-) Pyzam (www.pyzam.com) has some pretty good ones but nothing that I really loved.

The sight is called Final Sense. Just visit the link below, and choose from the categories on the left side bar. When you want to see one, just click on the picture. When you want the code, just click on "More Details". A page comes up, and you copy the code. Then just go to "Customize" on your blog (or from your dashbord, "Layout"), then "Edit HTML", and replace the code with your old one. =) They have a really cool one called Sunset with birds that fly around in the header that is just super cool.

I, of course, found my template on there. I like it because it's light and simple.

By the way, my birdie needs a name. Lol he just does! Any ideas? All suggestions welcome!!

Anyway, just thought I'd share, in case somebody was lookin for an update on their blog. =)

http://www.finalsense.com/services/blog_templates/march2008_templates.htm

Dreaming Of Rain...

2008-04-11T11:37:00.006-06:00

I dreamed of rain last night. Best dream I've had in a long time. The sky was dark and thick with rain clouds, and the rain just came pouring down in buckets. You could hear it on the windowpanes, see the puddles and mini-streams building on the ground. Lightning flashed behind the thunderheads and the electricity was out in the house. We all stood at the doorway, jumping with joy as the rain came down...

But then I woke up. And what did I see when I looked out the window? Dust being lifted into the air and billowed around and carried away. The tree limbs and leaves swaying and being brutally bounced about by the gusts. The ground, dry and hard and thirsty. And the sky? Clear and blue as can be.

People sing songs and write poems and paint pictures of blue skies. Ugh. Nice, warm sunny days with a cool breeze and blue skies are nice sometimes, but the breeze is just a bit strong for this day to bring much pleasure. And I prefer my stormy skies anyway, especially when we haven't had any moisture for so long. I'm sure if I lived in Seattle or something where it rains all the time, I would get sick of it.

I feel for those poor people who can never enjoy the rain, because it brings such pleasure. There is no bette feeling then when the rain comes after a long drougth. Those people can never feel the relief of the long-awaited moisture, can never feel as if they were the dry, thirsty ground sucking up the water.

I feel bad complaining. But really, more than anything, right now, I just want rain. We were spoiled last year- we had so many storms and showers it was unbelievable. For most of the year, we didn't go 2 weeks without rain. It was unbelievable and such a blessing.

As my Mama puts it, "the good Lord is reminding us that we live in the desert". I guess that's true. We live in the dry NM desert, and it's home, and it's a good home with an abundance of the Lord's blessings. One of them is not alot of rain. But it all evens out. The rain will come, eventually. The longer we wait, the better it will be when it comes.There is nothing like the mood of a storm. When the electricity goes out, and the thunder rolls over the flats, and the lightning flashes on the horizon.

I can just see it now... Me, curled up on my bed with a multitude of flannel quilts and fleece blankets and pillows, my battery-powered lamp lighting the printed words of a good mystery novel, the cat curled next to me, asleep and purring, the dog snoring contentedly, the house silenced of all electrical appliances.

My shooting sports coach, Hugh, puts us Senior shooters through a "Headgames" clinic. In part of it, he makes us do a breathing technique, feel our pulse, and go to our "happy place" to help us relax.I think what I just described, is my new happy place. =)

Ahhhh. Like I said... the longer the wait, the better we'll feel. The Lord will provide, He always has and always will. The rain will come in His timing, and when it comes, it will be perfect. But in His timing. Not mine. I want the rain now... But the timing isn't right. God made the rain, He dang sure knows when it's supposed to come. As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11...

"He has made everything beautiful in it's time."

Everything. Including the rain. No... especially the rain.

In His Grip,
Ranch Kiddo

I Hate Shinnery. (Stupid Shinnery)

2008-04-10T14:52:00.008-06:00

Found a new template. =D Not sure how much I like this one, it'll probably change soon. Still looking for a cowboy/western/Christian one though.

Spring has arrived, the 3 Spring Things have proven it. There are 3 things to help you know (if you're in our little corner of the world) if it's spring. You always know it's spring when...

#1) Baby everything (antelope fawns, calves, colts) begin to appear
#2) The wind begins to blow relentlessly
#3) The shinnery buds

What is shinnery? Well it's this little plant that causes us ranchers quite a bit of trouble. In the spring when it buds out, it's poisonous. Those little buds are very tender and tasty, and the cattle love to dine on them. If eaten in small quanitities, along with grass and other feed, it's rather harmless; but in pastures with a large amount of shinry, the cattle are in danger of... well... perishing. =P After it's done budding, it's fine, in fact makes fair feed for the cattle. But until then, we gotta keep them off that little plant.

So this morning I got up early, saddled up, ate breakfast (thank you Mommy) and off we went to save some critters!

When I first woke up (5:30 am), the wind was blowing.

It is now 3:00 pm.

The wind has not stopped, not at all.

If your just trottin across the pasture with not much to do, the wind really annoys you and you find yourself in a miserable mood fervently wishing you were elsewhere. Anywhere but out in the pasture with the stupid wind slapping at your face.But when there are cattle to gather, keep together, herd somewhere, and keep from runnin' off, well the wind isn't entirely ignored, but it doesn't seem such a prominent annoyance. But like I said, it's still a pain in the butt.

First we gathered North Adobe pasture, the cattle were pretty good, everything went well there. It's a gigantic pasture, but all the cattle were in 2 areas so it was all good. The trouble began when we moved them into a little trap. We took 'em on down the road, to put them in Silmon. Well the wind was blowing so darn bad, and I was downwind of them cattle... you can imagine how I suffered. I could not see a durned thing half the time, only dirt, that is all.

Well I was ridin' along wishing I could see, when the wind died down for a moment; when I glanced back, there was a calf that had kinda halted and Clint, who was riding drag, went to turn him. Well as soon as I turned to help, that calf bolted, and we were off to the races!!

Another difference between joy riding and chasing after wild bovines. When you are just riding, you are more concerned about the brush and holes and such, and you try to avoid them and choose the best path possible. When you have a calf runnin' off on ya, you just don't give a darn. Neither did Wyatt; we jumped some brush, but alot of it my good ole boy just plowed right through; he has alot of cow in him and he was pretty focused on that calf. One of us would get in front of him, and that calf would just stop and turn and off again in antoher direction, there was no getting in front of him either really. Those calves are too small to really stop, not like a cow.

Well we got down by one of the rigs and a water tank.... and... haha I'm sorry, Clint, it was amusing to watch. He was riding this one colt Phil, who has a.... problem. Everytime Clint rides him, this horse is a pain in the butt until he bucks, then he is just a great ole fellow. It's weird, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So anyway, Clint was at a dead run ya'll, and this horse goes to pitchin a little. Now I've seen this horse really pitch, and Clint ended up on the ground, but he rode him a good while, and this little horse can really buck now. But he was just crowhoppin and bucking lightly. (All this I was observing while at a dead run as well, still trying to turn that stupid calf.) Well Clint had enough of that, so he got down his rope (amazes me how he can do that in such a position) and went to poppin that horse a little. Well the calf turned now, so off I went. The calf headed down the road, and I just loped a little behind him, and he headed right back to that herd. Every now and then I would glance back and see that horse by the dirt tank rearin and pitchin a little and Clint and him were just about goin to war. Well anyway...

So we resumed our journey down the road, Clint eventually returned. Well I was riding the side of the herd, kinda the flank of the herd I guess, and Clint was drag like I mentioned. Well he veered off to the side a little to turn some cows, leaving the drag open. By the time I saw that calf, I was already too late. (Different calf this time though.)

Just in case your wondering, there is a reason these calves bolt out. In the midst of moving cattle, they lose their mommas. So they think those momma cows are somewhere back where they came from, so they would like to go find them. When really the cows are- ugh stupid calves.

So yeah this one wasn't running too hard but I couldn't get him turned back for the life of me, it's a wonder that first one went back. I had to leave him. When we got to Silmon, we (Clint, Grandpa and I) held the herd at the dirt tank while Daddy went back to get the calf. (I was feeling extremely low and guilty by now.) He was gone a while, so Clint went after him, and before long they had the calf back at the herd and all was well.

But now... another pasture must be cleared of cattle due to shinnery. Oh how I was hating shinnery by now. Sardine Lake (we have a mountain, more like a HILL, called Sardine, thus the name of the lake) bordered North Adobe and the trap. This pasture not only had shinry, but some cranky cows. Daddy warned us that they are "trotty" (cowboy term of course) unless you were able to get a good hold of them first, then they were fine. So the key to this gather was, get all of 'em together, and hold 'em up, then move the girls outta the place.

Clint and Daddy headed off down the fence to make a weltie around the lake (dry lake might I add) and a dirt tank, where we would hold the cattle. Grandpa and I trotted on to the South of the dry lake/dirt tank, opposite side of Clint and Daddy. It wasn't long before we saw them move in on the cattle (they were all right there thank goodness) and point them towards the dirt tank. Then Grandpa and I moved in and took one side each of the dirt tank, same as Clint and Daddy. The worst trouble we had was 2 calves who got out on Daddy, but he easily got them back in, luckily. Then we moved them out and they were just dandy. Mission accomplished!

Do you think those ornery critters, any of them, thanked us for working in the cruel wind that stunk our faces, to save their darned hides? No!!! They did not! Sorry, ungrateful.... Aww heck whatever, it's done. Whew!

May is going to be a busy month, just thinking about it.

May 3rd & 4th: State Shooting Sports
May 5th: I GET MY BRACES OFF!!! WOOHOO!!!
May 12th: Spring Works Start =D

Okay. Anyway. I shall leave you with another LOL Cat and a little bumper sticker thingy...

Despite the wind, I hope you had a good day!! God bless ya'll!!

In His Grip, Ranch Kiddo

Short Post

2008-04-09T15:29:00.003-06:00

This is going to be quite short, I will warn you. I really don't have anything to discuss. Hmmm. But I figured I had better jot down something before I fell behind and was called a slacker again. I am not a slacker, just so you know. Phoo on you J- uh, I mean, person-who-emailed-me-and-called-me-a-slacker. -glares-

I would really really love to ride. But the wind is blowing and is terribly strong, resulting in a miserable ride. My horse is such a dunce in the wind, it's not riding into it that bothers him, he just acts so strange. It's like if you messed up the wiring in a car. Instead of going when you hit the gas, it would turn. Or if you turned the steering wheel, it would stop and back crooked. Well this sounds silly. But it's true. This will make no sense to somebody else though so I will shush.

Oh, I have been looking for a good MySpace template, and a good Blogger template. Western/Cowboy/Ranch/Christian type layout. I have Googled it so much and just can't find anything that really works. If you are bored and wish to amuse yourself, or simply relieve a frustrated soul, feel free to begin the search. Please leave me a comment or email me if you have any good results =)

Just because there is nothing to talk about really, I will just put random little things in here. Like my current favorite song. =)Take You Back, Jeremy Camp. I love Jeremy Camp. He is my current addiction, my obsession. All of his songs just hit me right in the heart and this one made me cry the other day, and I'm not sure why. I just turn up my iPod and close my eyes and just hear his amazing voice and it's just so powerful. Ahhhh this song... other good songs by Jeremy are Take My Life, Give Me Jesus, Worthy Of My Praise, In Your Presence, Restored, among others.I could go on and on and on and on about really good artists and songs, but I'll stop there.

And for your amusement... LOL Cats!!! If you don't know what they are, they are just pictures of cats caught in funny and/or unique moments, with captions. =D They crack me up. I'll just drop a few this time rather than song lyrics, quote, or Scripture like usual. Just for giggles. Hope they make you laugh! They never fail to do so for me. (I have an entire folder of them on My Pictures and my iPod!)

In His Grip,

Caitlin

Blog Nutrient Deficient

2008-04-06T21:55:00.006-06:00

I recieved a... notification... from a certain... Slacker Outlaw... who accused me of being a slacker. I, am not a slacker, thank you very much, Slacker Outlaw!! First you torture Sara, then me. -gasp- My goodness, when will the madness stop?!

Well, it has been 2 weeks. I apologize. I'm sure you are so devestated. Yes, I know. Dearest readers, I am deeply and sincerely apologetic. Unfortunately, I cannot devote my life to the computer.

Also... you kind of have to be in the bloggy mood to blog. Personally, atleast, I believe so. I have never written a blog post out of blog mood. I have plenty of drafts, but they just don't come together. It's just mandatory to be in the bloggy mood.

I recently had a blood test run and I am blog nutrient deficient. Blog nutrients are found solely in ice cream, chocolate, cookies, etc. I will devote my meals to foods that contain these neccessary contents especially for my blog readers. They shall cram these detestable products down my throat... for the sake of your entertainment.

I hope you're happy.

I could write about the shooting sports team coming out, or about my shooting shotgun today, but that would require I go into a small amount of detail, and seeing as it is 10:00 pm on the dot, I would rather not do that.

I in fact, am rather inclined to head for my warm cozy bed. But I had to post for the sake of your well-being, Slacker Outlaw. I am, after all, such an incredibly considerate person.

Seeing as I am so concerned about my readers, who have been so crudely deprived of my lovely posts, I shall atleast include some pleasant add-ons. The following 2 photos are of a sunset that took place... two nights ago I do believe. Same night my mother took the splendid horse photgraphs. I am nowhere near the photographer she is, and my camera is rather... well amateur compared to hers, but I am not quite as passionate about the art as she is. More as a sort of hobby. =) Here you are:

I shall also be so kind as to include a nice little quote. It goes hand in hand with the sunset pictures, I do believe.

"Only in the dark can you see the stars."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

A splendid phrase, if you were to ask me. Only after the sun went down, could I take those pictures. The most beautiful time of day, occurs when the sun has disappeared and only a small trace is left. And the stars, oh the stars!! They are superb beyond words. The stars.... I could admire them forever. If you ever feel far from Christ, just look at the stars. And remember- when things aren't at their best, when the big good things, like a good job, nice income, great relationship status, nice house, etc., aren't present... is when you can appreciate, and see only then, the small things. Like the dew on the grass, or a rose freshly budded, or the bird singing it's song as it perches upon... well a perch. Of some sort. The "big" things overwhelm the small things, so we don't notice them. Only when the big light(s) {the sun} is snuffed out, can we see the little lights {the stars}, that are every bit as bright if not more so.

But with this short post, drenched with sincere guilt, I must bid adieu. Good night my dearest friends and on my word, I shall do my absolute best to type out a hideously long post tomorrow. (Seeing as I have a cat in my lap trapping one arm, that would be rather difficult as of this moment.)

In His Grip,

Ranch Kiddo

Easter

2008-03-23T07:52:00.002-06:00

I'm not gonna write a long old post about Jesus' crucifixion for our sake, and his resurrection signifying his power over sin and the world. Because we all know. We know in our minds. We just have to know in our hearts. Know it. Believe it.

But it is easy to forget. So easy. But it's a big thing that should live in us, so that we never forget. We didn't deserve it, we were still sinners, and He did it anyway.

I'm 14 and, yes, I'm still gonna hunt Easter eggs. But remember what the egg symbolizes- new life.

Hunting eggs, hunting new life.

We should always be hunting for that new life, the one that is not of the world, but of God. Be searching for that life, where everything is about Him and dedicate yourself to His will. Hunt for it.

He died for the world. If you were the last one... He would have done it all, just for you.

We know He endured excruciating pain. Pain beyond what human should bare. But He did it willingly- they didn't take His life. He laid it down.

Worship Him in this day. We can never thank Him enough, but try to get in all you can.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. -Romans 6:8-11

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...
- 1 Peter 1:3

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
-Matthew 28:1-10

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "
Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
-Mark 16:1-8

"For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
-John 10:17-18

Don't ever, ever forget. His love for you is greater than we can fathom. His sacrifice was exceptional. He saved our pitiful little hearts... The least we can do is dedicate our short lives on earth to Him.

That said. There's a chocolate bunny calling my name.

In His Grip,
Ranch Kiddo

Oh, How Times Have Changed!

2008-03-19T18:40:00.004-06:00

I finally got to talk to Sara today. YAY! I haven't been able to chat with her on the phone in a very long time, it was very nice. Everytime we get on the phone we end up laughing hysterically, which is definitely a good thing.

Anyway, I told her about my reading "The Three Musketeers" by Alexander Dumas, a classic that I am simply loving. Today's chapter, the entire chapter, was all about the George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham expressing his devout love to Anne of Austria, Queen of France. It was positively hysterical. Following, are several exerpts from chapter 12.

"But you never told me that you did not love me, and truly, to speak such words to me, would be, on the part of yoour Majesty, too great an ingratitude. For tell me, where can you find a love like mine- a love which neither time, nor absence, nor despair can extinguish. A love which contents itself with a lost ribbon, a stray look, or a chance word?"

"Hold, hold! I shut my eyes, and I can see you as you then were; I open them again, and I see what you are now- a hundred times more beautiful!"

"And upon what them must I live? I have nothing but memory. It is my happiness, my treasure, my hope. Everytime I see you is a fresh diamond which I enclose in the casket of my heart."

"Because you do not love me, Madame! If you loved me, you would view all this otherwise. If you loved me, oh, if you loved me, that would be too great happiness, and I should run mad."

It cracks me up!! Probably because as I was reading it, the words passed through my mind in a sarcastic tone, as sarcasm saturates my being, I must admit. A bit more than it should, I guess I need to wring some of it out. Anyway, it made me laugh. And then when we were talking, it reminded me of....

"How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful!
Your eyes behind your veil are doves.
Your hair is like a flock of goats
descending from Mount Gilead.
Your teeth are like a flock of sheep
just shorn,
coming up from the washing.
Each has its twin;
not one of them is alone.
Yoour lips are like a scarlet ribbon;
your mouth is lovely.
Your temples behind your veil
are live the halves of a
pomegranate.
Your neck is like the tower of David,
built with elegance;
on it hang a thousand shields,
all of them shields of warriors.
Your two breasts are like two
fawns,
like twin fawns of a gazelle
that browse among the lilies."
-Song of Solomon 4:1-5

Okay, so it's not very nice to laugh at the Bible. But when we read this in Youth, we laughed. And Sara and I were hysterical with laughter!! The funny thing is, this is what you hear from your average guy today:

"Babe, you're like... so totally hot. Your hair is so stylin. Babe, I just, I love ya... Your bod is rockin'!"

I wish I was joking. Sadly, I'm not. It's sickening. Really it is. Just think about the difference! Sara said that she would not understand that language of the old days, and we agreed that Alexander Dumas and his peers/decendants would turn over in their graves to hear the way we express our "love" these days.

It's amusing the way they expressed things, you have to admit you would probably freak if a guy walked up to you...

"Hey, what's your name? I'm Todd. I just couldn't help but notice that your hair looks like goats comin off a mountain. And your teeth, what teeth! They are like shaved sheep, just washed and scrubbed. Your temples- like two halves of fruit, like a pomegranate. And your neck is like a tower! Wow!"

I'm not about to go into the part about the fawns.

It really seems ridiculous, but when you think about, the way most guys talk today to their girlfriends is more ridiculous than the way the Duke talked to the Queen! He spoke to her with real love, with desperate yearning for her to love him, he allowed her to retain her dignity and spoke never, in the whole chapter, never spoke in a way that degraded her. He really loved her.

Love back then was real. I mean, there were lots of marriages that were arranged, people who got married just to have somebody to support them financially, etc. But love was real. And people didn't go around saying "I love you" if they didn't mean it. They didn't court a different girl every other week.

Well, okay, so in the book D'artangan is infatuated with Madame Bonacieux, who is married and a few years older than him. I'm not sure how that part is gonna turn out. I'll let ya know.

Okay, well I could go on and on and on about the stupidity of this world and how ridiculous and ignorant it is that guys go around degrading girls and treating them like crap and decieving them into thinking they are in love.

Just wanted to point out how times have changed. In a way, it's real funny and kinda cheesey to read that stuff... But in a way, when you think about it, it was serious, and they meant what they said.

Honestly, if I had to choose over the guy who told me I was "hot" or told me that my hair is like "a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead"...

Considering the fact that in order for him to say that, he would most likely be a Christian...

With a sense of humor...

I would choose the goat guy. =D

Peace

2008-03-18T08:48:00.004-06:00

You get to hear another mini sermon this morning. I know, I know, but I just can't stop talking about Him, what can I say? =)

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with my "Yes, Lord" post. Last night at Youth, Justin talked about peace. Peace. Real true peace.

He had us go through about 20 verses/passages on peace. I can't remember them all, but I'll try to recover one by the end of this post.

There is no lasting peace in this world. No wordly things can give us peace- not even "an entire bucket of ice cream", in the words of Justin. Sure it feels good at first. Yummy, delicious, ice cream! How can you not be happy? But the next morning... You wake up with a terrible tummy ache.

Alcohol. Alot of people think alcohol can bring you peace of mind. So you drink... and drink... Well this feels good, so you drink some more... And the next morning, you don't feel good at all.

Wordly things bring no peace. They bring temporary relief to your hurt. They don't heal. Only Jesus heals. I'm telling you nothing, absolutely nothing, in this world, can give you peace. Can settle your heart and your mind. So what can you do? Who can help?

Jesus. He can help. He will help. He desires to help. If you let him help.

There are alot of bad things that happen in this world. So many terrible things happen- poverty, starvation, murder, rape, the list goes on and on. Cancer, car crashes, and who do we blame? God. After all, He is in charge, isn't He? So it must be His fault!

But you forget one important element.

Satan.

Satan still exists. And we still have this abused gift called free will. And we let him weasle his scrawny, dirty little self into our lives. And bad things happen. Satan has not been defeated yet- ah, but he will be. But not yet. All in God's timing.

When we have uneasy hearts, we are not at peace. When we are angry, frustrated, grieving, distraught, we are not at peace. Only He can give us peace, I'm telling you, only precious Lord Jesus can give us peace.

He died on the cross, to give you peace. Yes, He did. When He was on that cross, every single sin of the past, present, and future... Was on Him. On His soul. And He wanted it that way. God wanted to crush His son for our good. He wanted to crush Jesus, so that our scrawny lives could be saved. And Jesus wanted to die, wanted to be tortured and hung from the cross among thieves, so that He may save us. This was His heart's desire. And He fulfilled His purpose- that was His entire purpose, of coming to earth. He lived to die. And for us.

That's alot of sins, ya'll. Everything from lying to your Momma about eating that extra cookie, to murder. And He wasn't struggling against it, He did it willingly. So that when we were not at peace, He could come to us and say, "I love you. And I died for you. I took your sins, and I overcame them when I rose from the tomb. I overcame your sins. I have already overcome them, just give it all to me, and I'll take care of it."

Peace, to me, is free of worries. And not having to know.

We don't have to understand.

Heck, we're probably better off not knowing. Only our Heavenly Father knows best, and if He says "quit worrying and just trust me", well we better do it. We don't have to know.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path." -Psalm 119:105

We live in the dark. We have no insight. We cannot see, we do not know all the answers, we do not know all the reasons WHY, and we're confused and scared and about to give up. And then Jesus walks into the picture. Jesus can see. Jesus can see everything, and knows everything. We can trust Him- He loves us. He loves us with His entire heart. And He has all the resources, all the answers. We just have to trust, and quit worrying about what to do. We don't know what to do- He knows.

I've been told, "pray about it and He will tell you what to do."

I don't believe in that.

I believe in praying for peace, for comfort, and for courage to give everything up. And then just letting go of what I think needs to be done, letting go of worries about what will happen, and letting Him take our hand and lead us. We are blind, He can see. When we let go of everything, we are sacrificing everything, but we can know that we are in good hands. He will guide us according to His will- we no longer have to be afraid of breaking His will, or His commands. Because we put Him in charge.

"For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." -Isaiah 41:13

Perhaps the most comforting verse I've ever read. He is Lord, He is God, and He takes hold of our hand, like a mother would for a small child, and comforts us. We have no fear, God will help us.

Lord of hosts, Maker of all... Cares about us, and loves us, enough to die for us. And guide us. We don't have to do anything really- just let go. Just trust.

That's what peace is. No worries. No concerns. Just trusting Him. Knowing He is in total control.

Don't just give Him some control. Give Him everything you have. True peace, then will come to you.

And that peace, that rest... Is so amazing. It's like this great relief. And you feel high and lifted up, refreshed, and safe, and comforted... So free in your heart. Because everything has been let go. You are no longer in control. That can be a scary thing... But it's so worth it.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7

God's peace can be yours. Can be mine. "Do not be anxious about anything". Some versions say "be anxious about nothing". Nothing. Nothing means nothing. No exceptions. But give it all to Christ, give it to Him. And His peace, which is greater than anything, which covers everything, will be yours. And it will guard us- picture a stone wall around our hearts, and our minds, keeping Satan out. When God is in control... You are safe from Satan. Because Satan is NO match for our Lord Jesus.

Just know that peace can be yours. Just give everything to Him, everything, not just 99% of it, everything. No matter your situation, just knowing that we don't have to understand is comforting. Just knowing we don't have to know, because He does, is peace in itself.

This is my last verse today. I will not speak about it. I want you to think about it. Pray about it. Because it is so true. He loves you, my friends. Be not afraid, not anxious, but have peace.

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." -1 Peter 5:7

In His Grip,
--Ranch Kiddo

"Yes Lord"

2008-03-17T11:36:00.002-06:00

Why, Lord?

No, Lord!

But I don't understand, Lord!

I don't want to, Lord!

Don't doubt God.

No matter what, we always are doubting Him. And how stupid! King of all creation, Master of the universe, He who controlls everything. When He does something, we get angry, confused, upset. And we want to know why, how, what good is going to come out of it. We want to be in control, we want to know what's going on. We just have to trust. Just trust.

Trust is all we can do. Is all we should do. God doesn't tell us all the answers, He does not give us every reason, or all the solutions, He just wants us to love Him, trust Him, walk in Him day by day. We aren't supposed to know all the answers, we couldn't handle them. We merely need to trust, and rely on Him. He will not let us fall, He will not let our enemy overtake us, he promises us these things over and over in the Bible. Instead of refusing Him we should accept Him with our whole hearts. Instead of all the above phrases in italics, no amtter what, our answer should be, "Yes, Lord."

We are going to get confused, angry, have questions, doubts, and that is okay- don't hide those feelings! Come to Him with them, He knows everything about you. Talk to Him about what you feel- but when you hear His voice, when you hear Him telling you to do something, obey. When something happens that you don't understand, that scares you, frightens you, causes doubts or anger- don't take it out on God and complain. Just know that this is all a part of His master plan. No matter how terrible it may seem, He has everything worked out, and we can't see that, but we know it. We know it's in His hands, and what comfort that brings me! What comfort that brings my soul to know that He will protect me, and no matter how blind I am to His reasons, He has his arms around me.

Trust.

That's what this post is about. I guess because it's something I'm going through. It probably seems like I'm saying the same things over and over and you may be tired of reading these posts, but this is what I'm experiencing in my heart. I want to know, I just want things to happen, but I have to know He has it all worked out for His good purpose. His plan will prevail. It will, and I just have to trust that no matter how scary things seem, everything is perfect in His presence. That is where I want to dwell, not just during morning or evening prayertime, not during Youth or CCF, always. Every second of every day, in His presence, cause when I am there, I am safe. When I am in His presence, when my heart aches to do His will, I am safe from Satan, I will be protected. I just have to trust in Him.

It sounds easy, but it's not. But the concept is really simple- love Christ. Meditate on His word. When He does something, we don't always know why, but we can trust that He does, and that all will be well.

Trading My Sorrows (Yes Lord)

I'm trading my sorrows
I'm trading my shame
I'm laying them down
For the joy of the Lord

I'm trading my sickness
I'm trading my pain
I'm laying them down
For the joy of the Lord

We Say
Yes Lord yes Lord
Yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord
Yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord
Yes yes Lord
Amen

I am pressed but not crushed
Persecuted not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I am blessed beyond the curse
For His promise will endure
That His joy's gonna be my strength

Though the sorrow may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning

-Repeat Lyrics-

Notice how many times this songs says "yes Lord". Our hearts should jump at the chance to trust in Him. To do His will, and not rely on ourselves, but on Him. No matter what. Even when we get scared, trust will save us. No, His love will save us. But through trust in Him, we recieve His love and comfort.

Trust means giving everything over to Jesus. Giving Him the power to break you, but knowing He will guide you in the way that is right.

And when you have sorrows and shame, when you are persecuted, when you are struck down, it is so easy to get down. But we just need to cast these things away and delight in His word and His love and His will.

The concept is simple.

Living by it is another story.

There are alot of scary things in this world. And we can't face them alone- just like in my previous post. But when we trust... When we say, "Yes, Lord, I trust in you", everything becomes so much easier.

What got me started on this really, is a discussion over dinner. We got to talking about the Rapture. And it kinda freaked me out. Jesus can come back, anytime. Right now. An hour from now. In 2 hours, Jesus could be walking this earth. In 2 hours, I could be in Heaven, in Paradise. Or... it could be 2 years. Or 20. Or 200. We never know- but we have to trust. It's a scary thing... But if we trust in Him, we will not be afraid, for we are His children.

The Word will say it way better than I ever will. Thanks for reading this jumbled mess of trust issues. =P

Why are you downcast, o my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God. -Psalm 42:11

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. -Psalm 34:17

He will not let your foot slip- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neithr slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you- he Lord is at your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm- he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forever more. -Psalm 121:3-8

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. -Timothy 1:7

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a Voice behind you, saying "This is the way, walk in it." -Isaiah 30:21

Project Playlist / NM Wind

2008-03-16T13:53:00.002-06:00

I just got into this thing called Project Playlist. I can add almost any song I want to onto a playlist, for free. (They don't have a few songs I like, but that's okay.) Then you can put that playlist on your Blog, MySpace, Facebook, or other sites, it's awesome! Just go to www.playlist.com, make an account, and start adding songs. =D I just put mine up on my blog here, Facebook, and MySpace too. It's pretty easy to figure out just put an artist/band, song title, or both in the search bar and some songs come up, and you can add them to your playlist, up to 100, and when that one is full, you just get another playlist. Then you get the code, and add an element on your blog, the one with "HTML" ya know, and just put that code in there, and voila! It's a great idea. Hope ya enjoy the music I put up! =)

There isn't much to write about except this dreadful wind. When I woke up this morning it was blowing, and it's 5:34 now and hasn't stopped since. It's just relentless, I had my heart set on working with Wyatt this afternoon. Phooey. Wind is terrible, just useless. It is good for nothing atall! It's kind of like mosquitos or ticks- they bite and suck blood and cause itchy bite marks but that's about it. What good do they contribute to God's creation? None I can think of! How about gnats, or flies- they buzz and bother and annoy and yet here they are. The wind blows and blows and chaps your face and lips, blows dust all around, blows the durned shingles off our roof, scatters cockleburrs all across the pasture to thrive, therefore there are more to attempt to defeat. It gets dust in your eyes and... and... and... Grrrrr. I suppose we just need to trust the good Lord for He made nothing without a purpose, and I know my puny human mind is often too tiny to comprehend some of the great reasons He has behind what seem like such miniscule things. But I really just don't understand.

In the mountains of Texas it wasn't quite so awful, the winds blocked it and we were nestled up in the foothills of a mountain, so we were rather protected and I never experienced wind at full blast. Good times, ahhhh, good times. Times when wind was but a breeze to rustle the leaves upon the cottonwoods, when it was but a breath of air to touch your cheeks, only a faint resemblance to wind. (Well okay, so there was this one time it blew the tin roof off our house down there, but that was very very very rare, and that roof was bound to come off anyway, honestly.) But here in the desert wasteland of New Mexico, why it's just an absolute nightmare. It blows and blows and threatens to blow our house down! Just like the Big Bad Wolf, except 3 little piggies don't occupy the house. There's 3 little piggies and the kind, sweet mother who cleans their piggie pens. =)

Well this is a bit of a short post, just figured I should put something up before another long gap between posts began. Before I leave... some Scripture. I have difficulty talking about Scripture when I sit down to write about it, because there are so many verses that are connected, and so many that touch my heart. But I'll just wing it.

"He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire,
he set my feet on a rock,
and gave me a firm place to stand."
-Psalm 40:2

Standing alone, we are hopeless, we have no chance of standing against an entire world, against Satan's forces, when we stand alone. How can we possibly? We are but humans. God made us wonderfully, but He didn't make us perfect, because He wanted us to rely on Him. If He wanted us to do things alone, He would have given us that power, but He didn't. He wants us to rely on him, not on men. This reminds me of:

The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. -Luke 18:27

100% true. (Duh. It's in the Bible.) We have all heard this a million times, "all things are possible with God." But really think about it- all things. Everything you can imagine. He can make anything happen, if it is His will. And the world is overpowering when we stand alone- it will trample all over us! But God, God can be that stone wall, that fortress. The world will hurt us and cause us trouble, but Jesus is bigger than the world.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. -John 16:33

One of my favorite verses. Take heart! Jesus has overcome the world.

But humans haven't.

And we never will.

We just gotta hold strong in Him, keep walking in Him, and He will "direct our paths". He will. And He will point our boots the right direction, towards His path. We just gotta keep seeking Him.

Jesus will keep us standing. Keep us upright. When the world is against us, when Satan is tempting us.

Even in the New Mexico wind, he can keep me standing.

Now that's a miracle.

Bow Down To Your Ski Queen / So Blessed

2008-03-12T19:54:00.005-06:00

That's right. Queen Of The Slope, Master Of The Skis, Super SkiWoman!!

NOT.

Yesterday... we went skiing. I have never been skiing, and now that day is over... I'm not inclined to go skiing anytime soon. I guess the best way to do this is just start at the... well, beginning. Duh.

That morning... I was all snug, and warm, and cozy in my... snug and warm and cozy bed. I was having a pleasant dream about... Well. I can't rightly remember to be honest. But I remember it was pleasant. Therefore, it must have involved horses. Anyway, so I was enjoying this pleasant dream... Until my alarm clock went off. It began to blare loudly at 5:00. I don't sleep well, so I was rather angry at this clock.

I hate my alarm. The noise it makes is so obnoxious and makes chills run up my spine everytime I hear a sound even similar to it, because it represents the end of my nighttime rest. Which I rather enjoy, thank you very much. The only other sound that gives me that sinking feeling is the dog, pawing at the wire door to his crate. This means I must leave my snug, warm- we've already been over that. This means I must leave my bed, and go out into the cold, still darkness, release the vicious beast from his cage, barred and locked, herd him into the outdoors, and sit in the arm chair... Waiting... Waiting... Waiting. And fervently wishing that darned dog would get his business over with so I can go back to sleep.

Back to skiing. I woke up. I rolled out of my bed and sort of slunk to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face and wake up. Then I got dressed. Jeans, t-shirt, hooded sweat shirt, and then just socks and my boots. In a bag I shoved my cap, sunglasses, scarf, long johns, mittens, and ear-warmer thingy. I shoved that in the truck along with my heavy down coat, and ski bibs. They were from like 18 years ago, when my parents went skiing, and they fit me with all my layers, so that worked out rather well.

I ate a quick breakfast... I think. I can't remember. Wait, yes I did- a bowl of cheerios with bananas sliced into it. Then we left about 6:00.

It was about a 2 hour drive, and I listened to my iPod most of the way. We stopped at a Ski Rental place... Where we rented boots, skiis w/ poles (duh), and the other 3 members of my familia got ski bibs. Then up the mountain we went!

It was kind of creepy. In fact, it was rather frightening. About 4 feet from the side of the truck, was a steep drop off, the entire way up the mountain, and it was a very long way down. We zig-zagged up the mountain for... Well it seemed like 40 minutes to me, not sure what it really was. The scenery was... Was... Absolutely phenomenal. No words can describe, none, it was just amazing to see the mountains and hills rolling before my eyes for miles and miles. No pictures, I'm sure Momma got some, but I'm really tired right now and I'm too lazy to load them. So yeah.

We finally reached the top! There, Momma, Tyler and I signed up for Beginner's Ski School. I put on my bibs, which was easy. Then the boots... holy heck. These things look like something out of Star Trek. I finally got the durned things on, they were pretty snug, but I'm told that's the way they are supposed to be. They are awful to walk in, I swear, everybody just clomps around. They must weigh about 7 or 8 pounds, and with the skiis on, I was hauling around about 15 extra pounds per foot. Anywho, finally go the stupid boots on, which are extremely uncomfortable and kill your poor feetsies. Then I put on a cap, the sunglasses, mittens, ear thingy and coat. But it was really warm up there, about 55-60 degrees, so it wasn't long before I shucked the ear warmer and coat.

We clomped out onto the snow, and it was abuot 20 minutes before our class started, so I tried the skiis on. It was absolutely terrible. I fell down almost immediately, and then I could not get up no matter how hard I tried. A nice guy came up and helped me up, but as soon as he turned to walk away, I was on my poor bum again. I finally had to take the skiis off, not being successful in standing, and off to the school we went.

He taught us how to walk in the skiis, uphill, and to grip with the sides, and to skii, and stop, and how to get up when we fall down (this in paticular proved to be extremely useful to me the rest of the day).

I pretty much stunk. I fell down more than anybody. Mostly because I couldn't stop! Well I finally got it kinda figured out, and then he took us to the Bunny Slope lift. That thing killed me I fell down the first few times while trying to get on, and fell down while trying to get off the first few times as well. I finally got to where I could stand, but coming down that slope (that Bunny Slope ain't no bunny's business) I would get too much speed, couldn't slow down (snow plowing, a technique, wasn't helping much), and I would fall down to prevent going off the course/running into people.

That's something I would like to include. We went on a Wednesday, before spring break, after all the holiday rushes, so there wasn't alot of people. But there were plenty sittin around for me to run into.

Then I went onto Lift #3 after a few times on the Bunny Slope. That thing killed me, I kept having to fall down, yes on purpose, because I could not stop or slow down enough!! That's pretty much how the entire morning went. I hurt myself pretty bad around 1:00, I fell down (accidentally this time, it's not that hard to stay up though, only if you go backwards or sideways do you fall).

I didn't think I could do the splits.

Apparantly I can.

It hurt. BAD. I hyper-extended both knees, and couldn't get out of the position, because of the stiff boots, and stiff/long skiis, there was no way I could move my legs at all. So I finally got the stupid things off and I was in pain from that, and still am.

Then we went up this thing called the Gandala, a lift that takes you all the way to the top of the mountain and to this little building where you could look all around and get some coffee, hot chocolate, hot dog, candy bar, sandwich, that stuff. I was too hurt to eat anything.

Tyler and Daddy skiied down from there. Daddy was with Tyler the whole morning, and I didn't know where Momma was, so I was by myself all morning. Yeah, that's right, feel sorry for me.

So I went on #3 about two more times, then Daddy came down... Without Tyler. He came down later, he was just a little late. ;-) So Daddy and I went on #3 twice, then went on this other one about twice, then yet another one, about 3 times. It was ALOT of fun but I didn't get it very figured out until the last hour and a half or so, so that kinda stunk, but that's okay. =) I got to where I could stop, turn, go down a steep slope, it was cool!!

All in all, it was pretty awesome, I absolutely LOVED it. We loaded up our gear, returned it, then went to K-Bob's to eat. I was sooo hungry it was about 4:30 when we got to eat, and all I had had was this little granola bar all day. But I was too tired to eat ya'll, seriously. When you are too tired to eat... You are very tired.

Came home, took a shower, watched David Hernandez get kicked off Idol, then bed.

I got to sleep in until 7:30, but then I got up, took a shower (I needed to wake up), dried my hair, got dressed, and off to town.

I will mention here that I was extremely sore the entire day. My shoulders, upper arm, hips, knees, back of calves, hurt so terribly bad from falling and taking several bad wipe-outs.

Momma had a doctor's appointment at 9:00. So I grabbed some granola bars/cereal bars, shoved some grapes into a plastic baggie, downed some Tylenol, and off we went!

I waited in the stinkin office for 2 hours. -sigh- Oh well. I can't remember what all we did. Scrapbook Store, Walgreens, some places to look for a blood pressure thing for Momma... We went a LOT of places, because we were killing time. At 3:45 we had to meet Bob and Justin from 4-H at the hospital to give stuffed animals and bunnies (not alive!) to the kids in the Pediatric Center. So we ate at Wendy's, I got to go to Starbucks and get a mocha frappuchino (YUMM) and yeah...

So at the hospital. The bunnies I speak of we made at the last 4-H meeting. You get those little styrafoam take-out-boxes, and use pipe cleaners folded loosely in half as ears. Then different sized and colored pom-poms and cotton balls for eyes, noses, tails, and fur. Then they put candy in it for the kids.

It was kind of sad, but pretty cool at the same time. There were about 3 babies, one little boy, and a guy about my age, and then like 2 we couldn't go into.

The little boy was so sweet and happy, it was great, he loved the stuffed animal. And the others were too little to car much. There was one little girl that was contagious, so we couldn't go in. There was another one we didn't go into. The nurse said she was dying. ='( It almost made me cry, right then and there. The guy about my age, we could go into. Justin and I gave him the stuff, I was sorry I couldn't give him something he could really enjoy. He just said, "Thanks, man" about twice. Then he tried to move but he winced really bad, and I felt so horrible for him. The nurse asked if he wanted her to move the stuff, and he said "yes please". Poor guy, he is in my prayers, all of them are, even though I don't know their names.

At first, I had every intention of coming on here and complaining about my being sore. But after going to that hospital... I realized how healthy I am and how much I take that for granted. I could have been that guy in there. I could have cancer, or anything. I am so blessed with my health, that is all there is to it, and when I think about those kids... I don't feel so achey.

I don't want to end on a sad note, so I will mention something happier. We went to WalMart.

(That's not the happy part.)

Some people from this organization called Teen Missions was there, and I know Joshua went with them, I think he did atleast, on a mission trip. Look them up, they are pretty cool. Anyway, they are not government funded, so they were selling wooden crosses and plagues that the kids made to make money. They were really good and awesome I loved them! So we got two crosses and a plague, and they were priced really nice.

They were at both entrances/exits. So we came in that one side, bought 3 things, and then were in WalMart for a while, then came out the other exit.

There was a guy there, and we said we had already bought stuff from the other side. He said, "Yeah, I know. We saw ya'll, and I was talking about her."

He pointed at me.

I kinda freaked.

"Where I come from, we dress the way she does. I saw her, and said, 'That's a good ole girl right there'!"

Still kinda freaked out, but pretty flattered.

Hehe. Especially strange.

(By the way, I was wearing my boots, Cruel Girl jeans, a long-sleeved collared "Western" shirt with the sleeves rolled up to my elbows, and my camo cap.)

Oh, and Dale, Justin's mom, took a picture of us at the hospital, giving stuff to the kids. She snapped it and said, "Wedding picture!"

I stare.

Mom stares.

Justin stares.

Justin is 12 by the way.

She shrugs. "We like Caitlin."

It's nice to be loved. =D

I shall end with some lyrics. After going to the hospital, I am determined to help those kids somehow. I would love to, someday, sometime, get a dog, and be able to take them to the hospital, paticularly the pediatric ward, and cheer them all up with a little puppy love. Until then, prayers shall suffice.

But after being there... I feel so blessed. And I know that I am so blessed.

Ya'll, even when you don't feel blessed, you are. Even when you feel sick, you are healthy. If you have Christ, you're heart is healthy, and that is the most important part of you. But even your actual body- even when you are sick, you could be worse off. It just takes ten minutes in the hospital, to understand that. Our blessings are do abundant, and we are so undeserving. My heart aches for those who don't understand our beautiful gifts from God, every little thing.

My heart breaks for those in pain, and for those without... Without Christ. For with Him, everything is easier, everything can be accomplished without such a fight. We do nothing on our own, but when we let Him in, we allow him to really hold us, carry us, rather than try to push us along and have us resist. When we let Him put His loving arm around us, is when things get better. When we give Him total control, is when our sicknesses, which can be anything from atheism to cancer, become so much smaller, and He comes so much bigger.

We can never be thankful enough. We can never have enough gratitude in our hearts. We can never fully realize how blessed we are. We can never love enough, say "thank you" enough, never fully appreciate our outstanding blessings, or the abundant love poured into every second of our lives. How carefully He planned everything, and how much we have to be thankful for.

Sara, I know you hate the word "never". But in this case, I believe we never can. We are so undeserving, so ungrateful- but yet, so blessed. Taking the time to attempt to appreciate your blessed life... That is enough. Trying.

That little girl was dying- I pray with my entire being that God is in her heart.

And I thank God that I am blessed. That we are all so blessed.

Blessed
Martina McBride

I get kissed by the sun
Each morning
Put my feet on a hardwood floor
I get to hear my children laughing
Down the hall through the
Bedroom door
Sometimes I sit on my
Front porch swing
Just soaking up the day
I think to myself,
I think to myself
This world is a beautiful place

-Chorus-

I have been blessed
And I feel like I’ve found my way
I thank God for all I’ve been given
At the end of every day
I have been blessed
With so much more than I deserve
To be here with the ones
That love me
To love them so much it hurts
I have been blessed

Across a crowded room,
I know you know what I’m thinking
By the way I look at you
And when we’re lying in the quiet and
No words have to be said
I think to myself,
I think to myself
This love is a beautiful gift

-Repeat chorus-

When I’m singing my kids to sleep
When I feel you holding me
I know

-Repeat chorus-

*****

In His Grip,
--One Blessed Ranch Kiddo

Especially Strange

2008-03-11T18:04:00.007-06:00

Tuesday = Town Day.

*gaggety gaggy gag gag*

=P Town... is not... my preferred choice of... Inhabitance. If that makes sense. In other words, I do not like going to town, I do not like being in town, and I find it hard to invision myself ever living in town willingly. Except for college, of course.

So this morning... I got up about 7:30. Made myself a breakfast of bacon and fried eggs, and enjoyed this scrumptious meal while listening to my iPod. It's become a little habit for me- Grandpa and Daddy eat at six, so when I eat, Tyler usually is as well, but he isn't the talkative type, especially not during meals. So I enjoyed the company of Casting Crowns and FM Static and Tenth Avenue North and a few other excellent Christian bands/artists over breakfast.

Then begins... school. *mysterious/spooky background music, dimmed lights, faint shriek*

I was rather proud of myself really. I was finished with every subject besides algebra by 11:00. I have this list on a markerboard in the living room, of my school subjects. I put a checkmark besides each subject as I complete it- this helps keep me on track and also gives me a pleasant feeling of accomplishment when I can look at the markerboard with all those checks. Here is the list:

Devotional
Piano
Grammar
Literature
German
Science
History
Algebra

Devotional may not be a school subject, persay, but is the most vital of all subjects, and the best brain food possible. Piano may not be considered school, but when you think about it, alot of kids in public school are in band, so it can be considered... Musical Education. ME. Haha.

So anyway I had finished algebra by about 11:15. Then I helped get dinner ready, and we ate about noon. We had Tiffany's Meatloaf (thank you Tiffany! very delicious!), sweet peas, and these creamy cheesey potatoes. Mmmm... Then I had a handful of these cookies Omi sent and gathered my things and out the door.

In town, we... went everywhere. Bank, library, post office, Culligan's, piano, Wal-Mart, Sam's... We also went to the livestock store, Farmer's Country Market, and the salebarn to put up flyer's for the 4-H dance in 2 weeks. Oooh we also got to go to Starbucks! Or shall I say.... I went to Starbucks. Momma doesn't like coffee, and I despise plain old hot black coffee, but Sara got me hooked on these Mocha Frappuchinos... Oh my. When you go get one of those things, you are sipping Heaven through a straw.

Then we went to Momma's friend's house for about 5 minutes, then homeward bound!

So you are probably wondering about the title. There is a guy in WalMart, and we ended up in his checkout lane about 3 times in a row, without meaning to do so. So last time we went, he saw us and chided us for not going to his lane. This time, he saw us again, and came up to us and scolded us again, it was pretty funny. He said, "That's okay, fine, just be that way... I have other customers, and we talk, and have fun!" It seriously cracked me up that a WalMart guy remembers us, out of the hundreds of people he sees. I told Momma, "Well... we must be very special. That, or very strange."

We agreed on the latter being the most likely.

So we went to Starbucks- they are nice in there, and last time I told them how I had never had anything else but a Mocha Frappuchino from there, but I was hooked. I have been there about 5 times and always gotten the same thing. And one girl remembered me and said, "Will it be your regular?" It made me laugh because they remembered me, and once again Momma and I kind of joked about the "very special or very strange" thing. I mentioned, "Well maybe it's both." Momma paused. "Especially strange?"

So there you have it. We are so special, and so strange, so especially strange, that people remember us. People in WalMart, who have hundreds of customers, take the time to walk away from their register and joke with us. People in Starbucks, actually know that I have a "regular", and they even remembered my name.

So I feel special. Specifically... Especially strange.

But ya know what? Being strange in the world of today, is comforting. It means I am not like the others- it means that I am not one of those people who are mean, or cold hearted, or dress really strange, and that I am following God's Word. We talk about this in Youth group- in order to be a Christian, we must seperate ourself from the rest of the world, and become people of God, not people of the world. We must become different from the rest of the world.

Last time we went to WalMart, I was thanked and praised profusely for simply opening the bags at WalMart and loading the groceries into the cart at the checkout line.

This afternoon, my piano teacher and her elderly student who comes after me, argued over who would get me if I ever needed another home. I was called such a sweetie, and a joy.

Not bragging. Just making a point. Being especially strange, isn't all that bad.

I am proud to say, I am different from other people.

"You ask me why I do not write something....I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results."

- Florence Nightingale

I hope that my feelings for Christ, my zest for His word, are shown through my actions, and my personality, and that those actions, are what make people remember me.

If there is anything I want to be remembered for... It's for being different. For loving Christ. For striving to live by His word. For being kind and sharing His love to people, even people in town. (That's especially difficult, being happy in town.)

I want to be remembered for being... especially strange.

In His Grip,
-- Ranch Kiddo

Sunset Pictures...

2008-03-10T19:08:00.007-06:00

So we have absolutely phenomenal sunsets/sunrises here in the desert wasteland of NM. We have had some more beautiful than the one which I snapped a few pics of yesterday evening, and I will try to capture some of these glorious views in the future. For now, these shall do for your viewing enjoyment.

Before I post them... A little preface on the pictures. I was doing math, on my desk which happens to be in front of the window facing West. I looked up, noticed the setting sun... That's nice, I thought. Just another sunset. I did a few problems, looked back up, and my goodness! Land's sakes, it was beautiful! The sun just hits a certain point where it sends brilliant beams of rich colors into the sky. So what could I do but run for my camera and dash outside. I knew this moment would not last long, so I hopped the yard fence, and raced through the pasture gate, up the side of the dirt tank, and ahhhh! Beautiful. The colors were gleaming off the water, but I didn't catch that very well in the pictures. I tried to get the ducks on the water in the pictures as well, but alas, they were spooked by my mad-woman race to the pond. I started snapping immediately and heard Momma behind me... "Caitlin? What- oh how pretty!" Yes, the Camera Woman snatched up her camera as well and came to the scene, but these are the pictures I got. She has one of those fancy shmancy SLR's with the mega zoom and all... It's fun to mess with, but I like mine because it's simple. I don't have to set modes or anything on it, I can just go out and start snapping when I need to. It may not take the best pictures, but I thought these turned out pretty fine, and I feel as if I captured wonderful display of God's hand at work in his master creation. It's like... He decided to put up a piece of artwork, for a few brief seconds, for us to enjoy, against the plain blue canvas we see day-to-day. Something small to the mind, but so geat to the heart. A glorious surprise to delight in and bring joy to His children. =)

While I'm at it, I figured it would be very nice if I began to put a quote, or Scripture, or some song lyrics, in each post. I'm tired of the same ole same ole. Change things up a bit, something to look forward to when you visit my blog. Today, it shall be a Scripture. I know I put like 5 or 6 in my previous post today, but that doesn't count. So here. One of my absolute favorites, like... top 3.

2 Corinthians 12: 9-19

But he said to me, "My grace is made perfect in weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Just a little something to dig into and ponder and pray over. =)

Enjoy the pictures!

In His Grip,

---Ranch Kiddo.

Our Deceiving World

2008-03-10T13:52:00.006-06:00

I was just reading Auntie M.'s post on... deception, is how I would put it. I was reading that on my way to my own blog to write a post, and ya'll know me, I just tend to write about what's on my mind. So I'm gonna temporarily toss aside my sarcastic style of writing, and for the moment take on a bit of sincerity.

By the way, ya'll should read that post. Auntie M. is an excellent writer and she got a very good point across.

Lies. Deceit. That is what the world today is teaching us, and the funny thing is, we don't even realize it. It's hard to resist temptation, to resist the world. Satan is clever- he disguises his traps as little things that "don't mean much", or "won't harm me", but they do. The world's idea of fun, and of excitement, and of life, is all a lie. It looks like fun, but it's not.

I have a friend who has strayed far from Christ. He has been through a lot in the past year, but that isn't an excuse. Anyway- talking to him on the phone, he told me, "I'm living life, enjoying it, having fun". But the world in general has it all wrong. Their idea of living, is only the path to complete destruction. This brings to mind, off the top of my head, just a few Scriptures.

Romans 6:12, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey it's evil desires.

Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Corinthians 4: 17-18, For the light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes on not what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Galations 1: 10, Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still tyring to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

John 6: 35, Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. he who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."

Just think about those.

In John, Jesus says that if we come to Him, we will never be thirsty. Therefore, we were thirsty before Jesus. Thirsty... Think of it as a God-sized void. We can try to fill that void, but nothing can fill it and satisfy us but our Lord Jesus. Or a craving... nothing can satisfy us, until we have Christ.

In Romans, it commands us not to let sin reign throughout us. I once heard this, I forget where: "For if it is not done in/through Faith, it is sin." Some people wonder, "How do we know it is sin?" Always go back to Scripture, the Bible clearly states what is right and wrong. If you are not doing this... thing... in Faith, it is sin.

Romans, again, clearly states that the result of sin, is death, ultimate torture of our souls. But God's gift to His children, is eternal life. It's not hard to choose- eternal torture in the firey chamber of Hell, residing forever with Satan, who passionately hates you. Or eternal life in Heaven, where there is no sin, only love, with your heavenly Father who loves you dearly. No, it is not going to be easy, but it's so much easier to get past that when you know that each time you mess up, God forgives you when you ask.

That's more than I can fathom. I break His heart so often, but I don't get discouraged, because I know He is saying, "I forgive you. Now get back up, and follow me, and let's continue."

2 Corinthians tells us that our gift of eternal life far outweighs what we experience now. What is seen... is temporary.

See that totally cute guy over there? That's temporary.

See that gorgeous sunset on the horizon? That's temporary.

See that news reporter discussing the murder of a 7 year old girl? That's temporary.

See those Scriptures in bold up above? That's God's word. That's eternal.

Feel His presence around you? That's His love. That's eternal.

Galatians puts it very well. Think about it. Are we trying to please men? I know I am. I'm alot better about it than most people, for the most part, all that matters is what God thinks of me. But I still worry about other people's opinions- and it's okay to be a little concerned, as long as you don't change your image for them. Become God's child and what He knows you can be, become who He created you to be, strive towards that. For when we are trying to please men, we are not trying to please Christ, and we are not His beloved servants.

It frustrates me when I see people who are so ignorant to the Truth. Because I know God loves them, and wants them, and is reaching out to them, but they, in their blindness, turn away, not knowing, clinging to worldly desires and not what can fill the void in their heart.

Jeremiah 3: 12-13, "Return, faithless Israel," declares the Lord. "I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful," declares the Lord. "I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt- you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, you have not obeyed me," declares the Lord.

The only difference between me, and those people who don't know God... is that I am forgiven, and I know that. I am sinners, just as they are. God wants us to return to him... He will no longer frown upon us or be angry, for He loves us and gives us another chance. And another one. And another one. If we acknowledge our sin, and plead for His mercy, His love will abundantly flow.

The world is full of lies. And of deceit. And of hate. It angers me to consider all of the sin in this world, even in my own heart. Be aware of Satan, for He is everywhere. We must always be on our guard, and strong in our Faith, for he is cunning and can easily break us down. Even a "Christian" book can be full of His lies. The Bible is not in shades of grey. It may not say "don't stand in front of a oncoming train" but it does say, "do not be foolish."

Be aware that Satan's lies are hidden everywhere, and that only God's love and power can fend them off. Pray that God puts a guard on your heart and mind. Some books that make you think about His word and spiritual warfare are okay, but sometimes books cause you to think about things that should not be up for debate, things that you should not be doubting.

The only book you need is the Bible. The Manual for Life. Use it as a guide in the literature you read.

Okay this has been a long rambling post about my heart and my thoughts. I shall close now with one of my favorite verses, that remembers me to be in awe of Christ, and humble myself before Him, and remember He is the one to follow.

Ecclesiastes 10: 5

As you do not know the path of the wind,

or how the body is formed in the mother's womb,

so you cannot understand the work of God,

Maker of all things.

EDIT: This is my favorite song currently. Remember to listen to the Voice of Truth, cause that voice, out of all of them calling to you, is the only one worth listening to.

The Voice Of Truth (Casting Crowns)

Oh what I would do to have

The kind of faith it takes

To climb out of this boat I'm in

Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone

Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is

And He's holding out His hand
But the waves are calling out my name

And they laugh at me

Reminding me of all the times

I've tried before and failed

The waves they keep on telling me

Time and time again.

"Boy, you'll never win!""You'll never win!"

Chorus:

But the voice of truth tells me a different story

The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"

The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"

Out of all the voices calling out to me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Oh what I would do to have

The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant

With just a sling and a stone

Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors

Shaking in their armor

Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name

And he laughs at me

Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed

The giant keeps on telling me

Time and time again.

"Boy you'll never win!""You'll never win!"
But the stone was just the right size

To put the giant on the ground

And the waves they don't seem so high

From on top of them lookin' downI will soar with the wings of eagles

When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus

Singing over me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Bumness

2008-02-29T12:40:00.004-07:00

So I'm sitting here thinking, "there's nothing to write about". But it's that little phrase and that mindset that begins those extensive gaps between posts. So I'm just gonna sit my butt down and start writing.

So... umm... Well... I- well. Okay I'll just start with yesterday.

Yesterday, I was left alone. They just all abandoned me, without a care. They don't love me anymore! It's so devestating! -shakey sobs-

Yeah. I know, I'll get over it. Anyway, I got up about 7:15, got ready for school and got dressed. 2 feed salesman came in about 7:30 for some coffee and stayed in for about 2 hours talking while I went about my school. One then got in his truck and left, and the other got in Daddy's ranch vehicle and they went about the ranch doing... Feed... assessment... stuff. I guess. I dunno what feed salesmen do when they get in the truck with clients. I guess try to sell feed.

ANYWAY. Tyler left for his college class, he also had to run a few errands and went to see a movie. Jumper. He said it was "okay". He never sees good movies, they are always okay movies. It's either "I dunno" or "okay". So then Lora came to abduct my mother. They were going into town to meet with Marquita at a nice little restaurant called Tia Juana's (I think that's how to spell it) and eat, then get a few groceries, and our beef. We take our beef into this little market that butchers them and cuts it all up for us. Yummy. =D So yeah, Lora abducted Momma, and I was here by myself. So Momma had kind of made dinner. It's Chicken & Dumpling casserole, extremely delicious, I should post the recipe sometime. All I did was make the dumplings and put it in the oven. Then the feed salesman, Daddy & Grandpa came in, and I fed them dinner. And then dessert, which was cherry pie and ice-cream. The feed salesman didn't want any though. I looove dessert, I never say no to dessert! Well sometimes I do but I need to cut back. But honestly, it was cherry pie and ice-cream! Maybe he was diabetic. In that case I feel bad for eating sweets in front of him. Anywho, then they left and I proceeded to spend about an hour putting away food, doing dishes, and just cleaning the kitchen. Then I did more school and watched a little TV until Lora decided she had enough of Momma and decided to... unabduct her. Yeah, she brought her back. She got tired of her. Lol.

So I helped unload 11 boxes of meat onto the porch, and pack it into 1 upright freezer and 1 chest freezer. That's alot of stinkin meat. The carcass weighed like 937 lbs or something like that. HOLY CRUD! When Momma called in about the meat, this is, apparantly, how that conversation went.

Momma: *greeting, gives name, asks about meat, blah blah blah*
Supermeat Market Dude: Yes ma'am, let me pull your order.
Momma: Thank-you.
Supermeat Market Dude: That's no beef, ma'am.
Momma: Excuse me?
Supermeat Market Dude: That's a baby elefant!

Hahaha. It was pretty big, so we had a LOT of meat to put up. Then 4 bags of groceries, then I jumped in the truck with Lora and Momma and went to her place, just 10 miles from us, to help her unload her meat as well. We did that, then tried to help her set up some stuff on her new computer to protect it like AdAware, AVG, and Spybot but her computer wasn't getting service, so she called that evening when we were back home and Momma walked her through it. Later we shall introduce her to the addictive blogging world. Bwaha.

So we came home, ate, stuff like that. Watched American Idol to see who got kicked off. I was upset, Alexandrea should have stayed. Darn.

So this morning. I slept in. Again. Grrrr. I can be so stupid sometimes. I hate sleeping in, but I have a hard time getting up in the morning without enough sleep. In fact, I cannot even muster up enough strength to sit up. Honestly, Momma says she wakes me up, but it's like my body wakes up and my mind doesn't, because I cannot remember her doing that. At all. It's weird. But if I don't get my 8-9 hours of sleep, I just can't get out of bed. What is the logical thing to do? Go to bed earlier.

But that is logical. I am not logical.

But I seriously need to start. But after Idol I started watching the Home Improvement marathon. And even though people got up, took showers, got ready for bed, actually went to bed, I just stayed there like a lazy heap of... bum. Yeah, instead of a sack of potatoes, I was a big heap of bum. Bumness. Hehe. I have too much bumness sometimes, honestly. It's like I have this split personality thing. I get sooo efficient sometimes but sometimes I get so lazy. I need to work on that.

Anyway I did some school and then proceeded to help Momma make dinner. She cooked steaks on the grill, and I fried up some potatoes, and made the salad. I loooove this meal. Salad is delicious. But the spinach we got this time was huge! We usually get baby spinach, but these spinach leaves were like stinkin banana leaves! Okay not quite, but they were huge. I used to hate spinach. With a passion. School ruined it. I went to public school for Kindergarten and 1st Grade, and I still remember walking into that cafeteria and knowing it was spinach day. You could smell it, and it was the worst odor. I remember one time some kid got sick because of it. It made me want to puke, and I did gag I know that. It was that cheap canned stuff, ewwwww. Nasty. Never try it. Ever. Fresh spinach is good, but I don't care how stinkin big Popeye's arms are, do NOT eat canned spinach. You will regret it. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So dinner was really good. Now I'm stuffed. We had the peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies I made this morning for dessert. Mmmm yummy! =D I have the best recipe, I should post it.

And now I am on here, but I have to go do al- al- alge-- alge-- algeb--

ALGEBRA. *gag*

Remember, folks: You know algebra is gonna be boring, because it has the words "algie" and "bra" in it.

Pray for me.

My Ride

2008-02-25T12:42:00.003-07:00

My ride went very well, in case you were wondering. Which you probably weren't because, well, it's not like it was a once in a lifetime experience or anything. But you're still gonna hear about it. So sit still and listen. Read. Sit still and read.

Well I figured I would have to go out on the 4-wheeler and get the horses in. But I guess they had snuck up without my knowing it, because as I walked out towards the oil shed, where we store the ATV, I noticed the entire herd of horses in the lot. I think, "Well thank you Lord, I certainly appreciate that." So I grab my bridle and go out to catch Wyatt... And what would you know, he had just moments earlier gotten an urge to roll. In the pond. Resulting in a once nice, clean horse becoming a nasty, stinky horse caked with black pond mud and dripping with pond scum.

Now I find myself thinking, "Noo! Why Lord, why?!?!"

I will never understand why the good Lord does what he does sometimes. I guess we just have to trust he knows what he's doing, even when he lets my horse roll in black mud. So I lead Wyatt up to the pens where I begin using a metal comb, stiff brush, and rubber curry comb to remove the mud from the left side of Wyatt, which was mostly dry. Appears he hadn't rolled on that side-- but his legs, belly, and entire right side was covered in the stinky mess. So I used the horse to wash him off... Kinda. I mean it got most of the mud off, but he was still a mess. Then I used the rubber comb-brush thingy and a sweat scraper to get the water off. Then I found an old t-shirt and did my best to dry him off.

If you can't tell by now, I was extremely determined to go for this ride.

So when he was fairly dry, I hopped on and off we went. (I figured my jeans would get wet, but they didn't, so it was all good.) So I go through the horse lot, into another lot, and freedom lay just beyond the lot gate!

Well, kinda. See we have this old cow dog, about 12 years or so, his name is Sam. He's a Catahoula mix and scares the crud out of almost everybody who doesn't know he is a gentle giant, partly because he's so huge, partly because his head resembles that of a pitbull, and partly because he has marks such as scars across his head, belly, legs and a split ear from fights.

Grrrr. Me scary dog!

Psssh. Yeah right. Anyway, he's really old and has joint problems, I don't doubt he has arthritis, we need to start giving him glucosamine or something. Anyway, I noticed that he was following me. Now I planned to go about 4 or 5 miles, and gallop/lope a little bit, and it would be way too hard on him to try and catch up, and my heart would break just leaving him behind. But I figured if I loped away fast, he would stay near the house. So that's what I did, but when I was about a 1/4 mile away from the water lot, I could see him loping after me, limping and aching.

So we walked/trotted back to the house where I decided to lock Sam in the yard with Tucker. Well he knew of my intentions, and trotted to the back of the house and disappeared in his pen. (We keep the 2 other dogs in a set of pens, and Sam has one where he gets fed and sometimes he hangs around in there.) Frustrated that it was taking me half an hour to get my ride started, I went inside and explained the situation to Momma. She went out to get Sam and off I went. Finally!

NOW I was free. I went into Middle Bull, as usual. I kind of like to mix things up occasionally, but for the most part I have a routine. Some might find this boring, but I find it everything but. Sure it's the same old path but I know it well, know there are no holes or spooky objects along the way, and I can let my mind wander as we go. So off we went, and when we topped the hill near the water tank, I noticed a small group of the roping steers in the pasture.

There was one lone steer. Seperated. All by himself. Defenseless.

Bwaha.

I eased up to him, and we kind of danced around with him for a few minutes, but then he really hit it and took off and I knew that bareback, there was no way I could stay on without much of a struggle. Like I said, Wyatt goes into "cow mode" and it's a rather scary thing bareback. It's a thrill, but I didn't want to come flying off. So I used alot of strength on the reins to hold Wyatt back, and we moved on down the other side of the hill towards the water trough.

Remember how I told you there are always antelope there? Well, yep, there was. But there was only one buck. And he was coming towards me, and determined to go that way, and it didn't really strike my fancy to come running back the way I had just come. Plus, it's not quite as much fun to chase one as a whole herd. Then I noticed that in the next pasture just across the fence was an entire herd, and he was heading towards those. Well, it did cross my mind to go into that pasture and chase the herd, but they were heading into thick brush, and I was just too lazy to go in there. So we just kind of loped back around and did our little loop, and ended up back at the house. Which may sound kind of silly, but hey, I like my little routine. I know which pastures are fun to ride in and which aren't that much fun, and well now I'm rambling. So ANYWAY we went into South Bull, which is, as you may have guessed, just South of Middle Bull. We went through there, and when we hit the fence, headed West till we hit the gate going into Long Trap.

I think I mentioned this in a recent post, but I always love to come into this pasture and lope home, because on the East fence is a wide, red dirt path free of brush and it's good dirt, not hard packed, like the roads. If I ride Wyatt too much on the roads, it will chip his hooves. So eyah we loped home, and that was my... Oh it was about a 2 hour ride I guess, not incredibly long, but I did enjoy it.

So I just spent an entire post babbling on about a boring horseback ride. Sorry to bore you. I'll go now. And return later with something more interesting.

If you're lucky.

Sorry Guys

2008-02-24T12:31:00.002-07:00

I know I keep saying I will start writing consistently again. And I don't. Well... This time I'm really gonna make a true effort! I promise! =)

Well remember when I told ya'll to send me an angry email or something to make me write? I recieved an email from my *cough cough* very dear friend... Who's name shall remain anonymous *cough cough SARA cough cough*. The following was the text contained within the email: "WRITE ON YOU'RE FREAKIN' BLOG!" Thank you dear anonymous friend.

Honestly, not much has been happening. I mean, when I sit down and write I can find lots of things to talk about, random things that are sometimes quite interesting, humorous, or downright ridiculous. School pretty much defines my life, I am convinced. Honestly. Now I understand that an education is essential and will benefit me in the years following the sacred day on which I will graduate, and I agree that school is beneficial. However. This confession does not mean I must enjoy school. Poor Momma, I am such a procrastinator. And she will be the first to tell you that when I don't understand a concept, I refuse to ask for help. I 1) battle my way through the problem and end up getting it wrong anyway or 2) simply leave the problem unanswered and move on to the next. This is a terrible habit and I strongly advise you never try it. I'm honestly getting better though! I truly am! But it seems like all I ever hear about it how behind we are. It seems that Momma thinks this will motivate us, or me, when really it only dampens my ambitious spirit. Or... what little I have. Yes, I know we are behind, and yes I know I should try harder. I'm just tired of hearing about it! I am trying harder, and I am getting better about understanding Algebra 1 and completing my History outlines and reading an entire seciton in my science book. I am, honest!

Sorry for griping. I'll stop now.

It's an outstanding day outside, perhaps the best we have had all year. Or... in the past 2 and 1/2 months that is. It's hard to believe it's already February though. Partially because January just flew by, and partially because the weather is not acting as it should in February. It has been so warm! Right now it's beautiful, just perfect. One of those spring days where it's cool, there's a light breeze, the skies aren't quite overcast but not sunny either... Just perfect. And I have every intention of going for a ride. Yesterday this was my goal upon awakening, but alas, the wind never ceased. I won't go rambling on about the wind, as I'm sure you've heard about it from everyone else on my Blog List. Of course, that was weeks ago... As I haven't written in what seems like forever. I do miss writing on here though, and I hope to pick it up again! I used to write on here every day, what ever happened to that?

Anyway, back to riding. Stupid wind. Nasty wind. Yucky. Yes, I am bitter towards the wind, I simply hate it. When it got windy in Texas, in the mountains, it wasn't terrible as the mountains served as a barrier for the wind, and we were nestled up right against Timber Mountain, which was no hill I'll tell you that. So wind was never a concern. Here... ugh. it seems like it hasn't stopped blowing since the first of the year! And we aren't in completely flat country, it's more like... Well, as my Daddy puts it "gentle rolling country". Very gentle. And there is nothing to block the wind. Also, we don't have much grass, especially at this time of the year, to prevent the dirt from kicking up and practically blinding us. Sometimes it's like a sandblaster, I swear! So yesterday, the wind never did stop. Daddy and Tyler were gonna go coyote calling but it was no use due to the wind. But it's only a very gentle breeze right now. When I got around to thinking about riding this morning, it was already about 10:00. Add 15 minutes to that for catching my horse (he was out in the pasture, I would have to get the 4-wheeler and gather them up), I only had about 1 hour and 45 minutes to ride. Pssssh. Not worth it. So now I am on here, waiting for Momma to say the steaks are done. Then I shall eat, and perhaps go catch my dangerous beast. Maybe they aren't as far out in the pasture as I thought. Maybe I can just go out and catch him. Or maybe they will drift in. Anyway, I'm convinced I shall ride today.

Last Wednesday was the last time I got a chance to ride. Wyatt and I found some antelope, and for the first time, I was bold enough to consider chasing them. Bareback. Kind of a stupid idea really. We topped this hill (gently rolling, remember?) and there were 3 head of antelope. It would have been better with a whole herd, but oh well. This area of the pasture, Middle Bull, always has some antelope, I don't know why, but it's right by a water tank and there are always, I mean always antelope there. Strange. Anyway, so I just got this spur of the moment urge to, well, chase them. So Wyatt and I just kind of started loping parallel to them, and I thought maybe I could turn them and they would run the other away... Away from the flat. With lots of holes. But noooo the stupid antelope decided to run towards the flat. So Wyatt kicked into high speed and off we went! Keep in mind I was bareback. It's difficult enough to stay on your horse at high speeds bareback, let alone when you are chasing after dangerous beasties. So Wyatt, for some reason, got into "cow mode". It's like he saw a critter running away, and it was his job to get that critter. And when he gets into cow mode, he is a different horse. I'm talking running like a horse off the race track, stops so sharp you think his butt is gonna slip under him and he'll fall down, turns so hard he seems like a highly trained reining horse. It's not the same lazy, do nothing Wyatt. It's cow mode, attack!!, deathly energetic Wyatt.

So yeah and we ended up really close to the edge of that flat with lots of holes. I hate holes. Especially when I'm on Wyatt, he never fails to fall in them. The other day we were gathering bulls in Coyote. Coyote is the pasture Wyatt has lived in practically his entire life, and he went down on his knees 3 times due to holes, and stumbled another 20 times. I mean, heck, he LIVES here! He should have the GPS coordinates to every stinkin hole in that place by now!

Anyway. So the 3 antelope split up, and I decided to follow a buck. Who was heading AWAY from the flat. We chased him for... not too long, just a bit, then I spent about an entire minutes trying to get Wyatt down from a flat out run to a lope. It took my another minute to get him to a trot. Man, did he get excited. It was awesome though, hehe. =D I plan on doing it again this afternoon.

Well I've been on here long enough, I think the steaks are almost ready. Adios!

Horses, horses, horses...

2008-02-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Somebody needs to call me or send me an angry email for not posting on here in forever. (Somebody does not include you Mom.)

Well I guess I will start with last night.

Yesterday we (Mom, Tyler & I) went into town in Tyler's truck (I call it the Tymobile) because our big 4 door Ford diesel (we have had it for 9 years) needed to be taken to the mechanics to be repaired... The spedometer didn't work, the driver's side window wouldn't roll down, and the 4-wheel-drive didn't work, and the brakes needed replacing. Anyway so first stop, pick up the truck. Then Tyler went to the movies with Nelson and Adam from Youth group. They saw the newest Rambo.

It is a bloody, gory movie. I didn't see a movie, there wasn't really anything worth seeing, but even Tyler said it was, and he loves war movies and stuff, so that is saying alot. He said it was BAD. Don't go see it. Ugh.

Anyway.... Mom and I went to Ginsberg Music to look for some music for me to play, something along the lines of Chris LeDoux or George Strait, maybe some of The Cars or Billy Joel, but they had NOTHING to my tastes, so we went to the second hand/consignment store for a few moments, then to the teacher's supply store where Mom bought a grammar book for Tyler. Yay him.

Then... we... Went to Sams. Then to WalMart for a short period of time. Then we went to Sonic where I had a chicken sandwich/burger and a vanilla Dr. Pepper. Then we went to the extension office where we prepared for the 4-H meeting, which was rather boring I must say. Extremely boring really.

That started at 6:10. I am VP, but since the Secretary failed to show, it was my responsibility to take the minutes. If you don't know what those are... You basically jot down EVERYTHING we discuss during the meeting, it's terrible really it is. Don't be secretary at your 4-H club, I strongly advise you not to do this, seriously.

So the meeting ended at about 6:40. But D'aun (our group leader) wanted all of us officers to stay and help the little kids make valentines for... I forgot who. Maybe the nursing home or something. Anyway, there was a concert/ice cream social at the church that had started at 6:30 that I really wanted to get to, so I excused myself from the meeting (I think D'aun was a little upset at me for that) and we made it to the church at about 6:50. Inside we went, and into the sanctuary, where we proceeded to enjoy the worship music of a band from California called Ives. They were AWESOME ya'll I looooved their music. After I bought their CD, which doesn't have any of their worhsip songs on it, but definitely look it them up, they are not very popular yet, but I really liked them. Then it was time for...

ICECREAM! "I scream, you scream, we all scream, for ICE CREAM!"

Hehe sorry. I am kind of fond of this paticular sweet treat. Mmmm...

I got chocolate, with these mint-chocolate bits on top, they had SO many toppings, but these... Wow... I LOVE mint chocolate ANYTHING. Candy bars, fudge, ice cream... Yummo! So hehe I had two bowls... But so did Sara and Shadoe so I'm not the only guilty party here! It was sooo good... Then Tyler announced he wanted to go home. *sobs* So we left at 8:45. Had a very... interesting conversation on the way home. Hmmm. Anyway I texted Sara at 10:00 (I was waiting for Mom to get out the shower, so I could jump in) and she was still at the church. Phoo. Lucky Sara! Oh well, I can't complain, she usually has to leave right after Youth and I get to stay, so I guess it evens out... But still, phoo.

Anyways, I slept in this morning cause I didn't get to sleep til like 11:30 last night, and when I woke up Mom said that Daddy had said Jackson was having stomach problems and he was trying to get a hold of a vet.

Jackson is a 3 year old sorrel colt. Tyler announced that he doesn't want to ride him anymore (he only has like 10 rides) so Daddy said I could start riding him, after Daddy put a few rides on him first since he hasn't been ridden in like 3 months but I haven't gotten on him yet. Anyway.

It's Saturday. So Daddy called our horse vet, Dr. Blach. Couldn't get a hold of him, so just left a message. Later, Dr. Blach called back and said to have Jackson there by 11:00. So, I jumped in with Daddy and off we went to the vet's.

Now, my first thought was colic. Most horse owners really panic at that world, because colic is a fatal occurance. However, the horse I grew up riding, and my Daddy's first and best ever horse (I told ya'll about him last post I think it was), Poncho, colicked alot. I guess when he started getting in his teens, it got bad. You could not put this horse on hay for one night, or the next day he would colic. Even a grass hay, like sudan. And multiple times I remember walking Poncho around and around headquarters to keep his gut from cramping and to keep him from lying down and rolling and twisting his gut. Little kids don't know much about horse medicine, but I have ALWAYS known of two. Bute, of course, and Banamine, we always had these medicines and I remember Daddy always gave Poncho Banamine, it's like an aspirin for horses. Anyway... We also had to take Poncho to the vet alot for colicking. Dr. Box would run a tube down his nose and into his stomach and pump him full of mineral water. Or oil. I can't remember. Anyway... We would leave him there for a few hours, and he would be fine. So colic doesn't strike that much fear in me, because I just grew up around it, but it is NOT good I know that.

So anyway, back to our story. When we got to the vet's, the doc was waiting for us. We shut Jackson up in the vet box, and Dr. Blach took his temperature and used a stethascope to listen and see if his stomach was moving. (It's always a really good sign for a colicking horse if you hear stomach noises, it means their guts are moving, which usually means they are getting over that episode of colic.) Then he palpated the poor thing... He squirmed quite a bit, but I don't think anybody would really enjoy getting somebody's hand stuck up their butt. I know I wouldn't.

He then informed us that he was constipated. "Feels like a big loaf of bread", were his exact words. Hmmm. So he made up some mineral water, twitched Jackson, fed a tube down his nose and into his stomach, then pumped him full of the water, which would loosen the stool and out it would come. Hopefully. He then gave him a shot of Banamine and I forgot what the other was called, but it gets his stomach to moving.

He suggested we leave Jackson there, in case what he had done didn't work. He had to give it 8 hours to work, but if it didn't, he would have to repeat the process. So we will pick him up on Monday when Daddy takes some cattle into the cow sale.

Daddy and I then went to the Livestock & Farm Supply store where we needed some nuts, washers, nails, and plumbing parts. Then to Farmer's Country Market for baking soda (don't ask I wouldn't know), then home.

We ate a sandwich, then Daddy and Mom went on a short feedrun. Shortly after they left, I grabbed my bridle, because Wyatt was out in the horse pasture, but very close to the house, just right across the fence. So I walked through the lot, over the fence...

And there he was. The terrific beast himself, who's mere presence can cause you to tremble in fear.

The Danger Outlaw.

Wyatt Earp.

Wyatt Earp, the dangerous gun man and outlaw of the wild west, was being a baby. A brat. A donkey.

Wyatt Earp has donkey days. Rather often really.

I thought he was gonne trot off and make the whole herd leave, and I would have to bring them up to the pens, but I finally was able to get him. If you walk up to his face, or even his side, he trots off. If you approach his butt, he's fine. Weirdo. So I caught up, vaulted up like the pro- okay maybe not. I haven't mastered bareback mounting from the ground yet. I led him up to this little ledge on the side of the dirt tank, so I could get about 8 inches of elevation, and then I vaulted on... A little awkwardly, I must admit, but I got on! That's the point! Then I rode through that little lot (these lots are like 3 acres, just to keep cattle up in occasionally, 2 of them have a dirt tank) and into the big horse pen, where I dismounted to remove my hoodie. It was getting quite warm... So I used the fence to get back on, and off I went!

The wind has been blowing for the past week or so. I mean ferociously, not just breezy. And it was just breezy when I got on.... But once I got to riding, it was WARM. I mean it wasn't much fun. I rode around Middle Bull for a while, and when the wind picked up... This sounds weird but I was HAPPY. I was ENJOYING the wind. That is so weird, but true, yes I enjoyed the wind, it felt good, it wasn't breezy anymore, it was WIND, but it was cool and felt nice, it wasn't gusty, just very nice and kept the temperature perfect.

So I made my circle through Middle Bull, but it's very small, only... *looks at map* 754 acres. So I made it back to the lots at the house, but didn't want to stop riding, I had only been gone like and hour. So I went into South Bull. I thought about circling it, but then thought I would just ride the fence down to the South end of the pasture, and then enter Long Trap which is just West of South Bull, and ride down the fence that way. If I ride the fence in Long Trap, I thought, I can lope like almost all the way home.

I don't like to full out lope in the pastures, because where it's either really brushy and Wyatt will make some weird duck and I'll come flying off, or it has holes and he may fall, or I can't just enjoy myself and RIDE I have to like... steer him lol. This stretch along the fence is clear of grass, of holes, of anything, and it is good soft dirt. Wyatt hasn't been shod in years, he just goes barefoot, so riding on roads hurt his feet, and especially loping will chip his hooves.

So I started loping down and it was AWESOME. Riding down the South Bull pasture he was being an idiot, he kept wanting to go home, so he was being URRRGH. But finally, all was well. He was loping smoothly, not me asking him to, just at a good pace, it felt so good, it was awesome. So then I wanted to gallop.... But he was acting weird about it, and I was about to fall off trying (he's not exactly sensitive and I don't wear spurs bareback) so I just enjoyed the pace for like a half mile, maybe more... It was great.

Got home, turned him loose, came in here... And here I am. =)

Well the cookies are calling. Yes I am baking cookies. No you cannot have any. They are mine! I am hoarding them. Bwahahaha.

Broken Birthday Cakes

2008-01-22T10:59:00.001-07:00

Darn. I fell behind again. *hits head on computer desk*

Well today is Mummy’s birthday! Yay Mummy! She turns 28. =)

But I feel rotten. Like a rotten, careless, terrible daughter. She has no card, she has no presents. It’s simply dreadful. I feel just awful!! What kind of person neglects to get her own mother a birthday card and gift or two?

This kind of person. The kind of person who goes with her mother EVERYWHERE and therefore does not receive the chance to get a card and gifts. Ah, well, all shall be well. I just got a piece of copy paper and wrote her a little letter with colored pencils, and Tyler went into town this morning for a college class. I am having him pick up her gift while he is in there… =)

This morning, I got up, albeit a smidge late. But I was very tired! I got up, wished Momma a happy birthday, and set to work making blueberry muffins in my jammies. Well, I didn’t make the muffins IN my jammies… I was in my jammies as I was making the muffins.

ANYWAY.

Made the muffins, presented several of them to Momma with a lit candle in each, and demanded she make a wish. So she made a wish… For somebody ELSE she said! I know we as Christians, withhold a duty to support and think of others often, but it’s her birthday for Heaven’s sake! She is always thinking of others and never of herself. Which I guess, in one way, is a good thing, but really, you ought to indulge a little every now and again.

I’ve been fighting her off all morning as well. She keeps intruding into the kitchen, trying to help in one way or another. No. No ma’am! You do NOT get to do kitchen work, or any kind of house work, on your birthday.

So I made the muffins, then made her a cake. (It’s a bundt cake, yellow with chocolate marble swirls.) Then I got dressed, and then I did the dishes. I then got things ready for her dinner… She got out the chicken and potatoes and said we were to have seasoned chicken with cheese on top, with sweet rolls, salad, and baked potatoes. I find it a rather boring birthday dinner… Why not lasagna? Or… Chicken fried steak? Or… fajitas? At least let me do some spaghetti! Nope… So chicken it is. =P Stubborn woman, I’m telling you…

So the chicken shall be going in the pan here in a bit. As of now, Momma is finally relaxing. I think. She should be reading or something. She doesn’t know how to relax. Bad habit.

So yeah… The cake got ready, I took it out of the oven and I began to make the chocolate glaze of butter, powdered sugar, whipping cream, vanilla, and cocoa. The glaze didn’t make it to the cake. As I was pouring the whipping cream, I noticed… It was a little bit… Well… lumpy. I don’t think it’s supposed to be like that. Mom checked the date (she weasled her way into the kitchen) on the container… November 12th. Ha. That’s great, just GREAT. And the other container of whipping cream had a similar date. So I guess I’ll just heat up regular chocolate frosting and drizzle that over the cake, and call it good.

Anyway, I decided it was time for that beautiful little cake to come out of it’s pan. So I flipped it over, and put the cake on the cake plate… Well, most of it. And then I began to cry,

The cake was still too warm, and part of the durned thing was still stuck to the pan, despite the durned cooking spray, that obviously doesn’t work and *HYPERVENTILATES*. Momma calmed me down and we were able to kind of patch it back together… We’ll just put extra frosting on that part.

She is so much better at this stuff than I am. I was so not made for the kitchen.

So I’ve cleaned the kitchen about 4 times this morning. I always succeed in making a terrible mess. I could be making something as simple as macaroni and cheese and I would manage to get the noodles all over the floor, and melt cheese over the burners, and spill milk on the counters. I am a very messy cook.

Okay, yeah… So that’s about all I have to say. I’ll leave you wondering how the chicken is ever gonna survive my doubtful cooking skills.

Please pray for the chicken.

Randomnesssss...

2008-01-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

Yo my... peeps... followers... readers!

Let's hear a "woot woot"!!!

*crickets chirping*

*loud sigh* Okay so I guess I will just talk to myself then.

Sara came this previous weekend. *shouts* Wooohooo! I was extremely happy. It was great! There was a 4-H dance on Friday which Joshua took Sara too. I officially met Joshua then- awesome guy. I danced a LOT more than I have ever danced at any other dance, it was pretty great... I danced with Camille, Sara, Joshua (we two-stepped and did the Hoppy Dance), so that was pretty great. And then all the little kids always ask me to dance. Well, I say little they are like 10, 11. Shelby asked me, as always. Justin... I guess that's all the younger guys. I danced with Lacey, aaaaand.... Ermmm... Nathan! He is a guy from Youth group, he's pretty cool, and he was taller than me. Yay! I think that's it, but I can't really remember... *thinks super hard* Yeah I THINK that's it... I'm pretty sure there is somebody else but I'm not gonna bother racking my brain for the name or face, because it's not like you care anyways. So yeah about 8 people... It was pretty great. =D

So then we took Sara home with us, got home about midnight. Yipes. Sara and I stayed up till 3.

Bigger yipes.

I guess that would make it... YIPES!! Yeah.

We watched about 30 minutes of "Behind Enemy Lines". Why such a sad, war movie? Because it stars Owen Wilson. Duhhh! Yeah Sara and I are fans of the guy... Yay Owen Wilson! I still love Shanghai Noon. We were eating Pirouette Sticks and chocolate frosting from a can too... hehehe. A delicious bed time snack, don't you think so?

Then we slept till about 7:45. I can't remember all that we did that morning. But that afternoon we went over to Lora's, the neighbor, because Sara's brother is dayworking there and was supposed to take Sara home. But as it turns out he decided to stay another day, and we took hre back the following afternoon.

Like I said, I can't really remember what we did what day. But we...

*Drew on the cement slab with colorful sidewalk chalk. Also drew on each others faces. Erm... yeah. We have pictures to prove it. Sara has them tho, because Daddy took my camera, so I was camera-less. Check out her blog for the proof.

*Messed around with a couple of the weanlings. I wish we could of done more. I guess we could have. But... I was too lazy and brain dead at the time. Next time, Sara, I promise we will work extensively with every one of them! But right now it's not alot of fun to mess with them because they are all... good now. No problems. Or not much.

*Chased Russian spies and mutant bunnies on the 4-wheeler. It started out as an innocent ATV ride... We ended up making a huge circle, I mean, like 5 miles, I guess not that huge. But yeah... And I ended up losing my voice that evening and the following day because we were screaming so loud. "RUSSIAN SCUM! BANG! BOOM! I GOT 'IM! ARRR THERE'S ANOTHER ONE! GIT 'IM SARA! BANG BOOM BANG! GRAAAA IT'S A MUTANT BUNNY! RUUUUNNN!" Then we saw my Daddy... who was outside his truck... I guess fixing fence or something, and he surely heard us... Poor Daddy. He was giving us the evil eye. We believe he was the Russian spie coordinator.

*We also did the Macarena on the 4-wheeler. Sara did it, not me, cause I was driving. Okay so I kind of did it... Then drove off the road and nearly unseated Sara... So my Macarena moment was over.

*We played pirates! Arrrr.... It was so ridiculous, I won't even go into full detail, and the pictures shall never be revealed. NEVER. To NOBODY. Because they are creepy and scary. Let's just say it involved bandanas and mascara... looots of mascara.

*We rode double on Wyatt. First time he has ever been ridden double! I didn't really expect him to do anything but he can be such a terrible dork sometimes that I was a little cautious. We were bareback, of course, and if he spooked or something, we were both coming off, and I just wasn't exactly anticipating that. But he was good! He was being extremely insensitive, extremely slow, lazy and obnoxious. So we didn't go far. Because it would be no fun riding for a long time at a walk, and if we tried to trot, Sara would have to bounce a little bit, and yeah, I just didn't really want to try it out right then... We should have though. Next time, we will do that.

I guess that was about it. It was a pretty fun weekend!

Monday we started school. *sobs* I hate school. If I talk about, it shall send me into eternal depression, so I won't. But Monday night was really good! Because we went to Youth. It was awesomeness! Well... part of it wasn't. *glares at a certain somebody* But we got that figured out later, so it's all good. After, everybody left except Justin, who went in his office, Nelson (who came with Adam and his dad), Adam, Tyler, me, mom, and then Adam's dad, John. Mom and John stood outside the sanctuary, and Nelson, Adam, and Tyler went into the sanctuary.

Nelson has an electric guitar, so he brought that and his amplifier. And Adam has his too babies, aka 2 electric guitars and of course an amp. (What good is an electric guitar without an amp? It's like... vanilla ice cream with no chocolate syrup! It just... stinks.) And so all 3 of the guys were back there jamming... I was getting bored and thought I should go ruin their fun. Nah, just kidding, I totally made it soooo much more fun! Or maybe not... I should let the guys have their... guy time. Tyler wasn't too happy with me. But I was bored! So anyway, yeah... It was hilarious, I love Nelson and Adam, they are fun to be around. Nelson and I were giving poor Adam heck. We still love you Adam!

Yesterday... was town day. Blech. Lots of errands. Piano lesson, which was pretty good. More errands. Tyler had a doctors appointment. 2 hours of me and iPod alone time. That made me really appreciate my iPod.

I wuff you Mr. iPod!

Or Mrs..... no that would make it married. iPods can't get married. Or atleast not mine. Cause it's a... Catholic iPod. It's... like... a nun! Yeah so it can't get married. So maybe it's Sister iPod.

Wow. I need sleep. Or chocolate. One or the other.

Or both.

Anyway. Today I woke up really late. I have been having sleep issues. Stupid alarm clock won't go off it was terrible... And then... I just... and STOP! I DON'T want to talk about it! Stop PUSHING!

Chocolllaaate....

See what a weekend with Sara does to me?

It's bad. It's an ugly sight.

Anyway yeah, today started off just okay. I did my devotional and prayer and my chapter in Jeremiah and everything was awesome. Until I walked out of my bedroom and I saw...

Guess who. Just guess. Who was staring at me... RIGHT. IN. MY. FACE. Huh?

.
..
...
....
.....
....
...
..
.

Reality. School, dishes, dirty cat box, a menacing school teacher nagging at me to finish my Vietnam history book (Mommy you really are good about it, you're the nicest teacher, but today, it felt like nagging), Tyler just trying to make me angry (what kind of sicko gets joy from other people's anger and frustration and depression? my brother).

Reality stinks.

*sigh*

So I have been cranky all day. After lunch, I got on here for a little while, but was in no mood to blog. Then I went and made cookies. They are called Thumbprint Smuckers Cookies and are a LOT of work. First time I ever made them... You make the dough, which is pretty easy. Then you roll them into ittly-bitty balls in your hand, dip them in beaten egg whites, then roll that in a pan of finely chopped pecans, and onto the cookie sheet, where you use your thumb (or a teaspoon) to make a little dent in the middle. Into the hot oven for 10 minutes... You can hear them screaming, in their little high voices. "Nooo! Not the hot oven! Nooo please, I'm begging you, noooooo!"

Bwaha. In you go....

After 10 minutes, you take them out, put a scant spoonful of jam (I used Strawberry, Red Plum, & Grape, but you can use any flavor you want) in the center dent thing, into the oven for 7 more minutes, THEN they are done. So yeah... But they are pretty dang good, I see myself making them again in the future.

Then Momma woke up from a long nap, and said she would finish cleaning the kitchen for me. *hugs Mommy* And she said it was a glorious day outside, I mentioned the horses were up... Next thing I knew, I was out bareback in the pasture, loping away from reality, terrible terrible reality...

2 hours later, I returned. And here it still awaits me, lingering over my shoulder like a... A... dark dreary cloud.

Okay. It's Wednesday night. It's 7:03. The cage fights are on. Gotta go... CAN. NOT. MISS. CAGE. FIGHTS.... *gasps*

Toodle-oo!

yawn

2008-01-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

It's so... eerie.

Spooky.

Creepy.

PEACEFUL.

Oh silence, beautiful silence, my long lost love... I feared you had forgotten me! Packed your bags and walked away, with no farewell words... But not you have returned to me!!

They are gone!!

I love kids, honest. And I love my little cousins. But there is a reason that kids my age aren't supposed to have babies- we just don't have the patience.

3 little kids. One is quiet for the most part, and he went with my Daddy and Uncle Bruce mostly. But I got stuck at home with Jade. Now, don't be mistaken, these kids are really good kids, they really aren't the monsters I make them out to be. But I just can't take it, I just can't...

Jade: *pulling on shirttail* Come on Caitlin, lets go do something together.
Me: Jade, I'm sick... And I'm tired.
Jace: AAAAARGHHHH!!!!!
Jade: Well let's just go talk in your room.
Me: Well about what?
Jade: Anything you want!
Jace: I'M STAAARVING!!!!! Graaaaa....
Me: *sigh* Okay let's go.

--Jade and I proceed to my bedroom, where I collapse on my bed--

Jade: Caitlin, do you want to make a dress for Oatmeal? (her stuffed horse)
Me: Well... Not really. It'll make a mess and I'm not feeling good at all.
Jace: *runs into room, catapolts onto bed, and proceeds to writhe around on sheets* ARRGH!
Jade & Me: Jaaaaaaace!
Jace: There's a MONSTER! He's gonna get me! ArrrGGGHH!
Me: You're the monster.
Jade: *laughs* Yeah Jace!
Me: I just want to sleeeeep....
Jade: Why?
Me: Cuz I'm tired...
Jade: Why?
Jace: *throws self on me* I'm bored! Let's play DINOSAURS!
Me: Rawr. Grrrr.
Jace: *pouts* You're not a very good dinosaur.
Jade: *hugs me* I love you Caitlin. You're the most fun cousin ever!
Me: Are you dillusional?
Jace: I SAIIID. Hey!! I SAIIID.... you're not a very good dinosaur.
Me: Sorry Jace. I'm a tired dinosaur.
Jace: Well stop being tired.
Me: I can't.
--PAUSE--
Jace: GrrraAWWWWR! *runs into closet door*

They are sweet. And they are fun. But not when you are sick... Last night Uncle Bruce, Daddy and I went coyote calling. It was terrible. I think Jace was hollering so loud he scared every coyote off the ranch. It was eerie really... I mean we have tons of coyotes here. We called at like 5 different places, and only got 2 fox at one place, which of course we did not shoot, and 2 coyotes at another place, but they never would come close enough. It was rather disappointing... We headed out at 9:30 and didn't get back til 11:30. I was asleep by midnight...

This morning the cousins and uncle all headed out. Poor Jade... I don't know why I'm so much fun to be around, but apparantly I am because she cried twice that morning cuz she didn't wanna go. =( Poor sweetheart...

Now it's so... Silent. Wow.

Sorry if this post is written in a boring manner... I'm very sleepy. I might need a nap. But not a long one, because Sara's mom is bringing her over here soon to stay for part of the weekend. And I have to take a shower before the dance and dry my hair. And then spent several long hours in an auditorium that is blaring country music at an ominous decible level whilst I merely stand there and wish I had a dancing partner.

Ah, well. I usually dance with Sara or my friend Camille... I hope Camille is there. Sara has a dancing partner tonight. ;) But don't worry about me, I am excellent at passing the time. I am a dreamer... I can pass quite a lot of time really, just by making up stories in my head and... Well... just dreaming about random stuff. It's fun, honest. I'm a very imaginative person.

I dearly wanted to ride Wyatt today. *sobs* My heart aches for my dear horse! I haven't ridden him in sooo long... I didn't get to keep him up this morning because I was too busy helping out with my cousins, and even if I did, Sara is coming this afternoon and it would be rather rude if she arrived and I was gone... Away.... Poor Sara. My mind will be gone anyway. It has disappeared to... I dunno. Where minds go when they get tired of their employers. It's like... they are tired of all my sillyness. So they got to the local Mind Hangout... And when they come back they have a hangover, so they aren't any good anyway.

Wow I am seriously tired. I need to stop typing and go take some Tylenol... And collapse in the sun... And listen to some Daughtry... And... yeah.

Goodbye now.

New Years Revolutions

2008-01-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

So I am sitting here... Listening to... You got it, Chris Daughtry. Seriously guys, here is a list of songs by this guy you need to hear:

-Over You
-All These Lives
-What I Want
-Used To

Addicted to all 3. This guy rocks... "He" is actually a "them". He was a part of a band called Absent Element before American Idol. During AI he recieved an offer to become the lead singer in a popular band when he sang one of their songs on the show, but rejected the offer, and started his own band, called Daughtry, after the show. Amazing what you can find out about people by punching their name in the search bar on http://www.answers.com/. ;)

Anyway. I was thinking... New Year's. Well I'm still sick. But I didn't really get to celebrate New Year's Day, or Eve. And I was thinking... What do people do on New Years Day? Well lots of things I imagine, but mostly make New Year's Revolutions. I really...

Wait. That doesn't sound right.

New Years Revolutions? Oh wait, Resolutions. Yeah. There we go. Anyway.

I myself have never created such a list... But there is a first time for everything, am I right? So I figured I might as well make a list. They may not be kept... But that is the goal, right? These are things I want to do this year, or want to happen, or whatever...

Caitlin's New Year's Resolutions:

-Continue to grow and become stronger in my relationship with the Lord

-Not lose or majorly damage my precious iPod

-Learn to play The Pink Panther and Lucy & Linus on the piano

-Learn some songs on the piano that I KNOW... like... songs on the radio

-Keep in better touch with two close-in-heart but far-in-miles friends

-Go for an adrenaline-rushing gallop across the pasture bareback on Wyatt... without falling off

-Eat healthier and get more excercise, consistently (how common is this?)

-Be much nicer to my older brother

-Be able to look back at the end of every day and find something that I am proud of

Sound pretty good to me don't'cha think?

Well my little cousins are gonna be here soon... *sigh* I shall then proceed to hide in my room and be sick and chill to Chris Daughtry for approximately 2 hours... And then Momma and I will head tot own. *sigh* We need to send something in the mail that has to be post-marked TODAY but we forgot to put in the mailbox. And she needs milk... Cuz that's all my little cousins will drink. And we need to pick up my glasses. *sigh* Yeah I haven't been wearing them at all for about 2 weeks cuz one of the lenses wasn't right and they had to fix them.... Yeah. And then we will come back. And will try to hide in my room. Jade will wanna bug me and Jace too but I am sick. And I don't wanna get them sick. Really, I don't! Okay so I will kind of be hiding from them, but still, I am being considerate. So I will get Momma to drag them outta there I bet.

Anyway. Yeah. Don't feel sorry for me, hiding in my room... In solitary confinement.

Quarantined. My good friend Chris Daughtry shall keep me company.

*cough, sniffle, blows nose, sneeze, cough*

Well... It won't hurt if you feel sorry for me a little bit.

Life According To A Ranch Kid

Life IS Good

Hum dee dum...

I Got Tagged!

I'm Alive! I'm Alive!

Bowling With Da Goofs....

PALIN! WOOT!

Back Online!

The Day The Computer Died

Woes of Moi

{-->R.A.N.D.O.M.N.E.S.S= Bloggynesss

Bow Howdy!

Rammmbllleeee

The Bronc Stomper... Got Stomped.

Semi-Rant and Fish Pix

Random...ness....

Muse & Meese

Cannibal Cats {And Other Random Thoughts...}

Bronc Stomper

Ol' Yeller, Bay Boy, & Sorrelly...

I Am Alive! I Am Alive!

Harley

Rain, oh praise be to the Lord!!

Bibles, Shades & Gloss

Cracker & Peanut

It's A Great Day To Be Alive!

These Are The Things I Think About...

Anti-Summer

Okay, I Admit It... I'm Addicted

Missin' Sara =[ (Sunset Pix!)

More Pictures. Baha

Rodeooooo

First Day Pictures With The FZ18

I GOT MY NEW CAMERAAAAAA!!!!

Favorite Songs

So. Stinkin. Tired.

Random Things About Muah

I'm Gonna Get A New Cameraaaaa!!

Ha. Haha. Hahaha. Guess what I'm gonna be when I grow up?

5 Random Things

Chapman Family Needs Prayers

Devil Hamster aka "Gosh Darned Good For Nothing Fluffball"

Shooting Sports Weekend // Imprisoned By Braces No More!!

Over The Fence: Part I

Bleh.

Photoshopped Pix

Hamster Habitat Perfection

New Addition To Zoo (Needs Name)

Extra Crunchy Peanut-Butter & The 5 Missing Somethings

Nice Warm (Albeit Dry) Days & Kittens

2 Teenage Girls Trampled By Mares At Local Horse Sale

Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! [Name Da Birdie!]

Dreaming Of Rain...

I Hate Shinnery. (Stupid Shinnery)

Short Post

Blog Nutrient Deficient

Easter

Oh, How Times Have Changed!

Peace

"Yes Lord"

Project Playlist / NM Wind

Bow Down To Your Ski Queen / So Blessed

Especially Strange

Sunset Pictures...

Our Deceiving World

Bumness

My Ride

Sorry Guys

Horses, horses, horses...

Broken Birthday Cakes

Randomnesssss...

*yawn*

New Years Revolutions

yawn