Busy Sewing Sunday

We were up early for church in spite of the time change and are now home after doing chores and having brunch. I have a bunch of embroidery to do for a NATRC riding coming up, so I'm sitting at my computer with the machine next to me so I can stop it if the slightest thing goes wrong. I did about half the shirts on Friday, but today am doing the other half. Liz Scott, the ride Manager, likes to do shirts for her helpers and volunteers. We took her logo for the ride and turned it into a single color silhouette and that's what I'm using for the shirts. I tried to use the actual clipart and turn it into the design, but my software just never made it look right. These are turning out nice and though it's not as colorful as the original, it still conveys as similar logo to the patches she is giving out. After I finish up the shirts I have a sewing project for prizes to start on. I just find that I'm better off doing one task at a time. If I start sewing, then I don't watch my embroidery and then mistakes happen.

Tomorrow starts spring break, which will end up being a little more break-like for Maggie than I had originally intended. Tomorrow I'm going to take her and her horse to Sprite's for riding camp. We're also going to take Joe Bear for the week so that he can get some extra attention from all the little kiddos. If he works out, he may stay through summer, since this time of year is bigger and has more students. It's good for everyone. I'll even kick in food money if I need to so that he has everything he needs. She can keep food in front of him more often than I can and he'll get to be with Deli. Flying G had a tragedy this past week, when an arsonist burned up all their nice round bales. They are still needing some donations, but they did find someone to sell them some hay at cost since they are carrying on a Christian ministry. They are selling t-shirts too, which Maggie and I have purchased to help with the fund raising. Joe will fit right in and he will have constant attention for the next week. He just eats up being messed with and Maggie goes for lessons and we can get him back anytime. I was feeling nostalgic for Deli yesterday and thought about trying to borrow her back, but she's such a good lesson horse, Sprite said no way. Loaning Joe will be good since now I have room to help train a foster horse for a friend.

Peter bought me the Sims 3 stuff pack so I will be installing that shortly and playing with my sims while I watch my machine. Thank you Peter!

I really wanted today to be lazy, but there is just too much to do. Notes to write...Maggie is out mowing the lawn...I want to watch the movie Up in the Air Starring George Clooney later, after the shirts are done. It's too hard to hear the TV while I'm embroidering. And Maggie has some more long division to do so that she can be free to enjoy her riding camp tomorrow.

This week, on Wednesday, Maggie is going to Alexa's to hang out. I'm going to a riding clinic on Thursday through Sunday and Peter is taking Parrish Lay Ministry (PLM) classes starting Saturday at Calvary Lutheran Church. He has been an assistant minister at King Of Glory since last summer and this is the next step in his spiritual journey. My understanding is that the classes are 1 time per month for 3 months in spring and summer and this will go on for 2 years. He is excited to be entering this ministry. Our church, King of Glory, is a wonderful little church that needs to grow. Our pastor is a wonderful lady who always has interesting sermons. We have found it to be a loving church home.

Speaking of King of Glory, I played the piano in church today. I haven't played the piano in public in 15 or 20 years. I used to be a really good pianist, but lack of use has really cut my skills down. I played a piano/organ duet with the organist and it went really well. We played the postlude so that no one would listen too closely. I played For the Beauty of the Earth. On April 25, I'm going to play another one Crown him with Many Crowns...It's harder and it will take me that long to learn it, I fear. I was pleased and surprised that I able to play the song today with only a couple day's practice. I am getting my own key to the church so I can go up there and use the piano any time I want. I only own a keyboard at home now.

Yesterday Maggie and I helped with the LBJ Grasslands clean up project and clipped branches and picked up trash. Dixie proved to be quite good at standing still for clipping and trash pick up. Maggie was able to pick up trash using a long, pointed stick and speaking cans and bottles and putting them in her trash bag. I clipped branches so that anyone trotting around corners wouldn't be hit in the face with branches. There are two rides in The Grasslands in the next month and the trail needed work. We had really poor tools, and got a late start but had fun anyway. We were starving on the way home and ate dinner at a new place called Don Jose's, which I didn't mind, but probably wasn't very good...I was just really hungry.

I rode Liberty in a bit I had borrowed from Betsy and except for a small run on one side of his face, he took to it really well. I also found him able to eat in it and his mouth was softer and foamier than any bit I have used to date. It was a nice ride. Frankie got a nice run too.

Maggie has dachshund fever. She really wants her own puppy and with her dad's help, it's likely to happen...but not too soon. She has to save up her own money to buy/adopt her puppy. To that end, I have a house and yard slave hehehe. She is outside mowing the grass right now. She gets $15/mowing to mow it. If I can her to trim, I'll pay her $20. she's also more set on doing her chores at the moment as well...cleaning her room, doing her laundry, cleaning the bathroom, taking out the trash...gotta love a kid who is too young to hold a real job. Maggie's other business venture is going to be her own horse cookies. I told her I'd get her started, but she had to pay me back, just like a "real" business. It's called Sweet Boy and Gorgeous horse cookies. She's going to design her own logo and Liberty and Dixie are the poster children. She will probably branch out into dog cookies too and selling them at NATRC rides.

Great NATRC regional convention

Maggie and I went to the NATRC regional convention in Oklahoma City, OK. We had a great time and the horses received their awards. I got to sing Karaoke and dance in a smoke free bar, which is always a pleasure. It was such a fun, and relaxing weekend and I got to see my best buddy, Amy Martin, who agreed to be my room mate even though I snore.

Peter is on a business trip this week and it's weird to be here without him. We often do things independently at home, but it's still nicer to have him in the house. Maggie is asleep and I will be going to bed in a few, but decided to watch Friday's ER that I recorded.

This evening Maggie and I watched 3 movies. We watched the Secret Life of Bees, Hotel for Dogs and Dr. Horrible's Sing along Blog. They were all good. Secret Life of Bees was incredible, Hotel for Dogs was sweet and Dr. Horrible was oddly disturbing and funny.

I hope to accomplish some things this week. I plan to clean house from top to bottom, do some sewing, watch all my movies that are not movies that Peter would appreciate, digitize some pictures...anyway...I have a full list. The weather is going to be crap, so I won't be able to ride anyway, I might as well accomplish something else :-)

Rainy Saturday and Muddy Sunday

No lessons today b/c of the rain we had yesterday. This is the first Sunday in months where I haven't been out of town or teaching at the barn. I changed the one lesson I had today to tomorrow. I will be going to do a massage or two here in a little bit, but at the moment I"m still in my jammies.

Peter, Maggie, Jena (cat's daughter) and I have been playing with our American Idol Karaoke game. I have changed the judging to harder on my singing to make it more fair, but I still keep winning. Fun to win, but I wish that they would win sometimes. I even changed myself to random song so I could get songs I don't know...Poor peter got an even harder song on random than I did. Sometimes he just gives up and starts cutting up. I laugh so hard I cry. LIke now...he's singing "Don't let the Sun Go Down on Me" and it's really awful and I can't help myself. He is so much fun and tries so hard.

I got a couple songs that I don't know and I bombed too, so we're even.

Now the girls are starting a new game and we're all going to do it on random. I've promised to change my vocal judging to medium to level the playing field b/c even when I don't know a song I typically have a good enough hear to hear it. I can usually gather enough points by the end not to lose completely. Now it's set up for hte game to choose a random song...last round I cheated and picked different random songs for Peter since the one he got wasn't a good choice. Unfortuantely the one we ended up with wasn't in his range at all! It's been a fun day.

Tomorrow I hope to ride Liberty and teach my lessons. It will be a busy day to be spending with no school.

Where has the time gone?

I didn't mean to go so long without posting, I've just been so busy.

After being sick for a week I then had to make up all the work that was left undone while I was ill, so last week was extra busy. Then at the end of the week, Maggie and I had plans for one last CTR at Horsemasters, in East TX.

The best part of the ride this weekend was that Peter managed to pull off a big surprise! He drove down to the ride and met us at the first P&R. I was really shocked b/c when he didn't come on Saturday, I figured he was going to skip it. I didn't blame him really. It was 150 miles one way. There was no need to spend the gas money just to come hang out. But when I got to the first P&R I did a double take and there he was. I threw my arms around him and starting kissing him and hugging him madly. It was way, way cool.

The guy next to me in line, Mark Carter, missed the introductions. When Peter went down the line to talk to Maggie, I said something about my husband. He said "that's your husband" I laughed and asked him who else I would be kissing in the woods on my birthday. Mark said he didn't know for sure since he didn't know me that well and perhaps I was meeting my boyfriend (not exactly, but I can't remember the exact wording) He was kidding. So, when Peter came back through I introduced them and Peter joked about not telling my husband that he had come to see me. It was funny.

Too bad Freeley had to ruin the fun and good intentions by mashing Peter's hands. There goes Orchestra for a few weeks. Having him come was just the best birthday surprise!

It was great to have him in camp to help pack up and just hang out. I made the mistake of getting in the check out line way too early and blew precious time from my afternoon that I could have spent hanging out with Peter.

This ride was not one of our more shining moments. The weather was beautiful and Freeley was hyper all weekend. Maggie wasn't as overly sensitive as she was at Bigfoot Boogie, but she was not as relaxed as she had been at the benefit ride. I did not like the way the horsemanship judge talked to me or the girls. I had no quarrel with her message to any of us. She has an opinion of how things should get done and I now have more information about what she expects in the future, but all of it felt very patronizing and snotty to me.

We got fussed at for wearing our sandals in camp. I pointed out that we would never wear sandals to the barn, but that when you're camping you are in your "home" for the weekend. We came over to the horses b/c the judges were there. It wasn't like we were running around, frolicking with our horses with our sandals on. The girls were told they hadn't groomed their horses well enough. I saw them bathe the horses, so I wasn't sure what the problem was, but evidently they didn't do a good enough job. Some judges care more about baths than others. Jena called her horse an idiot for not doing something and was docked 2 points. There is some question as to whether the judge said to Jena, Maggie's friend, that her horse wasn't the idiot. I'm still looking for confirmation on that one. In any case the message was fine, but the delivery wasn't and I'm still not happy even after a few days. Riding safety is looking really good right now.

All of this brings me to the dilemma of Liberty. If we are going to back off NATRC for the next little bit, I don't need him. I like him and I'm having fun with him, but I don't need him. Maggie has never committed to riding Freeley yet and I"m not sure that he will behave for her in that setting anymore than he does for me. I just don't have a clue really. He might be perfect for her in that setting and he certainly has enough experience to be a good boy and take her down the trail. In any case, if they thought Brody was too green for Maggie, Liberty is no better, but he is smaller, which is a good thing. It will be 6 months at least before I'd trust him with Maggie on the trail and based on what everyone else tells me about kids/horses, maybe I should wait even longer. I see a different kid with a different set of skills than others see and I'm wondering if it's time to see her through their eyes...which isn't easy to do.

Originally before Deli was lame, we were going to do a few of the colder weather rides and then take the rest of the year off till the foal came and then start riding Deli again. WE don't know if Deli will ever be able to do NATRC again or not. Some people say that Ringbone can go away and she may be fine. Others say that to do NATRC is probably out of the question and chances are they will always be looking for her to have problems. We can do trail trials, but they don't happen that often. They also don't check for lameness.

Many of my friends think that even Deli is too much for Maggie. They don't see her when it's just us having fun. They have only see us stressed out, in a group. I don't know if she is or not b/c she certainly wasn't this summer when we were in Arkansas.

I just don't know the answer.

I did figure out the cost to keeping Liberty each month. For the first time in my life I find myself wondering if the new furniture I'd like to have wouldn't be a better idea.

I have one more week to decide. I have to get several rides in so I know. He's such a cutey and a good deal I know he'll make a great horse. But, I do already have some great horses.

So the question is, change sports (don't compete) or get the horse that will let us compete if Maggie will ride Freeley. The problem is that she will tell me that she will, but I won't know if she's sincere until after I buy the horse.