Memorial Weekend and More

Memorial Weekend was full of company and work and fun for us.  We had a very special visitor when Jen Hall, a Parelli instructor, drove down from Orlando to meet us.  She gave Nathan and I an awesome session, which I was not expecting but gratefully soaked up and learned tons from!  We met Jen when we went to the Parelli tour stop in Kentucky.

My SIL Katee asked her if we could come back and meet her horses and she graciously said yes.  

She is so much fun to be around.  I laughed when she said something about me having the same personality as her and said, nope, and said what I was instead and she said, "You sure?"  I told her that I was definitely sure.  I thought after she left that it is just she was so inspiring, she had me keyed up on her energy and exuberance level!

It was so neat to get to know her better and I trust it will be an ongoing relationship because she rocks both as a person and as an instructor!

My mom also visited us, because she has been worried about my physical state of being, and has been coming to help me to do some of the tasks here.  Which is super sweet.  I took pictures of her but she thought she was hot and sweaty and not camera ready, so I won't share them.  We got all of the living room and reading room painted which was wonderful!  Thanks, Mom!

Austin, Brittany and Ryan came and ate dinner with us and then we had some family fun together.  We had a very silly game where Nathan cracked us up all night long.

We are definitely entering the rainy season, which meant we did not get to do a bonfire when everyone was here, but hopefully we get a chance soon.  I am glad we are entering the rainy season, because that means I can hopefully keep the horses on grass and not have to do hay at all.  The storm clouds look quite nasty out here and the wind is pretty fierce too.

Although I still don't like having a house, I do love where we live.  It's so peaceful and I am enjoying our property a lot!  Most of all, I love that I can spend time with my family like we did this weekend!

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Mother's Day

We had a different kind of a Mother's Day than I've had for the past few years.  But it was very typical of the time period when I had five kids still living at home with us.  So it felt "normal" to me.  It started with me making breakfast with a nice view.

After breakfast, it was outside to do clearing the back pasture and fencing the front pasture.  It was hot outside, so we took lots of water breaks.  I stopped to make lasagna and a cake.  I saw then that the girls and Daniel had sent me the nicest texts wishing me a nice Mother's Day.  It made my day to see that after working so hard all morning.  

Then Austin joined us and gave me the Mother's Day gift I asked Nathan for.  He helped put up the fence posts.

He also brought me a card and flowers.  How sweet is he?

The guys finished up all the posts.  So the only thing left at that point was the wiring and electric box.  We will go back later and put up the permanent fencing.  Auburn came home and surprised me.  She brought me a sweet card and a beautiful flowering bush to plant outside.  It was even purple!  I was really beaming at this point.

The horses just hung out front, relaxing and eating the grass.

It is a wonderful thing to see Chevy hanging out near the guys while they are working and making all kinds of noise.  When he first arrived, he ran away from Nathan when he saw him.  He has decided he is ok at this point and barely glances at him.  Don't get me wrong: he still keeps one (or two) eye/s on me to make sure I am still around.  

It is still huge progress though!  And of course our town mayor is supervising things from her perch:

Surrounded by love, what more could I want for Mother's Day? It was a good day!

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Easter 2014 Weekend with the Family

It was an insanely busy week last week!  In fact, I am still recovering from it.  First the horses arrived and that same day my family started arriving for the holiday weekend.  Aric surprised me on Thursday night, and he wanted to go out and see the horses right away even though it was dark.  He seems to have the touch with the horses and seems to really enjoy them.  The next day Brittany and Austin came over and later that night everyone else arrived.

It worked out well to have the RV here because some of them used that to sleep in.  Between that and air mattresses, we had enough space for everyone.  The guys helped Nathan tear down some buildings we did not want, and that gave us lots of material for a great bonfire at night.  

During the day they flew kites and played volleyball.

We had tons of food to eat.  They did not eat much of it for some reason, which just means I don't have to cook for a few nights!  Noah had really grown since Christmas and I enjoyed hearing all he had learned since then.  He was such a doll and so smart and athletic!  He is the most precious thing and I loved every minute with him!

I realized a few things during the weekend.  I am really content being the age I am, and I'm so glad I chose the path I did in life.  So often I have wondered if I "missed out" on things in life due to having kids and getting married young.  

I see now that it not only didn't set us back any in meeting our life goals, but we most likely used that time more productively than we would have otherwise. I'm so grateful that because I enjoyed the path I did chose, I am now able to chose wisely for this chapter in my life too.  It isn't that I chose the "right" path.  I just chose a great one for me.  There is truly nothing I would have enjoyed more in life than being a Mom to my five beautiful, full of life kids and there is nothing in life I would enjoy more than being foster mom to the full of life four beautiful horses in our yard.

Easter 2014 was a very special one for us!  Looking forward to more in our new "family sized" space.

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Preparing for the Horses to Arrive

We are beginning the part of our house renovations that are exciting to me: the prep for the horses.  Mainly we had to put a cross fence up in the back.  We (or rather Nathan) started with fence posts.

Austin came over on his one and only day off to help with the rest of the fence.

 Not only did Austin help, but one of our wonderful neighbors came over and helped too.  I truly can't get over what incredible neighbors we have here!  While they all worked on the fence, Brittany mowed the lawn for me.  I am so grateful for all the help we had!

Robin sent over a water tub for me, and it felt so "real" that the time is close that we will have horses here.  We are SO excited!

After our hard work, we went down to Arcadia and ate at the Chinese buffet there.  It was a great day!

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