The Weather and the van

Ok, Ok, so it REALLY is true. Every single time I wash the van (which isn't that often) it rains or snows here. Niels has joked that NC should pay me to wash the car to get rid of the drought (see post about snow in NC, yep I had washed the van the day prior to that as well). So a picture of the van sitting in a huge downpour (I was supposed to be out running, so much for that) the day after I washed it. Mind you it was sunny and 60 when I washed it. The video is of this morning. On the way out to the bus to our surprise it was snowing. I had to check twice that it wasn't something else because it was so warm outside. Christian, obviously was excited and it just was chance that he had on his Christmas snowflake sweater. So catching snowflakes in a flurry can be just as fun as lots of snow! All the kids came running out to the bus screaming "it's snowing" In the video also is his friend Trinity that lives in our apartment complex.

sideways scootering...

Ok so my technical error on the taking of the video but I wanted to post it anyway. Didn't realize you can't turn a regular camera sideways when taking video...so the whole thing is sideways... The boys scootering and singing at the park. Don't worry though I learned from my mistake. I won't take any more sideways pictures. But their singing was just so cute...

A couple more pics at the park and our "incident"

Here are a couple more from the park. Yep, I was camera happy yesterday....

The boys had a great time throwing rocks and some type of nutshell into the pond. There is a cute little trail that goes around the pond and kind of through the woods. Aricin was getting a bit tired by that point as he had chased a bunch of balls playing baseball and ridden his scooter all through the garden. He kept saying "mommy carry me up the hill.." on the way out. Too cute!

Then our little incident leaving the park. Niels had his wallet in the car and when we were leaving he couldn't find it. So before we even leave the park we search the van. Nope couldn't find it anywhere. So we go and check the field where we played baseball, nope not there either. So I keep thinking where else could it possibly be? Well me in my quest to try and keep the clutter down in the van ( a new goal), I had thrown away all our lunch (read Mcdonalds) trash. So I think no way it's in the trash. So I check anyway. Pick up the bag out of the trash at the park, think no way it's in here. Dig through the bag, and yep, at the bottom covered in Caramel from Aricin's Apple dippers is Niels' wallet. Yeah! Anyway as a side note I never realized such a small amount of Caramel could make such a HUGE mess! Aricin had it in the car and both him and the carseat were totally covered  before we even got out, then I throw it away and Niels wallet is covered when I find it. I guess it was just meant to be a "sticky" day!!! But we are just grateful we didn't have to cancel all our cards and all that stuff that comes when your wallet disappears!

Enjoying Sloan Park

Ahh, yesterday was such a nice day.  A lot of last week was cold, in the 30's and rainy (I know, boo hoo, right?) Anyway, yesterday was in the 60's with nothing but sunshine so we decided to go to a park and enjoy it! These pictures are from Sloan Park which also has an old Mill called Kerr Mill. Niels took the boys over to the Mill last time. This time we played some baseball and let the boys ride their scooters around the gardens. Then we took a brief hike to the pond. What a fun place to explore! The boys slept good last night from all the activity, except poor Aricin woke up with some leg pain from so much "scootering". I rubbed his leg and gave him some Motrin and he was good for the rest of the night.

Aricin the olive boy!

Aricin loves his olives! They are so much fun! I remember doing this as a kid a lot, especially at Dad's yearly Inkley's party at Sugarhouse Park and various family parties. Anyway that is what this reminds me of, and come to think of it both of the boys can really eat a lot of olives! Christian ate his too fast for me to get a picture! 

Exciting News!

Well it looks like we are getting a house! Yeah! If all goes as planned we should close by the end of March. It is in Concord which is Southeast of where we are now) at a development called Moss Creek. I am very excited because like in Illinois this place will have walking/biking trails. In IL that was one of my favorite things about my house. I had lots of room, a basement, a house I loved and was next to the running path. It doesn't really get much better than that unless of course you have horse property. But this new place obviously isn't horse property, it doesn't have a basement (I'm definitely not shelling out an extra 40-50K just to have one dug), but it is going to be a nice place! It has most of the things we were looking for in a house along with the fact that it is already painted a nice color similar to what we painted our old house in the living areas, a tan color. It has 4 bedrooms, one is one the main level. There are 3 full baths, one on the main level and 2 upstairs. The outside of it has some brick, and it also has a loft upstairs that is going the be the boys' play area.  So YEAH here's hoping it all works out like planned! 

A great Weekend and into this week...

Ok, so it's already Wednesday and I am just writing about last weekend. Whew! The week has blown by this week due to my recent house searching adventures and now I've been sick with a cold/flu or who knows what! I've been running a fever for 2 days now and felt miserable in general, but as you moms know life in general doesn't stop. Christian still needs to go to school, and Aricin is still with me all day whether I feel like it or not! And boy, do they still need to eat and do homework. Niels has been more than gracious helping out, even though he seems to have the same thing.

Anyway....last weekend we had the great opportunity to go to Williamston, NC which is about a 4 hour drive for us to see a tour stop for Parelli Natural Horsemanship. (see above for cult status.. :) ) It was SO much fun to see the founders, Pat and  Linda Parelli and their students. This time not just high level students (where I hope to be someday) but also students still playing with the same concepts I am (ie read low level), and seeing their improvement in front of 2000 people! It was great! Although Niels I am sure doesn 't think exactly the same of the weekend since he pretty much chased the boys around the place and outside as they can't sit for that amount of time! As Niels said it was a great Valentine's gift for me, free babysitting so I could sit and watch horses all day for 2 days! We did leave a bit early Sunday so we could get Christian home at a reasonable hour to go to school the next day. Good thing we did because it was very, very windy and there were several brush fires next to the interstate. We were rerouted and taken out on the back roads which all in all only put us back in travel time about 1/2 hour. 

So the pictures are 3* Parelli instructor Gretchen Thompson sidepassing over barrels, yep BRIDLELESS! This is one thing I've wanted to be able to do since I started riding, is to be able to ride bridleless. Still a goal, but a bit further off now that I am playing with Duck (my 5yo appy mare) instead of Kira (my 18 year old Mustang mare). Next a picture of Pat Parelli and his superhorse Magic! All I can say is WOW! He blows your socks off everytime! Then both the boys at the hotel, Linda Parelli and her superhorse Remmer. Wow, he is really big in person! 17 hands. For those of you that are not horse people a hand is a measurement for how tall a horse is. Each hand is equal to 4 inches. So Remmer stands at the wither (highest point of the back) 68" which is 5'6"! That is a BIG horse, only one inch shorter than me at his back! The pic with the 3 horses in it are the instructors again, if you look they are all riding bridleless! Amazing! And a picture of Aricin, he chose his shirt and with his Parelli lanyard I say "get him while he's young!" He already wiggles the rope to back Duck up!

Well since I am not feeling too good I am going to sign this off..it's long enough already! As you can see I have a lot to say about horses!

5 weird things about me...

Ok so Shelly tagged me to fess up to five weird things about me. Hmm, where to start??

1.  I take all sorts of weird herbal stuff and vitamins. From Liver cleansers to parasite cleanses (yep bugs). I enjoy trying to do those sorts of things to improve me health. I've done juice only fasting/cleansing too. Of course that is above and beyond the regular try to exercise eat right stuff.

2. I really don't like to clean..that probably isn't a shocker to most of you. I guess what makes it weird is that I'm to the point that I don't try and fix it when people come over. I want to, but for some reason I just don't.  I would LOVE to have a maid! 

3. I've reached "cult" status for studying Parelli Natural Horsemanship which is totally different that your typical "riding" with horses. It is based on the psychology and natural instincts of the horse. And regular horse people tag this as VERY weird because it is such a different approach (although not new, it dates back a long time). I find it to be so truthful. And in a way, like being LDS. The rest of the Christian world mainly thinks you're nuts for the things you believe, even though you know it make sense, and the principles work time and time again when applied correctly.

4.  I can't stand cleaning up "wet" messes. I can't stand touching wet dishrags, paper towels, towels etc. YUCK! Blah! EEEEWWWWWW....It literally makes my skin crawl thinking about it. This also applies for stepping on wet squishy things too. I don't do wet grass with bare feet!

5. I'm not the decorating/girly type for houses and clothes, appearance and stuff. It is just NOT in me. Anyone that has seen me (and my kids) knows that I can't match an outfit hardly to save my life, and make-up is STILL a challenge for me to do. I guess I just haven't ever taken the time to learn. And I just haven't ever made it a priority. (Although this last year I finally had a pedicure and LOVED it, so I guess I am getting converted to being more "girly." (A special thanks to my especially girly friends Donna and Danielle)