A Different Generation

So today Aricin asks me to come upstairs to help him on the computer. The computer and it's online games have been occupying probably too much of the boys' summer. Anyway I went upstairs to find that he had googled "ball" all by himself. Then it hit me. He GOOGLED the word, all by himself. Typed it into the box and all. Second, the word BALL. He knows how to spell it!

Meanwhile Christian is searching and watching Transformers videos on YouTube.

WOW! I didn't even really get ON the internet until I was 14! Truly a different world isn't it?

Wanted: Sugar Thief

ALERT, ALERT!! There is a 3 year old tabby on the loose that goes by the name of "Cry Baby". Don't let the name fool you folks, this kitty is armed and dangerous. Previously convictions include eating bananas and apples off the counter. Although she has NO claws she was last found today breaking into a previously unopened bag of Sugar. She even has the nerve to get out the chocolate chips from the next shelf up in the pantry. Cookie anyone? Cry Baby sure seems to want one!

Niels and his bike

Niels loves to bike. He was into road biking way before we were married. He used to live in Park City (waaaaay back when) and rode his bike everywhere. Well everything but his frame died with all that use and he hasn't really biked since we've been married. We carried the frame around in several of our moves all with his hopes of "rebuilding" it. That never happened and a friend of his said it would be more than a new bike anyway. The new frames are so much lighter and better than his 20+ year old one. So we finally got rid of it. Not that we haven't tried since then to get him going. We bought a used bike from someone at his old work in Utah, but he was never able to ride it without severe arm pain. So I broke down and put a nice Trek bike that was on sale on Layaway for him for Father's Day. He LOVES it, and so far has been riding it a lot. The best part is with this bike they spent 1.5 hours getting him fitted just right! This shop is definitely a specialty shop and they know their bikes! I'm hoping he will also get out there and join some of the group rides they do. 

Off to Illinois next weekend

We are heading to Illinois next weekend to empty out our house! It is going to be a ton of work, but I am looking forward to having my bed back especially! We'll be there Friday afternoon - sometime Sunday (my guess is Sunday evening). It's a short trip to get a lot done!

Unfortunately the house hasn't sold yet, but since we have one here in NC we need all our furniture etc.

Time to run off to the barn again. I am on my last shift for the weekend, and since I traded weekends (I usually only work every 3rd weekend) with another lady Krista, I'll be back working at the barn the weekend after we get back from IL so that I won't have to work when my mom and sister come in July. No rest I tell you...

Father's Day Slideshow

Father's Day 2008

Me, my sister and my dad.

After searching for almost an hour to find a picture with my dad and I, this is the only picture I could find, but it turns out it is even better with my sister and I (sorry T)! Thousands of images and this one is 3 years old! Dear Dad, this it truly why it is called "RARE PARENT FOOTAGE". Pictures of my dad with my boys are hardly as scare! Happy Father's Day Dad. We LOVE and appreciate you! Yes, we remember you taking us to the barn day after day after day and waiting for over an hour for us! You were such a trooper that we even got you up on Apollo for a ride one day and we took you through the bushes and all! Boy do I wish I had the pictures of that! Love you dad!

Niels and the boysNiels and Christian
Niels and Aricin
We had a very fun Father's Day. We went to church followed by giving Niels his gifts! The boys had such a good time too. Aricin opened Niels' gifts for him. Then I surprised Niels by blindfolding him and driving (the long and winding way) to the bike shop to pick up his new road bike and have him fitted to it. I was too busy chasing after the boys to take any pictures but I will get one soon. It was a great Father's Day for 2008! Love you honey and you are a FANTASTIC dad!

Niels' Company Picnic

Christian enjoying the bounce houseAricin mini golfing
All the boys on the carousel
On the way home!
We had a great time at Niels' company picnic. It was at a fun park in Salisbury that has some cool stuff like mini golf, a mini train, splash pad, petting zoo. In addition they had bounce houses, a velcro wall, and caricature artists (Christian and I had a sketch of us as Transformers of course) We didn't have time to do everything, but we did go on the carousel and mini golf. They really wanted to ride the train but some much needed rain finally moved in! The boys as you can see had a great time and were pretty tuckered out on the way home. 

Our Kindergarten Graduate

Christian was happy and also sad at the same time to be graduating kindergarten because he won't be attending the same school next year. I know he'll make new friends at his new school next year because he is so friendly. Congrats Christian! Love ya, and we are so proud of you!

Christian's Kindergarten Graduation "dance"

Checklist for the morning...

1. Get up at 5:45am to walk with Calinda (We do this 5 days a week.) Whoops 6:20 will have to do today!

2. 30 minutes into the walk see what looks like debris in the middle of the road the opposite way you are walking 

3. Go check it out anyway only to find out that it is a LARGE (10-15lb)  snapping turtle just sitting in the middle of the road.

4. Feel bad for the turtle that it is going to get run over sitting in the middle of the road

5. Arm workout (no weights today!) carrying the turtle 1/2 mile to where we thought we could release it only to look again that it wasn't such a great spot.

6. Leave Calinda with the turtle, run (yes I did RUN) home with the dog and get the car to pick up Calinda and the turtle.

7. Load turtle into the car, go home and show kids and Niels

8. Drive to nature trail in our subdivision to release turtle into the creek (now a full family affair)

Since Calinda got here in May she has been asking if we could go "turtle hunting" to try and find a turtle she could see. Looks like he found us!

As a side note I didn't realize that turtles have such long claws! This guy held his back feet on my hands pretty much the whole way I carried him and when he needed a break you knew it!

mmm, mmm, mmm

No, it's not The Crash Test Dummies song, it's Aricin enjoying his lunch of a salmon burger!

Duck's new barn

Here is my horse. She is the buckskin (or lighter colored one for those of you that don't know horse colors). For those of you that don't know, her name is "Duck." Yeah a horse named Duck. That is what happens when 3 year olds name horses (or any other animal for that matter.) This is also the reason I have a cat named "Cry Baby." But the name really does fit her horsenality, so Duck it is! PS this time it wasn't MY 3 year old that came up with the name! 

So Duck and I have technically only been together since we moved here from Illinois. She was owned by Jody, the owner of the barn in Illinois where I boarded my mustang Kira. Well Kira ended up going back to Utah and I ended up leasing Duck in March which was about 6 months before we left Illinois. Then when we moved Jody asked if I'd want to take her with me! YEAH! Love this horse, she is more like a Labrador Retriever than a horse. She is exactly opposite of my mustang which has made for a very interesting time so far. I don't do change well, so there has definitely been an adjustment period for me. I had Kira for almost 15 years prior to her going to her new home back in Utah. I guess it is akin to being married for that long and then getting remarried and having to learn everything new about the new spouse. Ok, so not THAT severe but you get the idea...

Oh and did I mention she is only 6 and still hasn't had tons of saddle time? She's pretty "green" by horse standards although she has a superb temperment and is very smart! So I know I still have my work cut out for me as far as my horsemanship and training goals are concerned.

So last Friday I moved Duck to to a new barn closer to our house. It is primarily a Hunter/Jumper barn.  She is in the "outer" barn which you can see a picture of above. This particular barn only has 4 stalls in it and the horses are turned out with 1-2 more horses when they aren't in their stall. Duck's new pasture mate's name is Kay and at first she was not happy to have Duck around. She kept chasing her off whenever Duck would get within 20 feet of her! But by Saturday (less than 24 hours later) they are best buddies, with both horses neighing for each other when the other was gone. Ahh, how quickly they make friends in new places. I wish it were that easy for me!

I am working at this new barn every 3rd weekend to help with board costs so now I am back into taking care of horses for other people again. This barn is HUGE! They have about 62 horses. The main barn (which I still need to take a picture of) has about 36 stalls. Then they have about another 20 lesson/pasture boarded horses in a big pasture. One big difference between this barn and most of the others that I have worked at is the hay bales. They use the large 1 ton round bales. I am so used to the kind you can pick up yourself! But these are only moveable by tractor! So we run around on a wagon pulled by a tractor to feed all the horses. And on Sunday we were accompanied by 3 teenagers in the front BUCKET of the tractor! Oh how I have forgotten what it is like to be a teenager and all about their quirks. 

Anyway back to the hay; watching them get the bales onto the wagon is very amusing. They are very good at it, but to me it looks like they are trying to stick a giant marshmallow with a stick! The attachment on the tractor to get the bales is just a big giant metal spike and they stick it in the bale and it has to be securely enough to move the weight of the bale without it falling off or breaking. Now that takes some skill!

I am so happy to have Duck closer to where we live! Before I was driving 20 minutes one way which really isn't that much, but with gas prices and my apparent lack of time while raising 2 small boys I need all the advantages I can get. I think that now I have it about as good as it is going to get (the barn is 2.5 miles from our house) short of having my own land!