Memories on Monday Theme..

Boy, I have not had time to think about this...you know as I mentioned in my "sideline", I am no longer a spring chicken! You see, the upside is I have gob's of memories! Here goes on one of them...

My love for horses, and one in particular...


We moved a lot when I was a kid. I was born in St Paul Minnesota , and moved to Iowa and also Michigan, before our family landed in Washington where the family settled and refused to leave, at least most of them.


One memory comes to mind. I was the little girl that was horse crazy, I am sure you have all met one of us at some time. Forget everything else... I wanted a horse of my own. I would find a horse, just to look over the fence at it.


The problem was we were not "country" living people, we were "burb" people. Finding a horse to look at was not an easy thing for a grade school age kid to do. Also my parents were not at all interested in living somewhere that would have enough room for a horse, and if they did live in such a place..a horse? Why would we want a horse??


I remember we lived in Grand Rapids Michigan at this time. I was probably around 8. Somehow I found out that there was a pony (I think he was black and white) quite a distance away from our little housing development. I probably noticed him as we drove to the grocery store, as I remember the store was up the rode from the pony. I also remember the road was a busy road as well.

Because I was 1 of 4 kids, my mother was not always aware of where one of us disappeared to. And at that time parents didn't worry about the stuff that we worry about now.

Well I would walk all the way to see that pony. I found out his name was "Risk" which I thought was the most bazaar name for a pony, who would name a pony Risk?


So why did I mention this? Well because when I was 12 and now living in Washington, I got my first horse (that is another horsey story for later).. since then, I have had more than 30 horses and ponies over the years. One of my favorite horses was a Quarter Horse gelding I got when he was 3 and I was about 16. He was the most beautiful horse I had ever seen. He was very well bred, a grandson of Leo on his dam's side, and a grandson of Sugar Bars on his sires side... his registered name... Risk Bar!


Risk was part of my life for many years, and I have so many great memories of him. I even took him to Ellensburg when I went to college, and found a farm to board him at (try storing a saddle in a girls dorm!).

It wasn't until I was married with a new baby and a husband in Viet Nam, that I could not afford to keep him any longer.. I still regret that I could not keep him his whole life, I felt like I let him down. I believe I was supposed to be his forever home, he was family to me. I am sure he is long gone, but he lives in my memories vividly, so vividly.


So there you go.. one memory down, a bazillion to go!

Quotable Sunday..Norman Vincent Peale

Today.. I am kind of staying on the theme Ann used from VGNO on Friday night.. Positive Reinforcement!

I am going to use an author who was known for this theme...and this Sunday have decided on:

Norman Vincent Peale, US clergyman, who wrote "The Power of Positive Thinking" 1952

Change your thoughts and you change your world. Do not be awe struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can.

Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture...Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.


(By the way my Blogger friends.. I am probably preaching to the choir, as you obviously have applied much of this. I say this because you have extremely creative, successful and unique Blogs!)



Oh.. OK, here is the rest of this...
Post a new post on your blog with some of your favorite quotes.
~ Go over to "A Daily Dose of Toni" and post your link in the mister linkey.

~ Go check out all the other cool bloggers that are joining in Quotable Sunday, check back all day as people are posting throughout the day. Have a great Sunday!

Please leave your comments, I love to hear from you!

Cowboys, Kids, and Sunsets: A "Cowboys Halo"

Cowboys, Kids, and Sunsets: A "Cowboys Halo"


"Train Wreck" lost a very special friend recently, please take a look at her recent post... and something she is doing to help his family...

Your friend,

Jan

VGNO...Friday Night Fun!

OK...this is week three for me! You girls (and a guy or two) are so much fun to visit and party with!

Have I told you all that your Blogs are so much fun to read? The other half is starting to worry as I disappear into the office, for hours at a time. He will hear a chuckle... and than the keys clicking away. I am amazed at the writing talent out in the land of Blog, who'd of guessed I was missing out on this for so long!

My daughter over at A day in the life got me started on this unexpected journey with you all... please go visit her, she is a hoot!

I read about how you handle the silly and crazy daily stuff, the tough stuff, and the truly hard stuff. The kids and their craziness, the spouse (and his peculiar strangely odd collection..Evil Twins Wife!) And of course the animals, the horses, the dogs, the cats...I even saw a picture of a little mouse under a truck tire on a blog the other day... so yes of course, the pictures!

And than we have the frugal savings!! OK so I follow 'Frugal Chick Living', so I can get these unbelievable deals... you know"Safeway has Bertolli Premium Sauce on sale $2.00 off, get the 'blinkie' coupon for $1.00 off x 10 coupons. Then buy ten, get $5.00 off, and bingo...I just bought 10 packages of Bertolli Premium Sauce that was $3.49 a package for $0.50 a package"...how could I not get excited!

And of course there are lots of personal view points on a number of usual and unusual topics as well. I am finding I really like all you people!

Oh, food recipes too! You all are good at that!

My gosh, all the creative things you write about... it is an honor to be allowed into your lives, hearts, thoughts(some are kind of strange!) and homes...

What can I say to you? Well for one, thanks for coming by and visiting me. You give me a reason to make my brain work a little bit!

And thanks for letting my stop by and visit you... I toast you dear Bloggers, Happy Virtual Girls Night Out!!

And of course..Ann from 'Ann Again and Again' is sponsoring this weekly Virtual Girls Night Out - Come join the fun with all of us!

Baja Mexico.. a favorite place

We.. meaning the other half and I... love Mexico. We would go often, if we could. I so love the colors in Mexico. What a wonderful place to take pictures of the old missions and churches which I think are so beautiful. The colorful buildings, the vendors and all the wares..the small towns... there is a picture everywhere you turn.

You know how there is this 'Tuscan' trend for interior decorating... if you ask me there are some similarities with the colors and textures from Mexico... but back to topic.


I love the people, and I really love the sun! I even love the music! I love hearing Spanish... and wish I spoke it.

It just makes me sad to think people are feeling unsafe about going to Mexico with all that scary stuff going on down there. The daily news isn't bringing comfort to some poor soul who just wants to trot on down south of the border.

My sister's very 'free spirit' daughter moved to Mexico City to teach. She has backpacked all over South America and Europe, much of it on her own, and is obviously fearless. She and her friend decided they wanted to teach internationally.. after all work and travel all at the same time, whats not to like about that?

Anyway, back to Erin, I think she teaches first grade ... she said the kids have their own personal body guards that take them to school...can you imagine getting little Sally ready for school, and you aren't worried about missing the school bus, you are worried about "where the heck is that body guard?"

My niece, was invited to one of her students Birthday Party, and the children who came, of course... also had their bodyguards... at the 1st grade Birthday party....hmm

I was told they have "Express Kidnapping" Because the banks limit how much you can take out of the cash machine per day from your debit/credit card. They hold you, for say 3 days, get $300.00 total, and let you go!

I heard on the news a few weeks ago that Mexico City has the highest kidnap rate in the world.. do you know what city was second?
This really shocked me, Phoenix...


You know all of this seems so hard to imagine, from my small corner of this big world. But I guess it is so...

Buddy.. the antique pony

Buddy was another "find" from Craigslist, The ad showed a very thin sad looking old pony, and stated he was looking for his "forever" home....


It is pretty sad that this pony gave all these years of his life to different families, and he got kicked to the curb, and at age 35 (so my vet thinks) ....has to finally find his "forever" home.

The people we got him from, said they "rescued" him. They presented this story about how they had actually looked at him the previous winter when he was listed on Craigslist (and supposedly was much thinner than when we got him from these "rescuers"..).but they found him again 6-8 months later, after 2 different other owners...what???


Well, I guess I am as big a sucker as any other person who comes across some poor forlorn animal. My daughter and her Family were going to have Buddy as their first "livestock" as my son- in-law said. They were excited, the kids were excited, we even celebrated Buddy's arrival home!


I had fields of grass, and we slowly got him out on them, and Buddy was truly in pony heaven...it was an absolute delight to see him run in my fields. Than he foundered. If you are not a horse person, just so you know..this is not good! For you folks that are horse folks, you know how bad that is! My vet said, oh... he has probably been foundered before.

OK, so maybe others would have seen the handwriting on the wall at that point, and let him go.. but I just wasn't ready to do that.

About $1000.00 in vet bills later, he was feeling a bit better. We also had him tested for Cushings Disease,(which is like diabetes for horses), and common in older ponies. Yes, add this to the list too! The medicine for this runs about $300 a year.

So we have old Buddy, the antique pony. He cannot go out on the grassy fields, and has to be in his (fairly large) grass free paddock, being fed Senior Feed (he barely has teeth!) and cannot have hay with alfalfa, so he gets the pricey orchard grass hay. One good thing has recently happened. I got a new horseshoer who donates his trimming of Buddy's feet. God bless that man!!

We honestly don't know how much longer he will be with us, but I am pretty certain... he has found his "forever" home.

Ps.. I have never had a horse get a winter coat as thick as this old boy gets.. he is like the "woolly mammoth"!