She believed she could, so she did

Eliz & Treasure's first barrel run

 They had walked and trotted the pattern several times, both were familiar with it, Treasure more so than Eliz. This was evident by the way that Eliz kept trying to turn the wrong direction on the last barrel. It was almost comical watching Treasure fight with her to go the correct way and then giving in to Her Little Human(that's what Eliz has decided Treasure calls her), knowing it wasn't right. It was just after midnight when they did their run; Eliz was exhausted after a week of riding hard. She seemed so tired I broke my rules and gave her a Mt. Dew just before her turn. The thing most concerning to Eliz going into the arena was that Treasure was obviously ready to run hard and fast; she had been occasionally breaking into a canter from a trot without Lizzie telling her to. Earlier in the night, she galloped.  Eliz knew she couldn't handle Treasure's jets. My advice was to do her best to trust Treasure, & hold the horn of the saddle if she had to. They went into the ring, Eliz obviously nervous, and Treasure ready to go. They did the first barrel, and then Treasure started to canter on the second barrel, and they went too wide and crossed the timer again. 

 

At this point the run was officially over, but they finished the pattern, Eliz trying to keep Treasure slowed down. When they finished, Treasure began to run large circles. Eliz told me she was “Holding the horn for dear life and thinking, 'I need to stop her!'”

 

Treasure came up to the fence and started a sharp turn, however, Eliz didn't turn.  Eliz came off the front of Treasure and landed, quite literally, at her Aunt's feet. 

By The Teacher's recounting, Eliz had a big smile on her face while on the ground, and as The Teacher tried to grab Treasure's reins, Eliz jumped up smiling and said,

  “I'm fine!” and took Treasure's reins.

As soon as Eliz came off, Treasure came to a stop, and looked at Eliz if to say,     

   “What are you doing on the ground? You're supposed to be up here with me!”

Of course, everyone watching had gotten quiet and was watching to see if Eliz was okay. I had started to run out, and when Eliz jumped up, Vaughn(we board our horse at their ranch) told me to calm down, she was fine. The announcer said over the loud speaker,

   “Way to cowgirl up.”. People all around were clapping as Eliz started to walk Treasure out, but then Vaughn started hollering,

   “Get on that horse! You're not walking, you're riding her out!” Once Eliz heard Vaughn, she stopped and started to try to throw Treasure's reins over her neck. As she was struggling, Vaughn walked into the arena saying,

  “I'm comin'.” But Eliz got them on before he reached her, and so he paused and watched.  Then Eliz put her knee into her stirrup, pulled herself into her saddle, and rode out of the arena to all around applause and whoops of congratulations. 

People were saying, “That's a lot of horse for that girl” and “That horse has a motor!” Since Eliz hasn't been ready to really run, we'd never seen Treasure go all out, and I don't think we have yet. As much as Treasure loves Eliz, I think she still held back, even though she probably wanted to run into the moonlight.

 Eliz is young enough that even though she knows something great happened in those few minutes, she doesn't understand how much meaning there is in the experience. People came up and told her good job, and she had to give out high fives-well, low fives for her on the horse, high fives for those on the ground- to people. So she knows other people think she did something extraordinary. 

 

I told her that people were more proud of her for getting back on than they would ever be of her running a good time; that even if she had run barrels in 10 seconds, people would always be more proud that she got up on her horse-especially by herself.

While we untacked Treasure I asked her how it felt to come off her horse like that. Her response?

“Kind of awesome.” Once we were in the car and on the way home, we talked about what had happened. She asked me,

“Mama, why do I feel so amazing?!” I explained to her all the possible negative ways a person could respond to coming off their horse, and that she hadn't done any of those things. I tried to help her understand that getting back on after a fall like that was something that some adults wouldn't do, so being 9, her first time ever coming off this horse at her first barrel race with a horse she's only been riding a few months, was a very big deal. Some people would have said, 'Never again. I won't ever ride again.'  She told me,

“She's my gift from God, I have to treat her like the gift she is. I have to learn her heartbeat, and the motor in her legs. So we can go fast together, because that's what she wants. That's what I want us to do together.” Can I just say, I have never wanted to pull over and squeeze my daughter while sobbing tears of joy and pride more in my life.

She fell asleep for the rest of the ride home, leaving me to consider the events of the evening. My little girl has proven that she's meant to be on a horse. She's a cowgirl, through and through. Her recently deceased Great-Grandmother would have been proud of her determination and adventurous spirit.  That's the Grandma that wanted to drive her son's racecar, mind you.

 There was also Treasure to consider. She didn't do anything wrong, just ran fast. The moment Eliz came off, she stopped. She didn't move, stamp her feet or toss her head. She waited for Eliz, and never gave any sign that she was going anywhere without her. She stood still while Eliz climbed her way back on and walked out and went straight to her stall. I've always known that Treasure loved Eliz & vise versa, but I think I saw the beginning of a beautiful partnership. Some of that definitely comes from Treasure having had a wonderful previous owner, and I will always be grateful for that. My Dad and I were talking about it, and he made the observation,

“Treasure and her the girl that owned her obviously had a great relationship. They probably got to run full speed down a dirt road, and in a field, and she wants to do that with Eliz. She remembers and wants to do it again.” So now we have to find a dirt road in Indiana. Shouldn't have a problem with the field, though.

 And here is the sad part of this story. Bry-D and Lex weren't there. At midnight, Bry-D & I put Lex into Bry-D's truck, because Bry-D had to work first thing in the morning, and Lex needed to sleep. Oh. My. That boy needed a good night's rest. So five or so minutes after they drove out of the Fairgrounds, I had to call and tell him about his daughter's amazing feat. He was, of course, very upset. He exclaimed,

“I missed that?!” I can't rewind time & give him the joy of seeing his daughter prove herself a cowgirl, but maybe writing it for both of them to go back to will help.  Just as getting Treasure is a reminder that God answers prayer, getting back into the saddle will be a reminder that Eliz can do whatever she decides to do.

To the park with friends

Technically, it's still summer.  It was a beautiful day, and a friend asked if we wanted to go to the park and play.  We went to a park that's a fai distance from our house, but the play ground and woods make it worth the drive.  No pictures of the girls on the playground, they were running to fast. 

 

Ah, mud.  Even little girls like it!

However, little girls also like to clean themselves off more than boys do.

 Yep, she goin'  to da movies, pickin' her seat!  *snicker*

I'm glad they knew what that was for.

 And we Mommies didn't even have to tell them how to pose.

 They are too silly!

And cute!

This man is a genius

And also openly blackmailing thousands of people.

Unlawful couchplay

They are not supposed to walk on the couch.

 They are not supposed to jump on the couch.

 And even though I said, they shouldn't, I think they knew I wasn't serious.

MotoGP Family Day

I think the real reason we go to family day for the Moto GP is so Bryan can get pictures of the kids on dirt bikes.

 Maybe next year he can do it by himself.

 There she goes - she was on her own from the beginning, I think.

We watched some races, I finally got some Honda swag.  I also made the mistake of sitting in a Honda Odyssey.  That is a nice mommobile.

Family Day At The State Fair

As I've mentioned, the State Fair is going on.  While the kids and I have been a few times, Bry-D is on vacation this week & hasn't been yet.  It was supposed to be rainy and yucky all day.  However, it is Indiana, so it changed after 10 minutes.

 We love Phineas and Ferb.  Really, the whole family watches it.

 Bry-D got these shots with he super cool new lens.

 Someday, he will actually get to DRIVE one of these things!  I swear it!

 That's a big tire, and a cutie pie!

 I don't think she cared very much about the tractor or whatever it is she's sitting in, I think she just wanted her picture taken.

 See the guy in mid air?

 They do tricks.  They jump off the lexiglass thing and land on the trampoline.

 Or, bounce on the tramploine, then fly back up and onto the plexiglass thing.

 Bry-D took these pictures, b/c I couldn't watch.

 LOOK!  LOOK!  I have purple hair!!  In this picture, you can see my purple hair!  Oh, and Lex rode this tractor bike thing. But look at my purple hair!

Very old farm equipment, that still works.  Lex thought they were all trains, it took some explaining for him to understand.

 Eliz & Lex, too bad they aren't even a tiny bit cute, sigh.

 The view from the horrible Ferris Wheel type ride we went on.  This was way worse than the ride I took with Eliz.

They have big fans that spray water, and even though it wasn't very hot, they had to play in them.

 David Crowder Band!!!  We were planning on going home at 4ish when we saw he would be on the free stage that night!  Toss the schedule, we're staying here!  See how skinny that guy is?  Well, I thought that since we had, well, um, matured, since last seeing him 9 years ago, he would have too.  But he hasn't.  Something about that isn't right.  Kind of like the picture from our wedding.

That's my uber-participant, uo front and as close to the stage as she could get!

Holy Cow!!!

There's water in the creek!

We've started painitng

Since the goal of all this renovation is to sell the house, we're going as nuertal but on trend as we can - bright white.  Also, since we have agirly girl & a mud truck boy sharing this space, we can personalise more with the accesories if the walls are nuetral.  As long as the contract gets ratified in the next couple of weeks like they are syaing it will, next up is the flooring, I'm so giddy!

It's a genetic disease

Where your shoulders go straight down to your ankles.  Another thing he gets from his Dad.

 One of Lex's favorite stories is Dr. Suess' "What was I afraid of?"  Which he calls, The Scary Pants Story.  It's a story about someone who comes across a 'pair of pale green pants with nobody inside them'.  There's a line from that story that is the perfect caption to this picture. 

"Poor swimtrunks with no butt inside them!"

A picture is worth a thousand words

But a matched set is priceless.  The paper in the top picture says, 'Proof of

Hemorrhoids reading.' The paper on the bottom picture says, "Hemorrhoids revenge" 

Would you like to hear one of my stories? 

Alright, then, here it is.  I am an obsessive reader.  There's a bit of a story as to why that is, too.  But we'll stay on task today and talk about that later.  When I was 10-12 years old, I had noticed that when someone, *cough* Dad, went into the bathroom with reading material and turned on what I thought of as the noisy light, he could be in there for-ev-er, and no one tried to get him out.  In a house with five females and 2 bathrooms, this was a big deal.  To be able to read without having to do my chores or be bothered, I would turn on the noisy light(don't worry, by the time I was 22 I knew what it really was for) sit and read.  For hours, or just a half hour.  When my family figured out what was really going on, they all thought I was actually sitting on the toilet the entire time I was in there, when I was really on the floor or in the bathtub reading.  Out of concern for my well being, my father said, "You can't keep doing that, you'll get hemorrhoids."  Well, I didn't know what that was, and neither did The Quilter; but we did know it was associated with the toilet, and anything that is preceded by "or you'll" is Not. Good.  And thus, The Quilter had a way to get me out of the bathroom, fast.  She would stand outside the bathroom door and, in the exact same tone and volume as Bill Cosby saying 'Hey, Fat Albert!' She would shout,

 

"HEY HEMORRHOIDS!!" 

 

And as long as I wasn't actually using the bathroom, I would come running out, ready to attack.  And that's where the picture comes from.  The Quilter thought I was in there reading, grabbed the camera, threw the door open, and clicked the picture. But I wasn't just reading, I was also actually using the bathroom. Thanks goodness I was wearing my footie jammies with a booty opening! Otherwise it could have been REALLY embarrassing! Also, if you could please disregard my 'fro, that was my mother's doing.  How did I get this picture?  My Mom found it, and knew just what to do with it, so we all got a copy.

 

What about the other picture?  That is from our sister trip.  I told The Quilter I wouldn't blog that picture, but if I'm posting a picture of myself on the toilet, The Quilter is going down with me! In that post, I mention that on our last night of Sister Trip 2011, The Quilter falls down in the hallway & had trouble getting to the room.  Here's what I didn't tell you.  As she dragged herself to the room, and once in the room, she wouldn't stop going on about how she must have an awful bruise on her butt.  Later she's in the bathroom, I assume bent over checking her bruised behind, and I get the idea to take a picture of her, bent over and holding her butt while looking in the mirror.  So, I throw open the door and click the camera.  The picture ended up being of the extremely messy counter top and sink, my aim was off.  But, I sat on floor laughing, b/c The Quilter was not, in fact, checking her bruise.  She was sitting on the toilet, using it.  The Nurse comes over to see why I'm laughing so hard, and she falls to the floor with me.  The whole time The Quilter is going off on us indignantly.  I raise the camera to get a new, better photo, and The Quilter(still muttering indignantly)starts rummaging around the counter top, looking for a towel.  She somehow finds one that's still folded, and as she whips it out to cover herself and foil my photo op, she realises it is a washrag, and barely reaches her knees.  Ah, such a wonderful moment in my life!

As soon as I saw the other photo, I knew exactly what I was going to do.  If ever you come to my house and use the front bathroom, when you leave it, you'll see these two photos; and now you know the story.  And yes, I do realise this is the second story I've told you about me and a toilet.  Ah, well, you can't hide everything!

There's a big box on the front porch

Most of it is for me!  Well, for school.  It really doesn't matter what you're getting, when you see  box like this from the Post Office on your porch, you go regress to 1st grade, "What is it?!  What's inside?  Lemme see?!"  Even though I had studied the things I was ordering very carefully before chosing to order them, it was still like Christmas in Ju...I mean August.  Maybe we'll order curriclum earlier next year so I can say that.

 The one thing that wasn't really for me, was Bry-D's new lens.  It's a zoom lens.  It's ME!

 And Eliz!  While we're painting and flooring the kids' room, they are sleeping in the playroom/sewing room.

 And Lex, er, Spiderman!  He was as far from each of us as he could get, but since he really wanted to test it out, he had to find a better, further away subject.

 Wow.  That car is a little more than a block from our house.  We've got some cool stalker gear now.

Later this summer you'll find out what Bry-D's plans are for this lens.

Surprise! And flooring progress.

Do you know what it did this morning?  Well, if your live in Indiana, you know.  It was so surprising and exciting!  It rained for like, 20 minutes! 

Hey, after months of not having a drop fall, this is epic, as in Noah & the flood.  There was enough that the kids could run in the gutter water on the side of the road.  Very exciting. 

Not so epic but still good, we moved the furniture out of the kids room, tore up carpet.

Of course Bry-D and his "team" of helpers vacuumed & scraped the floor so we could start painting.

He gets the tongue/picture thing from his Dad.  I have proof of this. Lots.  And lots.