Getting Organized

I love getting organized.  I am just not very imaginative about doing it.  Or actually doing it.  This cupboard has been a pile of pans for almost 10 years.  You take one out and they all clatter and bang and fall over.  20 minutes and some hooks and I actually have a usable space that looks organized!!  Next project is.....in another 10 years.

Awards

Motocross Boy/Man decided to create a "shrine" to himself of all his trophies. Well, most of them.  Some are too tall to fit in this space under the eaves.  All the plaques are missing too....the kid has quite the collection going!  Is this going to be one of those manly things where he's going to have to keep them forever and build a bar in his basement some day to display them all?

Time to get caught up!

I fell off the blogging bandwagon big time this fall!  I think it started with this hotel in Manistee.  It was this old historic place with no elevators.  I took Motocross Boy/Man there with me for a quick business trip - I had to present Medicare benefits to a bunch of retirees.  My business associate had picked out this hotel and was bringing her son too - he is only 4 so my kid was along to help keep him entertained while we did the meeting.

We were the ONLY people in the hotel that night.  I mean the desk clerk packed up and left just after we checked in!  She did put us all up on the 4th floor which wasn't fun climbing that many stair but on figuring out were were the only people in the hotel, made us more comfortable that if someone broke in, they'd have a long way to go to find us!

It was spooky.  Maybe the hotel sucked out my blogging gene.


Here's the front of the hotel.

The bedroom - you walked into the room and then 3 stairs.  Kinda odd but the rooms were very cute and nicely decorated.

Hard to see much of the bathroom but it was cute too with all new fixtures and beadboard paneling which I love!

One Smart Horse

I have the best kid, ever.

Like any mom, there are times when my son frustrates the heck out of me.  And then there are times when he shows me a side of him that makes me so proud I burst into tears.  A couple of weeks ago was one of those times.

There's a young lady with Downs Syndrome that comes to the races with her family - her brother races.  She's 14 years old but typical of Downs, is quite small for her age.  Because Motocross Boy/Man is always nice to everyone, she has decided he is her hero.  She helps him get ready for races, she wishes him luck, and gets very mad at me for kissing him even though I'm his mother!  

MotoX Boy/Man took her with him when they did a Halloween parade. She was the happiest kid there hanging out with her "man".

Later in the evening, most of the teens had piled onto a 4 wheeler and were ready to take off.  MotoX Boy/Man saw his little friend was going to be left behind. He jumped off and invited her to ride with just him on our 4 wheeler!  She was over the moon happy - can't you see it on her face?  I was so proud of my kid.  None of the others paid any attention that she was hurt but MY kid did and took action.  Now I know I've done something right.

Barn Family

Pony Rides

The barn recently had a fall party and lots of little kids came to be a part of the farm life and go on a hay ride.  We also did "pony" rides.  EG and some of the other teens helped out and led the horses around to keep it safe.

Animal Love

Equestrian Girl and I went to visit a friend last weekend to meet her new horse, Lucy.  Lucy is pregnant and due in March.  She is also just the sweetest thing and loves attention!

The puppies (although not so little now!) also loved EG and were trying to find the chocolate wrapper she had stuck in her pocket.

Fat Cat

Yes, this cat is every bit as big as he looks!

This fall with hardly any horse shows and only a few motocross races wasn't supposed to be that busy.  I'm not sure what the heck happened but I haven't been able to catch my breath and I even took 4 days off work this month so I wouldn't lose them.  Whew.

It was a beautiful fall even if we did have quite a bit of rain.  We needed it after the draught we had this summer.  Now it seems there's a hurricane bearing down on the east coast and another cold front coming in from the northwest that will end up creating a monster that they are calling "Frankenstorm".  It will hit just before Halloween.  Here in Michigan we won't be affected much but they are now forecasting snow for Monday and Tuesday nights.  Not unheard of to have a little snow before Halloween but certainly not welcome yet!

We seem to be the family of aches and pains lately too with only Equestrian Girl escaping.  Motocross Boy/Man took a bad crash a couple of weeks ago ending his season a week early with a badly bruised shoulder - luckily it wasn't broken.  Scott has been nursing a torn labrum in his shoulder and will have surgery in a couple of weeks.  I've been having terrible pain in my hips for months now and finally have a tentative diagnosis of "femoral ace tabular impingement".  I'll start physical therapy soon for that and my shoulder which is probably a rotator cuff injury.  

And all the while we continue to school the kids, take care of the horse, pack away the bikes for winter, and hope that life slows down just a little soon!

True Words

Making a statement

I wonder what would happen if I strapped on my spurs with heels and wore them to work?

Have a Seat!

This has got to be the coolest seat ever!  Who would ever take the time to plan this and then wait for it to grow?  I'm way too impatient.

I'd love this on the patio that I'm going to have some day.  

It would be so fun to do a room like this!

Another really cool idea - it's an English saddle!  Can you see it now?

 There was this bar in Cancun about a million years ago that had saddle bar stools.  Great idea!

Cartoon Time!

Back in the days of real newspapers and it was delivered every day, one of my very favorite sections was the comics.  I LOVED reading the comics.  It was my little bit of light and humor for the day.  Now that there's no more newspaper, I kinda miss my comics....


So funny - horses probably do see things this way because there's no other logical reason for getting scared of the things they are afraid of.

Showed this one to the kids.  Yep - that's right!!

Agree, agree!!!!!

This one had me on the floor laughing.

So Beautiful!

I love fall.  I love winter.  This picture is like the epitome of the greatness of both seasons.  The first snowfall while the leaves are still vibrant.  

I think this is Minnesota - I lifted the picture off Facebook or I would give credit to the photographer.  Just an amazingly beautiful picture.

Little Buckaroos

The tiny chaps on this kid just kill me.  And what a good horse!

I might have posted this one before but I love it too much to worry about that.  The matching lime green is just too cute.

This just feels so British it's ridiculous right down to the foggy day.

This one isn't wrangling anything but a spoon but I lover her.

Something so beautiful about this...it's so cool.

A Quick Ride

Shame, shame, shame on us for not even realizing EG hadn't put on a helmet. This was a totally last minute thing - they had gone out to hand graze and she ended up bopping around for a few minutes on Stanley bareback.  Such a handsome fellow!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Saturday night and these three teenage girls are at the barn riding their horses.  LOVE IT!  Geldings beat boyfriends any day of the year!

Feeling Suzy Homemaker...

I was in a Suzy Homemaker mood today.  That doesn't happen all that often.  I started with salsa.  Yum.

And then I noticed the bowl I was using.  Did anyone else have bowls like this when they were a kid?  This one of the set was my mom's.  My mom liked to bake so lots of yummy stuff came out of these bowls.  

I didn't take pictures of anything else I made but I also made a huge batch of chicken noodle soup filled with lots of veggies too and then a big pot of Italian Wedding Soup.  I bought lots fruits and vegetables at the farm market so we'll be eating good this week!

The Ribbon Haul

I actually feel a little bad posting this...a blogger friend wasn't able to go to her championship show and I know how much she loves ribbons....