Wise words

This truly says alot, without having to say much at all!! :)

xoxo
S

Mish mosh of stuff

Hey all!!

I havent blogged in a while, so this will be a big ole mish mosh of catch up stuff!! The last time I blogged was after our day trip for Spring Break. Since then we have gotten back into the school and work routines. The weather is still pretty lousy. Weve had some sunny days but as for warmth, not so much!

I remember driving home after school one day last week and checking on the horses as we drove past. Well, we didnt see our horses where they should have been!! I stopped to see what was going on. Turns out our boys and the mares had broken the chain on the gate and swapped fields!! I guess they wanted to see if the grass really is greener on the other side!! They got the mares into the barn and then I got our boys back to their side of the fence. Rotten horses!! :)

I have worked a couple days since we have been back. One day that I worked we got to go to the high school to celebrate our high school boys making it to the State Championship in baskbetball. The final score was 79-81, but as they said during the celebration, we didnt lose, we just ran out of time!!! Congrats to our boys!! :)

We lost our Belgian Shepherd, Titan, last week. That is a very hard thing to go through, and after going through it two years in a row now, I hope to not have to go through it again for many many years!! We miss you every day Titan!! You too Taylor, and you too Choco!!! The house is so quiet now and we can feel deeply the loss of your presence.

We celebrated Easter this past weekend. We stayed home, so it was just our family. We talked about the true meaning of Easter with the kids, gave them gifts, and then had Easter dinner. It was a very nice relaxing day!!

One of the gifts we got the kids was.......................baby chicks. Dont tell my mother!!! The kids have always asked to have them. I had one when I was little but it died, and then my dog dug it up after I buried it. Now very good memories with baby chicks!! lol Needless to say, hubby brought it up while we were at the farm store. He convinced me that it was a good learning experience for the kids and we could have free eggs!! The kids were, indeed, so excited!! They are very cute, and very smart, and very inquisitive, and a joy to watch. For now. But what about when they get big?? I am now having my doubts about this decision!! I grew up with a mom who is deathly afraid of chickens, and quite honestly, they sorta freak me out!! Im not so sure this was a good idea!!! Regardless, here are some pics of the girls. They are Barred Rocks. If you have played myFarm on Facebook, that name should ring a bell!! lol

Their names are Spike, Poco, Bueno, Jr., and Pooh. Go ahead and tell me how nuts we are now!!!

Thats all I can think of to write about!! Take care!!

xoxo

S

Dolphin Show

My fave part of our trip to the Indy Zoo yesterday was the dolphin show and I captured a few minutes on video for ya!! Yes, I am WOOOO'ing a lil too much in the video!! lol

Enjoy!!

xoxo

S

Day Trip :)

SPRING BREAK!!!!

We have spent our Spring Break at home, in mostly undesireable weather. We have plenty of things for the kids to do at our house, so they havent really gotten bored. I did have to establish a movie time each day so that they had some sort of structure in the afternoon which was typically the time when they started to annoy one another. We made popcorn and watched Disney movies that they havent seen since they were small, so it was like watching them for the first time.

We decided that we wanted to take one day and go somewhere and do something FUN as a family!! I began researching things online. We went down quite the path before we finally landed on what we did for our day trip.

At first we wanted to go into Chicago and do something there. (I am not so much a fan of Chicago but this is still where our planning process began!! lol) I looked into Field, Shedd, Science and Industry, Brookfield, all the normal things to do there. Then I discovered Lincoln Park Zoo. I had heard of it but never thought about it much because of the big bad Brookfield Zoo always overshadowing it. We had been to Brookfield Zoo before (and wasnt really impressed, by the way, way too much walking for my taste), so Lincoln Park Zoo would be something new!! I looked into it more and found out it was......................hold on to your seats for this one...................FREE!!!!! Are you freakin kiddin me??? A free zoo?!?!?! GASP!!!! That was a major bonus!!! I looked into it more and found that it was within Lincoln Park, which held many great statues for us to walk around and look at. There was also a Conservatory in the park. All FREE!!! Nearby, but not free, was a Nature Museum. So.........a whole days worth of fun for FREE!!!! I was sold and so were the kids!!! I had let them choose between this Lincoln Park adventure, Field, or Science and Industry. They all chose Lincoln Park. We were set!!!

Until the weather decided to screw our plans over!!! Snow in Chicago, 9 inches Im told, the day before we were to go!! Ummm.....

Ok onto a backup plan!!!!

Since it was looking like Chicago was going to be too cold for outsideness, I began planning for alternative ideas to propose to the kids. I gave them Shedd, Indy Childrens Museum, or Indy Zoo. They all unanimously agreed on the Indy Zoo. Plus side, it was going to be 60 and sunny that day down in Indy!!! Ten degrees warmer than our hometown. YAY!!!

Heres where I just want to insert how proud I am of my kids and their ability to make decisions based on the research I presented to them. I asked them all their choice seperately so there was not any persuasion by others onto their choice. Although our options changed quite a bit because of the unexpected weather, they were still able to agree on something (unbeknownst to them at the time) and they were all happy to be going somewhere. I also let them take an old digital camera of mine so that they could take their own pictures and put them on their computer when we got home.

Ok, so onto the pics from our day trip!!! Taken by me ala Fuji.

First things first, we got there and the lady at the window asked us if we wanted FREE Dolphin Show tickets!! Um, yeah!! lol The last time we were there, the Dolphin Show was a seperate charge and the Butterfly area was another seperate charge. That has changed and its all included in one price, just for your knowledge!! The zoo was pretty busy. Others had taken advantage of the very sunny and sorta warm day!!! We got there with about an hour before our show was to begin. We got to go check out the baby walrus, who was so adorable!! The next pic is of the kids favorite thing to do yesterday, we went TWICE, to pet the sharks!! My favorite thing was the dolphin show!!! I swear, if I didnt have to wear a wetsuit and touch nasty fish, Id so be a dolphin trainer!! :) The next big hit of the day was the Scottish Cow, he was just too dang cute!! Then we have the typical family pics and the ZEBRA pic in honor of our Z's!!! :)

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Ok so now for the unexpected chaos we encoutered because.....well, thats just how things happen with us lol. First, we stopped at the cafe on zoo grounds to get a snack and the guy behind the cash register swindled hubby out of 3 bucks. He didnt realize it until we were away from the register. Then, when we were in the Butterfly area, we got yelled at for trying to let a butterfly land on our hand. Uh, last time we were here, this was allowed. Then, on the way home, after eating a yummy meal at Hacienda (which doesnt have frisbees as plates for the kids meals anymore, by the way), we stopped at Starbucks and I ordered what I always order and the guy says they "are out of coffee based drinks". Um, I lost it!! I freaked out!! Was he freakin kiddin me? Was this an April Fools joke? Dont mess with a lady and her caffeine, buddy!!! Luckily there was a new Starbucks down the road, in the opposite direction we were heading, but hubby went back and we ordered, and thankfully, "Steph" had what I wanted!!!! YAY!! :)
That about wraps it up!!
All in all a fun day!! The kids were beat when we got home!! We went and fed the horses and then relaxed and watched our shows. By the way, rumor has it that both Lucas and Peyton are leaving One Tree Hill, which has just been renewed for a 7th season. That really ticks me off!! The show is centered around Lucas and Peyton is his wife, and they really think it can survive without those two, are you freakin kiddin me??
Ok, thats off topic, my bad!!
Til next blog...
xoxo
S

Update

I just had a very nice phone call and everything regarding my decision (redecision) from a few days ago is okie dokie and things are back on track!! :) Just thought you would like to know!!

xoxo
S

Happy sunny days of horse training!!!!! :)

Hubby and I were so excited to have a nice sunny day today!!! We spent the whole afternoon out with our horses. They are both young, 3 and 4 years old, and they both had training last summer (done by hubby and myself), but we wanted to go over it again this year before we rode them again. They have had the winter to be free and do as they please, but now its time for them to again know when they are working and supposed to be listening. We were very pleased with both of their performances today!! They remembered everything and once they had their tack on they knew it was time to listen and not be goofing around. Of course I took many pics with my handy dandy awesome Fuji!!! Here ya go!!! :)
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Thats all for now!! Enjoy this nice weather and beautiful sunshine!! :)

xoxo

S

Wondering

Im thinking that maybe Im trying to fit a square peg into a round hole........and I just dont know if I can make it work, if its supposed to work.

Faith and time.

For the record though, the square peg really REALLY likes the round hole and wants to fit in the round hole. If only the square peg knew this back in the early 90s then it could have been a round hole instead of a square peg. But then I wonder, if things were done differently back in the early 90s, would the square peg still be the same square peg??

xoxo
S


UPDATE: Ive decided that I will keep chuggin along on this same path. Im not a quitter. However, if I continue encountering this brick wall.....

Ups & Downs

It feels like whenever I reach a point in my life where things are awesome and going great, that something happens and I have to claw my way out of a hole. Whats up with that?
It feels like whenever I write a happy blog, that something happens and I have to write a blog where I am once again searching for answers. Whats up with that?
Im all about learning and growing, but I also enjoy consistency and unchangingness.
Im left confused. Its not like this happened all on its own, I had a choice in the matter for one detail. Since the day of that one detail, things have spiraled toward Negativeville. Maybe its just a coincidence. I dont really believe in coincidences though. These things could be the product of my overanalyzing, overactive imagination. Maybe they arent really happening at all.
It seems like they are though.
I made a choice one day recently, for myself. It wasnt an entirely selfish choice. It was more a choice of knowing myself and having been in a similar circumstance in the past and knowing how that circumstance affected myself and those closest to me. Now, I feel like because of that choice, the thing that has brought me great joy and happiness lately is fading away.
I dont know what to do or if there is even anything I can do. Its been tearing me apart the past few days. I feel like in the blink of an eye, I have worn out my welcome. I feel like the foot I had in the door just got slammed in the door and then pushed out.
Ive been giving it time, time to see whether or not its a fluke or if it has any validity. It could be a fluke simply because the choice I made also narrowed things down. I could just ask and find out for sure but I am scared of what I might hear. If I am right in my feelings, I dont want to hear what I would hear.
So...
Here I sit. Waiting. Wondering.
Was the choice I made the right choice?
How do we know what we are supposed to do with our lives? It seems to me that if something makes you happy, and that thing also helps other people, then thats what you should do. But what if it makes you happy and then things happen and as a result you cant do what makes you happy?
Im sure this makes no sense to anyone but me. Im just trying to sort it all out in my head and writing it down helps sometimes. So hopefully it will help. We will see.
Thanks for listening.

xoxo
S


UPDATE: I have decided to redecide my previous decision and make a completely new decision. The call has been made and I have a new plan in place (as a result of the events that occurred which prompted me to make my first decision in the first place), and thats that. Dunno why I didnt think of this sooner.......darn me and my having to think things through instead of just knowing automatically!!!!!

Maxs Music Program, "Barnyard Moosical"

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It was a very cute program with some very cute songs and dances!! They all did a great job and everyone seemed to really enjoy it!!! Thank you to music teacher, Mrs. Cole!! She does a fantastic job of pulling it all together and getting the lil guys and gals all ready to perform!!! :)

xoxo

S

Cheeto Update!!!

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Cheeto has really been wanting to try her wings at flying. Being in that small pretzel jar with the slippery plastic walls was not a very good match for a butterfly!! She couldnt walk on the walls, she didnt have room to fly around. I found some net houses online but they would take days to get here, so.........I made my own!!! She will only be with us until it is nice enough to release her outside, so in the meantime, this house will work nicely!!! She has already been scaling the net walls of her new house, but hasnt made any flying attempts just yet!!! :)
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xoxo
S

(Just read that an adult butterfly only lives 4-5 days. Thats just sad and wrong!!)