because i love you...

I was visiting a friend that had a beautiful note hanging on her fridge. It was written as wedding vows from the groom to his wife to be. It was cute and sincere and honest and besides, saying "to have and to hold" seems archaic.

I have been married a long time and the romance has certainly ebbed . Warm flannel and big tees have long replaced the silk and lacey nighties. Shaving...please! Still, I liked the sentiment of the verse so I wrote a version that works at my house and reminds the little Mr. how much I still love and appreciate him.

"i will feed the dogs. i will say tater tots instead of fries because you like those best. i won’t ask you to rub my feet. i won’t be rude to your tastebuds by adding mustard. i will eat the black olives when we make a supreme pizza. i will kiss you even when your beard is scruffy and it scratches my face. i’ll try my hardest not to get annoyed when you don’t do something my way. i will only try. i will clean the toilets. i will let you hold the remote. i will be proud of your accomplishments. i will ask you to check my tire pressure. i will let you stack the hay. i will bring you a glass of sweet tea afterward. i will demand that you kill all the icky bugs. all of them. i will kiss you goodnight every night.  i will always love you."

Glitter and Glue

I am married to a very good carpenter.

This obviously means that I have things that need to be repaired by a carpenter.

For some reason he becomes oblivious to the broken wood fences or warping bridges that need mending once he crosses the threshold to our home. And he prefers that I do not fix them as he is “getting to it”.

For Thanksgiving we had the pleasure of having several children at the farm. As we went up to the horse pasture to feed the horses carrots and pet their fuzzy noses one of the youngsters couldn’t help but notice that the board that the horses were leaning over was “rotting”.

Why yes Virginia it is.

Do you know what that sweet child said to me? That I could repair the fence with…Glitter and glue. Well, I’ll be! We discussed that for additional support that duct tape should also be a part of the repair.

6 years old and is knowledgeable about all things duct tape and that it now comes in array of colors including zebra. Awesome.

This week I will be repairing the fence board. I have made a big sparkly green bow to hang on it once the glitter and glue dries.

Thankful

It’s that time of year where most of us start the annual frenzy known as the “holidays” or in most cases, the “holi-dazed”.

I can’t say that I get frantic but I do enjoy the entertaining, cooking & the decorating part of it. I LOVE having people over to the farm and I LOVE cooking and I LOVE making the place look nice.

Call me Martha.

It’s also the time of year that I stop and reflect. My Mom used to come to our place for Thanksgiving. She enjoyed doing absolutely nothing. I didn’t have to take her shopping or to various tourist sites, all she really wanted to do was be with us.

 I miss my Mom and I am thankful for the times we shared together.

I am thankful for my family and that we like each other. I think loving people comes easier than liking but in our family, we genuinely do like each other. Most of the time. J

I am thankful we have been blessed with senses of humor and good health. It gets us all through the tough times when they come.

I am thankful that I have enough property that we can feed my family from it. So far 3 deer have been “bagged”. This provides meat for us through the winter and into spring. I wish I was a better gardener so the land would provide us more. Truth be told, come July, I could care less about a garden due to the heat.

Therefore, I am thankful for Publix, produce markets and friends who can take the heat.

I am thankful for my friends. Based on my Facebook page there aren’t many but they are diverse. Smart, funny, rich, poor, some are dramatic while others are wall flowers. Each puts a smile on my face and keep me centered.  As a Libra, I CRAVE balance.

I am thankful for my menagerie of animals. 3 horses: Farley, the nicest horse on the planet, Trooper, the goofiest but kindest and Super Sonic who IS.ALWAYS.HUNGRY. He’s still as gorgeous as the first time I laid eyes on him a dozen or so years ago. At 21 he doesn’t act or look his age.

The dogs…Luther a standard poodle that we rescued from the shelter and a dachshund named…Weiner. They bring joy to our lives each and every day.

Like turkey, stuffing and pecan pie…my life has been sweet and savory.

I am blessed and I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I am a Blogger. How hard can it be?

I have been prodded by friends that my stories should be on a blog. I have explained numerous times that I don't own a computer and was clueless on the initial steps to create a blog.

"It's so easy Grandma can do it"...Good Lord, alright then, here I go!

What's funny about starting a blog is that it is not unusual for me to try something without knowing the first thing on how to do it or having all the items one may need to do it. In this case a computer. Nope, don't own one and my phone is an "old fashion" cell phone.

Old fashion cell phone... now that's funny.

Let me refer to the following:

I owned a 72 Cutlass , I was young and had no money and it needed a tune up. I asked the local auto parts guy if I could do it and he says "sure...it's easy, anyone can do it." So I purchased the stuff I would need saving me $20 and went home to tackle my first and only tune up. He was right it was easy. I had everything off, replaced and went to start the car. Hmmmm, it didn't turn over so I tinkered with the spark plugs and other things. DEAD. Not leaving the driveway. It was towed to the mechanic who thought it naive and girlish that I would even attempt to get under the hood. $150 later, it was running swell. 
Lesson learned. I am not good with anything mechanical to this day. Hot glue and duct tape, I'm your girl!

When I bought my first NEW vehicle, one of the very first Jeep Scramblers on the local lot, it was a stick shift. The salesman said "it's super easy to learn how to drive a stick." I believed him and I bought it having a friend drive it home. Ummm, not so easy Mr. Salesman. Is it supposed to sputter and stall?? I lived in Ft Lauderdale where they have multiple draw bridges. How many times would you like to guess that I stalled on those? Eventually I became a whiz driving that Jeep and had the best time doing so but not before having LOTS of people cussing me. OFTEN.

Which brings me to " mud bogging". Way dirtier than "blogging"! If you own a Jeep it's just about against the law not to go mud bogging. I decide how hard can it be? I went through several mud puddles getting absolutely filthy and having the best time and then one day I sunk the Jeep. SUNK.IT. And I was alone. And I was in the middle of no-where. I walked out of the forest which now houses the Sunrise Musical Theatre and probably a 1000 other things but back then, it was a big open dirt road next to lots of woods. I flagged down a tow truck and convinced him it would be a great idea to pull me out. So we head out to the woods, we get closer to the Jeep and HE.SINKS. Oh Crap. He is a whole lot of not happy. I got lucky when two other mudders came out and they got me out and then we sped out of there like bats outta hell leaving a very irate tow truck driver trying to explain to his employer how he got in that predictament. GOOD TIMES.

I started at a young age believing I could do just about anything if it looked simple enough or the salesperson said I could. Ask me about the time my Dad said when we moved to California we could walk to Disneyland. (We couldn't and I found out about quicksand)

When I started riding with Southern Trailriders I was missing a few things...a horse, a saddle, a trailer, a clue! The last time I rode a horse was when I was 13. And I really thought I KNEW how to ride a horse then.
Maybe not so much in today's standards but I was fearless like a 13 year old and had a blast riding any horse I could. I have several stories recounting that which I will save for later. Trust me, they are funny. Now. Not so much then.

2 of my most recent attempts on trying things: riding the Tevis and trimming my horses hooves.

With my work week cut to 4 days and no raise in 5 years, I was looking for ways to save $$$ and although my farrier doesn't charge a lot for trims I thought it was high time to learn how to do it myself. Of the two horses I trim, one is retired and the other thinks he is. So I asked Larry "Is it hard?" And you know what he said? "Nah, anybody can do it!" He told me the worse I could do is bleed them, take off too much heel, too much toe, too much off the sides, leave the toe too long or just plain lame them up good. Which I have.
But they end up walking pretty good after a day or two. :)
It's been a year now and I think I have knack but I am no way ready to quit my day job! And he should charge more because it is a hot, dirty, hot job. It does keep the Holy Rollers away though as I look like I have been baptized in the lake of muddy waters when they come and I am under a horse.

Tevis. People plan for this ride. All year, most folks, all of their lives. They train for it, they study for it. They buy the DVD's, the books and watch YouTube and dream of the day they have the right horse. Me? I say "sure I can go with you!" How hard can it be? Well, as long as you don't fall off the mountain, sink in a bog, slide off the swinging bridge, make it up Cougar Rock, up the canyons, down the canyons or get stuck riding alone in the dark on the CA loop...it's not hard at all. :) Finishing is the hard part. I didn't. But I'll try again.

All of this brings me here. Writing a blog. I don't have a computer. My grammar skills can be lacking. Time might be tricky too.

But hey..."it's not hard at all, anybody can do it!"