A little bit of this... a little bit of that...

First I need to acknowledge a couple awards that fellow bloggers have bequeathed on me. I'm so sorry that this took me so long in some cases, I'll try to be a bit more prompt in passing these on in the future.

Michele at The Rocky Mountain Retreat gave me this award almost three weeks ago.

If you haven't already, please go take a look at her blog and her amazing photographs. She has such a wonderful spirit and has become one of my dearest blogging friends.

I would love to pass this on to Julie over at the Daily Rhythm. She is a wonderful mom that is going to school and taking care of two little girls, all while expecting her third! She amazes me with her kind and loving spirit.


I also received this award from Jackie over at Mothers Pride. She is one strong woman, raising four girls primarily on her own. Please stop by her blog and read her wonderful writing.

Oh I love this award, I have "met" so many wonderful women since starting this blog. I have to pass it on to a whole lot of you! Please stop by these ladies blogs:

Michele at The Rocky Mountain Retreat

Corey at Living and Loving every minute of it!

Mama Zen at The Zen of Motherhood

Huckdoll at Hey I'm going crazy. Are you Coming?

Holly at Oh how my winter nights fly.

Nap Warden at Chronicles of a stay at home mom.

All of these ladies are just awesome and I'm so glad I get to pass this on to them.

This brings me to the other thing I have been thinking about, all of this blogging.

When you live in a rural community and work out of your house like I do. You feel a bit shut off from the world. Through blogging I get the chance to meet amazing people from around the world. I read mom blogs, religious blog, political blogs, nature blogs, photography blogs, humor blogs and author-blogs.

I read about peoples fears, loves, and illnesses. I get to see the world through other peoples perspectives and I get inspired by their creativeness.

This blogging experience is giving me so much more than I ever expected. Thank you to everyone who is reading my blog, and a huge thank you to those who comment.

My fifty year old uncle and his wife just had their first baby this week! I really can't imagine having a baby when I'm fifty but I know that he has waited a very long time for this little family and will be a wonderful daddy. This baby is the youngest grandchild and my brother at 38 is the oldest!

One more thing, we are taking a long weekend and going to the coast Friday. Bug is so excited and has been counting down the sleeps until we go. If the weather holds we will have lots of bicycle riding, sand castle making and picture taking to do. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Some crazy hair!!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts click HERE.

Speaking of horses... Part two

So back to my dilemma.

I am a planner.

There I said it, I admit it. I am not a spontaneous purchase kind of gal. I have to research things. I have to spend hours, weeks, ok sometimes years of research before I buy a big purchase. I take owning another living thing very seriously.

I am also very frugal.
I know, don't I sound like a fun person to be around?

I shop all the clearance racks. I can't stand feeling like I paid to much for something.

So I have agonized for years over purchasing a horse of my own again.

At first my excuse was that I lived in town and I didn't want to board a horse in a stall.

What kind of life is that for a large animal day after day?

Then when I moved to the country and had room for a horse my excuse was that I have a tiny baby to take care of. I couldn't spend enough time with a horse.

I'm not naive, horses can be very expensive. I have researched how much hay one would need in a year. How much veterinarians cost and the cost of a farrier.

I realize how much time they take, they need brushed, ridden and their stalls cleaned every day.

So after all of that thinking I have calculated that I can afford a horse. That I am home often enough to pay it the attention it deserves. So what is holding me back?

I'm not sure, and that is my dilemma.

What makes me so hesitant? Is it that I have a hard time with commitment?

My husband thinks that I should start out small and buy Bug a pony.

The only problem.... what exactly does that do for me and my desire to ride a horse?

I've also been saving for an awesome new lens for my camera. A horse would really set back my photography fund.

I find myself checking Craigslist several times a day for that perfect horse. I think I'm a woman obsessed.

Photo Hunters ~ Wooden

My dad carved this rocking horse out of Ash wood for my son's first birthday. At five, my son still likes to sit and rock on it occasionally. Hopefully it will be around for generations to come.

You can find more photo hunter entries HERE.

Speaking of horses... Part One

I mentioned in last weeks post that I am thinking of taking up horse back riding again. Well I never really gave it up altogether, however not having a horse of my own makes it harder to do on a regular basis.

Someone in my family has always owned a horse, well at least as long as I can remember.

Here is a picture of my dads horse, Babe. I think she was a draft, quarter cross. She was terribly bumpy to ride.

When I was a little girl all of the pictures I drew where of horses, and trophies and ribbons.

My stepfather owned cutting horses. Here he is on his horse Fritzy.

When he died, I inherited Fritzy. Her registered name was Ritzy Fritzy Kate. I could go into the field and just jump on her back. She would just stand there, she was like a baby sitter.

Once I was riding her bareback up a hill, it was steep and I slid right off the back of her. She stopped and stared at me with a "What are you doing down there?" look. She just waited until I got up and jumped back on her.

I took her to a couple Western pleasure shows and did ok for a novice. I think I got two thirds and a fourth place. Don't laugh at my dorky attire... ok go ahead I did when I looked at it.

When I moved in with my dad at fourteen my mom sold her. I had moved on to other non-horse teenage girl things and she didn't get the attention she needed. Mom and I have always regretted doing that.

My love of horses never ended, my mom still had horses and I would go to her house to ride. Here I am on Dawn, she was a Tennessee walking horse.

Then my mom moved across the state, an eight hour drive away. I only get over there once a year, if that much. So riding with her has not been an option.

After she moved I was newly married and busy with my new life, I always told my husband I wanted a horse, but I wanted a baby more. So once I became pregnant, horses left my mind.

When my son was four months old we moved from town into the country and onto five acres.

I soon met my neighbor up the hill who has five horses and has called me several times to ride.

Here are some pictures from the last time I was at my moms house. I'm riding Junior, he is a very large Tennessee Walking horse.

Bug was very excited to get on him, but once he was up there he was very nervous.

I tried to take a ride down the road, but my darn dachshund kept following me. He was not silent about it either. He barked the whole time!

Isn't that an impressive horse? He is huge, but very sweet.

Here is my moms pride and joy Ben. He is also a Walker.

Here is Skeeter, the old hag. I remember when she was born, about twenty five years ago. She is very cranky.

Here is Pumpernickel the spotted mule. I can't leave her out, she is Bugs favorite.

We have had more horses over the years than I can count.

Tune in next time while I detail my delima.. I know your waiting with baited breath!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Signs of Spring

You can find more wordless Wednesday posts HERE.

Sharing...

A midnight visitor climbs into my bed
Burning up from fever
Arms and legs flailing wildly
I pull him close to me
shhhhhhh , it's OK mommy is here
Daddy administers another dose of medicine
I rock him gently
I feel his little body relax in my arms
His warm germ laden breath bounces off my face
I try to turn away
The little one protests with whimpers
Please oh please oh please
Mommy doesn't need you to share THIS.
Two days later I awake
My throat feels like someone took sandpaper to it
I can't swallow, chills and sweats.
Bug lays near me
It's OK mommy, I take care of you.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Amazing nature

note: I posted these pictures last fall before I participated in Wordless Wednesday, I thought I would share them again. You can find more Wordless Wednesday HERE.

The end of a hobby

My husband and I had one hobby we shared. I'm more of a nature girl, you know horse back riding, nature photography, and hiking. He is more of a motor head, race cars, four wheelers and such. Our second date was riding four wheelers at the sand dunes on the coast.


We sold that four wheeler to buy our first house eleven years ago.

Three years ago when he suggested we buy two more I was ok with it. I wanted to find a common interest that we would both be into and I always loved going fast.
I got a nice white and purple Suzuki, it was mine, all mine and I loved it.

I loved going fast and jumping. I could keep up with the boys.

Now, I understood how dangerous it could be.

But I chose to take a calculated risk. I figured I was cautious and therefore I would be safe.
My boy loved riding too, he wanted his own someday. I was ok with that too, this was a family affair, we would all be into this sport.

Then this last July a very dear friend of mine. Someone who was just like me, kept up with the boys, but cautious and good at riding. She nearly lost her life when she crashed. She had more surgeries than I can count, and I'll never forget the look on her husbands face when he told us.
"I looked at my three month old baby and thought, no he can't be without his mom"

I thought about my own boy and then about my "calculated"risk.

I couldn't get on that four wheeler again. I couldn't risk it, I didn't want my son to grow up risking it either.


So this month we sold our quads and their trailer. I'm on to other hobbies, maybe I'll take up horseback riding again, or maybe I'll just stick to photography.

Linky Love..

Seriously pull your head out of the gutter!

Mama Zen tagged me with this viral link meme thingy .. one virus I'm ok with!

*Start Copying Here*
I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!)
It's real easy!
Tag others and see your Technorati Authority increase exponentially!
The benefits of Viral Linking:

1.One of the fastest ways to see your technorati authority explode!
2.Increase your Google PageRank fast
3.Attract large volume of new traffic to your site
4.Build your community
5.Make new friends!

Linky Love Tag

The Strategist Notebook

Link Addiction

Ardour of the Heart

When Life Becomes a Book

The MalaysianLife

Yogatta.com

What goes under the sun

Roshidan’s Cyber Station

Sasha says

Arts of Physics

And the legend lives

My View, My Life

A Simple Life

Juliana RW

Mom Knows Everything

Beth & Cory's Mom

A Mind Forever Voyaging

enjoying the ride

Jennifer's thoughts

Mom of 3 Girls

Amanda

Don't Make Me Get The Flying Monkeys

ExPat Mom

Just Jessie

Wilson Six

Krisitn

Nuttier Than You

Shonnte

Summer's Nook

Laura Williams Musings

Melissa's Idea Garden

Eve atConfessions of an Everyday Housewife

ChristiS of the Blah Blah Blog

Stephanie at Stop the Ride!

Diane at Soap, Blings & Girly Things
Amanda at Amanda:Mama's Musings

Kristin at An Ordinary Life

Mama Zen at The Zen of Motherhood

Atomik Kitten

The Sassy Southerner
A Room of Mama's Own
Exploring Autumn
Immoral Matriarch: Catechizer
Real Life
Boogiemum

Living and loving every minute of it

Huckdoll

The Daily Rhythm

The Rocky Mountain Retreat

The last five blogs are ones I added.
*Stop Copying Here*

Thank You!

Thank you everyone for your kind words and encouragement on my last post. A special thank you to Jackie over at The mother of this lot, she left me an award this week to make me feel better. I'll pass it on later this week when my brain isn't so tired.

I made it home last night without any big issues, my flight home was only fifteen minutes late.

Thursday night my husband had to take Bug to urgent care, the verdict is that he has the flu.

Poor little guy is pretty sick still but is starting to eat more today.

He has one heck of a puffy face though. Is that normal? The doctor wasn't concerned but I'm not always confident in the urgent care doctors. I tried to Google it, but it doesn't seem like it is that common of a symptom.

A little brag on the husband, I walked into the house and found it cleaner than how I had left it. He had vacuumed, swept and done laundry. What a nice way to come home.

I'm not a road warrior traveler or anything but I have traveled quite a bit and I have found that a few things can help make the trip easier in even the worst conditions. So I thought I would post my air travel tips for you.

1. Buy a bottle of water in the airport, after the security check. Just in case you get stranded in a seat for three hours and all the flight attendants offer is tap water. Tap water on a plane is just scary!

2. Bring a snack, I personally like a good trail mix. They no longer like to feed you on airplanes so if you are stranded for hours it's likely those little bags of pretzels will not be sufficient.

3. Ipod or MP3 player. In case you get stuck next to that extremely annoying guy that wants to talk to you. Just put on the music and ignore.

4. Do NOT wear perfume or cologne. The person next to you will thank you for it. (I had to breath through my shirt on the flight home... gag.)

5. Go with the flow, if it isn't life or death just sit back and wait. Too many people get too upset over things not going just right. The flight attendants are not there for you to yell at, and they didn't cause the flight delay.

I'm so glad to be home, now I need to catch up on all the blogs I missed while gone. Have a good weekend everyone.

Home Sick

Being away from my boy is hard, being away from my boy when he is sick... quadruply hard. Things have been hard at home since I have been gone.
Bug has had fevers, bloody noses, hurting tummy, and stuffy head.
My husband has been home two and a half days from work.
Mommy has been in a far away city in a hotel room crying.
Hearing my sons voice tell me " I cried at daycare today because you were gone mommy"
Breaks my heart.
I know he is in good hands with his daddy, but I just want to be with him.
Two more days..... just two more days.

I think I jinxed myself...

Sit on a runway for two hours? Sure! that sounds like fun!

I got to do that twice yesterday as I tried to make my way across the country. I left my house at 8am Pacific. As we all settled into our seats we were told that weather was causing delays in Chicago. We would have a slight delay.

As we rolled out to the runway we suddenly stop.. and sit for an hour.

I wasn't too worried I had a two hour layover in Chicago, I was fine.

We then headed back to the terminal to wait another hour.

I call my trusty travel department (haha) who protect me on the next flight out of Chicago.

No problem, we finally leave and I'm on my way.

When I get to Chicago it is snowing and snowing hard.

I look at the departure screen and see that my original flight was delayed for two hours so I didn't miss my connection after all!

I had an hour wait and then boarded the plane to my destination.

As we all settled in they announce there will be a slight delay as we wait for them to deice the plane.

The flight attendants walk through the plane asking "Tap water? Would you like some tap water?"

They start a movie for us. The movie ends and the deicers are still not there.

Two and a half hours later we finally left Chicago.

I arrived at my hotel at 2:20am Eastern time.

I'm tired, so very tired.

Bug did a very sweet thing though, he drew a family picture for me and slipped it in my suitcase. He told me it was so I wouldn't forget him. sniff sniff, I love that boy.

The Commode concerto

Last night as I was talking on the phone with my dad I heard.

MOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!

Me: "Bug is calling me, he's sitting on the toilet."

Dad: "Oh, well I should let you go"

Me: "That's ok he just wants a song"

Dad: "He wants you to sing to him while he's on the toilet?"

Me: "No, he comes up with songs while he's in there, he wants me to come listen before he forgets the words"

Dad: Histerical laughter... "That's great! You should take a picture of him.. it could be the cover of his first CD"

Me: Histerical laughter "No I think I'll pass, he would never forgive me"

Is my child the only one that sings on the toilet???

On a side note, I will be traveling for buisness next week. I may not post often. Luckily the company won't be sending me ziggzagging across the country this time. I get to go through Chicago instead. I just read Ohare has the worlds worst cancelled flights record. It may be an adventure!