Better Photos of Damion and Bethany

September of 2006

Although the photo I posted earlier of Damion and Bethany is a sweet one, I realized that it's a little too far away to see their precious faces! ;o) So I'm posting a couple of photos that were taken a little closer. These are from homecoming during Damion's last year of High School.

September 2006

And, of course, the mushy one!:

Caught ya'!

What a gorgeous pair! I reserve the right to be a little biased, eh? ;o)

Signing off...

Friendship Rekindled

As Karie has done, I am attempting to re-connect with childhood friends that I had become pretty close to in my youth, but lost contact with when I moved away. Over the last couple of years I have come back into contact with several people that I haven't seen since Jr. High School! Strangely enough, although many years and a lot of changes and growth have separated us, I find myself feeling almost instantly at ease with these people; almost as if we haven't been apart all of these years.

It's wonderful to hear about their lives, their families, their endeavors. I'm thankful that they are all in relatively good health and still available to talk to!

One such friend is someone my sister and mother probably remember pretty well, as I spent a good deal of time with her, even living as far away from one another as we did. Her name was Lynne. I remember having a great time playing together. I don't remember all of the things we did, but I do remember playing "Capture the Flag" with Lynne and her sisters, late into the evening, until long after dark. And I remember some funny memories, like the time her father took us horseback riding, and on the way he was playing a tape (can't remember if it was cassette or 8-track) but it was blaring "Half the Way" by Crystal Gayle, and I asked him to play it over and over. LOL

One time I spent the night at her house we woke up the following morning and proceeded to make pancakes for everyone, but ended up throwing them away as somehow when we were mixing the batter we had accumulated a large amount of baking soda in some portions of the batter, making the pancakes taste extremely bitter! Since that day I have been very careful to mix my baking soda thoroughly in the dry flour before adding any moisture. LOL

I remember being completely enamored by her Atari -- which was a pretty new TV game system back then. (Boy are we old!) I remember always wanting to play Atari's "Adventure" game when I came over, because we were too poor to even consider getting the game console at our house. Poor Lynne -- she probably got really tired of that.

Myself and Lynne after dinner at my house

Lynne in the 7th grade, I think

Lynne was always a sweet girl; generous to a fault, and always had a ready smile. I don't remember ever having a fight with her, as girls sometimes do at that age. And I find that that part of her personality hasn't changed a whit. She's still a very friendly, giving person. One thing that has changed is her self-confidence. I always thought she was great -- really without any fault I could see, but she tells me that she was very unsure of herself back then. Fortunately, she is a lot more self-assured these days.

Lynne and Scott on their wedding day

Lynne is married now, with two kids, a girl and a boy. It was a pleasure getting to know them, as I had the opportunity to do so this last summer. They're a lovely family.

Brett, Scott, Nisse, and Lynne

While I visited Lynne, her sister Michelle, who lives with her daughter across the street from Lynne and her family, came over, as did her parents. It was so great to see everyone!

Lynne's sister, Michelle, on the top left and her daughter (left)

Now that we've reconnected I am saddened that we live far enough away from one another (about 2 hours) that we can't get together on a regular basis. I suspect if our proximity were closer that we would spend a great deal of time together. I am grateful, however, that we are back in communication! :o)

Another friend that I was pretty close to moved to another part of town before we entered Jr. High, but we remained friends and still got together on occasion to spend the night. Ilona was my "horse buddy." Whenever we played, it would invariably involve playing with our Breyer's horse collections, which we'd do for hours and hours. We'd play in our rooms, or we'd carry them to the park. In elementary school we'd pretend we were horses at recess, and both of us would stand in awe of our classmate (Brenda) whose sister sometimes brought her (REAL) horse to her after school so she could ride home. (I was so jealous of that girl!) But poor Ilona, after all of her love of horses, turned out to be allergic to them. (How unfair is that?!)

Ilona is also married, and has a daughter: (I don't have any "old" pictures of us to add)

Ilona and Dennis

Ilona and her daughter, Marena

I'm really glad to be back in contact with Ilona, also. Unfortunately, she lives even further away -- in another state. :o(

Janine is another friend that I've reconnected with. I haven't had a chance, yet, to meet with her or Ilona in person, but I hope to soon! Pictured below are Janine and another Jr. High friend, Cindy.

Cindy and Janine (And Cindy's daughter?)

Friends like these are for life, I think. I'm so glad to have them, and to be able to share them with my family and new friends in this blog! :o)

I think my next post will include a few good friends from a little later in life: high school to current.

Until then:

Signing off....

A New Daughter

Today, my sweet little boy -- who isn't so little anymore, but rather a young man -- has asked his high school sweetheart, Bethany, to marry him! They have decided to solemnize their vows in the fall of 2009.

As a mother of a wonderful son, but no other children, I am excited at the thought of gaining the addition of a daughter! (And, although this is years away, I look forward to grandbabies, too!!) I know all of this is a few years into the future, but I reserve the right, as a proud Mama, to enjoy every new endeavor and every new joy in my son's life as they abound; as they serve to enrich my life immeasurably. :o) And, of course, my son's happiness, is my happiness.

So, congratulations Damion and Bethany! Although it's two years until that day, I pray for your happiness toward that blessed event, and forever after!

(And the first person that comments on the advancement of my age in view of this news will feel the bite of my tongue and the wrath that ensues!)

Signing off.... ;o)

Back in Saddle

Well! I'm deeply frustrated. I just wrote a good portion of this new post, then decided I'd better highlight it and save it to a clipboard. In the process of doing that I accidentally erased it and was unable to retrieve it in an "undo" command. I was so mad I almost decided to abandon posting for the day, but due to all of the friendly badgering to update my blog, I suppose I ought to start again.

AAARGH! ;o)

My brother-in-law, Ken, came to town on business last week, creating a great opportunity for him to meet my brother's fiancée, Kate. We had a ball. (Figuratively and literally.) We had the pleasure of watching Kate play in her last soccer match of the season. She played well, and the game was a lot of fun to watch. I haven't been to a soccer match, or played the game myself for many, many years, so it was a real treat to cheer on someone I know. :o) I don't have any photos of the game, but Mark sent me one of Ken and Kate that I will post here.

After the game, we enjoyed a much needed repast at Le Peep, then went to a local pumpkin farm to pick out pumpkins for Mark and Kate. We brought them back to Dad's house, where Ken was staying for the duration of his time here, and proceeded to carve some fun images that Mark obligingly drew for us. (Thank goodness for the artistic talent of my brother, or my pumpkin might have turned out pretty boring.) LOL

Mark carved the left one; mine is the middle one; and Kate carved the one on the right.

Below is a picture of Mark and I, but I was sort of spacing out and forgot to act "goofy" as instructed, but Mark did a great job. LOL

Poor Ken, I inundated him with sports many of the evenings he was in town. First, the sad demise of the Rockies' efforts during the World Series, and then the "sudden death" loss of the Broncos to the Packers on Monday Night football. Whew -- tough week for Colorado. Still -- the Rockies have given me a renewed respect for baseball--after all, they did make it all the way to the World Series.

And the Broncos are sort of revamping the team a bit, with new young players that need a little bit more time on the field with one another in order to learn to play well together. I think with the talent and some more time, this football team will be back where I like them: in the playoffs heading toward the Superbowl. :o)

Meanwhile, at the ranch, I've completed the rough draft of my short story. It is now going through the editing process with the help of my family and friends as they read it and offer suggestions for improvement. Hopefully, it will be ready to send off, and I can move on to the next one.

In the meantime, I will try to keep up with my blog, and keep everyone posted.

Signing off...

Nothing Much To Post

My sister often complains that I don't post often enough, so in order to oblige her I am posting a "Nothing Much" post.

I spoke in an earlier post about a "writers" website where I am writing articles for the practice and feedback. Within this site is an area that they call "Marketplace" where actual magazine publishers/editors will advertise for writers by providing a list of specific topics to write about. If your article is selected by the publisher - you are awarded a small monetary compensation, but more than that, your name and work gets printed in their magazine.

I chose to write two articles for a publication called: Western Life Magazine. The two topics are: "Cowboy Humor: True Stories about Horses" and "Cowboy Humor: True Stories about Cattle." Only one article can be written per topic, but you can write an article for as many topics as you like. Since my experience with these subjects is limited only to horses, and calves (once) these are the topics I chose.

As with posting articles on the rest of the site, you are rated by your peers (blind rating: author's names are not included during the rating process to keep it fair and impartial). Rating in the top five does not ensure publication, as that is left up to the editor of the magazine. However, it does draw their eye to your article before the others. So far, my article about horses is rated #1 of 34 total articles; and my article about cattle is rated #1 of 28. While this is quite gratifying, I am still hoping that the publisher feels the same way. (They are not obligated to select any particular one, or any at all.) The deadline for posting articles for this magazine was Sept. 28th. I don't know how long it takes to be notified of the results, so I am now awaiting word with all of the patience I can muster. ;o)

For those of you who would like to peruse the articles, and even read others for comparison the following are the links:

Horse article:

http://www.helium.com/tm/577123/instantly-moment-stories-beautiful

Cattle article:

http://www.helium.com/tm/610721/gonna-raise-holsteins-boyfriend

In addition to working on improving my "article-writing" skills, I am also studying the magazine market for short story publication. I have found quite a few, and I'm now in the process of writing a short story to try my hand in this venue. I've learned that writing short stories is far more difficult than writing a novel, as you have to quickly elaborate on characters, dialog, setting, plot, etc... and do it all within a 6,000- to 15,000-word limit; all while engaging the reader from beginning to end.

Still, I've been thinking that it would be really nice to be published, even in small "rags," as many novelists are while writing their novels. It helps to have previous writing credentials when submitting a work to agents and publishers alike. So, I'll try to find some decent publications to write for, fiction and non-fiction, toward this end. Of course, if anyone has a magazine suggestion, please pass it along in your comments or email. :o)

Below is an example of one of the publications for which I am now writing a short story, in the hopes of acceptance.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/fiction.shtml

So, Friends and Family, please wish me luck!

Signing off....

My Other Half

Philip with Shep and Mischa the day we brought Mischa home. We brought Shep home 2 weeks later,as he's 2 weeks younger -- but you can't tell by this photo! Currently he is weighing in at 61 lbs. while Mischa is only 38.

My dear husband has consented to allow me to post his photos on my blog at last, so I thought I'd post a few with him and some of our animals (and me).

Mischa and Philip on Soldier

I had to post this photo of Mischa riding Soldier. It just goes to show you how patient both the dog and the horse are! She rode like this on the trail with Philip for about a mile.

Philip and Shep Trudging through snow.

The above photo was taken as the dogs and Philip trudged to the center of the yard to pose for a picture for me. At this age (they were only 6 months old), it is very difficult to get them to sit still for a picture; especially both of them together. The following pictures are the "set up" for the final picture.

Philip almost lost his balance in the picture above. :o)

Finally sitting and sort of looking at the camera. This pose lasted all of about two seconds before the two bounded off for more play. Somehow I caught them right before they moved and while Philip was smiling.

Below, you will see Shep busting the trail back to the porch. (Well sort of -- he had already busted the trail earlier, but not enough to keep him from having to leap his way through the snow, as you can see by his "flying" ears.)

Well, that's it for today.

Philip and I took a trip to California to visit his son and his wife, however, because of problems with photos right now I will wait to tell the story until I have some photos to post.

Meanwhile, I'll post some pictures of our ski trip last year with Philip, his son, his son's wife, his son's half-brother, and me, to hold you over.



Signing off!

"Noah's Ark" Farm

My husband's horse, Soldier

People are beginning to refer to our little place as a mini farm these days, but it's really more like Noah's ark with the pairs of animals that share our space. Each of these critters has his, or her own quirky peronality that brings a smile to our faces nearly every day. (Sometimes a bit of a frown on a few occasions, as well.) ;o) As you can see from the photos above, my husband's horse, Soldier, a quarter horse, is a bit of a "Mr. Ed". He's extremely curious about things, like drinking from a garden hose. He's known for his curiosity of vehicles as well. Everyone can attest to this merely by looking at my poor beaten truck:

But he's a really hard worker, willing to climb the steepest hills over the rockiest terrain, without complaint. Also, this winter we tied a sled to his saddle for the first time and made good use of the abundant snow that fell all winter long. He pulled each of the five of us all the way around the pasture!

Me on the horse, my hubby on the sled

And of course, I had to try skiing behind him, too! What a blast!

I guess we'll keep him around.

This my 16.2-hand Saddlebred. He's a pasture bully who's afraid of his own shadow sometimes. But I think he's beginning to trust me a little. I finally got him to cross the river (ONCE!) after three years of trying! But he's awfully handsome, and feels great under the saddle.

My horse, Aspen

Speaking of saddles, you'll notice how much his slides back, (note that my feet are more than midway toward his flank), so I had to purchase a breast collar to keep it foward. He's a beauty in this photo, but he's spectacular when he's running; tail extended and flying up high behind him as he gallops. He's quite a sight, but I haven't captured it with the camera yet. One day soon, I hope.

We gave our goats away to breed, as they were getting difficult to keep penned in the back couple of acres of our property, (and destroying a few trees from eating the bark off them through the winter!) But here's our little rembrance of Annie (Oakley), our first goat: (Our second goat, Belle Starr, was killed by a coyote, and I don't have any good pictures of our third, Star II.)

Miss Annie Oakley

Our bunnies:

Thumper on the left and her mama, Bonnie, the matriarch of all the bunnies on the right

Thumper was Bonnie's first baby, and is much bigger than her mama, now. She was merely a teenager here. LOL Thumper almost died twice, but I saved her little life both times!

Jet, short for Jet Black

Little Angel

Out of all these bunnies, only one survived a snake getting into the hutch. Little Angel ('cuz she must have had one watching over her for having survived such a horror!) is the tan and white bunny on the right. My favorite was that pretty tan and grey one in the middle left. But, alas, he also perished in the attack. As you can see, they were only tiny babies then. Angel is now about a year old.

Claudette

This one is the last of the brood. She was just a little tyke here, but she is now as big, or bigger than Miss Thumper. She's a really pretty light tan color with the tiniest tinge of gray, (which you can't really see in the picture). All of these bunnies are sisters, except Bonnie who bore them all, and more! (Sadly, all of the boys have died or disappeared, including the patriarch, Clyde.) Bonnie and Clyde were our first two Holland Lops bunnies.

Monte and Carlo

The twins (actual twin litter mates).

Mischa on top and Shep on the bottom

The Aussies! (Australian Shepherds) Mischa is a Blue Merle Aussie, and Shep is a Black-Tri Aussie. In this photo they are only a few months old. But they grew fast!:

Mischa, Shep (and Carlo)

Now they are almost 15 months old. Monte and Carlo love them. Mr. Monte, however, has been AWOL now for a few days. We're praying nothing has happened to him, and that he finds his way back to our front porch safe and sound.

So this is what's left of our brood. We're ready if ever there is a giant flood again on this earth! LOL Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Signing off.....

Reminiscing

I know it's a bit late to post a picture of Damion's Homecoming Dance from last year but I am in a reminiscing state of mind, as I am wont to do now and then since he's left my "nest." As my sweet son is now a High School graduate, embarking on a life of his own, I often resort to gazing at old pictures and home movies to get my "kid-fix". (A practice he isn't particularly fond of, I assure you!) Still, because his schedule is so full, his absence affords no other alternative in which to see his smiling face other than those mementos of good memories and days gone by. Well...sometimes we get to go to lunch together. :o) And sometimes I get a glimpse of his car across the river when he works for my neighbor. It's just not enough, sometimes.

Look how much that little guy has grown!







Nevertheless, I don't begrudge him his adulthood or his freedom, of course. I'm excited for him, and for his future, and I look forward to the gifts his life will bestow on me as I remain a proud Mama. (Including a daughter-in-law and grandchildren someday, way, way in the future) ;o) I've realized lately that I have a lot more to look forward to as a mother. It hasn't ended for me. I just have to accept that it will be a little removed from my immediate vicinity from now on. Thankfully, Damion has provided me with a lot of happy and proud moments to look back on, and promises the same for the future!






Presently Damion is interning at his church, keeping himself busy with all of those sometimes fun, sometimes mundane, chores that keep a place running (and that are often heavily heaped on an intern.) We all have to pay our dues, eh? He's also working as a chef at a popular Italian restaurant in town, and word has it that he's getting quite proficient at cooking! I'm still waiting to test that theory whenever he deigns to delight my palate with delectable delights! He's done it before! Once we tried our hand at sushi! Take a look:






This is much harder than it looks, and it's really hard to make it pretty like the pros do. I hope to have a cooking session again with him soon.



In the meantime, I'll content myself with these fun pictures and the hope that we'll get together soon! I hope that you enjoy them, too!

A Moment in Time

So! After several verbal nudges and a couple of subtle "one-liner" emails, my sister has convinced me to create a blog. Why in the world would anyone want to read my blog, I had asked her, my life is pretty boring. Being the sweet and encouraging person that she is, Karie helped me to understand that my little life, and endeavors, might be interesting to my family and friends. Well...I guess that's enough of a reason for me to start my own blog. And because I am horrible at keeping a journal, or scrapbook, or even a picture album (unless it's on my computer) this is probably a really good idea for me.

As I am "Blogger" illiterate for the time being, it will take me a little while to learn how to decorate this site in an attractive way for your viewing and reading pleasure, so please bear with me as I experiment and work through a series of trial and error! (Soon I will be adding music to this page, so keep an "ear" out for it.) ;o)

I'll begin this little autobiography by relating a fun adventure that I've embarked on in the realm of the "writing world," or "dubya, dubya" as I like to call it. While working on my novel, slowly but surely, I have also been trying my hand at article writing. I haven't submitted any work to a real publisher yet, however I found a great site for amateur article writing and competition. The purpose of this, for me, is to educate myself, and to gain a little bit of experience in constructing short, informative pieces on a variety of topics. My work is rated by other writers on the site. The article is always presented without the author's name, and is offered side by side with another author's article for comparison and judgement. The writer rating the article is also anonymous. This encourages honest ratings, without bias to a particular author. Small cash prizes are awarded for top rated articles and contests, as well, but the real motivation is to improve your writing with each article submitted in an attempt to gain the highest rating. As a "newbie" to the site, I expected to garner a fairly low rating, but instead I am pleasantly surprised with the first place position in my topic of choice! It has inspired me to continue, and to think about searching their "marketplace" link for real publishers looking for freelance writers. Wish me luck, all. :o)

In the meantime, I will try not to forget that I have a larger dream of publishing a best-selling novel that I cannot allow to be put on the back burner again.

I look forward to sharing my blog with my family and friends...as soon as I figure out how to allow them to sign up for blog updates as on Karie's site. Trial and error, trial and error. Again -- wish me luck!
Signing off.....