2020

2020 has not been a good year, not only for me but in fact for the whole world!  I never thought  I'd live through a pandemic, but here we are, nearly 8 months into a World Wide pandemic that according so some shows no signs of slowing down or going away.  the hysteria over the COVID 19 virus is crazy.  Whole countries closing down, business shuttering their doors and going out of business.  People sheltering in their homes unless they are "essential workers"  meaning doctors, nurses, big-box store cashiers, truckers, all sorts of folks that can and do go to work.  Some states and businesses are requiring people to wear masks, not a popular idea in a lot of places.  There is no way to get the information you can really trust because the whole thing has become a political football.  The mainstream media hates our president to the point they make up lies to hurt him.              

The Democrat party as become so left-leaning a lot of people think they are at best socialist.  They are espousing some very radical ideas that I hope will not take root in our country.   The racial tensions the election of Barak Obama, the first black president of the US,  started are getting more and more serious. Riots, looting, and shootings in several large Democratically controlled cities are becoming the norm.  The mayors of a couple of those cities are siding with the rioters.  They say they are protesting police brutality, supposedly peacefully, there's a group, BLM, black lives matter, that is in the middle of all this mess.  A domestic terrorist group for sure.  NO lives matter to that bunch!  This is an election year and hopefully, after November 3 this stuff will settle down.  I of course being a staunch conservative am hoping that President Donald Trump will be reelected. Joe Biden is the Democrat nominee, God forbid he wins, it will be the end of our country as we know it.   This year has been a mess. 

Marilynn, Michaels' daughter decided to go to California to live with her mother.  She is planning on joining the Navy after graduation,  

Josh and Ashlyn finished their house, moved in, and are settling in nicely. The house turned out really good and they are enjoying having a place of their own.  Both of them are working hard and are successful in their jobs.   Ashlyn just got a promotion and Josh is running the service department of the company he works for.  He is working on his next license and towards getting in the hours required for his Master Plumbers License.  

Tony recovered from his colon surgery and has had no issues. the doctors are very please with everything.  He was so fortunate.  

Jango is doing well, he never recovered his profile from the surgery so we aren't doing any AQHA shows, but he is still plenty good enough to go to some local ones.  Unfortunately all but one show was canceled because of this virus.  I have been working on showmanship, that is something that Jango and I can do.  I am seriously considering sending him to someone to train him on showmanship so I can concentrate on just me doing my stuff right.  I don't know haven't decided yet, I have to find someone and that's not easy.  

Rachel is enjoying the reining and has been quite successful. Last season she won the Green Rider Level 1&2.  This year she is in the hunt for the Rookie saddle.  Her filly Josie is coming along very well and we are excited about her futurity year coming up. Rachel is expecting great things for Miss Josie. 

 A follow-up to my writing about Rachel and Aleena, they won the saddle!  In the most drama-filled way, you can imagine.  She went into the last show in the point lead with two ladies close behind.  She needed to make good clean runs, but not just push flat out.  The first of the two runs she had to make was a pattern that is hardly used.  She made the run and was almost flawless, we were all excited for her, then they called out her score, a 0! What it couldn't be no one saw anything disqualifying in her run.  We couldn't understand what on earth was going on!  We watched the video and suddenly her coach said I know what it was!  You walked in you were supposed to trot in!  Oh, something so simple as that!  Rachel was crushed, she had even asked before she went in about walking or trotting.  A simple oversight but costly.  Thankfully my daughter is strong and she pulled it together and said we will just have to be better than everyone tomorrow.  Now she has to beat one lady and stay ahead of the other one in the points  Luckily she drew behind the other two ladies and would know exactly what she needed to do to beat them.  Finishing in the top 5 would keep her ahead of one lady, but she had to really score to get back ahead of the other.  The first lady had a good solid run so Rachel knew she'd have to put up good numbers to stay ahead.  The other lady that had surpassed her made her run, it was good, a solid run that looked like it was going to keep her ahead.  On the last maneuver, she had to run down the pen slide to a stop and do a rollback to the right and she rolled back to the left!  She knew it immediately, that was off pattern and disqualified her.  So now Rachel had to go in make her run, do everything right, and score well.  She and Aleena did just that and whew!  we were pretty sure she secured the saddle.  She figured points after the class and all seemed good, but we had to wait for 3 weeks for it to be official!   Josi is home now, Rachel has decided to keep her home, ride and train her there. She and Michael have a new business Perfect Equine Spa, a saltwater spa treatment for injured or just sore and stressed muscles on performance horses. They go to their first show at the end of January at Ardmore, OK.

The elections are over, it was horrible.  It was a huge mess, Biden won, but there are allegations of fraud and most conservatives truly believe the election was stolen.  There was even a huge protest rally in DC that unfortunately, a few agitators turned into an attack on Capital Hill.    Storming the Senate, breaking windows scaling walls, and breaking down a few doors.  One woman was shot by the Capital police.  Now of course the Democrats are screaming that President Trump encouraged violence and all his supporters are guilty by association.  He didn't of course, but when did that ever stop the left kooks and the biased left-wing media?  The Democrats are power-drunk, as they will control all three branches of government.  With one week before Biden takes office, they are pushing for VP Pence to invoke the 25th amendment to remove President Trump, he refused thank God. Now the Dems are going to go for impeachment, stupid hate filled bunch of morons. The big tech companies have removed the President from the social media outlets and even pulled the largest conservative social media outlet.  There are calls for a lot of wild and dangerous things coming from the Democrats that proves to me that they are all power-hungry and ready to do anything to push our country into socialism.  GOD please help us all.    

2019

2019 has been a year of mixed blessings.  It started out calm with me planing a busy show schedule.  From not knowing if my beloved Jango would live to a triumphant return to the show pen. It’s been a tough year, we thought we’d weathered the worst and he made a good recovery even went on to finish a series and win me a buckle. Then he crashed and it looked like his show career was over. With lots of support and prayers, all kinds of rehab and work he made it back to the show pen and we had a successful show!  As it got hotter it became apparent that we would need to limit our showing and most of the summer was spent with Jangs hanging out in the pasture living a normal horse life.  But we have plans to hit the show pen in 2020 and go for more wins!

Rachel and Michael discovered a love of cruising, and scuba diving, and have made a couple of "diving cruises".  Marilynn is working hard on finishing up her high school course and is taking a course at Kimichi Vo Tec.  She has put aside her riding, for now, to concentrate on school. 

 

Josh and Ashlyn decided to "come home" now that her final year of college can be completed with online courses.  Josh found a job with a good company in Durant and Ashlyn was able to transfer from her job in Denton to Durant.  They were going to move their mobile home, but after consideration decided to sell it in place.  Rachel found a lovely lot in Mead, on the way to the lake and they decided to build on that. Ashlyn, Josh, and their two dogs came to live with us till the house was completed. So in July, the family went to work. The lot had to be cleaned up and readied for the build, house plans had to be chosen, and contractors found.  Michael and Tony brought their equipment over and went to work cleaning up the lot and in roughly one month we were ready to pour the slab.  By their first wedding anniversary in September, the house was well on its way, they spent their first night there in November, and the complete move in was after Thanksgiving.  

In the middle of all the building, Tony had a routine colonoscopy, a mass was found, biopsied and found to be cancerous.  Surgery was scheduled immediately and was successful.  It turned out to be very early Stage 1 and the mass was removed and there was no other involvement of tissue and no other treatment required.  We were truly blessed and thankful. 

I am trying out a new adventure, just after the new year, I am going on a cruise with the family.  I have never done this so it will be fun to see how I like it.  

Days still pass by slowly but when I look around I think where has the time gone.  2020 will be here in THREE weeks!  Another year gone, memories made, and I am thankful to be here to see it all.    

2018 update

I told you guys I don't write very often, life is moving on fast and it seems to be mostly the same stuff.  But it keeps me busy. 

My mom passed in February, my sister and I were sad to lose her, but she is in a much better place now.
  
Tony and I will be celebrating our 51st wedding anniversary this month.

Josh is getting married in September, to a sweet young lady that the whole family loves, Ashlyn Copper.  they are having an island wedding in Barbados, what fun! Josh is working for Plumco in F.Worth, TX and will soon be taking his exam to go to the next level of plumbing work.  Who knew that you had to take exams on your way to being a plumber?  Ashlyn is working at First United Bank in Denton, TX and going to school at Texas Women's University studying elementary education.

Marilynn is a Sophomore now, she is doing homeschooling and loving that.  She has taken up reining and has a super nice horse Doc, that she is doing very well on. She is working for her trainer for a bit, shadowing a veterinary anesthetist for a few days and going to a lot of shows, showing Doc and Jango.   
 
Rachel has also taken up reining and has found a beautiful palomino mare that she loves riding.  She won a breeding to a very good reiner and this spring her black mare Ciroc had a really pretty filly, that is already showing signs of being super athletic.
 
I am still showing Jango and we are enjoying a lot of success.  I nearly lost him in March, he wasn't feeling well, I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, but I knew he wasn't right.  We took him to Performance Equine Associates in Thackerville, OK and they treated him for three days before it became obvious that he was not going to improve.  It came down to doing exploratory surgery to find out what was wrong and praying it was something that could be fixed.  Thankfully it was a "simple" colon twist, easily fixed and after 10 days total in hospital, he came home.  I was absolutely stressed out, the possibility of losing him, the worry about the cost of his care--but everything worked out and he is back showing again.  Marilynn showed him at the SE OK 4H District show this past Tuesday, June 5th, and he stood Grand Champion and is headed to state at the end of the month.  We have mad a couple of shows since his surgery recovery and he has won both of them.  We missed the Redbud Classic this year, but are headed to the Athens Jubilee, in July. 
So when I have something else that may be interesting I'll share!   See you then. 

Life throws you curves

I guess I look at this blog as a diary, I was never good at writing in a diary my life isn't exciting enough for anyone to be interested!  But I do think that like a diary, maybe someday my kids or grandkids might find it and be happy to read some of my thoughts.
I know I wish I had asked more questions of  and listened more carefully to the stories my grand and great-grandparents told. I remember bits and pieces but wish I had more.
I don't write here often, but life has brought some large changes, what I thought were awful has turned into something really good.
My knees gave out, I can't ride. Now riding is what I do, I miss it terribly.  I fell into a bad funk, not really depression, but I lost interest in life, just sat around watching tv and vegging.  That led to a bad scare a double pulmonary embolism and a week stay in the hospital.   After that I did do some things to get in better shape and get healthier, but I was still missing riding and having something fun to do with my horses.  That is when my husband Tony and daughter Rachel came up with the plan to "find Mom a hobby with horses"  Rachel thought I might enjoy showing at halter.   I had done some small time showing with our babies in the past.  I thought that was an interesting idea, so our search began.  
I found a good home for my little trail mare Missy, and had some funds to start out on.   
Rachel looked on the internet, talked to all our friends and friends of friends searching for just the right horse.  We set a budget and quickly found that halter horses are costly.  Add to that we had several set in stone requirements that had to be met and you have a tough search.  But as luck would have it, we talked to just the right person, who knew just the right person and after looking at several nice horses that just weren't right, we went to look at a 3 year old sorrel gelding.  I have to say it was love at first sight, and after getting him out and leading him around on a cool blustry day, I knew we had found "just the right one"!

 My Jango was perfect, a sweet natured, calm, easy going fellow that was beautiful.  He had already been in the show pen and had a successful halter career with his former owner, so he was "trained".  His sweet temperment was going to allow me to have him at home and fit him my self. One of our most important requirements.  We called Tony and told him our search was over!  Jango was so perfect we didn't even try to bargin, we bought him and ran!  
Two weeks after getting him home, we went to our first AQHA show in Bryan, TX.  I was so nervous, I knew Jango was plenty good enough to compete, but ME? I wasn't sure I knew exactly what I was doing!  But trooper that he is, Jangs took care of me,

I can't tell you the thrill I got when he won his class and stood grand champion!   

Since that show, we have been to a lot more over the summer.  We placed third at the Level One Championship Show in OKC.

 I was really happy about that because the two horses that placed over Jango were out of trainers barns, fit by professionals. To stand 3rd in that competition, doing it on my own meant a lot.
He has won 2 circut championships,

multiple grand champion ribbons,  the Oklahoma 4H State Grand Champion Gelding 5 & under,

the Amatuer and Open year end champion at OkHSA and as of today is leading the OQHA amatuer standings.  He  had a really nice story written about him on the online AQHA Journal.

    
But even more than all this, he has lived up to his registered name
LIFE SAVERS.  Because of him, I have rekindled my passion for horses, became much more active, I am in much better shape mentally and physically than ever.   As far as my familyand I are concerned, he has really been my life saver.  

Spring again

Here it is spring ,or what passes for spring here in Oklahoma, once again.  I've worked over my flower beds, consolidating and removing a few.  Less work for me as I get older I find I am less interested in how my yard looks!  If I ever win the lotto, (which in my case in NOT going to happen, I don't buy tickets! ) I will hire a professional landscaper and a full time gardener to take care of my yard.  Then all I will have to do is smell the flowers and admire the beauty.  Tony and I have worked the trails here on Coyote Run, they are all ready for me to get out and start riding.  I haven't spent much time on Missy since fall, I have always been a fair weather rider, and now I am even more so. 

Joshua has been invited back to play with the select team he was on last summer.  He wants to play, so we will be travelling again this summer.  His school baseball team finished 2nd in regionals this spring.  He seems to be doing well at the new school.  I think he will come stay with us some this summer and work with Tony in the shop.  I am still dealing with all that happened last fall.  It is getting better, since I decided that I should take care of the things that I can and let the rest go. 

Rachel is excited, she and Michael have decided that having a foal next spring would be a fun thing.  She is trying to get Cieroc in foal.  I miss having the foals around, they were fun ONCE they got here! (:

We moved my Mom from Tyler to Athens, something my sister and I have been hoping to do for quite a while.  I hope Mom likes the new place.  The room is smaller, and she has to get out and do more for herself at the new place.  I think it will be good for her.  

I'm on a mission to loose some weight--my orthopedic doctor quite kindly told me that was the best thing I could do to keep from having knee replacement surgery a few years down the road.  You'd think that would be enough incentive to get off my butt and exercise, but so far, I find it just as hard to get it done as ever.  I have managed to loose 9 pounds, I am happy about that. 

This has been a year of change for my family-my daughter got married, bringing a wonderful son-in-law and two beautiful granddaughters to the family.  We have or will shortly have two baby boys added to the East Texas family, we have regained relationships that were flagging, and I guess the biggest change- has been the living arrangements for our grandson Josh, he has chosen to go live with his father.  I'm sure that this will have an impact on the time he will get to spend with us, and our involvement in his life.  But, it was his choice and life does go on.  I wish him well and hope he is happy. 
I struggled with his decision, even though I could not do anything about it, I felt in some strange way that he had betrayed my husband and me.   I am very good at saying "don't worry about things you can't do anything about "good advice, hard to follow.  Thanks to my sister, Jan, I came to realize that all this had nothing to do with me, or Tony, or even our daughter, it was all about Josh.  It is time for me to let go, stop worrying about things I can't control and move on.  Josh is a good kid, smart and kind hearted, he'll be fine.    

SUMMERTIME

Wow summer is almost here--I don't get on here and write much, don't even know if anyone ever reads it.  School is out, Josh is spending two weeks with us, working in Tony's shop, earning some money and learning to weld as well has plan out a project and get it set up .  He has been playing baseball of course.  His select team qualified for state and they played this last weekend.  Finished up 3rd in the state--Josh got to pitch in a couple of the games and did very well.  He also made some ESPN highlight plays defensively, including a double play on second, two outs all by himself!  His  batting was good and he knocked in several RBI over the two days of playing.  Mostly for the rest of the summer, he'll be playing summer ball for the high school jv, scrimmages just for practice.   He's getting a lamb for ag project this year-looking now, Rachel's ag teacher from her high school days, is helping him locate one.  He'll be spending some more time with us after he gets back from church camp--we still have plenty of chores for him to do.

I've been doing a little trail riding, you have to be up and ready to go early to avoid the heat.  Rachel is teaching summer school this year, so that has limited out riding time. 

Our little Jack Russell terrier-Maddy- is keeping us entertained.  For such a little thing (8lbs) she has a huge personality and keeps us laughing with her antics.  The other dogs try to give her a wide berth-but she insists on pestering them--the boys leave her alone mostly, Lilly just lets her do whatever, but Sissy and Maddy get into it from time to time.  The thing is Maddy doesn't have any  back down, no matter that she is the smallest of all our dogs. 

This June Tony and I celebrated our  45th wedding anniversary.  Doesn't seem all that long ago to me--but when I look in the mirror--I get a reality check!  Seems like 45 years is almost a record setting event these days.  Mostly it's been good--I think I'll keep him.