A Very Good Wekend

Our girl came home this weekend! Although we've seen her a couple of times in 2 quick 30 minute bursts, she  hasn't been home since January. She's juggling 18 hrs of pre-vet classes with 35 hrs of work at an equine breeding farm...Sat. and Sun. included. We miss her a lot, but we're proud of how she is juggling things as well as her work ethic.

On her way home, she made a detour to meet someone for a summer job interview. It's an amazing opportunity for her and she got the job! More on that later. :)

Our girl's best friend is getting married in June and she came down for the wedding shower. Her sweet sister and sister-in-law hosted a beautiful shower. J - you outdid yourself.  Shame on me for not taking pictures! We were having way too much fun to even think about it, until this moment reminded us that some things simply NEED to be captured on film:

 I've spoken before about Grandma Lillian. She is our 90-yr old neighbor - the voice of reason and wisdom in this part of the woods. Well, on Friday I offered to pick her up and give her a ride to the shower. I adore and respect this dear lady so very much and any opportunity to spend time with her is one I will bend over backwards to take.

One of the games we played required we form groups and choose someone to be 'it'. No other information was given so I suggested that Grandma Lillian be 'it' in our group. Then we were handed a massive roll of toilet paper and told to dress our bride. Oh, Lordy!  What had I done? But do you know that dear, dear lady was just the BEST sport and dare I say, she enjoyed herself immensely!

The darling gal on the right is the real bride-to-be : we think the world of her:

Grandma Lillian even shimmied!

You should have heard the hootin' and hollerin' going on in that house- land sakes, we had a time!

After we finished the dress Grandma Lillian piped up, "Where's the groom!", which as you can imagine lead to another round of uncontrollable laughter.

When I grow up, I want to be just like Grandma Lillian.

We also managed to squeeze in a late night of fun at the ranch rodeo, a bit of  last minute sewing for the shower gift,

 a feed run with Daddy, a night of supper and UFC fights at a friend's house, and a good long visit with our boy in Okinawa via Skype.

We grilled steaks, made pizza from scratch,

smoked pork and chicken, dined on Waffles of Insane Greatness, whipped up a batch of breakfast pockets,

and baked a batch of peanut butter - chocolate chip cookies.

All of this was mixed in with copious amounts of laughter and love.

I'd say that makes for a good weekend. Let's make that a VERY good weekend. A very good weekend indeed.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

I had to make a trip to Lubbock last week and I took a detour from my destination and wound up in an antique store. Funny how that happens. I had so much fun browsing the aisles. I never take the time to meander like that. I'm always on a tear when I'm in town, trying to get out as quickly as I can. :)

Wish I had thought to take a picture of the store. I could have spent a couple of days in there. I was looking for some shutters. No luck there, but I did find something I simply could not resist. I think that's what happens in these stores:

I'm normally very level-headed and I don't make purchases on a whim, but in this instance, I didn't think twice.I just love the detail on the top:

And the way the little cast iron top slides open to receive the beans:

And the little dovetailing:

Do I NEED a coffee grinder? No. In fact, although I love the smell of coffee, I can not stand the taste of it. However, this little coffee grinder now sits in my dining room cabinet and its rather silly how much it makes me smile.

                          

I am always entertained by the things that catch my eye in these shops.  This sign made me chuckle:

Of course I can't pass up a closer look at a sweet quilt:

                                                            

A collection of children's books caught my eye as well. I love children's books.

And this display was set up like a vintage pharmacy:

I was also entertained by this book:

I almost bought it because I thought it would make for fun reading. I just flipped to a few pages and I was highly entertained by the entries I read:

Servants? I cannot imagine. :) AND a governess?

A children's nurse?

I think we could lump all of these titles together, tack on a few more, and I think the proper name would be Mama. :)

This paragraph made me chuckle loud enough that the owners walked all the way to the back corner to see why I was laughing. I just love the way it is written.

After an hour and a half, I had to drag myself away and tackle town, but I thoroughly enjoyed stepping back in time and my little treasure will remind me of a simpler time. I wish it could talk because I know it would have a story to tell and I would love to hear it.

I wonder if it would scoff at our so called progress:
                                     

Lately

I may have to begin publishing these weekly again in order to get something posted here on a regular basis.

1. I worked a horse sale on Saturday and they have a potluck during horse sales so I made O'Henry Bars and Texas Caviar the day before as my contribution.

2. I took on another little job, but I get to work from home. Sorry, cant tell you about it yet, but it's taking up some time. However, I am having a BALL. :)

3. Had a long day at the Sale Barn on Monday and learned  another new job.

4. Taxes. 4 sets. Ick.

5. Kept the sweet kids from the couple at North Camp and enjoyed them so much. Put them to work in my garden. Didn't work them too hard though. :)

6. Had a friend and his awesome girlfriend stop by to look at a horse early one afternoon. He ended up buying him and they stayed until 10:30 that night. Loved every minute. We stood outside by the barn until 6 and I invited them to stay for supper. We're about out of beef so I thought fast and grabbed the cast iron skillet first thing. Grab some green peppers, onions, jalapenos, salsa, cheese, avocados, sour cream, tortillas, and cooked up some chicken and presto! Chicken Fajitas for supper in no time!

7. Spending lots of time on the feed truck with DH

8. Getting the garden planted, cleaning out flower beds and mowing.

9. Filling an empty nest with some new peeps:

10. Taped the living room and started rolling Kilz onto the walls:

11. No sewing. See the above 10 bullet points as to why. :)

Rancher's Hours

Yep. Around here, we keep odd hours. On Friday morning we were loaded and headed out before 3 am.

When we dropped off our girl's horse a few weeks back, we also dropped off our horse trailer for a paint touch up. We ordered the trailer in 2012 and picked it up last year, and although we love everything about it and Joe builds an awesome trailer, we soon noticed a few thin spots in the paint up top and we didn't want rust to start working its way into the metal.Yes, it's a horse trailer, but its a lot of money for us and we'll keep it forever. Joe told us to bring it back and he'd make it right. Customer service is another advantage to dealing with Joe. He's built a top notch business for a reason and if you find yourself in need of a horse trailer, Joe's your man.

We drive a 15 yr old pickup, but we sure have a nice looking horse trailer!

So, back to the present: Joe called and said our trailer was ready so we headed out to pick it up. And the reason for the insane hour was that it would allow us to be back at the ranch before noon, leaving enough hours for us to get a  decent day's work in.

We also squeezed in a very quick breakfast, meeting our girl at 7 (Texas time) at McDonalds before she had to be at work at 7:30.

We were home by 11:30 and I quickly...VERY quickly, pulled together a good dinner before DH had to jump in the feed truck and make his feed run. I had leftover fresh green beans that I warmed up and I pulled out boneless, skinless chicken tenders from the freezer and threw them into a skillet. I like to keep these just for this reason. They cook up really fast, and with the addition of some seasoning, sliced mushrooms, diced bacon, lots of green chile, and some shredded cheese...well, it made for a really yummy meal. I threw together a salad and called it good.

I REALLY wanted to take a nap long about 3 that afternoon, but opted for an early night. I'm fairly certain we were asleep before the sun set.

On Tuesday, we had a repeat performance. We loaded 3 horses at 4 am and hauled them to an equine vet in  Lamesa, 2 1/2 hrs away.

Lamesa is a small west Texas town, but their veterinary practice is not small. Dr. Brock started the clinic 20 years ago and they have 6 vets practicing there now. They are well known for their work with equines and people haul their horses from near and far for their expert care. We took 2 in for lameness evaluation and one that had a really sore ear and we wanted to be sure there wasn't something odd going on. DH had already sedated him and used tick meds, but he was still really sensitive.

After some sedation

Some x-rays

Some clipping and disinfecting:

Some injections

We loaded everyone back up and headed back home.
No Navicular is good news and with a bit of time and a bit of corrective shoeing that DH has already tended to, we're hoping everyone will be back in good form in a couple of months.

And we were once again home by noon. These super early mornings, mean I'll be under the covers before the sun sets because this ranch wife is pooped.