Two Kids and a Tubal

Today is my husband and mine 12 year anniversary. It seems so hard to believe that it has been 12 years since I walked down the aisle and married my WONDERFUL husband. To celebrate we went to dinner at the Rodizio Brazilian Grill in downtown Fort Collins. It was fun to have dinner without kids for a change. We just got to sit and eat, enjoy the food and the atmosphere. I am rather fond of meat, so this was a great choice. They bring skews after skews of meat to your table for you to try. They had glazed ham and bacon wrapped chicken and tenderloin. It was VERY TASTY!! I bit expensive, but we had saved and knew that going in. They also have a salad bar that had one of the best crab salads I've tasted. After dinner we went to Barnes and Noble (our favorite store) and wandered around (again without kids). We were able to actually look at books rather than just run in and out, as the kids get a little bored just looking a books, unless it to books for them of course ;). The general man...

This past week my brother-in-law's mother Donna Francis left this earth for a better place. Today was her funeral and unfortunately since it was in Florida my family and I were unable to attend. It brings to mind just how fragile life really is. Donna was diagnosed with cancer in July and battled bravely for many months. She was only 57 and we will miss her terribly. My sister and brother-in-law have only been married for about 2 years so I was just getting to know Donna, but I could see that she was a devoted mother and wife. I'm sure she would have been a FABULOUS grandma and although she is not physically here I know she will be a wonderful guide to her future grandchildren, as she continues to be a guide to those she loved. As I think about the time we spent together my mind is drawn to two specific instances. The first was a shopping spree with my mother, sister and Donna. My sister and mother are "power shoppers" and were busy shopping ‘til they dropped. At the ...

Hello all! I am SO happy because all of my Christmas decorations are FINALLY up! The tree is decorated, the little village is up and all the associated little figurines, my nativity, and the outdoor lights (this one is all thanks to my dad). I am so happy I decided to take last Wednesday off while my parents were here. They helped me get it all up and it took no time at all!! The stockings and cookies are awaiting Santa's arrival! I just LOVE Christmas, but I must admit that I have a little trouble getting in the mood until all of my decorations are up, and since that consists of about 20 medium size Tupperware containers, and five Christmas trees (three are small and require no decorations (not sure if they count)), this is no small task. But with help I was able to get it all done and we are no longer the Bah Humbug house on the block! Yippee!! Well I must run, I have to finish up some last minute shopping. Hope all of you are enjoying the season!

Hello my very wonderful followers! I'm back! :) I finished a few of those holiday musts. First I got all my Christmas cards mailed! YIPPEE!! This takes quite some time as I send nearly 80 cards and they all include a Christmas letter, photo, and the occasional special item for a few family members. I am also advocate for writing all the address on the card. There is something impersonal about printing the address on labels. I just can't do it. So they all got stuffed, addressed, stamps and return address labels affixed and mailed!! I also finished all my Christmas shopping. I think!?!? I say I think because inevitably I forgot something or this is just one more thing we want to get for so and so. So YIPPEE, again. Yesterday I spent all day in a baking extravaganza (about 300 cookies) for all the people in my office. It took so long that my husband actually took over and finished them for me, because my son was not happy unless mommy was holding him. This is fairly typical when ...

I have to admit that I have been struggling writing my blog as of late. I have started about three or four blogs, but have ever published them. I am feeling very uninspired. I think some of that is due to stress in my life with the holidays coming and finances being tight. I hope to get back on the blogging train very soon. I hope you all can understand and will continue to follow me. Thanks to all of you! Happy Holidays!

First let me apologize for not posting in so long. I am not sure where all the days go, but they sure do go by quickly. I just had to post today to get out some frustration. This year our money to buy our kids Christmas was dependent upon if I got a Christmas bonus or not. Now it has been a tradition where I work, but with the economic downturn I wasn't so sure. I am very thankful for the fact that my company was generous enough to continue this tradition. So once it was direct deposited (today) I could start my Christmas shopping. I headed out to the Toys R Us website to get the stuff I had planned on my Christmas spreadsheet. (I know who keeps a spreadsheet of their Christmas presents....nerds like me... that's who!) Anyway I started out and couldn't get my son's GeoTrax Grand Central Rail & Road System Station into the cart. I was finally successful and then went to find that the iCarly 9-in-1 Kit for Nintendo DS for my daughter was sold out. So I instead I repla...

As I mentioned last Friday we had a meeting with the principal about moving our daughter into a new 1st grade classroom based on the incompetence of her current teacher. Well after a bit of a lashing about how it was our entire fault that he had to move her to a new classroom, he agreed to and our daughter started the new classroom on Monday. I cannot express in words the difference we have already seen. For starters the new teacher ripped out a BUNCH of pages in our daughter's workbook. Apparently the other teacher had them do the pages, but he NEVER looked them over to see if they were done or if they did them correctly. In her class she walks around the classroom to make sure that they are doing the work correctly. The new teacher also reads with during class. So our daughter gets reading time in her reading group and with her teacher. The new teacher also sends home additional activities to do with the books she reads. For example, she sent home a sheet where they write five fa...

I must confess I've been keeping a secret from my blog followers. For about the past month my husband has been going through the process of becoming a police officer in our local community. He got past the application process, which was not small feat since nearly 500 applied and they only passed about 100 through to the testing process. He then passed the test and was moved on to what they call the board interview. Today was his board interview and he did not make it past this round. We are all VERY disappointed. However, with our disappointment comes a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. The gentlemen who were on the board told my husband that he would be a good police officer he was intelligent, and had the necessary attributes, but he just needed a better understanding of what a police officer does. They suggested he go on ride alongs with the local police department. So he is working on scheduling a ride along and learning more about the day to day activities of a po...

A few weeks ago I began to prepare for Christmas by having the annual family picture taken. Now I have completed step two, I have designed, ordered and received this year's Christmas card. I say "THE" Christmas card, because over the last several years I have taken it upon myself to design out Christmas card. The keys have been to include not only a picture of the family, but also pictures of all our animals. This is a big challenging as we a number of animals to include. For the past 2 years I have done the traditional 4x8 photo card, but this year I decided to tackle the 5x7 Christmas card. This card included designing the front and the inside. It was a lot of work, but in the end I really liked the final product. I received them in the mail last week and they look great! I got they printed using VistaPrint. (BTW I have not been asked by VistaPrint to endorse they products and I am not being paid to do so.) I love VistaPrint! I always get great quality at a reasonable p...

I am not sure if this is all 1st graders or if it is just my daughter, but she just moves SO slow. When you ask her to walk quickly it looks more like a saunter and when you say "Hurry!" she says, "I am!" I have tried getting her up earlier so that we don't have to rush, but she seems to take up every available minute regardless of how early I get her up. I have put a clock in her bathroom to help her with time. I thought that if I told her you need to be out of the shower by this time and have your clothes on by this time that she maybe could meet those times. Well I was wrong. I put her in the shower and gave her 15 minutes to complete her shower. When I came back in to check on her 20 minutes later she said, "Mom the clock moves faster than I do." I try to encourage her along and give her ample time to do things, but she is just slow. Does anyone else have kids like this? What has been your solution? I am looking for some help here. Thanks and have ...

So I am sorry, but I must rant some more about the process my husband and I have been going through trying to move our daughter into another 1st grade classroom. After our discussion with the principal, he required a meeting with the teacher. So we agreed to it. Last week we met with the teacher and the principal. In this meeting the teacher: Admitted he didn't know how the other teachers were managing to fit art into their days and also did not know how they were integrating their classrooms. The new rules the district had placed on him made it so he could no longer include these things. ACTION PLAN: Talk to the other teachers to basically learn how to teach 1st grade. We stated that our plan was to remove our daughter from his class, to which he replied "If you are going to be riding my back all year, then you might as well move her now." Finally, he changed his story about the incident with our daughter and missing reading group. Our daughter has always maintained that...

As I write this post I am gathering as much information as I can about the shooting at Fort Hood and I am doing so with tears in my eyes. My brother-in-law is stationed at Fort Hood and to my knowledge he is OK and has not been injured in this incident. We are very thankful for that. However, I am sickened by the entire event. I am shocked that soldiers could shoot soldiers. Why would someone begin shooting soldiers that were getting ready to deploy at the readiness facility? This is a truly tragic event. So many lives have been tragically changed. Being a resident of Colorado and at the time attending the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, I was very near to the tragic events of Columbine High School. This event brings back awful memories of that day and the poor families and children who were forever affected. I am not sure of the motive behind the shooting today at Fort Hood, but it brings to mind a topic that I think is very important and that is the topic of mental wellness. Very...

Since the beginning of the year my husband and I have had misgivings about my daughter's teacher. To begin with on the second day of school he had the students come home and beat on their chests while spelling the word "the". When we asked Makayla why she was doing this she could not explain the purpose of beating her chest and to top it off she was hitting herself so hard she was getting hurt. The next day he proceeded to ask the students which of the parents thought he was crazy. Makayla raised her hand because we thought that the act was rather strange and we could not figure out the point. When she told us he asked the class that, we were quite upset and thought this an odd line of questioning for 6 year-olds. For this next bit I need to provide some additional information. For her class, the teacher uses green, yellow, and red cards to indicate how the students are behaving. If they have one small infraction, like talking too much they have to change their card to ye...

In case you hadn't heard Colorado is getting a HUGE snow storm that will last Wednesday and Thursday. My home town is expected to get between 12 and 24 inches of snow. Needless to say I was not sure if I would be able to leave for my meeting in Atlanta. When the flight still showed "on-time" this morning, I packed my bags and began the SLOW drive to the airport. As I watched the time pass by as I drive ever slowly I wondered if I would make it. When I got on the road that takes you into the airport it showed that the garages were full, which meant I had to park outside in economy. Then it took FOREVER just to find a space. I think the economy lot was nearly full as well. As I got out of the car, I saw the shuttle that takes you up to the main building. I quickly grabbed my suitcase and ran through snow and wind to get to the shuttle before he left. As I was running and just before I got the bus, I thought "Did I lock the car?". Well since I couldn’t' got bac...

For Mindless Monday I wanted to share a photo of my little Frankenstein and Pioneer girl. They had a great time at 2 safe trick or treats this week. Hope you all have a safe week!

This morning I was helping my 6-year old daughter get dressed as we were in a hurry. She is a bit of a slow poke and so if we want it done quickly we have to help her. She has school pictures today, so we had chosen a green striped turtleneck sweater for her to wear. As I pulled the sweater over her head I said, "Where's Makayla?" and then when her face appeared I said "There she is." She quickly replied, "Mom, I have not a baby anymore. That is something you say to babies." I was shocked and even though I realized she is 6-years old, I didn't expect that kind of response from her. To be honest I almost cried. She is growing up so fast. This morning I looked at some older pictures of her. What a cutie she is (not that I am biased). As I took a walk down memory lane I found pictures of her taking pony riding lessons 2 summers ago. She had a great time. I took lunch early so she and I could do it together. We got to brush, saddle, and ride the ponies...

So I'm brining back Travelin' Thursday and this time I'd like to highlight a BEAUTIFUL castle located in the heart of Toronto, Casa Loma. This one of a kind castle was built at the beginning of the 1900's by a wealthy businessman. It has a wonderful story and because of the bad business dealings was never finished. Make sure to plan plenty of time to see the entire facility (at least 4 hours) and the audio tour is a MUST. The property includes the castle itself, 5 acres of gardens, a stable, carriage house, green house, and potting room. The audio tour takes you through the entire residence, through tunnels and outside in the gardens. The story behind this home is fastinating a real riches to rags story of love, life and the whole darn mess. The castle was constructed over 3 years with nearly 300 workers. Be sure to stop by and view the 10-15 minute video presentation before beginning your tour. It provides background on the gentleman that build the home and the constru...

I have had a rough couple of days. I've been a bit depressed. When I get in this mind set I like to try and think of all the wonderful things I have. One of those wonderful things is my husband of nearly 12 years. So, today I'd like to provide a list about why I have the greatest husband in the world. So here goes a short list. 1. He cooks ALL meals! 2. He is a stay at home dad that has to balance working with his dad and taking care of our two kids. 3. He keeps the house running while I am traveling on business. 4. He puts up with my need for LOTS of animals. 5. He loves me even when I'm cranky. 6. He brings me flowers to try and cheer me up. 7. He does the laundry and although it is my job to fold it, even folds it sometimes when the kids only want mommy. 8. He keeps me balanced when I (occasionally and I'm not saying that I do) overreact. 9. He can always make me smile when I'm grumpy. 10. He is the best father to my kids. 11. He vacuums the house. This is just a...

Over the past several days I have had the pleasure of spending special time with my husband and my daughter. Today was a GREAT day! My daughter and I had time with just the two of us. We went to a local pottery painting shop and each picked a piece to paint. My daughter painted a little bunny and I painted my son a blue and brown checked piggy bank. I will post pictures when I get them back. It was so nice for just the two of us to do something together. I think we need to do this more often as lately I think my daughter feels like her little brother is getting extra attention. In fact I have already scheduled our mother/daughter time for the month of November. We are going to see The Lord of the Dance. She is very excited about this as she and I take clogging lessons. We are planning a full evening including dressing up! While dressing up is not my thing, it is my daughter's thing and for her we will do it together. Last Thursday, my husband and I went to the movies, for the first...

Like most moms I have been trying to lose 15 lbs for about well I guess 14 months now. I say that because my son is now 20 months old and it takes at least 6 months for me to get to a "normal" weight again. What it boils down to is I need to exercise. Not just to lose weight, but to be healthy for my kids. My biggest problem is finding the time. It is amazing to me that exercise and taking care of me always seems to fall to the bottom of the list. I find time to reorganize my daughter's clothes moving summer clothes to the Tupperware containers and winter clothes onto hangers. I have time to watch my favorite program on TV. I have time to do all sorts of things, but no exercise. I keep telling myself that the best and only time is EARLY in the morning. As an FYI, I am NOT (I repeat NOT) a morning person. But I only need to get up about 40 minutes early for a 30 minute workout. I have even TiVo'd a number of workout programs off of FIT TV. And yet, I have not even watc...

For mindless Monday I wanted to share a picture I actually took last February, but I just love it and since it snowed over 6"inches here over the weekend I thought it appropriate. Here are my daughter and son watching the snow fall! I think this is just a precious picture! Hope you all had a GREAT Monday! Thanks again to all my new followers! You all are WONDERFUL!

First I'd like to say "HI" to all my new followers. Thank you so much for following my blog!! So I must confess that I cannot cook. I often think to myself what kind of mom can't cook, and occasionally I feel bad about this. If it weren't for my husband I think my kids and I would have to live on cereal. So people say, oh you can cook, you just don't try. Well let me tell you a little story about my first beef stew. My husband and I had been married maybe a month and I decided I would be the perfect wife and make a stew that would be ready when he got back from choir practice. So I pulled out the cookbook. (A good place to start, right?) It called for stew meat, which we had. So I pulled it from the freezer, and thawed it a bit in the micro and then floured it and placed the meat in the bottom of the stew pot to cook. I then looked at the rest of the recipe, and I was missing a few things. I did not have any potatoes, but I did have a can of peas. So I would s...

I know I said that I was done blogging about WDW, well I was wrong. I got to thinking that aside from the actual parks there are additional considerations to be made and that was the source of today's blog, whether or not to stay on the WDW property. I have actually done both. For our honeymoon we stayed on WDW resort and for this last family vacation we stayed off the resort. Let's start with staying on the WDW property. This is a GREAT option with several benefits. First of all, you can get all of your transportation needs taken care of, which is the primary reason my husband and I chose to stay there. We were married at 19, so we were too young to rent a car. A WDW van picked us up from the airport, we rode the WDW busses to all the property locations during the week, and a WDW van took us back to the airport when it was time to leave. This is a very big perk, because you don't have to try and find parking at the park and at the end of the day you typically don't hav...

This past weekend we had the annual family picture taken. I am sure most of you moms are familiar with the event. You go clothes searching for three or four months to find the perfect set of clothes that all match and come in the appropriate sizes. Then you fret and worry about how to get everyone ready and how make sure the little ones have been napped and fed appropriately so they are happy at the time of the appointment. For this year we decided on dark green, brown, and oatmeal for the colors. Then I decided it would be fun to put my daughter’s hair in sponge rollers so she had curly hair for the pics. Finally we had planned to have our pictures taken outside because in Colorado we have such beautiful fall colors. So the clothes and the hair worked out perfectly, but the weather did not cooperate. When I awoke Sunday morning is was cloudy and drizzly and the grayness stretched from north to south and east to west. PANIC!!! Where to take the pictures now? Luckily my mother-in-law...

Today I had to post a picture of my "little" pony, because all I want to do today is go out to the barn and brush and groom her. Magic is small for a horse. She is only a little over 14 hands, but her "mareish" attitude makes up for her small size. Magic is a beautiful black and white paint. She is about 7 years old. All my life I have loved horses and having her is the fulfillment of one of the items on my bucket list. Have a wonderful week! Enjoy the fall weather!

I am totally befuddled (not sure on that spelling). My 6-year old stole money from her Grandpa's truck last night so she could buy some books at the school library sale. I was totally mortified and wondered where I have gone so wrong in raising her. How could my child ever steal? Did we tell her that was the wrong thing to do? I think I have totally failed as a parent and she is only 6! Only the "bad" kids steal right? Only the ones whose parents don't care a lick? But we do care and we do want her to be good. We try so hard to make sure she says Please and Thank you and is kind to others. We make sure she does her homework and read with her every night. So where did we go wrong? Why when she knew where the money was did she say, "Grandpa won't care. Just take some." She admitted she knew it was wrong and did it anyway. I suppose that is what is most upsetting is that she didn't care it was wrong. I am SO upset I just don't know what else to say....

I am simply amazed at the divorce rate in this country. I am not sure what is happening, but I think it is the simple fact that no one tells you that marriage is work. I have been married for nearly 12 years, and while we have had some wonderful times, neither my husband nor I are perfect and it has taken a good bit of work on both our parts to make this marriage work. I feel like in this day of instant satisfaction we expect that in every aspect of our lives including from our spouse. When the "new" wears off we just get rid of it. Right? With your cell phone company you only have to keep that phone for 2 years and then you can trade it in on a brand new fancy one. When you want information, you go out to the internet and get it NOW. And so it goes instant gratification. Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when the "new" of being married wears off the work begins. (I have to jump on my soap box now.) When you and your spouse looked at each other you said ...

Today is a day I'd just like to dig a hole and lie in it. I got up extra early today so we could go to school to look for my daughter's book bag. For your information my daughter has a nightly "book bag" that she brings home with her books to read for that evening. It also includes a sign off sheet which we sign and send back the next day to prove she did her nightly reading. When Makayla came home yesterday her books were not in her usual bag. When I asked why, she said it was because she didn't have it. SO we searched the house high and low and uncovered nothing. As I began to think about it I realized it was NOT in her backpack on Friday. So I assumed it must be at school (the reason for getting up early). Even though I got out of bed 40 minutes before I usually do and got Makayla up 40 minutes before her usual time, we were still late out the door. I went in the school with her and we looked all over to no avail. Then I had to talk to her teacher, who informed...

For mindless Monday I thought I would share some pictures I took of some flowers at Casa Loma in Toronto, ON Canada. This is a beautiful place and a must visit. Maybe I should highlight this location for Travelin' Thursday? Enjoy and have a great week!

Our final park is Disney Hollywood Studios. When we visited this park we were focused on riding the two key rides, Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller coaster. Consequently we missed out on some of the other attractions at this park. I will write about what we and visited and I will also highlight some of the things we missed. To start we talked this park counter clockwise, because of the location of the Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller coaster. Both of these rides had fairly short lines upon arrival, so we got in line and once we were done with the ride we went and got Fast Passes for later in the day. I'll start with the Rock 'n' Roller coaster. This is the BEST roller coaster in the Disney Park. You are catapulted through a loop and several spirals in the dark as you listen to Aerosmith. During the development of this ride the engineers worked tirelessly putting the music to the ride. They did a FABULOUS job and this ride definitely ROCKS!! Next we wen...

I often wonder why I feel the need to change my hair, which inevitably results in a style only my stylist can fix. I will just get my hair grown out and then I will decide that is looks “awful” and just needs to be cut. A pony tail is not a style! So then I get an appointment as soon as possible, because I “just can’t stand it anymore” and hurray to the store to get a new hairstyle magazine. I then spend hours going over and over the pictures in the book picking out several that I like. Then I take those to the stylist and ask her which one will work and we proceed to “whack off” what I’ve been working on for the better part of 2 or 3 years! At the end she whirls me around and whal-la all is fixed right? No more “awful” hair. And for that brief moment that is correct. I feel so much better and my hair looks great. Then comes the morning after. I wake up the next day and it begins in the shower, as I shampoo my hair I realize just how much hair I got rid of yesterday. Did I go too far? ...

I thought I would put in one of my favorite pictures of my husband taken at Animal Kingdom during our visit there last December. My husband is simply wonderful. He is a working/stay at home dad. He takes care of everything while I'm away on business trips. He makes me laugh when I'm all "wound up". He picks up Makayla at after school. He does it all!! I can't ever thank him enough. So I post this pictures instead. It shows he fun loving personality.

I just realized I had not thanked Thais for this BEAUTIFUL blog. It is just wonderful and I can't thank her enough! If you need a blog redesign be sure to contact her ( http://olivinadesignhouse.blogspot.com/ ). She takes all of your visions and makes them a reality. I am struggling to get followers and I am not sure how to make this group grow. Any suggestions? I think that is it for today. My grandpa is having surgery on an aneurism, so extra prayers would be greatly appreciated. Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

This week I am featuring Animal Kingdom. This is a fabulous park. Keep in mind that this is largest (in total area) of all the parks and it has the shortest park hours. This park is divided into 7 areas: Oasis Discovery Island® area Camp Minnie-Mickey Africa Rafiki's Planet Watch® area Asia Dinoland, U.S.A.® area We decided to tackle this park based on the rides we wanted to do and the wait times associated with those rides. For that reason we went directly to Asia, because it has both the Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest. We decided to go on Kali River Rapids first for two reasons: The wait times can get REALLY long, even though they do offer a Fast Pass. The ride gets you WET and wanted time to dry off. As a side note, this ride gets you REALLY WET. It turns out my daughter does not like to be wet. So, if you have a child that doesn’t like to get wet I would advise against this ride. My daughter complained for hours about being wet. We eventually had to purchase her a ne...

As we all know paying your bills on time is key, especially for your credit score’s sake. However, I wanted to share a little experience that I had. Our family is a paycheck to paycheck family. Often times I am a little short or waiting for money to come in when a bill is due. At first I sacrificed everything for the bill to be there on the due date, but in the end I usually would pay many overdraft fees on my other transactions just to get the bill paid. Please do not think I am advocating not to pay your bills on time, but if you find yourself between a rock and a hard place these things in mind: Most of the time the late fee on a particular bill is less than the sum of overdraft fees you would be charged from the bank for additional transactions coming in. For example, most late fees are a small percentage (2-5%) of the bill, while overdraft fees are usually $25-$35 per transaction. Late payments are usually only reported to the credit bureau if they are 30 days overdue. So you are ...

The title says it ALL the balance between work and my family is out of whack, and last night topped it off for me. We had our business partner in town for a meeting. They had brought people from all over the globe in for this meeting. As is common for the business world, at the end of the day we all went out for dinner. Since I get to set the schedule, we set dinner start time for 5:30 pm in hopes we would be done early. Well I was WRONG! We didn't leave the restaurant until after 8:00 pm!!! By the time I got home my daughter was in bed asleep. That is when it really hit me. I did not get to talk about her day. I wasn't there to help with homework. I wasn't there to read with her. I just WASN'T THERE PERIOD!!! This really upset me, but I can't see a way to change. I have to work and since I'm in sales and marketing, these dinners and the travel are part of my job description. I guess I am just feeling like I'm missing out on a big part of my kids lives becau...

I must admit that EPCOT is my FAVORITE park. I love learning about all the cultures, eating the food and seeing the performers. That being said here are my suggestions in regards to the EPCOT. When we went last December, we had my daughter who was 5 at the time. If you have a little girl, then the lunch with the princesses is a MUST. You have to make reservations for this and even though we called 5 months in advance, there was only one time remaining on the day we were going to EPCOT. Before you are seated you get to meet a princess, get their autograph, and have a picture taken. For our visit this princess was Belle. We had purchased a princess autograph book for our daughter and a princess pen. She LOVED it and got all the princesses autographs throughout the lunch and during on entire visit at Walt Disney World. While you are eating four different princesses visit your table and pose for pictures. Our princesses were Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, Alice, and Cinderella. Here is a link a...

Today for Why Wednesday, I'd like to post a poem I wrote called "Why?". My family is going through some struggles right now. Although these struggles are not serious, i.e. health, they are putting a strain on my family and although I know it will all work itself out in the wash, it is not making things any easier right now. I hope you enjoy my poem and that maybe it can help you through tough times as it has me. There are times in life we question why, A loving God makes us cry. In these times the road of life, Is filled with turmoil and strife. And even though the times are hard, We must remember it is in the cards. The good times and the bad, The happy and the sad. Always in our times of grief, The Lord is providing relief. So when the times are more than you can bear, Look up to heaven and know He is there. Waiting for a simple prayer, To ask Him for His loving and precious care. -S. Canfield Copyright 2007

I promised on my first blog to tell you the story of how I got my horse Black Magic. I can't find a better day than today to do that. From the paper work I have on her she was sold at an auction as a 2-year old with a puffy knee. The couple who bought her put her in a pasture with another horse. Some series of unfortunate events occurred with the couple and the man was removed from the location with the horses. It was my understanding that he did most of the work with the horses. The woman was no very familiar with horses and it turns out the Magic did not like her at all. Magic would chase the woman around the field biting and kicking at her. In the end the woman could not take it anymore and put Magic in the paper. The ad said "Free to anyone who can catch her." Thankfully this ad was read by the founder and president of Denkai Animal Sanctuary Floss Blackburn. Floss and her team went to the property and spent an entire day trying to get Magic loaded. They finally did ...