Way, Completely, and Totally off topic!

I just got an update on my sister and her doctor's visit. Thank you for praying for a resolution for this. God has allowed the doctors to find that Tanya has MS before the symptoms are too far along. The doctors were happy that they were able to catch it this early. Right now, they are planning to treat the MS symptoms with injections. These will not cure her or stop the disease but will slow the progression. We now have a hard road ahead. The doctors believe that even though she has caught the disease early, she will still eventually have to go on disability.

This means that one day, Tanya will need to quit her job. Someone will need to take care of her. She is not married and has no prospects. She's in her 30's and my dad is in his 60's. If it takes 15 years for her disease to progress, I may be taking care of my dad and my sis at the same time.

In addition, this also now means that I have two immediate family members that have been diagnosed with MS. My mom was diagnosed when I was 1. She was 28. and she was 48 when she died. I am now 32 and my sister is 34. Since my mom had MS, I had a 1 in 40 chance of getting it. If my sis was a twin, I would have a 1 in 4 chance of getting it. She's not a twin, but I think my chances are now going to be between the two. My sis's doc said it isn't more than 1 in 40.

I also am very concerned about my daughter. She now has 2 close blood relatives that have MS.

I am not looking for sympathy. I am asking for people who pray to say a prayer now and then for my sis and for our family. I also just wanted to be able to verbalize this somewhere besides my family and torturing the poor souls at church about it.

Back on to ranch business. I'm still trying to get rid of the donkey (anyone want it?). I'm still riding at least 1 time a week, usually on Sundays and/or Thursdays. We have finally had a good amount of rain. Our rain gauge has been full several times. I have not had to fill the horse tank lately. It has kept full from the rain. Of course, the horse now has a touch of thrush (but what horse in central Texas doesn't right now?) On the plus side, I went out to give her a carrot, and she RAN to the fence to visit with me. And, my kid's riding again. Every time I have ridden lately, so has she.

Wow!

First I want to ask, does anyone know what the stuff on my window in the picture is? I think I've seen it in a dream before, but that was a long time ago. Whatever it is left 1 mm of water in our fence measuring cup. Weird.

Anyway, if you didn't notice by my lack of blog posts, school started. Between gone until 5:30 pm at the earliest, the kids band practice, our homework, and so on, i have not had time to ride or posts blogs. Not to mention, school's started so our home internet goes down!

I'll try to catch up on everything this weekend.

Day 5...Kinda

I did say that Monday would cause an issue with riding. There it was. I predicted it. I left the house at 7 am-ish. We had all kinds of meetings with for the first day of teacher inservice. I got kind of concerned when they said that I had a math department meeting at 2, another one with a principal at 3, and another with our new "instructional coach" after the principal's meeting. They told us at 4 that the coach was in another meeting until 4 so she would be late - should be there about 4:10 or so. Understand that I have an hour drive, and my kid's in band until 7 and hubby's an hour another direction at an eye appointment at 6. The coach and algebra lead talked at us until 5:45 when I asked if we could continue the discussion tomorrow, that I HAD to go. When I got to the school to get my kid at almost 7, it started raining. I thought it might rain at my house 2 miles away, so I dodn't get the horse out. No such luck with the rain, and my chance to ride was gone.

That was then. Today, I got home at 6 and called to Koda. She came to the fence! So I got her out and brushed her down. I let her graze in the front yard until it was time to get the kid. I tied her in the pasture and didn't really want to ride when I got back. I sucked it up and rode on though. I just rode down the road 1/2 mile and back. I didn't feel like arguing with the bullito (little bull). It was dark when I put her back in the pasture. I took the halter off and she started to walk away, but I grabbed her mane and she hung out a few minutes and let me scratch her all over.

So my week of riding isn't going too well. I didn't get the ride on day 5, but I rode today. I guess if I ride on Wednesday and Thursday, I could maybe fudge the rules a little.

Gotta go, have school work to do.
Enjoy your rides.

Day 4

Success! I rode before church today. The church's ranch rodeo team was practicing in the arena, so I went across the creekbed into the "obstacle course." There are trees and limbs down everywhere there, spooks - you know those scary vines that hang down, and dips and turns. Not to mention the deep creekbed that you have to cross to get there. It's a good 45 degree angle on one side and a little steeper on the other. Koda's doing great! No hesitation over the logs and trees, walked down the creek sides, and was relaxed enough to munch tall grass bits she could reach without stretching.

At church, my hubby preached his first sermon. He is working towards getting a preaching license. I am proud of him. His sermon was called "When you Pray..." and is on the internet on our church's website. The church voted today to sponsor us in the licensing process.

Because hubby was preaching, My dad and Hubby's parents came to town for the church service. They stayed after for dinner and then my kid and I left (we had an 'eat and run') for a back to school party at our church's sponsor church. There was a ton of activities for the kids and one of my best friends came from near San Antonio (a 2.5 hour drive) to bring her kid. Her's and mine went camp together and this was a 'reunion' for those who went. After the games, devotional, door prizes and dinner, the kids went swimming. We got home about 9:45.

Now, it's off to bed. I have to (excuse my language:) work (sorry for that) tomorrow! Good night ya'll .

Day 3 of 7

Ok, so I am trying this week of rides again. I am on day 3. Thursday, I rode at Bible study. Yesterday, our church had a playday and I was on horse most of the evening. I did not participate in the events, but did mostly stay on her from about 6:30-9:30. Today, I saddled up and rode in the pasture a little, took a break for dinner, then rode down the road to the end of the pasture and back. I started at 7 pm and finished after sunset. I have been doing various riding situations. This is good for Koda and me. Tomorrow, I am taking her and riding before church. That's a morning ride, where I have only been doing evening rides. I think I may have her go into the other field. The tricky part will be starting Monday. I begin the work year again. I will be gone from 7 am to at least 5 pm. At least the kids won't be back until next week.

By the way. Update on the fish experiment. Both fish were alive and feisty yesterday. I can't say that they have made any improvement on the algae. A friend asked what I am feeding them. Hehe. I am feeding them algae. They have enough of that, I don't believe that I need to add to it.

Oh what a ...

MARE!
Koda was all mare and trying to be alpha today. And I think she might have won in the feed pen, except that she didn't get any feed. I locked her out of the feed pen because she was being SO disrespectful to me. I loaded her up at 4:30 for the 7pm Bible study. I had a family meeting in town at a local hamburger joint before the Bible study, so I wanted to make sure that I was ready.
Anyway...Koda was in the trailer from 4:30 until about 7:15 and most of that time she was waiting impatiently in the trailer. She was kicking the snot out of the side of the trailer when we walked out of the hamburger joint. We had to make another stop by the school to pick up our kid from band. At the school, Koda was still agitated and was completely covered in sweat, so I let her loose in the big section of the trailer. That didn't work. Then I pulled her out and brushed her down, trying to calm her some. I think it worked a little.
When we got to the church she started prancing in half-circles where she was tied. She continued her attitude a little when I started to ride, then majorly disrespected me at the house. She was pushing past me and moving when I tried to get her back hoof. On the way back to the pasture she was trying to bowl over me and was in my personal bubble. Of course, I did have a scoop of feed in my hand. Since Koda kept getting in my space, I kept pushing her back. She finally got annoyed and ran in to the main part of the pasture. I locked her out of the feed pen so she can't get to that feed. I figure that if she's got the energy to have attitude, she doesn't need grain. She's not lacking in food.

While at the Bible study, I noticed that there were some cattle roaming free on the open church pasture. I asked our arena team leader about it and he said that after the Bible study, he was going to pen them in the arena and load them in his trailer. He got distracted so us ladies decided to do it. So Kyla, Jolita, and I herded them in. I really enjoy doing this type of work with Koda and prefer it to the arena events. I would love to learn how to work cattle with Koda, and be able to put that knowledge to use. With no cattle of my own, and our leasee not "needing help", I don't get any practice doing that work.

On the plus side, I made a beautiful cake today for a 12 yr old's birthday I modeled it off of this cake on the Wilton website. The girl told me she wanted flowers connected with an ivy. She wanted bright pink and deep blue and purple.She got this cake: She loved it and it was gone immediately.
Chop, chop, chomp, goodbye!

Weekend happenin's

We went to the Youth Rodeo hosted by our sponsor church. I was late getting home from my dad's house so we were late to the rodeo. It started at 7:30 and we didn't get there until around 8 or 8:30, just as the straight barrels were finishing. I think we completely missed the clover leaf barrels. They then had all the normal competitions for rodeos. We watched the straight poles firstThe kids did well. I was proud of one girl who took her time and got her horsemanship and the pattern correctly instead of rushing and knocking poles over.

After the poles was goat tying. The goats are tied in the arena and the kids ride in, flip the goat and tie two of the legs. I think I need to learn this so I can deal with our goats better.


This gentleman was the time flagger. He parked his horse there, and never once looked in the stands. Just stared down the fenceline at the end of the arena.

He was judging the calf-roping. They had break-away and tie-down roping. I think this picture is the tie-down, but I'm not sure.
They also had calf ribbon roping. The girl stands at a starting point and waits. They release the calf, and the boy ropes the calf. The girl starts running when the horse breaks through the line and after the boy has a hand on the calf, pulls the red ribbon off the tail. I can figure most rodeo events, but the reason behind making a girl run for the ribbon is beyond me.


We got home around 12:30 that night. I got up Saturday and make a "blueberry buckle" for us to take to the workday our church was having. We helped paint old tin sheets with polyurithane and sheetrock the upstairs rooms.

Hubby had a men's night at the church last night and their menu included steak and baked potatoes. I couldn't find anyone to hang out with, so I decided girl's night out was a great alternative. We went out to Red Lobster and the movies. Yummy fun.

Today was church and not much else. We've been especially lazy today. And so much for riding every day. That kinda bit the dust. Oh well, I'll leave you with our beautiful sunset with a wonderful shadow in front. Koda was enjoying the buffet in our front yard on Tuesday after my ride.