two in one day- i know its crazy...

I had chemistry class from 8-9:15 this morning and those of you that know me, or were ever a college roomate of mine know that I rarely, if ever, attend 8 o-clock classes but guess what? I LOVE my chemistry class, like, LOVE IT. I sit there riveted, learning and I like it and I actually go to it- voluntarily! Weird huh? Just a little epiphany for the day, I love chemistry. I'm just sayin'.

Soggy Poodles

It feels like it's been raining for weeks on end, poor Tucker (horse) is covered in rainrot (fungus on skin that makes hair fall out due to being wet all the time) and Rylie Boo of course refuses to relieve herself outside if it mists, much less rains. So we took a long walk not long ago after it rained and Rylie Boo was tromping through the woods like a champ, but came back covered in leaves, burrs, seeds and other forest souvenirs. I took a few pics to document the "poor me" face she was making as I cleaned her off with the garden hose *gasp...she much prefers a hot shower and the pics are quite funny.

On another note, I think she has a little tummy virus since she has thrown up four times in the last few days, refuses to eat until I make her dinner "special", as Ryan calls it, which means adding water and heating it in the microwave, and she is very NON characteristically laying around on my lap constantly being soggy (limp) and super sweet. Her aunt Hannah and uncle Chris did delight her the other evening though when they came for dinner and brought her and Doodle a toy. Doodle has an obsession with squirrels and its a stuffed squirrel, while my miniature bird dog has taken to carrying the stuffed Mallard around in her mouth and/or fetching it after Ryan quacks, makes a gunshot noise, and then throws it on the ground for her to retrieve. Nope, I'm not kidding... If anyone needs any suburban indoor ducks hunted in the warmth of their own home, I've got just the duck dog.

As sad as she gets though when she's cold and wet, she would never make it on a real hunt, but I won't burst Ryan's bubble with that truth since he's got her in heavy training. Meanwhile, the giant lab (um, bred for hunting), refuses to retreive anything and is terrified of all loud noises.

Anyway, soggy poodle is currently sound asleep in my lap and looking oh so sweet and innocent. I hope she's not feeling too bad though. A mother worries.

coming soon:

10 reasons why Comcast sucks

I hate slutty Halloween costumes and no, you don't look sexy.

Pumpkin Roll Recipe

Asheville is the best city ever, pack your bags!

Here comes Santa Claus

Two days ago I left my house with a little list and the intentions of getting some Halloween decor for the front porch. Much to my surprise when I arrived at Jo-Ann, Home Depot, and Walgreens, Halloween decor was no where to be found...it was already CHRISTMAS!!!

What?

It's not even Halloween yet. Or Thanksgiving. I was so confused. I went to THREE stores and barely came up with some faux spiderweb and a fall leaf garland. It was however, like 80% off, but what? It's Oct. 14th!

Home Depot has their entire garden section full of pre-lit trees, those frightening moving character things, and those light up reindeer that are really fun to pose in inappropriate positions. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Christmas and decorating but this is getting extreme. So, I simply did what I always do when I am forced to face something I don't like but have no control over, (i.e. our president, economic climate, traffic, weather, price of razor blades, crate and barrel's shipping charges etc. ) I just said a little prayer about it, and made myself think of one positive aspect of things being the way they are.

Here's what I came up with...

Now I can start making a Christmas list! :)

Here it is so far: (there are two versions, the realistic one and the just keep wishin' one)

Realistic one:
Little tiny notebook computer for internet and word processing
Costco membership
Foodsaver machine (so the costco membership can be truly taken advantage of)
Brown Uggs (yes i still like them and no i dont wear them with skirts)
Wine Bottle Chandelier from Pottery Barn (omg it would look so cool in my kitchen)
Patagonia Retro-X Jacket
Basically anything from the Garnet Hill catalog


Just keep wishin' one:
6 year old black Dutch Warmblood Stallion that does 3rd level dressage and jumps at least four feet, has great manners around people and other horses, perfect feet, trailers, and loves to be groomed.
Ford F-250 King Ranch, White with the baseball leather interior, 4 wheel drive and the tow package attached to a Featherlight three horse slant load with full dressing room
Black Christian Leboutin peep toes
A trip to Montana or Wyoming with Ryan
Flatscreens fo the crib
Caesar Milan to live with us for a month to train the wild things
Anything made of diamond

So forget Halloween and hum along with me, Here Comes Santa Claus, Here Comes Santa Claus...

divine proportions

So I've always had this theory that God make animals cute in proportion to their bad-ness. Take Rylie Boo for example, here is a picture of her as a puppy:

That has got to be the cutest puppy in the world, she doesn't even look real! If I had only known what was to come!

Poodles are very intelligent dogs, second on the list of smartest breeds after the Border Collie. This is a double edged sword however, because she learns quickly, but she also requires constant stimulation, or that little brain starts thinking up impossibly messy, expensive and naughty things to do! She has chewed up rugs, panties, shoes, pens, pencils, cups, pillows, all her toys, three cell phone chargers, brand new glasses with transitions lenses, mirrored mosaic christmas ornaments gingerly removed from the tree, I could go on forever. She has also "made it snow" by taking two rolls of extra toilet paper from the powder room, dragging them into the living room and shredding every square into tiny pieces. She actually arranged the mess into a "nest" of sorts and was sooo proud of herself when I came home! She prefers to poop indoors at her leisure and only on expensive rugs when I am either in the shower or asleep, and REFUSES to be kept in any sort of captivity, but the crate training is coming along so hopefully that won't be an issue much longer. The point is, if she wasn't so darn cute and sweet, I would have made her hide into a nice little throw pillow by now. God knows what he's doing, because her little poodle mind is constantly hunting for the next thing to do, jump on, chew, bark at, destroy, or demand. Hanging out with her is pretty much the highlight of my day though sometimes so it's worth the work! Doodle is absolutely beautiful too and comes with another set of problems, (she's basically autistic) but I've written about her before so you know the deal on that.

Now, there's a new lovely addition to the mix. Spencer is a seven year old 17.2 hand gorgeous black Irish Sport horse sent up to my friend Betty's barn for training. (to the non horsey's 17.2 hands means HUGE. Like, if I were standing on one side of him and you were on the other, we couldnt see eachother) He is the kind of horse I used to dream about when I was little and draw pictures of. He looks like Black Beauty from the movie. He is perfectly put together conformationally, with a sweet face, great hair, and great feet. (If you are not a horse person, this just means he is built perfectly, sort of like a male Abercrombie model but in horse version) I have the opportunity to train him, which is great! The more I ride him, the more he fits the theory... which makes me laugh daily. While Spencer is a wonderfully cute name, I usually call him "mule" and now pretty much everyone that handles him calls him that as well. Before he arrived a few weeks ago, he hadn't been handled in 14 months and was basically just thrown out in the pasture to be a horse. So he has NO manners. He stepped on my toe the first time I worked with him and broke my toe. He doesn't know about personal space at all, which most horses get, but he hasn't been handled so it's not really his fault. He also has a very sweet and funny personality most of the time; the first day I rode him, he picked up my saddle with his teeth from outside his stall and threw it across the aisle. He can untie himself and let himself out of his stall and he often knocks down the jumps in the pasture and kicks or carries the barrels around. This, to me, is hilarious and charming as far as horse behavior is concerned because he has so much personality. Luckily for him, he is gorgeous, because his charming personality only gets him so far. Yesterday, we took him to a Hunter Pace (10 mile long trail ride with jumps) and Sarah rode him and I rode Tucker (the wonderfully sweet and obendient horse I am leasing). Spencer decided that he was going to jump ONE coop and that was it. Sarah is a VERY capable and lovely rider and tried and tried to get him to go back over it. Spencer tried all the usual tricks, stopping dead in his tracks, backing up, kicking out, weaving around in circles being unresponsive to rider aids, pretending to buck etc. Finally, Sarah was exhausted since Spencer is HUGE and way stronger that any human so I got off Tucker, handed him to Sarah, and hopped on hoping Spencer would give up the fight and just jump the dang jump. He is used to me riding him and he has been fine jumping before, there was just NO reason that he wouldn't jump this coop! He refused to walk, he refused to trot, he backed in circles, he tried everything in the book, so I got the crop. Everytime I popped him, he bucked (don't worry non-horsey's this doesnt hurt him). Oh he was naughty! Finally, I walked him to the fence, stopped him in front of it and asked him to step over it. He's really big and I knew he was plenty capable of walking over it. He sat back on his haunches and launched over it instead, which was fine. At least he did it. I gave him back to Sarah and we continued our ride. As we cantered along, the "cuteness in proportion to badness" theory popped into my head again and I giggled to myself. He was an angel for the rest of the ride. He also flat out refused to get on the trailer when it was time to go back home and kicked out at Sarah with both back feet when she walked behind him with a broom. Another point for the theory! There's really nothing you can do to move a 1200 pound animal when he decides to be a mule. Spencer is just the kind of horse that I have always wanted though. He has the looks, he has the breeding, the size etc. and I'm pretty sure once he gets trained he will be worth all the work and I will end up falling in love and buying him from his owner who seems to not care about him anyway. Today when I rode, he refused to walk in a straight line or just walk at all in favor of walking backwards, refused to trot to one direction, and would only continue when one of his other herdmates went ahead of us (herdbound!). There was absolutely NO reason for this besides the fact that he enjoys being obstinate and lazy. Between his random fits of mule like behavior he also jumped with no issues at all and jumped the barrels (which are a little scary looking to some horses) without batting an eye. There's a great horse in there, but the theory is ruling hard for now! Every day when I pray I thank God for creating the horse. I think they are his most beautiful creation of all, and I think He might even giggle a little bit every time an especially gorgeous one like Spencer is born, because you just don't get to be that pretty without having some naughty thrown in. I will post some pics soon so you will see what I mean. Oh I love my four legged children.