I'm Not Dead!

Yikes, I really need to update more frequently than this! First, Rosie updates. Rosie arrived in Florida safe and sound and spent a few weeks adjusting to the Florida climate. She also made friends with the ponies that my trainer keeps at her house for her grandkids. I need to call and get an update but last I heard my Awesome Trainer (henceforth I will refer to her as AT because it is just easier) had been riding her around both with saddle and bareback. This is why I love this trainer, I had been meaning to mention to her that I would like to be able to ride Rosie bareback but kept forgetting and here she is like reading my mind. Originally she was going to work on driving with Rosie first but for whatever reason Rosie wasn't taking to the bit like she wanted so AT decided to work on the riding stuff. I'm pretty sure Rosie's teeth don't have anything to do with her bit issues as I had her teeth floated and her wolf teeth pulled back in August before I left Colorado.

We are all settled in our new home in the Pittsburgh area. It has been a whirlwind couple of months let me tell ya! After leaving Colorado we spent three weeks in a hotel until we could close on our house here. Then I spent two weeks here unpacking and getting everything in order after the move and then it was on to Maine for three weeks so I could see my family. It probably would have been smarter to stay here longer than two weeks before going onto Maine but I wanted to get up there before the weather got really yucky. We had a great time up there! I was so nice to be able to see everyone and have a little bit more time than usual. I got to go riding with my best friend three times! Usually we are lucky if we can squeeze in twice. I also got to see pretty much everyone in my family except for one younger cousin who has just started college and has a very busy life right now. We were also in Maine for Halloween and everyone in my family got a big kick out of seeing my daughter all dressed up in her lion costume. I was great to be around my family and friends for so long. Even after being out of Maine for eleven years I still miss everyone terribly.

I will try and post later of the first ride that my friend and I went on in Maine. It was a blast!

Big Doin's for Rosie!

When it was decided that we would be relocating to the Pittsburgh area I began to hatch a little plot in my brain. The trainer, Teresa, that I used to train my last horse, I absolutely loved. She was kind but firm and did a fantastic job. When I bought Rosie I thought wistfully, "boy, I wish I could just send her to Teresa when the time comes for training." But we were in Texas and Teresa had moved from Maine where I had first met her to Florida so my I knew that having Teresa train her was a total pipe dream. Fast forward to two moves later and I approached my husband with the idea that since we are having Rosie shipped from Colorado to Pittsburgh anyways how about she takes a side trip and spends the winter with Teresa in Florida getting trained to be a productive equine citizen and then she will be ready to go for me next spring. Long story short since I am typing this put on my iPod, he went for it! So today my little Rose Petal got on a trailer bound for Florida! I'm so excited for the both of us and while I know I will miss her this winter it will be so worth it when next spring rolls around.

Big Changes

I have been meaning to catch up on all the things we have done this summer but one big thing is preventing me from doing so. We have been transferred to Pittsburgh. Yes, you read that right, Pittsburgh. So, do I need a name change? Appalachain Yankee perhaps? (Is Pittsburgh even in Appalachia? I must research this.) Steel City Yankee, maybe? I don't know, I still like the sound of Rocky Mountain Yankee myself so I believe I will stick with that for now.

Anyways, the brief details on the move are that my husband was offered a promotion but with the promotion came a move. We didn't really want to move but who can turn down a promotion in this economy? So we are currently in limbo having sold our house in Colorado and not being able to close on the one here until later this month. Sadly, it is not horse property although that is something I did petition for. Loudly. Sigh.

I probably won't be on here much as I can only use my husbands work computer and he is not supposed to frequent such social sites as this so what I am doing right now is a no-no. Hopefully it will slip under the IT guys radar. I should be back up and running in about a month. Catch ya'll later!

Florida: Day Two

On our second day in Florida we (meaning all of us, myself, my daughter, mother, grandmother, aunt and uncle) had planned to head to the beach in the morning before my cousins wedding at 2:00 that afternoon. After our brief sashay onto the beach the day before I couldn't wait to get back! We decided to head to Henderson Beach State Park in Destin which was about a half hour from our hotel in Niceville.

Oh my, what a treat! This is the nicest beach I have ever been on! Beautiful white sand, but I don't travel a whole lot so that may not mean much. There are some sand dunes between the parking lot and the actual beach and when my daughter saw them she said, "Look, snow!" That is how white the sand is there. And soft, oh my goodness, it was so soft. We found a good place to park our towels and put on sunscreen before we went to test out the water. Someone had dug a small hole in the sand probably the day before and my daughter decided that looked like a good place to play.

I was once again able to get my toes in the sand. Just thinking about it now makes me want to hop a plane to Florida!

I then let my daughter bury said toes in the sand. She thought that was a pretty good time.

And yes, we were the whitest people on the beach. We almost blended in with the sand. You could definitely tell we were not from Florida. After a little time spent playing into the sand we ventured down to the water. At first it seemed chilly but then the longer I was in it, the more comfortable it was. My daughter initially wanted nothing to do with the water. I think the waves coming at her even though they were pretty small was a little concerning for her. Then once she figured out she could get people to hang onto her hands so she could jump up when the waves came through she decided this beach thing wasn't so bad after all. Sometimes she made it while trying to jump the waves and sometimes she got a mouthful of water. We spent a good two hours at the beach and were having such a good time that we didn't want to leave to go back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. We halfway contemplated going in our swimsuits just to get an extra hour in the sand but decided we might not get invited to anything ever again if we did that. We also tossed around the idea of going back to the beach after the wedding but by the time the wedding was over we were too tired to pack all of our beach stuff back up and drive the half hour to the beach again.

The wedding was lovely but since it wasn't my wedding and my cousin doesn't know a thing about this blog I'm not going to post pictures of it here. I'll just say the bride was gorgeous and the groom was beaming and leave it at that.

The next day everyone pretty much cleared out to head back to their respective parts of the country. I headed back down to Destin to do some shopping as I needed to kill some time before our 5:00p.m flight. I went into a Bass Pro Shop for the first time in my life. It was interesting but since I had not one ounce of space left in my suitcase I really couldn't buy anything. That made shopping kind of pointless. I did however manage to squeeze a t-shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe into my carry on. I seriously thought about heading back to the beach but since I had no hotel room to return to to clean us up I decided had better not. I really wanted to though.

That was pretty much our trip to Florida. I am totally hooked on the Emerald Coast as it is known and I can't wait to go back! I had been to other parts of Florida before but the Destin/Ft. Walton Beach area is my favorite area by far.

Playing catch up

Wow, I really need to stay on top of this blogging stuff because now I have a bunch of stuff that has happened and it is going to take me days (or months) to get it on here!  

First off, the Little Monkey and I went on a little adventure just the two of us back in June.  I decided that I wanted to go to my cousins wedding in Florida so off we went.  It was more like a family reunion on my mothers side then a wedding.  Myself and my daughter were there, my mother, my grandmother and two of my mother's sisters were there.  My mother is one of five so getting them all in the same place at the same time does not happen often and didn't happen this time but three out of five is pretty good.  The wedding was to take place in Niceville, Florida at the beginning of June.  My daughter and I had never traveled to a place by ourselves where there wasn't anyone to meet us on the other end.  The rest of my family was coming in to different airports at different times so we were really on our own.  I was excited but nervous at the same time.  I would have to handle the Monkey and all our luggage completely by myself.  Our flights were all okay and we got the rental car fine but then I-10 from Pensacola to Crestview was closed.  And it was getting dark.  I couldn't read the crappy map from the rental car people because I was driving.  I started to get a little panicky but I called my best friend in the whole world WV Girl at Heart and she fired up her computer, loaded Mapquest and guided me in.  I owe her a huge THANK YOU!!  And if you are wondering why I didn't call my husband, I did.  He was golfing, so no help there.  The lesson to take away here is always map an alternate route before leaving for your trip because you never know when the interstate might be shut down.  And it will be getting dark.  And you are traveling with your small child.  And every true crime story you have ever seen on television is suddenly in your mind.  But enough about that.

  

Our first day we decided to head down to Ft. Walton Beach to the Gulfarium  They had a small dolphin show and it was pretty entertaining.  It would have been better if I hadn't been to

 SeaWorld in the past.  The Gulfarium looks like a mom and pop operation and while it was nice, really how do you compete with SeaWorld?  Anyways, this is a picture I got of one of the dolphins jumping.  

Just look at the gulf in the back ground!  It was beautiful!  After the Gulfarium shows we were able to meet up with my aunt, uncle and grandmother for lunch.  After living across the country from my home state for 10 years now it always give me a thrill to be able to meet up with my family for simple things such as lunch.  Things that most people probably get to do with their families at the drop of a hat.  The restaurant that we ate at was right on the beach and we were able to get the breeze in our hair and watch the waves roll in.  I pretty much thought I had died and gone to heaven!  After lunch we had to go down and check out the beach since it was right there.  I personally was dying to get my feet in the sand.  There just aren't many opportunities to do that here in Colorado.  So there they are my feet in the sand.  It was wonderful let me tell you! 

My daughter was a little hesitant at first but then she dug right in!

We stayed at the beach for a little while but we weren't really dressed for it and I didn't have any toys for the Monkey so after awhile I dragged my reluctant child back to the hotel in hopes she would take an afternoon nap (which she did not) and to meet my mom who flew in a day later than I did.  

There is more but this is getting long so I think I will wrap it up for now and do the rest in another post later.

Honest Scrap Award

Once Upon An Equine presented me with the Honest Scrap Award.  Thank you!  

Once Upon An Equine has two lovable equines at her place.  One Percheron mare named Misty who is just starting to figure out what these two legged creatures want from her and a Norwegian Fjord gelding, Marley, who has figured out a few tricks to outsmart his human counter parts but is being worked with to become the good citizen we all know he wants to be!  Check out Once Upon An Equine at her blog!

The Honest Scrap Award comes with a few fun rules that recipients must follow:

1. Recognize your award presenter and link back to their blog in your post.
2. List 10 honest things about yourself.
3. Present this award to 10 admirable bloggers and link to their blogs.
4. Leave a comment on your recipients' blogs to let them know to visit your post to retrieve their award.

Alright, let the fun begin!

1.  Whenever I fly I prefer to drink tomato juice.  I have no tomato juice whatsoever in my house.  I never drink it at home or when I go out to eat or anything, just when I fly.  I don't turn it into a Bloody Mary on the plane, just straight tomato juice.  I don't get it either.

2.  Kirk Cameron was my first celebrity crush.  I watched him on the show Growing Pains when I was in about the third grade and I was madly in love.  Until I read a biography about him that said he was allergic to any animal with hair and his only pets were reptiles.  That's where it ended for Kirk and I.  He was crushed I'm sure.  

3.  I'm a pickup gal.  I love my truck.  I have a Ford F-150 that we bought brand new when we were first married and I plan on driving it until the wheels fall off.  I don't think I can ever go back to driving a car.  I had a rental car recently on a out of town trip and I couldn't wait to get back into my truck.  

4.  I have a hard time throwing anything away that has to do with horses.  This is evidenced by the stacks of Horse & Rider magazine living in my basement.  My husband would love to chuck them but I might need them someday!

5.  I'm usually hungry.  I can eat all day long and then eat some more.  If we are out I will eat even if I'm not hungry just incase food isn't available later.  Most of my friends hate me for this because I rarely gain weight.  It's a genetic thing.  Both of my parents are very slender.  

6.  I like a little clutter in my  house.  Perfectly spotless houses make me nervous.  

7.  I secretly want to be Martha Stewart (minus the jail time, of course!) but don't have the patience or ambition to be that perfect.   

8.  I think I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up but it is still in the planning stages so I'm going to keep it under my hat.

Can you tell I am running out of things to talk about?

9.  I hate to fly but I like to travel.  So I fly when I have to and drive when I can.  My driving has been curtailed since having my daughter but I am looking forward to the day when she is old enough to do some long stretches in the car.  

10.  I still have every single ribbon and trophy I won showing horses as a teenager.  They are dated and have the horses name and the class entered written on the back.  OCD much?  They are some of my greatest treasures as I no longer have any of the horses that those ribbons were won with.

Whew, ten, I made it!  It has taken me all afternoon to write this post but it was fun!  Now it's your turn!  Even if I don't list your blog here please feel free to give yourself the Honest Scrap Award and play along.  Also, since this is my blog and I make the rules here I am not going to pick ten blogs.  Because I don't want to, that's why.

These are the lucky bloggers I am selecting though:

1.  Horseypants 

2.  Pony Girl Rides Again

3.  There is a Horse in my Bubblebath

4.  Westwood - A Family Farm + More!

5.  when lilies fly: horse blog & philosophy

6.  WV Girl at Heart

7.  Zephyr's Wonderful Wanderings & Wonderings

Now lets hope I linked everyones blog correctly!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my husband and I's (is that proper grammar?) eighth wedding anniversary.

I know to you people who have been married longer eight doesn't probably seem that long but

it's longer than some have made it and that includes friends of ours.

He had flowers delivered to me this afternoon.

Red roses, my favorites.  

I must break out the big DSLR and take some pictures of these beauties.

I guess I will keep him for another year!  ;)

Here we are in Phoenix in December of 2008.