Crazy Week With A Few Smiles Thrown In...

The Soccer Phenom in action in an approved setting



It's been one of those weeks.  You know the kind I'm speaking of -- the kind when a few hours into Monday you're already wishing Friday would hurry up and get here.



Started off with the Girl (aka Soccer Phenom) breaking the TV.  Apparently "How many times have I told you we don't play ball in the house?" really IS a rhetorical question.  Best part about the story is that it happened while we had friends over for dinner.  I heard the thumping while I was cooking, poked my head into the basement doorway and saw the Child with ball in hand. 

"Sophie, how many times have I told you we don't play ball in the house?"  Yep, I really did say that.

"Mom, watch, I can bounce it off my butt!" Do you love it?  The kid totally has a future in sales.  Objection?  What objection?  I don't hear any stinking objection...

Anyway, the ball got put away, but not soon enough.  Half an hour later the kids decided to play the Wii, and came up to tell us the TV was not working.  How we didn't make the connection, I don't know. (Wine, maybe?)  How the 3 boys who were here managed to keep mum about the guilty party's activities is also beyond my ken.  It wasn't until my husband checked on the TV the next morning and the Boy commented, "Wow, I didn't think Sophie had hit it THAT hard with the soccer ball," that all become clear to us.  OK, so good thing the folks at NCIS don't depend on us to crack cases...

On the GOOD side of the ledger this week, my entry was chosen for HillBilly Farms' parody of George Morris' Jumping Clinic.  Sidesplittingly funny!

Also, I was nominated, not once, but TWICE, for the Liebster award! (Thank you, lovely blogging buddies LWilliams at Viva Carlos and  EQUESTRIANATHART!) 

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award

3. Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs!

So, I'm passing along the love, and here are my nominees (in no particular order):

1) I Pick Crazy:  I love Emme, the author, and am devastated we don't live near each other, because as I read her blog I can see we'd get up to all kinds of shenanigans together.  Tell me you don't ADORE the picture of her mare, the one with the forelock up in the air.

2) Bob the Equestrian : Bob's accounts of his lessons leave me laughing like a loon and gasping for breath.  Oh, and also wondering where he finds those funny t-shirts. 

3) Tucker the Wunderkind: Marissa was my very first blogging buddy, and I am so thankful I am lucky enough to live by her, so we CAN get up to all kinds of shenanigans.  Reading about her adventures with Tucker, truly the sweetest bay boy imaginable, makes my day.

4) Confessions of an AA Event Rider and Convicted Overthinker: OK, if the title itself didn't drag me in (A fellow overthinker? I'm IN!) the fact that she's got a mare named Sugar would have.  Oh yeah, and the great writing keeps me coming back for more...

5) The Road Apple:  Am a HUGE fan of HillBilly Farms (LOVE their grooming tote!) and expect more hilarity from their blog.  If you are a fan of The Onion, this is the equine version. Plus, my Pop Pop used to call horse poop road apples, so I just love the name.
Heaven knows I could go on, because there are so many blogs I read and enjoy, but the rules say five and it's getting perilously close to work time and I have yet to shower, we'll have to leave it at that.

Showing With the Kiddo...

The Kiddo and the Po-Po

There's something extra....um, searching for a word here....special about riding with one's child.  It's wonderful and insane and tragi-comic all rolled up into one.  It's even more special when you share the whole horse showing experience with them.

The other weekend my daughter and I had a horse show.   She's 9, and I'm trying to get her to take care of things on her own a bit more, so the night before the show I told her to get out her show bag and make sure she had all her stuff together and ready for the next morning.  I then gave her a check-list so she knew what "all her stuff" entailed.  When I checked on her a little while later she told me she'd gotten everything in order and had organized it on her bed.  A quick peek assured me that yup, looked like we were good to go.  Off  kiddo went to bed, dreaming of successful rounds and blue ribbons. 

Didja catch it?  Mistake number one?  In case you missed it, the mistake was the "quick peek" part.  You'll see why in a moment.

The crack of dawn came earlier than usual for Mom.  Not so for the child.  She was up earlier than the neighbor's chickens, banging around in her room as she dressed for the day.  The kid is incapable of silence in any form.  Silver lining here is that I did not need my alarm clock.  I was awake, and husband was not awakened and thus irritated by alarm clock going off at ungodly hour.  WINNING!!!

All seemed to be going according to plan.  Kid was busy shoveling in breakfast while I loaded truck and waited for the coffee machine to heat up.  Just as I was taking that first life affirming sip, she oh-so-casually informs me that I need to fix her jodphurs.  The black strap at the bottom had broken.  Apparently at the last show.  Which.was.weeks.ago.

HUH??  FYI -- I'm dumb as a box of rocks until the first jolt of caffeine hits me.  I think I just swiveled my head and looked at her, slack jawed, because she repeated herself.  Veeeeerrrrrry slowly.  By this time her words are sinking in.  This happened a month ago??  Why am I finding out now, when we need to leave in 5 minutes and the show is 45 minutes away??!!??  My pulse, like the pitch of my voice, was escalating.  Quickly I grabbed my sewing kit and triaged that puppy back together and off we went, only 10 minutes behind schedule.  Only poked myself with the needle once.  Only cussed the one time, too.

Done for the Day. Tired Po-Po.

The jodphur incident left me with no time to fix my second cup of coffee.  I blame my lack of patience with her newly stained jodphurs on the lack of caffeine.  She got them dirty within 5 seconds of arriving at the show grounds.  Seriously, how on earth could sitting on the muddy ground seem to be a good idea??  Even her 7 year old barn buddy knew that the rule is you have to stay clean until you show.  What would George Morris say?!?

The kid was unconcerned.  The stain was on her tush, and to her way of thinking no one would see it.  "Duh," says the7 year old sidekick, "What about when you two-point????"   Thankfully a towel and some water helped the situation somewhat, although I swear you can see the stain in some of the pictures. The footing was muddy, so I'm hoping  the judge thought it was just splash back.

Heading Off to the Ring....

The rest of the morning progressed without a hitch.  The kiddo rode well, got some nice ribbons, but more importantly, was gracious and good to her pony even when she did not place as high as she'd wanted to.  She rewarded herself with a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich (gotta love show food when you are young and have a nuclear metabolism) and hung out with her pal and her pony while I showed.  She says she meant to come and watch my classes, but was having so much fun that she knew I would not want her to stop what she was doing. 

Think she played me a bit on that one??  Heck yeah, she did.  I'm fine with it.  I missed a couple of distances and really don't need to hear about it from her!