for serious

I really do have good intentions of B.A.B.B. (being a better blogger).

Scout's Honor.

I will begin by saying thanks to all my blogging friends that have left me such sweet comments and messages. It really does mean alot...and to anyone else who stops by from time-to-time, I really do hope to get back to myself soon. And to those spammers that seem to have found my blog, um, can you please stop? K-thanks!

I must say Happy Mother's Day!!!!

I have truly had a great day - pretty low key, but full of messages, cards, calls, gifts, cards and time to worship and time with my own special Mom!

I am truly blessed to have such a great family and my Mom has been a real inspiration in my life - I hope I can be half as caring and giving as she is.

My selfie this week includes her:

I may not be a biological mother, but I am a Mom.
I have been blessed enough to be stepmom to three great people and they also helped mold who I am today.
I do hope I have had a positive influence on them as well.
I love them dearly and realize my life would not be complete without them in it.

Things are getting better - my MIL is improving slightly and we hope she continues.
Please continue to keep her (and us) in your thoughts & prayers.

Alex graduates Friday - I am shocked by that to be honest.
We've had some recent rough patches...just the normal stuff, but that situation is also getting better and I could not be prouder than I am of her and her accomplishments.
I look forward to seeing what lies in her future...she is destined for greatness!

softball season has rolled around

Alex is again playing softball - this is her senior year - so this is it for high school sports.
They lost most of their team last year - the team that went all the way to the State Finals and were runners-up two years in a row.

Honestly, I have not been looking forward to this year's season just because I was afraid of the let down.  It's hard to go from winning pretty much every game to not really knowing how it will go.  I had to miss the first few games simply because of them being so early and having to take so much time off work.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised after finally getting to attend a game this week.

I am very impressed with their young, up and coming pitcher, Haley. 
How hard would it be to follow in the State's record breaking strike-out pitcher?  Well, Haley seems to be coming into her own.  Looking forward to seeing more from her!

Now, I must come to the part of this blog post that is totally going to sound like I'm bragging - and yes, I am so bear with me.  This is the part where I talk about Alex's awesome offensive skills AND her over the fence home run!!!! 

I even captured the hit! :)

 

 So so very proud of her for that!

Love these pics of her team coming out of the dugout to congratulate her when she crossed the home plate! :)

They have not won every game by any means, nor will they probably go to the State Finals this year, but I'm looking forward to seeing more from this team!

...and I'll admit, I was wrong, but ssshhhhhhh, don't tell anyone I said that. K?

Snowto Shoot

Alex wanted new pics for Facebook, so of course I obliged - props and all!

This is my fave:

I am sure there will be more today....with her friend Sami!

The sun is shining brightly today but it is cold as a witch's t....um never mind. It's cold!

Another snow day today, so I'm eating pretzels and needing a shower.

Oh, and see the crocheted flowers in those pics?

Would you buy one of those and if so, would you rather buy the flower by itself or already attached to a hat/headband/scarf/gloves?

You're not locked in mind you....I'm just doing a little market research.

I love me some market research! :)

Horseshow season comes to a close

It's always a bittersweet time.
I enjoy the people and family time we spend with each other.
I am happy that Alex enjoys something other than just gooning around and being a lazy teenager.
I don't enjoy giving up virtually all of my Saturdays through the spring, summer and fall.
I do think the good outweighs the bad.This was from Ark-Mo Show of Champions a couple of weekends ago in Melbourne....a very rainy, messy, mushy weekend, I might add.

Alex had a pretty good weekend considering Hippy is still out of commission.
I was most proud of how she and Ms. Smooth did in their pleasure classes.

This week is the District Fair.
Showed horses & goats last night - did very well in both.
Cattle will be Friday night.

Then, show season is officially over.

Stay tuned, I hope the bloggity-blog will be a little more active with new Fall eye candy and antics!

Well hello there!

So again, I have been crazy busy and therefore MIA from the old blog! I have good reason between work and horse shows.
Last weekend we were at the Arkansas State Horse Show in Little Rock. Alex did pretty well this year. The high point of her competition was winning a 2nd in Ladies Gaited. The low point was probably when she came off her horse for a brief moment during barrels. OOPs!

Here are some shots from the weekend:She placed in Junior Flags on her friend Miranda's horse, and placed in Keyhole on her Dad's roping horse. Her horse, Hippy is still injured, but will have several months to rest up for next year. We are just praying he will fully recover and once again be sound!

There are some great pictures over at Maumelle Sports. You just have to go to her events and look through the shots.

I spent this weekend resting up...work has been crazy and I've been putting in extra hours because of classes I'm teaching.

I did get some scrapbooking in which is always a good thing!
I had been planning on putting together a tutorial for a gesso and paint technique that I learned from the uber-talented Lucy Folch during National Scrapbook Day. I finally had the opportunity to do it with the Making Memories album that came in the Crazy Daisy Kit Co. September kit.
More on that later!

In the meantime, there are a few kits left I'm told, so get them while the getting's good! Crazy Daisy September kit

Here is one more I put together with this kit over the weekend:
(Yes, that is me) :)
And I played in my art journal a little and even did the Point Blank Period challenge:

Have a lovely week!

poetry in motion

Nothing more beautiful than watching a horse & rider in total sync.
with a performance horse, sometimes the moves can look a little mechanical, but for these two who have taught each other how to perform, it is like a beautiful dance.
That horse has more heart than any animal I've ever encountered.
I think he would do anything Alex asked him to do.
They may not always be the blue ribbon winners and not every run is perfect,
but when they are on, they are unstoppable.

it was a girl's day

What a great day we had Tuesday in LR when we took Alex to her 4H Teen Star Banquet and Ambassador interview. The interview did not take nearly as long as we thought, so we had time to go hang out with Brooke & Rob (so maybe it wasn't an exclusive girl's day!)

We met them at Macaroni Grill for some lunch and went to their house for a little while to see all the work they had put in remodel and update. I'm very proud of them for working so hard to get everything just the way they wanted.
They have listed it for sale, you can see it here. If you know anyone looking for a cute house in a great location in LR, have them check it out!

We snapped some photos in the backyard.
Mostly silly photos mind you!Here is Alex & Brooke posing as garden gnomes.

Why?

I have no clue, but I love the looks on their faces! What a great looking couple they are.

If they sell their house, they plan to move back to Florida.
I won't lie, I am very sad about that decision, but I wish them all the best in the world and if that makes them happy, then it makes me happy for them.

These are their "babies"
Roxy.

and Dixon.

Fast forward to the evening and Alex's banquet.
This is Brooke sporting her "James" nametag to get into the banquet.
I had originally registered James to come, but he was unable so Brooke came instead.

The 4H Vines Center in Ferndae is such a nice facility.

We had dinner in the dining hall then moved over to the auditorium for the awards portion.

Here is Alex receiving her Teen Star award from Dr. Darlene Millard,
Assistant Director for Youth Development.

Alex & Nancy - we owe her all the credit for helping Alex achieve this honor.
She is truly the best 4H leader.We were completely worn out after driving home after the banquet and having to get up for work the next day, but I assure you it was worth every minute.

We found out on Thursday that Alex was indeed named 4H Ambassador!
Very exciting. She had to give a speech and answer several questions from a panel of judges. In order to make the cut, she had to score at least a 90 out of 100 on the scoresheet.

State Finals Bound

So proud of these girls for making it to the State Finals!

They will play on the Lady'Back Yard field Saturday at UofA
These pics are from yesterday. I unfortunately didn't get to see the semi-final round today.
Anyone can follow the action through a live stream of our local station 104.7 via the Highland Rebel website.
Was very proud of Alex for having an RBI today in the game against Malvern- our girls won 2-0.
They will face Dardanelle in the finals on Saturday.
Just praying the rain will dry up by then!