Exchange Student

We have a French exchange student living with us. Please call and ask to talk to her. She likes to practice her English.

Not a Horsewoman

I've always loved horses....and cowboys....and cowboys on horses....and me on a horse....with a cowboy.

But I've never had a riding lesson. Although Victor did try to teach me, but we were living in KY, and I wasn't able to work with him and Patches often enough. And like Guitar Hero, I really wanted to be a natural at riding. But I wasn't it.

On Saturday, Abbie wanted to go trail riding, and we found a place in Marshall, NC and chose a 1 hour ride. Someday, we may go back for the 3 hour ride.
Abbie was on Baby Doll and the guide led her horse by a rope. Paul was on Cotton, and I was on Butterball.

Butterball and I got along fine, but I didn't ride Butterball so well. I was all over the place in the saddle. I will take complete blame on not knowing how to ride, but I still think Butterball's gait was a little off. Afterwards, I told the guide that I wondered if Butterball's hooves needed to be cleaned out. I kind of got the impression that his feet were bothering him. Maybe he was tired.

I was also nervous. I think horses pick up on that - especially if you're not confident. The horses were definitely used to following. I didn't have to do much, but anytime Butterball seemed like he was going to move ahead of another horse or step off the trail, I would almost holler for Norman, our guide. But I didn't. I just thought about it a whole lot!

Because of my inexperience, I couldn't wait for the ride to be over. I worried that my horse would throw me or startle and rear up and numerous other things. And I worried about Abbie's horse too. Wasn't worried about Paul - he was the natural. If he had on boots, chaps, and a cowboy hat, I would have just jumped on the back of his horse.

The trail was awesome. The trail wound in and out of some woods, and we kept climbing (gently) higher into the hills. Even though the trees don't have leaves yet and the grass hasn't completely greened up; the scenery was amazing. I don't know how high we went, but we were UP THERE.

Along the way, we came upon a big herd of goats and two saint bernards that guard them. It was sweet.

By the time we were done, my bum was killing me. I was openly groaning, and Paul would turn around and give me advice on how to ride better. Abbie had no complaints. She loved it.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Misc.

Abbie is on Spring Break. We've been taking it easy this week - definitely enjoying sleeping in (except the sound of Paul's garage door opening as he leaves in the morning wakes up Abbie).

We haven't done much so far. Abbie has spent a lot of time reading and doing crafts (she never gets tired of fuze beads). She is making coasters for all her school friends and a few neighbors. Yesterday, she hand-delivered the ones she made for the two neighbors.

Today, Abbie picked up some twigs in the yard and then helped me put some "grass patch" down. We also went to church so I could train with the church secretary. She is having knee replacement surgery so I am going to fill in for her for 6 weeks. And I'll get a paycheck! All of our little home improvement projects are starting to add up so we could use an extra paycheck. We've hired a handyman, and he starts next Friday.

Tomorrow, we head to Asheville for a few days. This trip worked out really well because we are having our hardwood floors refinished, and we're not allowed to walk on the floors for 3 days. I hope the floors turn out great, and our whole house is not one big dust bucket when we get back.

Looking forward to spending a few days at the Grove Park. We'll probably go to the buffet on Thursday night (Abbie's looking forward to that). We may go to Biltmore House on Friday, and of course, we have to eat at Salsa's while we're there. I may do a little shoe shopping at Topps too. Other than that, we have no real plans. We're just going to wing it. I hope the weather holds out.

Up Late

I stayed up past 1 am last night so I could finish the book, "The Help." I thoroughly enjoyed it and couldn't put it down. It made me think about some things.
Why is it that it's so easy now to look back on events that happened 20- 30-50- 100+ years ago and judge them as wrong? But if you lived back during those times, you yourself, couldn't see that it was wrong (you, in general)?
For example, how could anyone think it was okay to pay a woman less than a man for the exact same job?
It's so easy to say, "of course that isn't fair - what were they thinking?!"
I'm sure some people did notice and didn't like it, but I'm sure there were lots of people that didn't question it.
Are we just that much more enlightened now that we wouldn't ever make those mistakes? But that can't be right b/c we're still screwing up in certain areas (we, in general).
It makes me wonder what things I believe now (right or wrong) that I will completely change my mind about in, say, 20 years.
There was a little boy that lived in the outskirts of my neighborhood when I was growing up. He was biracial, and back then, that was odd - people talked. I heard adults around me "tsk" and refer to him as a half breed. My mom was really nice to him and also pitied him because she knew he'd have a rough time of it. And he did.
But now, I'd never use the word half breed, much less use that word around Abbie.
See, times change.
Certain things that I believed in college are not in my belief system anymore - is it time, maturity, life experiences, becoming a parent that brings on these changes? Probably all of the above.
The book made me think about some things, and I love thinking about things!