Thursday, February 3, 2011

February: Bring out the tank top and shorts!

It has been magnificently "warm" for these first few, glorious days of my favorite month of the year.  For this year brings about the anniversary of when James and I started dating, Valentines' Day, and my (cough) 27th birthday... all within 6 days of each other!  MAN I am getting so old.  No wonder why running two miles for the first time in many months seems so brutal.  I kept thinking, seriously, it's only two miles, but re-start it is for me.  Again. 

I haven't had a whole lot going on in my life besides the normal hum-drum of work and more work this week.  JJ woke up far too early this morning, I think around 7am, asking to go pee.  I took him to the bathroom and then told him he was going back to bed, just hoping he would go back to sleep for another few hours.  But while I was in the bathroom with him, I heard Tipper, outside, incessantly barking. 

Know one thing about my dog: she's a Border Collie, and as such, the smartest breed of dog in the world.  Trust me on this when I say, undeniably, it is true.  But one thing often accompanies being smart: deception.  And Tipper is well-versed in it. 

She barks at the mailman, the UPS truck, the garbage truck, the recycling truck, my neighbors going to and fro... yes, she's a dog, and yes, dogs bark, but she ONLY barks when I'm inside or far enough away from her not to be able to do anything.  Otherwise, all I have to do is give her a "look" and she averts her eyes and slinks away, barking ceased.  Yes, this is my dog, and back to my story about this morning, barking incessantly.  I put JJ back in my bed after his potty and went outside the front door to yell at her to stop.  I had to squint my eyes to see her, but she was over by our chicken pen.  Then I had to squint again, was she INSIDE the chicken pen?  Oh good Lord, yes she was.  I threw on James' rubber boots and marched out there, because all of a sudden it made sense.  She had been sneaking into our chicken pen on many past occasions to eat the eggs!  That's why one day we would get twenty eggs, and the next day, five.  Oh, I was so mad.  I let her out of the coop and marched her fluffy butt back to the laundry room and locked her in it.  She knew it was safe for her to go egg-hunting when she did, because I am never up at that time in the morning... it was her barking at the neighbors at the same time that got her in trouble!!

JJ had been watching me out the window the whole time so he was now wide-awake, and quite unwilling to lie back down in an effort to fall asleep again.  So he wanted pretzels, the cats were meowing to be let in, their food bowls were empty, then JJ wanted juice, then when I finally tried to close my eyes and pretend it all didn't exist, JJ started kicking me in the head and announced, "Mama!  The SUN is UP!  Need to go out and feed those horses!" 

Oh, sleep, where art thou? 

Eryn brought me a frappuchino when she came for lessons, around noon, I was outside by the water pump hosing the, literal, crap out of JJ's underwear, the remainders of his multiple accidents over the past few days.  She handed it to me with a smirk and said, "This is to help make up for that!" pointing to the significant pile of soiled underwear. 

Yes, crap happens.  We have all kinds around here; chicken, dog, cat, horse, cow and JJ varieties!  I should open a fertilizer company. 

Crap happens. 

So anyhow, after the frappuchino, my day started to get a lot better.  In fact, while I was hanging out the laundry, I'm pretty sure I could hear the angels in heaven burst out into song, "Glory, glory, hallelujah!"


This is how THIS woman does her laundry!

I have to watch out for this coffee-thief. 


I had a great dressage lesson with Magdalene and Eryn, working on the first few maneuvers of training level test 3 (which they will be doing for district 4-H); enter working trot, halt, procede working trot, and track left.  They worked on their entry line and halt being straight and square, the horse to transfer energy from the working trot, down into the halt, and then back up into the working trot with a nice flow and softneess, and for the turn from centerline to rail being "filled" and not to lack impulsion.  Both Raz and Drama did well. 

Then I had a great ride on Big Bird, he was very, very nice today.  He settled into his warm-up walk nicely and strided out with a good deal of relaxation and focus.  Then we went into the trot and with some help, he began to bend his body around my inside leg, which brought his head down and his back up somewhat, you could really feel his back start to soften and it was nice.  He liked it, too, you could tell, he was almost like, wow, this feels good!  Then Magdalene rode him, he was great with her too. 

Magdalene and Big Bird
We finished up chores, I came inside and made dinner, James and JJ wrestled and tortured each other for the rest of the evening until they went to bed, and I went on my run.  I then locked Tipper up in the laundry room for the night, no more egg-thievery around here. 

The main reason I do so much laundry!
It's been a day, a full day.  I don't even know why I say that anymore, because every day is a full day.  It was asked earlier in the week if I had any hobby I always wanted to pick up, something I've always wanted to do but haven't had time to pursue it, what would it be?  My reply: sleeping.  I've always been interested in sleeping but never seem to get around to do it. 

Night! 

4 comments:

  1. JJ's hair is getting long! :) And I can't believe Tipper was stealing your eggs all this time!! Sneaky!!

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  2. i saw that pic of JJ on mom's blog last night... so cute. i miss him. hey are you following my blog yet???

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  3. Naughty Tipper! I love the part where JJ is kicking you in the head saying the Sun is up and you should go do horse chores...ha. Smart little guy!

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  4. Yes, mama... the SUN is UP! ;) hahahahaha. I love your pics. They are great!

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