Southern Happenings

Yes, it has once again been too long since I have updated. I apologize for that. It's been quite crazy around our house lately... with my birthday in September, then Reformation Day in October, and traveling to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, Thanksgiving weekend, and once... wait... twice again traveling to the Creation Museum.



I guess I should start where I last left off in my blogging. I guess the last thing I really said was that Beauty was getting adopted. Well, sadly, that adoption fell through. BUT the week of Thanksgiving, all three mustangs (Ace, Beauty, and Ruby) were taken to a mustang adoption and were all adopted! Their pens look strangely empty now.........

For my birthday back in September, we went ice skating and a few of my friends and their families got to come too. That was great fun! We even proved that there are three girls (me included!) that can skate faster than the guys (yeah!). After ice skating we went out to eat and then Zachary and Lauren took me to the mall to do some fun shopping (and we had a blast!). For my birthday I got a really big framed horse painting that has a Bible verse on it (and now belongs on the wall over my bed), I got a really neat little box (I call it my treasure chest :D), a really nice leather coat (it's quite warm!), three western shirts, a new western belt (it's got braided horse hair for decoration on it!), a Lil' Kinz panda (which I named Charlie Oreo), 18 Kids and Counting DVDs, money, an awesome horse lamp (I'll have to post a picture sometime if i remember to), an awesome hat that says "Equine Spirit", a necklace from my best friend (we have matching ones now - mine says "Friend" and her's says "Best"), money, and lots of other stuff too.

Next was Reformation Day. This year my best friend and I once again re-inacted Margaret (me) and Agnes (my friend) Wilson. Margaret was an eighteen year old scottish martyr and Agnes was her thriteen year old sister who was also convicted, but ransomed.

Lets see..... what comes after that? Ah, yes, the Creation Museum. The first weekend in November my family traveled up to Petersburg, KY, to volunteer at the Creation Museum. That whole weekend my Dad and Zachary worked on building props for "Christmas Town" while Lauren, Mumma, and I worked on fringing costumes (lots of fun..... sitting on the couch, watching movies while your fingers start hurting from pulling the fabric apart....). Actually, I got "Daniel Duty" most of the time - spending time occupying Danny by taking him to the petting zoo and through the museum. That Sunday we decided to go to a church service held at the Creation Museum. Daddy only gave us about five minutes warning (amist packing and cleaning up the bunkhouse to leave later that day), so we ended up going in our blue jeans, t-shirts and sweatshirts, and tennis shoes. Let me tell you, going to church for the first time in the fifteen years of your life wearing blue jeans is pretty awkward......

Thanksgiving weekend was spent in Mississippi at our grandparents' house. On Thanksgiving day, my older brother took me hunting. It was quite fun, even though we didn't bring back any deer meat.... Oh well, maybe next time, eh?

Last weekend we traveled back up to Kentucky for the Christmas Town dress rehearsal/benefit dinner. Friday night was pretty cold, considering we were standing out there in three layers of clothing plus our costumes. Saturday morning I woke up in a winter wonderland of two inches(ish) of snow on the ground. I took Daniel outside to play in it for a bit while everyone else finished up packing. He decided to throw a snowball in my face, then rub the snow in... so he got tackled :). I'll tell you... it's pretty weird to find yourself waking up in Kentucky with two inches of snow on the ground (with it still snowing!) but fall asleep at home with the weather feeling rather warm at somewhere around 60 degrees....

This weekend we travel to Kentucky once again to participate in Christmas Town. In fact, we leave tomorrow.... It's kinda weird that when I was little I considered three hours in the car to be a "long trip", but now, six hours in the car isn't too bad.

Have I really gotten this far in my post and not mentioned anything about Winston?! Well, he is comming along quite nicely. When I first began riding him, he would become confused and freak out a bit. Yesterday, when I went out and spent some time with him, he stayed quite calm. He has finally gotten out of his confusion and freaking, and now has quite an attitude about him. He has gotten into the habit of playing 'chase' whenever I get him out of the pasture, but amazingly enough, yesterday he walked up to me and didn't run off. He also tends to get worked up in our lessons - getting himself into the mindset of "let me run, or let me stand still". He seems to stay much calmer outside of the lesson setting (not sure why, it could be that my methods of doing some stuff with him is different than the methods my teacher uses). Yesterday when I rode him I saddled him up and rode for a little while with the saddle on him, letting him get some of his energy out. Then I did something brave. Well brave considering he is a 15.2ish hand high (a 'hand' is four inches) horse and quite big, and tends to be hyper when being ridden. I rode him bareback. Amazingly enough, he seemed quite calm being ridden bareback. In fact, he seemed calmer being ridden bareback than he is being under a saddle. After riding him (by that time I was slightly cold - after all, it was only 30-something degrees outside!), I had to give him some feed and Mumma and I had to feed the four cats (Peanut, Gidget, Gizmo, and Morris) and lock them in the tack room, feed Lucky the dog and tie him up, then lock up the barn before heading home. All in all, it was a very fun day at the barn.

Well, I had best wrap up this blog ramble before it gets too terribly long.

Adios my dear readers, and I hope that I shall see you soon.

Hannah :)