One of My Favorite Behind the Scenes Shots

So I really like the movie The Widow's Might, but even more so, I like this behind-the-scene shot. Enjoy ;)

An Update on My Life

Yesterday I managed to go out to the barn for a lesson with Winston. My teacher had decided to try a different bit on him, hoping to gain more control and attention from him. And it worked! He did really good yesterday, even though he spent most of the lesson trying to adjust to the bit ;). But he did great, and he did his best to please me. When I went to get him from the pasture, I actually got him to come partway to me. When he was in cross-ties, he kept trying to turn his head around to keep both eyes on me - which was a bit frustrating for him. When I put him back out to pasture, he stayed right beside me, when normally he runs off and goes and rolls around. But yesterday he stayed beside me till I left, then he followed me with a look of "No! Don't leave me here without you!". It was so cute of him.

Well, I'm still a bit behind in school, but I'm working on getting done ;). Catch up can be so hard at times.

Sadly, this year, after the summer, I will have to stop babysitting the kids I have now babysat for over a year. Since I enrolled in CollegePlus!, I will have to dedicate my time to studying. I'm sad to have to say goodbye to the kids, but I'm also excited (and freaked out) about college.

I hope all is going well with my dear readers.

God Bless,

Hannah

A Somewhat Disjointed Post...

It has once again been too long since I posted. I apologize.

As I sit here at the computer, finally having a few spare minutes in which to type up a blog post, I can't think of what to say.... I can't even remember what we have been doing since my latest blog post... all I know is that I'm falling asleep after spending all day doing 5 days worth of Chemistry. Ah, the bliss of being behind in school :).

Since I can't really think straight right now, I suppose I will just type what comes to mind ;).

Lately I've been spending more time on the Kingdom of Arrethtrae forum (www.kingdomofarrethtrae.team-talk.net). If you have read the Kingdom Series or Knights of Arrethtrae Series, I suggest you check out the forum. It is quite fun!

Sadly, I haven't gotten to ride Winston or even go out to the barn in the last three weeks. Life has simply been crazy....

Let's see.... We also were without power for six days due to tornados and storms on April 27th.... And those storms caused much destruction which we helped to clean up some...

Mostly it's just been crazy (well, when is it not crazy?).

Well, seeing as you have persevered through my boring post this far, I may as well post some random pictures, which will hopefully be less boring ;).

I suggest you keep an eye on your children ;).

This picture really isn't funny....

The picture says it all.

Isn't the bunny cute?

I was playing around in a picture editing program and decided to color in and edit a 'line art' I had found. Here is my end result ;).

What a Busy Few Months!

Like always, I have been too long in posting. :). I tend to not post too often... Anyways, let's get on with the post ;).

In January we had a surprise party for my older siblings (it was great!), then celebrated two more birthdays that month (Dad's and Daniel's). We happened to have several snow days, and on one of those days, we had eight inches! It lasted the majority of that week! We went to a monster truck show and it was pretty cool. For Daniel's we went to Chuck-E-Cheese's. We hadn't been there since his.... 5th? 6th? birthday.... anyways, it had been several years. We were slightly concerned about going, considering that the last time we went we came home very sick. This time, we armed ourselves with several large bottles of hand sanitizer :). And we all stayed well!

I have been continuing to work with Winston, and now I also have another horse that I can ride whenever I want. Her name is Breeze. I also am going to be teaching my Mom how to ride! This morning Zachary took Lauren and I to the barn. Lauren rode Breeze and I rode Winston. When I was riding Winston bareback (one of us had to ride bareback since Winston and Breeze use the same saddle), he was perfect and calm (I even trotted him, which I hadn't done bareback before). After Lauren was done riding Breeze, I got on her a bit. She is a great horse, small compared to Winston, and has a great walk and trot. Her only problem is her stopping and cantering. She doesn't like to stop when asked too, and her canter is fast and reckless. So I guess I now have two horses with 'issues' to solve. After riding Breeze a bit, I put the saddle on Winston. As soon as I mounted up, he started acting up. I could tell he was a ticking time bomb. I made him stay at a walk and trot, and when his trot got a bit too fast, I had him stop and back up, which he did. But as soon as I rewarded him with a bit of slack in the reigns, he took off from a stand still into a huge, fast canter. Trust me, he has a fast canter. When he canters, no one can stop him unless he wants to stop. So he cantered around the arena eight or nine times before finally listening to me and stopping. And he wasn't even breathing hard after that! That horse is fast and has lots of endurance, that's for sure! I'm wondering if he has a bit of Thoroughbred in him. I already know he most likely has some Quarter Horse, and if he has both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse, that would explain his speed and his endurance (speed from Quarter Horse, endurance from Thoroughbred). I got him to calm down a bit and made him walk around a while before I got off. Sometimes, he can be the brattiest, most head-strong horse around! But I still love him.

Oh! I forgot to mention that we FINALLY got and iMac! Yeah! And my parents got iPhones, and let me tell you, it is slightly... weird... to see my own Mom walking around staring at a iPhone screen! And texting her? Even weirder. My Mom never texted with her old phone... so now it's taking some getting used to ;).

Over the past two weeks I was a bit sick. But I'm well now!

Yesterday I went to the barn for a riding lesson. Winston was way out in the far corner of the pasture, so I got to slog through all the mud and rain puddles to go get him. And then he was all muddy. And shedding... so it took me a while to get him cleaned up enough to saddle him. Our lesson went pretty well though.

Last night I went to a class to learn Adult CPR. That was quite interesting, considering it was from 6-10pm and the only ones in the class were me, a boy that lives across the street from me, and another boy. Quite fun... depending on what your definition of 'fun' is.

Last night we also had some friends over to spend the night at our house... that was interesting, considering that Daniel slept in my room, so at 7:30 this morning he woke me up... by petting my head...

Today it's warm outside and really pretty. But sadly, it doesn't look like I will get to go to the barn to ride...

Well, I suppose that is all for now! I hope all of my readers are enjoying the life God has blessed them with (and I hope this post wasn't too boring!).

Until next time,

Hannah Joy :)

Our snow fort! I love how the fence color turned out in contrast to all the snow.

Our tree fort buried in snow.

Winston and I

I was riding my bike one day and stopped to take some pictures... thought this would be an interesting shot...

Happy New Year!

Well, the year 2010 is now over and we are already several hours into 2011. Has anyone noticed today's date? 1/1/11? Cool, isn't it!

Well, i spent New Years Eve night doing Christmas Town at the Creation Museum, and after that, a bunch of us played volley ball all night! So the first thing I did this year was play volley ball.

We are staying in the Deck Lane/Bunkhouse with several other people. Try figuring out logistics of showers when you have a total of around nine or ten people for one shower!

We are having lots of fun though. Yesterday we hung out with some of our friends that we hadn't seen in a while.

Tonight is the last Christmas Town event of this season, but the first of the year 2011.

I suppose I'd better finish my Pop-Tart and then see what we will be doing until we have to get in costume this afternoon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!