The insanity will continue for generations to come

Just when I think my world is so weird that nothing can surprise me or catch me off guard, I heard a funny tonight.

My brother-in-law Edward is in Turkey for a few days for meetings.

that is not the funny part.

The funny part is that Gabi thinks he is IN a turkey.

Even stranger, I have not heard that she finds it odd at all that her daddy should be in a turkey.

There is no hope for this family, with thinking patterns like that

Happy birthday Gabi!

Gabi turned three today. She is still very short, but now she is "three old", or so she told Barry on the phone today. This is her last week with my birthday cake which she loved so much she wanted one just like it. So pretend it is hers. She talked about my cake for weeks, calling it a big large cake, and it had Texas on it and most importantly, it had sparkles on it. She put orange sparkles on both the cakes because sparkles make everything better. And orange is the favorite color of all us, so of course they were orange. She would sing about the sparkles in a funny little voice that made her sound like a pedophile luring kids with candy. Pretty funny though.

This is Gabi playing with my friend Joyce's dog, Lance, who thought she was swell. Or the bows in her hair were swell. Either way, swell. Lance makes Slater look tiny, so imagine how little she looked with him.


This is Lance's sister Gwen, who is kind of shy but like Gabi a lot. She did not care a bit about Gabi's bows, and that was fine with Gab.


Gabi is quite the fashionista. This was also on my birthday out by their pool where Mandy, AmyB and I laughed until we hurt. That always drives Gabi to up her game to get the attention back on her where it belongs. She thinks this is her cute picture pose. I am afraid her head may always lay that way if she keeps it up.

My parents are there for her birthday party today. Edward had made a candy trail from Gabi's room to Mandy and Edward's room. I guess Gabi did not get it because she was all out of whack from the "big mess" that GG (my mom) had made all over with the candy. That is so Gabi--so smart it is hard to get things past her, but she looks at things in her own funny way.

Happy birthday Gabi! We love you!

Summer Camp Continues

My favorite thing--Gabi loves the horses. LOVES them. And Grandpa is a saint to take care of her so well. He is 29 years old this year, but he really likes to give her rides. He was mad at me for saddling him up, but once she got on there, he was perfect for her. Weird how that works.
She loves every minute of it--she is either cackling, or you can see the gears turning in her head about how to make him go, or stop or whatever she thinks he should do. And lest anyone want to call DCFS on me for not having her in a helmet, for pete's sake, her head is too little for a helmet. And at all times--every single second--someone on the ground is holding her. You just cannot always see it--but Mandy had a death grip on her overalls, so she was not going anywhere.



Gabi wanted Madison to ride with her too, so they had a short spin around together. For some reason, that made Gabi laugh even more.


Ah there you go--you can see the death grip. Mandy is hiding behind her but you can see her hand.
The rest of the nite, Gabi entertained herself playing farmer. She picked blades of grass, then yelled at the horses "Here you go" and chucked each piece of grass through the gate. Usually, the horses would be 100 yards away, but it is the thought that counts, right?
Her expressions kill me. She can go from pensive, to hysterical, to confused, to who-knows-what in a split second.

And is there anything cuter than a kid in overalls? Especially with no shirt.
Note that these are shorts overalls. But when she gets moving or squats down, they hit the ground, because her legs are so short.



She made a very serious game out of throwing grass and rocks into a mud puddle
She really wanted to play with the kitty, but kitty did not want any part of it. That did not stop her from stalking the kitty.

Another fun nite at Strawn summer camp for Gabi.

A twofer--Gabi/Tequila

Lookie here--Gabi can swim! Ok, it it not totally swimming, but it is pretty danged impressive for a 26-month old short person. She powered around the pool like a wild woman all on her own forever. I am not kidding...she would putter around, or tread water, and float on her back or swim from one person to another. She could not grab the side ever because it would tip her over--not that she cared. She does not hold her nose at all, and if she gets water in her mouth, she just spits it out. It is so cute.
We have these really big noodle-like things--but they are kind of bean baggish in feel. She tried to tackle one on her own, but she is so tiny, she could not really get her arms around one enough to hang on it alone. That is all right with her though, since she loves "Uncle Barely", she can just play with him
She has no fear. I was probably more worried she would jump off the pool into the yard than she was of jumping into the pool. I realize she does this every day at home, but I figured maybe it would be different with an above ground pool than her nice pool. Did not phase her though. She would go way underwater and come up laughing. It was so fun to watch. Mandy and I were both like that as little bitty kids too.
Then we came in the house when it got dark, and Gabi fell in love with Tequila. It is kind of hard not to do, even as jacked up as Quila is. Important thing to note about this phot0, besides that grin on Gabi's face--Tequila is standing UP. She had a great evening last nite. I have been struggling so hard about her condition. Her back end is really getting weak. LAst nite, she was able to get up on her own, go up and down all the steps without falling, came to the pool to hang out with us, and changed locations a few times. It was wonderful. She is not sturdy by any means, but she did it. We have had a few days lately where going up and down the few stairs we have caused her to fall down. It scares her and makes me cry. She is not good on the tile or the wood floors- and we have only two rooms with carpet. She never even complains or cries like she hurts, but her daily dose of Previcox (Which I was out of for a few days while we were on vacation, so I have been blaming her downhill slide on lack of proper meds) does tend to help her. This week, we have put her on Tramadol as a last ditch effort to get her moving more. If this does not do the trick, Tequila will have to be put to sleep.
And it is killing me. Because I love her and I know she did not have an easy life before she came to us a couple of years ago--hell, it has not always been easy since she got here. I do not want her to suffer and I am afraid I am not willing to see the final sign from her because I dread it so much. It is horrible.
Gabi hugged her real big and said "I love you, Quila", while I was taking pictures, and of course, that set me off crying. I kept hoping these were not the last pics I would ever be able to take of her. And then being glad that Tequila got to have a fun day with Gabi, and that Gabi got to love on her--she loves dogs so much, despite being bitten in the face by her nutbag dog and as a result, having to get rid of her.
Quila is not the most affectionate dog in the world, but she liked Gabi loving her.
They had several important discussions. Notice the pig in the background--he is sneaking up on her, because he is a little scared of Gabi and this seemed to be the only way he could do it.
I do not know who is bossing who in this picture.
Everyone likes Slater, so I brought him in give her someone else to love on. This picture absolutely cracked me up--she is so tiny, she does not even come to his chin. I think he is hugging her back though.
It is fun playing at our house. There are a lot of toys for dogs to get out, and some hats to play with and leftover Mardi Gras beads...we are a well-rounded household.

She is pretty cute huh?

We start them out squirrelly, I guess

Today we went to the Museum of Natural Science in Houston to see the Body Worlds 2 exhibit. I was probably the least enthused, since not a week goes by that I do not see someone's nekkid brain, but it was pretty cool.


We got to the end of the exhibit and the last part was on reproductive organs. Gabi pointed to the male reproductive organs and said "what's that?", which is what she says about everything all day long. I mean, all day long. Since I did not know that she loves balls of the non-testicular variety, I told her they were balls. Cuz they are balls, after all.

She immediately started repeating that--"balls! balls! balls" and squeezing her fists in the air. Like she was grabbing a set.

It was hysterical.

Gabi's first Christmas in the U.S.

It was a big hit. This is the first year she has been home, so it was a big deal for the whole family to be here for her Christmas. She asked for a bike for Christmas, which is her favorite thing in the whole world, so we got her that. She was beside herself with excitement when she saw it. That does not mean that she can reach the pedals--not even close.
See how far her feet are from the pedals? But she does not care--either someone pushes her, or she rocks back and forth like she does on her rocking horse to make it go. It is a hoot to watch her get it to go.
She also got a wagon, which was Mom and Dad's gift to her. It too was a big hit--she went on a ride around the neighborhood, but eventually got out and pulled it back herself. I missed that since I was sick in the bed all day, but I hear there are photos to prove that she pulled it home, all two feet of her. She wore her new red cowboy boots which are two sizes too big on her trip--she loves them too.
This is her Xmas dress. She posed in the backyard for her fancy pictures. This is the funniest one though, as she kept flapping her skirt.
This is Gabi's serious Christmas picture, sitting on the steps in the foyer of her house. Isn's she a good poser? It is a wonder she is not blind with all the flashes going off all day.



This is my attempt to not be so serious. I took this pic on the way out Tuesday nite--Bocephus was having a good laydown in his pigloo. I woke him up to say goodbye and he yawned for the picture. Typical. Still, he cracks me up, and I hate not being home at Christmas time to be with my animals. Even the stupid pig.

Hopefully, I will feel better enough tomorrow from this horrible cold to be more interesting. I have lots of new pics and stories to tell, but I have to take medicine every five minutes so that I can stay over medicated enough to get through this weekend, and that makes me too ignorant to make a coherent post.

Holiday is over-back to business

It had to end eventually. After a family breakfast Saturday morning at a local cafe, we had to do serious business at the farm. The farrier and his assistant were there, and we had more than enough horses to trim. We may have set a land speed record for getting things done--we trimmed 18 horses in less than 4 hours, with both of them working. All of those horses got groomed really well, cockleburrs pulled from their manes and tails until my hands bled, they were dewormed, and trimmed, and got whatever other sort of maintenance they needed. It was actually pretty fun, but even when I am just the step-and-fetch-it girl, that is hard work. You have to catch them and put them in stalls, and keep them moving so that there are always a few in line and ready to be trimmed when it is their turn. Add in all that other stuff, and my incessant chart-making about what happened to whom, it was a very busy day!

But of course, you know I was also taking a bunch of pics.
Marvin was being particularly handsome. Marvin the ass, not Marvin the farrier, but I am sure he was lovely too. I just do not think about things like that. At least not about the farrier.
He is however, exceptionally good at his job. This is where non-horse people might tune out for a bit--I have to document this stuff somewhere so I can track recoveries etc, so feel free to scroll down to more interesting stuff. We found some issues--Squeaklet had a blowout of some sort. There must have been an abcess and it busted out through a crack in her hoof. I am sure this is my fault, at least the crack itself was, since she was entirely too long as she had slipped through the cracks on the farrier schedule (look, I made a pun. I am such a wit). This will grow out over time, but since the crack is all the way through the hairline, there will likely always be a scar on her foot, but she is not the least but sore, which is what matters.

This is Midget's front right--who knows what she did here, it looks like a hole an alien might have burst through. Who knows. She may have just clipped herself in some sort of freak manner, but it is odd. She too is perfectly comfortable, but has some hoof issues in that her heels are growing funky. Corrective action is being taken.
This is Hammer's foot rear right, I think. Earlier this year, he damn near cut his foot off. I mean OFF. The only thing we can figure is that he kicked through some metal, which is the only reasonable explanation--except we cannot find where, and all the metal on the place that is in kicking range is lined with wood to make sure these things do not happen. That is a horse for you though. From looking at the scar, you can see where he did the damage--his heel bulb was sliced really deeply and ugly. He also cut it high up where you can see the hair doing something goofy. It is amazing to me how it healed so well, and now there just has to be some remodeling of the hoof to get it back in normal condition. He too is sound as a dollar, and thank goodness this happened when he was just a year old, as young ones heal so well and go on to be perfectly normal. In his case, it may have been the best thing that ever happened to him, as he had to put up with treatment every day and he turned into such a sweetheart over it.

That is the end of injury pics for the day--aren't you glad?
This is Vixen, who has been hiding in the hay field behind the ponds. I have not spent any time with lately. If she has not grown up, I do not know what has happened. I did not recognize her at first, which is not uncommon as she and Riot look just alike. She is a year and a half old here. I really liked her when I was playing with her Saturday and I am going to focus on her some more in the near future. Her mother, Foxy, pictured below, has an unattractive head, and we prayed Sly would trump it--he did on Voodoo, the 2 year old, and clearly he did an even better job on this one. Now if these babies are half the horse their brother Chief (who lives in Arkansas) is, we will have hit the jackpot.


Foxy brings a lot to the table to make up for that head though--brains, athletic ability, she is ate up with cow, and pedigree to name a few. She has earned her spot in this herd. After all, pretty is as pretty does.Xan had her hair in one big sheet of cockleburred mess--it took forever to get them all out, and the efforts of three people. She was glad to get away from us--look how frizzy her hair is from being aggravated by us.

I realize Gypsy was just featured on here, but she looked so pretty after her work got done, and she just kept posing for me. Besides, I was trying to pretend that I did not see Barry working on fence repairs--we are in a constant state of standoff over fence boards, and I was afraid that if I called attention to the fact that he was working on it, he would either stop or make me help. I sure did not want to be a part of that. So I just kept taking pics and looking busy.

That scheme worked--he replaced boards that were ugly or broken, or that had just been slapped up in a quick fix situation that never seemed to get revisited. Quite often his fix for a broken section of board fence (which really is the bane of my existence, the wood fence) is to put a corral panel in front of it. I say that is no fix and we need panels for other things. Finally, several of those were liberated from their too-long-to-be-temporary homes, and put to use in other more appropriate places. Not only did the bull shed area have repairs done, so did Squeak's sand pit---she even got a new section added to it so she can travel more.

We attempted to move horses from the middle pasture to the back pasture and hay field where they should live for a while, but they were not particularly cooperative. That is how I got away with taking all these pics, I was trying to do the transition.

Barry also moved hay all over so they will be set for the week while he is gone again. He even brought a round bale over to the house (which is about 2.5 miles from the farm) for the boys, who have not moved since--they like it much better than the round bale they had. They are more than a little spoiled, and it keeps me from having an asthma attack by handling square bales every day.

And guess what I did? I took a nap! Surprise, surprise, I took a nap. It is my favorite thing, and I needed it. He went on a boy outing with Mike, Rusty and Hutch, and after my nap, I took him to dinner and a movie because I was so grateful he did all that work. The craziest thing happened there- we were close to on time, and the movie was sold out! In a town with 8 theateres for 17,000 people--explain that to me. To spend time for a bit before going to dinner and a later movie, we went to TSC and got a new battery for the Gator who has been kaput for two weeks--that makes things a lot harder than you would think. We then had good steaks and swordfish for dinner, and still had time left over, so we picked up a few gifts at WalMart and went to the movies. We were too early for what we wanted to see, so we saw Twilight. It was okay. We forgot the groceries in the car though--as well as his credit card at the bar where he had the boy outing, and of course, they are not open on Sundays so he will be out of town without it. Oops.

I stayed up until 4 am, reading and doing laundry. No wonder my nights and days are mixed up.

Today, we got up and he went to fix the Gator, got the horses moved around and Squeak moved to her new paddock, while I worked on house stuff. It was gross weather, so we went to ANOTHER movie--Four Christmases, which was very cute. Then guess what I did? I took ANOTHER nap. It was swell. While I did that, he tracked down straw for the pig and dogs, and now they are happy, too.

So here it is Sunday nite, and Mandy, Edward and Gabi are now back in Houston, so these are the last of the pics there will be of her for a while. I love these pigtails.



It is so nice to be caught up on things for the week to start. It is even better that he did all the work! Most of the world thinks he does it all anyway, but since he is gone during the week, I do everything then. The weekends are for catch up--and since we are booked solid until the New Year, it is vital that all this get done this weekend.


I am ready to start the week. I am hoping that everything at work will relax a little so we can get back to the business of representing people instead of defending ourselves. I am going back to the gym as I missed every day last week due to everything else that was going on, and I feel kind of gross as a result. I have to order some Christmas presents or no one will be getting anything.

It is supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow, but I will believe that when I see it--it is mostly just sprinkling enough to make things icky.

In some good news though, the NCHA futurity is spinning along and the second round of open competition has ended. Justa Lil Scoot, the son of Justa Swinging Jane, made the semi-finals! He has the highest score of any horse in the limited open as well, which is also very cool. Jane is my Snap's maternal sister, so yay for the family. We will get to see him show when we get there in 12 days, I am excited about that.

There is a lot to look forward to around here in the near future, I just hope nothing disastrous interferes with it. I always feel like I get a little bit ahead and then slammed backwards a few more steps, and I am bound and determined to get through all this to a more secure frame of mind.

Hang in there and surely tomorrow, I will me more interesting in my posts. I hope!