Shari
IsItFridayYet?
Gotta love it!
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Ok, so....this weekend was our saddle club fundraiser. We give horse and pony rides at a fall festival. We were short on help and long on riders - we gave 545 rides on Saturday alone. A few of our volunteers wore pedometers, and they ranged from 10-16 miles walked! Then we did it again on Sunday! I am so sore, but man, it feels good to do that much physical work.
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I met some new folks on Saturday who are involved in mounted shooting (shooting targets off horseback). They came late in the day Saturday, and weren't so tired, so they were going to practice after the rides were done, so I tagged along. Its something I've always wanted to do. I still had my horse in the trailer from the rides, so I got him out to just watch - figured all the shooting and running and smoke would freak him out, but he was as calm as could be! After MY comfort level was ok, I rode him around while they were shooting, and eventually even shot off of him! It was so exciting! When I messaged husband to tell him what I'd done, he asked what hospital I was heading to, so he could meet me there. LOL Nice to know we both beleive in my horse, huh? lol It truly was an exciting experience. I am hoping to practice with them again.
***
Saturday was also my birthday. My phone didn't stop ringing between 7am and 9 am. My ex-brother in law and his new wife, difficult child 1, my mom, my ex-mother in law, and ex-father in law seperately, 2 neices, and 3 close friends all called, plus easy child 1 and his girlfriend came to help with the pony rides, and husband and easy child 2 and wee difficult child, and, of course, they all remembered. No one really did anything special, but it was a really great day (mostly cause I love doing the pony rides, and shooting off my horse was AWESOME!). But notice, no current in-law's are mentioned in that list! lol I saw sister in law, nephew at the pony rides. They kept their "stuff" in our trailer while they walked around the festival. And both Two Brooms and father in law showed up during the day. Not a word from any of them.
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Sunday was a much slower day at the pony rides - more downtime. I enjoyed visiting with my baby neice and ex-brother in law/sister in law (who also wished me a belated birthday! LOL) and a good friend who's son was good friends with difficult child 1 in grade school, who comes back to visit each year at this time.
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Wee difficult child played around the area all weekend and was VERY good (the area we are stationed at is somewhat away from the rest of the festival). This event happens every year and is a good place for me to "benchmark" wee difficult child's progress. This year, he really bordered on being a typical 4 year old (I know, he's 6 - and we're not there - but he was every bit of 4 and maybe sometimes 5). It was nice to see that, too.
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His bio dad is always around at this event, as well. Wee difficult child just in the past year or so can recognize him out of context, so he saw him a time or 2 and I tried to keep the interaction positive. I think it went well up until he showed up at the pony rides and took off with difficult child - I was about 20 foot away, and hollered at him to stop so I could tell him we needed to leave to get easy child 2 back to her mom's in 15 minutes, but he didn't pay attention and just drove off. I was a little warm, considering this man hasn't had difficult child in his care since Mother's Day 2003, when he had both difficult children. easy child 1 ended up having to take easy child 2 back to her mom's, because DEX didn't bring wee difficult child back for an hour (I was getting worried at that point except EVERYONE in that town knows him and his relationship with his kids - he WOULD be found, even by his OWN friends). So even that turned out ok. (and its so hard to be positive about a "dad" like that...tho I guess I can knock a buck off his 20K or so in back support - he DID buy difficult child a water.)
***
Nothing really earth-shattering (the shooting was VERY exciting) just one of those really great weekends you REALLY enjoy. And I thought the birthday thing was pretty funny.
***
Ok, so....this weekend was our saddle club fundraiser. We give horse and pony rides at a fall festival. We were short on help and long on riders - we gave 545 rides on Saturday alone. A few of our volunteers wore pedometers, and they ranged from 10-16 miles walked! Then we did it again on Sunday! I am so sore, but man, it feels good to do that much physical work.
***
I met some new folks on Saturday who are involved in mounted shooting (shooting targets off horseback). They came late in the day Saturday, and weren't so tired, so they were going to practice after the rides were done, so I tagged along. Its something I've always wanted to do. I still had my horse in the trailer from the rides, so I got him out to just watch - figured all the shooting and running and smoke would freak him out, but he was as calm as could be! After MY comfort level was ok, I rode him around while they were shooting, and eventually even shot off of him! It was so exciting! When I messaged husband to tell him what I'd done, he asked what hospital I was heading to, so he could meet me there. LOL Nice to know we both beleive in my horse, huh? lol It truly was an exciting experience. I am hoping to practice with them again.
***
Saturday was also my birthday. My phone didn't stop ringing between 7am and 9 am. My ex-brother in law and his new wife, difficult child 1, my mom, my ex-mother in law, and ex-father in law seperately, 2 neices, and 3 close friends all called, plus easy child 1 and his girlfriend came to help with the pony rides, and husband and easy child 2 and wee difficult child, and, of course, they all remembered. No one really did anything special, but it was a really great day (mostly cause I love doing the pony rides, and shooting off my horse was AWESOME!). But notice, no current in-law's are mentioned in that list! lol I saw sister in law, nephew at the pony rides. They kept their "stuff" in our trailer while they walked around the festival. And both Two Brooms and father in law showed up during the day. Not a word from any of them.
***
Sunday was a much slower day at the pony rides - more downtime. I enjoyed visiting with my baby neice and ex-brother in law/sister in law (who also wished me a belated birthday! LOL) and a good friend who's son was good friends with difficult child 1 in grade school, who comes back to visit each year at this time.
***
Wee difficult child played around the area all weekend and was VERY good (the area we are stationed at is somewhat away from the rest of the festival). This event happens every year and is a good place for me to "benchmark" wee difficult child's progress. This year, he really bordered on being a typical 4 year old (I know, he's 6 - and we're not there - but he was every bit of 4 and maybe sometimes 5). It was nice to see that, too.
***
His bio dad is always around at this event, as well. Wee difficult child just in the past year or so can recognize him out of context, so he saw him a time or 2 and I tried to keep the interaction positive. I think it went well up until he showed up at the pony rides and took off with difficult child - I was about 20 foot away, and hollered at him to stop so I could tell him we needed to leave to get easy child 2 back to her mom's in 15 minutes, but he didn't pay attention and just drove off. I was a little warm, considering this man hasn't had difficult child in his care since Mother's Day 2003, when he had both difficult children. easy child 1 ended up having to take easy child 2 back to her mom's, because DEX didn't bring wee difficult child back for an hour (I was getting worried at that point except EVERYONE in that town knows him and his relationship with his kids - he WOULD be found, even by his OWN friends). So even that turned out ok. (and its so hard to be positive about a "dad" like that...tho I guess I can knock a buck off his 20K or so in back support - he DID buy difficult child a water.)
***
Nothing really earth-shattering (the shooting was VERY exciting) just one of those really great weekends you REALLY enjoy. And I thought the birthday thing was pretty funny.
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