I'm leaving on a jet plane.....tomorrow

This country girl is going to the city!! Tomorrow my mom and I fly out of Tucson heading to Washington D.C., and we are so excited!! But I can't lie and say that I'm not a little bit nervous about the metro. You see I've got this thing with my personal space, and I'm not so great when it gets crowded. Luckily, Nette will be able to coach us through all of that!

This is also the first time for me to leave Jason for such a big trip. I'm not sure how to handle it! I've been cooking all week, and coming up with a list so that he knows what needs to be done. You really don't realize all that you do until you have to leave it to someone else!! But I think that he is going to be OK.

So here's to a very happy weekend, and happy (if that's possible) voting on Tuesday, and I will see you, Nette, tomorrow!!

Trouble In The Wind

She was born on a very cold, very windy Easter Sunday morning. April 16,1995, Trouble In The Wind came into this world and forever changed mine.

We called her Windy and she was quite the little whirlwind. So tiny that she fit neatly under her mama's belly while she nursed.







It was definitely love at first sight, well for me anyway....I'm not sure about Stacey.








Every young girl needs a passion in her life. Mine had always been horses, and Windy came along right before I entered high school. Just good timing or God's hand at work? I would say God's hand at work!!





We entered her into halter classes, dragging her along with us to all the shows.












This was her first blue ribbon. I believe that she is just a yearling in this picture.




















I was showing her in all the classes when she turned 2 years old. She was my baby, my project. I started her, I trained her, and she rewarded me greatly! Together we worked so hard and in the end it paid off.













She was my best friend and I relied on her through my high school years. I am so glad that I had some of my senior pictures taken with her!














Many people do not know that we were on the cover of Brio, a Christian girls magazine. (Please, don't hold the horse "whisperer" title against me! I was not so thrilled when they put that on the cover. Besides, there were many times when I was horse "yeller"!) This was definitely another God thing.














I believe that this was after one of our stressful photo shoots for that magazine. She is drugged here (she got over stressed), but I just love her crossed legs. She stood like that for quite some time!







Arizona State Fair! As a 2 year old we placed 2nd in our Western Pleasure class, but for some reason I don't have those pictures. Here we placed 6th in showmanship, which was one of the toughest classes.





















Lots and lots of waiting in between classes. I miss those days.











This is Windy and Teaspoon, her first and only baby.

It's hard to know when to make that call to end the life of a pet, and it's something that I wish we never had to do. But Windy was suffering from bad hips and she was declining quickly. She came into this world on April 16, 1995, and she left this world on October 9, 2008.

Thank you to my two mama's for coming over to cry with me. Thank you, Jason, for taking care of everything because I could not. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity to own such a remarkable horse. And thank you, Windy, for the time that we spent together, the memories made, the person that I became through you, and for Teaspoon. When you died a piece of me forever died with you. I love you and I miss you.

Goodbye my friend.

Reflections.....

Jason and I had the opportunity to go and help out Tammy and Stephen, since they have so graciously helped us out lately! It is their "harvest" time as well and we were helping gather yearlings to take to the sell. Jason had helped on Saturday, but some managed to get out of the pasture so yesterday afternoon we gathered again.

For a little background information, my family has farmed just on the other side of the mountain where Tammy and Stephen have their ranch since the early 50's. Yesterday was my first time to be one the backside of that mountain. WOW! I know that I have posted this before, but it is amazing how much AZ changes within miles of it's self!

ANYWHO...... At one point Teaspoon (my horse) and I were left by ourselves holding some cows and calves while Jason and Stephen were scouting for some more. The view I had was absolutely breath taking!! As I had a few minutes to myself I was praying and thanking God for the opportunity to even be up there, when I started thinking about the ranching life style. Now, farming is hard but ranching....that's a whole other kind of hard.

I was thinking about all the sacrifices that they had made to be up there, everything that they had done without. So many times we want to find our "security" in our checking account, or where we live, or what vehicles that we drive, or how new our farming equipment is.....but here's a family who love each other and I mean really love each other. The 3 kids are grown but they still look out for one another, at Will's wedding his dad was his best man, at Shay's wedding her brothers were her attendants and it is important to Shay Lynn to have her children close together so that they too might have the relationship that she shares with her brothers.

They built this relationship not by buying all the newest and greatest things for their children, in fact, Tammy told me that when the kids were little she would go into town and pick up free cardboard refrigerator boxes for the kids to make forts and countless other stories! But they were given a wonderful life by all of them working together, sacrificing together on that ranch. Now their family is not perfect, but to me it is a beautiful example of what God had is mind when he set up the family.

I pray that someday when I have a family of my own that I too will instill in my children a strong work ethic, the meaning of sacrifice, and what life is really about....a relationship with our Savior.

I wish that I could have carried my camera with me! It was so peaceful and to me, there is no better quiet time then when you're sitting horseback looking at God's beautiful creation!