Weekend Coffee Share; August ~ Fun Month!

On August 28, 2022 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share21 Comments

*Welcome to my coffee share! I just love this bearded Iris and wanted to feature it again.*

How can it be August 28th? The weeks have just flown by and it has been a busy but fun summer. As I am writing this it is really overcast outside which I am a bit surprised but if the marine layer is thick enough to head inland where we are at it will stick around for at least half the day. That will be today, much cooler and cloudy, a nice reprieve from the hot summer days. I have to say that we have been lucky this summer, so far it has not breeched 100F (38C) and we have had summers where we have hit 115F (46C) that was years ago, now that’s stinking HOT! I think we will be okay this year and just have the usual 90’s most days. We do not have humidity here, I like to call it a dry heat even though we sweat like crazy working outside with the horses. It cools off very nicely every evening, I can’t complain.

I started out this month of August heading to my family in Arizona. It was my granddaughter’s 7th birthday. It was so much fun to be there to celebrate with the family. I can’t believe she is 7 years old and she is heading into first grade. She has since started school and her dad told me she LOVES first grade, that just makes me smile. 😀 My grand daughter is so smart, funny and quite the character. She’s a wonderful older sister and with her baby brother 2 1/2 years old, I know there’s always a little trouble with sharing. He’s starting to talk more each day which helps with communication between them. They have my heart, love them so much! ❤

She is so adorable as we sang happy birthday with most of the kitchen lights out and the glow of the candles lit so bright! Baby brother was trying to blow out her candles, silly guy and after she made a wish and blew out her candles I took her photo with the cake. My flash went off which caught her by surprise, so cute! She also has poses for her photos which we do not ask her to do of course, and I just giggle as she is so adorable. I will be saying adorable a million times in this post because that’s just the best description. I miss them so very much!!!

*She doesn’t like her hair brushed so I took her photo to show her the pretty braid!* ❤

We headed to the water park nearby the next day which the kids just love! Me and my selfies, these turned out so great and I went crazy and took one with everyone who went including my daughter and my son. The only one who didn’t come was my daughter-in-law, I feel bad I don’t have a selfie with her and didn’t get one on this visit. The selfie with my grandson is now my background photo on my phone. ❤ I may switch it out soon with the one with my granddaughter! I change them often depending on my mood. 😀

My son and daughter selfies, love this so much! My heart is full and I am feeling blessed to have such a wonderful family and am so happy to be fortunate to have these two grand children who make us laugh and are so full of energy and love. I have lots of photos that I took but wanted to share other events for this month. I can now see the advantage of sharing weekly because I can dedicate the whole post to one event. Since it’s been a month I will continue on and share my horsey photos as my horsey sister arrived just over a week ago. Her son’s birthday was this month and so she flew down from Idaho and stayed a week. We had a ton of fun as she helped me with my young horse Murphy and we rode out on trail with my other horse Chloe. She was able to ride a friends horse with me on the trails.

*Murphy enjoying a turn out in the arena!*

*My sister riding Murphy! He is doing great and learning so much!*

As I share this month I am thinking of how fast this year has gone by so far. I am terrible at planning things but am thinking I should try and be more conscience of this and try and plan more for the future. I tend to fall into a rut of day to day things and need to think beyond the moment. I blame my lack of planning on being a middle child. I tend to just do things as they come up as one sibling or another make plans and/or my daughter who is the planner of the family makes plans and thankfully I can usually join her or she invites me and her dad. We have planned to meet at President Reagan’s library in 2 weeks as we’ve never been and they have a WW2 presentation there that will end in October. The library is about half way to my daughter’s house so the plan is each of us driving there and meeting up for the tour. I am looking forward to this and am so thankful my daughter is helping plan and getting us there!

This month has been full of events. Our 38th wedding anniversary was August 19th which I almost forgot about but I took that day off to add to the days to hang out with my sister. My hubby and I went out to dinner and he is so sweet and got me some gifts and I got him a sweet card. I took a photo I will share.

*He is so very sweet and incredibly thoughtful! The box has a beautiful necklace with double hearts and heartfelt saying!*

Why am I so bad at gift giving in general? I would gladly give away money, my shirt off my back or anything one could want if I can afford it. But I can stress for days and not know what to get and I rarely get him anything for our anniversary as I have no idea what to do, I am serious. I am horrible and I got him a sweet card and that’s it and I will ask him if he needs anything but we have been married for so many years the words romantic don’t strike me as being a great definition of how I feel. I LOVE him with all my heart and I know I am the glue that is our family unit and all I have to offer up is the love and consistent “being here” as I will always be there for my hubby and my family. I guess that is my gift.

I considered removing the last paragraph as I am embarrassed I can’t be more giving in the gift department to show my appreciation and love through material things. I can’t be alone in this world so I am going to leave all of this mumbo jumbo in and say that as I try and figure out the “why” I am like this as I feel rather selfish to not buy him anniversary gifts. I do not expect him to do what he does for me as I would be just as happy and never blink an eye if he just bought me a card and we had dinner out. He almost always gets me these gifts. He got me Jade gifts for our 35th anniversary, me? I got him nothing, zip, zero, nadda….. A big hug and a kiss to thank him! Haha, it is what it is and I am who I am….. Sharing myself to ya’ll wasn’t my plan this weekend. But there it is! 😀

I’ll end with these two photos. My sister riding Murphy! I think I may get a print of this to send to her for Christmas. Or I may make her a photo book with all the photos I have taken this past year of her and Murphy. I thought I would try a selfie with Murph on her last ride. Haha, it turned out pretty cute! Thank you for visiting and having coffee with me today. As I think about this month of August, there are a ton of birthdays. My granddaughter 8/3, my brother 8/4, my nephew 8/14 and my sister’s 8/23 and 8/26. With my anniversary thrown in there 8/19 you can see its a crazy month of celebrations. Most of them were virtual but still, no wonder I have been busy!

I hope you all have had a wonderful August and I am looking forward to the Fall as September is days away. Thank you Natalie for hosting the weekend coffee share link up and I hope you all have a great week ahead.

Loving Family Cowgirl Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; It’s October, My Favorite Month!

On October 3, 2021 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share21 Comments

*Beautiful wild flowers blooming at my friends house in Kentucky! She is so kind and sends me photos!*

Welcome to my coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I am remembering summer as I share these wild flowers from my girlfriend. She has shared with me some beautiful photos of her flowers in bloom. She knows I have a LOVE for all flower photos, I could actually have a separate blog just for flowers except then I would have trouble keeping up so I’ll just share them from time to time here on this blog, my one and only blog. Can you believe it’s October? I can’t believe it as September just zipped by and here we are starting a new month. I have had Murphy for over 4 months now and he is learning and growing and is so much FUN! 😀

When Murphy arrived I took my time getting to know him as he got to know me and remember, he needed time to heal up a splint bone fracture. It is completely healed and he is perfectly sound and it is a non issue. But that time was well spent as he learned our routine. I could have done this earlier but never seemed to have enough time in my day to do some extra trimming and this weekend I was able to trim up his mane. Some people leave their manes natural and let it grow long. I prefer to have it shortened and an even length across his neck. I think it could be even shorter but that would have taken me longer and he stood so well while I spent the 30 to 40 minutes it took me to shorten his mane. When he first arrived, he did not stand still very long and was restless as he got to know our routine. Now he has gained great patience, I am very proud of him!

*Before I trimmed his mane, it’s pretty but very long!*

As I share my horsey stuff which includes riding Murphy in the arena and Miss Chloe on the trails, I am looking forward to a visit to Arizona to see my family. My daughter bought tickets to a comedian show in Arizona and is treating her brother and his wife. I asked if they needed a babysitter and they said Yes! So we will head out to AZ this coming Thursday and spend the weekend until Sunday. My son has some new games that we all can play together and Alice can join us playing some of these games too. I am looking forward to a fun game night with our visit. My son found a fun small water park for the kids and I look forward to taking them there as well. My son sent me this photo of them just the other day and I thought I would share. 😀

*They are so adorable! I know they are my grandkids, but they are so darn cute ~ how can you not smile!* ❤

Oh how they melt my heart! I have the hugest smile on my face right now! I have to say they are two such different children which makes sense. Alice is so sweet and cuddly. Loves hugs and attention. Teddy is very much the opposite, as independent as they come getting into everything and is not cuddly, so curious and very busy. Of course, he doesn’t know me as well as Alice got to know me at his age but he is all boy. Climbs up on everything and is as smart as they come. He will push chairs over to climb up on the countertop, he is such a handful and then some!! He is not even 2 yrs old yet and I would say has already had a few of those terrible twos temper tantrums. He will turn 2 in February. My goodness, they grow up fast! ❤

Thank you for visiting with me today and I so enjoyed your company. Do you have any travel plans? I am enjoying being able to have these long weekend get-a-way’s. I also am looking forward to my sister who lives in Idaho to visit again in a couple weeks. She is my horsey sister so we will have fun riding together again! Her husband is coming with her this time as he has a reunion to attend and she decided to come and visit too.

I want to thank Natalie for hosting our #weekendcoffeeshare link up and if you want to visit her blog or other weekend coffee shares I’ll add a link here. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will see you again in two weeks time since I will be traveling this next weekend. Take care and stay safe out there!

Horse Crazy Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; First Week Of Aug!

On August 8, 2021August 29, 2021 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share21 Comments

*Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives!*

Welcome to my coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? It has been a busy last few weeks and it’s the best kind of busy because it’s been all about visiting with family. My sweet family, my beautiful daughter and my son and his wife and of course my beautiful grand children. During this first week of August it was my grand daughter’s 6th birthday and she has had such a wonderful birthday spending time with her cousin’s at Knott’s Berry Farm. We’ve had cake and ice cream and all the fun that birthday’s hold and then my daughter and I visited Phoenix and we spent this last weekend with them. We flew out but drove home as my son had my daughter’s car and he returned it to her as he does not need it any more. So we drove the 5 and 1/2 hours home and I thought let me put together this coffee share before the weekend comes to a complete end.

*We enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood and enjoyed these bushes blooming! My grand daughter is so sweet!*

*Her mommy and daddy got her a little motorized jeep. Not meant for two, but I thought this was so cute!*

I had such a great time and my grand daughter is growing up fast. She is learning to read and is now in kindergarten. She absolutely LOVES school which makes us all so happy. She is now attending school in person which we are all happy about as well. I had so much fun babysitting so my daughter, son and wife could get a night out together. My son and wife do not get out that often and so I am always so happy to babysit. I sure wish we could be closer, but at least I can visit often which just makes my heart so happy! ❤

I am also busy taking care of my horses. I have something very exciting to share as I have been working with my new horse Murphy and wanted to share something I have been wanting to accomplish for the last month. Murphy and I are doing really well bonding and I decided with the help of my best friend to try and take him out on a short trail ride. Yes! I am so excited to share a couple of video’s we made!! He was such a champ, such a good boy. He definitely looked around which is what you would expect, but he remained calm, and relaxed. We have a short loop to walk which takes about 25 minutes and my best friend and I had plans on returning home early if he seemed stressed at all. I even had him in a halter and lead rope (with a bridle) which would be easier to lead him if I needed to get off and walk him home. I didn’t need it! He was great! I can’t wait to ride more trails with Murphy!!

My girlfriend took this video, so kind of her and I think it’s great! It’s hard because Murphy didn’t want to walk next to her but behind her on her horse Roscoe.

I wanted Murphy to feel safe as he followed Roscoe on the trails. He stayed mostly behind him and only once walked up next to him but he didn’t stay there long. So my girlfriend had to practically turn around in her saddle to get the video of Murphy and I on the trail. I think she did a great job considering, but that is why it kind of ends abruptly. Haha, she did the best she could but you can see Murphy well I think! I’m so grateful and thankful for his smart brain, calm attitude and all around willingness to go where he’s never been before. Here is one more video that I was able to take while I rode him on this same trail. 😀

Horses have GPS, seriously, they know when they are heading home. When we rounded the last corner that turns in the direction of heading back to the stables I could feel Murphy relax a bit. He actually relaxed enough so that I felt comfortable enough riding him to make this video. I am so proud of him and I hope you enjoy my video’s!

My veterinarian has told me that at 3 years old he is not done growing. I know some of that means filling out too. He still has a young body and he stands at least 17hh (at his wither or the point at the top of his back where his mane ends equals 5ft 8, and he could possibly get taller!) I am 5ft 7 and I can’t see over his back. He is one tall dude!! He is a ton of FUN!! I am so enjoying working and riding Murphy!! ❤

Thank you for visiting my coffee share and I want to end with a photo of my son’s cats. Today is international cat day and these kitties are just so cute. They love sleeping together and they have managed to squeeze together at the top of their cat tree. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I also want to thank Natalie for hosting #weekendcoffeeshare!

Super Busy Cowgirl Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Family Fun and Murphy in Action!

On July 10, 2021 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share26 Comments

*Welcome to my coffee share for this second weekend in July!*

I think I have made up for last year where we couldn’t visit family as we are getting in lots of family weekends recently. My hubby hadn’t seen my daughter’s house she moved to that she is leasing so for the 4th of July weekend we drove up to her place to spend time with her. It was a great visit however my son in Arizona called me Saturday night and he and his family decided to drive to California for an impromptu visit. They drove through the night while the grandkids slept and then they stayed in our room since we weren’t home. We drove home the next morning to spend the 4th with my son and family which included fireworks!

Oh where are my manners, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? Hot or cold? I have some cookies to go with, store bought but I think good to go with either beverage. I wanted to share some photos from last weekend because you know, I am always so happy to see my grandkids and share. I always try and get a couple of selfies too! SO FUN!

*She ALWAYS wants to do a goofy photo! She is so adorable and fun!*

*I asked her for a nice smiling photo and she is now old enough to comply. She use to ignore my wishes, she will be 6 soon and is growing up fast!*

*My sweet grandson! I got him to smile by my huge smile as he can see himself as I took the photo! He is so adorable too!*

I do miss my grandkids immensely but it has helped to be able to visit them this year. I think you can see how excited I was to see them and I don’t think I have taken or shared selfies in awhile. I have one more photo I wanted to share as after I took it I realized it has three generations in the photo. A happy accident, and it’s a cute photo of the guys in my family!

*My grandson doesn’t look too happy but I think he was getting tired. It was a long day for him at the 4th of July party.*

Family is so important to me and I have extended family I wish I could see more often as well. I have all my sister’s and brother, it is hard to figure out who I want to visit next and as I try and figure out my traveling plans the time just keeps passing by. I have sister’s that read this blog and I do want to come visit and am hoping I can figure out when I can come out and spend a weekend. It will all work itself out eventually, and they all know our immediate family’s have priority. I at least can share on social media all that’s happening which includes here as well! 😀

Can I get you a refill? Top off the tea or coffee? I wanted to share some fun horse photos and a video of Murphy in action! I also took an action shot of Chloe in the arena trotting around that turned out pretty good. Both my horses are doing really good. I keep them separated and they are not turned out together at all. I want them to have autonomy and I can tell you that Chloe is much happier not having Zack by her side on the trails. He use to nip at her and was a pesky fellow, and she put up with his antics but is much more relaxed walking by herself or with my girlfriend or any other horses that are ridden out with us on the trails.

*I zoomed in on my lucky shot of Chloe trotting, and all but her right back leg are off the ground which I think is a cool action shot. And Chloe up close, silly girl!*

*It’s nice to let them graze and I can tell you he is enjoying this time on the grass as they all do!*

I had him turned out in the arena and he is learning to trot and canter when I ask him and he is so big that his strides cover the ground pretty quickly. Our arena is really not that big, which is a good thing as he can’t get going too fast. He is definitely on the lazy side as horses go and that is exactly the way I like him as he needs to be relaxed and sensible once we get out on the trails.

He is so beautiful and fun to watch him in the arena. At the end of the video I like how he just stops and stands there as that is a really calm and lazy horse. I hope he stays this mellow, I think he will! I also had a set back over a week ago where I did not have the bell boots on his front hoofs. At the end of the video you can see them, they are rubber with velcro that go around his pastern and hang down around the hoof. This will help him not step on the back of his shoes with his back hoof! He did this and pulled off a shoe, so I am hoping the bell boots will be the fix and we won’t have any more shoes come off.

Thank you so much for having coffee with me today. I am sharing last weekend this weekend, but that’s all good. This weekend I am home and just riding the horses and so not much to report. I missed last weeks coffee share and thought this way I can catch you up on all the happenings! Thank you Natalie for hosting the #weekendcoffeeshare link and I hope you all stay safe, healthy and happy!

Busy Grandma Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; March 29, 2021

On March 29, 2021 By DianaIn Family is important, weekly smile17 Comments

Welcome to my weekly smile! I had such a wonderful weekend visiting my family in Arizona. I was in Grandma heaven as I spent the weekend with my son and his family. I can’t get enough of them and feel extra excited because I had just visited last month for baby Teddy’s first birthday and then I was able to return so that my son and wife could celebrate their anniversary. They had a wonderful time together and I had so much fun baby sitting. They have a lot of energy these little ones and I was able to take them for a walk in the neighborhood and thought I would share some photos.

My grand daughter said she knows some tricks with her scooter! She is so cute as she balances on one leg and holds up the other. She only scooted around half the block though, giving it up to walk. Lucky the scooter fits under the stroller so I didn’t have to carry it and push the stroller. As we rounded the corner there was a road runner and he didn’t shy away at all! I should have zoomed in but if you click on the photo I think you can see him pretty well. I should have walked all the way around their complex – they live in a townhome in a very nice area. My grand daughter was getting tired and I hate to say she was whining but yes, she was saying she was tired and I thought it best to cut through the complex for a shorter walk. Haha, she wanted to sit in the stroller with baby Teddy! I told her she doesn’t fit and she is 5 1/2 years old and the exercise is good for her. Oh my, she’s so adorable and silly. I think she likes acting like a baby around me because you know, I’m Grandma! She sure makes me smile! 😀

I don’t know when I started to take selfie photos with the grand kids but it has become sort of my “thing”. It’s funny because I don’t particularly like seeing photos of myself but the selfies became a ton of fun! I have tried taking selfies with my horses, Haha! Now that is difficult because they are so huge. I once had a selfie stick which back when I got it as a gift years and years ago, I never used it and it is long gone. So I just go with the length of my arm selfies, and my grand daughter gets so excited she just makes funny faces. It’s fun and so now I have to add Teddy to the mix so here are some selfies that turned out I think….. well, at least the ones here aren’t too blurry! The kids move so much, I deleted the blurriest ones. I hope you enjoy them too! They sure make me SMILE!

I so enjoyed my time away and now it’s back to work this week. The sun is shining and my heart is full! What makes you smile? I wanted to get this together today and I have just enough time to make my lunch before I head to work. I will end with one last photo of the brothers. It was great to see them and they curled up together and I got to take this photo.

They were very friendly except when they were on my bed they tried to bite my toes under the covers! Silly kitties. I hope you all have a wonderful week and thank you so much for visiting!

Happy Grateful Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; March 3, 2021

On March 3, 2021March 3, 2021 By DianaIn Living life, weekly smile18 Comments

Welcome to my weekly smile and I have a lot to smile about. I had the most fabulous weekend and I am so excited to share. My daughter and I were able to travel to stay with my son and his beautiful family and celebrate my grandson’s first birthday! I am in grandma heaven! It has been over a year since I have been able to visit and stay the weekend. I am planning on visiting a lot this year as I miss my grandbabies so much. My grand daughter is not a baby any more at 5 1/2 years old and she sure can be silly and enjoys making her baby brother laugh. She is in kindergarten and doing well. She attends virtually at this time. We started out our weekend by visiting the Desert Botanical Garden and I wanted to share some photos. In the photo above those very bright cactus are all made out of glass which is at the entrance, beautiful! 😀

*It was perfect weather at the gardens. Teddy with his Dad, Alice looking adorable and Teddy in stroller!*

*I like to take random photos as we walk, which includes interesting foliage!*

*My son, wife and Alice getting so big, such a sweet family! ❤ ❤ ❤*

We had a great time at the garden and we could not have asked for better weather. The winter in Arizona is perfect and the best time to visit most anything outside. There were so many beautiful plants and flowers and many were blooming. What a fun afternoon! I have to thank my daughter who so thoughtfully planned and booked this outing. I am so happy we were all able to do something together and enjoy the beauty of the desert. I hope you have enjoyed our little adventure as it sure makes me smile! 😀

I have more to share and am so excited we were able to help celebrate Teddy’s first birthday! I wanted to share a few more photo’s of his special day. I have to say that I did not take a lot of photos instead enjoying as much time with the family. I was asked if either my daughter or I wanted to make the cake and I volunteered and made a confetti cake with vanilla frosting. Teddy absolutely loves strawberries and so I put whipping cream in the center of the cake with cut up strawberries. I then lined around the top strawberries I cut in half. I was holding Teddy during the singing “Happy Birthday” song, so my daughter shared her photos so I can share with you. As soon as Teddy got close enough to the cake (Alice helped blow out the candle since Teddy is too little) he grabbed one of the strawberries, so adorable!! ❤

*Teddy turns 1 and is eating a strawberry, his favorite!!*

I realized and knew strawberries have a lot of water and I tried drying them off really well and they still lost some water on the top of the cake. It tasted delicious, I would share with you but we just about ate the whole thing! It tasted like strawberry shortcake, haha. I cut up the strawberries thinner and smaller for in the middle of the cake. I’m just a home cook and baker, but it is made with Love ~ the best kind of food I think! ❤

I had so much fun last weekend and as anyone that follows me knows I just can’t get enough of family togetherness with miles in between loved ones. Some day that may change but for the long term future my Grandma heart is in Arizona. I am always going to dream of living closer to them, we will see what the future holds! I want to share a few more photos of fun with the family. Just can’t SMILE enough!! 😀

*Teddy walks all over the place now! Me and my selfies with Alice and adorable Teddy*

*Best ending ever! How can you not Smile, they make me laugh and I cried when I left! ❤*

Thank you for visiting my smile post for this week. I want to thank Trent who host’s our smile’s and I absolutely Love to share. Not only is it fun to have a place to document my Life and the happenings as I hope it will be fun to go back and visit these fun times. Alice cried when I left, which in turn made me cry. I will be back to visit as often as I can make it happen. I feel so grateful for my family, and I Love each and everyone of you so very much. Here is to many more fun visits and maybe someday I’ll only be around the corner instead of a state away. Someday……

Loving being Grandma!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Crazy Week, Busy, Busy!

On November 8, 2020 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share18 Comments

*Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives from old friends and new! What’s been happening in your world this weekend?*

I can’t wait to share a cup of coffee or tea as we catch up! I think either one will go great with the left over cake we have and it tastes wonderful! Yes, another birthday in the house. It was my youngest sons birthday on Nov. 2nd. I can’t believe how busy it’s been here with one birthday leading into the next and while all this is going on, I am trying to train my employees as I get ready to move on from one job to another. I know when I stated above crazy week, it was one of the craziest for me since add to all the pressure of quitting one job, to start a new one, add elections and all the other things life throws at you that can make you feel crazy! I am glad this week is over. Can I get you another piece of cake and refill that coffee?

I have to say that because of this crazy, busy, busy week I have fallen way behind reading all the blogs I follow. I know, no apologies needed as they are all just waiting for me to read and catch up on. Now that I think about it, it just may take me a few days to go back and get to everyone. I keep forgetting I do not need to head to bed early because I worked my last night shift last night!! WOW! Pinch me! I can’t believe it!! Maybe I will get to all the blog posts sooner than later! But I digress from birthday celebrations as I’d like to share a few more photos. 😀

*Fun making and decorating this yummy cake! And birthday wishes! HAHA!*

I can go through this last year with a laundry list of craziness. For the world, a pandemic that is still here and praying for all. Then I go and decide to move my horses from one barn to another only to be unhappy enough to move back. Wait what? The horses are settling in back at the old/new barn, just had to say that to keep things as confusing as possible! I’m being silly, but its true I am all over the map. The horses recognize they are back to their original barn where they have been living for at least the last five years. I am so proud of them as they settle into their new barn stalls (because I’ve lost their old stalls, they were rented out) and since it is almost winter here I am really appreciating the warmth these stalls will provide. It’s all good, but crazy days all around for my horses and my girlfriends horse Gracie!

*I am not often in the photos. A good friend took these photos! We call each other Pony sister’s*. *Thank you pony sister for the nice photos!*

I decided to buy Zack and Chloe new halters and lead ropes. It has been years since I have bought new ones and I thought how fun to get these new barn stalls with new halters and leads! I went with red for Chloe and a dark blue for Zack. You can see these halters on them in the photos above. I am feeding them horse treats!

*Gracie is at a new barn too. She is a couple of houses down on the same street. She has a full roof in what we call a mare motel. She is loving her new home!* *My girlfriend is very happy!!*

The silver roofs across the way in the photo on the left is where I keep my horses. I am at Gracie’s home looking at where my horses live. So it’s just 2 pastures away but we have to walk out front to get to each others stables. I am so happy we are still close to each other!

Zack’s photo is rather funky as the angle makes his head look big, but I still wanted to share! Haha, but this is the barn stall where he lives. I am very thankful the barn employees take Zack and Chloe out and put them together in a small pasture while they clean the stalls. It is a free turn out, I am so appreciative! Since I can breath a sigh of relief with the move of my horses, I am breathing another breath of stress. As I am sitting here writing this, my shoulders are killing me! Oh the stress! I need to let it ALL GO!!

The stress was from this job I just left. It is not an easy thing to leave a job that you have worked at for 20 years!! Oh my, it was so incredibly hard to say goodbye and since the managers said I am welcome back any time to visit (and they said they would welcome me back to work there if I so choose to go back) it made the departure a little bit easier knowing I could visit. I hate goodbyes, I am more a “see you later” type of gal and I plan on eventually making some visits.

How is your coffee or tea? do you need a refill? I know I do as I’m a bit sleepy after my night shift.

*My precious granddaughter! She was Tinkerbell for Halloween. You can see how she is growing up! SHE MELTS MY HEART! Love you sweet girl!* ❤

In my quest of this most crazy year, moving horses and lastly finding a new job, it is my hope that I can visit more often these sweet grand children! Isn’t she just so beautiful? but then I am prejudice. My weekends going forward will be free, something that I have not experienced in 20 years. I can’t wait to visit both my grand daughter and my grand son often. I’ll close with his cute photo!

*He is so ADORABLE! Just want to kiss those sweet cheeks!!*

Thanks for visiting and listening to my rambling craziness. Now that I’ve completed this last week, I know things will settle down. I just walked away from a very stressful job, that I loved and worked so hard at and I am leaving with the door open to return some day if I so choose. I am hoping the new job is all that I envision so there won’t be any changing jobs again. I also think they are in shock, as they did not see this coming and quite frankly I think I am in shock too. I can’t believe I will be working day shift starting tomorrow!

Crazy, super busy Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Oct. 14, 2020

On October 14, 2020 By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile21 Comments

*My grand daughter Loves to cook as she helps her momma in the kitchen!*

Welcome to my weekly smile as I love to share the things that bring me joy in my life and as I look at how happy Alice is in this photo, she just brightens my day! I am grinning from ear to ear, she is just adorable! My birthday is just a week away and these little ones will be coming here for my birthday ❤ that is the best present EVER! I miss my son and his wife and to be able to see baby Teddy crawling, I can’t wait! And my daughter will be coming home too ❤ my heart will be full as we celebrate this milestone birthday. I also treated myself to most of the week off from work! I am grateful the stars aligned so that I didn’t have to cover vacations or any other issues at work to get the days I needed off. Yay! Lots of smiles going on over here! 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

This year 2020 has been a very strange year. We all know one of the big reasons why. It seems like this year has messed with our brains, haha, not really but I have made decisions I regret but I am thinking I need to learn from these decisions. Exactly six months ago with emotions running high (I am thinking now, don’t make big decisions based solely on emotions) I decided to move my horses with my girlfriend and her horse to where I am at now. Of course, I tried to not be emotional about this move and my girlfriend did have needs she wanted for her horse as she wanted more shade from the sun. The covers where we were didn’t provide enough shelter like she wanted. But I figured this would be a good move for us both.

Fast forward to now and I have made the decision to move my horses back which I am doing at the end of this month. There are many reasons why I am not happy, one of the biggest is not having a riding partner on the trails. Since Gracie is 28 and has EPM which she is being treated for she has a risk of tripping and falling. EPM is a protozoa which lives in her brain, and they are trying to get her immune system to fight it. Zack has EPM too, but he is in remission as far as I know and is doing fine. So, no more trail rides with my dear friend and I have no other riding partners as there just isn’t any boarders that trail ride. All my friends are at the other stables. It is bittersweet leaving my best friend as she wants to stay with the shady stall!

It’s hard to take action shots, but I love how pretty Zack is moving. See how he is stretching out his front and back legs, that is what we consider a good mover with the stretch coming from his shoulder! Chloe is not a good mover, but has healed injuries that have added to her bad movement. She does have a lovely gallop!

This is how I’ve been riding lately. I ride on my bareback pad either on Chloe or Zack in the arena. It’s fun, but I miss the trails and its difficult and not as fun riding alone on the trails here in my town. I am just a bit lonely at this stables when my girlfriend is at work.

I am really excited to move back across town to where there are lovely trails and all my other friends. I was tearful after making this decision. I’ve been torn and almost made this decision a month ago, but didn’t want to leave my best friend. (We have been friends since 10 years old) She finally gave me permission as she said to me last week, take me out of the equation. If you remove me from all your decisions what would you do? I knew in my heart of hearts I wanted to be back to where I was, so I decided to make that happen. Shedding a few tears along the way, I didn’t realize how much I miss all my other riding buddies. My best friend is like a sister to me, we will always be BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!

Instead of regrets, I am going to look at this adventure as a learning experience. I did not know or realize what a social girl I am and how important all the social interaction is to me. Currently when I am at the barn it is like my own place because rarely is anyone there. Maybe one other boarder, but she is up at the barn so we don’t visit. It’s a ghost town, so I get very lonely even though I love my horses, I miss the people. I realize I never want horse property, unless it could be a small gentlemen’s ranch so I could have boarders. Not going to happen in my lifetime, but good to know! 😀

My girlfriend is more of an isolationist, loving the peace and quiet and aloneness way more than I can bare. I guess that is why I blog. I didn’t know what blogging is or how it seems to be and with all the friends and lovely people that share their thoughts and kind words, oh I am in blogging heaven! I never knew and drink it all up and love each and every blogger out there who want to share with me their world. It’s been amazing and am smiling at my smile post! THIS IS ME! and I am discovering me with new realizations all the time. You are never too old to learn, I am grateful for this adventure! I am going to end with a video of Zack feeling his oats running in arena.

Thank you for visiting my smile post today! What makes you smile? I am loving October so far….

Happy cowgirl Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Busy Days!

On October 9, 2020 By DianaIn Family is important, Living life, weekend coffee share31 Comments

*Welcome to my weekly coffee share where we catch up with old friends and new! Can I get you a cold brew? or an ice tea? Too hot here to share a warm brew. How are you doing?*

Welcome, and for those of you that need a hot cup of Joe, of course I have that as well. It was a bit cooler today but will be hot again going into next week. It’s going to be a very hot October, time for me to body clip my horse Zack. He grows a thick winter coat and so to keep him comfortable in our warm winters here in Southern Cali, I partially clip him (it’s called a trace clip) and I shave off the hair where he sweats the most and leave the hair along his topline to keep him warm. It’s an easy clip and I have these huge sheep shearing clippers that makes it a fast and easy job! Now I’ve gone off on a tangent, which I do sometimes. Let’s bring this back to heading into the weekend as I wanted to share a sunrise photo which I took on my walk this morning.

*This is across the street from my house, the new school buildings are almost complete!*

The last month or so have been hard for me as we are trying to figure out our future and what plans are good or bad which include where we want to live. I’ve shared lots about moving which may not make sense at this time and so because of this it is taking time away from what I would call my “normal life”. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions and I won’t delve into all the details here but suffice it to say I have been a bit absent from blogging. It has been a bit hard to focus my thoughts and when you feel anxious and a bit confused, it makes it difficult to put thoughts to virtual paper. I am pretty sure by the end of next week I will be able to write about something I have been working on, so it will be a surprise! Excited? I am, as it will be something totally worth sharing and am hoping set me up for a much better future!

So, I am going to share my kitties, my sons kitties and my sweet grand daughter which I miss terribly. I know I am not alone missing grand children and am thankful for technology since we can visit virtually which I am hoping we can do this weekend. I have been crocheting a baby blanket for yet another relative, my niece who had a son. Families growing, no matter what happens time keeps ticking. Oh speaking of time, this month is my birthday month. Hold on, I will post a birthday post as its a few weeks away. I think I am extra emotional because I am turning 60 this year. Yep, I can’t believe it and want to just stop counting. But I am a proud 60, healthy and going very strong. Here I go rambling again! Can I get you a refill? 😀

Funny story, my hubby came across a cat tree for free that was really tall. I didn’t take a photo of it but it had lots of cubby holes and was at least 5 feet high. Hanging rope to play with, all the fun things cats love so you would think this is a wonderful kitty jungle gym. After the cats checked it out it began. Dinah started hiding under the beds and would barely come out to eat. She would leer towards the room where this big cat tree was waiting, and running back under the bed at the slightest noise! YIKES! I told my hubby that cat tree has to go right away! He said he cleaned it really well, vacuumed the heck out of it and sprayed it (not sure what with) but it doesn’t matter, the scent will always be there and my Dinah was sure a new cat was in the house!

It took her 3 days to finally come out and about sort of ~ she is almost back to normal except if she hears a loud noise she scurries back under the bed. She is doing much better and I told my hubby no more used cat trees, EVER! Duchess didn’t blink an eye, so interesting their personalities. She doesn’t let a thing bother her, Duchess is brave and unaffected. 😀

*If you follow my blog, this is my 4th sweet dreams blanket! Haha, I know, again? It is actually really fun to make, I can’t help myself and each one is a different shade of blue, one was pink!*

*Aww, my sweet grand babies! Alice and Wolfie kitty as they watch Saturday morning cartoons. You can see baby Teddy sleeping on Dad! My son and wife have the sweetest family!*

My niece had her son at the end of August and so I am trying to get the baby blanket completed so I can send it to her. Darn, it’s already October. I just have threads to tie off on the back and stitch a border and it will be complete. These Sweet Dreams blankets are so much fun to stitch up, but this will be the last one for awhile. Next year I may make a few to sell at the local craft fair.

I just had to share the cute photo of my grand children. Oh how I miss them, but it is what it is and I know they are happy and healthy. I will be visiting them sometime soon so I have that to look forward to and I am thankful I can easily drive there, flying even better! ❤

*My sons house, Wolfie and Dublin ~ Brothers, being brothers!*

Thank you for having coffee with me and sharing with me my ramblings. I am hoping to get back on track soon. I will call it growing pains, haha, since my family is growing and there are so many moving parts. I have family all over the place when I think about it and so I need to be thankful I have the wonderful family that I do. I had a wonderful chat with my sister today, and I just have to be thankful to be here and that I am able to share. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Confused kitty crochet loving Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Aug. 26, 2020 – Thank YOU!

On August 26, 2020 By DianaIn blogging, weekly smile11 Comments

Welcome to my weekly smile! I am humbled, elated, surprised, happy, and very grateful for all of you for following my blog. I know there are millions of people who blog and to have a following at all really means the world to me and blogging has become a very social interaction that I am really enjoying. I thank each and every one one of you that read and follow my blog posts. And Thank You To All who comment as our interactions together make me smile, laugh and reflect as we exchange positive thoughts and support. I am so thankful for the blogging friends I have made 😉 and I am sure I will make many more as we continue our journey in blogging! 😀

It’s a small milestone when I see how many followers some of you super bloggers have and I am so very grateful you follow as I am sure it encourages those of us with a smaller footprint. Sometimes I feel like I will let people down, but I am getting the hang of blogging and I want to stay true to myself and the passions that I have in this crazy life we all are trying to lead to the best of our abilities. I never really knew what blogging was and what it can be as I am sure it is different for everyone. I think there is a niche for everyone out there and so I am thankful I am figuring out mine. I feel like I need to do some cleaning up of my blog site as I learn. I didn’t realize what the “categories” on my site meant for instance, and I can see I have not been using this tool to its best intentions. I am learning every single day!

As I write this today, I don’t want to ignore the fact that there are some sad situations happening around us. We have had really bad fires in the North of this state I call home. I pray for all affected in Northern California and all the other states that are battling wild fires. My son who lives just North of Phoenix messaged us yesterday saying the smoke from all the fires are affecting the air quality in Arizona. They are warned to stay inside due to the poor air quality, but like he says they don’t venture out much in 115 (46C) degree heat. Also, stay safe out there those near the hurricane in the Gulf.

Speaking of my son and his family (who I miss terribly) he says his daughter is really enjoying kindergarten. He sent me this cute photo!

*She is getting so big! She is a good student! Love you baby girl!* ❤

*My sons kitties, the brothers! Dublin on the left and Wolfie on the right. They are on baby Teddy’s changing table, so adorable!* ❤

These photos just bring me smiles, of course I miss them so much and can’t wait for some day to live closer. We have to take a day at a time since this has been such a crazy year. Can you believe August is almost over?

The rest of my smiles this week go to my other animals I do not share all that often. I LOVE THEM ALL dearly and I find that I focus mostly on my horses, partly because my blog is suppose to be about my horse stories, so as I try and figure out my blog I keep thinking I should stay away from all my other animals. But then I am finding as I write and share, I am sharing my crafts, my garden and my kitties and my sons kitties. I have 2 dogs as well so I thought I would share some photos. I don’t share often but they are a big part of my life too. So here I go sharing what is in my life, which I should not worry about since my blog is “My life” and horse stories…. Haha, I’m just too much in my head. Just get on with it Diana. It’s all good!

*My shepherd mix* *and border collie!* ❤

*The sister’s, so funny how cats like to squeeze into a box! Haha!*

Thank you for visiting my smile post, what makes you smile? I am enjoying all my animals and missing my grand kids and keeping busy with life and work! I am enjoying blogging, with it becoming more important to me each day. I enjoy this venue so very much, as I sit and write these words ~ I am smiling! 😀 To view more smile posts I encourage you to visit Trent who hosts our weekly smiles. Thank you Trent!

Appreciatively loving (Cowgirl 😉 ) Grandma,

~Diana ❤

P.S. Thank you to those who have given me such helpful tips on my blogging journey. Thank you Maria, and Beaton.

Weekend Coffee Share; Mini Vacation Fun!

On July 31, 2020 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share22 Comments

**Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee** ***or tea and share with us!***

Welcome to my weekend coffee share and I am sitting in my daughter’s apartment not far from the cafe where I took this photo of my coffee in Orcutt, CA. It is so beautiful up here on the coast with the best weather! The high’s here are in the low 80’s and at night cools to the 50’s. We went for a cool morning walk this morning as it was foggy with the marine layer which has been rolling in each evening. Such a nice relief from home which is in a heat wave this week! Crazy, we picked a good week to visit.

My daughter can’t come home and visit as they still have restrictions on traveling as she is in the military and not allowed to venture fair. Not worth detailing all that out but since we are just over three hours away, it is not hard for me to take some vacation days which I need to use anyways and we just drive up and stay with her and this visit we did some shopping for my grand kids and put together care packages which will thankfully be delivered on my grand daughters birthday! I am SO EXCITED WE were able to get that all together yesterday.

*On our way to Pismo Beach. I like how the clouds leave a shadow on the hills!*

Today we ventured out and traveled up the coast to Pismo Beach. I took some photo’s I will share and a short video of the Pacific ocean and some pigeons that thought we had food for them. 😀 In Pismo Beach they have this AMAZING cinnamon roll shop which is thankfully open for take out only. It’s called Old West Cinnamon Rolls, and oh my, we bought an original, a pecan and one with cream cheese frosting and then split them up to share! ❤

*My son and daughter Pismo Beach pier. Cinnamon rolls in that box!*

After we cut up the cinnamon rolls and began to eat them my daughter says we should have taken a photo! Darn it all, I wish I took a photo but my hands were so sticky even though we had plastic knives and forks I couldn’t get my phone out and didn’t want to stop eating them to be honest. So DELICIOUS! I was able to get some photos of the beach after cleaning up!

It wasn’t too crowded thankfully as you can see not very many people on the board walk to the pier. The pier is closed but the beaches were open and you could see people kept their distances from each other which is good. There were some surfers too. There were plenty of shops and restaurants open. Masks are mandatory everywhere in CA so we always wear them on all outings. The restaurants here in California are all serving outside with all the tables with umbrella’s or easy ups to block the sun. I feel really badly for all the business’s so it seems this is working pretty well. All the fast food joints that have drive thru’s are drive thru only and the other ones like this cinnamon roll place only allow 4 customers at a time into the building and there are plenty of lines out the door waiting to buy food. These are crazy days but it seems to all be working! I always carry wet wipes and we always wash up when we get home. It was a FUN morning!

The pigeons were being fed by some people nearby and thought we had food too! Nope!

After enjoying our cinnamon rolls and walking around a bit we then headed up the coast to a small farm that had some goats and chickens, cows, typical farm animals – Avila Valley Farms. You could buy food to feed them but what we went there for was the farms store. I bought some raspberry pepper jelly, honey which is from a local beehive and some peach salsa. I wanted to get unusual items to try as they are all made locally. There was so much to choose from, fresh produce, my daughter bought a bunch of items that she needed so it was a fun stop. We bought fresh artichoke’s and are cooking them up now as my daughter and I LOVE FRESH artichokes. (The men in my family won’t touch them!) We boil them and eat the meat off every leaf and then devour the heart! YUMMY! We are having a salad with these beautiful, delicious artichokes.

Thank you for joining me on my weekend coffee share adventures! We are traveling during the week as I will be working Saturday and Sunday night shift so we travel home tomorrow. I thought since I missed last weeks coffee share I really wanted to join in this week. I am so happy to be able to visit with family and spend time with them really fills my heart and makes me so very happy! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and if you are sharing coffee I will make sure to stop by and join you.

Happy traveling Grandma and Mom,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; June 9, 2020

On June 9, 2020 By DianaIn Love being Grandma, weekly smile18 Comments

*Welcome to my weekly smile! What made you smile this week?*

Courage is not having the strength to go on; It's going on when you don't have the strength.  Theodore Roosevelt

I thought an inspirational quote would be a nice way to start out my smile for this week. This is particularly appropriate for me as I am working an extremely long work week as I am covering for a vacation in my department. And it is extra busy at work, so much so that I am having to dig deep to muster through it all, but I will succeed with a smile. Why? because that’s the way I roll. I want to complain, and it slips out here and there and there isn’t much any of us can do about the crazy busy work load. I guess everyone is needing to take their pets to the vet! Who knew it would go from really slow to exceptionally busy?

I am going to make some chocolate chip cookies to bring to my employees tonight, they will be surprised and I know that will put a huge smile on my face! 😀 I have been trying to find a day that I am not too tired to bake and today I have the time to not only write my smile post, but to bake up some cookies! YUM! Now that’s something to smile about right there! 😀

I have been able to get to the stables almost every day. Today my girlfriend took care of the horses so I am able to be home to bake and write! I have been thinking a lot about our plans to move to Arizona, and the 37 acre idea has been scrubbed. We will figure it all out, but I sure miss my grand babies. I think of them often. I try and stay in touch as much as I can and I have a new photo to share. My garden is coming along, lots of tomatoes and it seems it may be a bit too hot for bell peppers. I have a grouping of roses I will share. I let these bloom but pruned the rest of the plant.

*The last of my blooms for awhile! So pretty and they smell divine!*

I know I am rambling. I am feeling a bit tired with the very long work week. I was too busy to write over the weekend and/or any other day. I really enjoy the SMILE POSTS! So I am happy I can get this put together to share. I’ll end with baby Teddy! He is now three and half months old, missing him and his sister so much. I know I’m one of millions of grandma’s missing their grand children. I’m so thankful of instant photos and video chats! 😀

Thanks for visiting my smile this week. I hope you all have a wonderful week and if you want to share what makes your smile, that would be great!

A little tired, keep on smiling grandma,

~Diana ❤

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Mylife-and-Horsestories

Tag: #grandkids

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