Tag: #smiling

My Weekly Smile; Jan. 16, 2022

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile21 Comments
My giant ginger cookies! Yummy!

Welcome to my weekly smile. I can’t believe it’s been two months since I wrote my last smile post and that surprised me as I didn’t think it had been that long when I checked. I will blame my work schedule as I try to balance work, my horsey time, my blogging time and I like to spend some free time with my crafts. I haven’t been able to fit in reading as I’ve been wanting to get back into novels I have sitting here just waiting for me! I have to set aside some time to read. I would read before I go to bed, but my hubby is in bed before me and I can’t have a light on and I don’t want to wake him. Hmm… I suppose I could read in the family room before I head to bed. I’ll figure it out! This sleeping at night thing takes awhile to figure out scheduling things. (For anyone new, I use to work grave yard shift for over 30 years!) Now I work swing shift.

I am smiling as I devour my giant ginger cookies. They are delicious and I will share! 😀 My son has been asking me to make them since Christmas and I ran out of time to bake my cookies this year so I finally made them this last weekend. The house smelled wonderful while they baked and I am very happy to bake for the family. I have a few other things that bring me smiles and I hope they may bring a smile to you!

An accidental photo of Murphy galloping and Murphy checking out the neighbor steer!

I thought I would share a couple of photos which the galloping one was an accident. It may not be the best photo but I liked how I caught him with almost all 4 feet off the ground! 😀 I thought I was taking a video when I snapped a photo. I like accidental photos, they are fun!! And at the back of his stall on the neighbors property they have cows and steers. You can see the steer with its horns in the next photo, Murphy is very curious. We have had horses boarded here that have been very scared of the cows that get close to the fence. I am proud of Murphy as he checks things out! Not much phases this big guy!

He is such a fun horse checking out the bags of bedding for his stall! Silly guy!

I thought this a funny video as Murphy is a curious 3 year old! He is so darn cute, and I usually take him out to add shavings to his stall. It was fun interacting with him. He has such a personality, they all do and I mean all animals do right? I have so much fun and I knew as the months go by, I can say that we are really bonding. It’s so wonderful and that truly makes me smile!

Murphy and I riding in the arena! Me and my shadow, I just love shadows!

I have to tell you of one last smile. After Murphy and I had a fun ride together I rode to the gate of the arena and pushed it opened and we walked down the aisle and I decided to ride out the front gate all by ourselves to the trails out front. He has gone out through the gate before but with other horses. When we walk off the property we have to walk between the house and the garage of the owners place and since there are trees and bushes around too, it can be a bit scary for the horses. Also, horses don’t really want to leave the herd (or all the other horses that board there which they would consider “their herd”) so it can be challenging to get them to be brave enough while riding them out the front gate!

I am smiling from ear to ear as he just walked right on down and through the gate and out to the trail! YAY! 😀 Once we got onto the trail out front we turned right and took a few steps and then he stopped. He just looked around and did what I had asked him and I didn’t really have a plan once I was at the trail. This was all fine because I am not ready to go down the trail by ourselves yet at his age. We will take our time, and so I let him turn and head back into the stables and back to the hitching post or cross-ties where I dismounted and tied him so I could untack him and get him ready for his stall. He is so much FUN!! ❤ ❤ ❤

One more photo of my ride with a great shadow! His mane is so thick it falls on both sides of his neck!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, what makes you smile? And I have to thank Trent who hosts the weekly smile post each week. It is so much fun to join in and linkup with his blog which is here.

Smiling, Baking, Horse Crazy Gal!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; End of Summer ~Aug 30th

On By DianaIn Living life, weekly smile28 Comments
  • I had to use this flower again, so unusual and it makes me smile! 😀

Welcome to my weekly smile! I have been taking a bit of a blogging break. This summer has been very busy, so different than last year right? Lot’s of family visits, which I LOVE SO MUCH! There is more visiting coming up for me as I will be heading to Colorado at the end of this week to visit my sister. I have seen her as she has come to California a few times in the last 5 years but I haven’t been to CO in about 8 years. As I am writing this I am thinking I will continue with this blogging break until I return from vacation for another week or so. Since I have some fun video’s I made to share I decided to write this post and explain my break.

When I return to blogging more regularly I’m going to give myself permission to not feel pressured to write a blog post. I feel like I can get a little OCD about writing my blog thinking I have to write and share on this link or another and then I pressure myself into thinking I am letting everyone down if I can’t keep up. Isn’t that a little crazy? Do you feel like that too, or is it just my crazy brain as I so enjoy being involved and join in. I guess I need to just take a chill pill and blog when it feels right and not worry! I’ll take my advice! Haha, I’m smiling!! 😀

It really has been nice to work on some of my crafts, and relax and not make myself crazy with pressure about my blog. This should be fun and so I am not leaving but I may post less often so that I can balance my busy life. 😀

I Love this baby blanket pattern! I decided to try a different background color which is variegated grey, white and pink!

I am smiling as I am finally making progress on another baby blanket I am making for a good friend and her baby girl. When I find something I love to make, I will make it in different colors and then gift it to my relatives or good friends. I have done this with fingerless mittens and scarfs, haha, I guess I get a little OCD about crochet patterns!

My daughter said that her friends colors in the nursery are pink and grey. I am thinking probably more pink than grey, and I didn’t ask for photos but as I looked through the yarn to buy I found this variegated yarn that is really pretty in person. The photo doesn’t do it justice but it is grey/white/pink. Very light pink, so light in pink that it mostly looks grey. Darn it all, it’s not really a very good baby color but I am going to finish it and I found a nice pink yarn you can see in the photo for the border. It will help bring out the pink in the grey, I hope! It’s kind of antique looking and really super cool I think. I can always keep it if I don’t think it’s worthy of gifting! Sorry about this long description, it’s just been a challenging blanket to put together with the colors I chose! 😀 Now, on to my horsey adventures!

  • My sister riding Murphy for the first time! What a good boy, they look great!!
  • Murphy on the right meeting Ava!
  • My sister’s son on Murphy!
Riding with my sister and her son. They were here visiting from Idaho! I’m smiling at all the FUN! 😀

We had so much fun riding when my sister visited this month. She drove from Idaho with her oldest son who is on Murphy. We rode out on trail with my best friend and Roscoe. My sister came for her youngest sons birthday who lives here in California not far from us and so it was so great to also have her meet Murphy! I am so proud of Murphy as he was so good with everyone and I also had some fun trail rides. (I am one of 6 kids, so it can get confusing. This sister here on Murphy is now visiting my sister in Colorado. I have a sister in Oregon and another in Northern CA. I have a brother in Reno, NV. It will take a lot of weekends away to catch up and see everyone, eventually!)

Trail riding with my best friend on Roscoe and my sister on Fashion and her son on Chloe! 😀 😀 😀

I’m smiling from ear to ear! What fun trail rides while my sister visited. My sister brought cool weather with her the week she was here! She is riding a good friend’s horse and her name is Fashion. She is a black and white paint and she is in her 20’s and knows the Norco trails well. It is really good for Murphy to go out with other horses. He wasn’t bothered by the group and with 4 of us we all had a blast!

I am in no hurry with Murphy and his training, taking one day at a time and he gets days of rest or turn out to just be a horse. I am riding him in the arena with him learning what I want him to do for me and we are working on the walk, trot and canter. He is extremely lazy, so I ask a little bit and reward him when he does what I ask of him. He is very smart and learning so fast. He is learning to move off of my leg, which means I use my leg to have him move over to pressure from either side and I use my reins as well. I won’t go into all the detail, I am just so happy he is understanding my cues and I reward with a release and a nice free walk. It is all so much FUN!! 😀

He is really happy and has such personality! Murphy and I are bonding well. I Love this boy so much! ❤

I can’t believe this month is ending. Where did this year go? It is really going fast so I am trying to slow down and enjoy each day. I think the last few weeks I am accomplishing this and I am finding my stride. I know one thing and that is I am looking forward to Fall and hopefully cooler weather. We have been hitting 100F(38C) too often this summer and we are expecting cooler weather this coming week. This weekend was really hot and I took a video of Murphy after I hosed him off and he likes to play with the hose and loves the water. I will end with this short video and I want to thank you so much for visiting my smile post! What makes you smile? I do love hearing from you and I thank you for reading and following my blog!!

I want to thank Trent for hosting My Weekly Smile! With the world craziness, it is great to smile at the simple things whenever possible. Have a great week!

Smiling Happy Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Thankful Thoughts

On By DianaIn weekly smile23 Comments
My tomatoes are growing and growing!

Welcome to my weekly smile and for this week I want to share thankfulness. I am thankful my horse Murphy is doing good and the belly ache he had is gone and he is eating well, looking great and back to his happy self.

I am thankful for our health and well being. I know we all are busy and with being busy we need to be mindful to take care of ourselves. I know I am thankful for my new job being able to sleep at night which I know is keeping me healthy. I have been at my new job 8 months now and all is very good.

I am thankful for all of my loved ones and family. We have had our ups and downs, but we all love each other and are so supportive of all we do, I feel blessed. I big shout out to family and loved ones!

I am thankful for all my friends. I have such gratitude for all of my friends, even if I do not see you every day or often I think about all my friends and how lucky we have each other.

Lastly, I am thankful for this blog which brings me lots of SMILES! I am smiling as I write this and this is the shortest post I think I have written in a long time. But that’s what blogging is all about right? Write what you feel, and for this week I wanted to share that even if I do not know you well, or you never comment but read my blog, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Its such a pleasure to share, and brings me joy and smiles. I also like to hear from you, what makes you smile?

I’m smiling because over a year ago I decided to stop coloring my hair blonde. It is naturally blonde but mostly really dark blonde almost brown. It has taken me a long time to accept myself as me. I don’t need to stay blonde to be me and I don’t need fancy hair cuts to be me. I cut my own hair and I love it. (I followed a Youtube haircut instructions!) I am learning to love myself even though I want to lose a few pounds. I am learning to love myself thinking I should work out more, or walk more, or look prettier! We are our hardest critic, I know, I know too well. But we are who we are and I have found with age, all of these things just don’t matter so much any more. It’s what’s in your heart, and my heart is big and SMILING!

Smiling, Thankful, Friend, Mom, Grandma!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; May 20, 2021

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile23 Comments
  • She makes me smile! Miss Chloe looking pretty!

Welcome to my weekly smile post. It has been a crazy month and I talked about the happenings in this month on my last coffee share post. My last coffee share I missed the coffee share link up, so if you missed it you can click here. One of the most exciting news I shared was that I bought a new horse, and I’m grinning from ear to ear! I am also very EXCITED! I have some more news to share as things are just falling into place and I feel so blessed. I have to thank all my friends and family for all their wonderful support with my crazy decision to buy a Thoroughbred retired racehorse. This horse I bought never raced so I shouldn’t say he is retired, but for whatever reason the trainer/owners who bred him decided that he was not worth racing and so he was responsibly donated to an Equine Horse rescue who rehomes these beautiful animals. I am excited because a place to keep him opened up at the same ranch I keep my horse Chloe. I take this as a sign that this all was meant to be as how ironic I bought this horse and a stall became available!!

Ultimately, this is what I wanted all along but when this horse came up for adoption (the horse rescue is a non-profit, I am donating a designated amount which helps the rescue feed and take care of the horses.) I had to make a decision without having a place to keep him because there were no open stalls where I board. I reached out to a good friend and its actually the boarding facility I had Chloe and Zack at last year and she said they had openings, so I went forward with buying the horse. I was planning on having one horse at one stables, the other horse at the other stables until an opening would become available. Happily, a stall has opened up and my new horse is being picked up early Friday morning in Oklahoma and being transported to California and will arrive early Sunday morning! YAY! (I was told it could take up to 2 weeks, it only took 2 days when I got the call with a schedule for pick up!)

  • This is the only photo I have of Midnight Murphy, my new horse!

I am smiling about my horsey adventures. My girl Chloe is 17 years old this year and although she looks great, her legs are having issues. She is serviceably sound which means she can still go on walks on the trails and I give her pain meds to make her more comfortable. These pain meds are like Ibprofen to us and are easy on her stomach and I know helps with the aches and pains of the arthritis she has gotten in her joints. Since she is still able to be ridden, I have plans on using her to pony my new horse on the trails to help him get use to everything out there and that will help when I start to ride him out on trails in the future. I will then plan on reducing the trail riding as I slowly transition Chloe into retirement.

I have some time, I am thinking at least one year as I go through this transition. Mr. Murphy is 3 years old, so I do not want to rush him either. A young mind is impressionable, and he needs training so I am hoping this mix of a senior seasoned trail horse with a young (hopefully) gentlemen will work for all of us as I figure out how I will work with them individually and together! Haha, I don’t even know if what I am saying makes sense but I have lots of ideas and I can’t wait to see how this adventure evolves!!

As I put all my horse thoughts down here I wanted to share a trail ride I went on a couple of weeks ago by myself on Chloe. We were on our main street in town and it’s such a pretty street I thought I would make a little video. They are always fun to make and I just love to share and I hope you enjoy! It’s just all about the horses this week, they sure fill my heart and make me smile! 😀

I sure love the trails and my bestie girlfriend has a new horse too! Her horse Roscoe will be great to trail ride with my new horse too, once I get to that point in his training. I am just incredibly happy everything is falling into place. This will be an exciting weekend and by Sunday I will be able to share in my coffee share more photos of my new horse! I haven’t decided what I will call him, Murphy is a nice name but I might change it, however Murphy is growing on me. There is also seeing what his personality is like once you get to know him. We will see!

Super Happy Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

P.S. If you are interested, if you type in Midnight Murphy name on equibase.com you can see his breeding. If you click on his sire or dam’s name it will show you their breeding. You can then click on their sire and dam’s name and see more relatives. I did this and it went back to Secretariat, Bold Ruler and Nasrullah. (So much history! I just love it!) He has excellent bloodlines with his sire (dad) Midnight Lute winning over 2 million dollars and was trained by Bob Baffert. Bob Baffert’s horse won the Kentucky Derby this year (lots of controversy over this win and drug testing.) This is all just so much FUN!

My Weekly Smile; May 5, 2021 – Busy Days!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekly smile16 Comments
Look at all the buds and flowers! I couldn’t resist and had to take a photo!

Welcome to my weekly smile post and I have a lot to smile about these days. I wanted to share that I went and visited my daughter this last weekend and enjoyed some much needed mother/daughter time together. I have been wanting to go see my daughter and her kitty that she adopted at the beginning of this year. I finally got to meet Evie and I have to say she is the most friendly, lovable kitty that I have met in awhile! She walked right up to me like we have met before and meowed, so adorable!

As I visited throughout the weekend there were many times she sat with me or laid on me as we watched some TV. Haha, my daughter was getting a little jealous I think! BUT that’s exactly why we love these animals so much, right? She found the perfect kitty, so snuggly, warm, gregarious, fun to play with and is into everything but in a good way. She finds the silliest things to play with, such a cute kitty! Here is a few photos of Evie! She makes me smile! 😀

She is so black with a few white hairs on her chest. The sweetest, friendliest kitty! ❤

While visiting my daughter she took me out to dinner for Mother’s day which is this coming weekend so we celebrated early. We made reservations and arrived at Ada’s Fish House in Pismo Beach. We got there a little early and walked to the pier. It was a bit chilly with the wind coming off the ocean. It was a great evening and the food was delicious!

My daughter ordered a Lobster roll and I ordered Sand Dabs with au gratin potatoes ~ They both were scrumptious!

I so enjoyed my time with my daughter. It is so wonderful to be together and connect and enjoy each others company. One of the things we like to do together is color in our adult coloring books! Haha, I know it may sound silly but they are a great stress reliever and another fun thing to do is to shop for… try and guess? more adult coloring books! AND colored pencils and crayons which I have plenty of so I bought some colored pencils!

The next day we got up and decided to eat breakfast in Solvang. We had breakfast at Brekkie’s restaurant! I took a photo of their coffee mug which I will be sharing on my next coffee share. We forgot to take breakfast food photos, it was really good. And then we shopped a bit and if you had to guess, we went to a book store and I bought a Swedish book that is really inspiring on how the Swedes live and their philosophy of life and I couldn’t help myself, more coloring books. Haha, this one is all horses! I couldn’t resist and when I finish my first page I’ll share a photo! SMILING!

Sending HUGS AND LOVE to my daughter!! I had a great time and I know it meant a lot that we got to spend this time together. We will do it again soon!

Heading down the trail with my bestie Sally on her new horse Roscoe!

Wrapping up my smiles for this week is being able to see this view! I love the view between my horses ears! My bestie girlfriend and I had super fun trail rides. It is warming up but we ride in the mornings so we aren’t melting. Haha, it’s not that hot yet and I didn’t want to go down the rabbit hole talking about the weather. We are so lucky to have the nice weather that we do, so no complaining from me today!

Thank you so much for visiting and I thank you Trent for hosting all the smile posts and if you want to visit more click here!

Smiling Animal Loving Mom,

~Diana ❤

BrightSquare Challenge; Smiling Flower Fun!

On By DianaIn BrightSquare, weekly smile27 Comments
The bright yellow center with the beautiful soft hue of pink wrapping itself around the petals!

I am enjoying sharing this month in BrightSquares and as I am putting together this post it is also making me SMILE! So I am also going to share this post as my smile post for this week as well. I can’t help myself but to share what I have been capturing within the last few months as the blooms have come and gone in my garden. I believe the colors of the flowers will show their glow and beauty as I share and I hope you will enjoy them too! 😀

As the bright sun hits this beauty it’s soft pink glows. A week later, this is the same flower! Look how deep pink it became!

Brilliantly flowers can morph and change as they age on the vine. I just had to share this rose as it bloomed and hung around to change it’s colors. I only have 3 rose bushes left in my garden, and am thankful I am getting some flowers. Last year a good friend gave me a bearded Iris which I planted in a container. This Spring it has really blossomed and I’ve shared a photo or two in another post but will share more here as its so amazing how tall and pretty Iris can bloom!

This is my wide angle shot and I almost have a triple bloom of flowers. I will take the double bloom! Such beautiful contrast, bright white against the purple hues!

I am so happy to see this Iris thriving so well. I wasn’t sure what color they would be and what a surprise as it reaches towards the sky! I Love walking outside to see them and will share a couple more photos.

Bright white sure shines through in my photos! Look at that deep purple, I just love it so ❤

Since I want to make sure to keep to the theme of making my photos square, it is cutting off some of the flowers but I like how eclectic they turned out and so I am going to leave them as they are. I don’t mind it not being exactly centered or perfect, they are unique just like you and me! (I do not use a photo editor and don’t plan on it keeping things as simple as I can to complete my posts.) I hope you can see the rays of beauty jumping out from the flowers I may have one or two more to share! 😀

More of my beautiful yellow and pink flowers with various degrees of blooming!

I hope you enjoy my brightsquares of beautiful flowers that have been blooming in this month of April. They bring me so many smiles and fill my heart with joy each day I can smell their rose perfume. I will end this post here and thank you for visiting my vibrant brightness and beautiful smiles.

Happy Loving Flowers,

~Diana

My Weekly Smile; April 8, 2021

On By DianaIn weekly smile28 Comments
I lost my seat! Haha, what’s the saying? Move your feet, lose your seat! ❤

Welcome to my weekly smile! 😀 I was sitting here thinking what makes me smile this week? I love to share but when you share weekly it seems like I just share the same thing over and over again. I know I change it up a bit when I can but a couple of thoughts have popped into my head for this week. I am hoping to write a separate blog post about the work that I do. How I got involved in Veterinary laboratory work is 100% because of the animals I own, I am such an animal LOVER! So my smile this week goes to all my animals! And Duchess in the photo I am sharing just took my seat!

I got up to start cooking my artichoke. I just love artichokes and cook it for about an hour and then enjoy it’s goodness and am having that for lunch today. I walked back from the kitchen and my seat has been taken, haha! I know all animal lovers can relate if you own a cat. I think cats own you, and own the house! I know I can easily move her but it isn’t the only seat in my family room, so I relocated. I have all my crafty stuff near her chair as I work on crochet projects. You can see my laptop as I am getting ready to write this post! She is super happy all curled up sleeping away!

My other kitty is on my bed all curled up as I disturbed her for a photo! She loves our bed, silly kitty!

I have written and shared a lot about my cats. They are sister’s even though they look nothing alike. Maybe they had different dads, but they came from the same litter. I adopted them from my son’s family as they had them as very tiny kittens. My daughter-in-law LOVES cats, especially kittens and would have a house full if she could. They added more kittens to the mix and they didn’t all get along as they grew into adults. They tried everything, and it was in their best interest if they came and lived with us and I am so Happy! They sure make me SMILE! 😀

The girls as kittens, so adorable!
My dogs BZ the shepherd mix and Drew the border collie! They are the sweetest pups, we LOVE them so much!

I could have so many more pets. I actually live in an area where I could have chickens. They would be hen’s and we would have lots of eggs. I suppose they wouldn’t be exactly pets, but they would be more animals to take care of and to be honest I feel like the extra care would fall on my shoulders. I know I have heard they need very little care, but you can’t just ignore them, any extra care right now in my busy life is just not what I want right now! Haha, the thought of chickens just doesn’t interest me at all. Anyways, can’t think of a better segue as you all should know by now my last animal I own is my horse!

Miss Chloe loves to graze! This is from a few weeks ago and you can see the grass is not as lush as it is now!

Thank you for visiting my smile post for this week. I’m smiling at the 5 animals we have that enrich our lives. They are funny, goofy, lovable and they bring so much to the world we live in. They help keep me sane and give me many, many smiles and fun days. I hope you all are having a great week! I have one more funny photo to share, because cats are just so silly! ❤

Have a happy week and weekend! If you would like to visit more smile posts click here! Thank you Trent for hosting!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; March 29, 2021

On By DianaIn Family is important, weekly smile17 Comments
  • Desert blooms!

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!

  • Silly faces!
  • More silly faces! Haha!
  • He is so adorable! ❤

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 10, 2021

On By DianaIn Living life, weekly smile9 Comments
The morning sun in the clouds! Makes me smile! 😀

Welcome to my weekly smile and I finally got out for a morning walk. There are storms here this week and lots of cloudy skies. I love weather and this week my smile goes to winter rain and cloudy skies! It’s been nice and cool as well. I am enjoying the cool weather immensely. I will say that the hardest thing I am having trouble with is fitting in walking. I think I am a bit lazy and so procrastinating is part of the problem. I always feel better when I get in a morning walk, but I have been using excuses like its too cold out to walk. I’m a bad girl, but finally this week I told myself just go out and walk! And I got this cool photo which I thought I would share. What makes you smile this week? I have more to share!

I took this photo the other day on my ride because the clouds looked so cool!

One more photo of some clouds and I can tell you that we could probably count the cloudy days here as we get a ton of cloudless sunny days. So that is why I love it when some weather blows through our area. We don’t get snow here, only in the local mountains at higher elevation. I’m very grateful for this weather as outside activity is possible all year around. I like to make a big deal about the weather when it arrives. It rained like cats and dogs last night, even hailed a bit too. We have had so much water that the arena at the barn has a lake in the corner. I’ve shared many photos of this giant puddle (lake) is a better description. We will be getting more rain tomorrow, so its to rain most of this week which we really need. I hope this helps keep us from drought conditions. I think I’ll pull up an old photo and share here of the arena with my horses in the water. I have a fun upside down photo that my phone flipped after I took it.

Fun to reminisce and share this photo once more. I did not flip this photo but my phone did with the mirror image in the water! Pretty COOL!
Here’s a right side up photo. My horses Love the water. They will dig a trench to help drain this corner! The rest of the arena is usable. 😀

It is fun to reminisce and its great to have these wonderful shots full of memories!! I am so thankful I have a ton of great photos to have and to share. I have some fun smiling photos of my grand kids that my family sent that I want to share. I think I’ll just share with less explanation. Haha, I also have a time limit here to write trying to fit in this smile post today!

Teddy’s first visit to the playground! I think he is having a blast and I’m Smiling from ear to ear! Hi Alice and Teddy! 😀

With this last year being as crazy as ever the kids haven’t been to any playgrounds which is totally understandable. I am so happy they are able to get outside a bit now. YAY! and I always love to see them in action. I will end with one kitty that you can guess where he is in the photo that my son sent. It is a good ending to all the smiles I am thinking about this week. I hope you all are smiling or I hope what I share brings you a smile. Thank you for visiting!

How can you not SMILE! Silly kitty!!

Have a wonderful Smiling day!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Jan. 12, 2021

On By DianaIn weekly smile22 Comments
These are my sons cats, they are brothers and so handsome!

Welcome to my weekly smile. I have to say I am telling myself to just smile as I was messing around with my WordPress sight trying to manage all the emails that go to my AOL email account. It really doesn’t matter but everything posted through WP whether its notifications or posts or whatever goes to that email. So, I went through the settings and turned a bunch of stuff off under the title “emails” but it somehow stopped sending the notifications to my phone app. So I have posted several posts since New Years and was wondering after this last week why I wasn’t seeing any ones comments. I was thinking maybe my posts didn’t post or something and that’s when it clicked in my head, I think I screwed things up!

I only go on my laptop to write these posts. I enjoy typing on it much better than trying to write posts through the phone app. That’s where I found all these comments I haven’t been seeing, so I apologize and feel lost in space! 😀 This last week I have made a few blunders, and this is one of them! I also messed up the beginnings of a lemon bar, putting 3 cups of sugar that was suppose to go into the lemon curd into the cookie layer underneath. I had to throw it all away and start all over again. I have to laugh at myself, read the recipe carefully Diana!! So I am smiling at making mistakes, because it seems that is my theme this week! 😀

This is a little blurry I think, but I got brave and wore my Star Wars mask at work. Haha, no one cared at all! I felt like such a nerd! 😀

I am also wearing a nerdy Star Wars shirt to go with the mask. Now that I am not a supervisor, I don’t have to have that “in charge” look? or you know, be the responsible looking supervisor. I can be my geeky self and not worry and of course I also work as responsibly as I can and everyone knows that I work hard and do a good job. Anyways, I really wanted to get this smile post out there as I know I don’t need to apologize but as I went through as many missed comments as I could and I tried to respond I may have missed a few folks. I just love the comments and interaction so I have to say, sorry if I missed ya!! Here’s to leaving things alone the way it is set up which works great and I will not mess with the settings again! (I even uninstalled, then reinstalled the WP app on my phone so it would reconnect with the correct settings!) Sheesh, I was really wondering what was going on for this last week or so! Haha, I need to slow down and read instructions and leave some things be just like they are when they work just fine.

The boys saying, hang in there Diana!

I hope you all have a great week!

Crazy setting changing gal,

~Diana

My Weekly Smile; Dec. 30, 2020

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile20 Comments
Happy Trails after a lot of rain!

Welcome to my weekly smile! I have a lot to smile about this week with the rain and my pretty ponies. We had some much needed rain which I have a love hate relationship with as I LOVE rain, but its aftermath not so much at the barn. My horses live in very nice accommodations now so I am not complaining as much any more. But the arena gets really wet but drains pretty fast after the sun comes out the next day. As long as the rain storms are spread apart, then its a beautiful thing. One of the most beautiful displays of the storms that come through here in winter, is all the snow that falls on our local mountains! It is just gorgeous and my camera probably doesn’t do it justice as the snow capped mountains are captivating! Here are a couple of photos, how can you not smile!

This is looking out from my front porch! I see this every day and am SMILING!
Beautiful snowy mountains on my trail ride yesterday!

The above photo was not easy to take as I was riding my horses, asking them to stand still “Whoa” I said, as they kept taking one or two steps on the trail. I have Zack’s lead rope, Chloe’s reins, haha, holding the phone I zoomed as much as I could and took this photo. I think it turned out pretty good considering all it took to take. I am a happy camper. The first photo I shared was just as difficult to take as all Chloe wanted to do is head home, and the barn is just past the tall palm tree on the left down the trail and as I tried to “Whoa” she wasn’t going to stop. She wasn’t bad but I thought I better snap a photo so the camera focused on her instead of the background which is a bit blurry but I thought a fun shot! I really like my shadow in that photo too. Photo Fun! 😀

You can see the standing water in the arena. This is rain day, raining on and off all day! And Zack is winking at you! Silly ponies! ❤
Enjoying each others company!
Hi Zack! He got body clipped as he grows a very long winter coat. This will be more comfortable for him.
Always looking for a treat! Haha, unfortunately I did not have one in my pocket but they beg anyways!

Can you believe it is December 30th? Just one more day of 2021 and even though this next year may be more of last year as I think it will take months if not longer to feel “normal” again, what ever normal is these days. But this year seemed very long and drawn out so it’s end is something I think we all long for….. I miss my family in Arizona, I pray for all affected by this pandemic, the lives that are loss and the loved ones sick. We all here are doing well and praying for this to all go away hopefully, eventually soon. I don’t want to pretend like I am not taking things seriously as we all are taking precautions and doing our part the best as we can. Hence why I like to share my smile posts. We all need some smiles, something to look forward to and something that makes us HAPPY! I will end with a photo that I took last week as I was challenged wearing my huge Christmas light bulb earrings with a mask. I have so many Christmas earrings and some are very large and putting on and taking off a mask was not easy. Luckily, once I put on the mask it stays on the whole time I am at work, until I eat lunch or go home! 😀 😀 😀

Have a wonderful, smiling New Year! Cheers to you and your families!

Love, Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Sept. 8, 2020

On By DianaIn blogging, weekly smile16 Comments
Welcome to my weekly smile!

I haven’t said this in awhile, I can’t believe it is September! Wow, this year is flying by and I think I can speak for everyone that I really want to put this year behind us and am hoping and praying for a better year, next year. But as we push through this year we should all remember to smile, what makes you smile this week? I have a few things I want to share that make me smile and are helping me stay busy getting through these crazy days! 😀

This last weekend my daughter was able to finally come home for a visit. We were so excited to have her home and we were able to eat outside at the Original Pancake House in our town. We had a delicious breakfast, and not only did I smile with my yummy food, my tummy was smiling too! 😉

  • Apple crepe, filled with diced apples, pecans, sour cream tempered with triple sec, and cinnamon syrup. Topped with warm apple syrup! YUMMY!

Oh My Goodness, that was the BEST Breakfast crepe and I am thinking I am going to have to go back again in a few weeks to fill my tummy again. They have so many good things to choose from, and I have never tried this particular crepe and boy, it did not disappoint. I am smiling just looking at it and thinking about the taste! We really had a nice time this last weekend even though it was brutally hot. I mean the hottest it has ever been in the 20 years I have lived in this area. We hit a high of 117F (47C) on both Saturday and Sunday, YIKES!! It was extremely difficult to be outside, which I had to check on my horses and make sure they had plenty of water. They were fine and made it through the weekend. CRAZY! It is much cooler this week, thankfully.

  • Historic Route CA-66, this part is called Foothill Blvd

Last Friday the family and I went to an outdoor mall. My daughter treated us to a wonderful dinner. I had wild salmon crab cakes, another yummy to the tummy treat! We stopped at a light and these were right next to us so had to take a photo. My grown kids were asking questions, does this route go all the way to the beach? Yep, landing you in Santa Monica in Los Angeles. I can’t imagine driving all over the states with just route’s and no freeways or highways. The good old days, but that’s a whole other blog about historic routes in the United States!

  • My crab cake dinner with wild salmon! Delicious!

My last smile goes to my crafts I like to share. I mostly crochet and I whipped up some mittens with no fingers, something I want to continue and will send to family as Christmas gifts. And I am making one more baby blanket. I looked at some different patterns, but I just LOVE the Sweet Dreams pattern I have been making this year. This is for my niece who just had a baby boy. So it will arrive when he is about a month old and since it’s a blanket and winter is coming it should come in handy. I always use a different color background so no blanket is alike. They are super fun to make, love all my crochet projects!!

Probably my last Sweet Dream blanket for ahwile. And my mittens with variegated yarn!

Thank you for visiting my smile post. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I am very thankful I had two days off in a row! So happy and am smiling again. I had Monday, Labor day off and Tuesday night my normal day off. I hope you all have a great week!

Happy Smiling Crochet Gal,

~Diana ❤

P.S. I wanted to say my prayers go out to all affected in the California fires. We are safe and not close to any but close enough to be affected by clouds full of smoke and ash. We have had ashes on our cars for two days now. So very sad and pray for all our fire fighters.