Tag: #smilingphotos

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 ❤

Smiling And Past Squares!

On By DianaIn Past Squares, weekly smile26 Comments
I took this photo last May when I first got Murphy! ❤

I wanted to share a smile post this week and as I thought about smiling I thought I could also share this post with Becky B’s Past Square challenge for the month of October. Since she picked the theme “past squares” we could use past photo’s from other square challenges or use things from our past that we want to share or re-share. I’ll be going through my archives to retrieve photos that I wanted to share that make me smile and they will all be selfies.

I am not sure why I like selfies so much, but I do, they make me smile 😀 and selfies and horses are hard! I should stand in front of them and then take the photo, but I usually try to squeeze their enormous head next to mine, haha, which is really difficult. It is really fun to try and here are a few more selfies!

Murphy and I and a fly! Haha, he was so curious looking at the phone when I took this photo! ❤
These three photos are from summer 2020. Chloe in two and Zack’s nose in the middle! Wonderful memories, which makes me SMILE! 😀

I am sorry the first two photos are rather huge but I made them both square. The three together are not square but I found out that’s okay. I have a few more selfies I will share and they are with my grandkids. I have slowed down my selfie taking with them partly because I’ve slowed down taking photos of them in general. I think when I visit my grandkids I am trying to spend quality time and so I don’t think to pull out the camera (my phone) and so the time zooms by while visiting. My son has been taking some awesome photos and sending them to me so I am not missing out too much. I make a photo book each year of the grandkids and so I can use his photos too!

Here are some selfies of my grandkids, Love them and they are so silly! Love my daughter and I too, they all make me SMILE! 😀

I just realized that I do not have any selfies of me and my sons. Guys are just busy doing their thing as I just don’t think to ask them to stand with me for a selfie. I think they would say what? Why do you want a selfie Mom! Haha, I am joking as I really don’t know what they would say but I never think to ask or make a selfie with them. I do have a few with my husband. Let me see if I can find a good one to end my post.

Oh I found one of me riding, even though my friend did not know I was taking this photo! Haha! AND my hubby and I at a beach concert last year. It was cold at the beach that evening hence why we are bundled up!

I so enjoyed sharing and as I am thinking about what makes me smile, these silly photos always bring a smile to my face. And it is great to look back into the past and re-share fun times. Oh wait, I hear Chloe asking to end this post and she says Smile, it will make you feel good! ❤

Chloe’s selfie! Sweet silly pony! 😀

Selfie Silly Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; June 3, 2021 – Very Busy days!

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile26 Comments
  • Having fun with my adult coloring book! It’s all HORSES! 😀

Welcome to my weekly smile and I don’t know about you but I can’t believe it is June! The weeks are just flying by and I have been incredibly busy. I am in between crochet craft projects and to help me destress I enjoy coloring. I now have 3 coloring books and the newest one is this horsey one, and it is so much fun to color. I just had to take a photo to share! I want to start another baby blanket which I think I will go purchase the yarn I need this coming weekend. Then I will put the coloring to the side but in the meantime, I need something to do to relax and for some reason creating things whether it’s coloring or crocheting gets my mind off of any stress even if that’s just being busy. It’s just the way I am wired I guess. I think many people do projects to focus on things to help their brain, right? Right!

I will start out my smiles this week with coming home Monday from last weekend after spending time with my daughter and helping her pack up her apartment. She found the cutest house to lease and it is just the perfect size! I am SO EXCITED for her and this move. It will be more room, with a garage and 2 big bedrooms with them each having their own full bathrooms. I can’t wait to visit in about a month to stay in her house instead of her apartment! YAY! Here are a few photos of the weekend. 😀

My daughter at her new house and her kitty Evie, enjoying the boxes as we pack away! We got the whole kitchen packed!

Oh the darn sun was glaring in but I had to share the photo anyways of Evie. She is one of the friendliest cats I’ve met which is so fun when I get there to visit. She is not afraid at all and will sleep on my lap too. Such a joy for us and especially my daughter. I am so happy she has Evie and she has her guinea pigs too! We got so much done and I was so happy to be there to help. She scheduled the movers this coming weekend and we had a lot to pack up and so she is in a great place for the move. YAY! I’m Smiling! 😀

I wanted to share that the horses are settling in as I had to move Miss Chloe out into the paddocks but she has lived in these paddocks for many years. She doesn’t care what stall she is in as they are all similar and she actually likes how big these stalls are and does well in them. I am happy this all went smoothly and Murphy is settling in to his new barn stall with the run (Chloe’s old stall) and he is doing well there. He will remain in this stall, this is his new home. My bestie girlfriend took care of the horses when I was up helping my daughter pack and I’ll share a photo she took of Murph. I am blessed to have the best horsey friends and we help each other out and exchange this help when we travel. 😀

Chloe out in the paddocks and she has plenty of room! She is one stall over from where she use to be, it’s perfect!
Murphy being a good boy for my friend. I am so happy he is really calm and is so relaxed! I’m so very thankful!

I will end my smile post with a trail ride I went on today. It is definitely warming up as we get closer to summer here and as I was riding along the jacaranda trees are blooming! Oh my, they are so beautiful and the purple flowers are along the trails which I realize can be a bit messy, but oh so beautiful non the less. Here is my trail ride;

A short video of my trail ride today!
She is looking at something across the street, I can hear people in the backyard with dogs barking!

What a perfect picture with her looking up and across the street right near the beautiful jacaranda tree! I took this opportunity to snap this photo and then after I made the video. She just kept on walking after she looked and listened! She is very smart and realized there was no threat. I let her look from time to time, and of course I had to take this photo so she got to stand there a little longer than normal. What a good girl, such a great trail ride today! It was short but PERFECT! 😀

Thank you for visiting my smile post this week. I am hoping things settle down a bit for me as I feel like I am always on the run. My new horse Murphy is doing good but is on lay up as he has a splint bone injury on his back leg. I think I mentioned this before but can’t remember and I have made an appointment for June 14th for my vet to come and x-ray if needed. He does not limp, it’s on the outside hind leg but I want it to heal completely before I start working him. In Oklahoma x-rays were taken and even sent to a surgeon there who said it will heal but he needs 30 day lay up. I have been doing hand walks only and getting him use to the stables and the grooming area. He has been a champ and been really good walking all around the property. I am hoping to take more photos of Murph, as I get so caught up in walking and grooming him I forget about the photos!

Busy Smiling Cowgirl,

~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

Weekend Coffee Share; Weekly Smile Fun in April!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share, weekly smile18 Comments
  • My bloom in my garden! A gift from a friend last year, blooming this year!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives with old friends and new! What can I get for you today? I have both coffee and an assortment of teas. I have recently discovered how much I like Earl Grey tea and have been drinking it more often. This last week was a busy week as we celebrated birthdays. It was my hubby’s birthday and my sweet daughter’s. My daughter’s birthday is one day after my hubby’s. She came home for her birthday and spent time with one of her best friend’s here who’s birthday is one week earlier so it’s a busy birthday month! I am going to also call this my weekly smile post. I’ve always written these posts separately but this week was super busy so I’ll use this post for both. 😀

My daughter bought tickets to an outdoor symphony at the beach. It was super fun and an adventure to drive an hour to the beach to attend this small intimate style concert literally at the beach. It was held at Bolsa Chica State Beach which is in Huntington Beach, Ca. We arrived early enough to order food that was there for us so it was dinner and a concert that was approximately an hour long. The symphony was performed by Orchid Quartet and these women are part of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra and the music was excellent. The last performance included a keyboard player who travels and performs with the quartet. The only thing about this evening at the beach was that it was a bit chilly. It was barely 60F (15C) with the wind it felt colder. We dressed warmly and brought blankets which helped. It was super cloudy, looked like storm clouds but it did not rain. I captured some fun photos I will share. They make me SMILE!

Sealegs at the Beach restaurant is where the venue is hosted and you can see the quartet all bundled up performing!

I loved being at the beach and should visit more often and I am smiling as the drive to and from the concert was traffic free! We have so much traffic here in California and we just happened to be driving the other direction during rush hour and left early because we thought it would take us longer. So thankful it was such a nice easy, fun adventure! I have some video’s I want to share. This music is close to my heart as I just LOVE classical music and some of the pieces I can play on the piano. It was beautiful to hear this string quartet play, so enjoyable. They played Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky to name a few composers. I hope you enjoy!

The second video is Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin and there is the piano player on the keyboard behind the speaker on the left side of the stage. We were sitting at a picnic table in the back. The picnic tables were cheaper and we were a group of four. They had fire pits which cost more and seated more people. My daughter said it was just about sold out online but there were many empty seats so I am thinking the weather may have kept people from attending. Here are more photos of our fun adventure! 😀

Haha, this is a really up close selfie! I almost did not post but thought why not, its cute I think 🙂 The wind made our ears cold!
Aww, my beautiful daughter and the sun a bit bright washing us out but have to share! ❤
Besties, love these girls to the moon and back again! ❤ ❤ ❤

Such a fun week and I love the setting sun, how can you not smile watching the sun shining through the clouds! I’m so thankful for all our family and friends!

There were over 35 cargo ships sitting out in the sea waiting to be unloaded is our best guess. Port of Long Beach is just around the corner. Maybe the unloading takes longer due to Covid? We’ve never seen so many ships anchored off shore.
You can see more ships out there in this photo. The sun is really trying to shine through the clouds as it sets!

Thank you for visiting my coffee share and I hope I brought you a smile or two as well. I am smiling and am so happy I could spend these days with my family. Since we were down in Huntington Beach we stopped by a dear friend who is my hubby’s best friend. My daughter hasn’t seen him in quite awhile and we were only 15 minutes from his place so it was fun to visit with him. My daughter had to get back home but am so thankful for the time we get to spend together. It will be my turn to drive and visit her soon as I haven’t seen in person her kitty that I am so excited to meet.

I have to thank Trent for hosting the Weekly Smile and Natalie who hosts the Weekend Coffee share! I so enjoy sharing and thank you so much for visiting. I hope you have a fabulous weekend and wonderful week ahead.

Beachcomber Mom,

~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 ❤