Tag: #thankfulness

Weekend Coffee Share; Tomato-less Plants and Murphy!

On By DianaIn Barn stories, Living life, weekend coffee share28 Comments
  • Welcome to my coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea?

I am brewing up some coffee thinking to myself what the heck am I going to share this weekend. It seems I share the same thing and sometimes it seems I am a broken record. But am I? Haha, I sure hope not but it seems my hopes and dreams are one thing but the mundane day to day stuff is the same. I have felt a bit stuck lately, maybe its because I am not planning much towards future goals and/or long term plans. I feel like I am in what I will call a steady state time of my life or like a holding pattern ~ holding to wait and see what the future of my grown children is going to be and waiting to see “what’s next”. I didn’t know the things that have happened throughout this year so far was going to happen, and so here I am. I said good-bye to my handsome horse Zack and have welcomed into my life my new horse Murphy. My steady mare with me all along as I enjoy this ride called life!

  • My tomato plants, but sadly there has not been one tomato come to fruition. There has been many small flowers that dry up and fall off. Strange!

I can get my self all twisted up with frustration if I try and make plans that are huge. Meaning, I had set my mind a couple of years ago to move to be close to my family in Arizona. It was a journey my family was behind until door after door was shut and I decided this was not a good idea. I am super happy in my home town here where I live and maybe this is where we will stay, but will we? I am not sure, and I do not know what the future holds. I am not in a position to make a decision for myself and only myself as I have a husband and need to be compliant to all who surround me. It’s only fair. But for those of you who are single and free to do as you choose, you are lucky as I find life more complicated when you throw in a bunch of people and animals! 😀

I am surrounded by such wonderful friends. I had a wonderful lunch this weekend with my best friend and it is so wonderful to catch up with her and we are planning to do this more often as we share and update our horsey stuff. We will also share our family goings on as well. I thought I would share some of my thoughts and feelings as I am hoping it makes my post a little more interesting. I know I am not alone in this world with these same thoughts about life. I do count my blessings and am so thankful for all that I have and for my wonderful family. ❤

  • Murphy standing pretty but his ears are not forward.
  • Murphy’s looking forward with his ears, but his tail is swishing!
  • I like him standing next to these pomegranate trees! I zoomed in and enlarged this photo from the photo above with the tail swish! ❤

Can I get you a refill? I have some cookies too…. I had decided to throw some tomato seeds into my container with some new fertilizer and grow some tomatoes. Last year I had grown tomato and green peppers in this same container which fruited fine but I bought little starters from the store. Once these tomato seeds started growing I thinned them out and left 4 to grow. When my plants were half this tall with no fruit, I thought maybe its too crowded and I pulled out 2 plants and left 2 to flourish. They are growing taller and taller with some small flowers but no tomatoes. The flowers just dry up and fall off. I have never seen this happen before! CRAZY! Maybe there are no bees or other insects to pollinate them? that’s probably part of the problem, I am not sure. I have always gotten tomatoes, sometimes I over water and they split but this is bizarre. I’ll give them more time, maybe buy some miracle grow but I am just growing tall tomato plants with nothing! Haha!

He is the sweetest boy! He is tied at the tie rail or hitching post. He is learning and is so smart! He stood perfectly today!

I always turn Murphy out before I ride him. Since he is only 3 years old I like him to have this free time to be a horse and be silly if he chooses. (I will say, he mostly walks around and doesn’t do much unless I encourage him, lazy guy!) This way he can be silly and trot around or canter, buck if he chooses without me on his back. He is very smart and now knows that when he is free to do these things he does, and when he is under saddle he minds his manners and is very calm and respects what I ask him to do. He is very smart and is learning fast! The above photos are when he was lose and I loved how he was standing in the shade of the trees!

What a handsome guy! I LOVE this photo and you can see he is starting to muscle out a bit and gaining some weight! He also is standing perfectly square which he did on his own. (This means if you look at his legs and body it is shaped like a square box if you were to draw a box around his body. I think he has super nice conformation.)

I took these photos today because I bought a new girth for my saddle. My old girth is all black and a bit too short but I made it work but found as he is filling out it is not long enough. This girth has fuzzy white sheepskin which is so nice as it snugs all around and under his belly. (The girth is what keeps the saddle on the horse. Western riding it is called a cinch.) My old girth for this English saddle is a size 52″ which is fairly long but not long enough! So I bought a size 58″ which is the biggest size I could buy. I must say it is almost too big, but he will grow and fill out and so it is the perfect size! I measured Murphy today and he measures 17.2hh and he is still growing! He is a BIG BOY! Gentle Giant!! ❤

His other side and he is not standing square. Just to point out the difference. The new girth looks great! He stood so well today before our ride! 😀
Last photo I promise! His kind eyes say it all. He loves people and enjoys the time we are together. Love you Murph! ❤

I feel like the luckiest person, falling in love with this horse on a video I saw with a trainer I follow who trains off the track thoroughbreds up for adoption in Oklahoma! He is truly such a mellow fellow, a kind horse wanting to please. I have thanked the horse trainer for her honesty and great work with these beautiful horses! ❤

Thank you for stopping by and joining me for my coffee share. I enjoyed sharing some of my thoughts and feelings as we are heading into Fall here. I think I am thinking about these stuck feelings because we are heading into the holidays and oh, how I wish I was closer to my grandkids. But I know we will see each other and am thankful for that. I am so grateful for my beautiful family, and I am also very thankful for all my wonderful friends. Thank you to Natalie who hosts our #weekendcoffeeshare she does a wonderful job!

Horse Crazy Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; September ~ Fun In The Sun

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share23 Comments
These blooms are going crazy this time of year in my front yard!

Welcome to my coffee share and yes, I usually share a cup of coffee as my first photo but I got to thinking the last few posts I’ve featured some pretty flowers. This bush in our yard is just going crazy and so full of blossoms I just had to share. Fall is in the air here even though we are still getting pretty hot each day, we can feel and see the days slowly getting shorter as we head into fall. I have been busy the last few weeks which include visiting my sister in Colorado for a long weekend and riding and taking care of my ponies and working. Of course, being busy includes family time here at home and if you know or have known any horse crazy people you will realize the horses take up much of my free time! 😀 😀 😀

Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I will have some ice tea since we are having a hot weekend. I have so much to share. I had a grand time with my oldest sister and her beautiful family in Colorado. She lives south of Denver and the day I arrived there were scattered thunderstorms and rain. We had to drive home in the rain and at her house it even hailed! The hail stuck and looked like snow, and I asked if they get big hail and yes, they can get such big hail storms the hail can dent cars and cause damage. We never get hail that big and it never lasts long in our area on the ground.

Some beautiful trees and my sister’s backyard. It was so pretty in Colorado! Perfect weather!

The first photo is a beautiful tree in my nephews front yard. The second photo is my sister’s front yard with the pretty aspen and her back yard with her deck and greenery. My nephew and his wife live a couple streets away from his mom. I am so happy my sister has family so very close to her since she lives alone, family isn’t far away. Her grandkids would come over weekly or more often when they were younger. She always has a Sunday dinner so her son and his wife always get together with her to break bread. I just LOVE that tradition and it helps bring everyone together. I think family that eat together, stay together. I enjoyed being there for my long weekend to enjoy all the things they do together and their wonderful company.

My sister treated me to sushi! Thank you Sis for the wonderful dinner! YUMMY!

Here is to more visits with not only my sister in Colorado, but I am hoping to visit other family members as we wrap up this year and if I can’t fit it in these last few months then I will be traveling next year for sure! I have Portland, Reno, Idaho and Northern Calif to visit. Who knows? Maybe I will head back to Colorado next year too!

Some pretty photos of Murphy I took this last week. I am actually standing pretty far away, but zoomed in to create these photos! He just melts my heart and makes me smile! ❤
I am riding him both English and Western. I am actually riding him the same way, just with different saddles. My go to training is hunt seat. In the Western saddle I ride more forward because that is my go to training. I like the western saddle for the trails.
I am riding with my friend Jane, on her horse Irish! Murphy was a good boy and I thank you sweet Jane for the ride today!

I had such a great weekend with my horses. I like to call my horses my ponies, even though they aren’t ponies at all. I have mentioned it has been hot getting into the high 90’s (37C) and so I actually gave my ponies Saturday off but was able to ride both of them Sunday. Even on their day off I turn them out and let them be horses, meaning I am not doing any particular training with them. They can mosey around or run around and enjoy the time out and about in the arena. Can I get you a refill on your coffee or tea? I can tell you that the trail ride with Murphy went really well and I am so proud of him.

He remains calm through out the ride as we head down the trail. He will spook on occasion which is totally normal. I am always praising him and reassuring him which helps him learn that the little bit of scary stuff isn’t that scary. He is a very brave horse especially at his age of 3 and so I know that every ride he will just get better and braver. He has a lot to see out on the trails, so in time he will be just as seasoned as my girl Miss Chloe! ❤

Miss Chloe is the sweetest horse I have ever owned! She melts my heart just as Murphy does and I am a lucky cowgirl!

I had a super fun ride on Miss Chloe after I rode Murphy with another friend at the barn. We rode around the block and it was a bit hotter and later in the morning but it was a lovely ride. She is such a good pony, walking along as not much phases her on most rides. She is a horse of course, so there will be times when she will be frightened or scared but we have been together for so many years it doesn’t take much to reassure her that we are fine and she calms right down if she spooks.

Thank you for visiting my #weekendcoffeeshare and I want to thank Natalie who hosts as she is doing a wonderful job. I am just going to make it for this weekend share, but wanted to join in since it has been a couple of weeks. I want to thank my best friend for a wonderful lunch we had together this last weekend. We don’t see each other like we once did and so we are going to meet for lunches more often to stay in touch! YAY! I just love that and I will try and stop by her barn more often as well. I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead! 😀

Happy Trail Riding and Traveling 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; 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 ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; First Weekend in March

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share21 Comments
Blooms in the desert! I love the beautiful pastel purple color!

Welcome to my coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee? or maybe some tea? I am reminiscing a little as I share this pretty photo of the botanical garden. Such pretty blooms! As I write this I am staring at a small stack of gift cards that I have received and can you believe I have no idea what to buy? One of the gift cards is from my work, a Christmas gift. I think it is for $25, thoughtful and sitting here unused. I then received from my Equine Veterinarian office rebate offers from the manufacturer who makes the pain pills I purchase and give to Chloe. I have mailed away for rebates over the years, and I have never received anything ~ until now. WOW! I have now received 4 separate rebates and I may have one more coming for every bottle I purchased last year. I mailed these to the manufacturer about a month ago as this offer expired by March 31. My Vet had sent to me photocopies of my purchases through their office. These Equoxx pills are easy on the horses stomachs and help with arthritic pain which Chloe has in an old injured back leg. I now have about $100 in Visa gift cards. What to buy? I have no idea? Something I have to sit and think about I guess…..

I have some good news. My puppy dog is fine after blood work and an aspiration was done on a lump on her belly. They said it was a fatty tumor that is benign and she needs to lose a little weight. We will look for some diet food for her, but she is a breed that can be a bit heavy. I am so VERY HAPPY she is okay. I needed that good news and thought I would share. I am also really happy that my horse Chloe is doing great too. She seems very happy in the place she is living, she is not stressed and has been fine through this last month. I took her out on the trail Saturday morning and took these photos. I just can’t help myself! 😀

I love the big eucalyptus trees lining this street. This is the main street in our town!
I snapped this because I just love our shadows! I think it’s a FUN PHOTO!!

I think Chloe really enjoys our rides together. I know she especially likes going out with other friends at the stables, but she is more than willing to go out by herself with me which makes me so very happy. I have to say that there have been times throughout the years that her back leg seemed to be more sore and she limped more and so I thought maybe our days are numbered and I should retire her from any kind of work. But I keep her moving and amazingly it has really helped her and of course I think the pain pill I give her helps her too. It would be like taking one Ibprofen a day, and lately I have been splitting the pill to half a pill a day and she is doing great! I had turned her out in the arena the other day, and she hardly limped at all. I think she is really doing extremely well for a bad injury that has healed. (She had broke her “knee” called a stifle. It was a hairline fracture that has completely healed with a lot of scar tissue. She is lucky to be alive and to be doing so good, its amazing!)

My Trail ride this weekend!

It was so quiet as I rode down this street, I thought it would be fun to share a video. Sorry for the jerkiness as I zoomed in on the mountains! Haha, I really wanted to share them as these are the mountains that are so beautiful when we get a lot of snow on them. When I shared my last video, I had friends point out how Chloe listens to me as I talk and she does so even more in this video. As you watch and hear me talk you can see her ears turning towards me as I say her name and chat away. I just love it every time I watch it back, she is so aware of EVERYTHING! ❤

The other day I was out by ourselves and I went around a shorter route and down a cul-de-sac and as we were heading back to the stables we could hear a rumble. It was deep and she stopped in her tracks. I knew exactly what it was but of course she can’t see this rumbling and it was deep and loud and I’m sure the ground even trembled a bit. It was a Harley motorcycle that was in a garage behind a house. She didn’t want to go forward opting to turn around and I thought it will take us longer to backtrack then to go the direction we were heading. She was afraid, but I have taught her that it is okay to go a bit faster past something she fears so I asked her to trot (which is like a jog) and we moved past the scary rumbling and then went back to the walk. I praised her and we continued on relaxed. She would have been fine if the motorcycle was in plain sight. Because it was hidden, she didn’t know what it was! She doesn’t get rattled easily, a seasoned trail horse, I LOVE HER SO!

In her stall eating her lunch! She is very happy living here which in turn makes me happy! (Since I described her injured leg, the leg she is resting in this photo is the injured leg. The stifle is the bend near her belly high up on that bent leg where the injury is located)

I am happy to say that I am very thankful I can enjoy the trails on my girl. One day, hopefully a long time from now she won’t be able to go out on the trails and I will be there keeping her as comfortable as I can as she ages. I can’t help but share as this is what I do every day and every weekend. I’ll spice things up a bit as you all know with my other hobbies, this weekend I am enjoying the beginning of March and my outside fun on the trails! Thanks for joining me and I hope you all are having a great weekend too!

Here is a link to many more coffee shares and thank you Natalie for hosting. I so enjoy sharing!

Crazy horse gal,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Nov. 26, 2020 – Thankfulness

On By DianaIn Love being Grandma, weekly smile15 Comments
Table is set, turkey in the oven and sides waiting to be baked! What are you thankful for?

Welcome to my weekly smile where I not only wanted to share some smiles, I also wanted to share some thankfulness. I am truly thankful for being here today with good health and a loving family. I try and stay positive and optimistic in these difficult times where family is spread apart (missing my family and grand children in Arizona) and knowing they are only a phone call away or even a video chat. Speaking of video chat I had fun visiting last weekend and my granddaughter took me to her room which she was so proud of cleaning! They have their Christmas decorations up and she was showing me the tree and all the ornaments. A cute snowman and a pretty Christmas village. It was a great time and chat. So thankful for technology!

Baby Teddy is crawling all over the place and pulling himself up and walking along the couches. He is starting to say dada, and is growing every month. He is 9 months old now and I am hoping I will be able to visit at least once here soon. I may need to get tested if I fly there, but what ever it takes to be safe is no problem at all. Here are a few photos, so adorable!

I was going to crop these photos but decided to leave them. I was looking at the kitties at my house on right side of the photo. Teddy is making a silly face, thought these were cute!

What makes you smile? As we give thanks here for Thanksgiving today, with a bountiful of food and good times. After we ate, the 4 of us were all in the kitchen together as my hubby tore apart the bird for leftovers and I was putting away food and then started washing dishes. The fine china was hand washed and I had help with drying and stacking to put back in the cupboard. It was such a great feeling as I said aloud, “what wonderful help in the kitchen!” As all this was going on, my daughter was preparing dessert. A peach cobbler was put in the oven. How can you not smile! 😀

Dinner is done and after the clean up, peach cobbler fresh from the oven! Yum!

I feel like I have so much more to say but that I will save for another day. I really wanted to get these photos of our day together shared as another Thanksgiving has elapsed and I know that no matter where you are or what you are doing we all should be grateful for another day. I hope you and your family have had a wonderful day the best way possible as I know this has been a crazy year. My sister’s and brother all group text and stay in touch so of course it was a Happy Thanksgiving and Love to all! I’ll end with a few more photos of the day!

Another cute Teddy! I think he is looking at us and dinner! YUMMY!

Thankful Happy Grandma,

~Diana ❤

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

On By DianaIn blogging, weekly smile11 Comments
THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING MY BLOG! ❤

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.

August 19th, 36 Years Together!

On By DianaIn Family is important, Living life, Memories6 Comments
  • Earlier this year, together in Hawaii with my daughter! ❤

I can’t believe it is our anniversary today and to think we were married 36 years ago on a hot sunny afternoon. My dad walking me down the aisle, all my family gathered in a small quaint church. Oh the memories, and there are lots of them. I wonder if he sometimes looks back and wonders to himself, what did I get myself into? Haha, he married me with 3 dogs and 2 cats as I was in-between horses at the time. I think we would have a much better nest egg for our retirement if we did not own horses. But I have always said I don’t ever want to retire, not completely. I want to stay busy even with a part-time job so that I can keep my hobbies and my horses! We have never ever in my entire life not had an animal in our home. I grew up with parakeets, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits and lots of fish in some cool fish tanks and when I was 10 years old my first horse. AND I didn’t even live on a farm, nope, just suburbia with an animal loving family!

When my husband met me I was riding my sister’s horse. She needed help and so of course I loved helping her keep her horse fit and exercised. This is back in the early 1980’s, I should have warned him but he had to have known as horses are in my blood. I am hoping to be riding as long as my body can ride! My husband has actually ridden with me before. I had a gentle bay Morgan that would rather eat than work. My husband did very well with him but riding really isn’t his thing and he only rode a short time. If you were to ask my husband his love, he would have a sweet corvette in our garage! Haha, cars are his thing. Maybe one day he can buy a nice Sunday car to drive around and go to car shows with ~ someday! ❤

  • I’m sure you don’t have to guess, this is my card to my sweetheart!

It’s funny because my hubby texted me after I got my card this morning saying he hoped I didn’t think it was too cheesey! I LOVE Cheesey, the more gooey the better, because the love of my life isn’t a gooey, cheesey romantic kind of guy, far from it – so a nice card like this is from his heart! Even though he says he isn’t good at picking out cards. I am glad he went this route. LOOK, I did the same thing! Haha, If you look at my card with the horses (I think it is cool I found one with a grey horse like Zack, and Chloe isn’t that color brown, but has white on her face!) My card is pretty cheesey too! It says inside ~ Sharing life with you gets more beautiful all the time ~ AWW, and the front is the most beautiful art work with lots of birds, butterflies, flowers, nice and cheesey. But worth sharing because life is too dang short to not be ooey, gooey, and cheesey, every once in awhile. What loving fun!! Especially after 36 years. I JUST LOVE IT AND I LOVE HIM!

As I was trying to figure out what I wanted to include in this post, I went back through the photos of this year and some videos. As I try and share as many smiles as I can, this video I made when we were in Hawaii made me laugh! We had so much fun on that trip, I can’t wait for the day we can freely travel again. We were visiting the Dole Plantation and they have the most scrumptious Dole whip. We all know what it should taste like, and I sometimes ask silly questions. Haha, I am kind of a nerdy gal, but hey, that’s me and as I laughed I decided heck, why not share! What a fun memory!

So happy I can share videos! Fun vacation!
  • My daughter surprised us with these beautiful flowers! ❤

When I got home from the barn this morning I found these beautiful flowers which were delivered on my front porch! My daughter sent them, she is so very sweet, with a loving note that just melts my heart. I am so truly blessed and lucky to have the most loving children. I want only the best for them as parents do…. This anniversary fell right smack in the middle of the week. So we still have an anniversary dinner to celebrate and am not sure how this will take place as we may just have to order food. But I am feeling really good about our future, as plans to be closer to my grand kids are still in the making. Thanks for visiting today on my anniversary, it was fun to share!

Happily married Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Reflections, Smiles and Horsey Fun!

On By DianaIn Horse stories, Living life, weekly smile12 Comments
A view across the hills where I live in California!

I decided to label this post “Reflections” as I have been thinking a lot about how this year is almost half over. Next week will be June 1st and I know I can say for everyone, what the heck happened to this year 2020? I think it is a big WOW! and it almost feels like we are all in a movie and someone will come along and say “cut, that’s a take!” I think this because I am a big movie buff, to think we are living history when they look back and pick apart all the good and the bad ideas or things that happened during this pandemic. I think we are already seeing the looking back part within these last few months as we start pulling ourselves back into reality, or hopefully back to some normalcy. As I am writing this my hubby is saying let’s eat lunch out in a restaurant! Something that we truly miss even though its been great to eat more at home, something we should keep doing going forward. We lead very busy lives, so this all has been a real eye opener to slow down and reset, at least that is how it feels and hopefully we saved many lives in the process. ❤

I don’t think “normal” will be back. I think we will have a new normal, something akin to what it was but I believe there will be many changes that will stay with us for a very long time. Some of these changes I believe will benefit things like the normal flu season that always comes and goes, as one would think this last flu season got snuffed out a bit with all the social distancing and closing down. I pray we get the schools going again , sooner than later and I know this is a HUGE subject so I am only going to touch upon it by saying let’s all get back to work (carefully) and let’s get this country up and running again. I want to be able to look for a job in Arizona so that I can move my family there one day, sooner than later if possible. (I do believe it will be at least one more year, praying for next year to make this happen!)

As I reflect, I want to thank all my new followers and all my blogging friends who follow my blog. 😀 This has been a journey of sorts for me starting with what is blogging? I thought I would just write short stories, I suppose this can happen with wonderful photo prompts that I want to engage in someday from fellow bloggers. I feel like I have a yearning to mold my blog into what it’s titled My Life – And – Horse Stories. I stray sometimes from my model, and struggle with my brand sometimes. I am learning as I go and I have met some wonderful, beautiful, kind, amazing – really super fun people. I thank you for all your comments and I have grown as a person writing and sharing my thoughts with ya’ll. You make me humble, and very appreciative. Thank you for reading all about my reflections today, it makes me smile so much so I think I will use this as my smile post this week!

Zack and Chloe this last weekend. They are completely settled in to their new stables!
Enjoying the trails before the heat. Summer is here as we warm up into the 90’sF (32C)

Let’s switch gears to HORSES! YES! My passion, my muse they truly bring me such joy and happiness. I have recently moved them to another boarding facility in our horse town, it is across town and they have settled in nicely. It has been a month since I moved them, my how these weeks have flown by. We have been enjoying the trails, as I ride Chloe and pony Zack riding with my girlfriend on her horse Gracie. Chloe is 16 years old this year and doing GREAT! So happy with her as she has a bad back leg with an old stifle injury (this would be her knee). I can tell she has little to no pain in it any more which is wonderful. Zack is the white horse, he is 25 years old this year. He is starting to really show his age as gravity draws down on their top-line (this is where they sometimes start looking sway back) and they lose muscle tone. I am trying to keep him active and moving. Gracie turned 28 years old this year. She has been really showing her age, but is doing good.

After our ride they both got a bath! More horsey fun on a beautiful day!

I take so many photos of my horses. They look forward to my company as much as I look forward to theirs. They truly like getting out and about with me and since I have moved them I always take them out together. I want to start separating them a little bit more. They are herd animals and so it is very natural for them to be near each other and do things together. They do call to each other if you take one too far away, this is called herd bound and it is nice if you can take one off the property say with a friend without the other going nuts, as they wonder where their stable mate went too!! Chloe is not herd bound as much as Zack. Since they have each other and I do not go to horse shows, there isn’t a great need to break them up and make them be apart other than riding just Chloe without Zack is a bit easier… I’m getting really use to taking them together, so its all good.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I always welcome your thoughts and I just had to share mine as I like to reflect now and again.

Reflecting Grandma Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; May 20, 2020

On By DianaIn Smiles, weekly smile19 Comments
I am smiling at these beautiful flowers!

Welcome to this weeks smile post. A very nice horse woman bought me these beautiful flowers as a thank you, but there is a story behind the thank you. It was a very busy week last week and at the beginning of the week, I was at the barn and I helped save a horses life. I’m so very happy he is A-okay, but he was in a lot of pain when I arrived at the barn.

Horses can get very sick called colic. This horse was in a lot of pain, and with help from friends and the owner a vet finally arrived and thankfully he survived and is looking great today. I am smiling at a great outcome and what a sweet thing for her to buy me these flowers as a thank you. Certainly not needed but I do LOVE them. Sure made me SMILE! As last week went along, it thankfully got better but was very busy and it is busy this week too and the busy place is my work!

Me at work with a splash of color mask! And all the samples from Monday night! All those tubes are animal samples tested and ready to be libraried. Super Busy!

I am glad we are busy because it is job security. We are so busy that we don’t have enough people employed to get the work done in a timely manner. This causes many departments including mine to get done later and later causing over time which can be frustrating. I’m sure things will settle down, and/or they will hire more help. It’s ironic that a month ago when it was really slow we worried about lay-offs and now we need more help! Go figure…. I am thankful and blessed, as I smile all the way to the bank. I pray for all who are unemployed.

I also have to be thankful because I am getting really use to my hair color. I know this is random, but I use to color my hair (I did it myself, no salon because I’m too cheap) but I’m finding I like it and actually have some natural highlights! Haha, that is making me smile! Hence why I included a photo of myself. I definitely have low lights or dark under color and I am getting some gray hairs. I feel like I have earned them! 😀 😀 😀

A couple of photos of a horse I owned many moons ago! Chester and I showing in 1978 and 1979. I showed extensively through my youth!

I am smiling as I went through my things at the barn. I am taking these photos home and never showed them to a friend there. I ended up taking these photos and sent them to her, so silly. I have a photo album of all my jumping photos I need to find. I think I packed it away. I hope you enjoyed my smile for this week. Helping people and their horses and trying to stay sane with a busy amount of work – at work – and smiling with memories!! What are you smiling about this week?

Happy smiling Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; A Very Busy Week

On By DianaIn Family is important, Love being Grandma, weekend coffee share27 Comments
Thinking about my Grand babies every day! I can’t help myself, he’s my lead in to my coffee share!

Welcome to my coffee share where we share the weeks happening or what we will be up to this weekend. I have had such a busy week, I think I am getting busier instead of what most people have been doing and that is staying inside and probably fighting boredom. I am not trying to defy the staying at home orders and those that follow me know that I am a essential worker and work full-time in a Veterinary Lab and I own two horses. So I am always on the go and I enjoy my gardening too! Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I just had to share baby Teddy again, to be able to hold him in my arms, oh my, just thinking about that makes me sad (because I’m so far away) and joyful all at the same time! Love you grand babies!! Missing Alice, my grand daughter too. ❤

I have so much to share! I have my tiny garden which is in containers this year and I am having really good luck and so far nothing is dead and things are flourishing. I am going to share some photos as I should get tomatoes and hoping for some bell peppers too! I am really excited.

This is my tomato and bell pepper container. The photo on the left I just took this morning and the photo on the right was taken last week. What growth in one week! I am so excited they are thriving!!
Photo on the left is my tea rose which hasn’t bloomed in a few years! It has been going crazy with blooms. On the right my container of flowering perennials. Pretty!

I got help this last week with weeding. My hubby gets out there with his weed wacker and boy, he makes tedious work go much faster by using this tool. He has a nice gas powered one which he tackles all areas where we have tons of weeds that grow. Then I tend to the roses with pruning and I water too. At this time we don’t have too many things growing that need watering. We use to have automatic timer watering but that was back when we had a front lawn. We are definitely conserving water since the lawn is long gone. We are going to landscape eventually with a water friendly decor. Not sure what that will be, or when this will happen, haha, something on our to do list for our house!

How’s your coffee, need a refill? I forget for some it may be dinner time, but then I know many that drink coffee with their dinner! I would be drinking ice tea with my dinner, speaking of dinner I need to figure out what’s for dinner? I digress, I really wanted to share my busy week with all the horse back riding I’ve been doing. 😀

I have been asked by a really nice horse woman at the barn I left recently to help her with her horse. She is around my age and new to riding (hmm.. I keep forgetting to ask her background with horses, I must ask her the next time we meet) but needless to say she has had some scares, falling off a time or two and has some fears and does not feel confident especially riding the trails. NO PROBLEM I tell her, I will help you gain confidence and tackle your fears!! She has hired me to ride her horse and give her lessons. I am taking on more, but it is something I am very passionate about, HORSES!

This is Ava, my clients horse. I am not in the training business but will help when people ask and this mare is a ton of fun to ride!

I am having a ton of fun riding this pony. This photo was the first day I rode her and after this day I lengthened my stirrups as they are rather high for western, I had to ride her “English style” in the western saddle. The horsey people who follow me should understand. I think I will just write another blog post about my horsey fun and training, and giving lessons to this super nice lady who just wants some help with her horse. She wants confidence and I told her I would love to help her. The little extra money I will earn will go directly to my horses, their grains I buy and shavings for their stalls. It will mean some extra time out of my days off but worth it I think!

Crochet linen place mats for my daughter! So FUN!

I keep so busy, if I am not at work which is night shift, at the stables most mornings, tending my garden mid-afternoon, I am probably crocheting before I head to bed! I need to fit in sleep on my work days but some how I manage. I Love crochet and my daughter bought this yarn and it is fine so I can make these pretty place mats. When I visited my daughter last weekend we went online shopping and she found this yarn in pretty pastel colors. Perfect for her house and I may need to make some for my house too! I’ll have to buy more yarn! FUN!

I’ll finish up by saying that I am enjoying our beautiful Spring weather. We have had only one heat spell where the heat spiked and now it is much better. We have had mild heat this month and I am very happy about that. I was able to visit the ranch and ride out on the trails today with my girlfriend. I’ll close with a couple of photos of my silly horses. Fun, fun, fun! I hope you are having a good if not great weekend. I’ve so enjoyed having coffee with you and sharing my busy week and am getting in some relaxation this weekend!

Haha! Love my horses! Miss Chloe and Zack giving ya’ll a lick! What a great shot!!

Happy Grandma Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Mother’s day weekend!

On By DianaIn Family is important, Living life, weekend coffee share15 Comments
Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mother’s out there! A rose from my garden!

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!

I am so excited about this weekend as I am sitting here with my coffee and some cinnamon rolls ready to tell you why. I didn’t realize when I made these secret plans (shhh, don’t tell anyone but my son and I drove up to see my daughter this weekend) it is Mother’s day weekend. I had no idea and it was just a coincidence but a super, cool, wonderful, fantastic coincidence! We have been very good about keeping social distancing, and please, no judging as there was just the three of us at her apartment as we enjoyed visiting, helping her with some projects in her apartment and breaking bread together!

While we are here we only went out one day to see if we could find a dryer which she needs for her apartment. She already has a washing machine and really needs a dryer and so we went to Lowe’s and found the right model and it turns out she can buy it online. (She was hoping to get a military discount. But the dryer is on sale so they won’t apply another discount so she decided to just order it online). While out we went by our favorite ice cream store and we figured it would be closed, but it was open!! YAY, we had to eat it in the car and there was no tasting of the flavors, but we were very grateful it was open! A super good day.

We rearranged the family room area, and her two guinea pigs taking a nap! Adorable!

I so needed this break as my work has been very stressful lately. We have actually gotten very busy at work and I think it will stay this way for awhile. I think it is great, for many reasons including job security. We are there helping pets and animals from across the country, and so I guess everyone that needs to see the vet are heading there which is good for everyone! Anyways, it has been so wonderful to spend these few days with my daughter and son. We video chatted with my other son in Arizona!! I’ll share a few photos I took.

My grand kids! My grand daughter is 4 1/2 and the baby is just 2 months old! ❤ ❤ ❤

It was GREAT FUN to video chat with them. We were going to do zoom, but decided to just do video chat instead. It worked out great and my son in Arizona put us on their TV and my grand daughter was just jumping up and down, so excited to see us practically larger than life! Haha, when he showed us on the TV it was a crack up. At least I thought it was. I’m old remember, so seeing all that technology does always amaze me and it was great fun. What a WONDERFUL way to spend Mother’s day weekend. I am in Mom Heaven!!

I have been reading this book my daughter has near the bed I am sleeping in, Lagom – Not too little and not too much. The Swedish Art of Living a Balanced Happy Life!

The Swedish people have it right and I am half Swedish! If I can find that balance of loving life, loving my family and loving myself no matter how silly, foolish, or crazy I can be sometimes than I will be one happy person. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family. To my Loving husband who puts up with all my animals and my horsey lifestyle, bless him as I probably spend too much money each month on those giant beasts. To my children, all grown up with family and busy lives of their own. I am one lucky lady, Mother and Grandmother. I hope each and everyone of you have a wonderful weekend, and for all the Mother’s out there, a Happy Mother’s Day!

Love, Diana ❤