Tag: #weekendsmiles

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 ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; All About Murphy, My New Horse!

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekend coffee share23 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives! How are you today?

Welcome and come on in so we can share a cup of Joe. I also have tea are juice? I have so much to share as I am spending more time with my new horse Murphy, I like to call him Murph. He is such a character, as he has figured out that his Mom that gets him out will give him lunch and he just LOVES food. Of course, all horses love to eat and they are meant to graze all day long so being domesticated has its challenges for grazing animals. I have a hay net which is exactly what it sounds like, a big net with with big enough holes that the horses can pull hay through. It is a good way to slow down their eating as it takes longer for them to pull out the hay stems. Hmmm…. I think I will get my hay net out this week and put it up so it will slow down his eating and that should last him longer until dinner. I like it when I give myself good ideas! 😀

He also loves people and he really enjoys the attention we give him and you can tell because he enjoys his head being rubbed and in general he is very pleasant to handle. He doesn’t show any stress and he is so funny when you go to handle him. Most horses put their head up, and may move away from you when you go to put the halter on to lead them out of their stall. Murphy puts his head down and as you put the halter on which he knows goes up around his head, he puts his head lower and lower! Haha, it’s so low I have to bend over to get the halter on! I even pull his head up and even with my shoulders. Dude, you are being kind but almost too kind making me work to put this halter on!

Here is head is up as he almost is posing for my photo! I had to use this halter with the chain over his nose until my new halter arrived.

He is so big and tall that when you lead him without some sort of pressure on his nose, he will bump into you or try and rub his head on you and so he needs to learn his space with ground manners. He is not bad at all, just young and not knowing exactly where his space is and stops and anyone handling him starts! I ordered and just received my dually halter from Monty Roberts. His training halter is awesome and has two nylon ropes that are attached to a ring on each side which acts like the chain in this photo I just shared. What’s great is it applies pressure on the sensitive parts on their nose but with the dually it is kinder and will release when the horse gives to the pressure applied. So it is a great training halter, but until it arrived I felt safer and had more control with the chain over his nose. Now I don’t need it and I will save this blue halter for use at a later date.

  • My new halter!! Thank you Monty Roberts for all you do for horses and people all over the world!

I have been hand walking Murph all around the property as he can’t be worked (or more exercise than a walk) until I have my veterinarian examine his left back leg. He had an injury to his splint bone and the vets in Oklahoma said he will heal up just fine but needed 30 days lay up. I decided this weekend to let him lose in what we call a round pen. He has been so calm that I thought he would be fine walking around on his own and if he started to show too much energy (like trotting around or bucking or anything of this sort) I would go in and take him out as I don’t want him to re-injure himself. He was as relaxed as could be and just moseyed around. What a calm, sensible easy going guy!

He is lose walking around and doing just fine. He is what I call “chillaxin” as he doesn’t seem to have a care in the world!

How’s your coffee, do you need a refill? I have more to share as earlier today (and is why I am late writing this post) I had another fun day at the barn. After my girlfriend and I rode out on the trail with Roscoe and Chloe I took out Murph to walk him in the round pen. He walked around nicely lose while I was in there asking him to walk. I can’t say enough how sweet his personality is as he almost wants to be in your pocket. He wants to put his head in your lap, and he will follow me around and when I went out of the round pen he wanted to come with me! Haha, I wanted him to hang out on his own and then I went back to take him out. He nickers when he sees me coming, so darn sweet!

After I groomed him and did all those things I told my girlfriends there I wanted to try on my saddle, just to get a fit and see if my cinch would fit him. I asked them for help because this is something new I haven’t done with him yet and I wanted him to have the best experience possible. I also did not think he has ever had a western saddle on him and they are bigger and heavier so lets see how you do Murphy! I knew he’s had an English saddle as he was ridden and I saw him on video trotting around with the trainer.

He was AWESOME and did great! What a handsome fellow!

I borrowed a thicker pad from my friend and I can see it’s a bit short for my saddle so I will be buying a wither relief pad to go with my western saddle for him when I start riding him. Miss Chloe has a very flat back with her wither just blending into her back. She is great for bareback riding because she has a back kinda like a couch! HAHA! But Murph is a very tall thoroughbred and they are known for having a tall wither, and so I knew I would need a thicker pad with wither relief which means it is formed higher in the middle to go over their withers or backbone. I was worried my cinch would not fit, but it is perfect and fits just fine. Yay!

My western saddle is called a Circle Y flex tree. The tree is made with plastic and is flexible and so I am hoping with the thicker pad my saddle will be okay and not pinch him along his shoulders where it will sit on his back. I will check again about this as I may need to invest in a saddle that fits him but for now I was just happy he was accepting of the saddle and as my girlfriends and I talked and they were helping me they asked if I was going to sit on him. Wait what? ENABLERS! AND YES! I was so wanting to get on and sit in the saddle! SO…

I was going to just sit on him but why not take a short walk! Lucky there were 3 of us as we walked around a couple times and were done, and my other pony friend took the photos.

There are a couple of video’s but after I loaded them they are very pixelated and not to clean to look at and its from transferring from one phone to another through apps. There will be plenty of time for videos to share of Murph! He was a champ, took everything all in stride as he took each stride around with me on his back! First time! It was such a fun day and I am so EXCITED AND A SUPER HAPPY Cowgirl!! He is just amazing. I Love you Murph! ❤

This is really long but I just had to share. I hope you all had as much fun as I have had this weekend. I will end with this photo my pony sister girlfriend took of me and she edited it to get closer up and as she says, she loves my smile! I’m in horsey heaven! Thank you so much girlfriends! ❤ ❤ ❤

I just LOVE this photo and I have one of my favorite t-shirts on and is from my daughter where she works and is in the Space Force! ❤

Thank you for having coffee with me and for visiting today. I have to thank Natalie for the weekend coffee shares she hosts and if you want to visit more click here and maybe one weekend I will hopefully write and share a little earlier! I get so darn busy it gets very late in the evening when I finally get to finish up my posts so I should call this a coffee share after the weekend has ended! 😀

Excited horse crazy cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Family and Horse Fun!

On By DianaIn Barn stories, Living life, weekend coffee share27 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives with old friends and new!

Can I offer you a cup of coffee or tea? I have so much to share and I can really ramble if you get me going. Should we have some Speculoos cookies from Trader Joes that goes great with a cup of Joe? Yes, sounds yummy! I have missed a few coffee shares as I have been really busy these last few weeks. After I visited with my daughter, the following weekend I visited with my son and his family for Mother’s day. I had such a great weekend with them and it was my daughter-in-laws birthday too! What fun celebrating with them and I soaked in all the family time I could get. It was so fulfilling and I am so happy and thankful for this time with my grown children. I thought I would share a few photos from last weekend before I share some super fun horse news!

My grandkids and me. My grand daughter and her silly faces! They both melt my heart and are a handful I might add!

My grandson is walking all over the place, climbs on the couch and into everything! They just run around and wear out grandma but it’s all great FUN! Alice and I have fun coloring. When I finished up my weekend and was going about my work days this last week I came upon a video of the most beautiful horse that was being worked with a trainer I follow online. To make a long story short I thought to myself I want this horse! He is so beautiful and my sweet horse is getting older and has old injuries that she manages with but I am thinking soon I will have to retire her from trail riding. I thought to myself I think it would help if I had a project and a new horse so that I can let Chloe enjoy her retirement and I can be fulfilled by riding a new horse to train and be my next trail horse. Hmm.. I might even train him up to attend some small horse shows! Fun to dream! 😀

As I went through this process, it was fairly stressful and I thought I have to give it a try and if I am able to buy this horse then it was meant to be and if things do not work out then this horse was not meant to be owned by me and I would then have to look for another. Here he is, the stars aligned and I bought an off the track thoroughbred from a horse rescue who rehomes OTTB’s for a life after racing. He now has a new career and life with me! His registered name is Midnight Murphy and for now I will call him Murphy (but will see how that name fits him as I get to know him).

He has the sweetest face and (us) horse people LOVE their eyes! These are the only photos of him at this time. ❤

I am OVER THE MOON, EXCITED! There is a video of him that I can’t share because it isn’t my video but he is just so handsome and beautiful and all of the things we love about horses. He turned 3 years old May 1st and he never raced. He is Kentucky bred and he is very big and that could be the reason he never raced. He is 17h tall which is very tall for those non horse people. I wasn’t looking for tall or short, I was looking for temperament and he is very calm, quiet and is sensible. I told the trainer he needs a good brain to be a trail horse in my town. She said he would be perfect and that he is like an old soul in a young body. I think of these big guys as gentle giants, and so my journey begins with this beautiful registered thoroughbred!

He currently resides in Oklahoma so first thing in the morning I will be calling for horse transportation. It’s been a dream of mine to own one of these off the track thoroughbreds and as I dreamed watching video after video after video I thought it crazy that I could ever buy one then have it shipped half way across the country to California. Covid has really spurred the industry of adoptions (along with other furry friends), and with the help of this wonderful trainer who is Monty Roberts Certified, Jamie Jennings has helped retrain off the track thoroughbreds with gentle methods from her training. With the exposure with her podcast which I follow and listen too – Horses in the Morning – the rescue who normally adopts out maybe 20 – 30 horses a year, last year they adopted out more than 100! I think the number is 103 which is fantastic! I thought with all the people interested I would not have a chance to adopt, but I did! And I couldn’t be happier. 😀 😀 😀 I feel it only proper to thank Jamie from the bottom of my heart for all she does for these beautiful animals! ❤

I will keep you posted on how the next few weeks go as I get transport set up and hopefully it won’t take too long to get a hauler to ship him to his new home here. I can’t wait to meet my new boy! ❤

Enjoying the trails with my sweet Chloe!
Out on the trails with my pony sister’s! We had a wonderful ride this weekend and it was wonderful weather!

We are enjoying some really cool weather with lots of clouds and a spitter-spatter of rain here and there. I am taking in all the cool weather because the summer is around the corner and with that comes the heat. Maybe this year will be a cooler summer. We do get them sometimes. Chloe is always willing to go out on the trails and I will taper her outings a little bit to begin the process of retirement. In the meantime, my trail rides are so enjoyable and she is such a JOY!

As I share my coffee with you today I am thinking about my family and my horses. We only have this one life and I am trying to enjoy it to its fullest, the best way I know how. I hope you enjoyed your coffee and I hope you all are enjoying your life too! And if you have any dreams, don’t give up on them because you never know they just might come true!

Wolfie and Dublin aka The Brothers! My son sends me these absolutely wonderful photos and I just have to share!

As I share these two with their brotherly love it makes me think how I am sending hugs to you! Remember to stay smiling and enjoy what you can when you can and thank you for visiting with me today. 😀

Happy Excited Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

P.S. I missed the regular coffee share linkup. It’s been a very busy weekend. 🙂

My Weekly Smile; March 3, 2021

On By DianaIn Living life, weekly smile18 Comments
  • Desert Botanical Garden ~ Phoenix, AZ

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

It was perfect weather at the gardens. Teddy with his Dad, Alice looking adorable and Teddy in stroller!
I like to take random photos as we walk, which includes interesting foliage!
My son, wife and Alice getting so big, such a sweet family! ❤ ❤ ❤

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

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

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

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

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

Teddy walks all over the place now! Me and my selfies with Alice and adorable Teddy
Best ending ever! How can you not Smile, they make me laugh and I cried when I left! ❤

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

Loving being Grandma!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Dec. 27, 2020

On By DianaIn Walking for Health and Well being, weekend coffee share20 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we meet to share what’s happening in our lives with old friends and new!

As I sit here coloring my adult coloring book I am reminiscing about Christmas as I relax and enjoy this gift. I have to tell you that my artsy crafty side of my brain is completely addicted to this coloring book! This isn’t my first one, I am not sure where my other coloring book is but this one has cool sayings and quotes. I am enjoying it immensely! I’ll share a page and you can color too! Haha, you will find it very addicting. I am coloring away thinking I really wanted to share coffee with you today and share the happenings of my Christmas weekend. So I will set it aside for now, and I’ll share what I’ve colored so far.

I started with just the small box of crayons. Today I purchased a much bigger box and some twistable colored pencils!

My daughter is on her way home up North and we had a great time together with my son and my hubby. We video chatted with my family in Arizona as we opened gifts that we sent each other. We did a secret Santa (website) so that it would pick names so that we could buy each other gifts to make Christmas a little easier. We use this website where we can share our wish lists, which sure comes in handy and makes shopping so much easier. It was great fun opening up gifts together (video chat) and catching up and seeing those beautiful grand kids!

I told my daughter I wanted to try and have a Swedish dinner for Christmas. It wasn’t exactly authentic as we made everything vegan. We made Swedish meatballs using frozen vegan meatballs which heated up super fast. I found the recipe for the IKEA Swedish meatball sauce, and I may have made more sauce to meatball ratio, which is okay in my book and YUMMY! My daughter made homemade Swedish Cardamom bread, and even though we may have over-proofed it (I think that was our mistake?) It turned out delicious! We made a Swedish Potato casserole and a Swedish beet and apple salad. Dessert was pumpkin cheesecake bars. It was so fun cooking with my daughter! ❤ We started baking/cooking at 3:30pm and didn’t stop until we sat to eat at 7:30pm Christmas day. Cooking from scratch takes a lot of time! BUT WORTH IT! Now I need to find the energy to make soup for dinner tonight! Haha 😀

  • Swedish beet/apple salad, potato casserole and meatballs!
  • Swedish cardamom bread

The cardamom bread was so delicious. It is a little sweet and I just LOVE the taste of cardamom. We were struggling with timing everything as I only have the one oven and since we didn’t meal plan or plan out the timing of everything, unfortunately we think the bread sat too long before we could get it into the oven to bake. Being a yeast bread, that can make a huge difference. It was still very soft and tasted wonderful but was slightly dense in the middle and that bigger loaf a little under done in the center, but just barely. It sure smelled good while baking! All the food tasted wonderful and how can it not when it is made with Love! ❤

We decided to go out for a hike as my daughter is always inspiring me trying to fit in exercise where we can. We had a bit of winter weather which brought rain which clears the air and the next day was beautiful! My daughter wanted to hike to Pumpkin Rock which is a huge boulder at the top of this hill in our town. The locals here keep pumpkin rock painted, as it will get a bit of graffiti and/or fade over time. I just googled it and it is there as Pumpkin Rock Trail Loop which is 1.7 miles long. Sounds just about right! Here are some photos from our hike.

We are about half way up enjoying the views. It is a fairly steep trail, so if your not in shape you’ll need to stop and catch your breath! Haha!
The foreground is George Ingalls Equestrian Center. You are looking at Norco where I live! The mountain range you see in the distance are the San Gabriel mountains with the highest peak at 10,064ft/3,068m.
We made it! I’m with my son on the left and I’m with my daughter on the right!
We were celebrating, we made it! Haha!!
Me and my SHADOWS!

We had a blast on our hike up and down on Pumpkin Rock Trails. As we were leaving the rock and started back down we were laughing at our shadows. We just had to take photos and I thought it would be fun to share. I didn’t take my phone so I didn’t have my camera and my son did a great job with all the photos I am sharing with you. We could not have picked a better day to hike, only 65F such a beautiful, gorgeous day. I will say that as I am sharing with you this last weekend of reminiscing, I am realizing that we didn’t take any photos of present opening. I usually always take photos of at least one gift each person opens, oh well, it was a fun day even though I didn’t digitally record it and it goes with this rather strange year.

I took this photo the next day and I had to zoom in from the road below. I wanted you to see what we see when we are in town even though the photo is really grainy!

Thanks for having coffee with me today. I forgot to ask you for a refill but I just get going on and on about things so I apologize for my lack of hospitality. I do enjoy our visits and hope you enjoyed your holiday however you were able to celebrate!

Happy Christmas Weekend!

Love, Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; A Week before Christmas!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share29 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives with old friends and new!

I am enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee with my favorite creamer, sweet Italian cream. Would you like coffee or a cup of tea? Maybe ice tea for those enjoying summer right now? I can’t believe in less than a week it is Christmas! WOW! This month is flying by at record speed. I am in a happy place getting most of my shopping done and I even managed to mail out some Christmas cards. I only receive a handful these days and they are fun to receive. I have some nice cards I was gifted from my daughter (ones she bought and never mailed) that I used. I enjoyed sending the cards, fun to write a little something and send on their way. I have friends/family that do the photo’s as Christmas cards which are so special and I love to receive each year. Maybe one of these years I’ll do the photo cards!

I was hoping to get more fingerless mittens made and I already have given a few away as gifts. I have a lot of yarn so I can make a bunch of them and I think will sell at the local craft fair. Or, I can really get my act together, keep stitching and have them all ready to mail out to family next Christmas. I will share what I have completed so far.

Here are the four colors of yarn I bought. Now you can see the blue gloves are really blue!
One more burgundy to stitch up and I’ll have four complete sets. I have already sent one set to my daughter-in-law. I hope she likes them!
I think lighting is everything as this photo I’ve shared before and that is the blue glove from above! BUT it totally looks grey! I took this photo at night with just a lamp on nearby. Crazy!

I forgot to offer you something to go along with your coffee? I have some fresh bananas, just thinking healthy as I am planning on baking cookies next weekend. I can’t bring cookies or baked items to work as they don’t want any food sharing. Understandable, so I thought I would wait and bake with my daughter when she arrives for Christmas. I really want to bake sugar cookies, maybe some different flavored ones and get creative. I’ve been watching a lot of baking challenge shows and one of them is the Christmas Cookie Challenges and they make cookies that have all that elaborate icing. I have a bunch of horse cookie cutters and I thought it would be fun to decorate them and then hand them out to the ladies at the stables. I am a complete neophyte to Christmas decorating on this scale. I watch them as they make a border, then flood the cookies, then decorate wet on wet. Just some of the terms I see them do as I watch some amazing decorating!

It looks like great fun and I thought what better way to practice but on horse sugar cookies! Maybe I will make some lemon sugar cookies or cinnamon (like snickerdoodles) pecan sounds good too. I could make chocolate cookies for the darker shades for the horses. Oh I have so many ideas! Haha, I am getting excited to bake!! I can’t think of a good segue into my next subject which I am so passionate about and I have some new photos (I have so many photos on my phone, it’s just crazy!) but I feel like documenting these beautiful horses as they age and fill my days with so much joy and pleasure. I don’t have many photos of them in the small pasture they have at the barn. They enjoy being out together so I thought I would share! 😀

This is a small pasture that we are not allowed to work them in, they are just out there to eat or run around on their own!
Zack is in need of a new haircut. He is already growing in his coat and so I plan on clipping it again. You can see the lines where I leave the hair along the top of his back and his legs. Its called a trace clip.

Today was farrier day, they needed their hoofs trimmed. At one time they both wore horse shoes, but not any more. With their age and arthritis issues there is no need to have horse shoes. Instead of shoes, Zack has trail boots I put on if needed. Chloe’s leg issues are so bad that the farrier can’t pick up her right back leg. She has an old injury (broken stifle, it is a hairline fracture that is healed and lots of scar tissue has formed). It truly is amazing Chloe gets around as well as she does. She is lucky to be alive, as there is no way she would survive surgery on that huge joint as she is a big girl. (The stifle of a horse is equivalent to our knees, so this is her knee joint. A devastating injury, but she protects that leg and is thriving.) Anyways, it was a great day at the stables, beautiful sunny warm day! Here is a few more photos!

Miss Chloe is such a sweetheart. She is chewing as I gave her a treat!
Goofy Zack is so inquisitive and l LOVE how he expresses himself! Do you have a treat for me? Haha!
Usually the grass is very green, but it dies off a bit in the winter months. It will green up when spring arrives.

My horses, which I love to call “my ponies” live up in the barn. These were the only open stalls and I am actually really liking them because I know they are sheltered from the wind and rain. Some of the horses at this stables are nervous being up in the pasture because it is away from the paddocks. I’m so thankful Zack and Chloe do really well up in the small pasture since their stalls are nearby. My horses live across from each other way up where the aisle starts on this pretty red barn! My ponies are out in the pasture when I took the photo. You can make out a white horse Zack and Chloe is there but she is hard to see! She is standing at the gate if you click on photo and zoom in. Haha!

Thanks for having coffee with me today and I will end with one last Christmas photo. The tree we bought has lights that change colors, so I took another photo with the colored lights! So pretty! I hope you all have a wonderful, beautiful Christmas! I know many, many zoom and video chats will be held to keep us as close as we can be with family! ❤ ❤ ❤

Enjoying the holidays, Cowgirl loving Grandma!

~Diana ❤

Thank you Eclecticalli for hosting our coffee share link up! Click here to visit!

Weekend Coffee Share; I’m A Happy Girl!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share10 Comments
Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s happening in our lives with old friends and new! What’s been happening in your neck of the woods?

Welcome to my coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? It’s been getting pretty cold at night for our area, which is a nice reprieve from the super warm days we had heading into November. I think a nice hot cup of coffee will go nice with the cookies I just made. They are chocolate peanut butter chip cookies! They are delicious, I know you will enjoy them as they are warm from the oven!

I bought a bag of Reese’s peanut butter chips and had to make these yummy cookies!

I will be honest, as I have all these thoughts running through my head and I am trying to get my thoughts organized so that I can share how this last week went for me at my new job. I think I will just write as the words ramble out and hopefully this visit with me will all make sense. It was an intense week as I had to shake out all the thoughts in my head of my old job and concentrate on my new job. Thankfully, these jobs are really similar and are actually both Veterinary Laboratories and they both use the same exact instruments to run the animal blood work. The biggest difference is the new job has a new computer system (they use to both use the same computer laboratory system, so the switch would have been even easier). But I take good notes and picked it up quickly. There is still more to learn but I am off to a good start! I am a happy girl!

As I sit and think about this last week I will tell you that switching shifts was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. It felt like I had jet lag at the beginning of the week which makes sense because I switched from working night shift to day shift. I worked Saturday night shift, slept Sunday night and was at work last Monday morning at 10am. By Tuesday I was exhausted and I thought it was Thursday, but by Thursday I was feeling much better and was not that tired any more. I am thankful the switch over went well and actually it was probably better I had to train 10am – 6:30pm for the first week. Now I am staying up later in the evening to start my new hours 2pm – 10:30pm this next week. 😀

I have been walking every day. This was this morning and there are a bunch of crows in the top of the middle tree in this photo! They are very loud and caught my attention. Sorry I don’t have a good zoom. One day I will have to buy a nice camera!

As I head into this next week I realized I can walk every morning. I had trouble walking every day working night shift because I often was too tired or I got home from work too late to fit it in on the days I worked. This is a super happy discovery as I head into this next week. I actually was a bit sore on my walk this morning because I have been able to get out there and exercise. Its all in the plan to get in shape! I’m so happy I can get out and walk more often and I can ride on trail more often too! Win, Win!

I guess my thoughts are coming out pen to paper okay. But I wanted to write this yesterday and almost didn’t get my coffee share completed. I know I just have to give myself some time to get organized or feel like I have some control over my schedule. I feel like I was at a training class last week, and so as I head into this week I need to find my footing with my new hours and figure out what I will accomplish at work each week. I am going to be taking care of all the maintenance on the instruments and I have been told to just do it however I want. I love that autonomy, and I love how they trust I will get it all done each week.

How is your coffee or tea? Need a refill? I am glad I baked so many cookies as there is lots here to eat. They are rich and so tasty, a few is all I can eat at one sitting.

How can I not share my ponies! They have thankfully settled in so well in their new stalls.

I so appreciate all the support I have in my life. All of you fellow bloggers, I so appreciate all your wonderful comments and support. I thank you for reminding me to take my time and breathe through all these crazy changes I have made the last few months. I am telling myself to be kind to myself and that training at the new job takes time. I think I have been able to demonstrate to everyone at my new job that I do know what I am doing. I also want to thank my friends and my family for all their wonderful support, such kind words all coming my way with all the love in the world. I am humbled and grateful for you all. THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU!!

Baby Teddy has outgrown his bassinet, so the brothers are as adorable as ever at my son’s house in Arizona! My daughter-in-law shared this cute photo!

I will end with Dublin and Wolfie, the brothers who are just so beautiful and so photogenic. Such personalities! Thank you for visiting my coffee share. There is something cathartic about writing about my week with all the thoughts ruminating in my head. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Happy, Grateful, day shift working cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Days off are wonderful!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share22 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us!

Welcome, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I am enjoying my coffee with some oatmeal and english muffin that I make on my days off. DAYS OFF! Oh how I love weekends and days off. I do have this weekend off, but usually my days off are split up and working night shift I actually like it this way. But I just worked a very long stretch covering for vacation, so I am extremely happy to get this much needed R&R. I am doing the things I love which is tending to my tiny garden and my horses. I love to walk but am taking a rest from walking around my neighborhood because I have injured my knee. I think I tweaked it riding a friends horse. I have been helping a lady with her young horse who is a very nice ride, but she is bouncy and I think I am out of shape and this made my knee a bit swollen and sore. Darn, I am getting old!

I was at work this last week and I tripped but didn’t fall down, my foot got caught on a wire I walked over (I know, not too smart but it was behind my big chemistry instrument and I just didn’t lift my foot up high enough) darn it all, I jerked my leg and pulled a tendon coming from my knee! UGH! so I have been taking care of it with hot and cold compresses and slow stretches and it is much better today. I just need to take it easy and not over do it as it heals! Sorry to go on so, I do not get injured often and I can’t stand to sit around so I am up and moving taking Ibprofen for pain and inflammation.

  • Chloe and I, she is so sweet! She’s my muse!

I was going through my photos and this was taken a couple years ago. I wanted to share because I do not share many photos of myself with my horses. I have more I took this weekend I will share.

  • Selfies + horses = challenging!
  • Zack and I say Hi!
  • Chloe and I say Hi!

I had FUN with my horses and my camera! You know I just can’t help myself as I enjoy their company so much. It truly is my therapy, these horses just help ones well being in so many ways. I think animals in general are therapeutic but these gentle giants have an intelligence that is so amazing as we have this relationship and understanding together as we get up on their backs and view the world from their point of view. They walk us all over our trails, since that is mostly what I do is trail ride and enjoy the weather and the beautiful days on this Earth. I wish I can thank them, and I do the best I can by providing them bedding for their stalls and nice meals to munch on each day. I enjoy grooming them and getting their coats to glisten in the sun. They mostly enjoy the grooming, Chloe enjoying it more than Zack. He has thin skin I think as he doesn’t enjoy it as much as Chloe! Silly ponies, they just melt my heart. ❤

How is your coffee or tea? Can I get you a refill? I hope you are all having a great weekend. I feel like I can just go on and on about my horses. I also think often of my family and will save those photos for my smile post this next week. I will just dedicate this post to my weekend fun. I am also crocheting a lot finishing one project and starting on another. My crochet is another relaxing thing I do to unwind and get my mind on to the creativity of my projects. Crochet is very rewarding in many ways! ❤

  • Zack after our ride!
  • I love when I get their tongue out! Haha
  • Nice and clean after a beautiful trail ride!

Thank you for sharing coffee with me today. The reason I get photos of my horses with their tongue out is I feed them treats after I ride. These are small pellets that are made for them and they just LOVE them. I have been buying treats that have alfalfa and raspberry flavors, I am not sure what all are in the treats but they smell wonderful. They love them and after I feed them they literally lick their lips over and over, YUMMY! So when I take a photo, it’s turning out to be pretty easy to get a photo with them sticking their tongue out! HAHA! I just love it and I hope you enjoy seeing my ponies this weekend.

Crazy horse loving girl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; My Tiny Garden

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share11 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us!

Welcome and how are you today? I am having a nice cup of morning coffee with my oatmeal and english muffin with jam. I have bananas too, would you like to join me as we finish out this weekend and this month? Yesterday was my son’s birthday, and wish I could have been in Arizona to bake him a cake! That would have been divine but it was not in the cards and with all that is going on totally understandable. I miss him very much. I also miss his wife and 2 children too, so much my heart aches but we stay in touch as much as possible. How’s your coffee? or would you rather have some tea?

Before I get into my tiny garden photos my husband and I had an interesting conversation last evening. He got a call from a very good friend of his in Arizona and they asked him to ask me if I would be interested in living on 37 acres in Williams, Arizona? He explained that they were looking for themselves when they realized this is also horse property and wondered if I wanted to have a horse ranch there! WAIT, WHAT? I told my husband YES! This is just all thoughts from our friends, but they are thinking of purchasing the land. It would be 2 1/2 hours from my family there, much closer than where I am at here and the weather there is wonderful because it is higher elevation. It is only 35 miles from Flagstaff, Arizona which is a bigger city and I could find work there. Oh my, this is only the first conversation but if it were to come to fruition, it would be a dream come true. Enough land that I would have my own trails to ride on with my horses!! I just had to share, it may not happen. Maybe talking about it will get the ball rolling in that direction. Maybe?

On to my teeny tiny garden. But this tiny garden sure brings me big smiles! I believe I will get a few tomatoes and bell peppers. So far so good!

I am so excited to see some veggies!!
My beautiful blooms! They make me smile!

I will be doing some gardening work this afternoon and prune my roses and spray them for aphids. I use a mixture of a couple of drops of dawn soap in a spray bottle with water. It doesn’t hurt the plants but really gets rid of those darn bugs. We have an over abundance of earwigs this year, and have seen a fair amount of lizards which are eating those bugs. The roses continue to bloom and I believe once I prune them I will get some new growth with more blooms in the coming months!

I bought a small plant for my daughter to put on her patio table. I was surprised she had the same assorted plants as a canvas photo in her bathroom. Like minds think alike, and it was a purchase on a whim. I had to share, Love my daughter so much!

My explanation of the above photo is enough. I will say though that when I placed the plants on her patio table she told me she would probably kill them. I almost said, well at least you have a photo of them to enjoy! Hehe, these are rather hard to kill, and so hopefully she will have some success with them. If not, its all okay. She is doing really good, and I am so excited to hear where her next assignment will be. She will be moving at the end of this year.

My son sent this and he set one of the brothers in a little sit up chair they bought the baby. I thought it was adorable and he said he sat there for a few minutes! Silly Kitty!

Those brothers are just the best cats and to me very comical. I know I have shared some really wonderful photos of them, sleeping together is just so cute. When he shared this photo it made me laugh, its just too funny! He looks rather content even though he did not stay long in there, he is so mellow! I really enjoyed sharing coffee with you today. I really can’t believe it will be June tomorrow. The time sure flies, and I am looking forward to the summer but praying we don’t get too much heat. It can get pretty darn hot, but I think we will be okay until July. Have a great week!

~Diana ❤