Barb ask if I ride so I went digging for the one picture I had scanned. It was a pretty bad old photo and I showed it to my friend Mark and this was what he came up with. 😀 That’s me sometime in my 20’s on our stud, Chubs Powderface. I had my own horse up until Miranda was 2 and we moved into town. He was young and I was training him. Unfortunately, my brothers horses are in California and I am in Indiana, or I’d be riding them! We had a lot of horses over the years while I was growing up. My dad was breeding for leopards. Here’s a very nice article written about him.

These little darlin’s have sure grown into the title haven’t they? 🙂

Lilly

Tucker

Gracie

Tucker & Gracie

More pictures at Eloquent Equines.

Just sort of an update post here. It hasn’t been a good year for me.  I lost a bunch of weight since Christmas and felt God awful. After tons of tests, they basically found nothing. Argh, I still have to pay for all those :p

Anyway, my neighbor and a couple of his friends dug my garden up and planted it for me. I wouldn’t have had one at all if it weren’t for them. It wasn’t the best garden year. I had one picking of beans all summer and thought they were done. Then I went out there in the middle of September and found lots more! I must buy more tomato plants next year though. I canned 10 quarts and that isn’t enough for a year. Then I bought a bushel at the farmers market. That was a waste of money. They had a few nice ones on top but all of them had blight. I canned a cooker load and it was gross just taking care of them. Then I had a partial jar that I left on the counter overnight. It was like fermenting or something in that short time. Really gross. So I looked online and they recommend that you do not can blighted tomatoes. So I tossed them all 🙁

In August my kids came for my birthday and got me a new porch swing! Mine was junk. I just love it!

They also took my new car for a test drive and I wish I’d gotten a picture of Melissa hanging out the sunroof waving her arms 😉 I drove that piece of crap car for 10 years. Three of the four door handles were broken. Although we could mess with them to open from the inside. The drivers outside handle broke last year and I’ve had to open the passenger door, crawl across to open the drivers door, get out and go around…that was a real pain. So my new one is a 2005 Grand Am with only 18,000 miles on it. You cannot know how much I love this car. 😀 Between full coverage and the car loan and the insanely high registration fee, I may have to give up food. But I don’t care!

In September I caught the flu so that was bad for a few days, but then I got this whole huge neck/head pain going on. I knew it could be meningitis but I told myself my brain is functioning okay, no worries. After a few days though I broke down and went to the ER. They admitted me and had to test me all out to see if it was bacterial or viral and to make sure I didn’t have hydrocephalus and such. I kept telling them that wouldn’t happen because I have a shunt. But you know doctors. I was in a day and a half and I figure those bills will start rolling in around Christmastime.

The thing about having a pretty lousy year is that it shouldn’t be that hard for next year to be better I figure. 🙂

A few months ago I began talking to someone I’ve known for 8 years online. He talked me into giving up my hermitage (is that a word?) and giving a relationship a chance. Let me tell you, it took some convincing. I never met anyone like him before.  I could tell him anything. He was so understanding and compassionate. Plus our sense of humor was on the same wavelength. We spent hours talking. There were a few troubling little fibs that I chose to ignore (I know, bad, bad, bad) but I thought he was pretty much what he presented himself as. He had a money problem and I sent him a lot of money (yeah, beat myself in the head). Well, at the time I felt like I could afford to help.

He came to visit me, got here on my birthday. Once he was here we never talked like we had on the phone. He was somewhat critical of me and anyone who knows anything about me knows that won’t go over well. He drank…a lot…and never offered a penny towards it. I live on disability, I can’t afford that and I generally don’t drink at all but I was trying to be a good hostess. But the tall tales, that was the worst. When someone lies to you, everything they’ve ever told you is brought into doubt.

After he was home again I still tried talking to him. Looking for the guy I thought I’d got to know. But like my therapist keeps telling me, that guy wasn’t real. He was so charming and I swear I have none. I wanted to be able to be like him. Heh. The last time we talked, I had meningitis and instead of concern, all he did was talk about his money woes. I have quite a few of those myself now and he contributed to them.

I guess the moral of the story is that I should be glad I’m real (and honest) even if I’m not a charmer. So I’m getting used to the being alone again. Sometimes though, I wish I had the ability to be such a wonderful person as he appeared to be. Mostly I feel like a fool.

With the assumption I might find things to talk about again.  Although right this minute I can’t think of any except the various health issues I’ve been dealing with the last few months. Talk about stimulating conversation! I will say Ensure is your friend. I think I’ve become addicted to them 😉