Whoa

I posted a blog just over two years ago, with the title (Pause), which is what I was going to use this week.  But I don't like to repeat the same title.  So I used Whoa, as in stop, wait, or slow down... not as in 'wow.'  I have written so many blogs concerning how fast time progresses.  And it seems to be going even faster with each passing day.  The older I get, the faster time goes.

In times of fun, enjoyment, and happiness, I wish I could stop in the moment to relish it just a little longer.  If only I could slow down the clock, pause life to savor the experience, or even turn back time to do it all over again, wouldn't that be wonderful?  

Because life is passing by so fast, and we seem to be going 'non-stop', it is good to whoa (take a pause from) our hectic life and reflect on it, be thankful for it, appreciate it, and relax and regroup from the busyness of it.
 

Saturday 8/26 -I thought I had the better part of the morning for cleaning, etc. but last night Courtney decided to come mid morning to ride, and Dan's family would also join in on the horsing around.  So I was up early to post last week's blog and then I moved like a Tasmanian devil... made both guest beds, did the grocery shopping and got it all put away, hard boiled some eggs, cleaned guest bathrooms, cleaned all three litter boxes and the areas around them, and swept the kitchen and dinning room.  With no time to dust, I was off for the ranch before 11:00 and Courtney beat me there by a few minutes. 

Courtney and I were grooming Amiga and Zorro, when Dan and family pulled in.  They are all so cute. 

  

I walked with Dan and Tango (and Maggie) up to the ranch house yard where Tango could run loose.

Tito greeted our two dogs and then Dan and I returned to the barn.  Courtney had Zorro tacked and ready to ride. 

Ava helped with a little more brushing and then Courtney got on to 'warm' Zorro up and see how he was behaving.


In the mean time, Ava went to greet Cowboy, who was feeling a little left out.  And then Zorro was ready for Ava to join Courtney. 

Courtney reported that there was barely room in the saddle for both of them.  Whoa, Ava keeps getting bigger.



Of course lots of photos and a video or two were taken.   

Zorro was very well behaved and fun was had by all (video).  Just look at their faces. 

Zorro was such a good boy and Courtney did a great job. 

While Ava was ending her ride, I finished tacking Amiga. 

Dan and Vale took Ava home for a snack and nap.  I was soon in the saddle and Courtney and I were ready to hit the trail.

We had a nice little ride.  Courtney led on Zorro part of the time and then I lead on Amiga.

Both horses did well, although Amiga still acted a little sore.  And Courtney did great on Zorro (video) considering she hasn't ridden him in several months.
Once back and untacked, we wormed both horses and then turned them out for the day. 



Courtney and I brought the dogs home, who were still at Mary and Jack's.  Babe was checking out Tango in this photo.  Patty joined us and we all had a late lunch. 







Once Ava was up from a nap, we all went to Druid family pool for a swim.  Courtney took this photo of Ava, Vale, Dan, Patty, Jack, Mary, Holly (me), and Joe.  

Ava loves the water, and today was no exception.  She had fun with her mom and dad, with Titi Courtney, and anyone who played with her. 

 







There was also this splash pad where she spent a lot of time playing, and made a new little friend. 

We had all arrived at the pool in four different cars, so trickled out after we had gotten enough sun and swim. 
 

For dinner, we went to Cancun, the Mexican restaurant by I-40.  Look at Ava 'porking out' as I took this photo of all our food.  She is such a good little eater.   

I had made a pig of myself with the chips and cheese dip before our main food arrived, but I managed to finish off my beef taco salad also.  Whoa!  I should have stopped eating earlier, and had a bad belly ache by the time we all got home. 










We were all pretty full (and tired), so just sat around and chatted while Ava entertained us.  In this photo, she is reading to Papaw my favorite children's book (My Days Are Made Of Butterflies). 
 

Sunday 8/27 - I usually wake up hungry, but not this morning.  We were all up getting the day started fairly early because we had a pontoon reserved for 10am. 
Courtney's selfie with Ava on the back porch.  Today it was finally cool enough (since a week ago) to open windows and shut off the AC. 

   



A good time was had by all on the pontoon.  We were instructed that Ava had to wear the life jacket.  

She was a good sport about it, but didn't really like it. It was a tad large or just not a great fit. 



Once distracted, it didn't seem to bother her too much.

We snacked on popcorn and because I had left my water in the car, I had a Cayman Jack margarita.  It's 5:00 somewhere.


We looked for wildlife and enjoyed the cool August  morning. 

 










The Great Blue heron was well camouflaged in this photo. 

These geese however were very easy to see, and are surely considered a nuisance.  But watching them all doing various things (sunning, napping, preening, and swimming) was uplifting. 








Ava had finally had enough of the life jacket, so we let her take it off.  She seemed to enjoy walking around the pontoon, visiting various people, and watching the water.  But this too got 'old' and she was looking for more action. 





It was good that we'd just done a one hour rental. 








Then we spent the next hour on the beach, swimming, playing in the water, playing in the sand, sunning, and some of us even took a nap. 

The water was warm and felt nice to be in. 









Ava enjoyed playing at the water's edge... 

...and in the sand burying her feet. 


She enjoyed helping her dad build sand 'castles' and then smooshing them.









She was shown how to skip stones and even gave that a try. 

We were all getting hungry and Ava was becoming tired, so we dried off, brushed off the sand, and headed home.  





Lunch was eaten when we got home and by 1:30 the party had broken up.  Patty headed home.  Courtney left because she had a dinner date with a friend in Nashville.  I had to go to work.  Joe left for poker.  And when Dan and Vale tried to put Ava down for a nap, she wouldn't go, so they to hit the road too.  Waaah and whoa, did this weekend ever go too fast. 

This little guy was my only pool guest for the start of my shift because it was so cool and overcast.  He helped me clean food up off the tables and deck.  L O L. 

It warmed up slightly, so a few people came to the pool.  But it was still much cooler than the past week so I had a fairly small crowd and easy shift.  I was even able to close a half hour early because everybody had left. 
 

I went straight to the ranch to check on Amiga because she had bad diarrhea (from worming) and was very lethargic in the morning when Susan did chores.  Susan had cleaned up the back of Amiga's legs which was very nice.  When I got there, our herd of three came in for dinner, so I went ahead and fed them all and then just monitor Amiga for awhile, to see how she was doing.  She was a tad bit lethargic, but ate well and never pooped so I decided she was improving.

I got home at 7:00, to a very quiet house. 

Monday 8/28 - I am on a Facebook Messenger 'chat' thread (with daughters and sisters, including in-laws) called Cool Cats and Kittens.  This morning we were sending toe photos.  I asked them to guess who' toes these are.

I worked here at my computer most of the morning and into the early afternoon.  It rained all day so I wasn't enticed to go outside.  Getting this blog started took a while because I struggled coming up with a title.  Then I had a ton of photos from the weekend to download, edit, and organize. 


Those are Mama Styx's toes. 


I made lots of trips away from my desk to do several things.  I did three loads of laundry, dishes and arranged things back the way they had been before Ava came and we had to 'baby proof' the house.  I didn’t get to the gym until 2:30 and then it was a rather lame work out.  There was nothing vigorous, speedy, lengthy, or impressive about it.  






I was at the ranch by 5:00 to check on Amiga and take care of her scratches and anything else that needed tending to.  I had to stop and wait for this snapper to cross the driveway when I arrived. 
Dinner was popcorn and ice water in front of the TV watching a Clint Eastwood movie 'Cry Macho.'

Tuesday 8/29 - Today was a workday.  I did chores at the ranch in the morning; worked a shift at the pool from 9:15 - 2:00; and then spent a few hours at the gym. 

Patty sent this photo when she did chores in the afternoon.  Wanda had found a new spot to curl up. 










I only had three people during my pool shift because it rained most of the time so I did a lot of reading.  And my gym workout was not much more energetic than the day before.  Joe and I watched another movie (The Angriest Man in Brooklyn) with Robin Williams. 

Wednesday 8/30 - I had the whole day to do whatever I wanted.  I was thinking the gym would be a good idea but I had just gone two days in a row.  I was also contemplating taking Amiga out for a ride.  But first I had so much blogging to catch up on from the weekend.  Then I got a text from Brooke, that she was able to bring Banner around 3:30 this afternoon.  So I planned the rest of my day around being at the ranch to welcome her and help her get Banner settled in.

Unfortunately, I did not make great progress on my blog.  After a big lunch I headed to the ranch for the rest of the afternoon.  When I went out to the back pasture to get Amiga, I noticed this big, dead tree had fallen down, on the fence, and into the pasture. 

It had broken the top two strands of barbwire and pulled down the corner post twenty yards away. 

The geldings followed Amiga and I into the paddock so I figure the broken fence could wait a little longer. 
 

I had a nice ride on Amiga, although she is still 'off' a little.  I can't decide if she is stiff, sore, or tender footed... or which leg is actually bothering her.  We didn't go long or fast, but really enjoyed the newly mowed trails. Maggie had darted into the woods at one point, and a few minutes later re-appeared, frothing at the mouth and smelling like skunk.  Shoot! 





The sore on the back of Amiga's one heel was still quite tender, and was a little bloody by the time we got home. So I treated that.  Luckily Maggie wasn't hit with skunk spray too horribly, and I was able to clean her up fairly well.




I was picking up sticks from the corral, getting ready for Banner, when Brooke arrived with him.  He is a palomino quarter horse, and as sweet as can be.  He unloaded very quietly, and was extremely calm when turned loose in the corral.  I showed Brooke where things were and let her get Banner settled in while I went out to block off the section of broken fence.  

I set up the broken corner post so it was leaning towards the woods and then strung white rope (that looks like the electro-braid) across the corner to keep horses away from there.  The two grocery bags were attached for good measure.

Susan had come to feed, and was welcoming Brooke when I got done in the back pasture.  We all know Brooke from when she worked at Wildwood Stables. 

I love this photo of Susan with Zorro.  Just a sweet, tender moment. 

You can see where Joe stopped bush-hogging so he could get to his poker game.  I finished up a few other little chores before heading home.

With Poker Joe gone, I had more quite time than usual, reading before bed, and finished my book. 

Thursday 8/31 - My day consisted of morning chores, a nice easy shift at the  pool, going back to the ranch to help Joe mend fencing and then riding with Karen.  Seen left, at about 8am, Banner had done well overnight, but was glad to see me, even though I had no food for him.  And seen below, the main section of the tree that Joe had hauled here from the back pasture with the project supervisor sitting at the picnic table.




We got all the fence fixed and the tree cleaned up from the pasture in just over an hour.  But it had occurred with a few disagreements, some injuries (getting caught in barbwire, leaving some cuts and scrapes) and some swearing (what sometimes happens when you get hurt or frustrated).

I started a new paperpack mystery at bed time, but didn't last long... just too tired. 

Friday 9/1 - Whoa, this is a wasp nest I discovered during my pool shift.  Now that its September, it feels like fall is here.  And thankfully, things at the pool have slowed down some. 

Since Brooke has brought Banner to the ranch, we have split back up into two Co-ops because none of us five ladies (Patty, Susan, Bonnie, Karen, or I) want to do the work involved with seven horses.  Mary and Jack now have Brooke to help them with their three horses. 







Going into the gym, I bumped into an old friend I haven't seen in awhile, and talked with her for nearly 30 minutes.  It was so nice to catch up with each other.  Being short on time, I just did the elliptical for 75 minutes, with the weighted vest on for an hour of it. 

I ran to Food City on my way home from the gym and had a long wait in the checkout line because they were so busy, since it's the first of the month and a holiday weekend. 

I was able to get finished with my pool shift early, and was out at the ranch for the pot luck and bonfire just before 6:00.  It was kind of a meet & greet for Brooke and her fiance Nick. 

Joe left the party early to drive to Nashville.  When I started this post, I had seen this little devotional in one of the images.  I asked Joe to get it for me for Christmas.  Well, I found it on my desk when I got home from the party.  So I read a few pages from it instead of my new mystery, which was slow starting.