I'm Going to Kansas City, Kansas City Here I Come.....

I'm off to a continuing Ed. meeting tomorrow (The Central Veterinary Conference) and won't be back until Tuesday night.
Grant's coming with me which is just too groovy! He has some friends in Kansas City that he can go visit and it's just going to be awesome having him there!

One of the best parts is that I'm going to get to go visit my friends Dr.'s Will and Heather Heeb!!!
Will and I used to work together in Spring Branch when we both first got out of veterinary school!
His wife eventually took a position as a veterinary oncologist at KSU so they got to move back home. (They were just in Texas for her residency) So, it's been a while, and they've never met Grant!

Can't wait!!

Hopefully, I'll have some pics soon!

Dead truck

So, my ghetto truck that I pull my horse trailer with died this week....while I was trailering the horse. Grrrrr....

Luckily, it died at the end of Ruth's (my trainer's) driveway. So, Ronan was ok.
Unfortunately, the truck, was not. The engine died.... (yes, I truly have bad engine karma, but I'll save that for another time.) We've only had his truck for 2 years (bought it used) and only put about 20,000 miles on it. It only had like 97,000 miles on it total, but I guess that the guy that we bought it from must have just trashed it, since we've already replaced the transmission, the wheel bearings, the fluid brake system, something with the axle, and some sensors. Sooooooo, when we found out it was going to be like, $4500 to fix the engine, I was like THAT'S IT!

Besides, this was not the truck that I wanted anyway. When I first started looking at used trucks, I got my father to help me, because I am terrible about knowing what's in good shape or not, and my husband's not much better. So, we looked at several, and my dad found this really nice truck with 80-something thou miles on it, that I really liked. It looked to be in really nice shape, etc. So, we were leaving the next day to go to Disney World, so my Dad said that he'd go make an offer to the guy, and get the truck stuff all settled. I was like Great! (What was I thinking????)
So, my dad calls me the next day in Florida and says, the truck that you wanted had already been sold.....but, I got you a different truck instead! I was like, WHAT??? My Dad said, actually, it was in so much better shape than the other one, and that it sounded better, and he thought that the transmission was in better shape, and it had a bigger engine, etc. So, I was like....oooook?
So, we get home to find our new truck, which was definitely a lot more stripped (not really that big of a concern) and had dents all over it! I swear! I was like, Dad!!!! He then told me that he didn't realize that it was that beat up, but it runs great. (Like a year later, he made fun of me, and said, what the heck did you back into? I could have killed him, and loudly reminded him that the multiple dents were there when he bought it!)

About a week later, the top of the dashboard started to crack and break off in huge chunks. It kind of looks like Peanut Brittle. I told people it was "distressed" (like in an art way.) So, then everyone who has ever ridden in our truck was like, "Sarah? What's with the dashboard?" and I have to explain the whole ghetto truck thing.

But now, even though I hated it, I am very bummed that it's dead. Especially since it was paid for. All 3 of our vehicles were paid for. They may all be on the older side, but that was lots better than a car payment.

I started looking at used trucks again, and found zilch. The ones that were in good shape were the same price or more than a new one! I couldn't believe it. Now, the American car companies are hurting pretty bad, so they were offering some kick butt deals, but still!

So, we decided to buy a new truck. Especially when we heard that Dodge was offering a lifetime warranty on the power train (engine, transmission, differential) as long as I owned the truck. I'm thinking...that should be able to combat my bad engine karma.....Groovy. Oh, and my Dad talked me into going and test driving one. Boy is it nice! and so quiet!
We really love it! I hate it that I'm paying on a vehicle that is not our primary vehicle (I only really use it to pull the trailer, but I do that at least once a week now.) but after getting stranded with the horse, it sure feels a lot better to be in a new truck, plus it's really, really powerful and fun to drive! Did I mention my environmentally friendly, itty bitty car loving husband hates trucks? (He even likes this one, but probably not driving it!)

So, that's the saga of the truck. I got a gooseneck hitch put in right away, and drove it everywhere all last week, because I had to put 500 miles on it before I was supposed to tow anything, and successfully towed Ronan out for my dressage lesson
yesterday!

My horse is growing up!

Took Ronan to Meadow creek to school today, and we had a blast! I'm moving him up a level for the shows this season...thought it's be a good idea to school him somewhere else where he hadn't seen any of the jumps.
None of the jumps were numbered or flagged so I'm sure we did some that were higher than novice, but he didn't have any problems.Going through the water at the bottom of a steep hill, then up the other side of the hilland over a fence at the top.

Seems to really love cross country.

His first Novice level event is at the end of September. Go Ronan!

Not dead, just busy

Lots of exciting things going on....

Work's been nuts...oh yeah it's summer, duh!

Ronan's going better than ever!

Still working on my PSE classes.

Ronan and I have a clinic with the ever-so-awesome kiwi, Nick Larkin this weekend. Can't wait!

Made an awesome coffee table type scrapbook for my "Worth a thousand words" class with Shimelle.... (I'll try to post pics in the next few days....love this project!

Dancing with Grant last Saturday.

Taking lots of awesome pictures...promise to post some one of these days..

Puppysitting the little whipper-snapper, Hermione for the last 2 weeks.


***So basically, Love, Work, Ronan, and Art....that's how I'm spending my summer.

More digi stuff

I had to finish this layout for my class this week, but I'm not sure if I'm happy with the lettering or not, so I may go back and work on it some more this week....but here's the initial version....

We got it!

After hanging around Borders for a few hours checking out all of the cool costumes, we got our book! They started distributing them at midnight, but we didn't get ours until about 1:00 AM, so not too bad! We were pretty excited!

Amazon.com should be delivering one to our door today as well, and I think Grant ordered the UK version from them too.

Did you know that they actually alter the American version to translate for some of the British phrases? I sure didn't. Can't wait to check it out!!

Thoughts on Potter, the end is near

Over the past several years, I've come to the conclusion that I don't like endings. No, seriously.

Grant's been dying for the new and final Harry Potter book to come out since, well...since about the day after the last one came out! (The half Blood Prince).
Not me.
I am really excited, but actually, to some extent, I've been dreading it a bit.
I really love these books, and enjoy emerging myself in the whole experience. Every detailed description, every theory....I continue to replay in my mind over and over again from time to time. Basically, I am pretty content reflecting on the current book for a couple of years, and the past books as well for all that matters. I do look forward to the next book, but I'm in no hurry. Especially now.
Because this is it. The end. The grand finale.....basically, of something that I don't want to be over. Didn't we just get The Half Blood Prince? I'm not even over the whole Dumbledore thing yet. Perhaps, I'm still traumatized. I know, the answer is no, it's been out for a couple of years. It's time for the next installment, which of course I wouldn't mind except for the fact that it's the last one...the ending.

You see, the older I get (not that I'm anywhere near old yet), the more I've come to not like endings. Now, if it's one movie, one book, etc....sure! I want the ending! But when it comes to a series, I've found that I unconsciously avoid it.
For example....if a television show that I really like is ending, when it starts getting close to the end, I somehow stop watching it. I'm still sad that that it won't be on anymore, but even though I have the episodes on the myth TV, for some reason it takes me forever to watch them. It's like, I don't want closure. Weird, huh?

I still haven't seen the last episode of Dr. Who from the first season that the series was brought back, because I knew that they were going to be changing doctors. (and I really loved that doctor, Christopher Eccleston,( Christopher Eccleston) although Grant swears to me that I'll love the new doctor as well.) I haven't seen the last episode of Dawson's Creek, and I'm sure that there's a lot more. I did watch the last episode of Mad About You, and of Ally McBeal, and they both left me feeling flat. I didn't particularly care for the episode, but yet, after having seen it, I knew how it ended....and in those cases, not how I would have liked, but yet it is still there. It feels done, and I don't really reflect on them anymore.

Still haven't seen the last Matrix movie.I'm sure that there are tons more that I can't think of right now, but you get the idea. On a recent note, I somehow ended up not watching the entire last season of Stargate SG1, I guess because I knew that they were canceling the series. I really don't actively mean to do it. I guess that I just start feeling more emotional about it, and decide to avoid dealing with that. I don't know. This must drive Grant nuts.

We have a myth TV (the home made Tivo that Grant made for us) full of an entire season of Dr. Who, the SG1 last season, and the remaining 2-3 episodes of Battlestar Gallactica that I haven't watched from last season, (probably because it's my favorite show, and I didn't want the season to be over with). Heck! They're finishing the series after next season, so god only knows what I'll end up doing. Perhaps it's that I just want to continue to have something to look forward to...
However, I didn't do this with Revenge of the Syth. (the final Star Wars movie) I really looked forward to it, couldn't wait to see how it would end, but perhaps this was because it was the final prequel, and I actually already knew how things ended in the actual end (3 movies later), and pretty much have it as part of the make up of my culture since I can remember.

When I met Grant, he told me that he reads the endings of books right at the beginning, which I thought was just horrid! Any twists, tricks, emotional rollercoasters are all in vain because you know how it will all turn out. My biggest argument against that is that the author wrote it in a certain way using various literary devices to unfold the story in a specific artful matter, and that by reading the end, it screws with his or her art. So, he sweetly, doesn't do that with books that I give him to read which I've already read, and that I am clearly giving to him because I enjoyed the experience so much. He's the best. However, at times, I do see his point. Perhaps just knowing from the get-go would resolve any anxiety that I would have about actually reaching the end. ...Nah! Definitely not worth it.

But anyway, back to Potter.....

I do admit that I tend to get a bit too emotionally involved....particularly in these books .... and of course, we're going to go pick up one of our copies at midnight tonight....and of course I will start reading it right away, since if I don't, someone will surely tell me the ending anyway....which would suck beyond belief.

I tend to read slowly.
I picture every last detail, and think everything through most thoroughly as I go along.
So, on top of it being the ending, I'm pissed because I'll have to try and read it as fast as I can to try and avoid hearing any spoilers. Grrrr....
But....at least it will make sure that I will actually read it....not speculate when I'm 40 about how I really need to finish that last Harry Potter book. : )

Oh, and btw....I'm so rooting for Neville!

It's a montage!

Right now, this is one of my favorite pictures. Even though Ronan looks silly in his braids.


Ok, so I'm finally at the point in my class where we're starting to do photo montages. Learning lots of cool blending and mask techniques. Very neat.
Here's one of my class assignments, work in progress...I still have to do some graphical and text things to it for class, but it'll give you some sort of idea. Pictures of Ronan and me.

Digital class

Ok, so I'm taking a pretty cool Photoshop Elements scrapbooking class this month on Digitalscrapbookplace.com Very cool. I met the instructor, Emma, at the digital crop that I went to in Arlington at the Great American Scrapbook Convention last month.
Her classes are very detailed and pleasantly complex. I've taken several other digital classes and they've all been pretty basic and about the same, even the more advanced ones. So, I'm liking it!
Learning lots more stuff about things that I thought that I already knew about, and I'm only on week 2. Groovy.

This is one of my class assignments. Not my favorite, but I was basically just trying to incorporate all of the techniques that I learned in the 1st 2 weeks of class. No premade items, everything had to be pretty simple, and I had to use 3 photos. So, not too bad for having constraints. It was nice taking a digital class where it wasn't like...take this element and put it here. It was like, here are 4 different techniques to make photo mats....use them.
Luckily, I have a great photographer. (Love you, Grant!) Pictures are from the Meadow Creek Schooling event that we went to last month.

It was pretty cool. Laura Mann and I both won our divisions, which is pretty trippy, since we've done that 2 or 3 times now at this particular show! (she was in Training with Sparky, and I took Ronan in Beginner Novice). Laura's been busy with her new job this past year, so we hadn't really gotten to go to any shows together since this time last year. It was awesome to have her back.

Usually, it's wicked hot at this show, but this year it was cooler because....oh yes, just like every other show since we got Ronan....it was pouring down rain. Yuck.

Damn! I'm tired.

Movie was cool, getting up after 2+ hours of sleep is not.

It's Potter Time!

And so it begins...

Tonight, well actually it's extremely early tomorrow AM, we're going to the 12:00 showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Can't wait! It's going to be awesome. Umbridge is truly disturbing. (I'm terrified of her.) and I've heard that her portrayal in the film is excellent! As scary as that may seem, at least I can be waiting for those centaurs...they should know that I'm counting on them.
Still got a few weeks before the book. I'm not sure that Grant will be able to wait that long after seeing the movie tonight!

Matt is so COOL!

So late last night, I'm struggling with some concepts from my digital PSE class, and feeling creatively blocked and frustrated when I get this email from my friend Shannon (of Matt and Shannon who ride out at Falconwood ).

It said something like:
Matt said that you wanted a copy of this song....

and there it was....the Elvis Costello cover of "She" from the movie Notting Hill that I went rambling on forever about last week (isn't that what blogs are for anyway?) after a much too time consuming attempt to find it. See post from July 4th

IS THAT NOT THE COOLEST THING???

It just made me so happy! I've listened to it like 6 times. : )

Matt, you're the absolute best!! Thanks.

I have the grooviest friends.

Groovy Weekend

Wow! I had the weekend off, and we were at home! No shows, clinics, trips, etc. Whew!


I think that we really needed a break.


I did take Ronan out to Pine Hill on Saturday for our lesson, which was awesome! He was perfect. Jumped a whole bunch of new cross country jumps on the novice course. No problem! Just like it was nothing! Very relaxed....Go Ronan!




Otherwise, it was an eclectic mix of things this weekend....lots of fun.




1.) Went to see Ratatouille....


Awesome flick. Loved it! loved it! Loved it!! Pixar's done it again. Too cool. So funny. Had cooking for Grant, and Rats for me, what more could we ask for?





2.) Rode bareback on Sunday AM for over an hour. I just love doing that.





3.) Saw a preview for the new "Underdog" live action film....oh no. Unfortunately, it has a beagle, which I guess the real underdog was, but still....

The movie looks pretty bad, but had some great tag lines...


"One Nation Under Dog!" - Love this one! How great!

Coming this August..."Evil Gets Licked!" - that's the best.

4.) So, because of Underdog, I'll probably get stuck seeing more beagles (Arrrgh!), but hopefully, because of Ratatouille, I'll get to see more RATS! (That would be awesome!)

5.) Had corn on the cob for dinner last night. Mmmmmm. My favorite. Got it from this little farm on the way home from the horse farm....so good. Also got some new potatos, which Grant made with garlic and rosemary to go with the corn..... Now I'm hungry.

6.) Got new pajamas! Cute ones with Marie the cat from The Aristocats

7.) Went to brunch at Jasper's Sunday with Grant....Vanilla French toast with bananas and nuts....mmmmmmm.

8.) Tried to do some scrapbooking, failed miserably.

"

Play

Been working on my PSE skills.
Here's some pics from one of last month's lessons....
(can't figure out how to get the picture to be larger in the post but if you click on it, you get the full effect.)

Photos by Grant Goodyear

She

"She" I'm talking about the song...(not Heidi Swapp) that goes....

She may be the face I can't forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
Maybe my treasure or the price I have to pay

....and so on.

Well, it was originaly written by Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer.
Anyway, Elvis Costello does this awesome cover of it on the soundtrack for the movie Notting Hill, (one of my favorite films, by the way.)

So, I've been wanting to get a copy of that version of the song for years now, and the only place that I've seen it is on the Notting Hill movie soundtrack, which I refuse to buy, mostly because I absolutely hate Ronan Keating's version of "WhenYou Say Nothing at All". Yes, lots of people have covered that song, and there are some out there that I feel are even better than the original( Alison Krauss), but the reason that I hate the Ronan Keating version (and yes, he does have an awesome first name) is because he changes some of the lyrics, (and I know that this happens a lot, but it bugs me with this song) and takes out one of my favorite lines...

"Old Mr. Webster
could never define,
What's been said
between your heart and mine"

Yes, I know that it's cheesy, but hey, it's a country song! Anyway, he changes it to....

" Try as they may
They can never define
What's been said
between your heart and mine "

Which to me, is significantly less memorable...I mean, what the heck is wrong with Mr. Webster? He is the expert on defining now isn't he? Was Mr. Keating afraid that perhaps a definition would surface if you pointed people to the man at the top?

But forgive me, I digress....

Anyway, the point is that I refuse to buy the stupid soundtrack. So, I think that Elvis Costello has some 2 disc greatest hits collection or something, but I already have tons of Elvis Costello, and it's like $20.

So....I think, a-ha! Steve Jobs can help me with this dilemma....so I go to itunes, which is where you can purchase just one song off of an album (pretty much the only time I buy itunes over traditional CDs, unless it's some unreleased rarity etc.) and guess what...

They don't have it. Grrrrrrrr.

I'm sure that there are other MP3 sites that carry it, but I'm not in the mood to go checking all of them today. I'm also sure that I could easily download it illegally....and my defense would be that "Steve Jobs let me down!", but I'm not willing to mess with all that either.

So basically, "She" will have to wait.....probably another 6months till it pops into my head again, and think, "Man, I really love that version, I should get that..."

It's Raining Again....

Well, it rained again this weekend, so what were we doing? At a horse show of course! I swear that every show that we've done since getting Ronan, except for the combined test. the weather's been bad. In the last month alone, we got poured on at Meadow Creek, I got rained on all week at Horse camp, and then we got poured on again at the Pine Hill show on Sunday. The trailer's an absolute mess on the inside. It's going to need some serious cleaning. Lovely...but hey! Ronan's great in mud and wet.

He was awesome again this show. Such a good boy.

So, I've decided to move him up and give him the chance to kick butt at the Novice level in eventing! We don't show again until end of September, so we'll be ready. But for now, I at least am looking forward to a much needed break.

Other events.... (ripping off a blog style from Karen Russell)

1.) Just playing with my new iphone.
That thing is just so awesome. I'm completely enthralled. Loaded some music, a movie, and some pictures on it last night... No Lilo and Stitch, It wasn't available from itunes. Bummer.

2.) Imersing ourselves in Harry Potter...we've already got our movie tix for the 12:01 AM showing of Order of the Phoenix....watched Goblet of Fire on DVD last week. Can't wait, and then there's the final book....
I'm listening to the Half Blood Prince on my ipod to give me a refresher before the new one comes out. Grant of course re-read all of the books (again) in the last 2-3 months so he's going to be ready. Oh, and Grant also got me a book entitled something like "Severus Snape, Friend or Foe" which has some theories by a few people including the sci fi author Orson Scott Card. Really cool.

3.) Diogital Scrapbooking... Taking a new PSE class from Digital Scrapbook Place this month, and I've got a digital/hybrid album class from Big Picture Scrapbooking coming up this month too.

4.)Fireworks.....2 times within the year, I am gloriously reminded of the number one advantage to living in Houston outside of the city...Can't wait.

5.) Hermione month...yes, the little wild and crazy, whippersnapper is back! Dad's gone on and off all month, so Hermione is back at Camp Goodyear. She and Ophelia were chasing each other around the loft and down the catwalk last night at 1 AM. Such energy.

Do you know anyone who got an iphone? Oh WAIT That's ME!

I am the coolest....well, actually, Grant is the coolest, well, he was the coolest before, but regardless....he bought me an iphone!
He swears it isn't just because he felt guilty about washing my cell phone earlier this week.....

After giving it to me, he took me to the apple store (which was open until midnight tonight for the iphone launch) so that I could play with one. Yes, I saw Steve Jobs when he premiered it, and it looked flipping cool, but Steve Jobs makes everything look really freaking cool!
The stuff that you can do with the touch screen is unbelievable!
And, if you're listening to your music through the headphones and you get a call, it will fade your music out and pause it, then you can answer the call, and then it fades your music back in when you're done! How wicked is that?

Oh, and another incentive for Grant to have get me one....it has Google maps, so Grant won't have to be my personal GPS anymore!!
Pictures to come!!!

He's FANTASTIC!

I just have one thing to say about my past 4 days at the Area V Adult Rider eventing Camp.....

I have the Greatest horse EVER!!!!!!!

Ronan showed me that he's really coming into his own now, and just loves jumping. He is like a transformed horse since he had his jumping epiphany on Memorial day.

The camp was taught by Rainey Andrews from VA, and she was extremely good. I just loved her, and I learned so much. I would highly recommend her to anyone of any level of riding. She was very positive, energetic, and did a lot of lecture and theory on everything that she had us do. She was so good at simplifying things and breaking things down....really cool stuff.

Oh, and Ronan, because he was so good, got put into the Novice group, and finally got to jump BIG!
After months and months of little X-rails and small verticals over and over again (Ok...well it's only been since February, but still...I was getting pretty bored.) He finally got to jump some much more interesting and challenging stuff. We did tons of combinations, gymnastic sequences over what were all at least 3' fences, and then lots of wide oxers, narows, and even a huge triple bar..( Believe me, that sucker was WIDE!) No problems what-so-ever. He jumps like it's effortless....well, with him being so huge it probably is, but anyway....

We both learned a lot, and I don't think that I've ever been so proud of one of my horses before.

GO RONAN!

Off to Horse Camp!

Well, Tomorrow, Ronan and I are off to camp. We'll be going to the USEA Area V adult rider's eventing camp with the trainer, Rainey Andrews. She used to be a trainer under Jimmy Wofford, one of the most famous eventers in history.

So, hopefully, it'll be fun and relaxing for me, and good training for Ronan, who I'm afraid will just be hot.

But....in the meantime, I thought I'd leave with this....

Ronan came in first at the Meadow Creek Horse Trials (Event) last weekend.....after an amazing cross country round, and a quiet, relaxed, show jumping round that did not incur any time penalties!

GO RONAN!!!!

He also did a jumpers round for practice the day before the horse trial and came in 2nd! (For going clear and being closest to optimum time.)

Woo-hoo

Ok, so my wonderful husband has ironed out all of the bugs and given my blog a behind the scenes overhaul/makeover. I just wanted to leave a quick post just so that he knows that I'm very happy now!

More updates on life, the vet world, Ronan and other random stuff to come......
Oh! and new pictures of Ronan!

Cheers!

Finally blogging again

Ok, so I'm going to try this again!
I've been so exceptionally busy, and every time I've tried to access my blog, google was having some problems or something. Or my network at work was being wiggy. I've still got some old posts that never published period and I have no idea where they've gone, and some that didn't publish, but at least I have the draft form although without the pictures, so I'll have to fix those, but anyway.....

It's Almost Here!!!

Tomorrow.
Tomorrow at 7AM, Grant, my husband, will be starting his very first marathon.
I can't wait.
This is absolutely the most exciting thing ever!!!
We went to the runner's expo today to pick up his chip. (something he wears on his shoe that allows them to track him, and also to determine his time and speed.)
Wow. I mean WOW!
There's a chance that it's going to be cold and raining tomorrow, but Ophelia and I are ready!
We have at least 2 places that we're planning on watching for him at, and then of course meeting him at the finish line! Woo-hoo.
I just can't believe that we're finally here. Ophelia plans on wearing her Incredibles costume, by the way, and I'm going to be bringing my wellies!