My Bucket List

Lisa and Rick went to see The Bucket List this weekend and then she posted her "Bucket List" on her blog and I thought it was neat so therefore, I'm doing the same! :)

My Bucket List

1. To see Katie grow up and start a career with animals.
2. Compete with Belle in open competitions or be on a mounted drill team.
3. To get to my goal weight and wear a size 8.
4. Learn how to snow ski (other than going down the mountain saying "whoa, whoa!!!")
5. Learn how to water ski.
6. Own a farm or ranch with a six stall barn and an covered riding arena.
7. Travel to Cape Town, South Africa.
8. Travel to Switzerland and Austria.
9. Have a two-week vacation in Hawaii.
10.Celebrate my 60th wedding anniversary...43 years from now.

That's the top ten - I guess! I'm sure there are many, many other things that will be added in the future.

Everyone has to have dreams! They are a MUST! But, if (God Forbid) I were to find out tomorrow that I had limited time left on this earth - I would not regret anything! I do love my life and I'm so blessed and happy!

LA :)

Snow Is Now A Four Letter Word To Me

Katie was so disappointed this week when we had the weather forecast Wednesday night of 1-3" of snow and the PTA even canceled their Thursday morning meeting in anticipation of the schools being closed because of the certain snowfall... NADA! We got rain! As usual!

Katie is EIGHT and she's never gotten to build a snowball or go down a hill on a sled! She hasn't even experienced having a snow day and playing with her friends in the snow and then warming up to hot chocolate afterwards!! *sigh*

Outside of the botched weather forecast - we haven't had the best of weeks. Katie finished up her auditory processing evaluation(s) that she has been having since October 2007. She failed. Turns out Katie never had hearing loss. Mild loss in the left ear. Never did she have severe to profound loss in the right. Never! She has an auditory processing disorder. Which now means another diagnosis. She will now add a neurologist to her team of doctors. And many more hours of therapy...

The good news is - she will finally be getting that MRI that I have been pleading with doctors for her to have since she was FOUR!

Lesson learned for me this week - I thought I was being an aggressive and thorough advocate for Katie with her health and medical care... turns out I need to listen to my gut and be much more aggressive and insist when I feel things "aren't right"!

So back to the snow... we thought "it's been a tough week... let's get out of town for the day"! So we did! We headed to Sugar Mountain in Banner Elk, NC. We picked Katie up from school early and headed to the mountains. Our goal was to make a 2pm snow tubing session. We got there at 1:15pm. Plenty of time, right!?

Wrong! We had to change into our snow bibs and boots. Sugar Mountain has gone down hill drastically since the last time I was there. It was dirty and old... Katie and I had a really hard time changing in our little bathroom stall - the floor was wet and dirty, there were two of us with our big bulky snow clothes and boots - I can't even imagine having done that a year ago - never would have worked... in a month or so, when I look back, it will probably make me laugh - but not today!

So we get changed, we get down to the tubing area and get in a very long line. At 2:05 - we are third in line and they announce that it's sold out!

*argghhh!!!!!*

So we headed home. We came home through the Linville Gorge and at least it was a very pretty drive! Frozen lakes, snow covered farms... but no snowball fights or snowmen!

So, it's official! I give up on snow! I lived in Washington DC for numerous years and never really experienced "a big snow". Now they have them all the time. I grew up in Charlotte NC and never really experienced "a big snow"! Now they get 6" snow falls all the time. Knoxville use to get big snow falls - not anymore! I could move to Alaska and the artic thaw would occur! All the snow would go away!

Tomorrow is a new day!

Please keep Katie in your prayers! She's the hardest working 8 year-old ever! I don't want her to have anything else lumped on her to struggle with! Enough for one little girl already!!

LA

This is what I'm talking about

So today was the best day we'd had at the farm in weeks. Partly due to the crazy busyness of the holidays and partly due to how crummy the weather has been. Our guys were very happy to see us. After we tried to get them groomed and cleaned up - that was a tough job - they were sooooo dirty... Don wanted to run them both in the arena - together. We've never done that.

But, they did great! I think us riding them together has actually started helping them form a friendship - as much as horses can be friends.

Belle has had her buddies since coming to the farm. Fudge, a pretty paint mare, has been a consistent buddy to her. However; Sunny has never really had "buddies". Sunny is a BOSS mare and she dances to her own tune. But, she has really started to accept Belle.

If we are in the pasture with Sunny and any horse other than Belle comes close to us, Sunny's ears go flat against her head and she lets them know in no uncertain terms to SCRAM!! But, she doesn't do that with Belle anymore.

We are still cautious when we have them together - because horses are so unpredictible but they really are doing well together.

I always love watching Don run Sunny in the arena because she responds to him solely on his voice commands and when he's done - he can just pat on his chest and say "OK, Sunny, come on" and she turns in and comes right to him. It was awesome today him running both of them!!

Katie of course, was totally in her element. She spent some great time with Belle today. Belle was even enjoying a lot of attention from Katie. It was the first time they've really connected and started enjoying being around each other. Katie can tend to still have eratic movements and Sunny never flinches but Belle, since she is still so young, will fling her head back with big eyes... but not today! And, it wouldn't be a visit to the farm with Katie if she didn't spend time with Oreo and Coyte - the cats and Belle - the Great Pyrenees watch dog.

Oh, Gremlin, the rooster that doesn't like Don and hides to try and attack him - made a run at Katie today! I think he finally associated Katie with Don and that was bad news! Dog gone that rooster!! I think he's the only animal we've ever met that we don't like.

Other than that - it was a great day!

LA :)

Happy 2008!!!

I know this sounds ridiculous, but 8 is my favorite number so I am excited to be starting 2008! I know... I'm quirky!

I'm excited to be starting a new year! Like the rest of the masses, I do have some resolutions for 2008. And in keeping with my lucky and favorite number 8 - I have (surprise...) EIGHT NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS...

#1 - Continue to focus on my improved health situation! That is definitely #1. If I don't take care of myself, I can't take care of anyone else and I have to remind myself of that daily. I'm going to continue to take one day at a time and hope that those numbers continue downward.

#2 - Exercise daily - except for Sunday - at least 45 minutes daily. I'm making a committment to try and stick with the plan of getting up at 6am and exercising before any roadblocks or distractions enter the day and sidetrack me.

#3 - To be a more affectionate and loving wife and a more patient mother! Patience has never been my strongest quality and it's something I struggle with daily with Katie. It has been much better in 2007 and I'm hoping it continues. Don is so wonderful and loving and I need to be more reciprocal instead of letting "life's stressers" bog me down.

#4 - To spend more time at the farm. To take Katie to the farm at least twice a week. To ride more. To do more ground work with Belle. Again, I just can't say enough the emotional benefit that Katie and I get from being with horses.

#5 - To be more organized with my eBay business, more efficient and productive. To be more organized with my bookkeeping clients, more efficient and productive. Basically - I need to be more organized and efficient.

#6 - To visit family more. We have several family trips planned for just Don, Katie and I - but I would also like to try and spend more time with family this year. Katie enjoyed Christmas so much with Dad and Marilyn and then she loved our trip to North Carolina... MORE TIME WITH FAMILY!!

#7 - To take time to spend on my photography and scrapbooking! Unless I took a class in 2007 or was at CKU with Lisa, I didn't accomplish any completed project... even then I didn't finish everything at CKU. *sigh*

#8 - To be a better cook and to get Katie more involved in helping in the kitchen. She loves being in the kitchen and she tends to eat healthier when she is involved.

I guess that's it! That's enough, huh?

I hope everyone is off to a wonderful start to 2008!

LA :)

What A Way To End An Amazing Year

It was a great weekend visiting family!! Katie and I had a wonderful trip! She stayed healthy!! YAY! It seems like she gets sick so much when we go to North Carolina... I'm almost thinking that she might be allergic to something in the hotel that we stay in when Don makes the trip with us... when it's the three of us we usually stay in a hotel because there just isn't enough room at Mom & MomMom's. When it was just MomMom, Katie, Mom and I - it was like a "girls weekend" - four generations!! We had a lot of laughter!! Katie is already missing them and looking forward to our next visit!!

Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Linda are always just so wonderful to Katie. They are almost like another set of grandparents. A child can never have too many people loving them, right?!!

Aunt Linda had a really hard time this Christmas after Sarah and Jacob being here this summer - it just seemed to be a little harder during the holidays. I so understand that because I miss them desperately too... and I'm just a cousin/aunt. So, I think it was good for her to spend some time with Katie too! They both seemed to enjoy each other!

We went to the library on Friday and Katie got like 30 books. The coolest librarian EVER, Mr. George, helped Mom and I find great animal books for Katie. He was a young african-american guy with a 10-month old daughter! He loves working in the kids section and Katie thought he was really cool!

What she thought was even MORE cool was Aunt Linda's story telling! She is the BEST!! She should have her own PBS show or something!

I have to get some pictures of Mom and I. It's either her or I always behind the lens so we rarely get pictures together! Don is going to take some when we go over the first of February!

Better go spend some time with Don! It's our SIXTEENTH wedding anniversary tonight! Isn't that crazy!? I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband! So blessed to have a wonderful family and great friends! So blessed to have this wonderful life!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Love,
LA :)

Having Fun In North Carolina

Katie and I left Knoxville on Thursday afternoon to head to North Carolina. We had such a fun trip over. I had told her that we could listen to Christmas music on the way over since we hadn't celebrated Christmas with our family in NC yet but then no more Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving next year. We sang our hearts out on the way over!! Traffic was horrible - thank goodness for the GPS because we escaped interstate craziness several times for the saner backroads.

When we got to Mom and MomMom's - Aunt Linda, Uncle Ronnie, Uncle Jim, Aunt Rima and Ronnie were all here (and of course, so were Mom and MomMom). Katie hadn't seen Uncle Jim and Aunt Rima in several years and she was use to getting to my moms and it being quiet and people showing up later. Everyone was in the kitchen, a small kitchen, and Katie was like "wow, so many people it's making me dizzy..."

Uncle Jim and Aunt Rima gave her a stable set with a horse that resembles Sunny a little. She was very excited but so cute!! Ronnie started putting it together for her and like a true Hulen (must be where I get it...) he dove into assembling it without the instructions. Well, he started having problems. Katie realized this and went and got the box with the picture and brought it to him and said "Here, this might help you". He continued to have difficulty with the doors and roof and Katie went and got the instructions and gave them to Ronnie and said "I think you need these". Katie actually helped him figure out the doors and roof. He was pretty blown away!

Katie was WOUND up and of course didn't fall asleep until close to midnight and again, of course, she sprang out of bed at 7am. So, she was a little tired and cranky today but we still had a great day!

Funny story - Katie when she goes over to Cassie and Alex's house... she gets upset when they squabble... especially if they squabble with their little brother Malachi. The family has told me that Katie will try to tell everyone to get along and she's even broke down in tears a few times when they wont stop arguing.

Well, on the trip over, I was trying to explain to Katie who Uncle Jim was since she hadn't seen him in so long. I was telling her that Uncle Jim was Grandmom's brother just like Uncle Ronnie was... that they all three grew up together. She sat in silence for a minute or so and then she said "Mom, you don't think they are gonna squabble do you?" I knew exactly what she was thinking... comparing them to the Rhyne's and I said "Nope - they play nicely with each other's toys now that they are all grown up". She said "Good!"


Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Linda came back over this morning. I love seeing Aunt Linda and Katie together! They just adore each other and always have so much fun! Aunt Linda always knows just the thing to do with Katie or just the thing to get for her! Uncle Ronnie always just enjoys watching Katie. Aunt Linda and Katie definitely have one big thing in common... missing Sarah! When Katie saw Sarah's picture in the guest room beside her picture, she picked it up and gave Sarah a kiss and said "I'm sure missing you!"

They gave Katie a Disney Princess Tent Set! She LOVES it! I thought she was going to sleep in it tonight but she decided the floor was too hard. She moved all her animals into it - her ipod, DVD player, books... there was barely any room for her - let alone me when she convinced me to climb in with her. She helped Uncle Ronnie put it together and again - she picked up on something that he and I missed when we were getting it assembled! But, to our credit - there were no instructions! :)

Katie discovered her new favorite dessert today. Chocolate Peppermint cake!! Also, she loves MomMom's deviled egg sandwiches! Ever since Lisa fixed deviled eggs at Thanksgiving - Katie wants them like every other day! Well, MomMom had fixed egg salad... but Katie wanted nothing to do with egg "salad" so I changed what I was calling it to "deviled egg" sandwiches and she ate one and a half for lunch and two for dinner! Kids! It's all about the psychology!

We got MomMom's iMac set up tonight! It has the 24" monitor and I set the display for the larger font, increased the font settings in all her programs and SHE CAN SEE! YAY! She was in tears - happy tears but tears!!! She's been having so much fun with Mom on their eBay store, we had to fix it so she could continue... so Don and I went in together with Mom to get it for her for Christmas! PLUS, now she can video conference with Katie and I which she is going to LOVE! She loved chatting with Don tonight! I don't know who is more excited, MomMom with the new computer or Don, now that he has another MAC convert...

LA :)

Christmas Is Over...

...but boy was it great!! We had a great Christmas - actually I believe it was the best in several years. We spent Christmas eve with Gran, Dad and Marilyn. We had a little bit of a catastrophe - a pretty major plumbing problem that we are dealing with today - but we didn't let it ruin Christmas. I was proud of Don and I... especially me... since I have such a tendency to worry and plan for "worst case"... we just realized that it was Christmas Eve and there was nothing that could be done and worrying about it wasn't going to change the outcome. So, hopefully, the plumber will show up today and it wont be as major as we thinking it could be.

Katie seeing Santa at the mall on December 23rd was perfect because she remembered exactly what she'd asked him for and when she got up Christmas morning - she was so happy. It was the best Christmas yet with Katie as far as her handling opening several gifts and not just plowing through them... unemotionally. She wanted to know specifics about each thing and was excited.

I got her a pink fuzzy blanket shawl and it has this inside packet of lavendar bead filling that you can heat in the microwave and then it's suppose to be soothing to wrap up in. When I told her how it works.... she said "that is so impressive..." and that's when I got this shot... how fun!!!



The morning started off with Katie coming to me and she was so excited and she said "I think Santa guessed all on his own that I love horses and unicorns and he brought me a BIG white horse coming out of a box...."



We took turn opening our presents and this is the first year that she was interested in what Don and I also got. We had a great morning! Then we fixed pancakes with heart smart bisquick, turkey sausage and Cary's sugar free syrup. I only had one pancake and one piece of sausage with a glass of milk but it was still a lot of carbs compared to my normal breakfast... NAP TIME!

Gran, Dad and Marilyn rejoined us at 2pm and we had a great rest of the day! We had a lot of laughter and just fun talking! It was the most enjoyable time we've had with Gran in a year... so that was nice.

Katie was determined to give Grandpa a new look. He wasn't too cooperative. He's a great grandpa except when it comes to messing with his hair...lol!



Katie entertained us for an hour with a fashion show using all the things that came in her dress up trunk. She loved it!! She also put on a show using her Hannah Montana microphone. She also got the Hannah Montana Spotlight Tour for Wii - we just haven't had a chance to play with it yet. I'm sure her friends are going to love that gift as well!!!

Tomorrow I head to work and then Katie and I head to North Carolina. Mom, Don, Katie and I went in together on a very special gift for MomMom that I am so excited to help her get up and going! MomMom is so excited!

Tomorrow is my surgiversary! Yikes - I don't even want to weigh. But, thank goodness the holiday food focused season is almost over!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I'm sure we are all off to have a wonderful start to 2008.

LA :)

Tom