Welcome to the family Breezy ...

Welcome to the family ... Bahama Breeze or "Breezy" as I guess he goes bye. He is a three year old palamino Missouri Fox Trotter. He's much smaller than Dusty was, and MFT's are supposed to be super comfortable for the rider. My parents went to see him last weekend and then called to tell me they got him. I was so excited for my mom and also for me, I really didn't know how I was going to deal with going home to an empty barn. A new horse will bring new memories, and though he'll never replace Dusty in my heart and all the memories we had - I hope to make some new memories and take lots of pictures of our family's newest addition. I just hope he likes two things:
#1. Getting spoiled with lots of treats and #2. Big hugs around the neck ... if he likes both those things then I think he and I will be just fine :)

Can't wait to meet you Breezy ...

Dear Hobby Lobby,

Please put your Christmas wrapping paper 50%.

Thank you,

Your most valued Hobby Lobby Customer

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Happy Halloween!!! Even though I'm "too old" to trick-or-treat anymore (and who ever made that rule was stupid .. there should be no age limit on the enthusiasm of trick or treaters) anyways I still love Halloween. I proudly displayed all of our Halloween decorations on our little tiny stoop and tonight I will hand out candy with my assistants Levi and Safin. We actually didn't carve any pumpkins this year, we were quite busy and also with Levi having to put his whole face into everything we do it probably would of been impossible to keep him from eating pumpkin seeds. I still love the picture above with safin and our pumpkin from last halloween, I think I had to take some turkey out of the fridge to get his attention (typical Safin!). Happy Halloween!! I hope to get my mom's card today in the mail with all her pictures of Breezy, then I'll scan some and upload them on the blog :)

Freezing my butt off ...

What is with this weather!! I remember last year it was mildly warm until at least Thanksgiving. I guess thats why I was hopefull the past week as it got colder that hey it will get warmer ... but no! The 10 day forecast on weather.com tells me differently. Gone are the days of 70's and 80's and now are the days of *hoping* it will get to 60! I hate this weather!! And I hate the people who walk outside and go "isn't this cool fall weather beautiful"... blah ... move to New Hampshire or Maine if you want cool, fall, weather! I want warm! The south is supposed to be warm! One of my many reasons for moving back to Florida is weather, and I have a much stronger case now (during the winter). Levi seems to enjoy it and is extra frisky these days, but maybe thats because he's a wild little puppy. I'm not sure how many winters my thin Florida blood can take. This is winter # 7 for me (counting the years of North Carolina winters too) and I'm hoping this is my last. Weather.com is now a depressing website for me to visit - 30 degrees difference=yuck!

42-30

42-30! They actually won this year! Phil and I enjoyed our first FL-GA game together at home watching the game on TV with Levi and Safin. We even had some awesome Dreamland BBQ for dinner, I went and picked it up at halftime and barely got back for the start of the 3rd quarter. It was such an awesome high scoring game and both teams played really well. I would feel bad for my brother and all his friends who went to the game, but hey I've been there! Georgia only won 1 TIME when we went allll the way there from North Carolina! Here are some pictures of us at the GA-FL game:

At the game ... in our living room

After scoring!!
awww ... this is so cute :)
watching the game ... serious faces
Touchdown!!!
After winning ...Phil was a little excitedBetter Luck next year ...

New Bone!

Well not for me ... for Levi! Mom sent me a coupon for Petsmart and then I got another one in the mail for joining there VIP Rewards program. They were about to expire so I had to go get some stuff. I got Levi 2 bones - 1 the big rawhide pictured and another 2 pack of peanut butter flavored ones. I also got him some peanut butter snacks (he's show a love for Peanut Butter). Then I picked up two pouncer packs for Safin ... my animals are treat-a-holics ... and I spoil them rotten!!! Oh well ... I snapped a few before my camera battery died on me ... time to recharge those batteries for the weekend!!!!

When Phil is away ...

... me and the animals play :) Well not really (he was only at the gym) ... but I don't think Phil would stand for my timed self portraits! haha... at least I have Levi and Safin to join me (forcefully). Levi is almost impossible to pick up with one hand now!! By himself I have to use two hands but then the last picture I thought how about Levi and Safin!! I took these after our walk last night and before they had there dinner so I think thats why they put up with me for 5 minutes of picture snapping!! I wanted to get a good shot of me sporting my new winter jacket (thanks mom!) It's been a lifesaver so far and its even nice to jog in. I can't believe its only October and its so cold! I'm hoping this is just a minor cold front and it will at least warm up a little bit. I don't think I will make it if its this cold until March ...

Levi is getting so big :(

I Love My Scanner

I forgot how much I loved my scanner! It's fast and so easy to use! Once I get in "scanning" mode it really goes by pretty fast. I found some more pictures last night and got scanning away! This one is for mom who is currently painting the barn ... here's a picture of Dusty's old barn that my mom and dad built!!! It survived many hurricanes too!!

Here we are at the field, walking the dogs, horse, and Safin! hahaha...

Halloween is next week!!!! And check out the decorations ... I inherited them for our house!!!!

Smells like the Holidays ...

I love the holidays!!! I think one of the reasons Christmas is my favorite time of year (in Florida where its still warm) is because my mom makes my grandma's incredible blueberry coffee cakes! yum! It was a tradition we started a few years ago when she attempted the recipe, and over the years she has perfected it! I mostly watched and helped sprinkle the sugar and put the decoration on top and my mom would deliver her cakes to her doctors, friends, whoever "deserved" a special coffee cake that year! I even did a search on good and came up with this:

My grandma's/Mom's coffee cake does NOT look like this ... but apparently thats what sub-par coffee cake looks like. Our coffee cake is mostly delicious topping (sugar, flour, CINNAMON, chopped pecans, and butter). I think thats all of them ... but yum ... the topping makes the cake! I can't believe next week is already November! Just thinking about it gives me a mild panic attack that November means December (and Christmas/presents) are approaching fast. It feels like it was just yesterday we had Christmas morning LAST year. 2007 has been quite a year, good things, sad things, bad things ... like most years. As December comes and goes I also can hardly believe its been 13 years since my grandma passed away. I think because I still think about her just about every day thats what keeps her memory alive and why 13 years doesn't feel like 13 years ago. Now what was I talking about ... this post was meant to be about FOOD!!! Christmas always makes me reminise ... what sparked this post was because my friend from work found out that I have not been subject to many pie tastings in my life, apple pie being the sole pie I have tasted. So she baked our department a pecan pie .... YUM! it was awesome! and also made me crave some coffee cake!!! But pecan pie is right up there with a good apple pie ... So here's to you, deliciously sweet and crunchy pecan pie ... thank you for adding an additional 20 minutes to my eliptical workout tonight. hahaha...

More than a memory ...

Thanks to my wonderful husband I am the proud owner of a fabulous scanner. I got it last Christmas when I wanted to make my parents a photo book of some older photo's, plus I thought with all my "spare time" I'd scan every single picture I had to make it digital to protect the pictures. Well someone my spare time became no time and I haven't had a "rainy" day where I've been a scanning machine. My mom asked me to make her a card of Dusty pictures to send out in his remembrance. She did an excellent job if I do say so myself about going through all our old albums and sending me photo's even I had forgotten!!! I think its time for another photo album refresher when I go home again. Anyways the other night I scanned in a bunch of my favorites and was reminded of all the good memories:

Me and Dusty with little Katje

Riding at the ring ...
Pat and his cowboy boots ...
Dusty was always up for a good kiss and a self portrait ...
I can't believe he let me do this, I love this picture ... right after I got my braces off! I think it was mom's idea to compare our teeth ... haha...
After walking the dogs one night ... (Dusty still on neighborhood watch)
Did I really used to jump???
One of my all time favorite Dusty memories ... riding in the Homecoming parade my Senior year. Our class was "monopoly" and we were the horse. Dusty got all dressed up with gator ribbon and glitter. I thought he would be super calm Dusty in the parade but he actually was quite spunky as you can see from his high head and ears up, but it was so much fun and how many people can actually say they rode their horse in a parade before??
Me and mom on dusty ... with Pitha on watch
This may have been one of the 1st Christmas's we dressed him up. Mom got the Santa hat and cut out the ears for him ... and the large bow on his tail. I think this was before our annual Christmas day ride ..

Hanging out in the pen ...

Pat on Dusty, the backyard looks so different now.
Practicing riding in the backyard ... with my bike helmet! haha
Dusty and the dogs ... I forgot how BIG Pitha was!
This is probably my most favorite thing to do ... big hug around his neck!
Mom & I at the ring ... rocking the pink cowboy boots!

Happy Easter!
I think this is one of my favorite jumping pictures, you see how gold dusty was, it shows our lovely jumping arena before they screwed it up, and I'm wearing pink ... also it just shows how high Dusty could jump and I always remember being nervous that it was too high for him!
I love this one too ... me and Pat on dusty with our cowboy boots!
I'll miss you Dusty ... you were the best horse any little girl could have ... and big girl too :)

Weekend Roundup

We started the weekend off Friday night with a fabulous dinner at Stoney River, a great steakhouse down the street from us. We had a gift card left over from our wedding parties and we thought it was a nice time to use it.

Phil and I both had filets and they were amazing as usual. Not to mention the warm rolls with honey butter appetizers that my mouth starts to water about just thinking about them! Also they have delicious mashed potatoes like the ones shown here in a picture from there website. :) I thought about bringing my camera but I didn't want to embarass phil by snapping pictures of our dinner! Our waitress was really nice and brought us a free dessert cake for our "anniversary" ... Its almost 5 months! The cake was maybe the best cake I've ever had, a four layer moist sponge cake with caramel dividing each layer and chocolate fudge gonach on the top and bottom. I pigged out.

The next day Levi and I took a big walk/run so I didn't feel like such an big hippo from the night before! Then we went to the vet for his final shots. He didn't have a good reaction to the rabies shot and had a rough saturday night and sunday morning. After Phil's tennis match we decided to go to a Costume Party thrown by one of his friends from work. We agreed to go with another of Phil's friend from work and his fiance. So Saturday afternoon we searched Target and finally Walmart to get our costumes. We lucked out at Walmart when we found Phil a "convict" costume and had a good laugh about it in the store. After the pitiful woman's costume selection I decided to wear my own black dress and be a cop, so off to the top aisle we went and found a $3 "dress like a cop" kit. Perfect. It had so much stuff in it I really only used about half of the stuff it included, a whistle, a badge, nightstick, and handcuffs. We also got Levi a bandana and he was the honorary marshall for the bust. hahaha... Here are a few we snapped before we left and some at the party. It was a fun Saturday night and a nice relaxing weekend. Boo for Mondays!!!!