The start of my Journal Your Christmas class...

Cover of my album
My Manifesto (day 1)
What Christmas weather is like (day 2).

This is a 2 page layout, with the above and below pages.

Snow snow and more snow!! That's what we had this weekend! In the picture directly above this sentence, you can see the hydraulic boom that Lance is on. He rented this for the weekend in order to make the Christmas light hanging much easier on him. It was pretty cool!

Happy Monday!!

WOW!

That is all I have to say about our Christmas card and photo! I saw the proofs last night and WOW! They are so great. We had a good friend of ours (whose also a very talented photographer) take our picture this year (Thanks Paula!! You rock!). Paula is ~very~ ambitious and skilled so we thought "Why not take pics with both dogs, the horse and us?". At least we didn't attempt the cats too! EEK! Paula is so great with animals. Plus she's very knowledgeable with horses and how a horse should look. We, horse people, are very picky when it comes to how our horses look in photos. All in all, the animals were great. Scout tuckered out at the end but Teddy and Faith stood there with their ears forward the entire time. We had some very interesting candid photo ops in amongst the set-up poses. The nice thing is Paula takes pics of those too. Those are some of the best pics! I can't wait to show you some of them. They actually turned out so well that we are going to do a few other things with the photos. Like wallpaper the house with them!! :) OK, not really but they will adorn many a wall in our house. Paula also custom designed our Christmas card. It is perfect! Many, many thanks to Paula and her talented self! Penny too for the comic relief while taking photos. Penny was doing ballet jumps behind Paula trying to keep the animals attention. Needless to say it worked very well. It was funny as hell too!



Well, this is the weekend before our Christmas Tour of Homes so Lance and I will be decorating and cleaning like mad! We also have my work Christmas party on Saturday which I am partially in charge of hosting/running. Hopefully we won't get too much snow (there's already a Winter Storm Watch as of yesterday in place for Sat!!) and yuck this weekend. Dont' get me wrong, I love snow but only when it's softly falling in big fat flakes. Not pelleting the crap out of you sideways!



There will be lots of pictures of the weekend on Monday so stay tuned!! I'm also taking a Journal Your Christmas class (online) starting tomorrow...December 1!!! I can't wait to get started on that. I can't wait to have some time to scrap and crack open the cricut my mom bought for me on Black Friday!! It's STILL in the box. That's got to be a crime in some states!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!! If you are in the B'ville area, stop by...we'll put you to work...um, I mean...no that's is really what I mean!! ha ha ha
Merry Christmas :^)

Gobble Gobble!!

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving to All!!

Lance and I are off to Maple Grove to spend the holiday with L's parents, brother, SIL & niece. It will be so nice to just relax and not have to cook! Not that I mind cooking, because I actually love to cook but I'm just swamped with all that is going on in our life. MUST.SLOW.DOWN. Here's what the Haugen household looked like this weekend (it still looks like this actually!EEK!)

Lance and his amazing painting/edging ability!! I'm SO glad that he doesn't think I'm a very good edger! I've never been so happy about sucking at something in my entire life!! :^) tee hee hee


So, this is what we go home to tonight but tomorrow through Sunday will be relax! The work can wait:) We're going to the Lion King musical on Saturday night. Lance has never been to a musical so it will be a lot of fun.

Eat lots, drive safe, enjoy family and friends, be THANKFUL! Life is full of blessings, big and small. You just need to recognize them and say "How cool is that?".

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Or at least Happy Holidays for those of you that think it's too early for Christmas. Not me!! We're already decorating for Christmas mainly because our home will be featured in the Holiday Tour of Homes this year but we do love Christmas in the Haugen household. I actually just signed up for a Journal Your Christmas scrapbook class earlier this week. It is to help you slow down and think about the true meaning of Christmas and really enjoy this festive time of year. I'll be posting my LO's for my journal here for all to see. Maybe it will inspire someone else to slow down and reflect on what the holiday and Christmas mean to you and your family. Another reason I wanted to Christmas-ize our house early is because Lance and I really need to slow down and enjoy life. We've been living by the "Work Hard, Play Harder" motto for the last 2 years and it's time to sit back and relax. To enjoy each other, our animals, the dream home we're making, and the fabulous life we lead. We have been truely blessed in our life so we need to enjoy it and not run around like chickens with our heads cut off!
So here are my Christmas resolutions:
1. To slow down and smell the Christmas cookies (eat lots of them too!!)
2. Spend quality relaxing time with my wonderful hubby
3. Go to church every Sunday in December
4. Get together with friends and family without feeling the stress of trying to fit everyone in
5. To take lots of pictures to document the festive time (hopefully with my new camera!!)
6. To stay current and on task with my Christmas Journal

hmmm....what else?? If I come up with more I'll update my list! :)

Happy Thursday!

Velcome to Haugen's Halloween Extravaganza!

Enter if you dare.........

Mr. Scout "The Bubblebee"

&

Teddy "The Wizard"

Yes, I'm one of those pet parents that torture their "kids" with costumes!! I love it:)

What an awesome Halloween it was! We love to decorate for the holiday. The trick or treaters had a blast coming up to our house with the fog and motion sensor lights and screams. We make sure to put the scary and loud items higher so the little kids don't get too freaked out. We only had 2 little kids that wouldn't come up our side walk. Not too bad!

On the Mr. Scout front, he is obviously still hanging in there. He actual seems to be feeling better. He was diagnosed with pancreatitis and put on more meds and prescription moist food. He seems to be handling it pretty well. He gets his last pills this evening so we'll see how he does without the antibiotics. So far so good!

We are finally getting settled back in from our trip out to the AQHA Congress (horse show). We had a blast out there. My horse and I did really well. We didn't make the top 10 but now we know what we have to work on for next year. We also came home with a new truck and trailer (pics of it later!). We found a trailer we absolutely loved and the dealer gave us a great dealer on our trailer. The new trailer is much too big for our old truck so we traded that in too and got a bigger one. They are both awesome and haul beautifully too. Love them!! Lance says they are my 30th birthday present. Fine by me!!!! By the way, I'm not 30 until next March.

Happy November!

Neglectful, I tell you!

That is exacting what I am to this blog! For shame!! BUT, this will all change as soon as we get back from the AQHA Congress in OH. Then I will have lots of spare time on my hands as my horse will be out relaxing for a couple of months and I can get back to life.

I did want to make a quick update for Scout's mom, Mary. Scout is in renal failure but we've been able to manage it pretty well with meds and special food. This weekend he made a turn for the worse. He won't eat (VERY unlike him!), is throwing up all the time, and just doesn't look good. He's very lethargic. Scout is going to see the vet today so I will update this blog when I know more information on his condition. Say a little prayer that he'll pull through this!

HUGE, I tell you!

That is exactly what my post is going to be!! I've got some great stories and pics for you! Great! It will so be ~well~ worth the wait! It will be a Fabulous Friday with a fabulously huge post full of pretty pictures and funny/great stories. It will be a must read, I tell you!!

Wait for it! Wait for it! Only 17.5 hours until the Fabulous Friday post!

See you tomorrow! ~wink~ tee hee hee

Good Monday Morning!

EEK! Is it even allowed to say good and monday in the same sentence? I am having a great morning though! Why, I'm not sure... could it be that it's one day closer to having our new washer and dryer delivered? Am I a complete dork that I'm beyond thrilled to be getting a new washer and dryer?? Yes, probably! I'll post pictures of them tomorrow. I've never been so excited to do laundry in my entire life!!! That's what I will be doing all tomorrow evening:) I'll give you the full washer and dryer update/info tomorrow when I have pictures.
What a great weekend it was! Except for Scout running away...AGAIN!! It seems like every month or so he doesn't like his home and off he goes. Good thing we have great neighbors and he has tags. For being in renal failure and very arthritic, you would think he wouldn't be very likely to run. He can barely move as is. Dang dog!
Other than that, it was great. I got caught up on some sleep, reading my magazines, cleaning, even a little scrapping. Although my scraproom is a distaster (more than usual) from my Mom swiping 2 of my storage units. Gotta watch her every minute!! ha ha ha! Actually I was happy to give them up as I'm going to get the IKEA Expedit shelving unit. I have to wait until the 2nd week in October though as that is when I'll be in Minneapolis (closest IKEA). It'll be worth it though:) Can't wait!!
Well, off to work I go! Make it a great day:)

3rd edition of Whiskers Wednesday!!

I'm off to a 4 day horse show this afternoon plus planning/organizing/scrambling to get lots of things done for our work conference we put on every year. So this will be a photo-packed Whiskers Wednesday sans a story. Not that I don't have plenty but I'm lacking time. Next week will be the same as I won't be near a computer at all on Wed and Thursday. Maybe I'll do WW on Tuesday....We'll see! Enjoy:^)

Uggs "helping" me take pictures! He is my constant shadow, alarm clock, scrapper, dish washer...the list could go on and on! He's always got his paws ready to help!

I absolutely love this picture of Teddy! It is so characteristic of him. "Whatcha doin' now?" Love it!! Mr. Scout is in the background guarding his bone. Teddy's not going to get that one:)
"The Fat One"....just chillin'
Uggs being very wild! I love how his arms are bow-legged!

I totally missed...

Whisker Wednesday! WTH?? I just start a new thing on my blog and I completely spaced it out this week! So I'm going to say TGIF and do a catch-up Whisker Wednesday.

~Whiskers~
So, Lance has been home this week doing a bunch of business stuff (what I have no clue but apparently he's swamped?!). Lance and I go to bed at the same time generally, but when I get up at 5:30am he's still sleeping soundly and doesn't get up until quite a bit later. It's amazing how he's always so wiped out yet he gets way more sleep than I do?? Crap, this is totally turning into a DH vent...EEK...ok, back to the whiskers part. So just this week Teddy has decided that my spot on the bed looks awfully inviting. First of all, we do not allow the dogs on the bed but Teddy knows Lance is a very heavy sleeper. So, I'm assuming, Teddy gently jumps on the bed and then curls up behind Lance and goes to sleep with him. Lance is absolutely certain that Teddy is jumping on the bed to wake him up because I use Teddy as an alarm clock for Lance once in a while. He does a very nice job at waking Lance up and not letting him fall back to sleep. Now, I have not witnessed this event as Teddy waits until I'm gone so he doesn't get into trouble. Not this morning! I'm in the bathroom with the door closed because I like to watch the news as I'm getting ready for work and don't want to disturb Lance's sleep. (Ha ha ha, like that would EVER happen!!) Anyway, I walk out of the bathroom and what do I see?? Ted Ted curled up (so cute) on the bed with his head on MY pillow! Lance was sound asleep but Teddy noticed I was looking at him so he watched me with one eye but didn't move an inch just in case I didn't notice him. He doesn't want to draw any attention to himself, little stinker! So I got dressed and left them to sleep....little rats! I should have grabbed the camera but I was running late so I didn't. It was adorable though! Dang puppy:)

So TGIF again and have a wonderful weekend! I'm heading down to Cannon Falls to work with an awesome trainer that I met at the Regional Experience. I'm looking forward to learning A LOT! Faith and I will be there Sat and Sun.

SOOOOO loving the fall weather!! YAY:)

What day is it??

I always have this problem when it's a holiday week! Not that I mind at all!!!:) That is definitely not the case. I don't have pictures to share yet as we didn't get home until late yesterday evening but we did have an absolutely fabulous time at the Breezy Point Resort in Northern MN. It was so much fun!! I've never been up there before so it was a wonderful new experience for me. We did alot of shopping, some mini-golf (I had 3 hole-in-ones!!YAY me!!), sight seeing, and relaxing. We had great time! The dogs stayed with G&G Haugen, which they love because of all the room to run and the lake to swim in. The dogs ate a little when we got home then slept for the rest of the night! Love love love when the dogs come home from G&G's house!!! They are shot for about 2-3 days after! Nice:)

This is just a quick drive-by post but I will have lots of pictures to share tonight or tomorrow!

Whiskers Wednesday

I'm starting a new trend in my blog. Since we seem to be animal heavy at our house, I thought I'd start Whiskers Wednesday. A whole day dedicated to the antics of our animals. I will make sure it's picture-ful also!! Brilliant...I know! Actually, I can't take all the credit. I swiped the idea from a blog that I love to read that has ~Feline Friday~. I didn't want to be a total copy cat (tee hee hee, Copy Cat!!) so I decided I would have Whiskers Wednesday. Plus this includes all our animals. Furry little suckers that they are!



So, onto the premier debut of ~Whiskers Wednesday~ !!! The first antic will include the magical powers of one Maui Haugen, aka "The Fat One"! As I am letting the dogs out for their pre-bedtime nature call, I'm always watching for lurking black objects behind me. Maui is the king Houdini in our house. He ~loves~ escaping to the outdoors. Since we live in town and have a second cat (Uggs) this is a no-no in our book. We don't want him to get hurt. So back to the story... I'm standing at the door in my jammies (tank and shorts...sans undergarments mind you) I notice the dogs are done doing their business so I open the door to let them back in. Not but a moment later, do I see a flashy of black fuzzy streaking out the patio door meowing the whole time. Now for being a 26 lb cat, you'd think Maui would have a lion's roar...oh no he doesn't. He squeaks! So luckily I have my slippers on as I race off into the night behind him. Maui darts through the bushes by the house weaving and squeaking the whole time. I'm chasing after him saying in a sweet voice (so not to scare him!) exactly what I'm going to do to him when I get a hold of him. "Come here Fat One, so I can paddle your butt." ect. As I'm darting through our landscaping, I hear something. It's our neighbors' friends leaving next door. I can hear, "I think something is in their bushes" followed by "Looks like Kelly. Wonder what she's doing?". "Please don't come over to visit, please don't come over to visit" runs through my head. Oh God, don't look too close or you might get an eye full. EEK!!! Hot on Maui's tail, he darts back to the backyard again. Through the bushes, up and over the patio we go and finally I catch the dang cat. I scoop him up and ruffle him a little as I carry him back to the house. I deposit him into the breakfast nook and he looks at me with a satisfied look of "That was great, we should do it again." Dang cat!

This ends the 1st episode of Whiskers Wednesday!

Monday, Monday....BLAH!

Well, the morning started off bad...DH issues...don't even get me started...GRRRRR!
Things ~have~ progressively gotten better though. Not only have I gotten a bunch of phone calls returned ( I HATE making calls!! Avoid them at all cost!) but I booked our (DH & I) spa session at Panache at Madden's Resort (just north of Brainerd, MN) for this Saturday. Can't wait!! We're doing mani's, pedi's, hot stone massages, and I'm getting a facial. It sounds luxurious! We are going up to Brainerd's Bed & Breakfast, AKA Dennis & Joanne's house, Friday nite. It will be so much fun as I've never seen their place without snow on the ground. They have a gorgeous yard with loads of flower beds and waterfall/stream too. I've only seen it in pictures. I haven't seen them for awhile either so it will be great fun to visit with them. Then we are going to the spa at noon on Saturday. YAY!! Then we will check into our room at the resort (Breezy Point) after 5pm. It's going to be a great relaxing time. Exactly what we need.

I've gotta run...almost done with work (tee hee hee) and need to go ride my horse. I'll give you the weekend report tomorrow. It will be kind of blah though...I took not a single picture this weekend. EEK!! Not like me at all!

Monday Nite Football is on tonite so I'm going to hide in my scraproom and hope the dogs can't find me:) I'm hoping it will keep raining so I don't have to take the dogs for a walk. I'm so lazy! Note to self, must buy dog bones to keep them entertained tonite. Off to Fleet Farm I go...

Barnesville Potato Days

is what we have planned for the weekend. This is my first Potato Days as we had a wedding 2 years ago and last year I had a horse show. B'ville was all a buzz with lots of activity last nite. Can't wait to see what is going on tonight! Also, my Mom and I are having a garage sale tomorrow at her house. Since she's down-sizing to a condo, she needs to get rid of a ton of stuff. Lance and I don't have as much but enough. We're going to take our earnings from the garage sale and put it towards a spa day next weekend while we're up at Breezy Point Resort. Can't wait!! I will post pictures of all the B'ville Potato Days activites on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Working Wednesday....

I need a nap:) It has been a work-filled week and it's only Wed!! It all started with getting called in Sunday nite for 12 hours, sleep for a few, work more Monday nite, sleep for a few, and go back into work Tuesday afternoon. EEK! Our region has been slow this summer with the number of organ donors...I think I may have single-handily turned that around by having 2 donors at the same time!! A ~first~ for our lab and hospital. I'm officially the "donor magnet". I will be proudly wearing a tiara and sash to state that!! For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, I work for a solid organ transplant lab. I love my job and the fact that we help people. We work with people in need of a transplant and with deceased donors. When someone has progressed to brain death (most likely way but there are others too) and there is no possible way they will ever return (they're supported by life support). Either the patient or family has made the choice of organ donation (driver's licence), my lab does all the blood work for this. It's a very challenging, rewarding and at times exhausting job. It's a good feeling to know we have helped in saving up to 13 other lives by 1 tragic event.

OK, now I'm done with my organ donation plug!! I should be on a commerical:) I've got a nice relaxing evening planned after I'm done riding my horse. Hopefully the pager and treo will stay quiet!

Fabulous Friday

Is it ever! It's nice and cool outside...my ideal day! Except I did have to go to work.. Ssshh, don't tell that I'm not doing work-related stuff!! I just ran to one of my lss to check out any of the new paper they might have received after CHA. They did have a few items that were must haves on my list:) I also belong to The Scraproom kit club so I've been trying not to buy anything that is on our fall/winter kit list but so far that hasn't worked so well. We are getting both BG Mellow and Scrapworks Season of Joy...I bought Mellow yesterday and Season of Joy today! Ooops!!!!! Ha ha ha:) One can NEVER have too much paper!! (All the scrap ladies are nodding their heads "yes" right now Lance! It's not just me!)

We've had a crazy week with our transplant picnic (my work) on Tuesday and chix nite at the RedHawks game on Wednesday. Last nite was the first night I had gotten to bed before 10:30pm. Ugh, I'm too old for that! I did finally have time to upload last weekend's pics just in time for this weekend. I'll share... Lance trying to get Teddy ~talked~ into sitting in the trailer of the John Deere tractor that my brother and I use to play with at my grandparent's farm over 20 years ago. Mom saved it for our kids...when we finally decide to have some:) For now, it'll have to be for Teddy and Lance. After Lance got done playing, he said we need to put a bigger seat on the tractor. I tried to explain to him that the tractor was made for kids buns and not his buns!
Teddy growling at Lance (it's his newest thing) and Lance still trying to convince him it'll be fun.
Scout is telling Teddy to run!!
He's still in there...so far!

And they're off!! I love Teddy's fluffy tail sticking out of the back of the wagon! So cute:) Please ignore the messy garage. We've taken the adage of ~if you don't look at it, you won't see it, it won't bother you, you don't have to clean it!!~ at least for now. tee hee hee

"But Dad, you're jack-knifed. See." as they both look down.

Where are we going now?

Can I drive?

These 2 just crack me up. We were laughing so hard and Teddy just rode around in the trailer like it's what every dog does. Too cute!! I can not wait to scrap these pictures!

So that was how we spent our Sunday last week. We're very exciting individuals! Our neighbors probably think we're crazy. Oh and we went shopping for a new microwave because our's died. I can feel your excitement overflowing!

Have a fabulous Friday and great weekend:^)

Poor Lance :^(

I just talked to my poor husband...he fell down the stairs AGAIN!! He's got some carpet and banister rash on his back and is kind of sore. Poor guy! As he's telling me the story, I am trying not to laugh (no I'm not a cold hearted b*tch!!) it's just that this happens ALL the time! And I do mean ALL the time. We live in a 5 level home with lots of stairs but I rarely miss a step. Lance, on the other hand, is sliding down the stairs on his butt or on his face at the landing quite regularly. I hear Lance go thumping down the stairs at least once a week. Not only does this happen all the time but it's also hereditary as Lance's brother (Curtis) falls down the stairs too. I attribute some of it to growing up in a rambler (which will definitely be the next house we buy if I want to see my hubby live to 30!!) but the rest must be due to a Haugen gene. To Lance's defense, he was flying around the house looking for Maui (the blk cat) because the wind blew open the screen door and he wasn't sure if Maui escaped. Maui is our family Houdini! He can open the doors, drawers, cupboards...pretty much anything plus he loves outside but is not allowed out there. He only defense mechanism is to roll over and show you his fluffy belly. Not very frightening, unless he's threatening to jump on he. Ughh, he's fat!
So anyway! Poor Lance:) Hope he feels better soon!

*Weekend update*
We had a great weekend! I have some awesome pictures to share of Lance and Teddy playing together. I'll try to get them uploaded tonight and post tomorrow. So very cute! I'll give the full weekend report tomorrow along with the pics.

It's raining and cool here! Loving this cooler weather!! Come on fall!!!!!
:^)

Callan ~The Water Princess~

Looky looky! I'm early on posting Callan birthday pictures. YAY! These pictures are just a few of my favorites. They make me laugh so hard!! Enjoy:^) Callan drinking the water...much to her parents' dismay!! There was no stopping her though! My absolute favorite picture!! More drinking of the sprinkler/lake water!! What a happy baby!
Again with the drinking!!

Cake remnants!! I love the pink frosting on the nose!
Callan and I! Excuse my crazy tan lines!!
The cake I made for Callan! I absolutely love the way it turned out. This was the first time I've ever used the decorator tips. It was a lot of work but fun to do.
Close up of the cake!
More drinking of the sprinkler water!

Have a great weekend! K

Happy Hump Day!

I still don't have Callan's bday pics on my computer to post. I will (for sure!!) this weekend. I did get Lee's graduation pictures printed and ready to scrap.

A little fun we had...at Lee's expense of course!!This was one of my better ideas I must say!!
Lee & Sam (L's girlfriend)
Lance, Lee and I on a very happy day!! Only 15 years in the waiting! Ha ha ha...OK maybe not that long:)

Not much new to report today. I'm healing pretty well from my mole-wacking surgical procedure (from last week) but still haven't been able to do several things like ride. Faith isn't minding the break but I'm hoping it will end soon.

Lance is working today but is going fishing tonight with Mike (chix nite friend, Jill's, hubby) so they will have a blast. Mike just got back from 2 years in Iraq so we're thrilled to have him back safe and sound. Hope they have fun!!

Have a great day:)

Happy Friday!

Good morning all! How is everyone? It's been a rough week here. First of all big huge hugs to all the MN families affected by the bridge collapse. It's so tragic. My difficulties are very tiny and minor compared to that horrific event. I had a quarter-sized mole cut out of my back (between my shoulder blades) on Tuesday. My family practice Dr. and derm Dr. didn't like the way it looked eventhough the biopsy came back normal. Plus it keeps growing so they want it removed. I didn't realized the pain and recovery time for something like this as I've never had anything like this done. EEK! Let me just same, I definitely don't want it done again. Lance has been great! He is totally taking care of me. I can't move my arms above my shoulders or head so he's done my hair for me (it was really cute too!!), done everything at the barn and house, helped me get dressed, lotioned my legs...pretty much everything! He's a wonderful man! I think he's ready to get me functional again though. I ~do~ wonder how long I can keep things this way??? For sure until my stitches are out (8-15)!! tee hee hee

I was able to do a little scrapping last nite. It takes me so long right now because I can't reach anything so I have to get up to get everything instead of twisting again and reaching for it. I did do one of my absolute favorite LO's yet! It's is a Vegas picture using one of my Scraproom kits (S.E.I. citruskick). Love it!! I will post it as soon as I take it's picture tonight. I going to research a scanner/printer today and hopefully purchase one tonight.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Mine will be very low-key as I'm still pretty helpless! At least I can scrap!!!

People... I don't have time to deal w/ you right now...

I ~must~ read Harry Potter! I can not be bothered with such things as work, bills, deadlines, ect. Can't you see that I'm trying to read? tee hee hee

I'm rereading the 6th book in order to refresh my memory since it's been over a year since I last read "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". I am no where near the end...heck I haven't even reached the middle! My mom and co-worker have both finished the 7th and final book but neither will answer my questions (not that I want to know everything, but a tidbit here and there wouldn't hurt!!) but neither of them will say a word. On one hand, I appreciate it but on the other it's almost painful! :^) Such problems to have!! ha ha ha!

Expect a big update (w/ pics) from Callan's 1st bday party tomorrow!! I need to upload & edited pics tonight. Was too tired last nite from all the festivites and a crazy fun weekend. Oh, what fun the party was:) Perfect day for it too! More tomorrow:)

How is it Thursday already??

It's been an absolutely crazy week and a half! It's been filled with huge ups!! (No downs! YAY!) My mom and I went to the AQHA Regional Experience in St. Paul last Wednesday at the crack of dawn....yawn...it was so hot and humid as we unloaded Faith and all the horse stuff. Ick! The rest of the week was absolutely perfect! It was barely 80 degrees the rest of the week. Nice and cool...just the way I like it:^) The Regional Experience was great! I was Reserve Champion in Novice Amateur Showmanship (out of 40) and 5th in Amateur Showmanship (out of 30)!!! I was top 10 in everything else (including trail!!!) except for HUS and that class we made the finals and ended up 14th. Not too bad for a short fat halter horse!! Lance met us there on Thursday and said this was his favorite show. I have to agree with him! So far, at least! It was like a mini Congress. We will definitely be going back next year!

It has been crazy hot and humid here. I do not do hot unless it's in my bikini, on a beach, with a lounge chair, corona, and a cabana boy!! Then this weather is perfect but not while I have to work, ride, unload the trailer, ect. Today is suppose to cool off slightly so I'm going to ride Faith after work (she's had 2 of the last 3 days off) and pray that it's not too hot in the barn and arena. Is it fall yet??????? Soon hopefully!! I need to get some cleaning done too...must put down the scrapbook stuff...don't want too....must clean the house....don't want too!!! ha ha ha!

Have a great Thursday!
Kelly

Happy Friday!!

At least it is for me!! Actually it's only Tuesday but I am off for the rest of the week so YAY! Faith and I are going to the Regional Experience horse show in St. Paul, MN for 5 days. My mom is coming with me and Lance will meet us there as soon as he's done working in Mason City, IA. This is my first time to a Regional Experience so I'm excited to try it out. It's also my first time showing in St. Paul at the fair grounds. It's suppose to be painfully hot this weekend though....ugh....is it fall yet? Oh well!

The puppies are going to G&G Haugen's while we are gone. They absolutely love it out there! Lot's of room to run and play plus they love to swim in the lake. I'm sure they will come home very tired!

Well, I'm heading off to the barn to work Faith then wash and band her. We're leaving at ~O' dark thirty~ tomorrow so I' want to get everything ready to go early so I can get to good sleep.

I'll be back Sunday evening so I'll be updating this on Monday:^)

Have a great week!
Kel

Finally Friday!!! Even if it's Friday the 13th! EEK!!!

Actually Friday the 13th doesn't bother me at all. It's just another happy friday to me! I've had a busy week. Fun but busy! I had another awesome ride on Faith yesterday. Chris and I rode together and the Moms came to watch and harass us. We then went to Chris's house to give Rosie (her other horse) a shot and change. We visited with Jeff (her hubby) and Miss Quinn (daughter) for awhile and then went out to eat. The food was awesome (Texas Roadhouse) even if the waiter was giving us the ~How you doin'?~ look (Joey from Friends) the whole time. He was cute though...kind of a Jake Gyllanhaul (sp??) look-alike. So, I didn't get home until after 10pm, then had to deal with the dogs and house crap and finally crashed at 11:30-ish. Too late for me!!! Especially since I'm up at 5:15am for work! Ugh....

So...what's on the agenda for the weekend?? Well, I'm riding, getting my nails done, maybe some shopping, cleaning the house, scrapping, cleaning and loading the horse trailer for my show next week, ..... hmmm....that list doesn't leave a whole lot of lounge around time. Maybe next week! Oh, I'm on call too! Go go go!! That's how it is with us:^)

Well, I'm totally rambling and it's 10 minutes to 4pm so I am going to consider my weekend officially here!!!! YAY!!!!!

Enjoy your weekend and I'll blog on Monday!
Kel

Not done yet...

but will be soon. Yesterday was just too gorgeous to sit inside and work on the computer. Once I did get inside I had to work on making Callan's 1st bday card. She'll be 1 this Saturday!! Wow, how time flies!
Last night, as I was driving home from the barn, I saw the most beautiful rainbow in the sky. It was so close to the ground. I was taking pictures with my cell phone like crazy! I know...not very safe but the pics are great. Once I figure out how to move the pics from my celly to the computer, I'll post them. Today is another gorgeous day outside...feels like fall! My favorite time of year:^)
Speaking of last night, I had one of the most amazing rides on Faith. She was going along so nice. I think she is finally feeling great again. She has been sore in the back and shoulders from working so hard this spring. I had her massaged and the chiropractor adjusted her. It's made a world of difference! YAY!!! Hopefully the show next week will be successful.
I have a couple of new adventures/projects (scrap-related) in the works so I need to work on those tonight after my appointment. I'll update you with those and hopefully pictures of what I'm working on tomorrow.
hugs,Kelly

O*M*G

I love this new site! SO SO SO much easier to use than the ~other~ one. I am here to stay!

So...I have been a horrible blogger but this will change. That can be my summer resolution! I really enjoy blogging but that other site was NOT very user friendly. This is much better.

OK...now for the recap of our life for the last couple of weeks. We'll start with July 4th. Lance and I and a bunch of friends went tubing down the Ottertail River. What a blast! There were so many people there. We had to wait in line for 45 minutes before we even got our tubes. I have never, ever waited in line there. It was so worth it. When we got off the river, around 5-6pm-ish, there was a line longer than the one we had to stand in. EEK! Then we ran to my mom's house to visit for a while and then on to Lake Floyd to visit Lance's side of the family at the Olson reunion. By the time we got home, we were wiped out. We didn't go watch fireworks because our neighbors (about 2 blocks away) lined their whole side of the street with fireworks. What a show!! So we sat on our driveway and watched those. Teddy was going nuts. He hates fireworks but Scout didn't care at all. He just went to sleep.

All the kids are doing great! Scout is still shedding like no tomorrow. I think he's going to shed until the day the snow flies. EEK!! Our vacuum has been working overtime for sure. We found some lumps on Scout's leg and chest. He's going to the vet in 2 weeks to get them checked out. The vet tech that Lance talked to said the locations were odd and didn't like the way they sounded. Hopefully he will be fine. He's a big, strong dog who's health has done nothing but improve since we've had him. Between the daily walks of about 35-45 minutes and the glucosamine pills, Scout is looking great. He's been really good for my weight loss too! :^)

Lance is on the road again. He left this morning for his big SD and IA trip. He'll meet me in St.Paul at my horse show next week. I'm planning on getting a lot of cleaning and organizing done. We need to make up for all the playing and not working at home we've been doing. It's been fun though!

Well, I need to go ride my horse. It's a beautiful, cool day (~70 degrees) so I am in 7th heaven. There is nothing I like more than to ride when it's cool out.
I'll write more tomorrow. K

Hmmmm....

Testing 1,2,3.... :^)

I'm testing out a new blog spot....must play with it a little more before I fully commit to switching over to this site.

More later,
Kelly