What a Wonderful Day!

Today started off with tea with my favorite ladies...Thea, Tami, Michelle and Thea's mother Julie. The theme at the tea house was Gone with the Wind. It was great fun filled with southern charm, southern food and a few gals wearing curtains. Lol! Afterwards, I went out to Thea's to spend a nice afternoon visit. Thea has two of the most adorable and the most spoiled labs I know. Zeus and Cosmo. They played in the pool. We could have thrown that ball in the pool all day and they STILL would not have gotten tired. :)

Zeus trying to figure out a way to get the ball without having to completely go in. Lol!

Zeus and Cosmo...best friends and always sticking together!

Thea has the most beautiful water features at her home. Thea and her husband designed their own home and live on the top of a mountain in Washington. Oh you should see the views!

I'm not sure if I told you, Thea has quite the zoo. You think I love animals? She is probably more of an animal lover than I am (bless her)! She has two Labs, 3 macaws, 3 parrots, various love birds and parakeets, a thousand finches outside her home who love visiting the three feeders she has outside, a ferret and last but not least a pet sparrow named Lu Lu. I will tell you that story very soon. I know I mentioned it before. More of those pictures to come. I certainly get my fill of animals there!! I am their Aunt of course. :)

Hope you're all having a great weekend. I am going to relax and visit you all now! I have been so behind on my visits and I want to apologize!!

I'm pooped....

After this tonight...

Gunner rolling a little after the lesson...

Gunner and Janey meet. My best friend Susan came by to watch my lesson and brought her sweet Cairn Terrier, Janey with her and she made a new friend. :)

Also, was extremely hot so don't copy me and not ride without a helmet. We took it easy tonight...but STILL. Do as I say, not as I do. :)

Resting up! See you tomorrow.

Ooh, la, la.....and another award!!

So....I neglected to mention one thing about last night. When Thea and I were walking around downtown, before the show, something caught our eyes as we turned a corner. My eyes grew big...I gasped! Thea tried holding onto me but the magnetic force picked my feet right up, pulling me its direction! I held onto Thea's purse.....trying not to let it suck me in....I grabbed her hair, her neck, anything! She screamed (from me hurting her) and she yelled, JUST LET IT SUCK YOU IN! I can't afford to lose any hair, LET GO! Lol! You guessed it...ANTHROPOLOGIE! It was the biggest one I had ever seen. It was like when Dorothy, saw the Emerald City...

I began running, skipping, whatever you wanna call it and hummed as I skipped along. Thea was right on my tail. And THIS is what came out of that little experience. :)

This is actually the back....don't you just love that sweet bow?

It's a bit wrinkled from being in the little bag but I was just too tired to iron before taking pictures. I have no patience whatsoever. Lol!

Adorable, huh? I couldn't resist. I try to avoid Anthropologie because of the prices...but I have to treat myself every now and then, right? And as they packaged it up for me I clicked my heels three times and said....there's no place like home. *sigh*

Also! AWARD ALERT!!

Sweet Lola and Nora awarded me the The Lemon Stand Award! We are new bloggers to each other and she and Lola have the most entertaining blog called the Johnson Diaries: Life on the Edge. Don't you love the name? If you haven't visited her blog yet, I suggest you do. Lola is the CUTEST PUPPY ever! She was a little sick recently so maybe even if you go by and send them good thoughts they would so appreciate it. THANK YOU LOLA AND NORA!!!!

I'm leaving this award to all who leave a comment on this post. Please, please pick this up! You all deserve the award. I feel bad when I have to pick only so many names.

Until tomorrow....

Crazy Enough

And after seeing Storm Large perform a monologue mixed with her incredible singing...I don't feel so crazy anymore! Lol! My dear friend, Thea and I went to go see the play Crazy Enough. I was thoroughly impressed!! Storm Large (and that's her real name if you can believe that) is so talented. It's actually kind of hard to explain but it was basically a stand up monologue mixed with songs she wrote herself. The monologue is about her "crazy" life and how her mother's mental illness affected her in both positive and negative ways and in the end.....she realized life is, indeed, CRAZY..but it's also all in how you decide to write your life based on what's handed to you. Great lesson, although it sounded like a rough life for her BUT in the end, here she is. She's incredibly talented, on stage, making appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres show and using the talents that were given to her. All this amidst the discovery that mental illness runs in her family and amidst the death of her mother just a few years ago and how she came to terms with that. WOW. It was emotional to say the least and extremely funny and the same time!

Here's a snippet I found on YouTube of her doing her rendition of the song by Olivia Newton John, Hopelessly Devoted to You (the stalker version she calls it). It shows the comedic side of her. Lol! Don't forget to turn off my player below!

And now.....I am grounded for the rest of the week!! I need home and down time for awhile. :) See, even Quincy is demonstrating how I feel. :)

Oh okay, maybe a short horse riding lesson. Nah. We'll take a break. I don't want Mr. "Funk" to come knocking at my door. :)

Saturday's Horse Ride at Sheep Springs

Okay guys here are a few pics from Saturday's horse ride. It was SUCH a beautiful day for a long ride. Only a few iffy moments. Ari got bit on the face by something and he sort of went out of control but he calmed down after awhile. Can't blame the poor guy. Then Magic wouldn't jump or cross a small creek so Debbie had to get off and try to pull him across. Well, while she was in front of him pulling...he decided to jump! He knocked her down and stepped on her hand but she's doing good. Just a bruised hand. Magic is still a little green on the trails. :) He didn't take off though. He stood right above her as she got up. I think he wanted to make sure she was okay. :) He definitely is a mindful young guy! Oh yea and a flat tire on the trailer when we came back. Here's the funny thing. I told the girls maybe a man will come by and help us. Well wouldn't you know, this couple came walking up the road and offered to help. Well okay, the husband of this sweet, sweet couple did all the work. We couldn't thank them enough!

Getting ready for the ride!

Diane and Lappy. Okay, get this. Lappy is a 24 year old mare and she outdid (is that a word?) both our young guys! It was hard keeping up with her.

Drink up doggies...it's gonna be a long ride! They did so well too. :)

The trails were narrow...

Are you jealous now? Look at this beautiful waterfall along the way. University Falls is the name of this waterfall. Notice I'm trying to be Vanna White. Lol!

Walking back home...

With a few drinks. Lol!

Me and Ari. Notice Ari has food in his mouth. OF COURSE! He's with me. Lol!

Trying to crack a smile...but I'm so tirrrred. :) Annnd of course Ari with more food in his mouth. A man after my own heart. Lol!

All in all it was a perfect day. :)

Keke over at In My Sepia Studio has tagged me so I'm going to play along with this one! If you haven't visited Keke..she has the most whimsically, amazing blog. She really is a creative soul! Both her and her husband are, in fact! Swing on over and visit if you get the chance. :)

The deal is that I have to tell you TEN THINGS about me that you may not know and then tag TEN other's to do the same-

Here goes..

1. I don't like to watch the news too much because it depresses me. I'll go onto CNN to take quick look at headlines and see if it's going to be sunny that day. :)

2. I was the black sheep in my family. :)

3. I'm originally from Southern California, Orange County.

4. My favorite food are french fries.

5. I went to Germany and stayed in a castle on The Rhine for my honeymoon. Too bad the marriage didn't last. ;)

6. I was once a dog groomer for our family owned pet grooming business.

7. I skipped school once with my girlfriend to go ride horses. See, black sheep. I subsequently got terribly scolded for that. Lol!

8. I have Mitral Valve Prolapse.

9. I used to manage a Crabtree and Evelyn and proclaimed that was my favorite job, ever, because I came home smelling clean every night!

10. I saved a stray cat from being attacked by dogs (that were loose in a neighborhood). Literally, saw the cat running, grabbed it and threw it in the house....and the cat never left. Lol!

That was fun! If you want to play along I'm leaving this one to all who follow me!

Last but not least, it was a busy day at the shelter. I was so happy because I was able to hold that little Ewok of a kitten before she left. She is up for adoption this weekend and she has seven people in line but NOT before I could hold and cuddle her. She was so happy to finally be held...she purrred the instant I held her and she nuzzled her face into my neck as if she couldn't get close enough. I LOVE THAT! I know she will go to a good home. :)

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

After a five hour trail ride in the mountains yesterday, I slept ten hours and am up having a simple breakfast. :) Off to the cat shelter in a few!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! More later!

A Day at the Country Classics...

It turned out to be a perfect day! The weather was just right, although my feet got burned from wearing flip flops. LOL! I forgot to take a picture of our food. Sorry guys...was too busy enjoying and taking a picture of the horses. Needless to say, the chicken salad, watermelon, cantaloupe, mushrooms, double chocolate brownies and iced tea were WONDERFUL! And the horses and riders were amazing! There were only two falls when the horses refused to jump during a run. No injuries. Just frustrated riders. Checkout these shots I got!

Beautiful statue...

Warming up...

And the jumping begins...

My girlfriend Susan got this shot. Great, huh?

Some canine spectators....I swear if those ears started flapping this little guy might have taken off. LOL!

A long day for these guys...

Tomorrow morning...a five hour trail ride with three other gals! Happy Friday all!