PICTURES ARE IN!!!!!

Spice enjoys wandering the backyard and wandered into Victor's trash pile. After Victor took this picture he decided that he should probably take a trip to the trash dump. Yeah!!!!! My backyard looks better!
These are the yearlings. They are about 8 or 9 months old. The philly's name is Sierra and the colt's name is Sampson. Victor named both of them just this last week.

This is Sampson. He is a thoroughbred. He is expected to be close to 17 hands. He is very smart. He enjoys having his nose scratched and loves a firm brushing. He is lighter than Sierra and only has one white sock.

Sampson's nickname is Houdini. Every other day we will go out to discover that he has removed his halter. We are not quite sure how he is doing it. We are sure that he doesn't like it.

This is me and Sampson. When he stands straight his head is about a foot above my head.

This is Sierra. She is also very smart. She learns very quickly and has taken to lunging without too much trouble. She does let Victor know when she has had enough. She does this by standing very straight and rigid. If he tries to make her run she waves her head high. It's actually pretty fun to watch.

Sierra has two white socks and is a bit darker than Sampson.

This is Creole Spice a thoroughbred racing horse. She is almost 4 years old. She was bred from two racing horses and has papers. I discovered this last Saturday that she has been trained to race on straight aways. Purely by accident. It was kind of scarey and I had to be firm on the reigns to make sure that she didn't take off. It startled Victor too.

Victor built a fense that runs the width of the property giving the horse their own space. When the grass gets a little long Victor lets them loose to graze. They really like this too.
Victor likes taking pictures of his very tired wife. The wood in the background is for the three additional stall Victor will be building.

SLUMBER PARTY!

Once a month Aislyn and Allisa invite the Activity Day girls over for a slumber party and the next day we have a "SUPER ACTIVITY".

The slumber part is usually a birthday party to celebrate any birthdays during the previous month.

The super activity is usually something that can't be done in the 1 hour activity night that we have twice a month.

Since summer time was extremely busy for the Gonzales family we did not have any slumber parties until last Friday.

There were 8 girls in total who consumed birthday cake, M and M's (two bags), 3 2-liter bottles of soda, a bag of circus cookies, a tub of red vines and chips and salsa. We began watching The 10th Kingdom.

I had forgotten how the long the movie was when we started it at 8 p.m.

We watched the first two discs and decided that 1:30 a.m. was a good time to go to bed.

The girls were up at 7 a.m. ready for breakfast and to finish the movie.

After we finished the 3rd disc the girls were excited to go outside to see the horses. As a result, the activity planned for Saturday was postponed and the girls each got to ride Spice. What a treat. The girls were still taking turns when several of the mothers came to pick up their girls. They were happy to see how much fun the girls were having.

Airin Lara one of the girls that recently turned 12 said that this was the best slumber party/activity ever.

In case you are wondering, I have permitted the recently turned 12 year old girls to come to the slumber parties through the end of the year. This was a deal I made with them if they worked to earn their Faith in God award. All three girls have earned their Faith in God. It will be presented to them next month as part of the Primary Program.

I am still tired from the slumber party. No matter how tired they make me, I really enjoy having these girls over. They are so sweet and they are growing up so fast.

Added bonus, I now have an assistant for the Activity Nights for these girls.

I am really excited. Chaunnelle is a recent convert to the church that Victor and I have become really good friends with. She sits with our family during Sacrament Meeting.

No Quiero Tiliches

After three weeks of school and late night snacks I have discovered some of my favorite words:

Tiliches for example... My husband likes to say no quiero basura... :)

Do you know what tiliches means?

I have become quite an active member of the spanish class and I usually have something very funny to say, like:

"Como se llama sus esposas?" seriously... i knew it was funny!!!!!!!

I like to share these things with Victor before we go to bed... he thinks I'm crazy.

Any way, last night after class I had to have a snack and I had Victor drive me to the local fast food joint and get me three chicken soft tacos and a churo. I shared with him the funny things that I said in class while we were out.

I am not sure if it is the late night snack or the spanish class; my dreams have been in spanish and I wake up thinking in spanish... :)

So, if I burst out in spanish dialogue just know that I have completely immersed myself in the language.

PICTURES ARE COMING!!!! :)

Sorry! Victor took pictures this past weekend with the intent of sharing... :)

I however, have been a little under the weather and havn't done much of anything except survive work and sleep.

I started feeling rather poorly about mid day Saturday. Sunday my whole body hurt - we went to church so that I could play the organ for sacrament meeting and play the piano for primary. There all three hours. :) Made the kids make dinner.

Monday I felt a little better, but then ended up leaving work at 2:30 due to a severe migraine. The worst I have ever had. I haven't had a migraine in over a year. I thought they were gone! WRONG!!!!!! This one scared me. It came on suddenly. I had no warning and no trigger. Parts of my face and my arms; hands and fingers went tingly numb. Numb lips and finger tips are very bad when you are trying to work... :) At one point I could not express my thoughts clearly and just gave up. In addition, I had a new occurance during this migraine. I had horizontal jagged lights running across my field of vision. This ultimately cut people's faces in half. I felt like I was in a horror film. Very disturbing. I slept till morning with the exception of two bathroom breaks and yelling at my children to "SHUTUP!!!!!" Victor sat quietly on the couch; oblivous to the loud conversation outside my bedroom door.

Tuesday was a little better - mild headache which subsided by the afternoon. I was able to attend my Spanish Class.

Tuesday night - sick again :(

Feeling a little better today.

One isn't enough...

Victor and I have been driven to madness and just rescued two yearlings.

Same as Spice, a little on the skinny side and very nervous. We have one colt and one phily. They are beautiful!

We have a lot of work to do. We also have a lot of learning! It's amazing how much you learn while working with such large, beautiful animals.

The two babies get along with Spice who has made it very clear who is in charge! The behavior of all three horses has been fun to observe. Are children report each new thing they have seen and marvel at the individual personalities.

Due to the enormous responsibility of owning three horses, we have found that we are pretty much home bound (until we can find someone to care for the horses while we are away).

Aislyn loves horses and enjoys working with me and Victor when we are in the yard with them. She has taken on the responsibility of feeding the horses in the morning and enjoys spending time with them.

I'M SO TIRED... 1ST DAY OF SEMINARY

As you know, Evan turned 14 September 1st. The first day of High School was last week on his birthday.

1st Day of Seminary was this morning.

I have grown accustomed to sleeping in until 6:30 a.m. and getting the kids up at that time.

Last night I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. The alarm went off this morning and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I quickly hopped out of bed and reset the alarm for 5:30 a.m.

I didn't really sleep... I just lay there anticipating the next time the alarm would go off. I should have gotten up at 5:00...

The alarm goes off at 5:30 and I quickly get up and turn on the hall light and Evan's light and told him that he needed to hustle so that we could leave by 6:00 a.m. to head to the church.

The 30 minutes went by way too quickly and my morning routine was interrupted by my husband who seemed to be at all the wrong places... He was still in bed when I needed to make the bed; he was at the sink brushing his teeth when I needed to be brushing my teeth; he moved around the bed so slowly when I need to get my shoes out of the closet. I was ready to tackle him just to get him out of the way. I ultimately snapped at him about his obvious and annoying interruptions to my usually smooth sailing mornings.

His response: "I have to get ready for work too." I said: "Well, you could have at least made the bed. You were the last one in it." No response...

I also had to get the girls up before Evan and I left so that we could have family prayer. Everyone with droopy eyes made it to the living room 2 minutes before 6:00 a.m. Victor asked Aislyn to offer the prayer. Evan and I raced out the front door and I drove like a maniac to the Gonzales Building. I think Evan was a couple of minutes late to his first day of seminary... :(

I sat in the parking lot doing my Spanish homework and was finally calm when Evan and the rest of the seminary students filed out the front doors. I raced back towards our house with Evan and two other Rio Mesa highschoolers and dropped them off at the house - leaving them to walk to school (I chose to take a different route to work since Central was completely clogged with students in their cars trying to get into the high school parking lot).

It is now lunch time and I am ready to fall asleep. I have consumed 1/2 of a mountain dew and am still droopy... :(

I guess after a week or two I won't notice how tired I am... I think tomorrow morning I will get up at 5:00 a.m. so that we aren't so rushed and I won't snap at my husband... :)