Chidhood horse memories!

Gizards and calf fries, http://crazymranch.blogspot.com/, is having a fun give away of a to die for necklace on her blog. She wanted people to share some horsey memories, here are a couple of mine that I shared.... because they made me smile!

I would guess we were about 8-9 years old, me and my girlfriend Patti. We used to go out and ride our ponies all day long, We lived on those ponies during the summer when school was out! She had a little silver dapple Shetland mare named Misty, and I had a Chestnut Welsh/Shetland gelding named Pepsi.
One day we met to ride and it was really foggy, so foggy you couldnt see more that 50 feet. We lived about a mile from each other and rode all the time. About halfway in between our homes was a hay field, with rolling hills, we started riding and playing hide and seek in the fog, and we played bale off your pony. Yes we would fall off on purpose and keep a lead rope in our hand so the ponies wouldnt get away. They didnt, most of the time LOL. The memories, we had a lot of fun times.

I have another cute one.

My girlfriend Traci, and I had been out riding our ponies, On another wonderful sunny day of summer vacation, she on Jody a sorrel pinto Welsh gelding, and me on Pepsi, we had ridin all morning and Traci had to be home, so we were headed home when she realized she had lost her new riding crop. Well she was devastated, her dad had told her not to lose it before we left, now she was scared too!
We got home and put the ponies away and met out by the road, we were next door neighbors. We sat on the side of the ditch for hours, as her dad wasnt home from work yet, well she disappeared for awhile and came back and it seems she had put on 5 pairs of pants! in anticipation of the spanking she would get when her dad got home! LOL
Well her dad got home a little while later and let her stew outside for awhile, then called her in, and told her that putting on 5 pairs of pants was punishment enough LOL
I can imagine the laughter he was trying to hide when he told her this!

Its funny how something brings up old memories, and these are good ones for me! We lived on horseback during summer vacation when we were growing up, I used to share my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with my pony, which we would pack before we left each day and put in our little backpacks! Eventually we graduated to the large horses, but kept riding during those long wonderful summer breaks. During the days when a kid could roam the county on horseback and still be safe, Mom would know something had happened if our horse came home without us! Which didnt happen often, oh the days!
Before all the people and traffic in this area. My kids couldnt have done that when they were young, taking off and riding the roads to friends houses, to much traffic.

I would love to hear some of your favorite memories too!

Random Graduation Commencement Photos....

Meghan and Luxor going across the stage to get Meghans diploma. He was a perfect gentledog throughout the whole thing.

Meghan and her cousins, Zac and Steve. They are my cousins boys.

These are the graduates from Washougal High School that are going into the military.

Thank you all for serving!!!


LOL Luxor looks like a Bloodhound in this pic LOL and one orange and one blue eye LOL

I caught Luxor peeking around Meghan in the middle of the crowd. He has the sweetest face, I wonder if he was wondering why everyone was dressed like him LOL

Waiting in the crowd after the ceremony

Here they are in the line waiting to go across the stage.




And here is the Steve from the previous picture, he graduated this year too! and his parents Jackie and my cousin Matt. Proud of their graduate!! Steve said on Facebook he was voted class clown LOL

Portland, VooDoo doughnuts....

LOL this isnt the doughnut shop, but I have heard that this pub has great food, I love the sign. There are tons of quaint little pubs, taverns and restaurants in this area of Portland Or.

Our first glimpse of VooDoo doughnuts. We actually heard about them on the food channel on cable, they have been featured on several programs, so we had to go investigate. Cute little delivery "truck" in the parking lot.

Quaint inside, lots of artwork and flyers pasted all over. T-shirts for sale.

They have vegan doughnuts! The one on the right back is one I got, the dirty bastard, LOL that is its name LOL, Meghan got the one in front with the fruit loops on it.

Their menu, interesting names for stuff LOL LOL

This is a close up of the dirty bastard. Which I am going to eat today, I had a medical test today, and had to fast this morning!

A smilely

This is the Memphis, a banana fritter with choc, choc chips and peanut butter drizzled over the top, wow is it rich! but gooooood!

Some of the quaint artwork.

Racks of VooDoo doughnuts.

and we went home with some Memphis, and dirty bastards LOL LOL The one doughnut we went after they didnt have Sunday, darn it, a maple bar with bacon on it! You have to go see the website it will make you laugh and drool!!! http://http//voodoodoughnut.com/

Enjoy!!
There are two VooDoo shops in Portland we were at the second one on Davis st.

Luxor went back to Guide Dogs for the Blind today.

Luxor rode on Meghans lap all the way down to the guide dogs campus.

The campus down in Boring is absolutely gorgeous! The dogs are so well taken care of.

Walking into the kennels and the kitchen area where we were supposed to drop off Luxor.

This is a really cool cat that greeted us inside, Chester, he is huge!

Luxor meeting Chester.





Luxor got weighed, he is 64lbs.

Luxors name on the recall board.

And with tears in our eyes :)::::::::::::

we had our last glimpse of Luxor as the attendant took him off to the kennel and his new life.

This is the hard part of raising a dog, having to give them back, Luxor is a wonderful dog and he should do well, he has been exceptional in all his evaluations, so much so that they are going to probably use him as a breeder. He will live the life of Riley, and get the best food and accommodations that can be provided for a dog. After his career is over, which could be a few years, Meghan will probably get the opportunity to get him back as a pet. That day will be waited for. We all had tears in our eyes, and taking him back was hard, but he will be fine and we will get beyond the hard feelings. I look forward to hearing how he does in his training, as Meghan should get updates from the club leader every month.

We went to VooDoo Doughnuts after we dropped off Luxor, oh man what yummy unusual decadent.... more tomorrow

Graduation, and taking Luxor back today....

I have tons of pics to post, and a lot more to take today!

Yesterday was a good day, wonderful commencement ceremony! I know it is blury but one of the highlights was Luxor got his own graduation medal! Here she is putting it on him. It was a cool moment!! Luxor got to walk with Meghan and got recognized.

We take Luxor back today, so it will be a happy and sad day for all of us.

Meghan got thanked for her service to the blind community in raising a guide dog, it surprised her to be recognized like they did, and then Luxor getting his medal. All I can say is....Priceless!!

Graduation Saturday!!!!

I still cant believe our baby is Graduating from High School! 18 years went so fast. She is a good kid, and has plans of going to the local college for the Culinary program, she wants to be a pastry chef! Cakes and doughnuts and yummys like that! LOL The only thing I told her is she needs to take some business management classes too. So she is going to start with her basic classes in the fall, she tested well for her placements!

Lots of pics tomorrow!!!

Big projects, getting ready for grad party....

Wow we havnt seen all of the patio in awhile, the kennel was here for Luxor and tables and bbqs and... it was a mess. It is a lot cleaner now! And I probably wont be able to move my arms tomorrow!! Still a lot of clean up to do, but slowly getting there.
I want to put tables and chairs out here, weather permitting!

Our new toy, a 2000psi pressure washer courtesy of our pocket book and Home Depot. It works great!! The patio hasnt been pressure washed since the last time I did it probably 3 years ago, before I got sick.

A tangle of 2 hoses and extension cords LOL

And what it is doing for the Hottub patio!! wow, still have about 3/4 of this patio to do, but lookin good. Its kinda cool, instead of being a flat spray like every other pressure washer I have used, it is a rotating circle, you can see that in the edge where I stopped. Graduation on Saturday, outside, its supposed to rain! I hope not! We will have to wait and see! So far they are not planning on moving it inside! Meghans grad party is on the 20th, so we still have a week to get everything in shape.

19 years today....

Hubby and I were married in 1990.

I made my dress with my moms help, and yes it is an ice blue color.

All legal LOL the signed marriage certificate, werent we handsome!!!

Me with my oldest son, and daughter, John and Sara. John was 5 and Sara was 4. We made Saras dress and all the bridesmaids dresses too.

The wedding party, LeAnn, Janel, Kara, Hubby, Me, Art, Rob and Ron.

John and Sara in front. I cant believe its been this long. Good times and down times, but mostly good!!!

I love you Rick!!

More car pics, 201st post! And getting down to the wire....

Meghan is really happy with her new car, she has a grin a mile wide about it! LOL She drove it to school today.

It really is clean, she is putting "stuff" in it and making it her own.

It had one owner before us.

I really think she is a happy girl! We dont have to worry about her driving back and forth to collage now. She is going to go to the local collage and take her basic classes then go into the culinary program.

This coming Sat. our baby graduates from High School!, and Sun. she has to return Luxor to Guide Dogs For the Blind! We will miss the bugger!!!!!:(:::

A lot of changes in Megs and our lives now, have to find a new routine.

Kids grow up to fast, and not fast enough! LOL LOL

Meghans new car....

Wow I cant believe this is my 200th post! cool! and a big thanks to all of you for keeping me going, this blogging thing has been fun!

We left home Sat. morning at around 9am we didnt get home until after 7pm, a long marathon car shopping day. We stopped at the bank first, and noticed that across the street....

There was an antique tractor show! Wat fun, but since we were on a mission we didnt stop. You could hear an old popper running though with the window down!

There were a lot of tractors.

Looked like everyone was having fun!


We stopped at a lot of car lots, and one private owner, this is one that she test drove, price was right but it has a salvage title, not what we wanted, it drove nice, a 2002 Ford Focus.

I think Hubby said we only drove 60 miles but it took us 7 hours! LOL and we looked at a lot of Ford Focus's! That was what Meg wanted, her older sister has one and her older cousin too, and they both like them. Also it was the one she could see out of the easiest, as she is small, only 5'2 3/4, some of the cars were just to rear end high for her to see out the back window. We have done a lot of looking on Craigs list, and seen a few that looked good, the above one not being one of those, sounded good but in reality it was pretty beat up and had parts missing etc.

So back on Craigs list after we got home and this one kept coming up, so Hubby finally called the guy. We drove @40 miles to test drive it.
Here they go, another test drive. The only other one that we even found that we liked was a white one, an '03 with 100202m on it. But it had manual windows and door locks, and Meg wanted electric windows. It had been the best one so far. Until today!! We left home after we had Emailed this guy last night and he sent a reply back to not call until after 10:30, so we waited.... called and set up the time to drive down to look at it, and this time it paid off, uh, well, for him LOL.

Here is Meghan texting a pic of her new car to her boyfriend!

Dad doing the paper work! and the money part LOL

And Meghan with her new, to her, 2002 Ford Focus with only @70thou miles on it and it was in really good shape! It has power everything. Clean on the inside, it even smelled good! no cig burns in the upholstery! As with all used cars there are a few minor things the seat was a little bent and the center console was loose, it had had a little front end damage, but he had all the grill parts, It had all been repaired. The air bags never were set off. and a bump to the rear bumper too, not much, but it has a clear title, meaning no totaling by being wrecked! And we got it for $3900.!!! a bit less than the ones we had looked at the car lots! whew! we found one, and its a pretty color, a gold beige. All of them at the car lots were white, white, red, blue and an occasional green, with a lot of problems most of them. I sure am glad we found a private seller, he bought it new himself so he knew all about the car, which is nice.

Meghan has her first "car" she is happy! Now to get all the paperwork done!