More about My Congress Trip...

Saturday Mary and I got up and headed out to the trade show...she didn't have a run until afternoon. We met up with Rachel. I was ready to make my purchases. I had everything scouted out and I was ready to buy. Later that afternoon was the dummy roping for the youngsters. Chase and Chaffin Thrasher were entered. It was a big deal with Cactus saddles going to the winners. Chaffin did well and made it to the second round. Chase did really well and ended up winning the 3rd place breast collar and a whole lot of free stuff. Tabby was running all over the trade show picking up all his loot! After the dummy roping it was back to the Coliseum for the barrel race. I sat with Matt and Bendi Dunn and there precious little girl Madison. When Troy Crumrine came in on their horse Mulberry Canyon Moon and ran the 2nd fastest time of the Sweepstakes we were all pretty excited!!! Saturday night was the Calf Roping Classic. Shawn Coleman, one of Matt's old traveling buddies was the winner! We were pretty excited for him to say the least. The entries for the classic were way off this year but Shawn roped good none the less. He and his wife had forgotten their camera so you know I volunteered to take photos for him! It was fun meeting his wife and baby girl Lily. Shawn lives in Indiana now and we don't get to see him as often as we should. After the Classic Mary and I went up to the coliseum to ride. While we were there a lady told us about a covered arena where they had practice barrels set up. Off we go to find this arena. It was nice. Wish we had found it sooner. Then we headed to the Midway for a midnight snack. Mary had her heart set on an apple dumpling. I said, "okay I'll have on too." She pressures me soooo much. Of course they had just run out of 'em. We had turnovers instead. They were good. Almost as good as the cinnamon rolls and pecan rolls I had been eating for breakfast. Not as good as the fried Oreo Mary forced me to eat on Friday. Notice how I can't remember the times of the runs but I can vividly remember the food I ate! Sunday morning was Mary's last run. It was her best run and she ran right out of the money. I headed over to watch Rachel rope in the Breakaway roping. She had some bad luck and missed her calf. Mary and I loaded up and headed out for Missouri. We were TIRED! It was a fun filled week that I will never forget. Visiting with old friends, making new friends and hanging out with my girls! Life doesn't get any better.

Now before I share more photos I'm gonna brag on myself. 7 weeks ago I went for my regular checkup and my Triglycerides were a whopping 1935. The normal is 150 or below. My doctor was freaking out. I actually felt sorry for him. I've gotten those kind of reports before and it didn't bother me as bad as it did him. He hasn't been my doctor for very long. He'll learn. He immediately put me on meds and a sugar free/minimal carbs diet. YUCK! I was to go back in 6 weeks for a re-check. Well last week while I was at The Congress, eating every bad thing available, was the 6th week so my appt. was this week. I went in Wed morning and had my labs done. Went back yesterday for the results. My Doctor was elated! So was I. My cholesterol had dropped from 239 to 163. That is an all time low for me. My triglycerides dropped from 1935 to 142. Another all time low! He said I should keep doing what I was doing..... I didn't mention my eating binge the week before. I did suggest I thought the previous labs were wrong. He said they weren't. The lab had noted they could actually see fat in the blood sample. So hurray for good meds! I'll have to stay on them for quite a while longer and be rechecked in 4 months then maybe on an 6 month schedule. That's my brag for today.

Dan is in Missouri today and tomorrow. He is at an Exotic Animal Sale with Matt. He reported this morning that they have received about 5 inches of rain since he got there last night. I think it's headed my way. I hope to get some good fall shots next week when the colors here peak. So it needs to dry out! Stay tuned.

Now for some more Congress photos. Enjoy!

Mary and Wimpy heading "home"....

Chaffin Thrasher....

Chase Thrasher...


Perfect follow through....


The further you go in the competition the further the dummy is away from you....

Perfect Catch!

Madison Dunn...don't you just love those big brown eyes?

Ashley, Lily and Shawn Coleman...

Well... I made it to Missouri then Ohio back to Missouri and home again all in one piece! Yippppeee!!!

Mary and I had a BLAST on our trip! Everyone should make the trip to Columbus, Ohio in October for the Quarter Horse Congress at least once in their lifetime. It goes on for 3 weeks and is non-stop! It is the 3rd largest gathering of people in the U.S. behind the republican and democratic conventions. Mary found out this little tidbit of info from the vet tech while she was waiting on her horse to be drug tested after one of her runs.... Yes, DRUG tested! Mary didn't have anything to worry about because 'Wimpy' isn't a 'druggie'. But, none the less it kinda gummed us up for the rest of the day. It was the day it rained, and rained and rained some more...when Mary and Wimpy finally made it back to the barn they were both soaked. Mary tried to tell the Vet that she had left her mother-in-law unattended way to long and needed to get back to her. That she really didn't have time for all this unnecessary waste of her time. No one cared. They obviously didn't realize the danger of leaving me unattended!

Now let me back track... I left Florence Tuesday a little before 1pm and got to Cape Girardeau, MO between 5 and 5:30. I met Mary at Target we bought a few things we needed for our trip and then went to Qdoba's for supper. I'd never been to Qdoba's but I really liked it. Fast food Mexican prepared like at subway...right in front of you! Really good stuff! We headed on up to their house in Oak Ridge and started packing the trailer and truck for our trip. Mary set the alarm for 4am Wednesday morning! We were up and on the road by 5am. Is anyone besides me impressed by that? I thought so! When we woke Matt up to tell him goodbye he just muttered something about 'did you get your horse?' That's my boy....... We made it to Columbus by mid afternoon and soon found out what chaos really means..... Horses everywhere. People everywhere. Golf carts everywhere. Trucks everywhere. Trailers everywhere. The people in the stall office said, "just find a vacant stall and use it, call us and let us know your stall # when you find one." Did I mention the word chaos? Camper parking.... Mary's trailer has a living quarters so that was our home for the duration of the Congress. We parked, unhooked and had trouble with the electric. Had an electician come out and fix that, then we found a better place to park and hook up and we moved. This place was right beside our barn. We were lucky to find it! We went to bed early and got up at 2am for Mary to ride in the coliseum. The arena was open for the barrel racers from like 1am to 6am. Thursday was her first run. Thursday the ground was horrible and horses were not just slipping but they were falling all the way down. It was scary. No, not just scary it was SCARY!!! I felt certain that Wimpy would handle the ground well because of her turning style but I was still very nervous. She did great! Mary was a little apprehensive ( I totally understand) and didn't 'push' her. Her time was good but not good enough. We were both pleased that Wimpy nor Mary got injured because of the ground. After the barrel race it was off to shop at the trade show. We were just scoping things out and getting ready for the "moonlight madness sale" at Rod's Western Wear later that night. Mary is more of a shopper than me.... she found some good buys. Me, I bought stuff for Zane! SURPRISE! Despite the fact that there wasn't much baby stuff there. I bought some boots for me, Mary and Kelly. The girls have to wait 'til Christmas for theirs. I'm so mean. Friday was the rainy day. The rainy, drug testing day. Mary had another good run but was just out of the money. Friday night Rachel got there. It was so much fun hanging out with her too!

Tomorrow..... more about our trip. Here are a few photos. Enjoy!

Baby Girl... Mary's 3 month old Corgi! Our little travel buddy...

Mary riding in the coliseum in the middle of the night...

The Midway...between the Coliseum and Celeste Arena. All the action was in these two buildings. Anything and everything to eat. Outrageous prices. Amazing aromas. Nothing that qualified as healthy eating....

Mary, making a run....

My Bags are Packed and I'm Ready to GO!!!

Well sort of... My bags are partially packed and I'm almost ready to go....

Where? you ask...

Well I'm leaving at lunch today and going to Matt & Mary's house in Oak Ridge, Mo. Tomorrow my favorite daughter-in-law and I will be leaving their house and heading for Columbus, Ohio. Mary will be running barrels at the Quarter Horse Congress. I have been super busy getting all my "stuff" done so I can leave with 'kind of' a clean slate work wise... Okay, that ain't gonna happen but so far not too much left undone. Nothing too terribly pressing. Nothing I can't handle. I am leaving Dan with the task of embroidering 3 dozen caps for the Women on the Edge trail riding club! He is good at caps! He can handle it!

Mary and I will have fun! She'll be winning $$. I'll be spending $$. What a FUN pair!!

I must leave you with a photo of Zane. It appears that last week he discovered his thumb. He likes to suck his thumb. He may like his thumb better than he likes wub a nub! We're not sure yet! Enjoy!

I'm not sure if he really likes his cowboy hat but he definitely doesn't mind wearing it!

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!!!

Well I haven't drowned or melted but I must say I'm surprised that I haven't with all the rain we've had! Enough already! I hate to be a complainer. I try very hard to keep a positive attitude. I try very hard to see the good in every situation. I try very hard to be little miss sunshine....But I don't know how much longer we can go without the sun on a daily basis.... This has got to be the wettest October on record.
The rain got in the way of my yard sale Saturday. I was all primed to make a ton of money.
I may never get to ride outside again. Our outdoor arena looks like a lake and I'm not exaggerating! I have been riding in our indoor arena. I'm so thankful for a dry place to ride.
We have to cross a little creek to get from the house to the barn. Our little creek has gotten pretty large lately. We just kinda wade out to the barn.
I have a couple of places I want to go and shoot some photos but it's always just got done raining, raining or fixin' to rain when we leave the store.
Next thing you know it'll be dark when we leave. Now, I'll just tell you that really does bum me out! We should only have to work like 1/2 a day in the winter...that should be a law. If you know somebody who can get that done for me I'd appreciate it! This weekend the rain may stop so it can turn cold! ggggggrrrrrrrr

Next week I'll be in Columbus, Ohio with my favorite daughter-in-law Mary. She'll be competing at the Quarter Horse Congress in the barrel race. I'll leave Tuesday and drive to Matt & Mary's house in Mo. We plan to get up early Wednesday morning and head for Ohio! The shopping is fantastic at the Congress so I've been rolling coins since last Saturday. $335 in quarters and dimes. Not bad, eh? Still have nickels left to roll... I like to start with the big stuff first. What do you bet I spend most of that on Zane Daniel? I probably will.....He's worth it!

Speaking of Zane Daniel, here are a couple of shots of him from this past weekend. Enjoy!

Zane & Daddy in the feed store sitting on the 'saddle' stool that Dan made....

Zane & Daddy checking out the little 4 wheeler that Papa bought...

Farmer Zane in his overalls & work boots....

Is there anything more precious than a sleeping baby?

"I'm ready Papa....let's go!"

Long Overdue!

A blog dedicated to photos of Zane! Yesterday when we visited Ned, Kelly & Zane I of course took 100's of shots... some good, some not so good... but here are some of my favorites. I realized we hadn't had Zane photos on here in a while.... what with the fair and birthdays and giveaways and all that so here you go....Enjoy!

We starter with a bath in the 'whale of a tub'....




Hey Papa! What 'cha doing over there?



Suddenly I'm not sure about this.....



aahhhh.....

Bubbles? Let me try to blow some bubbles....



Pops, you still there?




Hey G-Mama, how'd you get down there?


I know we're about done when I get this towel on my head....



At least I thought we were done....

Nothing better than playing cowboy in my bumbo seat after my bath....

Got my rope can, my cowboy hat and my wub-a-nub... I'm ready....

I don't need no stinkin' wub-a-nub.....

Hey Papa, wanna go catch some cows or something?

All this cowboy stuff makes me tired..

Chillin'....

Papa and G-Mama keep me entertained....

I entertain them too.....

It's a GREAT day!

Yep! This has been a super duper funtastic day!
I started it off with a trip to my favorite hairdressers for a cut! Thank you Dee! Dee is the one who knows my inner most secrets...like the real color of my hair and so forth and so on.
Then it was on to the store to work on putting out the new jewelry that just arrived. It's BEAUTIFUL!!!
Mother and I went to lunch and it was delicious even if it was fruit and salad and healthy stuff! Tonight Dan is taking me to the Olive Garden, thank you Rachel & Bradley, ( I think I told him this little tidbit of info) and I probably won't be eating as healthy.... Oh well you only turn 50 once, right?
Oh and by the way... I have a new cell phone, thank you Ned, Kelly and Zane. If you're one of my friends that has just quit calling me on my cell because it was so annoying I think I'm back in business!
I've been totally overwhelmed by all the Happy Birthday wishes from my facebook friends...that has truly put a smile on my face all day!
All week I've been thinking what wonderful words of wisdom should I share now that I've reached such an important milestone.... I thought and I thought and nothing came to me. At least nothing you haven't heard already. So I settled on this.... Keep Learning and Keep Laughing. Learn all you can and laugh everyday! It's what I do.... and some days I should have learned not to laugh at inappropriate times....
Now on to more important things.... like the winner of the gorgeous necklace and earring set. But first, thanks everybody for entering I have so much fun doing these giveaways and I hope y'all enjoy 'em too!



The winner is...


Drum roll please......


Lucky entry # 5.....



Sharon Lovelace!!

Shoot me an email Sharon and we'll figure out how to get you your necklace and earrings. (I'd love for you to come by and visit!)
Check out more jewelry on our website www.shamrockm.com I will be adding more pieces today and tomorrow.