2018: A Year in Review

I haven't been so good at this blog thing lately, have I? I write so much at my job, it makes it hard to go home and write some more. But, 2019 means a new year with new resolutions, right? Maybe I'll break out of my one-post-a-year trend.

A good place to start is looking back over the past year. Some of it seems like it took place decades ago...other parts seem like only yesterday. 2018 was definitely a year of travel for me, with lots of bucket list locations crossed off!

JANUARY
I kicked off the year with some riding — something I have yet to do this year, unfortunately, since it has been so wet.

FEBRUARY
My parents went to visit friends in Scotland and left two of their dogs with us. Combined with my three, it made for some interesting walks. I'm sure most passersby thought we were a dog walking business.

MARCH
One of my BFFs got married! I love attending weddings with my forever date.

APRIL
We spent Easter weekend in Honduras. It was beautiful and amazing and I am constantly daydreaming about snorkeling in the clear waters.

MAY
Our European vacation kicked off in May. We spent three nights in Scotland and another night in London before flying to the continent. SPOILER ALERT: Scotland is amazing. We saw a small part – Aberdeen and the areas around it – and I can't wait to go back and see more of the country.

JUNE
Our European vacation continued! I have SO many photos but will just try to include one from each country we visited: Luxembourg, France, Germany, Austria. Just kidding, you get to have several from Germany since we spent a week there and attended a wedding.
We also got to celebrate another friend's wedding once we got back to the States. And, since the wedding was in Virginia, I got to check another state off my bucket list!

JULY
I lost my leopard gecko, Ringo, in July. Philip got him for me as a Valentine's Day gift in 2016, and he was a friendly guy. He got very sick and although my veterinarian friend and I tried to save him, he wasn't able to recover.
We celebrated my husband's big 3-0 this month by going to New Braunfels and floating the Comal River. It's a Texas tradition to float the river, and I had never done it before. The river was CROWDED with people, but we still had a good time.

AUGUST
I attended the Ultra Cruz Open House at San Juan Ranch in Weatherford for my job, where I got to meet stallion CD Diamond. He's not as small as this picture makes him look!

SEPTEMBER
For my job I was sent to cover the FEI World Equestrian Games in North Carolina, which happened to fall at the same time Hurricane Florence was blowing in. It made for some interesting weather and travel situations, but I had a lot of fun getting to see the international equestrian stage!

OCTOBER
We attended the Texas Corgi Round-up in Temple, and man-oh-man can I say that was probably one of the happiest places on earth. I was really impressed with how well-behaved everyone's Corgis were, too.

NOVEMBER
Rosa and I attended a reining/horsemanship clinic at the beginning of November. Despite not being ridden much before it (due to the aforementioned hectic job), she was amazing. The clinician coached me some and climbed on her several times, and I was almost in tears I was so proud of how well she did.
Philip and I also found a neat waterfall in Fort Worth — who knew there was a waterfall right in our backyard?

DECEMBER
December went by wayyyy too quickly. I'm still reeling that it's already January, and almost mid-January, at that. My mom and sister came and visited us in Fort Worth, and then we returned the favor by spending Christmas with them. I got a (terrible) photo of all of the family dogs and made a strawberry Charlotte, which I highly recommend, even if you, like me, are lactose intolerant. IT'S WORTH IT.

 

With the new year came a big lifestyle change for us — we started the Whole 30 diet — so I will try to update how that goes at the end of the month. HINT: if you're a chocolate lover like myself, it sucks.

Happy New Year!

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A year later...

It would seem that the last post I made on my blog alluded to a trip my husband took me on for my birthday – but I never mentioned where. I finally got to go see the Pacific Northwest, a place I'd been wanting to see for years. We spent several days in/around Seattle, then drove down to Portland, and it was beautiful. Also, we got caught in so much snow – every hiking trek ended up in a winter wonderland.

I had a post all typed up about our trip; I just needed to add photos. Obviously, that never happened, and then life got busy.

I'm here now, a year later, to post photos from my most recent trip – a last-minute journey to Honduras! I accompanied my husband on a work trip, and it was incredible.

The topography of the island was really interesting – it had everything from beaches to mountains. Made for some steep hiking!

After we landed, we drove to our home for the next couple days

This monkey stole a water bottle from our vehicle, so Philip argued with it about getting it back. He eventually won.

We went snorkeling here and it was amazing. So many fish and coral!

This is a parrot flying free – so cool!

The sun sets early here – around 5:30 – which made for some beautiful sunsets on the water.

We were invited to dinner by the island's manager – they get to see this view off their deck every day!

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Life, in general

The last blog post I wrote was after my grand-dad died. I'm not going to lie; it has been hard to write anything with that post staring me in the face every time I come here. I have several drafts that I started but lost interest in halfway through. Nothing ever really felt that important.

After Gran'dad passed away, I lost interest in a lot of things that used to be important to me. One of the bigger things was riding, specifically riding Rosa. Chica helped me get through some of the bad times as she always has, but poor Rosa kind of got put on the back burner. I toyed with the idea of selling her again – why pay to board a horse that I'm not riding? But for whatever reason, I never actually made the ad.

I'm glad I didn't sell her. After working with a couple of friends who ride and used to train horses, I feel like Rosa and I have turned a corner in her training. We still have a long ways to go, but I'm regaining confidence when working with her. My dream of showing her in a reining show doesn't seem quite so far out of reach anymore.

I went and rode Rosa tonight, but beforehand, I spent some time trying to get acquainted with my "new" camera. It belonged to my grand-dad, and it's pretty special to me that I get to use an item that was so important to him. He took that camera everywhere, and it had photos on it from 2011. I'm still trying to figure out the settings on it – it's very different from the Nikons we use at work – but I took a few photos of the ponies tonight that I was happy with, despite the not ideal background.

I'll have another blog post soon about the last trip I went on – a mystery trip my husband planned for my 30th birthday! Stay tuned to find out where!

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The hardest goodbye yet.

I have lived a very blessed life. I have wonderful parents and immediate family, and my extended family is close and supportive. I've thanked God every day for my grandparents, who I've had a close relationship with throughout my life. Getting to know my grandfather for almost 30 years is a lot more than many other people get.

Earlier this year, my grandfather went into remission from his cancer. And we thought everything was over. The fear, the pain, the worry. But then, around April, he called me one evening. The cancer was back, and this time it was in his brain. And terminal.

I fell apart on the phone when he told me. I wanted to be strong for him, but I couldn't. Philip walked in right after, and I handed the phone to him so Gran'dad could tell him too. After we hung up, Philip held me, and we both cried.

We tried to go down every weekend we could to spend time with Gran'dad after that. At first, we could pretend that everything was ok. Nothing was wrong; he had lots of time left, the doctors just didn't know it. But then, the weekend of my grandparents' 61st anniversary, Gran'dad went downhill, and fast, while we were visiting. Suddenly, he was in a hospital bed on hospice. Suddenly, he could no longer feed himself or get up and out of bed without assistance. Suddenly, he couldn't get up at all.

For three weeks, I drove down as much as I could. While there, I fed him when he wanted food, I slept in his room so I could give my mom and grandmother some relief, and I did everything I could to tell him how much he meant to me. The last time I saw him was Wednesday, June 29. I told him that he was an awesome grandfather and that I loved him. He told me he loved me too. He asked me which car I came down in, and I told him I had brought Philip's, joking that it was because it had cruise control and didn't take as much work to drive as my truck. He laughed, and it felt like old times. Almost.

He went down even more over the following days, and we knew it was only a matter of time. Our prayers had long since changed, turning to "Please don't let him suffer any longer." He no longer reacted to anyone touching him or saying his name, and my mom asked us to please not come down on July 4th, since he looked so bad. She didn't want us to remember him that way.

July 3rd started off on a high note. My brother, his girlfriend and my sister were staying with us for the weekend, and we decided to go to Hurricane Harbor. Afterwards we came home, and Philip grilled steaks out back. My friend Kelsey came over, and we all ate dinner, then played a game of Cards Against Humanity. We were wrapping up the game, and the last card had just been read, when my mom called. It was midnight. I looked at the phone and my heart immediately dropped. I knew what she was going to say.

Gran'dad passed away at 11:40 PM on July 3rd, although hospice could not officially call it until they arrived, and so his official death date is July 4th. It's almost funny, since he had two birth dates too, after the doctor wrote the wrong day on his birth certificate.

By now, his viewing, burial and memorial service have come and gone. Days I didn't think I'd be able to make it through are in the past. I had the privilege of speaking at Gran'dad's memorial service, and I managed to make it through that, as well. I shook the entire time, but I did not cry. I'm going to finish this post with the words I spoke there. There aren't enough to talk about how amazing my grandfather was, and these just are the tip of the iceberg. But I think he knows how much he meant to me, and to our family.

For Gran'dad:

I don’t have to tell anyone here that my grandfather was a great man. If you attend First Baptist Church, you might remember a recent Sunday where he stood at the front of the church and everyone prayed over him. Afterwards, he told everyone thank you for the prayers and that they helped him get through the last few months, but he also reminded us all that there were others suffering that needed our prayers too – others with brain cancer, others with other illnesses. Never one to want to be a burden to anyone, he always wanted to make sure everyone else was taken care of first.

He was selfless. When I lived in College Station, I always knew that I could call him for anything, and he would do what he could to help me. A lot of those phone calls centered around the riding lawnmower I had. I can’t tell you how many times I called him to ask him how to get the mower to start. If he couldn’t help me over the phone, he’d drive down to my place and take a look at it. One of those times, he ended up having to come down and load up the mower while I was at work to take it to a specialist in Brenham. I told him that morning to watch out – we had a couple of feral mama cats and eight feral kittens. Well, he got to Brenham, and guess what he found…a little feral kitten hiding in the mower. He called me and asked if he needed to bring it back, knowing what my answer would be. And when I said yes, he drove the hour back to my house, kitten in tow, just to make me happy.

He and my grandmother indulged my love of animals, ultimately buying me a horse that I still have today. I think most of my family thought and hoped that I would grow out of the horse phase, but  when I didn’t, he tried to help me turn it into a business. While that didn’t work out, he was so excited for me when I decided to go to grad school and when I ended up getting my current job writing for a horse magazine. He has always encouraged me, and I owe a lot of who I am today to him. For example, my large vocabulary at an early age could be traced back to him reading the entire newspaper to me when I was little – complete with advertisements. My often too opinionated ideas might be from him telling me the sky was purple just so I learned how to speak and argue my opinion. And because he discovered a kindred spirit in his love for trucks, I knew from an early age more about Ford and Chevy models than I ever thought I’d need to. He always made me believe that no dream was too big, that I was smart, and that I could do anything I could put my mind to.

Last year, shortly after the cancer diagnosis, I was blessed to not only have my grand-dad at my wedding, but to have him help my dad walk me down the aisle. I thank God every day that he was able to get to know my husband Philip, and vice versa. I don’t know how I’m supposed to go on with my life after losing my grand-dad, but I do know that I will see him again, and a large part of that is thanks to him, too. It was while I was with him, after all, that I prayed to accept Jesus as my savior. I’m glad he is no longer in pain, and I’m glad he’s home with the Lord. I know he was excited about that part. So to my grand-dad: you were a wonderful, dear man, and you will be missed very much. But I know you’ll be one of the first standing there waiting for me when I get there. And we’re going to have a lot to talk about – there will be a lot of news, and advertisements, to catch up on, after all.

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Some photos, as promised!

I don't have much to say right now, so check out Rosa looking super-fly in an English saddle!

And also Western:

And then there's Ringo, who is getting more comfortable with us handing him:

And Mr. Fluff Fluff, who was looking at the camera up until I took the picture, resulting in this adorable-ness:

(Also bonus Fiona in the background).

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Lizards, horses, and gluten.

Due to an accident with my phone, I have no photos of anything in this post, but pics will come one day!

Ringo has settled well into his new home. He's gone from not eating anything to eating meals of 10+ crickets every other day. It's so funny to watch him hunt the crickets; right before he strikes, his tail starts whipping in a frenzy. He's starting to learn that Philip and I aren't as scary as he thought, and he voluntarily walked into my hand the other night. It's been fun watching him get settled in and less stressed out.

In even more exciting news, Rosa and I jumped for the first time on Saturday, then did it again on Sunday! She seemed to enjoy it; I think it was a welcome change from our usual arena work. Since she's 4 years old, we only spent a couple minutes trotting and cantering over a small cross rail both days, but it was exhilarating for me – especially seeing how far she has come in both her training and her trust in me from when she was a yearling. The rest of both sessions we worked on her picking up the canter from my seat – no verbal commands – which she did really well at. She had gotten to where she anticipated the canter and exploded into it when I asked verbally, but she was much more relaxed with the subtle cue. Maybe I'll have a jumping horse (pony) yet!

In less exciting news, I was diagnosed with celiac disease a few weeks ago, which was absolutely DEVASTATING since I LOVE bread, cookies, cakes, all baked goods... But, I've been able to settle into a routine. I've gotten to where I read all labels, and I've getting over my anxiety about asking people if there is gluten in the food they make. Even better, I've had people send me recipes for gluten free cookies, cakes, pies, breads, tortillas...you name it. Pinterest has been a godsend for finding recipes, and I'm thankful for the gluten free diet craze, as I've been able to find almost anything that I crave in gluten free form (except Papa John's pizza).

So it has not been as bad as expected, although I do still think about certain favorite dishes at restaurants that I will never eat again with longing and despair at times. And then I go make myself a gluten free chocolate chip mug cookie, which takes a grand total of about 6 minutes from start to consumption. And all is a little better.

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Valentine's Day and a new acquisition.

This should come as no surprise after my last post, but lately I've been missing owning a reptile. While I enjoyed my bearded dragon and my snakes, I'd been thinking about getting something a little less demanding. Annabelle, my beardie, had to be fed chopped up vegetables every morning, something that I did not always have time to do, and also needed a 40-gallon aquarium when she got to be an adult. The snakes were low maintenance, but they still had to be caught and taken out of their tanks to feed on a regular basis, a process that involved keeping frozen mice in my freezer (and heating up said frozen mice).

I had been leaning towards a leopard gecko for a while. They only require a 10-gallon tank, and adults eat mealworms and crickets. They do not require special lighting, like Annabelle, so start-up costs aren't as expensive. Plus they are typically pretty relaxed to handle, unlike the zippy corn snakes.

When I saw that the North American Reptile Breeders Conference was scheduled for Feb. 13-14 in Arlington, I was excited. I purchased Annabelle, and possibly Rosalie, from the fall NARBC in 2009, so I was familiar with how things worked. I could take Philip, as it is a neat place to go see lots of exotic reptiles, and if we happened to stumble over some cute little gecko while there, all the better for us both to be there!

As it turned out, I fell in love with a couple leopard geckos at the first leo booth we stopped at. The first one was an albino male, who was really pretty, but as I looked over the others I noticed a snow male who was just way prettier than all the other snow morphs at the table. For some reason, I kept coming back to him. We moved on from the table, but none of the other leopard geckos at the other vendor tables held a candle to this one. And plus, he was cheaper.

I jokingly (at first) suggested that we needed a reptile in our lives, but Philip wasn't having it. We made our way around the booths and then stopped back at the leo booth one more time. As I was talking to the owner, the snow gecko looked straight up at me, into my eyes, and seemed to lock on. My heart melted, and I made puppy dog eyes at Philip, but he took my hand and we walked away. As we did so, I saw a girl walk up to "my" gecko and coo, "Ooh, look at this one! Isn't he the prettiest little snow gecko?" And my heart sank.

I continued to give Philip a hard time that afternoon about the gecko, and told him that if we weren't going to get him, we had to get a guinea pig. We joked about it all evening, and I told Philip I'd let him name the guinea pig (to which he came up with "Kregg" and we laughed a lot. Idk.).

The next day after church, Philip casually suggested we go back to the reptile show. As we had already been through everything and there was nothing left to see, I knew where this was going, but I feigned innocence. Besides, I was pretty sure my little snow gecko had been purchased by that girl, and if he and the albino gecko were both gone, I was going home empty-handed.

We got back to the show and I steeled myself as I walked up to the table, but there he was! The albino gecko was gone, but my little snow was still there. I held him, and Philip asked if I seriously wanted him, to which of course I said yes! And he said "Happy Valentine's Day."

So now, after much ado, we have "Ringo." Philip came up with the name after probably an hour of us researching "male names that begin with 'R'" since Romeo and Ramses both start with R. Other names we considered were Rembrandt, Rutherford and Riddley, but Ringo stuck. He's settling into his new mansion and slowly getting used to me, Philip, Fiona and Ramses gawking at him (Romeo does not care). New pics to come soon!

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