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Saturday, November 29, 2008

Lipizzaners

When my sister told me the show was going to be near, I knew I had to go. I wrote a 20 page paper in Dr. Campbell's English class at GBS on the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Although these horses nor the show are directly related to the Spanish Riding School, the production managers have a good relationship with the Riding School and actually go to Austria and consult with the Riding School in which horses they should choose to buy. Lipizzaners are considered a Royal bloodline and all the full blood Lipizzaner stallions in the world can be traced to 6 main bloodlines. Because the horses have two names, the first is always the bloodline name and the second the name of the mare or mares bloodline. Since there are only 6 bloodlines, their first name can only be one of 6 names. Kinda neat!
This Lipizzaner which had been saved in a rescue operation in North America. When he was found he was in bad health. The show adopted 8 Lipizzaners and 3 of them are now in their show.

Gold square stirrups

The Grande Quadrille



Recounting the story of the salvation of the Spanish Riding School in Austria during World War II by the U.S. Army!

Performing ancient dressage movements which date back to the 400's. The horses were taught to hold themselves in the air to remove the soldier riding it from the danger of being knocked off by a foot soldier.



Jay took me to "The World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions" show at the Bank of Kentucky Center. We had great seats and the show was pretty good. I had only two major qualms - 1. One of the female riders didn't look like she had a clue how to ride. She sat the horse about as good as a sack of potatoes and bounced all over the place. 2. They kept referring to the horses as stallions and even stated that they could have no mares in the tour or the show due to the fact that the stallions are aggressive when females are around. One problem - Out of the approximately 12 horses we watched, only one was a true stallion. All the others has been gelded and therefore would not have been aggressive towards the mares. Of course, if you aren't a 'horse' person you probably wouldn't even notice.
I did learn something quite significant however. The Lipizzaner breed of horses generally live to 30 or 35 years old. This is quite a bit longer than a normal horse and I found that very interesting. I already knew they were "late bloomers" so to speak, but I did not realize how long they could live.

Gobble til you Wobble!

Niece and nephew, Tyler and Kristen.

The Bakers

Aaron's family -- Cute picture.

Mom Baker made these cute little turkeys with candy corn in the cup.

Dad Baker made a fire outside and he and I sat around it and talked for a while.

I went along with Brent to my uncle's house. He was learning to use a shotgun since he is going deer hunting this weekend. I went along to watch. He is a pretty good shot!

Whatever it was, they didn't seem too impressed.

Grandma Hilligoss with her first grandchild.

Grandpa Hilligoss and Uncle Brandon with Maddie

Me and my honey!

This was my first shot with a 20 gage shotgun. The guy who pops his head in and says "Do not try this at home" is a guy I used to call "Turkey" when I was a kid. If you listen closely you can hear him say, "Who's the turkey now?" He is a great guy by the name of Paul who some of my readers may know. As you can tell by the boisterous laughing following my shot, they must have thought I was going to fall over which I almost did. But due to my brother and cousin's careful instructions, I had the stock pushed tight into my shoulder and no bruise resulted! If you listen closely you can hear my uncle tell me not to "hit his truck." It was about 70 yards beyond and to the left of the target so I would have to be a really bad shot to hit his truck! I also fired another weapon, I think they said it was a .410 but I am not sure.

Round 2 with a different gun.

As you can see by the top bull's eye my shots weren't too far off. Brent's shots were the bottom bull's eye and he hit right in the black circle!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Points

Tonight, I happily spent $100 on Amazon.com thanks to a free gift certificate from my bank. Who cares that the economy is going down the proverbial toilet?! If they are going to give me money, I might as well spend it!
I had a blast looking through all the items to be had on Amazon. I will show my freebies when they arrive (minus one - a Christmas gift for my hubby!)

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Busier by the week

So I have been getting busier. I think it is better that way, since there is less time to think about things. I have been working out at Curves after getting off work this week. It is a really enjoyable time since it's all women and we talk about all manner of things and before you know it your workout is over and you are still talking. I drive right past Curves twice a day so I decided to try it out and see what I think. The people have been so nice and because it's all women there is never a dull or silent moment during the workout. Then after driving the rest of the way home, I have been getting on the computer and working for Southwest for a couple hours at night. Alas, my quilting has fallen by the wayside, but hopefully today I will be able to work on it some more. I have sent pictures of my current quilt to 5 different people asking their opinions because it is not a country style quilt so I am having difficulty deciding how to go about finishing it. Hint: the fabric is cotton but there are silver and gold threads running through the material so when you look at it, it seems very shiny, kinda like satin, but if you feel it, it is soft like cotton. You will see what I mean when I show it to you.
I have managed to get two gifts for Jay so far, neither of which were on his Christmas list, which is a lot more fun for me since he will have no idea what they are. It's a good thing I thought about having it sent to the Jail instead of the house. One of the gifts they sent in the original packaging from Sears. It has the picture and all the 'selling' points right on the outside. DUH people! It's Christmas time, think about it! So I avoided a small disaster there. Christmas is fun because Jay is such a kid at heart. He gets excited about opening gifts. I guess anymore, I am just an old crab. I really don't get excited like I used to. Perhaps somewhere down the road when we have kids it will be more exciting.
As I write, my very first turkey is in the oven. I got a 12.5 pound turkey for $7.87 which I thought was a very good deal. I followed the directions on the package and it is now tanning quite nicely. No, I didn't stuff it :o)
Today I received part of my birthday gift. We have been talking about getting a couch for our family room. I really wanted a dark brown leather couch. Our other couch is suede or pseudo-suede and I knew I didn't want another one just like that. Although I do love that couch and it cleans very well, I just wanted something different. Garden Ridge had one that I really loved, but we don't have a truck and they do not deliver so I had no way to get it down here. Garden Ridge is about an hour from our house. Today my honey borrowed a truck and went and got it himself. It was on sale for $200 off the regular price and I am so happy we were able to get it. Here is my hubby. We had trouble getting it through the front door so he took the door off.
A boy from our church helped Jay get the couch out of the truck and then assisted us in getting it into the house. Thanks Bobby!
My hand was pinched when were taking off the door. It was the skin between my index finger and my thumb that got stuck. It didn't feel too good.
Sitting on our new leather couch!!! (As you can tell by the walls, I have yet to start painting the family room. Whomever lived here before us, apparently didn't want to move objects in the room, so they simply painted around them. Sounds like something I would do :o)
Yes, that is a spool of thread sitting on the recliner's arm. I have been working on the applique part of my quilt, which I do not enjoy, but eventually it will be done and I will get to work on the rest of the quilt.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

A Gift from my Honey

Yesterday was a relaxing day for me. I slept in late, mopped all the floors, finished the baby quilt, started a queen size quilt, watched some of the IU game looking for Jay since he was in the crowd, went to a flea market of sorts here in town, tried to vaccuum and realized it wasn't even sucking anything up, and did a few loads of laundry. My favorite part-- When Jay got home around 12:30 a.m. this morning with this little guy in hand. Isn't he adorable?? Too bad I don't have any Christmas decorations out yet.

Tilly and Me, Inc. Completed





Stars and ribbons along the border.


Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tilly and Me, Inc.

My dad wrote a touching short story for Jason and me. Just click on the link below. His blog is called "LJL."

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Halloween Pics

I finally finished this small lap quilt. It just needed the binding sewn on and it was ready to go. I think it matches the living room pretty well.

Our church had a chili supper on Halloween night. Below are the people who dressed up. Jay and I were the 'prom couple.'

Breanna and me. We finally got her to smile for this picture.

The two pumpkins

Happy times

Sunday, November 09, 2008

God Take This Child...

A good friend of mine who has gone through the same experience, gave me this poem. She had framed it in a black frame. The words so closely resemble my feelings that I thought I would post it for you to read.
God, Take This Child....
By Nancy Scott

Sweet child whom we never really got to know,
It’s hard for us to let you go.
We waited and we wanted you.
We had so many dreams for you.

We think of smiles we'll never see.
We think of events that will never be.
There will be no first steps and no first teeth.
There is only a void and our own grief.

We planned to take you to places far and near.
We yearned to keep you safe and free from fear.
We hoped to show you much of your new world.
We wanted to teach you as your life unfurled.

It’s hard to understand why you, our baby, died.
We feel so numb right now, many tears we’ve cried.
We have so many questions and no answers seem to come.
We tried so hard to save you; nothing could be done.

God, we stand before you broken-hearted
and ask you to heal these lives that must be parted
from this little one we can no longer hold,
who will always be a part of us, even when we're old.

God, take this child in your loving arms.
No more can he suffer any harm.
Bless him always and bless us too.
Be with us and help us to make it through.

Friday, November 07, 2008

What a Day That Will Be!

Dee, in response to your question regarding the quilt: "...what were you thinking and feeling as you pieced this together?" Answer: a myriad of feelings. I shed many tears, my hands trembled more than once (so don't expect the corners to be perfect like yours :o), but mostly I wondered about my little one and what heaven must be like. I don't know if I will use this quilt for anything or just fold it up for later.

I also pondered this great wonder: My little one was taken from me. But what incredible mercy and grace our Father showed toward us when he willingly gave his ONLY Son to us when He knew we would reject and murder him. I shed tears even now as write this. The grief and sorrow I feel over a little one that I have never seen or held cannot be compared to the great love our Father showed us by sending His Son to earth and ultimately to His death. And to think, He sent His Son for us, for me. Before I even knew Him, His blood was already there to cover my sins if I only trusted in its cleansing power. Losing one of my own has made me realize how much of a sacrifice it would be to willingly give up a son. Of course, we all hear it, Sunday after Sunday, but it is when you experience it yourself that you realize "hey, this hurts!" I received a message from a friend today and I will quote her "Lean hard on Him. God can use this to make you a more beautiful person on the inside. It is the difficult places that make us more like Christ."
Last night was the toughest night so far. Seems like the evenings is when I get so emotional. My hubby is a wonderful teddy bear. He doesn't mind me getting tears all over him.
Today was my first day back on the job. I received a delivery of fall flowers this afternoon, along with this message. Such a wonderful husband and the perfect man for me.


Thursday, November 06, 2008

Quilt Therapy

I had this all cut out and ready to be put together for our little one. The green really isn't as dark as it shows in this picture. It is more of an light olive green. What appears almost creamy is actually yellow. Anyway, I decided (after encouragment from my mom) that I should go ahead and put it together. So that is what I did this afternoon.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

A Sad Day

Today was a tough day for me. Early this morning I miscarried our little one. Thanks to all of you that commented on our previous post. I deleted it. It was kinda hard to see it on there. Someday Jay and I will get to meet our little one in heaven.

Beautiful flowers from my parents. Thanks Mom and Dad! If you look really close you can see the top of my white "i voted" sticker on my shirt. Too bad it was in vain! (Notice I have my quilts all around me. I love being able to use them instead of them just sitting on the quilt rack.)

Monday, November 03, 2008

The Perfect Man for Me

Many of you know that I work full time about an hour away from our home. This 2 hour daily round trip can get very tiring for me, but God has certainly blessed me with Jasper, a 1998 Ford Escort with 154k+ miles. I bought it in 2005 for $1900 and to date, I have only put brakes, tires, a muffler thingie and routine maintenance into the car. Granted, it has more dents, dings and rust than most demolition derby cars but it gets me where I need to go. That little background brings me to tonight's topic.

While I am driving Jasper to/from work and working away during the day, my hubby is back in our little town, running around visiting church folks, organizing ministries, grocery shopping, driving county school buses on a part time basis, preparing for Sunday morning's message, going over his notes for the Wednesday night Apologetic study (very interesting!), creating a children's sermon to give to the kids on Sunday morning, trying to get a hot water heater installed in the church (don't ask!), fixing a hole in our kitchen wall from the plumbing incident, buying cranberry apple juice for me, practicing for his special song on Sunday, typing up the bulletin, choosing the songs for worship and making sure the musicians (me and the piano player) have copies, buying the milk and breakfast items for the sunday school goers, and on and on the list goes - but those are just his 'ministry' duties.

When I arrived home tonight, I was tired, had a tummy ache (surprise, surprise), and was just downright feeling blah. I walked into the kitchen and I realized God has blessed me with the most wonderful, caring man. Ribs were boiling in a large pot, and real potatoes were in the crockpot waiting to be mashed. Not only does he help out with the cooking, he helps with the laundry, empties the dishwasher when I start it on my way out the door, gets me juice when I decide right before bedtime that I am thirsty and I don't feel like going downstairs to get it, and rubs my back and feet as if it is his privilege to care for me. The list definitely does not stop there, but I think you get the idea. Thank you God for the perfect man for me!
This is Jay in his Halloween costume. I will post more pics of the Chili supper at church where we all dressed up, but I thought I would include this one in this particular post.