Books, Baking, and Cowgirl Boots: The Difference Between an ISTP and an ISTJ /// A HORSE NAMED CHLOE /// coming home from Maui /// Obligatory October Recap

Points of Information:

New Blog. *points to the obvious*
We are home from Maui.
Fall has come to Texas, at least colorwise. We've had a couple of cold days. (I say that, and yet it is supposed to hit somewhere in the 90s this week)
My boss hired another person to work with us. She is nice, and does like to talk.
I managed to keep up with my class while we were away.

Maui Things:

There were some really huge waves (at least for our beach at this time of year) about two weeks in, so that was really nice to have variety. Most everyone at the cabana was watching the few of us crazies who decided to actually get in the water, instead of reading or visiting. We wished we had scorecards to hold up for how well people were handling the waves. Not to worry, NOBODY was swimming around the rock that day.

I saw a really, really big sea turtle swim by, probably almost as long as I was tall. *screeches to two total strangers as I swim by* "there's a turtle RIGHT there!" *jabs finger at the water three feet away from them*

Whoever was staying above us had their sun-shade rolled down almost the entire time they were there. The sun-shade has a metal weight at the bottom of it to keep it from flapping up. The railings upstairs on the balcony are metal. *almost constant cow-bell noise* During the night too!

Lydia: "How come that didn't wake you up? Lucky!" Me: "Well, I mean I did wake up at some point during the night, but I don't know what woke me." Lydia: "Oh, that was probably when I hit you."

We had our traditional Last Night in Maui dinner at our favorite burger place when our favorite singer was there. He spent most of his break chatting with us and took a picture with us like last year.

We met another family from Canada. And by that, I mean we saw them at the cabana for a few days, but didn't really hang out with them until our last day, which also happened to be their last day, and then we crossed paths three or four times in the airport.

Lydia had her birthday.

Every morning we would be up between 5:30 and 6 and then head down to one of the beaches for family devotions. One time someone noticed we did it every morning, took a picture of us from their balcony, and then rushed down to give it to Dad.

Mia proved that she is an excellent Scrabble player, as she beat almost everyone she played against. Without help.

We finally got a beach family photo!

We had a six hour layover on the way home. Most of us were able to take naps. I tried. And gave up. It was about a 36 hour day for most of us by the time we got home and settled down.

The first two nights home were easy, but then on both Monday and Tuesday, I got only four hours of sleep each night. I pretty much nuked my system with coffee so that I would be coherent at work, and I would be exhausted by the time I made it home, but then 10 o'clock would roll around and BOOM. Second wind.

The difference between an ISTP and an ISTJ:

TP: "Why can't I get this thing to turn on? I've pressed every single button!" *racks brain as to what they didn't do that might have worked*
TJ: "Is it plugged in?"

Work Things:

I almost tripped flat on my face twice in one day. Once when the horse I was leading threw his leg out in front of me, and then again when I was putting a horse back in his stall and he stepped on the toe of my boot right as I was taking a step with that foot.

It's cold enough to be putting blankets on all the horses now. As of yet, the bruise count from that particular activity is only at one, thank goodness. But of course it had to be a doozy. Square on my foot, and then her hoof slid.

A new horse came, well actually a lot of new horses came while I was gone, and her name is Chloe! She's sweet, BEAUTIFUL, smart, doesn't freak out over little things, AND she's attentive! I already love her after only working her twice.

Snow went to a new home. Right when I was starting to like him.

So there are these two really annoying dogs that will jump out of the brush right as I drive around the last bend before I turn in at work. They chase my car. I am very grateful that that road is not busy.

*really, really windy day* *every single horse spooks as I lead them outside* *except for the one horse that spooks at everything* *he walks perfectly normal all the way down* Horse logic.

I asked my boss what I needed to work on in my riding, and one of the things she mentioned was my posting. I was a little confuzzled because I was pretty sure I had been doing it correctly. So I went ahead and videoed myself (meaning, I set up my phone, but then only rode by it about five times in all the time I was riding), then realized that my stirrups were WAY too short. Guess that's what I get for being the tallest out of all of us.

We got two new barn cats! And oh my goodness, they are so amazing! They love attention.

We cleaned out the tackroom. No barn is utterly devoid of dust, and this one is certainly no exception. Even with a bandana over my nose and mouth I was still eating dust while I was sweeping the floor (note: there is no airflow in there, outside of the door into the rest of the barn, which also has very little air movement).

Barnyard Things:

Three of my birds were missing when we got home.

One of my roosters flew the coop about a week after you got back. Of course it had to be the one with the nice crow. The other rooster, bless his heart, sounds only marginally better than a dying cat. I have my fingers crossed that he'll eventually grow out of it.

One of our friends had an extra rooster she didn't need, so gave him and his best girl to me.

With how pretty everyone is turning out, I can't wait to incubate eggs next spring! (or see if anyone goes broody)

Back in August, Coal got into a scrape and is finally finishing healing from that. He kept scratching at the scabs before they could heal completely, and he got into another fight with a neighbor cat. He is our scrappy, prodigal cat.

Ginger is still plugging away, at 12. She still looks almost in her prime. Outside of being easily susceptible to tapeworms (because, barn cat + rats, mice, birds, and rabbits = lots of potential for worms), she is the perfect kitty.

The coyote family came back to the valley and sang for over a minute one evening just as dusk was setting in.

Music Things:

See my post, HERE

Since then, however, Spotify finally put the Broadway Anastasia soundtrack up! I may have squealed.

Blog Things: