Gigondas and Beauty and Quad~Sunday Stills Challenge 120609

That's hubby with his favorite horse, Gigondas. Gigondas is the big, red thoroughbred mare that I rescued from a feedlot in WA state. She immediately bonded and fell in love with my husband. At the same time I rescued Gigondas, I also rescued an appendix TB mare named Beauty. Beauty was my first Internet rescued horse. One look at her, and I was in love! She was an untrained two year old also on a slaughter-bound feedlot in WA state. I had enough money saved up from my betting year at Santa Anita and the Breeder's Cup to pay for their bail, quarantine, and transport to California. Beauty immediately picked me as her human and we bonded over the next two years. Unfortunately, in June of this year, Beauty died in a freak accident in her corral. She rolled and got her legs stuck in the fence, hit her head, and instantly died trying to get up. It happened during one night and when I drove up to the ranch where I board them, I found her dead the next morning. Her loss was devastating to me. I felt so awful. I miss her every day...her friendly nicker, her calm demeanor, her soft breath. We often don't know why these horrible things happen in our life journey. I've given up trying to figure it out. In the meantime, I took in another rescued horse, a thoroughbred named Quad. Quad needed a home and a family to love him. He has helped fill the void of Beauty's death. He is quite a character. That's a photo of me and Quad at TB Friends, a horse rescue near Sacramento, CA. Sometimes I wonder if Beauty didn't "move on" in order for us to get Quad? I often see a running horse in the clouds and I do believe it is Beauty letting me know she is now in a good place. But...I still miss her deeply. Indeed, she was a beauty. Sunday Stills Challenge for December 6, 2009.

Pink clouds~SkyWatch Friday 120409

Waking up early every morning sometimes has its advantages, right? Otherwise I would have missed this massive swirling of clouds and the sunrise's pink clouds. SkyWatch Friday for December 4, 2009.

You know, they aren't so bad after all!!!

I just let it all down today at school. What I mean is that, for the FIRST DAY since the beginning of school, I ignored the reading pacing schedule and our district math pacing schedule and just TAUGHT my kids. I read them a read aloud, "Two Bad Ants" by Chris Van Allsburg, since we are beginning our unit on fantasy. We discussed the pictures. I stopped and explained various words in the book. We looked at the illustrations. I felt like a REAL TEACHER, not some autopilot, mechanical ROBOT in the classroom! And, instead of doing reading at reading time, I spent 45 PRECIOUS minutes discussing the importance of learning the times tables! I gave them examples from my life. I talked about how they won't be able to do division until they learn their times tables! (We had just taken a 100 problem test the prior day and only 11/20 passed!!!) So, today, during math, I put away my teachers' guide and let them practice the test again. Yesterday it took them 80 minutes to do the 100 problems. Today, I gave them only 30 minutes and I cut off the time. Guess what? Yesterday only 11/20 passed. Today, with less than half the time, ALL but 3 passed! High expectations? You betcha! Will they get another test tomorrow? You betcha! Will I have high expectations? You betch! These kids CAN do it! I heard one little boy say, "My teacher told us last year, 'I have confidence in you.' " That hit home. I hadn't had confidence in them. I didn't expect them to do well...well, today, I had CONFIDENCE in them. I KNEW they could do it, and they did. I'm actually proud of this little group. Now, if I could just get them to read...(sigh)...

"S" is for...ABC Wednesday 112509

SATISFACTION! Ahhhh....that first sip of coffee in the morning! Enough said!

ABC Wednesday for November 25, 2009

Rancho Mirage art fair~That's My World 111709

A neighboring city had a two day art fair this weekend and my cousin, Valerie, displayed some of her paintings. Unfortunately I was so busy talking to her that I didn't get any pics of her booth! But, I did get some other interesting ones! I took all of these with my little Nikon Coolpix. Unfortunately, that evening, when I got out of my car, it flew out of my purse, landed on the driveway, and is now KAPUT! The lens won't stay open and it says, "LENS ERROR"!!! ACK! What am I going to do without my little camera? It was so tiny I could stick it in my purse and take it with me everywhere. I'm very saddened by its untimely demise. That's My World for Tuesday, November 17, 2009.

Flu? Swine flu? Cold?

I admit it. I had SOMETHING last weekend. Saturday I was fine. Sunday I felt like crap...headache, body ache, dizziness, fatigue. I didn't go see my horses. I stayed home on the couch and vegged out in front of the TV. I was too sick/dizzy/fatigued to go to school the next two days. I went in on Weenesday and, honestly, I don't remember a THING about that day. I straggled through Thursday and Friday. That weekend I got bronchitis. IT moved down into my bronchial tubes. But...Monday morning, I felt fine. I've been fine all this week. I had it exactly 8 days. I didn't take anything for it except NyQuil to knock me out and hot tea and my Manuka honey. As a public school teacher, of course I'm concerned about the flu and swine flu. I noticed that the teacher across the quad from me was washing down her students' desks with Clorox wipes and spraying the room at lunch time with Lysol. She's going strong. Hm....something to think about. I went out and bought Clorox wipes today and I have a can of Lysol already at school and believe me, from now until Christmas vacation, I'm going to use them both!

Why I HATE my I-Phone

I HATE my I-Phone. Why? Let me list the reasons! #1. Phone calls are constantly dropped. I'll be in the middle of a phone call with somebody and the damn thing just quits. I'm left dangling or hanging or just wondering "WHAT HAPPENED?" ... sigh... #2 It's BIG and BULKY. Frankly, it's TOO BIG. I have to keep it in my little Nikon camera bag. #3 It's awkward and difficult to answer. When a call comes in, I have to dig through my purse to find the Nikon camera bag (heaven forbid I should just drop it in my purse!), dig it out of the camera bag, and...OF COURSE...I can't just flip the lid to answer it. NOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! I have to take my finger (NOT the fingernail, mind you) and CAREFULLY touch the slide button (and if I don't do it just right, it doesn't work) and answer the call. Half of the time, the person calling has by now given up! Talk about F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N!!!!! #4. Texting. Forget it. Don't even bother! It does have a feature where it TRIES to figure out the word you are typing, but the keyboard is so awkward I'm constantly hitting incorrect letters!!! #5. Have you EVER had a phone that you had to recharge every OTHER DAY? ... sigh... My conclusion? FORGET BUYING AN I-PHONE! When this one dies, I'm getting a different phone.