Turning a page..

So much time for me to update the blog and so little motivation to type these days. I feel bad that I have no pictures to share lately and it's not that I have zero to say. I just hope I am not boring anyone to tears..

November is always a tough month for the family, Carrie's birthday came and went as did the anniversary of her death. I was pretty upset and down that the girls didnt seem to want to have a get-together this year, our annual "remember Carrie" night! So I just dealt with it inside and toasted with myself. I know we are all busy, and I have to work at telling myself that just because it is important to me, doesnt mean it is as important to the other girls.. We all have such busy schedules but I do miss them girls!

Derek & I joined up with Jen/Johns bowling league on Wed nights. We LOVE it, but we are not real excited that there are 8 people on a 5-person league. So we are always rotating weeks off, which is the right way to do it for such a large team but its kinda tough because we both want to bowl every week. Dont get me wrong, we LOVE our team, Jen/John have some really great fun friends and we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them, we all fit right in together with similar personalities. :) Now that I bowl somewhat regularly, I have finally started to pick up a rhythm on how to bowl best that works for me, and a couple weeks ago I bowled my highest game ever of 161.. WhooHoo!! Yep tootin my own horn. Especially considering my average was about 103 when I finally got my bowl on! lol I still have brain farts and throw an off-game, but anything over 100 is good for me..

I finally put my hunters safety education to work, and told Derek I was ready to go out hunting! I could not believe my own ears and that my brain was telling me I should go shoot some ducks.. :) This past weekend we headed out Saturday morning, bought my license and proceeded to drive all over N Snohomish County on a very windy blustery day, but do you think we saw any ducks flying or sitting or hiding or swimming? nope.. not a damn thing anywhere. We walked out to a couple duck blinds, it was obvious at one that some killin had happened earlier in the day, I guess getting out around noon is just too late! lol I had a good time though, got my first hunt under my belt. I didnt dress in the camo gear since I dont have it, but what I wore worked just fine. I was a little bummed to not get to shoot a duck, but it was good to see Cooper out there being a crazy kid. Poor dog, I kinda feel bad for him having to act so well behaved all day because nothing is being shot down for him to retrieve.

Thanksgiving came and went as well, we hosted at our house with about 15 family members over. A bit snug and cozy, but the food was good, company was great and I'm glad its over.. LOL My house is still actually semi clean after all that, the one good thing about parties at your own house, it gets cleaned pretty good and actually lasts for a while.

Derek started his new job this past Monday, so far so great. Still seems to be an excellent company to work for and he likes his job and his bosses, so thats a good start. He is home before me, has the animals fed (usually) by the time I get home. We've received no other letters from unemployment so we were able to get caught back up finally and moving forward.

I'm starting a new project (super secret) as a christmas gift to my family, it is one of those that I will spend a lot of time on with the pressure to get it done soon and my brain and eyes will be exhausted when I am done, but worth it. I was up til 2am last night working on it.. It is not a sewing project, but I did just today take my machine in for what I thought would be a service call to figure out why it was not working properly, turns out I was not operating it properly! :) Apparently although I was going through the motions of threading the top and bottom, I missed one little step on each which was to keep tension on the thread as I wound it around the little nooks and crannies.. amazing the difference that made! holy moly... I'm excited to sew things again, I have been struggling for a while with tension problems and rats nests in my sewn items, now I just need to go to Ben Franklin and find a project.. oh why do I wait til the last minute on these things and then rush to have to get it all done?

I'm also organizing our horse club christmas party in a week, not that I have to do a lot, but I'm just burnt out and ready for a break. Thank goodness we found a new Treasurer, I will help her as long as needed but I am SOOO looking forward to handing it off.. My brain has been tested too much this year and we have so many damn hobbies, I need less responsibility. :) But that never goes away, there will always be chores to do and bills to pay, the biggest headaches of all.

And last but not least, the animals updates. Well not much to say, other than the dogs drive us absolutely bonkers every night when a commercial or TV show has a doorbell in it! They all 3 tear off to the front door, bolt through barking like someone is trying to rob us, and then come back for round 2, 10 minutes later! The goats are pissed, they need their own sleepy house and they dont have that right now, they have to share a stall with Red. The dryest stall is Dexter's but he's an ass and doesnt let them just hang out in his stall so they scream and yell every morning and night, I'm sure telling us they expect better accomodations! and the horses, well as long as we are feeding them they are semi happy! They would prefer to have the pastures to run around in, but to avoid the muck, they are confined to their corrals. I've been turning them out about every 10 days to run around, but this past weekend as they were running about, Red was a little nastier than normal and kicked Oakley in the ass.. I wasnt real happy about it, and Oakley was okay, but I'm thinking seperate turnout is necessary to avoid disaster. I'm thinking I might try to get in a ride this weekend, I invited someone, so I'm in it whether I want to be or not at this point, if she says yes. Its damn cold right now, low low 30's at night so an early morning ride sound terrible at the moment! lol But I need to get my ass in the saddle, I miss riding.

Derek hasnt been motivated to ride much, we joked the other day that I know exactly why he doesnt want to ride! His saddle doesnt fit Oakley.. and I mean, it just doesnt work.. period! So he has lost the itch to ride because he's bummed his saddle doesnt work and he doesnt want to have to sit in mine.. LOL So maybe if I can find someone to ride Oakley and try my saddle on Oakley to see how it works on him, then we can find Derek his very own new saddle so he will be a happy camper again.. :)