Lessons, Legos, and Listening

Whew!  What a fun weekend.  On Friday, after another full day of work, I was able to get in a 4.04 mile run.  It was slow going as my cold muscles weren't warming up too quickly.  I ran down to the O.T. and did the outer main loop then the inner main loop and back up the hill towards LV and a loop around there and I was back to Amie's house.  Afterwards, all of us gathered in the indoor arena to practice some baseball.  It was a fun time, especially as Braydn and I (while getting bored in the "outfield") started to sing a song about peanut butter sandwiches and made up some really cool dance moves to it.  We were going to play pictionary that evening but instead a pizza and the movie Taken 2 took over the night.  I headed home after the movie to prepare for a day at Greystone (formerly IRUS) on Saturday.  We had no, I say it again, NO trail rides this weekend so we were able to capitalize on that by riding with Nancy.  We had spent the week getting our ponies spiffied up and we were ready to ride Saturday afternoon.  Amie went to get round bales that morning while I hung out with Reagan and Braydn while we fed the mini-farm and horses down below.  A quick stop at home and to load up our ponies and we were off to Lebanon by lunchtime.  When we got down there, we were able to put our horses in stalls which was great because we had a few hours till our lesson, our trailer is wicked noisy whenever you move in it, and it was cold.  We were able to watch a few lessons ahead of ours and then it was Amie's turn.  Unfortunately, Tuni was a "turd bucket" for the first 15 minutes or so and I kept telling him (telepathically), "Don't you dare do anything stupid!" and I think he only partially heard that.  I went to go get Anthony ready and Amie said he settled down...somewhat.  I thought Anthony was going to be an angel after I had led him in quietly, he stood still to be mounted, then was listening really well during the warm up.  Then Tuni left the arena.  It took him a good 10-15 minutes to start to get his attention back on me and we ended up having a productive lesson.  We had some good canters and I found my "gliding elbows" again.  Our time with Nancy is too short, as always.  That evening we had a dinner of Dairy Queen (way too many calories with my chili cheese dog and peanut butter bash) and we watched the end of the Duke game then the first Taken movie.

The ship I put together!

Sunday morning I woke up late and got my house cleaned up a bit and then did my taxes via Turbo Tax.  I can do them on my own with the EZ forms but TT finds me more money back.  I have to pay them but the amount I get back is much more than what I pay them so I figure that it's best to use them.  Amie texted me about 1 pm with a challenge to come on over and put together some Lego sets.  That I can never refuse.  So that's what I did the rest of the day....put some Avenger Lego sets together.  That evening we had dinner with Keith.  Some pork ribs and buffalo burgers and garlic potatoes made it a yummy meal.  We ended with Reagan quizzing the adults with the junior outburst cards.  We definitely had a good time with that.  After all that, it was time for bed.  Thankfully I remembered in time that I was supposed to have devotion for the Monday morning staff meeting.  Since Amie and I have been doing a study on apologetics, I tried to see if there was anything I could pull from that.  The previous week's lesson had been on listening so I found a devotion through "Delve into Jesus" on listening which was perfect.  I think that's what we all want, kids and adults alike, is to be listened too.  Stop thinking about what you're going to say and stop thinking about how that person's situation is similar to one you've been through.  Just listen and you might find out something new about the person or a new perspective on a situation.  That is also a way to follow one of the greatest commandments....to love each other.

After staff meeting, I got busy!  I went to the EC and straightened up, swept the barn, cleaned Anthony's stall, put everything away, cleaned out the trailer from the lessons, unhooked the trailer and brought up straw and hay....all before lunch.  After lunch, I had to put out 7 round bales down below.  The horses were frisky and annoying and wouldn't leave me alone.  I was trying to beat the rain and I almost did that.  It was on the very last bale (Amie came down for the last 3) that it started to sprinkle.  I was able to finish up the chores down below and I could finally call myself done for the day.  Whew!  I did attempt to go for a run but the wind and pelting rain drove me back so I only got in just over a mile.  I tried to run that mile as hard as I could but a darn side cramp put a cramp in that.  ;-)  haha  Then I played a little Wii with the Gleason kids (who were off for President's day) and dinner and then Biggest Loser and my night is complete.  Hope everyone else had a productive Monday!