Welcome to My Life, Ed. 1, Vol IIII

Cowboy H's exact words to me:

"Your dog is NOT too big to fit through the hole. Your dog is the PERFECT size to squeeze through the hole, grab the dirty laundry and drag it all out into the backyard."

My response (fighting an outburst of laughter because Cowboy H was very upset):

"It's like they were going to have a yard sale."

At least nothing was torn up. Yet.

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: Prep-Week

To say this wedding was a labor of love is to say the least. To say I have the most generous and talented friends is to say the least. To say we all worked our hinneys off the week before is to say the least.

I guess I don't really have a lot to say.

The weekend before the wedding, my mama baked 100 strawberry cupcakes. Yes, one hundred. From scratch.

Meanwhile, down at The Homestead, Cowboy H broke his wedding band helping me hammer the horse shoes into shape. And no, he did NOT hammer his finger.

Cowboy H's family then helped me tie the tags onto the horse shoes and box them up.

Back up in my hometown, between Thursday and Friday, my mama made homemade three-bean salad, homemade potato salad and homemade Mom's Macaroni salad. Enough to feed 200 people.

Having made it into town on Thursday, I got Cowboy H's family settled into their hotel rooms, dropped off mason jars at my "florist's" house, made personalized aprons for the BBQ crew, finished up the last of my wooden signs, and begged my way into an eye doctor's. In between visiting Costco and Michael's craft store a few times.

Cowboy H meanwhile, spent Friday afternoon lugging food down to the reception site and helping my dad prep the BBQ pit.

My mama also prepped greens and toppings for caesar and spinach salads. All in her personal kitchen. In her house. Where we also had the rehearsal dinner* Friday night.

Speaking of Friday night, my mama continued to cook, making homemade vegetarian rice pilaf, after the rehearsal dinner, while my devoted friends were frosting the 100 strawberry cupcakes with homemade strawberry frosting that my mama had just whipped up.

That's my Sassy Cassie on the left with her roomie, Katie on the right.

This is the lovely Lauren, who is currently blazing across Mexico with her padre. Read about it here.

While the cupcake frosting was happening (I LOVE my friends), I decided that I wanted the baby picture boards after all, so Cowboy H and I got to work.

Up next: the morning-of prep and Mama H loses the ring!


*The term rehearsal dinner is used very loosely here, because basically we just had everyone who attended the rehearsal head over to my parents' house so we could feed them. We had a Mexican taco/burrito bar and beer and sodas. We all got to relax and catch up and hang out. There were NO toasts, no speeches, no formalities. Kinda like the rest of the wedding festivities!

Thanks to Cassie for taking the photograph of the rice!

A Day at the Park

I know, I know. Y'all are thinking, 'This woman is crazy. Here she is 6 months behind on editing and sharing a million other photos, and she goes and posts even more photos'.

But truth be told, I've made progress! Last night I made it completely through my first round of editing all the Yosemite photos. Whoot whoot! The second round will be much quicker, that I can assure myself. Also, my computer didn't crash while editing, another reason to celebrate! I'm also diligently uploading as many wedding photos as possible each day, and hey, I even started telling you about it again!

But really, do I need any excuse to show you guys gratuitous puppy photos?

What's up, Huey?

A little while ago, Cowboy H and took the doggies to the park for the first time. I believe this was the weekend we got the new couches and cleaned the carpets, and the pupparoos had been neglected all weekend. And locked outside overnight. Oh, the horror! Unacceptable!

They thought they had died and gone to heaven. Doggie heaven, of course.

They ran and ran and ran and ran and ran.

They tried to take out Mama H.

They smothered Cowboy H with love.

Really, there's not much out there that's better than puppy love.

Except for maybe puppy smooches.

Monday Motivation, Week 5

1. Yosemite Photos
2. Wedding Photos
3. Bracelets
4. See if I can get my pea coat tailored
5. Find overnight horse boarding for next week.

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: The Making of the Dress

Light years ago, I started telling you about the wedding. Then I had technical difficulties, and physical difficulties, and emotional difficulties including adopting too many animals.

But the wedding stuff is back!

In my last wedding related post, I promised to tell about cupcakes and foods next but let's just pretend that I never said that.

Cause I want to talk about my dress!

I found a dress online, and of course it was a designer dress which would have cost pretty much our entire wedding budget, but I was hooked. It was exactly what I wanted: NO sparkles or beading whatsoever, solid lace (for the country look) and atypical neckline (I HATE strapless). Then, I remembered a friend had had her wedding dress made by her mother-in-law. I made a call, and another call, then another call, and finally had an appointment to see if they could actually make the dress.

They could!

I would also like to mention that the shop was right-smack in between my workplace and my home. That's fate, I'd say!

The seamstress created the dress from scratch, meaning she drew the design herself, working entirely from a few pictures I had brought in. She began by cutting a rough outline out of some basic fabric and pinning it together on me. This was going to be her actual pattern, the same as the paper pieces you get when you buy a sewing pattern at a store.







And yes, those are blue un. der. pants. I'm classy like that. And not very smart.

The second-go-round I wore better un. der. pants. And got to wear the real deal. I present: 'The Many Faces Of Mama H Trying On Her Wedding Dress'











The third (and final!) fitting came one week before the wedding. This was when it really sunk in. While the dress still needed a little tweaking, it fit perfect and was sooooo comfortable. As you can tell, I was pretty dang excited. Or maybe you can't tell. I just make weird faces.















Most importantly, I could sit in it! Although, I don't remember sitting at all during the wedding...

VICTORY!!!

So, this post was going to start an entirely different way, but just as I opened up the 'New Post' window, Oz jumped onto Cowboy H who was on the recliner and dropped his "prize" right in his lap.



He was very very proud of himself.



And I'm very very proud of him!



Victory has been had. Mama H is free from the GIANT lizard under her couch. And Oz has been redeemed as the most useful cat at the Homestead.

Editor's Note: I would like to add that the lizard is not nearly as big as I originally thought. It's just, the tail is sooo long. A tail that was left laying on my living room floor this morning with nary a body in sight. Love, Mama H

GIANT

There is a GIANT lizard under my couch. Well, I'm not sure if he's (it most definitely is a male) under the couch anymore, but he's in the house.

Last night, Cowboy H and I sat down on the NEW couch to eat dinner on the NEW tv trays. When I sat down, I pushed the ottoman/coffee table out from the couch a little bit.

Cowboy H says, "Look at that" and casually motions towards the base of the ottoman.

And there, sticking out from under, was the tail and back-end of a GIANT lizard. I mean, this sucker is HUGE. I have never seen a lizard that big before. At least, not a normal backyard lizard.

The sucker must have heard us talking about him, cause he quickly pulled his hinney under the ottoman and out of sight. Hank caught on, and spent our entire dinner-time circling the ottoman with his nose glued to the ground. At one point, he (Hank) darted from the ottoman to the back of the couch and stayed there sniffing loudly, which is how I can to the conclusion that the lizard is under my couch.

So, before bed, I had a little talk with all the kitties (well, not Olivia because she's worthless for catching anything), letting them know I excepted a big ole GIANT DEAD lizard in the middle of the kitchen floor the next morning.

But, alas, there was no DEAD lizard. Which means, there is a still very much alive GIANT lizard under my couch.

And I have THREE pretty much worthless cats.

Pitfalls of a Pasture Horse

When your horse lives on pasture with 6 other mares...

And your horse has major attitude and refuses to be the bottom rung...

And they introduce 2 new members to the pasture...

And your horse is extremely food motivated...

You find this:



Here, let me put my man-hand in there for reference:



And then there was this:


A cankle!

And this:


Inside and right above the hock on the cankle leg

And worst of all, this:



Here, let me pick the scab off for you:


Eeeewwwwww...

Sigh. This was about two weeks ago. Fortunately, the swelling was only caused by soft tissue trauma, i.e. getting kicked and the tendon itself was not damaged. It took about a week for it to go away completely, but she was never lame during that period. The gash (from a kick) healed fairly nicely, and hardly a scar is visible. The rake on her haunches is another story; the hair has just now started growing back in!

Monday Motivation, Week 4

1. Frontline the dogs (and cats)
2. Write and mail 2 thank you notes that were forgotten
3. Yosemite photos, nuff said
4. Wedding photos onto Flickr, these are going to take forever, the files are so large they load so slowly!
5. Buy a new collar for my dog, since Hank ate it

Outtakes

The Desert Rose gave an official post and showed all the proper photos of this windy day in the desert a while back. But, in celebration of her moving back to the desert shortly, and in celebration of both Cowboy H and I getting to visit the PNW and escort Little Lady down south, I want to share a few of my own.

Enjoy!

Crossing It Off The List

With all the rain yesterday, I bailed out of going to the gym and instead headed home to curl up next to a fire and drink hot apple cider.

And edit photos.

Story of my life.

I'm not going to complain about the rain; I honestly can't remember the last time it rained in October. I would be fairly content if it continued raining for the rest of the week. The dogs, however, are not so convinced.

Anyways, after building a fire, making some hot apple cider and letting the poor shivering wet doggies in the house, I settled in and edited away.



Cowboy H and I have some city-folk friends. We are, in their eyes, a novelty. We have tools, and animals, and fire places, and horses, and cowboy boots. They have a four year old son. We (meaning Cowboy H) can chop wood and lay tile and hammer nails and drive screws with a drill and ride horses. They have cable and a big-screen TV and a four-year old son.



We met this family about two years ago, and have watched their boy evolve from a barely talking two-year old into an almost-as-big-as-his-mama chatterbox. Who wants to be a cowboy.



No joke. Backwards Dodgers ball cap and all. Right after I took this photo, he pulled his cap from his head, swung it around in the air, and yee-hawed. His mother almost died. I rejoiced.



His parents divulged that his FAVORITE song is Toby Keith's "I Shoulda Been a Cowboy". Well, truth be told, little guy, you still can be a cowboy.



Cowboy H will show you the ropes.



And Mama H will document the whole process.



However rough it may be.



There ya go!



That's how its done!







You got em!



Besides riding horses and roping cows, real cowboys have to handle livestock. Which, judging by the "petting zoo" at the Fair, is not an easy task.



Being that Cowboy H and I are the country folk, we escorted the kids into the battlefield. Cowboy H had to put a few goats back into their rightful places so that the kids could feed them in a reasonable amount of peace.







I think he's heading in the right direction. Now, we just have to get him on some real horses...

And get him a real cowboy hat...

(Other things I can cross off the list: getting well and picking pumpkins!)