Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday wishes to our friend, Dan the Man!

I hope Betty is feeling well enough for you two to go on an exciting date. We'll have to make you a birthday cake when you make it back. What's your favorite kind?

Prayer Requests

I'm holding off my party post and making this a prayer request post. We have two ladies, both amazing volunteers and people, who could use your thoughts and prayers right now.

Rosslyn is part of the fabulous Patrick and Rosslyn team who pour their hearts into taking care of our trees. They have personally dug the wells for about 95 trees, lined them with pavers that they donated, and watered them all twice a week for the past several weeks. These two people saw a need and went above and beyond meeting that need.

Rosslyn had a bad biking accident about a week ago where she broke her shoulder and her pelvis in two places! We know she's in a lot of pain right now. I saw an email Max wrote to Patrick teasing Rosslyn. Max said all she needed to do was say she wanted to quit watering the trees for a while--there was no need for her to go off and break things. Please pray for Rosslyn's speedy recovery.

Betty is another special person to Galloping Grace. She has helped with birthday parties, and is she ever patient! We love Betty so much. Her husband Dan has helped Max on several occasions with the horses. They are generous people who donate time and money to us, and I know we don't thank them often enough.

Betty had to have emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix in July while she and Dan were on vacation. (Pretty crummy way to spend a vacation.) The poor lady worked through that and started to feel better. Unfortunately, Betty has had a couple infections flare up since that time. She went on a strong antibiotic last week and thought she was well enough to continue with their second set of vacation plans. They left for Colorado to visit their son and family yesterday. After that, they were planning a trip through Wyoming and into Montana and finally into Alberta, Canada to meet up with friends. Dan sent me an email saying that Betty has experienced yet another infection and they have to cancel the remainder of their trip. Please pray that the newest, strongest dose of antibiotics has Betty feeling better in no time!

We firmly believe that being a volunteer is not a malediction. Regardless, the rest of you volunteers stay healthy and be safe!

Have a fantastic weekend.

Folks, We Finally Have Some Winners!

Can you believe it? Could you possibly still care?

For the months of May and June, I was pretty faithful in my use of a Dictionary.com Word of the Day word (delivered to my email inbox) in my posts. I wanted to hold my self accountable for actually reading and trying to retain the often silly, usually interesting little gems. Any time a person left a comment guessing the word of the day, their name was entered for the drawing to be held at the end of the month. May's winners were Regina, Dan, and Dena.

The end of June came and I couldn't bring myself to go back through comments and fill out entries. I had dinner to make, laundry to do, and company arriving shortly. (Oh yeah, and we were painting!) Are you wondering why I didn't just do it as the comments came in? I ask myself questions like that on a daily basis.

Because I mentioned last night that there would be some winners announced today, and because I ALWAYS follow through on such statements, I now have three winners. I feel so accomplished.

My little kiddos were more than excited to assist in this little game again. Claire got to select first because Brooke got to go first last time. Fair enough with just the right amount of logic. Claire took this job seriously. Was she ever proud when she saw that she picked out...

Lisa! Lisa is my great friend, Claire's great friend's mom, and the most faithful and great word guesser for the month of June. Congratulations, Lisa! I'd say you deserve first place this month--now what do you want? Amazon gift card, dinner on me at our next girls night out & a movie thrown in for extra fun, or maybe a Barnes and Noble card? You think on it and get back to me. Thank you for taking the time to guess and comment. You are one super cool friend.
Next up was Garrett. Garrett stirred the "pot" for about thirty seconds until I barked, "Just pick a name--my arms are getting tired holding up this camera!" (I'm so patient.) Would you believe Garrett also picked the lovely Lisa. Unfortunately, the official rules state that if I'm going to have a second and a third prize winner because I cannot stand only one person to win, the first place winner will not be considered for a second or the third prize even if they are picked. Don't blame me, blame the person who made up the rules. I already told you not to blame me.

Lisa, your second prize is the acknowledgement that you had so many correct guesses that you were picked twice. How warm and fuzzy is that? Now the new second place winner is...

Dan the Man!!! How cool! He also won last month. He was the proud winner of a Starbucks gift card word five whole dollars! Here comes my brutal honesty. Dan's gift card is sitting on top of my dryer in an envelope labeled "Dan the Man." Here's why--I had it in my vehicle to take to him while he was volunteering one day at GG. I forgot to hand it over. I still had it in my vehicle another day to give to him while he was helping out on a birthday party at GG. I forgot again. I brought it in my house to put in another envelope and then place it in the mail because I cannot trust myself or my pathetic memory. Hmm, anyone surprised that hasn't happened? I just got to thinking about something cool. I think I wasn't meant to remember because Dan wasn't through winning. Now I can put both gift cards to Starbucks worth five whole dollars each and take his lovely bride of 41 years for a cup of coffee. It would have been so sad for Dan to greedily gulp down his cup of java while Betty looked on in jealousy. Plus, sweet Betty is recovering from an emergency appendectomy performed while they were on vacation, and I'm sure she would like something special for herself!! Who knew she would ever get so lucky to score a gift card so magnificent? Dan, please share with Betty. And if you don't like coffee like I don't like coffee, regift them as I did. Or go eat a yummy danish. Or drive by a Starbucks drive through and hand them off to a sad looking person in line and make their whole day. Or have your own contest on your blog and hand them out as GRAND PRIZES. (Note to self--find out if Dan drinks coffee.) Congratulations, Dan (& Betty.)

Brooke picked last because Brooke picked first last time, remember?

She reached her grubby little hand (she'll love that comment) in that hat and pulled out....Andrea! Andrea is a new friend of mine from blog world. (Love all you blog world friends!) She has a great horse blog and beyond adorable children. I think it would be neat to meet her someday in real life. She has mentioned that she has always dreamed of working cattle, and we have plenty of cattle to work! Destiny!

Unlike myself, Andrea actually rides horses on a regular basis and knows things and stuff. I like to check in with her and soak up terms to throw around later for all you unsuspecting souls. It's too bad my memory is poor and I forget which terms to use. You can read her yourself if you're looking for more reasons to veg out in front of your computer. I, myself, don't waste time like that. There are lunges and sit-ups to do, weeds to pick, and children's minds to enrich. Andrea, email me at maxandmichelle@aol.com so that I can have your address to mail you a gigantic gift card to Target for five whole dollars!

Full disclosure time again. Brooke just came in the office and saw a name that got left out of the hat. Dear friend, Rhonda, we left you out. And because I know you like coffee (I've seen you drink it!), I will buy you a cup at the next girls night! We regret the error.

Congratulations to the three lucky winners. I will leave you with a list of the words I used. Feel free to use them as you wish.

June Words:

objurgating

patina

capacious

patrician

dilatory

maelstrom

defenestrate

apprised

ruminate

acumen

raconteur

prinking

pin money

tarradiddle

harridan

claque

minatory

forgo

cadge

lambasting

lionizing

fetters

What beautiful little creatures they are!

Party Time

We had the last of the donated parties on Saturday morning, and it went off without a hitch. I think that has a lot to do with this amazing group of people pictured above! These were the volunteers who donated their Saturday to helping with the party. Cathie, Carri, Marvin, Taylor, Dan, Betty, Darren and Trish--thank you so very much!! Also, thanks to my stone cold fox hubby (Sam, we're lovin' that title!) and my sweet daughters. We think the birthday girl had a good time. Isn't she sweet? Her name is Lauryn and she turned five on Friday. We were happy to have her, her family, and friends out celebrating with us. They were a happy, cooperative group who were nothing but appreciative and kind. Seriously, groups like these make us want to have birthday parties on a regular basis. I heard that it was going to be pretty breezy, but the weather turned out to be perfect. There was a slight breeze during the whole party that helped cool us from the heat. It's an odd day when I do not want to complain about the weather. I need to work on my whining. I'll try... starting tomorrow.
This little girl was adorable. She was so excited seeing the horses. "Hor-see! Hor-see!" I just loved her. Little Sophie loved petting and being near the horses, but she had no interest riding them. Fine with us. It's like I've said before, the ranch means different things to different people. If only everyone was so easy to please.
Dan and Betty were our round pen wranglers. They gave pony rides on Red and BB.

They both have a great way with children. They're calm and loving and fun. We are blessed to have their help!
Cathie and Trish lead the horse painting and grooming station. That's a big job. It takes a lot of reminding to keep little ones from walking behind the horses. They both camped out by the Cochise's back end to add a little extra measure of protection. Here you can see Trish and Claire helping the girls find just the right paint color. They took it pretty easy on Ol' Cochise. He's had much worse in the past. While I was talking to Marvin (pictured below) earlier today, he griped and said that he wants Cochise to stop being painted. He is the horse Marvin always wants to ride, and he gets a little embarrassed that Cochise is often so colorful. I think Marvin secretly loves the fact Cochise looks so fancy! Marvin helps us with anything and everything at GG. Yesterday he was the grill master cooking those hot dogs to perfection! Today he went out and fed the horses. What a guy!
I often wonder if the horses ever get a little taste of paint while innocently chomping away on their hay. Sorry if you do equine buddies, it's just such a good place to set up the crafts.

Taz was a trooper in the arena once again. It's the perfect place for Carri, because she seems to have energy oozing out of her pores. She leads children around in that deep sand for an hour and a half and still has energy to burn. I should probably find out what she eats.

Cute,

cute,
and more cute!

This is Lauryn's little sister Brooke. My Brooke reacted every time one of the guests said her name. I had a good time watching that. Oh, can I ever relate. I think about every other girl of the seventies was also named Michelle. There were smiling faces all over the place.

This dad was a man after my own heart. Every time I saw him he had a camera of one type or another in his hand. Isn't that why we have parties for our children--for the pictures and video? Oh, and the happiness of our children. Of course.

I think I've ruminated about this party long enough. Lauryn and gang, that's for making this party so easy and fun. We hope to see you all back out sometime soon.

Thankful Thursday

We had another incredible day. The weather was pretty perfect and the volunteers were even better. There were quite a few, and it's getting really late, so I'm going to highlight one tonight and then maybe talk about the other awesome people tomorrow night. (I know you've stopped believing me a long time ago. I don't blame you.)

Dan Cooksey and his wife Betty are new friends of ours, and we're so happy about that. Their pastor told them about Galloping Grace and what we were trying to start. They came out to meet us in February during our big work day, and we've been enjoying them ever since. We've corresponded via email for the last two months, and we had a very nice lunch with them last week. They were trying to find out what plans we had for the Youth Ranch, and what they might be able to do to help.

They have already volunteered their time, money, and talents to us.
You should see the beautiful saddle they gave to the Ranch and all the tack. Too bad I didn't take a picture of that.

Max and I feel they are great role models for us because they are very strong Christians, and they know a lot about horses. We are looking forward to learning from them.
Dan volunteered to help Max work the horses on a weekly basis. Max was so happy about this--the more work the horses get, the better. Last Thursday Dan came out for the first time to work and it was miserably windy. The gusts were out of control. This is why there are no pictures of that day. Why would I come out in weather like that? Today the conditions were ideal which makes for clearer pictures. You weren't thinking I was afraid of messing up my hair, were you?

Dan did a lot of round pen work. I guess this is pretty essential in training the horses. Max loves watching his horse training DVDs almost as much as he loves reading about worms on the Internet. That should tell you something. I guess Dan has watched his own share of DVDs and attended quite a few training seminars. Dan had Blue responding in a hurry. I love to watch the horses follow without a lead rope. I think the point of these particular exercises is to teach the horse to become submissive to the human. Something about herd mentality. I sure wish Max wasn't peacefully sleeping away in bed right now while I blog. I could really use some help with the technical aspects of this particular post. For the rest of this entry, I will continue to bluff my way through. Just know that a lot of what I type isn't accurate--at all. That being said, Dan is trying to get Blue to flex his neck. This is really important for....for reasons. It helps in a pretty good way. Dan explained it to me as I clicked away. What has happened to my memory? My comprehension? Should I really blame my four children for everything?

From what I remember, this is a pretty good flex. I think it could be better, but Blue was doing a fairly good job allowing his neck to be pulled that far.

Before Max stumbled off to bed, I heard him mutter how good it was that Dan got Blue's neck all the way down. Yep, looks fantastic to me. I'm sure that's really important. If only I knew why.Dan, thanks for coming out to help with the horses. You were fun to have around and an excellent trainer, I'm sure of it! You are more than welcome back next week and the week after and the week after that!