Ponzer, NC

Storm & I (and lots of other horses and horse folk) spent all day Saturday in Ponzer, NC. What is in Ponzer, you might ask? Nothing. A gas station, appropriately named "The Store", lots of farm land, hunting camps and a little trail ride we decided to attend.

It was the 3rd Annual "Thumbs Up" trail ride- we quickly found out just before taking the trails. Our "trail boss" held her hand up, as if to do the thumbs up sign...but had no thumb. She explained that the first year they hosted the ride, she lost her thumb. Glad we're starting on a positive note, I thought to myself.

Sometimes you just have to rock out with your spurs out...

This is part of our group- waiting for our thumbless trail boss...something we did most of the ride.

One of my favorite parts of the ride was taking the horses out into the Intracoastal Waterway for a swim. Here are some of my favorite gals letting their horses cool off in the waterway.

Mandy & I- taking a self portrait while our horses were stuffing their bellies.
(Thanks for being such a great friend, Mandy! ♥ you!)

After the ride we took the horses all the way out into the waterway for a real swim. Storm & I were both drenched from our heads to our toes/hooves. It is an incredible feeling to have a horse trust you enough to take swimming- to feel him swim under your body. Only real horse people would understand the adrenaline rush you get the first time. :)

Storm's previous owners attended the trail ride, as well. They were amazed at all we (me & him) have accomplished over the last few months.

*I will post more pictures as I get them...there is one that I'm dying to see of me, Storm, Mandy & Ace in the waterway while a huge sailboat passes us.

City to City

Whew...the last few days went by too quick! 

From Chicago we went on to Milwaukee, Wisconsin...

• I got a speeding ticket...on guess what highway? Eden Expressway...right after paying a toll at Eden Spur. (80 in a 65...if you must know.)
• We spent the night in the hotel where Jeffery Dahmer killed one of his earlier victims. I slept surprisingly well- although I felt like all the workers in the hotel were creepy and robotic. (They had Aveda shampoo...I was particularly thrilled about that.)
• Ate TGIFriday's in Miller's Park/Brewer's Stadium.

From Milwaukee to Detroit, Michigan...

• I drove the exact speed limit for the entire 7 hour drive. I cursed as literally every car zoomed past us.
• I sneezed through 3 states.
• We ordered the best room service dinner I've ever had in my life- after the show. Homemade French Onion soup like you wouldn't believe!

From Detroit to Cinncinati, Ohio...

• Again, I drove the exact speed limit for the entire 4.5 hour drive. And again...cursed as literally every car zoomed past us. (I hope they all got speeding tickets too!)
• We stayed at a gorgeous hotel...that must've been 100+ years old. I was sad to be informed that it would only be open for another 2 weeks.
• I finally ate at a Steak'n'Shake! (I know...the whole no red meat thing is kind of off. Eh well.) It was incredible! The burgers...the shakes- Oh My God. It's a good thing we don't have one anywhere near us or I'd eat there for literally every meal.

From Cinncinati to the OBX...

• I woke up after only 2 hours of sleep...and seriously considered switching my flight to the next city on the La Coka tour. The thought of seeing Little Miss in roughly 7 hours made me get out of bed...
• The rental shuttle dropped me off in the Cinncinati Airport terminal for US Airways...but there were no signs directing me where to find US Airways. There were also no people in the airport.
• While I looked around, praying for someone to come help me...my duffle bag's shoulder strap broke on both sides. How does that happen at the same exact time!? After I gathered my bag, I finally found out where to find US Airways.
• My flight to Charlotte was uneventful...except for my ears filling up and refusing to pop until this morning.
• While I was waiting for my connecting flight to Norfolk, my mom called and informed me that their neighbors doghouse had caught fire...and if they hadn't been getting up early to come get me from the airport- the flames could've caught fire to the neighbors house, as well as my parents house. (The dogs are fine, thankfully!)

I think that's about all the fun stories I have from my trip!

Oh...and since I failed to mention how incredible La Coka's shows were (it really goes without saying)...here are a few pictures-

I'm An American

Today Little Miss and I spent the morning at the aquarium with my daddy. It was lovely. :)

"Does anyone else see the giant alligator behind me"

"Kisses to that adorable baby!! Oh, that's me!"

Check out the octopus hat...how cute is Little Miss? We hoped to find an octopus in the aquarium but were sad to find that he'd just passed away a few days ago..:(

First Class Stinks! (Literally)

“The grass is always greener on the other side.”

My Daddy used to tell me this a lot when I was little. I always appreciated everything I had growing up- and still do. But there were times when my friends would have things that I didn’t and an ounce of jealousy would get sprinkled on top of the appreciation. He would always break it down for me- “You have a horse…you have both parents…you have, etc. Would you trade even one of those things, for what they have?” Never.

I was reminded of this yesterday during my flight(s) out to Casper, WY. I had two layovers, one in Cincinnati and one in Salt Lake City. Both were hardly layovers, as I had to run across the airport to catch both my flights…leaving just enough time to catch my breath before taking off.

When I got onto the plane in Cincinnati, I turned to the right- as always…and started looking for my seat number- 3A.

What? Why are these seats in the 20s and going up?

The flight attendant could see the confusion on my winded face and offered her assistance.

Oh, Ma’am…you are in first class.

REALLY? Are you sure?!

I’d never flown first class before so I immediately got super excited. (And also immediately thought “This has to be a mistake. But, whatever!”) I put down my bag and sat in the enormous (and comfy) seat. The flight attendant got me something to drink and I settled in for takeoff. I wondered if I’d ever want to fly in coach again, considering all the leg room and accommodations. That thought was halted when the person seated next to me arrived.

Let me just say…the grass might be greener- but that doesn’t mean a hill of beans if it smells like pure shit. This older lady smelled horrible. I’m not sure if she had a chronic gas problem or what but- it was impossible for me to breath the entire 3 hours. Honestly, I thought I was going to throw up. (And let this be known…the hot towels they give you up there, only made the smell worse.)

Aside from the odor, my other first class companions had absolutely no personality. In fact, they looked at me like “Why is this young, skinny, bitch in first class? Ugh, she is in jeans…” I made an attempt to bite the bullet and speak to Mrs. Stinky-Britches and she mumbled an answer and looked away. However, she had no problem chatting it up with Mr. Dick Snobby in the opposite row. (He was clearly not in nose-shot of her.)

I have never appreciated a tini-ini coach seat more than when I got on my connecting flight in Salt Lake City. It was a pleasure to sit in the cramped seat, next to a normal person and smell nothing but jet fuel.

New York, New York!!

Tuesday morning we woke up in Allentown, PA…ironically parked directly in front of the towns numerous drug treatment/half-way house facilities. (Nothing like some strung out hecklers to start the day off right!) I was looking forward to this day in particular because we had a friend driving in from NY to pick us up right after the show and take us home! It would be the first night we’d slept in our bed, in our house in over a month!

Of course, we weren’t home long enough to really enjoy it. Honestly, it felt like a dream most of the time. Little Miss was confused to no end. She kept looking at her toys in the toy boxes and saying “Baby? Baby?”…as if to say, “A baby lives here? Where is she?” It was cute. She was not thrilled as thrilled as I was about the idea of sleeping in her own bed, in her own room. I tried and tried until I brought her into our comfy bed and made an attempt to bribe her to go to sleep. It felt like the alarm went off minutes after we all shut our eyes. But it turns out that a couple hours of sleep in a real bed, is just as restful as 12 hours in a bunk on wheels.

My hubby had to go shoot a video before the show started, so Little Miss, my MIL and I took advantage of Central Park! We had lunch right beside the park and then headed for the green grass! The weather was gorgeous and since it was a weekday, there weren’t herds of people in the park like usual.

After we walked around for a few hours, we decided to go to one of my favorite Central Park spots, the zoo. I love going to this zoo in particular because it isn’t so enormous. You can easily cover the whole zoo in a few hours and all of the exhibits are incredible. (Plus, the petting zoo rocks!!)

We started out by the sea lions, who were being fed their dinner. Perfect timing!

Then we made our way over to the snow monkeys.

My little monkey…learning a few tricks from the real monkeys. (And trying to keep the sun out of her eyes, it was crazy bright in this area of the zoo.)

As I mentioned, we’ve been to this zoo several times and we always miss the Red Panda. He tends to like to hide, apparently. But not today!

& here’s Little Miss looking at the Red Panda…

My favorite part of the zoo is the polar bear exhibit. We only saw one of the two bears but- he definitely put on a show for us.

“Who wants to snuggle?”

He even got his blankey out…

Check out how big his paws are…and his teeth!!

After we watched Mr. Polar Bear for a good hour, we rushed over to the children’s zoo to get a few minutes of goat/pig/llama/sheep/pig/cow petting and feeding in before the zoo closed. My daddy always jokes on my MIL about pigs because they are a very non-kosher animal. So we thought it would be a cute idea to take a picture of her with the pigs for him. Here you go, Daddy!

Since we were well on our way to getting kicked out of the zoo, I didn’t get any shots of Little Miss feeding the animals. However, she did such a good job with them that the grounds keeper did let us feed them some extra pellets. Here is who we fed…

We had a wonderful day back in NY. Even thought it was a quick trip, it was great to be home and great to spend such a gorgeous day with a couple of wonderful gals in the park!

…see, not all of NYC is skyscrapers.

The show last night was great. It’s very interesting to me to see how different crowds are in each city. Last night was definitely a NYC crowd.

We’re in Worcester, Massachusetts today- and so far the most exciting thing that has happened is that someone came and picked up our laundry for us!

Home, Sweet...Bus

I was so happy to see that big red bus sitting in front of the Omaha International Airport waiting for us when we got off our plane this morning.

It may sound silly...but I missed it! We have been on it so much in the last month that it really feels like our home away from home. And get this...I even unpacked already!!

We started our journey out to Nebraska at approximately 3am this morning. My daddy (Southern girls always call their fathers 'daddy'...no matter how old they are)...was kind enough to wake up and drive us up to Norfolk to catch our 6am flight. We used my navigation device to make sure we wouldn't miss any exits on the way to the airport. I should've know this was going to be a sight- my dad vs. the navigation. He talked back to her the entire drive to Virginia. And proceeded to argue with her as she took us through backroads. I had to laugh at him- because through all the arguing, he didn't miss a single turn that she suggested we take. ;)

We had a short layover in Cleveland, which is gave me just enough time to question somethings that go on in airports.

-Security...I'm glad they're there...but why are they all jackasses? I have water in my Little Miss's bottle...and I ask security "Do you have to test this? Because if you do, I'll just pour it out to save time."...and they say "No, it's fine." Yet, once it goes through the xray machine they snatch it away from me and tell me they must test it- it's a regulation...because I said it was water. ?!?!

-Why is it that the automatic toilets (in airports especially) flush 100 times when you are sitting on them, using them...but when you stand up and need them to flush, they refuse?! (AND...why when they flush and you are sitting on them- are they flushing so forcefully that it gets my entire ass wet? Unpleasant.)

-Birds inside airports...how do the get there? Are they ever able to get out? Little Miss and I fed a little Mama Ren bird today...I found it odd that she ate the egg of my sausage, egg and cheese biscuit.

That's all for now :) XOs!

How Sweet It Is

...that's what the sign reads as you enter Brooklyn via the Verrazano Bridge. And last night, after driving over eight hours it was soooo sweet to see that sign.We had been down in North Carolina for almost two weeks...two wonderful weeks, filled with nothing but absolute joy- and lots of amazing food. As you can see from the flickr pictures on the right, Little Miss B got to go horseback riding several times- and learned several new words during our visit...one of them being "Daisy"- the name of her favorite horse, the other one being "Gan'Daddy". (Luckily, she said "Gan'Daddy" first!) My dad's face just beamed when he heard such a big word come out of that little mouth.
Since we were fortunate enough to spend so much time in NC this time, we had the opportunity to see damn near everyone in the county. The first weekend we were there we ventured down to Swan Quarter to see my Grandmom, Aunt, Uncle and my cousins. Almost a month ago, my grandmom, Mama Clair, fell in her driveway and has had a hard time recuperating. Since she lived alone (well, with her 30lb cat) at the time, she is staying with my Aunt and Uncle until she feels more like herself. It was hard to see her not moving around. I was amazed at how much she looked like her mother- something that I never really noticed before. We spent the day with her- and she couldn't have been happier to have all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchild all together. It was great to see all my cousins- but this was really the first time my cousin, Mandy and I had gotten a chance to just chat it up with each other in quite some time. Aside from looking shockingly alike...to the point that both Mama Clair and Aunt Donna called me Mandy at least twice- we have such similar personalities, I just love her.
Christmas day Mom fixed enough food for a small army and it was all so good. It was sad to look around at our one full table of people eating Christmas dinner. I thought back to when I was little...our house was always packed with family. We had multiple tables full of people stuffing their faces inside our house and outside. This Christmas had its own excitement, watching Little Miss eat her turkey and squish the jello salad through her fingers...but it also had memories of Christmas pasts- with loved ones who have gone on. I had to fight back tears when I took pictures of my aunt playing with Little Miss's Christmas toys with her. I'm amazed at her strength each day- but especially on days like Christmas.
After Christmas we got to visit with another set of cousins that I hadn't seen since last Christmas...and that turned into a reunion down at the marina in Wanchese. (There is no place like the Wanchese Marina for burgers...or chicken sandwiches, mmm) It was great to visit with Tabb- I just wish we would've had more time together. We bonded over babies, blogging and those incredible chicken sandwiches, haha. I could not believe how tall Dawson has gotten...one thing that never changes about that little one is how sweet he is. He is the most respectable little boy I have ever been around. Again, I just wish I had gotten to spend more time with them...but hopefully that will just push them on up to NYC for a visit!! ;) (hint, hint)
It was such an enjoyable trip. Even though the drive home was long- it was fun as well. We spent most of the trip just talking, while the munchkin napped and watched her movies. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family...both here and in NC. (and VA ;))

Sharks & Otters & Alligators...Oh MY!

Welcome to the Roanoke Island Aquarium! (Featuring one of the largest ocean tanks on the East Coast!)

Little Miss Alligator Mama (left)

The otter tank- they were so happy to see people, they were showing off for us. (We were the ONLY people in the entire aquarium!) (right)

Snapping turtles- I bet you didn't know that they can attack an alligator, and win! (left)

A Cottonmouth-water moccasin having dinner. (These poisonous fellas are commonly found in wetlands...ie: my parents backyard.) (right)

 

I'm not sure who had more fun...us or the little one.

 

Shark tank!

Sting Ray/Horseshoe crab petting tank. Don't fall in!