A product review! Good Girl!

So I've never done a product review on my blog before.  That tells you that this product must be pretty darn amazing.  It really is and I can't say enough about it.  This product has changed our household and our family. 

From the title, you may think that I am talking about myself with the "Good Girl".  Not even close.  The product I want to rave about today is the "Good Girl collar" made by the GoodBoy Company.  Link to the product here:  Good Girl collar

If you were to go to the page on Amazon, you would see that this is a collar designed to help you stop your dog from barking.  If you have visited my house at all in the past 4 years, you know that this is a very real problem in our house.  We love our little Pixie Dust, but she loves the sound of her own voice way too much. 

It isn't all her fault.  She was a very good puppy and I left her home with my ex-boyfriend to train.  Yeah, the one who virtually never left my house as he was unemployed and home all the time, seemed like a good option to train a puppy.  He trained her all right.  Trained her to bark that is.  It was oh so cute to howl and make noises and get her to barking.  Okay, so admittedly it was pretty cute.  But it progressed as an adult to the point that if anyone dared to sing out loud or even goof off and start talking loudly, she gets to howling and barking.  He also seemed to think it was really cute to teach her to bark when people came over.  When someone would knock or ring the doorbell the barking would be encouraged with "Who's here?" or "Get 'em, Pixie."  And yeah - we laughed because, awww the little 4 lb dog thinks she is so ferocious.  Except it got to the point where the commercials with doorbell sounds on them sent her into a fit of barking that didn't stop. 

As a family we were at our wit's end.  We like to host family gatherings and every single time someone new would arrive Pixie would go into a barking fit that lasted several minutes, despite us yelling no, picking her up, even swatting her.  New Year's Eve was the final straw - it was nearly constant barking that drove us and our guests crazy.  So the week following, I searched Amazon.  I'm not going to lie, when I first started searching I was looking for a shock collar.  I know some people are wildly against them, but at this point I was desperate. 

The problem is this.  Pixie is supposed to be a long haired chihuahua, but everyone from vets, strangers and her groomer agree that she is much more likely at last part yorkie.  Whatever the case, she is tiny; like 4 pounds tiny.  The smallest rated shock collar was for a 7 lb dog and I hated the thought of how much that would hurt a dog nearly half that size.  Yes we joked about how it would probably cure the problem pretty quickly but I could not have done that to Pixie (or any dog).  During my search I did come across this anti-barking collar called the GoodBoy collar.  So I did a little research.

This collar is NOT a shock collar, it is a vibration collar.  It causes no physical harm to the dog, just vibrates.  You can not just put the collar on and expect the dog to figure it out.  You have to train the dog to associate the warning tone (it gives warning tones 2-3 times before actually giving the vibration) with the command "NO!".  The collar was rated for a dog 7 lbs and up, but not because it may harm the dog, but they didn't feel it would get small enough for a dog less than that. I looked up with reviews and of course, as always, there were a few negative.  However, overwhelming the responses were very positive.  Complete with the "you saved my dog" type acclamations.  I became determined that I could make this collar fit Pixie and ordered one. 

It arrived in a tiny little box.  I'm not going to lie - I was blown away by how tiny the box was and couldn't imagine that anything from that box would actually work on Pixie.  But I was determined, remember.  So I opened it up and was pleased with how sturdy the collar looked and how cute it actually was.  The collar comes in "boy blue" and "girl pink" so Pixie's collar says "Good Girl" and is pink.  With very little finagling and only a little cutting and burning of the new rough edges, I had that collar fitted to Miss Barksalot and ready to try out. 

For the first 24 hours you just leave the collar turned off and let the dog get used to it.  She got used to it really quickly, only shaking her head a few times.  The next day I nervously turned it on.  It wasn't long before I had a chance to see if it worked when someone came home.  She went to bark and the collar gave a loud warning beep.  I can't lie, I giggled hysterically because her reaction was to start spinning in circles trying to figure out where that sound was coming from.  She barked again and got another tone.  Meanwhile I was telling her no and when she barked the next time and got the vibration she immediately ran away from the door and jumped up by me at the table.  From that point on we worked on training her by putting her in situations she would normally bark and giving her the no command.  Every single time she has stopped barking within one, possibly two barks since. 

GoodBoy collar fixed my dog and saved all of our sanity!  We do feel bad that she isn't able to bark in play anymore and would love for there to come a time when that would be possible.  However, it is a small trade off for having her not bark nonstop at anyone that comes to our home, including each and every one of us!  It's truly amazing.  She is a whole new dog.  She still gets excited and whines when we get home, but no constant barking!  It's so quiet and wonderful. 

The only downfall to the collar is that even when she sneezes she gets the warning tone.  I have read on the directions that you can turn the sensitivity down, which is something we will likely be doing in the next few days now that she is fairly trained to keep quiet. 

So as far as reviews go, I love this product.  It allows me to have a amazing, loving, little dog without all the ear splitting annoying barking that drove us crazy.  We have our house back and Pixie has proven that she can be taught!  Just needed the right motivation! 

A little something different - a poem

So... yeah, I write poetry.  And I don't share it.  Usually.  I've written very few over the years that I've been brave enough to share with anyone.  But sometimes words, thoughts and emotions aren't meant to be shared in the traditional sentence and paragraph form.

Blindsided
by Melissa Andring

You see him
Standing there
Out of the blue
It's been so long
You thought you were over it
But in that one breath you realize
You're not

Breathe

It's just him
He's just a person
But your pulse races
Your heartbeat echoing in your chest
Your stomach clenches
Your breathing speeds up, shallow
Why is he here?  He's not supposed to be here.  I'm not prepared.

Breathe

This isn't love
It's something darker
A monster clawing at your heart and head
Fear
Anxiety
Hurt
Memories crashing over you in waves

Breathe

Suddenly you're that girl
That weak
Scared
Girl
The one he called repulsive
And crazy
And you feel yourself sucked back into feeling... small

Breathe

Cold
So cold
Shaking
Stop shaking
Can't breathe
Every sound so loud
Why am I so cold?

Breathe

What to do?
Run
Hide
Is he watching?
Those extra pounds I can't lose
Why did I wear this?
I hate my hair

Breathe

You've got this
He doesn't control you
Breathe
Be strong
People are watching
Don't let the children see or know.

Breathe

Later
Home
Safe
The tears begin to fall
The walls crashing down
You let the hurt take over

Breathe

Strength
Bruised
Not broken
He can't hurt you now
If you don't let him
Remember
Remember he was wrong

Breathe

Let
It
Go
You're beautiful
You're wanted
You're a warrior
Survivor

Just breathe

Be like a glow stick

There is a story going around Facebook, more of a status that has been shared over and over.  I'm going to admit that I skimmed it pretty quickly, but the story was about a gal observing two little boys in a store.  The oldest boy was getting a pack of glow sticks and of course the younger brother saw this and wanted one.  The older boy gave his younger brother a glow stick and the little one was delighted.  Then the older brother took back the glow stick, not to be mean, but to snap it and make it glow.  The little brother was devastated about the loss of his glow stick until his brother returned it all shiny and beautiful.

The author of that status compared that situation to her own life.  She made the connection that, throughout her life, she went along thinking things were going pretty well, like the little boy with his dull glow stick.  But then there would be a rough patch in her life, a snap, a crack, to show her that things could be so much better.   I, too, could make this connection.

In the times since my divorce it has never ceased to amaze me how my life just keeps getting better.  It took some really awful times, that snap/crack to wake me up and show me how to make my life better.  I look back on the earlier versions of myself and kind of want to crawl in a hole and die of embarrassment.  But I also want to jump up and down and celebrate how far I've come since that person.  I used to be bitter, judgmental, angry and scared so much of the time.  I had all these walls up around myself that I refused to let anyone behind.  And I thought this was just how it was.  This was as good as it got. 

Marriage is an example.  I've probably talked about this a dozen times before, but I really had the wrong idea of marriage.  I thought it was supposed to be hard work.  Husbands complaining about their wives, wives complaining about their husbands.  Lack of physical intimacy, because really, wasn't that just young "puppy" love?  Escaping from each other with friends and hobbies. Arguing and compromising.  Lying, hiding, sneaking, frustrating, forgiving and asking for forgiveness.  I thought a lot of things about marriage and most of them were a load of crap.  But I thought it was just how marriage was.  I thought my marriage was fine.  It took that snap/crack to show me how wrong I was. 

And that snap/crack was a painful one.  It brought me to my knees more than once and forced me to take a long, hard look at myself and who I was.  Not just as a wife, but as a person as a whole.  Not surprisingly, I didn't like all that I saw.  So I had my work cut out for me to be a better person. 

Marriage can be and is so much better than that.  I know Tim and I are still new to this second marriage, but I honestly can't imagine life without my husband by my side.  I've never experienced this level of a partnership or this much love.  He's the person I can't wait to get home to and the person I can't wait to wake up next to.  It's wanting the other to be happy, even if it means not getting your way or not getting to be right.  It's having someone to talk to, bounce ideas off of, lift you up, be your person in your corner.  It's holding hands and kissing and.... (keeping it real here folks).  I'm sure we will have a real argument sometime - but part of the not arguing is being thankful for your partner and realizing that some of the little annoyances in life are just that - minor details. 

I could go on, but I guess how happy I am today isn't the real point of this blog.  The real point is this - the hardest times in our lives aren't the end.  They are the snap, the crack that means better things are coming.  What we need to do is learn from them and know that sometimes it just takes a little break to propel us toward the best. 

The horses are out!

There is nothing that inspires fear and action in a horse lover like those four words, "the horses are out."  This morning as we were all just starting to wake, I got that dreaded call and I have never seen a house react the way we did.  Faster the the word "fire" we were dressed and out the door, on the way to the barn.  The barn being 10 minutes away, it took everything in our power not to speed.  The horses being out on a quiet country road is one thing.  But the barn we board at is boarded on one side by busy highway 14 and the other by a railroad track and the town of Eyota.  I was a nervous wreck.

Tim being new to horses getting out, thankfully that has not happened in the past couple of years, did not know what we needed to do.  He suggested a bucket of grain, which wasn't a bad idea, but we went with halters.  The horses apparently had enough of their walkabout and were literally in the back yard of the house behind where they got out.  We pulled as close as we dared without spooking them, got out and started walking their way.  I said something along the lines of "China" and the three of them immediately came out from behind the house and trotted up to us. 

All the way up to us I'm going to admit I assumed they were going to dash by us and run for the hills.  Instead the three of them; Sully, China and Joker, ran right up to us and waited to be haltered.  I was so thankful they were such "good" horses.  Although the truly "good" horse was Peach as she stayed where she belonged.  Then what to do.  We didn't want to lead them back over the damaged fence.  We didn't want to lead them along highway 14.  That meant option C - lead them along the railroad tracks back to the main gate.  Which meant leading a two 3 year olds and a yearling over a railroad bridge, complete with the loose boards and sketchy creaking and gaps between the railroad ties, etc...  I did not think China would step one foot on there after hating the bridge in Forestville.  But with just a little coaxing she climbed right on and the other two followed right behind. 

Off we went along the tracks and back into their pasture.  All in all I was so happy with them.  I was proud of them being easy to catch, willing to walk across the scary bridge and cross country back to their pasture.  Despite being incredibly annoyed with them for getting out in the first place, they kind of redeemed themselves.  Until tonight. 

You see we made a mad dash to Rochester for fencing materials and spent a good part of the morning fixing fence.  And we thought we fixed all the spots that may have been a problem.  That new forcefield, aka, fenceline was so shiny and new and tight.  Only horse people know the satisfaction a shiny new fenceline brings.  I could have admired that fenceline for hours if it weren’t so darn cold.  We left them to their hay feeling confident.  It wasn’t until I was sitting down to supper and got that same damn call that I lost that confidence.  

We arrived in the pitch dark to find Sully and Joker standing peaceably beside our neighbors who had a rope looped over Joker’s neck and were just petting on Sully.  China, being the big naughty cow she is, was too big to fit through the new gap in the fence.  She paced the fenceline in annoyance.  Sully and Joker were haltered again and made the same trek across the same bridge, this time in the pitch dark, and back in they went. 

Then we got to fix more fence, again.  But this time in the pitch dark by the light of the Traverse headlights.  So we have fixed the fence, again.  And now we cross our fingers and hope the little buttholes quit playing hookey and park their butts at the round bale feeder like normal horses would.  

And hey- bridges shouldn’t be a problem from here on out.  

It's too cold

It's too cold.  Apparently that is a theme throughout the U.S. this week as a polar vortex plummets much of the country into temperatures much colder than they are used to.  But as a resident of the frigid, God forsaken state of Minnesota, "It's too cold" seems to have a different meaning than it does to some of my friends in much warmer climates.

I swear if I see one more person complaining about 20 degrees, or worse 40 degrees, I may lose my cool.  (Pun intended)  The windchills for the past week have been hovering around -30 here in MN.  The sun has been out, because yeah - it's too damn cold even for snow.  But if you have never felt a cold useless sun before, come visit MN.  The sun is doing very little right now to warm us here and it isn't up for long enough to do much good anyway.  We are Minnesotans, we are used to cold snaps, but this one has gone on, for what seems like, forever.

And for all the people who wonder why we can't just stay inside when it is cold so who cares anyway.  Yeah - that only works if you're a hermit and never need to leave for any reason.  Let's talk about what -30 means for real life people.

1.  Doing chores, even if you can somehow manage to run through them in under half an hour, means stopping in your car - that you leave running- to warm up your fingers and toes and the tiny little portion of your face visible to the elements.  Oh and don't think that we aren't wearing gloves.  In 10 minutes, even with gloves (or two pair) and hand warmers and wool socks - you start to lose feeling in those suckers.  Threads on social media in Minnesota are centered around topics like "What kinds of gloves actually work?" or "Are there any boots that keep your feet warm right now?".

2.  Speaking of chores - everything freezes.  Literally everything.  Water buckets freeze solid which requires banging on them or bringing them into somewhere warm to heat up enough to slide out giant blocks of ice.  Banging on them tends to result in broken buckets - so there starts to be piles of those.  Water heaters fail and stock tanks freeze solid.  (Yeah, that's fun.)  Even spring fed creeks freeze so you go out with your axe, pitchfork and other assorted tools to bust it open.  Sometimes the cops even stop by and question you when your pasture backs up to the city because he thinks you're a hoodlum out hiding behind the buildings smoking pot or something.  (Right Libby?)
Horses get cold so there is blanketing and taking off blankets and ripped blankets and buying blankets and dirty blankets and freaking blankets....
Latches, hooks and doors freeze, like solid.  So you blow on them, wrap them in your already freezing hands, push on them, shove on them, bang on them, and yes - curse at them.

3.  You cannot get warm.  At least I can't.  I can't remember the last time I felt really and truly warm.  My feet are always cold - even in socks or slippers.  I layer and layer and layer some more and still am cold.  I will sneak one hand out for a few minutes and then sneak the other one out for a few minutes.  Maybe I sit on the other hand in an effort to warm it up.  Even at night under blankets, sheets, comforters and quilts, I'm still cold.  Hot showers are great, but eventually you have to turn the water off and then... cold.

4.  The furnace is always running.  Which means the gas bill is always going... up... and up...

5.  Cars don't start.  And if you're lucky enough that your car does start you have to spend gas and time warming it up before you go anywhere.  Oh don't give me the "I saw somewhere that it doesn't hurt your car just to start it up and go".  Common sense tells me that is a lie.  And if I don't warm up my car before I leave, there is a good chance the interior temperature will not get above zero until I arrive at my destination.  I might as well be outside doing chores then.  Pretty sure law enforcement frowns on me driving with numb fingers and toes.  And for my car without remote start I have to do the mad dash out to start it, then back inside to wait.  Does a person get fully dressed before starting the car?  Of course not silly!  Because then you'd be standing inside, dressed like the Michelan man for 10 minutes waiting for the car to warm up.  And who wants to try to take their boots off and put them back on?  No one.  So you go out in your every day clothes, freeze solid and sprint back in to get dressed.  Which brings me to number 6.

6.  Getting dressed takes FOREVER... (cue flashback to The Sandlot).  One does not just "throw on a jacket" to go anywhere.  Getting dressed entails long underwear or leggings/tights under all pants and multiple layers (preferably with Cuddle Duds" on top; don't forget the wool socks.  Then scarves, head gear (hats or those oh so cute headbands), gloves or a couple of pairs, snowpants or some type of pant layer over the jeans/leggings, boots and pretty soon you can't move.  Oh and if you forgot something and have to take any of that crap off and start over, God forbid, you had better give yourself an extra 10 minutes before you need to be somewhere.  At our house we store most of our warm weather gear just outside the door in the garage.  This means bringing it in for a few minutes to warm up so every heat vent in the house is warming someone's gear.  This can be accomplished WHILE you wait for the car to warm up.

7.  It's too cold to do anything or go anywhere and half the stuff is cancelled or closed anyway.  You know what that means.  Eating.  Suddenly in the winter it seems like a good idea to chow your way through a pan of bars or lasagna.  One of the things I love to do in the winter when we are froze in, is bake.  It's warm with the oven going in the kitchen.  But that definitely has a downside.  Cookies, pies, puddings, bars, any form of dessert sounds amazing when you can't leave the house.

8.  Speaking of not being able to go anywhere, inside recess.  Any fellow teachers or people working in education can relate to the horrors that those two words bring.  Inside recess = high strung, wild, bouncy kids.  And we have days on end of inside recess ahead of us.

I could go on.  And yes, I know I sound like a negative whiner.  But when the positive side of winter is, "hey, I haven't seen a mosquito in weeks", I guess I'm more of a realist than a whiner.  I don't ski, ice skate, ice fish, or snowmobile.  So tell me again why I live in this state?  A little birdie even told me Alaska, heck the North Pole, was warmer than we were this week.  Why?  For the love of Pete, why?

Ponies are *not* the spawn of Satan

And I will keep arguing that point until my dying breath.  I am sick to death of hearing that statement every time someone asks on a social media platform if they should buy their child a pony or a horse.  Oh and that isn't the only one, "Ponies are short so they are closer to hell" or "Tell a gelding, ask a mare, pray if it's a pony".  Oh ha ha ha - you're so funny, but guess what?  You're also missing out on something truly great and the worst part is, you're convincing others that are asking for honest advice all the wrong things. 

I love the excuse "in my experience".  What is your experience?  You had a naughty shetland or mini as a kid?  Your friend had one?  You heard a story on the internet?  Of course people share naughty pony stories on the internet.  Everyone LOVES that video of the naughty little gray pony dumping his poor little rider over and over again, it gets a laugh.  It makes me angry so I refuse to watch it, but it does get laughs.  So people share those naughty stories because they get a laugh and they get passed on.

We all have naughty pony stories.  I had incredibly naughty and intelligent paint pony that I started out on.  Libby also had a naughty spirited little welsh type pony once. The girls also had a little mini that, while incredibly good and funny, had his naughty moments too - like stealing my tools every time I tried to fix fence.  Not every POA is even the perfect kid safe starter pony.  But wow - for people to write off ponies is so wrong.  I've known just as many asshole horses as I have ponies.  I know I won't change everyone's mind, but if I can get just one person to see pass the "ponytude" stereotype, I will feel like I have made a dent in ignorance.

I could literally bore you to tears with good pony stories; stories just of our OWN ponies being beyond amazing.  I could share stories of great ponies that I have seen until "the cows come home" or you pass out from lack of sleep.  But I won't, because those aren't my stories to tell.  I will share a few of my own stories and I would love for the comments here to fill up with stories of your own ponies being just what your family ordered for you and your kids. 

Our first POA was a a POA cross named Lieba.  She had no formal training being a former Amish broke pony.  She was Libby's first "real" pony after a little shetland that she had her first few rides on.  Lieba was a gem.  She was as safe as safe gets, she had one speed. Walk.  And boy did she love the word "whoa".  She was a great pony for Libby to start showing on.  She never won big awards, but Libby was safe.  Safe to lead her, safe to ride her, safe to brush or clip or wash her.  She was the perfect pony for Libby to start learning about horses on. 

We then tried a welsh or hackney or some type of cross pony.  She was naughty.  She spooked.  She bolted.  She reared.  And she taught Libby a ton.  I thought Libby would get scared and give up.  But she didn't dream of it and there were plenty of moments when Shadow was a very good pony.  She wasn't exactly beginner friendly, but she was a good pony.   When we looked to replace her with something more reliable we knew what we wanted.  A POA.  We got, Giggles. 

Giggles is the "shit" as they say.  She literally was every little girl's dream pony.  No, she didn't have long flowing mane and tail.  She had kind of a big ugly head and she wasn't "cuddly".  But you could do anything with that pony.  My kids could sit on the ground and clip her feet.  They crawled under her, over her, through her legs.  They fed her, walked her, jumped her, rode her bareback in a leadrope, picked up her feet, you name it.  There weren't many classes she didn't show in and win in, even beating the "big" horses.  Western to English, trail, reining, costume, jumping, games, you name it.  She can do it all.  You'd think she was old and dead broke right?  Not really.  She was 7 when I bought her for my 7 year old, but really only 2 year old broke.  She wasn't even "fancy broke".  Just a good pony that tried her heart out.  When my girls had learned everything she could teach them, she went to a new home and is teaching more little girls.  And to prove that you can really do anything to Giggles, check her out in one of my favorite costumes with her new little girl. 

Giggles gave my daughter confidence to start training her own ponies.   She was 9, yeah 9 when she trained her first POA.  Taz was another gem.  Never stepping a foot wrong, just always trying to please.  Not spooky or mean, just a gentle soul - old at heart.   Of course she had help, but Libby was able to train that pony on her own.  And he wasn't the last. 

We had a string of really great and quiet POA ponies that I would have trusted with almost any kid.  Susie - she was 2 when I sold her to be a kid's pony and she didn't disappoint.  Her new family loved her.  There was Dolly and Licorice.  Licorice's whole family came to try her out and they still look me up when they are at the same shows we are to say how great she is.  Oh and Buddy - what a great pony he was.  Sophie's first pony she showed all by herself, did anything and everything she asked and was a saint.  There was Levi, a pony that did have a "ponytude" when we got him but it literally took one lesson and he was back to being a good broke pony.  Cotton!  Who could forget Cotton? Just a 3 year old when we bought him for Sophie who was only 8 at the time.  They won literally everything.  Even when I would have dumped her butt for being a brat, he just put up with her and tried his little heart out.  And Rye.  God bless Rye.  Libby broke him out when she was 11.  And with a little help she trained that pony to do everything under the sun and do it well, Congress level well. 

I remember trail rides with green broke ponies who ended up leading the ride because they were just that good and just that quiet.  I remember letting my girls jump into new classes like trail when the pony had never seen a bridge or a mailbox or... and the ponies just sailed through the class, because they were just that good.  I remember throwing Libby into her first hunter over fences class, virtually never having practiced a jump before in her life and Giggles threw herself around that course with great glee.  I can see the time I duct taped a horn to Cotton's head and he went into a class draped in Sophie's stuffed animals and blanket for a costume class.  Or how about Peach going to her second real horse show weekend and winning a belt buckle? Pretty sure we threw classes at her, and tack, that she had never seen before.  Even just this last summer, poor Hope getting taken to shows at her 7th ride and showing in a walk trot class.  Oh wait - winning a walk/trot class.  Or a favorite memory - when I asked the girls to bring their ponies down to the barn and I caught them in halters and leadropes/bareback, having a race across the hillside with loose horses and dogs running.  Oh and one of those ponies was a 2 year old.   Where is that video....

I could share a million pictures, literally I am probably only barely exaggerating, I took a lot of pictures of my girls when they were horse showing.  I will share a few, but I cannot stress enough how good and quiet our POA ponies have been.  Easy to train, easy to ride and more importantly, easy to love. 

So yeah - every time I hear someone say that ponies are the devil, I get a little (a lot) defensive. 

Cutie as a 2 year old giving beginner lessons.

Rye in his first costume class.

Rye coming out of his first "swimming" experience.

Crazy 2 year old on the left

New Year’s Resolutions

So... enjoy a safe place to share all your resolutions here.  I’ll share mine first.  I resolve to...
Haha- who am I kidding?  For the millionth year in a row, I do not have any resolutions.  I mean, I've made resolutions in the past.  Half hearted, I should do this kinds of resolutions.  Usually with the basic premise of "be a better person".  But I'm not doing that this year.  You know why?  Because I've decided this year I'm going to be happy with me the way I am me.

Oh that doesn't mean I'm not going to KEEP working on myself.  I don't need to set a goal for being a better person because that is something I have been working on for a while and I'm going to keep working on. 

I'm going to keep working on eating better, eating less sugar and drinking more water.  I had kind of let that slide over the holidays.   I guess you could say I really let that slide.  I love holiday treats.  Like fudge, and candy, cookies, puddings, I'm a little like the Grinch at the Whoville cookoff.  Bring it all on.  Now I pay for it after the holidays with sugar withdrawals.  Hopefully there are less goodies in the house soon.   That's the worst - goodies all over the house that are so quick and easy to grab.

I'm going to continue to work on being a more positive person and judging others less.  (Unless it is about this polar vortex weather.  NO one except Tim can have a positive attitude about this weather.  It is against all that is right and good.)

I bought myself a coloring bible and Libby bought me a devotional journal.  One of my goals has always been to read the bible cover to cover and I'm hoping this bible inspires me to stick with it and keep working on that goal while getting to color some stand out verses at the same time.  I'm going to keep working on building my faith and I have the best faith partner to do that with in Tim.  He motivates me to be the best person I can be and to keep Christ at the forefront of my life.    

I'm going to continue working with our young horses and pushing them to be the best they can be while I learn from each of them along the way.  I can't wait for the weather to get warm enough to get back into the swing of things with them. 

I'm going to do my best to make sure my loved ones are happy and know that they are appreciated and loved every single day.  It's going to be a challenging year with many changes for us, but I know that with our love being strong and the way we all help each other, we can get through anything together. 

So while I don't have any new year's resolutions, I do have continued goals for each day moving forward.  Here's to 2018!