It's in the Bag

My darling cousin, Pony Girl, participated in this really fun tag, so I thought I should play along! Especially because I am very fond of my current hand bag.

Here's the story: There is man who loves me very much, and who got very tired of me oohing and aahing over other women's giraffe handbags. He also got tired of me constantly going into Nordstrom's to look at said giraffe handbags. So he bought me one! He works at Macy's, so he had it all wrapped up and decorated when he gave it to me. Other than the handbag, it was just an average Thursday night!

Here's the rules:

1. Post a picture of whatever bag you are using today - not last weekend when you and your hubby went out to that fabulous restaurant. No cheating!!!
   
   
2. Tell us how much it cost. This is a no-judgment zone -- there will be no ridiculing or eye rolling here. And, if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, I'd love to hear it.
   
   
3. Then tag some friends.

So here it is, the handbag:

The matching clutch, that now is usually either hooked to the diaper bag or the car seat. Loverly.

Every new mom has to have pictures of her munchkin! I carry around 200 or so, just incase I encounter someone who has an hour to analyze how much my punkin matured during her first month of life!

Ah yes, my FABULOUS zebra Nine West sunglasses. These are definitely my favorite shades. I will be hearbroken when I finally break or lose them. I should have bought two pairs!

The necessities: hand cream and chapstick. Right now I'm toting around Irresistable Apple hand cream from Bath and Body Works and Cherry Carmex. Carmex is the only chapstick I use. I don't know why. But I wouldn't be caught dead without it! As a matter of fact, one of my biggest fears about having my baby was not being able to find my chapstick, so I bought an extra one and put it in our hospital bag, just to be safe.

The Blackberry. My lifeline to the world! I know that I have mentioned before that I used to have 2 cell phones, and the cousins teased me about constantly having to be "connected" with my laptop and what-not. Well, I've consolidated and now I can be a lot more discrete about needing to check email or always being reachable. I went ahead and got the World Edition, which means I can make calls anywhere in the world. This'll be handy for my Mexican cruise wedding this Fall!

Reading glasses, that I never wear. But I should!

What's this? A cap to a baby bottle. Yet another sign of being a mom! Baby remnants everywhere! When Gracie was about a month old, Travis and I went shopping and while digging in my handbag, I found one of her little hats...I just about had a meltdown and told Travis I wanted to go home and see my punkin right away! Instead, he just had me look at the 50 pictures I had just printed and he reminded me that she was just sleeping, and we had more shopping to do! Since then, I've tried not to keep baby things in my handbag.

Okay, so that was what was in my bag! And yes, that is the bag I carry every day. I LOVE it!

Thanks Pony Girl!

Things I learned this week:

1. There are no bad bits, just bad hands.

2. Sliding your boot further into your stirrup prevents you from putting too much weight in your stirrup and makes you sit down.

3. Riding a horse like he's broke will help make him a broke horse.

4. The 5 most important things in cattle work is: 1. Stop, 2. Stop, 3. Stop, 4. Stop and 5. Stop.

5. The 6th most important thing in cattle work is backing up.

6. Look where you're going, and keep your eyes up all the time. If you're headed straight forward, look up and straight forward. If your cutting a cow out of herd, look at the cow you're cutting, no where else. Sounds simple, it's not!

7. Ninety-five percent of the time your horse's nose is tipped outside, it's because your reins are uneven.

8. Keeping your reins perfectly even is a lot harder than it seems, especially if you're not used to riding with a loose rein.

9. It's better to use 3 or 4 different bits all the time, because different styles of bits rub different areas of your horse's mouth, and then they callus. Move on to a different bit until a new part of the mouth gets tough and when you "hang up" your previous bridle, it recharges on the wall. If you cycle through 3 or 4, the bit will be effective again when the calluses are gone.

10. Expect your horse to succeed and be behaved, and he probably will. Let him fail you, don't expect him to fail.

More detail about our week at "boot camp" later!

Quicky

Not much time to write, but Okie is doing AWESOME at sorting! We've had two lessons, and the instructor and the entire barn absolutely adore the Oklahoma man! Yesterday they had him all saddled and warmed up for me when I got there.

He's a completely different horse than the one I took up there! More later!

Honest Scrap - What?!?

It's true...I have been selected to receive the prestigeous "Honest Scrap" Award. I think this means...well, I'm not really sure. But one thing is certain, I am following the rules to a T because I certainly don't want this award revoked!

First, the seven blogs I would like to pass this along to:

1. Middle of the Road, naturally.

2. Jesse's Desert Rose - check this sassy cowgirl out!

3. Dusty Devoe - Gracie's "Grammy!" She's got some great words of wisdom!

4. Adventures of a Horse Crazed Mind - This lady is SO fun!

5. Swamp Suburbia - Always a new adventure going on with this cowgirl and her "cowpokes

6. Flying Lily - She has a yellow horse, for Pete's sake!

7. Cabbage Stew - My good friends tell the tales of being new parents and always being ready to try something new and exciting!

Now, for my 10 honest things:

1. I love being at work and I love being busy at work.

2. I hate talking on the phone, unless I'm driving.

3. I wish I was more athletic, like my brother. That's not the only way I wish I was like him, but it's one of them.

Yes, this is an actual picture of my little brother. He is amazing!

4. I don't think all babies are cute, but mine definitely is.

Just check out that mug! Have you ever seen a cuter baby?! Haha!

5. I have absolutely no patience, and I think people who think it is a virtue are slow, lazy, and obviously have nothing to do if they have time to sit around and wait.

6. When I travel, I like to stay low-key. This includes arrival times. What time will I be there? When I get there. The traveling is often as fun as the trip, if you're not late and stressed!


7. When I grow up, I want to be just like Ari Gold from Entourage. True story.

8. If my job in television doesn't pan out, I plan on going back to school to become a teacher. Either 2nd grade, 5th grade or high school journalism or maybe a librarian.

9. Because I don't like or wear a lot of pink, neither does my baby. This leads people to believe she is a boy. What is wrong with our society?? Right now she is wearing her blue jammies with a brown pony wearing a red hat. Too cute! But, dressed like this, Travis calls her our son.

When I showed this picture to a friend, she thought Grace was on the right and she asked, "Who's the little boy?" Wearing brown cow overalls does not make her a boy!!

10. I am so spoiled. Between my parents, my man and my brother, I almost always get my way and have never really had to go without. I am what some refer to as a "lucky duck."

Now, to my selected bloggers:

Here are the rules, if you have been chosen:
1) Write a post (on your own blog), announcing that you have received the Honest Scrap award. Be sure to mention LifeontheFarm, the blog that conferred the Honest Scrap Award upon you. Add the Honest Scrap Award graphic.

2) Choose at least seven blogs that you admire. List these (with links) in your Honest Scrap Award blog entry.

3) Visit the blogs you have selected, and leave comments to let the bloggers know you have chosen to honor them with the Honest Scrap Award. Include a link to your blog post in each comment.

4) Visit the blog that offered you the Honest Scrap Award, and leave a comment with a link to your post.

5) List ten honest things about yourself. Try to have fun with this one, and include facts others may not already know about you.

6) Display the Honest Scrap Award proudly on your blog sidebar.



Thank you, It's Sunny in SD for this wonderful award!

The Lesson

The sorting lesson did not happen.

Instead we had a lesson on respect and trailer loading.

I have never had an issue with Okie getting in the trailer until yesterday, when he decided he would rather die by carrot stick beatings than get his OSU butt in that horse trailer.

We worked for about 2 hours before I got him in. Lots of swearing. I used the same method that I used with Yellow last summer, but it's such a pain to go through this.

Once the Oklahoma horse decided to go backward, he would back down the driveway, past the barn, and all the way back to the horse corrals, with me cursing at him and notifying him that it was in his best interest to head to my left, unless he wanted to run into that carrot stick again.

There was a point that I put the lunge line on him, took him into the corral, and lunged the s**t out of him. It was only another 30 minutes or so, from that point, that he got in.

He was in a white lather.

Once in the trailer, he was stomping around, being a crack head.

I called the ranch that I was supposed to be at, and she said to bring him anyway, keep him there for a week, and ride him. I decided this was a win-win. Not only do I get to get him away from Yellow, but once I got there I could load him another dozen times or so, and I get a few wet saddle blankets on him this week.

I'm headed back to the ranch this morning for my lesson. Lord help Okie if he doesn't cooperate today.