Compost and other odds & ends...

From: An Alberta Girl's sister...guess that kinda makes her an Alberta Girl too huh...
To: An Alberta Girl
Sent: Sun Feb 27 08:46:03
Subject: Last wishes

This an exercise so that we (family) know what your dying wishes are… nothing legal if you have a will already but good for us to know if you want to be cremated or buried. Please complete and send back.

~

From: Two Alberta Girls
To: An Alberta Girl's sister
Sent: Sun Feb 27 09:25:25 2011
Subject: Re: Last wishes

Good morning

I would prefer to be composted to reduce my carbon foot print.

I want the cows that I have eaten to be nourished from my body. I would like the dirt spread in a serene meadow pasture.

Since my hair and hip bones will not be completely composted I would like them ground up and put in the flower bed for calcium and phosphorus to nourish your sunflowers so you will think of me.

Your sister

~

From: An Alberta Girl's sister
To: An Alberta Girl
Received:  later that morning
Subject: Re: Re: Last wishes

Would you like to be composted with my fruit?

~

Seriously...we laughed until we cried.

On another note...the semester is half over!  However the next two months are going to be insane...I took some time over reading week, and I'm rested and ready.  Two months of working hard and I can play hard...because when the semester is done it will be RACE SEASON!!!!  Weeeee....

AND...Neena and I got into the Training Troop Trial this weekend.  We are entered in 3 events each day...and I am really trying to keep myself too busy to think about it.  I only need to remember one thing...Plan A!!!  I do, however, have a couple ideas to help us with our trial nerves.  I wonder what Neena will be like on gin;)?

#45 - 60 of a Thousand, Endless Gifts

~ listening to a 2 year old count for me

~ margarita's and a dark corner booth

~ nephew's

~ church bells

~ toast

~ a fairly reliable call-off ;)

~ snow sparkling in the sunlight

~ my carhardts

~ newborn calves

~ a random I love you text from my lil brother

~ laughing until you cry

~ freezing your fingies for science

~ a little R&R

~ being productive

~ anticipation

~ a breakfast table set for me

Five

Happy Birthday DJ!

This year it hit me that you talk. You talk. In sentences!  Truth is you probably have for a couple years now.  Your growing up...and from the photo's your mom gave us you're growing up happy and healthy.  

That makes me happy.

xo

#33 - 44

#33 - 44 of a Thousand, Endless gifts

~ girl talk over ice cream

~ a man who tells me to keep my chin up

~ an A-

~ my magic bag

~ breakfast dates

~ coffee break manicures

~ heartaches that will never fully heal...for the right reasons

~ my crazy father...

~ the opportunity to give back to those I've taken from

~ having lived to watch the black #3 race

~ an afternoon spent with racers

~ cheering from the penalty box

Go Flyers!

Today I finally caught one of my cousin Matthew's hockey games. 

Its hard, there's a huge age gap between my cousins and I...but I think I've managed to build a bit of a relationship with each of them and I enjoy them all, I really do.  But Matthew...I spent hours with him as an infant, and then even more as he grew into a toddler.  When Victoria was born, I stayed home with him and then I stayed and helped as much as I could the following month while she was in the NICU.  We eventually ended up living together...the point is we have a lot of history, and I've loved this child with all my heart.

I haven't been able to spend as much time with him over the last years, and really...I'm not sure how much he remembers anymore...but we still have pet names for each other, he still giggles about the time he poo'd on me as a baby, and he still picks #13 for his hockey number.  It warms my heart.   

Warm Up

Starting line...center position...wooo!

Size gap...sheesh...reminds me of another kid I cheer for.

Focused...its insane how focused a 12 year old can be.

 An assist for #13!

Matthew's been having a good year, as of this morning he was leading the team stats.  They tied, unfortunately they needed to win this game to get into the playoffs, but they played a good game!  Sometimes I think that's a win of its own...good job Flyers!

Life and Times of Crazy J

So happy, I have some down time to catch up on school, and my house, maybe take a few photographs...and most importantly to spend some time with Neena, she's been really patient with me this week!  She's such a good girl!  Its funny, I think I'm almost to the point where the thought of living on my own doesn't freak me out...but Neena really likes having my roommates around, and they have all been great with her!

Midterms...well my bio midtem went well, and chem went ok too I think.  Biochem, is turning into my new calculus sans a fantastic tutor.  I want to pull out my hair.  I want to scream.  Blah.  My time management is probably the best its ever been, but the truth is I could still work harder, I really need to hunker down.  Its just not very fun.  On the vet school front, I'll know in 2 weeks whether I get an interview from the U of C or not...I'm trying very hard to not think about it. 

Bought my first 'big girl' bed yesterday...its funny how buying your 'own' stuff can feel so great.  And its not owning the stuff...its the fact that I'm taking care of myself on my little Ab Ag salary.  Jen's Life Truth #313...I will never be financially dependant on someone else again.  Hahahaha...funny song I've been rocking out to lately, it makes me smile...Grandma, you might just want to skip this...

Daytona 500 tomorrow...oh my gosh am I ever excited!  Don't tell Dustin & Tabitha but I ordered Colton a Dale Jr t-shirt...can't wait until it gets here!

So ya, overall things are going pretty good in the world of Crazy J and Crazy Pants.  I know I worried some people a few weeks ago, I don't post blogs like that on a whim...I get they are pretty personal and they can come across as attention seeking...but I found this quote this week:

"For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness." - Reba McEntire

Nobody wants to hear me sing;)......but I have my own ways of healing.

On that note, I sometimes just can't help myself...the other day on a walk I got caught belting out this song..

You should try it sometime...you can really exaggerate the twang in the chorus AND there are some pretty fun 'air guitar' parts...betcha can't do it without laughing at yourself;).

Race Report - Feb 12, 2011

Going to try to keep this short...I've been/I am just a wee bit busy.  Quickly, the weekend...it was really great to visit Paul & Rita Friday night.  I hadn't seen them since they moved to Calgary last summer, man do kids ever grow fast! 

I've been spoiled staying at Andy & Nancy's, it was a long drive from the SE to the Fezdome Saturday morning:).  Neena was really excited to get to the trail...its amazing how 40lbs of border collie can rock a sunflower lol.  We ran a jumpers course almost right away, she was starting to get a little worried at the startline but Amanda helped me pump her up and off we went.  It was a good run, she wasn't quite as happy as I would have liked to see her but she stayed with me and I think we had fun. 

We Q'd and this is where I fess up to a blonde moment...I thought we needed 3 starter's jumpers Q's before we moved to advanced...we only needed 2, ooops:).  Turns out we are also in advanced gamblers!  Anyways, our gamble was the last class of the day, I tried to get Neena out every hour or so for a little walk and fun time but by early/mid afternoon she was starting to get worried.  I started to get worried.  Stupid girl emotions.

I finally took her outside, ran down the road with her like a mad woman, smacked her around a few times and she decided it was game on.  We had a good little session of tug and fetch and were both a lot happier and relaxed after.

Our gamble...she was still struggling so I tried to find a course with flow that would let her do the obstacles she likes best.  I thought for a second I was going to lose her at the startline, she was thinking about running out of the ring.  But she stayed with me and although it was 'technically' ugly I really didn't care.  She ran with me and didn't melt down completely.  I'm proud of her for working through it.  

It was still emotionally and physically draining...I was tired and cold by the time we were done, and I struggled a little after we left.  Agility is something fun for us to do together, its good for her and its good for me.  At what point do I say this part isn't fun for us?  I'm not convinced we are there yet...after all look how far she's come in a year...but I wonder.

Anyways, we had a High River sleep over last night.  The kids had a puppay partay all night and most of Sunday while the beautiful, ambitious gal and I had a study partay.  Believe it or not we were surprisingly productive...for real! 

Sheesh...this turned out longer than I had planneed!  Its going to be a crazy, busy, long week...but I still wanted to squeeze this in:

#22 - 32 of a Thousand, Endless gifts

~ sun dogs

~ holy hell its cold socks

~ cattle liners

~ audio streaming

~ puppies

~ spooning with Mack Daddy

~ Neena asleep at my hip...as in touching me...on her own free will lol

~ pole position TWICE!

~ cutting grapefruit with a necropsy knife

~ open door policies

Drive with Emotion!

Neena and I had the opportunity to play at Terry Simon's seminar yesterday morning.  I was curious to see how she reacted to him this year, last year she was scared...but she thought he was kind of funny this time:).  It was another example of her increased self-confidence...so happy for her!

She is such a good girl, I feel like in a lot of ways agility has been easy for us, we both learn pretty quickly and she reads my body language very well...its fun to run her, and see all the places we could have oopsed...but didn't because we are a team. You know what, its even fun to oops with her.

Our session with Terry focused largely on giving your dog direction through body language, in fact we weren't allowed to speak for the most part.  He stressed we should 'drive your dog with your emotion'...so very true.  The timing was only a little ironic after the past couple weeks:).  There was lots to absorb and lots to learn, he challenged me to handle a course with all front crosses, and I realized I've become lazy in my handling...to Neena's detriment.  Note to self...DO MORE FRONT CROSSES:)! 

I wish I could have participated in more of the weekend, but considering everything I have going on I feel I made a pretty good compromise.  School makes it a challenge, we got into the Calgary trial this weekend, but I also have two midterm's next week...eek!  I decided to split the difference, Saturday at the trial, Sunday at the library:), and there is still a chance Neena will play Sunday with Sarah & Amanda...it depends on a few things.  I am a little torn, I want to run her...I just can't do it right now.  In the meantime, if there's an opportunity for her to have fun and play agility, I want to give it to her.  But if she stays, you can bet I'll be waiting impatiently for my race report:). 

#9 - 21 of a Thousand, Endless Gifts

~ a quiet spot

~ a Mom who understands

~ country music

~ a wealth of friends

~ laughter

~ smelly stuff, like compost and manure
~ the chance to cheer from the sidelines
~ a morning outdoors...with only my Carhardts and the cattle for company
~ more than a few good men
~ kids in the candy aisle
~ learning to be alone
~ calculus...yep...I know...
~ a tired Crazy Pants

Little Miss Coincidence?

I've been using my Tuesday and Thursday mornings to study at the university library...I try to be there just after 8, and that gives me a good 2 1/2 hours before class.  Sure it makes for a long day, but watching the sun come up with a coffee in my hand and a little country music in my ear have been some of my best moments lately.

Country music...well its a little strange how often I seem to stumble on a song that will be meaningful to me just when I need it.  Yesterday morning this song came on the radio as I drove to school.  It's like my own personal kick in the butt...just what I need;).