Spring Break 2012: Alivie

Nothing was going to be as important during our spring break visit than going to the horse rescue to mess with Alivie, a 5-year-old off-track Thoroughbred. The Daisy is in love with this horse and insists that we adopt her. Insists!

I have to say this mare has a great disposition for being a Thoroughbred and is patient and tolerant of little people, which is necessary for any horse we're going to be around.

Oh my gosh, I just love The Daisy so much!

This horse has a really nice butt. You can tell horse people - we like to talk about horse's butts.

See The Boo in the background? After we were attacked by a neighbor's mad honey bees almost two years ago, he has been traumatized by any flying thing outside. So bees flying around were about to stroke him out. He began running in a panic and I had to sit him down and talk through that these were carpenter bees and not at all interested in us. It took about two days of this before it sank in and he would walk past bees going,"They're not interested in us. They're not interested in us."

We helped bring in horses and feed one afternoon. A momma and baby had just been separated and The Daisy talked to the baby and calmed her down in order to lead her in. I had the momma and about got plowed by her because I wasn't paying attention to just how upset she was going to be away from her baby. I, of all mothers, should've understood.

After that, The Daisy wanted to hang out with the baby and The Boo liked it because it was more his size

... then he wanted to go give carrots to Bravo, the rescue's Shire mascot.

I love this picture! The Daisy with Bravo and Strawberry.

Spring Break 2012: riding

For The Daisy's spring break, we started off going riding since it was too cold to go on her birthday a few weeks ago. She was nervous, having not ridden in a solid year. And this was to be The Boo's first trail ride ever and he doubled with me. I watched my friend Regina's horse spook and jump at everything. That was awesome. What a nutball of a horse!

About halfway through the ride, this turkey flies out of the bushes. We were fine but The Daisy came unseated because she was in a saddle too big for her. She was fine, although trying to wind herself up into being more scared than she was. After about 10 minutes, she was fine and enjoying herself again.

I was very proud of The Boo for complaining very little on his ride and actually enjoying himself!

80th running of the Carolina Cup

There is nothing I like better than steeplechasing and have been looking forward to this race for weeks as soon as it got warm. My date backed out on me at the last minute but my friend Julie went to the races with me since her son, Kevin, is the official race bugler.

Kevin's friend Becky hung around with us too and we got this picture while I was telling a dirty joke:

Here's jockey Danni Hodsden and I just loved the owner's silks, which is the South Carolina palmetto tree and crescent moon

My friend Ken Furlong has been an outrider for the races for years. I've known Ken for years when he used to ride for trainer Frank Whiteley Jr. and Mr. Whiteley, who HATED reporters, used to let me just hang around his barn.

Julie put up with my walking to the paddock to the grand stand to the paddock to the grand stand all afternoon. We left after Black Jack Blues won The Carolina Cup (like that was a surprise) and went to get her house under control before all the kids arrived from the races inebriated!

Jockeys have to weigh in before and after the race.

My first regatta with my Aunt Susan & cousin Rhett

I was lucky that a couple of weeks ago my cousin Rhett from Dallas was in Gainesville for a regatta. I've never seen a regatta and haven't seen my Aunt Susan in three years since my mom died.
This is Susan cheering on Rhett's first race:

We spent the whole day together and my grandmother came over from South Carolina along with my Aunt Donna, who worked hard at letting us know how miserable she was to spend the day with the only family she has left. Here's me with my grandmother:

Everyone's always said Susan and I look exactly alike so we were trying to get a picture but we were getting our eyeballs seered out from staring into the sun ...

So we got one, with my Uncle Bill's thumb included:

I was impressed with the regetta and Rhett's crew did really well in each race.

I can't believe my aunt got this shirt for her son. If you can't read it, it says "I can't hook up with you, I have crew."

Here's Rhett's crew (Rhett is far right) and they're holding Shannon, their cocksman who is kind of the on-water coach. Yeah, they're all in high school.

Some of the Quave cousins: me, Rhett and Donna's youngest son Asher. I was the only grandchild for 18 years and then four boys came in succession.

Here's my Uncle Bill in the "Quave sandwich:"

And at the end of Rhett's regatta, this most amazing rainbow came out. I haven't seen a full rainbow in I-don't-know-when and you could see so many colors in it:

Then Sunday came and I was all sad Susan was gone.

My daughter turns 11

The Daisy turned 11 on Feb. 21 and I spent the weekend after her birthday with her and The Boo. She opened her presents from me and Great MawMaw: Breyer horses, including a Secretariat. I gave her a photo book of adventures we've done in the last couple of years because she told me she didn't have any pictures of me to take to school.

Since it was her weekend, I let her choose where to eat (Ted's Montana Grill) and what to do. She wanted to go riding but it was unbelievably cold so we didn't do that and she was very disappointed.
We played games - The Boo pulled out his Angry Birds game that I let him cheat and win every game.

We went by Staples and The Daisy goes ga-ga for plain notebooks. I mean, she goes so crazy that I wondered why I've bought anything else for her ever?

The last part of The Daisy's birthday wish was to see our old neighbor friends, The Boys:

So after I dropped them off and headed home, I saw this on my back window at the gas station that The Daisy drew. I about cried.