My Life Part I

  I chose this title because i will be telling you a little about my life (very original huh?). 
  First, i will show you all of our animals. yes, i told you all that we have, but i only told you their name's....

Midnight

This is Midnight. (I won't tell you their registered names for protection purposes.) she's an about 16 year old quarter horse. she's 15'2 hands*. my sister got her when she (my sister) was about 10. Midnight was about 4 i think. (i wasn't born yet.)  anyways, my sister and i showed her up until about 4 years ago, because she was becoming stiff in the one leg and so she is now partially retired. we are trying to get her back "up and running" so we start showing her again, since she's a champion show horse. if not, we are going to try to breed her hoping she passes down her champion bloodlines. 

Onyx

This beautiful baby is Onyx. she is the one i show and i love her to death! i've won many classes with her and i hope to win many more. she is 16'1 hands and also a quarter horse. she's about 13. in September of last year, she became fatally ill (sounds so professional don'tcha think? ;p) with colic*. we went to as many vets as we knew in the area to see what they thought we should do. the amazing vets made the right call and Onyx is as healthy as a...uh...horse, i guess. even though she is one! we recently went to a show and we placed in all of my classes and even got a couple of blues! 

Glimmer

 Glimmer is probably the oldest animal in our barn at the moment. He's atound 32 which is a pretty decent age for a horse, although ponies and mini's* usually live longer than normal horses. He's a miniature horse, and he's about 9 hands. i'm not actually sure how tall or how old he is. 

Charlie

Charlie, or "Charles" or "Char" as i like to call him, is a...ummm...shetland pony, i think. wow, i don't even know what breed my horses are. hehe anywhoo, Charlie is about 18ish, i don't exactly know because his story is interesting. no, he wasn't a neglected pony rescued by the ASPCA, he was a.....pony ride pony! yep! that's probably why he gets kind of ornery sometimes. he was the first horse i ever rode. they have this cute kind of class called "lead line," which is when one older person leads a younger one (usually under the age of 8) around in a circle. it's just a safety thing i think because the kid riding is supposed to do the work, the person leading does just that...leads. 

Timothy

This extremely cute miniature donkey is Timothy, but i warn you, don't be fooled by his cuteness, he's SUPER annoying. he brays* like no other! "Timmy" is about 8 years old, and he's our second donkey. our first one's name was Zebedee or "Zebbie" as in the Zebedee from the Bible. so we named our second donkey, Timothy. so we had an "Old Testament" donkey and a "New Testament" donkey. whenever you walk into our barn, he always knows when someone enters and he starts braying away!

Shelley

Shelley is 3 year old miniature horse, though she's a little bigger than a mini is supposed to be. she's 9'3 hands which is 3 inches taller than a normal mini. she, too, has an interesting history. she was at a sale in some town and our seamstress bought her for us because my mom said that if she (our seamstress, cheryl) found a mini to text her. but Cheryl had the wrong number when she tried contacting us so she just bought her and brought her home. the people she was originally owned by had a kid named Martin who's my age and he taught her how to pull a cart, but his dad said he had no need for Shelley and Martin was to take her to the sale and sell her. so Cheryl bought Shelley and she is happy in her new home. except for one thing: she's scared to death of men. i know that sounds funny, but it's true, so there's no way we'd be able to show her because we wouldn't be able to get her near the judge. 

C.C.

C.C. or Carbon Copy which is his "full name" is our fat and happy 12 year old pygmy goat. and when i say "fat" i mean "FAT". he's a big roly-poly goat that if you put outside to graze would blow up like a balloon. (blow up as in get really really round). we've had him since i was about 3 or 4, i don't remember exactly. 

  so these were all our barn animals. well, except all of our cats which we have about 15ish or so. no mice problems for us! ;p then we have our three dogs: Mopsee, Belle, and Brody. I will post pictures of them later. 

  and as you can see our all our animals are VERY photogenic, although these pictures were especially hard to do....
  Please comment, recommend, and follow! 

* 1. a hand is the measurement of equines. it's four inches across which is about the width of your hand if you stretch it and measure it from your pinky to your thumb.
  2. colic is a stomachache in an equine, but since they cannot regurgitate, it can be deadly. this is because they start to roll to try to relieve the pain and instead twist their intestines, cutting the circulation off to the rest of their digestive tract. the only way to cure this is either surgery or euthanasia. most the time, people chose to put their horse down when colic occurs because its so agonizing to the horse. but sometimes (like in Onyx's case), the twist in the intestine wasn't extremely bad so they could do surgery successfully. doing surgery can also cause colic to recur in some cases.
  3. a miniature or mini or miniature horse is just that. a horse but smaller than both a pony and a regular sized horse. they are no more than 9 hands (36 inches), if they are, they are considered ponies

Summertime

  Hey there! i'm extremely sorry i haven't blogged like i said i would. but here i am!

  well, summer is finally here and i will be starting my sophomore year this coming school year. a few things that i've been doing over these past few months happened that i'd like to share. first, to start my summer off, i went to the Youth Annual Conference (YAC) in beautiful Lakeside, Ohio with my church, which was amazingly awesome. 

• Friday: We arrived at our hotel at around 2 p.m. we had a few hours before we had to do anything so we played put-put and walked around. then, we went to the opening ceremony thing and we sang..kinda. there was a praise leader/rapper named Heath McNease who was amazing! then there were these two stand-up comedy guys called Team WordPlay who came, and they too were awesome. after the opening ceremony, we went to a "dance party." it was really fun, but we had to leave early to get the younger kids checked in when they came. on our way back to the hotel, we met Heath and we chatted for awhile. we told him we played in the praise band at our church and he asked us to play something for him the following day. after all that, we headed back to the hotel, got the younger kids (they were 7th graders, but we-as in my friends/group- were all in high school.), and played guitar and sang on the porch until bed.
• Saturday: it may sound crazy for people who got only about 5 hours of sleep, but we got up at 5:30 and watched the sunset at the pier. it was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen! there it was, like a big red ball rising in the air. after the gorgeous sunrise, we went to the auditorium for the day's opening. Heath lead the beginning worship, and it was amazing at how the guy who was rapping and singing the night before could be so different. he talked about the song "Hallelujah" (from Shrek) and how that's what he prays when he has no other words to describe his feelings. after the opening stuff, we went to our district meetings. there we voted on new delegates and alternatives, and discussed any resolutions we thought could be made within the "united methodist church." after the meetings, we went back to the auditorium and had our business meeting, where the resolutions would either be passed or not passed. if they were passed then they would go to the annual conference the following week. my favorite part of Saturday was definitely the Andrew Berg Praise Band. they. were. soooo. good!! they lead worship and we sang "One Thing Remains" by Passion, "Cornerstone" by Hillsong, How Great Thou Art", and "Sanctuary" as the last song during communion. there, we lit candles and walked to the pavilion (singing Sanctuary the whole way there) and dropped them in a big, long fire. we went with our church leaders and had our devotions. then we went back to the hotel and played guitar and sang until bed again. and by the way, we never did get a chance to play a song for Heath which was kinda disappointing.
• Sunday: the last day of YAC. i was sad we had to leave but i can't wait until next year. we went to the auditorium again for the closing ceremony and Andrew Berg led worship again for us. then after the closing ceremony, we walked around, played guitar, sang for some people, then headed home. 

  we met some amazing people and new friends at YAC 2013, and i can't wait til next year. 
  YAC was on June 14-16. now, i have nothing. no sports, no dance, no nothing! well, except getting ready for fair on August. soccer ended the last week in May. we were going to have a tournament but so many teams dropped out, there wasn't enough teams to play. :( my dance recital was on June 8th so i don't have that anymore. they have summer classed where i go, but i never do them. oh yeah! and the Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival is coming up, and you know who's gonna be there...(i'll give you a hint, look in my blog entitled "Ireland" )
  my life is never ceasing to surprise even me. i cannot wait to see what else is in store for me. 
  so comment, recommend, and follow! more blogging to come! 

Quotes

Hey there!

i'm sorry i haven't been on blogger recently; i've been really busy, but i found a moment to write tonight.
  i'm a sucker for good quotes...some of my favorites are here:

• "It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you're not" -Denis Waitely
• "We have these big dreams,but many aren't willing to take the steps to go after them" -Francesca Battistelli
• “So celebrate what you're accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.” -Mia Hamm
• "Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal." -Pamela Vaull Starr
• "Worst day of your life? There's a Tenth Avenue North song for that. Actually, there's a whole album. #TheStruggle" -@macilynn17 (twitter)

So, i guess that's all for now! oh, if you have any quotes, i'd LOVE to hear them! follow, comment...please!!

Ireland

I'm baaack! haha.

  anyways, my dream has always been to visit Ireland. yess, Ireland! see? you have to agree that it's beautiful...

 

Ahh...Ireland...i always joked that i'd want to move there after college. lol maybe i was JUST kidding. ;)

the band The High Kings is my favorite Irish band on the entire face of the earth!

  on July 22, 2011, at 6:20(ish)at the Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival, i had the priviledge of meeting them. they sang my fave Irish song to me: "The Fields of Anthenry" and Darren Holden gave me a custom made guitar pick that says The HK's on it. if that wasn't enough, we went back last year and almost exactly one year from the day we met, their last show at around 9:45, i got up and sang "Fields" with them...all by myself. it was pretty nerve-wracking but it was awesome too. there, i said my "not-so-well-kept-secret." that's probably because i'm on youtube. lol. if you want to see me sing, here it is!

  

   meeting the High Kings was a dream come true in itself not to mention singing with them! wow...

and that is also how i met and bonded with Anna, and Michaela. and also our friend in PA, Rachael.

   so that is one of my favorite days of 2012. i'd love to hear what your fave days were!

   my other fave Irish bands are the New Barleycorn, and Mary's Lane. i've seen both of them at our local Irish pub. well, actually that's a false statement 'cuz i've seen the Barleycorn there and Mary's Ln. at our Candlelight walk in November. usually the Irish pub, Sully's, is PACKED when we see the Barleycorn. Mary's Lane is sorta "rock-ish" if you know what i mean...the Barleycorn is AHHH-MAZING!!! i've know them since i was, like, 7 so they are really good friends of my family.

 please comment below and follow my blog!

   Happy Blogging! <3

Future

  Hi Everyone! i'm soo sorry i haven't been able to blog lately! i've been so busy with the holidays and everything.
  my life is so busy full of things it's hard to do anything but school, and my activities.

  yes, and as you can see, my fave hobby has to be soccer. my goal is to get good enough to play professionally one day. i don't know though. i have always wanted to be a vet, probably because i grew up with so many animals. i know, i'm only a freshman in high school, why am i thinking about college right now?? if you think about it, college is not that far off. i kinda wanted to go to UCLA (University of Cali in LA) but i've been rethinking that possibility and almost trying to rule that out. i said ALMOST. right now, i want to go to OSU (Ohio State- not Oklahoma State) and go to vet school there (i have to get accepted first tho). but if i play soccer in h.s. if i go to public, and get an athletic scholarship (can ya tell i'm thinking about all my possible options?), i might have to reconsider a major. so yeah, that's pretty much everything that's going on today right now. i'd love to hear about your holiday and what your family does! i'd tell ya now what we do here, but thats a different entry!