January 2017

It is hard to believe that January is almost over. It has been a quiet month at home.  We had fun with some Girl Scout activities. Our troop went to Climb Zone. It was a lot of fun. Sophia shared that "she almost died there" when her belay didn't catch her right away and she dropped a few inches as a free fall!  I am sure it felt much worse than it actually was.

Sophia also participated in a Rope Runners event. This is kind of like the Pine Wood Derby. She built her rope runner with Steve. It was a black horse which she called Black Beauty. She won first place in the fastest Rope Runner out of all the Junior and Cadette girls. It was a lot of fun.

I went to an orientation for middle school. Yep, middle school.  Our baby is going into middle school next year. Where does the time go? She is really looking forward to it.

We were scheduled to go to a horse show but it was cancelled because they were predicting an ice storm. We never got the storm but better safe than sorry.  We are hoping to go in February instead.

I organized my craft room and even got some scrapbooking done. I am almost done with 2014. Some day I will be all caught up.

Our pets are all doing okay. Kaegogi has had her ups and downs since Christmas but is currently doing well. Her liver values are a bit elevated and we are hoping some liver support meds help her. Mr. Twinkletoes loves Kae.  I am shocked to see Otto and Boba becoming friends. I watched as Otto rubbed up against Boba, even going underneath him. Boba just stood there not sure what to make of it. I never thought I would see Otto and Boba that close.

Our family life was pretty quite. I wish I could say the same about our country. It feels like a bad dream with Trump as the president. I keep thinking that I will wake up and realize it was all just a nightmare. I am scared for our future. This man is xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic
and totally unqualified to be the president.

December 2016

December is always a hectic month and this year was no different. We crammed a lot of good stuff into the month.

We bought some new appliances for our kitchen on Black Friday. Our refrigerator was old and in

need of replacement.  Steve decided we also needed to replace our ten year old dishwasher which never worked well. Then of course with a new refrigerator and dishwasher I thought we needed a new stove. So we got a flat top with a convention oven, which the cats love!  I am thrilled.  If we could redo our cabinets and counters we would have a whole new, yet still very tiny, kitchen.

We have began leasing a horse for Sophia. It is a two day a week lease. Navajo was an former lesson horse and is a great horse. Sophia is able to ride him in two of her lessons each week and then to practice with him. He has been super. He does have a condition which affects his eyes so he needs to wear a fly mask to block out UV rays during the day. We are hoping this won't be a problem for shows.

The month was filled with preparing for Christmas. We shopped, baked, wrapped gifts, decorated and cut down our Christmas tree. We love finding the perfect tree and the cats enjoy climbing on it.  I can't believe it hasn't fallen over yet.  Sophia wrapped one of her gifts, that she had picked out with incredible attention to detail.

Sophia had a baby tooth that would not fall out. She needed to get it pulled. The actual extraction went well but she bit her lip afterwards. It was very sore and swollen the week leading into Christmas. She was still sore on Christmas day. 

Sophia picked out pajamas for everyone. She outdid her self this year.

Nick and Aiden were able to join us for Christmas.  It was nice having the whole family together.  We had a pork roast for dinner on Christmas Eve and then played some games together. On Christmas day we opened up gifts here and then went to Steve's mothers to share Christmas with his family. We came back to the house for a yummy lasagna dinner. 

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The animals enjoyed the holidays too. The cats were loving playing in all the boxes from Amazon.

Sophia and I went to Lancaster the day after Christmas to celebrate with the Acampora side of the family. It is not the same without Grandma Barb but we had fun hanging out together. Linda brought some life to the party with a dice game that involved opening a gift with oven mitts on. She also got me with a prank Christmas gift box. It was a lot of fun.  We did a little shopping, went to Chocolate World and of course on a horse and buggy ride.

We ended the year with our traditional fondue. We had a quiet night at home playing a game and watching Mary Poppins.  It has been a great year.  Looking forward to making more memories in 2017.