November

November is always a special month because it is the month you were born. Hard to believe you turned 18 this year. I don't know where the time has gone. I am so very proud of the person you have become. You are smart, really smart. You are also the hardest working person I know. You work hard on your riding skills, your job at the barn and your homework. You never need to be told to do your homework. You are a self starter and it pays off. Your GPA is evidence of that. 

                                            

This month was filled with a lot of "grown up moments." You misplaced your wallet for the first time. Luckily you found it two days later in a place on your desk you normally don't store it in. Luckily you found it before we replaced your driver's license and debit card.

You also applied to colleges. Where did the time go? College already. You mainly applied to smaller schools. McDaniel College (your first choice), Hood College and Randolph Macon College. Hood and McDaniel because you can keep Wren at the barn and continue riding there. Randolph Macon because they have an Eventing team where you can bring Wren with you. You also applied to James Madison University, sight unseen but wanted to apply to see what would happen. They also have a riding program where Wren could travel to college with you.

You got accepted to Hood one week after applying with a $32,000 merit scholarship. A few days later you got the notification from McDaniel with $35,000 in scholarships. And at the endo of the month Randolph Macon came through with $31,000 in scholarships. Out of all the announcements you were most impressed by the packet McDaniel sent you. 

A month with a number of horse shows. You did IEA at Misty Run and got one 1st place and three 2nd place ribbons over the weekend. IEA is half luck of the draw and half riding ability. I am so impressed you can get on horses you don't know and with a 2 minute warm up perform as well as you do. The IEA weekends are always fun with dinners with small groups of friends and long days at the barn. You can be found by Robin's side helping her coach and helping the riders on your team. 

You competed one day at the PVDA fall show with Wren. You rode Level 1 test 3 hoping to get a score to qualify you to do a Level 1 musical. You fell a little short (59.583) And you rode the training level musical and did very well with a 65. 853. Not bad for only owning Wren for a couple of months. So proud of your accomplishments. Gretchen came to the show with us. She was a fantastic groom helping to keep Wren still while you were braiding him. 

You also did your first hunters pace with Wren. He was awesome running through the field and jumping the jumps. You had a blast. 

Aiden, Lindsey and Emma joined us for Thanksgiving. The dinner was good and we enjoyed chatting and finishing a puzzle with them. 

You went to Chloe's for a Friendsgiving. You all brought themed charcuterie boards. You wanted to bring a Mac and Cheese one of course.  

Our animals are all good.