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August 31, 2006
Derek and the Day Care
Derek just started his second day at day care. I am proud of him, but a bit sad, as well.
This means I will not be spending all day with my little Boo, as I have done almost every day since he was born.
Yesterday, he was very excited to be going to the "school." I packed his lunch, then took him to the day care. He was so happy as he found that there were lots of toys in the room, and friends to play with. There are stories and activities throughout the day. Plus, they are fed two snacks during the day (besides their lunch)and take a nap in the afternoon. The teachers reported that Derek did very well, and got along with everyone.
Last night, Derek was very happy to see me when I walked in to pick him up. He said, "hi, Mama!" and smiled, but he played for awhile longer before saying, "Boo go home now, Mama."
We had to go shopping for a new car seat for Derek, as we only had one. Brian couldn't pick Derek up without one! So we went shopping last night after work. Even though he had gotten up at 6:30 a.m., Derek wouldn't go to sleep until his normal time (around 10 p.m.) Then he woke up crying at about 3:45 and I had to wake up and comfort him until he fell asleep.
That made it very difficult to get up at 5:30 a.m. when the alarm went off.
This morning, Boo did not want to go to school. "Boo no go school!" he said. Also, "Mama home! Boo home!"
He carried his Thomas the Tank Engine lunchbox happily into the day care, but when we walked through the door of the classroom, I had to carry him. His little arms were flung around my neck. I stayed with him for awhile until he decided he wanted to get down and play with the other kids. I gave him a big hug and kiss and told him that he would get a ride in Daddy's Jeep tonight. (Brian is going to pick him up.)
I miss my little Boo! I liked to play with him during the day, and take him to the park. He would say, "Playda playda park, Mama?" and I would say, "Sure! Let's go play in the park!"
Posted by Jessica at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2006
Julip Jumping Horses to arrive soon!
I was just lucky enough to come across these two Julips on eBay recently, and bought them!
Although I love Kai very much, I still like to add Julips to my collection when I can. It had been a long while since I had found one that I could afford. These two, with their riders, tack, and accessories, had ended up in the United States. The person I purchased them from had apparently found them at an estate sale.
I am eagerly awaiting their arrival!
In other news, tomorrow, I am back to work! Derek is going to day care for the first time...sigh! I'm sure he will enjoy it, but it will be hard to leave him all day.
Posted by Jessica at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2006
The Arts and Crafts Extravaganza
The show went off with very few hitches...fortunately!
I had to be at the show site for several hours on Friday night while the crafters set up. Brian couldn't be there with me, because he was running in the 5k run at the local park. (His time was 25.08! He was in the middle of the pack of runners, finishing ahead of over 100 people!)
My friend, Cheryl, and her daughter, Shannon, showed up to help me out on both Friday and Saturday. This was extremely fortunate for me, as the crafters sometimes get grumpy about which spot they've been assigned. Also, some vendors who never actually applied to be in the show just show up on Saturday morning wanting to get a spot. (This year, I had purposely left about three or four spots open to fill with just such a vendor or two.)
Sure enough, on Saturday morning, when I arrived at about 6:30 a.m. there was a vendor already occupying an area that wasn't quite designated as a vendor space. He had unloaded his cement garden ornaments, and just assumed I'd allow him the use of the space. (I made him pay in cash for the use of the space, and almost made him move the whole display several feet down the sidewalk to another empty spot, which had been designated a space. I was afraid that the Fire Marshal would want the vendor moved away from the corner he had put his wares in.
The cement statue vendor had to leave suddenly on Saturday afternoon, as he apparently received a phone call saying that his mother had been in an accident. All of his statues were left on display, and some of my fellow JCs sold a few for him, thinking he'd just gone to the rest room or to get some lunch and would be back soon. Later that evening, when he had not returned, I called the number he had written on his application and found out about the accident.
He had come to pick up the garden statues sometime around 5 a.m. on Sunday morning (according to the security guard I spoke with.)
One of the other vendors came up to me on Sunday afternoon, and left some cash with me for the statue vendor. He had also sold a statue for him!
Posted by Jessica at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2006
Festival from H(ow)ell
Well, here we are at the 47th annual festival, I am chairperson of the Arts and Crafts show again. Big fun. Big annoyance.
There are two vending areas, one for Arts and Crafts (perceived higher status)and a vendor "buy/sell" area, which is for vendors who don't make the goods that they sell (perceived lower status.) There are some buy/sell vendors who try to get into the Arts and Crafts show by embellishing goods that they purchase wholesale. There is a lady who buys sunglasses and who will put your initials on them for you, or paint a tiny design in a corner of the lens. She wants to be in the Arts and Crafts show. There is another woman who buys plastic cases, fills them with dollar store art supplies for kids, and paints a design on top of the plastic case. She wants to be in the Arts and Crafts Show.
I said no to them both, but this year the case lady was very persistant. She mailed in an application. I looked at it in July, showed it to two fellow JCs who were at the meeting, and we decided that it belonged in the "buy/sell" area, so I handed the application along to the mail deliver JC who promised to deliver it to the chairperson of that area. A month goes by. I'm at another meeting right before the festival, and another JC hands me back the same application. Since I was then sitting next to the "buy/sell" chair, I handed it to her.
I thought that would be the end of it, but no! Two days before the festival, I got a list of phone messages from the person who answers the phone for the JCs (the same JC who is in charge of buy/sell.) I didn't know that one of the numbers listed as people who who had a question was the plastic case lady. She returned a call I made to her, and wanted to know if she was in the show, as she had been told by "someone" a month ago that she was in the Arts and Crafts Show, but hadn't received comfirmation or a vendor packet. I told her that she was not in the show, but that she could go into the other vendor area. She didn't want to be in the other vendor area, so she told me to just mail her check back to her. I called the buy/sell chair, who had the application, and left her that message.
Late that evening, I returned home to find a message from the festival co-chair on my machine. The plastic case woman had called her to complain about not being in the show(I'm sure after having called the JC hotline first and speaking to the buy/sell chairperson.) The festival co-chair actually wanted me to tell the plastic case lady that she was in the show.
I think we need a refresher course in the way a juried art show works, or on the way "rules" in general work. Or even just the way chains of command work.
Posted by Jessica at 10:41 AM | Comments (1)
August 15, 2006
The "Chair"-ity auction is coming up soon!
Every year, for the past several years, the Arts Council has held a charity auction with the proceeds going to fund the restoration of the Opera House! The auctioned items are all chairs, which local artists have specially painted and otherwise decorated for the occasion.
Last year, my chair fetched the Arts Council about $75, but it was a poor year for the auction, as it was held on a day with no other large event to anchor it. This year, the auction will be held directly after the Melon Festival parade, and my 2006 chair will be in it! I hope my chair will reach over $100 this year.
I did a pirate-themed chair (Big surprise, eh?)and it is called "Pirate's Plunder!" I painted it gold and embellished it with jewels (flat glass marbles, actually), sea-themed charms, and coins of various realms. It's really splendid, but I forgot to take a photo of it before I turned it in. Maybe I'll take my camera on Saturday!
Posted by Jessica at 11:09 PM | Comments (1)
August 10, 2006
The Mysterious Missing Crop and other stories
There was a terrible heat wave a couple of weeks ago, and so I didn't ride Kai at all. Then, when the heatwave fizzled out, I went to go riding and my crop was gone!
It is kind of an unusual-looking crop, it has a horsehead on the end of it, and is red, white and black swirled together. I always kept it in the tack trunk that Cheryl and I have been sharing out at the farm. One day, it was gone! The last time I saw it, I had loaned it to Shannon when she was taking her lesson on Gambler. But I was quite sure that I had gotten it back after that and stowed it away safely in the trunk.
I looked everywhere for it, and it did not turn up. (Anyone reading this who knew about my missing hat a couple of years ago should rest assured that I didn't go bonkers about the crop being gone. It was merely an annoyance, but I was able to borrow one so not that big of an annoyance!)
After hunting around for a week, I had given up on the crop and was thinking about stopping by the tack shop for a new one. Then Cheryl brought her youngest son out to the farm. She asked him if he'd seen it. Sure enough, he had-right in the back of their car! Turns out he had put it there after Shannon's lesson the day I loaned it to her. He thought it belonged to his sister. I was glad to have it back!
In other news, there is a horse out at the barn who has been owned by a couple of teenage boys who like to "cowboy around" on the poor fellow. One of these yahoos was riding in the arena on the poor horse when Cheryl and I showed up to ride.
We got into the arena, and asked the kid not to "cowboy around" while we were in the arena, as we had a not-entirely-trained stallion and a not-entirely-trained kid (Shannon)in the arena. He said he wouldn't, but promptly did. He kept running his horse up behind Gambler, and then suddenly we all heard a terrific "Yeee-haw!" and this kid was galloping full tilt towards Kai (who, fortunately, is of a somewhat bombproof nature, unless there are mares involved.) I had to get stern. I turned Kai around and told him that none of that could occur when we had anyone else in the arena. Every other person that boards there is either inexperienced as a rider or has a green-broke, unfinished horse. This kid has the about the only horse that it would be safe to gallop around on, assuming no-one else were in the arena at the time.
So he apologized and we continued our ride, but decided afterwards that we wouldn't ride if he were using the arena when we came out to the farm.
Incidentally, both Kai and Gambler behaved like true gentlemen during the whole cowboy rodeo, and I am very glad to have such a level-headed horse!
We are working dilligently at the trot, but it is difficult. I am quite out of shape, and Kai does not know how to carry himself correctly, yet. But he is learning. And I am getting in better shape!
Posted by Jessica at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2006
Cute Derek picture from Doodah
Doodah emailed me this photo that she took of Derek when he was spending the night with her and Papa recently. Isn't he adorable? He is winking at the camera.
Derek likes to wear his Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas. He has several different ones with Thomas on them, and one with Spiderman and one with Batman. I found him a slightly bigger one at a yard sale that has Bob the Builder on it. He is growing so fast that he'll be wearing it soon!
When he wears the Batman one (Uncle Tim bought it for him for his birthday) he runs around the house saying, "Nat-nan! Nat-nan!"because he can't pronounce "Batman!"
Some of Derek's interesting words:
Chewah: pizza
Hug-hug: hot dog
Beeloo: balloon
Right now, he can't pronounce his own name, so if you ask him who he is, he will tell you he is "Boo," which is his nickname! We have called him that since before he was born. He does know that his name is Derek, though-he just can't pronounce it right now.
For a long time, he was not very adventurous about trying new words. He knew every one of Thomas' friends' names, he just couldn't pronounce most of them. He could name Duck and Douglas and Duke and Boco, but that was about it. If you pointed at a train whose name he couldn't say, he would identify it as, "choo-choo!" If you named them, he would gladly point to a photo of the correct engine, though. Lately, he has branched out and is now naming Murnog (Murdoch) and Gurdon (Gordon) and is even making a valiant effort at the names Percy and Spencer, but he won't even try "Thomas"-poor Thomas is still only "Choo-choo!"
Posted by Jessica at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)
August 01, 2006
Fatherhood for Kai?
Several people I know have mentioned the possibility of breeding their mare to Kai.
Yesterday, I got into a very long discussion with an aquaintance of mine about our horses. She had called up a few days ago and wanted to know about the possibility of breeding her mare to Kai. (He already has three offspring somewhere out in this great wide world, but I have only seen one of them, via a photograph. It was a bay filly, out of a chestnut mare.)
I talked to her for quite awhile about why she wanted this foal, and what characteristics she was looking for in a stallion. We both seem to have similar tastes in horses. We agree that we like them to be short (under 15hh), level-headed and have an excellent disposition.
I do not know if we will be able to work out an arrangement or not, as there are many things that need to be worked out beforehand.
There are so many things to consider before producing a foal. One of the things I asked her was if she would be willing and able to keep the resulting foal for the rest of its life. It's a scary thought to produce a foal that might end up in a bad situation somewhere on down the line. This woman says she always keeps her horses until they pass on from extreme old age or need to be humanely euthanized. I have been to her farm, and the horses are all very well cared for. But it is still a big decision.
Posted by Jessica at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)