Thanksgiving And The Like

Thanksgiving!

I love that holiday so much! Of course, I really love just about every holiday...

Anyway! We always host Thanksgiving dinner at our house for whoever

wants to come (normally some of Dad's family and a few friends).

I don't know but there is something superhero-ish about Mom's...

In my book anyway! She was up around 5 a.m. to start cooking our turkey

and never stopped working until about 9 p.m that night! The food

was absolutely wonderful! All of it! And I don't know why, but if she cleans

something it always seems like 10 times cleaner than if I do it. All of us girls have

our assigned chores that we do around the house, but if by chance Mom ends

up just tidying up a little (like 3 minutes) it looks so much better than if I work

for 30! Don't you think that's a little unfair?? :) Oh well, I guess she's got a few

years' experience more than I...

Let the eatinggg commence!
And we can have a good time talking while everyone else fills
their plates! (make sure it's not poison before we try any...)

Host and Hostess.

Somehow our house always seems to have just enough room

for whatever group is over. If it's just us 5 than sometimes it can feel a little

crowded, but then we have 15 more people over and it feels right at the

comfortable level! Like if we had any more it'd be too full, and any less it'd be

to empty! (And then two days later you have Kalebaugh Family Christmas

and that's like 25 people and it's the same thing all over again!)

The leftover turkey...

SomeBODY (I won't mention names...) ate it all!

Jkjk! :D

And then somehow they expect us to fit in pie??!

2 of the 3 "dish-doer's". Mom was the other one, but she didn't get

in the picture.

Next to the turkey (and stuffing! Don't forget the stuffing), the visiting is

the one of my favorite things about this holiday!

Plus, I guess just the name Thanksgiving makes me reflective

and it's a good chance to really think about all the things I'm blessed

with and thankful for! What's that Bible verse about "always giving thanks

and making music to the Lord in your hearts"? Oh if only I could

pattern my life after that verse...Turkey-induced coma stricken people resting in the living room.

Later that afternoon the Deets family came to join us for some

celebration! :D It was quite fun!

We had a grand time visiting, and just sitting around and hanging out!

And Thanksgivingleftovers snacking :)

What better to do at 11 p.m. than get ready to go Black Friday shopping!?

Josh had found some great deals on some of the stuff he wanted to get

for the kids on Black Friday sales lists, but he had to work, so he convinced

us to go for him :P

Of course Reid doesn't want to be in the picture...

As Dad was getting ready to go to bed he asked "Okay, who's going

to be driving?" To which Reid promptly says "BECKY!" He must

trust my driving the most out of our family :P

I'm okay with that!
Strange that he trusts my driving even though I stop looking at the

road to have my picture taken...

Just kidding! We were just backing out of our driveway!
I do my best to be the safest driver I can so I'd not "not look" at the road.

Nyeaaahhhh, That's all folks! :D

We ended up getting all the stuff that was on the list... With a little

work. It was quite a fun experience and I wouldn't mind doing it again sometime!

Thoughtful...

So, lately I guess the mood I'm in you would call thoughtful. Reflective
maybe, but I'm thinking more thoughtful... One of these days I'm due
to sit down and just write a really long "wordy" post. Hmm, maybe I
should just start journaling instead :P
But, mostly this post is just for a little "don't give up on us" sort of thing.
Our internet has been having connection issues so photos and stuff won't
upload! Grr! But, I've got pictures started uploading, and we've been doing
lots of stuff that we've got pictures of. So (especially Wolfgang and Lauren!)
look for posts in the next few days! They'll have lots of pictures!

Btw, W & L thanks for posting so much! I've loved getting to keep up with
how your trip is going! Hopefully I'll be able to return the favor soon :)

"O! For a horse with wings!" (Shakespeare). Or, PEGASUS!!

In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' William Shakespeare writes "My soul

is in the sky!" I read that quote and thought it'd be a good introduction to this

post. So, this post may make it sound more glamorous (but believe me it was

nothing *and not meant to be anything* of the sort!), than really it was.

But anyway, Thursdays this year for Rachel and I were spent with us working

our hardest to help others reach high, and "for the sky" if you will.

We spent our summer working to let others who's bodies don't have some of

the privileges that ours do, who are perfect, unique, and very special, get to

be free from their whatever is hindering them while riding horses.

It was the end of October (we've been doing this since March...) and

we still hadn't gotten any pictures!!! So we decided that since Pegasus occupied

so much of our summer that it was essential to have pictures to document at

least a little of our adventures out there! So we tried to make up for 8 months in one

day! :D I think we did alright! So, you get to experience a little "day in the life..." of Rachel and Becky

(and a few of the other girls...) at Pegasus! Here's our cooler in the back of

the LittleGreenTruck on the way. The cooler was a life (and stomach) saver

during the hot summer months! It was lovely to have cold drinks and sandwiches

on our lunch break.

'The Sign'.

Headed up the driveway!

:P First ones to get rid of our stuff into the lunch room (which as the year went

on, Wayne established as the "quiet zone" because it was connected

to his office...)

"Given angel's wings, where might you fly?

In what sweet heaven might you find your love?

Unwilling to be bound, where might you move,

Lost between the wonder and the why?..."

~Nicholas Gordon~

The mounting ramp.

:D At least once a month we got reminded in our

randomly unscheduled 'morning group meetings', "This is where the most accidents

happen! Always keep yourself ready to respond to things instantly.

What's the most important thing??? (say it with me girls!!!) Saaafetyyyyy!"

The Arena!

There are lots of little things to keep riders occupied and always working

during their whole ride. Cones to weave in and out of, rings and stuff you can toss

on the cones, basketball hoops, lots of different kinds of balls and toys, barrel

to circle around, a little maze to go through...

And mirrors! There are 6 in the arena. They are SO helpful!

Not only does it let the riders see themselves, but it helps the ones of us who are helping

the riders be able to see whats going on and make sure our rider is doing okay!
Annnd, since there are so many of us girls... Well, even with our knowingly

unglamorous duties we still feel the urge to glance in the mirror every once in a while

to make sure we at least look presentable... :P

Brock!! This horse is so funny! He's probably the most handsome horse

that Pegasus has, and he knows it! He is always showing off to people or the

other horses, and makes these hilarious faces! And he loves to look in the mirror.

He can be quite the handful, but is a very strong horse and is great with riders!

Oh look, Ace (the cat that nobody really likes...).

Literally, nobody really likes him at all, he scares some of us, and has this

awful sounding, well, I think its supposed to be 'meow', one can never really tell...

The sign in book... Helps Mr. Wayne keep track of us ;)

All the bridles! Thankfully all the horses have their own (equipped with name tags)

spots to hang the bridles on otherwise I'd never have figured out who's was who's!

Some of the saddles in the tack room. (Again thankfully labeled with numbers).

Aww, one of the cute tiny saddles!

The grooming buckets! All the horses have their own.

Okay, and just so I don't have to keep writing it, pretty much everything

is labeled with the horses names so everything can say in at least relative order!
Since Pegasus is open more than just one day, and they have different groups

of people work on different days, stuff can get a little moved around but overall

it's a great system that works quite well! :D

And, probably the best thing Pegasus ever decided to have...

The Schedule Board! This is Thursday's board. It is set up so we know

exactly how to tack the horse for each rider that comes on Thursday!

It starts with the Riders name, then tells what time he/she comes, next it

tells how many people they need to help them, then what horse they ride.

Next it tells you how to tack the horse. What saddle, what to put under the saddle,

what kind of reins, and then how long the stirrups should be!

It. Is. Amazing.

Some of "The Girls" out in one of the big pastures.

"Man has made many machines, complex and cunning, but which of them indeed rivals

the workings of his heart?" ~Pablo Casals~

Neita, our morning instructor doing paperwork :)

Neita is so fun to work with! She's always got us laughing, and

it is cool to watch how she interacts with the riders.

Lunch! :D A good time of day...

Plus, 'the lunchroom/quietzone' is the only air conditioned or heated

building out there, so on hot days it is wonderful to go sit and cool off in, and on

cold days... It is not so wonderful to go warm up in... Because its REALLY hard to

go back out into the cold afterwards!

Ricky! This sweet horse reminds me of just a good ol' dog. When he sees you, you are

automatically in charge. He will follow you anywhere regardless of whether he has his

halter on or you've got a lead attached to him or not!
We played countless games of "follow the leader" with him and his 6 yr. old rider!
It was so beautiful to watch his rider just giggle and giggle when we'd try to "get

Ricky to stop following us" and he'd just keep walking right behind us...

Ricky wearing the little English saddle.

Its so cute because Ricky is one of the taller horses at Pegasus, but he

gets to wear the smallest saddle Pegasus owns too.

This is Diamond.

She is generally a pretty grumpy mare (if you couldn't tell from the picture) :P

But is very reliable and good with riders who need more help.

That may seem like a weird mix (or it does to me at least) but she's great

for it!

Um, I'm not giving a description of this one...

Let's leave it with, uh, a "necessary evil" :/

Rachel!!!!

This is Juno.

"The ones who are challenged need to be heard.

To be seen not as a disability, but as a person who has, and will continue to bloom.
To be seen not only as a handicap, but as a well intact human being."

~Robert M. Hensel~

Heh heh, here's Rachel pretending to be a horse...

For the record, we do not clip the horses by their cheek to the walls, they have

little rings or buckles on their halters that we clip them into.
:D Nobody go screaming for the ASPCA!

Trying to get a self portrait...

We tied Rachel up with some baling twine we found... :D

Us "Morning Girls".

The hay loft made for quite a fun place to take pictures! Except for the spiders...

Seeing if any of our pictures had turned out...

Can you believe it?? On Thursdays there are 3 sets of twins

and we all work together for at least one class!!

How neat is that!?

Ha, a much more typical picture...

This is us "The Afternoon/Evening Girls" with Nancy our instructor!

Let me say this, Nancy is awesome.

I have learned so much from her by just being around her!

Seriously, I can't say enough good about her. The way she interacts with

the riders, the way she teaches us, her positive attitude and constant smile (even

on the killer hot or really really cold days), she's one of those people who makes

you feel good about yourself when you are just in the same building as her.

She's not my idol or anything, she just really amazes me.

All us "Thursday Girls" and Mr. Wayne!
The Director of Pegasus (and do-er of all jobs "Manly" like fixing fences, and mowing,

and driving hay trucks, and... Oh, paperwork so he can stay away from all us girls) :)

He is the "favorite uncle" type and is super fun to work with and for!And that's about it! Unfortunately, and yet completely understandably, we cannot take or use pictures of the Riders. I understand why, but its also sad because they literally are what make the whole day! They are what it is all about. So, no pictures of them, but other than that, I think you've now gotten a pretty well rounded idea of what goes on for our Thursdays.