A Different Kind of Motivation

Yesterday my oldest Princess turned another year older. She is now the ripe old age of 6, incredibly wise, very into fashion, and has big plans of becoming a world class swimmer/surfer!!

She makes me proud everyday, even when she is throwing a fit, being dramatic, or sullen. She is an amazing girl with a big heart, strong spirit, and fight in her eyes!!

She motivates me. I have found motivation to be different all around in the Caribbean. At home in Idaho I had a hard time finding motivation on blustery days filled with snowflakes. I had a hard time in the blazing summer heat to be motivated to go outside and

bake like a lizard. (not my style) Overall I found it hard and was constantly bolstering myself up to be motivated.

Everyday I wake up here I walk out into my living room, look out my glass french doors into the turquoise blue waters and I am motivated.

It is a different kind of motivation though. I am motivated to be better, healthier. I am motivated to enjoy the small things. The frangipani worms eating the leaves of a Frangipani tree. The palm trees shifting in the wind. To watch the sun rise and set over great beauty. I am motivated to get my

body, into that great vast body of water as often as possible. I am motivated to give my children the best of life's experiences.

It feels wonderful. I hope it is a feeling I can hold onto throughout the rest of my life, something that I can teach my children to respect.

Motivation in a serene sense.

Not motivation to make money, be better, faster, bigger. Those are not the important things in life.

These things we are seeing and doing everyday, they are the important things in life!

Adventure of a lifetime!

Well, I have been here for 3 weeks. Almost a month, and I still pinch myself every morning to make sure I am awake. Every morning.

I made Don promise me when we got married that no matter what at some point in my life I was going to live by the ocean, I had intended the Oregon coast, possible Northern California or Alaska's vast coastline. He promised, but deep down inside I doubted it would ever happen. He is not a Mariner he is a Woodsman. (Note my choice of oceanside locations carried his known love as well.) I knew he intended to keep his promise, but I did not for see life's path taking us that way.

Ha, Ha! Life is what happens while you are making other plans.

Life Indeed!

For you who do not know, we now live in the Virgin Islands in the great Caribbean, where a "Code is mere guidelines really".

Three weeks. We drive on the left, have more ethnicity than Chicago, surrounded by salt water, drink rain water from my tap, have bugs, crabs, toads and much more, and every morning I look off my deck to the horizon of endless water! Unbelievable.

The pace here is much slower, we are are known as a U.S. Territory, but closer to a third world country. The people are gracious and extremely courteous. You say Good Morning, Good Afternoon, or Good Night to everyone you meet, yes complete strangers greet you as you pass.

We have Roti, spicy Indian delicacy. Bakeries on every corner with delicious bread. And we have Rum...Don drinks a bottle a week I think he found a reason to love the Caribbean.

The water is gorgeous and abundant with life, it is getting warm as the season changes and full of creatures to explore. The sand is beautiful!

There have been surprises around every corner, most of them great. We were able to purchase a banana yellow Ford Escape, and a ocean green Jeep Wrangler that we fight over driving. We live in an awesome house with views to spare, and room for many guests. (hint, hint)

After a month on the job Don got a promotion and is the Superintendent on the project. I walked into a Vet clinic with a resume that won me an interview, and a job. The girls love the water, they love the creatures, and they love that clothing is optional. The dogs have adjusted, they love the ocean. Zip spends his days chasing and catching bugs and lizards (he is my bug man). Gunner lays on the deck and stares at the ocean....I really wonder what he is thinking.

I have to run, gotta go shopping.....have a Birthday Dinner to make for tomorrow.

Keep coming back. I plan to keep you all posted on our events here, on this blog!!

Well It's Been Awhile, And I Need Some Therapy Again

As most of you know February 14, 2012 our lives turned upside down again, for the better this time I do believe....but getting there is the hard part.

Hard day today.

12 years ago I embarked on a career path, truthfully a life's destined path as a horse trainer. It started before that, at the age of 8 when I straddled my first horse and he took off at a dead run with no whoa. But 12 years ago I officially began to get paid for what I was destined to do.

Today I loaded my last horse into someone elses trailer and watched as they drove down the road. I am bawling, then and now. I cried as the daughter to Peppy climbed into this trailer (see blog history if you don't know her story). It is a twist in my journey, not an end, but a twist that is hard to manuever.

See we are moving to the U.S. Virgin Islands (for the readers who don't already know) and leaving behind the life of ranching as we know it. In a way I really can't believe that I am officially horseless for the first time in 23 years. I am sure given time I will be astride some unruly beast on a piece of paradise. I can't live without that fur beneath me for long, but it is still hard to fathom that my solitude is no longer in my own hands. I will have to beg, plead and barrow to have the comfort I have found so often with my face buried deep into the fur of a 1200lb bay creature. Almost always bay in one way or another..

I am very excited about our adventure that lies ahead. I love the ocean, water fills my veins, not blood. But as water runs through me, horse sweat fills me, and hooves pounding echo my heart.

I am heart broke tonight knowing I am leaving a piece of my soul behind.... precisely on a piece of property in Shelley, Idaho. There it will reside until I return.

Take care of my babies, protect them and know that I have truly entrusted you with a piece of my soul.....and if god takes them before I return, please let them know that I will expect them to be waiting to lead me to heaven.

AMAZING

Yesterday, 11/11/11, a miracle occurred for me and my husband. We had both really wanted to go spend this day together, no special reason, just wanted too. As we drew near, it looked like life had other plans. Then, at the very last minute...literally, 9pm the night before, plans changed.

Don had given up hope, and really didn't want to go. We had been planning for a while to go out hunting. 11/11/11 was his opening day for a Bull Elk hunt. In a unit he loves to hunt. He had been planning and scheming about it for a while, and then the night before he is backing down.

I didn't let him.

We took the girls to my sister in law the night before so we could get up at 4:30am, drive an hour and half to the mountains, and one of my favorite places, Island Park.

We got there just as the sun was rising, there was almost 12" of snow on the ground, and a frigid 6 degrees. I was so excited, I don't know why for sure, but this morning reminded me of mornings long ago.

We started our trek straight up a mountain....not my favorite, but I was so excited. I had made a decision to not whine once all day. We tromped through the snow for two hours or so, when I saw some elk.....very, very far away. Just a couple of cows, we think, but at least some elk.

We walked for a couple of more hours, decided to stop on the top of a ridge, for a snack. There were our elk directly across from us on the other ridge, about 750 yards as the crow flies. We watched them and started counting head, some cows, a spike (baby bull). All laying and resting, soaking in the sun. Not a care in their world.

No bulls, so we decided to circle around our ridge, headed back. Once we were standing I stopped to have one last look at these elk. I love hunting.....the real reason I love it, is seeing these amazing animals in the wild, being right there, right then. It is fun, to bring them home on occasion, but the real hunt for me is simply just finding them.

Anyways, I am watching the little herd, not really aware that Don is watching them too, when he gets all excited.

"Branch Antler Bull" he exclaims!

Sure enough I scan the mountain side, and there lying under a tree sleeping is a beautiful bull. Now the hunt is really on. I put my binos down and look at Don, who has this ridiculous grin on his face.

"What?" I ask.

His reply..."I am just wondering if I might kill you."

I already know what he is thinking, which would require reaching the peak of our ridge, dropping into a bowl, cross to the other ridge and drop down on these elk. How can I saw no, but it will kill me. I offer to stay behind, and watch...he won't let me. I think he is worried I might do something stupid and break a leg. He offers to head back....saying there are more elk in here. A concession that I can't take from him, he deserves to try.

So try we do. We reach the top of our ridge, a straight 200 yards up a rock face. We stop to watch the elk again, and make a path. The bowl is not passible, so we need to go down. I am spent, and we are directly across from the elk. We decide that I am going to climb out on these sheer rocks, and wait to give Don hand signals as he gets close. (Dippy forgot his cell phone!)

So Don goes down, and I climb out onto this ledge. It is amazing, I am sitting on a Lava Rock ledge, if I slip it is a really long ways to the bottom. I can see all of Island Park Resevior which is really saying something.

I get to sit there for two full hours watching these amazing animals. I watch as the Spike (baby bull) is rolling in the snow like a dog. Two baby calves are playing in the snow. There are TWO BIG BULLS! I keeping looking for Don, but I never see him.

I watch as the bigger bull of the two lays down by some trees, with a grumpy old hag cow right below him. His watch dog. Still no Don. A little more time goes by, and then out of no where the hag comes running down the mountain. The bull leaves his bed right behind her. I guess they see Don.

I start doing hand signals like crazy, as Don steps out of the trees, but it is all to late and the Elk are gone. I feel sad to see them go, and I can feel Dons defeat from across the ridge. I climb out of my post, and hike/slide down the mountain. When I reach Don, he confirms that he saw the big bull run out right in front of him, but never had a good shot. He is sad, but thrilled to have been that close to such a beautiful bull. Next time, we have all month....guess he won't have much work motivation, and I might get in shape (or die trying)!!!

The hike out is hell, we have to go through the bottom of the ravine, over lots of down fall, cross Blue creek, where yes Daddy, I got soaked. We run into our Elk again, but we are right behind them, and no good views. I made it out....I did trip and fall about 3/4 mile from the truck and just laid there wondering if I could get back up, but I didn't whine not once.

It was an Amazing Day.

Need to join my age group!

So it is pretty bad when you have a rude awakening that your mother is cooler, hipper, and up to all the blogging, cyber web facing, interfacing with all you computer junkies, when I am thirty years younger and I taught her how to use the Internet in the first place.

My mother has an IPOD, a KINDLE, TWO BLOGS, she TWEETS, she FACEBOOKS, and who knows what else. She is constantly sending me invites to Google+, GOOD READS, and more to follow her everywhere via the Internet. She has been hounding me for weeks to SKYPE!

GOOD GRIEF! How does this happen, who took over my mother, and where is she!!

Actually I am proud of her. All these things are great tools for us to use, and the majority of us are not using them as designed. We are wasting free advertising, free networking, free, free, free!

My excuse is a poor one, time! It really is a poor excuse. I work at an emergency clinic (veterinarian) as a technician, and we are either CRAZY or DEAD! I have time, they allow me to bring my computer to work, they allow me to access the Internet, and with in reason do as I please. So my excuse is a poor one. I am currently at work typing this, as a matter of fact.

The real reason I am being left behind is I am intimidated!!!! I have no idea how to use this stuff, I don't know where to start, and half the time it gets all munged up, and I just throw my hands in the air, and threaten my computer. I just missed the boat of computer networking being taught in school, when I was in high school the Internet was new, high tech, and expensive. Yes, I come from the era of no tech, to new tech. My dad had a bag phone!

Everything is moving so fast, if you do not stay on top of it you get swiped off and fall behind.

So my quest is to try to stay on top of this Internet craze and to join the forces of cyber junkies. Like it or not, here I come!

Smells

Isn't it amazing how a single smell can take you away. Back to where you once were, good, bad, or indifferent.

My daughters came home today from the neighbors who have a wood burning stove. Because it is snowing like November outside today, they had the stove roaring. I was able to have a few moments with my girls, before heading to my second job. As I was sitting on the couch just snuggling them I was soaking in the wonderful scent of a wood burning stove, and relishing those thoughts and memories of my childhood.

As I was growing up, we always had a wood burning stove. Actually my parents have a custom, handmade stove that they received for a wedding gift I believe. I love that stove, so much that seeing as they have decided on a permanent vacation in the Islands I have request ownership of said stove. I wish that I could install it in my current home, but we lack the space. So I have a special spot already planned for it, in the dream home we hope to build someday on our 20 acres.

Anyways, I always loved how in the cold months that stove made our house a home. It was warm and comforting. Often I would play, color, or curl up right by that stove. I loved watching my dads ritual of cleaning the stove. I have fond memories of going into the woods as a family to cut wood. I never had to work, I explored. One of my favorite pastimes, exploring the woods.

We used to dry our boots, mittens, everything by the stove. I loved, at night right before bed, standing by the stove soaking in as much warmth as possible and running to bed taking the heat of the stove with you.

As much as I love the Ocean, as much as I love my parents Island. I could never not snowing falling and a warm fire to sit by. It was how I was raised and it is something I truly do love. This is why I need to win the lottery, build that dream house and have a cabana by the ocean too!

For now, I will have to visit the neighbors.

I am gonna kill them!

MY DOGS! That's who.

So we have been fighting for over a year with our neighbor, over our dogs. You have to understand that this man hates dogs, with a passion. He shot the neighbors in cold blood. Once their dog was gone, check, he moved onto ours.

It started with a barking dog nuisance, that has snowballed into 6 misdemeanor charges for disturbing the peace, thousands of dollars in fines, informal probation for Don. The purpose of this blog is not the details of all of that....see past blogs for those.

Today I went to the store...bought some groceries. Some dinner items, some special treats, gourmet cookies, chocolate, going to have a pleasant night. You know how it is. Crazy days, wanted to treat the family.

So had to leave for twenty minutes to pick up Macy from the bus, left the dogs inside, locked out of my bedroom where a brand new mattress and comforter set do not need dog juice and hair. I had not even unpacked any of the groceries yet, left them on the counter.

Now a year a go, I would have quickly put the dogs into the Taj-mahal Kennel that inhabits my backyard. But due to before mentioned neighbor, $2000.00 just sits in my back yard growing weeds.

So I leave, and come back to find that Gunner and Zip, 2 of our 4 dogs, had devoured all my food. ALL OF IT. Now for those of you who don't know Zip and Gunner are our senior dogs. Gunner will be 9, and Zip is 7. Trustworthy right, apparently not.

They ate:

1 dozen gourmet peanut butter cookies

1 dozen hamburger buns, plus half the package.

1 large bag of chocolate candy, including half the package and every single individual wrapper, but one...I must of come in the door just then for them to have left it.

1lb raw hamburger

I had no words, I didn't even beat them. They will get theirs, sometime tonight around midnight their tummies will rumble and up it will come. I simply took them to the garage, the were excited thought they were going for a ride. Shoved them both into a crate that fits only one. Closed the door, the partners in crime can be partners in diarrhea tonight.