Memorial Day Parade!

Yesterday, us, the R's, and many other people went up to Surprise for a Memorial Day Parade! We went all out in decorating red white and blue, and had such a fun day. All the horses behaved great, and everyone loved us!!

Mom, Joy and the Chick-fil-A cow!!


Our mini farrier with her handmade Roman outfit, and hand-retrofitted chariot!! Talented!


My stallion, Warrior, meeting one of his sons for the first time!




You know who...and, no, I'm not grumpy, I'm just tired and spacing out!


The chariot in action

Beautiful Joy...who loved all the attention!

Jessie with her electric scooter all decorated and hooked up to Zig Zag.

David with Sawyer. This was Sawyer's 6th time in a cart, and he was AWESOME!!

You know who again...

Me with Warrior - he looked so handsome!

And, finally, the movie! Of course, we made a movie of it. So, here it is!!! If you click on the TV symbol in the bottom right corner, the movie should blow up full screen.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!!

Lisa

Videos

The videos of the Recital are on their own page. You can find the page by clicking on "Spring Recital Videos" at the top of the blog! Let me know what you think. I have been teaching the first two (Noah and Emily) for the past couple months, and they are both doing great!

OOPS! Just realized that the video of me playing never came through! It works now...

Sing To The Lord

For those of you who have been reading my blog, I have posted way to much silly stuff on here and not nearly enough "good" stuff! So, here's what's been on my mind lately.....

I have been struck lately with how many times the Bible commands us to "sing." About a year ago, Iwas listening to a tribute to my favorite artist, Rich Mullins, and he made the comment that "the command to sing is the most repeated command in Scripture." Since then, whenver I am reading my Bible, I am really aware of this because at the time, I doubted the veracity of Mullins' statement. Well, what do you know - he was right!

Reading through the Psalms is where this is most evident. In most circumstances, the writer is singing out of a joyful heart, but there are also times when he sings even though his world is crashing in on him. Psalm 13 is a rather short psalm compared to some, but in it, David starts by showing that he is in anguish. His life is being threatened. He's in less than ideal circumstances. Things aren't good. But, even in the midst of all this, he says in the last verse, "I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me."

One incredibly striking example is in Acts 16 - the story of Paul and Silas in prison. Imagine it: These two men have just freed a young girl from an evil spirit. Instead of rejoicing for her, her masters see that her "money-making abilities" are gone, and, enraged at that, drag Paul and Silas to the authorities who strip and beat them. They are then thrown into prison where, despite being bloodied and bruised, the jailer locks them in the stocks. After he leaves, the two prisoners do the most extraordinary thing ...they start singing! And, they weren't just humming quietly to themselves. They were locked "in the inner prison," and they were singing loud enough that "the other prisoners were listening to them." What a testimony of faith! Here they are, they've been tortured and are locked in jail, and they're singing at the top of their lungs. Incredible!

I have found it to to be true in my own life that if I can sing, my attitude will change. Whatever is going on - if I'm sad, angry, afraid, discouraged, or even just tired, singing to the Lord really helps me get a new perspective. The Lord "inhabits the praises of His people." (Ps. 22:3) One of my favorites to sing is All For Jesus by Robin Mark. I love the part where it says, "All of my ambitions, hopes, and plans; I surrender these into Your hands." Our ambitions can range from merely wanting to go riding with some friends to big things like college, life goals, etc. If we can surrender ALL of our ambitions (big and small) to God, He will take care of them.

Oh - and just because I was curious, I counted and found out that "sing" appears 121 times in the Bible, and goes up to 209 in the New English version. It is also the most recorded command!.....just kidding, I googled it and found out. No way I could count that :)

So...how many times did I use the word "sing" in this post? (That includes sang, singing, sung, etc.)

I will hopefully be putting videos of all of us at our piano recital last weekend on here sometime soon.

Lisa

Pictures from today

Jessie and I were supposed to be filming the puppies today, but afterwards, we got kinda side tracked and started having Anna take pictures of us. Ok...we were being really silly, but it was also really fun :) This new camera is great, but it's also a time waster!

Me trying to be "cool"....and totally failing!!!

Best Friend's Graduation/Party

Well, my best friend, Leigh Anne, had her high school graduation on Thursday night! She graduated from Verrado and is going to be going to Grand Canyon University this fall...the same place that I will hopefully be going to next year!

We went to her graduation and then to her house for ice cream cake and a "party" afterwards. Then, she came home with us, spent the night, and left the next day. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures

At the graduation

Getting ready to cut the cake!


But, it was frozen too hard, so my dad had to do it!

Her dad is a big game hunter, so their living room looks like a trophy room!

Jessie with the crocodile rug

And the hippopotamus (sp?)

I know that it is the "norm" nowadays in America, but the way that the kids acted and dressed out at the high school was appalling!!!..to say the least. Makes me sooo glad that I am homeschooled!

Lisa

Mini Show!....

The show went great! I had so much fun, and am really hooked on showing minis now.



We got up at 4:45 AM, got everything ready, loaded us, the horses, clothes, harnesses, carts, etc., and headed up to 14th St and Carefree Hwy. We left around 6 and got to the show around 7. After unloading everything, measuring horses in, and signing up, we set up the shade chairs and watched for a while.



My friends, Loren and Sam, were both showing in the first classes (halter), so I had fun playing with the camera and taking pictures of them.


As it started getting close to lunch time, Kailey and Jessie looked in the ice chest and found out that all Mom had packed was a loaf of bread, mayo, and meat. They got desperate and started texting Kailey's friend, Brittany, who was coming to the show and begging her to bring them McDonald's. Now, I am NOT a McDonalds fan, but that sounded better than the other option we had, so we were all delighted when Brittany, her boyfriend, and her mom showed up with cheeseburgers for everyone!




Right after lunch, I went to change out of my t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops and into my long sleeved show shirt, black pants, boots, and gloves...as it was almost 100 degrees, I was not looking forward to doing so! The only place I had to change was in the dressing room of our mini trailer, and considering that that is only about 5 feet tall, and Iam 6 feet tall, that was a difficult thing to do. But, you do what you have to do, and I got it done!


The show went really well. In Youth Country Pleasure, I placed 2nd out of four competitors! I had a total blast and really want to go to Norco in July now...


Oh, one last thing that was really funny. After the show, when I changed back into my "normal" clothes, I just pulled my boots on with my shorts because I didn't want to go find my other shoes. So, on the way home, we stopped at a Circle K for sodas, and I forgot that I was in shorts and boots! And, not just capris...shorts! Anyways, these two guys were so funny. One was your typical "city boy" with the kinda tight jeans, sunglasses, graphic tee, etc., and he just kept looking back over his shoulder and staring at me with this "what is she wearing" look on his face. Then, when I was walking out, this guy walked in and looked at me and....he started laughing! Outright, outloud laughter! I looked at Anna and said, "Did that guy just laugh at me?," and she said, "I thought the same thing!" Crazy! but funny!!!!

My friend, Loren, showing her stallion, Bailey

Me with Warrior...I am not frowning in these pictures. I am either concentrating, or squinting because I can't wear my sunglasses while I am actually showing :)

Mom and ZigZag

Me and Mom before our classes

Practicing to be a model....JK!!!!!! Totally kidding

Adorable Video

These are the puppies in a video I made today...

Cute pictures!!!

These are our three adorable Papillon puppies that we have right now. They are 4 weeks old tomorrow! There are two girls and one boy...and they're for sale :)

Horse show..maybe a TX trip?!?!?

Well, I got some exciting news today. This is all just a maybe!!!




Actually, this part is a for sure...I am going to show my stallion, Warrior, in our first mini show on Sunday! I have shown my big horse for years, but this will be my first time showing a mini! I am so excited, and my mom is even going to show Zig Zag! We are planning on just going for fun and maybe getting some ribbons?!?!? (crossing my fingers!!!) But, here's the exciting part.


The big show for the AMHR (american miniature horse registry) is Nationals in Texas in September. In order to qualify, you have to have shown under four judges. There are two at the show on Sunday, and then there is a show in Norco, CA in July with two judges. That would qualify me for Nationals! We have a friend named Denice who actually is the one who got us into minis to start with. She will be going to Norco and TX, and has room to take me! My mom is actually considering it!!!!!! I would love to go and show and it would also give me a chance to go out of state. If I got to go to Nationals, I would be leaving sometime in the first week of September. For me, this rivals Tyler's Ireland trip! If you read this, Tyler, I know you probably cannont understand how a week at a horse show can even begin to compare with a trip to Ireland, but...that's just how I am.


One of the major setbacks to me going would be that Denice has a teenage daughter that shows, but she has a boyfriend. If he goes, that would definitely put a problem in the way of me going. The whole boyfriend thing does not make sense to me. Even if you weren't a Christian and didn't believe in God's standards for physical and emotional purity, there is an element of common sense that is lacking. In my perspective, if you have a boyfriend, it is very exclusive. For example, if I was dating one specific boy, I couldn't be friends with multiple boys because the boyfriend would be jealous. Why not just be friends and enjoy open, pure relationships with boys instead of pairing off with one and not enjoying the friendship of the rest. Because, more than likely, high schoolers tend to break up soon enough. And breaking up...that is just practicing for divorce, another terribly wrong act. Some of my best friends are boys and it would be silly for me to not just be friends. I'm not old enough to be married anyway!

Anyways...once I get going on this subject, I tend to get carried away! It is just such a prevalent problem in our culture, and so many young people don't even see the danger in it.



So, I will definitely put pictures and hopefully video from the show on Sunday on here. Please pray for the out of state trips; I would LOVE to go, but want to also do what is best...

Our Saturday...

Well, Saturday was a rather interesting day. It actually started Friday night with the men from church having the prayer meeting here. So, to start with, we were up late because of that.


Then, I had to get up early because a friend from the neighborhood was coming at 8 AM to pick me up, so I could videotape his horse that he is selling with the new camera. After two hours of filming that, I got home around 10.


By 10:45, the R's were here so that we could move the 64 bale squeeze of hay that had been delivered to us earlier in the morning. They also brought their horse, Sawyer, so that Mom could shave him while we moved hay. Normally when we move hay, me, Jessie, David and Tyler can move a whole stack into the barn in just under half an hour. Well, today, Tyler wasn't able to come help us, so it was just me, Jessie and David. Anna and Kailey helped for a little bit, but their allergies kicked in, so they went to the house. Noah is a good helper, but he needs a little more height and muscle! Between the hay being green (which makes it really heavy), not having Tyler, the heat today!, and all of us being tired, it took us a long time to move it all. By the time we were done, we were whipped. We still had fun...we plugged my ipod into the speakers at the barn and blared music the whole time we worked! And, of course, we talked, talked, talked, laughed, joked, and made a less than ideal situation into a pretty fun time! But, we were still exhausted. Next time, I think we'll wait for Tyler!!!

After all the hay was moved, Mrs. R and Noah went home, and David came in and we all changed into clean clothes and ate lunch. It was pretty amazing how sweaty we all got! After lunch, we still had to get their horse back to their house, so Anna, me, and David walked all the way to the R's around 3:30. It was so hot!

Then, when we got back, Mom and I headed out to almost Wickenburg (Grand and 163rd Ave) to pick up a pair of birds from our friend. We arrived at her house and realized that we had forgotten both nets and/or towels to try to catch the birds. The birds were loose in a 20x50 foot aviary and they would bite our fingers off if they could! But, it takes about 30 mins. to get to her house, so we decided to try and work with whatever we could find back by the aviary. Well...all that was back there was a fishing net! So, we went in the aviary and, well...long story short, after a lot of stress, birds getting tangled up, and some funny moments, we got them both caught and came home.

So, at the end of the day, I was exhausted, sunburned!, and sore, but we got a lot of stuff done!

More pictures from new camera!!!

Enjoy...

New Camera

Well, we finally took the plunge and bought a Canon EOS Rebel T2i. It is a D-SLR and we have three different lenses for it! I am having so much fun playing with it! Here are some shots that I have taken. I will put more on later...

Competition Results!....

So......my teacher called this morning with the results from ASP. For this competition, I had to play five memorized pieces plus take a two page written theory test. The students are divided into levels 1-12 and it is supposed to go by grade level. That way, after level 12, you are technically ready to go for a music major. Well, I was level 12 this year!

Just to give you an idea, I was getting a 92-94 average score on my practice theory tests. When I mentioned to my teacher that I would really like a 100 score, she said that a 100 on a level 12 test is nearly impossible. In fact, she said that if you got over a 95, it was pretty amazing and the other teachers will be talking about it.

Anyways, I got a 98 score plus a Superior with Honors - the highest you can get! I was sooo happy!!!!! I am really not trying to boast and am really sorry if I sound that way. I just read this and realize that I sound a little proud of myself... That is not how I want to come across at all.

The five pieces I was playing were:

1. Clearness in Rapidity (Czerny)
2. Partita in Bb Major - Corrente (Bach)
3. Moonlight Sonata - Third Movement Presto Agitato (Beethoven)
4. First Nocturne (Chopin)
5. Rodeo - Hoe Down (Copland)

The fourth one is the Nocturne that I am playing in the video on my videos page, and I am also putting a video of me playing the Beethoven Sonata on right now.

In the video, I am playing it at a recital back in December, and if you know this song, you will hear that I mess up and skip a lot right in the middle. This was because I had actually had the stomach flu the day before and I was NOT feeling good! But, I really wanted to play, so I went ahead and played despite feeling rather queasy. Because of not feeling right, I was really shaky and totally forgot part of it. So anyways, if you're not familiar with this song, you may not notice, but if you know it well...well, that's what happened!!! I competed with it in November and did really well, but now I can't find that video! Actually, you can hear part of it in this video. http://www.blip.tv/play/hP1Wga7ATgA The horse is Heaven, Turbolina's baby from October. She is only two weeks old!