so EXCITED

I can NOT wait until next weekend to go to the Renaissance Faire, yaaaaaayyyy!!!! Luckily, I told myself I could not conceiveably afford to purchase a Nikon d40 before our trip (short of getting it from a camera store on a payment plan), so I'll content myself with shooting pictures with Sarah's camera until I can get my own at a later date. It is really frustrating living life without a camera though... heck! I've been without one for the past few months! >.<


a "Knight" from last year's North Carolina Renaissance Faire

I've got $225 to go on my Nikon d40 savings. I decided to buy the kit of it on Amazon which comes with the camera and factory lens, a 4GB card, card reader, carrying case, and I'm not sure what else, but not much more if so. I'll probably use this next paycheck (if I get it in time!) - the entire thing - for gas and the Renaissance Faire, but I might go ahead and take some money out of my savings for it. I need to let Sarah know ahead of time to A) not let me buy ANY crowns; B) not allow me to purchase a musical instrument... that is $30 or above! (just to be safe ;D) Somehow my head just gets all jumbled when I step into the ??00's and go to a Ren Faire. I've made some poor purchases.

Needing Improvement... again!

We all need to improve, and here is my list of things I want/NEED to accomplish/do before I leave for college: (in somewhat order of importance!)

- Do Government 1 final exam
- Do Chemistry and Government EVERYDAY
- Finish Chemistry and Government 2
- Finish Personal Progress
- Ride bareback (or just ride!) 3x a week
- Do Ab workout everyday
- Do Cardio for 30 mins everyday
- Work with Malik for 15 mins everyday*
(teach to stand still when tied, then to lead, then lots of transitions/halts on lead, then ground driving, then desensitize to harness, then - if time - desensitize to cart)
- Begin writing a fantasy novel in "Post" form**
- Finish reading all the Narnia and the Green Gables books on my 2008 reading list

So that's my list so far. I'll refer to it often so I remember. I've always got something I need to work on and it's so hard!

*I am going to teach him to pull a cart, but I'll probably have to start him in a pygmy harness until he's two and will fit a normal goat harness. He won't be pulling anyone in a cart until he's older, mind you.
**I figured that if I treated writing a novel like roleplaying, like made my characters beforehand and just "posted" scenes, then I would actually get it done. I'll probably either do a novel from two different perspectives so I alternate posts, or I'll just post the same person over and over.

Ponee loooooove

I <3 ponies! Even though Justin's a horse, he's definently my 'painted ponee'

The missionaries came to work today to clean the barn, and found only three piles of poop in it. Just my luck! Tomorrow, there will probably be 25x piles of poop and the whole thing'll have to be stripped and I'll be by myself! >.<>

Brittney was with me for the past 24+ hours. We went to Wal*mart today so she could buy some dress we saw there yesterday, but they only had it a size smaller than her. I spent at least 20 minutes deciding on three pairs of shoes, put two in the cart, and ended up removing them and two other items at checkout (Sarah, I'm just like YOU!). But I do feel good about removing them. I actually got Mousse today too, along with some hairspray because I want to try the 'scrunch' hairdo that I see so many girls do. Plus, I got two adorable little dresses for church and for fun!

The missionaries have alot of fun at the barn, especially Elder Garner. He's obsessed with Diesel, the 17 hand warmblood that belongs to the director of the operation. Apparently he got permission to ride him for his birthday, so one of these days he's gonna ride him. But he enjoys playing with the horses alot and surprisingly has a natural ability with them and how to deal with them like: when to give in, when to not, etc. I was shockingly surprised as he told me how Jake did with him today, because he decided he needed to shove Jake around (so he went to the field, got him, tied and groomed him, then walked/trotted him around the ring, and he did really well). *rolls eyes* Elder Cloyd got Majec (who he calls his girlfriend) and tied/groomed her before I took her to work with her, and then he helped me with some hippotherapy toy desensitizing. They're both pretty dang obnoxious, but I've learned to deal with it (i.e. assigning each of them to a different horse so they don't strangle eachother and I don't strangle them xD).

This is me with our new baby goat Chamomile aka- Millie.

And I love Braveheart and Warrior. I've determined the two of them are my favorite, the two little little ponies.

The good Lord giveth and the good Lord taketh away...

Or in this case, the vet took away on God's orders. "Iris" had to be put down on March 10th due to old age and being terribly anaemic. We've had her for 8 years, and she was probably around 8-9 years old. Turns out we haven't been diligent about worming, and -combined with old age- it just made her weaker and weaker. I felt so stupid crying in front of the vet, but he was so nice and I've determined I'm going to switch to him for Justin and his stuff. Roanoke Valley Equine is just way too expensive. Here's the story:

She was anaemic, meaning that she was full of worms and such. So the vet did a PCV on her and Billybob, not sure what it meant but their numbers were bad. He also checked the poop and it was full of worms and coccidia. When he came, he told me that we needed to move them to a different area and clean, lime and let air out the area they're in currently. Apparently we've been breeding worms and all sorts of icky things. So that's what happened to Iris. Now we've got to give everybody Dectomax for three days, and put CORID in their water for the next 10 to get rid of the coccidia in their system.

Ya know what made me cry? Other than Iris and her having to be put down, of course. While I was waiting for the vet to go get the shot to put her to sleep, Malik, Piper and Boots came in one by one and sniffed Iris (Malik also sniffed and nibbled on me) like they were saying goodbye. And what made me really tear up was Boots... she's one of Iris's babies from last year and when she came in she bleated, and Iris (who was up to this point dull and listless) perked up majorly and bleated back. Then once it was done, Piper (who normally doesn't like any of the other goats) came in where Iris was laying and was nudging her like she was wondering what had happened. :(

But, the good Lord also giveth! Chamomile aka "Millie" was born today! Born out of Boots and looks just like her. I was working on the small enclosure that we used to keep goats in, and for some reason I went into the goat's pen and SURPRISE! baby!!! At first, Boots was bleating motherly-like and licking the baby, but she seemed to walk away whenever Millie tried to nurse. So, after skipping institute and running to the store for bottles and dinner, I came back and milked a bottle full. When I went to try to feed Millie, her little belly felt full, so I felt the OTHER teat of Boots's and it was a little less empty than it had been. So I suppose she must be consuming something! Anyways, she's adorable but tomorrow I have to call the vet to ask some questions and the missionaries are coming over to help me finish the alternate goat fence and hopefully I can get them started on Corid!