Day after Thanksgiving Shopping

Well, there are been debates around our house on why it was called "Black Friday" to begin with... Unfortunately, as it was on our way to shopping this morning, we had no Internet or other way of finding it out- I'll be doing research on it later, to appease my curiosity... ;-) However, my theory is that they call it "Black Friday" on account of the gazillions of people who are crazy enough to get up at unearthly hours to go outside where it's pitch black outside, and go shopping in order to make it back home while it's still pitch black outside- there seems to be a contest, as though everyone's afraid of the sun!! Or, well, it's probably more like the freezing-cold 20-degree weather... :-)

And yes, I was one of the crazy people this year... Just got back from shopping, and spending over 3 hours in JoAnn fabric, just waiting for Allison's number 81 fabric-cutting number to come up... It was dark when we went inside, but when we came back out again, it was time for the sunglasses!!

It all started yesterday, actually, when my sister Allison had declared first thing that she was not going shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Well, all of that changed when my grandparents came over for Thanksgiving lunch, and brought the newspaper, which brought tidings of great deals everywhere! And some not-so-great deals that they tried to make look as good as possible, too.

So, after some deliberation, we decided that we 4 girls (me, my 2 sisters, and my mom) would go shopping. But then came the decision of "what time should we leave?" Well, as the first store we wanted to go to opened at midnight, and the next store at 4, it was decided to leave at 2 o'clock in the morning in order to make the half-hour drive and be done in the first store before heading to the next one when it opened.

Carolyn and I opted for no sleep at all, and just watched movies on our laptops in bed, instead of sleeping... ;-)

At the dreaded 2 o'clock freezing time of the day (or rather, night), we bundled up to brave the cold and go shopping! We ended up being way ahead of schedule, and sat around in the nice warm car for over half an hour waiting for Target to open, and finally gave up to go to Sears before Target. By then, the thermometer on the bank downtown read 19 degrees... Brrr!!!! Thank you Target for having a Starbucks inside! ;-) Had a yummy peppermint white chocolate mocha... Enough said on that point. ;-)

We finally made it through all of our stores to spend a whole 3 hours in JoAnn, with the reason stated above.

Did any of you go shopping today, on the day after Thanksgiving (still my preferred name for the day- Black Friday sounds so dismal, and to be dreaded- maybe for good reason, though...)?

"Moses"

Lately, I've been thinking of the words to a song called "Moses", by Ken Medema. This is a song that we sang in our NoteWorthy choir back in July/August. The words have really been challanging me as I sing it to myself, so I thought I would share the lyrics with you. The words in italics are the narrator, in bold is God speaking, and normal is Moses speaking, figuratively. ;-) Unfortunately, I don't have a recording of our choir singing it, and haven't found one anywhere else that like, having sung it with an amazing choir myself. I sincerely hope you will all get a chance to hear it sung well sometime, though- the music that goes with it is amazing. It was by far the favorite song at NoteWorthy. :-)

"Moses"
Ken Medema (C) 1971 Word Music

Old Moses, way back there in the wilderness.
Saw some smoke... came to the bush, and the bush was burning!
God said, "Take off your shoes, Moses, you're on holy ground.

Moses, I've chosen you to be my man.
Moses, way down in Egypt land!
Moses, I've chosen you to work for Me,
Moses, I've chosen you to set my people free!"

"Not me, Lord, don't You know I can't talk so good?
I st-st-stutter all the time!
Do You know my brother, Aaron?
He can sing like an angel, t-t-talk like a preacher!
Not me, Lord, I can't talk so good.

And another thing: How will they know that I've been here with You?
How will they know what You've sent me to do?
Don't You know in Egypt they want little Moses' head?
Don't You know in Egypt they want little Moses dead?
Don't You know they'll never hear a single word I'll say?
Maybe You'd better get Your dirty work done another way!
Not me, Lord!

"What's that in your hand, Moses?"

"It's just a rod."

"Throw it down, Moses."

"Do You mean, like, on the ground?"

"Yes, I said, throw it down, Moses."

"Lord, don't take my rod away from me!
Don't You know it's my only security?!
Don't You know when you live here all alone
A man's gotta have something he can call his own?
Not me, Lord!"

"Throw it down, Moses."

"But, Lord, I..."

"Throw it down, Moses."

"But..."

"Throw it down, Moses!"

Moses threw the rod on the ground, and the rod became a hissing snake!
Well, Moses started running... well, maybe you'd run, I know that I'd run!
He was running from a hot rod! Running from a hissing snake!
Running scared of what God's gonna do, running scared He'll get a-hold of you!
And the Lord said, "Stop! Pick it up, Moses, by the tail!"

"Lord, You have not lived here very long,
Lord, You've got the whole thing wrong!
Don't You know that You never pick up a hissing snake... by his..."

"Pick it up, Moses!!"

"Oh, God, it's a rod again... it's a rod again... it's a rod again!"

"Do you know what it means, Moses?
Do you know what I'm trying to say, Moses?
The rod of Moses became that rod of God.
With the rod of God, touch the rock and the water will come.
With the rod of God, part the waters of the sea.
With the rod of God, you can strike old Pharoah dead.
With the rod of God, you can set my people free."

What do you hold in your hand today?
To what, or to Whom are you bound?
Are you willing to give it to God right now?
Give it up, let it go, throw it down.

Found on Ken Medema's project Yesterday Revisited
(C) 1989 Briar Patch Records

What do you hold in your hand today? Perhaps God wants to use it as an instrument for the furthering of His glory. All we have to do is throw it down at His feet- are you willing to give your dreams, and things very dear to you to God, for Him to use as He pleases?

Mid-way through NaNoWriMo

Well, it's November 15, an infamous day for NaNoWriMos... Today marks the halfway point for writing our 50,000 word novels. I have been writing as much as I can, as I am rather behind at the moment. :-/ Well, about 9,000 words behind. Quite possible to catch up in about a week, if not less than that. I just have to get my story along far enough that I can start writing about parts that are supposed to happen later on in the story, but haven't come up yet. However, some of those parts are being written out of order, and I am getting to the "meat" of the story, so to speak. Hannah Jean has been quite helpful, in telling me what she thinks should come next in my story, to mix it up some. :-) Well, I'd better start writing on my book instead of my blog... Get that word count above 16,201 (currently), and on towards the 25,000 (supposed to be by the end of today) goal. Enjoy the great weather today, before it cools off again!

American Royal Barrel Race

Well, we're back... With a really banged up knee, saddle sores, a chunk out of a finger, and a few bruises, but we're here!! We basically did horrible this year... My best time on either horse was an 18.188 on Velvet on Friday. And that one was over 10 out of the money, anyway...

Rudy
Well, Sunday was the best day for us... And that's pretty bad, since on Sunday we only got an 18.193... But on Friday we knocked over the second barrel. On Saturday we knocked over both the second and third barrels. And then on Sunday, I did meet my goal, which was to not knock anything over. ;-)

Velvet
Friday was the best for me and Velvet, with an 18.188. Saturday, she went way too wide on her barrels, and only got a 19.329, and a 19.901 on Sunday... It seems to me that normally it's best to get better with each day, but I guess Velvet's backwards in that as well as her barrel pattern... ;-)

UHH
On Saturday, I also ran Velvet in 2 events in something called "Unbelieveable Horse Happenings". We did poles first, in between barrel runs at the barrel race, ad got a 25.??? and 7th place- our best run of the whole weekend, and she hasn't even done poles in over a year, if not longer than that!! We then did barrels a little bit later, and disqualified in that one, as she couldn't seem to figure out where the third barrel was, and turned before she got to it, after attempting to turn it the wrong direction.

Trail Class Disaster
Just for fun, on Thursday after we got unloaded and everything, Velvet and I had signed up to do an open ranch trail class. What a way to start the weekend!! We did absolutely horrible, but had fun anyway... You're only supposed to use one hand on the reins, so I was attempting to not ride two-handed, which is normal for me, and what Velvet incredibly prefers. We also had split reins, which we hardly ever use.
Well, first off, she decided that she had forgotten how to back up in an L shape, and couldn't figure out how to work a gate, which we had done numerous times back at the barn. We finally made it through the gate, and she decided that she could no longer weave through cones, a feat that she has been amazing at many times before.
Once we went back and got the cones we had missed, she decided that she was deathly afraid of mums, and would not go even as close 4 feet to them! They were on either side of a bridge that we were supposed to get on, then open a mailbox that was by it, take out the paper that was in it, show it to the judge, and go on. We ended up completely skipping that obstacle, as we were taking too long, so the judge said to go on.
She then did the best thing of the entire class- she stood there semi-calmly while I took a lariat and swung it at a stationary steer. She was a little hyper, so she didn't do as well as she normally would have.
We then started loping to get to the next spot, and Velvet decided to go visit the judges- up close and personal! She ran straight for the judges chairs, and I couldn't get her stopped until she was probably only about 6 inches from them!! The poor judges were both flying away from their chairs... The looks on their faces were priceless, though. ;-)
Once we had apoligized to the judges, we turned and went toward the haybales that we were supposed to jump (side note- neither of us had ever jumped anything before, unless you count a little stream on a trail, that neither of us was prepared to jump, and she landed in anyway). She declared that she was not going to jump over those things- when we were less than a foot from them, and she shied to the left, almost leaving me to jump them on my own!
We then went around, skipping the jump, to the sidepass obstacle. You were supposed to line your horse up over this pole that was on the ground, sidepass across it, with front feet on one side of the pole, back feet on the other, then turn at the end of that pole and do it across a pole that was perpendicular to that one. Velvet decided that she had completely forgotten how to sidepass, although she'd done it perfectly on our way down there. So, we ended up with me giving Velvet a little training session on how to sidepass, and exited the arena as gracefully as we could.
So, overall, it was horrible. :-) We did have fun watching another girl and her horse, though.
They had cornstalks on the gate for decoration, and while the other girl was trying to get her horse to cooperate so she could open the gate, he suceeded in pulling about 3 or 4 complete cornstalks out of the decoration, and completely tearing it all up- it looked like a tornado had come through when he was done with it!! Then at the jump, he decided that the straw looked yummy, picked up the middle bale as they were loping, and carried the whole bale with him for several feet before dropping it!! It was so funny to watch...

Well, I think the most disastrous thing, the trail class, ended up with the longest description, by far!! :-) I'd better go for now, though, and I'll post pictures later- I didn't get very many, but Allison came and got a few on Saturday and Sunday, so I'll see if any of them turned out okay. ;-)

P.S.- I love comments!! ;-)

American Royal Barrel Race

Well, it's that time of year again- I'm headed to the American Royal Barrel Race again in the morning! I'll be leaving at 7:30 AM on Thursday, and won't be back till late Sunday sometime. I'm staying there, in our camper, so I won't be able to update the blog each night like I did last year. :-) If there's something really important/exciting that I want you all to know about before Sunday, I'll call Hannah Jean and have her post something for me.

There will supposedly be a live webcast again, on which you can watch the whole barrel race from start to finish. I'm not completely sure if it's working this year or not, but if you go to the barrel race homepage www.americanroyalbarrelrace.com, there's a link on the front page about webcasting. If there's a change in the webcasting address, and I don't find out till I'm at the race, I'll have Hannah Jean let you guys know.

So, I'm off- hope you all have a great weekend, and I'll let you know how it all went when I get back!

NaNoWriMo begins!!

NaNoWriMo begins!! http://www.nanowrimo.org/ I'm doing this event again, for the 2nd time. :-) Should be a lot of fun- I've got a much better, more detailed story line this year!! Let me know if you're doing it, too. ;-)