Patio Renovation...Part 1

My lovely husband likes to keep me on my toes and his latest way of doing that is to start a home improvement project.  I can tell when he's got an idea cooking because he folds his arms and squints a little and starts a sentence with, "What would you think if we..." and we end up doing something crazy like remodeling something or opening a book store.  I decided long ago to just go with it because it usually ends up pretty cool.  If it was left to me, nothing would ever change.  Ever.  But, that's not how it is, or even how it should be, so I guess it's quite a blessing we ended up together.

If you are not into home improvement projects, skip this post because it is completely eaten up with it.

Stage one in the renovation was to clear out all the junk on the patio.  Dog houses included.  This thoroughly confused one of our dogs and I watched her sniff around where her house had been and she looked at me as though asking for help.  I showed her where her house was and she huffed about it for a minute before going in.  We had a TON of stuff out there, man!  A literal TON.  Well, maybe a half ton.  Okay, a quarter ton.  That's still a lot, right? 

The next step was to power wash the flagstone.  I always thought it was pretty, but with it being outside, it was hard to keep clean and I never noticed how dirty it really was.  Here is a  5-year-old picture of the flagstone before washing it.  Also, our patio is now covered.  And I am no longer that thin.

And, a picture of the flagstone with a dog sitting on it:

I couldn't help myself.  She's just so darn cute. 

So we got all the stuff off the patio and now our yard looks like Sanford and Son set up shop there.  I am a bit of a neat freak so it is vexing to say the least but my mantra since starting this project is, "It will all be worth it in the end".  Actually, I have a lot of mantras lately but this one applies to a whole mess of things in my life.  Maybe you should try it too! Or "Count to 10" or "Take a deep breath" or "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me".  Give it a try.  Or don't.

More on the renovation in the coming weeks.

The Tao of Horses

This is Lady. 

She is very sweet, but only if you pay all your attention to her.  She doesn't like it when you pet or feed the other horses and lets it be known.  Lady has only been with us a short while, so I'm still getting to know her.  Like I said, she's sweet.  She's a bit tempestuous and very funny if you watch from a distance.  What I didn't know about her is that if she is startled, something strange happens to her.

I was out taking pictures around the house and of course thought of taking some of the horses.  There are three, but Lady was the only one around.  I took a few and wanted to get some of her whole body and started to take a few steps back.  I accidentally stumbled over a brush hog for the tractor and it made a noise.  Lady startled and took off like a rocket.  I lured her back to me with my sweet, angelic voice, and then I noticed the strange thing happening to her.  Her breath was finally calming down...

...and she started falling asleep.  It was as if by being startled and getting a shot of adrenaline, she sort of shorted out and needed to take a nap for a minute.

Poor thing.  I didn't mean to freak her out so bad.  I hoped she would forgive me.

Then she leaned in for a kiss and I knew she had.

Horse Play

This weekend was quite an eventful one.  Of course it was Easter weekend, (more on that later) but our family had another event to attend.  My daughter had her first big horse show!  She was excited, but I think I was more excited and nervous than she was.  What's funny is that the only event she was riding in was a lead line class, which is just the kid riding on the horse's back being led around on a rope by an older kid.  Granted, some skill is involved, and it was her first real show, but I really got all worked up over nothing.  All that preparation and nervousness for a little three-minute ride around half the arena.  I was happy though.  She got a blue ribbon and looked absolutely adorable in all her equestrian garb.

Just look at that face.  Who wouldn't love that face?  I know, I'm her mom and I'm a little biased, but, come on!  Gorgeous!

My friend Laura saw K (my daughter) all dressed up and exclaimed how she was just going to start dressing like that so people would think she's a "horse riding girl" too.  Let's hope they don't ask her any questions about riding or horses in general.

Endless love

Well, in my last post I announced my upcoming anniversary.  We took a great little trip to a spa resort called Ojo Caliente in New Mexico.  We got to walk around in our robes and a heat induced daze for 2 nights and 3 days.  Our stay included two 50-minute massages and since my husband doesn't "do" massages, I got to have his!  That means two massages in as many days!  My favorite masseuse there was a lady named Laurian who uses hot stones as a part of her regular massage.  She had a wonderful touch and her room was very warm.  Just know that if you go to her, she is very hippy-ish and talks about energy and grace a lot, which was fine with me, but some people think that's weird.  Anyhoodle, here are a few pictures of the place.

                               

Above is the view of the front of the plaza cottages.

                                           

View out the back door of the plaza cottages.

                   

This is my lovely husband ordering some delicious food from the Artesian Restaurant at Ojo Caliente.  Yummy!  And the food, too.

The first night we were there I had the pork osso buco, with grilled polenta, and a roasted tomato and a red chile pozole sauce.  Good stuff!  My husband had the enchiladas, topped with traditional green chile, New Mexico style with a fried egg on top.  It also came with a side of jicama peanut slaw.  He said the enchiladas were good, and I'm sure they were, but he'll eat anything.  The jicima peanut slaw was so good, I was trying to dissect it so I could make it at home.  So good I got it again the next day. 

One more thing about the food:  if you eat lunch there and you like fish, you have to try the Ojo fish tacos!  I almost died they were so good!  All the flavor combinations sent me over the edge.  Can you tell me likes me food?!  It had mango salsa, red chile sauce, mahi mahi, cabbage, lime, cilantro all wrapped up in 2 corn tortillas...oh, the humanity!  I also had some more of the jicima peanut slaw and ate until I felt my gut pop.  Then it was naptime.  Then it was sauna and steamroom time.  Back to being dazed and confused.  It was wonderful.

Sorry I didn't take more pictures of the resort. I couldn't really think all that clearly. Remember that heat induced daze I told you about?

As we left beautiful sunny New Mexico, we headed north to Moffat, Colorado to Joyful Journey hot springs.  I'm a big believer in omens and this what lay ahead of us:

Just a few minutes after I took this picture, there was a loud ***POP*** followed by a few expletives, a panicked look on my husband's face, and some expertly executed maneuvering of his part.  We had a blowout 2 MILES away from our destination.  TWO MILES!!!  We got pulled over, where there was no shoulder and my husband changed the tire.  It was windy and cold, but I had to stand behind the truck to make sure everyone saw that we were stopped and didn't plow into us and, you know, kill my beloved.  That would've been very bad.  Anyway, we got the tire fixed and went on our merry way.

We just stayed one night and really only went to meet up with two of the cutest people I've ever known, my husband's cousin, Jessica and her husband, Dusty.  I sure wish they lived closer so we could hang out more.  We soaked in the springs a bit, but after Ojo Caliente, I wasn't quite able to handle the heat for very long and we all decided we should go out to eat.  Yay!  My favorite hobby!  We went to eat at a place I cannot for the life of me remember the name of where I made the mistake of ordering the spiciest dish I have ever attempted to eat.  Note: attempted.  It was chipotle chicken with gorgonzola and bacon.  I thought my mouth would blister!  In Oklahoma, if you order chipotle anything, it's a little smoky and a little spicy, but flavorful and enjoyable, but apparently in Colorado, chipotle means BURN YOUR FACE OFF.  I don't know about you, but I don't like burning my face off. 

We had a great time and left the next day.  As we hit the open road, we noticed our truck riding a little rough and putting out smoke.  We thought maybe it was an issue with altitude, but soon realized it was something major.  We burned through 8 quarts of oil and buckets of sweat on the way home.  Got it checked out---engine's blown.  Great.  Vacation is over!  To top it all off, my hormones decided to go out of control the day after we got back.  Please keep my huband in your prayers beacause he is a great guy and is amazing at dealing with me and my insanity at the least convenient times.

Since I didn't take as many pictures as I would've liked, the links to Ojo Caliente and Joyful Journey are listed below:

 http://ojocalientesprings.com/index.php

http://www.joyfuljourneyhotsprings.com/