Oops!...I did it again.

I am stealing this title from Britney Spears, as it totally fits my last two weeks.  This past year has been the year of virtual meetings.  Well, here is the thing about virtual meetings:

1)  There are SO many distractions.  Normally, if you are meeting in an office you do not have to worry about the doorbell ringing, the dog barking or the kids interrupting.  Those rules just do not apply in the virtual world.

2)  At an in person meeting you KNOW who is in the room.  There are no hidden surprises.  There are no people lurking in the background.  You KNOW if you are muted or not, because you are either talking or not.

Well, after over a year of successfully navigating these issues, I have had two 'gotcha' moments in two weeks.  Time for a vacation:)

As Kendall and I were laughing incessantly about it last night, she suggested I capture it permanently in the blog.  For my co-workers, "You're welcome."  Glad I could be your entertainment the last couple of weeks. 

The first incident happened two weeks ago.  I was in a meeting with the new Regional Director I just hired.  Showing him how it is done, I suppose (or not!).  We were meeting with the Chancellor for a large University along with her four Vice Chancellors and the Athletic Director.  It was a fantastic meeting...until...Kendall decided to come in the office.  To her credit, she NEVER does this.  She is the best at respecting the closed door.  For some reason, on this day, she just could not contain herself.  I am on video when she walks in, "Mom".  I hold up the little stop sign I have made for such an occasion.  Nope.  She says again, "Mom."  I ignore her.  Third time, "Mom."  I stop my video and turn to her with the following glorious statement, "Unless the house is burning down, get out of my office."  Yep!  As I turn back to the computer, I see that I am not muted.  OMG.  I gracefully started my video back up and pretended nothing ever happened.  Thankfully, everyone else pretended nothing happened as well, though I did see one of the Vice Chancellor's laughing to himself.  Glorious!  To those inquiring minds, she had nothing super important to tell me.  Even she is not sure why she chose that moment to be so persistent.  Good Times.

The second incident happened yesterday.  It was during one of our hosted online events.  Almost 400 attendees.  Thankfully, I did not embarrass myself quite that broadly though.  We were in the middle of a 'free time' networking session.  When I decided I had done enough networking, there was only about five minutes left.  I decided to join RedBuilt's breakout session.  You see, I worked at RedBuilt for 13 years.  They are like family to me.  Unfortunately, I took that a bit too seriously.  As I entered the breakout that was nearing wrap-up, I saw the number 5 in the corner.  I assumed that there were only five people in the meeting, me, the two RedBuilt people and the two WoodWorks people facilitating.  So, I proceed to unmute myself and carry on the absolute silliest of conversations.  Yep, not professional at all.  Very relaxed.  Very silly.  Then I hear my phone buzz.  I look down and there was a text from Bill.  "There are 35 people watching."  WHAT?!?!?  Sure enough I look at the corner of the screen and see a second number...35.  OMG.  I 'not so gracefully' shut off my camera and muted myself, as I sent apology texts to the 'five' people I thought were the only ones in the meeting.  What did I receive in return?  A lot of chiding comments.  "We thought you were zoom bombing."  "Hijacker:)"  "Way to keep the mood light."  "Great example of what not to do."  "Great entertainment."  and it goes on.  I am glad I could be of service.  However, I am pretty sure it took an hour for the natural color to return to my face!  Just keeping it real!

Healthy Living.

Kendall causes me to smile with her love for all things healthy.  She is always coming up with some tasty, good for you treat.  Granted, she balances it out with the gallon of ice cream from a previous post.  Here are the secret ingredients to her morning powerballs.

This is Life.

Just a bit of the everyday.  

Kendall torturing Bailey with the open treat jar, as she gets distracted with the TV.

Me hanging over the exercise ball, as Kendall photo bombs me.  I hope I sat up soon after this picture, as the veins are about to pop in my head.

Yep, I bought two identical containers of ice cream and one of the girls put a piece of tape on one to signify it was hers.  These girls.  Their ice cream.

I was out on a walk with Bailey the other day and ran across this new addition on our route.  How cute is this?

Dad and I went golfing the other day.  It was amazing.  I told my friend it is a good thing that every round is not like that, or all I would want to do is golf.  He said, "What did you do that day?"  Well, I enjoyed the beautiful weather and there was no one behind us.  "So you relaxed." He said.  Yep, not sure I can force that kind of relaxation every time, but I will take it when I get it.

Between meetings the other day, my donut craving got the best of me.  Truth is, I could not even wait to drive home to eat it.  I had to take a few bites before I left the donut shop.  Deliciousness!  

Let Freedom Ring.

I have always loved the flag.  We used to have a flag on the side of our house, but the pole kept bending.  I decided to go all in and have a legit flagpole put in front of our house.  It is gorgeous and amazing and Kevin is definitely grinning ear to ear.  

We got a solar light that shines down on it from the top, so we can leave it out overnight.  We also got an Air Force flag to go with it.  I may have had leaky eyes the morning we put it in the ground.  I could not help but replay Lee Greenwood's - God Bless the USA in my head.  

I cannot help but sneak a few of our outdoor wildlife pictures in.  These ducks were roaming our yard last week.

This bird decided to rest on my bicycle pinwheel.  I love sitting outside and listening to the sounds of the birds.

Jump Clinic.

This weekend, the Eh Capa riders had an opportunity to sign up for an optional jump clinic with an amazing instructor.  Sidney has never jumped before, so she was both excited and nervous to jump.  She used Mercy for the clinic, as she wanted to have a horse that knew how to jump so she could focus on what she was supposed to do.

I could not believe how awesome she was, really all the riders did amazing.  Here is a video of one of her final jumps.  It definitely takes a lot of bravery to do this.  I will point out, they are not in a saddle.  The horses do not have a bit or a bridle.  

The class before her was made up of advanced riders.  It was great to watch them.  They were jumping some very high jumps, but it was good to see that even they had to work through nerves and issues.  One of the riders was trying to keep her horse going straight after the last jump.  The horse kept wanting to make a sharp left turn.  The rider came off the horse 3 or 4 times.  It was important for the new riders to see that even the amazing riders continuously learn and improve.

I am not sure where it came from, but this girl is addicted!  If only she would stop stealing my favorite bootcut jeans.

Awana Awards - Not your typical year!

This was definitely an interesting year for a lot of things, Awana not excluded.  I am thankful that the Awana leadership team stayed flexible and focused as it gave the kids an opportunity to achieve their individual goals.  There were many options as to how to say verses and present book work.  Kendall is part of the Leadership in Training group.  She served as TNT secretary and found a way to accomplish it online and communicate with the TNT director.  I am proud of her hard work, both in her willingness to serve and her drive to learn verses and the Bible.  

They held an Awana award ceremony outside this year.  Kendall was presented with the Meritorious Award.  This was for completing 6 books.  The next thing she has her sights set on is the Citation award, which is also a pretty big deal.  One thing I know for sure, if she wants it, she will work hard to accomplish it.

Sidney received her Timothy award this year for completing 4 books.  Her initiative was amazing this year.  I was so thankful for her Awana leader.  Jan has followed these girls up from grades 3-6 and has been a strong, loving force for these girls.

We celebrated with sundae's from Sonic (not pictured here).

Bendy Girl.

This gorgeous young lady has joined an awesome dance group and has been having the time of her life.

I showed her a picture of one of my yoga friends doing a one legged king pigeon pose.  Not to be outdone, Kendall decided to take it one step further.  I am not sure she has bones.

While she was at it, she showed me a few more of her bendy moves.  I can say for certain that I was not even this flexible at 14 years old.

Here is her dance posse.

I asked her if she had any pictures that were not blurry.  She responded, "We took them blurry on purpose."  Is that a thing now?

Parade America.

 In Eh Capa, riders have to demonstrate a certain proficiency to be in parades.  They have to demonstrate a more extensive proficiency to be in performances.  The performance team is high caliber and are often a paid performance at rodeos.  There are few riders that make the performance team the first year.  However, the parade team is doable with a bit of hard and a horse that can handle the noise/crowds.  Sidney has been riding Marley for practices.  This has been challenging, as both Marley and Sidney are new to Eh Capa.  Dilynn asked Sidney if she wanted to try riding Mercy for the parade.  Sidney was excited about the idea, as Mercy has experience with the crowds.  

The night before the parade, we were not sure that Sidney would be on the team.  In fact, we had stopped short of finishing her costume, assuming she would not be.  So, I was very surprised when they rolled the parade team out and Sidney was in the line up.  Holy buckets, I guess I was pulling an all nighter to get her ready for the next day.  Thank goodness we had made as much costume progress as we had.  

Part of the costume entails a lot of seed beading.  Here is Sidney working on her medallion.  I thought for sure I would be the one doing all the beading.  Much to my pleasure, Sidney took a great deal of ownership in the process and did quite a lot of the beading.  The medallions are beaded on fabric.

The hat bands are beaded on a loom.  This was the first time doing either of these techniques for both of us.  It was challenging at first, but we got the hang of it.

It was an incredibly late Friday evening (or perhaps even into Saturday morning) for all of us.  Sidney was so wound up she took a melatonin to help her fall asleep.  The alarm clock went off at 5:30 am, and it was off to Alyssa's to start loading up horses.  It was the first parade for both Nelly and Sidney.  They were both very excited.

Here is Sidney all geared up, horse painted.  I will have you note that they do this with NOTHING but a leather tack rein.  No saddle, no pad, no bit, no bridle.  This is the very reason that they have to demonstrate proficiency.  It is for the safety of everyone involved.

And this picture is where my emotions came flooding in.  It was completely unexpected.  All of the girls took their horses and lined up in the staging area.  I went to take a picture and the tears just came pouring out.  It was a good thing that I was standing behind everyone.  Wilson jumped to give me a hug, as Evan smiled.  I just wish with ALL.MY.HEART that Kevin were with us to experience all of this.  He would be absolutely thrilled.  

Here are the Eh Capa papa's.  As Wilson said, if Kevin were here he would be donning a red button up and walking along as part of the safety crew.  This great group of Dad's, and sometimes Mom's, carry bridles and halters in case a rider or a horse gets into trouble.

Here we are, the parade bystanders.  It was such a fun time watching all of the parade participants go by.  It had the feeling of a small town parade.  There were fire trucks, police vehicles, old time cars, clubs, etc.  All of the horses were at the end of the line with the street sweeper coming after them, so we had plenty of time to cheer everyone on and catch some candy being thrown.

Finally, here came the Eh Capa Bareback riders!  Sidney was grinning from ear to ear!

The Eh Capa coach, Brandi, is part of the Snake River Stampeders Night Light Drill Team.  This is a pretty elite group of riders.  It was fun to cheer them on as well.

Alyssa tried out for the team this year, and made it.  No surprise there!  It is so good to see her having some fun of her own.

Here is the Healing Hooves crew!

Wilson and Alyssa enjoying the day.

Sidney's cheering squad.

Me and my girls.  

A Sweet Mother's Day.

This year was a very sweet Mother's Day.  My mom had went up North to visit my sister and grandma.  I was bummed not to spend it with her, but knew she was having a special visit.  Terrell, I and the girls decided to keep it low key and went out for a nice lunch.  

The thing about Mother's Day is that I want it to be low key.  I desire homemade gifts and relaxing.  The girls know me so well, because that is exactly what they did.  I woke to some handmade cards with gifts of special experiences.  

Sidney made me some heart shaped chocolate covered cashews that she individually wrapped and put in a gold box.

Sidney also gave me a coupon for a mother daughter manicure, which I have already taken her up on!

Kendall gave me a coupon for a lunch date (or coffee), but I think I am choosing lunch.  I believe a lunch date lasts much longer than a coffee date, and I will take every last minute I can get!

Five Minute Hack - Success!

The girls are always talking about these hacks they see on the internet.  They have tried a few that were major fails.  Sidney is convinced that most of them are fake videos.  So, when I needed to figure out how to organize my hats, I ran across many very expensive options and a lot of ridiculous options.  However, after much searching I came across this 'five minute hack'.  It seemed cheap enough, so I gave it a go.  I bought the cheapest set of shower curtain hooks I could find (10 for under $2).  I hung them from my closet rod and turned the lower part 90 degrees.  Success!  I could not be more happy.

While I was at it, I decided to install a few nice tidy shelves for my shoes.  We will not talk about the number of shoes I have, but rather we will sit back and grin from ear to ear at the tidy aesthetics of these shelves.  This just gives me peace:).

I had to buy a new refrigerator a year or so ago.  When I purchased the refrigerator, I only had a few to choose from as the height of the cabinet above the refrigerator was the limiting factor.  I was talking to a friend about this, when they suggested I raise the cabinet.  I got to thinking...I do not even really use that cabinet.  However, I do have a nice collection of old tins I would love to display.  So I decided to have my own demo day.  I should have taken more pictures, but here is one after the cabinet was out.  Kendall was kind enough to help me lug the awkward cabinet out to the garage.  

Then I went to Lowe's and bought a couple of 2x12's.  The man working there agreed to cut them to the length I needed.  I brought them home and applied a coat of stain.  The next day, my dad helped me install them above the refrigerator.  These bring me great joy.  Oh, and Kristin, yes I did steal the canister you brought chex mix over in.  Just let me know if you want it back:).