April Recap

*Gets the recap out on time*

Stats:

Entry	Pageviews
United States	534
Canada	17
Germany	11
South Korea	5
Ukraine	5
Russia	4
Spain	2
France	2
Poland	2
Portugal	2

Happenings:

1. The trainer hired a new stable hand to take care of the stalls (the other one disappeared so Katie- the assistant trainer, and I had to muck them out), and I can honestly say I don't miss pushing the wheelbarrow up the ramp to dump it into the dumpster.

2. Bowtie went off to a different trainer for more intense riding. Since she's a mental case, she needs almost constant attention and direction, something she wasn't getting enough of here, but at the other trainer's she'll be out on trails to build her confidence. I'm pretty sure she's coming back in the next month or so.

3. Tortilla went back home in much better shape. He stopped his bad habit of chewing everything, got most of his winter coat brushed off (took like, 45 minutes or an hour. If he was a white horse, I could have sent a picture of the fur to the news and they could have cancelled school, that's how much hair he had off by the time I finished), got new shoes, and calmed down a bunch.

4. For a while, the barn actually felt empty because there were only 11 horses. But then two new ones came; a three year old buckskin, who is sweet and adorable, and a two year old appaloosa, who doesn't have the appaloosa markings, just the bloodline and all the issues that come with it- mainly a small brain, an allergy towards the most common hay, and if he gets too stressed his eyes roll back into his head and it takes surgery to put them back where they're supposed to be. He's also very nervous and stepped on me while I was walking him to the round pen, so he and I may not be on the best of terms right now. He's a good horse though, smart, he just needs to be trained and treated right.

5. I almost got my head knocked off by a disgruntled stallion. I was taking him to the round pen to lunge him, and since he's a quarterhorse, I figured he would be semi-trustworthy, unlike the Arabian stallion, who should never be trusted. I almost talked myself out of putting the chain on him before taking him out (the chain clips onto the halter up on the horse's cheek, then goes under their chin and has the lead rope clipped to it, so when the horse is acting up and being a snot, or just not listening or paying attention in general, when you yank on the lead rope, the chain tightens under their chin and gets their attention so they behave, also called a stud chain), but it was a very good thing I put it on anyway. The farrier was there, so there was a lot of activity and strange sounds in and around the barn where his stall is. I was about halfway to the round pen when he decided to try and paw at my legs, so I tried to yank him down and get him to quit it, bc it isn't polite to knock one's handler's legs out from under them, but apparently he didn't like it when I did that, so he reared up. Thankfully he was far enough away from me that he wasn't able to actually hit me, but I made sure to work him good and hard once I had him in the round pen.

6. Both Pete (the trainer) and Katie had to leave on Thursday for a horse show, so I got some extra hours in by holding down the fort for two extra days that week. Not by myself though, the stable hand was there for one of the extra days and for the day I normally work anyways. Though I did have extra work to do in addition to the normal stuff, mainly making sure the dog gets fed, the cats are taken care of (there are four of them, plus kittens from the two girls), the chickens have enough food and water and the eggs are picked up. They ended up coming back that Friday night, but they still wanted me to come on Saturday.

7. Easter happened. Aunt Lauren and Uncle Phil made it down for Easter lunch with Nana and Grandfather, along with four other guests Nana and Grandfather had invited. We had lots of fun eating matzo ball soup, and other things, exchanging funny stories, and hunting for eggs in the front yard. Camo eggs are hard to find, jsyk.

8. Aunt Lauren and Uncle Phil had me out to Dallas for my weekend with them in honor of my birthday (that has not miraculously moved forward several months and is still in September). But I came from work, so of course I hit rush-hour traffic and took double the amount of time it should have taken. We watched Star Wars episodes 3-7, as well as Rogue One, went to their Church, made homemade pizza, waffles, fantastic ribs, tried a new flavor of Bluebell ice cream called 'ice cream cone' (it's good), and enjoyed hanging out.

9. Lydia and I decided to try driving together to class, even though her class starts half an hour later than mine, and usually gets out sooner too. Of course, as soon as I rush into class trying to hide my heavy breathing from running up two flights of stairs because I pulled into the parking lot right as class was supposed to start, the classroom is empty except for the professor and two other students, who appeared to be about to leave. The professor then tells me that since the chapter we were going to be studying that night was short and simple enough that we could do it on our own time, and to please just go ahead and go home. So I went to Chickfila and had dinner while I worked on the homework and waited for Lydia's class to get out.

10. It was supposed to start raining at 3 in the afternoon one day at work, so Katie and I were trying to get through working as many horses as we could before we would have to stop. I got through two, then on the third (somewhere around 11 in the morning, I think), I could smell the rain coming, and guessed it would be raining within the hour. Sure enough, it started sprinkling a few minutes before I finished. I got the horse to the barn, and was almost done taking off his leg wraps and brushing him down when it started pouring. So I did the logical thing to do and finished cleaning the horse up, put him back in his stall, then decided to eat my lunch. After a little while, the rain stopped, and once Katie determined that the arena and round pen were both still dry enough to keep working, we took out two more horses and continued working. Not even half-way though, it started raining again. At first it was just rain, not light, but not heavy enough to justify not working. However we both very quickly noped out of it when it started pouring. So we found other things to do until pretty much everything we could do was done, then I got to go home a little early.

11. Catching an annoying cold. It probably started with me shooting my immune system with sugar on Easter, then not getting enough sleep at all that week, getting drenched at work two or three times with cold rain and not being able to change clothes for about three hours, general being on my feet all day in the sun in mid to high 80 degree temps multiple times that week, Saturday being cold and windy and not putting on a sweater at work, probably all the stuff blooming and growing outside, and breathing in a bunch of dust. *over-analyzes*

12. Dad let me go out and get an incubator so we could try hatching out some chicks. So far, only one out of fifteen eggs has turned bad. *moment of silence for what could have been*

13. The first snake sighting down at the coop resulted in me noping out of that rodeo pretty quickly and asking Dad and Christian to take care of said snake's extermination. Something like that I don't mind taking care of if the dragon-kissed fiend is already on the ground, but if he's in a nesting box, or up the the rafters, that's something for someone else to take care of while I'm there for moral support.

He had an egg-cellent last meal too.

14. Mom, Dad, and I had a discussion over my schooling after graduation. We all came to the conclusion that it'd probably be better for me to try an either get more hours of work or a second part time job for the summer and wait for this fall to work on more classes.

15. Summit is next month, and I can't wait! (which will be why next month's recap will not be posted until sometime after June 3rd) Christian will not be coming with me, as was the original plan. Due to some other circumstances, he will be going on a missions trip instead. So flying on my own for the first time will be interesting.

16. I am continuing to work with my neighbors' horses, namely their older mare, Toddy. She's a good horse, once she sets her mind to something, she is definitely going to follow through, the challenge is getting her to set her mind to working, instead of trying to kill me. *exaggerates slightly* There are a lot of distractions for her to work around, so I can see why she is acting up. Some of it is our fault of not being able to consistently work her, the round pen is a very large oval with some hay stored along part of one side, and there is grass instead of sand in the round pen, so she's basically trying to work while looking at a yummy lunch. And some of it is her needing to remember how to work. I can tell that she (the horse, not the neighbor) is frustrated with me. She doesn't want to work, and because of all the distractions around, I end up giving her mixed signals so she doesn't understand what I want from her. I can tell that she wants to knock my head off, and she's tried to kick me multiple times (I told her that I'd kick her right back), so we really need to work on removing the distractions so I can be more direct. Then, we need to get a consistent pattern so that she gets into a routine, and then eventually I hope to be able to ride her.

"Well, why not just ride her now? You said she was a good horse, you've ridden her before and she could probably work just as well with you riding her as she would with you working her on the ground." To be blunt, that is a horrible idea. I'm not getting on her until we can establish a good relationship on the ground. She's used to being the boss mare, and I know that if I try and get on her now and make her do what I want, in approx 0.2 seconds I'll be on the ground again. And sure, I could stand to learn how to fall correctly, but I want to learn on purpose, and not while riding a mare who is obviously displeased with me.

Awesome:

1. Joining in on the family Easter egg hunt for the first time in I don't know, maybe three or four years?

2. Homemade strawberry lemon-lime slushies after working outside all day. (throw the following into a blender and blend until smooth: 7-8 frozen strawberries, two or three idk cups of ice cubes, a couple tablespoons of lemon and/or lime juice, some water, and a sweetener of your choice; honey, sugar, stevia, etc)

3. I wanted something chocolate, so I asked Lydia and Dad wanted with chocolate in it, and they decided on cream cheese brownies. So I went out and grabbed some cream cheese from dollar general (bc that's the only thing even close to a grocery store where we live that's nearby), found a recipe, and got to work. And of course, in true Chloe-fashion, I did not follow the recipe exactly. The end product resulted in a very rich, very chocolatey brownie with a thin layer of cream cheese on top. Pro tip, line the bottom of the pan with chocolate chips and it will taste even better.

4. Sitting down to blog for the first time in what seems like forever.

Awkward: 

1. Dreaming that I punched a guy in the face and enjoyed it. I mean, yeah. There is a certain somebody that whenever I see him I have to restrain myself from clenching my fist and punching my palm repeatedly, but really? What is this violent nature?

2. Accidentally whacking myself with the sprayer while turning the water on the rinse off a horse. The pressure was turned too hard.

3. Giving a horse, whose shoulder is taller than I am, a bath. Like, I can walk under his neck and not have to duck. Gimme a stool so I can reach his head. he also wouldn't stand still until Pete reminded him to pay attention.

Urg Moments:

1. Only getting a three hour nap between Easter Sunday and Monday (which is a work and class day, so getting enough sleep is a must) because I was not smart and had too much sugar paired with having a small cup of cold brew coffee after not having any coffee in months. Never again (hopefully). Thank goodness Lydia drove both of us to class, but my class did not get out early at all, I think sometime around 9 or 9:15.

Moments of Hilarity:

1. *listening to music on Spotify and an ad comes on* "Macy's one day sale on Wednesday! With a preview day on Tuesday!" You mean a two day sale.

2. *driving to Church* *Mom points out that the "hiring" sign is still up at the dog groomer's* Me: "Sucks for them! They had three chances, and the blew all of 'em." *Dad cracks up*

3. All within three weeks, at least two people thought I was at least 21 (and they found out I was not only when they suggested drinking and I said I wasn't old enough). One person asked if I was married, and when I said I wasn't, asked if I had a boyfriend, and then declared that I needed to find a boyfriend when I said I didn't have one. Also, another person thought I was older than Lydia (which, granted, has been an easy mistake to make ever since we were four and five). I'm guessing that all of them were assuming I was older because of my job and being in college classes, because I still think I look like I'm 16. It really tickles me whenever people think I'm my younger siblings' mother. Like, ahahahaha, noooooope I'm the sister. *cracks up inside*

4. *Gabe or Mia (I forget which. Don't look at me like that, they were sitting next to each other, and their voices sound similar, and I'm typing this up almost a week after it happened) at Easter lunch* "I have a joke about a fire truck, but I don't know if it's rated G or not! (Mom had said that some joke cracking at the table would be acceptable, so long as the jokes weren't inappropriate, hence the G rating. For the record, yes that joke was rated G.)

5. Remembering the time when our family bought t-shirts to benefit orphans in Haiti instead of buying expensive Easter outfits, all part of a thing called "Forget the Frock." Lydia and I were just walking around and visiting a little here and there, and a lady came and asked us what our shirts were for (they had a big 'Adopted' on the front, and a thing about all of us being adopted into God's family on the back, but our hair was long enough to cover the backs, so you couldn't really see that bit) and Lydia tried to explain it, but ended up calling it "Ditch the Duds," which I mean, I guess it can mean the same thing, but the mental image is completely different.

6. *gets drenched at work, but dries out enough to only be damp by the time I get home* *to Dad* "I feel like a drowned rat!" *Dad chuckles* *goes back outside to take care of my flock since it doesn't appear to be raining too hard and they need to be taken care of anyway* *gets down to the barn* *floodgates open up* *dashes around trying to finish without getting drenched AGAIN* *ends up completely soaked* *goes back inside once everything is taken care of* *Dad sees me* "Now, you look like a drowned rat." Me: "Yep." *hopes I don't end up getting sick bc of this like in the movies* *editor me chuckles, but turns into a cough*

7. I'm positive I had this conversation with the cat. *Coal comes up meowing* *I pet him for a minute, then walk over and refill his food bowl* Coal: "Why do you always assume that when I come up and meow at you, I want more food?" Me: "Well, isn't that what you want when you meow at me?" Coal: "Not all the time!" Me: "Ok, fine. I won't always assume then." Coal: "Good, glad that's settled." Me: "So what do you want when you come up and meow at me?" Coal: "Food of course, what else?" Me: *shakes head and chuckles*

8. *Gabe tells someone goodbye* "Cheerio!" Me: "Well fruit loops to you."
(not original, but it did get some laughs)

Music:

I mostly listened to my March playlist, but I did listen to a couple other songs as well. A few days before May, I discovered that the Hamilton soundtrack is really good to type to. Of course, I do not care for all of the songs, and I do not appreciate the fact that there is language in almost every song, but the beat is pretty good, and the tunes are catchy.

Front Street and Maui- sung by our favorite singer to hear in Maui. Front street is one of the main tourist attractions in Maui. It's where cruise ships come in, shops line both sides of the street, as do restaurants. It is along the beach, so you can hear the waves and watch the sun set behind one of the other islands. Lots of the restaurants allow musicians to play, and our favorite singer happens to sing at one of our favorite restaurants, so we typically go when he's playing.

Flying with Mother- I rediscovered how much I enjoy HTTYD and HTTYD2 music.

Snippets:

Yeah, no. The only writing I did was for school and blogging. And honestly, I'm not too proud of what I've written for my Comp class. All of the topics were boring, and several times I ended up pushing the deadline so it probably wasn't my best work either. Thank goodness the semester is almost over.

Ready for classes to end?

How is the year already a third over?
What imaginary conversations have you had with your pets?