I'm Published!

Yes, it's true. I waited and waited and it finally came out. It's just an online magazine, but they wanted me so I love them. You can read my humble offering at http://www.bellaonline.com/review/issues/winter2009/nf006.html

I just heard what I said run through my head; "they wanted me so I love them." Reminds me of a scripture; "We love, because He first loved us." (1John 4:19) Hmmm He wanted me, He wooed me, He accepted me, He led me straight into His arms. He provided a Way for me to come to Him before I even knew that's what I wanted. "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1John 4:10)

I visited a neighbor today. I have a neighbor that has 13 horses, boards some more, has a covered arena, beautiful stables, over 200 acres of incredible riding terrain... it was all there, right next door, I can walk there, and I never even knew it. Wow!

Sometimes things are right under our nose and we don't even see it. Spend some time today listening. When you're very still and quiet, can you hear it? Can you hear God calling to you and saying; "Come closer, I've some things to tell you." Are you listening?

I'm rested and relaxed!

It took a while, but these last two weeks of very little work, lots of sleep, and really not doing a whole lot of anything (I've found I need down time to survive), I'm feeling ready to tackle Carnival Direct Guest Sales. I think it will be fun, helping people plan their vacation. I do think Carnival should send me on a cruise though, just so I know what I'm talking about... in fact it would probably make selling much easier if I went on all of their cruises. That makes sense to me, don't you think? The class starts tomorrow before sun up and I'll be there, coffee in hand and raring to go.

I'd like to take a moment to welcome Joey to my little world. He will be reading this blog from Tokyo, and when he reads it, it will already be tomorrow there. Hey, I've gone international! Well, not really, he's just visiting there, but it's been fun reading his blog and looking at the pictures he posts of his trip. Ya gotta love his reaction when he saw a Krispy Kreme Donut shop. http://jengelballs.blogspot.com/

I found out my neighbor has 16 horses and boards 6 more. Now someone with that many horses has GOT to need some help, so I'm looking forward to getting through my Carnival training, working less hours for more $$ and having time to maybe work out a trade with her. I'll go down there with my "Will muck stalls in trade for riding" sign and see what happens. I heard that she's also interested in finding out about working from home, so maybe something I'm doing will be of interest to her.

I also found out that our church; www.redrockcowboychurch.org is having horse camp at the coast this year. Yeeehaaaw! Riding horses on the beach, now that's something I've always dreamed of.

Well, that's about it for now. I need to do a few more things to be ready for class in the morning. You probably won't see me again until the class is over, but this one is only two weeks, piece of cake!

Happy New Year 2010

Wow! Has it really been so long since I've been here? Life got very, very busy. I'm excited about all the changes though, so let me fill you in.

I know you are all wondering where my Twitter following is at... you weren't? Hey, me neither! I've gotten too busy to even give it any thought. But just so you know I'm only a couple of peeps away from 600 followers.

Writing? I haven't had any time for that.

What have I been doing you ask? November 6th I started training for a job as a Customer Service rep for Carnival Cruise Lines. It was a very intense course and consumed all of my time until December 23rd when it finished. Then of course it was time to get ready for Christmas, all of the family was out here Christmas Eve for a big dinner, Christmas Day spent with friends (another big dinner), and activities galore, up until today... New Years Day, 2010.

I promised myself if I made it through the Carnival class I wouldn't take another class... ever! It really did stretch me. But next Tuesday I start another class with Carnival to train for Direct Guest Sales, which is the job I really have wanted ever since I started working from home. If I do well I can make much more money, work many less hours, and maybe, just maybe have time to get my book finished.

I've had a couple more riding lessons. I went for a 3 hour ride with my friend one day, and most recently we rode for about 4 hours at a place called Denman, which she described as magical and I found out, after riding there, it really is. I'm getting much more comfortable on the horse and I've got my signals down now so I'm not sending her conflicting messages... she still messes with me though.

I see I have a new follower. Welcome to my world Erick, I hope you enjoy your visit.

I'll try and get back sooner next time. I'm very excited about my transition to Carnival and will be working hard on that until it becomes more natural for me. Hope to get my book finished in 2010. Want to learn to ride well enough to enter some competitions this year.

I want to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year and hope that it's filled with blessings from above, poured into your life and overflowing, falling onto all those around you. God is Good! All the time!

Sunday, A Day of Rest

The church we're attending meets on Saturday evening. It took a bit of getting used to after almost 30 years of going to church on Sunday morning, but I have to tell you, it's a change that's really growing on me.

As a working gal, Monday thru Friday was consumed by alarm clocks, commutes, work, meals, laundry and getting ready to do it all again the next day. Saturday was filled with errands, grocery shopping, car washing, lawn mowing and whatever else needed doing. That left Sunday. My day of rest was another day of leaving a warm comfortable bed to answer the demands of an alarm, showering, getting dressed and rushing out of the house. So you tell me; in that schedule exactly when was my day of rest?

Don't get me wrong, I love church, and the temptation to sleep late and do nothing all day was never a contender to get me not to go. But now I go to church on Saturday night. It's a wonderful end to a busy week, I look forward to it, there's rarely a rush to get there, no alarms are involved and the best part is... I get to sleep as late as I want on Sunday morning. I can leisurely drink coffee and read, watch a corny Christmas movie in my pajamas or do anything else I want to do... which in my mind makes it a true day of rest.

If you think about it, Jewish tradition starts the Sabbath on Friday evening at sunset preparing them for a day of rest on Saturday. I really think they were on to something. I love my Sundays, they truly are a day of rest now. I also love Saturday night church, it's a good way to end the week and puts me in the right frame of mind to be ready to rest and appreciate it the next day. And an added bonus... all of those misguided folks that say you're going to hell if you don't worship on the true "sabbath" can't point a finger at me any more. Of course there are many more of their rules that I'm sure I am breaking... but that's a whole other issue.

Today, I'm thankful for my leisurely and oh so enjoyable day of rest. I'm grateful for Saturday night service and I love spending my Sundays resting.

Congratulations... Ya Gotta Love That Word!

It's been an exciting week so far... and it's only Tuesday!

Yesterday I received a "Congratulations your submission has been chosen for our next publication" email. It's an online website that publishes a quarterly online magazine, so it's not like it will actually be something I can hold in my hands and give to my friends, but hey, being chosen is cool just the same. Now I can say for the first time; "I'm published."

Yesterday I also took my first horseback riding lesson. I had a great time, the horse, on the other hand is probably still shaking her head and trying to recover from it. I don't know why but I couldn't seem to get the commands straight in my head. When I wanted her to go left I told her to go right with my feet and left with the reigns. At first she gave me the benefit of the doubt and tried to work with me. But eventually she figured out she had a nincompoop on her back and started messin' with me. She decided if I didn't know which way I wanted to go, she would decide for me. A few times she just stopped dead and waited until I figured out what I wanted to do. This is a very well trained horse, I'm afraid I may have broke her (and not in the good way).

So yesterday was a very good day. I got out of the house, I became a published author and I rode my first horse.

The day before yesterday I also had a great day. Yes, two in a row, I know! I went to a baby shower for my granddaughter who is preparing to give birth to my first great grandchild. Now tell me that's not special. It was a very sweet shower and afterwards I went to coffee with my son's fiance. It's the first time that we've had a chance to sit down alone together and just gab. We had a nice time, well I had a nice time, I'm hoping she did too. I'm still invited for Thanksgiving so I guess it couldn't have been too bad.

Hey if anybody is wondering... I'm getting close to 500 Twitter followers! That's 1/4th of the way to where my future agent said I needed to be before he would read my book. I wonder if I should drop him an email and let him know that I'm now published? I need to have 1,000 facebook or blog followers too though but I haven't been working as hard at that.

Time, time, time... there's just not enough of it in a day!

Giving Thanks Should Be Easy!

Right around the beginning of this week, someone in facebook challenged all of her followers to name something that they're thankful for every day until Thanksgiving Day. That would mean finding approximately 18 things to be thankful for. Now for the sad part; she said in her post; "I know this won't be easy, but let's all try and do it." My heart grieves for someone that can't think of 18 things to be thankful for.

I believe I could think of 18 things to be thankful for each day until Thanksgiving. My thoughts go immediately to being grateful for salvation and what Jesus did on the cross for me, paying the debt for all of my sins. If He never did another thing for me, that would be more than enough. But then He gave me the Holy Spirit to guide me, comfort me, teach me, and reveal God to me. If that's all He did it would have been enough. But He also went to Heaven to prepare a place and promised He would come back and take me to be there with Him. Anyone would admit that's way more than I deserve. And He constantly intercedes for me, provides for me, protects me, and loves me with unconditional love.

There are so many things to be thankful for in my life. I'm thankful for the people He's placed around me. Those that bless me and yes, even those that test me, because I know that He uses them to cause me to grow. I'm thankful for a warm, dry bed to sleep in every night, enough food to eat (more than enough, as the scale will attest to).

I'm thankful for a husband that loves me and, more importantly, loves the Lord. I'm thankful for our four kids, 12 grandkids, and 1st great grandchild.

I'm thankful for hugs, and smiles, laughter, wisdom, music, conversation, coffee in the morning, animals, the beauty of nature, water, the ocean, faithful friends and just so many things this blog can't hold them all.

I feel sad for a person that struggles to think of 18 things to be thankful for. That breath I just took, I'm thankful for that. And, oh yes, I'm thankful that wrinkles don't hurt.

I wanna be a cowgirl!

It amazes me when I realize I'm how very close I am to blowing out 60 candles on my birthday cake and I'm just now finding out so much about myself. I feel like my life up until now has been lived in a fog. I never knew I had such a passion for writing. I also never knew I had such an attraction to horses and riding.

I went to the National Mountain Trail Competition last weekend because a friend was competing and she made it sound interesting. I got bit bad with horse fever while I was there. Now I want a horse, but if I get a horse I will need a saddle, boots, horse blankets, brushes, bridles, a horse trailer and the list seems to go on and on. It seems very unlikely that it will ever happen, but my friend is excited for me and we're going to start riding together (her horses of course) and give me a chance to see if I really do love it as much as I know I will. One thing I won't have to worry about is a cowboy (or cowgirl) hat, my husband bought me one while I was at the competition.

My friend's grandaughter (13 years old) also competed. She was a joy to watch and oh boy did she ever make me wish I was 13 again and had a grandma like hers. She entered 6 competitions and I think she won something in everything she entered. But more importantly she won the judges award. Every year all four judges get together and vote on the person they think has been the most impressive. All four judges picked this young lady. She really was impressive, even I could see that and I didn't even know what I was watching (not from a judges perspective anyway). At the end of the competition they had "the games." Throughout the competition everything was judged on skill, of the horse and the rider... but on the last day they let it rip and everyone that wanted got to race through the course for a timed score. This young lady was the first one to go and even though there were about 25 competitors, some were even trainers, no one was able to beat her score. She was very impressive!

Maybe next year I'll enter the Novice category. Maybe by then I'll even have my own horse. He'll be my Trigger or Silver and love me unconditionally and do anything I ask of him... even walk backwards over a suspended swinging bridge. Hey, a cowgirl can dream can't she?