Pumpkin Carving

We finally carved our pumpkins. Usually the whole ordeal takes about 2-3 hours but we actually finished in an hour and a half. I think this was becasue the girls can do most of the carving on their own and also because Brian decided not to do an intricate ohio state design on his pumpkin this year. Sometimes I wonder who is having more fun, Brian or the girls. He brought out the hand tools this year which created a bit more of a mess but it was fun. Emily's design was artistic as expected with her pumpkin eating a piece of itself, Sarah's says Trick or Treat, Brian's and mine are both just faces. Here are some pictures of the carving process and the finished products.

cheerleading

Well, I never thought I would see the day that one of my girls was doing cheerleading but Sarah has made the cheer squad at Cypress. Now this team does not do the big stunts and all but they are good. There are 12 girls on the squad and try-outs were last week. Sarah had to work very hard to learn a new cheer and a dance routine. As soon as she gets her uniform I will post pictures. Congrats to Sarah!!!

Belpre Horseback Show

Today, Sarah and I woke up at 5 am to travel down to Belpre, Ohio for a horseshow. As most of her shows go, we waited until around 2:30 in the afternoon for her to ride. This time she drew a wonderful horse named shifty. He behaved beautifully. After all the riders in her class performed the requirements the girls were asked to line up facing away from the judge so she could see the number on their back. There were 9 riders lined up. The announcer calls Sarah's number and asks her to walk forward. This has never happened before. We didn't know what to think. Sarah thought she was disqualified for some reason. Next the announcer requested all riders to Sarah's left start walking along the fence rail with Sarah. Suddenly all 9 riders started to go. These poor girls were so nervous they couldn't tell their right from their left. The coaches were yelling for them to stop and halt. It was quite amusing. The judge wanted to watch smaller groups so she could better assess their skills. I loved this idea. Anyway, when it was all said and done Sarah got a second place out of nine riders. Yeah!!!
We had a rather exciting day. One of her temamates (who seems to have a ton of bad luck) was going to jump over 2 foot fences. This girl had a great horse and they both looked great on the practice fences, but when she started over the first fence in competition the horse stutter stepped and she leaned to the left and couldn't recover. The stir-up on her left broke free as it is supposed to do and she fell. She landed very hard on the ground and hit the back of her head pretty hard. She wanted to re-ride because she thought it was an equipment malfunction but the judge said no. She was upset but it was for the better considering she hit her head. Thankfully there were 2 physicians to check on her. About an hour later she started to feel weird and lethargic so a squad was called to pick her up. We haven't heard the what the findings were.
Here are some videos from the show.

Computers are Cool!

Had a few extra minutes after lunch today so I thought I would look into how they do those cool photos where everything is black & white except for a few things. Thought it was pretty good for my first attempt even if the computer did do all the work.

(Click on image for larger version)

Cross Country Invitational

Sarah had her first cross country meet last night. We had been questioning whether or not she should run because she has been healing an injured foot. Her heel started to hurt last week again so we put her back into her walking boot and kept her out of cross country practice. Before the meet she was in minimal pain, but after she was in tears from the pain. She ran hard and finished the race but unfortunately this is her last meet for this year because of her heel. She didn't finish as well as she wanted and we didn't get a chance to check her final time. We need to keep her healthy for horseback riding because she has a HB compettion in 2 weeks. Here are some pictures.

New Patio

Well, we finally got our new front patio put in. So far we love it. A few months ago the basement started leaking and we had to rip out one of the walls. We thought it would be just a simple problem of basement waterproofing when in fact it was a soil grading issue outside. Anyway, after many recommendations, we decided that a cement patio would solve all the problems and give me the front porch I have always wanted. Now we have to decide how we are going to decorate our new outdoor space. The last thing to do is to put the basement back together which will be a good winter project. Brian and I have already decided that a condo after retirement is looking fabulous; no home projects. Here are some pictures of our new patio.