My summer vacation

My summer was pretty relaxing until the very end of it.  I spent a lot of time getting to know the horses.  I managed to piss them off quite a bit too.  I’ve learned that they hate having fly spray sprayed into their faces.  The flies literally get into their eyes, cause them to drain, and then the flies eat the stuff that drains out.  Gross!  Oh, and wasps absolutely terrify them.  That’s the only thing that will keep them away from their food.  I sit with them every evening for about an hour and just watch them interact.  Copa really doesn’t like Yankee, and Ben barely tolerates him.  Poor Yankee’s gotten use to it though.  Surprisingly they all sleep in one of the stalls together.  They love eating grass right after it’s been cut, and Yankee’s the only one not afraid of the riding lawn mower.

Speaking of riding lawn mower; I’ve become the official John Deere lady.  I no longer plow into solid structures with the tractor which of course is good.  I’m getting quite adept at going backwards too.  I did have one small mishap just recently though.  A piece that held up the cutting blades on one side fell off and I didn’t realize it.  That left one side of the blades as low as they would go, and the other side at it’s highest level.  This makes for a very weird cutting pattern.  I had ridges cut all through my yard.  You might ask why I didn’t notice this while I was cutting.  Well, I don’t wear my glasses when I cut the grass and apparently I can’t see worth crap!

My husband had a big surprise for me right before school started.  Remember my big red van.  Well, it’s mine no longer.  While I was gone to a friends little girls birthday party, my husband took my van and traded it in for a Mx5 Miata.  I miss the van but wow is that Miata cool!  It’s bright blue with a convertible hard top, 5 speed transmission, and satellite radio.  The hard top is automatic and takes about 12 seconds to go down or back up.  The satellite radio is AMAZING.  How did I live without it?  It’s the best handling car I’ve ever driven and I use to sell cars, so that’s saying a lot.  So, if you see a blue Miata driving around Valrico, check to see if it’s me.

Alix, my daughter went away to college.  We found her an apartment that she shares with three other girls, right across the street from UCF.  I honestly was really worried about her moving out.  She gets stressed out about everything and she about drove us crazy the week before she left.  She couldn’t sleep, or eat, and she seemed close to tears all the time.   Well, remember how I always talk to you about how much you’re going to change as you get older.  Well, Alix has proven me right.  She’s like a different person since she’s moved out.  She’s proven to be very independent and resourceful where in the past, she’s always depended on us.  I think that she’s actually loving her classes and is bonding with each of her roommates.

Oh, finally, remember how I’ve said in the past that school doesn’t necessarily get harder.  Both Alix and Zach have commented on how easy their classes have been so far.  All of Alix’s classes have internet access and  if she has any problems, all she has to do is look up the answer online.  Zach is taking statistics and guess what he’s studying right now.  Mean, median, and mode.  Sound familiar?  He was laughing about how easy it was.  So, don’t get discourage, and don’t be afraid of classes.  At your stage in school, you build on what you’ve already learned, as much as you will be learning new things.

Good luck guys,

ms bliz