DecemBrrr!

It's been CHILLY! I'm down to about four pairs of shoes, two of which are flip-flops, along with a pair of hiking boots that look like elf shoes, and accompanied by a pair of clogs that practically go out of their way to trip me. The coat rack is getting a little slim too...just in time for Christmas! The pony had to go home due to some medical issues, which is a little sad. We're now looking for another horse, not vigorously, but just something to keep me going. I'll still be going out to the barn, because, quite frankly I think I would explode if I couldn't get out their and see the horses. Thanksgiving met me with a lovely case of I-ate-too-much-of-something-so-now-I'm-getting-sick, so in the middle of the night I felt overwhelmingly nauseous and ended up kneeling over the toilet. So yay! Damas' name was changed to Thomas, and he is beginning to become a little bit of a pain in the neck. He sort of understands the leash, but he takes off in random directions and is a pretty strong little fella. He doesn't understand pottie training, or that he shouldn't eat the stuff that comes out of the other end. It's absolutely DISGUSTING. On top of that he has a smell...a fusty cheese-puff and man's armpit smell. It's a little off-putting. We're hoping someone will come along to adopt him soon. We are about to dig into the long haul of midterms at school, how exciting.

DAMAS!!! <3

My mom has joined the "French Bulldog Rescue Network" in pursuit of helping little homeless dogs and discovering "the true personality" of the sweet little bug-eyed, wrinkly-faced, smiling little creatures. So, last night we got our first foster dog, an ex-breeder named Damas (short for Nostredamas) who is is absolutely the dearest little thing on the planet. I'll keep you posted...and maybe next time there will be pictures!! I'm going to try to take some tonight, after I brush his teeth...hehee............

SUMMER'S OVER

What the hell? It feels like summer just started and now I'm really relaxed and I want to stay this way forever!! I hate the pressure of homework when you just want to sit and be a couch potato, and I hate having the time crunch and fitting things in from school, to my horse, to my pets, and my friends. In November the show season will cool down and my horse and I will have a while to just chill out through fall and winter. Brr, I don't want Winter to come either. It's too cold for me! Riding when it's -10 is not fun. Everything from the tips of your toes to the bit in the horse's mouth is frozen.
But it's not Winter yet, so I don't have to worry, heehee. I was so excited when I found out that I won 3rd place in the overall placings for Advanced Green in VHT's Springfest. Advanced Green is like the bottom of the bottom, but whatever, my pony's green! The next show we are doing is a Combined Test and Pacetrack on August 16, two days after my birthday! I'm gonna have a lot of work ahead of me to get my white pony as clean as can be before the show. And if you don't know what a Pacetrack is, it's basically just like a track that you go around and you are timed, and you have to get your time within a reasonable range: not too fast and not too slow.
After the Schooling Show on August 16, I'm going to be a groom for my two friends, Caitlyn and Julia, when they go to Northern Virginia to compete in a competition called Difficult Run. Then, the next weekend, Stewy and I are off to Lexington for a two-day Starter Trials show on August 30-31. Hopefully I won't die! The nice thing is I will get to school the Cross-Country course before I go do it for time. We will be doing Beginner Novice so that Stewy will get a little extra practice. Hopefully (MAYBE) for fall-fest next year we might be able to move up to Novice, but if we can't it's fine.
After Starter Trials, I have Rosemont, or at least I hope I do, and it's a Dressage show, and hopefully I will qualify for BLMs too, which are basically like championships if you get 62.00 or higher.
After that, I want to do a little schooling show at Wavertree hall and then another one at Cedar Creek.

So that's my fall plan!! I hope I didn't totally bore you.........but if I did I'M SO SORRY!!

Check in later,

Rachel

Spring Break and Fraps

Spring Break started today!!!! We had it really late...but we have a week off, which means I will be spending all my time at the barn to get prepared for the first show of the season. Yay! Stuart Little and I are going Advance Green for the first one and then doing Beginner Novice. The sucky thing is that I am competing against my friend and her horse, so I hope we don't get overly competitive like I can sometimes be. But it's nice to just escape everything and get away from it all, and thank goodness my teachers were nice and didn't give me any homework except for a book report that is due on the 15. If you ever want to make a quick and easy Frappuccino, just buy some Starbucks Ice Cream and add half and half. Then you can put all sorts of stuff on the top, like whipped cream and fudge sauce!! I tried it today and it was really good!!

OMG

So my report card came recently...yay (i kno, rite?!) so my parents looked at it before i did (!!?ugh?!!) and i got all A's and 1 B because my teacher lost all of my practice record for Orch, but whatever, it can be fixed i guess. Django is getting so big! His nose is getting longer and he is losing the little wrinkle just above it (so sad!) but he is still as fun as ever!
I am such a bad driver on the golf cart--my friend has one and we totally spaz out on that thing! It rocks. Anyway. I just wanted to share.

Orch and Other Shtuff

I don't have a whole lot to say this month, other than the fact that MY PUPPY IS SO CUTE!! He knows how to get up the stairs but doesn't quite understand how to get down, so he growls at the top and goes so fast his butt comes before he does. It's quite an image. I play the violin, and have been for about a year or more, and this weekend we go to a District Festival at my school. I am so scared. We had auditions for which chair we would get, even though my class is all 2nd violins. For those who don't play music or know orchestra, there are two violin sections: 1 carries the melody most of the time, and 2 carries the harmony. I had practiced for three hours this weekend and two more the night before last, so I was hoping I would do OK, and I felt fine until I actually had to play. My audition sucked. I got too nervous. Watch me get, like, last chair!!! Oh well, there's always next time.
But the only really sucky thing is that none of my other friends play 2nd violin...well one does, but its not like we really hang out together. I have 2 friends who play cello, 2 friends who play viola, and 3 friends who play 1st violin. And here I am in 2nd. Whatever. It's all good.
So all this happened today, and so I guess I was wrong when I said that I don't have much to say for March. But I do. And Friday is one of my friends' birthday...I have no idea what to get her...!

And check out Sia--she is a really cool music artist (well at least I like her) and the first two youtube clips to the right are really good. The first one is called Breathe Me and it is really cool, the second one is called Buttons (not like the pussycat dolls) and it is very interesting! There is another video bar at the bottom with some of her stuff and the one with the woman standing singing into the microphone is the best one...and it's called "The Girl You Lost to Cocaine"!!

C ya!
or Sia~lol

Puggle Puppies

As I sit in bed feverishly with a temperature of 101.5 degrees, I am searching Google for pictures of Puggles. If you haven't heard of the trend in breeding "Designer Dogs", breeders are crossing all sorts of dogs to create a new breed. Puggles are hybrids between Beagles and Pugs, a Pug father and Beagle mother. I have always wanted a dog and we have never had one because we move so much and we rented houses where dogs were not allowed, so now that we bought our own house, my family and I have decided to buy one of these cuddly little crossbreeds. We our picking up our Puggle puppy on the 23 of February, which is so exciting. This is a picture of our puppy, and look how cute he is! But some people aren't as excited about these dogs. Some say they aren't worth the money. Some say they are high priced mongrels. OUCH!!! When you think about it, all "purebred" dogs come from each other and aren't perfect themselves. But whatever they think, LOOK AT THAT ADORABLE LITTLE GUY! We decided to get a Puggle because it was a dog we could all agree on, I had always loved them since I heard about them, my mom thinks they are adorable and she doesn't want a big dog, and my dad loves them because they are water dogs and he grew up with a beagle (whom he loved). I like Puggles, so thee is nothing they can say to convince me to not get a Puggle. The pictures in the slideshow to the right are all of him!! Hopefully I will be able to add more soon!