Happy Holidays!

Oh dear!  One post in January and now it's the end of the year!  And what a year its been, not one I care to repeat in a hurry, not one I look upon with much fondness, but it was survived, I feel like I have battle scars, war wounds and just plain worn out, but everything for a reason right?  I have learnt a LOT, about myself, about life in general, about others, about what I can change and what I can't, I've been booted up the ass with hobnail boots into getting on with my own growth and learning and I've HAD to in order to get thru what 2012 has chucked at me, but Christmas has arrived and Operation Clean Slate is in action so perhaps 2012 will end well and I will not judge the whole year quite so harshly LOL.

Looks like I forgot to update the blogging world on our newest addition!  Back in May while I was driving a night shift over grape harvest I found our latest "meant to be" baby.  Driving down a nearly deserted rural road at 3am in a big ol' 8 wheeler truck with 10 ton of grapes and juice in the back I saw something on the white line in the middle of the road ahead of me.  As I was only a matter of metres away from it I realised it was a tiny kitten sitting on the white line like a literal cats eye, little white chin and bib and toes reflecting the head lights.  It was a narrow road and I couldn't slam on brakes or swerve anywhere and this tiny thing just sat there as I missed it by no more than an inch or two!

I braked and stopped and backed up as far as I thought I could and got out to see the damage... As I got out of the truck I heard this screaming from the side of the road (which was good, because if I'd run it over it wouldn't be screaming!)  I aimed the torch into the grass at the side of the road and this tiny wee thing came running out into the beam of light, I reached out and it flattened itself on the road, was scooped up, all wet and skinny and shoved down the inside of my jacket where it stayed for the next 4 hours until we got home and I could feed it!

I was thinking of names as we were driving along and stopped long enough to ask if it had a preference and "Cassidy" was presented (as in Butch Cassidy) so Cassidy it was, which was great as it was a pretty unisex name and I had no idea if it was a boy or girl!

A week later we went to the vet for a sexing check, some worm tabs and a general check up (I haven't had a kitten around for many MANY years!) and the vet declared at that point he was about 5 weeks old and a boy :)

That tiny little thing certainly had some guardian angels with him that night, and he's a ferocious, precocious little man and a great hunter!

He LOVES Leo and Marcus, loves to attack anyone else, and rules the house easily LOL.

Of course he's grown a bit since then and isn't half as cute anymore LOL, but he is the bees knees and of course he knows it :)

In March we said farewell to Phoenix aka PeeWee, my big beautiful girl who deserved the love of being an only child and never got it :(    She was 7 1/2...

And now Zak is getting old too, he will be 15 in March, but in the last 6 months has gotten old... We are down to 4 chooks now too, have had to let a few go this last year my poor gorgeous girls.

Smokey and I did another trail ride a couple of weeks back, only the 14km ride but we did it bareback!!!  and came 6th!!!  which was especially good since the other girl I was riding with and I took 2 wrong turns and I think we ended up doing about 20km and didn't have time to do any walking at the end to help lower the heart rate!  It was a great ride and Smokey was a star the entire way and we had a ball AND my butt didn't even feel it the next day!

So outside of all the personal crap that was my year in a nutshell, and now Christmas has come and gone (Marcus was spoilt rotten with presents, kids makes it so much fun!) and we are only days away from a new year!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas, hope you enjoy your holidays if you are having any, hope you all remembered to wish your fur babies a Merry Christmas 'cause believe me, they would have been saying it to you, they all do... Birthdays and Christmas they'll be celebrating with you and passing you messages even if you can't hear them, so remember to share it back!

Wish me luck with Operation Clean Slate and from me and mine to you and yours, Merry Christmas my friends xxx

The End of the World is Nigh!!!!

and I nearly missed it!  At the rate time is flying by the end will have come and gone unnoticed LOL.

Can't believe I haven't posted since September (I blame FaceBook!  You post things there and think you've told the world LOL)

So... I quit night shift, tried 4 different types of sleeping pills before the last lot actually worked at resetting the poor old body's clock and sleep is all A-OK again (bliss!)

We had a late start to Spring and we've had a wet summer so far, poor old world is trying to turn itself over and upsetting the weather patterns somewhat!  Got some hay cut and dragged off the paddock 2 days before Christmas which we spent in Christchurch with my dear friend/sister, Lisa which was lovely.  Home so Bruce could get to work over in Nelson clearing some slips after the deluge they had over there, and Marcus was with Pete so I got a weeks holiday to myself, got quite used to sleeping in!!!  Alas Marcus was back before that habit became ingrained LOL.

Took both Mac and Smokey to our dressage comp in December, the 1st and last one for them for the year!  Both were very good boys for not having been ridden diddly squat :o)  Have since been gearing them up with a few more rides for a bit of fitness work so I can get them out and about to some Trail Rides, next one is next weekend!  So their feet have just been trimmed, the grass is being rationed even more (fat little piglets they are!) and I'm aiming to take Mac, but we'll see on the day (if it's blowing like a you know what, it'll be Smokey going LOL.

Roger has gone to the neighbours place to be a paddock mate for her horse which is lovely, he doesn't have to be stripped grazed there, and gets more attention there than he did here so he's as happy as a pig in mud :o)

Took Mac up the road for a short road ride last weekend, traffic really doesn't impress the stress freak, but it was dead quiet on Sunday so we went out for a change, he decided the little wooden bridge on the road to the school had a troll living under it, but eventually he knew I was just going to keep nagging till he did it so he gave in.  Took us 20 mins to get the the end of our one way trip and 7 mins to get home LOL.  He decided his beautiful big power trot was called for to get home and that was it!  Smokey was next and it was his 1st ever proper road ride (outside of the 300 metres to the end of our dead end road) and he was a complete star :o)  Didn't set a foot wrong.  Stopped at the bridge, had a sniff at the wood and then tip toed across it.  Had horses screaming at him from both sides of the road and he behaved beautifully.  Always very proud of my wee Kai.

So that's a quick catch up!  Still working driving trucks, still doing communication, still busy busy.

Oh!  And reading The Law of Attraction by Abraham-Hicks, very good book, very good at the explanations of how we attract what we think about and how sometimes when we try so hard to attract something it doesn't work... Love the way they talk about the "Inner being" being your GPS by way of emotions.... if you are feeling a negative emotion, you are negatively attracting and out of synch with the Source, if you are feeling a positive emotion you are positively attracting and in synch, pay attention to the feelings you feel!