They did it! They beat Alabama in the SEC Championship game and now have a shot at the National Title! Gotta love them Gators! You know where we'll be on January 8th!!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Merry Christmas!
The Bateman's sent us adorable hats for the dogs. So naturally, Jesson being his Father's son, we had a photo shoot! I am 110% sure that we had WAY more fun than the dogs did. Here's what happened:
Finally, we had to reward them with the bribes that made them sit still in the first place!
The dogs say "Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the hats!"
First we had to get them to all line up in front of the Christmas Tree so they could get dressed:
Then we took several embarassing pictures:
Finally, we had to reward them with the bribes that made them sit still in the first place!
The dogs say "Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the hats!"Sunday, October 5, 2008
"E" stands for Eliminated
Well, Reno and I competed in our first show since April. It was a doozy! It took place at Fannin Hill Farm in Brooksville, FL. It was a 3-Phase competition which meant that Reno and I had to compete in three completely different phases. They are:
1. Dressage: Takes place on the flat (meaning no jumping). You have to memorize a set pattern around a ring. You change speed between walk, trot, and canter at designated points throughout the ring. You are judged on rhythm, smoothness, and your horses submission (this just means it shouldn't look like the two of you are having a fist fight trying to get around the arena). Overall, it should look smooth, balanced, and effortless. Here is a link to the pattern I had to ride and the layout of the ring if anyone is interested.
2. Stadium Jumping: A course of 10-15 jumps are set up in an arena. You have a designated time to get over the jumps in the pre-determined order. If you go over time, you get faults. If you knock any jumps down, fall off, or your horse stops at any of the jumps, you get faults. Faults are bad, you don't want any. Here is an example of a typical course. These jumps were higher than what I was doing, and the layout of any two courses is never the same, but this is a good example. There is no set way to get to each of the jumps. It is up to the rider to walk the course ahead of time and decide which way will be the quickest while also giving their horse ample time to analyze the jump and make it over cleanly.
3. Cross Country: A course of 10-15 jumps are set up over approximately 1500 meters. Again, you have a designated amount of time to get over all of them in the pre-determined order. These jumps are different though. They do not fall down. They are made up of logs, walls, and other solid objects. You have to be very careful with your approach to these because they are unforgiving. Here is an example of a low level jump (the type I do) and a very high level jump (what you see professionals and Olympians doing).
So, with the 3-Phase 101 completed, I can now tell you how Reno and I did. Placement-wise, the answer is not very well. But, overall, we accomplished what I wanted us to for this outing. It gave us a great place to start for show season and helped me outline goals for the coming months. So, without further ado, our results:
Dressage: This was the first phase we competed in. We received a score of 39, which is ok. A winning score would have been around 29. We were not the best, but we were not the worst either. The only bad part was, coming around one turn, Reno stepped out of the ring for a split second. This immediately eliminated us from the competition and took us out of the placings. We were still allowed to complete the other two phases, however, it was without any chance to place. Reno actually performed much better than I expected him to. And again, it gave us a great baseline for the upcoming show season.
Stadium Jumping: We jumped everything cleanly (meaning he did not knock anything down and he did not refuse) however, we were a little over time so we received 6 time faults. I was not upset about this (obviously, we'd been eliminated already, what's to get upset about!) but I felt we took the appropriate amount of time for us. I made sure Reno had a good experience and did not feel rushed to the jumps. We will get faster with each and every competition, but this was a good starting place for us.
Cross Country: I was least pleased with our performance in this phase. Of the 12 jumps, Reno refused 5 of them, meaning he did not jump them the first time I presented them to him. This meant I had to circle around and try again. This took up valuable time and was also not a very confidence building experience for either of us. This will be an area we focus on over the next few months. Unfortunately, this is also the hardest area to practice. The reason being, while you may make a horse very comfortable with the jumps that you have access to from your own farm, Cross Country is all about the horse being brave over fences he has never seen before at a place he's never been to. The horse must be able to see a fence and jump over it a few seconds later. Any hesitation typically results in a refusal. So, we will most likely have to trailer to other farms and competition venues to brush up on this.
And that was pretty much my entire Saturday. I had to be at the farm at 5:30am to feed Reno breakfast and get him on the trailer, and we didn't get back to the farm until about 6:30pm. Jesson was able to come and cheer us on for the dressage and stadium portions. I always feel better when he is at a competition with me, he has a very calming effect. Below is a picture of Reno and I over jump #6 on the Cross Country jump, the Tire Jump (for obvious reasons!)
1. Dressage: Takes place on the flat (meaning no jumping). You have to memorize a set pattern around a ring. You change speed between walk, trot, and canter at designated points throughout the ring. You are judged on rhythm, smoothness, and your horses submission (this just means it shouldn't look like the two of you are having a fist fight trying to get around the arena). Overall, it should look smooth, balanced, and effortless. Here is a link to the pattern I had to ride and the layout of the ring if anyone is interested.
2. Stadium Jumping: A course of 10-15 jumps are set up in an arena. You have a designated time to get over the jumps in the pre-determined order. If you go over time, you get faults. If you knock any jumps down, fall off, or your horse stops at any of the jumps, you get faults. Faults are bad, you don't want any. Here is an example of a typical course. These jumps were higher than what I was doing, and the layout of any two courses is never the same, but this is a good example. There is no set way to get to each of the jumps. It is up to the rider to walk the course ahead of time and decide which way will be the quickest while also giving their horse ample time to analyze the jump and make it over cleanly.
3. Cross Country: A course of 10-15 jumps are set up over approximately 1500 meters. Again, you have a designated amount of time to get over all of them in the pre-determined order. These jumps are different though. They do not fall down. They are made up of logs, walls, and other solid objects. You have to be very careful with your approach to these because they are unforgiving. Here is an example of a low level jump (the type I do) and a very high level jump (what you see professionals and Olympians doing).
So, with the 3-Phase 101 completed, I can now tell you how Reno and I did. Placement-wise, the answer is not very well. But, overall, we accomplished what I wanted us to for this outing. It gave us a great place to start for show season and helped me outline goals for the coming months. So, without further ado, our results:
Dressage: This was the first phase we competed in. We received a score of 39, which is ok. A winning score would have been around 29. We were not the best, but we were not the worst either. The only bad part was, coming around one turn, Reno stepped out of the ring for a split second. This immediately eliminated us from the competition and took us out of the placings. We were still allowed to complete the other two phases, however, it was without any chance to place. Reno actually performed much better than I expected him to. And again, it gave us a great baseline for the upcoming show season.
Stadium Jumping: We jumped everything cleanly (meaning he did not knock anything down and he did not refuse) however, we were a little over time so we received 6 time faults. I was not upset about this (obviously, we'd been eliminated already, what's to get upset about!) but I felt we took the appropriate amount of time for us. I made sure Reno had a good experience and did not feel rushed to the jumps. We will get faster with each and every competition, but this was a good starting place for us.
Cross Country: I was least pleased with our performance in this phase. Of the 12 jumps, Reno refused 5 of them, meaning he did not jump them the first time I presented them to him. This meant I had to circle around and try again. This took up valuable time and was also not a very confidence building experience for either of us. This will be an area we focus on over the next few months. Unfortunately, this is also the hardest area to practice. The reason being, while you may make a horse very comfortable with the jumps that you have access to from your own farm, Cross Country is all about the horse being brave over fences he has never seen before at a place he's never been to. The horse must be able to see a fence and jump over it a few seconds later. Any hesitation typically results in a refusal. So, we will most likely have to trailer to other farms and competition venues to brush up on this.
And that was pretty much my entire Saturday. I had to be at the farm at 5:30am to feed Reno breakfast and get him on the trailer, and we didn't get back to the farm until about 6:30pm. Jesson was able to come and cheer us on for the dressage and stadium portions. I always feel better when he is at a competition with me, he has a very calming effect. Below is a picture of Reno and I over jump #6 on the Cross Country jump, the Tire Jump (for obvious reasons!)
Friday, September 12, 2008
Date Night
Each week, Jesson and I switch off who is in charge of Date Night. This week it was my turn. I decided I would cook Jesson dinner and then we could go see a movie. The food turned out so well I had to take pictures. Below was our "Date Night Dinner":
These are parmesan crusted steak fries. They have a really crispy parmesan outside and a really soft, french fry inside.
And of course dessert. We had Peanut Butter Parfaits with shaved chocolate on top.
These are "Scallop Sliders" (mini-burgers) courtesy of Paula Deen. They have scallops, chives, cilantro, lime juice, and bread crumbs. We also had them with a Cilantro Lime Mayo. Yum!
These are parmesan crusted steak fries. They have a really crispy parmesan outside and a really soft, french fry inside.
And of course dessert. We had Peanut Butter Parfaits with shaved chocolate on top.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Turk's Doggles
Whenever we take Turk anywhere in the car he likes to stick his head out the window. The only problem is, his little eyelids are always blown back and he gets bugs in his eyes sometimes. Enter: Doggles. Yes, this is actually a real product. They are goggles specifically made for dogs. At first, Turk wasn't too sure if he liked them, but once he stuck his head out the window and realized the air wasn't blowing in his eyes anymore he loved them! Below are two pictures from his first experience with his new Doggles.
Friday, September 5, 2008
The New Car
When we lived in Gainesville Jesson was able to take the bus to school leaving the car for me to take to work. Now that we have moved to Tampa and live in the suburbs (away from the crazy college students) we need an additional car to get each of us where we need to go. After a lot of shopping around and test driving we settled on the Honda CRV. We wanted the space of an SUV with the gas mileage of a car. We found a great deal on a used one about an hour away from us. We brought it home tonight and love it! Hondas are the best!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
The New House
Below are finally some pictures of the new house (at least the parts of it that were clean when I took the pictures!) I tried to take the pictures in a logical progression so that people could tell where all the rooms were and how they connected. Hopefully it worked. I am never able to do that so maybe some of you out there with better spatial perception will get it.
This is the view from the front door. On the right, where you can see the wall ending (past the 2nd table) is where the kitchen is. If you were to turn right immediately upon entering the house there are two small bedrooms. We use one of them as an office and another as a workout/scrapbooking/storage room. Neither room was particularly clean, so you don't get to see them right now, which is why I'm telling you about them.
This is a better view of our entryway that you could sort of see in the picture above.
If you walked in the front door and turned to the left this is what you would see. In the bottom left of this picture you can see the gray carpet that is in the entryway (just to give you your bearings). This is supposed to be the "formal" dining room. We don't have formal dining room furniture, so we turned it into a reading corner. We are currently working on upholstering two large (30" x 30") ottomans (one for each chair) that will make reading much more comfortable. For those of you that have been to our old house, that bookcase is actually the top part of the hutch that used to be in our dining room. We took it down, added a base, and painted it dark brown. Voila, instant bookcase. The door on the right hand side of the picture is our bedroom. Also not particularly clean so you will not be seeing it on this tour.
This is our family room. The door on the left hand side is our bedroom door again so you've just turned slightly to the right. The sliding doors on the right side of the picture go out to our backyard. More on that in a second.
A different view of our living room. Again, for those of you that have been to our old house, that is the same coffee table and end table, they just got painted along with the bookcase. We are tired of light colored furniture. The sliding doors lead to our covered lanai and fenced in back yard (which we and the dogs LOVE!) If you click on the picture to make it larger you can see it a little more clearly.
This picture was taken standing in front of the entertainment center and facing our kitchen and eating area. The front door is now to the right in this picture. We love the more open feel to this kitchen and the larger pantry (the double white doors on the left side).
And last but not least, this is the wall that goes from the kitchen (on the left) to the entryway (on the right). We still have some painting and furniture updating to do, and we are working on getting window treatments for the whole house, but it's a good start and a BIG step up from where we were living before. We love being in a house instead of an apartment or townhouse. It feels much more private and much more ours. Thanks for taking the tour, come visit anytime!
Here is the front of our house from the street. That is our little lawn that Jesson mows.
This is the view from the front door. On the right, where you can see the wall ending (past the 2nd table) is where the kitchen is. If you were to turn right immediately upon entering the house there are two small bedrooms. We use one of them as an office and another as a workout/scrapbooking/storage room. Neither room was particularly clean, so you don't get to see them right now, which is why I'm telling you about them.
This is a better view of our entryway that you could sort of see in the picture above.
If you walked in the front door and turned to the left this is what you would see. In the bottom left of this picture you can see the gray carpet that is in the entryway (just to give you your bearings). This is supposed to be the "formal" dining room. We don't have formal dining room furniture, so we turned it into a reading corner. We are currently working on upholstering two large (30" x 30") ottomans (one for each chair) that will make reading much more comfortable. For those of you that have been to our old house, that bookcase is actually the top part of the hutch that used to be in our dining room. We took it down, added a base, and painted it dark brown. Voila, instant bookcase. The door on the right hand side of the picture is our bedroom. Also not particularly clean so you will not be seeing it on this tour.
This is our family room. The door on the left hand side is our bedroom door again so you've just turned slightly to the right. The sliding doors on the right side of the picture go out to our backyard. More on that in a second.
A different view of our living room. Again, for those of you that have been to our old house, that is the same coffee table and end table, they just got painted along with the bookcase. We are tired of light colored furniture. The sliding doors lead to our covered lanai and fenced in back yard (which we and the dogs LOVE!) If you click on the picture to make it larger you can see it a little more clearly.
This picture was taken standing in front of the entertainment center and facing our kitchen and eating area. The front door is now to the right in this picture. We love the more open feel to this kitchen and the larger pantry (the double white doors on the left side).
And last but not least, this is the wall that goes from the kitchen (on the left) to the entryway (on the right). We still have some painting and furniture updating to do, and we are working on getting window treatments for the whole house, but it's a good start and a BIG step up from where we were living before. We love being in a house instead of an apartment or townhouse. It feels much more private and much more ours. Thanks for taking the tour, come visit anytime!
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