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Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time!  most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the

30 Facts About Me: A (Reluctant) Blog Hop

I have been enjoying everyone else's 30 Facts blog hop, inspired by May As Well Event, but I admit I have not wanted to join in on the fun haha.  Writing thirty interesting facts about me seem rather uninteresting, but then I realize I don't have much else to write right now except about Ellie being fun to hack around in the snow (*yawn*) so I finally just started writing.  And it took me quite a while to finish all thirty haha.  I was stuck after writing the first eleven for several days because I just couldn't think of things about myself to write.  It took me almost four weeks to get this finished!  
With added memes for your enjoyment
1.  I am super short at just barely 5' tall.  I am actually child sized and have often been mistaken for a student when I worked in high schools.  I am now at a middle school, and while the children are all still taller than me haha, I guess the increasing grey hair and wrinkles help me look older.  I have been slowly going grey since I was eighteen anyway and have so far done nothing to hide it, though sometimes I have a weak moment where I wonder if I should.
haha
2.  I grew up in Kennebunkport, Maine and my high school job was as a bank teller at Ocean National Bank.  It was pretty cool to have as much responsibility as I did, and sometimes I wonder if I should have stayed there and become a loan officer or whatever people do in banks, but my dislike of math overruled it.  
Someone made all these weird town motto memes lol
3.  As a bank teller in the coastal Maine town where the Bushes have a summer home on Walker's Point, I had the interesting opportunity to assist both George Sr. and Barbara when they would come into the bank.  The first time George Sr. ever came in, about two years after he finished his presidential term, I noticed a bunch of official looking guys with him, then he spoke to me while handing me a check for $3000 to cash, and just as I was about to (stupidly) say, "Has anyone ever told you that you look JUST like George Bush?!?", I actually looked at the name on the check.  Stunned because of his presence (as well as the armed Secret Service guys) and my own sixteen year old ignorance, my eyes grew wide and I silently counted out the cash for him hahaha!  There was a bank rule that anything over (I think) $100 had to be double checked on the system, but I didn't bother because duhhhh the former president has plenty of money, right?  LOL!!  Thankfully I acted more like a normal human the subsequent times he came in, and I loved that he always came to my window when he came into the bank!  Barbara preferred to use the drive through in her little blue sports car, along with her dog Millie, and of course I would always send out doggie treats for the adorable Springer Spaniel!  So that is probably my coolest story haha!
one of my favorite quotes
4.  I may have grown up on the coast, but I hate seafood.  Hate it.  All of it.  It's probably sacrilegious to refuse lobster when you grew up just miles from the ocean haha.
A guide to eating fish in ALL OF LIFE
5.  I went for several years without a television set, not because I have any real problems with television programming, but mostly because I just don't watch it and didn't miss not owning a TV.  Now I own a television again, but we only have an Apple TV, and still I never watch it.  My husband will watch random shows here and there mostly during the cold and dark winter months, and the two year old enjoys the PBS Kids and Nick Jr. apps, but I just don't watch any of it.  When people try to connect with me over a popular show or a funny commercial and I tell them I don't watch TV, I always get a weird look haha.
maybe...
6.  My only real regret in life (besides marrying that ex husband thing...) is not studying abroad while in college.  I wish I had just gone to England or Ireland as I so desperately wanted to, even going so far as to fill out paperwork and meet with an advisor about the possibility.  I didn't go because I was terrified my horse (Sparky) would die while I was overseas and I couldn't mentally handle the thought.  The fact is she died thirteen years after I graduated with my undergraduate degree.  Oh well.  Living abroad is rather impossible at this point, though I suppose an eventual short visit someday will have to suffice.

7.  My almost fourteen year old son shares his birthday (May 23) with both Dreamy and Snappy.  As I was in the recovery room from the c-section, I told the nurses that my horse was born on this very same day!  They looked at me like I was insane, nervously glancing at one another, and trying to assure me I had given birth to a CHILD not a horse.  I tried unsuccessfully to explain I knew that already, but my horse had been born on the very same day, just thirteen years prior!  And then when Snappy came into my life, lo and behold she was also a May 23 baby.  Just weird, man.  (My two year old son was born on September 23, so I guess 23 is my number haha).

8.  Even weirder?  After Snappy's first ever dressage show back in May 2016, I realized both she and Dreamy started their show careers at age sixteen at the same exact show in the month of May.  And they both won their Intro A classes (though Snappy placed second in Intro B and I am fairly sure Dreamy had a third).


First time down centerline
9.  I am a perfectionist and organized to a fault.  This is perhaps because I am a first born with a Type-A personality haha. I like things done correctly the first time.  I have a hard time delegating because it is easier to just do it myself and not have to "fix" something that someone else did for me.  Being a perfectionist is hard and sometimes completely stresses me out.  But I will say that I have "mellowed" out a bit as I age, especially since becoming a mom.  But I am still pretty tightly wound!  LOL!



10.  My work ethic often leaves me exhausted.  I just cannot do anything half assed and I stress myself out when I probably don't need to (see #9).  I am totally a Puritan and it is no surprise much of my family tree actually came over here on the Mayflower LOL!



11.  On that note, I secretly would really love to just be a stay-at-home mom/wife.  Or more specifically, just get to play ponies all day and not have to work a real job haha.  Don't get me wrong, my husband and I are totally a team and function well together, where we both work equally in our careers, around the home, the barn, and with the kids, but I wouldn't mind the old fashioned stay-at-home-mom gig.  I don't care if that means my feminist card gets revoked haha.

12.  I am a country girl at heart.  While I do enjoy visiting the city (and suburbs) for a short time, I could never live there.  Lots of traffic and people make me anxious.  Give me the middle of nowhere, please!
hahahahahaha
13. I cannot carry a tune to save my life, but I really like music and singing (much to other's chagrin haha).  I kind of wish I had pursued learning how to sing or play piano, but it's probably best for all that I did not.
no truer meme could exist
14.  I would much rather stick to my beliefs and remain the outcast than to give into something I do not believe in just to be accepted.  Sometimes I pretend this does not hurt when really it does.  I have always done by own thing and not tried to fit in if it means sacrificing myself, and this gets easier the older I get.

15.  I really adore sleep.  Like I could sleep 10 - 11 hours a night if possible, maybe even 12.  Going to bed at 9pm and waking up at 8am every day would be heaven to me.  Probably the hardest part of having children to me is the lack of sleep that accompanies it LOL!

16.  I don't follow celebrities or get really caught up in pop culture.  It just doesn't interest me.

17.  I don't drink coffee.  Every once in a while, mostly if I am out to dinner and there is coffee/dessert or if I just really feel like I need caffeine after a day at school, I will drink a coffee, but that is honestly maybe four times a year.  I like the smell of it, but if I do drink it, I use way too much cream and sugar that it is mostly a dessert haha.



18.  Although I grew up here in Maine and I love the coast back where I grew up, I don't really feel as though I fit in here in the mountains about an hour north of my hometown.  Maybe it is just the rural redneck area I live and teach in, but I have never really felt settled.  There are many good parts of living in and raising children in a small, rural town, but I don't feel as though I will ever fit in here or find my "people".  So many women my age are either doing meth or so small town minded, I just have given up LOL! 
Yes, this is a real place...

19. My dad built my house and barn and for that reason alone, I will probably never be able to leave.  Two of my horses are buried here as well.  I don't get attached to "things" but this home has too much emotional connection for me to ever leave (which doesn't help #18).

20.  As much as I love teaching (and I think I am fairly good at it haha), sometimes I get really overwhelmed by the drama and the politics (both local and national).  I left my job teaching senior English and AP Literature in order to work as the gifted and talented (GT) teacher at the middle school (same district and the schools are a twenty second walk apart) because I was so disillusioned with what I was seeing the district do to keep the graduation rate at 100%.  I like my GT position just fine, but I miss teaching high school English.  Mostly, I think I just miss the novels I used to teach and the writing skills I taught.  Sometimes I think maybe I ought to teach at the college level.  Or just become a stay-at-home wife haha (see #11).

21.  Overthinking is my speciality.  I overthink about overthinking.  I am way too analytical for my own good.  As I approach forty, I do see myself caring less about certain things or letting things go that I never used to, which is probably a good thing for my ulcers haha.
so so so accurate 

22.  I am currently halfway through obtaining my National Board Certification for Professional Teaching Standards.  I admit, the program is run by one of the largest standardized testing companies in the country and is totally kind of a crock, but I am determined to became board certified.  Of course, I already hold two professional state certificates to teach both English grades 7-12 as well as gifted and talented education K-12, and teachers are not required to be "board certified" by this company.  However, my district has become really obsessed about it and I will be damned if I don't challenge myself and fit in with the cool kids haha.  I have a master's degree and am working on a PhD, but my district seems to have more respect for National Board teachers.  Plus, it is thousands and thousands of dollars to go through the program and our district is paying for it in full, so I am all about taking advantage of any free professional development.  I am finishing the second to last component this year and will be totally done in May 2019.  Once I am officially board certified, I will receive a $3000 yearly bonus.  So yeah, money is definitely a motivator here too, since nothing about teaching is high paying and there are never such things as bonuses!  ;-)
Obviously

23.  As an introvert, I have to push out of my comfort zone every day.  Since I was young, I have always had people call me "stuck up" when in reality I am just quiet and can be shy.  I also am terrible and awkward at small talk.  But the people in the world I am actually comfortable around will tell you I talk too much and have a foolish sense of humor!  I have always said if you don't like me, you definitely don't know me.



24.  I am always cold.  ALWAYS.  I could be wearing a winter coat with the heat blasting in my truck and finally feel warm, while the passengers are sweating and rolling down the windows.  Others think I am being dramatic, but I seriously love heat and am cold from about October to June.  I am definitely a solar powered girl!



25.  I am the type of person who can stay calm and in control during a crisis (well, except when one of my children are hurt...) and then totally fall apart once everything is OK.  This is a weird trait to have!

26.  I am at the point in my life where I almost never shop in an actual store LOL!  I love online shopping because you can find ANYTHING in the right size and not have to do anything other than wait for it to arrive.  LOL!  Hence the reason I am sort of in love with Amazon Prime's (mostly) two-day shipping!  I even use an online system to order groceries each week and all I have to do is drive to the store and they bring the groceries out (and lately my husband has been picking them up on his way home from work on Fridays).  It is amazing.  Obviously, if there is something I actually need RIGHT NOW, I do shop in stores, but it is rare.  Now that I write this out, it sounds really weird, but whatever!  It works for me!

27.  I still keep an old fashioned paper calendar on my refrigerator door.  I also have a small desk pad calendar on my classroom desk.  Everything is written on this calendar.  I have never embraced using my phone or Google Calendar to keep myself organized.

28.  I definitely could be called cheap (not that my husband has ever said that haha), though I prefer the adjective frugal!  ;-)  The thing is, I dislike spending more money on something than I think I should, so I am all about finding deals.  And sometimes I will wait forever to buy something until I find it at the price I like.  However, I also appreciate the idea of spending money on something that is well made and will last, so it is weird!  

29.  You know that meme about a woman's brain being like having thousands of tabs open in a browser all the time?  Well, not only is that probably true for my brain as well, but it is true in real life.  I used Google Chrome, and I have two personal Google accounts and one for school.  Therefore, I always have three Chrome browsers open, one for each, and several tabs open.  For example, right now I have 20, 12, and 8 open tabs in the three browsers.  I am not really sure why I do this, but I like it!  

30.  I don't like clutter and I keep the house and barn fairly picked up.  I think my desire to organize and streamline is due to my perfectionism and desire to control the things in life that can actually be controlled (since so many things cannot be!).  This doesn't mean there are no dust bunnies under the beds or toddler fingerprints on the windows, but I do pick up and clean toilets/sweep more than most.  I always get the "your house is SO clean!" comment a lot, but that is deceiving since it is not about actual cleaning as much as it is about organization to me.  

Whew!  So there you have thirty of my random, neurotic behaviors and attributes that I am sure you were dying to know haha!  Let's hope within the next month there will be much more exciting horsey content beyond "we moseyed around in the snow and it was boring fine".  As soon as I get my new Coggins back, I hope to schedule our first lesson of the year!  Meanwhile, the temps have dropped severely (it was 3 degrees at 7:3o AM this morning!) and the snow is just not going away any time soon.  Eliot may have called April a cruel month, but March is a close second!

Comments

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    1. My husband thinks something is wrong with me. I'm like, nope, been like this all my life. I just NEED SLEEP.

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  2. I really love this hop for all the weirdly cool things about themselves bloggers are sharing! I love online shopping (sharing your appreciation for Amazon Prime's sometimes 2-day shipping), but I haven't fully embraced online grocery shopping, lol. Might have to give it a go!

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    1. OMG it is amazing!! We have Hannafords supermarket up here so I use what they call "Hannaford To Go". It was a PITA to set up the first time and put all the things in my shopping list, but now it is so easy to just click the list and add what I want to my cart! I started doing it when my youngest was born (and my husband tried so hard to do the shopping the first week as I recuperated, but he brought home edamame instead of peas....among a few other weird things I am forgetting now! OMG lol it was so funny!) And then I just kept it up because it was so much easier than bringing a baby in the store. And now I am just a lazy ass LOL!!! Every so often I do go in the store, like when I am buying things for a holiday dinner, but that is pretty rare!

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  3. love sleeping, paper calendars and warmth too..and i love your Bush bank story :) We drove through Kennebunkport ME when we were up there last Summer. I think it is a bit overrated but can see where growing up there would have its charms ;) But if i saw the Bush's I probably would have fainted :) LOL

    Thanks for doing this :)

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    1. I LOVED growing up where I did, surrounded by a huge extended family, but it is definitely too touristy in the summer months.

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  4. Thanks for sharing. I love sleeping too, am an introvert and think FAR too much. It's cool that you met the President.

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    1. Meeting George Sr. is probably the best story I've got LOL! ;-)

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  5. So many of ours are the same! I also have like 18 tabs open at any given time and I'm always cold - they call me 'the tourist' in my office because I always have a jacket, a blanket and a heater going.

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    1. Hahahaha I have a little heater next to my classroom desk and sometimes have been known to bring it with me when I co-teach in other classrooms LOL! There is no such thing as too much heat!

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  6. 6, 9, 11 (tho, just wife because we don't have kids lol), 12, 17, 21, 24-30: YES. All of them! Though I don't do the groceries online yet...I don't think it's an option in my area. Kinda wish it was! I do love Hannaford grocery stores, though do jokingly call them "Can'tAfford" instead as they are rather expensive in comparison to some lol!

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    1. I agree Hannaford can be expensive but the To Go option is so worth it!!

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  7. So many interesting things!! I'm also very type A perfectionist and I am not sure if it is my age or the fact that I am a mom, but I too am letting a lot of things go as "good enough" these days when before it had to be perfect. But I agree - delegating tasks is very hard

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    1. I think it is definitely age and having children that has allowed me to "chill" a little bit haha. I still hope I calm down a bit more in the next ten years or so LOL!

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    2. I've avoided this hop for myself but love reading them- yours included. Maybe we can figure out a reason to go to study in Ireland.... yes please!

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  8. I'm also puritan bred (parents were from Vermont and Maine and I grew up in Connecticut). I even have 'papers' that show I'm part of the Connecticut Mayflower Descendents society.

    Who are you related to?

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    1. That's so cool you even have "papers"!! You are official! ;-)

      All my genealogy work is in a huge binder at my dad's, so I am doing this off the top of my head. But Nathaniel Merrill (my maiden name is Merrill) is my great times 5 or 6 grandfather who came from England with his brother and settled in Newbury, MA. He actually didn't come on the Mayflower but one of the other boats that sailed around that same time period and I am totally blanking on the actual name.

      Also, Rebecca Nurse, who was executed in the Salem Witch Trials, is my aunt haha.

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  9. #3, MILLIE WAS THE BEST. I have an autographed copy of the book that my grandmother got for me. And my uncle used to give Millie dog massages. <3 <3 <3

    It's kind of eerie how much we have in common, I am definitely coming to hang out over Memorial Day. :)

    (John Howland is my Pilgrim ancestor.)

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    1. Awww love that you have a connection to Millie, too!! :-)

      Yes, please, come visit because I WOULD LOVE THAT! And I am totally planning to show at the VT Morgan show eventually (if not this year, then next!)

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  10. My family came over on the Nina :)

    And the coffee smell is the best part about coffee - as in I don't like the rest haha! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Nice! That is super cool to know many of us are Puritans haha! The allure of coffee definitely eludes me!

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