A Mid February Mish Mosh

The weather has warmed up here and the snowpack that's been on the ground for over a month has finally melted. Reason to celebrate!

So, here's a mish mosh of some things that might also make you smile - they sure did me. And a couple other things thrown in because, you know, mish mosh!

Gesundheit, Molly!

Mama had a sneezing fit the other day and Lisa was able to catch the very last part of it on video.

In case the video doesn't work, here's a link to it on YouTube. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/Grb4pYpglBU?feature=share

Sweet girl, no one sneezes like you do!

A Letter Blitz from Titan

Pony Pals Kate, Cambria, and Titan are my penpals. I love getting letters from them and I save every one of them.

Sometimes those letters sit for a while after they've been written while waiting for a stamp or a parent to take them to the post office. When that happens...

I get a letter blitz! 

Which I don't mind at all. I grab a coke, settle into my cozy reading chair, and enjoy opening and reading those letters.

All three kids draw me little illustrations on their letters, and almost always one of them is a horse or pony.

Western Earthquakes? Should I Worry?

The west has been having a lot of minor earthquakes this year. Sarah has felt them in Montana, and Jessica in Utah. The epicenters have not been close to either of them so I wasn't too concerned until Jessie sent me this map.

The red lines are fault lines and they pass very close to her home. (The brown portion of the map indicates that that land is actually elevated and part of Dry Mountain.)

Their home is up on Dry Mountain and they have a retaining wall surrounding their back yard to hold the mountain back. The two fault lines are just beyond that sagebrush covered rise.

Honestly, I haven't ever worried about earthquakes for Jessie's family. Wildfires? Yes, and with good reason as they have come very close to her home in the past.

But now that I am aware of how close those fault lines are to her and that the area has had some shaking, I do feel a little trepidation.

Gimme Some Elsie Mae, Please!

The western part of the Isenbarger clan gathered in Idaho this past weekend to celebrate Elsie Mae.

Gimme was thrilled to be holding her first grandbaby and it looks as though Elsie Mae was equally thrilled, too.

The occasion was Elsie Mae's baby blessing. 

Andrew, Titan, Jessica, Cambria, Dondao (Todd's Grandpa name), Jayci, JC, Elsie Mae, Gimme, and Kyle.

Great Uncle Kyle holding his sweet great niece.

Thanks to a Zoom link, we were able to be there for Elsie Mae's blessing. We hope to meet her at a family gathering later this year.

Now That's Service!

Our local Bob Evans has really good food. And Friday night, we had a server who topped all other servers.

Lisa ordered a breakfast plate and asked if she could have a little more syrup. 

When our server brought that extra syrup to her, it was three pitchers! And, she'd brought us all fresh biscuits and extra butter. "These are hot and just out of the oven, so I thought you'd all like to have some," she said. Yes, ma'am, we sure would!

Giddy on Up and Into History!

I don't know who these people are, but when this photo appeared on one of my living history social media sites, I had to take a screen shot.

Full marks for keeping that living history vibe going! And how wonderful that, despite their need for assistance to attend, they found a way AND did it with smiles!

Hmmmm... I wonder what I could do to my walker to make it horsey...

It's Wednesday, so Mama and Nashie are coming to spend the day. With the warmer weather, we will be able to be outside with them more today. 

I'll be sewing the very last trade shirt for Kalamazoo when its my turn to be upstairs, and cutting out bedgowns when I am downstairs keeping Molly company.

Should be a great day; hope yours is as well. 

BreyerFest 2024: Saturday

Saturday is still a blur - it was so busy in the non-horsey part of my life, I had to attend BreyerFest in small increments.

It was after 11:00 by the time Emily and the Pony Pals were able to get back on the road for Tennessee, so we missed Ian's soccer scrimmage. Since it was a very last minute decision to meet by the two coaches (24 hours' notice) and Curt knew that Emily would be leaving during the same window of time, he told us to not worry.

Then I had the conflict between Jayci's bridal shower in Las Vegas and Liz Cory's appearance on the BreyerFest Live Feed. I solved that this way:

I ran both at once while I waited for the bridal shower to begin. The start of the shower was delayed which allowed me to catch a little more of the Live Feed.

Liz's segment turned out to be very short, which also worked out well - I was able to multitask them both. However, since the Zoom shower attendees were chatting as we waited, I turned the volume off on the BreyerFest Live Stream and didn't hear anything that Liz said. (I'm still wondering why her segment was so short but I haven't talked to her since Friday to find out.)

The shower was really fun and was almost like two showers because Hawkeye Sarah made sure that the virtual attendees felt like they were a part of the shower, too.

When they were playing games that we could not participate in, she had virtual games for us.

And Jayci, her mom, and several other guests came over and chatted with us, too.

When the shower was over, I had a quick switch into the Breyer auction. Its start was delayed for almost 15 minutes. I heard later that someone in attendance had shouted, "No more online auctions!" and that the crowd had booed him or her. But finally it was underway.

There were two big ticket items:

The Rearing Lipizzaner Pegasus sold for $32,500 to an online bidder,

and the Alborozo was the top seller at $37,500, also to an online bidder. 

At times the bidding was so fast that the posted bid (in green) could not keep up and there were concerns that the online bidders would not know where the bidding was. The auctioneer would pause at those times to let it catch up. We were told that the slowness was due to the internet connection out at the park.

Here are my notes along with a running total that I did for every three lots.

If I heard right and then did the math correctly (this teacher would be HIGHLY embarrassed if she did not, LOL) then the auction brought in $243,500 this year.

When the auction closed, Craig and I headed out to accomplish another BreyerFest tradition.

We've been going to dinner at Bob Evans during BreyerFest since 2019!

It's down home cooking and quiet - a good place to decompress and catch up on each other's days.

And that concludes my 2024 BreyerFest with the exception of one thing - Andrea Gurdon's 50th anniversary cake. Today I am going to head to church and then come home and bake that cake. I'll rest and recoup from a very busy week, have some cake, and do a little reading in a now quiet home. 

It's been a week!