Summer Fun

Hola everyone!! Having a nice summer? I hope so!  Mine's been...semi-uneventful, but in a mostly good way. :)

I'm going to try to force myself out of my writer's block of the past few weeks.....starting now!

Horses

It's been a slow week without the option of a ride out to the barn.  Friends I normally go with either started work for the summer or are known to be super busy so I don't ask...but I will remedy that soon enough!  

Nom nomming on a willow tree.

I started going out on my third or fourth day home from school, riding for a bit the first couple of days, exploring a new trail that a friend showed me (it's my favorite yet - and this time of year, everything is SUPER green and beautiful!), but mostly hanging out and loving on our horses.

Orion was slightly jealous when I fed Glory instead of him.

Orion was super sweet and willing to please the majority of the time - with the exception of not wanting to go through the gate, which we argued over for a few minutes.  I won.  He was great, albeit a bit jumpy for some reason.  

Taken just after his bath.

The dogs usually never bother him, but two days in a row, I got to experience him jump straight into the air and skitter sideways as he realized one of the - now grown - pups was nearer to him than he'd apparently realized.  That was a fun feeling - usually resulting in a "WTF??" exclamation from me and a huge sigh from him as he hung his head in relief upon deciding a terrifying monster was not about to eat him!

Bath + summer sunshine = beautiful  =)

One day last week, he actually came to me from the other side of the field when I whistled and called for him.  I was giddy - yes, giddy - that he'd actually done it from that distance. Then a couple of days ago, I tried again...to no avail.  He didn't even give me the courtesy of lifting his head in acknowledgement.  So across the field I trekked, and he still didn't visibly acknowledge the fact that I was there until I was about three feet from him.  Thanks buddy.  I felt loved.

Books

I finally decided to copy a friend's idea last week and made myself a summer reading list.  Reading is something I love doing.......but unfortunately something I usually don't have time to do during school without neglecting other important things. :/

So this summer, I set myself a goal.  The list is comprised of various books that I've been meaning to read for a while - in some cases, years - that I never get around to.  Most of them are ones that I don't have on my Kindle, because I want to save those for when I go back to school - that way I'm downsizing on how many books I take back with me.  Especially since I'll have a roommate next year and more limited space than I was used to previously.  

I've already finished two of the books on it, and am about a third of the way through my third.

Here's the list:

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

The Lucky One  by Nicholas Sparks

Out of Oz  by Gregory Maguire

Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire

Snakehunter by Chuck Kinder

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands by Stephen King

And that's it. For now.  I'm sure upon cleaning my room - another chore on my to-do list this summer - I'll probably find more that I haven't read or want to re-read.  There's a few I've considered that probably won't make the list unless I can't find something else...simply because I want to read as much new stuff as I can while I have the time!

So far, that has been the extent of my activities this summer - horses and books and working out, though it's a bit hard to write much about doing Zumba and Wii Fit.  Another fun thing was going camping with my two best friends at the beginning of the week - but I'll add more about that later.

Tuesday starts my babysitting job, so I'm sure I'll some humorous stories to tell about that.  There's never a dull moment when my younger brothers are together all day long!!