Boyfriend time = adventure time!

First and foremost, a very Happy Leap Year to you!  Ah, to have an extra day in the year!  It's just what I needed.  I've seriously been wishing for a few extra hours every day for the past few days, and behold....24 extra hours for me to be productive in!  The past week has been absolutely insane, so I was desperate for the extra time to catch up on things at work and around the house.  Mission accomplished (even had some "spare" time to upload pictures to Facebook from the December time frame and blog! Wowza.).  

We had two more foals born at the horse unit (more pics of the cuties to come, I promise), some issues with one of the mares, and the IHSA Regional Championships for the Equestrian Team at Stanford.  The girls did AWESOME, as evidenced by the pictures below.

Western team (Zoe didn't even let a busted ankle slow her down!)

Western team, huntseat team, and cheerleaders.

About a week and a half ago, my boyfriend Landon came to visit.  Super exciting for several reasons (other than the obvious missing him aspect that comes with a long-distance relationship):

1.  He hasn't been out to SLO since I had just moved in (hence I have discovered many new places to take him since then).
2.  We haven't seen each other since Christmas.
3.  I got to spend SIX WHOLE DAYS with him (an event that hasn't happened for seven months)!!!

Six whole days equals a lot of adventures.  I'm pretty sure I ran both of us into the ground, but it was super worth it.

Started off the week-o-fun by going for a walk down to Morro Bay (where we saw ELEVEN sea otters in a little family together.  I was so excited I forgot to take any pictures),

then went downtown to check out the Farmer's Market (which is always super yummy and fun), and met up with some friends of mine for dinner.

Friday brought a whole new level of excitement.  Enter "2012 Bucket List" item number number 9: whale watching!  I was BEYOND excited for this adventure.  Literally little kid going to the zoo level of excitement. The day was beautiful and it is the middle of migration season for Pacific Gray Whales, so Landon and I headed down to Morro Bay.

The first 45 minutes were absolutely fantastic!  I had the wind in my hair, the salty sea air all around me, and the bright blue sea stretching out ahead.  Cue sea-sickness.  The full-on, gonna-toss-your-cookies, miserable kind.  So the remaining 2 and a half hours were spent in this position:

And we didn't see any whales.  Epic. Fail.  This was the first time all year the boat came back empty-sighted (if that's a word...?).  However, I am not defeated.  I have simply learned that I am getting old and now require Dramamine on occasions such as this.  I will return to conquer this adventure in the near future.

The rest of the weekend consisted of some good workouts (its so nice to have a gym buddy!!), a trip to San Fransisco to see Landon's friend Christian,

and a really awesome President's Day celebration!  We went on a ride to see some of the Cal Poly land

and ended the day with a wonderful cook-out on Avila Beach and some good quality sand volleyball time, all topped off by a gorgeous sunset!

I was truly bummed to send that boy off on a plane at the end of the week.  But we had a wonderful time and I'm super grateful for every minute we get to spend together!

Food for thought:
Count your blessings
Soring TWHs is actually being persecuted!
Should yoga be an olympic sport?

I haven't quit yet!

I know, I know.  I can hear your comments already: "It's only been like a month and Alaina has already abandoned this whole blogging idea! I knew she wouldn't stick with it!"

Untrue my friends.  Untrue.  I have great intentions to blog, but these past few weeks have been IN.SANE.  Good, but insane.  After Kate came to visit, I spent the weekend at Stanford with the Huntseat Equestrian Team.  These girls are seriously so much fun.  They did great and dominated the over fences division on Saturday and the flat classes on Sunday.

(And yes, I am the one sitting on the horse statue.  Way to be a great role model, eh? P.S. about 30 seconds later, I was politely asked to dismount. Ha.)

We also had our first foal born at the horse unit for the season.  He is by our AQHA stallion "Backdoor Cat" (a Highbrow Cat son) and out of our only paint mare "Just Plain Delta".  At 2 days old, he is already quite the fearless and rambunctious little fella.

Only 20-30 more babies to go, then I can sleep through the nights consistently without getting phone calls from my foaling enterprise students every time the mare breathes funny or lays down awkwardly.  Sleeplessness aside, foals are pretty stinkin' adorable, so I think its worth it :)

And the most exciting of all...... Landon came to visit!!!  Words seriously couldn't describe my excitement when I went to pick him up.  I haven't gotten to see him since Christmas, so some quality time was long overdue.  My boss even let me take some days off work to enjoy my time with him to the fullest, and I was incredibly appreciative.  I pretty much closed my computer (hence the blogging absence) and phone and enjoyed six days of adventures together.

Unfortunately, all that time off work led to quite a stressful past few days catching up on everything.  So instead of elaborating in greater detail at the moment, I am going to get some shut-eye while I can (I think we will have another baby born at the farm tonight), and I'll save my next post for adventure-time stories.

Reunion time and a horseback video blog

Question: what is cold, cloudy for 65% of the year, has no major attractions, and is not located near the ocean?  

Answer:  East Lansing, MI.

What happens when these four factors combine?  No one comes to visit you.  Ok, ok, that is not totally true.  When I was living in East Lansing, I did have a handful of visitors, and we did have some fun times.  

Davys came up to see me first....

....and I got to see Lila and Marc in Frankenmuth one day....

...Adam came up for a ski trip and we got lost in Amish country...

....and my mingos came to visit and we had tons of fun at Cedar Point and elsewhere.

But generally speaking, when people take vacation days, mid-Michigan is generally not their destination.

Enter the perks of living in the central coast of California!  Suddenly you attract a lot more visitors.  I like to think my personality is the reason, rather than the fact that it is 65-85 degrees and sunny year round and is absolutely beautiful.  I have already managed to bring in three east coast visitors in my short 6 months out here thus far!

All joking aside, I was really excited to have Kate come visit this past weekend!  She was in southern California for a conference and was able to come spend the weekend in SLO.  Kate and I grew up working at Camp Kanata and riding horses, but I haven't gotten to hang out with this girl since I drove her fabulous horse, Puff, out to Alabama when she started grad school a few years ago.  So this was long overdue!  

We had a blast eating delicious food, hanging out at Morro Bay (enter the sea otter extravaganza previously mentioned), watching quality films like "A Bug's Life" and "Cowboys and Aliens," and enjoying a couple glasses of excellent beer while reliving the glory days of high school and early college.  But most of all, we enjoyed a nice ride through the hills on a beautiful day.  

I needed to check fence on one of our bigger pastures, and the only way to do that is either on foot or by horseback due to the steep grades some of the hills have.  I mean, "Man From Snowy River" steep.

Therefore, what a great opportunity for a hilarious video blog!!!  Enjoy :)  (if you want to skip to the moments of peril, skip to 3:15 and 6:40).  Tricia, this is "treacherous" riding, haha.  So if you come, I won't make you do this.

Food for Thought:

When was the last time you got this excited about something??

Tomorrow is the one time of the year I pull for the Tarheels.... down with Duke!

How much do you know about the US presidents?  Not as much as this kid.

The "Comfort Zone"

It's been another good week out here on the golden coast!  Work has been pretty crazy, but my good buddy Kate stopped by for a visit and we have a few mares on foal watch, so get ready for future posts about both of those adventures (here is a teaser photograph where I saw a family of SEVEN sea otters playing in Morro Bay during one of our adventures to entice you to read the future posts....you can kind of see them in the background...):

P.S. Just because I now live in a state full of hipsters and movie stars doesn't mean that I no longer make stupid faces on camera.

If you recall, I was sharing with y'all a little bit about my new church family and "Everlasting," the youth group at that church that I am currently beginning to work with.  My search for a church and a Christian community out here in California has been....well...challenging.  Clearly, anytime that you move to a new place, you face challenges with making new friends in general and getting plugged in at a new church, but this time I faced a whole new set of challenges that I hadn't anticipated.

You see, I am technically considered to have a faculty position at Cal Poly, even though I am only a 12-month lecturer.  I am surrounded by students on a daily basis.  This quarter I am teaching three classes, coaching the western, hunt seat, and dressage teams at Cal Poly, and (this is not an exaggeration) approximately 100-200 students come through the horse unit every day.  Case in point, I come into contact with a lot of students on a weekly basis.

Being in a semi-college town, almost every church that I tried out had college ministry programs, but no where that I could get connected with a community where I could separate myself from the college students.  Its not that I don't love undergrads, but it is really important to protect your "student/teacher" relationship, and I was worried that by getting involved in a college focused group (as a member, not in a leadership position) that I would be putting myself in a potentially questionable area where that "student/teacher" relationship might get damaged.

This process left me very frustrated for a few months.  I was really, really thirsty for becoming part of a new Christian community out here, and kept coming up dry.  And then I realized why I was coming up dry:  I was trying to find a church that fit my wants.... Instead I needed to be seeking a church that fit my needs (i.e. one that is rooted in scripture and truth, not hypocrisy and worldly things) , but also provided the best opportunity for me to serve with the gifts and talents that God created me with.....which involves taking a very honest look at yourself.


Have you ever sat down and taken a good, hard look at yourself?  I mean a really good, thorough examination  of your character?  I'm not talking about thinking about the person that you wish you were, or the person that you think you are, or the person that shows up when other people are around. I mean you.  The real deal.  The strengths and flaws that your character naturally has at its best and at its worst.

I think that many people are overly critical of themselves and do this too much, but personally, I'm really bad at it.  I think I'm so scatterbrained that sometimes I legitimately just forget to assess where I am.  So, when I started to meet with Ryan, the youth pastor in charge of "Everlasting," we began talking about what my gifts and talents are, and how I saw myself using them in the church.

Initially, after some thought and prayer on the subject, I came up with what I have kind of always thought to be some of my gifts (ex: being able to converse easily/form relationships easily with people, public speaking, teaching, etc.), and thought that I was set to go, preparing myself to have the same role in this youth group that I had at RiverView.

When I hung out with the kids on a Weds night for the first time, I quickly came to the realization that I was not going to have quite the same role here that I had at RiverView for various reasons, so I was a little taken aback by this.  Not in a negative way at all, but in a way that is requiring me to take another good, hard look at myself and what unique gifts I can bring to this group.  It is making me step out of my talent "comfort zone" that I had established pretty securely over the past two years.

I realized that I had kind of gotten stuck just "going through the motions" at things that I knew God had given me talent for, and had stopped asking for other avenues to use to love people.  And you know what the cool thing about this is?  If you just ASK Him to show you undiscovered gifts, He will!  I am learning so much about myself that I didn't even know was there in only two weeks time.  Its pretty exciting to look at yourself in a different way.

As people, I think we naturally gravitate towards the few things that we know we do well, and we get comfortable there, because it is rewarding and we know that we are skilled and confident in those few areas.  But I want to challenge you to take another look at an area that you may have been nervous to explore before for fear of stepping out of your comfort zone.  You never know what other incredible gifts you have been given or talents that you have that are just waiting for an opportunity to come out and be used!  It would be a shame to lose a great opportunity to grow in love just because you get too comfortable.

Food for Thought:
Long distance relationships are hard.
Monitor your pets weight....please.  Fat critters aren't cute;  they are unhealthy.
"There is no limit to the creativity of God to make a new heart inside of you"- Steven Furtick