My Birthday in the Sticks

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!

I don't know why I am so excited, I am slowly descending into the dark abyss that is old age... Not really. I suppose I should be more sensitive. I know there are plenty of people who read this who are older than me (I'm sorry! You know who you are). I suppose I am only 28, but I feel like that is really not young. I'm almost 30. Which is the age my younger self kind of figured I'd have all my stuff together, my life in order, my ducks in a row. That makes me sound like I am just floating through my life... no direction. Not entirely true. There are a lot of goals I have reached these last couple years that I had for myself in my early 20's. I'm settled down now with not 1 but 2 wonderful partners. And bi proxy, "I" have a large property, great house, more than enough dogs and horses, and a pretty wonderful life for my daughter. Maybe it's the fact that I can check all these goals off my list now but I didn't necessary earn them for myself, that makes me feel... I don't know... unsatisfied? That's not quite right. Maybe unaccomplished? That's not quite right either. Am I going through a mid-mid-life crises?! I'm am sure it is just the fact that it's my day of birth that I am feeling this way. Most every other day of the year, I am pretty damn proud of myself! I have done/accomplished some pretty dang wonderful things since my last birthday! One of those things being this blog, which has gotten some pretty high calibre recognition lately AND I am less than 100 views away from 5000 views!

Sigh. Alright I feel better now :D

This morning started out pretty great! The kids had made me a super delicious breakfast before I even got out of bed. In fact, I was sent back to bed because it wasn't ready yet.  They even had my favorite coffee mug and all my coffee fixings laid out for me in my spot at the table. It was like half-sleepy heaven. 

Then when I decided I should maybe get some "work" done, because what else am I going to do on my birthday in the sticks? I sat down at my desk to this lovely image:

Originally, there were minieggs in this picture too.... But I couldn't get my camera out quick enough and they disappeared....

This was about the time I realized I wasn't going to get any work done this day. 

Fast forward to my Birthday Wish! I have been finding it so shameful and sad that I have been here for going on 15 months and I have only gone riding a handful of times. A lot of that is my fault. Riding horses is not like riding a bike ladies and gentleman! A lot of that has to do with the quality of the equine I was riding and the equine we have here on the ranch... They may as well be different species. So on those few occasions when I did get a chance to ride, I was so rusty that I more or less scared myself. Which was both disappointing and embarrassing... 

Anyways! My birthday wish was to finally bring in our oldest draft mare (of which we have 3) and give her a go. We figured she would be a good get-reacquainted-with-the-whole-idea horse and she really was. I really enjoyed her! Considering she is a draft mare who has only ever been harnessed and this was maybe the 3rd time she had actually being saddled and ridden, she was really pleasant! It took some figuring each other out, but I felt like I kind of, sort of started to get her, and she get me. What I liked was that she may have been unsure of what we were asking of her, but she was really trying to figure it out! I don't know, maybe it was her size, but she just seemed really sweet. I think her and I could really get along. Neither of us really knows what we are doing, though we have a rough idea, so we could just work together to figure each other out. 

I think my favorite quality about her is that even if she decides to take off on me, she isn't going to go very fast... or very far. 

At the end, even Isabella got a chance. She was very pleased with herself. Look how big she is! 

I am not typically a food-photo-taker, but this burger had it coming!

For my birthday dinner, I chose BBQ burgers and god were they good! I highly recommend adding avocado to your next burger. It's amazing! Following dinner, was salted caramel chocolate pie! Also amazing, but so rich. Salty chocolate is one of the best food combinations nature have ever gifted us with. 

Then arguably the best part of the day, Presents!! Partner #2 had taken each of the kids seperately to get me a little gift, which was really really sweet. I ended up with a lot of chocolate, a couple of tattoo magazines, a notebook, Starbucks salted caramel hot chocolate (which I may spike with my salted caramel liquor I got for Christmas!) and lip smackers. From Partner #2, I got a gift certificate for a massage, a luxury I have desperately been missing since moving to the forest. I am very very excited about that! And from Partner #1, I got a two-part gift. Part 1 was new wine glasses and a decanter. Part 2 was a joint gift for Partner #2 and I, as her birthday is in a couple weeks as well. He made us a whole batch of wine at the U-brew in town! 35-freaking-bottles! That's 17 for each of us, and 1 for him... as a thank you. Problem is, we have to bring in our own bottles for this, and we don't have nearly enough. Which means in the next couple weeks we need to, somehow, someway, empty roughly 35 bottles of wine and/or craft beer. I think that's a little much, even for us. Maybe we should throw a party? 

It was a pretty wonderful birthday overall. I got to relax, got to go riding, got to enjoy good food and chocolate, and basically bask in the birthday girl pampering. It is pretty wonderful being able to celebrate surrounded by people who care for you. Birthdays can be kind of a let down sometimes when your family doesn't live close, especially when you are getting older lol.