I had all but completely lost track of the blog. But because our lives are heading in a completely different direction now than they were a year ago, and because we are now in the midst of building a house, I thought the blog would be a good place for updates for anyone who might be interested in the progress.

We have already made quite a bit of progress. Unfortunately, getting our building permits set us back a whopping 40 days. The development department down at City Hall is difficult to deal with....to say the least. We spent those 40 days begging people to get our house plans off their desk and pass them along to the next person, and waiting for people to get back from vacation. In the meantime, we were "camping" out at the KAO.

We were also getting our well drilled, and getting power put out at the build site so we could move the camper out there. We had already built a corral for the horses before we were living out there. Our neighbors got a kick out of that. One neighbor stopped to talk to Daivd while he was out on his walk to ask if the horses would be okay out there at night in the dark. I'm not sure what he thought the alternative would be. We've never put night lights in the barn for them.

Everything has gone smoothly so far.....drilling the well, installing the septic tank, and pouring the foundation. David and I have spent every one of the last 7 weekends building pipe fence for the arena and the corral.

So...today....we have a concrete slab. Tomorrow.....the walls go up and things will look a lot different. More pictures to come.

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Now for a Seinfeld quote....

I chose this one because living in a camper, I am seriously missing my washer and dryer.

"Don't interrupt the cycle. The machine is working. It knows what it's doing. Just let it finish."

"You're going to overdry it/"

"You can't overdry."

"Why not?"

The same reason you can't overwet."

- Jerry and George, in "Good News, Bad News"

Cheep, Cheep, Cheep....

Say HELLO to the newest members of our household. Once these little girls (we hope they are all girls) get big enough, however, they will go out to the barn to keep Jake and Lucky company. Hopefully we will be getting a few more in a couple weeks and we can have a decent-sized flock of chickens. Aren't they cute?

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Jerry heads over to Kramer's apartment after being woken up by crowing....

Jerry: Is that your chicken making all that noise?
Kramer: Jerry loves the morning.
Jerry: Who?
Kramer: Little Jerry Seinfeld. I named my chicken after you.
Jerry: Thanks. That's very sweet. But that is not a chicken.
Kramer: Of course it is. I picked it out myself.
Jerry: Well you picked out a rooster.
Kramer: Well that would explain Little Jerry's poor egg production.

One more semester to go!

After some techinical difficulties and other delays, we FINALLY got pictures back from the photographer from the Extreme Cowboy Race Finals.

But first.....it's been so long since I've updates, that I never posted David's pictures from his trip to McAllen. He made the trek all the way across the huge state of Texas to go pig hunting with our friend, Jay. The result.....now we have 35 pounds of sausage in our freezer. What the heck am I going to do with 35 pounds of sausage? I am, however, pretty excited about all the ribs, porks roast, hams, and pork chops that he also brought home.

So back in November, Lucky and I traveled to Topeka for the Extreme Cowboy Race World Finals. We went with another finalist I met at the finals in Ruidoso so that we would both have travel-mates. Lucky and I competed in the first two rounds, after which they took the top 10 riders to the final round. We managed to qualify for the final round, but didn't place high enough to win a buckle. I was just proud of the little guy for doing so well considering he's only 2.

However, the ride home was really where all the excitement happened. We finished up at 6 pm on Sunday, and decided to try to make it home since there was a snow storm rolling in. We began our 10 hour trek home....which quickly turned into a 12 hour trip when at about 2 am, we hit a HERD of cows that stretched all the way across the road. The horses were in shock, the truck was dented, and we left at least 5 bovine fatalities and numerous injuries....what a nightmare. But we finally arrived home safe and sound.

Some picures from the show:

Lucky grabbed a bite to eat during the race

Hi Ho Silver!

Down the home stretch

Crossing the finish line

We're BA-ack!

David, Lucky and I are all back from Ruidoso Downs, the site of the Southwest Regional Finals of the Extreme Cowboy Race! Not only did we run through three different Extreme Cowboy Race courses, Little Lucky got to pretend he was a big race horse while we took a lap around the race track.

Overall, I would say the race went very well, considering Lucky is still only 2. We placed second and qualified for the World Championship Extreme Cowboy Race in Topeka Kansas!!

WE'RE GOING TO TOPEKA!

Here are some pictures from the Race in Ruidoso...

Getting ready for our first run (and Lucky's best side)

Craig Cameron rode my horse!!

Concentrating on ride # 2 (It was a little chilly on Saturday morning!)

A pretty good ground tie, Lucky

Throw it in reverse for the back-through

Draggin' the tire

Lucky did so good...I'm proud of the little guy! And....Lucky and I couldn't have done it without help from David, Mom and Dad....and most of all, thanks to Rodney for all his help!

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It's all about Lucky

Life seems to be getting busier and busier. When is it all going to slow down? I'm told it never does. Anyway we have been staying busy with school, work, David has been working on his motorcycle, and I have been trying to get Lucky ready for the Extreme Cowboy Race (less than 2 weeks away).

Lucky and I have been having all sorts of fun getting ready for the race, we even went swimming in a pond yesterday out on a ranch near Slaton. What an adventure! I can't wait to see how we stack up to the competition.

I also got to take Lucky to his very first horse show on Saturday at the Texas Tech Equestrian Center. He did great! I'm hoping the Extreme Cowboy Race goes just as well, or even better!

After the horse show, David and I swung by the South Plains fair to make sure we didn't pass up an opportunity to eat fair food. Unfortunately, this ended in tragedy when David opened up the foil containing his turkey leg, and every piece of turkey fell right off the bone onto the ground. So much for fair food.

The good news is that my quilt won Best of Show! I have to thank my Aunt Jeane for so graciously letting me camp out in her basement the week before school started so that I could use her long arm quilting machine. Because of her machine, I was able to get this monster of a quilt (110 in. x 110 in.) all quilted in 11 hours. This otherwise might very well have taken me 5 years!

As we are quickly approaching the point where we at least have to decide which state bar I am taking, the search for our destination city has been a little more urgent. David told me that it was my turn for a City of the Month....my suggestion is Windsor, Colorado. Situated between the mountains and the plains, a small town, but close to Fort Collins and Denver, and located in a significant agricultural region....sounds perfect to me.

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And finally, in lieu of a Seinfeld quote:

A whole season of Lost later, I am finally getting back to our blog. I guess life has taken a few minor, but unexpected turns in the last couple of months, and I haven't gotten around to posting. The spring semester got busy because I was wrapped up in my International Water Law paper, and I can now say that after spending hours and hours on it, I think I have finally found my niche in the legal word--water law dealing with freshwater resource and irrigation. David, on the other hand, has been busy at work, entertaining dozens of guests to the warehouse from San Antonio, Dallas, etc.

And then .... after spending months agonizing over how I was going to spend my summer, just days before finals ended, I tracked down an amazing job opportunity. Unfortunately, it's in Albuquerque, meaning I had to pack up for the summer (including Jake and Lucky, of course), and leave for New Mexico. So David and I will have a long distance marriage for 3 months, and in David's words: "my life is a country song...my wife took my truck and the horses...she left me the dogs." I might have even brought the dogs with me too, but I thought bringing the canine count to 6 at my parents' house (7 when Melissa comes and brings Emily for the weekend) might be a little too much...and David needs some company anyway.

David and I did get to spend some time camping this Spring, which was quite an ordeal with 3 dogs and 2 horses, but we had a lot of fun. We made the trek out to Caprock Canyon the day after the only day it snowed in West Texas. The snow was enough to keep everyone else away, but not us, so we hunkered down under about 6 layers of blankets, and enjoyed a very quite and peaceful camping trip, including a trail ride.

"THE RIG"

Mmm, mmm... bean soup helped keep us warm

The Boys

This is the closest we got to getting everyone in one picture

Lucky is a biologist at heart and makes sure he gets samples of all the vegetation to conduct his own research

Since I am trying to catch up on my blogging tonight, I will also include our movie reviews...I honestly think we have only gone to the theater once this whole semester...maybe there were more, but the only one I can recall is Angels and Demons. After we both really enjoyed the book, I think our review can be summed up by saying that I don't think Ron Howard actually read the book himself. It was a little disappointing.

I even have a City of the Month for June: Edgewood New Mexico...

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"So I started to walk into the water. I won't lie to you boys, I was terrified. But I pressed on, and as I made my way past the breakers a strange calm came over me. I don't know if it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things, but I tell you Jerry, at that moment I was a marine biologist."
- George, in "The Marine Biologist"

LOST IS BACK ON!!!!

Once again, I have fallen behind...
I have neglected our blog when I could have been filling it with pictures of our fabulous trip to Disneyland, our Christmas tree, Jake, Lucky, and the rest of the Torres Zoo. Yes, I feel like I am living in a zoo. Within three months, we went from 2 animals to 5. The fifth addition is a cute little puppy that happened to find us a few days before Christmas. While we were able to track down his owner, apparently, she is not interested in getting her dog back. Anyway, Rusty is his name and he is an out-of-control puppy. He needs a little work on a biting problem that I refer to as "shark attack," but he's getting better every day. It's probably a good thing I have a more managable school schedule this semester.




With a little more time on my hands, maybe it's time to work on a couple of New Year's resolutions:
Get Jake in the trailer without any complaints
Continue working with Lucky WITHOUT getting bucked off again (thanks, Lucky, for all the bruises that I was able to fully enjoy on Christmas Day)
I haven't actually asked David what his New Year's resolutions are, but I have a feeling that they might have something to do with his newly acquired motorized vehicles. A few weeks ago, our good friend Matt came over in the morning and he and David drove off in David's truck. I had a general idea of what was going on, and after they had left I was talking to mom on the phone. I informed her that "Mr. Haney had gone to work for the day" (she has been referring to David as "Mr. Haney from Green Acres" for as long as we have been married...haven't seen the show? Here is David's namesake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Haney Apparently, Matt and David tracked down some guy that was looking to give away two motorcycles. Between the two bikes, I think there might be enough parts to make one complete, functioning motorcycle.
So...David's resolutions that I have come up with:
Work on bikes without creating a giant pile of tools in the middle of the garage
Avoid burning down the garage in the process, or cutting off any limbs or digits. (So far, so good on both of those).
At any rate, David and I enjoyed some REAL winter weather here in Lubbock earlier this week, Lucky hasn't even acted like he wants to buck me off, and everyone is doing fine.







...A few pictures from the Disneyland trip...

As you can see, it is nearly impossible to get a good picture of Rusty because he wants to be right in the middle of everything. Maybe eventually I will be able to get a good shot...

Naptime at the Torres house...

This is an older picture of Lucky. I think this was from the first time we tightened up the cinch.

Here's David..."working" on his bike...

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Jerry: I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Watley. I have a suspicion that he has converted to Judaism purely for the jokes.
Priest: And this offends you as a Jewish person?
Jerry: No, it offends me as a comedian.