Family and Horses

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope this letter finds you all well and thriving, and enjoying your holidays. We thought it would be nice to send a family newsletter this year and let our friends and family know what’s been going on in our world.

Our family has grown, but not in humans- in horses! Tina got an awesome (and a little opinionated) quarter horse in March, named "Darlynn." She is an attention hog and the queen of the barn. If you are late feeding her she will storm out of her stall, stand in her paddock with her tail to you until you are forgiven. She is a character.

Lesli got a different horse this year. We traded her high-class fancy Arabian for a calmer; all purpose horse the whole family can ride. "Hobbes" turned out to be much more than we hoped for-seems he was used on a college equestrian team, and is also a professional gamer and cow horse. So be on the lookout for Lesli to shine in 4-H, roping, barrels, and team penning. She sure is excited. And John and Tina both are glad that Lesli’s boyfriend is a 16 hand, 1200 lb. Towhead . . . at least for now.

Chiquita also joined the barn this fall, as John’s new sweetheart. And she sure is a sweetheart. She was a lesson horse for the last 11 years and is just wonderful with the kids. Her previous owners also bred her right before we got her, so we might be having a little horse next summer. John and Chiquita are the best of friends.

And of course we still have Mr. Mick, Jack’s horse. He’s over 30 now and is still plugging along giving lots of people rides. He’s the horse we know we can put anyone on and not be concerned, so he still gets out quite a bit. He is also the main troublemaker in the barn. He is pretty set in his ways and lets the other horses know if they are irritating him, which is pretty much all the time.

Besides the horses, we keep pretty active. Tina is still home schooling the kids. Jack is in (n)th grade and Lesli is in (n)th this year, and both are doing well. Lesli has developed a passion for writing and Jack still loves everything about airplanes.

Jack is in Chess Club and competing in tournaments now. He’s doing pretty well; he wins some, loses some, but is having a fun time. He is also in Boy Scouts and loving every minute of it. Most recently, Jack and Mr. Mick tried their skills in Team Penning (cutting cows from a herd and penning them up separately in under 90 seconds). It’s hard to tell who is having the most fun; apparently Mr. Mick has worked cows before. And last, Jack plays paintball every chance he gets. It’s quite the sport here.

Lesli is in Speech & Debate and although it is challenging for her, she has come to love it. She is also involved with Girl Scouts and Horse 4-H, and should have a pretty good year this time around in 4-H with Hobbes helping her. And finally, both kids are in the 4-H Archery Club. Lesli was elected president of it, so those speech classes have paid off.

John is still building the most beautiful houses around. He has quite the reputation for quality workmanship and reliability. He has five employees, most whom have worked together for 5 to 10 years now. They have a lot of fun on the job, and John is always full of stories about the pranks they pull on each other when he comes home.

John is still finishing our house in his "spare" time. It’s coming along beautifully, but will probably always be a work in progress. It gives us something to do, and its fun to be able to dream and do what we want with it.

Tina is busy just being wife, mom, chef, teacher, chauffeur, stable hand and weekend cowgirl, and wouldn’t trade it for a million dollars. She also wouldn’t give a dime for anything more, it’s just right as it is.

Well, that’s about it! Life is very, very good.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Love, John, Tina, Lesli and Jack