Three days of costumes, horses, and being lost

Now may I just say that my mare is practically fearless ( Only exception be pigs ) and a complete and total champion. If I had know what I was doing, and hadn't gotten lost I think we may have actually gotten scored for once, and not disqualified in a competition that is partially serious. It was however even more awesome because of the last minuet costume we put together last night. A dollar red table cloth, a pre-owned costume found in a closet, some paint, a dollar shield, and some ribbon and we were set to create the best, last minuet costume EVER. Seriously, I even threw in some pictures just for amusement purposes.  And may I also say that I probably wouldn't trust any horse to be that good with a table cloth wrapping around their legs and belly, and flapping in the wind if it wasn't Chassy, like I said, a deer could naw on her face and she wouldn't really care. Anyhow, that's all for the quick moment, I may go into more detail later about the Extreme Horseman's Challenge, but it's late, and I am exhausted. Night all, or shall we put it... Knight all?

The Book Thief

I'll tell you right now. I'm a reader, and a picky one, but also one who get's sucked in and lives in the world presented, at least for a little while. Most books do that to me, but some I forget the title of, or don't remember ever reading until I pick it up again. The Book Thief however promises to be anything but that. I don't re-read unless a book truly catches my attention, and this one, I am expecting to pick up time and time again.

This story is told from a unique perspective, the perspective of death himself, but not the one you're thinking of. This death is afraid of humans, and try's to distract himself from his job. Death then tells you a story, a story of a girl he has seen a total of four times, three of them to collect the souls of her friends and family, the fourth to collect her herself. The book thief, as he calls her, is a ten year old girl who is being taken, by her mother, to live with foster parents in Nazi, Germany. The train there is where it all starts.

Death tells us at the begining of the story that the story he is telling "...Is about, among other things,
*A girl
*Some words
*An accordianist
*Some fanatical Germans
*A Jewish fist fighter
*And quite a lot of thievery... "


I must say this book amazed me, the way things were given away before they happened, but not ruined, the structure, the plot, and the characters. Just a note, you will cry, but please, do not let that stop you from reading. It's well worth the tears.

I hate Writting Titles

I was told I should post more on this here blog, and I agree with the person who told me too. So here goes another attempt to try and write regularly.

Anyhow, with school coming up I'm not sure exactly weather I'm excited, or well, just plain disapointed. With school comes hours away from my sport, plus the extra hours of boring homework., studying, and well, projects. It's not that I really dislike school all that much, I actually used to love it, but now I just get bored. In math I sit in the back corner, do my homework, and read for the left over half hour in class. Don't get me wrong, the reading time is excellent, it's just, well nothing new. School also means I have to get more organized again, make sure I have things finished and such before I go digging and searching for hours for that one peice of homework that seemed to mysteriously disapear in the time it took me to finish a page of Science, I mean, really? Am I that horrible with Organization...

Other than school though I just got back from my trip to tahoe yesterday, and while I'll miss it, well it's good to be home. I do love seeing all my family and everything, and the veiw was awsome, but nothing compares with mountains and the smell of hay and horse. As well as home.

The last thing I wish to discus in this sporadic post is my show which is coming up. The Pumpkin has a limited amount of competitors, and although I'm only competing in Grasshopper { Cross-bars really}I'm still quite nervous. Time was acting up today, and well, I suck at dressage, as my last scores showed, as well as my double disqualification. But that's my goal this time... Don't freeze up and don't get disqualified, if I can do that I'll be riding Beginner Novice in the Pegasus show in October I think... 

Oh, and one more thing.. I was told I should start letting people read my writing again... What do you say?

Writing Prompts

So I've decided that I'm going to choose a writing prompt from THIS WEBSITE every day and write about it. So that I can work on my writing and hopefully get better at it... So here goes the first one-

Today's Promt Location

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     I ran back and fourth, touching the bars lightly and then hitting and pulling at them. Strange creatures sat outside watching me, their four legs twitching every once in a while and their goopy skin dripping. Unsure of how I had gotten here I looked all around and saw other cages like my own set up beneath the dark green sky. Other creatures I had never seen before also sat in these, but some where familiar. Every now and then I would see an enclosure with an animal I recognized. One held a zebra, another a normal house hold dog, a malamute I think. The air was sticky and warm too, and simple bowl shaped objects filled with  a slimy substance sat to one side of the cage, images of buildings were painted on the wall behind me. It reminded me much of the zoo I had gone to as a kid. Painted surroundings meant to resemble the native area, fake trees and simple games for the animals to play. Most of the other cages held two or more of the same species and the creatures outside seemed mildly interested in watching them. That's when I realized it really was true, I was stuck in an alien zoo.

Pictures of Chassy

My pretty girl has been doing great.

The amazing ride!

Me on Chassy

     So today after much work, I finaly got to ride my sweet mare. After Meisja made sure there would be no craziness going on. I will just say that Chassy has the SMOOTHEST canter Ever. Anyway, I can't wair to work her some more, Love you guys!

Improvement

Zips Classy Chassy, or Chass as I like to call her did much better today in the round pen. She only kicked once or twice, and the bucking, rearing, and striking was non-existent. I got to work with her a little bit too, that is after Jayme ran her around a few times. She really is well, semi-sweet, although rebellious. I still love her. Later however, she got something she thoroughly needed. We put Lucky in the pen with her and they had a go at it before happily eating their hay on opposite sides of the pen. Lucky was definitely in charge though, as he chased her around a few times himself.

On the other hand, Odie caught a rat when we got home and it was huge. I almost touched it again, but narrowly missed it when I saw the tail. I still remember the time I actually touched one he had killed, never again.

Scary, Fun, and Exhausting Day

So for those who read about my excitement to get Chass, well lets just say it was a scary thing. Me, Grandpa, Jayme, and Willow all made it up to Heber with the trailer in tow and what do we find? Chassy was being a scary Brat. When Jayme first tried to get her in the trailer she reared, striked, bucked, and kicked. Jayme finally did some lounge work with her and calmed her down. By this point of time the trailer was full of hay and we were pretty ready to go. After a long while of Chassy contemplating and the rest of us strategically coaxing and edging her in she leaped up and to the hay. Perfectly fine and content.
     On the way back she did well and there was no kicking or screeching so I assume she didn't mind the ride. Ayway, when we did get back we took her straight to the round pen where I began working her again. I was chasing her for about an hour before we got her to turn towards and not away from me. After that we fed the other horses and made our way home.
    In our time up there I did learn a few more things about Chass, like the fact that she was foaled on April 2nd of 2003 and her full, registered name is Zip Classy Chassey. [I'm not sure I spelled it right, I can check later though!]

Graceful Strength

My Cousin Lindsey and Chassy

     Horses are beautiful creatures and I have always loved them. At one point in time I had a horse, Girty. A great quarter who was as sweet as could be. Still, she wasn't trained, and when I had her there was no way I would be able to accomplish such a task. Still, in November of this year, during my Grandmothers birthday party with our family, I got a horse. Chassy. Unlike Girty, Chassy has been trained before by my cousin Lindsey. Yet when Lindsey began her work as a missionary she couldn't take Chassy along with her. At that point of time Lindsey left the chestnut at my Aunt and Uncles house since they had two other horses at the time.
     How I gained Chassy is another story all together, but a simple one. My Aunt and Uncle are selling their house, and the horse property with it. Meaning that Chassy would no longer have a place to stay. As I am truly in love with horses they gave her two me, and yet I haven't yet made the trip to get her. Many things have prevented us from bringing her down sooner, like the ability to find a place in schedules that would work for multiple people, including my Uncle, my Grandfather, my Trainer, and I always hoped myself. Now finally we have found a place that will work, and nothing has yet hindered out ability to make it. So, Tomorrow we will make the trip up to Heber to get Chass and bring her down. Lets hope she'll be at least semi-compliant when it comes to getting in the trailer.
  
     Due to the long delay and my raising excitement, me and my friend have come up with many ideas on things we want to train her, and ways to refresh her training. One thing I hope to start is clicker training. Using this technique I hope to train her to lower her head on command and simple things like that, along with some well needed manners.

    Thanks everyone for the best Christmas present ever, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Oh wow, Potter Ate Fish on Halloween.

 No Potter did not eat fish on halloween, although I would have been very happy to see that.... Anyway, this post will be about most of those thing like,
- Harry Potter
-Fish
-And Halloween...
But just to specify once more..... "HARRY POTTER DID NOT EAT FISH ON HALLOWEEN!"



I just finished re-reading the third Harry Potter, and thouroughly enjoyed it the second time. I even thought I'd post a quote (More like a paragraph...) That made me laugh so here it goes! It's the last paragraph of the book and it's right after Harry get's off the train with Sirius's letter

"What's that?" he snarled, staring at the envelope Harry was still clutching in his hand. "If it's another form for me to sign, you've got another-"
"It's not," said Harry cheerfully. "It's a letter form my godfather."
"Godfather?" sputtered Uncle Vernon. "You haven't got a godfather!"
"Yes, I have," said Harry brightly. "He was my mum and dad's best friend. He's a convicted murderer. but he's broken out of wizard prison and he's on the run. He likes to keep in touch with me, though... keep up with my news... check if I'm happy...."
And, grinning broadly at the look of horror on Uncle Vernon's face, Harry set off toward the station exit, Hedwig rattling along in front of him, for what looked like a much better summer than the last.


I have to say it was a perfect ending to the best Harry potter book of them all. Still now we must move onto an update of my amazing new hobby,
Fish.

So, my birthday has passed and as I hoped, a new tank and heater with a filter came with it. The tank is ten gallons and is quite nice. Still I haven't told you of what has happened since.
Splatter died. Sad, I know and am still not sure why, but he died and I was very sad. Luckily before his death I bought two pretty females. One was White and we named her Lady Liberty. The second, named Sherbert, is orange and white, also known as a cremcicle molly. Anyway when I brought them home they were doing well and little did I know that Liberty would have babies the day after, little white fry where swimming around the tank when I came home one day. I fished them out and put them in the other tank on their own, hoping to keep some alive. As far as I'm concerned I have succeeded, with a stats of 6/10, which is, as far as I can tell from various research, very good.

When I went on vacation to Arizona I came back to a dead fish, Lady Liberty had died the day before. Sadly I flushed her down the toilet but I still have her babies. For a while it was only sherbert and the babies before I went up to the pet-store and bought some ghost shrimp. The little buggers are awsome, but I can't explain that to you. Still My friend convinced me to go back today and we got a few more shrimp and two more fish. I can't tell you their name's as I haven't come up with any good ones yet.

And last but not least. The only thing I wish to say about halloween is that I was the duck-taped tin-man, after that, well Goodnight.

My New Hobby

Fish, my new hobby is keeping fish and I have been working on actually keeping them alive. It started when my brother won a small goldfish at the fair. He got so excited and was all for taking care of it and everything. He even bought his little fish a friend. Soon the fish Noah won at the fair died and Noah was all for getting another. After that I realized that keeping fish could maybe be a fun hobby, and I decided I would start off with a small tank and I brought home two goldfish. I named them Koda and Harley. They were small, and orange and white. Noah decided to put his fish in the tank I bought in exchange for food and other fishy supplies. Harley lived about a week after that before I woke up one morning to find her floating at the top of the tank dead. At that point I thought it was because Noah had not cleaned the tank earlier in the week like I had asked. I am still unsure however. Even so I continued with my fish, wondering what had killed the one. A few days later Noahs replacement fish died despite my attempts I think he suffocated to death and so I bought an airrator for the tank. With only two fish left I went up to the store with my friend and bought a Marbled, Lyre molly. He is stunning and I have named him splatter, I will post a picture of him fairly soon, that is if he doesn't die first despite my attempts. With him I also bought a live plant called Anacharis. It is supposed to help keep the tank oxygenated while taking in carbon dioxide and fish poop. Lets hope it works. Still I came home from school today with Koda floating at the top. The sad thing was he was absolutely fine when I left. Maybe Noahs fish is a bully... I have seen him chasing the others around before.

         Now that I have had the fish for a while I hope to get a bigger, more acceptable tank for them and start raising mollies. *Cough, Cough, My birthdays coming up, hint, hint.* With a bigger tank will come the need of a heater for the mollies and a small filtration system, and hopefully another Marbled Lyre.

A Creative Idea

I found this great site a while back called Colour Lovers, where you can design patterns and what not. You can also make material out of your designs so I decided to play around with it. Well, now I have a great Idea for birthday, Christmas, and moneymaking. I already made a design that I want to turn into a pillow for Landon, just as I thought it might be a cool idea... Watch out, you never know what could be coming! Now I just have to find a pattern and then figure out how much I need!

Okay, I get the point..

Okay, I get it, I'm a slacker. I haven't posted on here since you know, like April, and a lot has happened since then. Maybe I need like a blogging schedule, I don't know.
         Anyway first of all in my time absent from this amazing spot that I use to vent, I AM NOW A BLACK BELT. I know, I stink, I just had to wait two months too write this,  Like I said, SLACKER .  Still I am glad that me and my Grandma pushed through and earned it, with the help of our instructors of coarse, and I must say I was quite exhausted after the test, tiered enough to go to bed without taking anything off, including my dear tennis shoes.
          The next thing I am so eager to tell you about would be my amazing new project that goes by the name of, The Blond Menace. Not only do I ride him whenever I get my butt down to the stables, but I also got to ride him in a show this Saturday. I wasn't on him for ten seconds before he began bucking, and I ended up on his neck, holding on for dear life until he stopped. After I got myself back in the saddle he proceeded with the bucking until I had to finally dismount and lunge him before my dressage test. He only bucked once or twice after that, but it is not the end of the story. During my Cross-country part of the event, My dear Menace decided it would be fun to try running, and he actually enjoyed bolting off after every jump. Which may I inform you is a ginormous accomplishment, as my crop was much less than needed during the venture. Oh my dear Lucky. He did finally decide to calm down though for the last event, show jumping, and we got a clear round. I can't tell you where I placed or anything because both me and the one person I was competing with in my division both had enough refusals to be disqualified. Her and I agreed that we both had tied for first.GO Horses!
         I now have a new blog I will be posting my stories on, it is located: Here. My friend and I will also be posting our book reviews and suggestions on the same blog. I will continue with this one also, so don't worry.
         Anyway, I will leave you guys with that for the moment. Have fun, keep reading, and just be you.

- G. Alyssa

~Giant Update~

As you all know, I didn't update at all until yesterday. So I decided to just make one GIANT update.

1. I am currently training for my black-belt with my Grandma. If we get pass our cut this Saturday we will continue training until June when we will test for our black-belts.

2. In school we're in the fourth quarters and I have awesome classes, and I have some.... not so great classes, like Utah Studies for example.

3. Spring break was and is this week. So far I had Black-belt class Saturday morning and then me and my Bestie, Haylee, went up to Heber to spend some time with Aunt. G and Chasy. Chasy was a big brat and I got reared at, almost bitten a few times, and well, we can't forget stepped on now can we?

4. AZ peeps. I've already been in the pool, felt the Sun, and had Ice-cream. What could get any better? Oh yeah, and for you guys enjoying the wonderful rain In UT well, just know that we're here and having a great time in the SUN!

Easter Egg's

Easter, such a great time of year, right? Yep, or at least I think so. You get to paint eggs and celebrate the resurection Plus there's.... CANDY. But the bad thing about painting Easter Eggs is that they go bad, and even if you made the coolest egg ever you're not aloud to keep it because of coarse it's rotten. Today however, whilst all of Noah's friends, and Noah himself were painting the hard boiled kind of Easter Egg, I was making Everlasting Eggless Easter Eggs. Sounds cool right? Well it starts out with getting all the yoke and whites out of the egg. To do this you have to poke a hole in the top and a hole in the bottom of the egg after you shake it up. Then you blow into one of the holes and the insides drain out through the bottom. Often looking like snot. And well once that's done you wash them out and dry them and then paint them. And guess what... You get Everlasting Eggless Easter Eggs!