Life Since Graduation=Horses

Yikes!  It's been over a month since my last post.  I really didn't think I'd let that much time get away from me until I sat down this evening.  Whoops.

Well I survived the wild last two weeks of school, aced my finals, and finally turned my tassel! 

Then...I was thrown into life at home, which turns out to be more on the road in the living quarter horse trailer than under our stick built roof.  I have not been home for a full weekend yet.  I usually head out with some combination of horses, family members, and truck and trailer on Friday and get back Sunday.  Some weekends on the road at horse and rodeo events are longer and some are shorter.  This routine keeps me 100% tired all of the time.  While home, I'm busy riding my own horse and cleaning and doing yard work while my parents work.  The other bits of time at home are spent prepping for the coming weekend on the road.  I also try to find some time to research what I want to be when I grow up, but that often gets side lined.  Once the weather cooperates, hay making will be added into this regimen.  Then...time spent sleeping at night will be shortened, which will result in some crankiness between family members.  Don't get me wrong...this life we live is fun with great memories resulting, but other results are being tired and short tempered.

Here are some images I've captured from my weekends on the road and at rodeos. 

2013 Colorama Rodeo Queen Erin Wieldraayer making her run-in in Grand Coulee.

Steer wrestling.

My favorite shot from my weekend in Grand Coulee at Erin's rodeo.

 

This is the man from the above picture.  He successfully wrested his steer.

Bronc rider in Coulee City.

Boy, doesn't his face just say "I'm enjoying this ride"?

Tie-down roping.

 

The clown at Coulee City and his pony.  This act was cute.

My dad and I were in love with this buckskin.  Notice his tongue is sticking out.

Bull and bull fighter face off.

 

My Cap Dazzles

The moment us girls walked out with our caps and gowns back in March we were planning a cap decorating party.  It took us a couple weeks to set a date because of everyone's crazy schedules with exams and papers.  April 11 worked out for the majority, and we all got together at Bri's and Knz's and decorated!  Some awesome caps turned out...some in the mater of a few minutes, and a couple over the course of a few days with a solid 4 hours of work at the party.

 

Mack gets the title of "quickest start to finish cap decorating award."  This girl was NOT going to decorate her cap.  Then a couple girls came back in the house from spraying glitter on theirs, and Mack was hooked on decorating.  She walked home, got her cap, came back, and with the help of others had her Plant Science cap decorated in like 20 minutes flat.

I on the other hand, get the award for taking the longest to decorate.  Everyone kept saying they were amazed at my patients.  After all, I laid over two thirds of my 1,440 red jewels.  There were a few silver jewels, too.  I say thanks to my friends for being soooo patient with me for taking forever and making everyone wait until I was done to take pictures.  It sure is a good thing I started the overall cap decorating process Sunday afternoon!

Sunday I began by seeing how many jewels fit on to one inch, which is 2 rows of 8 for future reference.  I did this to be sure 1,440 red jewels would be enough to fill in all of the white on the WSU logo.

 

All of this stuff in some way or another made it on to my cap or was used to hold other stuff on.  Monday night I cut the WSU logo out and had the realization I needed to paint the white of the logo red to match the jewels better.  Thus, I began a Facebook search for red puffy paint.

 

The "goal" layout.

 

 

Beth came to the rescue with the paint.  I picked it up by 10 a.m. Tuesday morning and had it painted before bed that night.  Wednesday night I mod podged the logo to the top of my cap after taking some senior pictures (P.S. check them out on Facebook!)

 

 

On Thursday with the girlies, I began putting stones down.  This is the laying of the FINAL red stone.  I may be wrong, but this was around 3-3 1/2 hours of work.

 

 

Next, I put my name and 2013 on.  Notice my handy skewer and tweezers!  LOL  My technique and ideas for others caps had Bri calling me the "Chuck Norris of crafts."  LOL

 

 

The final product!  Whoop whoop!  A touch of glitter spray paint finished this off just perfectly!

 

Caps and cute bums!

 

 

Trying on our serious faces and rockin' our decorated caps!

 

Thanks for all the fun, food, and wine ladies!

 

Here is the link to the No Bakes I made.  Thanks for eating those up! 

 

GO COUGS! <3

The Wrong One Gone

The following post is written with thoughts, tears, and prayers going out to Morgan's family and friends.  If anyone, especially family members, feels that I need to change or take this post down, please let me know because I do not want anyone upset by it.  It is meant to honor Morgan. 

Yesterday a family friend, Morgan, of my mom, aunts, and uncles was killed by a drunk driver.  Of the nine Tull kids, she was closest with the middle few.  However, our whole family is shaken by this news. 

After all, she was everything her friend and brother say of her in this Seattle Times article, which you should read to really know who Morgan was.  While reading it, you will realize why the wrong person is gone as well.  However, like a friend and I discussed yesterday morning at the gym...God has a plan, and it may be hard to see.

When you read the article, you'll read that she normally rode the bus to work but that yesterday she drove her car because she was going to go see an old friend at a hospice house in Bellingham.  That old friend of hers is my uncle.  She was also doing exactly what she said she'd do.  The previous Thursday she had visited my uncle and said she'd be back.  She was on her way.

Her death comes one week after her sending a sweet e-mail to my family saying her plan was to visit and hangout with my uncle most Thursdays as her schedule allowed.  When I read this e-mail, I had to call my mom and be reminded of who Morgan was.  My mom said she was a good friend of my uncle's and that they had been friends all through school, all through college, and to now.  She had even made it a point to visit my uncle when he was first being diagnosed with cancer.  I shared with my mom how thankful I was that she was willing to commit so much time to visiting my uncle.  I just thought "wow, what a great woman."  Now that great woman is gone. But what I do know is she taught me something and that is to give your time to others because it is sure valuable.

In the e-mail Morgan sent last week she included a few pictures.  They were of her with my uncle during her Thursday visit.  My mom and I discussed these pictures and how wonderful it was of her to take pictures of my uncle.  To us having those pictures of my uncle were so special because he was in them.  Last night when I looked at the pictures again, I realized they are even more special because they have Morgan in them. 

In fact, I saved these pictures to my phone and shared them with some of my close friends at school saying "look how good my uncle looks in these, his friend Morgan took them and e-mailed them to us, and she's so sweet because she's going to keep visiting him on Thursdays."  My friends who are somewhat familiar with the situation just thought that was so nice of her and that the pictures were great.  I have some great friends who always are asking for updates on my life and family members.  They just care so much!

I've never actually met Morgan, but I knew her through the e-mail she sent and through all the things various family members, especially my mom, have said about her.  Even though I didn't know her, I did know her and I cared about her.  After all, she cared very much about my uncle.