11:11

MAKE A WISH!

Snow Dog

             So last week, I got to take a little walk with Cooper :) This of course was BEFORE all our snow melted.... It was 57 degrees yesterday. Its Jan. 30 and its 50 out!!!! So needless to say, all our snow is now gone, but we did have a bunch before it melted! So here are a few pictures of Cooper enjoying that snow :) 

I'm not sure if he enjoyed eating the snow more, or playing in it.  

On the other side of that fence there was a goat. Cooper was just getting ready to pounce, or hunt, or something! That looks like a hunting dog pose to me... He's supposed to be a sheep herder though, not a hunter. 

Awwz...
Gosh, I just can't handle his cuteness!
So the farm got him three weeks ago, and just yesterday he had his first vet checkup. When we got him, he was about 10 pounds. He is now 21 pounds. In just three weeks he doubled his size! I want him to stay small forever.... Alas someday he's not going to be this tiny and cute. He's going to be a giant fuzzy teddy bear!!! Hopefully he stays sweet and friendly. He should though, he is spoiled enough.

God has a funny way of making the world spin. Not literally, but in a way that events work together. Remember my bad week last week? Well in some odd way, it turned out for the best? Sorta. Kinda. I think.
One thing from it though, is that I started to read the Bible more. Now that should be a normal thing for me right...? But I am just so bad at reading my Bible all the time, I can't find the time, or more like I don't make the time for it. But these past two days, I read the book of Ruth and the book of Esther. As odd as it is, I sorta feel a difference too. I can't really explane it, so I won't even try, but believe me when I do say I feel a difference.
Also I found an app on my ipod that gives me a devotion every day - once in the morning, and once at night. I have lots of trouble waking up in the morning but I have found that if I go on my ipod and check my email or facebook I tend to wake up. So now I've been reading the little devotion in the morning to wake myself up, and I read the night one right before I go to bed. And in an odd and sorta geeky way, I sorta look forward to new devotions everyday now. They may not be long or too in depth  but I think its a good start. So that hopefully I can get into a nice habit.

How you know...

How you know your having a bad day.
1) you start crying in the middle of spanish class.
Do you really need a two?
I'm sitting here in spanish (once again, this may become a thing.) and just a minute ago I was sitting at my desk crying. I honestly and not really sure why, just everything I guess. Plus I dislike this class (not hate, thats too strong), so that could be part of it. This class just doesn't put me in the best mood. The thing is, some girl I'm pretty sure was watching me. She just kinda stared at me as I sat here with tears rolling down my cheeks. Awkward. To say the least. But the teacher didn't even notice.... I'm not sure if thats a good or bad thing. Oh well, I stopped crying now, so its better. Lets just hope I can make it through the rest of the day, cause I'm not even halfway yet.
Tonight will be good though. I am going to my first basketball game of the year, and probably the only one of the year. Then I'm going to have a writing party with best friends :) So at least I have something to look forward too. This day shall get better, I am convinced.
Also in creative writing we talked about picking out the small things in life that make us happy. So maybe I just need to focus on that today, and look for some good things, cause there are many good things that have gone on today already - I just have to look for them. We called them Pennies, because there was a whole story and with picking a penny off the sidewalk. Anyways, I don't feel like going into it. But you should be happy when you find a penny.
Pennies of the Day.
1) I'm wearing one of my favorite T-Shirts today. (My warhorse one from New York.)
2) I ate an Aunt Annies pretzel for breakfast.
3) My mom got me a Chinese cookie to eat for a snack today :)
4) I got some extra hours of work for Feb that I'm super excited for.
5) We confirmed today, going up to Cran-Hill to volunteer with the horses for a weekend.
6) Two people complimented my sweatshirt today. Plus I found it in the mens section at whatever store I bought it at.
7) After school, I can't wait.

OPEN YOUR DANG EYES!

So you know when I originally said I was going to post a lot about my farm life at the Critter Barn? .... hahaha..... I do have a reason though why I haven't! Its winter, and winter kinda means the slowest farm season. Christmas is done, meaning the Live Nativity is done (thankfully, that really takes a lot out of you). Sorry if you don't know what that is... go look it up at Critterbarn.org
Anyways! So sense the farm is slow, and we don't get many visitors, plus the day hours we are open are less, that means I get to work less. That means we are all finding lots of others tasks to keep us busy in the lull months. So that just means there is not much new, and not much to post about. Trust me, this summer I will have at LEAST one story each day. Doesn't mean I will post that often.... sense I am super busy in the summer, working, but we will see. So that is my reason for not posting much.

That just means I get to post a lot of other random things going on in my life. Now this post, is going to be a rant. If you can't tell from the title, I'm just in sort of a ranting mood. You see, this week has not been the best (as mentioned in an earlier post). There is just a lot going on, and the start of a new semester and so many other things. Although oddly enough, I have been learning so much. Not necessarily in school so much, but in other ways as well. The thing that really stands out the most at this moment, is that sometimes I just can't controle everything. When something is going wrong, isn't it everyones natural response to want to fix it? It is for me at least. I just want everything to be perfect and good, and I will do whatever it takes to help fix/change/something-else it. But sometimes, as sad as it is, things get out of control and out of the range that you can help anymore. All you can do is try your best, but mostly just step back and let God take controle. That doesn't mean you should just let it all go together, there are still things you can do. Pray, just pray. When there is NOTHING you can do, you can pray, always. You can always try your best, but if thats not enough then thats okay. Not everything you can fix by yourself, sometimes you need someone else's help, and sometimes you just need to realize that you are not God and you can't.fix.everything.
I think thats a good way to end.... You can't fix everything. (even though I never even got to the part where I explane why I titled this "Open Your Dang Eyes." Maybe I will blog about it another day... but for now this is good.)

1/24/13

Shouldn't life be easy? Hahahaha no! Yeah, thats a funny joke. Life is anything BUT easy, but you know what, thats just part of life.
As awful as it seems now... Its gonna get better. But its also going to get worse. I'm only 17, and so I have a lot of my life ahead of me. Their will be much harder times ahead, but also much better ones.
*sigh*
Its just been a very bad week this week.... to say the least. So I guess thats why I've been being all thoughtful and the like about life.
And so here is a picture that I found on my laptop. And of course their is an AMAZING story behind this picture :) (meaning not really... but I can pretend)

So this past summer (2012) I went to New York with the theatre department from my school. We saw a bunch of musicals and plays on broadway, and toured around like tourists. So on the first day, or I think it was the first day but I don't quite remember, we went walking to tour or look at somethings in New York. Now all along the street on New York are horse drawn carriages, and when I say all along the street I really mean it. We probably saw at least a 100 different ones, or more! And of course, sense I'm an animal lover, I had to take a picture of every horse I saw. So I probally have around 100 pictures of horses from New York on my camera... I haven't even dared to look and sort through them all yet. After a while I even gave up and stopped taking pictures. My favorite ones where the white (actually they are grey but they probably look white to you) and the one chubby pinto I saw. But the picture above is my favorite picture that I took. Just the horse surrounded by all the pigions, I just really like it. Yes, I'm sorta proud of this picture :) Plus the horse is freakin' cute! 

On a random note... some girl in my spanish class - yes I am sitting in spanish blogging - doesn't know what her last name is... I'm dead series! Sadly... When you look it up, it says her last name is Edward, but apparently her Grandpa's last name is Edwards. SO she is not sure whether her last name is Edward or Edwards... *sigh* sometimes freshmen just put me on edge.. I DON'T UNDERSTAND! 

Cooper!

I would like to introduce you all to someone new down on the farm....
Cooper!
So some people have thought that he is a golden retriever, but alas he is not. He is actually a mix of a Spanish Mastif, Polish Tatra, and Maremma. Don't worry if you have no idea what breeds of dogs those are, I had never heard of them before Cooper. He may be small now, but he is going to eventually be 150-200 pounds! He is going to be a freaking massive dog! So I'm trying to appreciate his smallness and adorableness now. Not that he will grow out of being adorable, I don't think that is possible.
Now Cooper did come to the farm for a reason. Mary, my boss and the 'owner' of the Critter Barn, found Cooper at a sheep convention she was at. He is going to be our new guard dog on the farm, and our first sheep herding dog :) Mary had wanted to get one for a while, and now she finally has!

So I think this is my favorite picture of him (above). But the funny thing is, I have like 10-20 different pictures of him posing like this. EVERY time I pull out my ipod to take a picture of him, he sits down, and starts to pose for the camera! What a little stud-muffin.

This is the first ever picture I got of him <3

This picture just breaks my heart.... He was pawing at the gate and whining as I left. He didn't want me to go! :'(

*Yawn*

Me and my man <3

Now this will most definitely not be the last post about Cooper. I'm pretty sure you can say I'm obsessed with him. Last Saturday when I was working, he just kept whining at the gate, wanting me to play with him. Don't worry, I did everything I needed to, then right before I left for the day I got to spend five minutes with my favorite puppy :) although I'm pretty sure he is teething. He just keeps trying to chew everything, especially my hand. Good thing he's cute, so I don't mind.

Nostalgic

So today I looked up the word nostalgic. As it turns out, I always had the wrong meaning in that word in my head. I always thought it was like the yearning of thinking or being thoughtful. Turns out its more along the lines of thinking of your past, and reminiscing on past memories. Guess I've been using that word wrong my entire life... But hey! Nothing new there. The thing is, I'm nostalgic a lot of the time. I know that is not a very good thing, cause people always say not to look to your past but instead look towards your future. Which for me, the future is a scary place and it's not really something I'm all to excited about. College, moving out, figuring out what I'm going to do with the rest if my life. I'm not exactly thrilled to say the least. It's not like I can ignore it all together, but I have found the past to be a comforting place. Actually that's partially a lie, the past sucks sometimes. But yet we need it, cause without our past we would never have gotten to where we are today. It makes us who we are, as awful as it was at times. I'm not particularly proud of my past, if I'm being completely honest here but I think over this past year I have learned to except it more. There comes a point where it gets unhealthy to think about your past, those are the times you wallow at your mistakes a d wish and pray that you could have a redo. But reality check, you can't. No matter how badly you want too, and so what then do you do with your mistakes? You turn then into a new and better Rachael, or who ever you may be. There comes a time when you need to stop wallowing and instead you need to laugh. Laugh at your mistakes, laugh at the good memories, and laugh at everything that make you who you are today. Because you are not you without your past, but also without your future. I guess the moral of this story/posty thing is that I have finally been able to except my past and to move forward with it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger eh? :P so head up high and look out future, b/c here I come whether you want me or not. I'm finally ready.

Ps. I took this picture today as I was stopped at a stop sign near my house. It's what really got me thinking. "There's always a light at the end of the tunnel." Or well road in this case.

Chillingly Beautiful.

So today I decided to take a nice stroll down by the water. You see, I live on the lake and so I have a little mini beech by the edge of the water. The thing is, its no so little anymore, so I decided to go check it out.

Artsy pictures - Yeah :)

 

If you look at this picture above, that small green line of 'stuff' is where the water used to come up too...

I found this old tennis ball just sitting there on              This is a shot of under my dock, normally you 

the beach, it must have washed up. Who knows           can't see under their at all! 

how long it had been in the water - yuck! 

An entire log was buried under the water!

This is a leaf frozen in ice. Chillingly beautiful. (oh puns! XD)

I'm standing WAY out in the water. It may not seem that amazing to you, but I was pretty impressed. Also thats a pretty stylish hat if I do say so myself.

Artsy :)

I found so many odd things that would normally be buried under the water.

Lots of different shells! These are only a few of many.

I also found a lot of glass.... I'm not sure thats a good thing.

Overall it was super windy and cold. As you can see my fingers are a tomato red, as a result of my no finger gloves, which thinking about now might not have been the smartest idea. But it was quite beautiful out there, you can see the sky is just stunning. So besides the wind and cold, it was a nice stroll. I think that my favorite thing I found was the leaf stuck in the ice, which may be a bit odd. In its own way though, its such a unique and beautiful thing. Just the way that it can be frozen in its perfect, beautiful state. It will probably be that way until the end of winter as well, or at least until the ice around it melts. I do still hope that the water rises soon, so that come this summer we can go out on our boat. At this rate, there will be no water to put our boat in! We just need lots of snow... which I wouldn't mind right now. I'll be praying for snow, although that would mean I have to drive in it.... Oh the dilemmas! I guess we will see what is to come. 

Exams ... OooOooh!

Normally I am pretty okay with exams, but now as a Junior in high school I am feeling the pressure a little bit more. Why do we even have to have exams? We already learned everything, why the need to cram an entire semesters worth of knowledge into one test? Its like they are trying to stress us out. Many teachers just say 'but if you listened in class then you won't need to study, cause you will know it all already.' Excuse me Mr. Teacher, but name one person that remembers every little thing they learned over the past 5 months. I just find that these things are very unfair.... Although I am sitting here posting on my blog instead of studying.... so maybe its partly my fault too.

Although there was one great thing about going through all my old bio notes. I found a bunch of old doodles :) These are two of my favorites I found.

To most people these pictures might not mean much to them at all. The one directly above is a doodle I made from a movie that I watched with my friends once. The three of us are all big fans of the animated tv show Avatar the Last Airbender, so one day we decided to watch the live action movie! If you have heard anything about it, that movie is the worst movie ever made in the history of the universe. Me and my two friends laughed through the entire thing. Instead of sitting there crying at how awful it was, we laughed at how awful it was! One of my/our favorite parts is when the entire water tribe is standing, waiting for the giant ending battle to start, and they all start moving their little spear-sticks up and down and saying 'Ooooh'. The three of us now randomly start ooing to each other and pounding our imaginary stick as well, which always results in a smile and a good laugh. So that explanes the doodle above.

Now this doodle also has to do with Avatar the Last Airbender. Normally in the animated series, Sokka (who is one of the best characters in the entire series) has a warriors wolf tail (his own words, not mine.) You can see it depicted in the right head. But in the awful movie, Sokka has a squirrel tail, as you can see in the left picture. Anytime his squirrel tail comes on scream, we can not help but crack up. Thats just one more reason that movie is so awful. And as you can see I can't spell squirrel, its only spelled correctly in this sentence because of the all amazing spell check. 

Now that I have officially ranted about how awful exams are.... I should probably get back to studying, and thats where I will be for the rest of the night. *sigh* At least it gives me a good excuse to eat lots of junk food :) So I can stay motivated. 

Why Woolies?

New blog, new year!
So, strangely enough, this isn't one of those 'new years resolution blogs' where they start for the new year and either post on it for a bit and then give up. This just was sort of a spontaneous and random thing that I decided to start. Why do you ask? Well lately I have become obsessed with instagram (yes I know thats pretty lame...), so because of that I post a ton of random pictures that I'm pretty sure no one cares about. Thats why I wanted to start this, so I can share all those pictures with you :) Plus then I can also write about them, and write what they really mean to me. I'm pretty sure no one will ever read this blog, and I don't blame you if you don't, and I'm honestly okay with that. Sometimes its just nice to talk to someone (or something....) and to know they will just listen. I sorta got this idea from Charlieissocool like. He is my newest youtube obsession <3 The way that youtube has helped him through vloging is pretty amazing, and I wanted something like that. I am not out going enough though to start my own youtube account and start a vlog myself, so I decided to go with a blog instead. I've always loved to write, so you know what, why not!
So why a blog? Why not! Theirs my answer for you.
Now why I named it Woolies.... As I have found for myself, whenever I sign up for a new website I find that choosing a username is the HARDEST part. So if I'm being honest it took me longer than it should to come up with this. Now back to why I started, my instagram photos. I have realized I take a lot of photos from around the farm that I work at (the Critter Barn) and so my friend suggested I start a blog about my work. So why not! So you will probably find lots of updates bout my working life, because honestly I love my job, but there will probably be lots of other things too. Not that I do much else besides school and work, that takes up most of my time to be honest. But you never know with a blog :)
Alright I think I went off into a random tangent, so back to why I named this Woolies. I was trying to come up with some cool farmer pun to put as the name of this blog, but 'farmer girl' and 'hay stack' wasn't cutting it. Thats when I came up with Woolies :) Thats what we call our sheep at the farm, and how we call them to come. And so that is the name that this shall be called hense forth :)
Considering it is late, and it is exam week I should probably stop rambling about my life. But this was a nice exam study break :) Like I said, my life consists of a lot of school work. So off I go to study, ciao!