I know you feel like you need to buy me something, but honestly the vacation we just took was all I needed for our anniversary. It was awesome to get away and relax — even getting to relax Sunday watching football all day even if you did beat me in Fantasy Football!

I love you very much and I hope you have a wonderful day I look forward to listening to you sing tonight at the church revival service.

—————–

To everyone else – I highly recommend unplugging, especially if you are an addict like me. The mountains did me a world of good. I feel like I’ve been restarted! I didn’t take many pictures – at least not as many as I had planned. I’ve got scooped back up in work though and haven’t downloaded them off the camera yet.

Thanks to everyone who threw up a prayer for us, asked about our vacation and covered for us while we were gone. I hope to post more about our trip later this week, but who knows. The unplugging thing might just happen at night when it should be family time.

Anyway, we’re baaaccckkkk! And I’m plugged in again – for a little bit anyway

I’m leaving my computer at home – so no email, Twitter, Facebook, working on websites, none of it. I will have my cell phone to call home, but other than actual voice calls, I’m not going to use my phone. This is major for me. I’m quite the computer addict. I decided to leave you with a list so you may know when it’s time to go on vacation or just unplug for a bit.

5 of ways you know it’s time to unplug

1. when you dream in code (html, css, php)
2. when you wake up in a panic realizing you didn’t set your alarm last night, rush into your child’s room to wake them up for school only to realize it’s Saturday
3. when you get a speeding ticket on a back road because you’re running late to pickup your child from school
4. when you hear your spouse snoring down the hall, and you’re still working on a project
5. when your child has to ask you repeatedly for a drink

and one last bonus way to know when you’re ready to unplug, when you feel like this:

Yes, that’s me. I remember the exact moment this picture was taken. I don’t know why I was upset in the first place, but Dad had sat me on the kitchen table. My oldest sister, Sue – who is 11 years older than me and should have known better – snapped this picture of me which made me even more upset. And Dad got mad at me. I couldn’t understand it. But Dad didn’t get mad at me a lot, so it kinda jerked me back into reality and stopped the gushing.

But if you’ve been feeling like this, I pray you get a vacation sometime soon! Or if you can’t do a vacation right now, just get a book that doesn’t make you think and go somewhere away from your house for an hour. Give yourself permission to unplug. I promise Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the Internets will still be there when you get back. After all, you’ll be here when I get back, right?

So I mentioned horseback riding. I love horses. I have always loved horses. I remember going to horse shows with Dad all the time when I was little. I loved watching the horses do their thing — trot, back up, jump…all their little tricks. I don’t ever remember going to a rodeo, but just horse shows. I thought maybe one day I could have a horse of my own and enter horse shows too.

We had a horse when I was little. Her name was Girlie. I used to be jealous of my older sister because she could just take off on Girlie in the field next to our house. I wanted to be like her someday. One day in second grade I convinced Dad to let me take Girlie around the field by myself — without him leading. He agreed, and I took off. Well, Girlie took off. I didn’t have a good hold on the reins and I fell off. I wasn’t hurt — at least not physically. I was totally embarassed, disappointed and broken hearted. I wanted back on Girlie, but Mom was really freaked out and wouldn’t let me back on — Dad either.

They sold Girlie while I was at school one day. I cried. They said it was for the best — that she was getting too old for kids to ride any more and needed to be on a nice farm somewhere where she could eat and run. I hated that I didn’t get to say good-bye to her, but it was probably for the best.

Back to yesterday, Duck took off work and found a farm nearby that had openings for a trail ride. Doodle has always wanted to ride ponies and such — I think she’s got the same love of horses that I do. When my older sister got married a few years ago, we went up for the wedding. She took Doodle riding on her horse — Patches. Doodle loved every minute of it! So yesterday when she found out she got to ride a horse all by herself, she was extremely excited. I was too, but somewhere in my old age, I developed a little bit of a fear — fear of falling off and breaking something, fear of the horse kicking me or just running me into a tree. But I was determined to show no fear.

They put me on a horse first, and then got everyone else situated. When they unhooked my horse from the post, he was ready to go. He didn’t really want to wait on anyone else. I kept pulling the reins back to tell him to stop moving, and he’d just buck his head. “Wonderful,” I thought, “I really hope I don’t get hurt or worse yet die.” Then they told me his name is Rebel. Ha. Figures. We all got set and Doodle’s horse, Tiffany, wanted to go. She got in line behind the guide — then Duck on his horse wanted to go faster than mine, so he past me too. Rebel just didn’t want to move. Then it hit — he had a bad case of diarrhea and gas. Yep, this was definitely the perfect horse for me!

After the initial rough start, things went pretty smooth. One of the guides told us we were doing really well, but I wondered just what not doing well would look like. Oh there was a scary moment there where Rebel decided to take the trail to the right next to the drop-off to the creek bed, instead of following the guide horse to the left. But we all survived and didn’t get hurt. I think my thighs are still sore though because I was clamping my knees into the horse to hold on

Doodle now wants to take lessons and go back for the camps they have there. Duck told her that meant she’d have to work the farm — feeding the chickens, the horses, taking care of the horses, etc. She thought about it for a minute and then said she didn’t care if she had to work — she wanted to go back. That’s huge ya’ll. Queen of video games wants to work on a farm.

Here are a couple of pictures. Duck had the camera and case on his belt, so I didn’t get any pictures of him on his horse, but here’s me on Rebel and Doodle on Tiffany:

Church: We seem to be settling into church. I setup a website for a little girl who we’re doing a fundraiser for — and you can help! I’m still finishing up a few things on the site, but I should have online donations available soon. We’re doing a fundraiser BBQ chicken dinner if you’re in the area. Check out the details at KaitlynAcosta.com and download a flyer — help us spread the word! So along with that site, I’ve also been trying to work on the church site — the pastor wants to setup his sermons in a podcast. I’m having to look up information about this again as I *used* to know about all that but have seem to forgotten. If any of you do this for your church, give me a shout. I’ll blog about it here too as I think others might benefit from the information.

She Seeks: I began setting up this site right before She Speaks, and I continue to work on it. We would love for you to help us promote the site to 20-something ladies. It’s a division of Proverbs 31 Ministries and really seems to be filling a void. Today’s post is on domestic abuse. I am more likely to lash out physically than Duck beating me — I think that’s a by-product of growing up with older brothers who would wrestle me. Still, I know many women who struggle with that. Pass it along even if it doesn’t apply to you!

She Reads: This is another division of Proverbs 31 Ministries. I helped setup this site. I wish I were more into reading as I think it would greatly help my writing, but I just can’t seem to make the time to read for pleasure. I’ve always gotta be learning something There’s some great posts here about whether or not Christians should read stuff like the Harry Potter books. Doodle loves the movies but she’s not much of a reader either — so we haven’t read the books. There’s some great discussions going on in the comments though so check it out. They are going to have author interviews and you’ll be able to converse with the author in the comments. A neat idea! Mary E. DeMuth has posted today also sharing about domestic abuse and her latest book Daisy Chain.

Softball: The Sunday league ended yesterday. Kind of a bitter-sweet ending. We went undefeated this season (6-0) and won the championship game by 3 runs. The first game of the championship was quite a bit of drama as the other team was really trying to stretch the rules … ie. cheat. Nerve wracking is what it was. But we pulled it off! Ball Hogs rock! Duck’s still got some men’s games left and we have our co-ed team. Our co-ed team was undefeated as well until last Wednesday … but I’m supposed to be letting that go I know we win and lose as a team, but all I concentrate on are my mistakes. I know. I’m hard on myself.

Vacation: Doodle is out on intersession already and we’re planning on taking her and a friend of hers to the Great Wolf Lodge in VA. I’ve heard great things about the place and it better be as awesome as they say, because it’s ex-pen-sive! Doodle’s already thanked us a million times for bringing her friend though so I think they’ll have a ball! Pray for Duck and I though as we’ll have 2x the talking to take in.

New member of the family: Congratulations to my niece who gave birth to a healthy bouncing baby boy. Everyone is doing well. That makes me a great-aunt. Wow. I must be getting old

I think that’s all for now. It may be another week before I catch back up with ya’ll. Just wanted you to know I’m still alive. But with working on 5 or 6 different sites this past week, well, mine’s fallen to the very end of the list as usual

Remember you don’t have to be a light to the whole world, just the ones God places on your path (to quote My Genius Better Half).

I’ll be Twittering as we go when I can — and when my phone has service. The updates will be compiled and posted here, or you can check my Twitter page to see how things are going.

We’re celebrating 12 years of marriage this weekend It actually seems that the time has flown by! We’ll see how I feel after the weekend though