Award, yay!

Kate over at The Adventures of Lucy has given us an award!!

For this award, I am supposed to share 10 things you may not know about me, my pet(s), and my horse(s):

1.Evan, my cat, has a little moustache and goatee in his mouth. Look:

Why yes, I AM a crazy cat lady...

Poor cat. He cops a lot of shit from me.

2. I am a well paid Personal Assistant, sitting inside in an office all day. It is NOT where I ever thought I would be when I was younger but I am far too reliant on the money coming in each month to change. I sort of enjoy my job when the office politics aren't running too rampant and there is not so much work to do that I need to stay back every day and then come in on Saturdays too to get it done.

3. Allie doesn't care where she sticks her head. She has no idea how big it actually is and will stick it into tight spaces, in between fences, in tree forks. She ALWAYS has healing scabs or scrapes on her head, especially around the eyes and poll. I worry about her.

4. Gracie's coat is lighter where the sun doesn't touch it - under her mane, her tail, her belly etc. We have no idea why.

5. I have always driven manual cars. I HATE automatic transmissions. I think it is creepy how they creep forward as soon as you take your foot off the break, I hate how it just decides when to shift up (or down) a gear. I secretly judge you if you can't drive a manual. It's really not that hard.

6. I do.not.eat.fish. Or seafood of any shape or form. The smell makes me gag and I am sick to death of people telling me "You don't even know if you would like it, you haven't tasted it". Go away. I have tasted it and I still fricking HATE seafood. Stop trying to make me eat shit I know I hate the taste, texture and smell of.

7. I had Osgood-Schlatter disease as a child. IT is where over-active children get an irritation of the patellar tendon. From Wikipedia:

"The condition is usually self-limiting and is caused by stress on the patellar tendon that attaches the quadriceps muscle at the front of the thigh to the tibial tuberosity. Following an adolescent growth spurt, repeated stress from contraction of the quadriceps is transmitted through the patellar tendon to the immature tibial tuberosity. This can cause multiple subacute avulsion fractures along with inflammation of the tendon, leading to excess bone growth in the tuberosity and producing a visible lump which can be very painful when hit."

So, basically this:

I have the ugliest knees:

Oh, so pretty.

It is very painful when it happens but if the child is rested (i.e. no physical activity for a period of months) then the pain goes away, but not the lump. Authorities say that there is no residual pain once the child grown into an adult but that is bull. My knees get sore right on the spot with excessive use. I can never kneel in church as it is way too painful. All the old people around me still kneel and give me looks. I feel disrespectful but I'm pretty sure God doesn't care if I don't kneel when I pray.

8. I met Andrew when I was 19 by passing my phone number out the window of my car to him on the highway. Yes, really. I thought he was cute, he was rocking out to the same song that was playing in my car on the radio at the same time, and the rest is history. :)

9. My favourite movie is Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmaron.

10. I have always wanted to try side saddle riding. It looks like so much fun, it is a definite on my bucket list.

I then have to pick six blogs that I like:

1. From Racehorse to Showhorse - Super cute grey OTTB that I just can't get enough of. Also, GREAT horse photos - the writer is a proffessional photographer.

2.  Just Another Dog Blog - Cute dogs, great photos, easy to read and interesting posts.

3.  Whitebrook Farm - Hilarious reviews of horse themed books, movies, TV shows, etc, especially the 'Thoroughbred' series. Brings back memories.

4. Chloe, the Pony Who Wouldn't - I have just started following this blog - she is a trimmer too and I am liking her writing style.

5. Buckskin and Bay - A blog about a mother who has a young horse - gives me hope that I won;t have to give up this whole riding thing when kids finally come along!

6. Memoirs of a Horse Girl - Lovely, well written, carefully thought out posts that are informative and provoke reflection on the topic. Plus, her horse is barefoot and she is an owner trimmer! My kind of blog. :)

Thanks!!

So I have been feeling a bit flat about Chakra (more on that later, this is a happy post!) and I woke up this morning to my very first ever blog award!!

I'm so excited about this, it is totally silly of me but I have been kinda a little bummed that my blog hadn't been mentioned yet and I try so hard to read and keep up with a bunch of blogs and I try to comment on them all and and and I'm happy now. :p

So now I have to pick 15 blogs that I think deserve the award and then tell you 7 things about myself that you might not be aware of.

1. It's a Good Thing You're Cute
2. From Racehorse to Showhorse
3. The Process of Learning
4. 8 Days a Week
5. Nina's Story
6. Pony Express
7. Buckskin and Bay
8. CONTACT
9. G is for Greta
10. Green n' Green = Black n' Blue
11. I Will Jump Sweet Jumps
12. It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
13. Letters to Hennessy
14. Princess Diva Diaries
15. Tekes Tally-Ho!

That was hard! I follow that many blogs, it is hard to narrow it down!

Ok, getting to know me....

1. My middle name is Narvelle, after my mother's aunt Narvelle Joyce. I absolutely love it and I am really interested to know everyone's middle name because I have such a cool one. I think it is French and I am yet to be able to find a name meaning on Google, but my mother told me it means beautiful.

2. As you can probably probably tell, I have very sound self esteem, almost to the point of being egotistical. It gives the people I hang out with a lot the shits, but I own it! I know I'm a pretty cool person and worth a lot! All through school, I was severely bullied - spat on, beat up by both girls and boys, paper thrown at me, I have scars on my legs from where I used to have chunks of concrete thrown at me during lunch, the list goes on. I was treated by most of the other kids like I was a piece of scum and they even said my name like "eeew, Lisa Castle" as if I was totally disgusting. DESPITE all this I knew there was nothing wrong with me and it was THEIR problem they didn't like me and it was their loss. I had my few close friends and they were (and still are) beautiful people and I wouldn't have wasted my time on anyone else in school. If it weren't for my healthy self esteem (and my best friends and my first pony) I might not have survived that hell hole.

3. This one is a cheat because you probably already know this, but I would normally want to pick up a horse's foot and trim it then hop on and ride. I am obsessed! I have another blog, The Glorious Hoof, where I write about feet.

4. When I am stressed, I bite the skin around my fingernails, especially in my sleep. I have woken up in the past with a mouthful of blood and when I start picking I know that there is something wrong that I am stressing about.

5. I use an absolute motza of hand cream. I can't stand when my hands feel a little dry and I use easily a bottle a week. I apply it about 50 times a day and I am not even exaggerating.

6. I go to church every Sunday, which is unusual for my demographic.

7. I LOVE to sing. At the top of my lungs, big loud long notes until I am out of breath. And I totally suck at it. I knew Andrew was the husband for me because he doesn't mind. :)