The Rebuke

A random angry stranger followed me home and told me off yesterday. I have never experienced this situation before in my life. Here's what happened:

I picked up the kids from school and went immediately to my chiropractor appointment. Of course, because I was in a hurry, the chiropractor was running behind schedule. I was supposed to be home to receive a furniture delivery. I was running 20 minutes late. Thankfully, the kind furniture delivery people were patient and agreed to wait for me when they called to find out where I was. 

Remember, I live in Fort Collins - the land of slow Subaru drivers. It seems everyone here is slow and a greater than normal percentage of the population drives a Subaru. And my experience and data collection have yielded the conclusion that all Subaru drivers are slow. I'm sure there's a mathematical formula or logic statement buried in that sentence  somewhere. This is just a layman's observation.

Anyways, I digress. It's also no secret that I'm a wee bit of a competitive driver. I own it. I know it. My kids know it - they were the ones to bestow that title upon me. Let me clarify that competitive doesn't mean "bad", it means "I like to be the first in line and not behind the slow people" or "I look for the most efficient lane or route" type of competitive. If that sometimes means I need to break the speed limit to achieve it, so be it. However, I would never endanger my life, my passengers' lives, or another driver to achieve my coveted place in the front of the pack.  I refuse to sacrifice safety in my pursuits of "greater efficient driving methods." 

All that background information is necessary to understand what happens next. Our new house is located farther out in the country. The driving lanes continue to merge from 3 to 2 down to 1 the farther out of Fort Collins you drive. There is one stop light on the way to our house that narrows from 2 lanes to 1 lane immediately after the stoplight. If you're stopped at the stoplight, there is a little bit of lane for you to continue driving in, but not much.  You pretty much need to merge immediately. Some people don't notice the merge sign and get stuck trying to merge into the flow of traffic. Other's, like myself, choose to drive in the lane that is about to merge in order to avoid the mile long back up of (slow) cars in the other lane that continues straight. 

Yesterday, as I was focused on getting home so as not to keep the furniture delivery men waiting, I knew it would be a "drive in the merge lane" kind of day. However, the lady I was supposed to be merging in front of would have none of it. Apparently, she doesn't believe in merge signs. She believes she is right and must evangelize the rest of us as to her rightness. Unfortunately, at this same merge spot yesterday, a huge semi-truck was parked just to the side of the merge lane/shoulder with it's hazard lights on. So I had no room for error, I had to get into the continuing lane of traffic quickly. I sped up a little. So did the lady behind me. For whatever reason, she did not want me to merge. So much so in fact, that she was forcing my car almost into the parked semi. Then she was forcing my car into the shoulder, which quickly was disappearing into a ditch. I forcefully merged as not to end up in a ditch, thanks to her little lesson.

Along with her advancing speed, she was waving her middle finger vehemently at me. My heart was beating fast. I was trying to avoid an accident, get my kids home safely, avoid the crazy maniac driver behind me, and make it home for the delivery. 

I finally make it to the turn off of the main road. The crazy lady follows me in the direction of my neighborhood. I figured there might be a slight chance she lives in this neighborhood as well, so I wasn't too worried yet. I was praying she wasn't one of my new neighbors. Just to be safe, I took a turn earlier than my street. She took the same turn. I come to a round-a-bout. Bennett wanted me to go around it like 5 times. But at this point, I knew she was indeed following me and was trying to formulate a plan.

I asked Chloe, who was in the back seat, to turn around and get her license plate number. Why? I don't know. It just seemed like the thing to do; a way to find or track this person down if need be or I needed to give this information to police.  I then decide to take some random side streets and meander my way to the model homes that are all clustered together. If this lady did something to me, I wanted witnesses and I surely didn't want her knowing where my house was. 

I pull to a stop in front of the model home. Guess who pulls up right beside me? I roll down my window and ask, "Do you need something?" I have my phone in my hand ready to dial 911. This is road rage if I've ever seen it. The lady decides she needs to be the one to point out my driving flaws. She says, "You were very rude back there. I was trying to leave a safe distance of space behind the car in front of me and then you had to zoom in there and cut me off."

I said, "I'm sorry I offended you."

She would have none of it. She said, "Look at what kind of example you are setting for your children....blah, blah, blah....".  I heard nothing more because I rolled my window up. She was pure angry. Nothing I was going to say was going to convince her, change her mind or enlighten her. She had her mind made up about me. She didn't want to listen to me. She had already judged me and my intentions and wanted to justify her behavior and rightness to me. 

By the way, the kids loved the window rolling up trick while she was still talking. They were like, "Oooooh Mom! That was the ultimate roast!" And I was like, "I know, she really roasted me." And they were like, "No Mom. You just roasted her but shutting her down while she was still talking." I said, "I didn't mean to roast her. I just didn't want to hear her tirade. I didn't have to sit there and take it." Once she realized she no longer had an audience. She drove off in a huff. I bet she feels better now that she told off one driver.

After making sure she was no where around, I drive down the street to our house. The delivery guys said they drove around the block a few times waiting for me.  I almost drove straight to the police station with her following me, except for these sweet guys who I knew were waiting on me. I couldn't abandon them or be inconsiderate about their time. 

This took me a long time to calm down from. I was quite shaken up. Even if I was completely in the wrong and did in fact cut her off, you still don't follow someone home to berate them about their dumb driving. You just chalk it up to another dumb driver and let it go. I've done that myself to people who have cut me off, run me off the road or just been jerks while driving too many times to count. 

I had to realize she was probably just a good person who was having a bad day. I did not want to judge her character but it was very hard not to. I questioned the kids and tried to see it from their point of view. I asked them if I had cut her off. They were like, "No, you were just merging." Then I realized, I hate it when people think bad of me. Yet there was nothing I could do to convince this lady I wasn't a bad person. She hated my guts and she didn't even know me. She had judged me and judged me wrongly. How often have I done that to people? 

I eventually let it go and hold no ill will towards her. But it did give us another good story and a new way to shut someone down - just roll the window up.

That Time I Saved Ninja's Life

Believe it or not, this little dog can be quite a trouble-maker at times. Usually, she is the perfect dog. We honestly can't complain. But when she pulls a stunt, it's typically a big one. She likes her freedom. She's been known to roam the neighborhood, nose to the ground, lost in the plethora of smells. However, she always finds her way home. 

We lost her a few times when we lived in Farmington. It usually happened whenever I let her out and forgot about her. Since we didn't have a fence, she would just start exploring. Neighbors would bring her home or we would go out back and call her and she'd come sprinting back up the hill. We only ever really "lost" her once. A quick drive around the neighborhood in a frenzied panic solved that nerve-wracking scare. We came home with ninja securely in the back seat clueless as to her crime.

I have to give her a lot of credit. The move has been hard for her. She misses her big back yard with all the squirrels and bunnies it contained that she could chase at will. For the past 6 months she was stifled by the constraints of apartment living. Whenever she had to go potty, we had to take her out on a leash. She could no longer go sit on her back patio and gaze longingly at the woods, keeping an eye out for her nemesis, the squirrel or just lay there, basking in the sun on a warm day. We kinda upset her applecart. 

So now that we're in the new house she feels a bit entitled to some freedom. Who could blame her? You can tell she's happy again. She's back to her old self. Unfortunately though, we have no grass or fence in our backyard...yet. We do have a lovely large open green space behind our house. However, she has to cross the dirty, muddy backyard to get there for her hygiene needs every single time.

This makes neither her, nor any of us who have to clean her feet each time, happy. So oftentimes, we let her out back and sort of forget about her until she barks at us from the deck. It was this scenario that led to me loosing her for the first time at the new house.

I let her out, got busy doing things around the house and then realized it was past time to go pick Chloe up from school. I rushed out of the house. As I was backing out of the driveway, I see a black dog in my rearview mirror. I think to myself, "Hmmm, that dog looks an awful lot like Ninja." This wasn't the first time I saw a dog at that construction site, believe it or not. Some workers bring their dogs with them. But then it dawned on me, "oh no! I never let Ninja back in. That's Ninja!" 

I quickly put the car in park, ran out into the driveway and started calling Ninja from across the street. She was in no particular hurry to reach me. She was enjoying her exploration adventure. But I had no time for her to dilly dally. I'm already late picking up Chloe. I express my frustration with myself and her with the ever encouraging emphatic yelling of, "NINJA, GET OVER HERE NOW!" She obviously is now aware that I mean business and her joyride is over. She didn't look too happy to see me. 

So she starts sauntering across the street. Two cars are parked in front of my house blocking my view down the street. Unbeknownst to me there is a minivan backing up down the street on a collision course with Ninja right in front of my house. It all happened in slow motion. Once the minivan comes into view I see Ninja 6 feet from its wheels. I run out into the street between the car and Ninja waving my arms wildly and yelling, "STOP! STOP!"  Ninja unknowingly continues her saunter reaching our driveway in the nick of time. The lady behind the wheel stops and looks at me warily. She starts to roll down her window being as I'm still in the middle of the street and blocking her from her continued reverse position. I say, "Sorry, there was a dog in the middle of the street." And she looks at me blankly. I then realize she doesn't speak English. I say, "perro" as if that one word will explain everything. She just rolls her window back up and continues her backward quest.

I quickly analyze the situation with Ninja. Her feet are caked in mud from all her adventuring around construction sites for the past 30 minutes. I have no time to clean her feet (it takes about 15 minutes). I instruct her to sit in the middle of the garage while I lower the garage door. She looks forlorn. She knows her adventuring has come to an end and this is her punishment - being stuck in the garage with mud on her feet til I get back. What a way to end a fun day.

Is This The Model Home?

Funny but true story. Some random people walked into our new house that we were already living in thinking it was a model home. Here's what happened:

Our house was the first on our street to be finished. There is still alot of construction all around us. It's not uncommon for the sales people to send customers to finished spec houses to go check them out.

Chuck has an awesome office set up in our finished basement. He can't really hear what's happening upstairs on the main level. On this particular day, I was away from the house. Chuck was on a conference call with work. But he thought he heard noise upstairs. So he put his call on hold and ran upstairs to check it out because he was sure I wasn't at home.

Turns out two people were standing in our entry way, shoes off staring to walk down the hallway towards the living room. Chuck is still at the top of the stairs and is a little befuddled by their presence. They ask, "Is this the model home?" He says, "No...this is a private residence."

The potential new home buyers had two different reactions. The wife was mortified and immediately started putting her shoes back on and backing out the door. The husband continued walking down the hall towards our living room asking, "So is that a bay window?"

Chuck was like, "I'd love to show you around, but I work from home and right now I'm in the middle of a meeting, so I need to ask you to leave." Awkward!

Lesson learned: lock the front door.

A New Beginning

Last week we moved into our new house after a long six month wait. But it was so worth it!

A must before entering our house. :)

We've spent the last week assembling every type of furniture imaginable. 

Chuck spent a lot of time on this ladder replacing approximately 5 light fixtures. We still have 7 more to go. Off with the old....

And up with the new!

We unpacked so many boxes. We had the kids off-loading all our boxes into the dumpsters at the active build sites around us. Of course, they found a way to make this mundane task super fun. At one point when I went out to the garage to check on them Bennett tells me, "Mom, I can't find Chloe." I obviously wasn't worried cuz I replied, "Well....she'll show up eventually." That was not the response they were hoping for. They wanted me to panic and look in all the boxes and then Chloe would jump out at me. I'm on to their adolescent ways...I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday.

Chloe couldn't be the only one having all the fun in a box. So Bennett fit himself into one as well. They were sure to save some for future fun as well. Way to plan ahead kids!

Just throwing the boxes in the dumpster isn't good enough. We wanted to hide them. So Bennett is smooshing down all the boxes in the dumpster per our request. It's fun being our kids. 

The very first morning I woke up in the new house I hurriedly checked out back for the sunrise and was greeted with this. I think sunrise might be my favorite time of the day.

First Birthday Alone

My sweet-all-grown-up boy is marking another of life's milestone's this week. He'll be celebrating his 19th birthday alone.  All of his firsts are also all of my firsts. 

This will be the first year we haven't gotten up early and sleepy-eyed to wake him up singing "Happy Birthday" to him in bed and giving him his wake-up gift before doing anything else in our day. 

This will be the first year I haven't made him his favorite meal for his birthday dinner.

This will be the first year I haven't made him a special cake. 

This will be the first birthday we're not in the same state. 

This will be the first year we're not all at the dinner table sharing with the birthday boy what we love most about him. On every family member's birthday we always give them lots of verbal affirmation gifts. We want them to know exactly what we appreciate, admire, and love most in and about them. I'd say it's worked out pretty well for us over the years as the kids are now the first to initiate such kind words.

This will be the first birthday he has no presents to open. We gave him a birthday gift before he left back to school this past weekend. He was thrilled with it. But then I had two extra small things that I wrapped and wanted him to take back with him in his duffel bag so he could open something on his actual birthday. He said no. Two reasons: 1) no room in the bag, and 2) apparently its too awkward to open birthday gifts in front of your roommate.

I know this will be the first of many more to come. I'll be better with those, I imagine. But firsts are usually harder than the rest - you've never travelled down this road before, you don't know what to expect yet. I find that I'm simultaneously thrilled and sad that he's already left the nest. I'm thrilled with excitement about his future, how he feels a sense of fulfillment and inclusion in his college experience, and the thoughtful, kind, mature, intelligent, reserved young man he's grown up to be. I'm sad because that's what I had hoped for him all these years yet never knew they would actually ever come. You get so busy living your daily mundane life, you forget time is passing. It's a good sad though - with it comes immense gratitude, humility, and lots of precious memories. 

The Soundtrack Of My Childhood

We just got an Alexa for Christmas. This has added a whole new dimension to our family time as we vie for her attention. We seem to all yell commands at her at the same time. such as: "ALEXA, PLAY ED SHEERAN, GOO DOLLS, LECRAE, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH" only to hear her to say: "Sorry, I don't know that one."(Welcome to my world Alexa - my people have been talking at me all at the same time their whole lives, they know no different.) Of course it goes without saying that we have to speak in all CAPS when we talk to her. We also have some mumblers in our group. Alexa really doesn't like mumbling. The joys of technology.

It's not like I didn't grow up without technology. We always had the latest greatest. My Bapchie was on the cutting edge of technology. She even owned a purple mustang that had an 8-track cassette player in the car. I LOVED it! Especially when I got to ride in the front seat and pick out any 8 track that I wanted. My choices varied between Conway Twitty and Polish Polkas. I still love Polka music to this day.

Needless to say, my parents came of age in the 60s and would have none of the classy polkas of their parent's generation. My Dad was super into his reel-to-reel player. I still have no clue how one works or what you do to it. We were never allowed to touch it. But we did get to listen to his favorite music that he so delicately placed upon the player and turned on for us to enjoy.

My Dad loves ohms and volts and amps and math and stuff like that. So this little device was right up his alley. All I cared about was singing along to my favorite songs. At the time they were the ones that our parents listened to such as:

"We Don't Need No Education" the 1979 classic by Pink Floyd. I personally loved it because of all the children singing in the background. I had no clue what it meant. I honestly just today looked up the story behind the song. Then there was the Eagles classic, "Hotel California" that was another one of the soundtracks of my childhood. My Dad was (and still is) all about Classic Rock. 

My Mom was in love with Neil Diamond. So I was too. His songs are so classic that even my kids now think they're cool. Alexa is very familiar with the phrase, "ALEXA, PLAY SWEET CAROLINE". I feel like a kid again when I hear this nostalgic music filling the air. 

Then there came a time in our lives when we were no longer allowed to listen to all this "secular music". We became "religious".  My parents boxed up their precious albums and reel-to-reel player and set them in the attic for years. Not knowing any different, I took up the "Christian Music Only" baton and would belt out tunes with Psalty the Singing Songbook on my brown Fisher Price tape recorder. As you can see, I'm still very technologically advanced.  

From here I still stayed with the christian music genre only. But I did upgrade my technology a bit. I was given this sweet boombox for my 16th or 17th birthday. Dual cassette player!! Twice all that 80s synthesizer, echoey music! That means I could slice my own cassettes and create unique tapes with multiple (christian) artists all on one tape - the genius of it (nowadays we call this a playlist). I even made my future husband a tape that I was very proud of.  I gave it to him as a gift when he moved to Ohio in 11th grade. 

I can't remember all the groups I included on the tape. But I do remember one group quite well. Its because they were THE COOLEST christian group a teen could listen to in the late 80s/early 90s. They were incognito christians. You couldn't tell from the name of their album, but once you listened to their lyrics, you knew you were getting preached to. I personally thought DC TALK was as cool as you could get. Our parents could be assured that there was no back-masking going on here.

Well that's all I've got on my little journey down my musical memory lane. I did take my uber sweet boombox off to college with me. Along with all my Precious Moments figurines. I wasn't popular in college. I grew up. I learned that pop music doesn't send you to hell. I eventually upgraded to a cd player, an mp3 player, itunes on an ipod and then an iphone. I never saw Alexa coming. But she's pretty cool to have around - if I can get a word in edgewise, that is. 

Bad Dad

 

This guy and his shenanigans has Chloe up in arms. First of all, it's hard being a 13 year old girl and having a dad who is goofy. She is constantly exasperated or embarrassed by something he says or does. You know, the perils of being a teenage girl. However, her silly father has totally outdone himself now. First, he had the audacity to get a speeding ticket and get his picture taken while doing so (like this picture is going to somehow show up at Chloe's school and she'll never be able to live it down). As if that wasn't bad enough. Now Chuck is up to more shenanigans that has Chloe fearing that her father might get arrested.

And it has everything to do with the new house we are building. Unlike any house we've ever built, this particular builder doesn't want you on (your own) property without a representative from their company with you. Or your realtor. Well.....that's not always convenient. And they're not always around when we go check out the progress on the house. Chuck has zero problem breaking that "law" (let's call it what it is: a preference). 

So the other day we take yet another trip out to the house and not a soul is in sight. Chuck starts walking into the house. Chloe and I (the true, blue rule followers) hesitantly get out of the car and look around to make sure there will be no witnesses to incriminate us. Dad might be fine having his picture taken as he cohorts with danger, but not us. Chloe and I quickly run in, grab a peak and run back out to the safety of the car. Chuck and the boys take their jolly ol' time examining every last detail.

By time they get back to the car, Chloe is beside herself, "DAD!!!! WHY ARE YOU SO BAD WITH THE LAW?!" Hilarity and laughter ensue. Chloe is mortified. Chuck now wears that phrase as a badge of honor. It explains alot about him. Whenever he's about to go through a yellow light or jaywalk or do a u-turn in an unauthorized location, he says it's because he's "bad with the law." 

The Sway

Last week Chloe had a choir performance. I was the only one who could attend, so I videoed much of the performance to show the fam. After watching Chloe's performance, I realized we failed her in one key area. See if you can spot Chloe:

The Sway from Mallott on Vimeo.

Did you spot her? Yup. She was the one, unbeknownst to her, swaying the OPPOSITE direction of the ENTIRE choir. Every single time I watch it I giggle. It is just so cute! And the funniest part is, she did the EXACT same thing on the second go around.

The Sway II from Mallott on Vimeo.

Obviously, she was mortified after I showed her the video. There was a lot of denial. We had a nice long talk about being able to laugh at yourself. This was a very humbling experience for her, but she had to admit it was hilarious! She then showed the clips to her choir friends. One of them laughed so hard she cried. Another friend said her dog could sway better. Apparently I have overlooked teaching my daughter the fine art of swaying to music. The whole thing is my fault. At least that's the story Chloe is going with. #swayfail

First Timers

This is the first year, believe it or not, that we've ever done gingerbread houses during the holiday season. We just never thought about it. But then Chloe came upon this little kit where all we had to do was assemble and decorate our own tiny house. I could get behind that.

Unfortunately, each house came all stuck together. Chuck had to 'unstuck' them by cutting on the scored lines. You can imagine how well that turned out. One of us had a cow (Chloe) because our pieces weren't perfect. Others of us used lots of icing to hide said imperfections. 

The formation of the house is the actual hardest part. You need 3 hands at least to hold everything together. This was not Chloe's happiest moment. All the lines and pieces were not matching up exactly. We may have even had a little panicking go on. 

Bennett used creative architecture techniques, but hey, it's standing - that's really all that matters. The pathetic amount of frosting the kit offered was nowhere near enough. I had to go make some more frosting - thus the beautiful ziplock baggie that Bennett is so delicately applying his frosting with. 

These are the finished products. I'm embarrassed to admit that this was mine. I was the first one finished though. I didn't even win a prize. And I made the biggest mess. Tweezers would have been nice. I feel that this would fit in nicely with a display of houses decorated by 1st graders.

Chuck's looks exactly like the picture on the box. Yay for him. His little designer self put the rest of us to shame. The entire time he was decorating his chalet, he kept complaining about the hole size of the frosting tube. He would have preferred multiple frosting bags with varying degrees of hole sizes for all his highly detailed work. 

And here's the all important bank that is a must have in every Christmas village. I was actually surprised by the 'less is more' look to Bennett's design. I am also amazed how he got his snow to fall on his roof in the shape of an /s/. 

Chloe, on the other hand, subscribes to the 'more is more' mentality. Her entire roof was caked in frosting. She even used a knife to help spread all the 'snow'. But her decorations were very precise and color coordinated. Apparently the bakery got hit by a blizzard.

Overall, it was an ok experience. I can't say I would like to incorporate it as a tradition or anything. However, we may do it again when Gavin gets home so we can watch him go all Donald Duck with the whole experience. I would do it all over again for the laughter and general hilarity that would ensue. 

Person of Interest

I never really ever gave much thought to this sign before. Aren't we always being watched by 'Big Brother'? I just figured the city was gathering data on how many people actually disregard red lights. But now we have a greater appreciation for this seemingly benign sign. Turns out Chuck's a wanted man. These creepy red light photo cameras prove it.

What I love most about the photo is how nonchalant Chuck is about the whole thing. He even dares to smile in the face of danger. He's all like, "La-di-da, I'm just enjoying taking a little drive" while unbeknownst to him, his mug shot is being taken as he maliciously drives 12 miles an hour over the posted speed limit. And the city will have none of that. They will catch him in the act and dare him to prove them wrong.

We only know this because he received a citation in the mail the other day with these pictures in it proving his violation. They are asking him to either pay up or appear in court. He has now become a Person of Interest to the city. We only thought it was a tv show. Seeing yourself in a picture you never knew existed is eerily similar to the show's opening monologue: "You are being watched. The government has a secret system, a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror but it sees everything."  

The funny thing is that Chuck is the one who got the ticket. I'm the more competitive driver of the two of us. I challenge the speed limits all the time. Granted, I know my limits and I rarely go 10 mph over. I also am very observant and read road signs (one key difference between the two of us and our driving styles). 

Ever since we moved here, I've been in a huff about the horrible, overly-cautious drivers here. They go exactly the speed limit and it drives me absolutely bonkers!!! No one wants to be caught going even 1 mile over the limit. Now we know why. 

We were foolishly living in ignorant bliss. We had no idea we were being watched. No longer. We will now join the rank and file of obedient drivers dutifully going exactly the speed limit everywhere we go. How boring.

On Being Short

Once upon a time, in the not so distant past, I used to be taller than my kids. I looked like a bonafide big person. Now I just look short.

Now and Then

I kinda knew the boys would out pace me in the height department sooner than later. But I knew I'd always have Chloe, my little girl.

And then she decided to grow. In this picture, I had to stand on my tippy-toes so as appear taller in stature than I am. 

A few things I've discovered that happens upon your children outgrowing you:

1. They think they suddenly become smarter and you suddenly become not as smart. The reality is somewhere in between. They are certainly growing intellectually by leaps and bounds. But they are also seeing you as human. You're no longer on a pedestal. You don't hold all the information and knowledge anymore....say like in Algebra 2 homework for example. You start answering with a lot more "I don't knows" to their questions. They may even have outpaced you in a particular area of interest and actually know more than you. This gives them the confidence they need to step into that vast, scary world and make a go of it all on their own.

2.  Your flaws and idiosyncrasies become much more noticeable to them. Their growing maturing helps them see you as not always mature. At least I'm not. Sometimes I get tired of being the 'mature one' and just want to goof off like a kid. Those moments are glaringly obvious to them now. They actually like it. I think it makes you more relatable and not like this person that always has things altogether.

3. They love flaunting their new found height over you. They love looking down on you, physically -not in a negative sense. If this growing one happens to be a girl, she will LOVE wearing all your clothes, shoes and jewelry. She will also look half your size since her metabolism still works in spades and yours has started taking on a slower pace. 

4. They will start putting their arms around you in a protective gesture of love. At least my people do. They all come up to me a random times of the day and stand there with their arm around me looking down on me. I love it. I soak it up. What they say with their actions is more than words could ever say. 

Happy Girl

This is genuine happiness! Chloe could live on this farm. It's so amazing watching her with these huge beasts. She's not the least bit intimidated by them. You can tell she's in her sweet spot when she's out in the corral with the horses, tacking them up, and especially while riding. She's got a great sense of the horses and what they need or want or when they're in a bad or ornery mood. I love that Chloe has found her passion. Aunt Lou would be proud! And I especially love that the stables are so close to our house. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she ended up working here a few years from now. This is definitely Chloe's sweet spot.