June's a Month to Remember

June has been an extremely busy, yet exciting month. My current course at SMU requires a lot of time to read and complete case studies (which keeps me from writing), but June is also the month of our World Championship horse shows. This is plural because Scout is double registered with the Pinto Horse Association of America and the American Paint Horse Association.

On June 17, we drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the Pinto World Show. I'm pleased and excited to report that we came back to Texas as the Amateur Jr. Reining World Champions. Ever since I was a kid, I've dreamed of winning a world show belt buckle. I owe a huge thanks to trainer and coach Johnny Morton. To add to the success, Johnny finished 3rd in the Pro Reining (out of a very large class) and third in the Pro Working Cow Horse.

We are preparing to compete in Fort Worth at the World Championship Paint Horse Show on Wednesday and Thursday this week, and then take a long break!

In the midst of the hectic schedules, we bought a house last week. We are really excited about our upcoming move (about 15 minutes west of our current location in Fort Worth). Most exciting of all, when we are ready we'll have the land and facilities to keep Scout at home!

Procrastination...

My second class at SMU is a Manufacturing Innovation Management course. It sounds interesting on paper, but in reality it is not. Mainly because both required texts are practically written in the King's English. A class mate described it well when he mentioned he thought Yoda served as a ghost writer...seriously.

In lieu of completing my 'suggested' reading assignments this term, I opted to read two books 'for fun' that I couldn't put down. I finished Pillars of the Earth in late April. I heard a lot of hype about the book (originally published over 20 years ago...but Oprah has her way with selling things..) Needless to say, Pillars was great and the characters truly come to life as you sink further into the story. This is particularly true of the villain, William Hamleigh. I still think about his ruthless ways when my mind wanders.



Several friends recommended The Help recently, and it just so happened to be the next book selected for my book club (which I skipped the last 2 times). So, what better time to start reading than now...?? I just finished last night, and loved the story. If you have read both books, am I venturing too far to say Hilly is the modern day female version of a William Hamleigh?