Tuesday June 21, 2005

I had a (as Tony the Tiger would say) GRrrreat day! The great part was when I went riding. I went about 7pm as it was cooler. On the ride I saw an armadillo, and my most favorite thing....a deer! I was just in awe! It was so awesome to see and I know that my heavenly Father provided that moment in time just for me because He knows how much I enjoy watching deer! Then to top things off I got to see the most beautiful sunset! God is so good! I really sensed His nearness during my ride! It was way cool!

Well I told one of my Xanga buddies I would tell a little history about me tonight so here goes.

I was born to Warren and Nancy Stephens. We lived in a rural farming community called Cowgill, Missouri population 232. The nearest hospital was 30 miles away. When my parents first married they lived in an old farm house that had 4 rooms and a path! (yep, no bathroom, just an outhouse!) When it was time for me to be born, my dad was in the field as he was a farmer by trade. It was about 4am and mother was flipping the yard light to get my dad's attention! Not long after I was born we moved to a larger farm house that was two story. That's where we lived until we moved to Texas (more on why that happened in another post). I was the only child until I was six when my brother "John Wayne" (no we didn't name him after the movie star - John runs in the family) was born. We call him "Wayne".

As long as I can remember I have loved horses. My parents bought me one of those spring horses when I
was about 18months old. Mom said I never got off it. Many times I would fall asleep on it. 

I'm not sure how old I was when I got my first model "Breyer" horse . I still have it less 4 legs! I was a little rough on it. When I started school the teacher was worried about me because at recess I would get down on my hands and knees and pretend I was a horse! When we would take trips in the car I would look out the window and pretend that I was riding a horse running alongside the car. I would also count how many horses I actually saw as we were driving. We had some neighbors about a mile up the road who had some horses and they are the ones who taught me how to ride (on a shetland pony). I have concluded that if you can ride a shetland pony you can ride anything! The little pony scrapped my leg going around a tree, took me under the clothes line and anything else it could think of but I would stay on!

I got my first horse when I was nine. (I'm 12 in this picture. I spent the summer mowing lawns to raise the money and bought "Billy" a black and white paint Welch pony.

Well, I have lots more to tell but I'll save that for another post.

I'll close for tonight. If you want to know more about me tune in tomorrow for "chapter 2".