Friday, July 18, 2008

Janell’s Missed Kodak Moments

You know those times when you’ve seen something wonderful and you say, “Gee, I wish I had my camera,” ? Here are a couple of Kodak Moments that I missed because I didn’t have my camera with me. Both involve my daughter Emily, because yesterday was her 23rd birthday. I would have put this up yesterday, but I was busy taking her out to eat at Olive Garden and buying her birthday present at Borders.

Emily was my primary horseback riding partner through her teen years. She had a horse named Jasmine and I rode on Bubba. (Jasmine was his mother.) Since Jasmine was the Girl in Charge, they usually walked in front of us for the first 5 minutes or so of our ride. I remember watching them from behind and admiring the way Emily looked in the saddle and the way Jasmine’s tail would swish around. When she rode, Emily usually put her long hair in a single braid and it hung down the middle of her back. Sometimes she’d sing. One of the songs I remember that she liked was by Jamie Oneal and the chorus went;
“When I think about rain, I think about singing
When I think about singing it’s a Heavenly tune
When I think about heaven, I think about angels
When I think about angels, I think about you.”
She was singing that tune one winter day when we went for a ride in the snow. Oh, it was a beautiful picture: It was in the late Spring, the snow was fresh and clean and the sky was a pure cobalt blue. I was listening to her sing and wasn’t really paying attention to where we were going and all of a sudden, Bubba found himself up to his chest in snow. That was the day I learned how to stay on when he was leaping.
I remember a time in the late Fall we were galloping through the stubble of a bean field and her horse stumbled and went down to her knees on the front legs. Emily was thrown forward and I learned what “head over heels” looks like. She scrambled to her feet, got hold of her horse and the first words out of her mouth were, “Are you all right?” Whatta gal.
Most of the time our rides were peaceful and without incident. We tended to walk more than trot or gallop and that’s still the way I ride. We rode a path that followed a tiny creek that ran south from where we lived. We caught glimpses of a lot of wildlife on those rides: geese, ducks, foxes, coyotes, deer, pheasants. And, once in a while, we could hear a beaver splash into the water by a grove a trees at one point on the creek, but we never did see one. We could always track the progress of their work on a dam until one year in August, we got 11 inches of rain in about 2 hours and that was the end of the dam.

She doesn’t ride with me very often anymore and she wears her hair too short for a braid. I’ll always regret not taking the time to get a picture of that. I guess I’ll have to store it in my mind.

11 comments:

Jim said...

Hi Janell. I thought I would make a blog post of 'pictures I didn't take.' Yours is excellent!

Saturday our Karen is 33. Her husband, Billy is having a 'surprise party' for her which isn't a surprise in itself. There may be a few surprises though.
I will take a camera.
..

Mary Connealy said...

That's a beautiful picture made of words.

Happy birthday, Emily

Scarlet said...

Since I can fully relate to moments I missed in my childhood, this post made me kind of sad. I like your last line. The memory holds a lot of pictures. ;)

LaDawn said...

A beautiful post....can hardly wait to see Emily (and the rest of the family)!

Brooke said...

Happy Birthday Emily!

Let me know what is up for the weekend! I will not be around a computer starting Thursday! I will need directions to your house. I will be coming from Tekamah. Also it will be 5 of us instead of 4. Mary and I both got the whole weekend off.

Please let me know what we can bring.

Jamie Dawn said...

You painted a very good word picture of Emily's long braid down her back and the sights you saw as you rode.
I hope Emily had a wonderful birthday. I haven't eaten at Olive Garden in a long time, and their breadsticks and salad sound really good right now!
I'm envisioning you on Bubba sunk down in all that deep snow. What a photo that would have been!!
I would have freaked out, but I can just see you being calm and getting through that situation without a problem.
I'm glad our ride at Cliff's farm was without incident.

Cliff said...

Ahhhh, that was a touching story. Thanks to you J.

Janell said...

Jim; I'm glad you're taking your camera to the party. 33? You must have been 10 or so when she was born. I think we could all create a blog of "pictures we didn't take."

Thanks, Mary.

Scarlet; sometimes I think "insufficient memory at this time..." I wonder how many "pictures" I've deleted to make room for the new ones?

LaDawn; We are so excited for your visit!

Brooke; I'll be sending out an email with directions. The only thing you need to bring is lawn chairs.

Jamie Dawn; That was a nice ride at Cliff's, wasn't it? You wouldn't have freaked out leaping through the snow - there usually isn't time for that!

Thanks, Cliff. You're my inspiration.

Rachel said...

What wonderful memories!

Paul Nichols said...

I know the feeling.

nora leona said...

Happy Birthday to Emily. I loved reading about your relationship. How wonderful that you two had the great gift of riding and alone time together.