No clever title

Hello all,
It's been a bit busy lately. I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've blogged, but here I am now. Where to begin? I don't honestly know.
I'm sitting here with my leg up and my knee wrapped, sipping a little rum and hoping for some relief. I have done nothing specific except grow old. I think the 3 flights of stairs in the new villa and my recent horseback riding has simply caused it to retaliate. I don't have time to be laid up....I have teaching and riding to do! But, fortunately, there is a 10 day Eid holiday coming up that will hopefully allow me some rest AND some fun!
To fill you in, we have been looking at a couple of affordable horses (at least in terms of easy terms!). I posted a few photos on Facebook of both of them and will put one here on my blog. It's hard to decide between the two and there is still the possibility that we may end up with both in the long run, but for the meantime, I am claiming ownership of a sweet little grey gelding named Esteem. I don't have the particulars of his breeding as of yet, but I realized yesterday that it doesn't matter. He is a very fun horse to ride, very much like my daughter's horse, Max, the one Mykayla started riding last summer. He is sure footed and a little lazy, but he can hit a road trot at about 25 km/hour and never miss a beat. We had the best ride last night. I came home and posted this on my Facebook wall last night:
Maggie Mieske is thankful for rusty clouds and lusty insects singing at sunset, doves cooing and flapping madly in the trees above her horse's head, peacocks flying to roost, the desert breeze rustling the fronds of the date palms on either side....for the horse who never flinches, never shies, and the dusty view of the trail ahead between his ears.
He inspires the most awesome emotions in me. If I can sort out this trouble with my knee, I would very much like to ride him in the 60 km endurance ride on December 18th (assuming they don't push back the date again...it was the 4th, then the 11th, now the 18th). It's all good though because it gives me more time to heal. The funny thing is that my knee doesn't really hurt when I'm riding, nor when I am walking, especially after I'm warmed up a bit. But it stiffens and gets hard to use if I have to sit in the car, or anywhere else, very long (it's 40-60 minutes to the farm depending on traffic so that's a problem). I'm using a cold spray on it, ice packs, and today I'm trying some peppermint. I am afraid I am going to have to go to the clinic on Saturday or Sunday and see if they can help me. I do recall last year when I came off Hattan that they gave me an injection that really helped.
Another physically and mentally exhausting element of our life lately is negotiating this horseshoeing business. We have a couple of people who are serious about going into business with Nelson. One would like something exclusive (meaning Nelson couldn't shoe elsewhere) and one is just slow in coming through. We've worked up a business proposal and there is a lot of potential for Nelson to do a lot of good for the horses in this country and perhaps make some money on which we could someday retire. It's just hard waiting and thinking so much about the whole thing. Only Peggy and her daughters seem to be the ones looking out for Nelson's health, and they have been instrumental in getting Nelson started and his work seen, and in talking him up. As Peggy says, he's the "specialist." :) Sounds like a TV series! I still call him The Miracle Worker! So, please pray for him that he finds the right situation, where he can do the most good, and will be happy with what he does. I am really lucky that I love my job so much, and it's getting better and better every semester for me as I gain experience and know my students better. Nelson has not had the benefit of that satisfaction and happiness since we left and he needs it again. Our proposal involves apprentices and helpers (maybe bringing Joey over to be his right hand man if they can get along), and lots of other kinds of activities and ideas that might not only be fun, but bring in money to the business. Wish us luck!
What else? My flowers are doing fantastic! Betty Boog (as we call the bouganvillea that almost died) is growing like crazy! I'll try to get photos of her this weekend to put on Facebook. I'm currently trying to get my morning glories to climb the column by the porch. We can't wait to be able to afford more trees and shrubs.
We did find turkey for Thanksgiving and have a special guest coming, we hope, but whose identity I am not at liberty to divulge right now. We haven't had the time or money to have our "villa cooling" party (as opposed to house warming....Nelson's idea, hahaha!) yet, but hope to have a combination Thanksgiving/Christmas/villa cooling party in December. I hope we will still be able to have turkey. We also found a product that tastes like Miracle Whip at Lulu Market and they are supposed to carry Miracle Whip, too, but are currently out. I am sooo happy!
All in all, things are going well. They would go better if we could catch up on some rest, I think. Please keep in touch and we hope to hear from you soon!