"Winning!!!"

So tonight was the big night.  I got all gussied up and so did my husband we scraped together a babysitter and were on our way down to Indiana Downs for the IEA awards banquet. 

It was SO great to see many familiar faces and within a few minutes a dear friend and my adopted show mom greeted me with hugs and smiles and even a gift.  Such love in this group of people and it is so cool.  Sat down with another sweet friend and enjoyed a great night with great conversation, great food and an all around great time.  I am so glad to be able to have an organization like the IEA to be involved with.  They really promote and make things happen in Eventing in my state and I am lucky to get to stick around and learn from some of these great folk.  I think my husband's eye glazed over about halfway through the evening but he was a trooper.  He resisted going down the casino downs stairs for 'almost' the entire night.  The meeting was actually quick and to the point so it was all said and done before 9pm.  Though I stayed and chatted for quite a bit longer than that.  I really enjoyed the night.


OK OK I will get to the part you really want to hear about, what was this said 'award'?  Well the first awards they handed out were for the IEA scholarship.  They awarded the Jr. and then they said there was a tie for the adult scholarship so they decided to just give two away this year.  They called the first name and then the second.  Well the second just happened to be MY name!!!!  Yup I won a $500 scholarship to use toward my education in the sport of eventing!!  Pretty frickin' awesome!  In order to be eligible for the scholarship you have to be a member of the IEA and to have completed a minimum number of volunteer hours.  I did send in my application for it and of course hoped and prayed I would win but didn't expect to.  I am honored, excited and humbled to be picked because I know there are alot of deserving people who applied.  A big thanks to IEA!  You really make Indiana a great state to Event in!

CHEESE!

Now my little mind is a turnin' to figure out the best way to spend it.  At dinner a little birdy whispered the name "WOFFORD" in my ear and said something like he is coming to HHP this year.  Well I tell you that is definitely a very viable option for some of my scholarship to be well spent.   hmmmm so many options but all I know is it will be a little easier this year to swing more training.  Look out world here comes Amy and The Big Lebowski!!

With the scholarship check and Smurfett, my gift from my adopted show Mom :)