Happy Survive-the-inlaws Giving!

Well, I'm fixing to leave on a marathon trip to the in-laws. First stop, Paris, Texas.. 400 miles away. We'll celebrate Thanksgiving with the in laws there. Then on to Kansas for a wedding vow renewal, another 300 miles away. Happy 50th anniversary to my husband's grandparents! THEN, we get to drive 514 miles back home, where I will no doubt collapse from an overload of in laws, football, turkey, and 3 screaming and tired children. Wish me luck.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there!

Playing Catch Up

Well, it's been a century since I've posted last! Things got quite insane there for a while and now I've slowed down just a moment to update all... 7 of you that may or may not read this.

Item#1. We have sold John, the project. We are sad to see him leave, but hopefully, he can have a productive career in another home.

Item #2: I am now part of the American workforce, of which I am not real happy about. I work in an internet help desk. There I get all sorts of pissed off people who either know more about their problem than I know about fixing it or people who seriously have no clue where the start button is. It's a job, and for that I am thankful. However, if money fell from the sky, the world would be a happier place.

Item #3: The boys are growing up quite nicely. Their pictures are at the top. I don't believe they'll be ready to even begin starting as two year olds, but they really have mellowed out and become great little pocket ponies.

Item #4: Keno is very sick. He lost a TON of weight and quit eating for a while. He's probably dropped 100 pounds or more and looks like a skeleton. We moved him in with the boys and he started eating about 3-4 days later. I'm happy to say that he's feeling good enough to run the boys off his food now without me having to pen him up separately. Hopefully, he'll turn around and be over whatever mystery illness he came down with.

Item #5: It's my son's 4th birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Little Man!!

Random thoughts: Anyone ever roped a cow and had it lay down and refuse to move afterwards? Ours does.. touch him with a rope and he acts like a fainting goat! It really is quite annoying. He broke out of his pen this morning after an exhausting attempt to get him in there in the first place just yesterday. Driving him back to his pen was.. shall we say... a lesson in creativity. BTW, all this blabber about farm animals has pegged me the hick of the office. If they only knew..... :D

And the winner is......

ME!!!!

We just got Keno's blood test results in today. He is, in fact, a horny old gelding. What a relief! Hopefully, the mares won't go into season anymore this year. (Yea right!)

In other news, we had a fantastic Labor Day. My dad knows someone with a house on Buffalo Springs Lake. He gave us permission to use his place whenever we want. We got in for free and cooked out at his house. Hamburgers and hot dogs were delicious, as was the chips and dips, and don't forget the COOKIES!!! Man, the cookies were the best part!!!

The kids swam and then they guys and the kids went down to do the paddle boats. My mother and I stayed at the house with the baby. It was so peaceful. Nice cool breeze, tunes wafting in from various boats, the neighbors playing with their kids, and the fish jumping high in the air. It doesn't get much better than that! Well, back to the grind. I should have a training update on John soon! Stay tuned!

Happy Trails

toooo ME! So, for the first time in a month, we rode!!! YAY! Since it had been awhile, I made my husband be the crash test dummy. I wanted to ride Keno, and given his behavior yesterday, I wasn't about to just jump on.

I can hear you all now. Behavior? What behavior? Oh yes, I forgot to blog this. My little cranky gelding has been breeding my mares. His blood test is pending, and for his sake, I hope he's just a horny old man. No frankenbabies for us. Anyway, he went in for his blood test yesterday and went completely nuts. Dallas, who is in heat, went TWICE as nuts and into the batshit crazy zone. So, we decided not to ride yesterday.

Today, they were less crazy so we gave it a shot. Keno was a bit snotty at first. However, hubby put him on a cow and it was like the light flickered on. He LOVES chasing the cows. YAY COW! He got some zip in his step and seemed extremely grateful. Afterward, he was very very tired. Time for me to ride! Okay, so it sounds bad, but I only walk so it's good he wasn't fresh.

Then we saddled up Blondy. We were told that she doesn't tie, but.. she fell asleep tied while hubby was working Keno. Anyway, she saddled without a flinch. Riding, however, was another subject. She's as sound as she could possibly be and we couldn't be prouder. We almost cried watching her move out. No ouchiness at all! However, going forward was OUT OF THE QUESTION. As was turning. Or backing up. She almost fell over sideways, but eventually she learned that he wasn't about to let her weasel out of it.

And, we strolled around the pasture without a hitch. Although Keno was insistant that we stop and go see his lady. Or.. stop. And Dallas was delerious with lust. She broke down the coral to get to us. Came RUNNING straight at us, and then bucked. I bailed. She turned and winked. And peed. And winked. Ugh. So, we decided to go down the block.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. So pleasant, except for the constant screaming. How DARE we seperate the herd. And HORSES! Look mom, other horses. But, no one protested. They both did splendedly and we turned back when they started getting tender. It isn't easy to go from a flat dirt pasture to asphalt and rocks and hills. Blondy got a bath, they both got treats, everyone got hay, and the world was pleasant once more.

We like it so much, we might just do it again next week! Oh, and gaited horses ROCK!

I'm skinny

Ok, so not skinny like I can fit into a zero (BTW, I have NEVER been able to wear a zero) but skinnier than I have been in almost 5 years! WOOT! Before I was pregnant with my first son, I weighed in between 160 and 165, always up and down but never more than 5 pounds. After pregnancy, I lost down to 175 and I got stuck. Then, slooooowly I creeped up to 185 and said THIS IS ENOUGH. I starved myself, ate nothing but salads for 2 weeks, worked out every day (even if it was just a walk). I felt horrible, hungry, tired, and weak, but I lost 10 lbs in those 2 weeks!

Then I found out I was pregnant AGAIN. Grrrr. I gained that first 5 in a week. Then I gained all the way up to 216 even though I promised myself I wouldn't gain more than 25 lbs. For all the math challenged, that's 41 lbs. Weight management FAIL. I've never gained less than 40 lbs with a pregnancy. Now I know what your thinking. YOU WERE PREGNANT. Yea, I was pregnant, but you seriously don't need to take in any extra calories until you start breastfeeding.

So, after the birth of the baby, I immediately dropped 20 lbs! Then, I was back down to 183 in 2 weeks. Yep, 33 lbs gone. But for 3 months, I hadn't lost ONE pound. Not one. Then one day, I stepped on the scale and I weighed 175! I was sooo excited. I started eating less, taking walks, exercising, drinking just water and I gained ALL of that back. Right back up to 183. Soooo frustrating.

I thew my hands up in disgust and said the hell with it! I'll just be fat. I still walked. I still exercised some. But I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I drank tons of cokes. I stepped on the scale this morning. 173 BABY!!! I guess the key is to not trick your body into thinking it's starving. The metabolism slows down and your body leaches all fat to preserve itself.

So, that's my brag for the year. Cookies for everyone!!!!!!

Projects, Projects, and MORE Projects

So, just like the title says, I've lost my ever loving mind! With the nearing of school, and the possibility of only two children at home at a time, I've decided to do "spring cleaning"... which turns more into late summer cleaning, and then eventually fall cleaning before I throw my hands up and scream. So far, 3 trash bags down, 7 rooms to go. I only have 8 rooms. WHY do I have so much CRAP?


So, for project #2, I spoke of him before. Big John is now catch able, but just barely. You can, however, walk up halter less and pet him all over. Such a lovable goof, but knee issues, switching children who are staying with grandparents, and the crazy 4 on 4 off schedule haven't allowed for a first ride yet. He is a quick learner though and only give the "leave me alone" face when cinching him up. BTW, we FINALLY moved the hot wire. The horses can now stuff their faces with all the grass, careless weeds, and occasional branch of wild alfalfa they can stand.


Project #3, is to get the boys started with ground manners up to saddling. We figure, the earlier they learn all of that, the easier it will be when it does come time for that first ride. They won't be started until AT LEAST next year, maybe the year after that, but learning everything else won't kill them. Timber is coming along nicely though. We can catch him easily, and while he's still a bit skinny and skittish, he's a love.

FINALLY, project #4 is a cookbook!! NO, I'm not a great cook, nor do I love laboring over a hot stove to produce a gourmet meal 3 times a day. However, I AM sick and tired of losing my index cards with my favorite recipes on them. My Memaw isn't alive anymore to write them down again for me, and my mother isn't too pleased that I call her in a panic trying to find them either.. So, I'll have a collection of our favorite recipes color coded, indexed, referenced, and imaged so I won't have to lose anything else, or spend half an hour flipping through our 300 or so cookbooks trying to find one that sounds good.

So, off I go. To play with the baby, finish my homework, clean my house, complete my project, and slowly go insane. Take care!

When the going gets tough

the tough.... get a new horse. Well, he's more of an old horse coming back home. Okay, so a young horse coming back home. GAH.. so proper. :D

We bought Blondy and Timber from a breeder for the price of a breeding. Looooooooooong story short, Blondy was a owner relinquish for breeding fees. We bought them last summer when Timber was only 2 months old. It was a win-win really. Blondy was going to become our riding horse, and Timber was a terrific weaning buddy for our other colt.

We decided to sell Timber to a family member for his daughter. They were so excited and we were still going to help them with him. (worming, trimming, shots, etc) They've had him for 8 months now. He's started acting like a pain in the ass stud and it's waaaaay too hot to geld him, so they just gave him back to us. So, now he's in our pen... geting the crap beat out of him by Keno the grumpy old cuss. We're looking forward to having him around. He's always been a great little guy.

In other news, we now have hay to sell (anyone want some alfalfa?). We have a broken hotwire to repair. We have fences to move (so that broken hotwire isn't actually the end of the world). And... we still have a colt to break because hubby's knee gave out last week. Back to the trudge through life.........