Sunday, April 25, 2010

Disclaimer

I have had a complaint recently as to the content of my blog being "disrespectful". I just wanted to note to those who are reading that this is a private blog where I share my thoughts and opinions on things going on in my life. This means that I will most likely embellish for effect, and offend on occasion. As this is a country where free speech is protected I will neither apologize nor retract anything posted here. If you don't like my opinions or comments DON'T READ MY BLOG. Aaahhhh. That feels much better.


As you can guess there is some chaos in my life right now. No need to bore you with details but lawyers are involved. Cody and I both have lawyers now. It's awesome. Can hardly make rent and feed ourselves and having to pay attorneys. Nice.


I do have some good tidings to share also. We are now back in fish. Morgan previously had a small, neglected tank of guppies and Cory cats that we moved from her room into our bedroom when we were doing furniture changes. It was in need of a new hood but as it was beyond ancient I couldn't find one to fit. When we originally moved into the house some neighbors gave us a 55 gallon tank and stand that they no longer used. We had thrown around the idea of using it for a snake cage but I finally decided that I wanted fish in it. I moved it into Cody's office in front of the window and set it up. We are all now huge fish tank fans again including Paxton. Cody wanted Neon Tetras so we got 10. Morgan wanted Snails so we got 3. I wanted Kribensis so we got a pair. We all decided we wanted more Cory Cats so we got 2 more. We have plans for 6 Glofish and about 5-10 more Neons. We all spend at least a half hour daily just sitting in front of the tank mesmerized.



A few days after setting up the 55 Cody had another neighbor offer us a 29 gallon tank. We accepted it and now have this one set-up in our bedroom in place of the old 29. I have African Cichlids in this one. Today Max just noticed the fish in the tank and started growling at them. Too funny!

Morgan is a little bike riding fiend and meets her friends before school to ride in mass. She often ditches us after school to play with these friends though when Cody got an early release of Avatar she did have the girls come over to watch it. She was the coolest kid in school that week! She is still doing very well in spelling and math and is progressing in reading (finally) so school has turned into not such a traumatic affair.

My friend Christine and I have been working diligently with Annie and have made significant progress. She is moving well under saddle and is now being ridden over small jumps by Christine. She's so sweet and pretty and really likes jumping. This makes both Christine and I very happy!


Spring is here and the trees and bulbs are blooming. We've had two wet snowstorms and two hailstorms with our first tornado thrown in the mix early this year. In another two weeks I should have Lilacs in my backyard again and Cody sprinkled the entire backyard with wildflower seeds so I am hoping to have lovely pictures for you all in Summer!

Cody is working and I have a new job at a Dressage barn grooming and working with the baby horses. Now if I can just get through school life will be grand!

I made a new video and tried to post it but it is 15 minutes long and was rejected by YouTube so you all will just have to be patient and wait until I can re size it for the blog. Bummer too as the HQ version was NICE! Toodles!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Tripping on Lactic Acid

I have been on break from school for the last two weeks. In that time I have ridden Annie A LOT. Because of that as I sit here typing my legs are SCREAMING. Annie is starting to progress very nicely and I have been holding my own but suddenly over the last three or four days everything has been catching up. Pain. Much searing pain. I think my legs are trying to leave me a join up with a body that is less determined to be active again. It sure feals that way. (Ouch. Ouch again.)

Annie has been clipped as some friends have been riding her and the workouts are actually turning into workouts. She seems to like her new haircut and is still enjoying her deluxe accommodations in the barn. She is already starting to look show worthy and if I can manage to recover financially I might be able to go to one or two this summer. I hope so as I'd really like to start showing her off to more than just the folks at the barn.

I start school again tomorrow. Ugh. Very close now though. One more quarter after this and then internship! Then I can resume a real live life! Job, income, insurance... aaahhhh. Dreams! For now, I am looking at getting a PT job in fast food or something similar. A few nights a week just to keep ends meeting. Work has been steady and increasing for Cody which is beyond a relief. I miss the carriages but not the issues and still hope to buy the company. I KNOW I can run it better than Marie. Just a matter of getting through school, getting income, and then getting a business loan. Hopefully some property also. I am starting to get antsy about the future. I can "see" it ahead of me and don't want to wait for it anymore. Argh. :/

Last but not least I am including YouTube links of Annie videos. In the videos are: Jason, the handsome 30ish cowboy carriage driver and one of those nearly perfect people that if you didn't like so much you'd want to kill them, Christine, the 20 something cute former Texan who so sweetly risked her life to keep Mozart from killing us, our passengers, and the carriage this winter not to mention she rides show jumpers, and other horses worth 6 figures or more, and also one of me. Annie has turned into a spectacular horse. I am hoping to show her in some rated shows in a few years and maybe even some Hunter Derby's in the long future. I also still plan on teaching her to drive.

Well, here are the videos!!

Jason:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HughlGhPncg


Christine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL9PWoHJuMw


Christine taking Annie over a tiny cross rail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNy5H1iJgJU


Me, suffering through pain and weakness brought on through years of inactivity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HGCzfD007M






This pic is very grainy as it was in the indoor arena late at night but Annie is moving SO well in it!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Later

Well, this is a little long in coming but here is another video. It is of an Art Show that we saw in February. Our friend Beth is an artist and one of her drawings was in the show and won Judge's choice. It was a lot of fun, except that I wore bad shoes. This was eventually resolved by a trip to Walgreen's. All the details are in the video!

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com