Lady in Waiting

lights!

2008-10-07T21:25:00.003-04:00

Well, our house passed the final inspection (at least, I hope that's the last one!) today and we got the power turned on! Yay! Paul said I can officially move in now. I don't see that happening quite yet. We've still got some major work to do, but its okay.

I'm headed to the mountains this weekend! I haven't been since Paul took me in '06. His family goes on a trip every year to the mountains, and this year they've invited me to come along. I'm so excited about it. We're leaving Friday and coming back Monday. Which is longer than I usually get to go on vacation, so that's nice.

I rode Junior again on Sunday for about 10 minutes. Again, he was okay. I also rode Sunshine for a little while on Saturday. Unfortunately, I rode her through the corn field that they've just harvested and the cut stalks peeled off her scab and made her leg bleed again. But it looks okay now. Of course, I haven't had time to ride either of them since then. Hopefully I'll be able to ride some this week. We'll see.

I had a quiz tonight, I have homework due tomorrow, a midterm exam on Thursday (pray for that one), and an exam on Friday. Whew. This week sucks for school!

reflection

2008-10-02T17:57:00.003-04:00

I wonder if life ever slows down? Ha. Doubt it. I don't remember a time when I didn't have a zillion things going on at once. Sometimes I like it, even thrive on it, and sometimes I'm just so tired. Right now, I'm okay with it all, I'm just in a reflective mood.

You know, God really does work in mysterious ways. I know everyone knows that, but its always a fresh feeling when something happens to me and I just know it's His doing. Even if its something hard. Hey, maybe my New Year's resolution to be more positive is working.

The girl I was the closest to at work - probably even the closest to period - and I are not speaking, and haven't been for a week now. It's a long story, but she's been acting wierd lately - well, not wierd, just all her bad qualities have been amplified somehow - and has been really mean lately. To my knowledge, nothing is going on to have her acting like this, though she does tend to be a pretty private person. So who knows. But I really did think we were good friends. Well, last week, she said something really hateful to me. It really hurt my feelings and ticked me off once I thought about it. I made it known how I felt about what she said, but she doesn't seem to care. She's one of those people who thinks she's like over everyone else, and it's her way or the highway (but at the same time, she lacks self-confidence and is very sensitive - she's a study of contradictions). So she's ticked that I'm not bowing down to her or coming crawling back to her, licking my wounds like a little puppy. Sorry, I'm not like that. I'm standing up to her, even if no one else is. There's a whole lot more to it, and this probably makes me sound like the bad guy. But everyone is on my side.

It's hard not talking to her anymore, especially since we're together 8-9 hours every day in a small room. But she's suddenly finding things to do in other rooms, which is fine with me. It's hard, but I've noticed some positive effects as well. I'm actually calming down, little things are not getting to me like they used to. Maybe since I don't have someone right there to complain about every little thing, I'm not dwelling on those things anymore. Or maybe she just brings out that bad quality in me. I don't know. I haven't felt inclined to talk junk about people like we used to do all the time. There's several little things like that that I just don't feel the need to do anymore. So even though its hard, its been kind of good. So maybe God made this happen because I needed a change? Maybe. Either way, I'm okay with it all. Luckily, I have other friends.

Paul and I just made a new couple-friend last weekend. Finally! So maybe we can do things as a group sometimes. ( :

Alright, that's enough. Crystal, I may be coming to Raleigh on Sunday. If I do, I'll call you! (My friend Mart-Marshall is getting a horse on trial and wants me to go up and ride him.)

falling

2008-09-22T20:50:00.002-04:00

Once again, my computer crashed. And once again, it had to be completely wiped out and I had to start from scratch. I still haven't had the chance to upload all the programs I normally use. I don't know why I have such bad luck with computers. These things are supposed to happen to people who visit porno sites and things like that, not people like me who pretty much just use the computer for school. Grr.

Still don't really have a horse to ride. I rode Wiley once last week and he was AWESOME. Such a smart pony. But of course I haven't had a chance to ride him since. I don't know what I'd do if I was teaching lessons right now. I hopped on Junior for 10 minutes last Monday, and he was fine, but again, I haven't had a chance to get back on him. Maybe sometime this week... Sunshine's leg is FINALLY starting to look better, though its still swollen and looks pretty gross. The other day was the first time I've actually seen real improvement in it. I don't want to ride her until that pastern is the same size as the other ones, though.

We're making progress on the house. We finally passed inspection (2nd time around), and are now working on putting up underpenning. Once that's done we'll have a final inspection and then we can have power! We're getting close.

This might be it for a few more days. This is shaping up to be another busy week, as usual. And my friend is getting married on Saturday. I'm the maid of honor, so I'm sure things will be crazy for me starting on Friday. Sunday Paul and I are heading to Bentonville Battlefield to have our engagement pictures taken. I can't wait to see those! My photographer is awesome. Google Erica Letchworth Photography and see some of her work. She's really talented.

all quiet

2008-09-07T22:28:00.003-04:00

Kind of a blah weekend. Didn't do much, only got some school work accomplished. That's about it. I hate it when I don't get stuff accomplished over a weekend.

I did go se my brother's band (Presence - myspace.com/kevogams) play Saturday night. They're really good. I have no horses that are rideable at the moment, so none of that this weekend. Well, I guess you could say Wiley's rideable, but thats definitely not a fun ride. Or even a productive one, usually! Sunshine's leg is getting better, but it still looks gross. I need to take new pictures. Juni'r is healing nicely, no swelling anymore. I've been watching him, I may try to get on him and just walk sometime this week, see how he goes. I think I'll give Sunshine another week off. That should be long enough to get a little skin over that wound. Maybe.

See? Not much to report. Oh, the house failed inspection Thursday, but we expected that. Not many houses pass the first time. And most of what was wrong wasn't even our fault (the mover's fault). So we're good.

Ya'll pray for me this week. I have a HUGE homework set due, a quiz, and an exam. Which I JUST found out needs to be proctored. Yikes. This week will suck.

my oh my

2008-09-02T19:50:00.007-04:00

Had the vet out again today. I'm glad I did. He was not pleased with Sunshine's wound. He cut the flap of skin off, washed it again, and said she's good to go. Thankfully, he only charged me the mileage this time - bless him. So, it looks nasty, but it should heel just fine. I also noticed today that its swollen. Poor baby.

Junior's wound looks a lot better, though he's still a little swollen. It has gone down to just around the fetlock area, though, and it's not that noticeable. I hosed it down after the vet left and looked at it later, and it looks even less swollen. Finally, something's going okay. (Better knock on wood - they could both get infected tomorrow!!)

And finally, Wiley. I rode him today. He is so smart. He tries to hard to please me, its so cute. I took him out in the little pasture so he'd have room, and that helped. He was very forward in his walk, and was eager to trot, though we didn't do much of that. We mostly worked on his brakes and steering. Brakes are getting better and better, I'm so proud. I was quite pleased with the whole ride today, actually. He's starting to understand what I mean when I use the reins and my legs to steer him. We'll work towards using just the legs to move around, but we're doin okay for now. I hope I don't screw him up. This is my first time training one from scratch by myself. And I have minimal experience even helping train a youngster. I think I'm doin okay, though. It'll just take about a year longer than if anyone else had done it!

And now, without further ado, some pictures:

Sunshine's leg, before and after the vet today. (Some of that is blood but some of it is Scarlett Oil.)

Junior's leg. See, it's not that bad compared to Sunshine's.

And finally, my handsome little man! He's growing into a lovely pony, huh?

no subject

2008-09-01T22:03:00.002-04:00

Junior's leg looks better today. It's still slightly swollen, but at least it's improved. I'm continuing to cold-hose it several times a day, and I really think that's helping. Of course, tomorrow I go back to work so he'll only get it in the morning (if I'm lucky and not running late, as I usually am) and in the evening. Better than nothing, I guess.

Of course, I may have the vet look at him tomorrow anyway. That's right, Sunshine's leg looks like crap today. I took her bandage off (he said leave it on a week) and wow. Not pretty. I think the vet needs to come out and cut the flap of skin off so new skin can grow over it. I'm not sure it's gonna heal like it is right now. It bothers her, too, though it's not swollen or hot. I'm going to make a decision in the morning. I hate to miss work again, and I really don't have much money to be playing with, but I don't want my horses to be lame, either. *sigh*

you drive me crazy

2008-08-30T23:09:00.002-04:00

My horses are, I think, trying to see exactly how much I can take before I crack. Got up this morning, fence is down again (why doesn't it shock them like it shocks me?!), Junior's got a cut on his right hind leg, on the cannon bone. I go back to look at it again after I feed them. The whole cannon and fetlock is swollen. Huge. Wonderful.

I gave him 2 grams of Bute and cold-hosed it. The cut's pretty clean, and I washed it with iodine to be sure. I hosed it 4 or 5 times today, and its finally going down some. Still swollen, but not nearly as bad as it was. It doesn't appear to be bothering him, though, so that's good. My horses are driving me crazy though!!

bad, horrible, no good day

2008-08-25T14:59:00.002-04:00

Well this day started off bad and has progressively gotten worse. Go figure.

I woke up this morning and went out to feed the horses. The fence around the little pasture (not the fence that keept them in, just the one that keeps the pastures seperated) was down. That's never good. Not sure what happened, cause it's on and it works. Anyway, I noticed Sunshine's left hind pastern was bleeding. Took a closer look and its a nasty, deep cut. Great.

I took her out and cleaned it up. There was a flap of skin/meat hanging from it and it was still bleeding. It's a vertical cut, how does she do that?? Anyway, Mama and even Daddy said I should call the vet, we were thinking she may need stitches and at the very least some antibiotics and a tetanus shot. I'm not playing around with wounds on my babies!

Obviously, I was late for work. Only 30 minutes, but I hate being late. I talked to my vet on his cell and he said to set up an appointment time with his staff at the office. So I called there and they weren't sure when he'd be able to get to my house. So I said just call me at least 30 minutes before so I can be there. It takes 30 minutes to get home from work, I told them.

Do you think they called me? NO! At 1:40 Dr. Martin called me and said he was in Mt. Olive - 10 minutes from my house! I said "your staff was supposed to tell me something and they never did, I hope you can wait 30 minutes." He wasn't happy, but what could I do? I hate making the vet or the farrier wait on me. It's rude. Even though it's not my fault.

So anyway. Sushine's cut wasn't as bad as we all thought it was. It's pretty deep, but it's clean and it's not affecting her as far as walking. He cleaned it up some more (after sedating her), put some gunk on it, bandaged it up tight, and gave her a tetanus shot and a shot of penicillin. Said to remove the bandage in a week and start putting scarlett oil on it every day. Unless it has flaps of skin on it, then he has to come back out and cut it clean. So let's all pray that it looks okay in a week!

Almost $200 for all that. Geez. Vets make a killing. So now I'm home from work early, missing out on over 3 hours of pay, and I have to cancel my lessons this week. I'm certainly not going to make her work with a hurt leg. Even if it doesn't really affect her gait. I bet that bandage rubs it some.

Oh, and I talked to Dr. Martin about Junior while he was here. He had another appointment so he didn't have time to look at Junior, but he seems to be convinced that Junior is a wobbler. Which is degenerative and incurable. Of course. He said the only way to know for sure what's goin on is to take him to State and do a full neuro work up on him. Who can afford that? Not me, that's for dang sure. I'm not sure what to do now. If only I had a fairy godmother...

Oh and then there's this whole stupid thing with my family. My cousin's pissed at me (again) because I have apparently been ignorning her (again). Now the whole family's involved and turned against me. Every time I think about it I get so mad. The whole this is just so stupid!

So, its been a bad day. And it'll get worse when Mama gets home and wants to "talk" about all this crap. :(

oh the joys..

2008-08-22T22:28:00.002-04:00

...of being in school again. Lucky for me, my boss has decided to let me take my lunch break at the lab and do school work. Last year that was a big to-do; they let me, then they un-let me. We'll see what happens on Monday when my boss' boss comes back! Hopefully things won't change and I won't have to leave work early like I was doing this spring. That makes for a really crappy paycheck, even crappier than it usually is!

Already in full swing with school, too, and it's only been 2 days! It's gonna be a tough semester, I'm afraid. But if grad school was easy, no one would do it, right?

Yesterday, I took Sunshine on a trail ride. All of my lessons got cancled this week. Go figure. I thought Sunshine would appreciate some time away from riding in the pasture. She did, but she was so spooky and tense. Didn't relax at all. Until we got back into the yard, that is. Then she marched right over to the apple tree, buried herself up to her withers in the branches (with me still on her back!) and managed to get an apple off a limb. It was hilarious.

Today, I worked with Wiley. I'm really gonna try to work with him more. He did pretty well. I lunged him for about 15 minutes, working on his response to my voice commands. He does great when I tell him to walk, trot, and woah on the lunge. We're even working on a reverse command. I got on him and then it was a different story. It's like he's not sure he's okay to be moving with me on his back. I have to practically plead with him to get him to walk. And steering? Forget about it! I'm hoping one day it'll just sink into his head. Hello! When I pull this rein and put pressure with this leg, it means go that way! He'll figure it out. I hope.

He's very calm, though. One time I forgot who I was riding and I asked him to walk, and when he didn't respond after a verbal cue, a cluck, and leg pressure, I kicked him pretty good. He didn't even flinch, much less walk off. Back to the crop next time. He responds to a light tap. I'm just scared I'll never be able to ride him without a crop if I start now. If I had some help, I could have someone lead me around on him and maybe it would be easier for him to understand things. But no one wants to help me. So I'm on my own. I'm determined to get this colt trained all by myself! He may never be a dressage pony, but he can at least be a good lesson and trail mount, dangit!

Have I mentioned how much I miss taking dressage lessons? I only had 2 or 3, but I learned so much and had so much fun. I remember that feeling when I got that wonderful canter out of Sunshine. We were doing so well. Now it's all gone since I'm using her for lessons. Sometimes I think about not teaching anymore right now, so I can concentrate on a horse for MYSELF and doing what I want to do on her. And so I can have more free evenings (and Saturdays when the time changes). And what in the world am I gonna do when the time changes and I have to teach all my lessons on Saturdays and I only have one usable horse?!

But then I remember how much I love teaching. It would just be so much easier if Junior was better. Or if I had another horse that was at least better at it than Sunshine. She's really just a one person horse. blah.

weekend update

2008-08-18T08:50:00.002-04:00

Well, school starts Wednesday, so my life will turn back to hell. Not really but it'll be even more busy than it is now. And I can hardly imagine being MORE busy! Oh well, it'll be fine, I'm sure.

Had a productive weekend, though I didn't get any riding done like I planned. I was at our house all day Saturday painting. Well, priming actually. I'm thinking of taking off Wednesday to paint. My goal is to get the living room done ASAP so we can get our furniture out of storage by the end of the month. Paul picked out the colors for the 3 bedrooms last night (I picked out the rest of the house colors), but I don't have plans to paint them right now. Well, the master bedroom will hopefully be finished in the next few weeks. The laundry room's almost done. I have one more coat of paint to do, then I have to work on the 2 cabinets in there. I'm actually having fun painting, but man its a lot of work.

Paul and I went to the beach Saturday night. It was so fun. That's the first time I've went anywhere since MAY. Wow. I really needed a break for a day. Back to the grindstone today, though.

quick update

2008-08-12T21:04:00.002-04:00

Not much to report lately. I've been busy, busy, busy, but nothing unusual. The house is coming along slowly. We still don't have power, or water. But Paul's working on it.

My riding students have been doing pretty well with Sunshine. She's still not happy about the whole being a lesson horse thing, but she's getting used to it. Junior doesn't appear to be any better. Last night I proposed the idea to one of my students of showing Junior in the halter show at the county fair this year. After her lesson on Sunshine we got Junior out and cleaned him up so she could practice some in-hand stuff with him. His back was very reactive to brushing and currying. He's not normally like that. I don't know what'd going on. He's had almost a month off already. I guess I'll just keep waiting a little longer, give him a little more time. I just tend to belive that if it's all stemming from poor saddle fit, it would go away or at least get better once he quit being ridden. I don't know.

It sucks having only 1 horse to ride, though. The other day I asked Paul to ride with me, but then I realized that he can't because Junior's on haitus right now. Wiley is no where near ready to be ridden off any where. I hardly have time to work with him. I lunged him Saturday but he wasn't that good, so I didn't get on him. I can't blame him, though, it's my fault. He's still a sweetie, though.

I think we've adopted another dog. She showed up at the house last night. I thought she was a cyote at first. I'll have to post a pic of her, I'm not sure what she's a mix of.

I've been taking Bella to obedience school for the past 8 weeks. She's like a different dog. She's improved so much. She's really one of the best ones in the class. I'm so proud of her! We graduate next week, and then I'm seriously considering going on to take the Canine Good Citizens test with her.

Anyway, that's all for now.

save the date

2008-08-04T21:28:00.003-04:00

I can't believe I forgot to post this! Paul and I finally set a wedding date! February 21, 2009. Mark it down, ladies and gents! (Crystal, Joy, I'll mail ya'll official invitations - even though Joy probably won't be able to come!)

I'm so excited. The house is almost ready for us to start workin on, it was moved Saturday with no major problems. Paul's preparing for all the under the house work; all I can think about is paint colors! And the wedding, of course. I've got wedding fever for sure. Especially after Paul's brother's wedding on Saturday. Anyway, that's all for now! ( :

we are (not) family

2008-08-02T08:40:00.003-04:00

I'm so upset with my family right now. Mainly Mama and Daddy. The whole family went yesterday to the beach and spent a fun day together. Everyone except me, that is. Why, you ask? It all started a few weeks ago.

The first time Paul and I went to my sister's house (she's who we bought our house from) to talk to her and her husband about the house, Mandy (my sister) asked us were we going to the "Family Fun Day" Daddy had planned. I told her I hadn't heard anything about a family fun day. She said Daddy wanted us to "bond" as a family and wanted to have a whole day together to do something fun. Apparently he was talking about going to Kings Dominion sometime in August. Paul said "well I hope it's not the first weekend in August because that's when my brother's getting married." So that was the last we heard about it, until this week.

Tuesday night Mama says to me, "are you goin with us Friday?" I said "where are we goin?" And she was like "the family fun day your daddy planned, Nikki!!" Like I've been told about it. I told her no one had said anything to me other than that night at Mandy's, and even then there were no concrete plans. She tried to argue with me, saying that yes they had told me. I told her there was no way we could go now because, a) it was too late to ask for the day off from work, and b) Paul's brother's rehearsal and dinner were that night. We had to be there at 6, so going anywhere far away that day would be a waste because we'd have to leave super early. Mama of course didn't care and said "well, we're all goin."

Later in the week, Mama asked me again were we going. Again, I reminded her about David's wedding. So off they went yesterday to the beach - my parents, both my sisters and their children, and my brother and his girlfriend (who is Paul's cousin). Everyone but me and Paul. Man, I was in a bad mood about it yesterday. I was pretty much over it until this morning.

Mama gets up and wants to show me the pictures she took of the dogs yesterday on the beach. I forgot that everyone else was there, so there I was looking at pictures of my WHOLE family having so much fun. Like I'm not even a part of the family. I'm so pissed. And now Mama's tellin Grandma about how I knew all about it as soon as everyone else did, and it's my own fault I couldn't go!!! Oh I gotta get out of here.

our land

2008-07-29T22:49:00.006-04:00

While I've got the camera out, I figured I'd post a few pics of our land. We took some "before" shots the other night so that years from now when our pastures are all fenced in differently and the house is up and everything looks different, we can remember how it started. I didn't get the pics until after the septic tank was put in but you get the idea of how it looked before.

This is what you see when you pull into our driveway (it's not done yet - I think eventually there'll be rocks down the whole thing).

This is a view of the pond - the house will sit behind the pond, which is to the left of this shot.

This is where the house will be! The septic tank is to the left, you can't see it in this pic.

And this is looking back towards the road from beside where the house will be.

Can you tell I'm excited about this?! ( : Oh, in the above shot, the cows are fenced in on the left side of the driveway (we put the fence up the next day after this pic was taken), and the horses will go on the right. Pretty good fescue goin on here. And Paul's gonna plant rye (I think) this winter. So I shouldn't have to worry about too much hay this winter - woohoo!

meet Mollie

2008-07-29T22:37:00.005-04:00

Today we added another addition to our family of pets. Meet Mollie, a rescued pound puppy. We think she's poodle and terrier. She's adorable. About 8 pounds or so, really small. She's pretty hyper, very affectionate, and whines a lot. I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories about her and Poppy in the days and weeks to come!She makes Poppy look like a giant doesn't she?!

day off

2008-07-25T10:32:00.002-04:00

I took a vacation day today. I needed one! Not that I'm doing much relaxing today; I'm about to get ready to go with Leslie to her bridal portraits. I'm doing her makeup and I'm kinda nervous about it. If I screw up, her pictures will look bad! Yikes!

I finally got to ride Sunshine today!! WooHoo!!! I was so excited. It's been nice and cool this morning, and just started getting humid about 30 minutes ago. She was SO good, much better than I expected her to be. After all, she hasn't been worked by me in several weeks. But it was like I just worked her yesterday. I was so happy. We both worked up a sweat but didn't have any arguments. We both need to loose some weight! (I tried on my wedding dress last night....couldn't get it to zip all the way - uh-oh! I knew I had gained a little weight, but dang! Ah well, I can drop weight pretty easily, I'm not too worried.) It was so nice to be on her again.

Today the septic tank is being put in at our land! And THAT means that we can move the trailer! (Can you tell I'm excited this morning?!) Paul's already got all the permits taken care of. All we have to do after the trailer is moved is do the plumbing and electrical work, then get it inspected. I'm really hoping we can move it this weekend, but I'm not holding my breath. Next Saturday is Paul's brother's wedding, so we'll be too busy to deal with the trailer then. But the point is, I'll be moving soon! It's getting closer every day. ( :

I think I've about decided to leave the horses here for a while. At least until my grass in the pasture dies. I've worked too hard to get it lookin so good, I don't want to waste it. I need to post pictures of it, it's impressive.

Anyway, I gotta go get ready - duty calls!

today

2008-07-19T23:22:00.002-04:00

Today was the best day I've had all week. I think what made it the best was the fact that I actually got to ride both Sunshine and Wiley. Finally. I also went to a barrel race - to see my cousin's boyfriend run - and took Bella, who was very well behaved. These obedience classes are awesome. I had to help Mama - or Rita as she insists I call her now (long story) - clean the house this morning, but Grandma came over and it's always nice when she visits. I clean a little, then go talk to Grandma a little.

I lunged Wiley first, as always. He walked 1 or 2 circles around the round pen then suddenly flipped out. Like I've never seen him do before. He bucked and bucked and bucked. I thought I'd never get him calmed down. Thank goodness I wasn't on him! The only thing I can figure is I had the reins attached to his bit that time, and I've never done that before. But dang. (I bought some new reins just for him today - my other ones were way too long for him.) When he finally calmed down, I took away the reins and he proceeded to lunge like a champ. Wierdo. We'll have to try that again - slowly - another day.

I got on him after a while and he fought me at first about which way to go. He understands the concept of me steering him with the reins, he just doesn't like it. After about 10 minutes I guess he decided I wasn't giving up, so he did. Then he was great. I still only walked him, but I got a nice forward walk in a decent circle (outside of the round pen) out of him, so I was happy. We're getting there - slowly but surley.

I just rode Sunshine bareback to a field down the road. Trotted and cantered her around. It was so nice. She seemed to enjoy it, too. And didn't do any of that jigging to get back home crap, either. Very nice.

I wanted this to be a totally positive blog, but I can't leave out Junior. Sunshine will be my lesson horse for a while. Junior is gonna be on a hiatus. His back is still pretty sore - although thankfully its no longer swollen. It must be a combination of him falling and hurting himself and poor saddle fit. The problem is, I can't afford a new saddle right now. He needs to rest his back anyway, so maybe by the time he's better I can afford a new saddle. We'll see. The farrier came this morning and all 4 of Junior's feet have bruises on them. I just can't win. My farrier said it was from stomping at flies, which makes sense I guess. But dang. They were pretty tender, too. Poor baby. He wears fly boots, but I guess that doesn't make a difference. He's falling apart! So, for now Junior's just gonna be a pasture ornament - a very expensive pet. And I pray that Sunshine can handle all the kids riding her - so much for all that wonderful dressage I was teaching her.

down

2008-07-17T20:19:00.002-04:00

I know I promised pics of my furniture, but that'll have to wait. I need to vent. I'm extremely down right now, almost in tears. Don't worry, nothing major has happened to me, it's just a lot of little things adding up lately. I'm just frustrated I guess.

I had to take my dog, Poppy, to the vet to have her teeth cleaned this morning, which put me an hour late for work. I've been anxious about that because you never know when you put an aimal to sleep if it'll wake back up or not..Anyway. Then, about a 1/2 mile from the lab, my tire blew out. I had obviously ran over something about a mile back and it shredded my tire. Had to call someone from the lab to come get me, then called Daddy. Luckily, he wasn't at work yet so he drove all out of his way - and was late I'm sure - and got my tire, took it somewhere and had it repaired (probably temporarily knowing my luck), then put it back own and went to get me so I could have it. Very stressful for me.

Then I had to go to Rosewood on my lunch hour. Last night, Paul and I went to my sister's house and gave them the rest of the money for the trailer. Well, on the way home I put the bill of sale right where my AC leaks - didn't even think about it. The paper was ruined, of course. So today I had to go back to Rosewood and get a new paper - thank goodness I'm dealing with family here! Then I had to leave work early to get Poppy, and she was a mess. Very drugged up still, could hardly stand or walk, she was pitiful.

I had a lead line lesson tonight and decided to use Junior. I've been giving him some time off because he had hurt his back - I think I posted about it. It looked like he fell or something and scraped his shoulder/side area, and it was swollen. It's finally starting to heal, so I decided he would be okay for a 10-minute lead line lesson (she doesn't last very long, she's only 4). Then I noticed he's eat up with rain rot on his back. WTF?! I think its rain rot, at least. I've never had a horse with it. So after the lesson I washed him in iodine shampoo. Then I noticed that his entire back was VERY sore. :( How did I miss that before?! In fact, parts of it were a little swollen. Poor baby. I almost burst into tears right then. Why is he always messed up? I try so hard to keep him well... I don't know what to do. He hasn't been ridden in several weeks, so he can't be saddle sore. My best guess is he fell in the pasture and hurt himself. Or something.

See why I'm frustrated?

Oh, and I've been stressed because one of my co-wokers just found out she has cervical cancer and on Wednesday she had a hystorectomy (probably spelled way wrong). I've been worried about her. And night before last my mama's boss' mama died unexpectedly. So we'll be goin to Apex for her funeral this weekend. And Paul's pressuring me to buy MORE furniture this weekend. And I was supposed to go to Leslie's shower on Sunday, but I doubt I'll make that. And so many other little things. AND I haven't ridden any of my horses myself in almost 2 weeks. That really pisses me off. So I'm in a bad mood tonight. :(

coming soon..

2008-07-14T22:28:00.002-04:00

I have such a hard time remembering to update this bog for all my avid readers. Haha.

I have been even busier. Hard to imagine. Putting a house on land is hard work. And expensive work, too. And troublesome. Our most recent problem concerns the septic tank. The health department's telling us the septic tank must sit 2 FEET above the ground, and we gotta cover it with a mound of dirt. So they want me to have a small mountain in my side yard. I don't THINK SO!! Ugh. We're fighting that. We're also runnin out of money. But we'll make it work.

We bought some fabulous antique furniture over the weekend. Now all we need is a fridge, washer, dryer, couch, recliner, and bed. Not too bad. Course, the trailer won't be moved until sometime next month. We just rented a storage building for the time being. I'll post pictures of our beautiful furniture tomorrow when I have my camera with me. Some of our pieces date back to the 1880s! I know, some people don't like that sort of thing, but Paul and I are crazy about it. We're doin all antiques if we can. I'm very excited.

That's about it. I haven't been riding much because I've had SO much else to do. The last time I got on Sunshine's back was last Monday, and that was just to talk around my neighborhood for a few minutes. I worked Wiley almost 2 weeks ago. Well, I did hand walk him around one day last week and worked on him accepting the bit. Oh, and I did have to use Sunshine in a lesson last Wednesday. Junior's managed to hurt his shoulder area, right where the saddle sits - I think he did it on purpose! - and it was swollen. Sunshine was awesome for the little girl, though. I put her on the lunge - something she's never done - and she was really good. Really fast because she didn't quite understand the concept, but good. And the kid wasn't scared, she thought it was funny Sunshine wanted to go fast! Hilarious.

Anyway, that's it. Nothing major to report. Sorry. Pics of the furniture coming soon. (:

strippin

2008-07-06T23:12:00.004-04:00

Well, my wonderful 3-day weekend is coming to a close. It felt really long, but now that it's pretty much over I feel like it was too short. I did absolutely no riding these past three days. In fact, I haven't ridden since Wednesday. I went to the chiropracter Thursday and he did accupuncture on my shoulder, but I didn't feel the affects of that until late Friday night. All day Friday I was in pain. My neighbor wanted me to ride a few of her horses (I owe her a favor) but I had to take a rain check. I was scared to overwork my shoulder again. So, I rested it.

I spent the entire day Friday - and Saturday, too - with Paul. It was fun. We've been looking for furniture for our house (that we don't have yet), and Saturday we happened across a cedar wardrobe. Paul's obsessed with cedar. He bought me that cedar hope chest for Christmas, remember, and he also bought a matching book shelf. We actually saw the wardrobe on Friday morning, looked at it, and went home to think about it. We went back Friday afternoon but they were already closed (it was at a used furniture store). So we went there again Saturday morning and it was stil there. Paul said it was fate. While there we found another cedar wardrobe, bigger and older. They were the same price, and we couldn't decide which we wanted. So Paul jewed the guy down and we bought both!

The wardrobes are absolutely beautiful. I'll post pictures later. The bigger one was in awful shape, but it's awesome now. It had about 1,000 coats of lacquer on it, very poorly done. It was all blistered up, and you could barely tell it was cedar until you opened it. It took pretty much the entire day Saturday to get all that lacquer stripped off. Very hard work, but I enjoyed it. (I keep discovering things that I like to do!) We got it stipped down to bare wood and sanded down, and man. Beautiful. So now I'm working on shellac-ing it the correct way. It's slow going. You have to apply a coat of shallac, wait an hour or so for it to dry, then sand it down again, then repeat. I'm on the second coat now. I'll probably put 4 or 5 coats on it until it shines. But it'll be worth it.

The smaller wardrobe is not in nearly as bad shape. We'll probably stip it down and redo it at some point, but it looks okay like it is now. You can just tell its got a ton of lacquer on it. I'll put pictures of both up when I get the bigger one done.

We're gonna do our whole bedroom in cedar furniture. Well, I think we're gonna go with a wrought iron bed, unless Paul ever finds time to make us a pretty cedar one. Cedar's expensive wood.

We went to my Aunt Mary's tonight to look at her furniture. She collects and sells - mainly just collects! - antique furniture. She's got some gorgeous stuff, but it all needs work. And she's so hesitant to sell anything! Paul and I picked out several pieces we'd love to have, but Aunt Mary's just not sure she wants to sell them. She's funny. We're gonna do our whole house in old furniture. Probably have to restore every piece, but it'll be worth it. And thankfully we both enjoy doing it.

So that's been my weekend. Furniture, basically. The good news is my shoulder seems to be fine now. Oh, and Junior has hurt himself. Again. He has a place behind his shoulder where the skin is gone, not bloody or anything, but it's all swollen and hot. Grr. No riding him until that's gone, it's right where the saddle sits. Who knows what he ran into this time. Hopefully he's standing outside in this nice cold rain, and the swelling will go down!

stupid

2008-07-03T21:48:00.003-04:00

What a week. Thank goodness I have tomorow off, though I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself. I've injured my shoulder. AGAIN. I can barely move it without intense pain this time. :( I went to the chiropracter tonight, and he did a bunch of stuff, but I probably won't feel any of those effects for a few days. I almost want to put the dang thing in a sling, cause it feels better if I hold it against my side. I'm so frustrated. Feeding the horses is pretty difficult, especially the part where I have to peel hay off the round bale and take it out to them with a pitch fork - pretty hard to do one-handed.

I don't know what I'm gonna do. I had to cancel my lesson on Saturday, I doubt I'll be able to ride by then. At least not with both hands. I'll probably take Sunshine or Junior on a western-style trail ride tomorrow. I mean, I can't just not ride. Stupid shoulder.

I would use my time off to go visit friends in Raleigh, but I can't afford the dang gas to get there and back. That's another reason I cancelled my lesson, I just don't have much extra money right now. Paul and I just bought the land, and now we're buying a double-wide to put on it. And that means getting a perk test, all kinds of permits, having a septic tank put in, digging a well, getting the power company to put some lines out there (or whatever the correct terminology for that is), oh and actually get the trailer moved out there. Not to mention gettin the fences horse-ready (right now, there's just barbed wire for the cows - not happening for my babies though!) and get them some sort of shelter up. So no money. It sucks, but at least we'll have our own place finally!!

I did ride Sunshine (this was before I ruined my shoulder, though it was already hurting pretty bad) last night, and she was really good, for the most part. I was proud of her. She's learning. Oh, and I rode Wiley. It was the first time I've ridden him in....over 2 weeks, not sure exactly. I lunged him in the round pen first and he was being really really good. So I hopped on him and worked on steering and stopping. Just walking. He was great, no head tossing this time. It was almost like he's matured a little in these few weeks, even though I haven't really messed with him. It was probably just a fluke, but whatever. We got a lot accomplished. He stops much quicker now, and he turns pretty good. Not wonderful, but we're getting there. Next: trotting and steering! lol. It's fun.

Well that's about all. I could say so much more, things at the house have really gone to s*%!lately, but I don't want to air it publicly. But that's it for now. Peace.

blah mood

2008-06-30T22:23:00.003-04:00

As usual, I have been extremely busy. SO much goin on right now. Paul and I are in the process of finding a trailor to put on our land, then hopefully we can set a wedding date. But just when it seems like everything is goin our way, BOOM somethin goes wrong. Tryin to remian positive, though.

Also tryin to stay positive regarding my horse. Sunshine has been off in her mood lately. I've had a lot of bad rides on her. I think I had one good ride on her last week. The rest of the time she just wasn't listening at all, and blowing me off. I'm not used to that, not from her. Her newest thing is whenever I ask her to stop and then move off my leg or something - there's several things we're workin on right now, though we haven't successfully done most of them in over a week - she almost freaks out: throws her head up, fidgits, and usually backs or sidesteps. It's driving me crazy, cause I have no idea how to make her stop. She's just suddenly developed these habits. Good thing we're goin to the trainer on Saturday, I need some help! (And you know I must really need some help cause usually I won't say stuff like that - I can handle a lot by myself!)

And my stupid computer is lagging a few seconds behind me again. SO annoying. I'm just overall annoyed tonight. Lots of little things are getting to me tonight, I need to go to bed. But I'm too wired. Bleh.

Nikki & Paul's Catering Service ( :

2008-06-22T20:06:00.003-04:00

Well, the wedding shower was a success. Paul and I worked from 10am until about 6 or 6:30, pretty much non-stop. It was beautiful. Paul's aunt and mother handled the vegetables and some chips and a cake, and Paul and I did all the fruit. So much fruit. We had a chocolate fountain with fruit, marshmellows, and pretzles to dip in it; cheese salsa with chips/nachos; a humongous fruit platter (canteloupe, honeydo (not sure of that spelling!), grapes, blackberries, cherries); a tiered platter of watermelon, canteloupe, and strawberries with fruit dip; chocolate-dipped strawberries; and a really cute edible centerpiece thing Paul found on the internet, comprised of strawberries and marshmellows. I'll have to post pics when I get them from Paul. I was impressed with ourselves!

And I had fun doing it. Of course, now I'm pooped. My wrists hurt from balling melons for almost 2 hours this morning, and my feet are killing me, and I feel like I ran a marathon, but I enjoyed it today. I wouldn't mind doing stuff like that more often; I used to help Daddy when he catered weddings and stuff, and I loved it then too. Funny thing is, I HATE to cook!

Everyone wanted to know when was me and Paul's wedding date. The December-date rumor is still going strong, though. We talked this morning and we kind of decided on getting married in the winter. So I'm hoping for this coming winter. I'm ready.

_____________

I just realized I haven't talked about my horses lately. That's because I haven't really had a chance to do anything with them! I don't think I've been sleeping well lately because every day after work I'm totally exhausted and can hardly make myself do anything. And when I feel like riding something always comes up. I did manage to ride Sunshine 4 times last week, so that's not terrible. But I haven't messed with Wiley at all since last Sunday. :(

Sunshine is progressing. Slowly. This was not the best week of rides on her. I think she's just getting overwhelmed with all the new things we're learning. So Friday afternoon I got on her bareback and just walked around the yard. I worked on some lateral movements, very slowly. Every time she got upset, I walked her off for a few minutes. It really took a lot of patience on my part, but that was good for me. I think the session was good for her, too. She seemed to understand when she'd done the right thing, and I didn't push her at all. We never even trotted. Tomorrow if it doesn't storm like they're calling for, I plan on actually working her body, instead of just her mind. (I say she's working her mind more when she's learning all these lateral movements cause she already knows how to do them, she just doesn't know the cues to do them; and I say I work her body when I work her so she sweats!) Anyway that's enough for one day! ( :

you, me & BB&T

2008-06-22T09:43:00.002-04:00

Well I have a few minutes before I'm expected at Paul's, so I thought I'd post a quick update. SO much has happened this week - good and bad.

The bad - we had to put our poodle, Butch, to sleep on Tuesday. He had diabetes and was blind and almost deaf. He'd gotten to where he wouldn't eat anything, so Mama made the decision. It was sad, but he's SO much better off now. He was pitiful. And he was around 15, so he'd had a good long life.

Now for the good! Paul and I closed on our land Wednesday!! I am officially a land owner! We haven't done anything with it yet, and I'm not sure when we will, but its OURS!

This weekend has been super busy. I went to Raleigh yesterday to spend the day with my friend Mary-Marshall. I took Poppy with me, and we had so much fun. I bought a humongous book at M&M called "lameness" - it has 1000 pages of horrible stuff that can go wrong with your horse. Just what I need to be reading! haha.

Okay that's it for now. Paul's brother's wedding shower is today and Paul and I have a lot of fruit to cut and prepare!

weekend's over...again

2008-06-15T23:37:00.003-04:00

I hate Sunday nights. I usually stay up way too late, trying to avoid the inevitable: that tomorrow, I must go back to work. I don't really hate my job anymore, so it's not that. In fact, they've pretty much eliminated all the things I really hated (they hired someone else to do all the "crap" work that I and the other girls hated). Now, I'm just totally and utterly bored. We get like this every summer, really really slow. The turkeys tend to stay pretty healthy in the hot weather, so we don't get much to do out of the ordinary. Not that I'm complaining. I'm thrilled that our turkeys are healthy. I'm just so dang bored. Bored with the whole monotonous routine (and yes I know that's very redndant). At least I'm friends with several of the other girls there; without them, the lab would be unbearable.

I had a pretty good weekend. One of my coworkers got married yesterday, and I convinced Paul to make the hour drive with me to see the wedding. It was nice and we actually had a good time. Today was nice, too. After church, Paul and I went with Daddy to Kinston to the Neuse River Sports Shop, then to LaGrange to look at the trailer Daddy wants to give us. (It needs a LOT of work, by the way.)

It was nice spending time with Daddy - I never get to unless he's around Mama, and that's totally different. But I'm not geting into that tonight. Let's just suffice it to say that things around here have been particularly awful lately, and I am counting down the days until I can move out. (Trouble is, we haven't even closed on the land yet and who knows how long after that it'll be before we're able to get a house out there!)

I rode Sunshine for about 10 minutes today. Daddy said we were going to Kinston late in the afternoon, so at 2:30 I hopped on her. She was being really good, so I was a little upset when Daddy called and said he was ready to go right then. But, since it was Father's Day, I got off and put her up. I'm sure she didn't mind! When we got back I hopped on Wiley. First time I've done anything with him in over a week, but he was really good. He's still not getting the whole "you go in the direction I want" thing, and he still hates it when I have any contact with his mouth, but hopefully he'll get better with more consistency.

Now that I have my computer back I have so much work to catch up on! Several projects need my attention. I really thought that taking the summer off from school would give me more free time...boy was I wrong! I'm busier than ever - when I come home from work, that is. But I like it that way.