Thursday, April 18, 2013

Horse Situation Update

So here's the lowdown on the horse situation..

We did drive to Cle Elum to meet Breeze & Nellie.. very sweet girls (horses), very nice people!  with a beautiful OMG amazing log home..  But Breeze & Nellie were lacking a little bit for us, not quite what we are looking for.. I'm sure they are great horses, just not for us right now.  We enjoyed our day together though, was nice to just get out and have some down time. 

I have found a couple other horses that Rachel is going to stop by and see while on her Walla Walla trip this coming weekend.  One is in Walla Walla, the other in Selah (outside Yakima).  She has a new boyfriend from over in WW, so she is over that way often these days and although she is still in a walking boot from her horse-accident, she's going to stop by and meet the horses, see if they are worth the drive over for me.  One is a draft cross gelding, he's 15.2h age 7, with some trail exp.. nice looking horse, asking $3800 for him.  The other is another draft cross, 16.3h mare, age 5 (she would be for me) with some trail miles, excellent video but they want $5000 for her!!  Both horses are MORE than we want to spend on any one horse.. so I'm not getting too excited.. 

The shoers put new corrective shoes on Willie a week ago, he seems to be doing really well.  I have not had a chance to work with him yet or ride him, so I have no idea if he is now sound or atleast sounder than before!  I'm hauling him over to Shannon on Tuesday so she can ride him and help me determine what step I need to take next..  The shoers indicated that he has Navicular Symptoms, that he is not yet Navicular...  They feel he could be worth a couple thousand!  So that made me feel MUCH better and more hopeful at being able to sell him.  I joke around about him and have over the past year, that I like him, dont like him, like him.. etc..  Bottom line, I do like this horse and am very sad about it, not just because of the financial in-the-shorts-loss I am experiencing with him, but because he is a really sweet horse and he doesnt deserve this.  He certainly will not hold up for the riding I want to do, so a new home is a must, but I did shed a tear at the thought of him not working out, so I guess this stone cold horse heart beats a little still..  ;) 

The plan is to get some great pictures of him, hopefully somewhat professional type quality from Rachels daughter, and also get video too, I want to show how sound he is or is not in the video, and get him up for sale.  Might see if I can pay Klay (her son) to ride Willie for a couple weeks, get him back in working mode.. 

Also, Also..  cannot forget the horse trailer!  Derek painted our 2 horse trailer so we could sell it....
Yeah!!  It looked brand new..  he is amazing!!  I had spoken with a trailer dealer and he indicated I could ask as high as $5500 which was a surprise.. so I listed it for $5300; 4 days later it sold for $5,000!!  The gal sent her dad (from Snohomish) on Sunday to look at it, since she lived in Wenatchee.. she called later and made a committment to come buy it the next day.  She shows up with her dad/mom and says to me "You look familiar and your name seems familiar"...  well I graduated Snohomish 91, she graduated 84 I think it was.. so it wasnt that..  She then says "do you know Shana?"  Why yes, yes I do know my cousin Shana!!  lol  So Shana's best friend is Dottie, who our whole family knows pretty well..  Well apparently Rhonda (gal from Wenatchee) is Dottie's Sister!!  Small World... 

I am pretty happy about the trailer deal though..  We bought our 97 Circle J 3-horse trailer for $3600, put another $1400 into it via new tires, licensing and having the wiring fixed..  so out of pocket so far is $5000 for that trailer..  Cant believe we just did an equal swap and we now have a bigger trailer for the same price!!  Derek seems pretty motivated to paint this trailer sooner than later.. we still have a few minor things to fix but we got very very lucky in finding a seller that didnt realize she undersold her trailer by atleast $1000!

Surprise Surprise!!

Derek turned 40 this week and being the awesome wife that I am, I wanted to be sure it was a special occassion, a birthday to remember!  So we invited all our friends and family to join us at Rhodes River Ranch for a Sunday afternoon lunch..  54 people were able to come out!!  It was AWESOME to have so many want to share the day with us and the best gift of all was the surprise arrival of his parents Bob & Nouna.. they drove up from AZ just to be there for him.  That was really special.  :)  We had a fantastic lunch, OMGosh the food super yummy.. I had some cupcakes made by our neice's friend.. she did a great job of decorating some with shotgun shells that read "40 age" instead of "40 guage"!  Clever..  and then some with ducks on them, others had edible pictures of Derek..    Derek wanted a rice crispy cake so I made that..  7 bags of marshmallows!!  I found the edible camo border and put some ducks on it and then a shotgun lighter I found..  It turned out better than expected, I was really proud of my awesome cake!!
 
His parents spent a night at our house, which was great as they were able to join us on Derek's actual birthdy for dinner out at Ixtapa Snohomish (Dereks favorite restaurant!)  Carlos brought Derek a HUGE shot of 'Tequilla Something or other'...  :)
My friend Rachel, her 40th was 4 days before Derek's so we took her out on Saturday afternoon and suprised her by buying her, her very first pair of real comboy boots!!  She grew up riding English, so she had never owned a pair of real boots.. LOL   She LOVES them, and it was so great to do that for her.  We went to school together and were friends through our 4H club, drifted apart for many years after graduating, Carrie went to school with her sisters and used to babysit for her.. we slowly rekindled our friendship and then I just barged in and demanded more time with her over this past year and we've grown as close as 2 girlfriends can get, non-sexually anyways!  lol  She has filled this void in me that I have been needing, just having that one girlfriend you can tell anything too, with no fear of being judged, someone who will be honest with you and set your ass in check when needed, support you and just be there for you.  I havent had that since Carrie died and never thought I would find it again..  I am truly thankful for my friendship with Rachel!! 

I've been on this slight mental rollercoaster when it comes to my WW success/failure the past couple weeks.  A week ago when I stepped on the scale at WW, I had a feeling it was not going to be less than the week prior, I felt that I did not make great food decisions and although I was still within all my points, it was not as healthy of a week for me and the scale reflected that with a .6 gain   :(  I was pretty distraught over it though, it really had a pretty big mental impact on me and I was more down about it than I expected to be.  In an irrational fashion, my brain was telling me "see, I knew you couldn't keep up with loosing every week, sooner or later you will start to gain again and this system is not going to work for you!"  F*ing  Brain!!  That is my biggest downfall, is myself and my own ability to convince myself this is going to happen for me.

So over this past weekend and up until my weigh in yesterday, I basically felt like I fell off the food wagon!  I certainly did not eat as much food as I would have 2 months ago, but I was having some major cravings for C-R-A-P!!  Rachel realized I was mentally hitting a wall so Monday, she surprised me with these beautiful flowers..  and a note that said "WE GOT THIS!"
I ate over my bonus points this past week, BUT because I knew I was not eating well, I did finally start using the elliptical again, to help compensate... Monday and Tuesday I spent 20min/day on it..  I was also running around a bit more than normal with this birthday planning and then Derek's parents surprising us and then telling us they were coming to our house!!  Which put me in a late night frenzy to get the house CLEAN..  Spent a few hours cleaning and got it cleaner than its been in a while, so I feel really good about that!

I was dreading the scale yesterday, my belly felt bloated, my pants felt tighter..  I'm trying to peer over the scale weight to see the readout as I'm standing there and she starts to write down a # and I'm thinking I saw a 5lb increase but apparently I couldnt see the #'s as well as I thought, because she recorded a 1.8lb LOSS!  I was shocked..  Seriously..  So with that loss, I have now lost exactly 25 pounds!!!  I was pretty happy and feeling very refreshed and positive again.. 

Thursday, April 4, 2013

The good, the bad...

Its only Thursday and it's already been one of those weeks.. 

I had hoped to get on the scale yesterday and wanted to see atleast a 1 lb drop in weight, as that would have put me at my 5% loss, but I got on the scale and was in shock as she recorded a 6.4 lb loss!  Every week I am amazed at how well this is working for me..  In 6 weeks, I have now dropped 23.8 pounds..  WOW   My brain still thinks I cant do this, suprisingly.. but I know myself and I have yet to believe in being skinny. 

I feel better, my pants are looser (heck I seriously can walk right out of my wranglers now, they will fall off my butt within a 40 ft walking distance, trust me I tried it!  Jeans around my ankles walking from the barn to the back door)  lol  My girl jeans are looser, although they are not as apt to fall off my tooshy since they are built different.  I feel like my shirts are looser and I can suck in my tummy while sitting and it dissappears under my boobs..  LOL

I have little goals here and there for myself and hope to achieve them..  see, still not ready to say WILL Achieve..  I am SOOO looking forward to the day I can get on a horse from the ground w/o the aid of a person or stump or stool helping me out..  Not sure if I mentioned but when that happens, I'm booking a weeklong vacation at a dude ranch of some sort.. Its been on my bucket list for a very long time and I think that is a great way to celebrate something I havent been able to do in a very long time.

Unfortunately life is not all about roses and rainbows and thats how the rest of my week has been.  It all stems around Willie, I finally got him to the vet for a lameness exam and after temporary nerve blocks in his feet to determine it was in his feet, and then xrays to determine the cause of him limping, I can now say with certainty that I was right..  But this is NOT NOT NOT a time I wanted to be right..  Willie is Navicular!!  :(

You never want to here that word uttered when it relates to your horse.. "It most commonly describes an inflammation or degeneration of the navicular bone and its surrounding tissues."  There is no cure, there are things you can to do help the horse along, but everything is temporary and eventually the horse will deteriorate and get to the point of needing to be put down.  Willie could likely have many rideable years in him still, with some corrective shoeing, maybe some nerve blocking and supplements and/or drugs.. but he wont have it with me.  Between buying, training and diagnosing him, I have $5,000 wrapped up in him and I'm sick about that because I basically am going to have to give him away...    Pooooffff!  Shannon thinks she might be able to help me find a "buyer" for him, but I'm not holding my breath, who would buy a horse with this problem.. 

So its been a couple days of severe crying sessions and depression.  Every time I talk on the phone with a friend about it, I start to cry, I just cant help it.  We have lost 2 horses in 2 months.. WTF is happening in my life right now.  What have I done to deserve this, seriously...    Derek and I are taking a step back, regrouping and trying to figure out what to do next.  Neither one of us is willing or even wants to spend ANY money on buying horses right now.. although neither of us wants to give up riding.  I just cant see spending thousands of dollars after having lost over $10,000 in value on the 2 horses we had.  Thats a pretty tough pill to swallow. 

My shoers are great and they have a client with a couple mares that they want us to go meet..so we are going to Cle Elum on Saturday to meet these horses and see if we like them.  The gal is willing to do a lease, she knows our situation and is willing to work with us and just might be willing to part with 2 of her horses.  So although neither of us is jumping into this with ANY expectations, I cant blow her off any longer and I TRUST my shoers completely and they wouldnt steer me wrong..

Monday, April 1, 2013

Happy Easter

Since we dont have any children and there was no reason to paint easter eggs or hide chocolate rabbits around the house, we decided to go clamming instead!  Lance had invited us out to Whidbey Island (Penn Cove), it sounded fun..  And the weather this weekend was amazing, blue skies, close to 70 degrees.. 
It only took us just over an hour or so to get our 40/each limit!    In the above picture, there are 80+ clams there.  Apparently they are called butter clams.  I'm not a big clam lover, I dont like to eat them actually.. the only way I will tolerate them is in clam chowder..  Although I dont know if I've had clam strips or not, I would imagine I could eat those.. but eating the entire clam right out of the shell.. Yuck, not gonna happen!!

And boy do we have some biggy clams!  :)  They are on our back porch right now, resting in salt water, eating corn meal which is supposed to help clean their systems out so they are not full of sand.  The plan is to leave them that way for a couple days, then steam them, freeze them and wait until we have the time to attempt some clam chowder or who knows what other recipes we can come up with!!
We had a really great time and look forward to more clamming trips in the future.. I hope to find a way to love eating them, otherwise I'll be calling some friends to take some off our hands..