Tucker Saddle Pictures

I am just using this post to post pictures of our saddle for sale so those that dont want to download a bunch of pictures can go here to see them all :)


I uploaded this first picture because although much smaller, this picture shows the true color of the saddle. The other larger pictures were taken with a flash and do not properly reflect the color at all.

First side is right side.. Obviously ! :) The right side has almost zero scuff marks on it and no scratches.

The left side has some scratches, not sure why they all are on the one side! Nothing major really.

Gel Cushioned Seat! :) No scratches or tears in it at all.


Front View...

Back view...


Underside..

Tucker Tag.. from what I understand the m at the end confirms it is Medium Tree.

That about covers all the angles I believe.. :)

My Teeth Still Hurt...

ugghh.. damn dentist! 10 minutes into my teeth drilling I start to feel pain, I'm laying there on the gas wondering if I am imagining it or if it is real because I KNOW how my brain works and then as she continued to drill on, I realized Oh Shit, I'm feelin it!! So my face was numb and my nose was swollen for the entire workday and today (2 days later) my gums/teeth still are pretty sore....

OHH>>> The curse of our boat has been lifted!! Not sure what we did "right" but this past weekend we went out to Lake McMurray in Mt Vernon area and proceeded to land 16 fish in our boat!! 15 of them were Perch which is what we were fishin for, the first fish of the day was an ugly trout I caught that had I think parasites on it.. yuck, we tossed him back overboard even though he was gonna die cuz he was a swollower.. maybe it was a she! :) My parents outfished us by about 8 fish (they are the Perch Masters) and we all outfished Eric & Andrea.. I felt bad for them, they were using the same thing as us, fishin the same whole and they got maybe 4 fish. It was their 1yr anniversary, wish they had had better luck. I fileted all the fish when I got home and it amounted to almost a sandwich baggie worth of fish strips! lol

And we are having to sell Derek's Tucker Saddle afterall. Bummer. If you know anyone interested, would like to get $950 for it. NICE Saddle!!

I'm Doctor'd Out..

This is the month for seein the doctor! 2 weeks ago I had a dentist appointment, ya know the once or twice a year checkup.. damn I have 2 cavities! So on Monday I get to go back to the dentist to fix that, the good thing is that they have the GAS, so I will be loopeying it up!

Tuesday of this week I went to my doctor to find out why my foot swells up and hurts real bad every now/then.. apparently there is nothing wrong with the bone, she said I might have tendonitis in my foot or soft tissue damage and that I could go see a foot specialist if I really want.. we'll see, maybe down the road. I dont recall ever injuring my foot, it just flares up and will be sore for a couple weeks and then it will go away for months.

Then 2 days later (today) I go in for my yearly girly exam inwhich I talked to her about my bitchy aunt that comes to town with a vengeance almost every other month.. so I may go back into the doctor later this month or next to get that resolved.

And then I have an appointment in 2 weeks to go back to my doctor to have some skin flaps removed.. What the Heck! :) So lets count between doctor and dentist in a 30 day period, I will have been in 6 times...

Pictures from Lk Wenatchee

Here are some pics that Dawn sent to me from this past weekend.

Here is Rob & Rick with their brother Mackenzie and sister Asa. It was the first time the older boys had met their younger siblings and I was very happy for all 4 of them to have some time together to start bonding... Rob & Rick were also able to see their dad Dee whom they hadnt seen in many years. I'm so glad this weekend happened!

Derek & I with his mom Nouna

All of Nouna's kids in one picture!! This hasnt happened in MANY years, maybe at our wedding?? Darren, Dana, Dee, Derek, Dalyce, Nouna, Diana & Dawn.

This is Dana's dog, who enjoyed sitting on laps apparently! The dog weighs more than Nouna I'm sure.. :)

Just a small handful of the children.. all of whom seem to have iron feet as I hardly recall any of the kids with shoes on!

Feelin a little Crispy!!

This past weekend, we spent Thurs night to Sunday at Lake Wenatchee for Derek's Family Reunion which hadnt been held in about 22 years!!

I was almost dreading the trip because of the heat we were having in Western WA with record breaking 103+ weather, I thought Lk Wenatchee would only be hotter! Pretty bad when you have to go to Eastern WA to cool off.. lol It had been soooo long since we had seen some of the family, there was some slight anxiety I guess building up too.

The Weather:
It was not in the 100's, well I dont think it was. :) We had a very nice shaded campsite and although at night when we laid down to sleep, we were pretty warm at first, for the most part it was really perfect weather in the shade and plenty warm enough to get burnt in the sun while swimming! I swam twice on Friday, twice on Saturday and then at 7am Sunday morning!! Yes I braved the water first thing in the morning, it was beautiful with noone else in the water and crystal clear smooth. It was a great way to start the morning of our last day. I think everyone in camp thought I was a little nuts. Next year I may just do that every morning and see if I can snag someone to swim with me.

Dereks nephew Ricky, he and I swam to this island on Friday afternoon, it was exciting to push myself to swim that far, I did not get tired (I didnt swim hard/fast either) and the water was fairly calm although it was at the base of the inlet to the river, so we did have a little current to deal with on our swim back to the main beach. Saturday the water was very choppy and it was fun to float and bobble head through the rolling waves. :)

The Dogs:
Russell & Scout did really well! It was really sappy on the ground over there, so they have some sap stains on their bodies and our shoe bottoms got full of sap, so the dogs stayed in the camper quite a bit, but they seemed fairly content. We had a runner rope for them to go on at times when we were sitting by the campfire and we walked them a few times each day. Poor kids were misarable last week dealing with all the heat at home, they just couldnt get comfy anywhere! The camper didnt get as hot inside as our house was last week.

The Family:
The anxiety of seeing the family after maybe 10+ years for some, was diminished over the weekend. We met husbands we hadnt met before, met lots of children we didnt know. Derek's family is the opposite of my family. In my family circle we have 3 children, oh wait we have 5 kids (2 belong to the girlfriend of a cousin). One of Derek's neices has 5 of her own! Then there are 4 more here, 2 more there, 2 or 3 more here, 2 more there, 1 with Crystal... those are just some of the kids that were there, not to mention the MANY more that were not there! Literally, children everywhere! lol It was great. There were a few family situations that created some tension, but by the end of the weekend, relationships were on the mend and starting fresh and new with hopes for the future. I was very proud of Derek's nephews Rick & Rob who met their brother and sister for the first time ever and I really enjoyed my time with them, bonding and learning more and looking forward to the future.

The Next One:
I believe this will turn into a yearly event that is re-established. Derek's family used to gather every year at Lk Wenatchee and it fizzled out but I am hopeful that this past weekend proved how important this family is and how much it is needed for us all. Derek's mom flew in from AZ, it was really nice to see her (Hi Nouna!) Another brother flew in from Georgia I think is where he lives and then Dee came up from OR. Dana who just lost his wife came with his daughter. There was lots of talk of next year and I know I am already excited about it and looking forward to going back. I have no idea how many were actually there, but including children there were definately over 50!

I Cant Believe:
I wore my bathing suit in PUBLIC with NO shirt over the top!!!! What the heck was I thinking! lol I guess it was so nice and warm and I didnt want to be restricted by a tank top in the water, so I just went all in w/o worrying about what I looked like.. I mean I was in a bathing suit in front of people I know even, which is what usually bothers me more than strangers seeing me! ;) Oh well, right!

Exhausted:
We were worn out by yesterday afternoon, we came home and crashed in our chairs, we were lucky to even have unloaded the camper! Tonight I'll have to do the camping dishes and wash the wet clothes. Derek got quite the sunburn, he was going to swim in his t-shirt but the guys teased him so he thought.. what the heck, how burnt can I get, I'll be underwater mostly.. He'd have been fine if we had put sunscreen on him! Ooops.. ;)

Pictures:
Right! Yeah, I took a few of our dogs in the camper.. but I was too busy swimming and socializing and cooking to deal with taking pics.. maybe I'll snag/steal some pictures off other peoples facebook pages once they post them and then repost them here for you to enjoy! lol

Whats Up....

Well lets start with the bad news and look up from there.. Dana's wife Terri passed away a few days ago. Sounds like a memorial/funeral will be set back a couple weeks to allow for family to be able to be in town, we are thinking of them often.

Okay, so I know I am always talkin about riding and my irrational fears, but dammit if we didnt ride on Sunday off the Dubuque Rd and come across a bear in the bushes! I wish I did not have these fears of wild creatures, but I can say that although my heart was going to leap out of my throat, I did feel a tiny, miniscule better knowing Derek could protect me! :) We are riding along and I hear some noises like some leaves are blowing in the wind and along with that I am hearing some snack crackle and popping of branches and leaves in the woods to the right of us. I am trying desperately to ignore what I am hearing, but damn if Derek didnt hear the same thing and stop his horse! A part of me wanted to pretend I was not hearing it and just keep on moving so I wouldnt have to think too much about what I was actually hearing.. lol Yes you can shake your head at me.. I am doing it myself! So anways, this "bear" walks along snap crackle pop, then stops, then walks along, snap crackle pop.. stop... snap crackle pop.. stop.. and on and on. We finally just asked the horses to keep going, clearly the bear was in no hurry to run away as I'm talking very loudly about useless things, just to be sure his path led him in the opposite direction of our trail. We never did see the bear, but no other animal would make so much noise.. well okay maybe Sasquatch! There is a possibility it was him.. I mean we didnt see it.. so who knows!!!!

Hmm.. what the heck did we do Saturday... I know we did something... Am I getting that scenile that I cant even remember 4 days ago, clearly that is the case because I dont know what we did.. OH wait! I know what I did.. I spent the entire day inside the house cleaning! lol No wonder I couldnt remember that.. who blogs about cleaning their house..

I know it is ALL over the internet right now from the folks living in the NW, but it is BLAZIN HOT and well it's just miserable at times!! We are breakin records here people.. I am puttin it out there so in the future I can look back and read this and remember.. OH Yeah, THAT was the year it was so hot and dry! lol I'm blogging this for future reference.. take note. We have had VERY little rain since spring. The temps reached 100+ yesterday and will be doing the same today and most likely tomorrow. I dont love the heat, but over the last few years I am getting more used to it, the problem with this heat though is that our animals are not used to it either and it is just too hot to take the horses out for a ride, unless one got up at 5am! I'd love to go for an afternoon ride, but at 90+ and with horses that havent been ridden much this year, they might just suffer from heat exhaustion.

Oh and finally we had a great BBQ on Sunday at our place for Shana's Bday and although too hot to play badmitton in the sun, we had quite a few games of ladder golf played and then an hour or more playing Apples to Apples!! If you havent played that game, you've got to! Its even funner with a few drinks in ya.. lol A great family game.

We have officially given up on Derek's saddle fitting Oakley.. it is out on trial with a friend (Hi Arlene!!) and I hope it fits her and her horse so we can start the process of finding a new saddle for Derek. Ta Ta for now...

Family News

We received word that Dereks brother Dana, well his wife Terri's heart stopped beating on Monday for 17 minutes and she is now in a coma with failing kidneys. Apparently a week ago, she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and then this happened. Derek & I are very sad for Dana and his family.

A Day at the Lake..

Saturday afternoon was the horse club Ice Cream Social at the Scherrer Ranch in Granite Falls, they own a private lake and the weather was perfect for BBQing, Socializing, playing games , boating and playing in the water. Derek decided he was going to give skiing/wakeboarding a try, something he had never tried before. In the back of my head, I wanted to try it too but I knew if he couldnt do it, then I probably couldnt do it. ;)

Originally he wanted to wakeboard first, but this is all he could accomplish when in the water with the board, just hovering over it. He could not get the board on his feet while he was in the water.....

so he decided to try skiing, he needed assistance getting his skiis on as you can see here..

Here's a quick video of his 1st (and last for the day) attempt at skiing, see for yourself how it turned out...

He then tried wakeboarding off the dock, here are his attempts at that...

Attempt #1

Attempt #2 (the final attempt lol)

I decided to go behind the boat with a big tube and that was a blast! I held the tube to my chest and jumped off the dock, hoping to land in the water with me laying on top of the tube, HAH that was a big flop as I bounced off the tube and rolled off into the water! As I swam to the boat I realized by lifevest was hindering me quite a bit (so I took it off) and thought.. well maybe I should just sit in the tube, so I plopped back with my butt landing in the tube hole and then I plopped right on out, backwards, did a complete backwards sumersault underwater! It was pretty damn funny I'm sure!!! So I got back on the boat again and gingerly laid on the tube this time and held on for dear life!!! John wizzed me around that lake, I almost came off around one of the corners, the entire time I was thinking "how dumb is this, you are having a blast and it is going to be the last thing you do because if you fall off, you might just drown". Children, do NOT try this at home, you should wear your lifevest at all times!!! I knew I could swim if I came off the tube, it's just that initial falling off and being under water for a few seconds that is scary... but I didnt fall off and my arm muscles paid the price for staying on! lol

We spent the night at the Scherrers with our kids, had a nice evening and a great breakfast the next day. Pretty much spent Sunday being lazy, we were tired and just drained. It might have only been a 24 hour vacation, but it was nice to get out and have some fun with good friends. Besides it's been too hot to fish or ride horses lately and although the boys are getting new shoes today, I dont know that it will be cool enough to ride anytime soon, might need to wait for a full moon and ride at midnight if this keeps up! ;)

I think it's time to admit it...

that it is very likely that Derek's saddle does not fit his horse! :( :(

Oakley unfortunately has developed white hairs on his withers, both sides... I am just sick about it because they will never go away at this point, they are noticeable AND it means we have to start this process of saddle searching which sucks! Part of me wants to believe that maybe Derek's saddle fits fine and it is my saddle and my weight that doesnt work on Oakley. I think we'll have to go out for another trail ride with Derek in his own saddle and see how the sweat marks appear after the ride, if his shoulders are dry, we are gonna have to get a new saddle.

I know Derek does NOT want to hear that, he loves his saddle, but it is incredibly embarassing to have our 5yr old horse with white scarring on him. I may have Derek try our other saddles on Oakley as well, he'll hate that (they are not padded!) but we can always buy him a gel pad to put on his seat. Bummer.. I am just bummed today

On the flip side, I am very happy to have my boys back home!!!! They'll be home for a week or so, until the grass dissappears again. I went out this morning and sat on the deck, watching them eat.. just because! :)

Flip back to the bad side of things.. Edgar is limping again! Nothing major actually, I felt it when I rode him about 10 days ago and can see it when he trots. Remember when I rode with my cousin Shana a couple weeks ago, well Edgar had pulled back while tied to the trailer (he had a blonde moment!) and after he did that, he was limping but we rode anyways and he loosened up, so I know he strained one of his back legs that day and he's still a little off from that. This is just NOT his year!!! I will ride him though, it is minor and it's not like I'm out riding all the time right now anyways, it's too Blazin HOT!! ;)

Slackin Lately!

Okay, sorry I havent been on here in 10 days or so... :) Life has just been one big bottle of stress lately and I think I see the light finally.

Just to run through this quickly, we didnt get the loan (of course not) from the lender that screwed us on the appraisal. We did get qualified for an FHA loan with the previous lender we had been working with but after an hour of discussion last night with Derek and an hour today of calculating ALL costs on this new loan in Excel here is what we found.. In order to save ourselves $150/month, it will cost us $20,000 in loan fees (which will take us 10 years! to recover on a 30 year loan) and after 30 years with this loan, we will have saved only $37,000 total.. Hell that is hardly worth it.. who knows where we will be in 10 years, eventually I'd love to get more property, although I love my place..

So the solution for now: Eliminate our escrow payment from our loan which will save us an immediate $585/month! Yes we will have to find $2000 in 3 months to cover our property taxes, but we'll make it work and find a way. From now on, we'll pay our property taxes with our income tax return and not have to worry about escrow. WHAT A F*ING RELIEF to finally figure this mess all out and find some room to breathe...

Maybe now that this will be behind us, we can get back to riding! I rode a week ago with Wendy, went and explored the trails off Dubuque Rd and found the largest pile of Bear Shit I have ever seen!!! Made me quite nervous actually for the ride, there were lots of piles, but that one pile really had my head spinnin :)

I camped out Friday night by myself (well okay, there were other people camping as well) but Derek and the dogs were at home. There was a regional prize ride (screeeeech.....) sorry, we couldnt call it a prize ride, it was a Ride Challenge Fundraiser with Donations. lol I helped all day in registration, got to talk with a lot of people. The ride was to raise money to maintain the trailhead there outside Sedro Woolley at Harry O. I've only ridden there a few times, it had been atleast 5 years since I had been there last. The ride challenge seemed like a GREAT idea and everyone seemed to really like the change. I had wished I was riding it, but I was needed in registration so I felt good that I could help out.

As I drove home, I realized how much I missed horse camping! I havent been in almost 2 years, the last camping trip I did was with Carrie when we went to Easton in Oct 07, just a month before she died. With building the house last year, it just was not really an option, plus my head was not in it last year, actually it is amazing to think back to the building process and although it was almost exactly a year ago that we finished with everything, I dont really recall that summer/year much. I wish I had started blogging earlier in the year last year, so I could go back and remind myself what that year was like, it is all just a blurr to me now. It is weird to think back like that and feel like you have lost so much time, but yet I was so busy. I think the busyness helped get me through.

Okay sap sap, I will move on... ;) But back to where I started, I realized while camping that I missed that feeling of being independant and going out for a weekend and having it just be "me" time again. Not that I dont love camping with Derek, dont get me wrong, but it felt good to remember I can do things on my own and I feel pretty darn good doing it!

My parents bought a boat, a little fishing boat... We have had such bad luck with our boat as far as NOT catching any fish, I told my dad that if we, my parents and Eric/Andrea all go out to the same lake and they all 4 catch fish while we get skunked again, I'm throwing someone overboard, I think I'll go postal.. lol I'm actually excited to get out and do some fishin with my folks, it is something we have not done together as a family in... oh man, I dont even know how long its been, probably atleast 20+ years! I'd love to get them out camping as well, it would be fun for the 6 of us to go out, maybe invite some other friends, but not sure my parents are up to camping in a tent!!! I have a cot my dad could use, or they could get an airmattress, those are pretty comfy.. they even make those ones that are super tall so it's easier to get in/out of.

Oh and my brother and Andrea are official homeowners!!! YEAH.. I am over my jealously of their new place.. okay well not quite. But I'm working on it. They have a GREAT level 5 acre partially fenced property, a rental apartment, a barn (although gutted but easily reconverted) and then the main house is very charming.. :) Apparently too they can walk down their road to a nice manicured trail down to the river! and they'll get a key to a gate so they can drive to the river bank which is supposedly sandy and very nice.. I know their 2 dogs will LOVE going to the river.. I think we'll have to invite ourselves over often.. lol But all jealously aside, I am VERY VERY happy for them, this is a great house. It is big enough for children down the road and many farm animals to come.

GRRR

The appraisal came back $35,000 less than the one 6 months ago! although I think the guy that came out this time really under-valued our property as his comparisons were NOT horse property at all!! Non of them had a shop and/or a barn and the houses were older.. so how is it my house is valued the same as them when I have a lot more to offer at my property.. BS is what it is, so of course the lender cant help us because now the LTV is WAY too high!!

We are considering now taking on a renter, we found a couple that wants to put their 5th wheel on a property to live in, so we are thinking about it and talking with them. We dont know them, I saw an ad they posted looking for somewhere to live... not exactly ideal, but we can get a few hundred bucks in our pocket. If that doesnt work out, we might have to consider renting out a bedroom. This other couple would want access to the house for showering and laundry, I just dont know... maybe we need to meet them and make a decision.

My co-worker (who lives in Spokane and gets all his auto fuel/expenses/vehicle covered by the company) just smirks at me and says to me "well this is why I have a house that we can afford if one of us looses our job" I said to him "well if I lived in Spokane and didnt have horses, I could probably do the same damn thing, but I'd like to see you find a house in Sno Co that is not a POS that you and your family can afford on 1 income!!!"

I guess we just suck it up, sacrifice and do what we can... maybe we should "miss" our mortgage payment for a couple months and let our bank restructure our loan to get a lower interest rate! I can completely understand how people are becoming homeless and loosing everything, makes me appreciate what I can still afford, just sucks to be in this situation and feel like there is not much of a way out right now. Maybe I should look for a new job with better pay... HA unlikely that exists right now! :)

Sharing a Picture

I was just sent this picture today from Jenny (a friend from the horse club) that took this picture during lunch when we were riding up at Lily/Lizzard a few months ago.

All Work, not much Play :)

I took a 4-day weekend over the 4th of July... just because I could! :)

The only day I spent riding was on Thursday at Lords Hill with some friends, invited my cousin Shana who I grew up riding with but she has only ridden 1 time in the past 11 years. She rode Edgar and I was very happy to see she was able to get on him just fine with just the stool... she's a limber one that Shana, she is shorter than me, we had to laugh histerically when we saw the stirrups up to their highest hole on Edgar, looked like a midget was about to ride him! lol But when she got on, she didnt look like a midget, he's just so flippin fat right now, he had a cow when I cinched up his back-cinch, he actually "blew up" for a minute, I had to punch extra holes to get it to fit.

We spent the remainder of the weekend working on the shed, which is about 75% done now. Derek almost fell off the roof! It was actually before the roof was up, he was standing on the top of the wall, which is over 8' up and a brace board gave out and fell, which caused him to go "OH SHIT" (probably just as much almost literally shit as it was vocalized) lol He had to jump from one wall over to the next, did the whole leaning forward arms flapping like a bird to avoid falling forward and to what would have been a very big "OUCH" I screamed, mom screamed, dad didnt know what was going on! lol Thank Goodness he was OKAY, he climbed down shortly after that. Because we were so motivated to get that done, we did not spend any more time in the saddle or on a lake..

damn boat, it is jinxed anyways! It actually was far too hot to really get out and ride or fish, unless you were motivated to get up super early or ride really late afternoon. We spent the 4th in Marysville with old friends, not sure we will do that again! Actually we both enjoyed the socializing part of the BBQ, but I especially could have done without the fireworks! It reminded us why we were SOOO glad to NOT live there anymore!! It was WWI II and III, maybe even IV out there! I sat in the front yard, watching the fireworks, nervous as all could be. I didnt realize what a flippin freak/nut/nervous nelly I was until that night when it came to home-fireworks.

I've never really loved them, I enjoy the big shows that are off in the distance.. but I was really uneasy and not lovin it! I joked that I wished I had an umbrella I was so worried about something landing on me, there were fireworks going off from about every 3rd house and these are the neighborhoods where you can hand milk to your neighbor from your bedroom window to their window!! ;) So anyways, after a few minutes, something fell from the sky and hit me on the shoulder!!! :( Have you ever read the story of Chicken Lickin?? She's the chicken that thinks the sky is falling and goes all crazy, yeah well I was doing all I could to keep my ass planted in my chair after being hit with something..

.... then 15 minutes later a VERY LOUD boom happens right behind us, in the tree I swear (well thats what one of the guys said that it was in the tree that I was sitting somewhat under/in front of) well the boom happens and a second later I am showered in debris!! OMG, nothing hot or on fire, but the shit was in my hair, I swear to you I was about to have a heart attack. I did NOT want to be the damn whimp weany girl that goes in the house, so I thought.. Okay, one more thing hits me and I'm going inside the damn house. I wasnt even watching the show at this point anyways, I was focused so hard on the stuff they were lighting, I was too afraid to look up and get firecrackers in my eyes... lol

I can hear you laughing at me as I type this.. Another 10 minutes goes by and I'm going nuts inside my own brain, I couldnt tolerate it any more, I was freakin out. Call me a sissy, I dont care, I went in the house and sat on the couch by myself! After a while I had some company, I didnt need company, I couldnt see the fireworks through the window, there was a tree blocking. But I could see the guys standing in the street by the car and about 15 minutes after being inside, a big firework fell over, was shooting at everyone in sight! Derek ran for cover, moms are covering their children.. one guy had to run up to the firework apparently and swung at it with his hand as it was shooting directly at some cars.. It was pure chaos and then it was over, everyone outside was laughing.. hahahaha.. F That! I am SOOO thankful I did not wait for the 3rd strike of fireworks to hit me.. I think the fireworks continued for another 45 minutes atleast.
We had a good time, next year if we hang with this crowd, we'll go over and socialize and then just leave around 8 and head to Monroe to watch the nice show at the fairgrounds where I'm not going to get showered in debris and I can actually ENJOY the show!! Not sure what my fears/anxiety was all about, guess I've been out in the country too long... but I'm not complaining.

The poor dog, we came home and Russell's legs were green!! hehehe.. he ran himself ragged, he cut a path in the grass that was NOT there before that night! We realized the next morning too that he had lost his voice.. it was so sad to hear him try to bark, he was very upet/embarrassed about it too. His voice is slowly coming back, but he's not 100% yet. It actually is kinda nice to have a softer tone to his damn bark, which can be so ear piercing!

I got some pics of the shed and the dogs this weekend.. Oh and the appraiser came out on Thursday evening and we hope to have the results tomorrow. I tried very hard to pursued him to see things my way, maybe I should have offered him some cash.....



Well Hello!!

Derek standing on the roof on the phone, even after his near death experience! And I've always thought he was the smarter of us two.. :)

Looking at the shed from our back deck..

This is how it sits right now...

I'm Poo'in Bricks!

So our mortgage company just sent a letter... they have been under-charging our property taxes through our escrow account and starting next month, our monthly payment will increase $300! YIKES. I pretty much had a breakdown this past weekend, I've been waking in the middle of the night stressed out about this entire situation.

I LOVE my house, I really like our property, we have all these plans to make things great around the place. But I dont know if we'll be able to keep our house! We have talked a lot about where to go from here, what to do if we just cant make the payment and still have a life. As it is right now, we pretty much have to end whatever life we have and just plug away at making that monthly mortgage payment, we literally are married to the house payment and it is really tough to justify keeping a house when it straps you so badly you cant stop stressing out.

I sat down the other day with Derek and we were trying to figure out WHY we are struggling so badly with our payment. When we decided to build the house, we calculated worst case scenario on our mortgage payment and our payment is at the worst case scenario price, which we previously determined we could deal with, so how is it that now that we have it, why cant we afford it? Well... 1.5 years ago when we started the process of deciding to build the house, Derek was making $12,000 MORE per year than he is right now!! And my income has not increased in over 2 years. I actually am getting less in bonuses than I was before, so my income has decreased as well. What was doable 2 years ago when we made this decision, has become almost undoable at this point.

It is scary to think of all the time/work we have put into this place and to think we might have to sell it. We are not making any hasty decisions just yet, we are trying to figure this out and see how things go for a couple months. We are desperately trying to refinance and get into a lower mortgage rate, which is incredibly frustrating! If we have to sell, then we are doing things differently.. we talk a lot about the what-if's. We have to, we'd be dumb not to. IF we had to sell, we would sell, use the leftover cash to pay off the red truck, sell the green one, buy a new car, rent somewhere or live with my parents (if they'd have us!) and save up some cash for a couple years and buy a new place down the road.

The lender I am working with seems to think he can get us into a fixed loan.. I'm not holding my breath. If he can, then it would put our payment (with our increased taxes) at a little less than what we currently pay per month. So I may not hold my breath, but I am crossing my fingers!!!

13/18!!!

Yesterday was our 13th Wedding Anniversary!! :) We married on our 5yr anniversary, so it's been 18 years together. Derek informed me that he's known me now longer than I've known myself.. we got a chuckle out of that. We have reached that year that we now have been together longer than we've been apart.


We didnt have an extravagant day, we spent this past weekend camping so that was our celebration to ourselves. Actually yesterday after work we delivered our goats to my aunt and uncles house in Everett! :) Apparently the boys have been getting into trouble over at the Barten Farm... the baby kids were crawling/scurrying under the fenceline to go eat licorice at the neighbors house! lol My aunt/uncle Dale & Heather want their backyard cleared of sticker bushes, shrubs, misc small trees, huckleberry's, salmon berries etc.. As soon as the 3 boys were turned loose, they were in love with their new buffet style accomodations! I'm happy they are no longer a burden on the Barten's and hopefully the fencing will be done at our place or my parents so when they have completed their job at Dale & Heathers, then they'll have somewhere to go again! :)


Back to our camping trip.. okay so the weather has been great for the past 4 weeks, we tied a record of no-rainfall for the spring and what happens the day we head out of town.... downpour!! ;) We were heading down to Alder Lake in Eatonville WA. It is a big reservoir with a huge dam that covers 3 counties! By the time we got down there, it had stopped raining and although the weekend weather was cloudy for the most part, the only rain occured after we had already tucked into bed Saturday night. The fishing.. well that sucked! lol We tried fishin for trout (cast & reel) then we tried for bass, then we tried trolling and as a complete last resort and our 2nd trip out for the day, we tried still/bottom fishing for perch. With 4 poles in the water, we did not get ANY bites using the methods above! Oh well, we did get this great picture!! lol


We took the children with us, always nice to have a heater at night. :) As usual, Derek slept above the cab and I slept on the lower section, I didnt take my air mattress which I later regretted when I realized my right hipbone was actually bruised from laying pretty much on the wood bed for 2 days! At the campsite, we pulled the picnic bench behind the camper which made for a perfect deck... I was reluctant to do it, didnt want the campground hosts to come yell at us, but they never noticed. Now we just need to find a way to do this every time we camp.


Derek's new job is going great, he got a handshake from the owner the other day for a paint job he did on one of the pieces of equipment. Last night, he heard from the night shift manager that the day shift manager is impressed with his work as well. The day shift manager (Bob) hasnt really indicated anything to Derek as far as yah or nay on his work, so Derek was a little worried about that, but then the night guy told Derek that Bob likes him and if Bob likes him, then he'll be sticking around and keeping his job. :) He hasnt been on a horse since the weekend he came off Oakley, we've been pretty busy.


Life is stressed and time is short.. even with these long days! Although now that summer is here, days are gettin shorter every day.. bummer. We are staying home 4th of July weekend, the plan/hope is to get some things done around the house that we havent had time yet to do. It's tough to balance working our paid jobs, relaxing from working our jobs, Derek working on side projects for other people, finding time to camp, fish, ride horses, play with dogs, work on our own projects around the house... Last night we realized how much crazier life/time would be if we had to throw softball back into that mix! The house chores have suffered, weeds are sprouting up all over the place, I think the next couple weeks we'll try to get a bit more organized and feel a little less scattered. I'm sure everyone else suffers the same problems, but I have a blog, so I'll bitch about it! lol

Facebook Friends

I never thought the internet would be a way that I would reconnect with friends. It is amazing really how the internet has changed my life in some ways. Over a year ago, I had started a myspace page and out of the blue I was contacted by an old friend, who we hadnt seen in probably 6 years! We had lost touch with George & Rachel, whom I've chatted about on here before and their daughter. She contacted me as a blast from the past and we have since rekindled our friendship and enjoy spending weekends together, helping eachother out, camping trips etc... I can honestly say w/o the internet or myspace, I dont know if we would have ever found eachother again.

Then this year I finally gave in to Facebook and started an account there. I have become "friends" with lots of highschool aquantances, good to see their pictures and see how life is treating them. But then I became "friends" with Rachel Nauman whom I used to be friends with and did 4H together, drill team, etc.. We lost touch after high school, however she used to have my sister babysit for her and her friend, so I'd hear about her every now/then. She came to Carrie's funeral but I hadnt seen her in years before that and then not until Facebook had I thought we would really ever connect again. But then we did!

We started chatting on FB a week or so ago and then yesterday we went riding together!! Yippy.. It was really great to be able to go out and have some fun with an old friend that I sincerely hope will continue to be a longtime friend. Again, without the internet it is very unlikely we would have reconnected.

My mom always told me computers were the way to go and encouraged me to go in that direction (I didnt really listen) but she was right in her prediction, if you are in the computer field, you can make some pretty good money. I'm just happy I know enough to use computers daily, be able to work a "blog" page, which is really fun to do and I can open/create accounts online with the tools available to reconnect with people. I've even been able to connect with some family on my dad's side that live out of state that I dont get to talk to often. :)

Wipeout~ Horseback style, not the ABC Version

The day started well.. a nice easy meandering trail up at the Morgan Club this morning. We were riding with Scott, Barbara, Gail & Angie. Apparently I missed the memo that said ready to ride at 10am, so at 10:04 when Barbara called and wondered where I was at, I was thinking, Wow I guess she's a real stickler to time.. But as I'm pulling in I see their horses are all saddled and ready to go! Dammit, we were late..

We saddled fairly quickly and headed out. There was a very short very steep downhill section and Oakley decided to create his own mini-version of Man from Snowy River as he bolted down the hill at a trot/lope. Now this was not just a little downhill, this was pretty close to straight down, Derek handled it fine and Oakley stopped when he ran into me and Bandit. About 1.5 hours into the ride, Oakley started acting up going downhill. He was walking sideways, he was charging forward at a fast trot, acting uncontrollable at times, so Derek got off and walked him. He ended up walking for about 25 minutes until we got to the lunch stop at the river.

We unsaddled Oakley, the conclusion of his issue was that maybe his saddle was too tight and pinching. Lunch was great, here are some pics.

This is an end of a log at the river for lunch. Can you see the evil in that log!

After lunch, Scott asked if we were okay doing some hills. My thought was well Oakley does fine doing uphill, so should be fine. Well my idea of a "hill" was not what Scott had in mind, his hill was like going straight up the side of the hill! :) Nobody's fault, we just were not prepared to tackle something so big, it was a bit too much for Derek or Oakley. We started out okay but then we stopped to give the horses a breather; inwhich Oakley turned around. I could see that Oakley was possibly going to have an issue but by the time I thought it, Derek tried to get him turned around and heading up the trail, and Oakley stepped off the trail into a bad area where the ground dissappeared under him, there were logs down there and branches, Oakley jumped full into the mess, went down, Derek tried to bail and came off badly, landing on his back on a sharp stump, he pushed Oakley to avoid being trampled and Oakley jumped up/out of the "whole" and back onto the trail.

I jumped off, tied my horse and went down the trail, Derek was having a very hard time breathing and moving, his palm was cut pretty good. I was a little scared for him, I felt really bad that this had happened. After his 10 minute recovery, I ponied Oakley up the hillside while Derek walked behind at his slower pace. My horse Bandit thought he was going to die, I had to really push him to get him up that hill, it was a bit tough for him even.

Overall, they both turned out okay, although Derek is VERY stiff and very sore! They finished the ride just fine, we stuck to logging roads, we didnt need any more trail adventures. The hill was more than Oakley was experienced enough to climb. We are not upset at all, a lesson learned once again and it will in the long run help Derek to grow as a rider, I just feel so bad he is hurting. Not to mention he starts his new job tomorrow!!

Tomorrow morning should be very interesting, I think Derek is going to struggle getting out of bed! He said to me today after we got home "man it SUCKS coming off a horse!" I said "Oh well try coming off when you are over 6' off the ground and falling that entire distance flat on your back, as I did last year!! He just kinda shrugged and I said, NOW picture how unsympathetic you were to my pain.. lol He got my point! Not that he didnt care when I came off, but until now, he had NO idea just how bad it hurts to hit the ground whether you are 3 feet or 6 feet from falling.

So he is done with his old job, he can put the drama filled work environment behind him! We both are ready for that. I think this new job can potentially put him in a great position in the future as he can maybe help them grow and establish a side of their business they never considered.

Here's a cute pic of Scout and then of her and Oakley, she is just fascinated with him! She'll stand at the fenceline for 45 minutes, just starring at Oakley. Occassionally barking at him. Well time to put the laptop down and eat some dinner.. LOL Just as I typed that sentence, no joke, Derek says "are you going to eat?" Oh and we got a laptop BTW. :)

WOHOOO!!

10 Pounds!!! I have lost.... gone forever (hopefully) :)

Oh and I have 58.5 hours in the saddle this year so far
Derek has 60.75

Time for a new Job

Derek is driving in to work this morning to inform his boss that he is quitting! His current job is for a company inwhich he drives to two different auto dealerships (his accounts) and repairs/paints on site damages on the vehicles. He has a tent for rainy conditions, but when it is pouring down rain and/or windy and stormy particularly in the fall/winter/spring months, his job can become pretty impossible if not undoable at times. I hate to stick with what everyone is saying right now, but the economy has deeply affected his workload over the past year. This past winter was a struggle at times, the snow shut him down for atleast 2 weeks and considering he is commission, you can see the problem.

So he's been looking here/there and considering his options of changing careers even. He interviewed a week ago with an equipment company in Snohomish on Bickford Ave that was looking for a paint shop manager/painter. Of course, he pretty much go the job right away, however they wanted him to work this past Saturday so that he would be 100% sure he wanted to take the job. He had another interview yesterday to work out details of his start date etc and he starts on Monday! He actually will be working on Saturday again, so I guess he starts in 3 days. His pay is a lot less than he made 2 years ago, a little less than he made last year, but a little more than he has averaged this year. It is steady income and that is what is important right now. With his current position, it is tough to not be able to count on a steady check every week.

This new company offers Med/Dental, Retirement, 2 weeks Vacation and more.. His previous employer offered crappy medical and 1 week vacation. So I am excited about the change but also a little nervous about it. I think it will all work out well, plus there are other avenues for him with this new job and the hope is that Derek can help them grow their paint department/business.

Exhausted

I can hardly keep the eyeballs open right now, but I'd like to post a few pics so I'm hangin in there just for my loyal listeners! ;)

Well I took on a new project, I think I am lacking so much mental stimulation at work, I felt a challenge was appropriate. I'll let ya know in a week or two if that was a good decision or not. So my task... CHC Treasurer!! I've been treasurer before, years ago, but things are different this time around, many changes have been made, new responsibilities, I just hope I dont regret this down the road.. Being Treasurer is a big responsibility and I thought I was taking the year off and relaxing with the club.. guess not! :)

Saturday night Jennifer Shana Andrea & I had a girls night up at Andrea's house. We had a good time of course, laughing and being silly, drinking of course! Spent lots of the night hashin out family drama, lots of tears shed regarding ourselves and our losses over the past couple years. Did not get to bed until about 2:30am, woke up at 7:30 so I could get home this morning to go riding with Adam & Tracy and their friend Amber.

I spent more time in the saddle today than I did in bed last night! Imagine that.. It was a warm day, we rode out of Adam's place again, Tracy was taking up an offer I put together for her to ride Blackie Smalls and it was very successful, hopefully the pair will be out on the trail many more times this summer together. We rode up to the lookout again, this time I had the camera in hand to get some pics.

Last week when we were there, the guys had pointed out "Seattle" and I was looking the direction I thought they were pointing and I was like "Oh, how do you know that is Seattle?" Derek was like, well the buildings etc.. Well shit I didnt see any buildings! lol So today when we get up to the lookout area, sure enough straight ahead is the Seattle skyline! I swear it was not there last week, maybe the smoggy/thick air was thicker last week and it was harder to see so I missed it. I got some pics

Here is Seattle in the background.. really not sure how I missed it the first time! duh
I tried to edit this picture to enhance the city which is to the right of this tree. But my computer was being stupid so I couldnt enlarge that area. Derek said he could see the space needle. It was much more visible/clear in person than my camera shot, same with the other pictures as well, in person... much better! :)
This is Mt Rainier

Our little group with Lk Roesiger and Mt Baker in the background

Oh and yesterday I took Oakley out to hose him off, he LOVES to drink water from the house, so here are a few pics of him playing in the water...

Here Moley Moley Moley Moley Moleeeeeeeey.....

GRRR. So I bought some mint leaves Tuesday afternoon, spent an hour chopping up the leaves/branches, put them in the blender with some water, then boiled and simmered the leaves in a full pot of water for 30 minutes... Poured the concoction into atleast 10 holes this damn mole has created. Wed morning the mole was nowhere to be seen, no new mole holes, I was feeling rather good about this deal, until........... I woke up this morning and looked out to see 3 new holes!! AGGHHH This little shit is digging up holes along my fenceline between the yard and barn and gravel paddock, he has created a hole in my barn isleway, in the stall and there are numerous big brown mounds in my gravel paddock!! I am ready to go postal on this F*ing animal!! I have never been so frustrated, I guess I am going to have to stand over a stomped hole with a metal pitchfork and shishkabob the thing when he starts to stir up his holes.

Where Do I begin??

What a Weekend!! extended weekend I should say since it was Memorial Weekend inwhich it started on Thursday for me. 5 days off work, a much needed break from the daily grind.

Thursday I loaded up Oakley and picked up Molly for a 2.5 hour ride at Lords Hill with some other friends, a quiet uneventful ride in the sun, Oakley did great of course! :) I loped him a little on the trail, OMG that horse has a terrific lope, I could go at that speed all day.

Friday I spent the morning cleaning here/there. Derek got off work early, so we loaded up the boat and headed to Lake Roesiger to give that a try. We were out for a couple hours, I had 1 fish on after about 1.5 hours but it spit out my lure half way to the boat.. Derek got skunked. We had intended to explore the lake a little more, but a little ways into our trolling, the boat started going slower and slower.. oh crap!! We hadnt charged the battery since we bought it and we were loosing juice! We turned around immediately and headed back towards the dock, decided to anchor out close to the dock so if we had to row, it wouldnt be far. An uneventful afternoon of fishing but I really am enjoying just spending the time with Derek and having a good time laughing and being silly together. ;)

Saturday morning we woke early after a late night of cleaning (yes Derek & I were up til about 10pm deep cycle cleaning our bedroom!) We headed to Lake Sixteen up out of Conway, Skagit County. We met Eric & Andrea there as well as Tony & Amanda who are Eric & Andreas very good friends. Amanda was in our boat, while the other 3 in Eric's boat. It was COLD! We got there at 8:20 am and the sun had dissappeared somewhere around Stanwood, so the shorts and tank tops were not cuttin it, we all had to wrap up in extra clothing. Within 45 minutes of trolling, I had a nice maybe 15" trout on that we got in the boat. We were feelin pretty good, thinking all the while that we were going to KILL the other boat on luck for the day. Meanwhile, we get ZERO bites or fish for the next couple hours. Andrea on the other hand has caught 11 fish!!! Noone else in her boat had caught anything at that point, and after her 11 fish, Eric & Tony decided to use what she was using and they all started catching fish. Meanwhile, us in our boat, well we are using every lure we could find/experiment with.

After a few hours, we anchored out to give that a try and here comes the other boat, mocking us and laughing (we all were laughing, what can you do!) and as they are passing us between the boat and the shore, BANG I think it was Tony that caught a fish.. damn!!! After he realed it in, they felt sorry for us I guess and came over the boat, gave Amanda some homemade pizza, a Corona and then Andrea decided she had plenty of fish for the day, so she handed me her lure and showed Amanda and I how to set it up just like she had. 5 minutes later I had a good bite, but then NOTHING. For another hour we still had Nothing!! :) We had contemplated ramming their boat numerous times and joked about how fun it would be to throw them in the water. lol

So we thought, maybe we are trolling too fast or too slow, so we start pacing the other boat, we are going along side by side, they pull ahead a couple feet, literally their boat was not even a full boat length ahead of us and then all the sudden BANG, Andrea I think it was lands a fish and when the fish took her hook, it jumped out of the water right away, again LITERALLY 5 feet from the back of our boat. Son of a BITCH! Seriously, lolololololol is about all we could say at that point. Andrea caught fish even after she gave up her successful lure.. so the rundown here is that our boat landed 1 fish in 5 hours (Derek caught a fish at one point but never got it in the boat) and their boat landed almost 20 fish. Amazing... I really enjoyed being out with everyone, we had a blast all the same.

That afternoon we had a BBQ at our place and rented the UFC fights that night. Everyone that came, brought a dog!! lol I should have taken a picture. Here is what we had. Our 2 dogs, Scout & Russell. Eric/Andrea brought Hudson (lab) and a rescue dog Andrea just brought in a Japanese Chin I think it was. A 9 pound dog, pour little girl was pretty fugly! lol I mean she was cute in her own way with her long small body missing half her hair and scabby back and bulging eyeballs. They have not named her so we kept calling her different names all evening, she was a cuddle bug though. Tony/Amanda brought a border collie mix dog. Amber/Jerod brought a lab. Danielle brought her Jack Russell Sobe. 7 dogs total and there was not one fight, I dont even think anyone really growled, oh wait Little Dog didnt like any dogs around her, she spent the afternoon rotating from lap to lap. Dog chaos, dogs everywhere running in/out of the house, it was fun!

Sunday we unhooked the boat and hooked up the horse trailer, headed to Adam's house in Snohomish for a 4.5 hour ride on some DNR land out his back door! :) His girlfriend Tracy was having problems with her horse, she has a mare that I believe is bored with trailriding, the horse is young and needs a bigger job to do, so she had to turn around and lead the horse home, but the 3 of us had a great ride. On our way up the mountainside, we saw a flock of grouse babies go flying off into the bushes and momma was freakin out a little, fluttering her wings and flew after her babies. I told the guys I had read stories of grouse attacking horses to protect their babies. Luckily that did not happen to us. At the top, we could see all the way to Seattle, no camera of course with me :) Derek rode Oakley and was having a nice ride. On the way back, we saw a deer on the trail ahead and then came across a tree next to the trail that had VERY fresh bear scratchings on it. I'd say it was within 24 hours if not that day, it was a little intimidating to see that. Then... my horse (the big Appy gelding) is lagging way behind, he is pretty tired at this point, but I see a grouse fly by Derek up ahead so I asked Derek what happened.. Well, Derek was on the phone chattin with Tyler and this grouse (not the same one as going up the trail) is in the middle of the trail fluttering it's wings and banging them on the ground and then all the sudden it flew up and came straight at Derek. He immediately hung up the phone and the grouse then flew off into the bushes, so he was pretty much heavily WARNED to stay away from her nest, wherever that was! :) It was quite the ride, some excitement. Derek ended up loping Oakely too that day and he just loved it and felt great with how smooth it was to ride. After the ride, we hauled the boys home and drove back to Adams for a Birthday BBQ with him, Tracy and Josh. It was a great day.

We had thought about going for a drive on Sunday, but we decided we felt so "unlucky" with our Saturday fishing excursion that we needed to redeem ourselves, so we slept in Monday, loaded up the boat and headed up to Anacortes to go fishin with Tyler at Heart Lake (same place we rode horses from a month or more ago). We spent a couple hours on that lake and the only thing caught was this poor unlucky croppy fish that Tyler somehow hooked in the belly! Poor little dude probably didnt even try to go for the lure, heck the lure is almost as big as he is!

We dropped anchor in that area and tried fishin for croppy, something Derek has never been interested in fishing for, but at this point we were desperate to catch something! We got lots of tiny bites on our little worm jigs, but no hooked fish. We ditched that lake and headed to Campbell lake a couple miles down the road that is supposed to have some nice planted trout, what did we catch??? Not a G-Damned thing! We fished for a few hours in the wind and cold, not much sun out that day in Anacortes.

So I dont know what the deal is. Maybe because the weather was changing, the fish were not biting. I had a GREAT weekend, just very unlucky fishing experiences.

Oh and to top it all off... on our drive home from Anacortes on Monday, we blew a tire on the boat trailer! We also have to buy guides for the boat for loading it out of the water, it is a pain in the behind.. so money needs to be forked out for the boat in guides and a new tire ASAP! The money pit of boat ownership begins..

Oh and we are battling a mole in the yard. He is REALLY makin me mad! He is diggin up some huge dirt mounds in the yard and gravel area of our paddock. The dogs are pretty funny, every time a new mound arises or the mole redigs a stomped mound, Scout stands at the mound and just barks and barks! Silly dog. Eric said that Sisco says to grind up some fresh mint leaves and boil them and pour that down the holes and that will solve my problem, anyone know where I can find some fresh mint???

The Daily Catch...

We bought a boat!! Yippy... We'd been talking about it for about a week, not seriously. But then we started browsing good 'ole Craigslist and I found a boat in Snohomish to go see. It is a 12' Sorensen. Here are a couple pics. It came with a cover over the front half so if you go out and it's raining or cold, you can put that up. It also came with a trolling motor and a 15hp motor, although Derek installed his trolling motor in as his is a much nicer one.


We have started living by the philosophy that life is pretty short and you might as well do what you can to enjoy it... and that's why we made the decision to buy the boat. We had some cash set aside to finish our fencing in the pastures, but opted to hold off on the fencing so we could buy the boat. The goats will just have to stay on vacation at the Barten's farm a little longer til we can get more money saved up. :) Derek and I have been looking forward to doing a lot more fishing together and this will definately get us out on the water. We might be tight every month and stressed about our financial obligations, but what better way to relieve your stress than a nice afternoon on the lake fishin for bass, trout, perch...

We took the boat out Saturday late afternoon for about 1.5 hours on Flowing Lake, got the main motor running good and the trolling motor running, we each caught a pretty nice trout, although Derek's was a little nicer in size than mine! But it felt great to be catchin fish again and just cruisin the lake in the boat was nice too. It's not a speed demon, but its perfect for us and I love the boat and dont regret it at all.


We got in ZERO riding this weekend. What a bummer as the weather was fantastic! High 70's if not even a little into the 80's. Oh wait, if you count Friday evening, then I got in 15 whopping minutes! We took the boat on the lake Friday evening and the main motor would not run, so we took it to my parents for dad to provide his expert advise. As Derek & Dad were foolin with the motor, I jumped on Oakley bareback in the pasture with just his halter and rode around. I kinda did the neener neener to Derek.. told him I was making up time since I'm still 4 hours behind him. lol We spent most of Saturday helping cousin Marc on his place and then Sunday morning helping my parents for a couple hours with their load of bark. We could have ridden over the weekend, but we were pretty excited about the boat and took that out instead.

Last night Derek played in 2 softball games. He was invited to play with the Audi Dealership guys from Lynnwood/Seattle who were playing the VW guys from Seattle! :) It was fun to see him playing again, it was not a serious game at all.. but he was still sore and walking pretty stiff this morning.. lol He was reminded why he retired. We mostly miss the guys/friends from softball and hanging out with everyone, but sitting around in 80 degree heat for 3 hours waiting for the next game... dont miss that so much. :)

I've been thinkin about Carrie a lot lately, been doing some crying. I think its the thought of summer coming and all the things Derek and I have been and plan to do and how much I wish she could be here with me to do these things with. I still want to call her and just "talk" to my sister, I miss that more than anything. The other day on the lake, one of the houses was blasting their country music and one of the songs from the funeral came on, I was cryin in the middle of the damn lake! Derek is a great husband, he understands me and allows me my processes. ;)

CRAP.. I killed the Camera!! :(

Good thing I have a back up! Although the backup camera is not quite as good.. I am not 100% sure I cant fix the camera, but I was using it off/on Saturday on our ride and all the sudden it just wouldnt close down when I turned it off. The lens is in the outward position and only buzzes, it will not close, it will not stay turned on, you cannot view pictures or take pictures.. it tries, but not hard enough. I am thinking on taking the camera apart, what harm would it do at this point.

We went to check on the horses Friday night, to be sure they were OK and ready for a ride the next day, all looked just fine. Oakley had been jumping the fence to get in with BS, so we just put them together. I figured it was safer that way, I didnt need my horse getting hung up in the not-so-perfect fencing! :) Saturday morning as we are loading up, BS is missing a back shoe!! Dammit... We headed up to the trailhead anyways. We rode on Blanchard Hill (Mtn) which is up at I5 exit 240 (Alger Exit), the trails are called Lilly & Lizard Lakes trail system. 45 minutes into the ride, BS pulled a front shoe as well.

A nice wooded section in the trail..

Derek said his horse had 2 flats. :) BS did just fine, the trails were not too bad for him to travel on. I was riding Oakley. The trail is basically a steady climb the entire ride! You are riding up to the lakes and then from there to a lookout over the bay area above Anacortes. You can see all the way to Anacortes from the lunch spot, see some islands, a great place to stop and eat lunch. On the way there however, we had a few tricky spots on the trail with rock faces to deal with. Oakley misjudged one rock face as we were going uphill and he went down on his chest (like he did a few weeks ago with Derek) and he calmly pulled himself up and continued on. A few minutes later we had stopped to let the horses have a breather and when I asked Oakley to go forward, he tripped on a tree root and down he went onto his chest again, it was like slow motion, he sat there for a few seconds thinking about his next move, then slowly got back up again. I felt like gumby!! As my horse's front end is dissappearing, I'm stretching back to keep from falling off. Those that saw Oakley's reaction to the situations were impressed that at his young age, he handles himself well w/o panicking. Some horses would scramble and cause more problems, but Oakley seems very level headed and you can feel/see him thinking about what to do vs just reacting.

Dropping down to a water crossing..
Coming out of the creek..

A little while later we went through a tight hairy situation of tree roots and rocks, a sign that was in the way, a dip... A few riders made it through fine, but then Derek went through and as he was passing the wood sign, he pulled his leg up to avoid hitting the sign, but his leg/foot got caught on the sign and jolted his knee, which created a big POP and he was in immediate pain. I got off Oakley and led him through, it was just too much for him as a young horse to deal with. Derek continued to ride with pain and when we stopped for lunch, he was hobbling a lot. We were very concerned he had torn his ACL, but he twisted while walking and it popped again, he said it was immediate relief! Thank goodness. His knees are still pretty swollen, but they are not in pain, just sore/stiff. Our in saddle time for the day was 5.25 hours!!

These are the roots in the "bad" section we went through..

Derek's toushy was a little sore, it was a great ride, challenging in some areas. Oakley did great. In the beginning of the ride, we came across a small creek crossing that he wasnt sure he wanted to pass over, but there was uphill on one side, downhill on the other, NO room whatsoever for him to be squirmy, so I immediately jumped off and led him over (which he walked over just fine) and then got back on. The next big creek we came across he kinda bolted through, but after that, we crossed quite a few creeks/small water ways and mucky areas and he walked through them all like a pro. I was very happy with how he rode on Saturday.

Lunch Break at the Lookout..

I rode Edgar on Sunday while Derek rode BS, just for an hour down the road. Edgar was missing 2 shoes himself, so really hard to tell if his shoulder was bothering him or if it was because he was missing a shoe on the side he had injured... I think he is 95% fine, so the plan is to get new shoes on this week and start riding him again and get Derek riding Oakley now.

I lost a couple more pounds! Not yet significant loss, but I'm working on it.... Sorry the blog may be boring lately, we've been trying to get in lots of riding, so thats the main focus of what we do lately! :)

Technology is on the Rise....

Well it is in our house anyways! Last night we had to drive a job Derek worked on to Lynnwood. As we're driving along I thought "hmm, good time to call a friend" but as I'm looking at my phone it is telling me "Insert SIM card!" W.T.Hell!!

For a few months my phone has been acting very BiPolar like! I say that because the damn thing's battery would last for one day, barely. The wall charger was not working or charging it for 2 days, so I took the charger and the phone to work and what do you know, it worked just fine there. Every now/then it would show NO bars, when I was clearly in a location that got service all the time. At home, it never rang anymore, just went to voicemail when someone called HOWEVER, the reception was just fine, I could make calls all day long in my house with perfect clarity. So back to yesterday, it is telling me to insert something that is already inserted and was never taken out! I finally messed with it long enough (15 minutes while driving.. bad Piper, bad Piper!) and it came back on, I made a call to AT&T to find out if I was eligible for new phones, Yeah we were... then it shut itself off immediately after the call and it struggled to come back on.

After we dropped off the car, we headed to the mall.. this shitty phone had to go! And when Derek heard we were eligible for new phones w/no penalties, his exact words "Daddy needs a new phone!" LOLOLOL He is so funny..

AT&T had crappy phones for lots of money and their service plans cost more than we currently paid with them.. so we headed to Verizon and spent an hour buying new phones/plans! :) We got a Deal and paid $80 for 2 phones! These are nice phones, WAY more phone than we will ever need, for the next 30 days we get free TV and Internet, no Shit I can watch TV on this darn thing!! I'm still trying to figure it all out, it is pretty fancy and much bigger than my last phone. Hopefully most of my friends/family have Verizon so it will be free minutes to call them. We also now have Texting in our plan whereas before we did not and had to pay per text msg. Oh AND we got Blue Tooths as well, so we will FINALLY be legal when we are chatting while driving! I never wanted one, still dont like them, but I guess it's better to be legal I know I certainly dont need another ticket!

Time Management

I'm hoping this week to start to get into some sort of pattern/rythm with trying to live life and fit everything in. I have been struggling during the weeks with trying to balance riding the horses, working out at the gym, shopping for groceries, cooking dinner, paying bills weekly, doing dishes/cleaning house, having some tv down time.. too many things to get done in one evening!

Derek & I got in a ride on Saturday at the Morgan Club with Barbara Woo, Chris Tornow, Jenny McCall & her neice Rochell. It was a nice ride, I rode Oakley 80% of the time. There was a brief period that Derek and I switched horses after lunch, but Oakley was tossing his head a lot, so it was easier for me to get on and work him on this ride. He has done great with creek crossings, as long the creeks are wide, he will walk right in with no problems, but we again came across a water crossing that was only about a foot or so wide and he had to jump it. There was no real battle this time with him, some hesitation, but I didnt "work" him on the crossing, just let him jump it and moved on. He was tossing his head for the 2nd half of the ride, I'm not sure if he was just being testy, if his back was sore, or if the saddle was hurting him. I'll have to watch him and see if he continues to do that and try to determine the cause. I'm a little worried about saddle fit on him, Derek's saddle doesnt seem to fit him perfectly and it would really be a tragedy if that is the case, it was an $800 saddle!!! Oakley should be gaining some weight now that he is out of training, so the saddle may fit better/worse as he fills out a little more.

Edgar is still a tiny bit stiff in his shoulder, so I'll be riding Oakley a little longer. Derek is going to back off of taking lessons for a while and just go back to riding horses... He's been pushed pretty hard in his lessons and unfortunately he is so concerned now thinking about what he is doing right/wrong, I think he's loosing out on the fun of just riding. So we are going to take a break and just let him ride. Derek is a good rider, I see it and so does the trainer. He'll only continue to get better with more hours in the saddle. BTW, we both are over 40 hours now for the year!!!

Blackies Back...

Well he will be tonight anyways! Here's the issue: Edgar is still lame. I rode Edgar on Tuesday in the rain, while Derek had a lesson with Luanne, the 3 of us rode around the track and I could definately feel Edgar limping. Although the next day I lunged him and he was not limping; however, he still is not 100% at tight turns. So he's still on vacation at the Monroe pasture I have. :) BTW ~ if any of my horsey friends need FREEEEEE pasture, there is plenty of pasture for another couple horses and the owners of the property are VERY nice! There are 5 seperate pastures that horses can be put in.

Well, back to the change of plans. The plan was to pick up Oakley from training (yesterday) and then I picked up Bandit (the big appy), I was going to ride Bandit until Edgar was good to go. We hauled both those boys to Lords Hill yesterday for what was supposed to be a nice ride and for the most part it was, but when we came to a very small water crossing (literally less than 2 feet wide of slow moving water) Oakley balked and refused to cross with Derek. He tried rearing a little, kinda ran off into the bushes. Derek was doing everything right and staying very calm, but Oakley was being a SHIT. So Derek got off and walked him over the water, inwhich Oakley jumped it and then he held onto Bandit while I got on Oakley and spent atleast 15 minutes working on that water crossing.

It was a battle! He would walk up to it (sometimes) but did not want to cross, he would sidepass into the bushes ignoring my leg commands, I was spanking him to get him to listen, I was calm, he just wanted to be an ass and when he did cross it, he jumped it. I got him over that water atleast 10-12 times, but he jumped it every time and it was a battle, he never once just walked up to it and jumped over, he fought me to get up to it, then jumped. So he needs some water work.. Derek got back on him and finished the ride with no other issues.

But it made us realize that there could be other issues that we dont know about just yet since Oakley is pretty green on trail riding, so Bandit is going back to Molly's house, Blackie Smalls is coming back to our house for Derek to ride and I'll be riding Oakley for now. I hate to put so much weight on Oakley, but he is in great shape and he's going to have to deal with it until I am convinced he is ready for Derek.

So I'll ride Oakley until Edgar is ready to ride, but if Derek & I feel that Oakley is not ready for Derek or needs more experience/time on the trail, then I'll continue to ride Oakley and either give Edgar the summer off or let someone else take him for the summer. Tomorrow we are riding in Arlington at the Morgan Club Trails, should be a good 3-4 hours worth of riding and it will give me a chance to see how well Oakley handles me on long rides and if he gets sore at all.

Plans are just all up in the air, it is very frustrating not knowing exactly what is going on. I love Oakley and he's a good horse, but he is still young and that is why I was worried about putting a green rider on a green horse, you just never know when an issue will arise. The trainer was pretty upset that Oakley had the issue, she worked him over the creek at her place and he crossed it many times with no problems, so if he continues to balk at creeks, she's going to come over and work with him on it and see what the problem is. She worked him to get him "bomb proof" for Derek so she didnt like hearing we had problems and I'm glad she's willing to help me work with him if it remains a problem.