I picked up Ariana yesterday and she spent the night with me alone.  I hadn’t had her alone in years.  It’s been really fun.  She is 11 going on 21.  I need to have her more often.

I taught her to drive the golf cart yesterday.  I’m sure that will be the most exciting part of the trip.  (For some reason, the kids at the barn love the golf cart….)

I get my mom today at noon.

My back is kill me.  My legs are sore.  When I dismounted, I stumbled back under my own weight, because my body was hurting.

All I did was ride my own horse.

Granted, Cook had a week off due to the crappy weather.  The ring was muddy, which 1) she hates and 2) I couldn’t lunge her beforehand.

When I got on, she jigged off.  I said you know what!?!?!?!?!?  you wanna jig off!?!?!  Let’s trot!  Let’s trot until you don’t wanna jig no more.

Except she never really wanted to stop.  She was still pretty high and excited 45 minutes later.

She wasn’t TERRIBLE.  We did have a few arguments in which I had to discipline her. (I know, shocker!)  She was being pissy about trotting into a corner because there was a go-kart parked there, which was fine …. until I made her go there and she started bucking me.  Unacceptable!

So we started out bad, the middle got better, but we soured toward the end.  I think she was tired of me at that point.  So I got her back to just trotting a little ways again calmly and we ended it.

Oh, we did manage to canter some today.  She was high as a kite afterwards, it blew it her brain, but we did canter.  So yay.

Someone I know (no names need to be mentioned) thinks Cook oughta be retired.  Um, I think Cook has the energy and will of a 4 year old.

Mere made me laugh about Cook.  She’s healed enough to get on her so she’s gonna try and help me this week.  Aw, sweet relief.  At the Cookie School of Hard Knocks, I’m the teacher, but Mere is the Prinicipal.  

I thought I would post some of the projects I need to finish.

First up, here is a picture of what Birdie does (sleep) while I crochet.

here is a picture of the blanket I am working on for my brother’s birthday in August.  It’s folded across 3 times cause I couldn’t fit the whole thing in the picture frame.

Here is my cross stitch starting….

HATE IT.

I walked out of my house this morning … took a few steps and went back inside to put on an extra layer of clothes. It snowed a lil bit (enough to cover the grass), iced and then rained. All the time, cold air.

UGH!

Haven’t seen the girls in a few days.  I’m gonna try and go out tomorrow to see them.

So I’m playing a little catch up cause I was so tired last night I went to bed early.  I got up WAYYY early yesterday morning (still dark!!) and rode both horsies before I had to go to work.  It was good - temp was 60 degrees!  They were both well behaved, even tho Cook acted a lil nervous about being out that early with no one in the ring but her.  The construction was going on too and a nail gun went off - Cook tried to jump in my arms (managed to step on my foot!  Thanks Mare!)

So the weather is turning frigid and I will prolly take 3-4 days off from the barn because I HATE HATE HATE riding in the bitter cold.  Especially since I don’t have textbook easy rides right now.  Why punish myself?

Hope everyone else is keeping warm!  We might get some ice on Thursday.  Ice is worse than snow.

Meanwhile I will be turning in early and trying to catch on rest.  Been sleeping much better at nights.

and update on Birdie.  She’s getting better.  Oh, and I got an estimate to get her fixed!  $340!  what?!!?!?  Seriously!?!?!?  Is it really that expensive to her her spade?

nothing much to report.  was tired today so only rode one set - Cook.  She was much much better.  Only one more day of pretty weather, so I gotta figure out if and when I can ride.  I wanna try and hop on the Miss tomorrow.

Have a good week everyone.

wow!  2 in a row!  I might be on the road back to Sanity-ville if this keeps up!

Had fun at the barn.

Ok - first Cook.  As I have been blogging, Cook is getting back into work.  Real work.  Not just the pasture-pet-do-what-I-wanna horse.  As she was recovering, she was good when I hopped on her bareback, or tooled around on her.

However, she has had an attitude about getting back into work work.  She’s sound 110%.  Her attitude is the Throughbred Ball Of Fury.

So she starts out NOT WANTING ME TO CATCH HER.  (insert cussing here &%# &%$^ *&$^%)

That never happens.  I make FUN of other people who can’t catch their horse.

So I put her on the lunge to get her “Thoroughbred Ball of Fury” out.  I am actually bragging to Kathy about how well she does on the lunge now when she goes berserk and about rips my arm out.  :rear

So anyway, I lunge her a good amount and then I sit on her.  All I wanted her to do was WALK…. and TROT…. and WALK… and TROT…..  not hard here, Cook.  Two year olds can do this.  So the end result was that she made several ugly faces, switched her tail, generally acted pissy at first, but gave in and obliged me.  I wasn’t happy about how she acted, but I was satisfied we made some progress (or at least what I am hoping is progress).

We didn’t even try to canter (her little brain would have exploded).

It makes me tired thinking I have to do this again tomorrow.

So then I rode Miss.  She was lovely.  Cantering was fun.  What else is there to say?  She was good.   Oh, and we had an audience, so it made life a lil sweeter.  I’m glad I was on Miss, rather than Cook.  (how sad is that?!?!!?!?  Where is my good pony!?!??!)

So good times.  Good day.

I had a good mental health day today.

I went into work briefly to check on things… my laptop is getting replaced so I couldn’t get on the network. I planned to go home and rest but I decided to head to the barn.

Rode Miss who was AWESOME!

Rode Cook for 5 minutes.

I rode with Mere to Southern Pines, so that’s why I cut it early with Cook. It was good to have a good old fashion girlie roadtrip. We talked about a lot of good horse stuff.

Came home, let Birdie out, played with her a minute.

Went to Mexican with Scott for dinner. Went home with him and whupped his arse at rummy and speed. I laid on his couch and closed my eyes for a minute. When i woke up an hour later he was asleep on the other couch. I snuck out and came home.

Today was the first day in a long time I was really relaxed. Even jokingly mood.

Nothing is going on.  The weather is freezing tonight but its’ supposed to warm up during the latter part of the week.

Hope everyone is doing well.

I briefly checked on the girls at the barn. They were un-eventful and so I came on home. A few minutes after I came home, Scott IM-ed me and came and got me before his hockey game. We have been spending alot of time together lately, mostly playing rummy and chess. I think we both like playing each other because we are pretty evenly matched. Its’ a toss up who wins.

(I should note here that we have always been, are currently and will never be, more than friends).

Scott is trying to keep me sane. He’s getting me by.

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I don’t have anything really to blog but I wanted to try and get back into the swing of things non-depressing. Life goes on.

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Here is a quote that I might need to ponder on. Feel free to share any you have.

Happiness is not a matter of events; it depends upon the tides of the mind.