Riding Lessons

Yesterday I had my first horseback riding lesson. I have wanted to do this for a very long time and have finally decided to just do it! I am learning how to do dressage and event jumping, so it is totally different from any riding I am used to. I grew up riding Western style where you want a lot of slack in the reins and you sit deep in the saddle. Dressage, or English, style requires tension in the reins at all times (always in contact with the horses mouth) and sitting as lightly as possible in saddle. I have always loved to watch the cross-country eventing on TV and thought it looked very exciting! My instructor is younger than me by about 15 years, but she seems to know what she is doing! She has competed in numerous events. She was pleased with how naturally I sat a horse and has great faith in me that I will be able to master this! The hardest thing for me to remember was to keep my heels down and my toes pointed slightly in with the most pressure on my big toes! It was exhilarating to be back on a horse again! I wasn't sure who's heart was beating faster...mine or the horses! If you are familiar at all with English riding, you know that they "post" at the trot. That is where you rise up and down in the saddle in rhythm with the horse. My instructor, Maggie, said that I should be using my calf muscles, not my knees or thighs, to rise up out of the saddle. I must have been doing it right, because my calves were pretty sore afterwards and my knees and thighs didn't bother me at all. Usually it is my knees that hurt after riding for any length of time. Today, the front hip area that connects my legs to my hips is kind of sore. I suppose from the constant rise and fall of posting. I have my lessons in an indoor arena that is heated to about 40 degrees, so it is not bad at all for riding in the winter. I was actually getting warm half way through my lesson.
I will be having a lesson twice a month for 30 minutes each session(can't afford anymore at the moment). I will probably up my lesson time to 45 minutes once my body catches on. Hopefully that way I will keep myself from getting sore after each lesson. I would love to have a lesson every week, but I don't think that will ever happen. It just isn't in our budget. I am hoping to compete in some events this next summer if things go well. I can use one of the lesson horses and they will haul the horse to and from the event for me. I can't wait!!! I am sure I will be competing against little girls, but I have to start somewhere! Maybe some day (hopefully soon) I can actually get my own horse!

On a Sad Note

About a week ago one of our cats, Badger, ate something he shouldn't have. We took him to the vet and they sedated him so he wouldn't have anymore seizures. The vet figured he got into some nuts that are laced with strictnine (rat poison). People put this stuff out to kill moles, rabbits, squirrels, etc. Anyway, I noticed that Badger was having small seizures last Sunday night so we took him into the vet clinic right away Monday morning. He stayed at the clinic until Wednesday afternoon when the vet felt that he was well enough to go home. Badger had eaten some food and was drinking plenty of water on his own. He was still pretty shaky on his feet, but otherwise seemed fine. The vet was optimistic that he would have a full recovery. Louis had to work through Thanksgiving, but the kids and I (and the dog) went up to Milford, IA to visit Grandpa Jack and Grandma Lynne. We had a great extended weekend. Louis called us on Saturday to ask his dad (a vet) about Badger. It seems he had thrown up and now had stopped eating(as well as Simba, our other cat)...who, incidently, avoided Badger and growled and hissed at him when he did come in contact with him. That was the start of Badgers decline. By the time we got home Sunday afternoon at 2pm he had bloody mucus coming out of his nose and mouth and he couldn't control his mouth enough to even drink water. We tried to make him as comfortable as possible. I gave him some aspirin, hoping to get enough into him to help him fall asleep, but he had difficulty swallowing, so I think all I accomplished was to take away any pain he was feeling. Caisha was by his side the rest of the evening until she finally crawled into bed, exhausted, around 11p. Badger would purr whenever we were with him, so I think he was pretty content at the end. Around 4am(Monday) Louis checked on him and was going to take him to the vet college in Ames to have him euthenized, but as he was walking down the stairs, he said Badger looked up at him, meowed one last time and took his last breath. They never made it to the vet college. It has been heartbreaking for all of us to say goodbye, but I think Badger held on long enough so we all could say goodbye. Once he knew everybody had said goodbye, he let himself go. He was only a little over 2 years old, so that makes it very hard to accept. We will all miss him terribly!

Carriage House Update

Here is the latest on the Carriage House. As you can see it is finally on the ground!!! I do have more pictures of the whole process, but can't find them at the moment. When I do find them I will add them to this post. Now it is just the slow process of cutting all the wood down to size and burning it or salvaging pieces for Caisha's "Club House".

New Pictures

Both Caisha and Zach are a huge help with Wyatt! He lights up whenever he sees them and will usually let out a squeal of delight when they walk in the room, especially after a nap!

Here are the kids dressed up for Halloween. Caisha was a vampire, Zach was a bandit cowboy and Wyatt was a bear dressed as a pumpkin( or a pumpkin dressed as a bear?) The weather was beautiful! so the kids didn't have to cover up their costumes this year!

Here's Louis' little drummer! Louis played drums in high school and was hoping that one of his kids would play drums. Nala chose to play tenor saxaphone, which she is very good at. Caisha plays the trombone like her dad, Jim, and her Uncle Tom and Zach is interested in the clarinet (which I play) or saxaphone ( I also played this for pep band & contests).

Yes, Wyatt is a thumb sucker. Notice that it's his left hand?! He does a lot with his left hand, so it will be interesting to see if he will write with his left.

Prayers Needed!

My mom told me some very sad, devastating news yesterday and I would like to enlist your help. Her sister, Sharlet, has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. They believe it started as cervical cancer and has since moved to her utereus, lymph nodes and possibly her lungs. The doctors have told her that none of the options will extend her life, so she has opted not to undergo any surgery or chemo/radiation. She (Sharlet) wants to enjoy what time she has left as well as she can. She is currently taking medicine for the pain and taking herbal supplements to help her body fight as much as it can. She needs your prayers, as well as her family. Her husband, John, is having a hard time, so please pray for him so that he can be there for Sharlet. They also have 3 children and a couple grandchildren. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they go through this. And lastly, please pray for my mom! I can't imagine how I would feel if one of my sisters called me and told me they had terminal cancer and did not know how long they had left with us! As far as I know, this will be the 3rd person that my mom has lost to cancer that she has been real close to. She lost her mother to lung cancer when I was about 7 years old and one of her best friends to breast cancer while I was in high school. I am sure she would appreciate your comforting words and support.
We love you, Sharlet!

Cars!?@!?@!

I am no longer a fan of Saturn! Especially their SUV the Vue. I have had 2 of them now which I bought both brand new. The first one was a 2004. About 1 1/2 years after I purchased it the clutch slave cylinder went out on it so I could no longer shift. It was a 5 speed manual, which is one of the reasons I bought it. The Vue is the only SUV that comes with a stick. Anyway, the factory warranty expired at 30,000 miles. I had close to 60,000 miles on it so it was 100% out of pocket to fix. It was going to cost me over $600 with parts and labor, but I got them to drop the labor charges and ended up paying around $275. Shortly after that we traded the 2004 in on a 2006. Well, now just a mere 1 1/2 years later something major goes wrong with this one!! The Body Control Modular went out! This nifty little (computerized) gadget basically runs the car! It is going to cost us $550 to fix this! And of course, I have too many miles on the car so the warranty no longer covers it!! I now no longer have any money for Christmas, which I had been saving up for a year now! We were lucky that Louis' car had not sold yet so he is able to drive that in the meantime. I give up on buying new! I thought I would avoid costly "fixes" on a new car! Doesn't seem to be working that way. I am just sooo frustrated right now. I really don't want to pay the $550 to fix the Vue, but we still have over $12,000 left to pay on it and I don't think I could even get that much if I sold it private party! The trade-in on it is only about $11,000 which we have no reason to trade it in because we still have Louis' Taurus. I am very disappointed with Saturn. It seems that when something goes wrong it is always something major! Just ask Colette and Nathan!
Anyway, that is my piece. Don't buy an SUV from Saturn!!