Back to Work

Today was my last day of freedom before I go back into the working world. It has been a nice 12 months in relation to work though. I was of October 6 – Middle of December, 2 weeks for Christmas, 1 week for Spring Break, and 8 weeks for the summer. Not bad….Now it’s back to normal. In some way I’m looking forward to going back to work. I hate house work. As a stay at home there’s lots of house work and no excuse to NOT do it. I’ll also like some freedom you get when you work.

I’m looking forward to my quiet times during the day when it’s just me. My long drive (45 min drive each way) with just me….no baby in the back seat that needs to be fed right then and now or fussing for whatever reason. I also like that I can swing by a store to pick something up real quickly and not worry about waking up Shelby or dragging her out just to pick up something.

However, I will REALLY REALLY REALLY miss her while I’m gone. I’ll miss all those special moments…and that sucks. For example, today she crawled for the first time. I would’ve missed it. I even got it on camera and got a video of that special moment. I am happy I was here for it, but sad I’ll more than likely miss her first steps and then hear about it through Brenda (babysitter) or Ryan. L But, it is what it is and I have to work. L At least Ryan will be with her and she has an AWESOME babysitter.

On an exciting note, WE GOT RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! We got two days of rain and tonight it rained A LOT! I’m so excited to see the mud puddles and wet ground. Yahoo….perhaps our pastures will survive after all. I was hoping we could get plenty of rain in the next few weeks so the pastures could sprout up and provide grass for our horses through most of the winter. There are not many round bales to be found and they are expensive. We do have access to square bales and maybe some round bales, so that is good, but we want to use as little as possible as it is expensive.

Last night I was taking a shower and wondering why the water wasn’t very hot. Down here it is so hot even the water isn’t that cold, so the shower was cold, but not Michigan or Iowa cold….just a little uncomfortable in regards to a hot shower. Anyhow, I got out and sure enough our water heat had taken a poop. L It was from 1994 so Ryan and I both assumed it had run its course and it was time for a new one. So much for those new tires for our car. LOL Someday we’ll get it registered, new tires, and down the road so I can drive it to work. We did get a good deal though. We went to Lowes and I told Ryan I wanted to check out the ‘scratch and dent” isle…YEA FOR US….there was a 50 gallon water heater there. It was a regular $398 and we got it out the door for $262…same warranties, etc…just a couple of dents on the side of it. God is Good…sucks we had to buy it…but we were blessed to get it for a good price.

We also bought some vegetable plants for a fall garden. They only had green, yellow and orange sweet peppers as well as tomatoes. So, I bought a few of each. Some veggies are better than none. Hopefully I’ll be able to put in a real garden in the spring during my spring break. So, word the wise, if you are coming to see us at that time you better be ready to babysit Shelby or put in a garden! LOL…

So, Ryan, being the regular “Mr. Fix It”….well…sorda….installed it all by himself. Now, to those of you who are good at that stuff this may not be a big deal, but to me that is a big deal. We are starting to become independent with the little things. Hopefully it will make us brave and be more willing to challenge ourselves with the big things….God willing that doesn’t happen, but if it does, I hope we are ready. Doing it yourself can save you so much money. Not having that skill has cost us a lot of money for various things.

This weekend I run barrels in Santa Fe, TX. I worked Badger in Sandy’s arena tonight to prepare for it. I worked on a couple of things and feel good going into Saturday. I changed him to Ramard’s Total Joint Care…the supplement has all the stuff he needs to help him with his joints and hocks. It’s been a few weeks and I think it’s working. He is feeling a lot snapper and he seems to be running hard and trying harder. So, I hope the product is working. It’s expensive, so it has to work. I did a lot of research and comparison, so it has what he needs.

We also switched Shiner to a different feed as well as Twister. Shiner was too thin and needed weight gain. Twister was too fat and needed to back off on the feed. They both are doing very well and looking better each day. I’m excited to see them both in a few weeks.

Finally, I have decided to ride with the Rodeo Sweethearts again. Twister needed a job and I needed to be a part of something I have missed for almost 2 years. I’m excited, but also realize I am adding stress to myself. I think it will be worth it though. It’s also good cause that means I’m riding Twister again. He needs a job!

Well, my battery is dying on my computer and it’s time for me to take a shower and try out that new, fancy, water heater. J I’m back to work and back to having access to DSL…so I’ll be able to upload pics, videos and blogs on a regular basis again. It’s nice to be able to put this together the night before and then upload the next day.