Non-horsey update: Hannah

Hannah is truly the love of my life. I am having the best time being a mommy. Today we went to the YMCA and I took her in the pool for the first time. She LOVED it! She was kicking her little feet and splashing the water with her hands. Another kid kicked water in her face (not intentional) and she didn't seem phased in the least.

We had a little photo session outside because I was getting depressed that I was always the one taking the photos, and I didn't really have many good photos of myself with Hannah. It's mostly because I am so tired all the time that I don't have energy to put on nice clothes and dry my hair and put some makeup on. Thus, I'm not all that eager to get in front of the camera looking tired and frumpy!

I had an interview so I had to get dressed up and look somewhat decent, so I asked Kenny to shoot a few photos for me. He did an amazing job and I will cherish these photos forever.

I love Cairo's defiant look here

A non-horsey baby update

Someone recently commented and asked how baby stuff was coming along.

I am at 29 weeks as of yesterday and feeling pretty damn good! I finally have a good appetite. I crave fruit and breakfast food, like waffles. I LOVE WAFFLES!

I am still doing barn work and lifting 40-50 lbs regularly. Yesterday I cleaned Lucy's paddock, which was 2 very heavy 12 cubic ft wheelbarrows full of soaking wet manure and hay. Maddy has been cleaning my stall a lot for me, which is really nice! Carrying water buckets is the hardest thing for me, but I can manage fine if I need to.

Today Kenny and I had a maternity photoshoot and the photographer posted a sneak peek of the photos on Facebook, so I thought I'd share them! They came out so great.

The photos are by Dawn Temple of Bellaria Designs Photography

https://www.facebook.com/bellariadesignsphotography

http://www.bellariadesigns.com/

Yes, I was the nutter prancing around in a sleeveless lace dress in a big field,
barefoot in January in New England. Anything for a photo!

Cairo was featured in the photos, of course.

My due date is April 3, which seems both right around the corner and way too far away! We bought a crib last weekend and I scored a used dresser on Craigslist for $100 that needs to be sanded and painted, but for that price I will put in the work happily.

Things are coming together!

Diamond rings and the barn do not mix.

On Tuesday I wasn't going to ride, but our new boarder Natalie arrived at the barn just as I was finishing up with chores and got her new horse, Comic, all tacked up. I thought, hmmmmm, maybe I will tack Lucy up too! So I did, and we headed over to the indoor together and hopped on our horses. I let Lucy walk for a very long time, letting her stretch, then collecting her, then letting her stretch again. She felt so supple, and was responding to my inside leg nicely instead of leaning on it.

I picked up a little trot and she was a very good girl, so we moved onto the canter. She was great, especially to the right. I just love her.

I went home, made dinner, spent some time on the computer, and went to bed. Yesterday morning, I got up and went through my normal morning routine, but then could not find my wedding rings anywhere. I searched the whole house as fast as I could, looked in my car, and looked in/around my desk at work. No sign of them! Finally I called Kenny and broke the news to him. He asked me the age-old question: "When do you last remember seeing them?" I stared at him blankly. I had no idea!

I am horrible about taking them off without really thinking about what I am doing. I leave them laying around all the time. I am notorious for taking them off at the barn when I'm going to ride because they pinch my ring finger when I'm holding the reins. I was petrified that I had taken them off at the barn before my ride on Tuesday, put them in my jean pocket or jacket, and that they had fallen out somewhere at the barn.

After work yesterday, I zoomed to the barn and started searching. I looked through the whole barn, sifted through Lucy's bedding in case they had fallen out in her stall, looked in the barn driveway (which, of course, is rock/gravel), walked down the path to the indoor, and then did the famous zig-zag pattern through the whole indoor, scanning the footing as I walked.

NO SIGN OF THEM.

I contemplated the possibility that they had fallen out in the stall, she had eaten them, and they were going to be pooped out in her paddock. I was about ready to panic.

I found a friend who could hook me up with a metal detector so I decided to wait until I had the chance to search with that, especially in the indoor since the footing is so fluffy that it could easily cover up the rings if a horse walked close to where they fell. She wasn't going to be able to get me the detector until tonight (Thursday) or Friday at the earliest, though, so I resigned myself to being ringless and went home.

Once home, I was pretty cold from being out at the barn searching, so I went to my closet and pulled out a hot pink zip-up hoodie. I happened to be wearing it the night my rings went missing, too, and although I searched through my jean pockets, jacket pockets, pants I wore to bed (and even peeled back the sheets to see if they fell out of my pj pants pocket when I was sleeping!!), I forgot that I had put the sweatshirt on and so I didn't check it.

Well, in the pocket of the sweatshirt were my two rings, safe and sound. I must have taken them off when I was sitting at my computer, and slipped them into the pocket.

I felt so relieved and happy (and STUPID!) but I am just so glad they aren't lost.

To end this happy story, here is a photo of Lucy and her new lookalike boyfriend Comic Book ("Comic"), obviously having a dance-off:

photo by Maddy

Nice Lucy returns

Lucy has been going exceptionally well. I've been on her here and there and she has been happy and well-behaved. I did contact the chiropractor and saddle fitter to have her checked out but honestly, I think she's fine and was just having a bad week when she was showing a bit of 'tude.

Amanda has also been having good rides. Here are some shots from the other day:

I sucked at photography on this day, unfortunately!

cute, y/y??

mostly I just snuggle with her and clean up after her :)

Baby Taylor is getting bigger and I finally felt her kicking last weekend. I was so happy! I had my 5 month ultrasound yesterday and everything looked great.

hellooooo, baby!

We've been working on some fairly significant home renovations, too:

this WAS our apartment that we rented out, but it will soon be a big family
room with a huge couch and a nice big TV to enjoy. I'm excited! We are also
re-doing our main bathroom, and of course the baby's room has to be done too.

Kenny and my Dad, who is an electrical engineer, sorting out the wiring

Cairo has even been helping! Here she is approving of the hardware Kenny needed
at Home Depot. I love that they allow dogs in there!

occasionally I lend a hand, too. Here I am nailing up the new insulation. Goooo preggo!

As you can see, life is pretty busy but I am still around! I'm also starting to work on Christmas orders for saddle pads and ornaments so if you're thinking about ordering something, please get the orders in asap so I can budget time appropriately. Examples and prices are over at Polar Square Designs.

Also, check out the contest over at Equestrian at Hart to win a jar of Higher Standards Leather Care soap!

once again I am a blogger failure

Funny thing is, lots has been going on!! Let's have a catch-up post:

LUCY

Obviously the most important thing here: the Queen Bee. She is doing GREAT. She and Amanda have been trail riding mostly because the weather has been so beautiful and it's hard to resist the trails when the leaves are turning a beautiful golden orange colour, the soft wind is breezing through, the days warm up to the low 60's after a crisp night, and you have all winter long for ring work.

They've been out on a few hacks with various other boarders from the barn, ranging from 45 minutes to over 2 hours. I am beginning to relax a bit regarding Lucy's limits. I figure as long as she is happy, she is probably feeling fine. I am realizing more and more that the old Lucy, the one who threw tantrums regularly, was probably very uncomfortable. We have not seen a single slice of that type of behaviour since she had the time off.

I've let her go without getting blanketed or wearing any sheets because I really wanted her to grow a winter coat. She impressed me with her fuzz and last night was going to dip into the low 30's so for the first time, I put a sheet on her.

FUN

Last weekend I got to go out on a trail ride! Amanda rode Lucy, Maddy rode Brantley, and my barn owner lent me her absolutely gorgeous hunka hunka Dutch Warmblood, Merlot. He is the most polite, handsome, talented, and wonderful boy. I kept looking down at him on our ride and just thinking "I am so lucky!!" We mostly walked that day because Lucy was in raging heat, poor girl, and got a little excited with all the boys around her. She held it together and seemed embarrassed afterward, to be honest.

We were deep in the woods at one point and some guy was walking two humongous Golden Retrievers off leash (of course). They saw the horses and BOOKED it over to us. We were about 50' away from them and they bounded over sticks and bushes and through trees to get to us. They looked like miniature hairy slobbery deer and everyone was like, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Merlot spooked first, but quickly recovered without any major incident. Brantley spooked because Merlot spooked behind him, but as fast as he startled, he stopped caring and then stood with a cocked back leg and a bored look on his face lol. Lucy spun to look at them but didn't carry on at all, just stood there on high alert with an extremely worried look! I don't blame any of them for being alarmed -- the dogs scared the crap out of me! You never know if dogs are really going to run all the way up to you (and attack your horse) or if they're just coming over to say hello in a very excited manner. The owner eventually got the dogs' attentions back on him and they headed out of the woods, and we continued on our ride. After that incident, though, all three horses were model citizens. Lucy chilled out and walked on the buckle with happy ears, and the rest of the ride was uneventful.

Also last weekend, I traveled up to Suffolk Downs Racetrack with my friend Claire, and we attended the CANTER New England Showcase. I think I will post another entry about that because I have so many photos!

CAIRO

Awesome as always. Two photos:

ME

I am feeling sooo much better!! I have a good amount of energy during the day but usually by the time I get home from work and the barn, it's 6:30 and I am totally wiped. I am still very behind on design stuff :( :( :(

I've been taking some photos with my new camera and falling in love with it more each time I use it.

I am at 17 weeks now, and Miss Mini Me is doing just fine. I revealed my baby bump for the first time yesterday at work and everyone liked it! It's still pretty small and cute, and isn't affecting my day-to-day life yet.

here, have a crappy cell phone picture!

all things cruel and unusual

Our sweet, young, vibrant 2yo Ridgeback was diagnosed with cancer yesterday. Every time I say that or type it, I think, "no, that can't be right." She looks incredible, she has energy to burn even after a long hike or trail ride, she is a happy dog with a shiny coat and a huge personality.

Life is truly NOT fair.

I really can't believe I am having to deal with my young dog having cancer at the same time as my 16 year old Golden Retriever is dying of advanced lung cancer. My Golden, Cassie, has had a good long life and we caught it too late to treat it, but we are all at peace with that because the treatment would have been brutal at this stage in her life. Cairo is just two years old! We are lucky (ugh, if I can even use that word) that her cancer is external - she developed a small bump under her chin about two weeks ago that quickly grew to a pea-sized growth. She had an appointment at the vet yesterday for her annual shots and I asked them to look at the growth. I thought it was a skin tag, but the vet was immediately concerned because dogs this young don't typically develop skin tags. They did a quick in-office needle biopsy and before she left to look at it under a microscope, she warned us that she's not a pathologist and can only tell if the cells were "really, really bad" or "nothing to worry about".

About ten minutes later she came back, gave us a sad look, and told us that Cairo had cancer and we needed to have the growth removed in the very near future. It's the type of growth that looks very innocent but it likes to send little tentacles into the body that metastasize to the other organs or her bones. We agreed to have the growth removed so on Thursday, she will be going into surgery. The whole thing will be sent out to a pathologist, who will make slides of it and check to make sure they got all of it and the margins are clean. If the surgeon gets nice clean margins, Cairo will most likely be good to go without having to endure any additional treatment. 

Kenny and I left the vets office in tears yesterday. Poor Cairo didn't understand why we were so upset. I know she will receive the best care on Thursday and I am glad I caught this growth so early and got it looked at. I am very much the wait-and-see type with myself, but when it comes to Lucy and Cairo, I tend to go overboard. This was one instance where "overboard" could have saved the dog's life.

We took Cairo to the beach a couple of weeks ago. Here are some photos from that day:

condition update

I was reminded by [a different] Kate's recent post over at Grey Brook Eventing that I really needed to do a condition update on Lucy. So, here they are!

kisses from Kenny

she just really wanted us to leave her alone so she could eat grass

I love my girl

being super cute