Thursday, January 29, 2009

How'd That Happen?

Last weekend, Natalie was walking into the office and she complained that her ankle "gave out" on her. She limped around a little bit, but didn't say much more.

At riding on Monday, it was really starting to bother her but it did not really slow her down much. Elise had her riding with really short "jockey" stirrups to work on something or other. Being the non-horse person that I am, I really don't remember why. It didn't look fun or easy though ;) She complained a little bit afterward, but not that much.

At her lesson with Janice on Tuesday, it was really starting to hurt. It was keeping her from doing the things she needed to do for the lesson. Hmmm. We pulled her boot off after her lesson and Janice wrapped it with "vet wrap" used on horses. It was a little swollen and bruised.

So this week, she has been wrapping her foot with vet wrap, icing it, and hobbling around with a limp. Last night, she hardly slept a wink. The pain was really throbbing and there were shooting pains up her leg! Not good.

So being the cautious mom that I am, I took her to the doc today. She felt around and thought that the pain and tenderness warranted doing an x-ray. Off we went to radiology.  No breaks or fractures. Just a bad sprain. She will have to continue to wrap and ice it. The doctor also recommended some exercises she can do. But the bad news...

NO RIDING FOR A WEEK!! 

How on earth will Nat survive that??!! ;) This from the girl who rides 5-6 days per week. Not looking forward to seeing the withdrawals that come from that!! Hopefully she will get to practice her lunging skills. She will be a happy camper when her ankle is healed and she is back in the saddle. If it doesn't heal, she might be looking at some physical therapy down the road.

Still not sure why or how this happened. There was not really a single action that seemed to make it happen. Very odd. The doctor mentioned something about a repetitive motion type injury. Might have just pushed the ankle to its limits riding lately? Anyway, hope it heals quickly. Hate to keep the girl from her horse :)

Monday, January 26, 2009

25 Random Things

I was tagged by my friend Ali on Facebook to do a list of 25 Random Things about myself. I thought I would post them here too, with a few edits that are blog-friendly:

1. I am making "No-Knead Bread" right now. Yes, I'm a food nerd.
2. I really love being a wife and mom.
3. I am still madly in love with my husband. He still makes me weak in the knees :)
4. I have been doing allergy shots for almost 2 years, only 3 more to go! I am allergic to lots of different pollens and cats, and have allergy-induced asthma. Not a good combo when you live in a barn.
5. I think that chocolate is a major food group.
6. I have lived in quite a few states: Iowa, Minnesota, Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Oregon feels like home.
7. I hate cancer with a passion.
8. If I didn't like cheese so much, I would be a skinny chick.
9. Sometimes I hate being nice. It bites me in the butt way too often.
10. I know every word to every song on the first Norah Jones CD. You should hear me sing in the car when I am by myself ;) Or maybe not!
11. I have to clean my house when having company over or leaving on an airplane. I swear that is the only way it ever gets clean! Hate cleaning!
12. Chai tea lattes are a comfort food for me.
13. I collect cookbooks from everywhere I go. I read them like novels.
14. I usually make dinner every night of the week and love it!
15. In my next life, I want to be a chef with my own cooking show. That or a Gran Prix race car driver ;)
16. I would love to retire to a beautiful log cabin on a lake and make quilts. And go on motorcycle rides with Jim. Heaven.
17. I print out way too many recipes from the internet. I have piles of them everywhere!!
18. I sometimes wish I was a horse person for Natalie's sake. Just don't have it in me though. Missing that horse gene. I love tagging along and watching though.
19. I would jump on a plane tomorrow to go somewhere new even though I hate flying. I really want to go to Holland and Italy. Or to the South Pacific. Or back to Paris. So many places, so little money or time ;)
20. I get giddy over a really good meal at a fancy restaurant!
21. I am letting my hair turn gray... no more color for me. I earned every single gray hair so why not show them off ;)
22. I would give anything to have a clutter-free house! I would love to be more organized.
23. I wish that I would have earned my teaching degree along with my English degree. Being a teacher or sub would have been a good mom job for me.
24. I love that I have raised a wonderful, independent, smart daughter. She is my greatest achievement. That is enough for me.
25. I used to be more of a social butterfly, but now I am happiest at home with my family preferably in my "Life is Good" jammies. Natalie says that I am "anti-social".

Friday, January 23, 2009

TGIF!

It is a good Friday :) Natalie is especially happy because today is her last day of the first semester! She had some pretty tough classes this semester and pulled through them like a champ. She is looking forward to starting the new semester with a few new electives and some teacher changes. Half way through being an 8th grader! Unreal how time flies.

I started my day at the dentist. Had a crown that fell out last night. Luckily, our dentist is our neighbor so he put my crown back on even though his office was closed for the day. He was there anyway since some work was being done on their computers. What a relief!

We will head to the barn after school. Hoping the weather holds out so Nat and Memo can be outside again today! How cool that they were able to ride outside yesterday in JANUARY!! Makes up for all the crummy weather we have had.

It has been a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon week around here. Seems as if we have watched about two episodes a night lately. Netflix can hardly keep up with us :) It has been a fun series to watch as a family. Not for young kiddos lately... luckily Nat is teenager now ;)

Tomorrow I'm heading up to Washington to meet Sam for lunch and shopping. We are each driving halfway to meet for the day. It has been way too long since we have been able to see one another. I'm looking forward to finally exchanging our Christmas presents, having Mexican food and margaritas, and doing a little bit of antiquing or shopping together.

They are talking snow for Sunday!! Not exactly looking forward to that again. We have a full day of pony club stuff planned so I hope it is no big deal.

I have sure been missing my Ginger bun. We all have. What a good little bunny she was, and such a part of our family and routine.

Enough rambling. Happy Weekend everyone!! xoxo

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Happy Birthday Dear Shauna!!!


Happy Birthday to my dear friend!!!


Dear Shauna,

Happiest of birthdays!! Here's wishing you the best year ever in 2009! I hope it is a year to remember, and chock full of happiness, health and love. Thanks for all of the fun times... can't wait for many more together. So glad to walk next to you on this crazy journey called life. I don't want to miss a minute. You are a true friend and mean the world to me. Thanks for always being there with your beautiful smile, your kind heart, and your zest for life. I am so grateful to have you as my friend.

Love you, 
p

Monday, January 19, 2009

A Pony Club Kind of Weekend

On Friday right after school, I drove 3 horse-crazy teenage girls down to Corvallis for something called an "ABC Retreat". "ABC" stands for upper level ratings in the United States Pony Club. The retreat was strictly a classroom setting for horse management knowledge. Memo did not get to come along to play ;)

On Friday afternoon, we were given a tour of the Oregon State University School of Veterinary Medicine. They had recently completed extensive renovations and it is really a state-of-the-art facility. They have one of the few animal CT scans in the country (at a university). Our tour guide was very perky and knowledgeable. I was able to show Natalie where Memo was on our visit there last year for her colic. It had changed quite a bit.

That night we had a pizza party and mixer with the other pony clubbers and moms. It was nice to put names with faces. The rest of the night was spent hanging out in our very nice hotel room.

We were up bright and early on Saturday. Not an easy feat with teenagers in tow ;) Breakfast at 8:00 and classes starting at 9:00AM.  The classes were very in depth and not for the non-horse person (namely, me!):

  • Infectious Diseases and Immunizations (taught by a vet)
  • Saddle Fitting (taught by our regional supervisor)
  • Turn-out for Horse and Rider (PC and Eventing) (taught by a one-star eventer and PC'er)
  • Dressage on the Levels (Training Pyramid) (taught by a USDF bronze-medal dressage instructor)
  • The Mental Game: Prep for Ratings & Competition (taught by a retired clinical psychologist)
  • Soil & Pasture Management (taught by an OSU extension faculty member)
  • When Good Nutrition Goes Bad (taught by an A-rated PC'er and researcher for a feed company)

Three classes in the morning, a lunch break, then four classes in the afternoon. Did I mention that there were no windows in the classroom?? Sigh. I did manage to find the codes for the free wifi for the conference center so luckily I could play on the internet (facebook!!) until my battery died on the laptop :) I'm pretty sure I was the only non-horse person there... even the other moms were really into it. I tried really hard, but just not my thing. Luckily, the girls really learned a lot!!

On Sunday morning, we were given a tour of the Oregon State Horse Barn and learned all about the  Intercollegiate Horse Show Association. After the tour, we snuck to Starbucks!! I'm such a bad influence!! The girls were a few minutes late to their classes, but didn't seem to mind :) The rest of the morning was a variety of roundtable discussions on such topics as:

  • The future of Pony Club
  • Opportunities available from USPC
  • Your personal PC experience
  • Beyond the Ratings: fun ideas for club activities

Natalie really seemed to get into this. She is always full of ideas and likes to communicate with others. One of the moms came over to me afterwards and asked how old Nat is. She said how impressed she was with Nat. That she has it all together.  Stuff like that always makes me feel good as a mom :) Hopefully I did something right all these years. As always, I am a proud momma.

All of the meals were provided so that was nice. The facilities and teachers were first-rate. A really well done retreat.

I sure did miss Jim. It was so nice to get home.

A quick birthday shout-out to my nephew, Colby! Today is his sixth birthday. Happy Birthday, Colby! May your birthday be full of fun and lots of Pokemon cards! xoxox Auntie Paris

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Recipe Request

I'm almost ashamed to post this recipe... they are so good and seem like they must be so time consuming... but they are not. They are SO EASY!! And SO YUMMY!!

Chocolate Caramel Bars

1 14-oz. package caramels (unwrapped)
2/3 cup evaporated milk, divided use
1 package chocolate cake mix
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook caramels and 1/3 cup of the milk in a large saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until caramels are melted. Set aside.

Combine cake mix, butter and remaining milk. Stir by hand until mixture holds together. Press half of the dough into a greased 9x13" pan. Bake 6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Spread caramel mixture over the chocolate chips. Crumble and press remaining dough over top. Return to oven and bake 15-18 minutes. Cool slightly and refrigerate 30 minutes to set caramel layer.

Enjoy!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Bunny Heaven

My dear, sweet bun is gone. She died in my arms just after 10:00PM last night. We could tell that she was in distress... her breathing was very labored and heavy when we were feeding and giving her meds (which she did not want to have). I dropped everything and held her all night. The end was very hard, but I'm so glad that she was not alone.

To see some pictures and reflect back on our life with Ginger, see my blog post from October. She was truly someone special, and I am so grateful for her.

I will miss you so much little bun. Thanks for all the cuddles and kisses. We were so blessed to have you as part of our family. I hope bunny heaven is full of green grass, sunny skies, and all of the celery leaves, bananas, dried cranberries and cornflakes that you can eat. I love you, Ginger.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Quick Update

Ginger bunny is still alive and kickin'. She keeps hanging in there somehow. She is very weak and skinny! I took her back to the vet last night. He thinks she has a uterine infection so we have put her on antibiotics. We have to continue to syringe feed her too. It will take a lot of work and effort to bring her back, but we are hopeful. Jim is NOT liking giving her the antibiotic shots but I am so grateful that he will do it. I know that I just couldn't do it. It is hard enough just holding her and feeling her flinch.

Last night she actually drank a very tiny amount of water and ate a bite of hay on her own. That brought a few cheers around the house!! She is back to being very cuddly so I am loving that.

I was able to sneak away to have dinner with Darcie last night... a belated birthday celebration. It was so fun to relax and catch up with her. What a great friend!

We are still getting buckets of rain here. Lots of flooding around the area, even I-5 is closed to and from Seattle. It is really messing with plans for our girls beach weekend. I don't think we can even get to Pacific Beach! Highway 101 is also closed due to flooding and landslides. I am so bummed as I was really looking forward to spending time with Shauna, Sam and Loni. I hope there is miraculous drying out before Friday.

I am writing this in the VW service waiting area. Time for new brake pads. Wanted my car to be in tip-top shape before our trip. I will be back here next week for my scheduled service. Sometimes I feel like I live here!! I love my old car though, and need it to last for awhile. I have a horse so no new car for me ;)

Boy, has it been a tough week to get back on a schedule! We are all moving pretty slowly in the morning. I feel like I cannot get enough sleep! I'm sure that the stress of dealing with Ginger's health issues is not helping us.

Keep your fingers crossed that the roads are better soon. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Ginger

My Ginger bunny is not feeling very well. She has hardly touched her food, hay and water since Thursday. Occasionally, she will eat some celery leaves, a piece of apple or banana, or a dried cranberry. She came out of her cage on Thursday and Friday, but did not want us to hold or touch her. She even bit Jim and me when we tried to pet her!! So not like her. This weekend, she would not even come out of her cage.

I'm pretty worried about her. Just dropped her off at the vet's office. They were too booked for an appointment, but since it was an emergency they let me drop her off and will monitor her and fit her in for treatment throughout the day.

My heart is breaking for her. I don't want her to be in any pain. I hope they can help her. We have decided that we can't and won't go to extraordinary measures to save her... she is an old bunny. And we just had that huge vet bill for Memo. Sigh.

Ginger is such a part of our family. She is especially my little buddy. I love cuddling with her on the sofa. I love when she has to climb up and look right in my face, with her little whiskers tickling me. I love when she is so relaxed, and completely sacked out on my lap. I love when she gives me lots of kisses. She is a good bun, and has been such a great pet. I really hope she will be okay.