The aftermath of shock

Yesterday, Reno got hurt, badly. The vet was at the barn and D asked me to go get Reno and tie him to the fence. When it was his turn, D went to get him and Reno freaked the fuck out. He reared and broke the 4x4 fence post off at the ground and ripped off 20ft of fence. A board hit D and knocked her down, but she is ok. He took off slinging boards all over the yard. He hit the street and either tripped on the still dangling fencepost or just slipped, but either way, he fell. He looks like a person whose been in a motorcycle accident and slid along the pavement at high speed. He has road burns on his face and head, split the skin on his shoulder, peeled the skin on his knee, other cuts and contusions and road burns of varying severity all along his left side.

A, his owner, arrived right after this all happened, and she was in tears. D was fighting tears and so was I. $350 later, the vet had patched him up as well as he could, and we were standing around really just reeling with shock and trying to figure out what we did wrong.

The truth is, no one did anything wrong, it was just one of those things. The horse panicked and we'll never know why. He's hurt badly, but it could have been so much worse. D could have been hurt, the horse next to him could have been hurt (bless her heart, she's a brat, but she stayed calm through it all), Reno could have broken a bone or been killed.

Today, D and I were still just reeling. It's like the day after someone you love has been injured right in front of you. I keep replaying it in my mind and I'm scatter brained and irritable. Basic post shock behavior.

The good news is that he will recover, but it will be 3-4 months before he can be ridden, and will have a scar on his knee. A is a newlywed and not flush with money (are any of us?) and really couldn't afford this vet bill, so D and I are pitching in where we can. I'm going to cover grain and supplements for him for at least a month or two and D isn't going to charge her to fix the fence.

And we're just grateful that it wasn't any worse than it was.

I HATE REWRITING!

HATE IT! pulls hair out hateithateithateit!

In college and grad school when I had papers to write, I just wrote them, spell checked them, had someone proof read them and turned them in. I never rewrote anything, unless it just wasn't working. Bam! they were done.

Now, I'm working on this contest entry and have someone critiquing for me and I'm having to rewrite the scene and I've read these same 10 pgs about 50 times now, and I'm sick of them! ARRRGGGGHHHH! But I can't really put it down because the contest deadline is in 2 days. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute.

Going out on a limb

I need some feedback on my scene that I'm going to enter in a contest, so I asked for some volunteers on my mommy message board to read it. I'm either desperate, feeling brave or hellaciously confident. Why? Because my mommy board is like the Pink Ladies of the internet. (Am I getting the pop culture reference right?) They can be harsh and direct and tell it like it is. Brutal at times. But they are also a bunch of good people, and hopefully will help me out without whipping me too bad.

But I don't want the entire board to know that I'm an aspiring writer, because then every time I have a typo or misspelled word or misplaced comma, I'll get mocked for it. Bitches. lol

Mommy, how do babies get here?

Holy crap, I wasn't ready for that. And right at the dinner table, too. Leave it to Ellie. The manwhore just looked at me and smirked. Damn him.

But, I calmly answered that they grow in a mommy's tummy and when they are ready to be born, they usually come out through her vagina. Which lead to Emma asking where that was (like I've never told them before) and her trying to point hers out to us. She asked if it was the same hole that the poop came out of, and I told her no, it was between the pee hole and the poop hole (The manwhore interjected "And from now on, we shall call it the baby hole!" Dork.)

Ellie asked if you had to go to the hospital to get the baby out, so we told that some people have babies at home and some at the hospital. And that lead to sometimes you need an operation to get the baby out safely, which led to talking about them being premature and how tiny they were and how big Sam was.

I was very relieved that we didn't have to get into how the baby gets in the mommy's tummy just yet. I'm not sure I'm ready for that one.

But pee holes, poop holes and baby holes, all at the dinner table last night. Someone hold me.

I am so arrogant

Since I have a partial manuscript sitting on the desk of an editor at Harlequin, I've been reading Harlequin romance novels lately. I don't generally read them, as I prefer the big, fat historical novels or Nora Roberts. But, I felt I needed read some so I would know what Harlequin is doing these days.

Here comes the arrogance. The handful of novels I've read have reminded me of one of the reasons I wanted to write romance novels in the first place. I finish one and find myself thinking "I can write better than that."

Now, God only knows if it's true or not, since no one is reading my writing except me, but it certainly gives me a nice little ego boost and a little push to keep on writing and polishing and all that. So maybe one day some teenager will read one of my books and think "Damn, I can write better than this crap!" and she'll grow up and become one of the next generation of romance writers. lol

You'd think I'd learn

I spent yesterday outside, at least for several hours. Unfortunately, we didn't get to play with the horses, because D's truck broke down and we spent 2 hrs in the TSC parking lot while her dear friend replaced a radiator hose.

That fixed, we went to her place and repair a section of fence so she can turn the horses out in the back pasture.

I had on a sleeveless shirt. See where this is going? Only, this time, I remembered the sunscreen. I really did. But I apparently missed the top of one shoulder, because it is sort of crispy. Ow.

Really, I'm not fond of skin cancer or wrinkles, I've got to do better with the sunscreen.

Men should have to try menstruating sometime

Don't ask me how to make a man menstruate, I haven't a clue. But I think sometimes they need to experience it once or twice.
Let me start all this by saying that most of the time, I actually don't mind having periods and the hormonal swings don't seem to bother me too much. But occasionally it gets to me. Yesterday was one of those days.

We're laying bed last night and I just want to go to sleep because I hit the floor running when I got out of the bed yesterday. Preschool, horses, ride to the co-op with my friend, pick up kids, back to the horses for lessons, straight from there to soccer, all of my meals were late, my back was aching and I started my rag yesterday. And he asks me if there is something wrong. rofl

Wrong? NO, THERE'S NOTHING WRONG, WHY DO YOU ASK? YOU TRY BLEEDING OUT OF YOUR CROTCH AND SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!

Ok, I didn't yell, but I did say that to him. I mean, honestly, first there is the flood of estrogen, then you ovulate and have a flood of progesterone for two weeks that can causes pimples and bloating and moodiness. If you didn't get knocked up, the progesterone crashes and you get the resulting more moodiness and then your period.

And despite what the manufactures claim, there is nothing in existence designed to catch, absorb or otherwise contain menstrual blood that is 100% comfortable. You can either use pads, which feel like wearing a diaper, or stick something in your hoohaw. Sticking something in my hoohaw is my choice. Being the wanna be hippy, treehugging reduce, reuse and recycle type that I am, I use a diva cup. www.divacup.com Don't go there if you get grossed out by alternative menstrual products.

But, it's by far the most comfy thing I've ever used, and it's still not perfect. After all, there is something crammed in my vajay-jay for roughly 5 days. Of course I know it's there.

But really, men should have to experience this. It would be enlightening and eyeopening for them. Now, how to manage it?

The promised picture

The Samster the Whamster in his new glasses.

Horsey go boom!

So, I spent yesterday doing horse stuff like I do every Saturday that I can con, um, convince the manwhore to keep the kids. I rode with D to go pick up her newest boarded, a lovely older palomino gelding named Sonny. Ellie is going to love him, I think.

After we got back, I had some time to work with Reno. I went through the 7 games (Parelli stuff) with him and had him go over a jump just before time for me to go. After he jumps, I'm supposed to ask him to stop, turn, and look at me. Only, he "hides his heiney" with a really gentle ask, and I accidentally asked him really harshly. He skittered his back feet around to get his butt away from me, and his feet slipped and went out from under him. He completely fell over. I was completely horrified and still feel like a heel for making him fall.

He's ok, and he was paying more attention to me after that, though. lol


After I made the horse fall down, I went on home and the family all went to a Nashville Sounds baseball game (minor league). The girls had won free tickets for us reading 20 books in a month. I was actually really looking forward to it and we started off having fun. Then we got our meal deals (hot dogs and stuff) and went to one of the picnic areas to eat and realized that the wind was really blowing. We had two plates to blow over and the contents of said plates were 50 ft away before anyone could even get up to chase them. But, we finished and went on back to our seats. The wind wasn't so bad there because the stadium was blocking most of it. So, we're having fun again.

Then the temps start to drop. I was so cold I made the manwhore go search out where people were buying Sounds sweatshirts. He came back with 2. lol They were selling them at 2 for $25, or 1 for $15. I put one on and used the other for a blanket.

Better, but I was still cold. At the 6 inning, I said I couldn't stand it anymore and we had to go. The kids were all relieved to go. At least the girls were. Sam wanted to stay and go out on the field and play baseball himself.

He might have been an improvement, because the Sounds got their butts kicked.

What the hell is up with my weight?

I'm gaining weight and I don't know why. I've gained about 4 lbs in the last few weeks and now I can't get it to budge. I swore when I got under 200 lbs I would never go over it again, and here I am at 207 this AM and have been over 200 for months now. Unless I am just fooling myself, I haven't changed my eating habits, and I've been so active this week I've been sore everyday.

So, why is the fat on my ass not budging? I'm determined to find out, though. I signed up at www.fitday.com (it's free) and I'm going to eat normally and track my calories and see how much I really am eating.

The manwhore joined Weight Watchers a few weeks ago and he's doing really well, so I'm extra motivated now. It was a bit of a shock to hear him say that his goal weight is less than I weigh now.
I refuse to gain any more weight! I refuse to be fat!

Also, I refuse to be so fat I can't haul my fat ass up onto the back of a horse. Yeah, that was embarrassing.

A sure sign that spring is finally here

I have my first sunburn. I do this every year in March or April when it finally warms up and stops raining. I get desperate for some sunlight, so I spend the first warm day outside all. day. long. And I forget every damned year that doing that = sunburns. Fortunately it isn't a bad one and doesn't hurt. Just enough to remind me to pull out the sunscreen and start using it again.

But, it was a glorious day yesterday, and worth a little sunburn. We went to the park and then came home and worked in the yard all afternoon. I'm digging a new flowerbed out by the mailbox. The manwhore is probably going to croak when he sees me digging another one on the other side of the driveway, too. But, I neeeeeeeed some places to plant sun loving flowers, not just the shade gardens I have up by the house. I neeeeeeed to garden. I need some plants and the smell of dirt and flowers that are growing because of me. I really do. And I can't wait to go to Home Depot or Lowes and start stocking up on flowers this spring.

Little Four Eyes

See that blog in my side bar called Little Four Eyes? --->
I've been invited to post on it by the lady that started it. It is all about little kids and their adventures with glasses. Give it a read occasionally.

PS I swear I will get a picture of Sam in his glasses up this weekend. Cross my heart, and all that.