What's Up Wednesday!

Hey you guys..... SPRING IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!! Which means a few things: My mood is 10000 x's better, I have too many things to do, I'm riding again, and trying to get into a running routine. Phew. I'm also having to shell out ALL of my money to fix everything winter ruined. But that's ok, because SPRING IS HERE!!!!
Here's What's Up this Wednesday:

-Pony Slackers
This time of year is a real challenge riding-wise. The horses, though terribly unfit, are also a little crazy in the head from all the time off. Not to mention how not strong my stems are... not a good combo! The weather doesn't REALLY want to cooperate between frequent rain storms and this wind we keep having. (Watch out Chicago, Chester is challenging your Windy City title!). Since that's not enough, Jampy decided to add a few more challenges to the list in hopes of an extended vacation. First he developed a cough. The vet and I believe it to be allergies, so I moved him to a clean stall (free of any allergens that might have found their way to his), started wetting down his hay (we're at the end of the last load, so it's a bit dusty from sitting around), and gave him a couple vacation days. Rode him one day, and he pulled a shoe off. Thankfully, they were all ready for new shoes anyway, so the timing wasn't so bad. They all got new shoes the next day. He seems to FINALLY be on the right path to getting back to work.
Ducky has actually been a very good boy! I'm looking forward to starting him over some small jumps soon. And Rio of course is perfect in every way. Boy do I miss riding him though. Here are some fun pony pics from the past week:

Sometimes I'm too lazy to walk my horse into the barn, so I ride him in... thank goodness for high ceilings!

-Lazy Running
Emotionally I'm super committed to getting back into a running routine. But physically, it's tough! The old lady body is having a tough time adjusting to my riding after work. I finish up around 9 and then first have dinner. So I'm getting to bed late, and that 6 AM alarm just doesn't whine enough at me I guess. Working on it. Vanessa and I have committed to running Thursday mornings together. That will be a huge help. Knowing your friend is dragging her self out of bed to join you is super motivating. All that aside, I DID get out for a run on Sunday! Just a 3 miler, which turned into a 3 mile run and .7 mile walk because I can't do math when running... I thought I had to go further on the second out and back than I really needed to. It was so gorgeous out though, I enjoyed the extra walk time!
The run itself went great! I didn't allow myself to look at my speed which obviously was slow. I just went out and enjoyed the run. I did take a couple walk breaks, one after each mile, but only for about 30 seconds. I felt great, though a bit sluggish toward the end. Running outdoors is SO MUCH BETTER than the treadmill. Of course I was so sore this week, I haven't gone back out yet. Tomorrow with Vanessa though, no excuses! And I'm actually looking forward to it!

Scenes from my run this weekend:

There's still snow!

-Pugs!
Artie has been dying to do something fun and when he saw me getting to run, for some reason he was SURE he was coming. He wasn't. But I promised him when I got back we would go for a walk. I took him and P up the road a bit and back. We did 3/4 of a mile. They were both looking a bit parched by the end, and pretty much passed out the rest of the day. My whole family is really out of shape.

-Other stuff
This weekend was full of errands... I had two appointments to take care of early on Saturday so I asked my barn helper if he wanted to work. Thankfully he did! That way the boys could get their time outdoors and the chores could get done while I did my errands. P had a 9 am vet appointment, and I had to bring my car Betty in for an oil change at 11. P's appointment was quick and I headed up to the car dealership. I was actually EARLY (shocking, I know) so I stopped at Target first. A horse lamp caught my eye so I stopped to look at it and found this:

Cutest bedding set ever. I had to have it for my guest room. Plus it was on clearance so the entire set was about $50. Not bad! A little bad since I really didn't need it... But you don't leave a pony bedding set on clearance behind. You just don't do it. I did not get the lamp at least! Of course I found all kinds of other things I didn't need too. What is it about Target? You never get out of there with spending a bunch of money. Thankfully I kept it under $100 this time.
Betty wound up having to stay at the dealership for some repairs and a mouse nest removal from the engine area. $2000 later.... That hurt. I got to drive this for a few days though:

It's a nice little SUV, but unfortunately it's last owner was a smoker. Gross.

So that's what's been up here since last Wednesday. What have you all been up to?