What's Up Wednesday

It wasn't the most horsey week last week as I ran away from my responsibilities for a few days to enjoy a little Florida sunshine. I did have my lesson on Shiny on Wednesday though! She actually nearly fell down AGAIN! I couldn't believe it. Fortunately, this time she did catch herself. But it did lead me to be a weenie about jumping, and we just worked over one little baby crossrail. Baby steps my friends! She had fun jumping I think. The first one she jumped about 5 feet higher than necessary, but then she smoothed it out and had some lovely relaxed efforts. We have another lesson tonight, but it went from fifty five degrees yesterday to thirty today plus snow... So I might have a sass monster on my hands.

Sass Monster

I was signed up for a lesson on Thursday with Eros, but I got a call from the vet that they were ready for Pammon to come up this past weekend. Which left me with a lot more to do than originally anticipated before I left on Friday morning. That also meant I had to mad scramble to find someone to bring him up there! Fortunately, the barn owner was able to make that work for me. I'm super grateful they were able to rearrange their Saturday to haul him. Figures the vet would want him the weekend I'm not around! So long story not all that short, I canceled my lesson and just flatted the horses so I could have more time to get Pammon packed and finish packing myself.
Also at the last minute I had to find someone to stay with my dogs because my mom was having some kind of temper tantrum. She does this every year at the holidays, so I really shouldn't rely on her. But free dog sitting is just really nice... Anyway, I got lucky and my weekend barn helper was able to stay with the pups. Nothing like everything happening at the last minute, right? I'm generally pretty type A. I make plans well in advance. I have lists so everything gets done in time. And inevitably, my entire plan always blows up in my face at the last minute. Thankfully though, despite all the stress, everything came together and I was able to leave on time Friday morning. I had a 12:40 flight, and actually got to the airport stupid early. I kind of enjoy hanging in the airport though, so it was fine.
I arrived in Florida right on time, and my dad and step mom picked me up. We had an early dinner and relaxed at home afterward.
Similar to how things generally go for me, the same is true of my dad. He had started a rather large backyard renovation at the Florida house and it was supposed to be done well before this weekend. Dad and stepmom were hosting a boat parade party, so obviously, we would need the yard to see the boats! And well... When I got there Friday, it was not done. There were walkways that were still dirt (yikes). And the worst part was the pool... They had started to refill it the day before, but a pipe had broke. So the pool started filling with muddy water. The mud was discoloring the new concrete, so they had to fill it ALL THE WAY to keep the color uniform. Then drain it, scrub it, fix the pipe, and refill it. So that was exciting! Fortunately, it all came together. Even if at the last minute. Seems to be the theme of the weekend.

new back yard as viewed from the Intracoastal

 So anyway, backing up, I headed south to visit with trainer on Saturday morning. It was great to see her and her horses are looking great. I didn't stay too long though as I wanted to get back in time for our shopping spree for Toys for Tots. Who would want to miss that?! It was quite a success.

And since Avery brought a friend, I got to take the annual photo from outside the toy pile this year.

The parade and party were really fun. Perfect weather, tons of food, maybe a little too much wine... All signs of a good party!

This was my favorite boat. The large boat is Rudolph and the little boat they're towing is Santa's sleigh

Originally, my stepmom and I had planned to take a lesson on Sunday morning. But we canceled because her family was visiting for the party and leaving in the afternoon. Didn't feel right to leave for several hours before they left. Instead we went for a boat ride. We beached the boat for a bit to let the teenagers swim. It was a lovely afternoon! (And super relaxing!)

Sunday evening consisted of mani/pedis and then laundry and packing. Short trips fly by so fast! They have changed the flight schedules from years past and the return flight is at 9 am. Stupid early if you ask me. Who wants to return to the tundra so early?! Seemed to be the consensus. I overheard several people on the flight saying they didn't like the new earlier time. But it was nice to be home early, even if I did mostly waste the free time. I met up with the book club ladies for dinner that evening which was also a nice treat. Kind of like extending the vacation a few hours more. We went to a really fun old restaurant in a nearby town. They dress up in old timey clothing for the holidays and have carolers sing at the tables.

It's a bit confusing as the restaurant is maritime/colonial themed, and they seem to dress up in victorian outfits... but who am I to judge? It's still cute and fun.
So yesterday was back to work and then I flatted the horses afterwards. It was a little weird to not have Pammon there. But I know he's in good hands. And it was kind of nice getting done before 9.
So that was my past week! Not very horsey (sorry) but lots of fun in between all the stress of getting to the fun.
How was your past week? Are you ready for the rapidly approaching holidays?

What's Up Wednesday

Wednesday already? Boo. It's my last day of vacation. Back to the frozen tundra tomorrow. Fortunately, it's not supposed to be too cold. UNfortunately, it will be raining. But hey, better than snow! But this post isn't about the future, it's about the past week. So let's look back!
As you already know, we arrived in FL on Wednesday evening last week. Thursday was quiet. My brother, sister-in-law, and my two nieces, plus my dad and step mom were all here this time, so we did family things. Which mostly included sitting around. I already covered that on Thursday's threads last week.
Friday I ditched the family for the morning and went down to Wellington. I stopped first at trainers barn and watched her ride for a bit. Then I headed over to the horse show to catch up with Devon from The Food (and horse) Bitch Blog. I didn't have time to watch her ride that day, but we got to catch up for a few minutes so that was fun!
After the horse show, I headed back north to meet my dad and stepmom. We had an appointment to check out a barn closer to the house for her to take some lessons at, and maybe next year bring Eros to for the winter. It was a really cute place. They had a nice sized ring and lots of huge grass paddocks. The horses were all pretty fat and happy, though many of them seemed pretty old. Old is good though, in my opinion. If you can keep an old horse fat and happy, you're doing something right!
My stepmom's brother and his family came to visit on Friday for the weekend, so we all had dinner together at the house. It was a lot of fun, and thankfully, a fairly early night.
Saturday, I headed back down to Wellington. I watched trainer ride for a bit and then headed back over to the show to watch Devon and Petunia kill it in the low adults!

They were awesome, and it was fun to have someone to cheer on! We hung out for a bit, and then I had to get back to the family. I got back just in time for a ride on the boat. Daisy, our canine visitor sat with me...

It was a nice quiet night after boating. We had dinner in again, and then all watched some tv together. Sunday was a lazy day at home. Trainer doesn't ride on Sundays, and our company headed back home to Orlando. In the morning, I went for a short run

 and then spent the day drinking too much coffee and finally getting my Safesport training done.

See? I did SOMETHING productive on vacation! Good for me! Ha!
Monday I headed down to Wellie to watch trainer ride. She said I could ride the next day, so I was looking forward to that. After the barn, I did my obligatory Marshalls and TJ Maxx run in hopes of finding some great deals. The stores down here get some really fancy stuff, and it's usually on final clearance this time of year. No luck this time though. Bummer.
My brother and his family flew home that day, so it was just my dad, stepmom, and me for New Years Eve. We had dinner at a local deli/diner type place, and headed home with some desserts in hand to hang out and watch the ball drop. I took a nap on the couch, but woke up just in time to see the ball drop. I'm clearly, a wild partier.
I was up early to head down to the barn to finally get some saddle time. Unfortunately, the mare I was going to ride bumped her leg, so it wound up just a tack walk. Good enough for me though! I'll take whatever I can get! After horse time, my dad and step mom picked me up and we headed down to the fancy outlet mall. Dad splurged on all of us which was super nice of him. I got a fantastic fuzzy pink handbag that I'm stupid excited about. I'm sure you'll see it soon on Thursday's Threads.
I stayed north today rather than heading to trainers in the morning. I slept in a bit, and then went to watch my step mom take a lesson at the new barn. She rode a very tall, sweet, old warmblood named Imax and did a great job with him.

I had to pick up a few thank you gifts, so I did that post lesson. And that was pretty much the day. I'm heading home tomorrow on an 11 am flight, so nothing too exciting happening here in the morning. Back to the real world after that!

How was your week and New Years? Do anything fun and exciting? 

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday all! This is one of those posts that you think will be super exciting since I went to Florida, but it's actually fairly tame.
Thursday morning, I got up to bring the short kids over to their grandma's. They were excited to go!

So excited, in fact, that the first thing Artie did when he got there was poop on my mom's new rug. Not a good start buddy.
After dropping the kids off, I went straight to the barn, and I got to ride on a freshly dragged ring.

Can't beat that! Eros was perfect as always. And then it was home to shower and get ready to fly south!
The flight was unexciting (as you like them to be) and my dad picked me up from the airport. We headed to dinner, and then home for a quiet night.
I didn't get to ride while I was in Florida this trip, but I did go visit trainer and got to see her new horse go. New horse is a young mare, jumper prospect. Incredible brain on her! Nothing seems to phase her at all. And I got to see this girl too:

After loitering at the barn, I went back up to the house. Dad and I had to go to Target to get our donations for Toys for Tots! It was just he and I this year, so we only filled two carts with toys, but we had a great time doing it! And then he reminded me that I had to jump in the back for our annual photo:

Saturday morning I got to loiter at the barn again. Next trip hopefully I'll get some saddle time in, but it was still fun to watch trainer's horses jump. I headed home after that to get ready for the boat parade. Dad had a bunch of friends coming over to watch, and it was catered by a DELICIOUS nearby restaurant.
The parade was probably the longest I've ever seen it, probably thanks to the beautiful weather.

This boat lit up like a train was my favorite

The marines come around (in full dress!) to collect the toys on the docks. I think that's such a great way to do that, and I love getting to thank them for their service at the same time.

Probably the best part about partying with the over 70 crowd is that everyone is gone by 9:30. Dad and I had all the leftover desserts to ourselves for the rest of the evening! (#sorrynotsorry)
Trainer gives the horses Sundays off, so instead of horsing, Dad and I went out to brunch at my favorite breakfast place The Lazy Loggerhead. We had planned to go look at a possible barn for Eros next winter, but it's in a gated community, and apparently you need an appointment to visit. So that didn't happen. Maybe next time.
It was a pretty relaxing day. The weather was perfect, so I sat outside and caught up on blogs for awhile.

And when the clouds rolled in, I headed off to the mall for a few minutes. There's a store there I wanted to go to for Dad's Chanukah present. This mall is ridiculous you guys. There's a Tesla dealer in it!

I mean, I've been to fancy malls, but that's weird right? It's right next to Tiffany's and Ferragamo. Ha. Needless to say, I did not buy a Tesla at the mall. Nor did I get dad's gift unfortunately, but I found what I wanted online later.
Monday was travel day, so not much to chat about there. I was home early enough that I could have ridden Eros, but the barn is closed on Mondays. Boo. Fortunately, I have a bunch of time to use up at work (we can't roll any over) so I had taken Tuesday off too. It was really lovely to have a day off at home. I rode Eros, gave the boys extra good groomies, bought the groceries, and worked on holiday stuff. Girl could get used to not going to work... If only someone would just pay me to live my life...
Today was back to the grind at work. Wednesdays are always busy, but when you have a Wednesday that's also a Monday? It was killer. Hopefully the rest of the week is quieter and I can catch up on what you've all been up to!

What's Up Wednesday

So much is up this Wednesday! And I'm happily catching you up from sunny Florida where temps are in the 70's. It was 15 when I left CT. Definitely picked a good week to travel south!
So first things first, I wanted to share this year's holiday card and a couple of outtakes too.

Yep, we all had Chanukah outfits, even the horses!

Pony Chanukah outfits made by Hopeful Equestrian, you can find her on Etsy!

Don't tell Rio I posted this. He'd be so embarrassed.

A rare moment of Jamposaur with his head down

Usually it's like this. This might actually be my favorite photo of us ever.

The pugs and I had perfectly matched outfits. Expect to see them again for years to come.

Ok, back to the past week... Friday my mom, brother, his family, and I finally got around to having our Chanukah party. It was a really fun evening complete with homemade AMAZING latkes and lots of presents.

My mom got Amazon Prime earlier this year, and she's really getting pretty good with it. She got me a Rebecca Ray bracelet on there! (But I forgot to take a picture, sorry. I'm sure it will be on Thursday's Threads soon.)
My brother and his family were at Disney a few weeks ago, and I had told my nieces to make sure they say hi to Eeyore for me if they saw him. So they brought me back this adorable stuffy:

Saturday morning was kind of busy. The morning started with freezing rain, and literally the entire place was coated in ice. The ponies were only allowed out in the covered walkouts since they didn't yet have winter shoes on. Don't need the old men slipping and getting hurt. I had a 9 am appointment at the car dealer to finally get my dangerous air bag replaced. I was kind of nervous since I wasn't sure what the roads would be like, but by the time I had to leave it was regular rain and the roads were just wet.
My car dealer is just down the road from a mall and several shopping plazas. I was mostly done with shopping, but did have to pick up something for my little brother at EMS (his original gift never shipped). So I stopped over there and at the 5 Below store before heading home. The farrier arrived just after I did, so that was great timing. The boys are now ready for winter!

Jamp's not fond of the burning hoof smell

Saturday evening was Christmas Eve Eve, which is Festivus (for the rest of us). If you're not a fan of Seinfeld, you should be, so go google Festivus and watch the episode... Go ahead. I'll wait.


Anyway, for the last several years, my family and my brother's wife's family all gather together for a Festivus meal of Chinese Food. My dad usually brings the food so there's enough to feed a family of 100. There were 17 of us. I'm still full.

Christmas eve day was a really nice one. All the ice and snow were gone, it was in the 40's and I had nothing planned except for meeting up with my mom in the evening. So you know what I decided to do??? Yep, you're right! I rode my horses! I threw Jampy on the lunge line quick first, since other than for posing for photos the weekend before, they haven't been ridden in almost three weeks. He was surprisingly not wild so I climbed aboard. Of course we did have a few of these moments:

But hey, it IS Jamp we're talking about here. He also had moments like this, so it was still a nice ride:

Rio was a little sassy, but honestly he felt fantastic. I've been a little worried about him as he's dropping A LOT (read: most) of his hay, but after riding him, I think he's still doing ok. He's eating plenty of chopped hay and all of his grain, so I'm going to calm down about the dropped hay. My vet was satisfied with his weight and overall health too. I mean look at him:

What a man! I might be biased (ok I am VERY biased) but is he not the most handsome 21 and a half year old in all the land?
Actual Christmas Eve turned out to be a little weird. My mom and I do Santa stockings for each other, so I went over there to do that. Mom supplied the bagels and lox (we had to Jew up the occasion a little afterall) and we had fun opening our stockings together. But when we were done, mom looked out the window and saw 4 cop cars stopped in front of the neighbor's house. These neighbors are like family to us, so we were really worried. Mom called over, and they said someone had fallen over at their son's apartment. (Son is a grown man in his 40's, recently divorced so he's back living in the apartment over their garage.) Mom and I walked over just to make sure our neighbors were ok. Really sad turn of events, the guy who fell wound up passing away. He was a friend of the son. Really tragic, especially so on Christmas Eve.
I headed home soon after all that. The boys needed their stockings filled and it was starting to snow. I hate snow, but I know that people like a white Christmas so as my gift to everyone, I didn't complain about it. You're welcome!
As in most years past, Santa overestimated the size the horse's stockings.

Probably needless to say, most of that wound up not in their stockings.

Christmas morning came early, but not as early as it probably did for those of you with human kids. It was the weirdest morning. When my alarm went off at 6:45 it was raining torrentially. Like the kind of rain where you think the sky is falling. So I decided to hold off on going out to feed for a little bit and went back to sleep. When I woke up again at 7:15 it was snowing just as hard as it had been raining. Such weird weather. I got some really pretty photos though!

Believe it or not, there is no filter on this

For Christmas, it seems Santa brought Jampy a pet rat. Or I think so anyway. When I walked in the barn there was a hay trail from Jamp's stall door to the tack room, and underneath the one tack trunk that sits up high. I wasn't emotionally prepared to deal with another rodent, so I have not yet actually looked under that trunk... It can have the week, but when I get back there will be traps out, and his days are numbered. I just CAN'T with rats. CAN NOT. So gross.
Anyway, once the tall kids were fed and I swept up after the new pet rat, I went back in the house to help the pugs with their stockings.

They got some snacks from Snaks 5th Avenchew, a few toys, and some bully sticks wrapped in yaki sticks. They were pretty excited. By the time we finished with their stockings, the storm was wrapping up and I headed out to do chores. It was chilly out, but was a pretty nice day. The horses were happy to be out in the snow.

They each had a lovely grooming session and then I went out to clean up some snow. I wanted to make sure to get the snow off the lower part of the driveway by the manure bin. It was really easy to shovel luckily.

all clean!

Next up was prepping the horses's supplements for while I am gone. They both have Smartpaks but are also on a few other things that I either can't get from Smartpak or I can get much cheaper elsewhere. I like to bag up all the dry supplements so it's easier for the horse sitter. And then the next thing I knew, I was almost late for dinner. Where does the time go?!
Since my first step mom, and also my current one, was/is Catholic, I've always spent Christmas with my dad. And we do our present exchanges on Christmas. We did dinner first, and it was amazing. Sorry I have no photos, but my dad made a roast, and my step mom made scalloped potatoes, asparagus, green beans, corn bread, and a jello mold. And homemade cheesecake. Seriously, if i haven't doubled in size after this weekend it will be a miracle.
I ran home in between dinner and presents to feed the animals. So nice that it was fairly warm and the roads were in good shape so I wasn't gone for more than an hour. Everyone picked out the perfect things for each other, and I was pretty excited about this:

That my friends, is a DYSON! A cordless one in fact. I'm curious to see if it will work on the rubber barn floor... But I guess really it's for the house. Also, how old am I that I'm excited about a vacuum?

Not as excited as Juno was for her Santa toy though

December 26th was mostly reserved for packing. But first I did the barn chores and groomed the ponies. Then I brought the short kids to the vet for a nail trimming:

don't let those cute faces fool you, it takes multiple people to trim their nails.

It took me the whole rest of the day to pack because I'm really the worst at it. But it got done. Eventually.
Today was a tie up the loose ends at home and travel day. And now here I am in sunny Florida!

The weirdest thing happened boarding the plane though. I was chatting with my farrier who was on the same flight. We were in the same row but opposite sides of the plane. So we get to our row and there's a lady in my seat. With gloves on and a lot of tissues in her lap. Um. Ew? And then a flight attendant says the woman has a nosebleed so no one else can sit in that row. Fair enough, I don't want any blood born pathogens thank you very much! But I also had no idea where to go as I was clogging up the aisle. The flight attendant had me wait in the seat ahead of mine, but then that person showed up, so i was seatless again. It wasn't until everyone was boarded that they found me a seat. ALL the way in the back of the plane. Sheesh. I don't mind being back there except that when it's time to deplane you're the last one off. Boo. Also we were delayed almost an hour because they had to fill out paperwork for the bleeding woman. But all's well that ends well because we made it safely and in time to have dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant. I'm excited to see Badger in the morning! You know what that means? I'll have a Thursday's Threads riding outfit to share!
How was your week? Do you celebrate Christmas? What did you do? Did you get or give any great gifts?