Wait.... how is it already Monday afternoon?

It makes me really sad how quickly this summer is just flying by! I feel like it just started but already it's the later half of July. Ugh! Slow down life! I had one of those weekends with nothing planned, yet somehow tons to do. I actually kind of like those weekends because I feel so accomplished at the end.

Friday evening after riding Jampy, I decided I really needed to set a new jump course in the ring. I had the jumps in the same spot since last fall, and it was time for a change! My plan originally was to do that over the weekend, but I realized I'd fall short on time, so Friday was the day.

old course

New Course!

I finished around 9:30, so that was pretty much the highlight of my Friday night. I hung out with the pugs for awhile then headed off to dreamland.

I was up at 7 on Saturday to do barn chores and work the horses by 1:00. I really wanted to jump Jampy around the new course. He was perfect! He used to get really nervous any time I changed anything in the ring. But this year he's been so much more relaxed about everything. He jumped around like it had been this way for months. GOOD PONY! I put the magnetic sheet on him and let him eat some grass for awhile afterward.

I gave Rio a little lunge too. I'm curious to see if a little work is helpful for him. I'm hoping it is. I would think like anyone else, it would do him some good to move around a bit and develop some fitness. Hopefully I'm right! He had some grass and time in the magnetic sheet after too.

So why did I need to be done by 1 you ask? Because I had a 2 pm hair appointment! FINALLY! My age has been showing all over the place, and I really needed some pigment put back in my head! I went a little bold this time:

A coppery red with some highlights thrown in! I love getting my hair done! The best part is, my hair dresser is also a very good friend of mine, so post hairdo we went for a frozen margarita and some nachos. That my friends is a quality Saturday afternoon! After playtime, I went home and vacuumed the house and started some laundry. Glorious right? Hey, someone has to do it! And then it was pug time followed by bedtime.

Sunday was a day off for the ponies, so I decided to try and get barn chores done early. I figured that way, I'd have a whole day off too! Win! The boys were particularly adorable though, so I did waste some time taking cute photos of them playing:

As planned, I was done by 11 and went off to spend embarrassing amounts of money on cheese farm fresh goodies. My town's farmer's market is the best: live music and dog friendly!

I really stocked up this week:

5 kinds of cheese (I know, I have a problem), carrots for the ponies, lettuce, mint, plums, blueberries, a baguette, a loaf of date & oat bread, pickles, a cucumber, and of course 2 cupcakes. SO MUCH GOOD STUFF! The best part is, I need very little at the store this week. Fresh from the farm food is soooo much better than the stuff sitting in the grocery store. SO MUCH BETTER! I think next week I'll try some of the fish and meats too. That will force me to actually cook a little...

After the market, I ran a few errands including picking up some new jump flowers. I had one flower box with no flowers, so I figured I'd fill that up:

So pretty! We'll see if Jamp agrees later this week. I was actually done earlier than I thought with errands, and got to hang out with the puggies at the pool for 2 whole hours! No swimming since I just had my hair dyed though.

The last few things on my list included walking the dogs and running. I've been full of great excuses not to go, and the time to end that was Sunday evening! (It got pretty warm out, so I wanted to wait until it cooled off some. Chubby out of shape girls + super hot days does not = happy running!) I went out for my run, and though I did take a couple walk breaks, it was nice to be back out there. I didn't bring a watch, I didn't want to know how slow I was! But I used my charity miles app to be sure of my distance. After my run, I grabbed the dogs and took them for a stroll. What chaos! Artie wants to run ahead, P drags behind... It's a good thing they're adorable!

After all that, we were all pooped! Perfect way to end a weekend!
How was your weekend? Do anything fun and exciting? Did you fit in a run or some other physical activity?

Thursday's Threads

Happy Thursday Readers! So this week, pickings were slim for the outfit as I'm super behind on laundry... Also I have a super sized behind and not all my pants fit ;) I blame the grocery store. (See Truthful Tuesday for an explanation.) Here's what I dug out of the closet for today:

Keeping it casual today! It's a good thing my office has a very relaxed dress code.

Top: JJ Basics
Price: unknown (purchased last season)

I know you can see my straps through the cutouts, but I don't think it's in a trashy sort of way. Maybe next time I'll have matching undergarments in the clean pile... I like that this shirt is a little longer in the back than in the front, so you can actually see my belt buckle, yet not my plumber's butt! Win!

Belt: Designer Inspired
Price: $24.99

Old standby. One of my Ebay finds. I love that the belt is actually leather too!

Pants: Rock and Republic
Price: Unknown (hand me down)

These are great for everyday. Straight leg, dark wash. One of my friends actually gave these to me. Free pants!


Shoes: Ariat
Price: $59.81

Watch out Sperry, Ariat has entered the boat shoe market! Yes horsey friends, you are seeing this correctly. Those are adorable boat shoes made by Ariat. The boot company! And they are just as comfy as the paddock boots. Maybe more so. I got these from Smartpak on clearance. Get yourself a pair immediately. Seriously. But make sure they're on sale, they're super expensive normally.

Arm Party!

Up here on the right arm I have a spiked bracelet from Ettika, a braided bracelet from Green Sewn (part of a stack I got on Fab.com), and a designer inspired find from Ebay.

On lefty, you'll recognize my favorite watch, and the bracelet is a wrap from Stella and Dot. I love that it's so delicate!

So that's it for today. What are you wearing?! Do you think the cutouts on the shirt are inappropriate?

Stridebox!

I'm totally late in posting this, it's been sitting on my counter for almost two weeks already! But anyway, let's see what was inside the July Stridebox!

Info Card:

So many goodies in here! The summer box has become my favorite because it's SO FULL!

Edibles:

Bonk Breaker: I haven't tried this one yet, but it's blueberry flavor so I'm pretty sure it will be yummy!

I LOVE Honey Stinger waffles. I keep meaning to order some to keep on hand, but never seem to remember to do it. I'm excited to try gingersnap, I bet it's YUMM-O!

Salted watermelon GU?! This just screams summer. I'm not so sure I'll like it, but I really want to! Generally I don't like the fruit flavored GU's, I'm more into the ones that taste like frosting. But I do look forward to giving it a shot.

Other stuff:

Cute, patriotic "RUN" Stickers. So festive!

Anti-chafe gel! Yes please! A must have for summer running, that's for sure!

Hydration (aka the best part this month!):

See that awesome bottle?! We got a similar one last year that was blue, and it's one of my FAVORITE water bottles! I like that it's a not huge, and the flip top actually closes securely which is rare! So not only did we get this awesome bottle, but it was stuffed full of yummy hydration options (and it's own mini info card)!

That's a lot of yummy options! Let's look closer:

Ok so this one wasn't in the bottle, but it was in the box. And it fit better here than anywhere else. I'm not super excited for this one, I'm not that into orange flavor, but I'll give it a try at least!

These Cocogo packets are coconut water with raspberry and coconut water with grape. I'm interested to taste these.... I keep trying to like coconut water, but I really just don't. But maybe these will be better since they are mixed with other flavors.

Zym is a tablet. I'm excited to try this one, it's Grape!

We've gotten Nuun before, and I first tried them at the Boston Marathon Expo a few years ago. They're pretty delicious, very light flavor and just a hint of fizz to them.

So that's the July Stridebox! If you're interested in trying it click here and sign up! It's $15 per month, and as you can see definitely worth the money! You can scroll through my old posts as well to see what other boxes had in them. There is no referral program that I'm aware of, I just really love this box so I'm sharing with you readers!

Truthful Tuesday

I know I've said it before, but I'm gonna post all about it again. I have a potato chip addiction. And it's really specific. I am 100% addicted to these guys:

I'm talking full on, hopelessly devoted, addicted. When the store is out of them, I feel sad. Like really sad. The same sort of sad as when you ruin your favorite jeans. This is serious business. Do you think there's a support group for people like me? If so, please direct me!
Similarly, I think the grocery store is trying to enable me. They were 2 for $6 the other day. Not safe. I ate both bags in under 3 days. Then I wonder why my pants are too small!

Do you have an unhealthy addiction to something edible? Do you want to talk about it? Are you thinking about getting help? I'm not sure I'm ready to give these up, but when I'm ready, maybe we can council one another?

Weekends really should be longer....

Summer weekends are the busiest of weekends that is for sure! After two weeks of early mornings braiding followed by the normal work and horse schedule, I was ready for a relaxing weekend! Unfortunately, I did not schedule one of those! But that's lucky for you because that would be pretty boring to read about, wouldn't it?
Saturday morning, Jampy and I had a horse show on the schedule. I got up at 5:45 (not too early!) and got him all braided and ready to go. Of course I got there too early as is my norm, but that was nice as it gave my helper and me plenty of time to get organized. I was pretty nervous about showing this weekend as none of my trainers were in town to help me out. It was just Jampy, my helper, and me! Yikes! I had to prep my own horse! Fortunately, Jampy and I seem to have gotten our acts together and we only embarrassed ourselves in one of the classes. Want a recap?? Sure you do! (Oh also, my helper took pictures this time!)

My first class was a flat class with 9 people in it. (Which was really odd as most classes at this horse show had maybe 4 people in them, it was really small!) Jampy was perfect the first direction, but the second way he started to get a little excited. I had to hold his mouth the entire way around to keep him from getting too excited. But it worked out ok as we won! Woohoo! (Good boy Jampy for holding it together!)

After the flat we went out to school over some jumps. He was still a little excited, and was pulling me to the jumps. I decided to let him play on the lunge line for a few minutes and work out the crazies. I'm not sure that was the best call though....
Our first jumping class was pretty close to perfect! We won that one too out of 13 riders. Good pony! Fence class #2 went pretty well, though Jampy was getting a bit tired. I was getting to the jumps just a little off our stride. So we were slightly further away from the ideal "distance" and the take off was just a little weak. I think it must have looked a little prettier than it felt though as we finished in 2nd. (My photos later will show a yellow ribbon, I thought we were third in the class, but we were actually second, oops!). The third class, I have to admit, was a disaster. DISASTER! My distance to the first fence was sooooo close to the jump, Jampy had to pop up to make it over. (That's really unattractive!) The next few jumps were nice, and then as I was coming around the turn to jump the line RIGHT NEXT TO THE JUDGE, Jamp broke to the trot. SUPER BIG NO-NO! I got the canter back in time to have the jumps work out well, but then I got much to close the last fence as well. Ugh. This all happened because poor Jampy was exhausted, and clearly, I was not helping him out much! Poor guy. Needless to say, we didn't get a prize in that one! Thankfully we had a little break before our last class.

The last one for us that day was the NEHC medal. This class is a qualifier for the Finals in October. I had shown in the class once earlier this year and placed second, meaning I was 4 points shy of qualifying. Third place is 4 points, so it looked like I had a decent chance of getting it done! There were only 4 people in it, so the odds were on my side! The break did both Jampy and I some good, and we managed to win the medal class too! Whoa! Good day at the pony show! We finished up Champion in the Adult Equitation Division (two weeks in a row)!

But here's where the day gets really good... My vet happens to also be the horse show vet, and I asked begged him to stop by on his way home to give Rio a quick little check up. I've been pretty worried about him since he's had so much muscle loss in his face, and really wanted a professional opinion as to his health status. Well... I'm so glad he stopped by! He inspected Rio's face and watched him walk and jog, and told me he thinks he's doing great! He feels that the recent atrophy is more residual to the original infection and not a relapse. He even thinks there's a chance he'll improve. Holy good news! Yay!

After ALL this, I met my brother, sister-in-law, and niece at the local carnival. My niece is too little for most of the rides and things, but she loved seeing all the flashy lights and kids running around. So cute!

She's the little one being held in this photo. I don't feel right posting other's people's kids on my blog, so no faces, sorry! But you'll have to trust me she was having a blast! On my way out I won the fried dough lottery (two pieces stuck together, counted as only 1! Mmmmm), and got some treats for the ponies of course:

Is it me, or did Saturday seem like a full weekend all in itself? Somehow it was only one day. WHOA. Sunday I slept in. Yes. Till 9. It was glorious. Until the knock on my door from my weekend barn cleaner at 9:05. Apparently Ducky who had gotten this fat lip:

Decided to rub it against the fence until it started bleeding. Then he decided to bleed alllll over the barn door. Oh no, not the door inside his stall. The outside door where all the world can think there was some kind of massacre at the farm. <<Sigh>> Kids. So I put on some jeans and a shirt, and set out to clean up Ducky and the barn door. Thankfully it's nothing major, and almost everything cleaned up fairly easily.
Next stop was the farmer's market where I managed to come home with mostly non-healthy goodies... oops. Here are my spoils:

In case you can't see, here's what I got:
A baguette, a loaf of English Muffin Bread, Honey Butter, cupcakes, four different cheeses, blueberries, cucumber, tomatoes, and potatoes. Mmmmmmmmmm

Next was the real adventure! This guy right here:

went off to spend a month (or maybe two) at cowboy camp. His antics have gone on long enough, so it's time he learned some lessons from the professionals. I really hope he comes back with a better attitude! I dropped him off and chit chatted with the trainer and owners at the farm. (I had another horse spend some time there a few years back, so we're all old friends!) Ducky seemed to settle in well enough. I am excited to go visit him in a week or two and see how it's going. It's definitely a little strange in the barn with only Jamp and Rio. Ducky always knickers at me when I walk in, and the other boys are so quiet!

My last weekend event was a quick visit to see my friend and her new baby boy. He is so itty bitty! I played trains with her older son for awhile, which was seriously just as fun as when I was a kid. (I'm pretty sure I'll never grow up.) Such a sweet family they are!

I got home around 8 and hung out with the pugs. They really know how to do weekends:

I followed their lead and napped on the floor with them until bedtime. Yep. Wild and crazy over here at the farm!

How was your weekend? Do anything crazy and fun?