Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da...

Just a quick update on things.  Saturday I was out to the barn in the morning.  It was our barn Halloween Party, which all the kids were excited about.  Got there early and started feeding the horses before Bonnie was down.  Bonnie came down soon after that, and it wasn't too much longer before Tiffany arrive as well.  Once the horses had enough time to digest breakfast, Tiffany and I tacked up Bugs and Kaye for a lesson.  Started out warming up on the flat, where Kaye proceeded to spook at the scary arena door.  Every single time we rode past it.  Yet another thing I don't like about winter, the return of spooky mare. Never mind the fact that she has been in that arena a million times.  And she's 20 years old!  There's no excuse for the spooking anymore!  At least once we started working the spooking pretty much stopped.  For the most part.  After we warmed up Bonnie had us pop over the in and out.  It was set up just as low cross bars, four strides apart.  After we jumped through that a few times she took a page from Boyd Martin's book and had up shorten up to get five strides.  Tried that a few times, rather unsuccessfully on my part, Kaye doesn't really do that whole shortening thing.  Then Bonnie turned the cross bars into a couple of verticals and we jumped through again, this time asking for the longer stride and getting three strides between the fences.  Much easier for Kaye to lengthen her stride!  Then we practiced doing short jumper course turns.  So we rode through the combination and then staying in the canter had to make as tight of a turn as we could and go back over the combination in the other direction.  Yeah Tiff and I pretty much both failed at this, mainly because neither of us could land on the correct lead and so then we would have to stop and switch to make the turn.  Finally I started just looking for the lead Kaye was landing on and then turning in that direction, rather than trying to ask for the lead on landing.  Much easier that way.

In other news, I've gone in for yet more testing in the quest for a diagnosis for my stomach problems.  I've now had another colonoscopy, and now a Hida Scan, in which they test my gallbladder function.  And still no answers.  Of course!  Seriously I'm just so fed up with this.  Just give me a freakin' diagnosis already!  That's all I want!  Tell me what's wrong and then give me something to treat it.  So now the next step is a capsule endoscopy.  I go in for that on December 3rd.  Hopefully that will tell them something!

Other than that, work has been the usual.  I feel so overwhelmed with things there.  I don't feel as though I'm getting any help with the enrollments.  And it's just so frustrating.  On the other hand I'm actually really enjoying my job at Wal-Mart.  I mean it's easy work, and I get to talk to lots of people.  So that's pretty cool.  Most everyone I work with is really nice and I really do enjoy the job.

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Heart Walk and the Joys of a Second Job

So I officially started the second job last week.  Tuesday I went in for a 6-11 shift and for the whole night I got to sit in the personnel office and work on CBLs (computer based learning)  I pretty much wanted to scratch my eyes out by the time I left.  Way too long to be working on those at once.  Luckily Thursday night I got to head out to the front end.  I worked with Barb for the night, who was super nice and really taught me a lot.  She even let me start ringing a bit towards the end. Friday evening I was with Barb again, a little busier that night so i wasn't too sure about hoping on the register just yet.  But I did get to learn how to take a WIC check, although I'm sure I'll need help before I can do one on my own.

Saturday morning it was over to Beaver for the Heart Walk.  Aunt Sandy asked me to walk on the hospital team.  Plus, I'm always happy to help out the American heart Association and all the doctors without whom both my Daddy and my niece Kailee might not be here today.  It's a good cause to raise money for and a really nice walk through Beaver.  Got to spend the morning with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Ralph.  Mom and Dad were there as well, but speed walking and I didn't have the energy to keep up.  As an added bonus, the walking campaign at Pitt had started that week, so I was able to rack up lots of steps for our team.

So after we finished up in Beaver, I jumped in the car and headed out to the barn to ride.  I was able to hop on Kaye for a short jumping lesson.  Bonnie had set up the diagonal triple like we had done last year.  Only this time it was set up as two strides, so it was actually a little easier than before.  And Bonnie set them up as oxers, which actually I prefer oxers over verticals anyway.  I think they are a little easier to jump.  So we started out just jumping the fences as singles and then Bonnie had me run through the triple.  Kaye was having fun that's for sure.  And I was too.  Actually my first fence wasn't too bad either which is a first for me.  So yay all around!  Ethan got on Kaye for a bit after I finished.  And then we untacked her and spoiled her rotten with peppermints.  And then I stripped out her stall, can't have my baby girl going in a dirty stall after all that hard work.  The nice thing now, is that Kaye is exclusively mine (and Bonnie's) until after the clinic.

After I finished at the barn, it was a quick trip home to get cleaned up and then back to Wal-Mart for the evening.  That night I was on register, but with another cashier supervising me.  Which really was no big deal. I mean yeah I needed a day or two just to get used to the register, but really, I've had 10 years of retail experience.  It's not that much different.  Then Sunday morning when I went in, I was officially on my own.

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I love my mare!

Busy, busy weekend for me.  As usual.  Saturday morning I headed up to Cranberry were I had orientation for my new job.  No I haven't found anything to replace Pitt yet, but I did start a second job at...Wait for it...Wal-mart.  I know I'll probably regret it soon.  But for now, I'm broke and Wal-Mart has hours that fit in with my work schedule.  So...  It's actually not too bad so far.  Of course I haven't done anything yet other than these goofy computer modules.  So we'll see what happens when I actually get out on the register.

So since the orientation lasted all day I didn't get to ride at all on Saturday.  So Sunday morning I headed out to the barn bright and early.  Bonnie and I worked on some stalls.  Then a little later I rode Kaye with Rachel/Airy and Tricia/Pele.  We just jumped low stuff since Tricia and Pele were with us.  But we did ride some technical combinations.  Started out with just a single fence and then eventually progressed to three bounces.  Then Bonnie used one of the barrels to make and arrowhead jump.  So we had to do the three bounces and then make a tight turn, trot into the open part of the arrowhead and then jump out over the barrel.  Kaye was enjoying that.  And jumping it very big.  LOL  Then we turned around and jumped into the arrowhead from the closed side of it.  I had some mental issues with that one.  But then Bonnie put up some jump standards and we made it over then.  So we jumped that a few times and then Bonnie added a second arrowhead a stride later.  So we jumped out of the first one and then into the second one.  Bonnie made it easy on us and put up the jump standards to help guide us through.  So we jumped that in each direction a couple of times.  Then Bonnie took away the jump standards and we did without any help.  And of course my rockstar mare just flew through it.  I don't know why I ever worried about it.  LOL

I want to try heading out to the barn on week nights now occasionally if I can, since my time will be more limited now.  Wal-Mart has me scheduled a couple nights a week and then Friday evenings and Sunday daylight.  Although I am bummed about missing out on the Sunday riding time, I' don't mind being scheduled too much.  We get premium pay on Sundays, an extra dollar an hour.  Can't complain about that.

In other news, the World Equestrian Games started this weekend.  God I wish I were in Kentucky, but I just couldn't afford to make the trip.  Luckily I will be able to keep up with everything going on in Lexington thanks to the wonders of Facebook, Twitter and the Chronicle of the Horse.  So I guess that's the next best thing to being there.

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