Pet/Owner Look-A-Like Contest?

My horse is starting to look like me. Round. Its kind of amusing. I went out to the barn yesterday and with all of the green grass and constant turn out she is beginning to look quite, um, pregnant. Or maybe she's just gaining weight to make me feel better. Either way, her weight gain has me motivated to actually ride her tomorrow. I'm going to see if I can get her to break a sweat. Just a tiny one though. She is not going to be very happy with me. Oh well, I need the exercise too. I've been spending entirely too much time at home.
Lately when I have gone out to the pasture to bring her in she has been so stubborn I've had to chase her around a bit until she'll actually stops and stands still. This has not amused me but I'm sure Summer finds it pretty stinkin funny. Nothin like getting chased around a huge pasture by an overweight pregnant lady waving her arms and swinging a lead rope at you to keep life interesting. Its been taking less and less time when she realizes that if she just lets me catch her then I don't continuously drive her away from her "herd" until she stands still. Usually after a few rounds in the pasture she'll stop, turn slightly to face me, and stand there licking and chewing with this smug little look in her eye. I'll huff and puff up to her, trying to catch my breath after my min-marathon, and halter her while she acts like "OMG, you just got here? I never saw you there!" Yea, funny horse that one is. She definitely has my sense of humor though. I would do the exact same thing if I were her. In the last week I've finally realized that chasing her is not a good idea so I've started to cheat. Yes, I'm using treats. I know, bribery isn't the best thing and can sometimes make them lippy and grabby but I really don't want to go into early labor from going out to catch my stinking horse. When I got out to clean her stall I put her in the indoor arena. I push the wheelbarrow through there to dump it and will keep a handful of treats in my pocket. When I have to go through, if she approaches me on her own, I'll give her a treat or two to sweeten the deal. So far she has not become aggressive from this but I am keeping a very watchful eye on her. I do not tolerate bad manners and will stop the treats immediately if she starts to act that way. Its definitely made her more friendly and when I went out to the pasture yesterday to put her fly mask on she came up to me almost immediately. Yay, progress! I'm going to start cutting back on the treats and only give them every once in a while to keep from creating any bad behavior in her though, just in case. Summer enjoys her rubs and scratches so I incorporated those yesterday in the field and she followed me all the way back to the gate. This will be the majority of her "reward" for approaching me rather than the just the treats. Hopefully things will continue to improve and my barn lady won't have to look out her window and see a huge pregnant woman chasing a horse around her pasture. If she does though, I hope she gets it on video for America's Funniest Home Videos. Or at least YouTube.

Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen....

Yep, thats what happens when you're unemployed. Of course, the pregnant part happened back when I had a job, but my last day of work was April 30th so now the title of this post fits me. Sort of....I've been in the kitchen some, but as little as possible. I was working as a receptionist at a temp agency which wasn't too bad. I didn't particularly like my coworkers, but who likes everybody all the time? Our customers and employees were great though and I loved working for/with them. Unfortunately, my company was bought out completely by our sister company and they decided to merge. Lucky for me and one other coworker our sister company was already fully staffed so we got screwed out of jobs. I am currently almost 29 weeks pregnant, neat huh? I've been looking for work but who really wants to hire someone that will be taking maternity leave in 2 to 3 months? The upside is I do get unemployment which means I'll have a paid maternity leave. Bad news is we are losing about $200 a month and I'll be home enough that I'll be forced to clean the house! Not acceptable, but seriously what other choice do I have? I will get a chance to spend more time with our son though rather than rushing right back to work, which is great.

So anyways, I took a ton of pictures on friday with my cell phone and I know you are all dying to see them so here you go.....

The new baby at the barn. She is sooooo cute!

Look at that face! I may steal her.....

Summer got wormed, she was SO not thrilled with it.

Giving me the evil eye after worming her

Back in her stall trying to sniff out more treats. Look at her crazy eyes...lol

Going for the windswept look.....she wants to be a supermodel

Mad that I didn't have anymore treats so she tried to throw her grain bucket at me

Sid sunning himself in the backyard

Took the dogs down to the park near our house

Sid following Thor trying to figure out what she's staring at

Thor loves to chase the grass (yea she's a crackhead)

Silly puppies

"Mom, look how cute I am!"

Going home

A horse Owner's Worst Fear

I will be posting a bit later about my ride last night with the local Sheriff's Posse but today I checked my email (one that I don't use often) and found an email from one of my best friend's Delacy dated 2 days ago. It made me cry. As a horse owner I felt I needed to share. Just as a little background on Delacy, she works for the Oregon Department of Transportation and is currently on the night shift. We've been friends for nearly 10 years and have been through a lot together. I wrote a post a while ago about her mare Lulu. All of the text below this was written by her. My heart goes out to everyone involved with this terrible accident.



"Last night was the worst night at work I've had yet. We got a call at 4:30am about a 12-16(accident) on Hwy 58 mile post 2.5, I took the call and dispatch said it was Semi verse horses and that the horse was dead. My heart sank and I jumped in the truck lights going. When I got there I saw the horse in the middle of the road and checked to make sure she had passed. When I walked up there the sheriff pointed his flash light in the ditch to see another one standing in the ditch. I walked down to her and I recognized her. Her and her buddy are the two black horses that are on the north side of the hwy, I always see them when I go to my barn.
The Sheriff said he was trying to find the owners and I pointed to the pasture where they came from so he headed to find them. Meanwhile I call Jeff Pelton(seeing as he lives right across the street from the accident). I walked down to the mare and noticed her back leg was bleeding, As i got closer I saw what every horse lover fears, Her hoof was gone and her front fetlock flexor tendon was cut. I knew she had to be put down.
I stood there with her from that point on.
Jeff got there and he looked at her and looked at me and you know that was when you know you have the best vet in the world cause you could see the sadness in his eyes. Here we are standing here with a mare we'd never meet and our hearts were breaking. Jeff gave her a tranq and just then the sheriff showed up with the owner. He ran up and had his halter, thinking he was going to just grab her and go home. He said thank you and went to halter her. Jeff and I looked at each other and I said, "Sir, she's going to have to be put down and I pointed to her foot." He looked at us and said," If you have to'" with a question in his voice. Jeff said' " there's really no way to fix this, not to mention what other damages there were that we hadn't seen yet."
The Owner said, " ok, it has to be done." He stepped back and I held the mare's head while Jeff gave her the drugs. She went down really fast and as she took her last few breaths I held my hand over her eye and the owner, Jeff, the fire marshal, and I all cried.
In all my years of horses I've never had to see one put down. It was the saddest thing I've had to do. You know I think I could handle a fatal person crash better than that mare.
My heart goes out to him and his family. And a note to all horse owners, please make sure your fences are secure and your gates have locks that the horses can't get open!"

PICTURES

I haven't posted any pics of Summer lately so tonight when Mo and I went out to the barn to do chores I snapped some shots of the Princess in the round pen. She was pretty boring and pretty much just wanted to walk around and smell the ground where the other horses had pooped and peed. Occasionally something would smell really good and she would lift her head and and curl her top lip back, I think this is called a flehmen reaction or something. All of these pics were taken just before sunset and I was playing with the flash a bit, so sorry for the graininess and background in some of them.
Today was her day with Susan. I watched Susan lunging her today and noticed that Susan had much better body language than she has recently and that Summer was being respectful and attentive. Not once did I feel the need to step in and help. Summer kept flicking her ears back and forth at Susan listening for her next command and for the most part was keeping her attention focused on her. Previous lunging sessions consisted of Summer doing her best impression of a tree for Susan and poor Susan looking extremely flustered. At one point I even walked through the arena to find Summer standing in the middle ground tied while Susan moved some poles out of their way. She was completely still and didn't even look like she was thinking about moving. I was very proud of both of them and it was nice to see they are beginning to come to an agreement.
Sundays are my day to feed at the barn and clean stalls for my wonderful barn lady. There is absolutely no sarcasm in that, I have the greatest barn owner ever. My horse is always cared for as if she were there own and never goes without anything. They even take the time to give each horse at the barn some hands on attention and love which is something most places don't ever think about being necessary. I don't think I will ever move her unless my husband and I buy our own property and she'll be in my own backyard. Anyone in the Eugene/Springfield/Pleasant Hill area looking for a barn should check out Way To Go Ranch, they don't have openings often but they are well worth the wait. Anyways, Mo comes out on Sundays to help me clean stalls since I really shouldn't be lifting anything over 25 lbs. I fill the wheel barrows and he pushes them up the mountain of poop and dumps them for me. Its definitely nice to have the help. I love that he doesn't mind coming out to help and he's really getting some good hands on experience with the horses. He also fills water buckets and helps distribute hay and grain when needed. Good stuff to know for when we have our own property and more than one horse.
Once we get our work done we come home and make dinner, sometimes together, and then spend some time relaxing and watching our favorite tv programs. Sounds boring but I love Sundays. This Sunday though I even made it out to help my little sister look at a car she might buy, teach her to drive a manual, and walk the dogs when I got home. Oh, and I even cleaned up the house a little bit. I love days where I've actually accomplished something.

Babies and Horses

Yea I know, not a good mix. I haven't posted in a long time though and I figured for those that read this it might be about time for an update. Straight to the point....Mo and I are expecting our first baby in July! Our own cute little bundle of joy! I'm almost 12 weeks along and have known since before Thanksgiving but I am still just floored at the thought of it. I've always wanted to be a mom, but I really am not prepared for this. I think the hardest part is realizing that my lifelong dream of being a horse owner is going to be majorly affected by this. We plan on doing as much as we can to keep Summer, but I am so afraid I may have to sell her. I'm still riding, but being much more careful than before. What am I saying, I was ridiculously careful before, but now its not just my life a fall from horseback could affect. I've spoken to my doctor and since I was riding 5 to 6 days a week before she said I need to be careful and not doing anything too over the top but that I could continue to ride. Since I've been extremely tired the last few months I haven't been out there as much as I'd like. So I decided to find someone to half lease Summer. Her name is Susan and she is a middle aged re-rider. I don't believe she ever owned horses before, but much like myself she had spent as much time as possible around them in her younger days. To get her started I gave her a few "beginner" lessons with Summer and got her comfortable before turning them loose together. Susan is a super nice lady and she is being careful to continue doing everything with Summer just as I would, which I love. She also is taking lessons every Tuesday from my trainer, so I know she'll be riding Summer the way she was trained. Its still hard though, I consider Summer another one of my "fur babies" so the first day when Susan signed the lease agreement and she had her first day alone I spent forever hanging around talking because I was so nervous leaving them. I finally did and I'm sure she was glad to have me out of there. One of my biggest fears is that Summer will like Susan better than me, as silly as that seems. My other worry is that Summer will take full advantage of Susan and her inexperience, much like she did me in the beginning. I keep reminding myself that she's getting some good direction from my trainer and the other wonderful boarders but it doesn't always make things easier.
For now my plan is to continue to ride until I can no longer get in the saddle or fit in it, whichever one happens first. Hopfully I can continue to ride for several more months. If not though at least I have a back up plan and I know Summer isn't wasting away. And the nice thing is that being on a half lease helps pay part of her board, Susan is paying $100 a month to ride 3 days a week. I take care of everything else but Summer is a pretty easy keeper. The lease is up for renewal in June, at which time I'll give Susan the option of a full lease and we'll take care of vet bills for 3 to 4 months. It all depends on whether or not Susan can afford to pay for her feed and board plus worming and farrier bills.

Okay onto more baby things......I haven't had any morning sickness but like I said I've been pretty tired. Although the last week or two I've noticed it seems to be wearin off a bit and I'm getting more bursts of energy that are lasting longer. Hopefully everything goes as easily the entire pregnancy as it has this first few months. Only time will tell. I do have a condition concerning my uterus that puts me at a higher risk for preterm labor but my doctor said we'll be monitoring the baby's growth carefully and doing lots of ultrasounds as we go. My uterus is heartshaped and has a muscle that cuts off one side, although it could just be partial instead of complete. It may mean the baby might have just enough room to develop but won't be able to turn for labor and will be a breach. It could also mean that the baby will run out of room early in the pregnancy forcing my body to try and go into labor. My doctor didn't seem too worried so we're just playing the wait and see game.
We are really hoping for a boy. I think we'll be happy either way but boys just seem easier and I'm not much of a girly girl. My family and Mo's family are really excited which is helping to get me more excited as we go. This baby will be the first great-grand child on Mo's dad's side of the family which is pretty exciting. We'll be having 2 baby showers, one here in our area and one up in Washington for Mo's family. How spoiled is this kid gonna be? Ooooh and I LOVE baby shower cakes. Yum. Costco cakes with buttercream frosting....sorry I'm pregnant, I love sweets! I also can't wait to decorate the baby's room, I want to have the theme be Eeyore. Unusual I know, but Eeyore never gets enough recognition and I think he's adorable. Keep your eyes peeled for great Eeyore stuff, I want it all! I also want lots of camo stuff too, I think babies are cute in camo. And cute little baby cowboy boots and Carhartts. This kid is going to be an adorable, chubby little cowboy. Night everyone, I'll try and keep you up to date more often.

Where has the time gone....

First off I'd like to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Mo and I are up in Walla Walla, Washington visiting his family and so far we've had a great time. We left Wednesday from Springfield at 4 pm and due to the horrendous holiday traffic didn't even make it to Salem until 6 pm. Normally that drive is about an hour. It was terrible. We decided at that point that we needed a break from the holiday traffic so we stopped in Salem and found the Sonic for dinner. We managed to get back on the road about at about 7 and for the rest of the trip traffic was a breeze. Between Troutdale and the Dalles though we hit wind gusts around 45 to 50 miles an hour and I came really close to wetting my pants. It was scary, Mo's poor little Mazda was getting its butt kicked on the freeway. I almost made him pull over, but he called me a sissy and we kept on driving. Once we passed through the Dalles everything was fine and I was even able to sleep some in the car. We made it into Walla Walla at about midnight, hugged the parents and went straight to bed.
This year the Torrescano family had plans to fit everyone in one house in the Tri-Cities area, which is about an hour from Walla Walla. Grandpa T has been sick as of late and we all wanted to be together to spend time with him and Grandma T. Everyone in the family was signed up to bring something and our task was "munchies" which my wonderful mother-in-law took care of for the most part. She only asked that we buy some chips and a few kinds of olives which made it super easy for us. I also recently obtained an amazing recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies so I decided I would add those to our little list too. Most of Thanksgiving morning was spent baking a double batch of those cookies which was well worth it.
The plan was for everyone to meet in Tri-Cities at Aunt Josie's house and then we would drive to her church to take a family picture. We got everything packed up and loaded in dad's (my father-in-law) truck and we all four headed off to Josie's. Not once did I think about the fact that I hadn't eaten all day except for cookies and cookie batter. When we arrived at Josie's, I experinced one of my most favorite parts of spending time with the Torrescano family. The hugs. Before I even stepped through the door I was greeted by cousins and aunts and uncles and each one gave me a wonderful bear hug. By the time I made it through the door and up the small flight of stairs and into the living room I easily had hugged 15 to 20 family members. Each one had something nice to say and almost made me feel like we were the guests of honor. After the hugs and greetings we waited for mom and dad to change into their picture clothes and back into the truck we piled. Even Mo's brother Nic changed into some nicer clothes for the pictures.
Josie's church was spectacular to say the least. It had a huge gorgeous fountain in the courtyard and when you walked into the worship hall the "stage" area had huge plate glass windows with man made rock water falls behind them. It wasn't anything like the modest curches I was used to being in.
We spent about an hour or so taking pictures which I will post once we get them on the computer. We all had a great time between everyone tripping over the same step and trying to figure out the delay settings on the cameras. Eventually though we all started to realize how hungry we were. It was finally time to head back and prepare the feast!



I'll continue this post a little later, right now I'm hungry and dad and Mo just took off for golfing. I think mom and I are going to hang out for a bit and maybe go over to help make tamales for dinner. Its a big Torrescano tradition.

Apple Crisp topped with cookies 'n cream....

Yea, I went there.....its delicious, thanks Bridgette!

Its been ages since I wrote a real post, and believe it or not a few weeks ago I actually was going to get caught up on everything I had plans to write about. Then again, thats when I thought I was unemployed and would have waaaaayyyyy too much free time. Turns out being unemployed lasted a whole two hours into a normal work week. I got to sleep in at least.

To fill all of you in, not sure how many that exactly is or even if you care (haha), but up until almost 6 months ago I was working at an injection molded plastics plant. Yup, super exciting stuff. Actually, it wasn't that bad. We made the hard plastic handles you sometimes see at Costco on the 2 or 3 packs of ketchup, or about a million other things that require them. Here, check out a couple pictures....

I made those. We had huge 2 to 6 ton machines/presses that melted the plastic beads in a barrel and then shot them into these molds and they went out on conveyor belts and were sometimes run through machines that put barcode labels on them. Not that complicated really. MY job there was as a material handler. I operated a forklift, wrapped huge pallets full of boxed handles, and kept track of colors and jobs that we were running at any given time. It was a pretty stressful job. I liked what I did, but had a hard time dealing with the fact that everyone else around me was mother f-ing lazy. I was constantly cleaning up after people, finishing things they should have done and fixed their mistakes. The shift supervisor was a jerk and I just never felt like he was there to back me up. I worked my ass off for that place and when I asked for a raise they told me I had to wait 3 MORE MONTHS for my yearly review to get it. So I started looking for another job. They could just get f-ed for all I cared.

Here are a couple pics of what we did when we got bored....yes thats about the size of the pallets I had to wrap and store in the warehouse.....

Well my friend Rochelle knew how frustrated I was with my current situation. Since I was actively searching for a new job, she proofread my resume before I sent it out anywhere. I'm not gonna lie, its pretty good. Being the WONDERFUL friend that she is, she asked if I was okay with her slipping it to her general manager to see if he'd be interested in me. She worked at a local big corporation scrap metal yard and a girl in the sales office would be going on maternity leave soon. It was right up my alley, considering I had worked in parts sales at some local quad dealerships in the past. To make a long story short, they LOVED my resume. I mean, who wouldn't? They had me in for an under the radar interview and evidently I impressed the pants off the GM and after a few weeks they gave me a call and had me in for a 2nd interview. I met the steel sales manager, who is now one of my all time favorite people in the world, and he seemed to like me too. Within a week or two they offered me the job, with the understanding that it was just temporary. Prego girl would have her baby and eventually come back. But who cares! I was getting out of that hell hole and going somewhere I wasn't going to beat the crap out of my body anymore. And there was hope that I might end up getting a permanent job with the company by the time prego came back. I gambled on it, and gave up 3 years of steady employment, vacation pay, and quarterly bonuses on the chance I might not have a job in 4 to 6 months. Pretty much the dumbest thing you've ever heard of right? I think so too. But I did it anyways.

Making that gihugic (giganticly huge) leap into the unknown might have been one of the best decisions I've ever made. Other than marrying my husband, that is. I had a great time working in that scrap yard. I met some wonderful people and learned alot of things that I can use in the future. I also realized that in my last job, I'd been a stark raving bitch. I was over worked, over stressed, and I was taking it out on other people. Its amazing my poor husband put up with me. Then again, we work opposite shifts so we never saw each other. This new job, which basically consisted of me sitting on my ass, turned me back into the person I once knew. If my work didn't get done, the only person it affected was me. I could leave something on my desk at the end of the day and know that the next morning it would be exactly as I had left it and if anything had been screwed up, the only one I had to blame was me! It was great, and I learned to enjoy going to work again. (Yea, weird concept)

Evantually though my little story book romance with my job had to come to an end. I applied twice for internal positions at this place and twice I was turned down. There wasn't any specific reason, it just didn't seem to be in the cards for me. Then the news came. I had 5 weeks to find another job. Prego (well not so prego anymore) would be back Oct 10th from maternity leave.

I started trying to sell myself again. Unsuccessfully I might add. And the panic started to set in. Not sure if anything would come of it or not, I called the temp agency that I was working through for the scrap yard and told them my assignment would be finished soon. The woman that answered seemed extremely excited about the fact I was so proactive about finding a position and said they would work hard to find me a job. I emailed her my resume and crossed my fingers. After about a week or 2 I emailed her again to touch bases. Turns out she was the Operations Manager for the ENTIRE company and the manager for the Springfield branch wanted to interview me. Holy sh*t! I think I almost peed myself when I read the email. Basically, to sum it all up. We met, they loved me, and I got laid off a week early at the scrap yard. The following Monday, without having made an offer, the manager at the staffing company called me at 8:30 am (yep I was still sleeping. Isn't that what the unemployed do?) and asked me to come in. I've been there ever since and absolutely love it. My coworkers are great and my manager cracks me up. I'm the front desk receptionist at this point, aka The Director of First Impressions. Funny sh*t huh? But I'm good at it and I anticipate better things in my future.

Okay I'm working on a follow up on my fear post, so hopefully in the next few days. I'll try to be a better blogger, I promise! Thanks for the kick in the butt Angel, I needed it! Oh, and I apologize for the cursing. I tried to edit but you know.....