A Bit off Topic

We received notice about 3 weeks ago that the house we are renting, just moved into this house 10 months ago, has been sold to a developer and we have to be out by April 1st. It isn't just us that is effected. The girl that lives next door, a good friend and former student, has 7 horses on the property. Her place was sold as well. The place behind the farm that has been an older gentleman's home for over 30 years has been sold as well. I am just sick over this. How can people treat other humans this way? I know that in life, you have to do what you have to do, but could we have had at least a clue that the properties were up for sale? If the owner really wanted the places sold, why not offer them to the people living there first? Now, we all get to watch as what we were currently calling home gets dozed to the ground to make way for office buildings, or a shopping center.

I am still struggling with this whole thing. The housing market sucks. Everything around us for rent is ridiculously priced and we cant get approval to buy anything, which would actually be cheaper, until this September. My husband has been very supportive during this whole thing. He knows I am beyond stressed out for multiple other reasons and this was just the icing on the cake. Everyone keeps telling me the same thing. "You guys are strong. You will get through this. You have been through much worse, you got this." I wish I had that kind of optimism right now. Honestly, I kinda just want to crawl into a hole and cry.

I am not sure if it is caused by the stress or if I did something horrible to my neck on my own. My left shoulder is permanently damaged from the car accident I was in in 2009. Normally, I have a constant dull ache in that shoulder with some slight swelling and popping. I'm used to it. I can deal with it. About 3 weeks ago, see the correlation, I pulled something in my neck on the right side. I have iced it, put heat on it, ignored it and tried drugging myself with Motrin all day and nothing seems to be helping. Over the past week I noticed the pain in both my shoulders got worse. I am having a hard time turning my head to either side and God help me if its a fast motion! Yesterday was the beginning of stabbing pain in all of my joints. ALL of my joints. Not just my shoulders and my arms. They start in my shoulders and the pain travels down both my arms, through my chest, into my hips, through my knees and stop and hang out for a while in my toes. If I were to ever be hit by lightning, I would think it would feel like something similar. After the initial "shock" the dull ache hangs around in my entire body for about 10 minutes before I get about a 5 minute break and it starts again. I will be trying to get in to see my doctor at some point soon.

I am still going to the gym. Last night there was no way I was making it there. I had to pull the car over 3 times to cry on the side of the road because of the pain. There was no way I was doing anything other than sitting on my couch playing hay day. I am really enjoying the gym and feel terrible when I miss a day. I feel like I am accomplishing something when I go. It gives me time to relax and work off some of this stress. I ran for the first time on the treadmill about 1 - 2 weeks ago. Running is not easy when you are a fat person, but I did it. I was pretty proud of myself for that! My legs were screaming at me the next day, but oh well. No pain, No gain right!

I am getting back into riding as well. I have spent the last few years not really riding at all. I would occasionally hop on Mocha or Mia and just putz around. Sport was my normal go to trail guy for a while, but even that was few and far between and when his lameness got worse, I couldn't put him through carrying my weight anymore. That being said, I had my first lesson on this past Sunday. My student Becca and I are trading off lessons for a while. I need someone to tell me to do things when I ride, and this gives Becca some more experience teaching. She did, however, say that she found it very hard to tell me to do things. She has spent the last 11 years taking instruction from me...you would think she would be hell bent of revenge at this point! :) I really enjoyed my lesson and was rewarded when I couldn't feel my legs when I got off an hour later! I'm a western pleasure baby, this whole posting thing is for the birds!

Tia is doing really well. I am starting to see her act more like a horse, which is amazing. Since bringing her home, she has been what I would call a Gestapo Woman. The horses would get to playing and she would immediately turn it into a fight. I watched her the other day with the horses running around like loons in their pasture. She was running and playing with them. There was no kicking or rearing or bucking. Just three girls playing like normal horses should. It made me feel a whole lot better seeing her this way. I am watching her hip/stifle area has she comes and goes and she is much less sticky. Her movement is more fluid and her hind end seems to me more underneath her then before. When the weather warms up a bit we are going to ride her again. This time, we will ride using the whole ring and through some ground poles out there for her. Gotta get those legs lifting.

I have ordered Tia a new stall sign as well as a magnet for my car. The lady who does them is just amazing. Here is the link to her facebook page. She has some really cute designs and I thought, why not! They aren't real expensive and they are hand done. Here are a few examples of her work..hopefully I don't get in trouble!

If you were wondering, Butters and Scooter are real horses owned by a friend of mine. You can see pictures of them here. 

I told the lady doing the work to just take her time and to do both my magnet and the stall sign at the same time. She was running a bit behind on one of them, and honestly I didn't NEED them right away. I cant wait to see them!

I will try to get some new pictures of Tia this weekend. I need to spend some one on one time with her. Is it weird that I think she may have gotten a little bit taller???? She looked a bit taller to me the other day. I will have to re tape her this weekend as well. I want to come up with a cute idea for her birthday too. Maybe make her a birthday cake and totally embarrass her by making her wear a silly birthday hat! Yep, I am that guy!

I hope everyone has a great week. Its more house hunting for us this weekend. Im just ready for this to be over with already!

Erin