Where I've Been

Hello? Hello? There's an echo in here. I think I see one little face way in the back. Hi there!

I'm still here, sort of, but in a much different place than I was when I started this blog.

The story goes like this.......

Jan 2009 I went back to work after being home with children, and Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue for a few years. With the help of a great MD (Dr. Robban Sica in Orange, CT, can't recommend her highly enough) I was able to claw my way back up from the depths.

I had been working for the local firehouse a couple of days a week. But in September of 2008, my husband was laid off from his job in construction. My 10 hour per week job wasn't going to cut it anymore. So I began expanding my horizons to further than 5 miles from home (close to the kids in the school system in case of emergency). The very next day I made that decision, I received a phone call from my massage therapist. Tara works in concert with my chiropractor, Dr. Lou, and I've been seeing them (incidently because of the CFS/Fibro) for the past 10 years. Tara told me that the current office staff was experiencing crisis, including an unexpected death of a very close family member, and the other a move to Bermuda. They needed help, and fast! Was I looking for work?

Hell yah!!! I had an interview the next day (a Friday), which wasn't really an interview but more of a "We need you, will you please work for us?" and started on Monday.

To make a very long story short-ish, what started out as a part-time 20 hour per week receptionist type position turned into a full-time plus position where I am now managing the office. There have been a LOT of changes, as there were a lot of things that were not taken care of due to lack of knowledge, motivation, and time. I'm not the type of person that can do an incomplete or shoddy job even if that is all that is expected. So aside from doing things the right way, I also educated them as to how an office is supposed to be run.

In the meantime, back in April of 2009 I had a wreck on Lakota. It was a pretty good wreck, and its been almost a year before my back is beginning to feel somewhat normal again, but the area I fell on still tends to give me fits from time to time. The footing in my roundpen has washed away over the last year or so, and we have pretty much hit a plateau in our work together with just a small roundpen to work in. So for a multitude of reason, I haven't spent much time working with the girls. I did take Lakota out and just walked around the roundpen a few times, and she was perfectly fine. But with the lack of footing, time constraints, and just being plain old tired after working 6 days a week, I haven't done a whole heck of a lot with her other than loving on her and feeding/cleaning up.

Lakota did get a bath last weekend, and she actually let me spray her with the hose this year! Its taken a number of years to get her over her fear of the sprayer and water, and I've had to take it very slow, starting with just a sponge bath and not being upset about water pouring off her, to pressing hte nozzle of the hose right against her skin so it wouldn't make the spraying sound, to now she can tolerate a little bit of spraying against her skin, but only for a few seconds at a time. She's such a good girl, and she tries so hard, and she amazingly seems to get better when I give her long breaks between teaching her things, she apparently likes a LOT of lick and chew time. At this rate she will be ready for the dressage ring if I stay off her for a few more years, LOL! Just kidding!

So in addition to managing the chiropractic office, I have received Reiki Level I training in November of 2009 and plan to continue through Level III over the next year or so, and this year I am learning Bowenwork. This is something I have wanted to learn for many years, and I'm finally at a place in my life where I can learn and offer this amazing healing modality to others. I have completed through Module 3, and have 3 more modules to go, then testing sometime during the beginning of 2011 for my certification. Then there is a lot of great continuing education after that. I'm very excited, and seeing positive results in our patients at the office, and friends and family as well. I'm also in the process of revamping the website, we're developing a new logo, and adding more services for our patients.

My daughter continues working with Jen. She has spent a lot of time just tacking and untacking her to get her over her fear of gear. She progressed to leading her away from the barn and the other horses until she was calm about that. Now she is beginning to take her out of the paddock and hand graze her around the barn, with short little walks away from the barn then back again. Jen is responding well, and has developed a relationship with my daughter so she trusts her more and more every day.

So, while my horse time has not been very exciting, which was the purpose of this blog, my life has been anything but uninteresting!

So in case you thought I fell off the face of the earth, I haven't. We're still here doing well, the horses are all still doing well but enjoying a bit of a respite from work.

A Suburban Housewife

This is making the rounds on Facebook -- omg its pee your pants hysterical! Warning, foul language and hardcore drug inferences -- but hysterical!

Pics for no reason

Other than the fact that I haven't posted anything in a long time :-)


"Mom! You never visit us anymore! Come give me a scritch, right there......"

"Brick Shithouse? I've never heard that term before. I'm sure it must mean that I'm beautiful."

"Look at my beautiful ear curls. The dried mud really helps add emphasis."




"I love you, mum, let me touch you all over and fog up your glasses with my hot breath...."





"That damn little one always has to steal my glam shots....."





"It's all about mmmeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"





"Put that @#$% thing away and bring the food already before I stuff my hoof where the sun don't shine ...... "

I did it!

Some of you may remember the wreck that I had with Lakota back in April. Well, between pain, exacerbations, and my 11 hour work days, I had't ridden since that fateful day. Until a couple of weeks ago.

Mandy, may daughter, rode her first, she's been jonesin' to ride, so I promised her she could ride Lakota. It rarely goes well. Lakota is so sensitive, and Mandy has only ridden lesson horses. So there is frustration between the two of them. Mandy is asking something, and Lakota is saying "huh? I have no clue what you are trying to say, so I'll just stand here and do nothing". She doesn't fill in any blanks at all. Its actually kind of fun to put Mandy on her when she gets all cocky and thinks she can tell me how to ride ;-) So Mandy learned that she has to soften and relax her leg, not use her heels to ask for forward, keep her wrists straight and keep that straight line from "bit" to elbow (i.e., no spagetti arms), to look where she wants to go, to be clear and deliberate in her asks, and to keep her seat bones neutral or they will just go backwards around the roundpen. And to keep her focus or Lakota starts looking around for monsters.

I just wanted to make sure it really was Mandy and not Lakota, so I hopped on (no stirrups, I had my sneakers on) grabbed an old beat up helmet, and had a blast! Lakota was sooo good. There were some distractions, and she did just fine with "coming back" just by touching the reins. She moved of nice and softely, whoaed beautifully when I just stop riding. Then I did some serpentines, and OMG her bend was just GORGEOUS! I have never, ever gotten such a beautiful arc in her body from nose to tail before. It was one of "those moments" that you go WOW, this is IT! It was a touch sticker to the left than right, but still nice and a lot of try. So we repeated that about 3 or 4 times then I hopped off. I was just flabbergasted with how wonderful she was after 4 months and our last ride ending in such disaster. This girl can be an awesome horse given the right rider and enough time.

Busy, busy!

Wow, I can't believe its been over a month since I've posted. Well, there's been nothing to tell, really. Its been RAINING for an ENTIRE MONTH. Honestly, no exaggeration, it has rained since the middle of May, every single day. Either pouring down rain totally more than 3 inches, or all day drizzle, or spotty rain, or vehement thunderstorms that wash out driveways, basements, and roundpen footing.

I have done nothing with the horses in a month other than feed them and trim their feet. They're turning feral again. I've been working my backside off at work and trying to keep this house in some semblance of less-than-disgusting. I've been working 50 hour weeks (not bad for a part-time job), although I do LOVE it. The reason for the double-hours is because I've been working on/building a website for us. It is now FINALLY finished! I'm proud of it, we have worked hard on it, so that it reflects exactly what we are about, gives the information that we want to put out there, while still being concise and eye-catching. www.bethanychiropractic.com.

No other news, really. I would like to send Lakota out for some professional training, but I lack the funding. All cash is going toward hay now. Still no job for hubby, though I am extremely hopeful he finds something soon. So we just keep on, keepin' on. All plans are on hold, and wish lists are growing longer and longer. But you have nothing if you don't have dreams, right?

Stand By Me -- amazing version!

Amanda's first show!

My daughter attended her first horse show today! She did great, First Place in Equitation, Second Place in Pleasure, and Fourth in ground poles.