Too busy, way too busy...

So I am too busy to write.

I have 45 hours of internship to finish by Friday (as of 11pm tonight). I am working in every waking moment to try to get this accomplished so that I can start my new job on Monday without this hanging over my head. I did mention that I am moving Saturday right? Yea, I haven't packed a single bag! I am SO grateful that my Mom is coming into town Friday to help me! But, either way, I am working 13 hour days until then... That means I probably won't see my poor pony all week. I am an awful Mom. At least I got to see him 5 times this weekend!

So abbreviated version of a post is going to be this-- Farm sitting went very smoothly. Very well mannered equines!

My photog friend just sent me the huge file of pics and I figured to hold you folks over until my world slows down, I would share some of the prize pics (even though, I am starting to think that 'hanoverian' they promised me is actually 'mule'-- check out those ears!)...

Also: I measured my boy on concrete and standing square: 16.0 at the wither and 16.1 at the butt at age 2yr 3m.

OH- one more thing, Granite's trainer just started a blog: see the "blogs I follow, and you should too" Its called Rooster.

My whole family

OK, I don't really have time to write right now, but my photog friend came out to take some pictures of Granite (I want to blow up a black and white for my new office) and she got one of my whole family...

I am in love

Yes in love, with the new Town where I will be employed starting August 3rd! I went there tonight for a board meeting and I love the building, the people, the atmosphere. And listen to this little morsel of wonderfulness-- I get dental too! If you knew me, you would know how I am about teeth... so YAY dental! Anyway, I think I am going to fit in just peachy and my office has a window. Bring it on Baby! Tomorrow is my last day at my part-time job and I have 66.5 Hours left to put in at my internship (although I only have one week to accomplish this). Plus we are moving a week from saturday, thank god for my roommie or I would be trying to pack the whole house next Friday night... EEEKKK!

In other news... I over slept this morning so Daphne had to stay at the house-- I usually take her to D's farm to play with her brother and 4 other dogs while I am at work-- but she was great for Roommie and apparently kept Roommie's dog entertained while she was trying to pack. So this may work out well for everyone when we move and it would be difficult and time consuming to take Daphne to daycare at D's farm.

I didn't have time to go to the farm tonight with the board meeting, but I went out yesterday. I put Granite's saddle and girth on and walked him around and let him graze. He was such a champ! I then lunged him and worked with him the the large arena for a while. He continued to knock my socks off, and let me tell you about his extended trot! Good lord, I think he may accidental be a dressage horse. NO Granite! Be a hunter for mommy, PLEASE! I followed this great work out with a Granite shower and he was SO good. He stood in the cross-ties and generally made me never want to put him on Craig's List :)

Farm sitting begins tomorrow... wish me luck!

Farm Sitting Chronicals, Part I.

Last night I went out to my new farm to learn the feeding routine as I will be babysitting 9 equines this weekend. She sent one to training and two are going away for the weekend with her, so I am left with Granite and 8 others. She only has 5 stalls (even though there is room for at least 3 more) and she uses a John Deere 4-wheeler thing to put the poo in then I can easily drive it out to the pit where she dumps it. Only three horses will be in during the day and everyone is out at night. Only those 3 and Granite get fed dinner, everyone else only has breakfast. This should be a cake walk!
I was in a rush to get home and help roomie pack last night so I only groomed Granite. He has sores on his Jaw from the fly mask. It is totally my fault b/c I left it on for 2 days, but I thought it would be OK since it is padded. I feel soooo horrible, but I am very grateful that the owner of the farm noticed and took it off for me. I guess he will have to deal with flies in his eyes b/c I am NOT willing to let him get rubbed raw again. Poor baby horse!
I have a dinner date w one of my co-workers after work but then plan to go work with Granite before I go home and pack some more... I will let you know how it goes. For now, here is a picture of me and the big man that I took yesterday evening.

Daphne is SO going to have to get a job...

Roomie and I went to look at our new place last night. It is 11 minutes closer to my new job & Granite's barn than our old apartment is. The place is bigger (at least the floor plans say so) than our current place, but it felt small to me... which could be the fault of the ugly furniture they had in the model apartment. Either way we paid 123$ to apply to live there. They will probably turn us down considering Roomie was laid off from her teaching job and I make next to nothing as Town Clerk. It will cost us over $1,000 to move in and over $700 (not including utilities or Daphne's damage) to move out of our current Hell-Hole. I am panicking!!! I have no clue what I will do to cover all of these expenses when my new salary will barely cover my usual monthly bills. Not to mention this place is slightly more expensive (which I hope is offset by the gas savings). I am grateful to have a roommate, but I feel like I hold her back because I just want something cheap when she really wants something nice. Either way, we are going to do this even if I have to borrow some of the initial money from her. So now I must log over 100 hours at my jobs by next Friday in addition to packing to move on August 1st! I start my new job August 3rd. I may die of some sort of panic attack. Hope you won't miss me too much.

In better news, I am going to the farm today to learn the feeding routine. I will be feeding Fri-Sun and hopefully putting a nice chuck of cash toward next month's board. Also, my current boss at my internship ran the idea of doing some contract work for her by me today! These two endeavors could be a total savior for me. If I could manage to work off most of Granite's board every month by feeding or cleaning stalls or even exercising, and I can pick up some weekly hours contracting for my internship City, I may end up OK after all. I also applied for a scholarship today that may cover my last semester of school. If all of these opportunities combine, I may have the perfect storm on my hands and be able to sustain my current lifestyle! Wahoooop!

Well, sorry for the short and worrisome post today, but I am training my replacement in less than an hour and I want to get caught up on some work first. I will let you know how it went at the farm learning how to take care of all of the critters.

PS- If you think of any more clever ideas that can help me earn some extra cash on top of my 40hr a week job Tuesday night class & saturday class (not to mention night meetings for work)... please share them. I told Daphne she needs to start checking craig's list for work or at least a man to take care of her and mommy ;)

This RollerCoaster of Life keeps on flying...

I didn't go to the farm Friday, I was nearly out of gas and feeling very down (too down to make the drive to visit the horsie...). So I went home and cleaned and did some data entry for work and took a long walk with Daphne. That helped and I was able to settle nicely into my TiVoed episodes of So You Think You Can Dance (Where is So You Think You Can Ride?? Then again, it would probably kick my ass...).

Saturday brought the inevitable. NMML now stands for: No Man in My Life. Things just were not working out for us. This made me very sad as he is the first guy in a long time to have long-term potential. But as we know from our equines, potential is merely that... it is no promise.

Thankfully my best friend was slated to come in town as my friends were throwing me a "Job-a-Palooza" party to celebrate my job offer. I really needed Bestest after such a crappy morning. She arrived in late afternoon and we headed straight to the horse farm. She hadn't seen Granite's new accommodations and I was so pleased that she was VERY impressed with them. Granite proved himself a gentleman as we worked in the round pen on the lunge for his "Auntie" to see. His new fly mask also stood the test of his pasturemate and I was pleased to see that it was still secured on his head when I arrived. Bestest and I had to rush off after only an hour with Granite in order to finish decorating and getting ready for our party.

The party went off without a hitch and it lifted my spirits. I have really great friends (especially my Best Friend & Colorado & Ms. Priss- a girl from my program). Sunday morning was a lazy one, as most are when they follow an evening of celebration. Bestest and I, to our delight, realized that O'Charley's serves Sunday Brunch. Then we went to go see "My Sister's Keeper". I loved the book by Jodi Picoult and for the first time ever, I must say the movie not only lived up to the book, but surpassed it. Three tissues is NOT sufficient, so I recommend that you go see it, but come prepared!

Bestest headed back home to Raleigh and my day went back down. I went to a used book store b/c I just finished one of the most fun and entertaining books that I have read in a long time: "Bitter is the New Black" by Jen Lancaster. I really wanted her next novel "Bright Lights, Big Ass". Go figure, the book store didn't have it, so I ordered it on Half.com and will have to wait until next week to get started on it. Her blog Jennsylvania.com is fabulo! Check it out-- although not at all horse related, I love her Whit and blunt humor.

To top off that slight disappointment, I called home. Daddy finally asked me how far in student loan debt I am really. He was not pleased, to say the least when he got the answer. He proceeded to make me feel super guilty about all the money I spend on my animals. I won't be making much at my new job (sadly, b/c I finish my master's in only 4 class hours!) and Daddy thinks I need a part time job (I do too), but this will be difficult considering I have a Tuesday night class, a Saturday class, and must attend night meetings for work about 5 times a month... Money is going to become more a more of a struggle in my near future. Roomie and I are going to sign leases on a new place after work today. The place is less expensive (although not by much) but it is only 15min from the horse and my new job as well as school and D's farm. This is great considering I am 30min from Granite and my new job in our current crap-tastic apartment complex. It will, however, cost a fortune to get out of our current place thanks to Daphne "Destroyer of all things carpet". Thankfully, I was asked to feed the 14 horses at my new farm when the owner goes out of town for the weekend and this will take care of MOST of next months board!!! If I can work this out or maybe some exercise rides, maybe my finances in regards to the horse would be a bit more stable.... < haha, get it? Stable? hehe-- I crack myself up.

That is my weekend in a nut shell, down, up, up, down, down... Life is truly a roller coaster ride.

Its not over till the fat lady is covered in wormer...

So, I signed my "letter of intent to vacate" yesterday at my Crap-tastic apartment complex! Monday, Roomie and I are going to check out what will probably be our new digs. So many changes, so little time...

So, I went to the tack store that is about 3 minutes from my new farm to get some wormer and a fly mask (his roomie keeps taking his off). 68 dollars later, I left with a fly mask, wormer, bridle rack, 2 sponges, hoof dressing, treats, saddle soap, and a lunge whip. Hello paycheck, goodbye paycheck... I think I just realized why I am always so desperately poor. UGH!

I got to the barn and worked Granite in the round pen. He was an angel. We lunged and moved his feet around. I could tell after about 15 minutes that he was getting frustrated and I realized that my baby still has a very short attention span. I took him in and put him in the wash down. He has never been in one and I expected it to be a big deal, it wasnt! He walked right in and turned around without batting an eye! I was so proud. I didn't tie him (again) and he stood like a gentleman the whole time I groomed him. Fly spray was a non issue! He was a little nervous about the hoof dressing but it didn't take us long to work through that. After he was all cleaned up I decided to pop him with some paste wormer since he is on the feed-thru but missed a month of it while at training and he is in a new pasture, so I thought it couldn't hurt to give him a dose. He bobbed his head and would NOT let me give him the wormer. By the time all was said and done. His nose was covered in yellow paste. My shirt was splattered and I even found some on my nose (of course I realized this AFTER I went to subway). It was kind of funny, but I need to get that under control and quickly! Anyway. Here are some pictures. I swear he is a much prettier mover than these pictures portray...

It is forecasted to rain today, but I hope to make it out to the barn if only to groom. NMML is not working out so great for me right now and I could really use a big horsie hug today :(