Time Off

We have started a new schedule at work - we are working 4 - 9hr days. Since we had to take a time cut of 4 hours a week this is the only thing that makes it better :). Now I only have to work 4 days a week (for a while anyway). This week I had Tuesday off as it was Dwane was off too, so we got the interior of the old house all cleaned up (although it does need painted pretty bad). I still have not decided if I will paint or not.
On the horse side, I am supposed to move Ben and Stubby out to Sam's this weekend. Hopefully we get my neighbors trailer out of the snow bank. If not I will just be moving Stubby as they cannot both ride in my trailer. There is no center divider and I think that Ben would crush poor little Stubby. I did score on some grass pellets for him this week. We bought in bulk which worked out to be about $5.50 for a 50 lb bag - I was paying $15 to $16 per bag at the feed store. We are actually thinking of buying another bag and Stubby will set for at least a year. It is a good thing we have saved all of our grain bags for a long time as the bulk bag is one 1500lb bag. Other then that unfortunately still not alot of time spent with the horses.
Saturday we took the fifth wheel to Great Falls, MT to deliver it. Kind of scary selling something over the internet and then delivering it that far. But it all worked out and we met a very nice family who will get alot of use out of it. We then turned around and drove all the way home as part of the deal was to trade it for a welder and the welder was in the back of the pick up. No stopping for us :).
Sunday we went to Dwane's mom - Sue's house. She is doing okay. She will be on oxygen forever now but at least she is not hooked up to a permanent breathing machine. If it comes to that point she won't ever be able to come off. She has decided to move into Dwane's sister (Nannette) house. We are going this Saturday to help her pack if they ever make up their minds. Nanette called yesterday and asked if it would be better for her to move in with Sue, but they have 4 people in their family and the house is really not that big. We will see how that one plays out! I hope there are no family squabbles. It is amazing my mom was always worried about my sisters and I squabbling. We never did, we banded together and made her last months I think pretty good. Even after she passed away we did not fight about anything it was great. Her fears were based on when her mom (my grandma) passed away her sisters did not get along right down to arguing over the color of the casket. Anyway we will see how that goes.
Tuesday my day off was spent cleaning the house we moved out of. I swear I am never going to get the new house unpacked but it is all in the garage :). Now all we have to do is move hay and a few things in the shop and the all important getting the horses moved. Well to their temporary house until we build fence, what a mess :(.
Haley has a basketball game tonight in Kellogg. She really likes basketball now, which is good as I never thought she would. Kylie is on the honor roll and has an assembly on Friday. She is such a little smarty! I am very proud of both of them!

Back to Basics

I think that I need to get back to the basics in my life. Spending time with my daughters and my horses. The rest of my family is still important, Dwane's mom is important, but I cannot let it consume me. I was really doing well with the horses last fall, ready to ride, ready to take on whatever. Kylie was riding, Haley showed more enthusiasm for riding (even though she really had not done it but she was interested) and then it all fell apart. I have barely looked at the horses much less spent any time with them in a while besides to feed. I think it would help if I just took some time and spent it with them. The girls also need to get out there no matter the weather (well as long as it is not too cold :)
We are headed to Great Falls, MT tomorrow to deliver our fifth wheel camper. A couple from there bought it and will give us gas money to deliver. So off we go, yeah I can catch up on bills (how fun). I was trying to make it a trip for Dwane and I to get away, maybe even grab a motel on the way back and veg. But it looks like it will be an over and back thing so that we can go see his mom Sunday. Which means another trip to St Maries, I guess I shouldn;t complain I have not been down there since Christmas. Spending every weekend almost down there for the last 12 years has burned me out. This is the longest I have gone without making that trip in years, probably ever. I was hoping Dwane's friend would go with him so I could unpack and get the other house cleaned up. They were busy so I get the privilege. I absolutely hate riding with Dwane on icey roads, he drives too fast. Scares the crap out of me. I have panic attacks, it is no fun, maybe I will take a big sleeping pill and have him wake me up when we get there. The girls may go to friends houses or to Uncle Johnny's still not decided on that. Anyway that is what I will be up to!

Bad Feeling about 2009

I have a really bad feeling about 2009. I thought 2008 started out bad with Dwane's Stepdad passing away the first week. Dwane's mom is now in the hospital. She has COPD in her lungs? I have not done any research on it but from what I understand it is a terrible thing to have. She finally quit smoking in October but unfortunately I think it was too late. Reminds me of my mom, who the day they told her she was terminal she never took another drink of alcohol. Why then? Why not the five years before when they told her she was getting Cirrosis (not sure on the spelling). She never believed them. Sue (my mother in law) never believed she could quit smoking but she did after she was put in the hospital and told that she would keep coming back to the hospital on a monthly basis if she did not quit. She got sick the other day and my brother in law Johnny told her to go to the doctor, but again she was worried about the expense. Now she is in the hospital and has her dogs in a kennel because no one takes care of them right. If they put her on a breathing machine she will never be able to come off of it. As it is right now she only has 10% use of her lungs, which is making her panic which is making it worse. I really don't know if I can deal with this right now. Sounds selfish, but it seems like yesterday (even though it has been 7 years since my mom died) that I had to deal with a long illness which is going to end in someone dying. Now the expenses are huge. The family is looking into moving her into my sister inlaws house to watch her closely. Sue is already struggled the last year as her husband who passed away left her in a complete bind. All of his life insurance policies were accidental, the biggest policy he had went to his children, his son was terrible to Sue and threatened to sue her. She is just now getting straightened around and now this. Anyway that is how my day is going and this is all in the last two hours.

The house is moved - well into the garage at least! Everything is out of the house and into the new one. The shop is 3/4 of the way moved. The horses are at the old house but I go by every morning and evening to feed. Plus my neighbors are watching them. We spent most of Saturday moving stuff to the new house. I was not prepared as we had a few incidences with the rental company and were not sure if we were getting the house. Anyone ever try to get insurance for your house with a Doberman mix for a dog? Well they have this list of no no dogs - here are the ones I remember - Pit bull, Akita, Chow, German Shephard, Stafford terrier?, Rottweiler and Doberman. I had to get my own rental insurance for $300,000 of liability that did not exclude my dog. I looked on the internet and did a search - no one, I called an insurance broker - nope - I call Allstate (who I have insurance through) - nope - then at a last ditch effort I ended up on a State Farm website - guess what? No dog breeds excluded. So if you are looking for home owners or rental insurance for a dog that is banned try State Farm. Only $20.00 a month and all of my contents are also covered and a medical policy if someone tries to sue me :).
I found out on the Thursday before we moved that all was good, so I was not packed. Not alot of motivation when you don't know what is going on. Plus we told the person we were renting from 2 x that we had a dobi mix, once in an email.
Then on the first day in the house - Sunday - I was unpacking and thought "I'll throw a load of laundry in" no problem - until the washer overflowed all over the kitchen and on the new carpet -YIKES. We did get it fixed, I don't know if it was frozen or the drain hose was kinked wrong or what. It was a mess though. After all of this I am tired and still need to unpack:(. But starting next week we are working 4 - 9hr shifts at work - so 3 days off a week :) Yeah. (except missing 4 hours a week but it is better then not having a job). Now all I need to do is get those ponies home.

About a week and a half until moving day, actually less then that a week and one day. I am still arranging to get the horses settled until this snow melts and we can build fence. I think we are going to go with t-posts and hot wire for now. We are just renting so I don't want to build anything permanent like the other house. We are also going to look into getting a couple portable stalls that way if we do move we can take them with. I really have to buckle down this weekend and pack. The poor horses have been neglected, we only visit to feed.
On another note from reading blogs - the mugwump chronicles (linked on fugly's blog) I read about Laura Crum and her books. So I went on Amazon and ordered a few of them. They are great - Haley really enjoys them too. It is nice to have a book to discuss with her. They are not really long either so makes for nice light reading. They all center around a vet named Gail. I have read one and a half so far and really like them.
I packed half of my books last night. I cannot believe how many books I have. Probably 10 boxes so far and only half done. But I love to read!
Haley is accepting moving more. I really tried to explain she should feel lucky we found a nice house in the same school district where we can keep the horses. One family that we know lives just down the street, I called them last night and asked if they were going to put a for sale sign in their yard because of the new neighbors. They seem excited to have us moving in the neighborhood.

Rescued Horse Visit

Hi everyone! Some of us from the club went up to see the horses that were rescued in Springdale Sunday. Sam and I rode up together and then Alisa, Katie, Kaleb, Theresa, and Gracie came up together. We were going to play with the babies but by the time we walked around and Cassie introduced us to all of the horses that were rescued and their horses it was getting later. I was able to take up blankets donated by Andrea in Post Falls and Theresa brought up some straw bales. The yearlings to two year olds are bouncing back fast. They have done a good job on working with them as they were able to walk through them. They are looking healthier then the pictures from just a week ago. The mares are looking better but still pretty thin. But if they are pregnant it will be harder for them to bounce back. It was great to meet Pam and her daughter. They are working very hard for these horses. Theresa is going to adopt one of the babies, really cute little black and white one. The little one in the pictures on Linda's blog http://beautifulmustang.blogspot.com/ in the house is my absolute favorite. If I was in a better position I would take her in a heartbeat.
On another note I went out and saw Sam's new place on Sunday too! It is really neat! She is very excited to move in. It will be nice to have such a great barn! and pens, and sheds, and etc! She is going to take Stubby until the weather is better. She is also going to take Ben so that Ralph can learn to ride on him. I think it will be a great match. Then if I want to go riding over here I will already have a horse here :) . Other then that just starting to pack - I took 8 bags to goodwill out of the dreadful closet. Look I finally get the stupid thing cleaned out just so we can move :) Other then that 2 1/2 weeks and we move - still not sure how happy to be, but it should be good!

In the middle of my own financial crisis but my horses will never go hungry. I do not understand the mentality of some people that can sit and let their horses starve. Some of the people from the group I belong to (momsdaughtersandhorses.com) are going to Springdale to help in any way we can with 33 starved horses. They were rescued by some people (Fantasy Farms Thoroughbreds and Shephards Way Horse Rescue) and moved to a ranch. We have as a group donated a ton of hay (or the money for one) and there are 4 or 5 of us that are going up to help. Anyway just needed to say how I do not understand this and more later on what happens this weekend!