It was inevitable

Well, I'd never fallen or been thrown until today so I guess it was coming. I was suppose to be working with my trainer this morning. She's been working with Don and I both actually - doing ground work and riding lessons. This morning, she had to cancel at the last minute because of a family emergency. I was so disappointed at not riding Wednesday - I went ahead and tacked her up anyway - which wasn't the smartest thing to do since I was out there by myself.

I've ridden Belle and Sunny both plenty without her (Mary - my trainer) being there - but my Don or a friend has always been around. She's a wonderful natured horse - but previous owner rode her hard with spurs - and she has a tenancy to spook a little sometimes.

Well, I'm not sure if I got her with my foot the wrong way when I was mounting her or if a bee got her or what exactly happened but she took off before my right foot was in the stirrup and of course - I didn't have a handle on the reins.

So, I couldn't ever get her back under control and I finally tried to relax and let myself fall because I knew it was inevitable. I have a synthetic Abetta endurance saddle - so there isn't even a horn that I could get a good grasp on.

When I fell - I went under her almost and one of her back hooves got me in the head. It bled badly but stopped pretty quickly. I've got a knot the size of a softball. My hair is covered in dried blood - still to wobbly to take a shower and get it out. Will probably wait on Don to help me.

She immediately came back over to me and was nudging me with her muzzle trying to make sure I was ok. She definitely didn't mean to clock me with her hoof - I'm sure.

X-rays and a ct-scan showed nothing terribly wrong so I just have a concussion and a lot of soreness on my right side where I landed. MAN, I'd just finally worked through the soreness of that personal trainer and his excruciating exercises... *sigh*

They gave me a narcotic at the ER with some phenergan to try and stay ahead of the nausea. Man, am I ever a lightweight now with meds now - I always have been a little but now I REALLY am. It really got me drunk.

Lisa was the BEST as usual and came running to help me out. She came to the hospital... She helped me pick up Katie from her day camp and Paula, Cassie and Alex's grandmother is watching Katie until Don gets home since this medicine is knocking me on my butt. Lisa is fixin' to pick up my prescription.

Word spread around the farm and I've gotten phone calls all afternoon of people checking on me. Even Randy - the ferrier. I'm blessed to have such great people in my life - our lives!

Already, my mom and dad both are saying "you need to give up the horses for a while". NO way!! Mom reminded me that after her TN Walker spooked on her one day and ran with her hanging on the full radius of a 10 acre pasture - she never rode again...I just need to be more level headed and continue working with my trainer for a while and not make stupid mistakes like today and ride when I'm out there alone.

CORRECTION: Mom emailed me and said that I had it all wrong. I'm sure I got a lot wrong yesterday and maybe today being loopy on the medicine. Here is Mom's story...

As to my story! I surely did ride again. I managed to hold on until the horse tried to exit the field at the gate and Dad and the men that were there to watch me ride threw their arms up and halted her. My hands were welded to the saddle horn and rear. I could not open my fingers. One of the men pulled my fingers one at a time off the front and back of the saddle and I immediately fell backward with my foot totally jammed in the stirrup because of the sudden bolt of the horse at the beginning when this thing went out of control. I lay on the ground to the side of the horse, while Dad and the men kept her at bay and one of the men pulled my boot out of the stirrup.

Then before I could catch my breath or thank God I survived, Dad himself threw me back on the horse and I had to continue riding her until I stopped shaking and made friends with her again. Then I took her on the exhibition ride that was supposed to happen in the first place.

I rode her many times afterward! But what I told you was that I did those things to please Dad. If he was not interested or always praising me for my balance and ability to show off the horses, I would NEVER have gotten involved in horse back riding. Dad always liked horses and always had horses. I was 2 years old when I first rode Rocky, the full size Walker we had at the Old House.

The only difference between people who haven't fallen off a horse or been thrown and the people who have.... the people who HAVEN'T - just haven't yet. Just like motorcycles... only at least you aren't going 60+ mph when it happens.

What's that saying about "getting right back on the horse...". It's one of the biggest reasons I had the weight loss surgery. It's now embedded in who I am... can't give it up. Just gotta be more careful.

Leeann

It's Been SIX Months - Hard To Believe!!!

In many ways - it feels like it's been FOREVER and in other ways - it seems like it's just been weeks... since my surgery December 27th. My goal was to loose 120 pounds by my six month mark - well, I missed it by FOUR pounds. I'll take it! :) When Don gets home - I'm gonna have him help me do my measurements to see how many total inches I've lost. YAY!!

I went to the farm this morning! BAD IDEA! Well, not really. Being out there is never a bad idea - it was just bad timing. I had forgotten that Mary has group lessons on Wednesday mornings. I was looking so forward to time with Belle and Sunny - just me. I was going to ride Belle and practice a lot of the things that Mary has been teaching me... NOT TODAY! There were 6 girls under the age of 12 there today for the group lesson... that meant 6 girls, six horses out and five moms. YIKES! So much for quiet day at the farm.

But, I did get to play with my new camera lens and spend some quality time with both mares. I also got to catch up with my good friend Tedda - just love her! Biggest heart ever!! I got this new detangling spray that did wonders for Belle's tail and mane. As usual - she was determined to claim my visor as her newest toy. Then she wanted to play with my camera - then she took my sunglasses off my head! She's such a card!

I could barely take pictures of her because she was right on top of me wanting to play and be loved on. I am so happy with her. Except her swirls...lol!

Gotta love her!! Katie and I may go back out tonight if it cools down.

More later!
LA :)

Dollywood Day

What a great day today!!

Spent the day with two of my very favorite people. Katie, of course and Lisa!! We had so much fun... we were only there from 10-2 but we did a lot. We rode some great rides - there was a pretty good crowd there today for it to be a Monday. Some of the lines were long and took a while and others there wasn't much of a wait at all. Katie did great waiting in the long lines though. I was very proud of her. Even Lisa was bragging about how patient she waited.

Katie has really taken to Lisa. She just loves her. Matter of fact, I lost her on the rides. I rode by myself mostly and she rode with "cool adopted Aunt Lisa"...lol! It was fun!

We got soaked! We rode the river rafting thing for the last ride and really got soaked! Katie was obsessing about getting water in her ears but still had fun. Every time one of us "got it" - we were laughing so hard. Katie LOVED the Tennessee Tornado - with the loopy loops! She's definitely a thrill seeker. Love my kid! :) So, we got drenched on the ride - then had this lovely photo taken of the three of us - then the sky opened up. It was all fun though!!!

Lisa gave Katie her birthday present today - isn't that awful that we'd gone that long without seeing each other. It was a great horse book and horse set. She spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing with it and we read the book three times!

Katie wants to know what we are doing next with Lisa....? :) She also adores Rick... So maybe we can include him next time! ;)

Don's working on that Final Cut Pro certification! I'm so excited for him to get it. It's going to open up so many doors for him at Scripps and elsewhere! YAY!

Katie starts her summer day camp tomorrow. She's going to be doing cooking classes, nature walks, science experiments, going to see a movie once a week, going to museums - she is very excited. We got her backpack all packed tonight! FUN!

I'm going out to the farm on Wednesday morning by myself - for the first time since my surgery! I can't wait. I love going out there with Don and with Katie and all three of us together - but I also REALLY enjoy just having some time out there by myself. I'm going early before it gets too hot... or at least so the heat will happen gradually.

I can't tell you how much fun I'm having with Belle. I still love spending time with Sunny - but Belle is who I ride. Since she's a TN Walker, she just glides. Love it! Love her! She's very comical! She loves to play with my hats, visors, water bottles, straws... etc. She is just 4 - so she's just a kid.

We've definitely made a connection. I take her back out the pasture after working with her and she follows me back through the paddock or gets to the gate and waits for me to come back. Can't tell you how cool it is to have a 1200 pound animal that loves you! So cool! So therapeutic!!!

I'm loving doing the Parelli training with her. I dream of getting a horse trailer and starting to really be on the go with them.

I have a lot of eBay stuff to do. Planning to revamp my store completely and establish a shopping cart system. I've been getting a lot of calls for liquidating estates, etc. I've got to get a handle on my time management! *sigh* It use to come naturally - now I really struggle with it! I think it's because I finally started putting "ME" into the equation! LOL!

More later!
LA :)

I Must Be Crazy - I'm Missing BOSTON

It was so funny... whenever I talked to anyone last week from home or from the South - I'd say "there is no way that I could live here, NO WAY". But something funny happened over the course of our five days in Boston - it actually grew on me.

It's a very friendly city, surprisingly - we just had a hard time, VERY hard time understanding people sometimes - caught ourselves smiling and nodding and then Don and I would be like "what did they say?" afterwards...

It's a WALKING city! VERY MUCH A WALKING CITY! I love that! The weather ended up being beautiful Friday and Saturday and we went to Quincy Marketplace at Faneuil Hall both Friday and Saturday evening. We took in the Children's Museum with Katie after my workshops on Friday. We were SO ON THE GO and we walked everywhere - it was awesome! But - we LOVED Quincy Marketplace - outdoor shops, restaurants, vendors, live performances, BIG crowds, but nice people - LOVED IT! Wish Knoxville could get it together and actually do what they talk about doing with Market Place. It would be LOVELY to have a smaller version of Quincy Marketplace in our Market Place here!

We stumbled on a live performance of a local band, Similar Jones, at Faneuil Hall on Saturday night! Incredible performers! Very talented! Bought their CD for $10 and have been listening to it all day today while I've been working. They are a funky A Capella group - no musical instruments! VERY TALENTED!

Boston also has AMAZING food. YIKES! I was so scared to come home and get on the scale! I was careful but definitely enjoyed the local flavors... especially the FRESH SEAFOOD! The good news is I didn't gain - the bad news is I didn't loose. LOL! Back on track today counting carbs, protein, sugars, etc! :) So, I'm at 110 total pounds lost!

Oh, and the REDSOX!! Who would have ever thought that I'd get into baseball... but I've really gotten into The Smokies - local minor league. Don and I've been having baseball on some in the evenings when we are working... and it's very relaxing to me. Kind of like golf - love watching golf sometimes. LOVED how BOSTON is such a "community" when it comes to the REDSOX.

Oh, oh, oh... and I bought a really cool HARVARD sweatshirt that is grey with pink (surprise) lettering - and I bought a LADIES MEDIUM! Plan to be wearing that this winter! YAY!

Oh, AND we were at the CHEERS replica restaurant on Friday night. Had such a nice waiter named John. John was YOUNG and he was picking our brain about "all this eBay Live stuff". We were lovin' chatting with him until he said AND I QUOTE "eBay is just really cool - you can get stuff from WAY BACK WHEN like cool toys from the 80's". *sigh* How does that happen!?

Katie and I got our hair "done" by one of the outdoor vendors. We got these cool hair clips and this gal fixed our hair in like 5 minutes each. Katie's was beautiful - like a french braid with the beautiful pins that we of course, ended up buying!

KATIE LOVED BOSTON!

Still reeling with total information overload on all the things I took in with eBay Live! Went through ALL THE MANY materials I came home with and all the notes I took... SO MUCH!! There have been so many grumblings over eBay in the past 18 months by the "eBay Community" - however; I have to say - they know how to put on a trade show. They definitely cater to sellers - especially the power sellers during this event! I loved every minute of it and already have my hotel reservations for Chicago next June.

I love traveling so very much! Love it! Totally love experiencing new things - meeting people and taking in how people live in other parts of the country! But as much as I ended up loving Boston - as usual - got tears in my eyes when the plane was flying over East Tennessee yesterday - the farms, the rolling hills, surprisingly everything looked green from the air... God's Country! NO PLACE LIKE HOME!!!

Must go to the farm tomorrow!! When I see Belle and Sunny - Then I'll be like BOSTON WHO? What CITY LIFE? I'm a country girl at heart - just like visiting the city!

:) LA

eBay Live 2007 was AMAZING!!!

Well, I swore I'd never have two blogs - I've read about people having multiple blogs but apparently - that is definitely a new trend in online selling and very effective with marketing because of all the search engines picking up on the titles, etc. Additionally, eBay rolled out a new blogging tool/widget... So, I have started a blog for Tennessee Treasures by Leeann.

I have learned so many things that I will be working over the coming weeks to implement. I finally connected today with Elizabeth from San Diego - one of my eBay Bootcamp LAX buddies. It was great to see her.

I had so much fun seeing Lynn Dralle and her mom and meeting her best friend Melanie. Looks like I'm heading to Palm Springs, CA in September to assist in her only bootcamp for 2007. YAY! Can't wait! She's my eBay mentor!!! She seemed to have one of the busiest booths on the floor. She's going to be featured in the August 2007 Entrepreneur Magazine and her third eBay book is coming out in July. Her and her mom made the biggest deal over my weight loss - that was nice. Her mom had weight loss surgery a few years ago so we compared notes.

Well, I've already made hotel reservations for eBay Live 2008 in Chicago next June. This trip was worth it, worth it, worth it! I haven't even begun to process all that I learned.

More later,
LA :)

Have I Mentioned How Much I'm Lovin' The Farm?

Mary is the only 22 year old on the planet that could fuss at me and get away with it! ;) I love her so much! I've learned so much from her!!

What a lesson I had tonight! I think I look mad in a few of these photos but it's really just me concentrating very hard...lol!

I found some pictures of me when I was 12 or so riding with a friend that had horses. Then I found some pics of when I went riding at Fontana Village back in the early 80's. Man, when I rode ALL THOSE YEARS ago... it was simple. If you want to go left - pull on the left rein. If you want to go to the right, etc.

Now, there is so much with all the Natural Horsemanship stuff... but's it is amazing how it pays off. The ground work that we've done with both the horses is really starting to pay off. I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TRAIL RIDING!!!!

I'M DEFINITELY AT THE PLACE OF SAYING THAT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT TO HAVE THE WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY!! EVERY MINUTE I SPEND AT THE FARM CINCHES IT THAT MUCH MORE!!!

If we owned a farm... we'd always be working. At least this way - we get to go - enjoy the horses, ride, groom them, love on them and then come home and jump in the pool! *sigh* BOY - did it feel good!

More later...
LA :)

Down 106 pounds & lovin' time on the farm

 

Today was Wednesday Weigh Day and I'm down 106 pounds. I just looked back to see when I hit that 100 mark and it was 14 days ago!! Then I got a little blue because I thought - wow, it took me half a month to loose 6 pounds - then I remembered that Dr. Boyce told me that my weight loss would level off after 5-6 months and be at a much more normal pace of 10-14 pounds a month!

Still have a problem making my walking a priority in my life! Which stinks - because I TRULY LOVE IT! I take Hogan or Sophie, put on my ipod headphones and it's like "my time". I jam to my favorite songs and I feel great when I'm done! *sigh*

I am absolutely loving time on the farm. Last night was perfect. Don, Katie and I had all three had a rough day and it was therapeutic for all of us to be out there with Sunny and Belle having fun.



Katie however; isn't 100% focused on just the horses. She loves Belle, the great pyrenese that Mary has there as a watch dog, the barnyard cats, the duck that is about to have baby chicks, Melody, the broadmare that just gave birth to a little colt that Katie wants Mary to name "Sprite"... Katie is definitely in her element out there. She takes every micro detail in.



We were out there until well after 9pm and watched some clouds start rolling in for a storm. The breeze felt so good and the air quality was wonderful compared to the past few days.

Don had a great lesson with Mary and learned to do some great things with Sunny. He had her moving sideways... that was pretty cool.



I absolutely love watching him at the farm. He's totally relaxed and Sunny loves him! It's funny though when her attitude flares and she tries to take charge. I think she's finally learning who is the boss (at least outside the pasture)! She's definitely in charge IN the pasture.

Whenever she goes back out - it's always like the parting of the red sea... the other horses scram until they see what she's gonna do. She's definitely the BOSS MARE! :) If she approaches the water barrel - she'll pin her ears and any horse that's there - takes off!



Last year, her poor nose got SOOOO sunburned. So, we are putting sunblock on her nose like three times a week and she's wearing a long nose fly mask. It amazes me how the horses can see so good through those things. A lot of Mary's students get the masks that have eyelashes and big eyes on the front of the masks... I can't imagine doing that to Sunny.

She reminds me of Katie's personality a little. She loves to get groomed and all fixed up - she LOVES it! But, on the flip side - she LOVES rolling in the mud and getting all dirty! ;)