Well, It Happened!!!!

I turned 40! I had such a nice birthday!! Don and Katie took me out to dinner tonight - to Katie's favorite restaurant of course! :) I had a birthday lunch with Lisa and Don (thanks Lisa & Rick) today at my favorite restaurant. I ate too much today but it's okay because I went on fall vacation and lost weight... YAY! I finally hit the 140 mark... I crawled there but I made it. I missed my goal of officially being in a size 14 by the time I turned 40. I'm wearing a 14/16 but an actual 14 is snug. I'll get there!

Don and Katie gave me a video for my birthday. Don put a lot of work into and it was very special. Mom helped him with pictures of my childhood. He found footage that we thought we'd lost forever of Katie's first steps and a few other special moments. I loved it... well almost all of it. He somehow came across video that my Uncle Jim took of me singing... ACK! That was painful! Oh, and then there was the blaring alarm with a blinking 40...

Katie had NEVER said anything to me about being fat or overweight except once when she said my tummy was "squishy" and one time a few months ago about my butt being big. Well, tonight when we were watching the video together, she said "wow, mommy, you use to be fat". Kids and their honesty!!! So glad she used the past tense....So glad I'm at least almost average. Don recently read that the average size woman was a size 14.



Lisa also made my birthday very special with a beautifully framed and personalized picture of us together... I LOVED it! She also gave me a big bag of goodies... she would make an excellent personal shopper because she nailed it!

I'm going to be going to North Carolina this weekend to celebrate my 40th and Mom's 65th together! I'm really looking forward to it! It's neat that we hit our milestone birthday's the same year - and so close together! We are going to go estate and garage sale-ing for eBay. I love doing that over there - it's so much fun with MomMom when we get home with our finds. She is amazing at the research and always has fun going through the treasures we found. Mom is also going to take me shopping for my birthday! YAY! I think she'll love the gift we got her.

We didn't get to go to the farm today like we had planned. Katie had a very rough night last night and I only got 3 hours of sleep. Not the smartest thing in the world to do... work with 1200 pound animals when you are very tired. We are going to go on Wednesday.

Other than that... perfect day, spent with favorite people... nice way to start a new decade!

More tomorrow of Katie in her leopard diva costume! Should be fun!
LA :)

Who Would Have Ever Thought...

that in 1992 when Billy Ray Cyrus had his one big hit of "Achy Breaky Heart" that 15 years later - we'd have an 8 year old little girl who would love his 14 year old little girls music!?

Katie loves Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus. She doesn't watch her show on Disney - she doesn't care for it, she'd much rather be watching Animal Planet - HOWEVER she loves her music... we actually like most of it too. We would take her to the concert in November because Miley Cyrus is coming to Knoxville and to Nashville but the tickets are OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive... like $260+ a ticket for nosebleed seats. Supposedly, they are suppose to come WAY down closer to the date... we will see.

Anyhow, Katie and Don (me too actually) both love this duet that she does with Billy Ray... I think she has breathed air into his stalled career...

So, I put some of my favorite pictures of Don and Katie to the song...



Happy Sunday!
LA :)

Horse Field Trip

So, we literally had a horse field trip today. We actually had a pretty busy Saturday morning ... it started with Katie's dentist appointment at 8:15, then on to STAR, then out to the farm to spend time with Belle and Sunny.

Mary had suggested that we take Sunny and Belle on a hike through the large pasture and then on into the woods just to start getting them familiar with being on the trail - and with us being on the ground with the lead - if a twig snapped and spooked them - we'd have better control.

Twigs snapped - branches smacked and it was very overgrown but they did great! We did great - we had so much fun!! Katie was in her "zone". Out in nature - cool fall day - beautiful blue sky with "imaginary shapes"... and with our horses!



Katie got her progress report at STAR and it stated that she was on her way to becoming an accomplished rider. She is working with a great horse now - Maria. She isn't nearly as spirited as Coco - her last horse.

Katie did great at the dentist. It was my good friend, Tedda's husband - he has a pediatric dentistry and orthodontic practice. Amazing office - playstation games, toys galore, videos - all the kids were happy to be there. I don't recall EVER being happy to be at the dentist - let alone having a smile on my face when I had my braces tightened.

Anyhow, Katie's teeth are perfect right now - no cavities! YAY!!! But, she's got some major work waiting for her when she hits 10. Braces, oral surgery, two baby teeth are infused to the bone.... "sigh*. That will not be fun for her... but it's a ways off.

Have a great weekend!
LA :)

Long Time No Post

WOW, I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging. I've missed it actually. Life has just been crazy busy. It's 2007 and EVERYONE is busy but I hit these spells about four-five times a year where it just seems like life spins out of control. Between Katie hitting a rough spot again with her sleep and behavior, taking care of Gran, tax deadlines for us personally and Mr. Client, trying to get going on eBay again - especially for Christmas, taking care of myself and trying to stick to my goals... that's just to name the most everyday things.

I tried to start working with Anna - the WA instructor. She does small group personal training and I'd love to do that - but I had to cancel once because she about killed me physically and then I had to cancel once because of Katie - so I'm holding off on that at least until after fall break and hopefully things will have slowed down. She's very intense... but in a fun way. I called Lisa the first time after working with her and I was very hyper saying "she's on valium when she does WA classes" because she was so much harder out of the water. She freaked a lot of people out at first when she started teaching at the Y because they were use to classes geared for seniors and Anna's classes are packed full of cardio intense stuff.

Anyway, I haven't lost ONE pound in two weeks. Maybe I'm building muscle? Maybe I've hit a plateau? I'm worrying about my birthday goal now. I tried to wear a pair of 14 jeans out to the farm on Monday and I'm sure I would have split the seam so I am still in a 16 basically. I mean, can you really say you wear a size ?? if you have to lay down on the bed to zip the zipper? LOL! NO! Well, I have a little over two weeks - but there is also a fall vacation smack dab in the middle of that.

I think from here on out it's going to be slow going. I'm suppose to have slowed to a pound a week. I knew it was going to happen - it was just fun watching those numbers go faster! *sigh*

I think we are going to Hilton Head. Mr. Client has offered to let us use his house - in exchange for Don and I doing a few technical things that he needs done down there. It might be fun though... I think I have things lined up for Gran's care, the dogs - it'd be nice to "get away" and it not be for eBay related stuff. Although, I've already scoped out thrift shops in Hilton Head, Savannah and Beaufort. Right time, right place you never know what you might find. Serena, a gal from the Palm Springs boot camp - purchased a $2 bracelet at the church run thrift store that we invaded that Friday night and she sold it for $278. I love those kind of stories. So far, the best I did was a .25 peacock vase that sold for $12.78.

Katie had an OT & PT eval today... working toward getting her into that Interactive Metronome Therapy. Hope, one of the mom's at the farm has a daughter who has been through this therapy and the results were AMAZING!!! She still has to have an auditory processing evaluation but it looks like we wont get in to have that done until January. Unreal how these specialists book up and now I don't have my special person who use to could pull strings for me anymore.

One last thought - I almost did it again! I was getting on Belle this morning at the farm and she took off. Not quite like what happened this summer - but this time I remained in complete control. I got my foot in the other stirrup while I used the reins to get her stopped. FLASHBACKS!! Had to just hang out on her for a minute or two until my heart settled back into my chest at a normal rhythm. The rest of the morning was perfect with her. Even rode out in the pasture which is just heaven on earth to me. It's rolling hills with amazing scenery - warm sunshine - cool breeze - it relaxes me just thinking about it!

Don has been enjoying Sunny. Horses get there winter coat based on the daylight and not temperatures, like I thought. Sunny is ready for a blizzard - she already has that clydesdale thing going on around her hooves... she's got that belgian draft in her. But Katie loves rubbing on her right now because she truly feels like a plush stuffed animal - her coat is soft as velvet and so furry. Sunny loves Katie! On Saturday after STAR - we are going on a field trip with Sunny and Belle. Literally - we are taking them into the woods at the farm on a trail by foot. Just to see how they do - much more control of them from the ground if something goes awry.



Have to share my funny picture of my funny little Hogan! Just love him so much! For him to be such a "dog" - a big dog in a medium size dog body - total mischief in his thinking always - he is so full of love and cuddles.