Cowboy Boot Shopping

I found my next pair of cowboy boots!  Actually, I found two pair.  The affordable ones will be the ones I end up with and the expensive boots will be the ones I dream about.  I have a picture somewhere I'll look for later and post of the expensive pair. 

My daughter was given a pair of snakeskin boots, which she wore riding today.  They look really expensive and I cringe when she wears them to the barn but that's what they were given to her for from her aunts.  If they don't mind horse manure and dirt on a pair of expensive boots, I guess I shouldn't.

I'll decide which ones to hint about by the time my birthday rolls around.

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Happy Birthday to My Son

The weekend is here. It my son's birthday so we are celebrating it this weekend with dinner out at the restaurant of his choice (he picked Olive Garden), the movie of his choice (Karate Kid I think), and a party at home. He's going to love his cake.  I am having a photo cake made and the picture on it is of him with his dog.  We'll probably have a fire in the fire pit too. The kids love that.

We have a ring for our fire pit but what I'd really like to look at are outdoor fireplaces.  It'd have to be woodburning over gas because our pit is in the middle of our big back yard and I wouldn't want to run gas lines out there but wood is fine with me.  

It's going to be a busy weekend.  Hope y'all enjoy yours!

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Prenatal Vitamins with DHA

I've been researching prenatal vitamins for a pregnant friend of mine.  She's having a problem taking the vitamins her doctor told her to take.  They make her really nauseous.  I'm confused about vitafol ob dha.  I don't know that Vitafol OB have DHA in them, or maybe they make them now with DHA?  Back when I was pregnant, they weren't adding DHA into everything from vitamins to formula.  I understand it's important now for baby's development. 

Even though I nursed for two years, we still used formula in between nursing because I never made enough milk to provide solely for her.  Her first couple weeks were not happy ones as we did everything we could to get more milk to come in.  It never happened.  I think that had to do with my thyroid disease more than anything because when I nursed my son seven years earlier, before thyroid disease, he never went without breastmilk.  That boy turns 11 today.  Time really flies fast.

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Practicing Two-Point for Jumping

My daughter's stirrups had to be lengthened at yesterday's lesson for the third time in just a few months' time.  She's shooting up like crazy!  It was fun watching her practice her two-point in preparation for jumping.  I can't believe how fast she's growing.  Before I know it, she'll be taking driver's training, sat prep studying, and wanting to date like her older sister, my stepdaughter!

My stepdaughter is retaking her SAT's so I hope she does more SAT prep this time around.  She did average the first time but she wants to do above-average.  She intends to go to vet school, I believe small animal vet, so she's going to need the scores to get in.  She's going to need to put more time and effort into her SAT preparation and not get distracted like she did the first time.  My own horse-loving daughter is planning to go to school to be a large animal vet.  We're going to have several doctors in the family! 

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Want Terri Clark's Gypsy Boots!

I've been googling for the Gypsy boots that Terri Clark wears in her music video of the same name and can't find them.  I have no idea what brand they are or if they were custom-made for her (probably so).  I did find these boots though:

Are these pretty or what? Love them!

If you'd like to see the video and/or the Gypsy boots I'm talking about, here it is:

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The Busy Summer Starts

Summer vacation officially started here a few days ago.  I have the riding lessons scheduled for the rest of the summer for my oldest daughter and I'm trying to figure out how to pay for lessons for my second youngest daughter so she can learn to ride too.  She just turned nine and is definitely ready.

My other goals this summer are to get the house organized (piles of laundry piled on dressers and paperwork piles all over the place just isn't going to cut it anymore...so wishing for bigger closets to hold it all).  Also going to work on getting hubby to paint the rest of the downstairs. 

For fun, we are planning a vacation in July to see family - beach, boating, and fun.  We will take the kids to the Y many times over the summer to swim too, like last summer. 

On the business end of things, I need to prepare to add more hours to my at-home work schedule when the kids go back to school and also look for a lawyer to handle a legal issue we will have soon.  I've had bad lawyers before and really need to do my research to make sure that doesn't happen again.  How do most people look for an attorney?  Maybe google Texas Maritime lawyer if it's a Maritime lawyer they need?  I'll get it figured out. 

I want to make sure this summer has the least amount of stress possible, even with everything we'll have going on all summer.  Having all the kids home can get frustrating.  I don't want to feel like this all summer long:

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Skin Issues on Horse

What are those quarter-sized, bumpy spots that some horses get?  I saw a horse once who had several of these spots that were a bit bumpy.  Unlike people and the need for acne treatments, I wondered if they were hives or some similar skin condition (like a human's eczema).

My horse has never had them.  I remember asking once a few years ago what they were to an owner of a horse who had them but I can't for the life of me remember what I was told.  Memory goes with age...or with a bad thyroid. 

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Riding Horse When Pregnant

Do you ride horses when you are pregnant? 

I've not done it before but I have known people who do.  Personally, I wouldn't risk a fall so I could never do it. 

If I were to get pregnant again (and it may not even be possible if we did want another child...which we aren't trying for), I think I'd just be content with spending time with my horse, taking my prenatal vitamins, and waiting until after giving birth to get up on a horse again.  It'd be awful to fall or be thrown from a horse and lose a baby.  I don't think I'd be able to forgive myself.

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Rain, Rain Go Away

Summer storms have been going through here the past 24 hours.  I think my daughter's riding lesson tomorrow morning is going to end up cancelled.  I'd imagine the outdoor arena is just going to be too wet. 

I have a lot of medical stuff I need to gather for my doctor appointment next week anyway (thyroid, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease info. and eczema - sure wish I knew the cure for eczema).  Now that it is warmer, the eczema is better, but the thyroid needs attention and I don't think my PID is healing the way it should be.  Lots to do but because I was so sick for several weeks, the horses and lessons didn't get the time they deserved; the horses are needing attention and riding so the rain needs to stop so we can spend a few hours at the barn tomorrow.

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Teenage Angst Aimed at Mom

My 13-year-old acts like a surly teenager.  When she turned 13, I expected some teenage angst, the need for acne help like Acneticin, and sleeping in later. What I got was a moody girl who gets annoyed easily and shows too much attitude. Most of that attitude is directed at me.  It irritates me because she would never, ever treat her father like that or the parents of her friends.  I get all the fun teenage angst! 

Why am I the lucky one?  How do I deal with that for the next five years or will it get better?

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Important to get your medical records

After I was discharged from my hospital stay due to PID, I went back to ask for copies of all my labs that were done.  It was a good thing records made me a copy of my entire file because the CT scan I'd had in the emergency room to see if I had appendicitis showed two other problems that neither the ER doctor or my doctor on my floor told me about.

The CT scan showed gallstones and diverticulosis and suggested the need for further testing.  I would never have known had I not gone back and asked for my records.  I see some health problems and pain in my future, as well as a change in eating habits.  Perhaps it will help me lose the rest of my weight naturally as I've been considering weight loss help like Lipofuze.

Whenever you have tests done - blood, scans, etc., ask for a copy of those records.  It's amazing that neither doctor I saw during my three days at the hospital mentioned the gallstones or diverticulosis that the CT scan showed!

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My Experience with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

I was hospitalized due to a really bad case of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (due to bacterial vaginosis...NOT an STD!) after an ER visit for pain. I was really sick. They gave me morphine in the ER for pain, then dilaudid once admitted, then Percocet as the pain went down.  (One little note, if you have PID, make sure you get a pain reliever BEFORE any pelvic exams - big ouch!!). 

Unfortunately, the antibiotics (Gentamicin and Clindamycin) they had me on had such bad side effects (dizziness, nausea, ear pain and hallucinations) that I was happy to get off them after 2-1/2 days when I got sent home. I saw faces flying at me with evil grins and then the statue outside my hospital window actually turned and looked at me!  At that point, I rang for the nurse to get me off the medications!

I was on IV fluids for dehydration in addition to antibiotics.  I was so bloated I looked like I was in desperate need of a diet supplement. I even had to take my wedding rings off! Like the hallucinations weren't enough...I had to bloat like a whale too.  Thankfully, the water weight came off within the first week or so. 

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Was Hospitalized but Home Now

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted.  I thought I had a flu (see my last post) but it turned out to be a really bad infection.  I ended up hospitalized for several days waiting to see if they could control the infection enough to avoid surgery.  I was really sick for awhile.  With four kids, one thing I don't need to worry about though is my children's financial future.  After having kids, my husband and I found some good life insurance rates so my kids are taken care of if something happens to one or the other of us.

I'll get into the details of the illness later.  Suffice to say, I was really sick and today was the first day in over two weeks that I was able to see our horses.  It was nice to be able to drive to the barn and see our girls in the pasture.  I'm not up to working with them but the freedom to just hop in the car and go was nice after the last few weeks of not being able to.

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