This and That

• I'm finally (!!) going to the dermatologist to get my face fixed. I am not kidding you when I say that my face has literally exploded the past couple of weeks. I really should take before and after pictures, but I really don't want to have a reminder (once my face clears up) of the pain I've allowed myself to go through for so long. I can't wait for my face to stop throbbing.

• We have been scraping the paint off the basement floor for 3 weeks now. At times my arms and wrists have been so overworked that I can barely grasp a glass to take a drink. It's loads of fun. You're asking why would you scrape all the paint off the floor? It kept bubbling up and peeling. I kept repainting the peeled off areas. Paint chips kept ending up on the little ones' feet (not good for business). So now we are going to install 667 vinyl tile squares that hopefully will look as close to a wood floor without being actual wood. I'll take pictures when we're done. Next weekend is the big install.
• Jesse started horse riding lessons again. She was so psyched! September lessons consisted of learning the basics of barrel racing and pole bending. Pole bending is where they have between 4 and 8 vertical poles that they have to zig zag the horse through. She was awesome (if you don't mind me bragging)!! I was so proud of her. This is truly something that is in her blood. They were timed on two different maneuvers. She had the best time on the first one. And the second she "lost" only by a hundredths of a second. But really she would have won had her horse been cooperating. Penny kept trying to go off course and so her teacher kept stopping and restarting the stop watch. See? It's not just me being a totally biased overprotective mom. ;) In all actuality, I could careless how fast or slow she is. I'm just thrilled that she has found something that she is so passionate about.

All for a mere $25 per hour lesson!



We may have to start eating rice and beans to keep her in that saddle.

• Abby (our throwing up cat) does not seem to be retching ill for now. Of course I probably just jinxed it and we'll find piles all over the floor in the morning.
• I get to have my female parts manipulated at the doctor's office this week. Oh joy!
• We're looking at meeting my family (and possibly my new mom-in-law + husband) this summer for a camping trip. Due to my bro-in-law's health condition, we have to limit ourselves to somewhere within an hour or so from an airport and also near a dialysis unit. He is getting pretty close up to the top of the list for a kidney transplant. As of now, we're considering somewhere in Washington or Oregon. Should be fun!