If you’re not paying rent, get out of my attic!

A quick update before I flit off to Utah for the weekend…

So for the past week we’ve been hearing “noises” up in our attic. What kind of noises? The kinds small furry animals make when they’re trapped and are trying desperately to claw and chew their way to freedom.

We got a Havahart no-kill trap and left it up there to see if we could catch anything. Turns out we’re pretty good at this animal trapping stuff! We caught two squirrels (one on Saturday night and one on Monday night) and took them each on a little roadtrip to the other side of town to be released. They were absolutely adorable! We had an animal control guy come the other day to double-check and he said there wasn’t anything else living up there, but set some traps just in case and will check back over the next two weeks. If you’re not paying rent, get out of my attic!

Rode wonderful Mr. Wally again on Tuesday, again with only a halter and reins. We worked on flying lead changes, which surprisingly enough I’ve never done before. Mr. Wally hadn’t either and I’m very impressed with how fast he learned what to do – that horse is scary smart. After the lessons I had to go turn him out in his new paddock home (no more stall for him) but it was a long walk and I was tired, so I just hopped up bareback and rode him out. He’s such a wonderful little guy… He’s probably getting sold soon which makes me sad, but at least he’ll go to a good home where he can get the attention and consistent riding that he deserves.

Last night Erik and I went to dinner at my cousin’s house, who I never knew existed until recently. My pop-pop is in town visiting and staying with them, so they invited us over. It’s cool having family locally and they were all super nice and funny and we had a great time.

Signed an agreement last week for a partnership for Riding Resource. This is a very big deal and I’m excited to get the ball rolling so we can start making announcements about the good news!

Heading out to Utah tomorrow for a snowboarding trip with Erik. We’re staying at EJ’s and I absolutely cannot wait to see her! Yay!

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Valentine’s recap and bridleless hunter courses.

This weekend was absolutely lovely, and I have a very special boy to thank for it.

Valentine’s started out wonderful – Erik woke me up with breakfast in bed and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. The card said: “For you, me, and us- three. Hopefully much longer than these flowers can be. I love you, Erik” Isn’t that the sweetest? I’m SO lucky to have him!

Valentine’s flowers from Erik

We hung out in bed cuddling and being lazy, then finally got up to go check out washers and dryers since there was a dope President’s Day sale going on at Sears. We’ve (well, mostly him) been saving up for the amazing Kenmore Elite HE5t steam pair for quite some time now. I know this will probably sound very 1950s-housewife-lame, but, he bought me a washer and dryer!! I’m SO excited!! These things are friggen incredible. They’ve got tons of settings and buttons and fun things to play with and they’re beautiful and QUIET (can barely tell they’re even on) and OMG I’m beyond happy. 😀

Ran a few more errands, came home and hung out with Couch for a while, then went out to dinner with Kathryn and her boyfriend Seth. We went to Phoenix and then to Sheridan’s, this cool 1950s-esque frozen custard place.

Sunday was spent sleeping, being lazy, and watching the handyman fix stuff around our house, including patching a very small gap where the roof over the house meets the roof over the garage because squirrels were getting in. He did a great job, except that now we have two squirrels trapped in our attic! We’ve set no-kill traps but so far haven’t been able to catch the little bastards. I can hear them trying to claw their way out and I’m praying they don’t hit an electrical wire. Eep.

Had Monday off for President’s Day (thanks work!) and spent it working on RidingResource.com and doing laundry in my awesome new washer and dryer!

Yesterday I had my weekly lesson at Huntcliff and rode Mr. Wally, the love of my life, again. My trainer had told me not to use a bridle, just a halter and reins. (Note: for all you non-horsey people, this means I would be riding with no bit in the horse’s mouth. The Bit is a major part of your steering/braking mechanism.) I was a little nervous at first because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to control him using just my seat and my legs, but after a little warmup at the trot/canter, I was surprised at how incredibly easy it was! We wound up jumping for a good 40 minutes – full hunter courses of 8 to 10 fences, 2’6″ to 3′. It was the highest I’ve ever jumped, the most fences I’ve ever done in one course, and I did it all with just a halter! Holy crap it was FUN!!! I had such a great time and Wally was wonderful and I’m still all smiley just thinking about it. I can’t wait to do it again. No more bridles for me! Woo!

Oh, and I finally got around to scanning that article from Trail Rider Magazine that I was in. Check out the picture HERE!

90+ hour workweek for 1.5years? Oh yes, I’m pooped.

I finally realized that I’ve been working 90+ hours for the past 1.5 years and I’m friggen *exhausted*! I keep telling myself it’s for a good cause and it’ll all pay off one day… hopefully the same day my student loans are paid off themselves! 🙂

Erik and I have been working up a storm on Riding Resource. We added a nifty little lightbox to the homepage so people can sign up for our awesome mailing list. You should go check it out and join! We promise to never spam you.

Had a second meeting on Monday about some potential goodstuff for the site. I’m not giving up the details on that until it actually happens; don’t want to kick myself in the butt. It’s definitely worth being excited over, however.

Rode Wally yesterday – he’s come such a long way since I first rode him a few months ago. He still gets a little retardo excited at the canter though, but that’s to be expected since he’s so green. Miriam wants me to ride him in just a halter and reins next week, over fences. I am probably going to die, so if you don’t hear from me after next Tuesday, that’s why.

Erik decided the other week that he wants to go snowboarding, so he used his miles and booked us a trip to Utah! We’re going to stay with EJ (YAY!!!) and play on a mountain. I got snowpants and an awesome silly hat because, well, if I’m going to be cold and miserable and falling on my butt all day I might as well look ridiculous. 🙂 16 days and counting!