Loving it

Want to go back here!  Sutro Baths, just outside San Fran

Just a few random thoughts for ye old blog before bed tonight.  Firstly, I am SO grateful and happy to be here.  I am enjoying this place, spending time with my boys, and focusing on "real" life SO much.  Not gonna lie; it has been HARD.  It took us so long to find jobs that we're still fighting money issues right now, but we're s   l   o   w   l   y   getting on track.  I'm trying to reach out and make some friends.  I almost made it to the ladies night church activity, but I allowed the long work day to be my excuse not to go.  I'm thinking about making the effort to get out and be social, hard as that is for me.

It's actually been a welcome break and a nice relief to step away from the horse world for a few months.  I honestly haven't thought much about them in the time we've been here.  I definitely don't miss the hustle and bustle of the WORK part of it, but I am starting to miss just the simplicity of BEING with horses and smelling/touching them.  I reached out to a local big name event trainer tonight to see if she minded if I stopped in to watch a lesson or 2.  I would like to slowly ease my way back into it, just watch some lessons, maybe find an event to volunteer at.  Then, maybe find a ride.  I'm not pushing anything, like I said, the break has been good for me.  When you own a horse, ALL your thoughts are obsessed on shows, money for lessons and clinics, new tack, shoes, vet bills, etc.  It's nice to not have to worry about that farrier bill or vet bill ... it's stressful!  And plus, I worked SO hard just to be able to (barely) afford my horse, it's so weird to work a 4 day week behind a desk; I feel like a slacker!

Great message on disciplining your kids at church today.  Makes me realize I can indeed take SOME credit for how awesome my child is, because even though his personality is amazing, my husband and I have NEVER allowed him to get away with anything.  From a young age, we had expectations of our son.  He has to clean his room, be respectful, sit still, and generally not be a heathen.  He is currently one of the most amazing, respectful, kind hearted, and awesome 11 year olds I know.  I'm glad we had the sense to set boundaries and have expectations back when he was 2, so now as he begins to transition to teenager, I'm confident he will not resort to sullen teenage boy antics.

Once again, I am having issues with a REALLY (bad) sore ab muscle.  I felt it in my obliques about a month ago; my side hurt so bad I literally would have gone to the emergency room if we'd had the money.  After about 3 days of pretty bad pain, I came to the conclusion that it was muscle strain, and I just took things REALLY easy.  This time, it's front and center, the top abs.  They HURT, and not in a good way.  DANG!  That's definitely the biggest disadvantage to moving from a very physical job to a desk job, and exercising every day.  I need to be more careful and do a longer warmup than I have been.  Strained muscles hurt! And they're counter productive; I don't feel like I can do my T-25 at all this week; I need to take the week off so I don't REALLY hurt myself :(  I'm actually thinking about breaking out the Insanity workout of "core cardio and balance", which is a normal length 43 minute Insanity workout, but one that's lower impact than even the typical T25 workout.  I think I will just do the T25 "stretch" video tomorrow, then try CC and B on Tuesday and see how I feel.  I've got skinny jeans to fit into!:)