Gotta post some pictures of Jackies feet :)

 Now jackie is a 9 year old mare we ended up keeping. We are working on getting her feet in working order so here are before and after photos of her trim (and a shot of when we first got her)

 

Above is about 2 weeks after we got her

Below Left is before we trimmed her and Right is afterwards. Notice the more relaxed body posture, the lowered head and she isnt standing underneath herself as much. She has also gained a lot of weight!

Left is a before shot Right is after

Before the trim, notice the flared back feet?

And after the trim, notice the flares are gone and she is standing better. Will keep posting pictures! Shakirah is next, cant wait to see her feet change!

Sunday Stills (ok just one!)

My friends arabian gelding sebastian. What a good boy!

Whats going on with us

First, after some not so fun things happening at our house in Onalaska we moved to Chehalis. Awesome landlord, cute house with 6 acres!  

 Front of the house facing the road

 The view from the master bedroom balcony

 Living room

 Kitchen

 Kitchen

 Side of house. You can see our french doors and balcony off the master bedroom

The field across from our house

So besides the move, I am going to school full time at Centralia College. I am studying for my LPN. Jake is now the Coffee Lead at his store and working on his Coffee Master. He is waiting for a Shift Supervisor position to open up so he can move up. The kids are in an amazing Christian day care! I love having them come home talking about Bible stories! We still have the horses. Shakirah and Mystic anyway. CW (the big appy) went to a new home last month.
We are really enjoying being closer to town with still a country feel to it! We get to see a red tail hawk that hunts in the pasture across the street. That and there is an indoor riding arena at the end of the road I have access to!
I am training Shakirah for a 25 mile endurance ride in May. I am looking at doing the Mt. Adams Endurance Ride in Trout Lake, WA and hopefully the Renegade Rendezvous in Whenatchee in June. I am very excited. I am getting more and more horses in for training which is really nice, I am staying busy and getting to know a lot of people in the process. I also get to ride a lot of different horses in the process, which I have always enjoyed doing.

Last night we had a scare when Shakirah choked. This is bad for horses because they don't have the same abilities to clear their throat as we do. That and you can't give the horse the Heimlich. So instead of going to wednesday night services we were standing outside with a hose in her mouth trying to flush everything out. Had the vet out this morning and she had cleared most of it, and he did the rest. The danger of choke is not losing the ability to breathe, but the ability to eat or drink. If you don't catch it your horse can become very sick. She can eat and everything now, just has to be on penicillin for the next 3 days to make sure she doesn't get an infection. Talk about a scare. I am totally calm when its any other horse, but its my horse? All brains go out the window and I panic. Ugh....  

Trying to be positive

I have been reading blogs, facebook statuses and hearing people lately and alls I hear are complaints! I read blog where its nothing but whining about how their life isnt going to plan, and how they are just sure that things are going to go wrong.

PLEASE people. Be content. Enjoy the snow while it is here for the beauty that it gives. Enjoy the time it allows you to spend with your family. If you aren't happy with your living situation DO something to change it! Be grateful for what you have, and don't whine about what you don't. Every single person in the world wishes they had something that they don't. Remember that THINGS don't make us happy.

Some of the happiest people I know have second hand cars, second hand furniture and not so many nice things. But they are happy with WHAT they have. Instead of putting yourself into debt trying to keep up with the jones', why don't you not spend as much, get something nice, but cheaper and ENJOY life.

This is something I have worked hard to understand and accomplish. Is to be thankful for what I have. Do I have new cars? No. But they were bought and paid with cash. Is our furniture new? No, but its comfortable and if the kids spill something on it, oh well. We don't own our house because we are still in transition and once I buy I plan to stay there my whole life, so why buy now when we can't afford what I really want? Instead I'll rent and be content where I am in life. If I never get to buy a home, thats ok. I would rather spend time with my family.

So as I said lets all work on being content with what we have, be grateful when we get something new and really work on not being so whiny all the time :)