Mayhem and a Moscow Mule

I'm climbing on my soapbox for this one. I hit my limit last week of stupid responses people have when they find out I had an emergency hysterectomy in December. The most common is "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry" but it's always followed by "You must be so crushed about not being able to have kids now." Every time someone adds that, I want to immediately set things on fire and steal little kid's balloons. It can really set the tone for the rest of my day. Let me tell you why! It's about to get real. I have never in my life had a normal period. Ever. Even since I was a kid, they were downright awful. I think they put me on every single birth control available to womankind. Nothing worked. I was in the ER for cysts, internal bleeding, holes in my uterus and of course that one time that they were convinced I was hiding a pregnancy at 18. It was humiliating.  I would have actual pouches of blood that made me look pregnant. It ruined many horse shows,

              I know the term 'Fresh Start' is supposed to mean a new beginning or a second chance. Fresh and new like clean laundry right outta the dryer ready to get dirtied yet again. There's just something about putting on those clean clothes that makes you feel ready to attack the day with a fresh slate. However, my fresh start was not regarding laundry, but instead learning to enjoy horse shows again without my old reliable. I will admit it was hard to get excited about even going last week when my original ride hurt itself. Horses' ability to hurt themselves just purely by existing is the bane of every horse owner's existence. So there I was, ready to go to a show without a horse. Luckily Ocho was available in the wings and ready to fill in. So once again, I revved myself up and told my anxious little brain that it would be fun no matter what horse I took. PC: Xpress Foto It's not that I don't love showing horses because by God I do. It's in my bl

 Lucas and I went on an adventure tonight and we just had to get an indoor tree he decided. Why you may ask? Because that's how people know you 'made it' apparently. Not a million dollars, no. A houseplant. A freaking tree that is not native to Wisconsin in any way shape or form and cannot survive in it's climate. So apparently, that's how we are telling this world we made it in life. It's kind of half dead since my grandma neglected it for a few months. She turned it out to pasture before I rescued it. What happens when this massive needle dropping foliage out grows my ceiling is a conundrum to me. Sounds like later Ali's problem to me. I guess we are set for a few years worth of Christmas Trees now. There are many times in my life when I thought "Gee, I think I've made it!" Once was in college when I secured my first internship. I also thought that when I was finally doing well on Reddin at Prelim level and people actually knew who I was at t

 I celebrated my 28th Mother's Day today and I don't think I did enough to truly honor my mom the way she deserves. She should get a full on party for keeping up with Whitney and my adventures as well as living all of her own. I was just so darn tired from running the most excellent derby yesterday in Darby's honor. But that shouldn't be an excuse. Darby was only in my life for a flash in a pan compared to the years that my mom has been here for me. So let's go back, wayyyyy back. I'd have to say my farthest back memory of mommy and me would be when she took me to my first show with Fire Pony. I couldn't have been more that 3 or 4 and we went in the lead line class. She got me all adorably suited up for the big show debut. I remember her fussing over the pony to make sure it was all just right and then tightening up my little breeches garter straps. I was ready to win this thing!! It doesn't take a whole lot of skill to do lead line class well-be cute, s

Currently jamming to "Prince Ali" from the movie 'Alladin' and I have no regrets about. Except I like to sing it "Princess Ali". So if there's Disney references here-that's why... Something that came to my attention recently is how eager we get to fix things and we don't always appreciate how to get there. Lucas said the phrase "Trust in the Process" and I liked that. It's so arduous to have faith in the unknown. Religious and otherwise!! Often when we start learning a new thing, it's ugly. It's so unpolished and foreign. We fight it and want to fall back into what's easy and what we know. It can be struggle some to step outside our comfort zone. My students will hear me say "Get comfortable being uncomfortable". The only way we can grow is to truly challenge ourselves and become better by moving out from what we know. I am always outside of my comfort zone because I was born outside my shell and never had to c

 I had another bomb drop yesterday. It may seem silly to you, but to me it was big. A student I was looking forward to assisting toward a goal is going to have to go about it in a different direction due to important reasons I won't get in to. I'm not mad. Just bummed. It was a virtual goal carrot I was dangling in front of my coach nose that I was so pumped for. Especially after the Darby debacle. I was changing my focus and that was my light in a dark place. But life tends to give you lemons when you least need them. I feel more like its violently whipping them at my head but meh, in the scheme of worldly problems, this is not one. Just lemon juice in an open wound when I could use a gosh darn bandaid.  This morning getting ready for church I looked in my cute dress closet [My guilty pleasure] and I saw this adorable lemon dress hanging in there that I had bought a few weeks ago at TJ Maxx. Side note: I cannot be let off my leash in one of those stores. I make indescribable p