Mayhem and a Moscow Mule

I’m awake again. This time it’s 2:30am and I’m not excited to be awake this time. No, this time it’s different. I’m actually incredibly tired but I’m hurting. My hips and knees are screaming at me for once again getting nearly 40,000 steps today. Thanks to my FitBit, I have these tidbits of knowledge now. Granted it counts steps when I’m riding. But still, it’s a of motion. It’s nearly the end of July and there’s no slow down in sight-it’s show season and it’s a short one when you live in a state that experiences winter. Show after show and weddings galore. If I’m not competing, I’m teaching or baling hay or doing a million other efforts to keep this farm running like the squeaky clean wheel it is. But I’m tired and I need a vacation just like every other farmer out there. My body is hurting from all the work load but it never slows me down. The torn hip flexors from college moan their resistance to the heavy work load. Truth be told-my body does not agree with horse riding. My hips wo...

 It’s 12:30am and I’m wide awake. I can’t sleep. I’m too excited for my journey ahead. It’s been an unusual and tough past few weeks of running around from here to there. Always seeming like everyone needs a piece of me or something from me and there’s just not enough me to go around. I was getting grouchy and antsy and tough. But some big things have happened and now I’m feeling jittery with excitement.                          The first thing to occur was buying some new off the track thoroughbreds for my program. It was stressful however because I’m not usually looking to buy in the middle of show season. There’s too much happening and I don’t have the time or money to shop and really look into the important details. Luckily for me, I decided to lean on some friends this time around who were more than happy to go shopping with my check book and find just what I was looking for. And now I’ve got a super sassy mare a...

  This summer has gotten out of control already and it's only June. I feel like I'm sprinting the hundred meter dash when I'm actually only fit for a slow jog. Or hurdles, but I'm blindfolded and the hurdles are on fire and the striding is wrong. You get the picture. I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down and reflect and I've realized I'm missing out on all the little things happening without me. I seem to be sweating the details and stressing about non sensical things, but I missed my Irises blooming. I never even saw it happen. I only noticed that I missed it tonight because I was watering my veggies and saw the dead heads on the Iris plants. How could I miss that? If you are anything like me, you shove entirely too much into the summertime and never have a chance to catch a breath. But you fear that if you don't go and do all the things, you might miss out on something great and we can't have that. So we run. Run to that horse show, run to ...

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. I...

 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...