Maternity Leave

So I am now in my 3rd week of maternity leave. Not quite what I had planned...but then again, neither is motherhood.

Call me naive, but I thought this whole baby thing would be a lot easier and not nearly as time-consuming. I haven't even had time to bundle Gracie up and introduce her to her "pony" yet!





Everyone said that babies sleep a lot, but what they don't mention is that the whole time they're sleeping, the new mom is "on call" and trying to calculate what chores can be done in 15 minutes or less and which chores can be abandoned at the half-point in order to feed the less-than-patient infant screaming in her 3rd soiled onesie of the day. And my sweet baby loves to be awake. She just sits and stares at things, sometimes for 15 minutes before she starts screaming again,


sometimes for only 3 minutes.





I guess the good news is that I have completely caught up on my Entourage, Gossip Girl, Psych (new addiction, thanks to the after Christmas marathon), Law & Order, and Top Chef. So, I guess it hasn't been a completely wasted couple of weeks! Thanks, again, to my wonderful fiance for putting cable and a dvr in the baby room!

Wordless Wednesday...my daughter Grace

Book Tag

That crazy brod over at the Middle of the Road tagged me! Naturally, the book closest to me is The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy. So here we go:

1)Grab the nearest book.
2)Open the book to page 56.
3)Find the fifth sentence.
4)Post the text of the next two to five sentences.
5)Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one.
Pick the Closest.
6)Tag five people to do the same.


"You check each other out with uncontainable curiosity but with the friendliness of comrades. You try to guess how pregnant your new comrade is (and whether she is looking as good or as bad as you are at this point), and you will have no qualms about asking this complete stranger her entire gestational history. If you are pregnant at the same time as a celebrity, you will develop a familiarity with her pregnancy that will make you feel "related" to her in some way. For example, you may be pregnant with Gwen Stefani, Reese Witherspoon, one of the president's daughters, or maybe Kate Bosworth or Sienna Miller, and Britney's probably game for a few more--and you'll feel maternal about their children, even though you don't know them. (Though I can't help but feel I know Sean Preston.)"

So there you have it, some great "girlfriend" advice from the Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine.

Now, I suppose I should tag a few folks:

1. Twinville

2. Nuzzling Muzzles

3. Sunny SD

4. Pony Girl

Btw, my man hooked me up with some sweet cable action in the baby room. I may never leave now!

Wordless Wednesday--The Baby Room

The dashboard melted but we still have a radio.

So...I got to see my horse!! Not only that, I got to sit on him! And even better yet, I walked him through the barrel pattern! Just once though...I could tell it was making my mom a little nervous. But, my Dr said I could ride as long as I could mount from the ground, and mount from the ground I did!!

But maybe I should start from the beginning. I got outside around 10:30 and noticed that our boys were in need of a haircut. I did Yellow first, because he's closer to the gate and super easy.

Last time I shaved his bridal path a little long, so I left some that I clipped before. So that sticky-up part? Yes, that's how long his entire bridal path was. Loverly.

And being the evil horsewoman that I am, I clip my horses so that they face the most temping thing you ever saw...

I really don't care that the horses are practically standing on a 1,000 lb bale of hay while I clip them. They'll stand there, they'll not grab for food and they'll like it!!

But I'm not completely heartless. After all was said and done, I let Yellow have a bite. His sister Stella came to supervise.

It looks like she's counting calories or something!!

The reason for all this? A friend of ours has their 13 year old niece visiting from Germany, and she rides horses! So I had her over, threw her in a western saddle and taught her the barrel pattern. She is a wonderfully natural rider and got my horse moving very well.
Look how she has Yellow nice and relaxed and behind the bit!! No wonder those Germans win so many medals in the Olympics. It's practically natural for them! And the poor gal kept asking if we would raise her stirrups...sorry sweetie! This is how us American Cowgirls ride!!

And then, I couldn't resist. I told my mom to hold my camera, and, with shortened stirrups, I pulled my preggo ass up on that yellow horse.
This is probably the most uncomfortable I have ever been on this horse. And I'm in my old saddle. But dammit, I made it up there and I walked that horse around the barrel pattern and then I managed to get down, somehow, without ripping my pants. I'd say it was a successful day.

Does anyone else think my horse looks smaller with me on him now?? :P

Wine Country Horse Ride

So, I am in the process of planning a Wine Country Horse Ride for my lovely cousins and friends. You may not know this, but next to the Napa Valley, the Yakima Valley and Columbia Valley are the second biggest wine producing regions in the country. And I live smack dab in the middle of the two!

About a month ago I found a Bed, Breakfast & Barn that gives wine tours on horseback! You can bring your own horses or rent them. You stop at 5 wineries over 5-6hours of trail riding. Sounds like a dream come true to me! I can't wait until it's easy for me to get on a horse again...

I am planning on treating my mother to this ride because her birthday is in May and that's when the weather and the wine will be just about perfect! I'm going to insist that my mom ride Yellow so she doesn't have to worry about anything. I'll ride her goofy horse, and hope for the best. I'm a lot more, agile, mobile, and hostile and can handle shenanighans better than most. I'm sure they'll both be fine. But it's nice to get those rides, every now-and-then, where you just put your horse on cruise control and enjoy the scenery.

The day after the wine tour I'm arranging to use a friend's arena. This arena is HUGE! And it never gets used. He used to have ropings there all the time, but is pretty much retired now. Actually, I'm hoping he'll come down from his house on the hill and give us a little roping demonstration! We might get to work with some cattle, work on our barrel racing and pole bending skills, and just goof off and show off our horses. My mom's horse has actually done a fair amount of roping, so I might ride him and see if he remembers anything or if he's become a completely girly horse now and just likes to go in little circles and hit the trail. Yellow has been roped on twice and definitely isn't scared of it. But really, what is he scared of? Oh yeah, baby cows. Ridiculous horse.

It's been a wonderfully mild Fall and there have been several days where an afternoon ride would have made my day...but I've been pretty busy working on a nursery, trying to keep my feet up so I don't get spider veins, and bugging my fiance about every little thing that still needs to be done.

The nagging of a pregnant woman is never done!

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

Well, I finally saw my horse! I barely recognized him, and he hardly recognized me after our month away from each other! I'm carrying another person around, he's getting his winter coat, we both had things to marvel at!

I don't like it when my horse gets fuzzy. I think he looks funny. But I REALLY don't like it when he first sheds out because, as any of you who have or have had palominos know, they look like they have a skin disease. All horses shed out in patches, depending on blankets and such, but with a yellow horse it's SUPER obvious!

Yellow during his "fuzzy" phase last year.

My poor neglected horse wasn't too interested in me. I showed up right around feeding time and his attitude was, "If you're not gonna feed me, what good are ya?!?" I can't really complain, I'm the same way, especially to my poor fiance. "Of course I missed you today, dear, but I really need some potato chips right now."

Oh, and I just got baby shower pics on Friday and was out of town all weekend, so I'll try to get some up asap! But, with my crazy schedule, don't go holding your breath or anything!