A little bit of Heaven

Today started off like any day, but it was rainy and cold outside so we did inside things. Chores, be lazy and watch movies, fun stuff like that. I watched A Little Bit of Heaven, and it was a good movie, maybe a good movie for me.

I was never one of those people who was really open about feelings, I had them, but I didn’t feel like the rest of the world needed to know about them. I didn’t handle death well, not like I’d assume many people do, but it was one of those things I didn’t like to think about in any capacity. When Jake died my whole life turned upside down, and every day was a struggle. I was an emotional mess among other things. I never got to say “goodbye” to him, it all happened really fast, he wasn’t terminal and while he’d had a couple of close calls with death I still wasn’t ready for the reality of losing someone so close to me.

I thought I handled it all pretty well, considering the circumstances, and I let myself try to fill the void and move on because the empty space left behind is hard to work around. I figured it out, maybe it took longer than it should have, but eventually I had to let go of the bandaid. When I did, I let myself be loved by someone I didn’t want to love me. I am so grateful for the man I am married to today. He loved me and was there for me every time I needed him, as a friend first, always. My best friend.

His life was complicated, not that mine wasn’t, but really how much drama does one want in a lifetime? I didn’t want to deal with his drama, not because it was inconvenient, but because I didn’t want to feel that much pain, anxiety, and even love again. I always try to be strong, it’s what I’ve had to do. Put on the “I’m fine” smile and just do whatever is necessary. I got sick of people telling me stupid cliches like “God won’t give you more than you can handle”, “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, etc.. I don’t think saying those things to someone who is struggling helps, if you don’t know what to say to someone in a situation just don’t say anything. I didn’t want to be strong, and I didn’t want to think about God giving me my struggles.

So anyways. I am the person who doesn’t let myself cry (unless I’m -really- mad, then if I’m crying I’d suggest walking away). I don’t want to feel things, even still, it seems like when I open myself up there’s always pain involved. Maybe it’s fear, or avoidance, I just don’t like it. I watched that movie today, and I cried. More than once. It was a reminder of how lucky I am to have Corey in my life. Lucky that I have let my walls down for him, and maybe a reminder that I don’t have to be so strong every time something comes up. I’m sure it’s something I will struggle with forever, but I’ll have reminders along the way. Sometimes it’s good to let go.

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  • Christmas 2014

    I missed a few days in the Christmas rush! Corey was off Christmas Eve through Sunday, which was a huge blessing for our family, but it also meant a lot less downtime for me to get on the blog! Christmas Eve we brought our dog home from the vet after getting spayed and then we went and picked up Corey’s daughter that he hasn’t seen since September (insert long dramatic story). We went to lunch with my parents since her mom now lives over close to them, and then we went into Grand Rapids and let the kids play at Catch Air. We had planned something more exciting but plans don’t always go the way we want. Catch Air worked out great for the kids as they got to run around and play as much as they wanted until it closed at 4 and Analise’s mom picked her up from us. We got her a couple Christmas presents to take home, stuff she could use like a box set of young reader chapter books and a cute outfit. All the kids got along really well the whole day, which was huge, seems like with Analise not coming over as often it’s more like having a friend come play for the day.

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    Abby, Analise, Bella, and Eli on top of the inflatable slide

     

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    They were so done with shopping.

    After Analise’s mom picked her up we went over to the mall to get my iPhone fixed, somehow the center button had broken and fallen off during the day. We got my phone fixed, the kids got to play again in the play area at the mall, and we walked around and did some shopping. It was a really long day, but fun for the most part. I decided to try to get a cute holiday photo of the kids in front of the giant Christmas tree, but they were tired and not thrilled about getting their photos taken! Eli seems to be my most difficult photo child lately, can’t seem to get a good shot of him to save my life. He is definitely my son although most of the time he is a clone of his father.

    When we got home we opened our family presents and then Christmas morning the kids got their gifts from Santa. We spent Christmas day up in Big Rapids with my Sister’s family and my parents and it was a nice day even though my sister’s family has been a bit under the weather.

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    Abby and Bella with their Build A Bear buys.

    Fast forward to Sunday after church, more shopping! The girls each got a $10 gift card to Build A Bear in their stockings and Eli got $10 to spend so of course we had to spend it right away. 😉 It was another long morning of shopping (honestly not my favorite thing to do), but I think everyone was pleased
    at the end of it.

     

  • Sterilization Week

    Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like spending a load of money with the vet. Yesterday Bobbi left for his new home after getting his blood pulled for a new coggins, and a shot. We figured if the vet was imagecoming anyways we might as well get some other things done and pulled a coggins on everyone else and Sid the weanling pony got his shots and had a little surgery.

    Sid is now a gelding. Yay! 🙂 Abby was in the stall watching the event, I warned her she may not want to watch but she insisted. She didn’t seem to have any issues until closer to the end and we got a good shot of her yuck face. The vet was awesome and even explained things to us all, he was great with Abby (he also has young kids at home). I honestly think the 2 vets we have out from Equine Medical in Lowell are the best horse vets I’ve had. They are great with the horses and with us. When we moved from Lowell there were not a lot of options available to us here without a long distance farm call charge, and Equine Medical is the most expensive (It’s about a 70 mile round trip), but we stuck imagewith them because we really like them over everyone else we’ve had experience with.

    Sid looked dead for a while in his stall after, he was up and moving around though when the vet was ready to leave and he spent the night in the stall last night. Spoiled. He has a big stall all to himself, a bag full of hay, big bucket of water and has had grain 3x already. He still had a lot of hay this morning so he’ll probably be in there longer than the 24 hour prescribed stall rest just because he doesn’t seem bothered at all by having his food all to himself. I think if it were Dancer he’d be running circles in his stall, upset that no one else was inside with him, but Sid is happily munching away.

    From the horse vet yesterday to the dog vet this morning, Ellie got dropped off for her spay at 8am today. I ran out and dropped her off before Corey left for work so I wouldn’t have to drag the kids out first thing in the morning. She gets to spend the night there and we will pick her up tomorrow morning. It’ll be nice to have that done, I definitely don’t ever want to have to deal with a female dog in heat again. I don’t know how anyone can stand having a dog in their house during that. Yuck. Dealing with the doggy diapers was a pain on top of being gross, definitely not for me.

    So now every animal we own is sterilized except for Dancer, and of course the chickens. 😉

     

     

     

  • Who did it?

    Corey and I passed on going out for NYE this year, instead we opted to go out on New Years Day. We got a great deal on a movie mystery dinner from living social and a friend that was also supposed to go got sick so we were able to get their tickets and my parents got to join us. It was a fun night and our first murder mystery dinner experience. We did go to a murder mystery Halloween party this year and it was super fun, but played out a lot differently than the dinners, it is what sprouted our interest in the dinner though. 🙂

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    We started off getting our photos taken, then we were seated with other couples at a table and that became our team. One person at each table (at least) got picked to be a suspect and play a role in the game, thankfully that was not me! The game got started and we ate our dinners in between times of “interviewing” where we would use play money and interview/bribe other suspects for secrets (clues). Some of the people dressed up for the theme, a 1950’s prom, but there were quite a few like us that just wore nice casual attire. It was a fun experience even though I’m a fairly big introvert and it was very out of my box to be talking to so many strangers in a group. Sometimes I think it’s great to step out of your comfort zone, and we met some very nice people. There are times when I wish I wasn’t so introverted, but it really is a struggle to step out of my comfort zone when it comes to that and I think those kinds of changes are done over a lifetime.

     

  • Sold!

    Sold my husband’s horse today. It’s sad in ways, he’s a great horse and it’s hard not to get attached, but my husband doesn’t have the time or the urge to ride often enough to make it worth him having his own horse. With 4 riding horses I’m overwhelmed with needing to ride them all to keep them in shape, and since I’ve been training this year (end of summer until now) for the marathon I haven’t been riding nearly enough.
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    Bobbi used to be a show horse and now he’ll go back to that lifestyle and it’ll be good for him to get all the attention and work. While I don’t show myself, I know showing means your horse’s image matters and unhealthy horses don’t look good, so I won’t have to worry about him being taken care of. Also, he’s going to a little girl whose mom is buying him for her for Christmas. What an awesome Mom! So exciting, I have bought ponies for my kids before, but they don’t have the urge to ride yet and I’m waiting patiently for them to decide they got the horse bug! I’m excited to go see Bobbi and his girl when they go to fair next summer, Corey will pull out his big camera and thoroughly enjoy photographing the event I’m sure.

    He is still with us now but he’ll be leaving Monday. I’m glad they didn’t want to just take him today because my husband wouldn’t have gotten to say goodbye. He really did enjoy Bobbi and I’m sure he will miss him. Bobbi taught him how to ride and I love that.

    After Bobbi’s new owner left I did get to ride my mare Solace as well. It was a nice sunny day and not unbearably cold (this is huge for me!). She’s 6 and can be a pistol when we go to an endurance race, imagebut she hasn’t been ridden much this fall and she was an angel in the bosal today. I love how smart and trustworthy my Arabians are, they’ve had no special training, but at any age they seem to be able to retain everything they’ve learned even when they aren’t using it. This could also be bad obviously, if they’ve been taught bad manners, but mine have all been great fortunately.

    We only rode in the arena a couple of miles worth, about 20 minutes, because I didn’t want her to get sweaty. After we finished I let her eat some of the grass that we’re so fortunate to have still. This December has been warm, and while the mud was really bothering me, it was nice to not be shoveling snow and freezing the last few weeks! It’s almost as if Michigan was trying to convince me that it’s not so bad here.

     

  • Ready to go!

    Today is my last full day at home before the big race! In less than 72 hours I will be finishing up my first marathon! This is HUGE for me! To be honest I’m not a runner at heart, I don’t love to run, but I love being healthy and in shape. Running is a means to an end, I don’t mind doing it with a friend but I detest it on the treadmill and am not a huge fan of a long solo run. Training for this marathon on my own was definitely hard, but it was the motivation I needed to get out and run.

    I have learned so much about endurance from training for this run and I’m hoping what I knew previously, combined with what I’ve learned, will make me successful Sunday in Houston. I have a whole new level of appreciation for my horse when we are doing an endurance ride, and I’m hoping that a lot of what I’ve learned about preparing for this race can help me to better condition my horses for endurance rides. One major thing I’ve learned, I definitely need to start watching what I eat when I get home, because without running as much as I have been I can’t get away with eating as much as I have been! Running makes me starving, it takes a lot of control to say “no I think that’s enough”! I know that staying healthy is more about diet in most cases than activity and I know why, because when you work out you eat more, and if it’s junk you are in trouble!

    Diet and exercise, but also, equally important is REST. When I get a good night’s sleep I feel much stronger the next day. My muscles need to repair, this means days off between workouts. I will admit I did not follow the training schedule mapped out for me. I’m sure it’s a great schedule for someone looking to PR a marathon, but I will PR with finishing with 1 minute to spare! I’m not looking to win an award so I’m not going to run 5 days a week and completely tear my body down in order to maybe get a much faster time. I think 40 miles a week is a lot on a new distance runner and probably more than their body can handle to start out. Just my opinion, but I’m sure I’ll know if I didn’t get enough come Sunday!

    So please pray for my travels and my run Sunday! I appreciate it! 😀

  • Crock pot Mac'n'cheese

    Busy mornings usually leave me feeling lazy, so dinner is crock pot mac’n’cheese. Up with the kids, got them on the bus and horses fed, then an appointment with the chiropractor, the grocery store for dinner supplies, stopped in and helped Corey out with a project at work and then hit the gym.

    I had a light workout today. I ran for a mile at a much faster pace than normal to get my heart rate up, then I did some weight training and decided to come home. I don’t like overdoing my workouts after going to the chiropractor, something about the fact that my bones just got rearranged makes it not seem like a good idea to me.

    My afternoon will be filled with laundry and cleaning up the house. When the kids get home I’m going to go get our babysitter because we’re having her over for dinner and I am gifting her a couple of wonderful It Works skin care products for Christmas. She’s one of the best baby sitters we’ve ever had, she plays with the kids rather than just “watching” them, she doesn’t charge us a fortune so we can afford to go out more often, and my kids LOVE her. I believe that having a good solid babysitter is one of the most important things in my life right now, because honestly I don’t think my hubby and I would be able to make it without our date nights! We try to take at least 2 a month, and sometimes we will have lunch together. When life is crazy and stressful it’s good to be able to take some time out with your partner and remind each other that you are on the same team. 🙂

    I figured I would add the recipe for our dinner tonight as well in case anyone wants to try it out. I haven’t had the finished product yet, but I’m sure it’s delicious! I’ll update with a pic after.

    Crock Pot Mac’n’cheese

    8 oz elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
    4 cups (16 oz) shredded sharp cheddar (I used a couple different cheeses)
    1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
    1 1/2 cups milk
    2 eggs
    1 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon black pepper

    Spray crock pot with nonstick cooking spray. Put cooked macaroni in crock pot and mix with all remaining ingredients (set aside 1 cup of cheese). Sprinkle remaining cheese over top and cook on low 5 to 6 hours.

     

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    Doesn’t look like I expected, but was delicious.

     

     

     

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