Over the hill and through the woods.....

...not to Grandma's house we go, but home! The drive was very long. I started at 7:30 am, spent over an hour at the border crossing, then had to go veeeeery slowly over Mt Hood. I probably would have been faster going down to The Dalles and up Hwy 197. But I didn't know. This is how the pass was all the way. Actually, this was one of the better sections. I was ok going slow, I felt safe. But it just made for a long day.

As soon as I got home the kitties wanted to go outside. They don't like being inside all the time, and they'd been inside for six days...so out they went. They came back in after just a little while, since it was snowing hard. But they were just happy to get out! :)

Merry Christmas!

well, I'm home in Vancouver for Christmas. The drive up was pretty good, but slow due to weather and a couple accidents. Christmas eve we had immediate family, plus Syl and Spiro, of course. Here's a picture of the creche I made for my mom back in...wow, maybe 1983 or '84? There's not one more like it in the world! :) It was Smurfs, Terracotta warriors, llamas, Perivuan china bull, crystal turtle and more! We still put it up every year. It's SO vanEijnsbergen!!!! :)
Syl and Spiro came, like always, with their brand new baby. She is just GORGEOUS! I am biased, but she is gorgeous. we had a really good time, and were so happy that they came. Like I've said before, Syl has spent more Christmas Eve's at my house than I have since 1986 when I met her. She has not missed one! And this year with a 6-week old, they were there. So special.

Here's mom and Kai watching the Santa candle merry-go-round. He's a pretty good kid. Very cute. My parent's camera has some even better pictures. I'll upload those when I get 'em from them.
And here's mom looking at the destruction in the living room after we finished opening our presents. Big job cleaning that one up!

Today, Christmas Day we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Langley for Christmas Day dinner. My cousins were also there, and we had a lot of fun. We had a rather nontraditional Christmas meal, paella. But it was amazing. There are two dishes, 'cause it had shellfish, so that one on the left is for me, without shellfish. I'm allergic...

Along with the paella they ALSO had crab legs. Hee hee. I thought they looked hilarious.

Here's the feast. Unfortunately 'cause of the way the room is set up I could not get back far enough to get everyone in. Too bad.

It's been a good Christmas so far. We're having an "open house" tomorrow and then I head home Thursday. Hooray! :)

Nothing's new...

I haven't been updating 'cause nothing has been happening! :) My legs are healing slowly, but they still swell something awful. I've been trying to do some really gentle spinning at home, alternated with leg and ab exercises. I'm also trying to remember to take it easy and not get to anxious. I'm sure I'll heal in leaps and bounds in the new year.

I'm heading up to Vancouver on Sunday to spend Christmas with my family. I'm looking forward to it. I have to work Saturday for one of my staff, or else I'd head up sooner. Another of my staff fell off a ladder yesterday...I really hope he's well enough to work.

Other than that, the Bend Bella Cyclists Executive Committee had a cookie exchange at our monthly meeting, so I've got lots of great cookies. Too many really, so I'll be giving some away and taking some home.

Surf's up

Wow, I haven't updated in a while! That's probably since not much is happening. I've started back swimming...but I can only do about 15-20 minutes of very slooooow laps. Well, it's more like one length, stop and tread water for a minute, another length and rest...but it's a start, right? :)

It is going well, but I'm still only allowed to work 20 hours per week at the branch. I can work from home though. The incisions look really good, except there is some dimpling around a couple of the stitch marks on my left leg. Can you see the dimpling...and no, that's not cellulite!!!! :P My legs still get tired pretty quickly and they swell too. So I'm wearing super sexy compression stockings for another couple weeks to help with that. I'm hoping the dimpling is just because of swelling.

Since I am only working part-time, I watched Surf's Up today. It's really actually super sweet. More than that, it's good. I enjoyed it very much and highly recommend it...even to those that don't watch kids movies! :)

Stitches out...

I'm so glad, the last of the stitches are out! Hooray! I still don't get to take a bath until Saturday... but it's nice to not have to wrap my legs anymore. I've started back to work, but only part-time. It's amazing how much my legs still swell and how tired I get, despite having my legs up at work as much as possible. And my poor little legs are SO dry!

Oh well, soon enough it'll be all healed and back to biking, hiking, swimming and skiing! :)

I had something else I was going to say, but now I can't remember what it was....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day everyone! :) Let's see...what am I thankful for? Everything, but especially that I can finally walk around the house without pain. Whoohoo!!!!! I see the doc tomorrow morning for my 10 day check up. We'll see if they want to take out the stitches. I hope so, so that I can take a shower. Ick, 10 days without a shower or bath...not too fun. So here I am a couple days ago getting ready for my leg/foot massage. My mom was a PT, so I got lots of nice massages. They really are feeling much better, but there are some odd twinges, and my left leg down at the bottom is numb.

My mom headed out this morning. She probably would have left a day or two ago, but she was nervous about the weather on the pass. Looked clear today. It really was great having her here. Not only did I get massages, but I got to see the pictures of Mexico!!! I got to see what I missed. :) My cat Loki decided that she LOVES my mom. I've never seen her all over someone like that. She's usually really shy, but she was seriously ALL OVER my mom! If we were sitting down she chose mom's lap over me. Now that's unusual.

My mom had never seen any of the Harry Potter movies, so we watched #1-4 while she was here. She really enjoyed them and wants to read one of them. Hee hee.

Welcome Vahla!

One of my best friends Sylvia and her husband Spiro had their first child this weekend. Her name is Vahla Elyse and she's just BEAUTIFUL! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Here's Spiro with Vahla on day one.
Syl and Vahla at home.
And I LOVE this one, Vahla and their dog Twitch. Twitch is SUCH a "mother" dog...you can already see how much she loves her new baby! :) I can't wait to meet her in person. I was supposed to go up this weekend, as Syl's sister Serena is getting married, but since I'm on bed rest that can't happen. Oh well...Christmas.

Pictures of the incisions

Ok, I decided to not post the pictures here, 'cause I know some of you are complete wussies! :) But I've made a Flickr gallery of both surgeries. The ones from this surgery are at the end. See, lost longer and they're going to scar really good!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chandravan/sets/72157603189421875/

Home from Surgery

I spent the weekend setting everything up in my house for when I came back from surgery. I decided to rent a hospital bed, since getting up of the air mattress on the floor was difficult enough last time. I also shopped...I don't think you could fit one more thing in my freezer or cupboards! :) But I got it all set up to my satisfaction, and it's pretty good if I do say so myself.

My surgery was scheduled for 12:20 on Monday, which meant no food after midnight and no fluids...nothing, after 6:30 am. Heidi and Derek took me to the hospital at 10:50, I checked in, had my pre-op blood taken and all that. Then I sat and waited for the nurse to come take me back to the surgery area. And I wait...and wait...and wait. Finally at 1:00 I asked one of the admitting nurses. She checked and found out that Dr Smith was really behind. She'd had some serious complications with her first surgery and everything was behind.

So they sent me out to wander around, but gave me a pager. They'd page me when Dr Smith was ready. All I could smell everywhere I went was the cafeteria. I was SOOOO hungry and thirsty. But I still could not have anything. I sat in the lobby and did crossword puzzles. Finally I got beeped at about 3:50. They took me back, but by the time I actually got into surgery it was about 5:30.

The surgery went well, but my coming out of the anesthesia was a little more difficult than last time. I was really nauseous, so I had to stay until I felt ok. The nurse opened up an antiseptic wipe and used that as smelling salts. Worked really well! :) By the time Barrie and Kate were able to take me home it was after 9:00. I spent the night there and I gotta tell ya, they really took care of me! :) Here I am on the couch just after getting there. Icing. The doc wants me to wear those soft casts/walking casts on both legs. At the hospital the pants I had wouldn't go over the big boots, so they game me some scrubs. Hee hee.

This time around, it's much more painful! Dr Smith warned me that it probably would be, since she did two muscles in each leg not just one. Well, she was right. OMG! Last time on day two I could do a little walking...sure as a hobble, but I could do it. This time I can shuffle a foot or two...but only if I'm holding on to something. Sigh. This was me yesterday morning.

My mom is going to come down and take care of me on Thursday or Friday. I'm looking forward to that...some times you just need your mommy to come take care of ya! :) So that's my update for today.

Getting ready

So, this weekend is all about getting ready to sit on my ass for a couple weeks! :) I decided to rent a hospital bed, instead of sleeping on the air mattress. It was really really difficult to get up! I had to turn over, crawl to the couch or wall and then find some way to haul myself up. Someone suggested a hospital bed...duh!!! It's $170/month and my insurance will pay for 80% of it. It's electric, so I can put my feet or head up, and best of all, getting out of it will be so much easier! :) It was delivered yesterday and I think I got the room set up pretty well.

So, today is shopping and getting all the things I'm going to need. Tomorrow is cleaning, cooking so that I don't really have to for the first several days, and then arranging everything close to the bed. Everything within arms reach...

No heel surgery needed

I saw the podiatrist yesterday and I don't need to have that bone fragment removed. In fact, she thinks it's incidental to the pain. What there was, was a huge abscess inside my heel. For whatever reason. I have a hard time believing that it would have nothing to do with the bone spur...but then again I didn't go to medical school! :) She still says it' a really good thing I didn't go on the Mexico trip, as it probably would have gotten really bad. So all I have to do is continue taking antibiotics for another 2-3 weeks and all shuld be well. If it happens again she said they'd go in and do a fasciotomy at that spot to relieve the pressure.

As for my other fasciotomies...they're booked for Monday Nov 12. Hooray! :) It'll be amazing to have it all done and have legs that don't hurt anymore!!!!

Surgery #1 scheduled...

I saw Dr Smith yesterday and she agreed that we should go in and do the compartment release surgery for the backs of my calves. Two muscles in each leg, but she things she can do them through one incision. It'll be a bigger...or, well, a longer one anyway, than the one in the front. But since we now know everything I'm allergic to (knock on wood!) the healing process should be really fast.

I see Dr Schweger on Friday after my MRI today and that'll tell us if they need to go in and remove that bone fragment. Dr Smith did say that if I do need surgery they'll do their best to arrange them to be at the same time. The fewer times I have to go under general anesthesia the better! So if that does need surgery that'll be five surgical scars on my legs. If it does require two incisions on each leg for the compartments that'll be seven! Oh well, so long as they heal! :)

What a weekend!

Friday I did manage to get into the podiatrist. They scheduled me for an MRI this Wednesday and sent me home with anti-inflamatories and instructions to STAY OFF my feet as much as possible. During the day my foot got progressively more painful, to the point where by the evening all I wanted to do was lie there and cry. I took three percocet...and it took the pain down from an8/9 to about a 6...for an hour! That's it! I only slept maybe 30 minutes total Friday night. I spent most of it either sitting on the couch rocking back and forth trying to ease the pain, or lying on the kitchen floor curled up..except for my leg, and crying.

Not a great night. I thought about going to the emergency room...but didn't. I did call BMC Urgent Care though. If they'd been open at night I would have gone. But they opened at 8:00. So at 7:00 am I called Julie and asked her if she'd drive me there. She did...and I spent the next five hours there. Sigh. It hurt SOOOOOO friggin' much! It was pretty obvious by then that there was something really wrong...more than just a simple bone spur. What's really funny is that it was the doc I saw over at the westside BMC that I also saw at the main clinic on Sat! :)

He came into the room, asked me what I was doing there, looked at my foot and said "Oh, that's not good!" It was quite swollen and red. He thought that there was probably a big infection along with the bone spur. So, he sent me off for a CAT scan...but it wouldn't be as effective, 'cause I'm allergic to the contrast dye. But anyway, we did it, did a ton of labs and yes, there is infection and inflammation in the tissue around the bone spur. Not really surprising.

So...he sent me home...finally, with antibiotics and more percocet and further instructions to stay off the foot as much as it hurts. So anyway, I spent the rest of the day resting. I wasn't planning on going to the drag show, but when everyone showed up for our pre-drag show drinks...I changed my mind. Everyone just looked so great all dressed up, and I knew it'd be a blast...so I went! :)

Here I am strapping on my boot. I went as Bad Kitty...again. I really wanted to go as Columbia, but the costume is just too complicated with a walking cast and crutches.
So it was myself, Ana, Julie, Barrie, Kate and Paige that went together. April wasn't going to go, but wound up going with some derby girls. Wish I'd gotten some pictures of them too. So here we are at the drag show. Most people were dressed up. This is me, Paige as the pixie and Julie as a 1800's brothel madam.
This guy was quite...ah, interesting! :) He and his girlfriend were in "matching" costumes and spent a lot of time making out. LOL. There was another guy that came dressed up as Snow White. They were both great!

See, I did have my crutches! I used them when I was walking around. After the show, I did "dance" without them...but by then the percocet and two drinks definitely dulled the pain. Hee hee. Luckily though, I really think the anti-inflamatories and antibiotics were starting to work 'cause they already felt better...and continued to feel better Sat night and all day today.
As aways, Poison Water was EXCELLENT! Those ladies are amazing. And so funny too! :) Here they are introducing themselves.
I do have quite a few from the show, but you'll have to check out my Flickr site for them. Julie was killing me! She's such a....librarian! :) Hee hee hee hee.

Then after the show the chairs were all taken out and the dancing began!

I hung out and danced for a while, but I knew I shouldn't push it. So Barrie and Kate took me home. I wanted to stay longer, but it's good I went when we did. It was almost midnight by the time we got home, so it's not like we left early! :) I'd set my bed up on the main floor 'cause I just could not handle the stairs another night. But I had Ana's keys, so I stayed up for them. They eventually rolled in around 1:00...stayed until after 2:00 trying on various other costumes I have. I've got quite a few good ones! :) The whole night was a complete blast.

Then today, Sunday, I slept pretty much ALL day. Not 'cause of last night, but just because I was so tired! Not sleeping at all Friday night, and then all the stress and pain of the last three days just caught up to me. I crashed today. So, Tues I see Dr Smith about getting the compartment release surgery done earlier, then Wed I have the MRI for my foot and then see the podiatrist again Friday to talk about what we should do. So...we'll see.

I'm still very sad to not be going to Mexico!

THIS !$*^!!^#*& SUCKS!!!!

Well, for those of you who don't know yet, I won't be going to Mexico on my trek that I've been looking forward to for the last 10 months. Sigh. Last night the side of my foot down by my heel was sore to the touch, but not to walk on. This morning when I tried to get out of bed I couldn't put any weight on it at all!

So I headed off to the new BMC clinic over on the west side. I was hoping maybe it was a spider bite or something. Maybe a bone bruise. I haven't fallen or hit my foot on anything...at least not that I can remember. They took x-rays and the doc came back in and asked if I wanted to go look at my x-ray with him. I figured that wasn't a good sign. Sure enough, it wasn't.

I have a bone spur that's snapped off. So I'm in a walking cast and on crutches for a couple weeks. I have to go see a podiatrist to see if there's anything they can do about it, and why I'm having bone spurs anyway. The doc figured I'm a bit young for how big it was. Sigh. This really sucks!!! I asked him if I could hike on my walking boot. He just looked at me like I was insane. I'm still holding out hope that maybe the podiatrist can work a miracle by next Tuesday... you know, in five days. Not likely.

On the bright side, I guess it's better that it happened here than in the canyons of Copper Canyon. Our guide said that they have to shoot horses that break their legs 'cause there's really no way to get them out. The nearest medical services are like 500 miles away. I'm trying to find the silver linings. Oh yea, and I was probably going to have surgery again in December to release the muscles on the back of my calves...I'll see if I can get in to see the surgeon sooner and maybe have the surgery now, while I'm going to be off anyway!

THIS SUCKS!!!!!!

One of these things is not like the other...

A few weeks ago I shared my experience of picking up the wrong cat...thinking it was Dread, but it was actually McCormick, a cat from down the street. Well, now you can see how alike they look. So...which one is which?
Do you see how I could get them mixed up?

On Sunday Barrie and I and another Bella, Alex, tried to ride from Swampy down to Bend. We'd been planning it for almost a month, 'cause it was the first free weekend in a while. Well... it snowed Friday and Saturday. We went up there and look... SNOW! It was c-c-c-c-cold! We tried it though...headed out on the trail. But it just wasn't fun. We couldn't go very fast and the thought of the downhills in that snow was freaking me out a bit. Look at the snow!
Instead,we drove back down Cascade Lakes Hwy and rode Storm King over to Whoops and down. It may not have been the ride we intended, but it was tons of fun! :) Absolutely gorgeous day, perfect riding weather. And, we got to try the new whoops that COTA obviously had worked on the day before. They're fun...but a lot bigger than they were!

It's hard to take a picture of the back of your leg...

This last weekend...possibly the last nice weekend for a while, was the last official Bella ride of the season. I've been sick, but I really wanted to go. It was probably a mistake. We carpooled up to the Skyliner trailhead and the conversatonal ride did the Skyliner Trail. It's a lot of fun! Rolling trail through the trees, a couple of fun log piles, and eventually it takes you to the top of lower Whoops. I had to turn around about 3/4 or the way though. I was having bike issues, and wasn't feeling good. My chest hurt and I just wasn't gettting enough air.

WEll...on my way back, I took a header coming INTO THE PARKING LOT! How embarassing. Of course there were about 25 people there watching. Sheesh. There was a parked car I was trying to avoid, but hit a sand pit instead. My wheel turned and stopped dead sending me over and into a big bolder sitting there. As my knee smashed into the rock my right leg ripped down my chain ring. I stood there hunched over thinking "I've broken my kneecap and ripped my calf open to the muscle!" I didn't but it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch! This is what it looked like Monday. It's really hard to take a picture of the back of your own leg...
Monday was the annual Central Oregon Regional Library Conference. At one of the sessions we learned all about DDR, Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. What fun! :) Here's April showing us how it's done.

Loki wanted a little venison

I was feeling pretty rough again yesterday so I came home to lay on the couch. Now, it's pretty common for the deer to wander down my street and eat the trees in my "front yard." I was on the couch, look up and there are five deer wandering across the road. Two of them are pretty big with large antlers. Oh well, nothing new. Then I look closer and see that Loki is creeping up on them! Here she is still being a bit shy. It's not just her though! Can you see the fluffy white Persian behind the bushes? They were soooooo curious!

The next thing I know Loki's come out from behind the "protection" of the bushes and creeping up behind the BIGGEST of the deer. She was stalking him like she would stalk a bird. Finally he turned to look at her...and she froze. I like how she looks away from him to show him she's no danger. LOLOLOL like the deer would actually be scared of her! :)
When he looked away again she creeps closer, closer, closer. She was ALMOST at his heels...then I don't know what scared her, but she turned tail and RAN! :)

It was very funny.

Sick as a dog

Why do we use that phrase? What does sick as a dog really mean? Well, whatever it means, I've been sick and stuck on the couch all weekend. After a while you get sick of chicken noodle soup and tea. I've had nothing to do, so I've been watching movies.


If you have not seen This Film Is Not Yet Rated yet, you SHOULD!!!! It's so good! It's all about the MPAA movie rating system created by Jack Vallenti. Wow, is it ever a secretive group and process. It's FASCINATING!!!!

I think everyone should see it. Don't get me wrong, I do think the movie ratings may be useful at some times, but we need to take them with a grain of salt. It's so arbitrary and...really, unfair to a lot of movies. There is NO written criteria of what makes a movie NC-17 or R. One of the people interviewed made a good point - if it's the only system available it may...MAY be better than nothing. But then again, maybe not.

Oh, you'll just have to watch it. It's insane! It's a more secretive group than the CIA!

Fall River

Saturday I went for a smaller hike with April and Julia. It was just lovely! I've driven past Fall River, on Hwy 40, but I'd never seen it. So last weekend I decided to go do the hike along the banks of the river. It was a relatively easy hike...but I just need miles right now! :) Here's the day use area...look how clear the water is! I bet it's fabulous in the summer.

And there's a lovely bridge that goes over the river. The trail is on this side, but on the other is a short walk to a bench with a great view of the river. Have I said yet that is was just lovely? :)

We came across this interesting tree root. It's huge too. It's taller than I am! :) All it needed was a marmot or something poking his head out.

Poor Dread

Poor Dready. Here's the latest in the saga of my cats. Nothing really bad has happened since last year when Loki broke her leg. But they're like children...something is always going to go wrong. Here he is in one of his favourite spots. Alright, so here's what happened....

I haven't been sleeping well again the last couple weeks. Thursday night the cats come in, everything looks fine and we head off to bed. About 2:30 I give up the ghost on being able to sleep so go downstairs and read and watch tv. BTW, really nothing on at 3:00am!!!! By about 4:30 I figure I need to try again and go back upstairs. As I'm getting into bed Dread sits up and he's soaking wet all down his chest. The blanket under him is also soaking wet. He's drooling like a maniac and can't close his mouth. He tried to lick my hand, but can just bump his nose up against it.

It takes me a good five minutes to see what's wrong, 'cause of course he doesn't WANT me futzing around with his mouth. It's ouchy! What I see is this HUGE gash across his tongue. It's cut about 1/2 way up, and about 1/2 way through...sideways. It looks painful! I took him into the vet on Friday and sure enough, he needed surgery to repair his tongue.

While the vet was in there they discovered he'd also cracked a tooth. They had to put him out completely (can you imagine stitching a cat's tongue while it's awake?!?!?!?!), and even though he was out, touching the tooth made him jump. So...tooth had to come out too. Boy, he wasn't a happy camper when he came home. They think that perhaps he had a seizure and bit his own tongue. He was fine when he came in and we can't think of anything else. He was sound asleep! He is getting older, so it's not impossible for him to have a seizure. Have I said "poor kitty"?

But he got good drugs! :) Saturday after I'd given him his evening dose, his pupils were SO dilated that you could not see any of the color. He just had these huge black eyes. Hee hee. Completely high kitty! Poor Dread. Oh yea, to make amtters worse, Loki hisses at him and won't even be in the same room with him. He's feeling crappy and his sisters rejects him. And mommy is shoving nasty things into his mouth...which already HURTS!!!! Poor kitty.

Hopefully he'll be better soon. I know that the picture below is pretty much what cats do...and that's what he's been doing all weekend....but lying in the sun and passed out after surgery are two different things!
I haven't taken a picture of him since the surgery...he's just so pathetic and I think the flash will freak him out. He's been really skittish and not happy. Imagine that! :) I spent most of Saturday making sure he was ok, but I did manage to get out for a hike with April and Julie. We went to Fall River which was BEAUTIFUL! I'll post those pictures later. Then Sunday I took Tyler to open skate at COISC and then joined Julie and Sheila for dinner...and I'm ashamed to admit it, the finale for Rock of Love. I've NEVER watched an episode...but spaghetti and wine conned me into it.

Last ride before the storm!

Today was just gorgeous outside. 79 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Tomorrow is supposed to be 52 degrees and rainy. Central Oregon weather is just SO changeable. So of course I had to get out into it! Barrie and I did a 2.5 hour ride. We went up Kent's, down Voodoo then Grand Slam and back to the trailhead. Maybe it should only have taken us 2 hours...but man, that trail KICKED MY ASS today! :) I psyched myself out on one section...and you know how it goes after you've psyched yourself out once...it just gets worse! I was just feeling a bit shaky and tired, so I knew I'd be sloppy. And I cannot afford to hurt myself badly before Mexico.

I had heard about the metal bike sculpture, but hadn't seen it. Well, here it is with Barrie in front. It's super cool!

Last night when I was driving home there was the most amazing moon. This picture doesn't do it justice in the least. Brilliant moon, clear sky with tinges of red...fabulous.

Maybe it was cause of the full moon that the raccoons were so weird last night! About 11:00 I hear this scrabbling on my porch and Dread comes flying in off the porch growling like crazy. So I close the door...and all of a sudden there are two raccoons. They definitely tried to get in! Sheesh. Makes me think that maybe I'll have to leave even the upper porch closed when I'm away. Poor kitties, no fresh air.

Tumalo Falls

I love the Tumalo Falls loop. Julie and I did it today, took us about 3.5 hours for 6.8 miles. A bit slow...but ok for where I'm at physically at this point. It's SUCH a gorgeous hike that I have no problem taking it slow. There's the big waterfall down at the trailhead that everyone sees. But as you go up the trail it's just one waterfall after another. I think this is my favourite.
Here I am in front of a waterfall...it's just a different angle than the picture above. It's funny, when a hike goes uphill I always think of the "peak" as the half-way point of the hike. Well, on this trail it's definitely not! :) Only about 3/4 of the way around does it start to go downhill.
Funny, but I didn't really take any from that side! So here's one of Julie at one of the falls on the way up. It was nice enough for short sleeves, but just not quite warm enough to unzip the convertible pants.
Living in Central Oregon ROCKS! I can go hiking, then see this in my front "yard"
I did a mini pre-pack for Mexico. One month and one week and then I'll be off! :) I'm excited. I wanted to make sure that had purchased the correct size duffel bag. I did.

First horseback rides...

Kai had his first horsie ride! :) And of course I love this picture, seeing how much horses were a part of my life. He's SOOOOOO cute!!!
I think this was my first ride. That's my mom holding me and my maternal grandfather leading the horse. My grandparent's owned a farm, but sold it by the time I was...about 5 or 6? I have a ton of pictures from that time...kittens and me on a bench, playing 3 Billy Goats Gruff with my dad and brother in the barn, picking vegetables, and my favourite, being read to by my grandma in the garden. I don't remember the farm at all...but I know they had one! :)

This one probably doesn't count, does it? Know what I learned the other day? Carousels have a variety of animals/characters to sit on, a merry-go-round has only horses. I loved horses from as early as I can remember.
Maybe Kai will grow up to be like his Auntie Chan and be a rider. It all starts with one ride and the next thing you know you're here:

I've probably said this before...but it's SO odd that none of my current friends here know me as a rider. It's such a HUGE part of who I am, but most people don't know that. If you don't believe me, check out my Growing Up gallery....LOTS of horses there! :)