The true story of Greta and the black cloud that follows her...

Every time I look at this picture I can't help but have a true laugh out loud moment.... this face says it all.

This poor dog has everything bad happen to her. Not that I want bad things happening to Bailey because my checkbook can't afford 2 high maintenance dogs. But anything bad and expensive that can happen, happens to Greta. About two years ago now she decided to eat something that caused them to open her stomach in order to remove it (we won't discuss that expense), she's torn her ACL (or this one for that matter), has horrible skin allergies, and now this....

Over the weekend Michael and Greta were wrestling on the couch and when she jumped down she got her thumb nail caught on something and ripped it pretty much at the base. Poor little thing just started crying, whining and squealing. It was the saddest sound and just about broke my heart. It was all I could do to hold back the tears for her. I had to have Michael hold her still while I put two band aids over the nail to keep it in place and then in ghetto white trash fashion I cut up a pair of my socks and found some black electrical tape to hold it on. She has this obsession with licking - whether it's her feet or Michael's head and she's the worst at licking her battle wounds. So I had to figure out how to keep her from getting to this nail without making a late night run to CVS. And since I don't make a habit of keeping sports tape or bandages in the house - the sock and black tape had to do.

Michael took her to the vet for me on Tuesday because again I couldn't bare listening to her sweet cries and turns out they'd have to sedate her in order to cut it off because of the pain. Well of course you have to sedate her - why wouldn't you??? Not to mention the vet found a skin tag on Greta that she also wanted to cut off because it's a precursor to skin cancer. Apparently light colored dogs are more prone to cancer - fantastic!

This incident is another vet bill we won't discuss but I will share that the bandage alone they put on her leg cost me $35..... $35 people... for something I could have gone to Target and purchased for less than $5. So you can only imagine the shots for sedating her and then bringing her out of sedation.... ugh! But for $35 that bandage better look freaking perfect - which it did. Until of course we've been getting all this rain, which of course causes my backyard to be a lake. So the beautiful expensive bandage was black and soaked in less than 2 hours of her being home. Needless to say I started cutting part of the bottom off so her foot wasn't wet all the time. And selfishly so she wasn't dragging black mud through my house. To which she then decided why not take the full bandage off. Here I'm thinking she's sleeping in her room but instead she was ripping the thing off. Had I known it wouldn't last long I would have taken a picture so you can see a vet applied bandage vs. a Savery applied bandage. There is a major difference in the quality. But why spend the money when she's just going to rip them off.

So this morning after her going out and ruining yet another pair of my socks in the mud I decided to sacrifice a pair of Michael's white socks.

My poor dog and all her aliments. Not to mention she's not allowed to leave my side anymore because when she does that means she's getting into trouble. And the bandage has to stay on for awhile so she doesn't lick the blood clot that is trying to form. I really don't need blood stains in my house.

Maryland Trip

I've been trying to get to Maryland to see Leigh Ann (LAGS) since mid June. Based on both our schedules we finally we settled on July 8 - 12th which was her birthday weekend. So myself and her friend Jane from Ft. Walton fly in on Wed night for the weekend. I think LAGS just wanted more presents so she conned us both into coming up. She has a way of getting people to do what she wants - and to this today I'm still not sure how she pulls it off after 8 years of friendship. But oh well it's worth it. We had a great time together.

On Thursday we drove to Annapolis and walked around and did some shopping. Annapolis reminds me of Fernandina a little bit but only with hot military men, so it's a little better. But it has quaint little restaurants and cute little shops to walk around in. Of course they have 3 ice cream places within 2 blocks so really you can't go wrong.

Friday we did errands around town getting ready for her birthday party on Saturday, which was a Twilight theme or vampires for those who don't know what Twilight is. Don't worry if you don't because I didn't either and since I haven't read the books or seen the movies because well vampires just really don't do anything for me I was made fun of the whole weekend. But you know I'm okay with that because I'm a better person for not giving in and for not knowing - at least that's what I told LAGS. Besides there were a few of her other friends who haven't seen it so when they showed up on Saturday to the party the poking was all back on her. My high school friend/college roommate Liz also lives up in MD, in a town LAGS actually grew up so I got to see her for a little while on Friday too. She just had a new baby on July 3rd, William Daniel, and I still hadn't met her other son Jacob who is 2 1/2. So it was great seeing her. We did take one picture while I was there but of course I was trying to be cool with the new fixed lens and the picture came out blurry. So much for being cool when all the pictures come out blurry because I really have no idea what I'm doing.

Anyway - Saturday was decorating day and secret mission day with our friend Dawn, her daughter Sophia, and Jane to get LAGS a gift for her birthday. She loooooooooves trees so Dawn called Lowe's and they said they had Magnolia trees in and that's what we wanted to get her. Well we get to Lowe's and NO Magnolia trees - they lied to us........ jerks! So mission was aborted and we went to Chic-Fil-A instead. Then Saturday night was the party which was a lot of fun with the vampire themed desserts and karaoke. Then Sunday I flew home on Southwest who I had claimed not 24 hours before never had airplane problems and it didn't bother me that Carl was reading a story of another plane issue in France. Only to find out that two SWA flights on the Monday and Tuesday after I got home had to make emergency landings. So much for that track record.

Okay enough rambling and boring you with words - I'm now going to bore you with pictures.

Back In The Saddle Again

Last fall I was asked if I'd be interested in taking lessons on one of the horses at Hope Therapy, Sasha. She's a 20 year old Thoroughbred mare who doesn't get ridden much but needs to be. I was also told that if one day I'd like to lease her and start showing her in dressage that the option is open for me. Dressage is basically the horse and rider doing a pattern in an arena that consist of either walking, trotting, or cantering. There are lots of fancy videos on You Tube but that definitely won't be me... :) Then Marianne's husband suffered a horrible, almost fatal heart attack so all lessons were put on hold while she and the family worked on getting him better.


While taking lessons again and being back on a horse sounded like the greatest thing since slice bread I also had reservations about it. Only because the last time I had a real lesson I think I was 10....which was umm 21 years ago. I'm much older now, much more out of shape and not a dare devil on horseback like I used to be. I can remember times throwing on a halter with some reigns and going swimming with our horses. My friend Kim G and I used to hop on horseback all the time with a bridle and no saddle and go explore the woods. I think about all the crazy things I used to do on a horse and now the opportunity to ride was here again and I was scared. Funny how growing older changes ones personality a little bit.... not that I'm lacking at times in personality but just changes how you view things/think about things.


However, I got over my fears or maybe it was more my pride for that matter. I think I was more prideful than anything because I used to be a pretty good rider at one point and now I was starting over. So whatever it was that was ailing me I got over it. I had my first lesson two Sunday's ago, in the 100 degree June heat. I told the trainer, Adrian, to take it slow with me and pretend I've never done this so all I did was walk, worked on leg positioning and hand work. It felt so good to be back up there. It all started coming back to me but I do now I need to start working out to lose weight (so it's easier to get in the saddle...haha) and working on my flexibility. But it's a good excuse and it's a good distraction in my life right now.