An afternoon at the barn

There are some days that I just love living in Indiana.  Something about living in the "country" (which, by the way, I totally don't...it just seems like I do sometimes!) warms my little heart.  I love the way things move so slowly, I love sweet tea (I used to hate it, but now I love it...especially when mixed with lemonade!), and I love horses.  

My little sister, S, takes riding lessons at PALS, which is a therapeutic horseback riding program.  Once a week, S goes to her riding teacher's barn to help take care of her horse, Sweetpea.  I've gone with her several times.  It was such a perfect day today that I decided to break out the fancy Blackberry camera to take some photos.  

The barn, of course, has a resident cat.  Don't they all?  

This is Wyatt.  He's pretty curious.  He is gorgeous, and also for sale.  I daydream about bringing him home and keeping him in the guest bedroom.  I heart him.  
Wyatt, meet Blogland.  Blogland, meet Wyatt.  :)
This is Sweetpea's nose.  She loves shoving as much of her nose through that little window as possible.  I'm pretty sure she thought I had a treat of some sort...but, you know, I didn't.  Just the Blackberry.  Which she definitely sniffed quite a bit.
We took Sweetpea out and groomed her.  I helped!  I did her left side.  It looks fantastic.
Sweetpea enjoying being pampered!
Aren't horses beautiful?  Even with the poor quality photos, they look so gorgeous.  

Totally, Completely Exhausted...

I have decided that I have a definite fear of the unknown.  Case in point:  tonight I had my first "group run" with my training group.  Every Monday and Thursday, the running store in town has these group runs - so it's not exclusive to my training group.  I missed both group runs last week, so I didn't know what to expect.  All day, I dreaded going.  Even 5 minutes before I got in the car to drive to the store, I just stood around my apartment morosely wishing I didn't have to go.  I was worried about the format - I didn't know what we were doing.  I didn't know who would be there.  I started worrying I would be the only slow runner.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  You know the drill.  All those mind games we play with ourselves.

But, I went anyway.  And I ran my little heart out.  Seriously.  We left from the store and ran two miles to the IU soccer fields.  I ran most of the time but stopped to walk up a couple of serious inclines.  At the soccer fields, we did one mile of strides.  Whew.  Then, two miles back to the store.  That's 5 miles, people.  Obviously, I took several walk breaks on the way back...and my calves are KILLING ME.  But - I sure am proud of myself!  And I am totally, completely exhausted.  

The morning started out with Day 6 of the Shred.  I cannot WAIT to get to Level 2...I am getting seriously bored.  Thanks for all of your suggestions, but...I already do all of them.  I have had Jillian muted since day one...because I cannot stand her yelling at me.  I listen to my ipod.  My dog even joins in the fun sometimes - he especially likes when I'm on the floor doing abs.  I'm still bored, though.

After the Shred and after a nice cool shower, I went to my friend Patty's house to ride horses!  My friend Becky brought her two little kids, aged 2 and 3.  None of them had ever been on a horse before - including Becky!  I never imagined that someone born and raised in Indiana could go their entire life without riding a horse!  Anyway - Patty has a beautiful house, 12 acres, 4 horses, 2 goats, and 3 dogs.  We had so much fun!  The kids LOVED the horses.  Even the big kids (i.e. Becky and me) had a fantastic time.  

I have two favorite moments from our time with the horses.  Both involve Becky's daughter, Jenae (3 y/o).  The first:

Shaina:  Jenae, I love your pink sparkly sandals!

Jenae:  These aren't called sandals.  These are called flip-flops.

Shaina:  Oooh!  Oops.  My mistake.

Seriously.  Aren't kids the cutest?  But this one takes the cake - a great discussion between Jenae and I while she was up on the horse with me.

Jenae:  How old are all of you?

Shaina:  You want to know how old we are?  How old I am?

Jenae:  Yeah.

Shaina:  Well, I'm 27.

Jenae:  What about the other one?  Patty?

Shaina:  Patty, Jenae wants to know how old you are!

Patty:  Well sweetheart, I'm 44.

Jenae, excited:  Wow!  44!  That's how old Mommy is!!!!

Becky/Mommy:  NO, Jenae, I'm not 44!  I'm only 34!!!

Jenae, to me:  Well, they're both old.

Hahahahaha!  I nearly died laughing.  It's so true, though - when you're a kid, anyone over 18 seems ancient, right?

Anyway.  After horseback riding, I attempted to go to work.  But the offices were locked, and I don't have a key.  Also, the school was completely deserted.  Work day aborted.

So I sat around for a few hours, and then picked up S for an afternoon of fun!  I still haven't written an S post, I promise to do that soon.  After S, I went to the running group.  And there you have it, my extremely detailed day of activities!

I'm thinking there's a good chance I skip the Shred tomorrow morning.  I'm going to wait and see how I feel in the morning.  Tomorrow night, my running group is back at the IU cross country course...and that course is no joke.  I want to make sure I don't hurt myself.  I may wake up and just do some weights or pushups or something, and save my legs for the evening.  

Okay.  So now it's 10:15 and I am ready for bed.  Have a great night, everyone, and we'll chat tomorrow!  

Little Sis

I finally met my Little Sister! Whom I will now refer to as S. I think I mentioned her first name earlier, but for confidentiality reasons and all that other good stuff, I think she'll be S from here on out.

S is 12 years old and just finishing up 6th grade at a private school here in town that specializes in learning disorders and dyslexia. We had a great time getting to know each other a little bit, and discovering that we have several interests in common - reading, animals, spending time outdoors, shopping...you know, the works. She is very involved in a local program called PALS - People and Animal Learning Services, Inc., which provides a therapeutic horseback riding program. S is very into riding and showed me a scrapbook full of riding-related photos and prizes. How perfect! I told S that my sister-in-law has horses, and that perhaps we can go riding out there together this summer.

We also chatted about books and reading (she is just as much a fan of the library as I am!), dog-walking (she is a serious dog lover - I even met her dog, who was patiently waiting in the car outside), and baking. I think this is a good match and I know we will have a lot of fun together!

We will be hanging out next Wednesday for the first time one-on-one...and I am really looking forward to it. I'll keep you posted!

Running, workouts, interview, etc.

I've been wanting to post all day...but haven't really felt like creating an interesting post. So, this is probably not interesting. Sorry.

Mr. Smith and I went for our Monday run yesterday! Which makes it sound so routine...when in fact this is the first Monday we have ran together. :) Our running schedule is now MWF (did I already tell you this? Hmmm, maybe. Hey, I said I wasn't interesting today.). We ran outside yesterday for a mile, and then went to the apartment gym and ran another mile. Ha! Just kidding. Mr. Smith ran another mile. I ran another 1/3 of a mile, walked 2/10 of a mile, and then ran ANOTHER 1/3 of a mile. Which means that I ran for a total of 1.66 miles...which I think is pretty darn good.

Mr. Smith thinks that we should try to run outside on Mondays and Fridays, and then run inside on the treadmill on Wednesdays. Treadmill runs are easier (no testy inclines to worry about - at least until I set them myself!), so Wednesdays shall be an "easy" day. Of course, he expects me to run a longer distance on Wednesdays. Sigh.

Anyway - running the first mile definitely felt easier yesterday. Running on the treadmill...well, let's just say I was about ready to finish as soon as we got there. But I perservered! Mostly because I was getting kind of into a Katie Couric news story about how young people today are losing their faith (no pun intended) in organized religion. Fascinating stuff!

This morning, I woke up early to do the Jillian Michaels Level 2 workout. This is only the second time I've done Level 2, and it is. so. freaking. hard. But I got through it without stopping! Go me! I now have all sorts of sore arm muscles I didn't previously know existed. My arm could barely hold the hair dryer this morning. :)

In other news...yes, this is a long, boring post...I had my Big Brothers Big Sisters interview yesterday! It went really well, and I'm super excited about it. They have started all my background checks, and they said to expect about a four week turnaround until I'm matched with a Little. I'll keep you posted!

Well, that's about it. Boring.