Sienna's X-Ray

Sienna wants you all to know she is very talented because she was able to swallow the racquetball halfway down her throat.  Below is the x-ray the vet took of her when we first brought her the the emergency clinic on Sunday.  The arrow is pointing to the racquetball, which you can see is somewhat pushing on her trachea (the darker gray right above the ball) which was making it hard for her to breathe.  I would like to point out that STG saw this x-ray and immediately busted out laughing.  It is amusing, now that she is alive and well.

Shoutout to Mike at work for helping me find this image on the CD the vet gave me.  I am terrible with all kinds of technology.

A Diva's Got to Have Her Sidekick

Here is the photo shoot Sienna's been promising you for a few months now (she was a little camera shy, but still adorable).  She's doing SO well - no allergies, well-mannered, and racquetball free!

This one is my favorite

First Visit to Nashvegasssss

Kyle, Matt and I all flew off to Nashville last week to visit Cindy.  It was tons of fun, jam packed of activities, but also very relaxing! On Friday when we got in, we stopped by Cindy's house to drop off all our stuff, which in true Cindy form, was an absolutely adorable, impeccably decorated little cottage.  Like I want to live there.  We then went to eat dinner at Hattie B's and then off to Marathon Music Works (owned by Cindy's neighbors) to see Phoenix.  Except I'm a baby and shortly after I got there I got really tired so Cindy and I went home to bed.

On Saturday, I slept in, which was AWESOME.  We had plans to go to the Nashville Beerfest, but we left a little early so Cindy could drive us around a little to see the city.  First of all... I love Nashville.  There are all of these neighborhoods which have awesome older houses that are renovated and are all so unique.  In Raleigh, people just bulldoze old houses to rebuild huge monstrosities.  They didn't do that in all these great neighborhoods in Nashville.  In addition to all the cool houses, the neighborhoods have tons of local restaurants and shops that I could wander around forever, I think.  This makes me so excited to go back to Nashville!

The beerfest was pretty cool - a little hot, but it was okay.  The best part though, was as many samples as I wanted of the Tennessee Whisper whiskey cream.  Holy moly that stuff was good!  Kyle bought us some bourbon cream from Buffalo Trace, so I can have something similar at home.

Then I went home and took a nap because I enjoyed the whiskey cream a little too much.

It's a little confusing, but then that night, we all went to watch two guys from the movie Beerfest (and also Super Troopers) and it was hilarious.  Beerfest is one of my favorite movies, so I really liked seeing the guys in person.

After the standup comedy, we went to a great french bistro type restaurant called BLVD.  I ate the second half of Cindy's chicken salad sandwich the next day - holy moly it was the best I've ever had!!!

Saturday - overall success!!

Sunday was rainy and dreary, so we just hung out at Cindy's house.  Her neighbors, the ones who own Marathon Music Works, came over with their son, and had dinner with us, so it was a fun end to a relaxing day.  Although I nearly died from putting too much hot sauce on my food.  I should have known better though... it was from Cindy's refrigerator....

Monday was sort of sad because we had to pack up...but then Cindy drove us around more of the neighborhoods (LOVE) and around Vanderbuilt some.  I like seeing other campuses, just to see how they are all different.  Plus the Vanderbuilt area had some great shopping!!  

And then we had to leave, and that sucked :( But the view was decent :)

I love you Blue Ridge Mountains

A big huge THANK YOU to Cindy for hosting us last weekend!! I can't wait until next time!

***

In other news... Kyle and I had a little scare today.  We were out doing yard work, and Sienna was playing with her racquetball, and next thing I know, the ball is gone and Sienna is acting strangely.  Sienna SOMEHOW swallowed the WHOLE racquetball.  I have no idea how.  But she did.  So then I FREAKED OUT.  Kyle and I tried the Heimlich maneuver on her, tried slapping her on the back, and tried to reach down her throat to pull it out.  But she bit both of us, so then we rushed her to the emergency vet, which is luckily a mile and a half from my house.  I seriously thought she was going to die, and was absolutely hysterical.  So many thanks to Kyle for being the maniac driver that got Sienna to the emergency vet.  The vet that came out originally told us he didn't know if he would be able to pull the ball out and would then have to push the ball into her stomach and remove via surgery (aka $$$).  Luckily, once they sedated Sienna, they were able to get the racquetball out.  So she is now on painkillers, and is sleeping soundly because of her eventful day.  It was so incredibly scary and she is never ever getting near a ball ever again.  

Another BIG BIG thank you to Stephannie for dropping her studying to come find Kyle, Sienna, and I to make sure everything was okay!  You are such a good friend!!

Slight Change to the Life Plan

Hold on to your hats, ladies and gents.....

So you know back a few months ago, I said I had a little idea in my mind (Nostalgia Blog Post).  Deep breath, deep breath... I'm finally ready to tell y'all what it is, because at this point it has some possibility of coming to fruition.

Y'all get to hear the long version.

I was walking Sienna, maybe back in May or June, and I was thinking about my life.  My mom has always told us to find a way to 1) do what we like and 2) work for ourselves.  This is going to sound immature and materialistic probably, but the only things I love enough to devote an entire life to, are horses and shopping.  I've decided to look into starting a store for equestrian-themed house wares, furniture, and accessories.  My reasoning behind it is that there are few stores that are sort of a one-stop-shop for quality products.  Most of the house wares I found are cheap, and usually sort of western, as opposed to classic, timeless, equestrian products.

Product Examples

My plan is to start an e-commerce website, and establish myself online first and foremost.  For my fam out there, no - not quitting the day job until if/when the business becomes profitable to support me.  I also plan to travel to some of the major horse shows on the east coast and set up a vendor booth to increase sales and awareness (working vacations, lol).

I've decided now is a good time to tell you, because I just had a mentoring session on Tuesday, through a branch of the Small Business Association.  It was really good!  They told me that my business plan is very well thought out so far, and I've put more work into it than most people they speak with for the first meeting.  We talked strategy, and options, and now my goal is to create a financial model.  Not the easiest thing because math is not my strong point, but if I can't do that, then I can't run a business.  That's my motivation.

I'm actually pretty scared thinking about starting a business, and very nervous of failure, but my plan is to do the entire business plan before making the decision to implement it or not.  Hit me up if you want to read my rough draft business plan, or want more details.

Also, if any of you readers are horse people (or not) please take my survey to help me determine interests!  It is only 15 questions!!

** Equestrian-Themed Product Purchase History Survey **

ponies and puppies

I *planned* to have a few videos to upload for you guys, but I'm obviously not as good at technology as I thought I was.  I have 2 videos from last weekend of my mom and Cowboy showing.  I *thought* I recorded a video earlier this week of Sienna being her wild child self and playing some fetch in out backyard, but apparently my phone was on the picture setting instead of the video setting.  We'll blame it on a blonde moment I guess.  SO, here are some videos of my mom and Cowboy, as well as some pictures of Sienna.  (PS we just got done with a play session and she's snoring at my feet hahah).

Training 2 - 71%

Training 3 - 63%

Tired at the show, picture 1

Tired at the show, picture 2

Tired at the show, picture 3

Tired at the show, picture 4 

Tired at the show, picture 5

At the request of some friends, here is my fave recipe for the week - lasagna made with zucchini slices instead of noodles.  Seriously the second best lasagna I've ever had, second only to the portobello & sundried tomato lasagna at Bella Monica.  Recipe here: Zucchini Lasagna

Also for the record, super super tired this week, so I'm sorry if this blog was a little boring.  I will make up for it next weekend in my blog about visiting Cindy in NASHVILLE with Kyle & Matt!

E P S I L O N . E T A

So I try to keep most of the less-awesome parts of my life off of da blog, but something pretty major is going on right now.  To make a very very very long story short - they are closing the NCSU chapter of Tri Delta in May.  Its been a very drawn out process over the past few years with the main issues of not being well established and financial mismanagement.  There are a lot of reasons this makes me sad, but one of the main reasons is that the current group of girls in the sorority is a great bunch of women who get along like real sisters. I feel terrible that they are they ones who have to deal with losing the chapter while they are still in school.  On top of the fact that they are wonderful people and sisters, they all worked so hard to be there and stay open, but to no avail.  I love them all and I mourn the loss of the chapter for them because it is premature.  Another reason I am so sad is because I mentally made plans to help with recruitment for the next few years while I still knew people in the chapter.  I helped all last weekend, but the efforts just barely fell short of where they needed to be to keep the chapter open.  Its hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that the plans I made will not come to fruition.  I'm mad at a lot of people for letting down my chapter, especially when the identity of the chapter, the morale, and the sisterhood is better than ever.  People keep telling me to hold on to the hope of recolonization in the future, but for right now, that is nearly impossible.

End of August 2013

Hello friends,

I know it has been a while since I last blogged.  I have been ridiculously busy.  I just got moved to a new position on my team, where I actually have work to do all day long!  In the position I was in before, I just sat around and waited for people to call me, so I really did nothing for like four hours a day.  In my new position I am doing outbound calls and following up with people all day.  I *like* being busy all day long, but that doesn't leave me with a lot of time or energy for blogging.  So, I'm sorry I've been neglecting you, but at least it was for a good cause!

While I am talking about work, I feel like I should tell y'all how much I love my job and love working.  Obvi I go through periods where I'm just sort of unexcited about the work I do, but I love love love everyone I work with.  I don't mind working extra if we are short staffed, hanging out with people outside of work, and I def don't dread getting up in the morning because I laugh and have fun all day long.  Not to mention everyone I work with inspires me to be better in one way or another, whether its being a nicer person, being more ambitious with what I want out of life, becoming better at selling myself and iContact.  I never expected to have such a great job, right out of school, even if it isn't what I studied in school.  No complaints at this time!

New things: baby Sienna is doing great with her training!! She has so much more self control and manners than she did when I sent her away, and is definitely progressing in the right direction with the dog aggression/excitement.  We are going to go to Petsmart and Lake Johnson and just watch dogs walk by until she either gets totally bored with them, or wears herself out trying to pay attention to them and then having me correct her. Potentially both.  She is still a work in progress but it is my goal in a few months to have her completely reliable both on and off the leash in any situation.

I currently have a little horse to ride at Melissa's, for the first time in three months!  I am very out of shape, but he is a good little worker bee and its nice to have something to ride on a regular basis.  He's for sale though, so here's me crossing my fingers that he doesn't get sold anytime soon.  The other bad news is that when I was riding Fannie all through the dreary spring and winter I looked forward to the summer so I wouldn't have to ride in the dark after work...three months later when I have a horse to ride again its 8:00 and dark outside.  Le sigh.....

I am VERY behind on updating y'all on some other fun things in my life, I just feel like a total blogger failure...

*Two* weekends ago, myself and Jenna from DDD planned a surprise party for my little, Emily, who just turned 21 and it was a great success.  She sort of found out about the party beforehand unfortunately, BUT she did not know how many people were going to be there and that the bus we planned to take to downtown was a pink bus!  It was a lot of fun and I got to hang out with sisters I don't see as often as I'd like.

Emily's reaction to her party

birthday girl!

In the pink bus

Over the long weekend I had a chance to experiment with some food.  I tried to make a bread pudding, and it was mostly a success!  The cake part of it was awesome, but I wasn't a huge fan of the topping (too much cinnamon for me), so I will have to find another topping that looks good and try it again soon!

Also last weekend I got to tailgate a little bit and horse show a little bit so I was a happy camper!  My mom showed Cowboy in Raleigh, so I helped her for the day.  She improves so much with every show, and I'm super proud of her and her little pony dressage machine.  She doesn't brag, but she got high point Quarter Horse one day at the show last weekend.  Surprisingly there are a lot of dressage QH's out there!  Her high score test is below.

I helped my friend Caro and her family set up their tailgate for the tailgate competition they compete in each year.  Over the past few years they have been so generous to everyone in the sorority, including myself, so I wanted to try to repay the debt even if it was just a little bit.  Mama Ball is the best and her tailgate won this week's round!  She goes to the finals, and I hope she wins the whole thing this year!!

To round out an already excellent Labor Day weekend, Kyle and I took little poo out to dinner and a drink with us - she loved it!

family!