Sweet Summertime and Answered Prayers

Sweet sweet summertime is officially here! The days are longer, the lightening bugs are out and hello tan lines! Summer brings about some of my most favorite sights of the year and also makes me long for long days on the Bay followed by crabs smothered in Old Bay. While Mike and I are far from the Chesapeake, I'm still lucky enough to get to spend my days outside with the horses soaking up the rays.

The arrival of summer means that I now live in my Sperrys...at the barn, on the water, at home, everywhere. This also means that my lovely Sperry tan line is now in full swing and it will only get worse from here (I'll be sure to post a picture of this beautiful phenomenon at some point).

Summer also means summer camp and don't all of the horses look thrilled...haha. Summer camp makes for long days with shortened patience levels by the end of the week but every once in awhile you run into a group of kids that makes it all worth it. When you see a student finally have an "ah ha" moment it makes the whole week better. Something as simple as a brand new rider being able to navigate an obstacle course at the walk on their own can put a smile on my face.

This summer I got especially lucky and have some team members that decided to stay over the summer to work and ride. Watching the riders who really want to improve work their butts off and get some great results is so rewarding. Every time I have a student who asks me for extra work so that they can get an extra lesson that week it makes me want to jump for joy. Talented riders are great but give me the hard working rider any day!

Summertime in the horse world also means its time to whip out the check book...you're either spending money at horse shows or on vet bills and clearly this year I got the vet bills end of the check book. With Spence's current state (which is improving by the day!) there won't be any horse shows for us this summer outside of my coaching students. I did, however, get a huge pick me up last week during a vet visit. Spence has been racking up the vet bills at a much higher rate than I've been able to save up to pay everything off so I've been praying to God to give me some guidance through it and to somehow help provide the funds to get everything taken care of...well goodness gracious did He answer! Dr. Jennifer informed me that someone had sent a money order to them for Spence's bill that took care of a significant amount of our remaining total, they didn't leave a name or anything and I haven't been able to get anyone to tell me who did it. To the amazingly generous person who helped us...THANK YOU! You have no idea how much that meant to me and the amount of stress that was taken off of my shoulders that day. I know that God put it in someone's heart to do this for us and I just can't get over how amazing it truly is :)

Outside of the horsey life...still not sure if I actually have a life outside of the horses...summer equals cookouts and s'mores. If s'mores aren't a part of your summer than your summer just isn't complete. I remember sitting in the back yard as kids making s'mores and listening to Mom's "scary" stories all night. Now as an adult sitting around a campfire, or a grill if that must suffice, and making s'mores is such a comfort.

Of course, summer also means trying to find new ways to even out my "tan" without ending up like a lobster! And no I have not yet figured out this balance. Between a mix of sunscreen, hats and rolling up sleeves I attempt to prevent the inevitable farmer's tan....it never works. Maybe I'll bring back my pink floppy hat from last summer to protect my face.

This summer has also opened the flood gates of weddings! Mike and I are so excited and grateful to have been invited to be a part of so many of our friends' big days! I love going to the mailbox and finding save the dates and wedding invites as well as all kinds of wedding magazines and catalogs for our own wedding. Gray and Wade's wedding is quickly approaching in July and the fact that I have picked out a strapless bridesmaid dress is a tad worrisome...Gray I promise to try and fix my tan lines in time!! Any suggestions on self tanners anyone?

Mike and I hope that everyone is enjoying the summer so far and has exciting 4th of July plans, I know we are both super excited to have Ashley coming down for a visit this week! I'll be sure to update soon as to how our first 4th of July down south goes and on my new position as head coach, which starts on Monday!! Now who wants to send us some Maryland blue crabs???

 

Pushing Forward

     Mike here, taking hold of the wheel from work while Jess is at work herself. Being caught up and even ahead on my work plan coupled with light foot traffic on the lot today means I have a lot of down time, a whole lot. I always try to put my two cents in when Jess updates everyone on what's going on in our lives down here but there's never too much for me to add. Don't get me wrong, there's a multitude of things going on down here, we just kind of prioritize what we talk about I guess. The reason I titled this pushing forward is because the one thing that's constant for us is resistance. I wake up every day and thank God that I have someone to push back with though. As soon as we feel like we've taken a step forward, something comes up to knock us right back a step, sometimes even two or three. As I've been told many times, "That's life." Whether it be from our jobs, the wedding planning, even lately our animals, there always seems to be something that can go wrong. It's hard to focus on the good in our lives when the bad always seems to rear its ugly head. When I'm feeling overwhelmed I have to remind myself how lucky Jess and I really are though. We've been blessed with families that despite being a little chaotic (what families aren't?) sometimes, have always been there when we needed help or needed to talk out some problems we're facing. We've been blessed to find each other at the right time in our lives and grow together. We've been blessed with the opportunity to make a life for ourselves as a couple. When things seem truly overwhelming I look at my parents and Jess' parents and tell myself that I know we can make it when we're not even facing half the difficulties they faced starting out. The support and advice from our families mean the world to us.
     Not sure if Jess mentioned it in post earlier or not but I'm working for a Honda dealership selling cars in Milledgeville, Georgia. Quite an eye opening job, I'll put it that way. I never saw myself selling cars, everyone has that preconceived notion of what a car salesman is and it just makes me shudder to think I'm being lumped in with that group. I think it's a combination of the guys I work with and still learning something every day, but I enjoy it. My sales manager says I have a higher percentage of customers that return to the lot and buy from me than he's ever seen, the only problem with "be backs" is that it tends to be hard to make any money off those deals. I approach selling cars by picturing the customers as someone like my parents or siblings and that's probably why my customers come back and feel comfortable buying from me. Not making the big bucks but at least I still feel like I have my integrity and can sleep at night. Those of you who have done sales jobs before please feel free to reach out with advice or relay any stories or things that may have held your sales back at first. There are so many little details that impact a sale but I'm getting more comfortable and actually closing most of my own deals now.
     With all of the things going on in our lives we haven't lost sight of how important it is to laugh every day and I feel like this ties in perfectly with my new found profession.

P.S. Remember there's ALWAYS a little wiggle room.

Am I missing something here?

Its been a tad crazy around here with the start of summer...aka summer camp at the barn, Mike's job and Spence's eye treatment journey; so sorry for the lack of updates! The arrival of summer has brought about rises in temperature, humidity and crazy thunderstorms. Honestly though I'm pretty sure the Georgia heat hasn't truly hit us yet; however, the Georgians are already over the heat. Maybe the years of driving around in Maryland and DC heat with no AC in Betsy has prepared me for the heat down here...of course, driving Betsy around down here come July should be fun...ha ha. In order to keep everyone happy I have been getting to the barn by 7am to ride with some of the girls from the team before the campers arrive and then riding a horse or two after the campers leave for the day. I guess we shall see if we all survive the Georgia summer!

On a happier note...Spence got to come home this weekend! He will still be receiving his eye treatments through the implant that the vet put in his eye for the next 2-3 weeks, but at least he is back home and seems fairly content. Dr. Jennifer also gave me the ok to go ahead and put him back into work but I'm a tad bit afraid of his dispenser getting stuck on the reins and popping out...he did after all manage to lose it in his field today (Thank you Mike for finding it and reattaching it to him!!!). As of now his eye is still pretty dark from the blood vessels covering it to attack the fungus but Dr. Jennifer said that he should only have a small scar and should have at least 75% of his vision in that eye. All in all things are going well, I'm just ready for the light at the end of this tunnel.

As of now, Spence's medical bills have put a pause on wedding planning and travels for the summer so if anyone has any money saving ideas for weddings, please feel free to leave a comment! Mike and I are still hoping to have the wedding next summer but are starting to explore all of our options. At this point as long as Mike is there and I can see some body of water, I'll be happy.

Well now that Mike and I have conquered one stress event for the day I'm off to enjoy some Old Bay popcorn and hopefully sunshine and the pool this evening! I hope everyone is enjoying their Father's Day weekend! Happy Father's Day!