If it's not one thing, it's three. Thing #2.

Thing #2 - Craig's job.  

Craig is a copywriter in advertising, and he loves his job.  He always has.  Even when he has switched companies, the underlying thing is he loves the job.  And he's good at it too, which is a total bonus.  

So recently he got the opportunity to be the Creative Director at an ad agency.  

Dude, that's huge, if you don't know.  

He took that job, which is GREAT, but.... (isn't there always a but?)

Due to his new schedule he would be unable to pick up the girls from after school care any more.  Which meant my three evenings a week at the barn would have to change.  

I have said this time and time again: I would not be able to do what I do with horses if it wasn't for Craig.  His support and the hard work that he does for this family is the reason I can ride.  Without that, it's impossible.  

So, the first thought was that I needed to move my horses.  My current barn did not offer 7 day a week turnout and stall cleaning.  That is now necessary.  I'll never know with my work when I'll have to stay too late to be able to go to the barn and still get the girls, so I needed to find a place that I could afford that would be able to do stalls and turnout every day.  

Now I know a lot of people don't think it's a huge deal if their horses don't get out every day, or don't get their stalls cleaned on Sunday, but it's a big deal to me.  And with as much stress as I'm under at work these days, I really needed to be sure that I didn't have to worry about my boys.  I know I'm uptight about that kind of thing, and I realized that I needed to reduce the stress in my life.  

I was able to find a great place to board, right down the street from my trainer's barn.  Win - win!  I've actually boarded there before so I know the owner.  I trust that even if I can't be there for a few days that they will get out and have clean stalls.  Huge relief for me.  Yes, it's more expensive, but the peace of mind is worth it.  

On the days that I do go ride, I'll either take the girls with me (not the best option) or I have arranged for our babysitter to pick up the girls and bring them home every now and then.  She is completely trustworthy, so no worries there.  And it gives me a few rides where I don't have to worry about what the girls are getting into.  

So the boys have a new place to live, and they seem to have settled in nicely.  Phil isn't nearly as afraid of the indoor arena as I thought he'd be, and Kaswyn seemed like he remembered the place.  

Speaking of Kaswyn... he's Thing #3.  

If it's not one thing, it's three. Thing #1.

Well, hi!

Yes, it's been awhile.  To say my life has been a little nuts is an understatement.

It's time to catch you up! Basically three things have been going on with me - My job, my husband's job, and Kaswyn.

Let's start with my job.

We used to have seven people running three labs.  Through every way possible, we have lost employees.  The usual basic stuff like being fired and quitting, but we also had a gal leave after only two months, and another guy was asked to leave when we found out that he didn't meet all the criteria needed to perform the job (something that human resources should have picked up on and never offered him the job in the first place.).  Then another gal went on maternity leave.

So we were left with three of us to run three labs.  It's been freakin crazytown.

I've been putting in some 10 hour days, working more weekends than usual, and just trying to keep us afloat.  We've hired two new people (but it takes a long time to train them), and the just-had-a-baby gal will be back at the beginning of February, but right now it's very busy.

I've still been able to ride, but sometimes I just don't have the energy to do it.  Especially on the weekends that I work after working all week.  That gets tough.  But I love my job, and it's all going to be ok.  Eventually.  Right now I tend to get a little exhausted, and Craig is putting in double Daddy duty.

Speaking of Craig, his job is Thing #2.

To be continued...