Holiday Letter

One of my goals for this month and my 101 in 1001 was to write a Christmas Letter.  It’s done (yes, it’s late–it’s going out as an e-letter this year), so here it is:

Happy New Year from Our House to Yours!

Dear Family & Friends,

We hope this finds you in the best of health and enjoying the holiday season!  As we look forward to the New Year and reflect on 2009, we thought it would be nice to let friends and family know what’s been going on in our world. 

On May 19^th, we celebrated our 2^nd wedding anniversary by visiting The Wilds, a 10,000 acre wildlife conservation center in Cumberland, Ohio.  Besides that it was FREEZING COLD and—of course—we chose the open air tour bus to see the animals better, we had a great time.  In August, we spent a week on Bald Head Island, NC with Tim’s parents, brother, and sister-in-law.  It was an absolute blast (despite the millions—literally—of stinging jellyfish) and we dream about a repeat trip.  On our way home from NC, we took a detour through Richmond, VA to visit a long lost friend of Alverna’s.  It was a VERY happy reunion and the guys got acquainted in the way grown men prefer: playing video games.     

Tim has become quite the handyman this year.  He replaced our hot water heater after our old one went kaput in the middle of the winter (brrr!) and, at the same time, he installed the almost brand new, high end water softener system we were generously gifted with.  The combination of the two new systems has made a huge difference in our ultra-hard well water situation.  Tim also built a new door for our chicken house, built porch steps, and installed a tile floor in our formerly carpeted kitchen.  (Seriously, who carpets a kitchen!?)  He also worked on his golf game, but unfortunately the weather prevented him from showing off his mad skills at the Bugh Family Reunion.  Instead, we mingled with the rest of the family on the Inn’s porch and generally goofed off.

Alverna has now been working at Twin Maples Veterinary Hospital as a veterinary assistant for a year.  Although it doesn’t offer her a career path, she enjoys the work and the people, feels blessed to have a job during these tough economic times, and LOVES the shorter commute.  Alverna’s also been trying to keep up a regular reading habit, and in the process has been bitten by the Twilight bug.  (Well, she IS in the over 25 demographic after all.)  Other books she’s found especially enjoyable this year are The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (in fact, she still can’t stop talking about it) and the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris.  Alverna also keeps a blog (www.AlvernaH.wordpress.com), which keeps her writing, if on an admittedly irregular basis.  

Life on the farm continues.  The horses are ornery as ever and the dogs love their yard just as much as always.  Karli (the Border collie mutt) managed to get her paws on a squirrel.  We’re still not sure if she caught it herself or found it already dead.  Of course, she’s convinced that she caught it herself and is about to catch another at any moment.  Kori (the Pembroke Welsh Corgi) has decided that our new horse farm neighbors across the street have four-legged aliens which must be watched (and barked at) at all times.  In June, our meager flock of 3 hens was joined by a brood of baby chicks which arrived in the mail all the way from Webster City, Iowa.  The “baby” hens are now laying eggs along with the “big” girls, which means we collect upwards of 6 eggs a day.  (Anyone need some eggs!?)  Tim was instrumental in the garden expansion project we undertook this year.  We were able to enjoy fresh fruits & veggies for most of the summer and are fortunate enough to have some veggies in the freezer to eat over the winter.  The highlight of our garden was our first watermelon EVER!  Tim waited SO long for it to ripen, but it was worth the wait. 

Basically, life is very, very good.  As we look ahead to 2010, we wish you a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Happy Holidays,

Alverna & Tim

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Oh happy happy Monday

Apparently this is not my week.  All my klutziness, all my aches and pains, all my pre-holiday grouchiness…they’re coming out to play this week.   And by “this week”, I mean Saturday, Sunday, and Monday=the week thus far. 

Have I ever mentioned that I’m a born klutz?  Yeah, it seems to be coming out with a vengeance this week.  Let’s see…for example, on Saturday I was in Victoria’s Secret doing a little Christmas shopping.  I opened (OPENED, not squeezed) a bottle of lotion…and the next thing I knew, my (black)  pea coat was covered in (white) lotion.  All over the whole front of my coat. 

Then, at dinner, I somehow managed to knock the “Parmesan Cheese” sign INTO the parmesan cheese at the salad bar.  Smooth, let me tell you.

Yesterday, I scraped half my pinky knuckle off…in the chicken house, no less.  I mean, I keep my chicken house in a cleanly manner and all…but, they’re still birds.  And birds are not cleanly.  Today, my pinky is most unhappy with me.

Today–Monday, which should be my day off, but instead I worked 7:30am-7:30pm for a coworker who is in Vegas–I dumped an entire surgical pack on the floor.  Guess what?  The sound of steel instruments clattering to the floor is pretty hard to hide.  Ugh.

End rant.

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She Said it Best

You know when you’ve got a lot going on in your head, you’re having trouble expressing it, and you happen upon someone else with the perfect words for your situation?  Whether’s it’s the perfect, anonymous quote, a snippet off a TV show, or a close friend, sometimes finding those “right” words, even if they’re not your own, makes the world fall into place just a little.

This happened to me this week.  See, change is in the air.  I’m not yet 100% sure what it will be or where I will go, but my life is redirecting.  I’m super excited and in a big hurry for things to HAPPEN already.  I’m like that–impatient and all. 

A good friend of mine said it best here.  I swear, I read her post and thought it was written about me.  She totally, completely, in a nutshell described me to a T.  I love it.  Plus, it’s nice to know that I’m not the only person with this crazy obsession with fast forwarding life.

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Mr. & Mrs. and the Prince of the house

I moved some photos from my lap top to our desk top today.  They’re a hodge podge collection, mostly from the past year.  It was kinda fun looking through them.

I really like this photo of Tim and I–except Tim’s got ‘crazy eyes’ and I look like a humpback!  As you can tell from the date, it’s quite old.

I believe we may have been drunk in this photo 😉  And yes, we’re often that matchy matchy–it’s sad.

‘Prince’ Mick.  He knows who rules the house.

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Allowing myself some ‘rant time’

A kind stranger sent me an email today and told me he thought my blog was “refreshing”… 

I thought it was quite a nice compliment. 🙂

Well, I apologize, but I’m putting “refreshing” on the shelf for the evening and giving myself a little ‘rant time’.  I deserve it.  See, I’ve had a lousy week. 

First, our bosses were in Florida Friday thru Tuesday.  Then, I had a flat tire on my way to work on Friday,  had to call AAA, the whole thing.  I got to work about 10am.  Blah. 

Saturday I had to drive to the far side of Columbus (an hour and a half drive) for a trade show.  No problem, I like working trade shows–the whole meeting people and talking about what our company does agrees with me.  The whole getting up at 5am to be there at 7:30am to set up on a Saturday morning doesn’t so much agree with me. 

Monday was the kicker.  I woke up with one of the worst migraines I’ve ever had, but I had to go to work because my bosses were out of town.  I prefer not to take Imitrex (my abortive of choice) when I drive, and we had one of the busiest mornings so far this year, so I didn’t get a chance to take my “miracle pill” until lunch.  By that time the pain was throbbing/shooting through my temple and down my left nostril.  It felt like someone was sticking a fire poker up my nose, and my left cheek was numb.  Since I’d waited so long to take my Imitrex, it took THREE STINKING HOURS to take effect.  What can I say–they tell you to take it asap.  User error…but I’m me and I have to take care of the company before I take care of myself.  I can’t help it, that’s the way I am.

But the migraine wasn’t even the best part of Monday.  Oh no.  For those who don’t know, I live in Dayton and commute to work in Columbus.  Normally it’s an hour and fifteen minute drive.  In winter weather it has taken me as long as five hours to get home from work.  Monday we got winter weather.  Long story short, my husband’s car (yes–my husband’s!) and I ended up in a ditch.  I got us out of the ditch (yay for four wheel drive and off roading it!!).  However, my husband’s poor Trailblazer was, sadly, somewhat worse for the wear than I was (despite the returning migraine).  Guess what?  I called AAA for the second time in four days.  Fabulous.

The Trailblazer went into the shop, the bosses were still out of town, and I had no choice but find a way to get to work the next day.  I really would rather have taken a personal day.  But I talked to our operations manager (who’s in the field, so he couldn’t cover for me) around 6:15am and we agreed that the best thing to do was for me to drive a company vehicle from Dayton to Columbus.  Which I did.  And all that ice that put me in the ditch the night before?  Yep, it was still on the road.  Nothing like driving a company truck 80 miles through an ice skating rink full of cars with drivers who also want to get to work on time.  I got stuck behind a 10 car pile-up.  Fortunately, I wasn’t part of it. 

Almost $600 later and the Trailblazer has a new tail pipe/muffler/exhaust system.  But, she still needs new tires–which they said probably caused the whole mess in the first place–and will be another $600 or so.  Also, when they took off the old, mangled exhaust system they found another part that was bent that will need replaced, too.  There’s another $250.  How did I manage to turn Blondie’s exhaust system into an accordion, you ask?  Well, did I mention we went down a hill, through a marsh, and up a ditch–all backwards?  Yup, that’ll do it.  I did manage to miss the guard rail and two light posts, so I guess that’s a plus.

And then, just to round out my week, we had winter weather again tonight.  I got bored (it took me two hours to drive home–not too bad, but still), so I took some photos with my phone.  They’re not terrific, but they give the general idea.  At least tonight wasn’t as bad as Monday.

 

  Lots of snow, roads still OK.

Starting to get slick…

All the semi’s buzzing by me.  Yay.

Going about 25mph and the road is covered in snow.

Lots of snow on the road.

My welcome home lamp post 🙂

On the up side, I have my laptop for work with me and (unless global warming kicks in overnight) I’ll be working from home tomorrow.

Ok, end rant, resume my former self!

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It’s Time for Some Goals (101 in 1001)

It’s time for me to set a few goals in order to give myself specific targets to work toward over the next few years.  What it’s all about. 

The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days? Many people have created lists in the past — frequently simple goals such as new year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities. 

Many thanks to Terra for unwittingly inspiring me to get motivated… 

     “If one moves confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”  —Henry David Thoreau

Start date: Today (Sunday, February 17, 2008)

End date: Monday, November 15, 2010

Striked=completed

Bold=in progress

Alverna’s 101 in 1001

Financial 

     1. Eliminate all consumer debt, including: my VISA & MasterCard, our Lowe’s card, my medical bill, and our parents’ generous “wedding expense” loans. 

     2. Put $5,000 in savings.

     3. Acquire a chest freezer so we can buy in bulk frozen foods to cut our grocery budget.

     4. Get overdraft protection on my checking account.

     5. Either expand the Wide Mouth Gifts I started or come up with some sort of on the side income. (See the results here, I’ve been working hard to make it more user-friendly.  Let me know what you think!)

Home/Farm Improvements 

     6. Replace the carpet in the kitchen with the snap together no-scratch slate look tile we’ve got picked out at Lowe’s.

     7. Replace the kitchen sink faucet with a stainless steel one (that doesn’t leak!).

     8. Install a drainage system around our barn. (3/19/08: I may not have been specific enough when I set this goal.  We’ve put in place a temporary solution–basically a sump pump in one of the storage stalls.  It’s helping tremendously for now.  However, I would like to have something better and more permanent eventually.)

     9. Replace the roof on the older half of our barn.

     10. Pick any manure in the arena and move the two sand piles that are currently in our pasture to the arena to improve the footing.

     11. Install a new wood fence section to separate the arena and the dry lot.

     12. Replace the chewed fence boards in the arena.  (March ’08; Thanks to my darling husband!)

     13. Replace the less attractive/functional boards on the run-in shed.  (March ’08; Also thanks to the Mr.–it was a joint goal!)

Career/Educational

     14. Find a job I love…or come to a place where I’m 100% happy with the one I have.

     15. Attend at least four continuing education seminars, at least two being equine-industry related. [0/4]

     16. Start our business, officially.  (3/19/08: It’s very,very close to becoming a reality…)

     17. Move the Bugh Equine Center website from Freewebs to a “real”, hosted website.

Self Improvement 

     18. Re-register to vote–once my name change becomes official.

     19. Locate a nonprofit organization with a cause I feel motivated by and volunteer with said organization.

     20. Lose ten pounds, and keep it off. [10/10]  (3/19/08: I actually lost ten pounds without really trying just because of all the work we’ve been doing on the barn…but I’m not crossing this one off because the goal was to lose AND keep it off.)

     21. Work with my neurologist to figure out the migraine prevention & treatment protocol that works best for me and I’m comfortable with using.

     22. Keep a headache journal for a year.

     23. Find a birth control method that I like.  (Suggestions are welcome ladies!)

     24. Write an article & get it published.

    25. Blog twice a week for at least one month. [2/8] (1, 2)

     26. Make a list of 100 things that make me happy.

     27. Climb a rock wall.

     28. Read the (Catholic) Bible from cover to cover.

     29. Read 25 other books–that I’ve never read before–in 2008. (Book suggestions anyone?) [1/25]  (3/19/08: Completed so far: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Steven R. Covey.  In progress: Equinomics: The Secrets to Making Money with Your Horse Business by Lanier Cordell, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, and THINK and GROW RICH by Napolean Hill)

     30. Read 30 books in 2009. [0/30]

     31. Read 25 books in 2010. [0/25]

     32. Visit the library down the road.  If it’s “safe”, get a library card.  If not, continue going to the library by our old apartment.  (February ’08; The security guard at the front door made me nervous, but it turns out our local library is OK.)

     33. Check out eight books on tape/CD in 2008.  Listen to them while driving to/from work. (These can count as the books I’m reading.) [2/8]  (3/19/08: 7 Habits & White Oleander are on CD.  I love this arrangement except–and this is no offense to the book/author–I had a little trouble staying awake while driving while listening to 7 Habits.  Apparently between 7-8am is not my optimal hour for self-motivation, which is good to know!)

     34. Do 100 sit-ups a night for two weeks. [0/14]

     35. Pray daily for a month. [0/30]

     36. Attend mass every Sunday for six months. [1/24]  (Mass 3/16/08)

     37. Attend mass for all Holy Days of Obligation for one year. [0/10] 

Personal 

     38. Take ballroom dance lessons with my husband (his idea, not mine 🙂 ). 

     39. Find (and buy) a pair of sunglasses I actually like (and that fit me!).

     40. Remove clothes from my wardrobe that I don’t like or don’t fit me.  Replace with clothes I like and will actually wear.  The end result should be a wardrobe I love!

     41. Find and buy functional and attractive sleepwear…then throw out all of the old, over-sized tee’s I usually wear.

     42. Find and buy a dress I can wear in the winter.

     43. Find and buy something slinky and sexy to wear for my husband.

     44. Find makeup that doesn’t make me break out and matches my skin tone.

     45. Mail a postcard to Post Secret.

     46. Get a massage.

     47. Get a facial.

     48. Take a cooking class.

     49. Travel outside the continental US.

     50. Take my husband whitewater rafting.

     51. Go horseback riding on the beach.  Somewhere warm.  Anywhere.

     52. Call or email my mom at least twice a week.

     53. Become a big sister for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

     54. Make at least two new, permanent friends in Dayton. [0/2]

     55. Have lunch with at least one “long lost friend”.

     56. Go to a concert.

     57. Have our wedding photos printed & put them in an album.

     58. Put together my cookbook.

     59. Cook 20 new recipes. [0/20]

     60. Visit either NYC or Chicago.

     61. Learn & practice monthly breast self exams for a year. [0/12]

     62. Find 10 new restaurants, coffee shops, or hang out spots within 15 minutes of our house. [0/10]

     63. Go on an overnight mother/daughter trip with my mom.

     64. Give blood at least four times per year. [0/10]

     65. Try five new foods, preferably foreign. [0/5]

     66. Take my husband to a strip club, just for the heck of it!

     67. Join a local hobby group.

     68. Buy a quality digital camera.

     69. Go to a drive-in movie.

     70. Buy a new lap top.

     71.  Plan a girl’s weekend road trip.

     72.  Plan a romantic trip for my husband and I.

     73. Go snorkeling.

     74. Golf 18 holes…note I don’t have any performance goal!

     75. Write and mail 2008 & 2009 Christmas letters.

     76. Show Pea (my OTTB) in-hand and under saddle.

     77. Take Pea to either a RPSI or a Trakehner breed inspection.

     78. Get Pea in foal to a warmblood stallion.

     79. Send a non-special occasion card to someone who’s family and someone who’s not.  (3/17/08: I mailed a “Hope” card to my Grandpa, who’s 82 and fell last week.  He broke a bunch of little bones in his hand…and now he’s grouchy because Grandma’s “making” him walk with a cane so it doesn’t happen again!) 

     80. Finish a knitting or cross stitch project.

     81. Have one of our wedding photos blown up to 16″x20″ and framed…and hang it above the fireplace.

    82. Write my husband a love note every week for a month (email counts). [1/4]

     83. Buy a cute corset–and wear it.

     84. Visit Cheryl, Scott, and the girls in Cleveland.

     85. Learn how to make at least one fancy dessert.

     86. Take a completely spontaneous getaway trip.

     87. Go bowling at least four times. [0/4]

     88. Take my little brothers on a day trip.

     89. Spend a weekend with my oldest brother.

     90. Go to a wine tasting event.

     91. Give a massage.

     92. Ride in a “Hunt” at the Miami Valley Hunt.

     93. Get tipsy in good company.

     94. Ride at least twice a week for six months, providing the weather is decent.  [0/48]

     95. Face a fear. 

     96. Go naked for a day.

     97. Make love outdoors.

     98. Learn one good joke.

     99. Leave work on time every day for a week. [0/7]

     100. Figure out which charity is most meaningful to me.

     101. Donate $5 to that charity for each unfinished item on this list.

        

    

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Poetry in Motion

I think there’s been a flood watch banner at the bottom of our TV screen any time we’ve had our TV on for the past two weeks.  Straight.  I kid you not, and welcome to Ohio for those of you not familiar with her weather. 

It turns our yard into a pond.  I think I saw a fish out there today, actually.  Our Border Collie cross turns into “Swamp Dog” (yes, she’s nuts!).  When I got home from work + the feed store the other night I had to wade through the little river running across my driveway to get to my back door. 

If it were just all that, I wouldn’t mind.  And I wouldn’t complain, promise.  But, last night, my barn flooded.  NOT COOL!  It’s not flooded because of a rising creek, it’s flooded because the ground can’t take any more water and whoever built this place didn’t know about a little thing called a drainage system.  I’m not happy.  On top of that, the barn’s roof needs some work.  Our supply of hay that’s supposed to last us until June (and has been dwindling WAY too quickly) is now missing some members due to all this rain and said roof issues.  Needless to say, I’m worrying away…

Rain rain go away. 

So instead of worrying about my hay, I looked at upper level Dressage horses.  Riding Dressage is a love/hate relationship for me, but I love to watch the best.   It’s poetry in motion:   

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“Friends”

My mother-in-law sends me several forward emails a week.  Yes, they’re often cheesy.  But it’s nice because it’s a way for us to feel like we’re staying in touch…and I don’t feel like I have to read my email right away if I’m busy.  The latest one was just so cute, I have to share it:

A sharp tongue cuts me first. 

If I want my dreams to come true, I mustn’t oversleep.

Of all the things I wear, my expression is the most important.

The best vitamin for making friends… B1.  

The happiness of my life depends on the quality of my thoughts.

The heaviest thing I can carry is a grudge. 

One thing I can give and still keep is my word. 

I lie the loudest when I lie to myself.

If I lack the courage to start, I have already finished. 

One thing I can’t recycle is wasted time. 

Ideas won’t work unless ‘I ‘ do. 

My mind is like a parachute… it functions only when open.  

The 10 commandments are not a multiple choice. 

The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime!

It is never too late to become what I might have been. 

Friends are like balloons; once you let them go, you might not get them back. Sometimes we get so busy with our own lives and problems that we may not even notice that we’ve let them fly away. Sometimes we are so caught up in who’s right and who’s wrong that we forget what’s right and wrong. Sometimes we just don’t realize what real friendship means until it is too late. I don’t want to let that happen, so I’m gonna tie you to my heart so I never lose you.

 ~

Over the past several years I’ve slowly been losing a very special childhood friend. 

Unfortunately,  I took our friendship for granted and thought our relationship was completely hunky dory.  I’m all too much like a guy, I guess, in that I’m not a constant chatter-er.  I’d call her up to chat, oh, once a month or so, and we’d catch up as if the last time we’d talked was the day before.  Or so I thought.  I forgot how much effort a friendship needs in order to stay strong.  And sometimes honesty isn’t the best approach–I have the tendency to be overly honest. 

So for the first six months or so I was silently losing my friend without realizing it.  When I got engaged, asked her to be my maid of honor, and she declined–at the same time spilling her guts that I had been neglecting our friendship for quite some time–now that was my wake up call.  And by that time, it was too late.  By the time I knew enough to say anything, it was too late and–in her mind–there was no longer anything worth being said.  Since then, I’ve had to watch my friend fly away, realizing that it’s not as simple as tying someone to you to keep them forever.  Once you’ve hurt them, it’s too late.   

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Hello, my name is Alverna

and I am a migraine sufferer.    

There, I said it.  It’s something not many of my friends may know about me, though my utterly devoted husband has become all too familiar with my migraines (especially during the past few months).  Call this the beginning of my coming out, if you will.  It’s really not something I’m very comfortable with, frankly.  I’ve always been a tomboy, and lately I feel like my body is failing me.  I don’t like being labeled as ‘sick’, though it’s nice to finally have a ‘diagnosis’ for several years worth of pain, nausea, asking Tim to turn down the TV, cringing at oncoming headlights when driving, etc.  At my husband’s urging, I went to see my general practice doctor a year and a half ago for my severe, almost daily headaches.  And after going through three different doctors, several other diagnosis, a nasty car accident that certainly didn’t help matters, and finally seeing a neurologist in November, I’ve been diagnosed with chronic migraines.  It turns out I’ve had them for at least three or four years.

How can you not know you have migraines?, you ask.  I should clarify.  I’ve had several what I would consider crippling migraine attacks–horribly throbbing head, severe nausea, intense photophobia and phonophobia–that put me in bed for the day.  So yes, I knew I had migraines.  I’d get them once or twice a year, until this year.  This year I’ve had five or six of those.  However, I was under the impression that the daily headaches I was getting where “regular” headaches.  Yes, they were bad and I wanted to puke and crawl in bed when I got home at the end of the day, but I was under the (misguided) assumption that you had to be in an immense amount of pain for the headache to be a migraine.  Migraines are actually defined as vascular in nature, not by the amount of pain they generate, though they generally are quite painful.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraine)

 My diagnosis leaves me working towards findings a treatment program that works for me.  Unfortunately, this is a frustrating, trial-and-error process.  My doc originally put me on Topamax (another story) as a preventative, and has now added Pamelor.  I take Imitrex as an abortive (i.e. when I feel a migraine coming on).  I also get to make lots of fun lifestyle changes, like limiting how much cheese, pizza, and wine I eat.  Of course, all my favorites!  Meanwhile, I’ve done a lot of research and found out how scary migraines are.  From a physiological standpoint, a migraine is very similar to a stroke, and migraineurs are more likely to suffer a stroke at some point in their life.  What the medical community doesn’t agree on is how much more likely, but it’s between 50-80% vs. those who don’t have migraines.  (http://headaches.about.com/cs/education/a/hp_ingore_not.htm)

On the upside, I have a wonderful, supportive husband who loves me very much and will stand by me through anything.  They say the first year of marriage is often the rockiest (if that’s a word).  Time will tell if ours has been, but we’ve grown a lot together.  Our families (and friends) have helped us a lot, too, but mostly it’s just been the two of us.  We rock!  And I’m looking forward winter being over (I’m not a fan of winter, it’s a blue, cold time of year for me), and spring to be here!

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