here are the specs on my current body type:

5 foot 5 inches tall.

146 pounds

BMI is 24.36 aka the high end of “normal”

problem area: belly

Goal: 130 pounds and lose 2 pounds a week

INSANITY fitness test results:

kicks 144

jump squats 34

side things 53

power jump 30

square squats 7

plank jumps 10

push ups jacks 15

mtn climbers 64

here are some lovely pics of day one, hope to share some more beautiful pics in 60 days!

Sidepass: C

Forehand: B

Haunch Turn: C

Left Lead: B

Right Lead: B

Trot / Jog loose reins: B

Walk Loose rein: B

Back: B

Halt: A

Walk over Pole: B

trot over poles: B

Back thru obstacle: B

lope overs: B

open gate: B

Serpentines: A

Figure 8′s: A

Shoulder in: A

Shoulder out: A

bending: B

Showmanship: B

Sidepass: F

Forehand: B

Haunch Turn: C

Left Lead: C

Right Lead: D

Trot / Jog loose reins: B

Walk Loose rein: C

Back: B

Halt: A

Walk over Pole: na

trot over poles: na

Back thru obstacle: na

lope overs: na

open gate: B

Serpentines: B

Figure 8′s: B

Shoulder in: B

Shoulder out: B

bending: B

Showmanship: B

I am doing a Report Card on Emma’s progress.

Here is where we are at, as of today, 1/24/2012

I will update it every week, to track her progress in each area, and try to improve the lowest scores.

A= perfect, without Hesitation. B= flawless, but with hesitating or extra commands needed. C= With movement and encouragement, she can do it. D= fights or doesn’t do it consistently  F= will not, can not do the skill

Sidepass: F

Forehand: C

Haunch Turn: C

Left Lead: D

Right Lead: D

Trot / Jog loose reins: C

Walk Loose rein: C

Back: B

Halt: A

Walk over Pole: na

trot over poles: na

Back thru obstacle: na

lope overs: na

open gate: C

Serpentines: C

Figure 8′s: B

Shoulder in: C

Shoulder out: C

bending: C

Showmanship: B

I hope to be back in business and fully insured within a month or two. i will keep the website updated

This is the first day we decided to go for it!

first day in the store: green carpet, falling down ceiling tiles, grey and blue paint, huge desk

Half way there: we built a secure room, and put in new flooring,

We moved some shelving and found years of different colors behind the wall lol, cream, purple/plum, blue, grey, and now RED!

And Opening day!

I want to share how we got to this path, and thank a few special people who have helped Shane and I on our way!

Lets start back in February of 2011, Shane and I were lucky enough to go to an amazing 3 day seminar hosted by the James Smith Company that really changed our lives. We learned more  in 3 days from Ryan Smith than I could ever think possible. Our minds were blown open to new possibilities in real estate, stocks, and most importantly how to take care of each other; the human race.

I was forever changed by the end of that third day, and I knew that our path in life was to become successful, and that by taking that path, we were going to be leaving some old friends behind, and meeting some knew ones along the way. I knew that I definitely wanted to follow in Ryan and Jaime Smiths’ footsteps of giving as much (and more) as yourself as possible, (and therefore becoming blessed with more, so you can give more).

When the final day was finishing, Ryan said something along the lines of only 1% of the people here will actually use this information and change their lives. And when the seminar was done, Shane and I started talking to the guy sitting next to us in the front row. We found out his name was Tommy, and we both commented about how much we learned from Ryan, and how ready we were to go buy some trailer parks! I remember us saying to him, “Don’t you feel like WE are the 1% in this room that are going to do something great” and He replied, “YES!”

Months later in May,  Shane and I were really trying to get going in the Real Estate area but were kind of lost as to where to go, so we went to M5 to get exactly what was promised, ( which is so much information you don’t even have time for sleep)! There we met and really connected with Jared Osmond, who took time out of his exhausting week, and let us pick his brain for hours over lunches, dinners, and midnight meetings outside the conference rooms.

I learned from Jared to get really creative when it comes to business. You have to have an open mind about every property and idea, and figure out how it could work. I also loved his ‘SPF’, Spiritual, Physical, and Focus, if you don’t include God in your plans, you are going nowhere fast, and if you don’t take care of yourself physically, you wont have enough energy to hang on as “opportunity” comes flying by. and focus, focus, focus on the goal and make it happen!

My goal, my focus = make money, so I can give it way.

When we got back we were ready to rock! We started www.Sandiegohousesforrent.net with Tommy, which creates an incredible amount of leads everyday, ( if we could keep up with the pace of the folks who need to rent houses in the San Diego area, we would be closing on 2 houses a day!) with the volume the website was/is bringing in, we needed to rent a PO Box in Downtown San Diego. We sent Tommy downtown to find a mailbox store in the center of the city, (the closer to the center of the city, the better for our search engine rankings.) the store right smack dab in the center was closed up, and dark, but still full of ALL the stuff you could need for a mail box store. Tommy talked to the leasing agent, (and figured out that the DEA had actually taken the previous owner away),  and whoever took over the lease got to keep everything inside.

->Here’s the extra special thanks to Ryan and Jared for teaching all of us to look for opportunities in every shape and size,  get creative, and make the deal work in a way that is beneficial to everyone.

We didn’t know the slightest bit of running a Post office box store! But I know retail, and customer service from all those years at Starbucks, Shane is the marketing genius of these parts, and came up with about 100 ways to make money from that store in ways other than renting Post Office boxes, and Tommy is great at getting creative with the financing and terms, aka making the deal happen!

Heres how we did it without using our own money!!: (well, ok, we have used our own money, but we didn’t have to, Ill explain…)

Financing:

Tommy got financing for the deal from a friends IRA (see, you do always know someone who has more money than you!) that covered the rent, insurance, some small set up costs, and employees first month of pay.

We hired an employee to manage the store, so we dont have to do the “work” ourselves, (we also made the stipulation that she wont get paid until the 30th day of employment, giving the store 30 days to make enough money to pay for her salary. (and she’s excited about the big lump sum check!)

the inventory in the store that we didn’t want, didn’t need, we sold ($) or donated (tax write-off $)

Due Diligence:

Everything needed to run a functional store was in the store but is was dirty, old, and musty. (But it was there)

We looked over search engine searches for post office boxes in San Diego, and found 1000′s of searches per month, if we could snag 10% of those, we would break even in just mail box rentals.

but

of course we wanted to increase our other businesses as well, so out of the store we offer SEO services, business coaching, meeting room facilities, and we will be hosting weekly mastermind and entrepreneur groups.

this is where we started spending some of our own money.

We can’t do anything just Ok, all of us are Do-It-Right the first time sort of people, so we ripped out the ugly green carpet, and put down hard wood floors, painted the greys and blues White Red and Black to stand out. We tore down a divider wall to make a huge meeting room, and added a key-coded secure room so we can also eventually buy and sell gold and silver out of the store.

Today was the first day, we opened at 8:45 am, and our first sale came in around 3pm, and we made 6 copies for a gentleman for $.60, its a start!

So here’s to the future, and great things to come!

Ryan and Jared, you are both amazing, thank you for the motivation you gave Shane and I to change our lives, and I sincerely hope that we get to have dinner again soon to tell you all about it in person! I know you guys are both really busy, but THANK YOU for taking the time to listen, teach and motivate people like Shane, Tommy and myself! Thank you and God Bless!

Tomdizzle- you rock, I’m so glad that we sat next to each other in February! Thank you for all your hard work, even during a very hectic time in your life.

Shane- I love you with all my heart! You are my other half, thank you for continually giving me love and support, and letting me have lots of time at the barn!

this is how my August went:

finally had 2 horses so we could ride together, but neither of them could be ridden!

I spent more time at the barn this August than I have ever spent at the barn in my life. I still loved spending time with my horsees, and I loved my sweet tan I got, but I didnt enjoy the puss, guts, sinew, fluids, smells, boogers and pain that they were in.

Nate:

This was Nate’s knee on August 8th, 2011, we didn’t know what the heck he did, whether it was a spider bite, scorpion, a kick, a fall, or a joint injury. All I knew was that it was BIG!

After draining a lot of yellow fluid, and a lot of gore out of his knee, he got wrapped up in a soft cast for nearly 1 month. everyday I had to unwrap, purge puss, fluid, and gunk out, irrigate the knee with 60 oz of beta-dine water, and re wrap.

two months later, he still has a lump on his knee, (that may be there forever), but he seems to be moving much better.

I rode him for about 15 minutes last night, I hope he is moving ok today!

Emma

less than a week later, (2nd week of august 2011), Emma did this pretty little number to her shoulder. it was our 15th ride EVER, and she caught her shoulder on a gate, and having a silly little baby horse brain, when she hit the gate, instead of moving away from the pain, she bolted into the pain, causing the gate to rip open a 16in by 9 inch gash thru her skin, and a 5 inch hole thru her shoulder muscle. she got 8 muscle stitches, and 30+ in a pac- man shape to close the skin over the muscle.

Thank God for a good vet who was on scene in less than 40 minutes!

The stitches lasted one whole week, until the drain tube came out, and the skin started dying off anyway. Luckily the top 8 inches or so healed really fast, leaving the bottom meaty chunk to clean and bandage daily. The wound was quite impressive, nearly half of her entire shoulder. and she’s a 15.1 hand girl!

It was still bleeding freely at his point in time (about 3 weeks in) so it had to be scrubbed clean, and bandaged twice a day. (I was just using a fly sheet as bandage to keep dirt out and the flies off.

On the left was 2 weeks ago (mid Sept) the wound was closing very clean, and looking better each day. this is when I started letting Emma out to play a little bit. Her 4 year old self would buck and roll and play and kick and it was really fun to watch, but she would still come back bloody and still. I started taking her out daily and teaching her trick, making her stretch, and making her walk and trot every day, and it worked wonders!

Now she is out full time again! (Thank goodness!) and the cut is tiny! its hard to think that 6 weeks ago I was thinking she wouldn’t even be ridden again, and now I have taken her out on the trail.

And this is why i urge everyone to Always have an emergency vet fund! of at least $1000 per large critter. We had been talking about making a fund for months, and never did! in the course of two months the vet was out 5 times, and it adds up quickly!

happy trails! (start a fund!)

I wanted to help out all first time horse owners with a New Horse Checklist and essential do’s and don’ts, Below is my shopping list of Essentials, aka what she needs for moment her new horse walks in the barn. I hope this helps someone else out too!

NEW HORSE CHECKLIST!

Your First Horse Essentials: (needed before you get horse delivered)

-halter

-Leadrope

-Grooming tote

-hoof pick

-soft body brish

-hard body brish

-curry comb

-mane and tail comb

-flymask (if it’s spring or summer)

-flyspray

-lounge line

-lounge whip

-tack box (or heavy duty locking tupperware)

-feed buckets

-water buckets

-garbage can/feed bin

-grain scoop

-hair detangler/ show sheen

-de-wormer

-basic 1st aid kit

—————————

what your first aid kit should contain:

-emergency contact info for you, your vet, your barn owner/manager and your husband or wife or mom or dads number

-large bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide

-Large tube of neosporin

-SWAT fly repellant

-Large, Abosorbant Maxi pads (they are great bandages!)

-cotton balls

-vet wrap

-tweezers

-sharp knife

-scizzors

-saline/eyewash

-clean cotton towels or legwraps

-disposible gloves

-antibacterial soap (I like Dawn)

-duct tape

-asprin (for you!)

-band aids (also for you!)

———————————————————-

What you need soon: (but not on day one)

-Bridle (headstall)

-bit

-chin strap

-reins

-SMB boots or similar

-polo leg wraps

-saddle

-saddle pad

-cinch

-off billet

-latigo

-chest strap

-outdoor turn out blanket

-1 year supply of de-wormer

-vaccines

Happy trails, and I hope this NEW HORSE CHECKLIST helps you out!

This is a harder activity than you might imagine! At first I thought it would be really easy, but it took some digging into my life to really seek out what i was actually thankful for and what are just convieneces in my life.

I highly recommend this activity to you. If you are not thankful for anything, dont you think there is something wrong? Who might be thankful that you are in their life?

I surprised myself by even getting a little teary-eyed as I wrote some things and names down on my list- because some people I had never thanked or given them credit for being so wonderful to me.

I am really trying live my life as a thankful person. And i thank God everyday for the strength to grow my character.