Going Through The Motions

It's that time of year again. Time to drag out all the boxes of lights and decorations. Time to see family and friends and buy gifts and bake and be jolly. And eat. Lots and lots of eating.

Do you ever just feel like you're going through the motions of Christmastime?

My Christmas cheer seems to be coming and going this year. Right after Thanksgiving I had a few days of "Yay, it's almost CHRISTMAS!!", dragged all my decos down from the loft, started making lists for shopping and baking, all while listening to Christmas music and smelling my "Holiday Cheer" candles burning.

Then it just disappeared.

Most of December I seemed to be just going through the motions. I put up the decorations, got a tree, did some shopping, got my cards sent out. But I just wasn't feelin' it. I was feeling pretty darn Grinch-y. I just wanted Christmas to be over. I wasn't inspired to bake or wrap gifts or even finish up my shopping. But I needed to, so I just got 'er done.

I was really just ready for this year to be done and just kind of "over" Christmas.

I usually love Christmas time. I love the traditions and seeing family and giving gifts and decorating and seeing others' decorations. I love the whole spirit of this time of year.

But for whatever reason, I just wasn't feeling that spirit.

Some how, this past weekend, I got over it.

I think it was when I was wrapping every one's gifts and sticking them under the tree. For some reason, it just doesn't seem like Christmas to me until there are lots of pretty wrapped gifts patiently waiting to be given under my tree. When I finished wrapping and got them all arranged under the tree, I smiled, turned on some Christmas music, lit my "Holiday Cheer" candles and all was right with the world once again.

The pic above is our tree this year, pre-present wrapping extravaganza. Doesn't it just look naked without gifts under it?

Besides being so bright you could probably see it from space... I some how managed to get like 900 lights on it. Maybe 850 since half of one strand went out and I'm not about to try replacing it.

So what about you? What get's you in the holiday spirit?

Merry Christmas!

My New Buffardoo

As I may have mentioned before I have been some what passively looking for a new pony. I knew Midori didn't have the natural talent to take me places with the new direction we wanted to head (reining and reined cowhorse). She is great to tool around on and, while she is doing better now then I ever thought she would, she still has her issues. I've been keeping my eyes open and basically if the right horse came along, something that I clicked with for the right price and couldn't pass up, I'd get it.

My trainer was helping me look, but nothing felt right. I wasn't bummed about it, I still had Midori. Another local trainer in the area had a couple young horses come home from getting started and one of them was small. He had consigned her to the auction in Reno during the futurities, but was afraid with how small she was and the economy the way it was that it wouldn't even be worth taking her down there. He wanted someone small for her that would show her and knew that I was kinda sorta looking. He wanted me to have her and was prepared to make me a deal that got me interested.

I fell in love with her pretty much the moment I saw her. She is an absolute doll, so sweet and pretty darn chill for a baby.

Meet Buffy the Buffalo Slayer.

It's the name she came with and unfortunately, it stuck. I tried to change it, but every one already knew her as Buffy and I'd been calling her Buffy for about a month by the time I actually picked her up. It was a lost cause. I usually call her by some variation of Buffy...B, Buffardoo, Buffardoodle, Doodle...anything but Buffy. lol

She is a 2 year old out of a Shine Like Hail mare by Laredo Blue. My trainer has a gelding also by Laredo Blue and apparently he puts that head on a lot of his babies. It's not the cutest head, but it grows on ya. I just hope she grows into it! lol

She is a really strange color and it changes almost weekly. She looks really gray now, but not too long ago it was going to be bay roan on her papers. I'm not really sure what to put at this point! I'm pretty sure she'll end up gray, but she's not quite there right now.

Check out that ass though!

Love those nice Quarter Horse asses!

She's got quite a chest on her too for how small she is. She was 13:2 at the wither and 13:3 1/2 at the hip when I got her. I meant to measure her today, but forgot. She is probably just over 14HH at the hip right now and in the middle of a not so flattering growth spurt.

Her mom was short, a little over 14HH, but stout and super athletic looking. She was shown as a 3 year old in cow horse and did well. I think she's pretty much just been a broodmare since. B's sire, Laredo Blue, is apparently not to shabby of a cutting horse. I don't know much about bloodlines and such so I won't pretend like I do.

Doodle is a very curious pony. Of course, she's 2. She was in my face the whole time I was out there taking pics today.

Like, reeeeally in my face!

Despite her small stature, she doesn't ride like a little horse at all. She has a big stride and since I am only 5'2" we make a good pair. People are always surprised when we walk up to them after watching us go. They don't expect us to be so short.

These last two pics are from the first time I saw and rode her. The last picture is the one that sold me on her. Check out that smile! I LOVED her from the very beginning.

My goal with her is to do the NWRCHA futurity on her next year. I'm hoping she starts growing because I don't want to be looking those cows straight in the eye while I'm chasing them down the fence! If she doesn't grow and I don't feel like she's ready to go down the fence, I'll do one of the local reining futurities with her. She's already got a sweet little lead change, decent turn arounds and plants her butt when I say whoa. She is super talented and a total natural. I just need to get my stuff together and learn to stay out of her way!

If futurities don't work out I still have her derby year. I'm not going to push her faster then she's ready to go. My first priority with her, above all else, is to raise a good, solid horse.

Sunday Stills Challenge - Halloween

Wow, it's been a loooooong time since I did a Sunday Stills Challenge! Way too long!

I've got a bit of Halloween paraphernalia around my house and I was finally able to take a little time with my camera to get some pics of it for this challenge. Mostly just because I was procrastinating doing other things.

BOO!

These last ones are some candle holders that I have.

Happy Halloween!

To see more Halloween pics go through the comments here.

They Lived!

I actually had some sunflowers that came up this year! Wohoo! Last year I planted 3 packets of seeds and not one single one came up. I did start these inside first and then transplanted them to the flower bed. In late July or so. I was just slightly behind. Gardening and yard work isn't generally very high on my priority list.

I took this picture at the end of September. They didn't get very tall or big, and the dogs took a few out, but they bloomed so I'm happy! :)

That Marriage Thang

I've been thinking lately about the whole marriage thang. I am currently teetering on the edge of 30 years old and not married. I don't have any thing against marriage, nor was it ever part of my "life plan" to be nearly 30 and unmarried.

Actually, I believe my life plan went something like: graduate college with bachelors degree at 21, meet guy, fall in love, marry at 23, buy house, have horses, live fairy tale. May or may not have included kids, I don't remember. Never been much of a fan of them.

Instead of that, life has gone more like this...go to community college. Meet guy some where in there. Buy car and horse that you need to continue working to pay for. Work 2 part time jobs, go to night classes, still a full time student. Take a little time off from school. Go back. Finally get AA after 4 1/2 years. Never make it to "real college". Get engaged to guy because we've been together for 3 years and that's what you do. Besides, I'm almost 23 and that's when I'm supposed to be married. Break up with guy after a month of being engaged. Date some more. Pass 23rd birthday, which is when you were supposed to be married. Buy yourself a truck and horse trailer to cheer yourself up. Continue living with parents. Date some more. Finally meet boy of my dreams. Move out of parents house into house with boy of my dreams after 2 years of being together. You're 25 by then. Talk about getting married. Buy house together instead. Talk about getting married some more. Buy new tractor instead. Buy new horse trailer. Buy new horse. etc. etc. etc. And now, here I am, owning a house, truck and horse trailer with boy of my dreams, firmly cemented in this relationship, possibly more then if we had that piece of paper telling us we're legally married. But we're still not married. Technically.

I've never been one of those people that thinks it's "just a piece of paper". Ever. I've never NOT wanted to be married. I certainly never expected to be here and not married. But life has a funny way of carrying on and changing priorities. I'm happy. We are happy. We love our life. Neither of us has any thing against marriage. No previous marriages, no baggage with parents surrounding the idea of marriage. We do plan to get married, just haven't done it yet.

It is strange to me when people that I haven't seen in a while ask if I'm still with the same guy. We bought a house together. We are in it for life, just as much as any of my married friends. Does not having that piece of paper making it legal or rings on our fingers make our relationship not as committed?

Every once in a while I get the wedding bug, but it usually passes fairly quickly. It's just not a priority. I refuse to go to Vegas. Just not my style. I'm not opposed to a court house wedding, but I want to include my family and friends. That means doing the whole wedding thang which requires planning and time and money and that is probably the main hold up. There are other things I'd rather do with that time and money. We own and show horses. 'Nuff said. lol Besides, why mess up a good thing?

And so here I am, almost 30 years old (OMG!!!), been together with the Boyfriend for nearly 6 years, and I have the whole fairy tale life I had envisioned (mostly anyways, there is always the crappy real life stuff that comes up, like work), with every thing I hoped for. Except that little piece of paper.

I know at least a couple of my bloggy buddies have been with their bf's for quite a while and are not married. It's not uncommon. And this isn't a rant or anything, I'm just really curious about this. Why? Was it a choice to not get married? Was it something that just happened, like me? Why is that "piece of paper" so important? Or so important to avoid?

It's a very curious phenomenon.

To me at least.

A Place For Everything...

...and everything in it's place. That's my motto. Generally speaking. Most of the time.

It's at least my goal in life.

The Boyfriend? Not so much.

I keep the house reasonably picked up: the kitchen organized with a "home" for most things, laundry put away (on good weeks), don't leave things laying around too terribly long, etc.

Even things that don't so much have a specific home, have a general area that it can usually be found in.

So why does the Boyfriend have problems finding things? If he goes looking for things a few days after he left them laying on, say, the couch and it's not there, he turns the house, his truck, where ever he thinks he might have left it, upside down. Then finally mentions to me that he can't find whatever it is. I, of course, ask if he looked where it's supposed to be, as in, I probably put it away, did he look for it in it's "home".

*blank stare*

So of course I have to go show him where it is put away. Again. *sigh*

I realize he spent years living by himself and things stayed where he left them and most things didn't have put away "homes" so much as spots on the floor where they were conveniently dropped. And stayed until he needed them again. And I cut him some slack for a while because it was a new house, he probably just hadn't really gotten used to where everything goes.

We've been in this house 2 1/2 years. I don't think he gets that slack any more.

He is a boy though. At work we call it "boy disease". As in, they can never find things if they are put away, or sometimes even if it is right in front of their face. They need us to go find it for them. And we do. 98.7% of the time it's right where it's supposed to be.

Back to The Boyfriend...

The most recent scenario involved a dremel bit that he thought he had purchased, but was doubting himself because he couldn't find it any where. If you saw his garage (his domain, I don't move anything in there) this would not be such a surprise. It's just a bit messy.

If I do have to venture in the garage for something, I sneak through the piles of stuff, grab what I need (if I can find it), go use it, then put it right back, exactly where I found it (usually). We don't use the garage to park our trucks, we have a carport for that, so the garage houses his dirt bike, his Land Cruiser (off roader), a couple large old stereo systems, a surround sound system that never got hooked up, his tools, quite a few boxes of random contents that he has moved twice now and a whole bunch of stuff. Every where. The walls of the garage are covered in cupboards, cubbies, shelves, hooks and basically massive amounts of potentially organized storage for said stuff. But it sits on the floor in piles, waiting to be organized.

Ok now, where was I....Ah yes, the dremel bit. So he has mentioned the elusive dremel bit a few times to me. As I don't remember it coming in the house at all, I am not much help. I asked him if he looked in his tool box or his dremel case where, I would assume, it would have been "put away".

Again with the *blank stare* Like, why would it be there? Why would I have put something away?!? Sheesh!

So finally, he concludes that he must have imagined purchasing it (if you had ever watched the guy shop, you'd know that this is not an entirely unlikely scenario!) and during a trip to Home Depot over the weekend bought another one.

A little while after we get home he comes in the house with an amused looking grin on his face. Apparently, he went to put away his new dremel bit so he didn't lose it and guess what he found? Yep, the one he thought he had bought, but couldn't find any where. Right where it was supposed to be, in it's "home".

This is not the first time this has happened. That boy cracks me up! On good days anyways. It really is rather amusing. Most of the time. ;)

My question is...Is this a general "boy phenomenon"? Or is it just all the boys that I associate with?

I Have Issues

It's no secret to those that know me that I have some "issues". Some of them are laughable, some we'll just call "quirky" and others are downright annoying. I'm not going to delve into most of them because we just don't need to be airing that all out. ;) One that I do want to get into is my obsessive tendencies.

While I don't mind this quality so much (most of the time), I'm sure others (the boyfriend, my animals, my trainer, my friends and family, my boss and co-workers) may be pretty annoyed by it.

For what's now been almost two full years I've been rather obsessive about reading. It all started with the Twilight series, which I've now read multiple times. That segued into the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, which led to the Sookie Stackhouse series, both read more through more than once, along with quite a few other random books in between. So that's quite a few books.

But I love reading. I mean, L-O-V-E it. I'll take reading over tv any day. So I don't mind all that much that once I find a good book, I get rather obsessive about finishing it. It's not such a problem when it's a random book here and there. But I've been finding all of these excellent SERIES to read lately, some are 5 or 6 (or more!) books long! And while I love reading, it can be seriously time consuming! And it's not real effective to multi-task while you're reading. It's not like I can clean or ride my horse or drive while I'm reading. I've managed some cooking while reading, but it's not the best way to cook or read.

Basically, bottom line is, I read every single spare moment I can somewhat responsibly manage. Which means not much cleaning gets done, many more fast food drive thrus are hit up or cans of chili cracked open for dinner, not much riding gets done and I all but check out of the world around me as soon as my butt hits that couch and that book gets in my hand. I have been known to avoid opportunities to socialize preferring to stay home and read. Again, doesn't tend to bother me all that much, but I'm sure it's rather annoying to those around me.

Most recently I had the Harry Potter series forced on me. Like, really, I was told I HAD to read them, there were no excuses, here's the books, now READ. Ok, so maybe it didn't go exactly like that, but mostly. I swear.

Of course about half way through the first book I was completely hooked. Such a great series, even reading it at 29 years old! But 7 books, a few thousand pages and a month and a half later... Where the hell did summer go?! How can it already be the END of AUGUST?! And how have I not blogged since MAY?!?!

Yikes. Time seems to just evaporate when there are books to be read.

I know I've said it before (but I'm far too lazy to go find the post and link to it here), I need to quit. Cold turkey. No more reading! At least for a little while. I still need to paint my bathroom. And my bedroom. And my living room. And clean. And ride my horseS (story to come one of these days, hopefully). And take pictures. And blog! There are TONS of things that I should be doing with my time that would be WAY better uses of such a precious commodity.

But the wheels are already turning on what my next book will be. *sigh*

Our New Addiction

This year on our great new showing adventures we have decided to give reined cow horse a try.

Well, the boyfriend decided he wanted to do the reined cow horse shows, mostly so he could do something and not compete against me. I decided that if we were going to be spending gas money to haul all the way there and for hotels and stuff anyways, I would rather just bring my horse along, pay a bit of extra money and have myself some fun with it too!

And boy howdy is it FUN!!! The boyfriend is going down the fence, having done his first fence run ever in his life exactly two weeks before the first show. I figured since he had wanted to get away from competing with me I would just stick to the boxing classes this year, see how that went.

I guess I should give a little background on what cow horse actually is. There are three parts to it:

1. Herd work - basically cutting, taking a single cow out of the herd and keeping it out of the herd.

2. Dry work - basically a reining pattern, though cow horse patterns are condensed a bit.

3. Cow work - which also has 3 parts, boxing - keeping the cow on the end of the arena to show you can control it, going down the fence - pushing the cow down the long side of the arena and turning it at least once each direction, and then circling the cow - turning the cow at least 360 degrees each direction.

In my boxing class I only do the boxing part, not the fence run or circling. The cow work can get pretty crazy. I've done lots of boxing at shows and practice, so I've got that down. The rest of the work is often done at a full on gallop, balls to the wall, down the fence, inches from the cow who is (in theory) on the fence, with a quick dive around the front of the cow into the fence to get it stopped and turned. Then you have to launch back out to the side of the cow, keep it on the wall and run past it again for another turn.

Can you imagine what an adrenaline rush that is? Sha! Just a bit of adrenaline!

And then you get to circle! It's very exciting to watch and quite the rush to ride. I have done it a few times at clinics (read about that here and here) and it is just a blast! I'm itching to go down the fence, can you tell?

Anyways, the whole weekend was pretty darn fun. The shows are amazingly laid back, every one is super duper friendly and helpful and it's just darn good times. We had our second show of the season this past weekend and my last run, late Sunday night, was just a kick in the pants. I have no clue why, Midori was being a bit of a spooky dink, but I was laughing so hard at my silly horse that by the time I did my last stop on the dry work I paused and went...huh...I sure hope that was the pattern! I hadn't even really thought about it. lol

The boyfriend was nice enough to video it, even though he got distracted a couple of times and forgot to move the camera. I just have to post it because I had so much fun on it. We nailed our flying lead changes. And we even got some pretty nice stops in! For us. Remember, Midori was pretty much a drill pony up until about 8 months ago. I think our run is pretty impressive for lessons and one month of training! We've come a long, long ways! Still have a loooooong ways to go, but we're making progress so I can't complain!

Please note the scary, horse eating monster behind the gate that she is spooking at. You can see it when we walk in, the yellow thing poking up over the tarp. It was pouring rain and the cow guys were in full rain gear and hiding by the gate trying to stay out of the weather when they could. Apparently they were scaring a lot of the horses. Midori decided she wanted nothing to do with that whole end of the arena and I had to push pretty hard to get her down there the whole pattern and we bounced around a bit, but I guess that was probably part of why I had so much fun. I do love a good challenge with her!

Also, please note the nice shot of her fabulous ass after we finish our dry work and walk over to get our cow. Midori has a great ass, I've always loved it!

Our dry work score was a 68 and our cow work was a 70, total 138. Not fabulous scores in the grand scheme of things, but I was thrilled with them.

Goodbye Old Friend

I need to say another goodbye. This one to a very good old friend of mine...my old horse trailer.

I had this trailer for almost 6 years. It treated me pretty good, always got me where I needed to go and put up with a lot of crap. heh crap...get it?

Anyways, it was the first trailer I ever hauled, my first experience hauling a horse, my first big adult purchase. I have so many great memories with this trailer and before I said good bye to it I had to document all of it's...ummm..."character". Each bump and bruise, dent and scratch, a different memory.

Like this one...

A nice big ol' dent right on the nose. It happened the first time I tried to park it in my soft dirt, 90 degrees off of a narrow driveway parking spot after I got my trailer brakes hooked up. I wasn't used to having trailer brakes and didn't realize that they would lock up very easily on the soft dirt. I jack knifed it. Oops! The boyfriend had installed the brake box for me, so it's kind of a sweet memory. The first truck improvement of our relationship.

Then there are these chew marks...

The first time I pulled in to the boyfriend's mom's pasture to turn my trailer around after one of our first rides together and one of her other horses decided to visit the horses in the trailer and chewed on it. Kinda pissed me off at the time, it was one of the first scratches in my trailer, but I laugh about it now. Just adds character.

Then there was the front wall...

Oh, that darn front wall. As you can tell, many a horse fought with that wall. No clue what the issue was but my Midori was the only horse that EVER hauled quietly against that wall. I had a few horses come out bruised and bloody from fighting with that wall. It was annoying.

And this divider...

Oh the divider! Had a few horses get stuck in the front stall when the middle horse leaned on this divider and it got stuck closed. That was always fun. And then there was my friend's horse who decided to get stuck up on it. That's right...Up. On. It. That was really good times.

Then there was the branch that fell on it during a wind storm and took out all of these lights...

And the fender that Sugar loved to chew on any time we left her tied for any length of time...

And Sugar's tie spot that she would immediately chew on when she was unloaded...

And the kick marks from my nice little mare any time a horse was loaded in behind her. Made it an interesting game since she was the only one that would haul quietly up front.

And the little tack room that held an amazing amount of crap in a reasonably organized fashion...

Though it may not sound like it, it really was a good little trailer for me for a long, long time. So many good memories with it...trail rides, a trip to the ocean, drill practices and meets, good times with friends and many, many opportunities that I wouldn't have had without it. It was a great little trailer!

But something tells me I'm not going to miss it too much...

Oh ya! Hello, new Logan!

Howdy!

Oh my goodness, it's been entirely too long since I blogged last! So many blog-worthy things have happened in the last month and a half, but I just have not had the time or the motivation to blog about any of them. Very sad! I'll get caught up on all of it one of these days. I hope!

One of the more note worthy things that has happened was this impulse buy...

We have talked about getting another dog off and on for a while, but never really pursued it. Then one day we were just finishing up a bunch of errands and on our way home we just happened to pass a "Puppies for sale" sign. The boyfriend saw it, said the puppies looked pretty cute and suggested we go look. I kept right on driving. For a little bit. I did eventually turn around. After all, what does just looking hurt? lol

Obviously, the "just looking" didn't work out so well. And we came home with this little guy...

Born January 1st

Border Collie and Australian Cattle Dog (Heeler) mix

Absolutely freaking adorable

We have finally decided on the name Cletus for him. His full name is Cletus D. Pooper, but don't tell the boyfriend that. He hates that I all him Pooper. And the D stands for Dude, my other nickname for him.

The parents weren't onsite, but we were told that both mom and dad were small-ish for their breeds. We figured he'd probably be about Cheyanne's height, but probably a little bulkier. But do you see the size of his legs and paws? I'm having my doubts on that!

I finally got inspired to get my camera out today and got all of these pics of him. He was quite the sport, posing pretty for the camera! :-)

I just love his eyes. When we got him they were this really cool almost purpleish gray. Now they are a really rich chocolate brown.

And he has the cutest little bum!

And I wish so, so much that the darn wheel barrow wasn't in the background of this shot! I love him peeking out from behind the tree, but that blue kinda ruins it. Bummer!

Hope you all are having a wonderful spring!

Another burning question...Shoes!

Since I've actually been sticking to a routine of cardio and strength training workouts for a couple weeks now, and have every intention of continuing that routine, I have decided that I desperately need new shoes. The shoes I have now are probably a good 8 or 10 years old. Not that they've been used much on those years, but they have seen better days and my feet are sore after running in them. They don't provide much support for my fairly high arch and the last time I ran I felt the beginnings of blisters on my big toes. Not so much fun!

Plus, I'm always looking for excuses to buy new shoes. :-)

The thing is...I have absolutely no clue where to start. I want something comfy and am willing to spend some dough for a real quality shoe. But what shoes are quality? My current shoes are Asics, which did treat me pretty good for a while. I know Nikes and Adidas can get expensive, but are they still quality? Is there some other brand that you love and would highly recommend? A certain style or feature I should look for? Something you hate and think I should avoid like the plague?

While I am mostly concerned with the comfort and functionality of the shoe, I can't hate the color or style either. Since I'm pretty darn picky I have a hard time finding the right style/color/comfort/durability/functionality combo.

I got some pretty good input on the last "burning question" about mascara, so I thought I'd pick your brains some more and see what we come up with.

What gets you going?

Another burning question...What motivates you to get going (and keep going) on your fitness goals?

I've tried here and there to get in better shape in the past few years, but have just never found the proper motivation/reward system. I'm not in bad shape, which is probably part of my lack of dedication to the issue, but I know I could be in better shape. I'm not over weight, but my strength and stamina are severely lacking. As is brought to my attention at every lesson I take with my horse. My trainer makes fun of me, big time. And I don't blame her one little bit. I'd make fun of me too, probably have made fun of people doing similar pathetic kicks in the past. I know I'm pathetic, I just don't have the strength in my legs to do much about it! And usually run out of breath trying.

Despite my weaknesses, Midori was still coming along in leaps and bounds. Her spins were getting more correct, we had a decently reliable flying lead change, her stops were getting better, we had switched to a bridle and were doing really well one handed. I was very pleased!

I was still considering getting a new horse though because Midori just wasn't where she needed to be so I could go play with the big kids this year. After some considering the situation and talking to my trainer about my options and Midori's potential, I decided that putting her in training for a month was my best option. She has potential and the trainer was confident that she could at least get her to a point that I could be competitive at the entry level, which is what I planned to do anyways. So off to training Midori went.

But that still left the issue of my being a weanie. I certainly didn't want to waste that money on training because I couldn't kick and I could definitely see Midori flipping me the hoof after her experiences with the trainer, who has about 10 inches and probably 60 pounds on me. Not to mention riding horses all day 6 days a week. So I decided to put myself "in training" as well. But I knew I needed to figure out some sort of reward/motivation and way of tracking my workouts so I could see what I was accomplishing.

This is what I came up with...

Gold stars. And ya know what? It's working! My goal is a minimum of 3 gold stars a week, totaling 12 for the month of February. So far I'm doing pretty darn good.

It is so satisfying and fun (in a totally pathetic, easily amused kinda way) to get done with my workout and go stick a star on the calendar. The calendar is in the kitchen so I see it often and it's a really good feeling to walk by and see lots of gold stars...

Yes, that is a Twilight calendar. Surprised? I didn't think so.

Anywho, at the end of the month if I stick to it and reach my goal I plan to reward myself with...something. I haven't quite decided what yet, but I'm leaning towards a mini shopping spree. I do love me some new clothes!

Besides the gold stars and looming shopping spree, the best reward that is surprising me at just two weeks in, is a visible improvement in the muscle tone of my legs. Definitely helps the motivation factor! And my stamina at my lessons. My trainer didn't even tease me at my last lesson! I even got my horse to grunt a time or two when I kicked her after she was naughty. Wohoo!

I think I'm liking this gold star thing! Hopefully I can stick with it for a while!

What gets you motivated? Do you post SI swimsuit models on the fridge and treadmill? Hang the bikini that you WILL get into this year where you see it all the time? Do you just have super duper self control and can stay motivated without little tricks?