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I have officially made $100 via my on-line sales!   At least now I can say that I am 2/3 of the way toward the site paying for itself!   I think I will easily surpass that by the next time the annual fee comes due (next July).

Another really cool thing that happened today?  A woman contacted me asking questions about digital downloads.  She said that she would like to use the photos as sale photos of one of her horses she has for sale.  I was incredibly flattered because this woman is a very well-respected horse woman, her horses are beautiful, and I knew she would never use photographs that weren’t top-notch.  This woman also happens to be the same one who trained/owned Granite Ghost.  Sadly, he has been sold… but I still find it incredibly neat that I have connected with this woman.  I was just on FB and did a quick search for her farm, and she had a page.  Right there at the top was my photo with her sale info on the horse!  She also told me that she would love for me to come out to her farm one day and do some photographs.

To complete the trifecta- my friend Tracey contacted me this afternoon and asked if I would be interested in photographing a trail challenge in November.  I said I would be, and am really looking forward to talking with her and her friend Beth about the event.  I’m not sure what I’ll need to do to be prepared for it, as I’ve never done an event like that.  It’ll be nice to add another type of event to my repertoire of skills, and I’ll get to spend time doing what I love.

A good day for the photography business today.

Willie belongs to my good friend Tracey, who I met through my freelance photography work.  I first saw Willie when he came flying into the ring at Triple Creek and he carried Tracey around all three barrels at breakneck speed.  He was absolutely breathtaking.

I could tell, even from a distance and through my camera lens, that this horse was not just fast.  I could tell that he had just about the biggest heart of any horse I’d ever seen.  I could tell that he wanted only to make Tracey happy, and he’d do just about anything for her.

Since that first day I saw Willie I’ve had a chance to meet him and get to know him and his amazing owner Tracey.  It’s one of the most amazing things about starting my photography business; I’ve made some truly great friends.  Tracey and Willie are in that group.  I was right about Willie too.  He is absolutely one of the most loving, amazing horses that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

This past week Willie came down with another case of thrush.  This is a chronic problem Tracey and Willie have dealt with, and one that has understandably upset my good friend.  This time she decided to take him to Chapel Hill to see what could be done.  The doctor there operated, removing lots of infected tissue in all four of his feet.  This is a major surgery for a horse; feet are vital to them.  This surgery for Willie removed a great deal of the inside tissue on all four of his hooves.  It might sound terrifying, but if cared for properly, the tissue can grow back.

So Tracey and Willie began the process of wrapping his feet and treating them.  There was improvement at first.  He was putting weight on all four feet, the frogs were growing back in the feet they’d been removed.  There was less and less black gunk coming out of the hooves.  He was walking well on their daily walks.

Yesterday though, Tracey noticed that the tip of the frog in his rear right hoof was growing back slightly gray.  This isn’t a good thing, but we were all hoping that it was a minor issue and wouldn’t amount to anything.  He was still putting weight on it and walking well.  Unfortunately this morning, Willie has stopped putting weight on that foot and is very sore.  Tracey has had to call the vet and is awaiting news.

If you’re a praying person, please pray for Willie.  If you believe in magic or the power of healing thought, please send those healing thoughts.  Whatever you believe in, please do it.  Willie and Tracey have such a beautiful relationship.  He is such an amazing equine, with a beautiful heart and soul.  Healing from an illness and surgery like this is a lengthy process, and it’s still early.  I know that healing thoughts and prayers will help in his recovery.  Please pray/send positive thoughts to Tracey too.  She is one of the few people I’ve met whose heart and soul are purely beautiful and giving, and her love for this horse is such an amazing thing to watch.  Send her strength and patience.

I know I am.

My BP  was 100/80.  My resting heart rate was 60.  These are both in the “excellent” range.  Way to go heart!

My BMI was 30, which of course needs work.  I also am realistic enough about BMI and realize that according to BMI I “should weigh” about 135 pounds.  Anyone who knows me knows that this is far too little for my height and bone structure.  So while I know I need to lose some body fat, I also know that I don’t need to get upset about having a high BMI!   I knew this one would be bad, and it was… and all I plan to do is continue to bust my butt to make it better.  The report I got said that losing  6-19 pounds will improve this number a lot.  My aerobic fitness was also pretty low, but I already saw an improvement yesterday when I was on the elliptical.  So that will continue to get better as I push myself aerobically.

My bicep strength was really good… I was measured at 67 on a scale that only went up to 72!  Tickets to the gun show!

Back flexibility was also low, which was expected.

It was a really positive experience.  I’m actually looking forward to my next assessment in a couple months.

I had an MRI to rule out a meniscus tear.  We really thought it would be based upon the symptoms I’ve been having.  On the bright side, the MRI showed no ligament damage.  However, it did show chondromalacia patella with effusion.  I had surgery in 1996, and they found chondromalacia at that point.  It was scraped out and I did PT, and went about my business.  Since the surgery though I have had grinding in my knee, as well as popping… it was just never “ok” again.  The doctor told me that I need to focus on building my quad and glute muscles in my right leg in order to alleviate some of the pressure on the outside of my patella.  This may help with the effusion and perhaps the pain.  Or at least that’s the hope.  She gave me some suggestions of things I could do.

I came back and due to work starting, and some other things happening personally, I had to wait a couple days to start going to the gym.  I went for the first time on Thursday and had a decent work out.  It was a lot of testing to see what my knee could take, and what would work best.  Today I went again and stuck with what worked best for cardio and working my knee, the elliptical.  I put in 30 minutes and burned nearly 300 calories.  The machine I used is one that has an incline and pretty big resistance depending on the setting, which is what the doctor suggested.  The lack of impact makes it possible to work without hurting my knee.

I feel very positive about being at the gym.  I’ve always enjoyed going to the gym, and I really like the one I’ve joined.  I feel incredibly good about myself after I work out, and I think I will start to see good weight loss again if I keep it up.  The icing on the cake will be if my hard work helps my knee improve.

I had to pay them over double what my usual payment is to get the account “in good standing.”

I cannot win.

I hadn’t been in probably 8-10 years, and mentioned to my cousin Jamie that I wanted to go while I was home.  She immediately jumped on board and said she and Max, her son, would love to go with me.  I was excited, knowing that the park would be fun anyway… but it would be even more fun with Jamie and Max.  Something that has upset me about living so far from home for the past 8 years (college, grad school, and moving to NC) is that I haven’t had a big chance to get to know Max.  This trip I have been so thankful that he now knows who I am and we’ve been able to hang out a little. (more on this later)

We spent the morning and afternoon at the park, and had a great time acting like 10 year olds.  I often wish there were more days like this in my life, spent with these people because I love them so much.  For now, though, I will simply cherish these days.

Me with Max, on the Steamin’ Demon… the infamous roller coaster that I cursed on.

Me, Jamie, and Sasquatch.  I can’t really explain what’s going on here without a whole blog post… and in the end you had to be there.  But I love this girl.

This day gave me so many wonderful memories of laughter, silliness, and fun.  I hope that Jamie, Max and Michael (her hubby, my cousin) will come to NC at some point over this next year.  I can just imagine the shenanigans we can get into then!

There is only so much struggle one person can take.

There is only so much heartache one person can take.

I reached my quota about 11 months ago, and yet it has continued every month since then.

You can see the pictures I took HERE.

It was a wonderful day of photography, but it was made better because I got to share it with my Dad.  We don’t have a lot of truly Dad-Daughter time, and this was one of the few times.  Truly excellent.