what a week

this week started off with me being in a 40 hour rifle school for work. monday was just classroom, nomenclature of the AR-15, weapon handling, etc... tuesday through friday was range time. i never realized spending 30+ hours on a range was so taxing. physically and mentally. when i came home tuesday, i was toast. tired, hot, sore...you name it. for that reason, i absolutely MUST brag on my wonderful husband that i love so much!

i came home to a house that had been cleaned. then, he drew me a bath which included candles and muscle relaxing salts. while in my state of relaxation in my bath, he made me dinner. afterwards, i laid down on the couch with him and he massaged my VERY tired and sore fingers, hands, arms and shoulders. i think i fell asleep on the couch around 8, which he did not disturb me (although i think a bomb could have gone off and i would not have budged). around 10, he woke me up so i could crawl in bed. how lucky am i? what an amazing man i have to call my own. love you squish...

the school was a lot of fun. very demanding but fun. i really enjoy shooting the AR. and i must say i did quite well. just call me annie oakley. i don't know how many hundreds of rounds we went through. well worth it.

this morning, like two weeks ago, i met a group from work to have a training session. this morning's training was an 'adventure with a twist'. and he was not kidding. we started off with a 12 mile bike ride which i again did on my mountain bike which is not quite designed for this type of training. i have been looking at a proper bike to get. once everyone finished with the bike ride, we went as a group for our adventure run with a twist (if only we had video, cause nobody will believe what we did but tiki will back me up). the run started on land through the nature trails out on the island. once we ran to where there was no more land, into the water we went. but this was not your typical inter coastal water. it was the murky, brackish (smells like egg) water through mangroves. off we were trekking through water that was usually about waist deep but sometimes a little deeper. never above our heads. the bottom was very squishy and slick, which is why we were warned to bring 'old' running shoes. we trekked through the kayaking trails and finally made it back to land. we picked up the run again through the nature trails. we were on a boardwalk when it ended back at the water. one of the guys that was behind me, jokingly, stated 'what now? do we jump back in?' and no sooner had he said that, over we went, back into the water. trekked through some more to another boardwalk, climbed out and waited for everyone to catch up and climb up. no sooner had the last guy climbed out when our 'leader' goes right back in. so, back in we go. more trekking through the water to a bridge. we climbed out at the bridge, thinking we would only be jumping right back in, but the run then continued on land. we ran to the beach dropped our shoes and clothes (yes we had swim suits on) and in the water for the swim part of our little adventure with a twist. the swim was in normal beach water except there were some small waves that filled your mouth up with water every time you came up for air. the swim was about 1/2 miles. once you finished that, you ran back along the shore to where we dropped our shoes. although not impossible training, it was challenging. and i must say that was probably the best and funnest training i have done. i am going to miss the next two saturdays but look forward to the next one.

when i got home, i met chris at the barn. he was putting new shoes on libby. he then saddled up knight to train him some. i got to ride guardian for a little bit. knight did good. all the obstacles are set up in the arena and he would walk through some of them. he has a lot to learn but chris says he will be a great work horse. chris is flying tonight (and he is flying over the house as i type). he still enjoys that very much. yesterday, i got on the local newspaper website to see the headline manatee sheriff's helicopter goes down. a bird decided he wanted a closer look at the pilot and decided that maybe his lap was a good place to check him out. didn't go very well for the bird. the pilot landed safely though (the paper needs to tone down their headlines). chris's response was 'see, that's why i need to learn to land in case the pilot gets knocked out'. good point. of course i know have to tell him to watch out for birds. with the holidays approaching, he will be very busy.

other than that, things here at the laster's couldn't be better. oh, we have a new visitor...an otter. you never know what's going to show up next.