Riding Lessons

My goal for today was to be relaxed, but it ended up stressed beyond belief. I planned to leave the hotel at 7, and take a 30 minute lunch break, thinking this would put me back in Atlanta by 2:30. I completely forgot that my starting point was 45 minutes further away than my ending point was on Monday, which was the basis for my time estimate. I left at 7 and contemplated stopping at a state park in Georgia for a run since I would have time to spare. But around 1 pm I realized that I wouldn't make it to the office until 3:15-3:30, without any more stops. Yikes! I really needed to leave the office by 3 to pick up the dogs and then Kyra in time to give her a snack and make it to riding lessons on time. Oh well... I skipped my run and skipped the gas station and didn't drink anything so I wouldn't have to make a potty stop. I arrived at the office at 3:15, quickly transferred my stuff to my car and left. I had heard on the radio that there was an accident on the Interstate with all lanes blocked, so I took the back roads to day care which added an extra 20 minutes of driving time. I called Funnybones and left a message saying I would pick up the pups after 6 instead of before 4. I picked Kyra up at 4:25 and called her riding instructor to let her know we would be late. Kyra was supposed to be there at 4:45; we arrived at 5:00 pm. On the way to the ranch, Kyra told me that she needed to go to the library tonight to get a book for her FOCUS (gifted) class project. She has 2 sources and needs a 3rd by tomorrow. I asked her how long she knew about this and if it was mandatory to have by tomorrow. She said she was the only one in her class that doesn't have 3 sources yet for her research project on California Sea Otters. She has an encyclopedia and an internet source, so her 3rd must be a different type of media (i.e. a book). She said she went to the school library today and they didn't have any books on otters. I worried that the library would close early tonight, since it is Wednesday, but thankfully they were open until 9 pm. Kyra got in a short riding lesson. It took her a while to bring Andy from the barn, saddle him, etc. She only had about 15 minutes of riding/instruction time due to the sun setting. Oh well... at least she'll have all day riding camp on Monday... I was freezing cold watching her anyway...

After riding lessons, we picked up the pups. Tasha looked so sad wearing the cone collar, but Kenny reassured me that she was doing so much better than she was on Monday. After receiving instructions from Kenny about Tasha's medication, care, and update on how she's been, we took them home. I put Tasha in my bedroom to keep Riley from messing with her. I left the basement door open so Riley could go out if needed, and then Kyra and I got back in the car to head to the library. The only book on sea otters that we found through the catalogue search turned out to be a pre-school picture book. I looked in the research/science section and found a few books on mammals which included a page or two on sea otters. The pre-school book was too baby-ish, so we checked out the two books on mammals. We were starving and I don't have much food at home so we went to Bambinelli's for dinner. It was great, as usual. But it meant a late night. We left at 9 pm and Kyra still had 2 chapters to read for homework and had to write 4 or more sentences about those chapters.

Back at home, we went straight to bed, after giving the dogs attention. I continued reading my book, "Breaking Dawn" while Kyra started reading her two chapters. At 10:30 she told me she was falling asleep reading and I was shocked at what time it was. I put a bookmark in her book and told her I would wake her early to finish reading and write her response. How did this day get so away from me?