Today

Sasha is her name!

So my rescued German Shepherd is still with me, and sweet as ever. A little separation anxiety, and only 1 call for missing dog, turns out wasn't her.. I took her to the Valencia County Animal Shelter today to see if she was chipped. The lady running it, or the desk or something was very rude, and had no human skills. She said I should have left her there tied to the gate, and they do have shelter personnel who check on the drop off crates and the fence.. Luckily she said I could keep her. No one had reported a missing female dog like Sasha, and she wasn't chipped.

The lady said that she was about 7 years old, and in her opinion German shepherds get such bad issues after seven she would probably put her to sleep. I was like WTF?  She is so sweet, I wouldn't even fathom.. I told her that I had had a couple calls of people wanting to adopt the dog, which was shocking to me. She said to send them to the shelter as they had two shepherds with only a few days left. :( Broke my heart.  Anyway my first trip to the local shelter wasn't that bad. The other staff couldn't have been nicer, including the two "dog catchers" I met. They had people skills, the lady running it was all for the animals in which I guess if you have to put down over 100 pets a week, maybe I would be that way too...

So for now she stays with me, and I am fine with that. This weekend is another big SW Horse Auction here in Los Lunas. Going to go both days to document.. Had a person offer to meet me to to donate money to save a life, I was like wow! Will update after the weekend!

Lucky Dog

Meet Lucky Dog, or what I have been calling her Sasha. On Sunday my roommate and I were driving back from the store on HWY 314 past the Valencia County Animal Shelter. I usually always look over, but that day I looked over and to my horror saw a dog tied to the fence.  I immediately turned around, and drove to the gate. Sasha was tied to the fence with a leash wrapped around her neck, no collar and it just had gotten done raining. She wasn't wet, must have just been dropped off. The shelter is closed Sunday and Monday, and even though I am sure shelter people come in to check on the dogs, it was so incredibly sad.

I got out of my truck and approached Sasha. She looked at me not crying or barking but scared. I started to talk to her and she immediately started to cry and bark and wag her tail as she was saying " Save me ". My roommate made room in the back of my cab truck, we un-tied her and she jumped right into my truck. We took her home, and the other dogs were a little upset I think that I was bringing another dog, but they soon became friends, and she plays with Sadie and Luna, with Buster barking, being the referee.

Sasha is incredibly smart. She sits, lays, stays and fetches and drops on command. She is cat safe, but not really parrot safe as she tried to snap at my African Grey Kaylan as the mean bird attacked me Monday. My roommate Joy said it looked like Sasha was trying to protect me.  The first couple of nights she slept through the night, but in the AM she cried a lot, always checking in on me while I was sleeping.

I placed two found ads on two popular lost/found internet sites and called the Shelter letting them know I found a female German Shepard. I am not going to tell them I found her tied to their fence, as they will probably tell me to take her back, so they can get their adoption fee.

I can't understand and fathom why someone would tie this dog up. She seems to be the perfect dog so far, and is probably around two years old. No idea if she is spayed, but my vet comes next week, and I will see that she gets her shots.  I am hoping she is just lost, and someone found her and tied her to the fence. That would make the best sense as she is so sweet and smart. If not I will begin to find her a home, roomie might want to adopt her, but she is a BIG dog, probably around 100 pounds.. Will post more updates on this dog rescue as time passes! :)

New Life Awaits!

As I sit in the Seattle Tacoma airport waiting to catch my flight back home I have to look back on the past month, as it has been a month since I posted last. A lot has happen, well not really but a lot of good times. The thoughts of my horrible last job at Verizon Wireless are getting fainter and fainter. Not that the job was that horrible, but the toxic people I trained, and many worked with including a totally incompetent management staff wore me down and took my life blood away. Each day it gets easier, and I am so loving my I-Phone that I can't believe I am so in love with a phone. Verizon does have a better network in many places, but for me it works great and I love the things I can do with it, its a great phone! So with my iPhone in hand I say adios to the sucky Verizon and that is that!

So in the last month I have been to a Nascar race in Phoenix, was in Seattle this weekend with my family. We went to Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, and what a fun fun place! For kids it was fun of course, but running around with my nephew and his wand has he does the quests in the hotel sure made it a blast, and the water slides in which after purchasing a cute new bathing suit, I loved even going down the slides. It was a fun place and another great weekend with my family in which I totally love. 

The last night I spent out with a bunch of my high school friends, and its amazing even though we haven't seen each other, some for 15 years getting together is like I was with them all along. And meeting friends that I didn't really know that well in high school, but starting a friendship now is awesome. All because of Facebook as brought us together- Gotta love Facebook! 

So what is on the horizon? Well I start a new job at SW airlines as a reservation agent on May 16th. I have been struggling with taking the job, as it doesn't pay that well, but free flight and being that I have a new awesome roommate, and love to come back to Seattle a lot, I think it will make up for it.  And be it that SW has the best employee satisfaction rate is a total plus! Everyone seems so happy to work there, and I need a happy place to work as Verizon was not happy, as I said before the whole environment at Verizon Wireless is toxic.. And I get to wear jeans everyday to work, and capris in the summer- Gosh can't beat the casual work environment!  I will be flying to Dallas for three days to start my career at SW on May 16, and then working 3pm to 11:30pm for training. Right now I have a task of memorizing all the airport codes before I start, which will be fun! 

The pets, and horses are doing awesome. Starting tomorrow I will be working on finding three of them new homes,  as I need to downsize my herd. I love love love my horses, but it doesn't make sense to be horse poor, and the horses deserve to have jobs, not just hanging in the pasture doing nada... As I said before I have a new roommate- She is into gardening, and she is planning to garden a lot around my property, I will help and it will be nice. 

So that is my monthly update- I would love to blog more, but easier said then done.. Signing off as I enjoy my Amber Ale as I wait for my flight to board.. Good Times Await! 

Got Hay?

So I decided to try large 4x4x8 1800 pound bales of alfalfa to try to maximize my feeding costs. I got two bales delivered today for $185 each. They are awesome, nice leafy hay but feeding them is going to be fun.. I have to pull part the large pieces and its not as easy as feeding 3 or 2 strand.. Stay tuned for updates! :)

First real injury

So tonight I received my first injury from my horses. I was going out to feed Bones, in which he gets fed last. I feed him two flakes of alfalfa and some pellets, grain and beet pellets. When I was going out I said to myself should I go through the stall or out in the pasture, I went out to the pasture. I walked past Sand and he hadn't had his usual scoop of grain yet. Bones was behind me and Sand must have shown some aggressive action as Bones ran right over me. I fell and luckily he didn't step on me but he pushed me hard. My left hand, elbow and knee is totally skinned and in pain. I just laid there and was in such much pain I started to cry. I was in pain before due to a tough EA Active workout the day before, but all my emotions just came out. Sand and Bones came over towards me and just looked at me like they felt bad, and wanted to see if I was ok. Or they wanted all the grain that fell out of the bucket hehe. Anyway what a eventful night. I need to be more careful, and am lucky as this is my first real injury in almost four years other then being kicked in the leg by Sweetie which didn't leave a bruise.

My life is never a dull moment.. Also below is the link to my little rescue.. Off to bed I go, I am going to be hurting tomorrow

http://www.lunarescue.com/

Biggest Loser Audition

So after a long nap tonight I have to say I am quite proud of myself for going to the audition today. My dreams and tossing and turning last night did its best to talk me out of it, but it was a great experience. Below is the details!

The audition was from 10-6pm today, Saturday March 13th in Albuquerque. My plans were to get there nice and early, but due to lack of sleep I arrived around 11:30am and was given a application and was number 536. At noon they were at numbers 150 so I knew I had a long day ahead of me. The audition was at Sandia Casino, and it was nice as it was in the ballroom and you could leave and such. Lots of chairs to sit in, or wall space to spread out, and lots of cold water. I met a nice gal named Amy, and we formed a instant friendship.

I had a hard time staying in the ballroom as there was the normal people trying to attract attention to themselves, singing, walking the ballroom trying to recruit people to walk with them, even telling jokes and poems. The staff had a microphone in which they invited people to come forward to try to motivate the crowd. I found it a little annoying and wondering if it got them anywhere or extras but good for them! Amy and I walked around the casino, gambled a bit ( she was quite lucky ) and had lunch.

At 4pm our groups of numbers were finally called. I found it strange, and was a little jealous as there were people coming late to get a number, around 4pm and pretty much got right in for a audition after ours. Biggest Loser assured the first 500 people would give auditions, but from what I read they usually see everyone. I was jealous these people that were showing up late were able to sleep in, and come in and only probably be there around 90 minutes, versus my five hours..

So my group, around 30 of us went and waited in the conference hallway at Sandia. They divided us into groups of 10, and each group went in, sat at a round table and met with one of the casting directors. Our casting director was Barb, you can see her on youtube, which I highly recommending researching the audition ahead of time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co6iqWXqKFM&feature=related.

The the interview took 10 minutes, and the questions she asked the table was name, age and employment. She also asked the group to answer why we have a hard time eating healthy, and how much weight we wanted to loose and why we wanted to loose weight. Also how we heard about the casting. It was very open, and friendly and a little hard as everyone at the table wanted to talk at once. I felt like I did great, Barb got a lot of eye contact with me, and was interested in my "part time horse trainer job" and liked my snarky comment about wanting to loose weight to love the mirror again, and not feeling bad for my horses when I ride them. At the end of the ten minutes she asked us to leave our application, and pictures and told us if we don't get a call back to please still send a video in. They told us we would get a call back by 7pm if we were chosen. A nice gal though got a call back literally 20 minutes after her casting call though, so they probably will call you right after. They said look for the 310 area code!

So I didn't get a call back but had a great time. If I was doing this again I would probably not wear as much makeup, as one of the casting directors for BL said they want you to look natural as in the show you can't wear makeup. I didn't look like a raccoon, but wish I just would have worn mascara. I also might have dressed a little less flattering. A few people we were talking with told me I don't look 100 lbs overweight and said my pictures made me look trim, which I guess they did and thats a good thing looking at real life. If they were to see me in a sports bra like they do on TV they would see a whole new side of me, that is for sure :)

I am unsure if I will send a video, I might as I got that cute little Vado Cam from Amazon, if I do I will make it fun, creative and probably ride in them, and show more of myself. I will talk to my lovely roomy about helping that with me next week, or my mom since she will be visiting. My suggestions for anyone auditioning, google auditions and watch youtube casting videos- There are so many videos from the casting directors, it would have been nice to get more background.

So that is it, very easy and fun day- But tiring! Back to reality I go, and time to get serious about loosing this weight on my own, using all the resources available. The future is bright, and bring the next adventure on!

Reno

RIP my little man

So much as gone on the last week I forgot to post about the passing of Reno, my longest owned cat. I think he was about 11? He passed away after a short illness and was loved down to the day I took him in to be put to sleep. Its so peaceful how he went, he is buried under a tree in my backyard, and when I was burying him his buddy Fuss ( in the picture above ) was just watching all sad like he know.. Anyway RIP Reno, I will see you one day, run free in the rainbow bridge- Your brother Avocado is there waiting for you as well as Boots and Neptune- See you soon ;)

Biggest Loser Picture!

Here is the picture I am going to bring with my contact info on the back.. Getting excited!

Biggest Loser Interview!

So Saturday Biggest Loser is coming to New Mexico for auditions- I am going to show up at 7am and stand in line for a audition- Its going to be a long day, but I am sure I will meet lots of neat and people just like me. My awesome new roomie, Kat will take a full length picture of me with one of my horses for the interview- I am getting nervous thinking about this, but more to come.. I am researching what kind of interview questions they will ask, and such.. I am thinking of it being like a job interview and what better time in my life to take on something like this after just loosing my job after 16 years!

Anyway will post back more later, also speaking of being laid off I watched Up in the Air Movie tonight with George Clooney- A really good movie, kinda brought back bad memories of being told you are no longer needed, but I got good messages out of it.. Its my time to make something happen, " Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's *because* they sat there that they were able to do it"

More to come!

Temple Grandin

A couple weeks ago I watched a movie on HBO about Temple Grandin- It totally was a "wow" moment about how I felt about slaughter of animals, and how I hope its done in most places.. Well I looked her up on YouTube and watched her videos on humane slaughter-

I was so inspired I wrote her this: Hi Temple- I have been horrified with the thoughts of slaughter and animal death in my life. SInce I watched your HBO movie and these videos I have been put to peace knowing there is someone out there like you who cares and is making a difference to make slaughter as humane as possible- Hopefully all slaughter plants will implement your methods and ideas Thank you!

She wrote back this to me : TempleGrandin (3 days ago)
TO Kristenbog - Your posting helps to keep me motivated! Thank you very much for taking the time to post. More and more people are getting interested in the work I do and that means a lot! Thanks again. Temple Grandin

Wow I have to say she is quite the women- Animal slaughter doesn't have to be inhumane, and she cares.. Wow- For info on her videos you can see the one I commented on here: http://www.youtube.com/user/TempleGrandin#p/u/0/mCYs1CSsbqs

Cheers <3

Today I am grateful

Today I had a great day, and it started with watching a awesome video located here:


It motivated me to be more grateful, and the last 48 hours I have felt spiritually free. What a revelation.. I made it almost 48 hours through my juice fasting, then made a AWESOME dinner tonight of chicken and red potatoes.. The bbq sauce I made was so awesome! Recipe on my Facebook page.. Anyway tomorrow I am going to get up by 1pm to make it to the DMV to have my license replaced, then off to a fun Meet Up Group Dinner tomorrow night- Off to clean the kitchen- Please check out that video! <3>

Day One over and I am sick and hungry :(

So its been 24 hours since I have eaten any real food other then drinking 100 percent pure apple juice. My stomach is a wreck and I woke up from a nap in a pure sweat ( which I guess is probably good? ). Anyways my stomach hurts , and I guess my body is doing what it should be doing but don't think I will make it to day two, or maybe I will? Will see how I feel when I awake..

Oh and in my dreams during my nap I dreamed about eating food and a sandwich.. How strange is that?

Stay tuned for more :)

Fasting day one

So I have been doing a lot of soul searching lately and figured that I would try something I have never been able to do! Fast! I am going to do a 3 day juice fast to start out, and am very excited to do this.. I have been reading so much about fasting, and being that I treat my body horrible with all the junk I digest, I think my body needs a couple days to detox..

There is a lot of good information about fasting on the web, I found this website that helped me a lot with my juice fast: http://www.falconblanco.com/health/fasting.htm

I think getting my body and mind in order for this new journey is something I need to do, I have to do.. Luckily I have nothing planned the next few days so I won't have the temptation of the outside world with my fasting..

So I will check back in, and I am thinking I might try the 30 day mindset detox challenge but I will see if I can make it.. Stay tuned!

kristenbog's Dream Journal - Strange Roller coaster Dream

kristenbog's Dream Journal - Strange Roller coaster Dream

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A new beginning..

So a lot has gone on since I last blogged.. Summer went by so fast, then fall. Then winter and on January 28th, 2010 my life came to a halt when I was laid off by my employer. After 16 years, Verizon Wireless decided to cut my job due to the economy and how AT&T continues to kick our ass.. Restructuring, whatever you want to call it I was fired. They gave me a good package though and I am able to get unemployment after my last day of employment, March 6th. So my life here in Los Lunas, NM is put on hold. Do I stay, or do I move back to Seattle to be with my family and friends. I have done so much here, saving lives of horses, and dogs I guess as I have 5 dogs atm.

So after I was laid off I went back to Seattle on a pre-planned trip to help my mom move. This was a good plan as my mind was on Seattle, my family, and moving my life back up to be back home. I celebrated by getting a I-Phone in which I really love. Back to Los Lunas, and it has been two weeks since I have been home from Seattle. I have done little but organize, stay up all night afraid of all the dreams I have been having about my work, and trying to get control and focus for the next step. My hours the last couple weeks consist of me going to sleep at 6am, awaking at 1:30pm. The horses are fed at 1:30am and 1:30pm.

I have seven horses now, in which I plan to bring one or two back with me to Seattle if I move but the thought of the move is overwhelming. I will have plenty of money with my severance package to make the move, but I just don't know what my next step will be. Making lists as my mom says is the best way to get through each day. I feel guilty that I do nothing all day but rest and play with the horses, I should be riding and getting ready to sell them. I guess I don't want to let go of this life I have even though a new life awaits me in Seattle.

So this blog is now about my new adventures, a diary of sort. I know others will read this and I am ok with that. So many other people get fired, laid off and aren't as fortunate as me in what I have built for my self. So now I guess I get through this week, this day. As of Friday I will still have two more weeks officially "employed" even though I don't have to go back to work. Part of the deal. I can apply for unemployment March 6th, and I have full benefits till November based on my severance package. What will this new journey bring me? Not sure but stay tuned...