Last Day of Swimming

Today was the last day that the girls and I were able to go to the pool. They have enjoyed the days even though they haven't been able to go very often this year.

Picking Apples!

Today we picked 4 1/2 five gallon pales of apples off of the apple tree at Chuck and Linda's. They are the best pie and crisp apples, and they are wonderful to eat right off the tree (especially with salt).

Weekend of Riding

Todd and I went riding on Saturday while the girls were at the Demi Lavado concert. (see Sarah and Kurt's blog) We had a great time and it was a beautiful night. It was also very windy as my hair shows. Then we went riding with the girls on Sunday and it was even better. We had such a great time.

Finally Riding Again!

Last year the girls and I rode our horses many times. With my surgeries this year, I had not been on a horse yet. We brought the horses up to our house from Dad's this weekend so we could give some friends rides. It was a busy weekend and I rode for a few minutes. So today I saddled up my horse early and went for a long ride. Then I came home, got the girls and other horses ready and we went for a ride to dad's to take them back down to his pasture. Micheala (our niece) went with us.

Trip to Arkansas

Todd and I had to make a trip to Arkansas this past week. Mike Pallone's mama past away on Friday, August 7th, just 1 day shy of her birthday. Todd and Mike went to Undergrad together and have been best friends since. We left early Monday morning and drove all the way through. We went to the funeral home that night and then went to the funeral on Tuesday. We would both agree that it was one of the neatest services we have ever been to. Mike and his brother, Pete, even got up and talked about their mama. They brought tears to every ones eyes. Sharon Pallone was an outstanding woman and the tributes that were given to her were outstanding as well. We were able to stay at the ranch with Mike and Karen which was very nice. After the funeral, we had some time to spend with Mike riding around on the ranch and just enjoying being together. We are soooooo glad that we went to be with our friend!

Todd and Mike infront of Mike's place.

Orphaned baby fawns that Mike takes care of (he is also a veterinarian). I enjoyed getting to feed them. They are sooooo cute!

This is the 1 yr old buck that Mike and Karen raised from a baby after it was orphaned last year. His name is John (John Deer!! :) I got in the pen and pet him and the "wild" doe that was interested in me.

On the way home on Wednesday, we stopped at the Buffalo National Forest in Northern Arkansas at an overlook to the Buffalo River bottoms. There was a homestead log cabin there as well. Todd had been there before with Mike and wanted to show it to me. It was a nice break.

Busy, Busy, Busy

This past month has once again been very busy for the Bettin family. It is so hard to believe that the summer is almost over, school starts in 1 1/2 weeks, and it has been 8 weeks since my 2nd surgery. The busiest part has been the clinic. Todd has been constantly going and has had many cool surgeries he has performed in the last month. He has repaired holes in the skull of 2 dogs, completely reconstructed the eye socket of a horse, fixed numerous lacerations in horses, amputated a cats mangled leg and removed an infected tooth from a horse (thought he was going to have to cut it out!) This has all been done while still trying to take care of day to day stuff which is just overwhelming right now. We also got ready for and had an appreciation week (which we all decided is toooooo long!). Here are some of the pics from a couple of the surgeries.

Pics of the horse before surgery. It broke the bones around its eye when it hit its head on the three point hitch of a tractor.

Todd performing the eye socket reconstruction.

When he was done.

Fixing a hole in the skull of a dog that got kicked by a horse.

Tooth extraction.