As we close out the year...

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas!! We did and now that it is over, we have begun to work on ripping up the carpet and starting to lay the new laminate floors. A big project, but one that I hope will go pretty smoothly:).

On the agility front, it finally stopped raining long enough to have class on Saturday!! Since all it has done for the past week or so is rain, all we have worked on is that table in the house. (much to Mike's dismay :) ) But on Saturday, Lexi did the table 4 times, with a sliding down or sit with no hesitation!!! I was so excited!! For a dog that has only done the table with much begging a couple of times, or just stood on it, it was a huge step!!! I was so excited! So now that the forecast is calling for a few days without rain, it is on to the weaves, and trying the Susan Garrett method!! I really hope that this is going to help her get her weaves! Foster has also been doing well! We have found over the last month or so, that the squeaky tennis ball gets much better speed and motivation out of him than food! That is a shocker because Foster is mostly a lab and therefore a stomach with legs!!!

Mike and I are also continuing with herding this winter. We are training for an AHBA trial soon! They only require 2 legs to get a title, so hopefully Lexi will be able to get her first herding title in one weekend! Well, I can hope!! Both her and Bailey are doing really well in practice. Mike will trying for his Level 2 title and Lexi will be going for Level 1. We will keep you posted!!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from playing in the lake after class on Saturday! (and no shelties took any unnecessary plunges into the lake this time!)

Foster and Lexi after class
Jasper resting on the table after watching everyone else run agility (It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!)
Lexi looking on as Bailey and Foster swim back in
Tammy's newest pup, Chase, showing much more confidence coming up to me on his own! (Homer is trying to sneak into my lap at the same time)
Ron entertaining the entire crew with a game of fetch!

The weekend before Christmas...

Well, Saturday was a full agility day for Foster and Lexi. We went and did some run thrus up in Bartlett with some friends, and then we came back to Olive Branch for class. Class was in a new location because we have had so much rain lately. It wasn't far from Tammy's house, but there was a also a lot of land and a lake!! So after class all of the dogs got to run, play and swim! Foster swam a ton and had a blast!! The surprise of the day was that Simi, Tammy's sheltie, decided that if Foster could swim in the lake so could she!! (And I am pretty sure that Simi has never been swimming before) Simi mustered up all her strength and leapt straight up in the air and landed with a splash in the lake, dunking herself under water!! She came up in a panic, eyes wide as saucers, and began doggie paddling for her life!! Yes, with a little coaching she made it back to shore, with no long term injuries, to her VERY worried mom. (I have seen many dogs take to the water for the first time and Simi's venture, though scary for her mom, was truly the most hilarious that I have seen in awhile!!!) Tammy did take some pictures before and after Simi's swim, however, not of Simi's swim. Here is one of Foster and Lexi at the lake.


Foster AFTER the big day of agility and swimming!!

The rest of the weekend has been spent putting the house back in order after having two rooms painted this past week. We are really happy with how they turned out! We also did a little rearranging in the great room too, so we have to find some things to go in the little cubby hole above the fireplace.

Bathroom - before

Bathroom - after


Great room - before

Great room - after

Now onto laying pergo floors downstairs!!!

We hope that everyone has a wonderful and Merry Christmas!!!

Fun @ Work....

If that is even a possibility!!! But last Friday, I decided to have a little bit of fun with a co-worker's cube while he was out of town. It needed a little Christmas spirit:) So far he has an idea that it was me...while everyone else knows of course it was me! He has promised revenge, which would really cool, because no one has ever done anything cool to my cube!

The entrance of his cube...wrapped !

Festive computer!! Shhh it's a surprise!

We are awaiting an ice storm they say, but they have said that all day and nothing. They even let the kids off school @ 1pm today and not even a drop of precipitation! So we will just have to see. I really do not want an ice storm, but if they are going to get everyone here in a panic, it should be for something!!!

I will leave you all with a picture of our Kindorf Christmas tree from work! Kindorf is a kind of metal strut that a division of my company manufacturers and they constructed a HUGE Christmas tree out of it and we light every year. The picture is a little fuzzy mostly because it was a misty rainy night when I took the picture.