Just remembering...

I was reading Susan Garrett's latest post on her blog just now, about losing your pups, and just time with your pups as they get older. (Get a box of kleenex before you start to read it!!) And I just wanted to share a pic of my first pup, Jackson. We only had a short time together, but I learned so much. I got Jackson from the Memphis Animal Shelter in 1999. He was a Lab/German Shepard mix. (The same mix as Foster...) He was my best friend in a new town! We didn't do obedience or agility, I had no idea about those things yet. But we did go to the dog park every day, and I met some really great people and their pups. We hiked sometimes twice a day in the summer out there. Jackson loved to swim, and his favorite thing was to dive underwater to get rocks. Those of you that have seen Foster at the park, know that I have been blessed to have 2 pups with this special talent! :) All of the pics were taken by my friend Bob. Most of the time one of his dogs are also in the pics, Chloe (Great Pyrenees), Elsie (Big Bassett Hound), or Emma (Mole catching black lab). Jackson had distemper as a pup, and around 1.5 years old had an autoimmune blood disease, which he died from after 6 months, at a little over 2 years old. I wasn't sure I wanted another pup right away, but someone showed me Foster one month later, and I knew he was meant to be mine. :)


Jackson at 6 mos old w/ Chloe

Jackson in 2000

Jackson waiting for a ball or a rock to be thrownJackson "diving" for a rock
Jackson enjoying the park a month before he passed

Just back from our first show of the year!!

We got back on Sunday night from the AKC agility show in Franklin, TN. We had a great time and it was a great show! Foster got a double Q on Friday!!! I was so excited because it was a down on the table in Standard!!! (Our trouble spot) He was so fast on the rest of the course, that it didn't matter that we had to take a few seconds to do the table!! Foster had one more Q in Standard on Sat, also a down on the table! The rest of our runs were SO close, with just one tiny error in each. He ran under time in ALL of his runs! Miss Lexi also had a good weekend! We are still working on her confidence in the ring, but she had some great runs in jumpers minus the weaves!! I was able to get a photo of Lexi from Tien Tran. She is a great photographer and she really only comes to one show a year that we attend. Now Lexi will have a picture to hang with the ones of Foster and Bailey:)

I just wanted to give a BIG CONGRATS to Jill and her two dogs, George and Atticus!!! They had a great weekend, getting 3 titles between them, moving up to Excellent for George in Standard and for Atticus in Jumpers, and getting a few other Q's to put the cherry on top of a great weekend!!!

Jennifer and Moana had a good weekend too, coming so close to a Q once again! Moana made time on a few courses despite a knocked bar here or there. She was running really well on courses that did not have a bulldog in mind when they were designed!

Good judges, good friends, and lots of agility!!! I can't wait until the next show!! (Good thing it is just a couple of weeks!)

Birthdays and Snow!!!

Well, yesterday we actually got snow! For you northerners it would not be snow, it would be a dusting, but for those of us down south, it was snow!!! I was so excited as it was just supposed to be flurries, but it snowed until noon and there was a little even on the grass!!

This first pic was taken at 7am because I figured it would be gone as soon as the sun came up!!!
These 2 pics were taken around 9:30am, outside my building at work, and it was still snowing!!


Sunday was my friends', Jill & Michael, anniversary!! Happy anniversary!!!

Monday was Bailey's 8th Birthday!!! Bay loves balloons, so we always blow a few up for her to chase around. This year we needed 6 because Foster does not have Bay's finesse in picking them up by the knot and kept popping them! It was hilarious! Well, for everyone except Lexi. I eventually found Lexi hiding in her kennel. She doesn't like balloons especially when they pop!!

Treats!!!

Trying to eat it all at once!

Gimme the balloon!!!

Bailey and her balloon!!! (Smart girl grabbing the knot!!)


Trying to catch the pups in action with the balloon w/o a flash (no glowing eyes) did not yield many good pics, but I did like this one...
(Tonya...Well there is the first peek at our new floors! We are not done yet, but it is getting closer and closer!!)

Tuesday was Mom's (Bosworth) 70th birthday!!! Happy Birthday!!!

Piece by piece....

Well, we are still working on the floors. The project became a little bigger than we expected when we found that the hardwood in the foyer was glued to the concrete. So bit by bit we are making progress on that, and it has slowed us down a bit. We are hoping to make a big dent this weekend!
All of the banging etc. has kept the pups confined to the kitchen area a bit. We were surprised to find that Bailey had climbed into Lexi's kennel with Lexi !! That is not a combo we usually see. But it was too cute, not to take a pic.


Foster chose just to lay out in the floor....

I think we will all be happy when everything is back where it belongs and the floors are done!

Next weekend Lexi, Foster, and I will be heading off for the 1st agility show of 2009 in Franklin, TN. I can't wait!! Lexi and I started retraining her weaves right before Christmas. We have had many set backs due to the weather, but we are getting really close! I don't know that she will be weaving 12 poles by next weekend, but we should be pretty close! She is about 1/2" from having the 4 poles closed, and she is doing entries from the full range of the arc per the 2x2 method. We are just going to keep plugging along until we hit all 12! It is really exciting because she is doing the poles with so much more confidence now. Foster is even getting a little bit of the new training because he can't stand to sit ANY agility training out!

I read about a project where you are supposed to take at least one photo each day for one year. I have not been taking pictures every day, but here are a few from this week.

Yes, those are still Christmas lights up in my cube! They really brighten the dreary, gray cube world up, so I haven't taken them down yet!

This was on Wednesday. Documenting my dilemma of wanting to do the healthy thing and drink more water, but I just LOVE my Diet coke!

Lastly, was this pretty sunset as I was leaving work yesterday.

And so it begins...

Lexi and Bailey competed in an AHBA trial recently and they both finished 2 new titles!! This was Lexi's first AHBA trial and she finished her first herding titles, HTD I and HTAD I ,both on sheep, and placed 3 out of 4 qualifying runs!! Bay finished her HTD II and HTAD II both on sheep and placed in all 4 runs! It was a good weekend!!

We spent the rest of our holiday visiting with family and Mike has been installing our laminate flooring in the downstairs rooms. He has the main part of the floors down in the bedroom and the family room, but we still have to do the thresholds and transistions, and put the baseboards and quarter round up. It is a much bigger project than either one of us really thought!! A BIG thanks to my dad for all the help he gave while he was visiting!!! (It allowed me to go and practice some agility @ my friend Marion's)

Our friends Kim and Lee, and their daughter Sydney were back in town for New Years Eve! They live in New Orleans but they were on their way back from a cheerleading competition for Sydney in Nashville. (Sydney's team got 2nd!!! Way to go!!) They also got to go and see ICE!! at Gaylord Opryland! Mike and I loved ICE!! last year when we went! If anyone gets the chance to go to Nashville during the holidays, everything at Opryland is AMAZING!!! It was so good to be able to hang out with them on New Year's Eve!!!

Other than that it has been back to work this week!! And back to agility training now that hopefully the rain will stop for a few days!! Lexi is coming along with her weaves, and if the weather will cooperate, hopefully we might be weaving by the end of January!!!

A Belated Happy Birthday to Sydney!!!!

Until next time...

Goodbye 2008! Hello 2009!!!

Here's to all the possibilities for the year ahead of us!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Day!!!