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!!!

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.