Hello Relaxation!

So, it's my second day of winter break and I'm just super happy the responsibilities of being a college student are gone for a while. This semester was a rough one and I'm so glad it's over. Hopefully I'll get my last few grades soon. My schedule for next semester is made and it doesn't seem as hellish as this years so we'll see how I do.

Aside from that we had our one day of AKC yesterday. Shimmer was a super star as always and Vengeance handled it all really well again. :) It was fantastic to see some good friends and be in good company. Measured the puppy who is about 16" right now I believe. I need to measure him again which I'll probably do soon. He played puppy recalls with some other border collie friends and recalled really well. Not to be outdone is big sister though who had a great day of trialing in a new environment. I loved the Conroe show site though pretty chilly it was a nice facility.

Excellent A STD-E. First run of the day and she was all over the place so this was expected. Nonetheless her dogwalk, teeter and weave performances were absolutely awesome. Good girl!

Excellent A JWW-Q/1st and AXJ! Great flowy course that both Shimmy and I really enjoyed. She saved my butt a few times and my handle was fairly questionable, but we pulled it off. *I should start my own handling system*-The All-Over-The-Place System. ;) Excellent B and MACh points here we come!

Excellent A FAST-NQ. We started really well and earned our points quickly but the bonus was definitely tough. Neither her fault nor mine. She just had a tad bit too much momentum to flip back into the tunnel. Ended happy and confident though. And we did a really nice teeter, too! :)

T2B-Q and 3 points. Our first time running this class. Of course now that I've run it I really like it and am going to enter this one as well. Yay for spending more money I don't have. Naughty 10th pole popper which we redid, but read my crosses and sends really well which made up for the time we lost. 14 Qs and 97 points to go... ;)

Excited also since we get to go to agility class the next two Tuesdays and then it's cancelled for the holidays. I'm just so ready to have some fun with my dogs and excited to have the free time to spend with them. It's the little things that count!

Holiday Moments

Now that school is almost over, I feel like I actually have time to update the blog occasionally, and I'm trying to remember to, because this semester school has taken over my life and I should really be updating more. We had a super busy day today with vet appointment for the puplette and he got his microchip. Poor guy was not pleased with the fact that there was a big needle that poked him between the shoulders. Good thing is he's taken care of and safe and currently passed out in his kennel with his mouth squished against the bars. I would attempt a picture, but I'd rather just enjoy the rare calm moment. We also took pictures with Santa! Shimmer has never gotten too since I've always either been a) too poor b) forgotten or c) too lazy. Since Vengeance has his first Christmas this year I figured it was about time the kids started the tradition. The picture turned out perfect and I'm super happy to have a picture to remember this year's holiday!Along with that, we were the guinea pigs and got to take some pictures before hand as we were preparing for the other people coming for pictures. One funny one that came out just had to be taken a picture of. We put the wrong side of the picture in and so the picture was printed on the side it wasn't supposed to and didn't dry. Vengeance looks like a pomeranian...and it just makes me laugh...because he could totally pass for a little puffball like that. Shimmy also looks a little funny and fuzzy. Needless to say, this picture is in close contention for best picture of the day with the one above.Shimmy ran lots of errands with us afterwards and we caught some good deals at Home Goods and Ross. A new harness for Vengeance so he can stop dragging me around like his bitch. Some new good smelling shampoo and cool Christmas gifts were also found. All in all it was a very successful day with two tired out pups. Tomorrow we'll just relax and prep for the last week of school. *Finally!* So ready for this semester of hell to be over. I want to spend time with my dogs...really really do. Love them to death for putting up with my crazy busy life style.

December Again Already?

Wow, who would have thought December would creep up on us again so soon? The semester is almost over, the weather is getting crisper, there are lights up in my room, and Christmas music plays while I study. Does this mean the puppy doesn't play with his hose anymore? Of course not. It's still warm enough in Texas to play a game of chase the water after I get out of class. Here's the little obsessed border collie during play time yesterday.He sort of kind of maybe loves that hose of his. First thing we run for every time we go outside. Vengeance and I play, while Shimmer sits and stares at us like we're retarded. Yep, works well.

Shimmer has her fun times too though. Enjoys going to work and helping out in class. We have a friend in the corp of cadets that let her wear his hat for a picture the other day. Shimmy is now officially a member of the corp of cadets at Texas A&M University!Pimpin; in the corp hat before Theatre History Class. Shimmy enjoys being a popular kid. No really. She loves it. The meaning "work" has her get all wiggly and excited every morning.

Aside from that I can't believe Vengeance is going to be 18 weeks on Monday. He's growing up so quickly. We had a fun time visiting the flower shop today and hanging out with our friend Molly. Monday I have Friday classes and two appointments, Tuesday I have Thursday classes. Then two dead days to study and attend reviews before finals. Two finals on Friday, and then it's home for the holidays! Ready to bring in a new year and enjoy the holidays with the kids! :)

OH EM GEE...a blog post!

Wow, it's been a while. Kind of sad how I haven't had a life. School has been beating me into the ground. Dear college...please have mercy. I just want an education! Aside from that, my last blog post was September 26. I've been long overdue. I'm super excited considering the fact that Thanksgiving break is coming up and the first semester of Sophomore year is almost over! It's been one hell of a semester. I kind of feel like this---


Extinct from my blog that is.

...Moving on...

4 days left until my Thanksgiving break. All classes cancelled on Wednesday which makes me smile...a lot. Not counting Thanksgiving break and weekends, 12 school days total. Epic win of awesomeness. My first day of winter vacation starts out with one day of AKC in Conroe! Should be fun. I feel like this blog post is sort of heading no where and that I'm just rambling. I feel like I've lost my mind.

In other news...the puppy thought it would be super awesome to eat his collar, cause ya know, they're not a fashion statement, they're a mid day snack. Also note, the lovely tag from Mad Dog Metalworks that has already taken a good beating (I'll be needing another one soon), and the rabies tag that, surprise surprise, we've only had since Saturday 11/12/2011. Am I glad he's loosing his puppy teeth? Uh, yeah! He kind of doesn't need those weapons of destruction anymore. It's safe to say, my hands, Shimmer's neck, and many other things have taken a fair beating from them. I swear he's a super good puppy though. He just loves eating things he shouldn't right now. And, what's really wrong with that? ;)

So many things to do though, I've been productive in the aspect of school work but lacking in general life productiveness. I've still got to start my Christmas shopping, which is normally near to done around this time of year. Other things on the list include purchasing food, because I am currently starving and there's "nothing" to it. We all know what that means-I'm just being picky. Oh, and go get a collar or maybe 50 in case Vengeance decides another collar needs a beat down.

One more awesome thing to share, though I'm sure most of you have seen it on my facebook page, Shimmy took a picture with and meet Reveille VIII on Monday! I've been wanting to get a picture of them together ever since I got accepted into Texas A&M. Yeah, our football team might suck, but our mascot is badass, and Shimmy thinks she's cool.

Ok, so I think I've summarized my life enough for now. But, I promise to start back up AND keep up with the blog again. I really do. And if I don't, blame school. It ruins the lives young people have...At least their social lives.

Crazy but Good

The kids and I have had a crazy past week. Last week was full of tests and what not but we had a fantastic weekend. We packed up Friday afternoon and headed to Galveston with Heather and her girls, Karma and Blush for a fun weekend at the beach. Stacie and Ken joined in on the fun on Saturday with Riddle and Tryst and the dogs all had a ball. Shimmy actually really enjoyed herself and frolicked in the water like a "normal" dog. :) I guess she was just super excited since other dogs thought it was cool. Vengeance took to water like a fish and joined in fearlessly. He said hi to a few people as well and did so great in his first overnight hotel trip. Aside from that this week should be just slightly lighter since I've gotten all of my tests out of the way and am spending time getting ahead on homework tonight so I won't have as much to do the rest of this week. This weekend, we have nothing planned so I might see if some friends want to come over to snuggle with Vengeance and help him get used to more people. All in all he's doing really well with meeting new people and checking out new places. I'm super impressed. Poor Shimmer tore her front paw pads at the beach this weekend but is recooperating well and resting up. They don't seem to bother her as much as they did yesterday so I think she's definitely feeling better. Also excited for the upcoming Howl-O-Ween Festival end of next month. Shimmer will be joining in on agility demonstrations and it'll be awesome to get Vengeance out and about for something really exciting like this. Aside from that I need to look at my trial schedule and enter something else. I'm ready for some more agility. Lots of pictures from the beach are up on Heather Valenta's facebook-check them out they're amazing! Some of the most incredible shots. All dogs were captured really well. Lots of shots of Shimmy rolling around being an ultra dork and a few cute shots of the drowned rat swimming like a big kid! :)


Along with that, I took a few pictures on my phone today just playing with Vengeance. He's eight weeks old today! Can't believe I've had the little bugger for a week. He's turning out to be an absolutely awesome little puppy. Looks great, has tons of drive, loves toys, is really willing to do just about anything. Fantastic puppy! Can't express how happy I am with him. We'll focus on working on a few things this week now that he's had time to settle in and hopefully be able to report with some cool news of tricks sometime soon!

Tugging to his hearts content :)

Is it weekend yet!?

This week has been absolutely insane. With the new puppy coming home and the 4 tests I have this week (3 down, 1 tomorrow), I've been swamped. By this point I'm not understanding things anymore and doing more harm than good. My brain hurts and it's so hard to study for Calculus right now. So ready for the beach trip this weekend. Shimmer, Vengeance, and I are headed to Galveston with Heather Valenta and her kids to enjoy some beach time. Others will be joining us as well so this will be a fantastic socialization opportunity for Vengeance and a nice late birthday surprise for Shimmer. Speaking of birthdays, happy birthday to my best girl! She turned 6 today and had some special goodies and extra snuggles. I might end up buying her a new collar soon too. Gotta get her something. :) Aside from that I'm just gonna head back to studying now....might as well. Gotta get through tomorrow (at least it's a short day). So looking forward to sleeping a bit and relaxing. I need it!

This is the cool dog who has a birthday today. She thinks we should make it National Omelette Dog Day. :)

Welcome Home Vengeance

What can I say? I have a puppy. Still super hard to believe. I'm so in love with him though. The wait today was insane but I was able to prepare and feel like he's set. Melinda and her mom got to the house around 5:45pm and dropped him off (2 hours earlier than I thought I'd get him). Ginny took oodles and oodles of pictures and I took a few videos, which will all be posted soon. Right now it's just a bit hectic. Shimmer absolutely hates Vengeance right now and I think is just very confused. He however loves her and wants to play. He greeted all 3 other dogs with a burst of friendliness. He really is very social and loveable. Success was that he's already pottied outside and loves loves loves to tug. I'm excited to have a toy motivated dog that will hopefully play with toys even if there's food around though he is a little food fatty. He ate his dinner really well and then I used some more kibble later on to introduce him to the clicker. Seemed completely fearless and understood the click treat right away. He even stopped jumping up for the food. Such a smart little puppy! He's currently crashed but we'll play a bit more later and then I'll hopefully get some shut eye. Going to get up early to tire him out some more and make sure he has what he needs while I'm at school. For now he seems pretty tired though. He's being a very good puppy all things considered. I just absolutely love him. So excited for what's to come! :)

Studying? Never heard of it...

So, I *should* be studying for the 4 tests I have next week. Am I? Of course not. There's a puppy coming in less than 48 hours! Melinda and her mom headed out tonight to drive to Arizona and will pick the pups up tomorrow afternoon. They'll head back and I'll be getting him sometime Sunday night. I can't get over how super adorable he is. I feel awful having not updated in nearly 3 weeks but school has sort of been eating my life. I've been super swamped with everything this semester and have quite the work load, but I'm keeping busy so it's good. Physics sort of hates me, but persistence has paid off and I'm slowly understanding things here and there. Maybe I'm just physics impaired? Possible. So, I'm getting a puppy Sunday night, and I have a test Tuesday (Theatre History), Wednesday (Organic Chemistry), Thursday (Physics-fail), and Friday (Calculus). Boy, I think my week will be a buttload of fun. ;) Anyone care to take any of those tests for me? Didn't think so. At least I have all weekend to study and focus on trying to study (yeah, it's not happening right now). Regardless, I'm happy it's weekend and I can catch up on sleep. I've got Vengeance's crate and expen all set up and oodles of toys laid out for him as well as being treat prepared. Oh, also, back and forth with information seeing as it's been forever since I updated. Shimmer's USDAA show last week went fantastic. She did really well and had a great time. One Advanced Standard Q and one Masters Jumpers Q. The other runs were super close to Qs but little things here and there. 2 fantastic super confident teeter performances that were flyoffs, but it was great to see her enjoying herself. Hoping to do an AKC show or two end October/beginning November. It'll be fun and good to get Vengeance exposed to the agility world himself. Basically, all I can do now is wait. I still can't really believe I've got a puppy coming home soon. It's going to be an interested next couple of months, but I'm so ready for it. As for Shimmer, I can only hope she'll really enjoy the company and learn to like her new brother. Despite it all, she'll always be my number one girl! Here is little Mr. Small Dark and Handsome at only 4.1 pounds at almost 7 weeks old. He's going to be a little midget border collie. I like it. :)

Also, here are a few videos of the puppies outside playing and having a good time! Super cute :)

Back in the School Rhythm

So, I bought the wrong textbooks today. Fail. But, it's all good, the roommate needs the new Physics book I bought and I can get my used version on amazon or something once I know more after class tomorrow. I bought the wrong edition of the O-Chem book too, but that I can always return. Thank goodness considering it was like $238....and the sad part is, I have to get it new. I just wonder how much the 8th edition will cost since it's updated and newer. Good thing no Calculus hard copy is needed (gotta love online textbooks). Lab manuals still need to be purchased but that can also be done tomorrow when the printed notes for O-Chem are purchased. Aside from that, the first day back was absolutely awesome. I found the first two classes with ease, got lost on the way to Physics lab, but no Physics labs met today, so I had a short day. This is how all my fridays will be....should be fun! I'm definitely thinking it'll be a great semester. The only down side is that the week I get Vengeance, I have four tests...I get him Monday afternoon, and I have a test Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday....That will be-interesting.

In other news, puppies are 4 weeks old today! I should be getting pictures later and I've gotten more videos too. It'll be good that I've got three weeks to get into the school rhythm though. Shimmer did great today and was happy to see me come back though. Such a good puppy.

I'll add his 4 week pictures to facebook later, but other than that, I just felt like I wanted to update the blog, especially since today was quite eventful. Hooray for great first days!

Preparations

We finally got internet and cable set up at the house today! Total win! Dani and Ginnabun moved in yesterday so now we've got almost the whole gang at the house. 3 more weeks and it'll be complete. Vengeance comes home September 19th. I cannot wait to meet him. Time flies. He'll be 4 weeks old tomorrow. I've gotten a few videos here and there and he's just too stinkin cute. I love seeing his personality come out. Aside from that, school starts tomorrow and I have syllabi to print, notes to print, and my backpack to get ready. Also need to buy books tomorrow and Tuesday. So much to do, but it's been great with the new roomies. It's so nice being in a clean, fresh house, with great roommates, and dogs Shimmy can play with. The dogs all actually met the bunny last night. All went well, so we know everyone is compatible. It'll be interesting to see what Vengeance will think of the bunny. He won't be much bigger than her for just a little while...I'll need to get a picture for size comparison purposes lol. Also ordered Vengeance his first tag and Shimmer another tag from Mad Dog Metalworks. Cannot wait to see how they turn out. I've got some older clips of Vengeance too, but I'll just post this one since I want to keep a few for future videos (if I ever get around to making videos again). Here he is, I think 2 days ago, on the couch, being Mr. Nosy Pants!

Waiting...

Waiting for a billion things. However, it's been a great few days. Ginny and I are enjoying the new place while waiting for Dani to come move in on Saturday. Shimmer absolutely *loves* Scout and has been enjoying wrestling with him lots. It's a super outlet for both of them. Thank goodness-considering they both need it so badly... We're also getting together with Jaycee and Emily on Sunday for dinner reunion before classes start. Should be so much fun! Yay for Olive Garden and breadsticks! Got my financial aid which is a huge weight lifted off of me. Still, waiting for internet and cable. Since everyone in CS currently wants it, we're scheduled to get it on Sunday morning. Sad, but at least we're fortunate enough to come to campus for internet. Also, waiting for the puppy. 26 days until he's home with me. He turned 3 weeks old yesterday. I don't think it could get any cuter, but I'm sure it will. Here he is... Little Vengeance is growing on up! :)

Let's Make It Official

He's tri. Not the traditional black and white. And he's going to get even. Shimmer has the kind of bedazzling name. I wanted a name that really popped for my new little addition. So, what will his name be you may ask? Well, let's make it official. His name is Vengeance. His registered name will be I Get Even. It just seemed to fit. I must have had a list of over 200 names that continued to grow and shrink. It was a back and forth thing between thinking I've picked the perfect name and then changing my mind. No more changing. Little Vengeance is coming home September 18th. 29 days left....I can hardly wait!

Simply Perfect

As most of you probably know, I'm headed out to College Station late tomorrow night to officially move in with the rest of my stuff. Hopefully, we'll get internet set up soon, but I'll probably be without it for a day or two (let's hope that's all it'll be or I may very well perish...). Regardless, I asked for a puppy picture to make me smile tonight.


What can I say about my little guy? He's pretty much perfection. I mean, granted, I haven't even gotten him yet, but still, for some reason, I can just feel that he's perfect for me. The countdown continues...30 days until he's home with me. I already got him so food today. We won't be coming back home to visit before he comes home, so I figured I'd pick up some good food since I don't want to end up having to order it somewhere. We're gonna try Acana and see how he does and if anything we can always switch to something else. I've still got plenty of Reliant samples too. I just figured it'd be easier starting him on kibble so I can clicker his breakfast and dinner and then put some in a tug-a-jug the days I'm gone a bit longer so he can entertain himself. All that's left, is to get his tag-still (haha). I'm just adoring watching this little guy grow. And, I still can't believe that he's all mine!

Great Week so Far!

Well, these pictures are from Monday when he turned 2 weeks old, but my little guy is growing on up. He was already beginning to open his eyes on Sunday afternoon. It's hard to see in the pictures, but both of his eyes are open. I'm just loving watching him grow up. Makes me think back and wish how badly I could see what Shimmy looked like as a wee little puppy all cute and squishy. His crate came in the mail today and all I basically need for him is his awesome tag. I'm nearly all set. And I've got a good month left.


Aside from that, Shimmer and I had our last agility class last night. We learned oodles of stuff working on the jump grids, which I'll definitely be refreshing on back in College Station. She really enjoyed playing teeter games too. It was a great couple of classes we dropped in on and I was super happy we had the opportunity to go. We'll probably start up again over winter break. It won't be a constant thing, but summer and winter break will be a great refresher for our agility skills. Along with that, once puppy has arrived, he'll be able to come and watch big sister Shimmy play agility!


We've got 2 more days here in Houston and are then headed back to College Station. I can't believe school starts in 12 days. Kind of crazy. As much as I would like to say, I don't want to go back, I miss campus, Miss Reveille, class and dinner with all the cool people. Also, Spoon probiotics...the kind of bacteria that make you really happy inside. :) Yum! Lots of stuff to look forward to. Should be an awesome weekend getting stoked up and making sure we're ready for the new school year!

Also: Random beach picture from the beach weekend. Just because Shimmy is that cool.

Pampering :)

Pedicure today.

Why? Cause I can.
What's it look like? Here's a picture.

Maroon with white paw prints.
It makes me smile and think of Reveille VIII.
I miss that pretty Collie.

A Spoiled Future

I can already see this puppy, getting whatever he wants. But, that'll be ok. He's cute. I'm sure he'll pretty much get sugar blown up his butt. Spoiled rotten little thing. We already bought a few things for him today, toy wise, "like Shimmer doesn't have enough he can use." I've definitely got a good chunk of things I need to get, but I've got a good little bit over a month left until he comes home. I received some more information today. This includes that he's a "chunky little sucker" and super "bold" especially when it comes to eating. They got some neurological stimulation today and will continue to get it until they come home. He's also starting to get some black freckles on his little nose. He currently is also the only puppy with brown on all four legs. The eyes are looking like they'll open up any day now, too. Should be so great to see what they decide to do once they can hear and see. I also got two more pictures that I've just got to share. Love my little boy so very much! :)

But, you're a Sophomore...

Well, I'll be bad and say WHOOP anyway. (Aggie reference, sorry for you non-aggies out there). ;) I've finally made my pick on who is joining me late September. Male 4, little Whoop, from the Wrecking Crew is coming to College Station to join me and Shimmer. I got one week old pictures and just couldn't stop looking at him. He's been my absolute favorite since I was texted that he was the last surprise boy in a wooping litter of 9 puppies! There's just something about him that makes me smile. The whole ordeal is even more exciting now that I've decided on a puppy and can watch him, looking forward to that day when I get to meet him and start our journey together. And, I've finally decided on a name! That, however, will stay a secret until he's home with me. Until then, I'll continue counting down the days. He's got one black spot on his front right paw pad. It's already officially dubbed his "lucky spot". He's also already showing a lot of tri. It'll be great to see what he's going to look like in a few weeks or even next week. For now, here are the 2 pictures of him at one week old. Attached is also a video of them eating and sleeping. The first video of them. Many more to come! :)

Shimmy goes to the Beach

Shimmy had a super fun weekend going to Galveston and the beach. I can't stress enough how proud I am of my little girl. She's not a big water dog, but we worked on being comfortable swimming and the waves coming at her. She's still not a huge fan of the waves, but is starting to enjoy it more and more. Debra's girls, Jenni and Shelby, are avid beach goers and showed Shimmer that the water and the beach really aren't that bad. Yesterday, she did a lot of swimming and we rode the ferry to and from Bolivar Island. Sadly, dog have to stay in the car, so Shimmy didn't get to watch the dolphins with me, but she did get to ride on a ferry! Today we just spent a little while at the beach, and then headed to The Spot, for lunch. The dogs were allowed outside on the patio so they really felt special being able to come eat lunch with us. The food was awesome, by my standards, and I think Shimmer really enjoyed the bits and pieces she got as well. I posted some but not all pictures to facebook and will add a few here. Got lots of great shots though, and a very tired dog now. She's been laying under my bed sleeping and dreaming since we got back about 1 hour ago. Also, puppies turn one week old tomorrow. I can hardly believe it! They're growing up quickly. I'll be getting a weigh in update as well as pictures later. Might post those, might not. It really just depends. Doctors appointment and what not tomorrow. Then Tuesday night we have agility class, we might head back to College Station Thursday to get some more things up there, since I have accumulated a shitload throughout the summer. That's still a maybe though. Then it's one more weekend in Houston. We go back to College Station August 19th. School starts in 3 weeks and 1 day...um ew. Hopefully, I'll be able to survive this semester. Omelette Dog is going to have to start brushing up on her Calculus, Physics, and Organic Chemistry so she can help me with homework!

By PUPular Demand...

Several of you have asked me, "where are the individual pictures?" I was going to save them and just have them in the video, but since you won't know who I'm picking until I post that, I figure I'll be nice and post the pictures. :) So many wonderful puppies to chose from! All have been doing really well today and eating lots. These next couple of weeks are going to fly. Anyone have any favorites? Feel free to share and let me know why. Of course I'm going to wait to make my pick until the personalities come out and I see more of them, but so far I have my 2 favorite boys. :)

Edit: Melinda and I just gave the litter their theme and named them all. The theme is The Wrecking Crew. All have Texas A&M related names... :)
Female 4 (White)
Female 3 (Maroon)
Female 2 (Wildcat)
Female 1 (Howdy)
Female 5 (Reveille)
Female 4 (White)
Female 3 (Maroon)
Female 2 (Wildcat)
Female 1 (Howdy)
Female 5 (Reveille)
Male 4 (Whoop)
Male 3 (Hullabaloo)
Male 3 (Hullabaloo)
Male 4 (Whoop)
Male 2 (Gig 'Em)
Male 1 (Aggie)
Male 1 (Aggie)
Male 2 (Gig 'Em)

Welcome to the World

Today was a super eventful day with going up to College Station, Tx, picking up the key to the new place, moving some of my stuff in and what not. It was great seeing the place empty and really getting to check it out. I can't believe school is right around the corner. I've got almost all of my stuff out of storage already, so the weekend we move in shouldn't be too terrible seeing as I've got a head start. But, this was the bland part of today....

Piper had her puppies today. I got a text at 2:34pm, from Marisa, letting me know that Piper was beginning to have the pups. We got home and not soon after that puppy number one was welcomed. She had about 10-15 minutes between the first 5 puppies (2 girls and then 3 boys). Then came the break, and we suspected one or two more. 2 little girls came out back to back and we thought that the count was 7 and that was that. To our surprise, Piper had another little girl come just a few minutes later. Surely, that was it, we thought. Piper, being the generous momma she is, gave me one more boy to choose from. Although looks aren't my main priority, this last boy has a full white collar and both front legs are black. He should be a looker, and I can't wait to see individual pictures. We should get those later tonight, I'm just waiting for them and will post them as soon as I have them. For now, these two pictures will have to do. One is a bit blurry, but it's a picture nonetheless. 5 beautiful girls and 4 handsome boys thanks to Piper and Jake. I can't wait to watch these little ones grow up. I'm so excited to finally get to go through the puppy experience. It should be an adventure! Welcome to the world little ones! The journey awaits...

Any Day Now...

It's almost puppy time! I'm still debating back and forth between names and which one would work and which one wouldn't. What sounds good, what will work, though I'm sure I won't know until I know for sure who I'll pick. I'll be pretty busy for the next couple of weeks though, so hopefully my mind will someone be kept off of *constant* puppy thoughts. Beach next weekend with Shimmy, Mom, Debra, Jenni, and Shelby. Should be a great weekend filled with fun in the sun and on the sand. I'll be sure to get tons of pictures. Facebook I'm sure will get bombarded with a) beach pictures and b) puppy pictures (depending on when they are born). August 20-21 is the weekend Shimmy and I officially move into the new place at College Station. It'll be a busy weekend and then Gig 'Em Week followed by school starting on August 29th. Is it really almost time for the torture again? I'm sort of not ready. I'm also fairly certain I was either drunk or high when I picked my classes for this semester...did I seriously think this would work? Eh, we'll see how I do. The sooner school starts though, the sooner I'll get back into the busy rhythm and it'll be great to have about a month to get back into the swing of things before I have a psycho little border collie running around the house. For now, I'm just continuously enjoying my best little Omelette dog. I do treasure just the moments I have with her. She's my best girl. Currently drying up from her bath after the dog park (yes we still went because I don't want to be unfair seeing as she loves it so). Of on another topic, we went to IKEA today and purchased my shelf for super dog stuff organizing, and maybe a couple of textbooks will be worthy of sitting on the shelf as well. Knowing me, the textbooks will most likely get dumped somewhere in a corner (but up high so that the puppy doesn't decide that they're a snack). That would be bad considering I'm poor by the end of the school year and I'll need to sell my books back. I'm excited to decorate my new room, but it's not nice that anything that's not "normal wear and tear" which does not include nailing anything to the wall is not allowed. I wish I could hang the dog butt up again...I now have two-one for each dog. Also, there will be no hanging of other stuff. I might try tickytack or some other kind of adhesive stuff. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to share. I kind of like having my walls not be completely bare. Either way, I'm sure I'll find some way to make the room unique. :) Lots of fun stuff coming up for the month of August!

Omelettes and Agility Classes

So, I figured I'd do a post about agility class last night. I figured Shimmy would still be up for class, but be a bit chill since we had just finished 4 days of showing. I was sort of wrong. As Renee put it, "She's on fire!" And, I really think she enjoys class. It's so great being able to drop in, she gets so excited and really gives me her all. She loves seeing all of her friends, dog and people. After running our sequences she even ran towards the teeter on the side of the field as her own reinforcement...my dog has made huge strides. We were also able to go into the other field to practice a bit on our own afterwards. Shimmy wow'ed me as usual. Her contacts were super speedy and she read me so well. She had one of those fly over the aframe moments. I guess low-fat omelettes are light enough to do that occasionally. :) We can't wait to do it again next week! I'll be so sad to go back to College Station because I'm really going to miss the occasional drop in, but hopefully we'll be able to come by during our winter break. It's been great to practice and see how she grows. She did great on the first sequence and surprised me by being super perfect on the tricky part that a lot of dogs were having problems with. Of course I messed her up on the easy part. Shimmy says a new handler just might be in order if I can't get my act together. The second sequence was a tad more flowy though my arms were sort of everywhere. Thanks to Renee for reminding me to not epically flail while running my dog. That's kind of a plus...She rocked that one as well though. She did great and had that super big smile on her face. I'll try to be good and get some clips at class next week if my camera decides not to be difficult. It's unpredictable though, so I can't make any promises unfortunately. Not sure why it's having a midlife crisis....

Ranting on Adulthood...

It occasionally sucks. I look back and realize now how carefree and cool life was when I was a kid. Sure, not everyone told you everything, you had to be good, go to bed on time, you couldn't buy what you wanted all the time, but life was pretty darn awesome. I think what gets me most about financial aid, the fact that they send you an e-mail, you have no idea by what time you need certain paperwork filled out, and they just give you a website url. Then it's up to you to scavenger hunt the website for hours, trying to find what paperwork you need to fill out and then second guess yourself. Of course, you can always call the people at the financial aid office, but even they don't know exactly by what day you need this and if this paperwork applies to this loan or what not. Why not just send me an e-mail with a link or download to all the applications you need, the addresses to which they need to be returned to, and the deadline for each. My wonderful cousin was going to help me, since she did last year, but sadly she's on a business trip until beginning August, and being the worrier I am, and distribution starting on August 20th, I don't want to be late or miss the deadline. The sooner you get things in, the quicker you get your money distributed to you. But, no, they have to make it super complicated. So now I have 3 or 4 different forms pulled up, none of which I'm sure I even need, except maybe the one...but that's still a maybe. Aside from that, the social responsibilities of figuring out how to set things up for the new house and the lack of communication there is really doesn't help the situation. I kind of just want to crawl back to bed and sleep for a while, but no, adults don't do that. They deal with things...all I can say is, "This sucks."

Reliant (Sunday)

Day 4 was a bittersweet day. This is our favorite show of the year, and to have it end so quickly was really sad. We did our best to enjoy the last day though. We only had Exc A JWW as well as Open STD. I'm glad I didn't do T2B because someone was super tired! Poor girl worked hard. I'm really excited because we found a comfortflex for her that was maroon and her perfect size. One very good purchase made at Reliant along with oodles of treats for my girl. Here are the results from today's show.

Exc A JWW-NQ
She had a refusal at the second jump. Totally my fault for not encouraging her enough for a quick start. We redid the jump though and ran the rest clean with a good amount of speed. She handled the crowds well today. We also made the super tough weave entry a lot of dogs weren't getting, so I was very happy with that.
Open STD-Q/1st
Exhausted by this point, we started out really slow and had the most pathetic weaves you'd have ever seen. She had a great performance on each contact obstacle though an read me well. We still came out with the Q though. Only one more Q until this girl is in excellent standard...who'd have thought it?

All in all I was incredibly amazed at her ability to handle the show this year. She ran 7/10 runs clean with 6 firsts, 1 third, and her NA title. Out of the three NQs, the first was a minor mistake made by me, the second was due to stress which we overcame (yay), and the third was due to another minor mistake by yours truly. One more Q for her AXJ, one more Q for her OA, and one more Q for her OF. Hopefully we'll be able to do one AKC in October or something. Next thing is hopefully the USDAA in September in College Station. My girl and I have worked really hard and are getting to where we want to be. I couldn't be happier with her right now. I have the best little dog. Truly do. She tries so hard and it really shows. This next week we'll rest up after this crazy show and just enjoy relaxing. It was fun, but we're definitely ready for some good sleep! Farewell, Reliant...until we meet again next year. Let the countdown for Reliant 2012 begin! :)

Reliant (Saturday)

Day 3 started a bit rough as I wasn't feeling well and Shimmy was distracted by the crowds. Her Exc A JWW run I pulled her. She knocked the triple due to lack of forward motion and "trotted" past a jump. I figured there was no point in dragging out the agony she was feeling and pulled her. Good choice as she stress yawned a bit as we went to her crate. Poor girly. She rested for a while, I got my head back in the game, and she came back strong in Open STD and Open FAST! :) Here are today's results...

Excellent A JWW-E
Pulled her due to being distracted and neither of us was feeling it.
Open STD-Q/1st
What an awesome come back! We both took some deep breaths and went in there for the fun of it all. Fabulous performance by her. The crowd really made her feel special after that run.
Open FAST-Q/1st
Another wonderful run. This was only offered twice this weekend, but both runs went well. I don't recall earning as many points as we did, but I guess we did...64 points when we only needed 55 total. Works for me!

After that we did some walking around. She got lots of pets and treats from people. We also racked up on samples and what not. We'll get some more tomorrow and I was able to find what I was looking for. I can't believe tomorrow is the last day again. I'll be super sad when it's over, but I'm thrilled we have one more day to really have a great time. Exc A JWW and Open STD tomorrow. I'm so lucky to have her and she's exceeded my expectations yet again this year. Goal for tomorrow: Just enjoy the day! Afterall, Reliant comes but once a year!

Reliant (Thursday-Friday)

So, I figured I'd break this up into two posts since, one, I want to update, and two, it would be incredibly long if I did just one update. So far, Reliant has been everything I've been waiting for. The company is great, the judges have some really fun courses, and Shimmy is adjusting well and dealing with everything like the awesome superstar she is. It was great to see some people I haven't seen in a while and cheer on some of our friends. Here's how days one and two went....

Day One (Thursday 7/21/11)
Excellent A JWW-Q/1st
What a great run by my girl. A super flowy course that gave her tons of confidence.
Novice STD-Q/1st/NA
Wow, we've been working hard for this one. Flawless performance by her. What a girl!
Open FAST-Q/3rd
She had the fastest time, but places 1 and 2 had 62 points while she had 60 points. Either way, I just wanted to get our points and get out. Not like one can get a SuperQ in AKC right?

Day Two (Friday 7/22/11)
Excellent A JWW-Q/1st
This was a super neat course. Lots of turns but a great handling challenge for me. Shimmer rocked it out like always saving my butt as I almost ran into a jump...special.
Open STD-NQ
This was totally my fault. I was rushing to the teeter concentrating on that performance. We disconnected and I lost eye contact, therefore causing her to run past the panel jump. The panel and chute were right next to each other and I can't recall if I even gave a command. Odds are I didn't and she did just what she was supposed to-no command, no obstacle. Contacts were wonderful though, and I'm perpetually happy with her!

We also got our official CGC certificate in the mail today which made me very happy! :)

Tomorrow we run Excellent A JWW again, and our goal is to get our AXJ. We'll also do Open STD and my goal is to just have another confident run, Q or NQ. Open FAST will be the other run and we'll just go in to play that for the fun of it, also, Q or NQ. Sunday will only be Excellent JWW and Open STD. FAST was only offered on Thursday and Saturday. T2B was offered other days and I don't really feel like pushing for speed on this carpet flooring. Despite that she's doing exceptionally well. Her front paw pads got a bit sore, but thankfully not ripped. I put neosporin on them and wrapped them earning me looks of death all evening yesterday. Protect a pad helped today as well as her booties when we walk around. Everyone thinks it's funny and keeps asking what the "balloons" on her feet are for...silly people. We did find out though, the reason her paws on the front were starting to wear down was because she was using her front to power due to her rear being pretty stiff and kinked out. Thankfully, Ken worked on her after our runs today and made her feel a lot better. I can already see a difference in the way she moves and have no doubt tomorrow she'll be able to use her rear a bit more for that force instead of just reaching out and pulling herself through the run. She's currently crashed, oblivious to what the world holds in store for her tomorrow. We'll go around some more tomorrow, collect samples, pettings, as well as the "non-dog" people questions. For now, we're gonna relax, get a good nights rest, and enjoy the next two days of Reliant. It's been an amazing show so far!

Terramar Beach Weekend

The beach was absolutely amazing this weekend. I missed my little Shimmy lots but we had such a great time. It was a perfect weekend for the beach. The weather was just right, it was a great amount of people, and we had plenty of ways to entertain ourselves. Sexual Trivia was super interesting...to say the least. Aside from that we played Monopoly which for some reason went extremely well for me for once. It was the Nascar version-maybe I should purchase that one. Then we headed to the beach which was actually pretty packed but it was a great day. The seaweed didn't eat us too much. Galveston water isn't the greatest either, but hey, it was the beach! We also did some tanning and what not...like I need any more color! People always tell me, "Oh you got so and so many shades darker." REALLY? What the hell constitutes a "shade"? Is there some strange measurement tactic I haven't grasped yet? Alas, I can see that I did tan because there is a line from my scrunchie on my hand and I did get a bit red...but not really sunburn red, just red as in my skin saying, "Hey I got sun". I'm fortunate enough to never have gotten an actual sunburn. We came back and played Cranium last night which was hilarious considering all the sketching with eyes closed and silent doodles among the charades and cameos. Those were priceless and epic. Lots of pictures and videos on facebook...look them up hahaha. Good times with friends are so great! We headed out this morning, but Aaron, Albert and I stopped by the gift shop and got a few things. Found a gorgeous dried seastar for the madre since she lost hers a while back or it got broken, I can't exactly remember. I also bought some shells for Oma to put in her care package and ship off to Germany soon. A little piece of Galveston for her... Also bought a really cute anklet that has seastars on it. All for a fair price. It was certainly a good weekend! Hopefully the next beach trip will include Shimmer, but either way, I can't wait to go back! :) Even though Galveston is not the prettiest and clearest beach, you can't help but love it...

The Neglected Blog

It must be blog month. Is there even an official blog month? Seems I've neglected the blog a tad since I made it. (As I knew I would.) Every month has had less and less post, although I have kept up with it to a certain extend posting when necessary to tell a life story here or there. I'm going to try and keep it updated more frequently now though, especially since July seems to have promise for being a busy time of my summer. Beach happens this weekend-it's finally official. I'm super excited to enjoy the sand, the water, the seaweed that clings to your body like a stalker...not really that last part. Then of course, Reliant is now only 16 days away-am I getting annoying with that? I just can't help it...It's been nearly 2 months since our last trial. Along with that I've got a few other small plans here and there for this month. Today has been fairly fun, nothing too amazing really. We're not doing anything special for the holiday, just staying in and relaxing, and taking Shimmy to the dog park later. That's what the holidays are all about for me. Kicking back, enjoying the time with family, and a little bit of fresh air (if you can consider Houston air fresh)....Happy 4th of July!

The Idiots of the World

So, second blog post today. Usually don't do that, but man, today was so super perfect, up until a certain someone ruined it. You know those people? The ones that just have a special knack for pissing you off? It's like an olympic event... Yeah, those people need to be put together on a boat, shipped off to the ends of the earth, and stay there forever. That would make me pretty damn happy right about now...ok, I'm done now.

My Brain Just Might Explode

Too much to be looking forward to. I thought I was a bit more patient than this. Reliant is now 17 days away and I've got about a month before my puppy is born. Yesterday was a pretty productive day and we got lots done. Today is more relaxing, but it'll be fun to go out for a late lunch and maybe see the aunt and uncle and cousins this afternoon. As always, dog park will be in order later on. How can it not be? My morning was made when my grandma from Germany called. I miss her so much. Hopefully she'll come visit for Christmas, but it's still a matter of trying to convince her. I would go visit, aside from the fact that it's more expensive to fly to Germany than to the United States and if I went, I would want to bring at least Shimmer, if not the puppy as well which would be expensive, and I'm not sure how all that quarantine crap works. Definitely not enough time during winter break. I miss her though. She makes me smile. Sometimes I wish my entire family wasn't all over the place. I've got family in Germany, Australia, Indiana, Missouri, and Texas. People scattered all over the place, not enough time to go visit, and too poor to fly where I want and frequently see family. Either way, I'm lucky to have some family here. It'll be good to see them later or tomorrow. Hope everyone has a happy 4th of July. If you're somewhere where fireworks aren't banned, enjoy shooting them off...Texas isn't allowed this year. Hopefully no one does anything stupid and just accepts the fact that this year it's too dry. Texas weather....enough said.

Life. Is. Awesome.

~Piper is pretty much confirmed pregnant
~Shimmy loves licorice cats
~Broke down and ordered a giraffe print collar for Omelette
~Reliant is 18 days away (not counting the rest of tonight)
~I really want a trip to the beach so I can wear my new swim suit
~So ready to do some agility soon
~Currently, Life. Is. Awesome.

My life has actually been sorta exciting lately...

So, since Sunday, life actually hasn't been completely boring and bland. Sunday, we headed to the mall for some good times and had gelato afterwards. Absolute yum. :) I even got a new cute swim suit for our *hopefully* upcoming beach trip next weekend. Last year was so much fun, I'm ready to go to the beach again. The beach house was beautiful and it was great to just hang out. Monday I saw Cars2 with Ariana, and it was actually super cute. Love Mater....he's just awesome. Best cars character ever. Sorry for all you Lightning McQueen fans out there. Tuesday I had lunch with madre and then just chilled with Shimmy. We had a fun rerun marathon. She watches all my favorite shows-that's why she's so bad ass. :) Today, Tiffany came over and Shimmy and Bella wrestles until we went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 at 9:35am. Yep, we're that amazing. That's the earliest I've ever gone to the movies. Then we had lunch at the China Inn and afterwards we went to Bones2Go where both girls got spoiled rotten with cookies and I picked up some stuff for Omelette. Then we got back and passed out in the living room and napped for 2 hours cause we were all so tired. Staying up til like 1:30am, getting up at 7:30am and then hanging out all day nonstop...yep, naptime was good. Very very good. After that we dyed Tiffany's hair which is now turning pink, so I think we're gonna have to redo it...oops? :) Tomorrow is going to be a relaxing day. Shimmy and I are just gonna watch some more reruns and hang out. I might do some scrapbooking since I haven't done that in a while. Mom is off this weekend so hopefully we'll find something entertaining to do, and I get to see Evelyn, Jackie and Marlene on Sunday so, good times ahead. Reliant is also approaching fast. I'm getting so super excited for that. It's going to be the best 4 days of summer-no doubt about it. 2 months exactly until school starts up again, which seems like a long time, but hell, it'll be here before I know it. However, I've already figured out when I'm moving in to the new place and have plans for the first weekend back in Cstat. I do miss it....and I'll be happy to be in my little college town again. It's creepy how much you miss a place after only living there for like 9 months...

The Health Kick

This total low fat diet thing. Working out, but not liking it. Hopefully I'll get used to it more, but I feel a blog post about my sad food existence is necessary. It's like, there's all these wonderful things that I could eat, or want to eat, and I totally can't cause my body will go "AHHHH". I will say, this whole thing has put food and eating habits into a whole new perspective for me. It's incredible how much junk we're putting into our bodies on a daily basis. It's all processed or includes preservatives. We shove an incredible amount of shit into ourselves every single day. Granted, I do crave bad things, but knowing that right now my digestive system can't quite handle it yet, and knowing how unhealthy it really is (cause I'm forced to read all the labels), really makes me think. It's definitely fun trying out new things and experimenting with different foods. I've gotten creative and actually found a bunch of new things that I enjoy. Along with that I've found ways to eat what I like, but with less fat content. So much healthier and better for your body! I'm definitely ready to shed some pounds and look and feel better. I got the clear from my surgeon today to do whatever I want now. He loved how everything looked and said I was healing just great! That probably made my day! I can play agility again and am definitely going to try and get out sometime next week. However, despite the health kick and the new food experiences, I do still want things that I cannot have so I figured I'd do another illustration for you! I think this is a new thing I'll be doing. It's fun messing around with paint. So, here you go...what I want and what I do not want. Just this picture makes me drool...kind of sad.

The Gallbladder Temper Tantrum

As most of you know, due to my Facebook, my gallbladder is no longer with me. But, I'd like to explain the whole concept behind the story and figured I'd do a funny kind of blog post about it. I mean, hell, I'm alive and well, life is good. I'm just missing a gallbladder. Maybe I'm a few pounds lighter?

The whole ordeal started the weekend before last (somewhere beginning June). I had been feeling queasy but not sure why, so I proceeded to blame it on "Tum" the tummy. He wasn't being very nice and we weren't sure why. Culprits and suspects among our case were stress, a stomach bug, or maybe my dog had even given me giardia. Whatever it was, it was awful. It came with back pain, chest pain, I couldn't breathe, there was no way to lay down or even get comfortable, yet it only came on strongly at night.

Being the drama queen I am, I'm thinking the worst, like maybe cancer or some terrible unknowing doom that's unfixable and that I'm terminal.

So Friday night, June 10th, it starts around 10pm and I sit around until 3am like an idiot hoping it goes away. I'm panicking by this point, not wanting to go to the hospital but knowing it's a necessary thing by now. We drag ourselves downstairs, and granted, this is all way more dramatic than I'm sure it was, but I'm laying on the couch telling my mom to hurry up. Meanwhile, Omelette is running around confused as crap. My first question "Mom, what do we do with Shimmer?" What? Like I thought we were gonna be able to take her. I guess it was just one of those random questions that happened to pop up.

Next thing I know, we're driving down highway 6, me looking all drugged up and drunk in the passenger seat wondering which hospital we're going to. By this point, I really wasn't able to walk and mom helped me get into the emergency room lobby. Since there were no couches, I draped myself over some half crap love seat excuse for a couch and someone came out and took my vitals. I don't remember what they said, but all I remember having to go do was pee in a cup. Quite tricky when your gallbladder (unbeknownst to you) is having a temper tantrum and what not.

We get into one of the rooms (room 6) and my morbid self can only think of how 6 is the devil's number and how I just may die because my insides feel like they're burning and soaking in corrosive acids.

A bunch of people did a bunch of pushing on my belly (which definitely made my gallbladder even more unhappy). I got to have a CAT scan done and thought about random dye hanging out in my insides going, "weeee look at us, we're organs". So, they give me an IV telling me I'm dehydrated and that the IV will help that and my stomach calm down. Well, about half way through the IV bag my stomach is still not feeling great. They finally give me a shot of morphine and I'm out until they come back around 6am to tell me my lymph nodes are being weird and swelling and that they want me to see a specialist. By this point, I'm thinking, "boy, don't I feel 'special' getting to see a specialist. Hopefully this doesn't mean I'm dying."

We get up to a room on 5th floor and it's all nice and pretty and private. I'm out at this point just trying to make the pain go away. Around 1pm that afternoon I get my belly squished even more when they do an ultrasound. Granted, the lady was super nice, but the entire time I laid there wanting to punch the wall because again, my insides were screaming out in pain. Life was good though, cause afterwards, they gave me a nice warm blanket. FTW!

They told us that the surgeon would be in the next day (Sunday) to talk to us about what was going on since the weekend schedule was different and he was already gone for the day. I'm thinking surgeon, and panicking again, but try to get some sleep, and thanks to the morphine, it worked.

The surgeon came in the next day and really broke the news like a bombshell.
Surgeon: "So, I've been hearing you've been having problems with your gallbladder."
Me: "Huh?"
*Surgeon proceeds to poke belly*
Surgeon: "Well, we'll do surgery tomorrow. It's pretty quick, we do it with a laser, and it should take 20-30 minutes tops."
Me: "HUH?!?!"
*Marcella proceeds to burst into tears frantically*
Surgeon: "No tears, it'll all be ok..."

Ok, so maybe he wasn't that bland about it, but he was pretty straight forward and chill with it, and here I am sitting, thinking, "DAMN IT!"

By this point we're naming things in the hospital. We realized the whole thing wasn't Tum's fault, but instead Gall that was causing the issue. Gall was the one that brought all the stones into the apartment complex causing grumpy old Tum to be upset and call for an eviction notice. We also decided to give the hospital a name....Holly the Hospital. I think the morphine was getting to me at this point. Along with that, I had Irene Victoria, my trusty IV who went with me everywhere. Boy, I miss that girl...Like I said, morphine talking....all morphine.

The surgery crap and everything that followed was basically a frantic, "Oh God, will I be ok?" followed by, everything went fine, and there's a few cuts in me, and I'm missing a gallbladder. All is well though and the healing is going fine. I'm still thinking though, poor gallbladder, if only it hadn't been such a difficult tenant in my house, maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't have had to be kicked out with all it's unruly little gallstone children...

Aside from that, I figured I'd do a little illustration since my gallbladder was super and I mean like CRAZY inflamed according to the blunt surgeon man who we see again on Wednesday for a check up. I'm hoping my belly won't get poked like crazy again, it's still trying to get over being blown up, having a camera stuck inside it, and having tools move around and rearrange all of my organs, thankyouverymuch.

Thanks to all those who thought of me and sent me well wishes and prayers on facebook. I also appreciate everyone who came to visit me while I was in the hospital and brought me beautiful flowers, pretty cards, and all the great nurses and doctors that made sure I was ok. It could always be worse, I'm alive, I'm healthy, and that's what matters. :)

Hope the picture kind of gives you an idea of what my life has been like for the past week or so...

Patience is a Virtue

Ok, so maybe I just picked this blog title because I'm trying to convince myself that patience will get me what I want. Piper and Jake have gotten together several times so now we just get to play the waiting game. My guess is that puppies will be born on August 1st. I can't wait to meet my new addition. Along with that, I'm counting down the days until Reliant. Financially we won't be able to make it to the June USDAA trial, so I'm just counting down the days until our favorite show of the year. Hopefully I'll be able to drop into an agility class sometime soon though. Besides that we've just been doing dog park lots. We got rained on today while we were out and it was great seeing as we haven't gotten rain in weeks. Houston is perpetually doomed to wither in it's own dried up chapped up self. Hopefully we'll continue to get rain tomorrow and Tuesday like it's predicted. It would be nice to have a weather change. Life is pretty boring besides that, but I figured a blog post was way overdue and totally necessary, so this is why I'm rambling on about random crap... hope everyone has a great start to their week. Do something exciting!

Quote of the Day: "The purpose of our lives is to be happy." -Dalai Lama

Some bad and some good

Shimmy woke up today feeling quite sick begging to go outside at 7am (totally unlike her). Seemed like she didn't have to do anything though, kept pacing, stretching, wouldn't eat breakfast (definitely not my dog). I called my mom who came home so we could take Shimmer in and we took some Sucralfate tablets home thinking it might just be a tummy bug. We napped and once my mom came home the bout of diarrhea started. At first I wasn't sure if I was seeing blood but sure enough, Shimmy was definitely uncomfortable and quite sick. Back to the vet it was to run some tests and figure out what awful thing was causing her to feel so miserable. I took along a sample of her stool hoping it would help them figure out what was wrong with her. Anyone else ever done that with your dog? I felt like an idiot going "here, I brought some of my dog's poop in case..." In case what? Well, who knows, maybe they did use it to help figure out the problem. Sure enough, the Giardia test came back positive, and my thoughts are that it was from the dog park and all the nasty water she enjoys drinking so much. Yum? Good thing is, she's not on some more medication, and kept down her prescribed dinner. She's more tired than anything at this point and sleeping soundly. She's drinking water again, went to the field just to walk a bit and get fresh air, and she seems to be feeling much better. Hopefully she will continue to improve and keep being the awesome little Shimmy she is. Huge thanks again to all who thought of her throughout the day and asked about her. All your good thoughts are appreciated and helped me get through a stressful day.

In other news, Marisa e-mailed back confirming my question that yes, Piper is in heat! Although not receptive yet, hopefully they'll be bred soon and then puppies can start cooking. Are we sure we can't crank the oven up a bit higher to speed up the process? So excited for the fall. So many good things to look forward to. Life isn't perfect, but there's so much exciting stuff coming up! Will update again once I know more, and again, thanks to everyone for thinking about Shimmy. Seems like lots of pups aren't feeling well lately...hoping that will be over soon!

Quote of the Day: "When you feel dog tired at night, it may be because you've growled all day long." -Unknown