Some Answers

So, I generally don't do these things because they are boring and obnoxious but this one made me want to answer these questions. Quite frankly, because they're interesting, but also because my good friend Heather tagged me, and I don't talk to her enough as it is. So, I'll be answering her questions and posting this on her facebook as well as mine. Without further ado...

Questions from Momentz of Mezz

If you could take a walk in a celebrity’s shoes for a day, who would you choose and why?

Gosh, that's a tough one. I would have to say Holly Marie Combs. Have you seen the lady? She's had 3 kids, 2 of them which I believe were C-sections and she still looks 25. What's her secret???

Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate all the way. Vanilla is just so bland. However, there is such a thing as too much chocolate...

What is your favorite song and why?

Unfortunately that's one thing I can't answer. It constantly changes. I'm not one for a single type of genre or artist.

Dogs or cats? (Don’t make me unfollow you.)

Dogs. Absolutely. And I'm not just saying that. Hello-blog the dog! Not the cat...

Which part of Fear Factor would you be the worst at: the physical activity, the gross stuff, or the dare devil stunts? The best at?

Although I'm pretty squeamish, probably the physical activity. I tell you, 3 words. OUT. OF. SHAPE. I can barely keep up with my dogs.

What is one strange habit you have? Where did it come from?

I have to eat everything evenly. If I eat a sandwich, half is chewed on the right side of my mouth the other on the left. 10 skittles? 5 on one side; 5 on the other. Not sure why, I think that's just one of my OCD things.

If you were in a fire, apart from people and animals, what 5 things would you grab first if you had the time (in order)?

My birth certificate. My iPhone. My laptop. My heart pillow. My scrapbook.

Well, there you have it. Hope I answered them accurately. I won't be tagging anyone else since I know not everyone likes these things. Cookie time for me. I blogged! Woohoo :)

Getting edumercated...

...or something of that sort. Last week I had my first two tests, and they went well actually. Math could have gone a bit better but I was still happy with the outcome and I rocked Toxicology. Tomorrow I've got to brave through Political Science and Organic Chemistry but hopefully those will go well. I feel pretty prepared. Let's hope I'm right. We had a good weekend visiting Houston and enjoyed 3 hours at the dog park yesterday. I tired the Omelette Dog out....the border collie was another story. ;) They really did enjoy it though. Although I've been dying to do some more agility and unfortunately the show I was planning on for my birthday has been cancelled, I realized just how much I enjoyed the weekend and the time at the park. My dogs got muddy and disgusting, had the biggest grins on their faces, and zoomed to their little hearts' content. This quote showed up on my Facebook feed the other day, and I couldn't help but relate how much my dogs and their general happiness means to me and how this describes it. Not so much with being apart from them, but no matter what we're doing together. :) Love my Omelette and my Monster. Yes, that's Vengeance's nickname...Monster.

I kind of couldn't help but dub him that since he's finally discovered the "joy" of his teeth and thinks that destroying everything is super fun. So far it's been the underside of my bed, part of the carpet, and one of my bathroom rugs. The latter two were while he was in his wire kennel. Needless to say, I brought the airline kennel back this weekend so that he can't slide out the tray any more or get to anything around the kennel. We'll see how it works. Regardless, he's still a super puppy and trying very hard. He's got this sudden absolutely love for fetching and playing ball. It's a nice easy way to tire him out so I can't complain. Plus, I've got to admit, it's nice to have a dog that can make a game out of any toy there is. Shimmer is the snuggling pro. I've got two opposites but that's ok. They're ying and yang but they fit together perfectly and a tiny part of me is part of them in each and every way.

Alright, I think I've rambled on enough now and distracted myself from studying. I should probably get back to trying to be a good and smart student.

At least I posted something on the blog again! Brownie points for me. :)

What's been happening!

Wow, haven't updated in a while. Ok, so I have a good reason. The new semester started haha. So far it's been going well. I like my schedule, all my professors are good, and Shimmer is working great. Just ordered her a new vest last night actually. I'll have to post pictures once I get it. The other one we have is very simple and unfortunately has been wanting to fall apart lately for one reason or another. It'll be our back up harness. Vengeance is growing like a weed. He measured 17.75" one week ago at the USDAA trial. Curious to see how much he'll grow. 6 months now and crazy as ever. Love that little nut. Shimmer did well at the trial but I have yet to post the video thanks to the slow internet connection here I've had a lack of motivation. In other news, lots of clubs this semester. Of course I had to join Pre-Vet Society again. Then the roommates and I are doing the Horsemen's Association which will be awesome considering we'll get some extra horse experience. The last one is the Herpetology Society. I didn't realize how much fun I would have. Two people from the Herp Society were at pre-vet and introduced us to their corn snakes. What can I say? I'm hooked. I had a blast at the Herpetology meeting and am now getting a corn snake. The president/breeder is planning on sending pictures this weekend and hopefully I'll have my new addition soon! Now to think of names....some people think I'm crazy for getting a snake, but they really are fascinating and sweet creatures. Extremely social and docile. More new animal experiences. Here is me and the roomies at the meeting on Thursday! These were all ball pythons though.Aside from that I've been doing homework, homework, and uh...oh yeah, more homework. But, I'm trying to get ahead with online stuff so that these upcoming test weeks go well with plenty of study time. I don't even think I really have anything else too exciting to talk about. Which is unfortunate...but that's because school has had me so focused lately. I'll definitely try and update some after my tests though. I'll have to introduce the snake to the blog world! Not sure if it'll be a boy or girl yet or the color. Either way, it'll be a kickass addition to the household. Ginny is getting a corn too and Dani wants to get a ball python in the near future. 4 dogs, 1 bunny, fish, and 3 snakes coming up. We promise we're sane. We're just pre-vet students. What would you expect!?

Eeepp! It has arrived :)

We've waited for it a long time and the suspense was killing us. Can you tell?

I'm so super excited my iPhone is finally here! I think I'm most excited about playing Angry Birds. But we'll see. I'll probably be in my own little world for quite some time, but that's ok. I'm pretty glad I decided to wait the few extra days for the white one to arrive but the wait was excruciatingly difficult. For those of you that don't know me in person, I'm not the most patient person in the world, but I try. I was listening all day and constantly paused the tv in hopes that I would hear the Fedex truck. Needless to say, the guy was super terrified of the 4 monsters that helped answer the door in excitement. I assured him that they were all friendly, but I got the response "Don't let any of those dogs out." Ok, suit yourself. Miss out on the awesomeness. :) Either way, I think now I'm just rambling, but eeeeeeeeeeepppp!!!! Happy day!

Just the little things

Sleep. It's kind of overrated. Actually, a lot overrated. I'm kind of happy I won't have to get into a rhythm after vacation for this coming semester. My earliest class is at 11:10am. I wasn't really even planning on doing that, but it worked out that way. So, I guess there's a cause for celebration. I'm really kind of excited to go back to College Station though. I mean, sure, vacation is great, but College Station is home. Houston doesn't really feel like home in the sense that I live there. I just come to visit. College Station is where we belong. We like it there. It's all about appreciating the little things in life. :)

Mhmm food.....

Thin cut pork in garlic salt and pepper dipped in flour then egg then bread crumbs and fried. Doesn't it sound amazing? It's called Schnitzel. Pretty much the best German dish on the planet. My mommy makes it when we come home for the holidays. Right now the smell is just drifting towards me from the kitchen. Mouth watering and sort of awesome. I would probably describe it as one of those things you could eat until you explode. Yep. That sounds pretty accurate.






In other news, my iphone comes in tomorrow! Yay happiness. :) I'm super excited but I know I'll have to leave it be to charge so if you absolutely have to reach me, facebook is the place to do it until Thursday afternoonish. I think I'm most excited about playing Angry Birds. I've gotten obsessed. Is that a bad thing? Eh, I would say it probably makes me part of the cult. That's about it.

Aside from that we went to the dog park today. Lots of running around for an Omelette and a psycho puppy. They got dirty as all get go like they do every day and both of them were miserable during bath time-as always! But, now I have deliciously smelling fresh jasmine scented dogs.

I'm going back home in about a week since I'm petsitting for a friend. I'm pretty excited since there's 6 other dogs and a cat that Vengeance will be living with for about a week. A good new experience for him and something fun for Shimmy. Lots of puppy playing as well since my friend has a sweet little border collie puppy too. School starts back the 17th and though it was a hellish semester Fall 2011, I'm ready to make it a great one this Spring 2012.

I also got super excited today because I bought Shimmy a Holt lead for her service work. It's not like she really pulls but there are times where she is more excited and rather than jerking her leash (which is the opposite of the type of training I'm going for) we're going to see how this head halter works for us. She did great trying it on and was only a bit uncomfortable. I think with time she won't mind it at all. Our next trial should be the last weekend of January USDAA show up in College Station. Still have to send my entry in but I've got plenty of time. Super excited to do some USDAA again. It's been a while. We've had a good start to the year so far and we're ready to continue it! :)

Feeding the Wolf

First off-Happy New Year everyone! I can't believe it's 2012 already. In March I'll have been alive for 2 decades. What a thought! Most people come up with resolutions for the new year, and although that is good, in order to come up with the resolution I think you need to reflect on what has happened in the past year and what you are going to do to change that. This popped up on my news feed on Facebook today. Aside from it looking pretty cool, I realized how much it can relate to how you view life and what you're going to do with the choices you have. You can either feed one wolf or the other, but the choice is entirely up to you.I also decided to look at this in the aspect of not only life but agility in general and the relationship I have with my dogs. It's unfortunate that a lot of people base their beliefs on dominance theories, alpha and pack leadership, as well as an intimidating relationship. I personally feel that this side of us feeds the evil wolf. It's our choice to blame our dog for our training mistakes as well as expecting them to carry all the baggage of things we wish to accomplish but then go wrong. I always tell people that I try very hard to base my relationship on trust and compromise with my dogs. Though we all can't be purely positive, let's face it, we've all been extremely upset with our dogs, but we can choose to rethink our choice and change our training plan. We can choose to follow the path of clicker training, positive reinforcement, shaping behaviors, and understand how truly incredible our dogs our. I will admit, all of Susan Garrett's webinars and posts have had me thinking about "Do-Land" a lot in the past half year. Even more so since I have Vengeance now but also how I've approached challenges with Shimmer in the past and how we may overcome them now. Sure, there are times when I get really upset and have a hard time living in "Do-Land", but there are many times were I sit back and realize that I've feed the good wolf and my dogs responses to me are much more positive and relaxed than if I were harsh with them. I'm not much of a resolution fan simply because it puts pressure on people and most of them never get followed through, but I've been somewhat working on this resolution for a while now, and I guess I've just realized that I can follow it through. There's so much to learn and the accomplishments can be massive, but you have to realize which wolf you want to feed to get to those accomplishments.

Aside from that Shimmer, Vengeance and I have had an awesome time during our winter break. We've done lots of cool things including plenty of relaxation. So, here are some cute pictures...

It's rough laying in a recliner all day....

Ducky killer puppy. Nomsnomsnoms.

Comfy Shimmy?Looking all growed up at 5 1/2 months today!

It's been a great start to the new year. Can't wait to see how it continues...