Southern Cal screw up...

I received my entry confirmation today in the mail for the Southern Cal specialty.  When I went to double check the entries, I didn't see my entry for 7-9 Veteran sweeps.

I've waited since Kota was 19 months old to show him as a Veteran...  what the heck happened!?

I called the superintendent and she explained that I'm an IDIOT and didn't specify SWEEPSTAKES on Kota's entries.  All is not lost though...  Seems I entered REGULAR Veterans class instead of sweepstakes.  Instead of being able to win Best Veteran in Sweeps, I guess he'll possibly be in the running for Breed (which I didn't want, considering I have Chance entered in breed).  Now, I have no false hopes of him doing anything in breed provided he even wins his veterans class...  but i had hoped for maybe a sweeps win or something...  The other problem this raises, is that I have Chancey entered in Breed.  IF by chance Kota wins the Veteran dogs class, I'll have to get help from my friends in handling the boys.... 

All Kota wants is to be clapped for.  My friends better at least clap for my old-man-dog :)

Sedona is all set up for Rally all weekend, and I can't wait!! :)

Friday the 28th I will meet a lady who might be interested in a Sedona puppy...  Saturday the 29th Piper-puppy goes off to her new home and Sunday the 30th I hope to report that Sedona earned her RN :)  Good thing she doesn't have to look good for rally.  She looks like a raggedy little critter right now...  :) 

a Thanksgiving day walk

 So I decided to take the black kids out for a Thanksgiving Day walk.  No iPod, no talking on the phone.  Just me, the dogs, and the chill in the air. 

 The kids trekked around the neighborhood with me like a trooper.  Kota pooped out about half way around the 3 mile loop.  :)  On our way back, I took them up the railroad tracks to snap a few shots...  I will bring them back and bring my Nikon :) 

It was a lovely walk....  maybe after dinner we'll take another walk (shorter tho, for Kota's sake) :)

Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving.  I have much to be thankful for - I hope everyone takes a moment to give thanks for all they have been blessed with.  :) 

a little bit of this... a little bit of that....

STILL waiting for Sedona's CH photo.... I wrote a "where the hell is my picture" email to Dan Pearson.  We'll see if I get a reply as to where the HELL my picture is.  It's almost been a month....  really?  Come on!!!

Chancey is blowing his coat all over the place without regard....  good thing he's not showing again till January! ;-)

Kota is Kota..  I'm going to take him in for a cleaning sometime soon - his teeth are an ugly mess.  They always have been.  I don't want him laughed out of the Veteran's ring because of it though, so we'll get em cleaned before January! :)

Pie2 is Pie2... as sweet and bossy as possible.  I call her my Gumby-dog...  loving, sweet, affectionate on one side, and bossy, bitchy and annoying as all hell on the other.  She's such a riot.  Still a little thing, but she's finally getting some coat again (hooray).  If I ever feel like I'm not drowning with too much to do, I'd like to get her back into agility training.  I feel like thats where her calling is.  Seriously.  Tom and Carolyn Cannon can attest to the springs in this dogs feet! :)

As for me, I am good.  I went through a bit of a challenging week this last week.  Some work hiccups and a family issue (ok, more than an issue, but i won't go there).  It's Veteran's Day, I have the day off, and all is well.  Our fall weather that has finally settled in...  we haven't even hit 70 degrees the last few days!  HOORAY!  I'm  breaking out with the PJ pants (rather than shorts) and slippers...  it's nice.  :)

Still as single as ever, which is ok most of the time.  I've finally closed the book on a chapter of my life that I had some unresolved issues with.  It feels GREAT to be free of that weight on my shoulders.  :)  Maybe now I can begin to move forward and seek out happiness again! :)  One has to be emotionally ready for moving forward, and while I may have SAID I was for all these years, I can see now that I really wasn't.... :(  I am now though, so watch out world! :)  

The fall semester for school is almost over (less than a month to go!) and that leaves me with 4 semesters left (4 down, 4 to go + my medical internship).  There's a teeny tiny little glimmer of light at the end of my tunnel.  I can't believe I've managed to make it this far and do fairly well in most of my classes.  :)  Before I know it, I'll be putting awesome initials after my name in my signature line at work! :)  Hooray! :)

Dog plans are coming along nicely...  I'm still planning to breed Sedona in February when she comes into season (yes, I know it will be February because this dog is like CLOCK WORK).  In the meantime, we're waiting for a girl to come into season and Chance will be bred as soon as that happens.  I'm so darned excited about the idea of him producing - now to see HOW he does....  His sisters have produced nicely, so fingers are crossed for some awesome little black and blue puppies out of him soon! :)  This all means my dog numbers are going to rise....  *sigh*  I'll be getting a puppy back from Chance, and of course, I will plan to keep one of Sedona's puppies too...  Whew.  Looking for just the right place for Pie2 to go once I know that Chance's girl friend is expecting ;-)  We're going to start working on Pie2's resume soon...  stay tuned, it should be funny! :)

Well, I guess that's life as I know it right now...

more photo fun with the girls

I took Sedona and Piper to Amy's house for more photos this evening....

These are taken by me - but Amy got MUCH better versions, I am sure!!  Not to mention more! 

Sedona had to check out her 'throne-to-be' :)

 Charming Ms. Amy - her photographer friend

 The girls together - we took a ton of them together, but i didn't get many that were any good... hopefully Amy did....

 But first Piper had to shower Ms. Amy with L-O-V-E!!!!!

 Miss P.  Amy swore that if I didn't know how old Piper was, that she'd bet money that she was about 6 months old!  Yea - the eternal Puppy... that's Piper! 

 My elegant girl on her other special throne!

 This one of the 2 girls turned out nice too... in most of them, you can tell Sedona was NONE so happy to have to share the lime light...  LOL

Hopefully Amy got better ones today than she did yesterday.... 
In the mean time, I am learning a TON about my awesome camera!!! :)  These were all taken with my Nikon D5000. 

Goings On....

Not much outside of the 'norm' has been going on for me and the 'kids'. 

I started back to classes this past Monday... I'm taking 4 courses this semester...  Advanced Diagnostics in Speech Language Pathology, Practicum in Audiology, Practicum in Speech Pathology: Intermediate, and Language Disorders.  At least the two book courses are interesting to me this time around!  Hopefully that bodes well for good grades to boost the weakening GPA :)

The kids are well - Sedona is due in season any day so chaos will ensue shortly...  Dakota has been on glucosamine for a while now and it's been a wonder drug in terms of his limpy rear!  I started giving Sedona glucosamine also - and will have her hips re-x-rayed in a few months...  for one last shot at a passing grade from the OFA.  Chance is going in on the 11th and 12th for his next series of health clearance testing..  On the 11th he's having his Thyroid tested (to be submitted to the OFA) and on the 12th he's having his CERF done (finally).  More feathers in his cap.  I'm hoping he might have his first romantic interlude in the next year...  we shall see :)  Piper is still Piper...  barking and snarfing other dogs bones.... growing up, but not really... LOL She's a clown, a love, a pig, a bossy little.... I love her.  LOL 

School/work is going well... I have 69 kids on my caseload right now, but yet my load still seems lighter than last year did.  I am enjoying my kids and my work...  I am still SO excited and proud of my work.  :)  I work at the same school I worked at last year, and I have THE BEST co-workers! :) 

The weight thing is still going well - I am at a total of 48 pounds lost right now.  I am still on the course to lose 40+ more.  I am finding that I am weedling down my wardrobe day by day.  Clothes are getting bigger and bigger, which is great.  I am due soon for a new wardrobe.  :)  I'm afraid that by the time the show season starts, I won't be able to wear the two pretty new show outfits I got!  Oh well, I guess there are worse things that could happen.... ;-) 

University of Northern Colorado - and the ride home

I SO enjoyed my time in Colorado.  People had said that Greeley wasn't a nice town.  Now that I've been, I'm not horribly impressed with the town of Greeley (or what I saw), but the part of campus I was on every day was STUNNING.  Meet Grizz.  He is a bronze (?) statue at the University Center. 

From across the street...  You can see Grizz on the left, but the flowers are an outline of a bear profile...  it's hard to tell from the picture - sorry! :( 

This is one of the residence halls on campus...  I thought it was pretty... 

This was the first sign I saw when I got onto Campus... 

The Visitor Center was an old house - beautiful old house..

This tree was next to Gunter Hall...  It had these HUGE leaves and bean like things....  anyone know what it might be??

The flowers and sign for Gunter...

These "chimes" were always going off.. every hour... every half hour?  shoot I dunno, but I heard them ALL the time. 

Gunter Hall was named for Julius C. Gunter - the Governor of the state of Colorado at the time it was built (in the 20's).  The building was originally the school gym.  There are lots of pictures of old athlete's in the hallways and there is even still the half court circle part of the original gym floor still exposed in one part of the building.  It's kinda cool. 

One day at lunch I snapped this as we sat at a picnic table out in the lawn...

This was taken from my car during another lunch time.  The building in the distance is Gunter.  The Visitor center is to my right in this picture... 

This was taken the last day from the 3rd floor conference room where we met for our "wrap up" meeting. 

The view out of the Motel 6 window in Bernalillo, NM the night of the 23rd. 

and the bug on the window.  :) 

Chancey looking as innocent as humanly possible.... 

Kota...  :) 

Awww, P-Piper.... 

This is a picture of one of my classmates Karen, and I.  She's insisted I visit if I find myself dog showing in the PNW again :) 

and my classmate, Brande, who lives in Colorado.  Us out celebrating that we were done Thursday night.  :) 

Welcome to New Mexico?  It rained.  Quite a bit. 

At a rest stop in NM... 

We were all SO happy to get home....  and now, as you all know, we've resumed our "normal" schedule... :) 

Loveland - Estes Park - Rocky Mountain National Park (really really picture heavy!!)

As I was leaving town I stopped at Starbuck's....  it was next to THIS place....  I had to scratch my head and ask "do I want to know what a "butterburger" is?"

Interesting totem pole on the way out of Loveland...

Cool covered wagon roadside...

the wildlife in Big Thompson Canyon

more pictures from the canyon drive up to Estes Park

Welcome to Estes Park!

Noah's ark??

my future awaits.... ;-)

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK!!! :) 

a roadside waterfall

the sights.....

I wish I could say that the colors on the mountains were because they were changing colors....  unfortunately there is a problem with an evil little beetle (I have a picture of the sign later) that is killing off many of the beautiful pines....

Couldn't you just picture a deer here.... drinking the cool water from the creek?  *sigh*  Heaven. 

I turned up a road and found a nice little hike up to a waterfall...  This is the story of what happened in that area...

and here, of course, is the waterfall I went up to see

and if you turn around from that spot, this is what you see

Playing with the camera..... ;-)

There were many different kinds of beautiful wild flowers in bloom all over the park (warning: there will be lots of pretty little wild flower pictures too!)

After that little jaunt, I decided to take a 1 way, 11 mile dirt road that went up to the top of the mountains... 

A little waterfall along the creek that went up the mountain...

Off in the distance, I could see this beautiful waterfall working it's way down the mountain....  have I mentioned... Heaven??

And this guy was just chilling road side....  munching on something....  He just hung out as I passed....

 more beautiful water... I stopped for a bit to let the dogs out and to check out the area....

Cool little mushrooms growing on a log....

This little area had bubbles coming up from under the log...  it was neat. 

And then, the kids...  :)  Good little dogs!!

Continuing up the dirt road....

I thought the colors of this wood were really interesting....

In a previous picture, you could see the buildings up at the top of the mountains.... 

I stopped for a "scenic view"... this was about half way up the walk when I turned around..

And once at the top, this was the view into a valley below...

And these were the others who stopped here too! ;-)  We're up above the tree line here....

On the way back down (sorry - some of the pictures are out of order because I took some with my Canon, and some with my Nikon).  These are lava flows....

And a little ways up the road, I saw a bunch of people pulled over.  Anyone who has National Park experience knows that there MUST be something worth seeing when there are that many people pulled over...  And this is what I saw... 

And to the other side...

I kept shaking my head at this fool who kept inching closer and closer to these HUGE animals....

and then I went to the other side of the road for the scenery.... ;-) 

I stopped at another hike up another hill (huffing and puffing - whew!)

And the sign that describes the two above pictures....

Pretty wild flowers....

The end point of the hike....

I had been wondering what these gutsy little creatures were....

It's as though the POSED for pictures!!!

I was able to catch two Yellow Bellied Marmots running and playing... note that one is a bob tail! :) 

On the walk back down I saw these beautiful creatures grazing....

Off in the distance, you can see the lava flow mentioned earlier... and then at the group of cars farther towards the bottom is where I stopped to photograph the elk where the crazy man was...

At yet another rest stop, I saw this cute little 'munk....

And these pretty birds....

Smart little 'munk... gettin' food from people....

He had no fear.  He ended up sniffing the person's hand before running off....

The valley overlook...

On the way back down - more beautiful trees :) 

Chance taking time to sniff the flowers... :) 

And here is the sign talking about the evil beetle killing the trees...

On the way down, I found this beautiful park... flowers and trees and rocks all in memory of people..... 

The kids stopped to take a dip and drink in the river...

The obligatory "cute Cardigan" picture on the bridge...

This is the bridge I took the above picture on....

There was a story about this park...  a huge flood hit in 1976.....

And I did mention earlier that I'd be jumping back and forth... well.... this was taken with the Canon at the very top of the dirt road.... a store that I wasn't able to get out at to take pictures - too many people - not enough parking. 

On the way down...

A potty stop for the kids...

In the Canyon on the way back into Loveland. 

This rock formation was called Devil's Spine...  there was a hike too, but by then I was FRIED!!!

I had such a great day! I included A WHOLE BUNCH of pictures, but if you'd believe it, this isn't even a fifth of what I took!!!  I would highly recommend the Rocky Mountain National Park to anyone who has a chance to visit.  I only was able to do one loop of the park, but it took all day and made me "ooh" and "aah" more than once :)