Christmas with family

Christmas Blizzard

Christmas 2009 in Omaha will be remembered for the blizzard that brought lots of snow, and huge drifts. Being snowbound with family, food, and fun was not so bad.

Happy Birthday, Brynley!

I can't believe my puppy is one year old today! It was a year ago on Christmas that I began my search and wait for my Jusdandy puppy. It makes December extra special that it is Bryn's birthday and my birthday, as well as Christmas this month. We are moving on to exciting things in Bryn's agility training now he is a year old and fully grown. He has started learning to jump and soon we'll be starting weave poles.

I got to spend Brynley's birthday home with him as we have had a snow day with a huge snow storm coming through today. The kids and I have spent a quiet day, reading, playing video games and watching movies. The snow has been coming down all day. This is the view out our front door this morning. That's actually the street out there somewhere.
Compare to the amount of snow this evening! It's a winter wonderland in Nebraska this week. The lights are so pretty reflecting off all the still clean snow.

Keeping busy

Guess what our son's latest activity is? Yes, it's Rhys under that fencing mask! He seems to be enjoying his new hobby. He's not the most natural athlete, but he seems to have a knack for winning his matches.
The rock star and the ninja went trick-or-treating and brought home an absolutely ridiculous stash of candy. The scariest part is how quickly that huge bowl of candy has been vanishing. I, of course, know nothing about it!

After a cold, wet, and even snowy October, we have finally been enjoying some pleasant fall weather. I got to spend 4 days last week at an agility seminar with Tracy Sklenar. It was awesome! Annie and Brynley both did well, and I came away with a good idea of what I need to be working on for the next few months. I ran outside with the dogs this weekend to snap some quick pictures in the sunshine.
Casey asked for me to take his picture, too. Which, of course, I did because you should always take opportunities to take pictures of your dear old dogs.

more pics from the pumpkin farm

Finally, the Pumpkin Patch

Sunday afternoon, we finally made it to the Bellevue Berry Farm and Pumpkin Patch. With the weather this month, I was beginning to wonder if we would get there. It was cool, windy, overcast, and muddy, but we still had a good time!

These guys must be the unofficial welcoming crew. They were so cute, I kept taking their picture!
The hunt for pumpkins! Stay out of the mud.
Lots of the pumpkins were ruined by all the rain, but the kids found a couple to bring home. Always going for the biggest one you can (almost) carry!
Then it was time to play.
And last of all before coming home, a stop to warm up with hot chocolate. Yummy!

October Snow!

We were supposed to running Annie and working at our club's USDAA agility trial this weekend. Unfortunately, we woke up to a little surprise this morning. The weather forecasters had said no accumulating snow. Hah! Our outdoor agility site looked like this! No agility in Omaha this weekend.

The plants and trees look like fall buried in winter. Most of the leaves haven't even turned color yet.

Brynley doesn't mind. He loves playing in the snow!
The kids thought it was pretty neat too, even though it wasn't a school day.

My dogs

I took Annie to an AKC trial here in Omaha 2 weekends ago. We only ran in Jumpers with Weaves. I am happy to say that we got a qualifying score on Sunday, her first in Excellent A JWW. Best of all, we ran well together both days. Annie is an agility dog with issues. Handling her is a puzzle that can be an interesting intellectual exercise. There are answers. One of which is that she runs for me. We both had a good time. I'm not giving up. We are doing a USDAA trial in a few weeks, and I entered everything. Back to contacts. At least we are in Starters. I'm hoping for joy and flow in our runs together.

Brynley is looking very grown up. He seems to have stopped growing, and I neutered him this month at 9 1/2 months old. It's time to focus on his career as an agility dog. (like we haven't since he was born) I think he is such a beautiful boy. I know in a couple of years he will still look like this, but with a whole ton of coat added. I'm happy to report that he loves to be brushed, cause he's going to be groomed a lot! I am very happy with how he is doing in Susan Garrett's foundation training. What he has been learning this year is going to make the rest of agility so much easier.

Where to start?

We had such a fun and busy summer. We had many visitors come to see us in Nebraska and it was great!

Nana and Poppa came for a visit. The kids were so happy to see them!
We finished up the summer at the Wings of Freedom Air Show at Offutt Air Base. This is always one of our favorite events. It is well run and always seems to go smoothly in spite of huge turn outs of people.
Some of the California cousins came to visit and the kids had a great time at the Air and Space Museum. This tower got taller!
The kids also showed Nana and Poppa around the Air and Space Museum.
Son worked as a volunteer at the Henry Doorly Zoo and then we enjoyed a fun day at Duane's company picnic at the zoo.

School is back in session now, and it's feeling more like fall. Son is adjusting well to his first weeks in junior high. Daughter loves third grade and is staying very busy with her first year on a competition dance team. Can't wait to see what the change of season brings.

Silver and Gold

There has been a lot happening at our house in the past month. We've enjoyed the company of several visitors from out of town and spent some time enjoying the sights in Omaha with them.

The dogs are keeping me busy. Brynley has been growing and is really starting to look like a grown up sheltie. Okay, a teenage sheltie. He is progressing well in his agility foundation training. He has gone over size and is very distracted at training class these days, so I'm thinking his appointment with the vet for a brain adjustment will be soon! Sad news has been learning that Casey has an insulinoma, a cancer on his pancreas which is producing excess insulin. We have opted to manage this conservatively, which means frequent meals to keep up his blood sugar. He's pretty happy with this plan, but I am sad knowing our time together likely won't be too much longer, months if we are lucky. Thank God for puppies to brighten our day. I am also back to training agility with Annie, and I'm glad of it. I'm focused on all her good points these days, she really has so much to offer.

I'm writing a new blog focused on issues dealing with pets and real estate. Check it out at http://blog.cbshome.com/teresacarlile

Nebraska animal life

Fourth of July Fun

I love our neighborhood on the 4th.  Dogs were tucked away in their crates in their room in the basement.  Then we ate until we were stuffed.  The kids were very impatient to set off fireworks.

My little pyromaniac was the most eager of all. 
Light it and run!
Taking a break to wait for dark.  Break time included ice cream cones!
Let the grown ups set off the big ones after dark.