Merry Christmas!

Poor guy! He finally gets a day off, and he gets sent out to shovel snow and ice.  Don't let the bright sunshine fool you.  It is bitterly cold, below 0 wind chill!
Winter has definitely arrived!  It will be a white Christmas.  Just watch out, cause that's all ice under the inch of fresh snow.  I spent my 40th birthday on Monday, holed up from the weather.
Personally, I think Mickey has the right idea.  Curl up in a warm, cozy bed and hibernate for the winter!

My daughter, the dancer

Christmas Piano Recital

Ok, it's not great video, but here it is. My first attempt at posting video.  I have a lot to learn about my computer and manipulating video.  This is Daughter's piano recital from Friday night.

Winter walking

I am a huge fan of dog trainer and agility competitor, Susan Garrett.  I was reading her blog today about walking her dogs in the winter, and how good it is for dogs and people alike.  There is beautiful sunshine outside today, so I figured I should crawl out from under my blanket on the sofa and walk some dogs. After all, Susan Garrett lives in Canada, surely I can handle some Nebraska weather.  I bundled up in hat, coat, gloves, and scarf, and tucked Maverick into his high tech, high priced dog coat.  Papillons have no undercoat, so he has a wind proof dog jacket. Annie got by with her god-given Aussie coat. We were all pretty comfortable, other than my nearly frost bitten thighs. Next time, (next time?!!)  I'll remember to add long johns under my jeans. I decided to check the temperature when we got home. 21 degrees F, with a wind chill of 5 degrees.  The sun may be shining, but southern California this is not!

a warm vacation

We spent Thanksgiving week having a wonderful vacation courtesy of Nana and Poppa. We spent the week in warm, sunny southern California at Disneyland and Sea World.  We hung out with my parents, Nana and Poppa, and my brother, his wife, and their two boys.  We had such a good time being with family we hadn't seen in a long time. It was such a great week. We came home exhausted!

Papillons

Here are our two papillons, who are good examples of the opposite ends of the spectrum for the papillon breed.  Mickey, the smaller dog, is a well-bred and typy papillon. He is about 8.5 inches tall and 6 lbs. His coat is on the softer side and he has a lot of it! He also has miles of long ear fringe. Maverick is the taller dog. He is way over the acceptable size limit for a papillon at about 14 inches tall(maybe a little more). He comes from a rescue group and is of puppy mill breeding. He has a nice, flat wash and wear coat. His drop ears are acceptable for the breed.

Both boys are great little dogs. Mickey is my bed buddy, and Maverick is in training to be our daughter's agility dog. He has the best personality of just about any dog we've had.

Catching Up

Wow!  Time is really flying by.  We have been so busy the past few weeks.  I am finally substitute teaching.  It took four months to complete one class and jump through all the hoops, paper work, and delays with the state of Nebraska for my certificate. I am into my second week of subbing in our district and am thrilled that I have been almost universally happy with what I have been seeing in the schools. These are good kids and good schools.

I have also finished my first real estate course and am still on schedule to have a real estate salesperson license sometime early next year. 

The kids are doing well. Our club hosted our swim meet this weekend and both kids did very well. Son is turning into a breaststroke specialist and Daughter continues to excel in the backstroke and individual medleys.  Daughter was honored at school this morning as her class student of the month for October. 

Only the doggies are suffering from my new found employment. They are having to adjust to  more time home alone and less time spent on walks and training. We are working on balancing all the demands on our time for both needs and desires. It's a work in progress!