Away To Me

My kid swims and my dog dunks!

Jake is officially a swimmer. It makes me relax just a tad. If he should ever fall in a pool, I know he's safe to make it to the side. But gosh I hope he never has access to the pool without us! 

Rowdy Saturday Night Rumble in Jake's room!

Please take notice of Gracie spitting out Moose's hair that she had in her mouth from snapping Moose!

Snow

We live at the base of a mountain community. They got quite a bit of snow last week. Most of the folks that live up there come down to our town to shop. There was a ton of snow at the stop lights this week, from it rolling off the cars and trucks as they entered town. 

We decided to take a drive up the mountain and let Jake and the dogs have a romp in the snow. From our door to the snow is 12 miles. The weather was awesome, sunny and 55 degrees. I was not very graceful in my current condition in 8" or so of snow. But we had a good time.

We can't take credit for the snowman, they were already there. But we enjoyed them! 

We had a good time throwing snowballs for the dogs to chase. Grace is a champ snowball eater!

Jake was loving the snow. Not to play in, but to eat!  And yes, I realize he could have worn a T-shirt it was so warm, but he liked the hat, so we went with it. 

Back to bed

It's 9am and I'm going to go back to bed. I dropped Jake off at school. I wish that it was easier than Wednesday. It's not easier enough. Maybe sleep will help me not be so sad that he's not here. 

When I got home there was dog poop on the floor. I can not believe my Gracie did that. Hubby didn't allow them enough time outside and frankly she was mad that I took Marge on the drive to school. I can't remember the last time Grace had an accident like this and I can't remember a time when I've ever been so mad at her.

I over did it yesterday. I baked cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. I'm sore today, mostly my feet and hips.

Did I mention I miss Jake already and it's only been a half hour.

Oh and I was up 3 times last night eating. I can not eat enough to feel satisfied. I fill up super quick and then 30 minutes later I'm famished again. So now I'm going to eat something, drink a glass of milk and go to sleep to try and forget that my boy is at school.

I worry about stupid things. Example, when leaving the school Wednesday I was balling my eyes out to hubby I said, "What if he eats a tac". So today when I left him I couldn't get out of my mind him eating a tac. Then the teacher said, "Jake is so popular around here, being the youngest, he gets lots of help". And it made me cry. He's the youngest. 

Okay, off to eat and sleep and cry till I can pick up my baby. 

Great weekend

Well Large Marge made her debut at the trial this past Friday. She was great, not perfect, but very good. The mistakes she made were just puppy and inexperience caused mistakes. She did nothing obnoxious and nothing to disappointment me. She confused me with some of her actions on her second run, but I attribute that to immaturity and inexperience, both excuses that only time and more trialing can fix. 

She finished 3rd in her first run and 4th in her second run. Now, that sounds fantastic, but there were only 5 dogs in the class and she was a distant 3rd/4th. But.... she was by far the youngest dog there and she was the only dog making her debut, all the others had competed before. 

Here is a pic of Marge bringing the sheep. The footing was terrible, just a clumpy, hard plowed field.

Grace was AWESOME on Saturday. There were a few bobbles but nothing major. She is so much fun to trial with. She listens to every one of my whistles and gives me 110% every time I walk out on course. The biggest bobbles made were a result of my mishandling situations. But honestly I don't feel like I was off too much, so I'm happy with my own performance as well. 

One of the funny things hubby told me was when I was out on course with Grace, I sort of jogged from the shedding ring to the pen as time was dwindling (we only have 11 minutes to complete the course). Hubby said out loud "Oh Deanna, don't run". And another trialer said, "She needs to hurry, she's probably getting close to running out of time". Hubby replied, "she's pregnant ...... with twins". LOL!!! Those people who didn't know I was pregnant cracked up. I think a lot of people wondered if I was pregnant or just getting really fat. 

We decided to skip Sunday's run. The weather was rainy and the location was so muddy. It was just not fair to Hubby and Jake to be cooped up in the trailer while I ran around in the mud playing with my dogs (you do realize I didn't really run). Hubby had worked his tail off, doing both my regular jobs and his own so that I could take it easy. I have to say, it is extremely difficult for me to not help. But I was good and didn't lift a finger! The only thing I did was carry my fold up chair and a bottle of water. I sat and watched the trial all Friday and most of Saturday when it wasn't pouring rain.

I had told Hubby prior to my run on Saturday. "Let's go after today's run, it's not fair for you guys to be cooped up in the trailer". Hubby was great and kept telling me, "well whatever you want to do, we can stay no problem". Well, I said after watching some of the top dogs in CA do horribly, "well, if I'm in the top 4 or 5 then we sort of have to stay, because there is a high combined trophy/money for the dog with the best scores for both Saturday and Sunday. Well Grace was run 31 out of 56. I had very nice run and completed the course which was great! We had already packed up the trailer, hooked it up to the truck, had Jake in the car seat etc. I thought I might be in the top 10, maybe even 7th or 8th. I went back to check to see if my score was posted. (about an hour after we ran) I scored an 80 which put me 4th. Hubby came over to see my score and I said, "go look" he came back and said, "Well should we unload everything and stick around?" So sweet of him! I said, nope let's hit the road, I can end on a good note!

I don't know how I ended up on the day, but I think most of the really good dogs had run before me so I'm pretty sure I ended up at least in the top 7 or 8. I'm pleased! The judge was from Ireland and everyone agreed, he was very consistent in his judging throughout the day. Such a nice thing to have, a consistent, fair judge!

Halloween night was great. I handed out playdoh, matchbox cars and other plastic trinkets and a bit of candy to each of my friends who were camping at the trial site. I asked them hand the goodies out to Jake when he came by later to Trick or Treat. We  dressed him up in his teddy bear costume but everyone thought he was a sheep. I guess being at a sheep dog trial and wearing a fuzzy costume, people just assume! LOL

He scored big time with not only the goodies I gave him but also the goodies that surprisingly people brought to the trial site. It was great! He wasn't real good about saying "trick or treat", he got a tad shy, but my friends were all so encouraging and kind to him. My close friend, an older lady who  I heard with often, just loves Jake and she loves him. Well when he saw Sharon and he said, "trick o treat" very clear! He said "thanks and bye" to everyone. It was so much fun. I must say, handing out the play doh and match box cars really helped to keep him out of the candy. He only had one mini kit kat bar and then went back to his toys and got so busy with them he never asked for more candy. 

Here are some more pics of our trick or treater!

Jake and Marge

Weekend Recap

Well, I had a pretty good weekend. I went up north to Central California for a dog trial. It was just a fun day, not a sanctioned event and the entries were few this time around. It was Marge's first trial and she was stellar! 

I ended up taking Jake. While daddy offered to watch him and I originally planned on going solo, the morning I was set to leave, I just couldn't go without him. He's so much fun and I won't have many more weekend where I'll be able to take him by myself. It's already getting harder and harder to chase after him with my belly growing. Besides daddy needed a break as he'll be really needed in the weeks to come. Jake was great and I think he had a good time.

We ended up staying at my mom's place. She lives about 10 mins from the trial location. It is not a kid friendly place and really not pregnant lady friendly either. It was too hot at night for me inside the house and the bed was terrible. But my mom tried to be nice and she enjoyed Jake. Our relationship is strained and while I probably would have been happier at a hotel I was trying to make an effort to connect with her. 

I bit my tongue multiple times throughout the weekend. When I told my husband some of the things she said that I ignored he gave me big Kudos. He knows how hard it is for me to remain tight lipped. But you know, I'm learning that she says these things not having any idea how annoying they are. And that's what I remind myself when I get annoyed with her.

Saturday Marge was good, but not great and I used each session as an opportunity to train on her a bit. Sunday she put it all together and was sitting second after her first run. The good old boys who I was running against were running older dogs that had a lot more experience. They kept on asking the judge to make the course tougher and tougher. I agreed as I wasn't there for ribbons or  pats on the back, only to get some experience for my dog. Well, their last request was to have the dog pen the sheep without the help of the handler. Basically the gate was left open and the hander was to remain about 30 yards from the pen and have the do put the sheep in the pen themselves. Well the guy who came up with the idea couldn't do it. Then I did it! Then the old guy with the dog that really needs to be moved up in class nearly didn't do it. He finally got the sheep in the pen with :40 seconds on the clock. I was cracking up. I didn't stay to see how I ended up as I had a 4 hour drive back home, but I'm sure they'll post the results on the web page in a week or so. 

All in all, a good weekend. Some awkwardness, but nothing major.

TMI post and I don't care

I pooped. Yeah for me. It had been 3 days and I was so miserable. Nothing was working. Not extra water, fiber, stool softeners, even the prunes I bought and ate yesterday didn't kick in soon enough. I finally used a suppository and it was so worth it. I feel so much better. I don't even care that Jake got up at 5am screaming. Well, I care for him, but not upset for me. It gave me the chance to put him in bed with daddy while I sat on the toilet for 30 mins. They are currently watching Sesame street and evidently Elmo is a hit still!

Now that I can walk again (giggle giggle) I'm off to go take Large Marge to a herding practice about an hour from here. Jake will like the outing. He's a going out kind of kid and mom being layed up a bit is not fun in his book. Don't know what to expect. I'm just renting sheep and working her on a new field. Should be excellent learning for her. 

Jake and Large Marge- Rain Day.

We had really strange weather in Southern California yesterday. Thunderstorms and even a Tornado about 20 miles from our home. Crazy stuff. So Jake was inside all day.

My baby sitter for the day while I cleaned and did laundry was the wonderful Large Marge. She loved being inside all day and Jake loved having his best friend to hang out in his room. These photos were taken at different times throughout the day. I love the last one..... Marge really was hoping Jake would drop his spaghetti. She was ready and waiting for it. 

My Lamb's lamb.

Lamb number 4 was born early Sunday morning. Another boy. He's awful cute. Jake thinks the new lambs are so much fun. After about 3 days old they get too fast for him to capture and they won't hold still for him in his lap. We have to be quick about taking these pics.

The little black lamb's tail came off. His horns are coming in fast! He will be a butcher lamb so nobody get attached via photos (giggle).

Here are all 4 lambs together. 3 boys and the one little girl, Gordita. She's the brown one. So cute to watch them all play.