Back from the land of pee

OH! Hello there.

I’m just peeking out above the mountain of pee and poo and paper towels that have become my life in the last month. Puppyhood – oh yes, now I remember. So my excuse for not blogging is that the new pup – Belle – has taken up all my spare time!

(pic by Joan McGrath, the breeder)

She’s adorable and cute, so I’m being very patient with the slow housebreaking. Can’t get mad at her over the “accidents” because, well, look at those eyes! Anyway, she’s just so busy that she can’t be bothered with asking to go out. At least she makes it close to the door (on my hardwood!) which tells me she knows she’s supposed to go out to do her business. She plays and plays and drinks and plays and squats and then right back to playing. Blue is her buddy and he kind of likes this new girl.
She has taken notice of the sheep but isn’t obsessed with going to the fence when we’re outside. She watched how Blue sticks his head through the fence to get him some sheep poop snacks and now that’s what she wants to do! EEWWW, not while you are still licking my face all the time……

This past weekend was nice and long and I really enjoyed it. I work for the Guvment and we were given the 26th off, just because we are such good little workers. That and 3 hours early leave on the 24th. Andre made French toast for Christmas morning and Turkey and fixins for dinner. Andre and I don’t exchange gifts, but I did have a couple of things for Erin, since she’s here now. She’s still looking for a job – turned out to be a lot harder than she thought it would be. I’m sure something will come along for her.

I worked the new hair sheep on Saturday and they are very nice. I’ve been just taking Heather out on them to get them settled and working with a good dog. Since they were working so nice I brought out Blue also and he was great. Pushy, but that’s fine because he had previously been so cautious to work. The sheep took off for the gate at one point and Blue put on his after burners and gathered them very nicely. We only worked for 10 minutes and stopped while things were still good. Then I brought out hyper Vic. 5 years old and still just a nut. But he didn’t upset these sheep which in turn kept him calm and I did up close work with him and then stopped when he seemed to be relaxed. I was very pleased with the dogs I worked and told the sheep THANK YOU. I’m so thankful now that I got those guys from Sue A. She helped me pick some out that she thought would work for us and they are perfect. Thanks SUE!

On Sunday, we were invited out to our friends’ farm in Romney WV to work dogs. It was a nice day and we had loads of fun. Heather was SO GOOD there – I have to be reminded not to take her for granted. She’s a mess at trials, but what a wonderful dog to work. She was so responsive to me yesterday - I know how lucky I am to have her.

I PROMISE to dust off the camera and take some pics to share. I have another long weekend coming up – Thursday of course is New Years, and I also took Friday off. Hope the weather holds and we can work dogs again!!!

a lil sumpin sumpin

We're going to pick up a new little addition to the family next Saturday.
Hint - woof woof yip yip.

Lazy B

I'm a LAZY BUTT.

Andre left Saturday for Maine to visit his parents. They aren’t well.
Because of all the animals at home to take care of and also because of the price of airfares!! our big trips are usually taken solo/sans significant other. I don’t worry so much when I am away from home because Andre does EVERYTHING at home anyway. He’s the cook, takes care of the dogs (morning shift) and various other things that just have to get done and I try not to take all he does for granted. I’m more worried when he’s away that I might not be able to survive! I’m a terrible cook but the last couple of days I’ve mostly just heated up some soup and had a few breakfasts/lunches out. Last night I had a WW frozen dinner. I’m at work today eating a can of microwaveable Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli and it isn’t too bad. Poor Erin (daughter who has returned to nest) keeps asking when I’m going to the store for food. She’s never home anyway (Miss Social Butterfly), so I’m not worried about her. She’s happy as long as there is a case of Dr. Pepper in the fridge.
Note to self – make yourself a little less dispensable. Cook a little, don’t sleep in on weekends while your wonderful hubby is up at the crack of dawn and has already fed the dogs AND taken them for a long walk. Learn how to reset the hot tub when the power goes out! This happened yesterday and when I decided to get in last night because the air was crisp and stars were out, but the water temp was at 86 when it should have been 102 or so….I think. Then I remembered the power went out for just a blip during the day and Andre always does the Hot Tub resetting. He also keeps the water chemicals at all the levels they should be.
Wow – I just realized how lazy I really am! And get this! Andre won’t be home until Friday. Am I cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for myself and Erin? No. BUT I did make plans with a friend (who’s husband is also out of town) to meet at Cracker Barrel for their Thanksgiving Table. And Erin is invited of course. It sounds pretty good and best of all – no clean up afterwards. And I’m sure everything will be edible which is not guaranteed if I cook.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. On Thursday I will take the time to remember that I am very thankful for my family and friends. I have wonderful people in my life.

Watch Out Virginia

Erin came home yesterday. She has decided she wants to live in Virginia again, having run out of boys in Florida I guess. She gave her 2 weeks notice at a job she had held FOR A WHOLE YEAR and will be starting over here. She says that living with us is just temporary. That’s fine. It’s what parents should do…...right? So the plan is that she’ll look for a job, save up some money, and then move out.
It will be a bit of an adjustment, but she’s an easy keeper for the most part. And because she lived on her own (with roommates) for awhile, she’s apparently acquired this strange habit of keeping her abode clean. MY DAUGHTER? She asked me where the cleaning supplies are (hahahaha) and said she’d be doing some housework during the day. She even said she now sees the necessity of cleaning baseboards because that’s where all the dust settles. I think at that point in the conversation my jaw was probably on the floor. I told her she wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all if she wanted to tidy up the place. With 6 dogs and 3 cats in the house, things get dirty and dusty and I can’t keep up. Not that I was ever a good housekeeper even when we didn’t have animals. I just never learned the art of keeping a clean house.
She mentioned she wanted to paint her room, and at that point Andre walked out of the computer room and said “I thought this was going to be temporary.” I think he’s a little worried.
Welcome Home Erin.

We're not in D.C. anymore, Toto....

We were getting ready to drive down to the Montpelier trial a few weekends ago and pulled into the local gas station to fill up the truck with diesel. I went in to prepay while Andre was at the pump. As I was leaving, a guy shouts out, “Your husband a coon hunter?” I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but I turned around and sure enough he was looking at me. I said “Um, no.” Then he said he saw the dog box in the truck bed and said, “Yeah, he didn’t look familiar to me.” I told him what we did with our dogs and he had a blank stare just like I guess I did when he said he was a coon hunter. (Why do people hunt raccoons? What kind of dogs do they use? Do raccoons taste good?) I guess the coon hunters and the sheepdog people both use dog boxes.
Again, another moment we would never have experienced if we still lived near D.C. (and instead live pretty dang close to West Virginia.)

http://www.diamonddeluxe.com/aluminum_dog_boxes.html
(We have the O-Style.)

Men are from Mars AND Venus

Andre is a High School History teacher. He told his class that when he was a student and was bored with a lecture, he could tune out for a bit, listening to every fourth word or so. He could then rest his brain a bit and still retain and understand most of what was being discussed when he tuned back in. He told them that he uses that same technique with his wife. He got a good laugh from that…..from his students, not me.
So last night I was reading in bed and mentioned to him that I had gone to Target during lunch and they had reading glasses AND cases on sale for $1 so I stocked up and bought a few. I realized he was just nodding at my story so I quizzed him about what I had just said. “Ummm, you went…somewhere…..and bought……something???”. Okay, so it wasn’t the most exciting conversation, but he needs to perfect his technique and at least pick up on the important nouns! I can’t get mad. I completely tune him out when I’m watching The Hills and he starts talking to me just when LC and Audrina are having one of their deep conversations about……oh yeah, they never talk about anything important and as a 51 year old woman, I should not be watching that show anyway!

Everyone is a critic

Last night I had the song Instant Karma in my head (it's on my IPOD) and was singing it while getting ready to go to bed. Heather had jumped up on our bed, acting like she belonged there and maybe we wouldn't notice her and she'd get a night of being a very special border collie who gets to sleep with her humans. But that doesn't happen in our house because Andre and I LIKE OUR SPACE IN OUR KING SIZED BED.
Anyway, as I was singing, she was lying on the bed, wagging her tail like a good little music critic suck up. It didn't matter that I couldn't remember the words or that I was out of tune. But then Andre comes in and says "You are scaring me". I asked him if it was because I sounded eerily like John Lennon. He said "Ummm, no". Guess I should keep my day job after all.