Saturday, November 29, 2008

Puppies, Puppies



I have the most beautiful litter here at my house right now. I'm so excited about these puppies. they are by the beautiful BISS Ch. Sea Haven Chasing Moonbeams X BISS Ch. Lacewood Bi Starlight. It is exciting to have these guys here and watch them grow. The hard part is deciding what is best for each of the puppies.

I saw Chase when he was still showing in the classes in California. He was a young dog that did not have a name for himself yet. I fell passionately in love with him the first time I saw him. I have wanted to find a girl that I considered good enough to send to him to be bred. Shannalee sent her beautiful Stinky "Ch. Akadia Totally Intoxicating" to him and was sweet enough to let me have a beautiful blue boy from that litter, but wouldn't you know, he went oversize!! So I was still left hoping to find a girl nice enough to send to him. Well, Luci finished fast and came in season so I decided to drive to San Francisco to breed her to him. That was about 25 hours of driving round trip plus the time there to breed her 3 times. So, you can see, I want to keep my favorite. I think I have decided to keep one of the blue girls. She really interests me. I have considered keeping one of the black girls too, but that is still up in the air. I have pondered on this and worried about it so much that it has made its way into my dreams ----

I dreamt that Tom Coen and Pete C. and Kim A (Laureate) and several other top sheltie breeders were at a party with me. (when I dream I go for the best!!!). I had the two black girls with me and I went up to Pete and Tom and asked them which of the girls I should keep. Tom was just about to tell me what his pick was when I stopped him. I told him that I didn't want Pete to hear his answer, that I wanted his answer to not be influenced by Tom's answer. So, I went to get yellow sticky notes to have them write down their answers. (I guess my dreams can be very specific). When I got the pad of sticky notes, everyone at the party decided that it was a game and they all wanted to play. So I passed out sticky notes to everyone so that they could write down their choice for which black girl to keep. I just gathered all the sticky notes back and was so excited to finally get to see the answer when -- my husband made a noise and woke me up!!! I was devastated that I would never know the answer to my question. Too bad that Tom and Pete and Kim live so far away, or I think I would take the puppies to see them so that I could finally find out the answer to the question!!! LOL

I have had a great time watching this crew grow up. They are as charming as they are beautiful. There is nothing better than puppies to make life worthwhile. I'm pretty sure that I am just puppy struck right now. But I think I'll just enjoy it while it lasts as they are grown and gone way too soon.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Success?????




The feeling of being successful in an interesting thing. I think it is one of those things that we are always striving for and just when we feel it is in reach the definition changes.


I remember not too long ago when success for me meant that I could own a dog that could win points at an AKC show. That was such an exciting thought for me!! After that happened for me, I felt like to really achieve success I would need to finish a dog. The idea of owning a champion dog dominated my daydreams and desires. I remember when just being around a champion would make me feel like I was in the company of greatness. (I know I was a little naive). I would be star struck just to be able to pet a champ. When I finished my first champion, my appetite was certainly whetted, but I still didn't not feel successful. I felt that I needed more to achieve that elusive goal. I wanted my first home-bred champion. I would lay awake at night and dream of finishing my first home-bred champion. Again, after I accomplished that dream, my definition of success had still not been fulfilled. I started to have bigger goals. I wanted to place at that national. Oh that was was the dream that would be so life changing. I know others that have many placements in a single national specialty show, but I was sure that one placement would be enough to satisfy me. This year that dream was realized. Now, I have always had a dream that I was sure could never be fulfilled. I dreamed of having one of my dogs go BOB in a sheltie specialty or best in show. Now that was a goal I could dream about forever and never achieve. I knew that achieving that one would for sure make me feel successful. Well, again this year, that happened. Luci, BISS Ch. Lacewood Bi Starlight went Best in Specialty over 6 specials at the tender age of 19 months. She was shown in her first show as an adult that same morning for a 5 point major, and then in the afternoon at the second specialty of the day, she went WB again for another 5 point major and then Best in Specialty. I not only get to be around this dog and pet her, but I get to live with her sleeping with me if I like. What could be better than that!!!


You'll never believe this, but I still do not feel all that successful. I have had successes, and I am so grateful for those successes, but my desire to do more has not even started to be sated. As I think about it, maybe that is a good thing. If we felt that we had achieved real success after our first small success maybe we wouldn't reach for the stars. The greatest successes I have had in showing dogs, have come when I least expected them. I have been overwhelmed with joy at each one. I feel so privileged to have been able to have the successes that I have had. It is very humbling to look at my beloved little dogs and realize the joy they have given me both in the ring and out of the ring. I am so blessed!!!


But now I am looking forward to success some day. Maybe I will be lucky enough to achieve that success before I come to the end of the road. I don't know if anyone else feels this way about their successes. But here is to a future of success for all of us!!!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

PIES -- MMMMMM


My parents were divorced when I was quite young. When i was about 15 or 16 my Dad told me one day that he missed his mother's Lemon Meringue pie. He said all he could ever find was lemon meringue pie that was made out of pudding. I asked a few more questions and found out that he wanted lemon meringue pie made from scratch with lemon juice and thickened with corn starch. That began my search for the perfect recipe. Well, come Thanksgiving, which I have made for my family since I was about 15 or 16, I made Daddy a lemon meringue pie from scratch. It was quite a hit and Daddy was so excited to have this pie. It fast became a tradition to have lemon meringue pie for each Thanksgiving.


This year is no different. I planned to make 2 lemon meringue pies and I thought it might be fun to do 2 lime meringue pies this year too. Well, the word got out to my kids that I was only making 2 lemon pies. Yesterday they came down for an intervention to tell me that I was totally nuts and that I had to make at least 4 lemon pies. I could make all the lime pies I wanted but they wanted their lemon pies. My husband has decided that his favorite pie is cherry pie, so if I did not make at least 2 cherry pies, then I was not administering to his needs. Well my favorite is French apple and apple is also my son's favorite. So the tally for pies for this Thanksgiving is 10 made by me. 2 lime meringue, 4 lemon meringue, 2 cherry, 2 French apple. My niece is bringing a key lime and my sister in law is bringing 2 pumpkin pies. That is a total of 13 pies. I believe we are having 16 people come for dinner!! So if anyone out there would like a piece of pie I think we could spare a piece -- LOL.
I had a great time today making pies. One of my sons kind of likes to cook and spent the day helping me make pies. It is a lot of fun to have the one on one time with him. He is 19 and just fun to be around. It is amazing to me how important holiday traditions are to my children. I never understand their improtance when the children were little, but as they have grown up they have refused to let me change the traditions. Those are the things that bind families together.
I think making pies is worth all the love it brings!!!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Puppies Puppies


I love baby puppies. You can learn so much about life from a baby puppy. They are so excited to see and do and learn everything. I have 2 litters right now. One of the litters is 6 1/2 weeks old and the other one is 4 1/2 weeks old. The puppies in the older litter are just so alive!!! They play and fight and bark and grrrr. I take them out in the front yard and it is as if they are saying "yeah look at all the toys out here". We still have leaves falling off the trees and the puppies are so excited to find all the leaves and carry them around. Wouldn't life be great if we were all so excited to see and learn and do everything?
The other thing about baby puppies that is so much fun, is that they are so excited to see everyone that comes to see them. They don't care what you look like or if you have ignored them or just put their ears up etc. They greet you as if you were their very favorite person each and every time they see you. You can't help but be bouyed up by them as they make you feel so loved. I love going in to see these guys and get my face kissed all over and my ears bitten. I can't think of anything better than puppy breath!! Wouldn't the world also be great if everyone was so loving and excited to see you as a baby puppy is?
Yup, I think we can all learn a lot from baby puppies!!

Monday, November 24, 2008

In the Beginning

I guess there needs to be a beginning for everything. I have sworn since the first day that I learned the word blog that I would never do one, but you know how it is when you use the word "Never" in a sentence, it is a sure thing that the comos will try to prove you wrong.

I started this a week ago or so and I got my first "blog" all written out. I decided that since everyone else is so good at making their blogs beautiful that I would try to add a picture to mine as well and make it look beautiful. Only thing is that when I added the picture it dropped the words. That pretty much did it, I was too frustrated to continue so I gave up. Well today Shannalee asked me why I hadn't done any more than put a background on my blog so I decided that maybe I would write something.

I have to admit that it is a little intimidating to write this blog after looking at some of the beautiful blogs that are out there. I dont' know if I have anything to say that is all that wonderful. I do know, however, that there is a lot of conversation that goes on inside of ourselves. I think sometimes the most important things we say are the things that we say only inside of ourselves. Maybe it is good to try to put some of those things on paper.

My son got married a couple of weeks ago!! It was a great wedding. This is my first child to get married. I was so excited to be the Mother of the groom. I don't think I could have been more proud of anything than I was of him at that moment. He chose a beautiful girl to marry. She is beautiful both inside and out. I am proud of his choice. They came to be a few months ago and asked me to make their wedding cake!! I was so happy that they would ask me to do something that important, but I was also scared. I haven't made a wedding cake in 10 years and I have only ever done about 5 of them total. This one was to be made of rolled fondant which I have never done!!! I told them yes, we some reluctance. I have to admit that I was kind of excited to do it, but so scared that it wouldn't turn out to be what they wanted. My other son and I spent 12 hours frosting and leveling and putting the cake together the day before the wedding only to have it begin to colapse. I was just panicked, but I took the tiers apart and waited until the reception to add more dowels and cardboard to put it all back together. I think it looked pretty nice considering that it was a total amateur job. Once it was put together and looking alright, the rest of the wedding was so much fun. I was delighted to be there and see how happy they both looked.

Life is about those people that touch your life. Families and friends. The times that life is the best are those times that we take to spend time with those that we care about. I must say that I count my dogs in the family and friend category too. There is so much unconditional love from them. Does life get better than a day like a wedding of one of the people you love most in the world. Seeing them happy and in love. It was probably one of the most rewarding things I have ever experienced!!!