A Very Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a very Blessed New Year. This year has brought many joys and trials. Hopefully we learn from the trials and hang on to the joys. We are all very blessed to live in this wonderful country and to have so much. I feel very rich to have my family, my dogs, and my wonderful friends.

May the spirit of Christmas be with you for the entire year. May God bless each and every one of you.

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Puppy Day!!

Well, it was puppy day, but I didn't start with the puppies until after I cooked up some yummy Christmas treats with my boys. We made fudge and then two batches of English Toffee today. MMMMM I can't wait to start gaining all the weight back that I lost over the summer!!! I think Christmas is a way to have 25 methods of eating sugar and butter!!! But it is so good. Every year I think I will cut down on the goodies that I make, but every year my children remind me of how Christmas would be ruined if we don't do exactly the same way every year. Tradition seems to play a big roll in what makes a holiday successful. The only problem with that is that most of the traditions involve me working!!! But i do admit I love to cook with my boys. It is a time we can enjoy each other. Makes it all worth while.

The puppies here are Knuckles, Bruce, Leo, Meepo -- My boys named them!!!








Well once the baking was done then we all bathed the remaining 6 puppies. Because it is Saturday the AOAC litter turned 10 weeks today and the Sable litter turned 8 weeks today. So we measured everyone and then took pictures. I redid the sable boys' ears as well. It was a busy day. The bigger blue girl went to a pet home yesterday and 2 of the sable boys will go to their new homes tomorrow so I will be down to only 4 puppies. It will be nice in some ways, but I miss the little guys when they are gone.

I'm growing out two of the AOAC puppies for now. They are so much fun. They are sired by the gogeous BISS CH. Sea Haven Chasing Moonbeams, ROM X BISS CH. Lacewood Bi Starlight. My beautiful girl that finished in 10 shows and took a specialty BOB over 6 specials for her second 5 point major in 1 day. Earning 10 points in 1 day is a really special thing to do!!! Here they are
This is Jamie. I don't know what her registered name will be yet. Any ideas? Maybe we need a contest!!!

This is Miss Traci. She has moved in and taken over my house. She already things she runs thinks around here. She will be Lacewood Traces of Moonlight!!!

I feel very lucky to have these babies. I have loved Chase for so long. Hope you all enjoy them!!!

Funny Bird

We have an African Grey parrot at our house. Her name is Chiku, which means Chatter in an African language. She puts a unique perspective on things. She talks up a storm and makes up her own phrases from the words she knows. It is really almost scary to hear her talk. She can imitate me being on the phone. She beeps to dial the numbers, then says hello, or she rings just like the phone and then says hello. Then she'll say "uh huh, ok, yes, I see, ok, oh my gosh!, uh huh, alright, bye bye" then she'll beep to hang the phone up. I know exactly what I sound like on the phone now. I know this is funny for everyone that hears it, but it is a little disconcerting to me to hear her imitate my phone calls!! She knows how to say several of the dogs' names. She yells at "Brock" for barking. "Brock!!!, NO BARK!!!" she yells. She calls Draco. Today she learned Kari's name.



She loves the puppies and if you bring a puppy in where she is, she'll say "Look at the puppy, it's such a cute puppy", "Look at the cute, cute puppy, Chiku". If the puppies start to cry she will join in, she sounds more like a puppy crying than the puppies do. Sometimes I come running to see what is wrong with a puppy and it is just Chiku doing her puppy imatation. She also barks very well. Most of our dogs are bark softened, but not Chiku, she barks better than most of the dogs.



Now the funny part is she changes the things, we teach, her to her own liking. For instance we taught her to say Peek-a-boo. She changed it to Chika-boo. (she can say it properly but she prefers to always put her name in everything she can). My husband taught her to say "What's up doc?". Well Chiku's version is "What's up Brock?". She has been saying "Merry Christmas a lot for the Christmas season. She actually learned it last year, but picked it up again very fast this year. Richard, my husband has her saying "Merry Christmas, ho ho ho". Well, she has a new version after today. Now it is "Kari Christmas".



What a funny little bird. She certainly keeps things interesting around here. Everyone I talk to on the phone spends more time eaves dropping on what Chiku is talking about than what I am talking about. She entertains everyone. I have even had people from businesses I am talking to break out into laughter and ask me if I have a bird. She starts a lot of conversations about birds. If you want to be entertained just call sometime and she'll surely put on a show for you. Until then--- Kari Christmas to all and a very Happy Chiku year!!!!

Darling Puppy -- Good cause

I have been just a bit sick today with a terrible cold. Haven't felt well all week, but it finally caught up with me and I spent most of the day in bed.

The puppy in the first two pictures are Sven. He is my son Jaron's favorite puppy. He has carried that puppy around since the day they were born. Not long ago a family picked Sven out and he will soon go to his new home. I'm sure it will make Jaron sad as he loves this puppy, but the puppy is going to a really good home and will be a surprise for a man that has cancer. Hopefully he will add joy to a family that is facing difficult times right now. He is an adorable puppy with a darling little personality to go along with his cute looks. For the last week or two Jaron has been putting Sven in this Santa hat and carrying him around. Sven seems to love the attention and just pokes his head up over the top of the hat and watches the goings on. He is so patient with all the attention he gets. Since Sven might leave to go to his new home tomorrow (weather permitting) we thought we would snap a few photos of him before he left. While we were taking photos of Sven we decided to take some of a few others. We had a good time and the dogs seems to enjoy all the attention. All except Kari, the bi black dog in the Santa hat. I think she thought it was pure foolishness.

It was a fun day playing with puppies and recovering from my cold. I hope Sven's new family loves him as much as Jaron does. If they do he will be one lucky sheltie!!

Snow Day!!

The puppies have all been used to being able to go outside and play for several hours during the day. It has been so nice outside. Well the snow has arrived and I have 9 very unhappy puppies in the house right now. I decided to let them go out and see for themselves. They had a blast until they started to get cold. The snow was coming down very hard so they only got to stay outside for a short time. It is cold and miserable. Poor little things are just sad. One of the little brown boys has been howling waiting to go outside again. Hopefully the snow will stop and they can spend a little time out this afternoon. I was actually surprised at how well they did in the snow. They played in it and ate it. The brown boys are only 7 weeks old and the AOAC's are 9 weeks old. I think given the choice they would take the snow over being locked in the house. When it stops snowing it will be a little warmer I think.


I have been dreading the day that they can't have time outside, but hopefully everyone will get to go to their new homes soon where they can play in the house. It is just impossible to have 9 puppies running around my house. They are very good to go potty outside as long as they get taken out every hour or two. They are so funny to watch, isn't it cute how they just take what ever comes their way and are happy with it. I think I need to be more like that. One puppy is already gone to her new home, it is hard to see them go really, I have really enjoyed these little guys.






They all think they are so grown up. Many of them can go up and down the deck stairs. They are really turning in to quite the little pack. So cute and playful. They all want all the attention. It has been a fun adventure. As I look outside now, there is about 4 new inches and still snowing. Guess their next adventure into the snow will be even deeper, although I shoveled the deck before I put them out this time.

My Old Little Man

This is "Brock" Ch. Starfall's The Enchanter, CD. -- In the late 1970's I had shelties and had a dream of owning a dog nice enough to put in the show ring. For a variety of reasons, the most important of which was to raise my family, I got out of shelties for a number of years. In 2000 I decided that I needed to have shelties again, I just missed them too much!! So I began a search for a very nice dog. It is really hard to find anyone that will trust someone that has never finished a dog and that they don't know with a nice dog. I was met with a very cool reception by most of the people that I contacted. Then I found an ad for puppies and the ad said the person was an AKC judge and had owned shelties for a lot of years. I called on the ad!! That was Janet Nahikian of Starfall shelties. She was nice enough to listen to me and then to offer me Brock. I promised her that if there was any way I could finish him that I would. When he arrived at my house I was thrilled. He was so cute and so pretty. I was in heaven. That began the second round of my sheltie career. I had always had AOAC's and that is still where my heart is. Brock remains my soul little sable guy, but I could not love him more.

He is turning 9 years old in less than a month. He has started to develop arthritis. Last night he was in so much pain from the arthritis that he could hardly put weight on one of his front paws. I tucked him in bed last night between myself and my husband so he would have a comfy place to sleep. When I tried to move him over just a little bit he cried out from his painful joint. This morning he is doing better and not even limping, but it is hard to see this little guy start to show signs of age. He is still the beautiful little puppy to me.

The pictures above were taken by Shannalee when Brock visited her house for a few days. They were taken a couple of months ago. I was so thrilled to see the pictures. He has really held his quality over the years. In fact, if anything he gets better as the years go by.

So this is my tribute the darling little dog that made all of my recent passion for shelties possible again. I love you little man. I hope you have a lot of years left to lay by my side and run our house!!!

Gratitude

I must be in a very reflective mood. Since I started writing this blog, it is in the back of my mind all the time thinking of what might be a good thing to share. The last few days I have been thinking a lot about gratitude. I keep thinking to myself "that isn't a good thing to write about", but then something else happens and I realize just how grateful I am for things in my life. I think sometimes it is easier to be grumpy about the things that we don't have or about things that happen to us, than it is to be grateful for what we have and for those experiences that help us grow. I have not exactly had the easiest life growing up, but I am grateful for each of those experiences because I learned so many valuable lessons from them.

We live in unpredictable times. I have a hard time listening to the news because it scares me to see what is happening in our world. But I am grateful for 7 beautiful children and a husband that has always been able to provide for us. I am so grateful for my dogs and for the opportunity that I have to have dogs that are as nice as I have. I'm grateful that I have had the opportunity to live in this exciting world when technology is just exploding. I don't think there has ever been such an exciting world as the one we live in. I love to see all the new technologies.

I'm especially grateful for friends and the rich blessing that they are in my life. I see so many of them struggling with trials and my heart goes out to them. I just feel very blessed right now.

The picture is of my husband and two of my boys at Arches National Park here in Utah. Such a beautiful world that we live in!!

The US Mail

My Mother used to work for the US Mail, so don't think that I am just trying to rag on the postal service, but I am often puzzled by them.

I can't believe some of the things that show up in my mailbox. I have had nearly shredded mail that I have sent out returned to me. One of those pieces of mail was years ago. My house payment never arrived to pay my payment. It did come back to me about 6 months later in another envelope ripped in half and only half of it was returned. (the half with the return address on it!). Another time someone sent one of my boys a whole bunch of stamps that had been used. They were stamps from all over the world and there was a lot of them in an envelope. The envelope arrived in my mailbox torn open and stamps just tucked in to this open envelope. I have no idea how many of them escaped. I often get letters in my mailbox addressed to someone else with a completely different address. It makes me wonder how many of my pieces of mail get delivered to someone else. I once had a piece of mail delivered that was post marked almost a year before. I have no idea where it had been all that time!

Today, however, we received a piece of mail that I have never seen before. My sister in law had sent a card (with a check no doubt) to my son that just got married. She mailed it before the wedding so that he would have it for his wedding day as she could not come. Well, it arrived today 3 weeks after the wedding. Stamped on the outside of the envelope was the phrase "Found in a supposedly empty piece of equipment"! This was a rubber stamp that is obviously used for just this purpose.

I guess I found it rather funny that this happens enough that a stamp had been developed for just this occasion. I would think that it would make more sense to take steps to fix the problem rather than develop a stamp for it. I find the same humor when I see a sign on the road that says "bump" or "rough road". I wonder why they would take the time to make a sign when it seems to me that a little tar to fill the roughness would be easier.

Now I'm sure there are reasons for all of these situations that I'm just too naive or uneducated about to understand. I still get a chuckle from them, however. All except the missing house payment -- THAT ONE WAS NOT FUNNY!!!!!