Thursday, April 4, 2013
There is always next year
Was just reading one of my favorite blogs and she had said her new statement that she says routinely is "I'm Fine". Well I guess I have a new motto or statement too, "there is always next year". I find myself saying this over and over and over. We are planning our big trip that we take once a year for tony's work meetings. This year it is in vegas and I am really excited because I have never been. Basically while he is in meetings all day, I get to do whatever I want till he gets out and then we get to go out and do stuff together. The company pays for our hotel and tony's airfare and all I have to pay for is my airfare and food. It's a really sweet deal and I had a blast in new orleans the last time we went to this meeting. Heck this year, may just lay in bed all day and drink and eat since the kiddo will be with my mom in KS. The only bad part is, I just checked the dates and well, it is the same week as USDAA nationals. Kind of relieved, kind of sad all at the same time. Relieved that I don't have that pressure to get to as many USDAA shows as i can that are 6 or more hours away. Relieved that I don't have to obsess about grand prix and steeplechase anymore and can just go out and have fun. You see something has changed within me and I hate to admit it. I feared this and have fought it tooth and nail but now it is here and i am going to embrace it. I don't want to leave my baby anymore routinely on weekends and if I can't take him with me for whatever reason, I probably won't go. The pull of dog shows, my passion, my obsession is being overridden by another more powerful feeling. I love my little baby and I want to be with him all the time. My work and teaching hampers this a little bit and of course the weekends I am gone for three days really suck. So, there will always be next year. Hopefully I will be able to train more now that the weather is warmer and it is lighter later. Going to just take the handful of shows that I do go to and make the most of it and have fun. Just read yet another post today of yet another dog that is injured and out for a while so just going to have fun with what i have, celebrate a healthy dog that I love dearly and hopefully plan for next year:)
Monday, March 4, 2013
What a weird weekend
Put this down in the books to one very weird weekend. I was suppose to go down to Wichita (about a 2.5 hour drive) on Thursday night with Andrew and deuce. Wednesday night, deuce started shaking his head and panting about 1 am. I got up and checked his ears and sure enough, one ear was very goobery with some black foul smelling stuff coming out. Great. He has never had ear issues before so I filled his ear with epiotic and cleaned what i could out with several q tips. Made a mental note to call my vet in the morning if he was still restless/shaking his head. Well of course, by the morning he seemed fine so I went about my life and went to work. When i got home, he was back to panting/shaking his head so called my vet at 5:13 pm and begged to have him look at him. He had a slight yeast infection in the one ear and the canal was very inflamed, probably from him digging in it with his foot. The other ear looked fine with minimal yeast/inflammation. They did a deep cleaning and gave him a steroid shot to help with the inflammation. Then they told me the good news. He would probably drink water all night and have to go out multiple times. Huh? I can't do being in a hotel by myself with a baby and be taking a dog out multiple times a night. Called my friend in a panic to see if she could cancel the room, which she did. Whew. Decided i needed to stay home and deal with this at home. At least if he had an accident, we had wood floors. .
Anyway, got up at the butt crack of dawn and loaded Andrew and deuce up and headed to Wichita. Made the trip fine, no potty breaks for deuce and a sleeping baby pretty much the whole way. Got to the show site and set up and started walking the courses. Noticed that the dirt was a little loose but didn't think anything about it. Didn't even put my cleats on. BIG mistake. Ran T2B first which I love to use as a warm up. Almost fell 3 times!!!!! Deuce had like 5 bars and we watched team after team after team decimate the course. I am pretty surefooted and agile and I almost biffed it so I know the footing was super bad. JWW was next and I was beginning to think this was a huge mistake to even try to run. He had one bar and a beautiful run so that made me feel a little better. Standard had a HUGE pull to the close end of a tiny tunnel after a long straight line. I figured if led out enough and pulled, he would get it. He ignored the pull as he usually does and made a bee line for the wrong end. In hindsight, as far as I lead out, I could have done a FC on the landing side of the jump to help him but you know what they say about hindsight. Oh well, the rest of the run was gorgeous, well except for him not reading an ill timed, ill performed ketcher but i will take it.
Got back to the hotel room and went out to eat at the cracker barrel at which Andrew at dumplings, green beans and mashed potatoes. BOY is this kid growing up too fast. Was back at the hotel, had Andrew on the bed, turned my back for a second and he fell off. This is the first time he has ever fallen off of anything so I was very, very upset. Glad my roomie was very calm and kept me calm. Tried to remember what we tell students about their dogs falling off of obstacles but i was literally sick to my stomach with worry. Some part of him hit the ac unit and that thud is still stuck in my head and will take a long time to go away. I know you can't wrap them in bubble wrap but the rest of the weekend, he pretty much played on the floor the whole time unless I was in bed with him with a hand on him.
Didn't get much sleep that night worrying about him so figured Saturday would be interesting. Got a Q in T2B and beat some really nice dogs for my first run of the day. Still only got 8 points but it was a nice proactive handling run. JWW was next and we had a line of three jumps with a 180 going back the other way. There was a nice off course jump after the 3rd jump in the beginning line just calling their name. I knew if I didn't time it right that he would go full speed ahead and not read my lateral motion on the 180. So the opposite happened, i didn't support the third jump enough so he skipped it completely and came with. Nice read of lateral motion Mr. deuce! The rest of the course was nice till he dropped the last bar which was a double. Beginning to get a little nervous about this dropping doubles and triples. Standard again had a very hard pull to the end of a very short tunnel. He got the pull but spun in front of the tunnel and then went in. SO weird. He never gets refusals on tunnels but i remember as he was going to the tunnel i shouted GO WEAVE so maybe he was wondering where the heck the weaves where? Again the rest of the course was beautiful, no dropped bars per what happens when the mistake is on me. Took Andrew back to the hotel and just hung out and played the rest of the afternoon. Missed dinner because he was napping but got dinner later at mcds and got some ice cream which Andrew thoroughly enjoyed!
Woke up around 3 ish with a massive sinus headache. Couldn't get in any position to help the pressure. Finally got up and started pacing, was in so much pain. I knew if I didn't get relief soon that I would be puking. My roomie woke up around 4:30 and found me some advil. At that point, I was just praying i could keep them down long enough for them to work. Some how managed to keep them down long enough for the pain to go away but the stomach was already upset so I prayed to the porcelain gods for a while. I knew there was no way I could run my dog but I had no clue how I was going to drive 2.5 hours back home either. I some how rallied myself into some adrenalin high and post puking, drove home. It was the longest 2.5 hours I have ever driven but I made it safely home. I regret not running my dog but I don't think I could have handled the dirt again. The weird thing was, it didn't seem dusty in the arena at all so not sure why the sinus impaction. I have trialed for almost 13 years in dusty arenas and it seems like now, post pregnancy, I get sick every time I am in a dusty arena. It usually happens post show but this time it happened mid show. I really don't know what to do about this. There was a show in Lincoln the same weekend with about the same driving time but i hate the roads from here to Lincoln. All backwoods and scary and no shoulders to pull off on if you have car trouble or if you need to console a baby. I have an older van with much mileage so I prefer to stay on well traveled roads, least I break down.
Anyway, it was just a weird weekend. The courses were super nice, fun yet challenging but the footing was super crappy. The club tried everything to remedy the situation so I feel really bad for them as I am sure there was backlash. Need to figure out how to remedy this whole getting sick issue. I just don't have time to be sick thanks to being a mommy now and having another life form dependent on me.
Anyway, got up at the butt crack of dawn and loaded Andrew and deuce up and headed to Wichita. Made the trip fine, no potty breaks for deuce and a sleeping baby pretty much the whole way. Got to the show site and set up and started walking the courses. Noticed that the dirt was a little loose but didn't think anything about it. Didn't even put my cleats on. BIG mistake. Ran T2B first which I love to use as a warm up. Almost fell 3 times!!!!! Deuce had like 5 bars and we watched team after team after team decimate the course. I am pretty surefooted and agile and I almost biffed it so I know the footing was super bad. JWW was next and I was beginning to think this was a huge mistake to even try to run. He had one bar and a beautiful run so that made me feel a little better. Standard had a HUGE pull to the close end of a tiny tunnel after a long straight line. I figured if led out enough and pulled, he would get it. He ignored the pull as he usually does and made a bee line for the wrong end. In hindsight, as far as I lead out, I could have done a FC on the landing side of the jump to help him but you know what they say about hindsight. Oh well, the rest of the run was gorgeous, well except for him not reading an ill timed, ill performed ketcher but i will take it.
Got back to the hotel room and went out to eat at the cracker barrel at which Andrew at dumplings, green beans and mashed potatoes. BOY is this kid growing up too fast. Was back at the hotel, had Andrew on the bed, turned my back for a second and he fell off. This is the first time he has ever fallen off of anything so I was very, very upset. Glad my roomie was very calm and kept me calm. Tried to remember what we tell students about their dogs falling off of obstacles but i was literally sick to my stomach with worry. Some part of him hit the ac unit and that thud is still stuck in my head and will take a long time to go away. I know you can't wrap them in bubble wrap but the rest of the weekend, he pretty much played on the floor the whole time unless I was in bed with him with a hand on him.
Didn't get much sleep that night worrying about him so figured Saturday would be interesting. Got a Q in T2B and beat some really nice dogs for my first run of the day. Still only got 8 points but it was a nice proactive handling run. JWW was next and we had a line of three jumps with a 180 going back the other way. There was a nice off course jump after the 3rd jump in the beginning line just calling their name. I knew if I didn't time it right that he would go full speed ahead and not read my lateral motion on the 180. So the opposite happened, i didn't support the third jump enough so he skipped it completely and came with. Nice read of lateral motion Mr. deuce! The rest of the course was nice till he dropped the last bar which was a double. Beginning to get a little nervous about this dropping doubles and triples. Standard again had a very hard pull to the end of a very short tunnel. He got the pull but spun in front of the tunnel and then went in. SO weird. He never gets refusals on tunnels but i remember as he was going to the tunnel i shouted GO WEAVE so maybe he was wondering where the heck the weaves where? Again the rest of the course was beautiful, no dropped bars per what happens when the mistake is on me. Took Andrew back to the hotel and just hung out and played the rest of the afternoon. Missed dinner because he was napping but got dinner later at mcds and got some ice cream which Andrew thoroughly enjoyed!
Woke up around 3 ish with a massive sinus headache. Couldn't get in any position to help the pressure. Finally got up and started pacing, was in so much pain. I knew if I didn't get relief soon that I would be puking. My roomie woke up around 4:30 and found me some advil. At that point, I was just praying i could keep them down long enough for them to work. Some how managed to keep them down long enough for the pain to go away but the stomach was already upset so I prayed to the porcelain gods for a while. I knew there was no way I could run my dog but I had no clue how I was going to drive 2.5 hours back home either. I some how rallied myself into some adrenalin high and post puking, drove home. It was the longest 2.5 hours I have ever driven but I made it safely home. I regret not running my dog but I don't think I could have handled the dirt again. The weird thing was, it didn't seem dusty in the arena at all so not sure why the sinus impaction. I have trialed for almost 13 years in dusty arenas and it seems like now, post pregnancy, I get sick every time I am in a dusty arena. It usually happens post show but this time it happened mid show. I really don't know what to do about this. There was a show in Lincoln the same weekend with about the same driving time but i hate the roads from here to Lincoln. All backwoods and scary and no shoulders to pull off on if you have car trouble or if you need to console a baby. I have an older van with much mileage so I prefer to stay on well traveled roads, least I break down.
Anyway, it was just a weird weekend. The courses were super nice, fun yet challenging but the footing was super crappy. The club tried everything to remedy the situation so I feel really bad for them as I am sure there was backlash. Need to figure out how to remedy this whole getting sick issue. I just don't have time to be sick thanks to being a mommy now and having another life form dependent on me.
Monday, February 18, 2013
rebound?
I went into these three days with a little bit better attitude and a whole lot of small tiny goals. I wanted barless runs and i wanted good contacts. Anything else was icing on the cake. This was a four day trial but I only entered three and entered T2B along with standard and jumpers. T2B was first friday and saturday so I used it as a warm up as I always do. Friday's run was smoking hot with one bar and not a bar I thought he might take. I will take it, I was happy. Then jumpers came and he refused a jump. I honestly don't think he even saw it as I was sending it to him and staying close to the weaves since it was a wrap back to the weaves. I really thought if I had too much motion to the jump that he would take it in full extension and then in his rush to catch up to get the weaves, would either back jump or hit the poles in a non collected manner and probably pop out or go in second pole. Anyway, he compensated by not taking the jump and going straight to the weaves. That was the tightest wrap around me he has ever done and of course he did it twice before he realized there was a jump even back there. Then he went around behind the jump and took it going the wrong way but it did line him up for a better weave entry LOLOL! I had to laugh and we finished the course with of course NO bars. Figures:) Standard was one of those runs that you dream of. We were in sync, no screaming, good contacts, perfect weaves and we got a Q!!!!!! I was shocked and the whole place cheered for me. That is the beauty of having great agility friends, they are there for you in the good and the bad. We ended up in fourth place, right behind those smoking BCs. I was really, really happy. What changed? I haven't a clue.
Of course the next day the butterflies which have been absent for a while returned to my tummy when we stepped to the line. Q in T2B but some wide turns so only 8 points. Jumpers had one little bar, but again in standard, a Q!!!!!!! Wasn't as tight of a run with two wide turns, one doing a very wide spread 180 with his beloved weaves calling his name and one where I really think he had gone over the finish jump so he floated till he realized it was time for the beloved weaves. We were probably in the top 10 and I am still super pumped.
Then sunday came. Dropped bar in JWW. Dropped the triple in standard and then multiple mistakes. I hate to end on a bad note but I was overall very pleased with the weekend. Still need to find a time to condition him. I truly believe his bars are a product of being out of shape. The footing was much better this weekend so instead of multiple knocked bars, he only had one per run but he needs to figure out how to deal with crappy footing. I do believe that this weekend was probably a product of using last weekend as "practice". I need to do some less expensive practices. We are almost to march now so hopefully warmer weather, longer days and more time to train. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!! We have a weekend off and then a seminar and then we start back showing again!
Of course the next day the butterflies which have been absent for a while returned to my tummy when we stepped to the line. Q in T2B but some wide turns so only 8 points. Jumpers had one little bar, but again in standard, a Q!!!!!!! Wasn't as tight of a run with two wide turns, one doing a very wide spread 180 with his beloved weaves calling his name and one where I really think he had gone over the finish jump so he floated till he realized it was time for the beloved weaves. We were probably in the top 10 and I am still super pumped.
Then sunday came. Dropped bar in JWW. Dropped the triple in standard and then multiple mistakes. I hate to end on a bad note but I was overall very pleased with the weekend. Still need to find a time to condition him. I truly believe his bars are a product of being out of shape. The footing was much better this weekend so instead of multiple knocked bars, he only had one per run but he needs to figure out how to deal with crappy footing. I do believe that this weekend was probably a product of using last weekend as "practice". I need to do some less expensive practices. We are almost to march now so hopefully warmer weather, longer days and more time to train. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!! We have a weekend off and then a seminar and then we start back showing again!
melt down
I have officially had my first mommy melt down. I knew it would come, just didn't know when. I finally have officially declared I don't know how I am going to do this whole mommy thing and be in agility. It's not the money, which is what I thought would get me. It's the time. I have had little to no time to train lately, partially because it is dark when I get off but partly because when I do have a free moment of no baby, no laundry, no working out, no housework, no dishes, no responsibility at work, I just want to crash and play words with friends, not train my dogs. Now it is painfully obvious. I so wanted deuce to be like that horse that you put out to pasture and not ride for a year or so and then saddle up and they are just the way they were before you put them out to pasture. Kind of like an easy keeper. NOPE. He is not and I learned the hard way this weekend. Every single run was nasty. I really had trouble finding anything positive about any run and of course this was a USDAA weekend so several runs per day. Our team mightily struggled and did not Q. I feel really, really horrible for our teammate who needed the Q for nationals. I did try really hard but didn't get the gamble, got second in snooker, E'd in standard and E'd in jumpers. Then our frigging team won relay but maybe because we went for broke since there was nothing to loose. I of course had had four hours of sleep the night before but I don't think the mistakes were because of that. I truly felt like my handling plan was the best in standard. It was a tunnel to tunnel under a-frame scenario and I HAD to get to the end of the second tunnel to perform a handling manuver so i elected to blind and he went up the a-frame using the nastiest angle I have ever seen. I really did not see that as any way shape or form of an option. Jumpers was frustration. He had knocked three bars including the broad jump and I think I had just had enough so I just did a cross and he read it as a 180 and took an extra jump. I was probably out of position but he had really taken out the broad jump so I was really rattled. Anyway, it was bad and i was not happy. Then add in another day of hardly any sleep and thus you get the melt down.
The funny thing about all of it was the very thing I had been working on, the opening of gamblers not being a hot mess was the best part of both days. I was late on saturday because i had to bring andrew and he is in the midst of teething, thus the lack of sleeping. I literally walked in, was told a plan and had to go run it. He was very responsive, did not take any obstacles that he was not directed to and got a good number of points prior to the gamble. Unfortunately the gamble then became the hot mess but we are a work in progress when it comes to gamblers. Sunday was a bit better after several hours of crying saturday night and posting a whiny post on FB to which all of my agility friends replied back to with great words of wisdom. So I basically have to make a choice. Is it good enough to just go out and run with my dog with no illusions of any type of success right now since I have no time for training or do I need a break? I don't know if I can hang it up for a break but it stings a great bit to go out run after run and biff it, whether it be bars or wrong courses. I am very competitive, always have been and always will be. That is not to say that I don't revel in my friend's successes because most all of my friends are working their asses off for their goals and it is super cool to see their hard work pay off. Can I be happy with training in the ring a while longer? I was happy with these one bar runs but all the sudden, something has changed. I do feel like deuce would probably benefit from going to the chiropractor but just haven't had the time to take off from my job and go. It's hard to justify time off for that right now even though there is a benefit.
The funny thing about all of it was the very thing I had been working on, the opening of gamblers not being a hot mess was the best part of both days. I was late on saturday because i had to bring andrew and he is in the midst of teething, thus the lack of sleeping. I literally walked in, was told a plan and had to go run it. He was very responsive, did not take any obstacles that he was not directed to and got a good number of points prior to the gamble. Unfortunately the gamble then became the hot mess but we are a work in progress when it comes to gamblers. Sunday was a bit better after several hours of crying saturday night and posting a whiny post on FB to which all of my agility friends replied back to with great words of wisdom. So I basically have to make a choice. Is it good enough to just go out and run with my dog with no illusions of any type of success right now since I have no time for training or do I need a break? I don't know if I can hang it up for a break but it stings a great bit to go out run after run and biff it, whether it be bars or wrong courses. I am very competitive, always have been and always will be. That is not to say that I don't revel in my friend's successes because most all of my friends are working their asses off for their goals and it is super cool to see their hard work pay off. Can I be happy with training in the ring a while longer? I was happy with these one bar runs but all the sudden, something has changed. I do feel like deuce would probably benefit from going to the chiropractor but just haven't had the time to take off from my job and go. It's hard to justify time off for that right now even though there is a benefit.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Have about 20 minute in between experiments so thought I would write. So good things are happening right now and not so good things. We are wrapping up the beta testing. We haven't gotten the data we really need but we are hoping this last round of experiments will give us what we need. This whole project is turning me into a second guessing, freak out, do stupid stuff kind of scientist. I don't like it. I am a usually very confident person and this whole experience has kind of rocked my world. Makes me think that maybe science isn't my destiny. Anyway, will be ready to get back to a semi-normal schedule. Hubby has been laid off so he has been taking care of the baby while I work long hours and weekends. Kind of glad I didn't get to enter all of those seminars and shows I had wanted to enter. I do have a show next weekend, should be very interesting to say the least. When i don't work lately, all I want to do is be with my baby. Sigh.
Another good news item is my fitness. So i signed up for this class at 5:45 am in the morning with my old personal trainer. I signed up for five days a week. Today was suppose to be day 4 (we started last friday) but I had to skip this morning. I teach wednesday nights and was suppose to have this session wrapped up by now but thanks to weather and holidays, we still have two classes to get through. I just was worried about working like a madman all day, then taking an hour break, then teaching for three hours then driving home for 40 minutes with little sleep. Last night andrew and I went to bed super early, if you can call 9 pm super early, and slept till 7am. Well, i say that but the dogs did try multiple times to wake me up and one of them peed in the floor but t hat is another story. So I got a nice nights rest so I won't be quite so tired tonight driving home. okay, back to the work out. i LOVE this class. I knew i would and surprisingly, I haven't been very sore. The weird thing is, I can't really feel my abs when we are working them. I am still super numb down there. Not sure if that is normal or not. Not even sore the next day. My upper body, other than my noodly triceps was in good shape and I haven't had any issues with the upper body stuff. My legs feel pretty good too and my cardio isn't bad from the little running I have been doing. It's just weird that i can't feel my abs at all. I hope I am working them because that really is the only area of my body not back to normal. I was reading on the babycenter website that alot of women never get back their flat tummies so I don't have high hopes but I would like to fit back in regular jeans close to the size i was.
Okay back to making this about puppies. Everyone is starting to get puppies and for once, I am NOT jealous! They are all getting super cute, destined to be awesome puppies but stella ruined me on puppies and I looking forward to being puppy free for a few years. Hubby keeps saying andrew will need a puppy eventually but I am like HECK NO! He will have stella and that will be all he needs. I have been getting the itch to start rescuing again. I have no clue why, four is enough dogs for us, but I have just been watching petfinder alot and been mentioning it to hubby alot. I kind of miss it. Even been looking at BCs to foster. Probably a good idea to foster first just in case we ever do decide to add one to our family. Still not sure they would be a good fit for us, but I have thought that alot about people lately and they are making it work and doing great. Oh well, back to science now!
Another good news item is my fitness. So i signed up for this class at 5:45 am in the morning with my old personal trainer. I signed up for five days a week. Today was suppose to be day 4 (we started last friday) but I had to skip this morning. I teach wednesday nights and was suppose to have this session wrapped up by now but thanks to weather and holidays, we still have two classes to get through. I just was worried about working like a madman all day, then taking an hour break, then teaching for three hours then driving home for 40 minutes with little sleep. Last night andrew and I went to bed super early, if you can call 9 pm super early, and slept till 7am. Well, i say that but the dogs did try multiple times to wake me up and one of them peed in the floor but t hat is another story. So I got a nice nights rest so I won't be quite so tired tonight driving home. okay, back to the work out. i LOVE this class. I knew i would and surprisingly, I haven't been very sore. The weird thing is, I can't really feel my abs when we are working them. I am still super numb down there. Not sure if that is normal or not. Not even sore the next day. My upper body, other than my noodly triceps was in good shape and I haven't had any issues with the upper body stuff. My legs feel pretty good too and my cardio isn't bad from the little running I have been doing. It's just weird that i can't feel my abs at all. I hope I am working them because that really is the only area of my body not back to normal. I was reading on the babycenter website that alot of women never get back their flat tummies so I don't have high hopes but I would like to fit back in regular jeans close to the size i was.
Okay back to making this about puppies. Everyone is starting to get puppies and for once, I am NOT jealous! They are all getting super cute, destined to be awesome puppies but stella ruined me on puppies and I looking forward to being puppy free for a few years. Hubby keeps saying andrew will need a puppy eventually but I am like HECK NO! He will have stella and that will be all he needs. I have been getting the itch to start rescuing again. I have no clue why, four is enough dogs for us, but I have just been watching petfinder alot and been mentioning it to hubby alot. I kind of miss it. Even been looking at BCs to foster. Probably a good idea to foster first just in case we ever do decide to add one to our family. Still not sure they would be a good fit for us, but I have thought that alot about people lately and they are making it work and doing great. Oh well, back to science now!
Thursday, December 27, 2012
What is the quickest way to wake up a baby? Try writing a blog.
Andrew has been a sleep for almost and hour now so I am treading on precious time. Read the paper, did some dishes, folded some clothes, got his bottle and oatmeal ready and he is still snoozing. This however is like the bat signal to batman, beep beep, wake up baby! Mom is trying to organize her thoughts! Since this is the puppy blog, i will start with puppy thoughts. My poor puppies are getting little to no attention right now. I just don't have the time or energy. I throw the ball a little, trim toe nails, cuddle in bed, and occasionally brush but that is about it. I was heading out to Joc's barn for a once a week practice but that has pretty much stopped the last two weeks thanks to the holidays. We are going to be SUPER rusty by the january trial. We only have one and it is a two day so i guess it will be as usual, expensive practice.
I am really trying to goal set for the next year and it is tough. I would like to go to USDAA nationals and I am considering ASCA nationals but other than that, not much goal setting. I have no intentions of even trying to qualify for next year's AKC nationals. Probably not going to do as much AKC as I usually do. Would like to hit more USDAA and that is going to mean traveling which means extra dough. I just don't see myself being able with the handful of AKC trials that i even do, making that nationals goal. I am however very glad that they upped the qualifications but I do feel like you need to start your qualifying year out ASAP and go to as many shows as you can to make it. I would rather spend my money elsewhere. I also had planned on doing some camps and seminars this upcoming year but now with my job so up in the air, I am afraid to put down payments in. We had a very mild winter last year so was able to teach all winter but it isn't looking that way for this year. We have already had measurable snow and i have had to cancel a couple of times already for this current session. I am at this point just hoping we can get through so I can at least be done so we can take a break.
My job, wow is all i can say. We still are teetering on not so solid ground. We are trying to complete the beta testing on the equipment and start up receiving samples but we have had some set backs. We are going to have to purchase and fix some very expensive equipment which means we have to get another grant going. We still haven't perfected the protocols we need to perfect either. I have been working long hours and that isn't helping with my running/weight loss/stress level. I few times i have thought, I should just quit and become a stay at home mom, but the whole money thing always gets the best of me. Plus I need mental stimulation and I wouldn't get enough being at home. Anyway, I am hoping things settle down in the new year and we are able to fix/purchase the stuff we need to make this successful. I need a job! I also need to get back into some fitness routine. I thought entering races would make me accountable but it hasn't. I skipped my last race and just went shopping instead. I keep telling myself that I shouldn't enter races in advance so i don't loose money but i keep on. There is a trail race in february that i would LOVE to do but i have no clue what kind of training i will get in from here till then. Plus it is 5 miles and I am only running 3 right now. Excuses, excuses. Oh well, that is the story of my life right now!
Well going to wrap this up for now. I don't really have much time to really ruminate like i usually do. My life is now all about diapers and bottles and baby food, which is good, just different. I keep thinking things will settle down but the older he gets, the more complicated things get. oh well, maybe in 18 more years, things will settle down?
I am really trying to goal set for the next year and it is tough. I would like to go to USDAA nationals and I am considering ASCA nationals but other than that, not much goal setting. I have no intentions of even trying to qualify for next year's AKC nationals. Probably not going to do as much AKC as I usually do. Would like to hit more USDAA and that is going to mean traveling which means extra dough. I just don't see myself being able with the handful of AKC trials that i even do, making that nationals goal. I am however very glad that they upped the qualifications but I do feel like you need to start your qualifying year out ASAP and go to as many shows as you can to make it. I would rather spend my money elsewhere. I also had planned on doing some camps and seminars this upcoming year but now with my job so up in the air, I am afraid to put down payments in. We had a very mild winter last year so was able to teach all winter but it isn't looking that way for this year. We have already had measurable snow and i have had to cancel a couple of times already for this current session. I am at this point just hoping we can get through so I can at least be done so we can take a break.
My job, wow is all i can say. We still are teetering on not so solid ground. We are trying to complete the beta testing on the equipment and start up receiving samples but we have had some set backs. We are going to have to purchase and fix some very expensive equipment which means we have to get another grant going. We still haven't perfected the protocols we need to perfect either. I have been working long hours and that isn't helping with my running/weight loss/stress level. I few times i have thought, I should just quit and become a stay at home mom, but the whole money thing always gets the best of me. Plus I need mental stimulation and I wouldn't get enough being at home. Anyway, I am hoping things settle down in the new year and we are able to fix/purchase the stuff we need to make this successful. I need a job! I also need to get back into some fitness routine. I thought entering races would make me accountable but it hasn't. I skipped my last race and just went shopping instead. I keep telling myself that I shouldn't enter races in advance so i don't loose money but i keep on. There is a trail race in february that i would LOVE to do but i have no clue what kind of training i will get in from here till then. Plus it is 5 miles and I am only running 3 right now. Excuses, excuses. Oh well, that is the story of my life right now!
Well going to wrap this up for now. I don't really have much time to really ruminate like i usually do. My life is now all about diapers and bottles and baby food, which is good, just different. I keep thinking things will settle down but the older he gets, the more complicated things get. oh well, maybe in 18 more years, things will settle down?
Friday, December 7, 2012
so behind (as usual)
Wow, I don't think I have ever fallen this behind on my blogs. Thank you life for getting in the way of my thoughts LOL! My job has been super hectic lately and I am not sure I like it. I am barely getting to the daycare in time to pick up andrew and am lucky she hasn't charged me a late fee yet. Tony is back to work which is a good thing but he is having some weird health issues so has had to take a day off since he has been back. Let's see, since the last time I blogged, I have had two shows, a three day AKC or ICK as I have started calling it and a three day USDAA with team and tournaments. The ICK show was exactly that. I know this sounds weird but I really think if I am not under pressure or the course is hard, I don't do well. I didn't get a single solitary Q all weekend but it isn't about the Q now is it. We had to drive at night on the way up thanks to my job so I had one day where i was a zombie and got lost on course. The rest of the runs all had one bar or one mistake and every mistake was super stupid. Like me saying turn before the jump and him doing what he was trained to do and turning and not taking the jump. The courses were easy peasy but we just couldn't seem to do it.
Then fast forward to this last weekend, USDAA goodness. Our team DDT got a team Q and a third. We came all the way back thanks to our first place relay run. The funny thing was, we thought we didn't Q because the software had not updated from last year and the 850 point rule. We were really bummed because every team had Es on at least one course and most teams had one course that had two es. Our team had two es in jumpers and two in standard. Deuce did E in standard on a n off course jump that I did not even see as an option. He redeemed himself in jumpers with a 2nd place by a very narrow margin. I was SUPER proud because we so in sync with that run and it had some very challenging stuff. Can you say broad jump, back side of jump through the middle of the 180 to the other backside of jump and then into the weaves? NAILED it! I have been that excited about a run in a very, very long time. No Q in steeplechase, two bars (DAMN it) and no Q in grand prix, one bar (double DAMN it). OH well, one more show before regionals and if I don't get the one Q I need, may have to pick up another show somewhere down the road. Had some really kick ass runs the rest of the weekend including a gambler's Q on a tough aframe, turn to a jump, take a jump and a beautiful sequence of three jumps in which i threadled, pushed through and ketchkered (*spelling) only to have a freaking bar come down somewhere else. Oh well. I had so much fun and can't wait till february for the next one!
Then fast forward to this last weekend, USDAA goodness. Our team DDT got a team Q and a third. We came all the way back thanks to our first place relay run. The funny thing was, we thought we didn't Q because the software had not updated from last year and the 850 point rule. We were really bummed because every team had Es on at least one course and most teams had one course that had two es. Our team had two es in jumpers and two in standard. Deuce did E in standard on a n off course jump that I did not even see as an option. He redeemed himself in jumpers with a 2nd place by a very narrow margin. I was SUPER proud because we so in sync with that run and it had some very challenging stuff. Can you say broad jump, back side of jump through the middle of the 180 to the other backside of jump and then into the weaves? NAILED it! I have been that excited about a run in a very, very long time. No Q in steeplechase, two bars (DAMN it) and no Q in grand prix, one bar (double DAMN it). OH well, one more show before regionals and if I don't get the one Q I need, may have to pick up another show somewhere down the road. Had some really kick ass runs the rest of the weekend including a gambler's Q on a tough aframe, turn to a jump, take a jump and a beautiful sequence of three jumps in which i threadled, pushed through and ketchkered (*spelling) only to have a freaking bar come down somewhere else. Oh well. I had so much fun and can't wait till february for the next one!
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