It's Spring Break!!!

Maybe I'll blog this week ...

Until then ...

Good Grief! Why Do I Even Have a Blog?

Its only been two months since I've posted, after all.

I have just been busier than I could have imagined, that's all.

At the beginning of August (somewhere around there anyways) I was hired as a teacher in the Davis, Utah School District. Being a first year teacher is (probably) always nerve-wracking. It's even more nerve-wracking when you're still in school and you haven't done your student teaching yet. Yep-that's right- I am handling a full caseload of students and I don't student teach until next semester! I *think* I'm doing a decent job but I have oh so much to learn. And all I do all day every day, between work and school is dream, breath, and eat special education.

I am a little overwhelmed with classes too, taking far more than what is considered full time for a graduate student so I've got a lot going on there. Plus I'm trying to move.

But I'm so happy- I love what I'm doing. Teaching is an intensive labor but is so, so rewarding. I found this in one of my text books and loved it: "One thing becomes clear enough. Teaching as the direct delivery of some preplanned curriculum, teaching as the orderly and scripted conveyance of information, teaching as clerking, is simply a myth. Teaching is much larger and much more alive than that; it contains more pain and conflict, more joy and intelligence, more uncertainty and ambiguity. It requires more judgment and energy and intensity than, on some days, seems humanly possible. Teaching is spectacularly unlimited." W. Ayers

Erie's great too. She's done two dog shows since I last blogged and won a major (3 points) at one of them- a big deal. She also got two Junior Hunter passes at a Hunt Test.

In this photo she's being expertly handled by professional Jean Gauchat-Hargis who do an absolutely wonderful job handling her.

And that's kind all my life has been lately: work, school, dog, repeat. I'm looking forward to life after graduation.

Long Time, No Blog

I've been up to a lot this summer, most of it with Erie. After finishing my summer classes (that's a new post too, and an exciting one, so be sure to read it!!!), I had plenty of time to do whatever I wanted (other than the homework hanging over my head; I pretty much waited until it was due- the last week of July/first week of August to do it- still got my 4.0 though). I slept a lot and I did go to work occasionally :)

Please enjoy (some of) our summer in pictures:

Erie's got plenty of toys ...

That doesn't stop her from hogging them all though.

Erie's half sister Sooli (Mazey/Budha) was here and Erie, Sooli, and Marcus (half-brother/nephew out of Szari/Budha) did some bird work together. This is my favorite pointing shot of the trip. We also learned that Erie has a natural "honor," meaning when another dog is on point, Erie doesn't blaze in there and try to steal the bird, but honors the point from behind the other dog.

Erie is learning to lure course. Here she is waiting for her turn at a practice run. She loves coursing.

Took her for a run and a swim at the Lee Kay Dog Training Area just before I took her home for a pre-show bath.

Isn't that water color beautiful?

Erie earned the first two legs of the CA (Coursing Ability) title on her first two tries. I think we'll get to go after the last leg in Pocatello in October.

Erie's Grandma, Judy, had puppies out of Szari and a dog named Stryder. Erie was an excellent auntie and babysitter. Here she is playing with Lemon and Ruby, the last two to go home. Incidentally, Lemon is still available if anyone is in the market for a beautiful, active, and fun-loving dog ...

Playing with puppies is a lot of work. Erie takes a break on a lawn chair.

While Erie was enjoying herself at Grammy's (previous two photos), I was at a family reunion in Huntington Beach. My dad and my sister drug me to the beach a few times. I guess it wasn't that bad.

More updates/photos later today. Now it's time to get ready for Church.

Thoughts (to myself) From This Morning

1. The season of "shave everyday" has finally arrived to the Salt Lake Valley.

2. Why is it so hard to tell the colors of different pairs of nylons apart?

3. Wow. I thought I was going to feel out of place in my new ward since I've been in it for four weeks and it was my first week there since we were organized but it seems everybody is still meeting new people so nobody even knew.

4. Remember how Erie retrieved a live bird this morning (before church)? That was awesome.

5. Why do so many girls think it's okay to either a) wear clothes that leave their bra straps exposed or b) even worse, wear thin white see-through blouses with black or blue or pink or orange (etc.) bras????

6. Gosh this shirt makes my eyes look soooo blue! Love it.

7. Have I ever met a bishop in the church who wasn't an amazing servant of God? . . . Nope. I haven't.

8.Mmmm. Crepes!

9. Why does my shoe keep getting stuck in the parking lot?

10. Erie looks like such a nerd doing a rear-foot point.

Like so (photo not from today, however)

11. Why the *heck* is the burner on fire and where is the big pot lid?

12. I love having church at 11 so I can take an afternoon nap.

13. zzzzzzzzzzz

I have been working on two separate posts for weeks now. I wish I had some good excuse for not doing them, but really I'm just lazy. Soon. Someday soon. . . Maybe.

Erie's First Title

Hi there, poor neglected blog!

Spring term is over. I survived. Kind of. But you don't need to worry about that. I had one full week off before summer term started. For the first three weeks of summer term, I have only one class that meets twice a week for three hours but the last half of summer term, I have that class plus three classes that meet for one week, Monday to Friday, for eight hours. Sounds awesome doesn't it? I am excited about my orientation and mobility class. Not so much for social and psychological implication of blindness . . . sounds fascinating, doesn't it?

But with only the one class and work just two nights a week, I've had plenty of time to do stuff with Erie.

Three weeks ago, we had a local show. It was a major, so everybody really wants to win their respective "Winner's"- more so than normal. Erie won her class everyday, but she was the only dog. Ha! Never got WB so no majors for her.

This weekend we were at a show in Logan, Utah. There were only five dogs and two of them are "specials," meaning they are already champions and are competing just for Best of Breed so they don't count towards the counts when determining how many points a win is worth so the other three dogs meant there was just one point up for grabs. Erie won one day so she is one point up. It's cool but not overwhelmingly exciting.

But what I really want to talk about is last weekend.

Erie and I were entered in an AKC Tracking Dog (TD) test. Tracking tests are time consuming and expensive so they aren't held too frequently. It can be hard to get into one so I was glad that this was only the second one we had tried to enter and we made it in. Erie and I have been training for tracking since November. She's a natural! In order to pass a TD test, the dog must follow a track that is 30 minutes to two hours old, has three to five turns and is 440-500 yards long. The beginning of the track is marked with a flag and a second flag, indicating the direction of the first leg, is place 30 yards from the first. There is a "starter article" at the first flag for the dog to use to catch the scent and a glove placed at the end that the dog must "mark" in order to pass. The dog is allowed some mistakes, meaning if they go off the track, they do get some time to fix their error and being off track slightly due to wind is okay.

Erie was off like a racehorse at the start!

The judges were waaaayyyy behind us. The judges normally stay one "leg" behind the working

dog but if the dog goes off track they will stay on the track while you wander off it. So, honestly, you can kind of glance at the judges to get an idea of whether you've gone far off or not. I was terrified because the judges weren't anywhere close to where we had been. I found out later that Erie and I were tracking so fast that they decided just to stay in one spot and wait for us to get to the end of the track. They couldn't keep up.

We're going to find that glove!

We found it!

Erie and I drew the third track. We were the third and final pass of the day. The photo shows judge Kristi Rasmussen, me and Erie, judge Wendy McCleery, the apprentice judge, and our track-layer and fellow Vizsla person, Sheryl Hohle.

It was awesome. She was right on the track- she nailed it. We ran it in less than seven minutes (we used just a watch, not a timer so we can't be exact). I was so excited. I didn't know until Judy (Erie's dad's owner) posted it on Facebook, but Erie is Budha's first titled get! That's kind of a fun accomplishment too!

Erie is now known as Kezza's Pride of the Mountains Deepest Desire CGC TD.

I can't wait to try out TDX (Tracking Dog Excellent) in the fall.

It's Almost the End (of the Term)

So enjoy my new blog background and banner, courtesy of the time I spend wasting trying to procrastinate doing my Nemeth Braille homework. If you know anything about Nemeth, you'll understand.

What We've Been Up To

I am exceedingly, disgustingly busy with classes and all the stuff I try to do with Erie. I posted last at the beginning if February and those last few posts certainly weren't exciting.

So . . .

Just Me

- School is horrific

- It turns out that I'm really bad at Nemeth Braille

- I love my reading class and tutoring (for some reason that I can't possibly understand most people don't seem to get this- I am taking a class to learn to teach reading, I'm not in a reading class myself)

- Read some fantastic books: All of Shannon Hale's books. I wasn't too enthralled at first but I stuck with her and kept reading and I'm glad I did because I loved the last four I read, her Books of Bayern series. Ally Condie's Matched. And my most favorite, Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I am currently waiting very impatiently for my turn with one of the library's hundreds of copies of Mockingjay.

As Erie's entourage

- Started Rally classes

- Went to a fun match and won "Best of Breed"

- Went to a show in Denver where we won our class 4/5 shows

- Erie is becoming super easy to live with

-And she went into season

- Dealing with that now

Cute little Erie napping.

Dog bed I made Erie. Isn't the fabric great?

Erie not looking to thrilled about being photographed in her "pants."

Erie not seeming to mind being photographed in her pants.

Erie relaxing on the couch. Ummm, she really shouldn't be up there- it's my roommates couch and she doesn't want the dogs on it- but I had to take a picture before I got her off.

Erie will be spending her longest time away from me this month as I'm going to Seattle this week for an AFB Conference. I'm not sure where she's going . . . Ahh! She was staying with her Grandma (her doggie daddy's family) but since she's in heat and will be in standing heat while I'm away and her daddy is intact, that's a problem.

I'm hoping to take Erie to a NAVHDA test towards the end of the month. This particular test she has to pass by 16 months in order to get the title, so this is our only chance. I have a lot of training to do before then . . .

And in between all that I have all my regular assignments to do, two papers to write, a bunch of data to enter and run stats on, etc. etc.

Wish me luck!

Happy Love Month

And since I changed my blog background 14 days ago, I'm already ready.

I wish I had more to blog about right now but my life is a constant circle of work, classes, too much homework, working with Erie, and starting over again. It's really not that exciting. Hopefully they'll be something to report soon.

Whew!

Somebody finally told my blog it's not Christmas anymore. We miss it, but it was time for the background and banner to get over it.

Hope to see you again soon with some time to update about something.

Off to work . . .

Back Again

The new term starts today. . I am so not excited.

On the agenda:

Elementary Reading Methods. Okay, I'm a little excited about this class.

Functional Communication

Principles of Assessment and Data Based Decision Making

Nemeth Braille. Really not excited about this one.

Pray for me. I'll see you in three months.

On Point

No, no, no. Not that kind of point!

[Dancers from the Nutcracker Ballet on pointe. Photo of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Company from the Seattle Times website].

This kind of point!

[Erie in a beautiful point while out hunting.]

Erie has had very limited bird work but we took her out this weekend and you would never know it. She did very well and is just stunning in this photo.

"Until Every Child has a Home"

This song gets me every time. This shouldn't happen. I wish it didn't. "Until Every Child has a Home."

Happy Birthday Erie!

One year ago today Kezza and Budha had seven puppies. I wasn't supposed to get one, but since Kit had only expected Kezza to have five, and the "extras" were girls (my kinda-sorta preference; I wasn't too particular), after some discussion with Judy (Budha's owner) I moved up from the bottom of the wait list to the top of the list with this litter (since I was committed to showing and doing other performance events). One year ago tomorrow, Kit emailed me and told me the good news.

Erie got salmon brownies for her birthday. I tried to make her a birthday hat but I wasn't sure how to attach it to her head properly so it didn't work out so well.

[Erie sitting in front of the couch and behind her "table" with her salmon brownie resting on a platter. She is wearing her birthday hat and basically has the cutest expression ever on her face.]

[Erie grabbing her brownie off the "platter"- an upside down dog bowl.]

[Dropping the brownie. You can kind of see the hat better in this photo. It has fallen over her eyes though!]

[Dropping the brownie. "Oh, right, I can't chew it all at one time."]

[Sitting on the floor with her head turned as she tries really hard to keep the brownie in her mouth. "Thanks Mom!"]

Happy Birthday Erie. Hope you have many, many more!

Lucky Us

[Cami in front of a holiday background. This photo was taken just about three weeks before she died. In it she almost looks kind of worried. I was trying to get her to put her ears up for the photo so I asked her if she wanted a "cookie." Maybe she was concerned she wouldn't get one! Her appearance is a far cry from what it became just two short weeks later.]

I've lost a dog before. But this is different, perhaps because Cami was different and a one of a kind dog.

I've been going back and perusing books trying to find some advice on a concern I'm working through with Erie. I've been rereading Patricia McConnell's The Other End of the Leash. If you love a dog and don't know who Trisha McConnell is, then you are missing out. If you have a dog that you don't love, go buy her book. Like yesterday. She's amazing and her advice can help you with a vast array of behavioral problems with dogs.

I read through a section tonight where she describes her relationship with her dog, Luke, and felt that it beautifully described how I feel about Cami. Trish is a writer, so let me share her eloquent words rather than awkwardly paraphrasing:

"I love all of my dogs so much that it hurts sometimes. But as much as I love each of them, it is different with Luke. I fell in love with Luke right after I got him and am still hopelessly in love with him now. Luke is that one-in-a-million dog that most people never get, even dog trainers and breeders who've known hundreds of dogs. Every once in a while, someone will come up to me in a seminar and start talking about their Luke-equivalent, a dog who is so special that they can't talk about him without getting tears in their eyes. Maybe you had one once, too, a dog full of such goodness that your heart swells within your chest when you think of him. Maybe you have one now. I hope so- lucky us."

Patricia McConnell, The Other End of the Leash, pg. 187 (emphasis added)

I really love Erie, a feeling that is attested to by this blog, my Facebook status updates, my general conversation, and the amount of time I spend on her and with her (I spend a lot of money on her too, but any fool can spend money on their dog; sadly, many don't). Anyone who is forced to listen to me speak regularly knows that she is as important to me as anything in my life is. But as much as I love her she has a long way to go before she carves for herself a Cami-sized space in my heart.

I'm young. I haven't really had that many dogs. I'm looking forward to decades worth of dozens more dogs. I hope I find another Cami. If I do, I will be incredibly blessed. But if I don't, well, lucky me anyways.

Where is Erie?

This comfort loving puppy is in her bed, of course.

[Cave bed sitting in front of the awesome pink crate, apparently without a dog in it.]

Today I was sitting in my room working on some stuff and glanced over at Erie's bed, surprised to see that she wasn't there. I leaned my head around my doorway to see if she was in my other room (I live downstairs with my own living room, bedroom, and bathroom, and share the kitchen upstairs) and didn't see her out on my extra bed. I called her name and all of a sudden the dog bed just a few feet away from me jumped! She didn't come out though so I told her to stay while I took a picture. She really is in there but she is so small that you can't tell by any lumps or bumps and there's not a nose, tail, or paw in sight!

Don't you just love the Harry Potter blanket covering her crate? I feel that it is only appropriate that she have a Harry Potter blanket, given her namesake.

I miss Cami a lot; my heart is still broken and I can't properly explain how glad I am to have this girl as I grieve for Cami. She makes it a little easier.

Ornament Swap . . . Life Is Better

[Christmas ornament with a little white bone, with a Santa hat draped over the right corner. There is a heart-shaped picture frame set into the bone, kind of like how an arrow would be for Valentine's Day, and hanging from the heart is a little Christmas gift with a short message]

My ornament is perfect! A perusal of my blog shows how important my dogs are in my life; I blog about them more than anything. Amanda did a great job.

The ornament reads "Life is just better when I'm with my dog." Really, how perfect? And it was even wrapped in this adorable little snowflake and snowman box. I've got to find the perfect photo of Cami to go in the frame.

Thanks Amanda! I can't wait for the tree. You can head on over to Evelyn's blog to see what everyone got.

Wait- I thought we were going to the Planetarium

Last week we (Tonks, my friend Shawna, and I) went to go see Harry Potter. Due to parking issues and stuff, Shawna and I decided to take the train instead of drive. We were going to the theater at Gateway Mall, with the Planetarium. As we got off the train and were walking towards the theater, we saw that they had put decals over all the signs that had the name of the station- normally it's "Planetarium" but for a little while at least it had become "Platform 9 3/4."

You can't tell in the photo but the decals are huge and also include the castle and grounds. It was fun. And the movie was absolutely fantastic. Best one yet, as are all of them. They all keep getting better than the last.

I have a lot to be Grateful for . . .

But this week I've just been thinking about Cami. That dog alone is enough reason to celebrate this day of Thanksgiving.

But there is more. Welcome to a small sampling: Cami, Erie, Jacoba, friends, school, study-time, scholarships, a job (or two!), Harry Potter, books, movies, Surivor (haha), comfortable housing, family, warm clothes, a reliable car, computer, CSI, my roommate, The USA, that I have enough for my needs, the Scriptures, Jesus Christ, Church, Christmas is coming!!!, my dogs (did I mention them? :), blankets, . . .

I am a very blessed person.

Improvising

My friend Shawna was here visiting this weekend so we could go see Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Harry Potter. I'm very glad that she was here when I had to put Cami down. It helped a lot. Now that she's gone home, Cami's loss feels much more potent. It's hard.

Erie kept trying to play with Shawna's boots. She was obsessed with them; we continually found her chewing on them. Shawna went to put her boots on one time and found this:

[Close up shot of two boots- the deep "cowboy" kind-

on the carpet with a red kong toy in the left boot]

I think that Erie was hoping that if she couldn't actually play with the boots that she could still "kinda" play with them. Good improvising.

Ornament Swap

Evelyn at Hanging by a Silver Lining is currently hosting an ornament swap. Our ornaments were shipped today so why we're all waiting together to see what everyone gets, you should check out her blog, as well as my swap partners blog at Family of Shorts.

They both have entertaining, fun, and sometimes emotional blogs about their respective young families. I'm new to reading MamaShort's blog- just since I became her swap partner- but I'm enjoying it.

Head on over, check them out, and I'll keep you all posted about the results of the swap. Looking forward to it!