Monday again

Managed to put together a card finally. Have been having withdrawal symptoms. More BG paper! 

 Back to work and I'm only a semi-invalid today. Still need my back crunched one more time, there's a pinched nerve that is driving me crazy! At least I can actually move. Took the dogs out for a walk this morning and as Vinnie went down the steps he suddenly lifted a paw and screeeeeched for  a whole minute...poor neighbours, hope they weren't planning on sleeping in! Riley joined in the "fun" and barked at him. Vin has an ongoing leg/paw injury, he jumped from my arms one night at training and hurt it then. Vets can't find exactly what it is, and he is such a woosie boy, I think his serious agility days are well and truly over now. He'd prefer to sit in my arms and watch anyway .

Got a photo of Gav's new brother, Charlie, sent to us. Isn't he cute? Looks like he could be a bit of a cheeky monkey Val, just wait till he has really settled in.... Oh, and Riley has sent him some toys like his to play with.

Well, a half hour job sorting Denise and her blog turned into 2 hours.  Gee Denise...lucky you had some cadbury mini eggs to revive me! If you haven't tried these...DON'T!! They cause a serious addiction.

 

More Ouch

There's been no creativity in this household the last few days! I've been flat on my back, a hot water bottle between my shoulders, trying to get some relief . Up to A& E for some serious pain relief, which really only took the edge off it , then  finally got to the physio yesterday and he crunched my back in , in two spots and I can breathe again! Still hurts, like a truck has driven over my upper back but at least now it's not one huge continuous knife in the back-type cramp! And it responds to normal pain meds. Yay!  

 Had a call from Gav's mother Val the other night. She has a puppy ! And she loves him ( Charlie) . I've been telling her her for years she needs another dog.  TOLD YOU SO VAL!!!!! Anyway, apparently some idiot vet gave him his vaccination in his rear quarters and he was in agony. Poor baby. Hope our new family member is feeling better this morning. Any vaccination can  cause quite a lot of  localised pain, that's why they vaccinate in the neck, where it's all loose skin and tissue, not muscle! Geez!

Boring!

This is what my lot do when I'm at work......NOTHING!

Well, Riley is always busy with his toys but the old girl just sleeps and Vinnie sulks cos mummy isn't there to cuddle him!

We have another golden retriever staying for a few days and so she is so submissive, Riley thinks he can boss her around. I wish she would stand up for herself, she needs lessons in assertiveness! That little ginger is too full of himself.  Entire Males! Who would have one? 

Rory

Moving a bit better today, though I think I need my back crunched back in line! Had a little play with Rory and some BG Marrakesh paper. Never thought I'd like orange but I love these papers. The copper strip is copper foil from my leadlighting stash.

Dogs are busy with their Sunday meaty bones and Gav has been painting around the front door. Next step is the baby gate to stop Riley rushing out the door when its opened! I'm hoping his agility training will bring a bit more control, he's just so full on and full of mischief....

Ouch!

Picture this. Last night I'm sitting on the bed talking to Gav, then I pick up Vinnie in one hand, put a foot on the floor to stand up only Abbie is under my foot, so I lift my foot, she moves, I'm falling and twisting, I hit the floor sitting and lightly fling Vinnie over onto Abbie's bed.  Vinnie's Ok, Abbie is Ok but I have managed to pinch a nerve between my shoulder blades and it took me 5 minutes to get off the floor I was laughing and crying so much. Gav is sitting there saying" That's the most bizaare thing I've ever seen, you just threw yourself off the bed with a poodle in your hand!" I was supposed to be going to Wanganui to an agility champ show today but I can hardly breath, let alone run and direct a dog! And its such a nice day too....sigh. LOL

Yet another nellie

Back to work today after almost 2 weeks off and as usual it was a very busy day. Never feel like doing much when I get home from work.....good thing I made a card yesterday then isn't it!  Having fun  playing with distress inks and masks, though you can't see much of the masking, its on the background paper. 

 

Riley Red Ted

Well I must say I was very proud of my boy, he focused, did what was asked, ran thru the tunnels with great joy and behaved well....... most of the time! He had a wee grumble at a male terrier, but I think that was cos he's fallen in love with Nai, the little girl poodle in his class. Hormones! If he wasn't destined to be a breeder, we'd have them boy's bits chopped off ASAP! 

Another Nellie

Dug out the sewing machine today, had a hat to fix for Gav so thought I'd have a play sewing paper and card. Lots of fiddling with tension but finally got something reasonable.  Might even inspire me to sew something....yeh right! Another sugar nellie, my favourites at the moment.

Riley starts his agility classes tonight. I've been out to club and poodle-proofed the fence . There was a gap where some palings were missing. Riley would be off next door and down the road before you could say " S#*!t!!" 

All black & blue

Took me a while to get my head around this. Some things just happen, some are hard work...sigh! Wouldn't it be nice if everything just flowed? Then I couldn't download the photo, the computer wouldn't recognise my camera.  Gav had been fiddling with the settings...all fixed now!

We have sunshine today. Yay! And Mr Stinky breath ( Vinnie) went to the vets to have his teeth cleaned yesterday, poor boy. The vet looked at him and said " Well we have a problem, how are we going to clean his teeth? We'll have to unglue him from you first."  Wee Vin sits in my arm and snuggles . He was screeching when I left! He is minty fresh now tho.

 I've finally had a haircut! Six weeks overdue for that. Feel almost presentable .

Eeek! Pink!!!

Riley disappears in the mornings as soon as we get up , usually to be found under our blankets when we go to make the bed. This morning he was just relaxing, waiting for breakfast in bed!
A miserable day today, we got soaked out walking, even tho it was just around the block. Then the sun came out for a while when we got home.  Great timing. The poodles looked hilarious with their wet curls and straggly ears.
 


Waaayyyy out of my comfort zone. Pink.... a colour I tend to avoid! Go on, say it Denise....What is the world coming to? I didn't realise I had so much pink stuff, must've been a fairy left it in my stash.
  

Kombi trip

On Sunday we took the poodles away for a night in the old '72 VW camper and headed inland on " The Forgotten Highway" ( Abbie is just too big for the Kombi so she went to Marise's for the night).  Boy there are some isolated spots in NZ, you could hide away forever, no one would know where to find you!  We ended up staying the night at the Whangamomona camp ground ( was the school till it closed in 1979) where we had the place to ourselves, apart from a few chooks, a goat , a horse over the fence, but then another van arrived. Felt positively crowded! 
  Whangamomona is a republic, and for a couple of years the president was a goat, then Tai the poodle took over for a while till an assasination attempt! Think its a human president now.
Riley had to be kept on a lead, he would've chased the chooks and probably would've been chased back by the rooster!
 

Doggles

Well, so much for the rain we're sposed to be having, its everywhere around the area but not in Hawera! I don't mind , though it would be nice to have an excuse to just sit in my very untidy craft room and play.  Instead, have only had a little play(  another sugar nellie of course) . Flowers courtesy of Tracy, leftover from our page class the other night.
  Got a parcel of dog "stuff" from the US yesterday. Riley modelled his new doggles for us. Now he just needs a leather jacket and helmet and he can go for rides on the motorbike with his dad!

Doggone busy

We've had a busy few days here with our big Dog Agility Champ show over the weekend . Of course the weather started off absolutely awful but luckily the rain stopped on Saturday about the time the second class was ready to run. A good thing too or Vinnie would've been scratched, he's not one for getting too wet!!  I tried to run Marise's Alby but he took off out of the ring like a madman. Sunday he ran nicely for me but I think that was because he'd gotten over the initial excitement and Marise wasn't around so he wasn't looking for her. Boy he moves fast!
 Friday night we spent a few hours at Trace's playing with our scrapbooking kits she put together. Not a very good picture , and have yet to do my journalling . Piccies are of my brother and I a loooooong time ago! Thanks Trace for organising the evening, where would we be without you?

Picking apples

Isn't she cute? Couldn't wait, haven't even mounted the stamps yet!!!! Thanks to the ladies at Funky kits for the excellent service and the gorgeous stamps.
 Have been playing with my few copic markers.... can see I might need more of these beasts. Its a never ending list of needs and wants with this hobby!!!

Sugar Nellies

Yay! Our Sugar Nellie stamps have arrived!! They look so cute!! Can't wait to start playing with them.  Trace rushed around last night with Bailee and Cameron, to pick up her stamps. The girls tusssled a bit over who got to pat and brush Abbie! Vinnie of course would only cuddle mummy and Riley is just too busy for cuddles....
Unfortunately I have a full on weekend with our dog agility champ show so wont have much time to play..... tho, as of next Thursday I  am on holiday for 10 days. Time to play with my new stamps as well as lavish lots of attention on my woofers. Yippee.

 We had a big day on Sunday, it was a " Dog's day out" fundraising for our dog training club and Guide dogs for theBlind. Abbie spent most of her time being fussed over by 4 or 5 young girls, with Trace's Bailee being heard to say" NO, I'm going to brush her, she's MY dog!" How cute. Every now and then a huge handful of goldie hair would be passed over to me! LOL! The picture of Bailee is with Alby, Marises's wee boy who I trained for agility and has turned out to be a little rocket. Isn't he cute?

Bummed Out

Well, its all quiet in this house now. You wouldn't think that one less dog would make such a difference. I guess Bruno was the NOISY one.... now there's no one squeaking toys, grabbing Abbie by the neck for a wrestle, trying to hassle me into taking him out for a walk,  or pushing his head under my arm while I sit at the computer for an ear rub ( yes Vinnie is curled up on my lap but that goes without saying!) or just talking away at me for the sake of it.  Abbie is quietly lying behind me, Vinnie asleep on my lap, Riley curled up on his couch....we're all sad.
  Had beautiful flowers from our agility mates, the vets and from the girls at work. I made a card to go to the vets to thank them for their wonderful care of Bruno (he loved visiting them, got lots of attention from everyone) , &  cried the whole time while making it!!! 
  The picture of the two puppies fighting over a tug toy is Abbie & Bruno, about 11 years ago. Such cute babies. It was a handful or three!!!! having littermates....wouldn't do that again, as they needed alot of one-on-one training away from each other and guess who ended up doing all that! ME of course!   Bruno took a lot of work (cos most boys do!!) but we got so much fun out of going to training together.  He got his CD award which is a kennel club certificate for " Companion Dog" but Bruno did it with his typical style, throwing in some curlies for me. He liked to vary his work, giving me a down instead of a sit, rolling on his scent cloth instead of presenting it to me ( which he did during a public demonstration!!!) Abbie was the easy one...trained herself....

Challenge & Bruno

Wow Trace! Will my computer self destruct if I'm a bit slow onto this? I've been awarded this by the lovely Trace and have two questions to answer along with it.

1. Say something nice about the man in my life... I love the fact that Gavin loves our dogs as much as I do and even fights me for poodle cuddles!

2. Six ways I measure success in my life...
 -  We have a lovely home with our beautiful dogs and cat and Gavin is a great partner.
 - Though my stepdaughter doesn't live with us now she has grown up into a lovely young woman, despite some very rocky times in her early teens.
- My family and Gavin's family are all very special people and we have a close, happy relationship.
-  I have a great job tho (it gets stressful at times,) my workmates and my boss are wonderful and some of our regular patients can make our days great too, which makes up for the times when some people can be downright awful.....
- I have made some great friends through my dogs and dog training , its great to know there are people around who think the way I do about these beautiful animals.
- I have met more great friends through my scrapbooking/card making and love the way people I have never met can be so supportive via the internet!
 

  On an extremely sad note, we said a very teary goodbye to our lovely, happy, noisy, cheeky big boy Bruno this morning. After a very quiet day yesterday and a restless night for him, we had the vets come today and he went very peacefully to sleep, lying on his bed, on the deck, in the sun, with the other dogs and our cat all there to say goodbye. Miss you my mate......
 

Vin & Ginge

The little boys look so cute, doesn't take much to tart them up.  There is a cold wind blowing today and Gavin has disappeared for the afternoon so I found a spare few minutes to have a play.
 Must stop sitting on the internet looking for STUFFFFFF to buy ( stop me Tracy!!!!) ...sposed to be saving for Senz, aren't we guys?  But its so far away.....
 Riley is sitting on my bed , peering out the window,shouting at someone over the road. He is a bit of a challenge this boy, but then I did ask for it, taking an Aussie import!  We love him to bits tho.
Vinnie is curled up on his little couch, keeping a close eye on me.  Abbie is snoring and Bruno is working up to the " ITS TEA TIME!!!!!!" performance where he nudges and woofs then shouts at us to get a move on.  Because he is so sick Gavin has been giving in as soon as Bruno starts. He has created a monster! LOL! . Some days it starts at 2.30pm!!!!

Carrot Express

Had a play with some colouring in yesterday, this rabbit is a cutie and as I have to wait for my sugar nellie stamps I might just have to play with some more high hopes stamps ( the ones I got in trouble for ordering....well you know what its like late at night, cruising stamp sites and you just gotta have those ones, no time to CONSULT everyone else in case they want any !!!!! GEEEZ!)
I DID consult Tracy about the sugar nellies and dont tell her husband but she went crazy!  Now Denise will chew my ear off I guess...just can't wait any longer...gotta have them now! They're so cute.
  Were sposed to be going over to Hawkes Bay for my brothers wedding this weekend. Unfortunately we cant leave Bruno, its too hot for him to travel, I wont go on my own...if this rain keeps up I may have to do some housework then hit the stamps...and I can feel a poodle page coming on....
  

Corfu

Well its slightly cooler here cos we have some rain but still humid. Best I go and pick some more beans , they're going crazy at the moment, and the zucchinis.
Bruno is enjoying the slightly cooler temps, his breathing is much easier. Went back to the vets on Monday and they're happy he's holding his own, we just keep him dosed up on steroids till he's had enough.... he's still enjoying his doddles in the park and all those extra treats!

  This page I did a while ago .... I keep procrastinating with my scrapbooking as I have so many OE photos to do. Its too daunting. However, maybe a change of topic might get me inspired, (what about some doggie pages??!!!!!) or not !! LOL!