My birthday was totally awesome. Mom took me to a hockey game, which of course the Caps won! My hubs, being the wonderful guy that he is let me buy myself a christmas/birthday present a few days early, and I got a new point and shoot camera, that I can take out into the field. It's an Olympus Stylus Tough. I love it, and take it everywhere with me. It takes videos (you can see them on the team website under the video serction) and a pretty nice picture (all the pictures in this have been taken with it). It's a little heavier than the average point and shoot, but I'm alright with that. I can drop it from 6 feet and it's as good as new, lol. With as clutzy as I am, thats a feature that was a must have for me, lol! I dont know how i've kept my Nikon D60 in tact this long with how bad I am.
Caps vs. Panthers. There's not a bad seat in the Verizon Center.
Alissa and I after the game. She was drunkity drunk, lol.
My New Camera. Not an actual picture of it, but it looks just like that.
Unfortunatley, I didn't have Layla for Christmas this year. But she had a nice trip to Florida to visit her grandparents down there. We did a small christmas/gift exchange here at the house before we all took off that was very nice. Rick and I went to California to visit his family in California. His sister and mom were nice enough to give us a room for a week to call our own. It was great to be able to sit back and relax. His mom waits on you hand and foot, and while I might not do well living there, it sure was AWESOME for a vacation, lol.
Ah, the way Christmas should be. Beer and wrapping paper.
Layla, the day we were opening presents. Nope, no tree. To big of a pain this year.
Layla and Alan doing their annual ginerbread house. She bugged me for WEEKS waiting for Uncle Alan to come do the gingerbread house with her. Only later did we find out he was a ninjaneer and can do just about anything.
Also, while we were there, his cousin Jessica got married on New Years Eve. It was a cute wedding even if it was a little ghetto. I ended up being part time decorator, remote control DJ, photographer, and videographer, lol! It was a good time though!
The bridge and groom getting ready to cut the cake.
My sister in law Jacqui and I.
Hubs and I. I love this pic of us.
My two neices, and mother in law.
The last thing we did while we were there, was Rick took me on a drive through tour of San Fransico. I saw a lot of really cool things. It could easily become a city I could fall in love with. I realized while I was out there, that I really do love the city. I want a small farm out here, but I really do have a love for the city. They can be so magical sometimes, especially one like San Fransico.
Flags for Pier 39
The Golden Gate Bridge
Me on the beach in San Fransico
Hubs and I on the beach
The golden gate bridge. It was very pretty.
LOL, I could help it. It was just too funny not to take a picture.
While we were there, I gained, what I now call "My Caliornia Soul Mate". He's a 3 year old Yellow Lab named Sam. Or as I called him my big yellow dog. He never left my side the entire time I was there. If I laid in bed and read, he was sleeping next to the bed. If I went somewhere, he stood by the door and whined until I came back. My mother in law said he was really sad when I left. I know that I miss him. It makes me wonder if I should get a lab, lol. Also, I got to play with my sister in law's Ch. AmStaff named TJ. He's a BIG boy that has won tons of awards. It was a lot of fun working with him and convinced
me that if I am going to get a dog for Shutzhund/PPD work, that I want an AmStaff/Pit from working lines. They are amazing dogs and I really enjoy working with them. lol, i want so many different kinds of dogs!
My California Soul Mate: Sam
Jacqui's AmStaff, TJ
We got back Jan 4th and I went and picked Layla up the next day. Boy did I miss her.
My new doctor started me on 2 new anti-anxiety drug that have REALLY helped me. One is a pill that works almost instantly that makes me crash once I've had an attack, and the other is a daily to help me manage and prevent anxiety. The preventative is doing a great job, and I've only had use the one that makes me crash once, while I was on the airplane coming home.
SAR has started back in full swing. I've really enjoyed it too. We just found out that we got almost 10K in grant money from the AKC, which is awesome. I've done a lot of work to the website (http://www.calvertk9search.org/). Jett is doing really well in his training. His barks are really coming along at the find indication, and boy can you hear them in the woods from a long distance. The only problem is, that now that I finally got him barking for SAR he barks for EVERYTHING in the house, lol. Thats ok, I dont mind, and eventually he'll out grow that. He's a smart dog. Sadie is, as always, a good girl. He's just as laid back. In these winter months we've had the fireplace running and she never usually leaves the front of the fireplace.
Jett at SAR training.
Pictures I had taken of my dogs and I.
Sadie refusing to come away from the fireplace. lol
I have started a new career path. I applied at the Sheriff's dept but haven't heard anything back. In the mean time, I am working with a dog trainer as an apprentice to become a certified trainer. It's a lot of fun, and eventually hope to be an APDT certified trainer, and potentially her business partner. She is a lot on the same level that I am as far as rescue is concerned.
We've had two major snow storms this winter. The first one we got about 18inches of snow, and the other one is still in progress. I'll let you know in the morning how much we got. It looks to be about 6 or 7 inches though. The dogs had so much fun playing in it.
Jett playing in the snow.
Layla is doing really well in school. Every once in a while she has a yellow day (the teachers way of telling me that she had a bad day really), and usually its because she has a listening problem . She comes by that honestly, since I had the same problem in school, but we're working on it, and she's having fewer and fewer problems. I love my bug.
More to update when I have more to update.
