My 2009 In Review

The good, the bad, and the just plain awful.
Good: All my family and friends and myself made it through the year with our health intact. Everyone I love and care about is still here. VERY GOOD.
Good: I still have all five dogs here, Dusty's age is beginning to show as are the effects of Blitz's disease, but relatively speaking all dogs have great quality of life and good health. VERY GOOD.
Bad: I had to give up the dream of competitively showing Blitz. He simply does not have the stamina to train to be competitive. I still may show him in Novice next year, but it would be unreasonable to expect and/or train for those dazzling scores. He loves to work and needs to work, but it's just too much for him. That was a bitter pill to swallow.
Good: Moto is turning into a nice Obedience dog. He surprised me a great deal as we bonded this year. He doesn't miss working but when he does work, he puts a lot of effort into it.
Good: Effective tomorrow I will be the proud owner of Community Hospitality LLC, aka "Welcome Wagon". I'm really excited about advancing my role as the Face of Kearney and this will greatly add to our income, which leads me to
Awful: The Sony plant in KC shut down. This means my husband is unemployed, and has been for six months. We are lucky that Sony gave him a great "parachute" but he does need to get a job, and soon.
Most Awful: The car accident. The effects of this will not go away for a long time. While my body is pretty much healed now, the emotional effects have kicked in as the law suit heats up and I have to relive it again and again. I may need to seek psychological help as it takes days after dealing with reading and talking about the accident. But back to Good: I survived. It was a horrific, high-speed car crash and that in itself is a miracle. Even Better: I survived with no disfiguring injuries, or mental (well, sometimes I wonder about that - or is it menopause? Hmmmm.)
New Year's Resolutions - this will be fun to look back on and see if I did it!
- Lose Weight. At LEAST 10 pounds
- Get in Shape. And by that, have a nicely toned body that can easily run 5 miles.
- Take the plunge and show Moto. I'm going to allow some flexibility here as I won't put him out there if he's not ready. But I believe his readiness will be determined mostly by ME, with conditioning and training. I think he'll have a nice, long Rally career and maybe some Wild Card Classes.
- Have Moto ready for "real" Obedience classes by the Sheltie National in 2011, which will be in St. Louis.
But most of all - a HEALTHY and HAPPY 2010 - and I wish the same to you!

Proofing

With both Dusty and Shiloh there was absolutely no question when and how to begin proofing these dogs - Dusty was so unflappable from day 1 proofing was a breeze - how lucky for this Novice A person! When Shiloh came along his sound sensitivity and trying to be "the boss" required early and constant proofing. Blitz is too ill to undergo the stress of proofing - he gives me what he gives me, and if he is well enough to show I'll take whatever score we get. Moto is a completely different personality from all the others and totally lacks confidence. I cannot figure out why or how this happened, but whenever we are in a new situation it takes him quite awhile to acclimate to it, feel comfortable, before we can begin training.
He's made leaps and bounds lately in our training regimen, and I entered him in Open at a fun match this weekend. When we got there they were running ahead of schedule, no one else was able to do their run, so I had literally a quick warm-up and into the ring we went. This was not good for Moto; his heeling, while correct most of the time in placement, was NOT what I wanted in attention. I chose not to ask for attention as I felt this was too much for what he was capable of.
In discussing this with others, other opinions are that I SHOULD ask for it and quickly reward. I think that they are right - I'm not talking about jerking into position or correcting for not looking, but perhaps it's time to start upping the ante more. ON the good side he was able to do all the exercises just fine. I would have liked more speed on retrieves but they were quick trots out & back - but again, maybe it's time I start letting him know what I expect of him. It's a very delicate balancing act I have to take, for overdoing it has a long-term negative reaction with him.
But, all of a sudden, I have dates I'd like to make: there is a 1 day Sheltie specialty in February in Des Moines. I'd like Moto in Rally Novice; if Blitz is feeling well I think I'll bite the bullet and throw him in Novice. Then, in March, our Sheltie specialty. Both boys will be in the same classes again. I want/need Moto to get lots of ring experience to help season him, but I want him to look good, so time to get moving.
The Sheltie Nationals for 2011 will be in St. Louis. Oh, I HAVE to have a dog to enter in obedience, and it HAS to be competitive. We have over 1 year. I think we'll need that full year to get Moto ready.
So, that's my early resolution for 2010 - begin proofing, get out there and start showing Moto. Oh dear!

Amazing Therapy Session

...no, not the "talking on the couch" kind, but Cranial Sacral. I am so blessed to have the best chiropractor and massage therapist right here in my town. This remarkable team really gets the lion's share of the credit for my healing. This isn't dog-oriented but I just had to get this down, as this session was amazing.
In "looking through my body" she intuitively and accurately targets where she will need to work, and I came in today because my left leg was really paining me. So, that's where I thought I'd feel the energy flow but something incredible happened....all the energy went into my head and she said she felt she had to just hang on and try to disperse it. On my side of the table, it felt as if my head turned into a giant crystal ball, and I began to rock from one side to the other and got extremely dizzy. Then, I had a terriffic headache in the front of my head, which is how I felt while in the hospital. I believe it was my body releasing the head trauma I suffered.
Next, I felt as if something sharp was carving its way to my solar plexis, then it rose into my trachea, then through my head in a stream of smoke. Marla said she believes this was an emotional release.
After that she worked on my left leg, which when she attempted to release the fascia began to jerk violently, so she changed it to be a muscle release (not the proper term). She held my leg a few inches off the table with one hand supporting under the knee and another under the ankle and let the leg do what it needed to do. Amazingly, it needed to go towards her then rotate knee-down back toward the table. I cannot tell you how good this felt. Then the knee bent and began to compress back into the hip. Then straighten and rotate the knee outward.
After the release she then worked the muscle which had softened considerably in my hip. When I got up I felt lighter and a wee bit shaky. I do believe I did release the tension held in my body, and I can feel a good flow of energy from the hip area. Oh, that's the other thing - she said during the release my leg released a tremendous amount of energy (a good thing).
So, today, I feel worlds better. I'd forgotten how pain brings so much stress and depression, both of which are gone now.
I'm so lucky for so many things, and today I'm grateful these two healers are in my life.

Christmas, Training, and Car Accident Stuff

It's been quite a roller coaster the past week as I've had to deal with the impending lawsuit from the car accident. Reading the police report I learned a few new unpleasant things - it took over 1 hour to cut me out of the car, they described how I looked (shards of glass embedded in my face) but that I was "awake, but obvious brain injury, as she asked repetitive questions". I don't remember a thing except two police men - one with a note pad - and telling them my home phone number. I don't remember a thing about being cut out of the car or what the hell I asked. Anyway, the following medical report ofmy condition was equally as terrifying but helped me in a sense as some of the pain I've felt in areas other than my left side now make more sense. Then the pictures of the accident. Oh, My God. I am very lucky to be alive. It looks REAL BAD. I won't go into details as yet as even just writing about it is very difficult.
I went into a funk of paralyzing depression and many old aches and pains returned. So, not a very pleasant past few days. My husband, as always, has been wonderful, patient and understanding. I'm very blessed to have him.
But finally, the fog left my brain and while I'm still in pain, I felt well enough to finish off the Christmas cards, finished my Christmas shopping for my wonderful hubby (he is going to get a LOT of presents this year, he deserves it) and took Moto to the training building to work on things that require more than the small space of our basement.
Moto lifted my spirits by being amazing!
Oh, I have to add that friend Kathy taking 1st runner-up at the NOI this year was a great mood-lifter. That, and my other friend Laurie calling regularly from the NOI with updates. Since I couldn't be there myself, her description of who-did-what really helped.
Moto had a wonderful attitude and his fronts are looking good. He has the most important first step and that is a lovely tuck-sit. Accuracy of course will always be an ongoing piece of work. Heeling is really, really nice. The technical parts of utility are really coming together. Now mind you the building was completely empty and there were no distractions. We'll have to slowly start integrating distraction, but for now,my dreams of him being a future NOI contender are solidly in my mind!

The Annual Christmas Photo

It's the time of hear Erik and I have our annual, um, "discussion" as we try to get our growing pack to sit still for a few minutes and take pictures. Here are some outtakes - I have no idea what the heck happened in this one, but the wreath wrapping is falling off, somehow Blitz's Christmas scarf got tucked up into Moto's neck, and Shiloh is sticking out his tongue. Please notice that Daisy looks nice and relaxed. She firmly believes that the camera is going to steal her soul, so before this picture was taken I ran the heck out of her so that she would be too tired to care. By the time I got the scarf back on, the dogs reassembled, here is the second try.

WHAT THE HECK? I guess I was at the wrong angle, the damned wreath continues to sag, Daisy is trying to get the Heck out of Dodge, and long story short, these series of pictures sucks. So I go inside and try yet again. Unfortunately by this time Daisy has rested up and allowed her parania to take over, which brings us to the following photo:

This is a typical Daisy expression. I gave up that day. After about 50 takes I DID manage to get one decent photo, and it will make its way to you over the course of about a week. Getting five dogs to sit still, look at the camera, and look cute and in the same direction all at the same time is no small undertaking. I always enlist Erik's help during these photo sessions, which makes for a lot of interesting "talk". But it's over for this year, and I hope you enjoy your card and picture!

Thanks, Dad

On Christmas Day in 1975, my father lost his battle to brain cancer. I don't remember the holiday season that year, nor do I remember my birthday which follows a week afterwards. For many Christmases after that I could not bear to have a tree in my home, it brought back too many sad memories. Years of grieving and healing helped me to realize this is not what Dad would have wanted, and while there will always be a twinge on Christmas day, I can fully celebrate the season now.
The reason I bring all this up is because my annual visit to California was particularly poignant. Maybe it was all the new babies in the family, or the fact that we had almost everyone gathered around the table, but during our annual family crab feed Dad entered my mind and I swear he clearly suggested we go visit his gravesite. I suggested he help me remember to ask as I'm quite forgetful.
On Saturday all us women do our annual Christmas shopping together and have lunch. It's a tradition we've treasured for over 20 years. At one of the huge craft fairs there was a barbershop quartet singing. Dad was in a barbershop quartet. Which reminded me of Dad's suggestion. I mentioned it to my sister and asked her to privately ask Mom if she was up to it. The reply came back that it would be good. So after our shopping was done and lunch eaten we drove to the other side of town to where Dad was buried.
The weather was beautiful, blue skies and in the 70's - typical California weather. Mom led us to his marker and I must say I've forgotten what a beautiful job she did designing it. On the marker with his name, birth and death dates was a beautiful cross and the Easter lily. My Redeemer Lives - his favorite hymn - was the inspiration for the marker.
My daughter Kimberly had never been to this place. I was surprised to see that she too was moved to tears at the sight of her grandfather's marker. Oh, how he would have adored her. She would have been the perfect foil to his wicked sense of humor. They would have played off of each other beautifully. I told her so. We exchanged some memories, hugged and tears were shed. But in the end, it was a beautiful ending to a lovely day.
I was so glad for the suggestion.
Thanks, Dad. I miss you.