Dec. 7th

Happy December 7th! This is one of my stalkarazzi pictures. Now that more people in the neighborhoods around ours have put up their decorations, I've found myself wishing that I was able to nab a few more pictures. These will do though.

We made it Whistler in one piece. Dropping off the danes was the hardest. They've been there before and they will be excellently taken care of, but I still feel horribly guilty none the less. When we got to the condo that we're renting with two other couples, I was a little worried about the snow. There's snow, but not a ton of it. Adam and I have lesson around lunch time since it's been several years for me since I've been on down hill skis and he's trying out snowboarding. So we'll see what the conditions actually feel like.

I am finding it hard not having my dogs here though. We went out walking around yesterday evening to get some dinner and check things out. There are a ton of people here with their dogs. I'm trying to decide whether it's separation anxiety that I have or a co-dependency problem.;0)

Stalkarazzi

Happy December 6th!! I took some pictures last Thur. night when I took the dogs out to do some Christmas house stalking. So I've got a memory card preloaded with daily shots. Therefore I won't be entirely silent on the blog while I'm gone. Still have to keep up with the photo challenge!

We're heading out in just a bit, so I better actually go help Adam pack the truck. Happy Tuesday!

Reindeer?

Happy December 5th!! The dogs all wore these same antlers for some of their shots with Santa, but I wanted a "normal" shot of them at home with the antlers on. And Ruthie even helped me out with a ridiculously cute shot that I couldn't have possibly posed any better myself! But first to the rest of the pictures.;0) This next picture I could swear that she looks rather large in.
And The Midget does make some of the best disgruntled faces around!
And oh gawd, the cuteness!!

She kind of reminds me of Max from The Grinch. The poor little dog with the antlers that were too big for his head to hold up.
Today has been a pretty hectic day. Tomorrow morning Adam and I are meeting up with some friends in Whistler. And I have had to go through the whole process of getting things ready for a departure both at work and at home. After a very frustrating morning, I have come to the conclusion that I am sick and tired of going some where. The getting ready to go. The dealing with stuff that you inevitably forgot about, while you're on vacation. And then the dealing with everything once you're back. I've had to do a little too much of it more recently and I was honestly at my breaking point this morning and was ready to just not go at all. However, it looks like we are still going and I'm going to just have to take a chill pill or three and get my act in gear.

I'm also already having separation anxiety from my dogs.:0( Ruthie got dropped off with my friend Diane, who has a frenchie named Remi. Remi is also one of the frenchies on our obedience team. They've met before and Diane and her husband were awesome about taking her while we were going to be gone. The danes will be boarding up at Gramma G's. It's right on our way north and is obviously the perfect place for the danes to be. So while I will miss my dogs, they will all be in great hands and I just need to once again, chill out.

I'm looking forward to lots of fun in the snow! It's been years since I've downhill skied! I'm also bringing along my cross country skis as well as my snow shoes. It is going to be really weird playing in the snow without at least one dog with me. I haven't done that pretty much since we brought Heffner home. Weird!

Anyhow, I hope that everyone's Monday has been gentle and that the rest of the week is looking great!!

Tree Hunting

Happy December 4th! Today has been a pretty packed, but enjoyable day so far. I thought the above picture was pretty funny after I took it. Ruthie can have the most disgusted look on her face sometimes!LOL

Our morning started off with a trip to PetUtopia with the danes for a core strengthening, i.e. on the ball stuff, demo with Bobbie. She was doing a demo and I think a certification of some people from FitPAWS. She wanted to give them a wide variety of sizes of dogs and I just happen to have two dogs on the giant end of the spectrum who get worked with these exercises on a very regular basis.:) I was very honored that she asked us to come and do this! In addition to Bobbie being a friend, she is a fabulous instructor who is very knowledgeable about a lot of dog related topics. Not only that, but she's always pushing herself to learn more and to try new things. Working with her is always a blast and I feel like she has really helped push me in the beginning to try new things with my dogs and think outside of the box.

But I digress! Each dog got about a half hour to strut their stuff and go through some of the exercises. It was a lot of fun AND I even got both dogs some exercise! While we were all talking, Bobbie brought up something that I had totally forgotten about. There was a local TV station that a bit on the classes that Bobbie was teaching at PetUtopia and we were asked to come and join. Both Heffner and Bess got to be on TV!! Here's the clip.:0)

After our portion, I stuck around a little bit to watch the next couple of dogs. From there I headed out with the danes to do a light hike, which was awesome! Then we came home, they relaxed and I started doing a whole lot of chores around the house that I haven't been able to get to during the week. Once Adam got home, he and I headed out with Ruthie to pick out our Christmas tree.

Since we generally load the tree up into the back of the truck for easy transportation, bringing the danes along doesn't work out. However, Ruthie fits quite nicely into the cab of the truck, and she did get ditched in the morning while I was playing with the big dogs. I felt it only fitting that she got an outing of her own! Here are some of the pictures from our little outing:

Taking the tractor ride back to the truck.

And now I need to finish up the food that I'm bringing to our obedience club's holiday party!! Definitely looking forward to that!:0) I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Who Wore It Best?

Every fashionista wants to be known for wearing an outfit well and making a statement. Sadly, my dogs are stuck with what I have and find amusing to put on them. I had this idea the other night to put the dogs in my matching ear warmer and scarf (that matches the danes' Christmas coats) and see who was the cutest. I'll let the readers decide. So tell me, who wore it best (and sorry that the pictures are a little dark; I obviously need to work on my lighting)?

This morning Ruthie and headed off to meet up with our frenchie obedience team members. Regardless of how our team actually ends up doing, we are definitely going to be the cutest stinkin' team out there!! Especially if Remi and Ike decide it's play time during the off leash heeling portion! I am very happy to say, though, that we had a successful morning practice and we have definitely improved since our last practice. I just need to work on remembering to keep me eyes on the handlers on either side of me so that I match my pace and what I'm doing to them. It gets a little hard to do that when I'm focusing so much on Ruthie. She was doing really well and she actually had some stays!! Not long distance ones, but we are much improved from before!

Then in a little less than an hour, I'm packing up all three dogs and we're heading out to get some pictures taken with Santa! I almost let the opportunity slip away from me, but when I saw Margie, the owner of PetUtopia, post about still having spots open, I got on it! We've gotten pictures of the dogs with Santa there for the past few years and the pictures are by far better than what I've seen at most places. I'm planning on getting there a little early so that I can hit up one of the fabulous employees to help me wrangle all three dogs, since Adam is otherwise indisposed with a little Christmas event of his own this afternoon. Thankfully Margie knows that Heffner has personal space issues and she is always really awesome about helping me out and making us and the other customers as comfortable as can be.:0)

And at some point today, I swear that I would really love to take a nap! I got home pretty late from Cavalia last night and we had our obedience team practice sort of first thing this morning. Cavalia was great though! It was definitely a feast for the senses and there was so MUCH to watch!

I hope everyone is having a great start to their weekend!

Nutcracker Princess?

Happy December 2nd!! I had to post today's picture in the morning because I won't be getting home until late tonight and wasn't sure that I'd quite remember to post it.;0) I have a thing for nutcrackers. I LOVE the ballet performance, and will happily be going to see it in a couple of weeks with some friends. In general, I just love the whole nutcracker story and the figures themselves. There's such a variety out there! I scored this year's guy from JoAnn's while I was picking up the material for Ruthie's Christmas coat. He was 60% off!! I LOVE Christmas sales on Christmas items!:0)
I couldn't resist him. I call him Mr. Fabulous.:0) And here's what the nutcracker table looks like minus The Midget.

Today's picture was having fun with a little dog that I can put in places I can't physically put the danes. Though, in fits of zoomies the danes have each leaped up onto that table and used it as a launching pad. Thankfully those were isolated incidences and they were REALLY going crazy when that happened. I swear that it's not a regular occurrence for the big dogs to climb up on a table!

And finally, last night's stalkerazzi mission with the dogs, camera, and me hiding in bushes around peoples' decorated houses was a success! Or at least I think it was. I haven't actually looked at the pictures that I took as of yet, but I have to admit that it was pretty fun "sneaking" around like that. I had to make sure that the occupants of the house couldn't see me taking the picture, that there weren't any pedestrians about, and definitely that no one was about to exit the house while I was taking the picture. Totally fun! And a fun way to kill an hour and a half with the dogs.;0)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday! I'm looking forward to some hopefully awesome elfing at work! And then this evening I'm having dinner with some friends and then we're going to see Cavalia!!

HELLO December!

It's finally the month that I wait all year for!!!! I can't even begin to explain how happy I am that December is here.:0) We started our Christmas elf fun at work today too! I do have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in the participants so far this year. I expected that at least one person would go big this year (I can't because it would absolutely give away who I have) and I even had hopes that more than one person would compete for most awesome Day 1 prank. I was sorely mistaken. That's not to say that there weren't some cute things done, it's just that nothing compared to the person last year who got their entire desk individually wrapped in wrapping paper. It as epic! I may have to give up the ghost on who I have and just go crazy!!

So yes, welcome to December!! The above picture of Ruthie was actually a chance shot that I happened to like. It turns out that she thinks the Christmas countdown snowman is evil. I could NOT get her to hold a sit next to him. I finally got her in a down and had hunkered down to take a face on shot, when she quickly turned to make sure the snowman wasn't going to eat her, and I snapped the picture. She promptly darted sideways, because apparently he was not to be trusted. But at least I got the shot! And I also got a picture of her in her coat.
We are having a nice low key night at home and I think I'm going to take the dogs out for walks individually and paparazzi some of the nice outdoor Christmas decorations that I've seen popping up. Who doesn't want a crazy person with a giant dog and a camera in their front yard???