Small and Simple Things

Training, Training and More Training...

2012-02-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

It's official, gone are the weekends of sleeping in and being lazy as we're back to spending our weekends logging miles and hours in cars/trucks for the boys training activities as we start working on getting ready for this years field trail and hunt test season.

Our trainer for the boys is great and works amazingly well with the boys and the hubby but is located in Eagle Creek, Oregon, a mere 4 hour drive each way. Yes, all this for the boys and hubby's passion for tromping through a muddy field to work on the various skills that Odin will need to perfect for passing his Master Hunter tests and being successful in Open Gun Dog at Field Trails. Were also going through the process of getting Loki broken out so that he is steady to wing and shot and can hang with the big boys. Oh, yeah and getting him ready for the ABC Western Futurity event in April that he has been invited to.

As suspected, this weekend was no different and yesterday we made the trek to work with Chris and Odin and to drop little man aka Loki off for birdy bootcamp for the next 8 - 12 weeks (not thrilled about this one but he is in good hands and it will be worth it in the end).

Odin showed signs of improvement from last season and the areas he still needs to work on before the first round of tests in April.

So while the schedule isn't even finalized for this seasons events it looks like it is going to be a very busy spring/summer with lots of miles in the car and fields.

More Snow...Please Stop

2012-01-19T16:08:00.000-08:00

Snowpocalypse 2012 has hit Seattle, all 15+ inches and counting of it. We have been snowed in the last two days and it is not looking like were getting out anytime soon. This winter strom has brought us the following:

15+ inches of snow
An ice storm
power outage-- now going on 16 hours without power
downed trees

Here's hoping this snow stops so that we can start the digging out.

Champion Status

2012-01-16T17:01:00.000-08:00

Sixteen months ago we started a wild journey on a whim with Odin that has been filled with highs and lows and Saturday it came to a conclusion as he completed his AKC show championship by going Winners Dog and Best of Winners with his handler Kevin Chestnut for a 3 point major win at the Sammamish KC dog show in Puyullap.

There were 8 entries in the class dogs with 4 of them including in Odin and Loki in the Open Dog class so competition was very tough as they were all good looking dogs and we never know what the judge is looking for or how Odin would behave since he is not a fan of the show ring. Luckily for us he decided that he was going to behave and looked great. After a couple of passes around the ring the judge selected him first in his class which meant step one was complete. Another pass around the ring with the other class winners and the judge moved Kevin and Odin into first position for the last pass around the ring and then awarded him with the Winners Dog purple ribbon. After a triple check with the ring side attendant to ensure that the major had held we let out a huge sigh of relief that he had won and finished his championship. After a round of hugs and congrats it was back int he ring to go up against the champions and the female winner to try for Best of Breed or Best of Winners.

Twenty minutes later the blue and white Best of Winners ribbon was Odin's and he had completed his final regular show and would now get to retire from showing. I may bring him out once in a while for special events like the Washington or Oregon Specialty shows but for now it's back to the field.

Congrats to our special boy on becoming Ch. Odin!

First Snow

2012-01-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

We got our first (and hopefully our only) snowfall of the winter here in the Seattle area this weekend. Our house seemed to be in the special snow zone delivering us with 8= inches of the fluffy white stuff in the past 24 hours.

A lot of friends described our snow as it's so pretty, it's wonderful! But, each of those phrases are typically said with a HUGE caveat: if you don't have anywhere to go or you don’t live here and don’t have to deal with our lack of snow preparedness.

Unfortunately, we had not stocked up at the grocery store and had to make the 15 minute trek to/from the store to get the basics. With 8 inches on the ground, the trek was not going to be easy or fun. Since we knew the Jetta would not be capable of getting back up the hill to the house we opted for the 4 wheel drive on the truck. Even with the truck the drive included sliding and tire spinning and my grabbing the door with eyes closed as Ben took it very slow.

After a break from our trek, we decided it would be fun to take Odin for a walk and to get out and explore the winter wonderland.

Looking Back at 2011

2012-01-02T21:20:00.000-08:00

With 2012 in full swing, it's time to take a look back at the highlights of 2011.

It was a busy year for us filled with a good balance of work and play.Lots of time spent in the office for us both, but we certainly got our fill of busy weekends, lazy weekends, and time spent with family and friends.

The theme for this year seemed to be the year of the dogs. We had over 50 show, field and hunt test events that the boys competed in. We also covered thousands of miles traveling between Eagle Creek, Oregon and our house in Snohomish for training and of course all over Washington and Oregon for events and to drop doggies off at their respective handlers. We were also blessed to meet and make many new friends through our dog activities who share our interests.

Some highlights of the year for us included:

Ben and I celebrating 12 years together and 9 wonderful years of marriage
Ben buying his "big boy toy"-- a New Holland Tractor
Hosting a couple of parties at our house including the first annual Ugly Holiday Sweater party
Loki turning one and Odin turning three
Loki getting his Junior Hunter title and 2 points towards his field championship
Odin getting 9 points towards his show championship including one major win (only need one more major to finish, were soooo close...)

We wrapped up a wonderful and eventful 2011 with a fun filled evening spent with Stacey at the Everett Silvertips game and then a quite evening at our home to watch the ball drop and to ring in the new year.

We can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us. A few things we're already eagerly anticipating are Loki being a part of the Western Futurity event in both field and show in April in Madras, Oregon, finishing up Odin's show championship and working on his Master Hunter title, celebrating our 10th anniversary with a trip somewhere, and a wine tasting weekend with my best friend this summer.

Happy New Year!

Coveys of Quail

2011-12-30T19:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, on advice of our trainer's wife we packed up the truck and headed over the mountains to the Scotch Creek wildlife area in Omak to try our luck at some quail hunting. Weather was good with the sun shining for the most part and no snow.

We decided to head out with Odin to do some initial scouting of the area and to see what we could find. After making our ways about 2 miles out from where we parked Ben and Odin walked up on a covey of ~8 quail that quickly scattered. We tracked their path for a while before heading off in search of more. After more hiking and Odin working hard we decided to head back for lunch and to get Loki.

After lunch we headed off in a new direction with both Odin and Loki hoping that they would work together rather than just chase each other or take off like last time we tried to run them together. This time we took a new approach and sent each off in their own direction which seemed to work well. Ben decided he wanted to take his chances with hiking up the draws to see if we could find any other coveys and sure enough half-way up the first draw Odin and Loki flushed a covey of ~10 quail. Ben took 2 shots and ended up with getting one quail. The boys and us hiked the 6 more draws before deciding to call it a day to make the 4.5 hour trek home.

We'll be back to Scotch Creek next season for more hunting for sure.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T08:31:00.000-08:00

I hope this holiday season finds you surrounded by those you love, safe, warm and happy. We're off for a day filled with both ,my and Ben's families, presents and yummy treats.

Merry Christmas!

Just Loki!

2011-12-19T13:09:00.000-08:00

Loki and his wonderful handler Terri Erickson showing off their first win together. Loki went winners dog at the Greater Clark County KC show on December 10th for his first show point.

First Show Point!

2011-12-12T15:57:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Loki had an adventure as he headed to the Greater Clark County KC show with a pro handler, Terri Erickson for a round of shows. This was the first weekend he went to show with the intent to win and earn his first show points rather than being there to help Odin out. We decided to have Terri who shows Loki's dad Sam take him into the ring rather than have me stumble my way through showing him since his chances of winning were good since there would only be two class dogs each day this weekend.

We're happy to report the weekend was a success and Loki won Winners Dog on Saturday for 1 point and got Reserve Winners on Sunday. Looks like we have another show dog in the house :)

Tree Time

2011-12-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

We've finally have the house in full Christmas spirit complete with tree, stockings, snowmen and nutcrackers. We still haven't decided if this year we will decorate the house with lights since we live so far off the beaten path and you can't see the house from the street but we'll figure that out this weekend.

Hello December

2011-12-02T12:07:00.000-08:00

I'm still trying to figure out where 2011 has gone as I cannot believe it is already December and how quickly another 30 days have flown by. But seriously, where did November go? Where did the past 11 months go?

December brings what I call the month of festivities since there are three birthdays in my family (including my own), Christmas, New Years and of course holiday parties (work and friends). Throw in a dog show or two and things are busy all month long!

Thankful!

2011-11-24T09:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! We wish you a fabulous day full of delicious food, lots of fun and plenty quality time with family and friends.

In honor of Thanksgiving, it seemed appropriate to share a few of the things I'm thankful for, so here goes:

our home- it may not be perfect or always clean, but in the last year that we have lived on our 5 acres in the 'country" this house has become our home. it's filled with lots of love, wonderful memories and the it's place where we happily start and end each day together.
Odin and Loki- rain or shine, early or late. They are always there to happily greet me. While they keep us insanely busy as we cart them to their various activities and shows we are grateful for their unconditional love, comedic ways, cuddles and for the joyful presence they bring into our lives every single day.
the hubby- a supportive, loving, generous, and caring husband. Nine and a half years of marriage under our belt and it's been the been a great ride so far.
wonderful family- they're very supportive and willing to help out, and we're able to see them almost any time we want.
a great job- with the economy the way it is and so many people out of work, we are grateful for great jobs that we like going to each day.

Gratitude!

2011-11-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

As the holiday season fastly approaches and brings joy and chaos it is always good to take a moment to remember that life may not be perfect, but it sure is good (or at least mine and my hubby's is) and that we have a lot to be grateful for.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T10:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had a fun filled day of Halloween festivities starting with a dash to the costume store to get Ben and I costumes since we were heading out that night with my best friend to Redhook Brewery's Haunted Brewery party. I lucked out and found a Gangster costume for Ben and a Flapper girl costume for myself. Stacey was going as an 80's girl so we were all set for a night of dancing and haunting. We also got the the boys to leave their hats on long enough to take their picture together. We hope your Halloween is filled with whatever treats make you happy, whether that be candy or milk bones.

Fill In the Blank Friday

2011-10-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted a Fill In the Blank Friday for quite a while since things have been crazy busy so I thought I would take a couple of minutes and do one this week. If you want to play along you can check out the little things we do blog.

1. When I was a kid I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up.

2. As an adult, my dream job would be exactly what it is- working in advertising, managing clients needs.

3. W hen I was younger I wanted to be just like my mom.

4. The childhood Halloween costume that I remember most was when my mom made my sister and I care bear costumes.

5. My favorite childhood toy was hands down Cabbage Patch Dolls. I think I have 4 or 5 of them along with tons of clothing for them.
6. The time I got into the biggest amount of trouble when I was a kid was when I ...I honestly can't remember. I was a pretty good kid and I never go in a huge amount of trouble. Boring, but true .

7. I get daily inspiration from blogs that I read and friends.

Loki's Pheasant

2011-10-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

This morning we headed out to Crescent lake with Loki for some hunting/running him in the field since he isn't a broke dog and tends to run to big. On two prior hunting attempts with Loki he ended up getting lost in the field and Ben had to pull the GPS tracker out to find him.

We decided to head out after the main hunters would be done for the day to increase our odds of having him listen and hunt with us and we got lucky as he was in the mood for both. After about 30 minutes of working we stumbled across a series of trails that we decided to give a try and to our surprise Loki found a pheasant. While he didn't retrieve it which was not a surprise since we have never worked on that with him, Ben was able to go over and collect it and decided to head back to the truck since the rain was starting to move in.

Yeah for Loki since this was his first pheasant and hopefully not the last this season.

First Pheasant

2011-10-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Ben, my sister's boyfriend Brian and my youngest sister Tammy headed out with Odin and Loki for a day of hunting since the weather was nice and Odin would be heading off to his show handler the next day. They headed to Crescent Lake first and after running both boys came up empty handed. After relocating to Cherry Valley they had a little more luck and Brian was able to get a nice sized pheasant with Odin on their last pass through the field. Here's hoping this won't be the only one for the group this season.

Brian and Odin showing off their pheasant.

Jam, Jam and More Jam!

2011-10-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

You could say that this has become an obsession of mine lately. With all of the blackberries that have been available around the property I have been eager to continue to try and perfect my jam recipes. Prior to this attempt I had never considered doing any jam making let alone anything that involved canning. I have been trying all different kinds, and even attempted to remove the seeds from one batch.

I think it is safe to say that everyone will be getting jam this holiday season since I have made a total of seven different kinds including- blackberry peach, blueberry peach, strawberry rhubarb, strawberry rhubarb blackberry, strawberry blackberry, blackberry raspberry and of course plain blackberry and everyone that has tasted the jam says it's YUMMY!

A Day in the Life

2011-09-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

A few friends of mine who's blogs I read regularly have been posting their typical daily schedule --- and I thought it was a fun idea and decided to do it myself.

5:15am: 1st alarm goes off - I hit snooze.

5:22am: 2nd alarm goes off - I hit snooze.

5:30am: 3rd alarm goes off; Loki wakes up and starts barking; get out of bed and let Odin and Loki out to potty

5:45am: make Ben's breakfast and pack Ben's lunch; play with the dogs

6am:. Head into the shower

6:10am: Kiss hubby bye; blow dry my hair and get ready for the day

6:50am: make breakfast (oatmeal and yogurt) and play with the dogs

7am: pack lunch; put dogs in their kennel with treats

7:30am: leave for work

8:30am: arrive at work (Sr. Project Manager at GLG); drink coffee

8:45am - 12:30pm: write / answer emails, attend various meetings, update project trackers / documents

12:30pm: eat lunch while continuing to work

1pm: continue emails, meetings, etc

5:15/5:30pm: head for home

6:30pm: arrive at home; change into comfy clothes

6:45pm: take Odin and Loki for a walk with Ben

7:30pm: make/heat-up dinner; feed the dogs

8:30pm: relax on the couch while catching up on TV, Facebook, blogs, email or play/snuggle with the dogs

10:30/11pm: lights out and asleep before head hits the pillow

Pool Time

2011-09-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

Sunday we had Ben's dad over with his dog Lacey for a play date since Loki was still on the road with our trainer at field trials and he was was getting bored of being home by himself . Since it was sunny and warm we thought the dogs might enjoy cooling off in the pool. Lacey wasn't sure of the pool at first but once she saw Odin playing in the water she was all for it.

Jam Time

2011-09-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

We are reaping the benefits of having TONS of blackberry bushes lining our property these past couple of weeks with bucket fulls of ripe delicious berries. I spent about 1/2 hour on Sunday picking just the ones in front and on one side of the house and came back with almost 10 pounds worth. With this many berries and more riping everyday I got a little creative on what to use them for and attempted to make jam for the first time ever.

After scouring the Internet for a good recipe for strawberry blackberry jam with no added sugar I found one that sounded good and decided to give it a try. After washing, mashing and chopping blackberries and strawberries it was time to attempt the jam process. I decided to use the hot water boil method since I didn't have a caner. After the jam cooked and jars were filled with the sweet purple liquid into the hot water bath for 10 minutes. According to the recipe if the lids "popped" when they came out of the water bath after 10 minutes the jars were sealed properly.

While I haven't tried it yet, the jars "popped" when they came out of the water bath and after cooling it looks like jam. Hopefully it will be yummy and I may even try to make some more for Christmas presents this year since I have enough berries to make a couple more batches of jam.

Dogs, Horses and Lots of Sun

2011-09-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend we packed up and hit the road for Madras, Oregon to the Boyce Corral Crooked River National Grasslands for the Oregon Brittany Club fall field trial. The drive to Madras from our house is about 6 hours and takes you through the Mt. Hood pass over to We got lucky and didn't have any road closures due to the wildfires in the area but did have a lot of smoke to contend with at times. Upon arrival in Madras we were greeted by upper 90 degree weather, sunshine, good friends including our trainer and his wife and our boys who we hadn't seen in two weeks. Odin of course was super excited to see Ben and didn't stop "talking" all weekend even though it drove us all crazy.
Friday night we headed back into town for Mexican food and the OBC awards dinner. It was great to spend an evening celebrating the achievements of fellow club members and their dogs. A handful of awards were given out including a couple of thank you awards for members that have given endless hours of support to the club and events. After dinner we headed back to Sonny's motel where it seemed like everyone without a horse trailer or camper who was attend the trial was also staying there and best part, they had a pool.

Saturday morning we headed back to the grasslands for the start of the trial which was being run on horseback and had 8 different stakes that would be run over the three days. Loki would be running in Open Derby again and Odin would run in Open Gun Dog. Both boys would be handled by Chris since this trial was going to be run on horseback and neither Ben or I are skilled in the art form of riding a horse, carrying a starter pistol and controlling a dog all at the same time. Ben did get the opportunity to ride Chris's horse Kip so that he could go out on Loki's brace which ended up being at 2pm in the afternoon and in 95 degree weather. He had a good run overall even with it being really hot but went bird less which meant he was out of contention for placements since no bird = no placement in this game. After all 6 braces ran it turned out that only one of the 12 dogs found a bird so we didn't feel too bad. That evening we had a wonderful potluck with deep fried turkey, salads, lots of goodies for dessert and Reggie's special margaritas.

Sunday we were back around 10 to see the boys and to hang out with everyone since Chris was judging the Amateur All Age Stake and running Odin in the afternoon. We got to hang out with Tina and their new puppy Patch in the camper which was nice since it was even hotter and the smoke was blowing in. We didn't have great hopes for Odin's run since it was so hot, he is carrying some extra weight for show and is still in show coat but Chis and Ben mounted up and headed out with him for his brace and were back in less than the 30 minutes since Odin wasn't wanting to be a gun dog and Chris pulled him since even if he finished he wouldn't have placed.

After a round of goodbyes to Loki who would be staying with Chris and Tina for another few weeks for more events we packed up Odin and said our goodbyes to everyone and hit the road to make the trek home. We definitely had a good time this weekend and are looking forward to learning to handle the dogs both on and off horses when we start prepping for next season in January and coming to more events next year as we pursue field championships for both Odin and Loki.

Dog Days of Travel

2011-08-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Our house has been a little on the quiet side these last couple of weeks since the boys, Odin and Loki, are on the road. It started with Loki being at the trainer for a week and a half for horse back camp where he got to learn all about running with and being handled by a person riding in a competition. After camp he was able to come home for a whole 3 days before taking off again.

While Loki was at horse back camp in Oregon, Odin headed home with his show handler in Moses Lake last week to get ready for the Rainer Sporting dog show and the Olympic Kennel Club shows in Enumclaw this past weekend. After the shows on Sunday the boys both headed home with the trainer for another two weeks to get ready for two more field trials. After that, Odin hits the road for three weeks of shows with a new handler and Loki may come home depending on where he is point wise.

Looks like it's going to be quite for a few more weeks around our house and the hubby will be lonesome without his buddies.

Blueberries

2011-08-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of having acreage is that there is space for lots of planting beds, fruit trees and our favorite-blueberry bushes, even better mature blueberry bushes. We have three bushes that line the edge of our planter boxes and with all the warm weather we have been having we have lots of blueberries to enjoy. This has translated into lots of blueberry treats in our house including blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes, blueberry coffee cake and of course our fav, blueberries with ice cream.

5 Point Major

2011-08-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had the Rainer Sporting Dog Show for the boys at the Enumuclaw Expo Center. Odin had been dropped off to Kevin and Diane the prior weekend to get prepped for this show and the accompanying shows this weekend so I only had to get Loki ready which was nice.

While the show didn't pull majors for dogs since only 5 were entered it did pull a major for females since 12 were entered which was still good for Odin's chances to get one of the two major wins he needed to finish his championship. Odin and Kevin looked great together in the ring and the grass is always a little forgiving so i was hopeful. Up first the class stage where Odin was against one other dog in the Open class. After a look over by the judge and a couple of times around the ring Odin came out with the first place. Onto the winner's round where he was up against the Bred By and the 12- to 18 mth class winners. Luck was on our side again as Odin walked out with the Winner's Dog purple ribbon and 2 points. Now he was onto the Best of Breed round to try to pick up the females major.

Odin and his handler getting the very
importantt look over.

A few more times around the ring, a few more once overs by the judge and the winners were selected. Odin and his handler walked out with the Best of Winners which gave Odin his first major win and one that was worth 5 points.

Here's hoping luck is on our side this weekend as we head back to the Expo Center for the Olympic Kennel Club shows and an opportunity for Odin to get his second major win and to finish his championship.

Good Laugh

2011-07-20T17:10:00.001-07:00

INSTALLING SUMMER.....

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Refinement

2011-07-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

Its no secret that every person, and every family encounters its fair share of challenges. Because everyone has their own struggles I choose not to dwell on mine/ours (or at least I try) and I certainly don't choose to air those struggles over the Internet. That being said, I think there is much wisdom to be gained through sharing our stories. So without over-sharing, and most of our closest friends and family know that about the very strained / almost non-existent relationship within my husband's family and us due to ongoing hurt, disappointment and lack of respect our extended family has shown us over the last nine years. Certainly something that many of us have encountered in one way or another. Through these experiences, it has surprised me to learn how conflicted not only I am but we as a couple still are after all these years over making decisions on how to deal with them especially at extended family functions.

Once again we are faced with the challenge of finding a solution to this as we have Ben's extended family picnic coming up in mid-August. Last year we decided not to go for a couple of reasons, we had a dog show for Odin, Ben's brother and his wife had just had a baby and we are forbidden to see the baby per them, one of the cousins was also pregnant and the biggest reason was that at the prior year's event there was a fight between Jon and Ben that caused the whole family who never needed to know abut the issue to be involved and we were very embarrassed not only for what had happened but that our side of the family could not be respectful in someone else's home and get along even if that meant avoiding being in the same room for one day.

So here we are again, deciding to go to this years picnic and get to see everyone who we haven't seen in a year or pass on it and ensure that the drama is not brought into the hosting family's home.

This morning though, I found the blog Sanctified Pearl. K.C. wrote today about sea glass and how it is that something so beautiful can only become that way through the pain and struggle of hardship. She wrote:

"I see my life (and the life of my friend) as a little piece of beach glass. We aren’t always sure how we will survive different circumstances in our lives. We think we will break under the constant crashing of disappointments, hardships, and trials. But, if a piece of discarded trash can become something beautiful and valuable, I have to believe my Creator is doing much the same with me. He is refining me. Smoothing the rough edges. Softening the exterior that can cut and be dangerous. He values me and with the break of each wave, I am becoming more of who I was created to be. And you are too."

I wanted to 1) save this for another day as a reminder of the refinement that is happening in my own life and us a couple and 2) share this with anyone else who might stumble across this post because I truly believe that we can learn and grow by cautiously opening our hearts to each other.

9 Years!

2011-07-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary! In some ways it seems like just yesterday that we met, fell in love and got married. In other ways, when we think about all that has happened, the places we've gone, the adventures we've shared it seems like we've been together forever. They say marriage takes work and if that is the case, this is the easiest job we both can imagine most days :)

While were not always on the same page, joined a the hip, or seeing eye-to-eye, in the end, we always find a way to work it out. And at the heart of our marriage is everything that matters: love, trust and respect.

We both feel very thankful. Thankful to have a partners like each other in this crazy thing we call life. We very much look forward to the years ahead….

2 Points!

2011-07-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

We headed down to Sauvie Island which is located on the Columbia River between Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR yesterday for the Willamette Weimaraner Club's field trial with Loki and his littlermate Jake who would be competing in his first field trail. The boys were both running the open puppy class and would be handled by their trainer this weekend so were just the doggie transport :)

Jake was in brace 1 of 4 and had a strong run for a dog who had never been in a field event before. Loki was in brace 3 and was braced against Kaiser, a Weimi that he ran against the weekend before when I handled him. Chris was feeling confident that he was going to win the event since he had been contending for 1st place at the last two events but one thing for sure when your dealing with dogs, especially a Brittany nothing is certain since it all depends on their attitude that day. After a long wait at the starting line which burned some of his energy up, Chris and Loki had their 15 minute run and showed their stuff. Loki as usual ran big and even decided to go for a swim (it was hot after all) during the run.

We all speculated on how he did while we waited for other braces to run and the judges to come in for lunch as all handlers and owners do. When the judges finally came in for lunch and placements were awarded Jake ended up getting 4th place which is great for his first event and Loki got his 1st place finish and earned his 2 puppy points towards his field championship. This win ended what has been a successful trail season for Loki since he has been in 5 field trails and placed in all of them- a third, 2 seconds, a fourth and now a first.

Congrats to Loki on a great trial season and we look forward to next year!

Happy Long Weekend!

2011-07-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

I hope you all have big and exciting plans for the 4th of July weekend.

We have so much I'm looking forward to:

Friday night pet sitting - Loki's brother Jake is staying with us

field trial for both Loki and Jake at Sauvie Island, OR tomorrow-- hoping Loki gets first and his puppy points

making a fire and s'mores

dog show for Loki

backyard bbq

training with Chris

And the one thing that I'm not looking forward to...

not getting to sleep in even one day this weekend due to 8:30am events both Saturday and Sunday and a four hour drive to our trainer on Monday :(

Hope you have fun celebrating the 4th with your family and friends.

838/ 2 days = A Weekend

2011-06-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend Ben and I covered a total of 838 miles for dog events which meant a lot of time spent on the road, not a lot of sleep, copious amounts of caffeine and most importantly spending lots of time in fields, but at least it was sunny and warm. You might be asking yourself what would cause us to do this, well we enjoy doing these activities with our dogs and seeing them grow in their abilities and of course spending time with our friends who are also into doing dog activities. If we had kids we would probably be those parents that were running their kids to all their different activities/play dates but since we don't, we have dog activities.

Saturday was the craziest day with Ben and I heading in separate ways, each with a dog. Ben was heading to Koopman Farms in Oakville with Odin for his Master Hunter test at the Puget Sound Vizsla Club's (PSVC) hunt test at the lovely hour of 4:30am since he had the first brace of the day. I had the luxury of getting to hit the road a little later at 6:30am with Loki to head to the Northwest Pointing Dog Association's (NWPDA) Field Trial which was being held at the Shillapoo Wildlife Area in Vancouver since we were in brace 1 of open puppy.

Ben and Odin were braced with our friend Andy and his Irish Setter Chase so it made for an interesting run since both Odin and Chase have been having some struggles this season. Andy and Chase had a very short run and took themselves before he every got to the bird field. Ben and Odin did a little better and at least got to the bird field before they had issues and were eliminated.

Loki and I were up for an adventure as I was handling him in the field trial for the first time ever since our trainer wasn't able to be at the event. While I had thought that maybe I would see if another handler would run Loki for me I decided and ultimately knew that I would never hear the end of it from our trainer and the other guys who we see at each event so off were were for 15 minutes of what everyone said would be a fun time. After making our way through 5ft tall grass, blackberries and thistle, a few hiccups with the run and some cuts (on me not Loki) we were done with our run. When the judges stared to announce placements and withheld 2-4th in the open derby I knew we weren't guaranteed to get a placement unless we earned it and were happy to walk away with our 4th place finish in open puppy. While Chris would have been able to get the 1st with him since Loki was on and running good I am happy with our 4th place since I did myself.

Sunday, we both headed back to Koopman's with both Odin and Loki since they were both running in their respective classes. Odin and Ben had a much better run but and made some improvements in areas before Odin decided he knew better and headed straight for the bird field since he knows the course too well and punked Ben so they were sadly eliminated from the test. Since Odin is going to take a while to finish his Master Hunter title (average for people is 2-4 years to accomplish it) we decided that Ben should run Loki and get his final pass to finish his Junior Hunter title. Ben and Loki had a good run despite Lok's running very big and on the edge of the field for the most part, but he did find two birds and got his pass. This last pass completed the 4 he needed to get his Junior Hunter title.

Now he's back to field trials in pursuit of his puppy point before he hits 15 months old in August while Odin and Ben continue to work on master hunter.

Junior Hunter

2011-06-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Ben and Loki wrapped up his hunt test season by running in his last junior hunter test at the Puget Sound Vizsla Club's hunt test at Koopman farms. As usual Loki ran big and on the edge of the fields but had two good points and handled well for Ben which resulted in him getting his 4th and final pass to earn his Junior Hunter title.

Pending AKC confirmation, Loki will get a title after his name and will now be know as- Lacey Mtn's B Campbell Little Jester, JH "Loki"

Double, Double.

2011-06-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed to Koopman Farm in Oakville, WA for the Washington Brittany Club (WBC) and German Shortharied Pointer Club of Washington's (GSPCW) doube, double hunt test event with Odin and Loki. We entered the boys in one event each day since we didn't want to over-run them and we were also not eligible to run in one of the WBC's events since Tina Tewes who is our trainers wife was a judge and it would cause raised eyebrows if we ran under her and passed.

Saturday when we arrived our first order of business was to connect with Chris and determine where Odin was in his his honoring skills since he had spent the last three weeks with the trainer working on this. We decided that since Odin has been having some tough tests lately and had been listening to Chris lately he should run him and Ben would have fun run with Loki since the grounds were less than ideal for the test. What should have been a fun run for Ben turned out to be a little nerve wracking since he only had one point at the very end of the 15 minute test and ran much bigger than Ben would have liked but they had fun overall and most importantly he got a pass. Odin sadly didn't have a positive run and had one of these freak situations that you can't really train for happen with a bird and bombed his Master Hunter test.

Sunday we were up bright and early to make the 2 hour trek again to Oakville (why didn't we stay the night south?) since Loki was running at 9:30am. Since we were on the same course as the day before we decided that it would be better for Ben to run him again and hopefully have some fun before running Odin. Since the other course required the dogs and handlers to be driven to the starting line I didn't get to see it again but when they came back, Ben was happy and reported that he had been offered to collar Loki before time expired since the judges saw everything they needed from him and he had two points and the judges wanted to give the other dog a chance to point a bird. Needless to say Loki earned his 3rd leg towards his JH title. Ben had a decent run with Odin that afternoon as well with him actually doing an honor and he showed signs of improvement in some areas.

Next up is another round of hunt tests this weekend for Odin and Ben who will be back at Koopmans both Saturday and Sunday and one last one hopefully for Loki to finish his JH Sunday after already being in a field trial on Saturday with Chris down in Vancouver, Guess it's gonna be a busy weekend with lots of driving but at least we have both boys home again.

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

Wishing our two fathers, Howard & Gary, and all of our friends who are dads lots of joy and celebrations with their families today.

2011-06-19T22:59:00.001-07:00

Going to the birds

2011-06-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Ben's pigeon loft residents arrived this weekend...all 15 of them. Yes, that rights we now have 15 homing pigeons living in the loft and so far they are eating and drinking and seem to be acclimating well.

Last night Loki got to finally see the new residents since he has been hearing and smelling them since he came home and boy ways he curious. He ran around the loft a couple of times, pointed the birds and generally was quite perplexed that he could see them but couldn't get to them. Based on his reaction to the pigeons we can only imagine what Odin will think when he comes home on Saturday.

Almost First

2011-06-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

It is definitely the season for field trails and hunting activities since we headed to Vancouver again (Sauvie Island is still under water) for another early morning FT. This weekends event was being put on by the Oregon Wireharied Pointer Club and was worth 1 point in the open puppy class since there were seven puppies entered. Loki's run was great for the first 12 minutes according to Chris but a little less than perfect for the last 3. Chris reported that he wasn't surprised by this sicne all puppies have at least one less than stellar run and wasn't sure if he would place this weekend.

When the placements were being announcned and the 4th place finish went to another dog we all figured he was out of the ribbon placements but to all of our surprise he ended up getting a second place finish and Chris found out from the judges that had it not been for those last 3 minutes he would have been first. We were all just thrilled that even with the less than stellar ending he was still able to finish 2nd. Up next are another round of hunt tests to hopefully complete the Junior Hunter title and then back with Chris for a week of prep for another trial at the end of June.

Chris Tewes of Double Gun Ranch and Loki showing off his
2nd place finish in open puppy at the OGWPC FT

The Toy Arrived

2011-06-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

The toy, I mean tractor was delivered yesterday morning and Ben couldn't be more happy. As expected I came home to him running driving around the yard with it and finding anything that he could pull out of the ground with the bucket to use it. Thankfully we have lots of blackberries and brush that can be cut back to keep him entertained for a while.

Baking Ben

2011-06-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about our new house is that since it was older it already had a very large garden area with 4- 4' x 12" raised beds, onions, blueberry shrubs, and rhubarb. Since we never had the space at our old house since we were happy to see the space for growing a garden.

Over the last few weeks our rhubarb sprouted up from very small stocks to very large stocks so Ben decided that it was time to harvest some. After a few minutes alone in the garden he came back with an armful which was way more than I was expecting and needing for a pie which is about the only thing I know to use rhubarb in other than jam.

Ben decided strawberry rhubarb pie was in order since I had bought strawberries earlier and got busy with washing and chopping the ingredients. After a quick look through the cookbook we found Betty Crockers rhubarb pie and modified it a little sincee we were adding strawberries. After making a mess of almost every mixing bowl in the kitchen the pie was ready for baking. An hour later when I pulled it out I was surprised to see that it hadn't exploded all over the oven since Ben loaded the pie way above the crust. Guess Ben can make the pies from now on since this one tasted great.

Yeah For Loki!

2011-06-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Loki competed in his second field trail in the open puppy class with his trainer Chris Tewes of Double Gun Ranch. The German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Oregon (GSPCO) walking field trial was supposed to be held at Sauvie Island but due to flooding they moved the event to Vancouver Lake.

There were 8 under 15 month old puppies this weekend in the open puppy class at the triall so he had some good competition and his brace mate ended up being one of the dogs he was braced with at the hunt test a couple of weekends ago. The weather was also on the warm side so this was the first time he has run in an event in 70+ degree weather which can make a dog sluggish especially when they have lots of fur like he does.

We are happy to report that once again he is proving he is a great little hunter at 12 months old since he placed 2nd in the group at the trial. Here's looking forward to this weekend's field trial and hoping for a first place finish with points :)

Boys and Their Toys

2011-06-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

The one thing I have learned over the year's is the men never really grow up and still are little boys at heart but now their toys cost a whole LOT more. This weekend Ben proved this as we headed down to Brim Tractor in Sumner to look at you guessed it, tractors.

Ben has been talking about needing a tractor to maintain the 5 acres of fun that we bought back in October before the ink was dry on the papers but decided to wait a while to make sure he really needed one and could justify the cost. For those of you who have never bought or would ever need to buy a tractor a brand new one can be more expensive than some cheap cars. So after making it through the winter and all of the snow we had without one and after doing plenty of research on John Deere's, Kubota's and New Holland's Ben finally decided that he wanted a New Holland tractor, so we headed to Brim to look at the model he had landed on and to discuss the details. After about an hour of discussion between Ben and the salesman, a walk around the lot looking at the different models and features available Ben is now the owner of brand new 2011 20hp, hydrostatic 4x4 New Holland tractor and two New Holland hats.

His new toy gets delivered this Friday after work so I am sure he will find a use for it right away even though we mowed the lawn this weekend.

Our Little Bird Dog

2011-05-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed down to the Shillapoo Wildlife Area and Vancouver Lake for Loki's first round of junior hunter hunts. Since he hasn't been out in the field for any real hunting exercises outside of training and the field trial he was in which there are no birds planted in the open puppy division, Saturday was his real opportunity to show his hunting abilities. This was my first attempt at running in a hunt test and handling him in a field without the help of Ben or Chris so we were not surprise that we didn’t get a pass since neither of us really knew what we were doing and the judges didn’t see his one and only point. Also since Loki’s brace mate was also a puppy and had caught a bird at the end of the test they both decided to play chase which didn’t help either.

Sunday we headed back out for another try at earning our first junior hunter leg. With some solid advice and guidance on how much to talk to Loki during test versus letting him run and work on his own we were off for our 15 minute run. During the test he came upon 2 different birds and was able to hold very nice points which allowed me time to call point, get an acknowledgement from the judge, get to him and flush the bird. Not to shabby for a young dog who isn’t broke yet. When the time expired and all was done we were pretty pleased with the run and headed in to see our scores.

To get a pass you have to have a minimum score of 7 on the 4 different areas that they are grading. Loki received scores of 9’s and 8’s across the board which means he earned his first hunt test ribbon and more importantly his first junior hunter leg. One down, three more to go till he has his JH title. Look’s like he’s turning out to be a good little bird dog after all!

Ben's Latest Project

2011-05-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

One thing Ben wanted when we got our second Brittany, Loki was to have enough property that he could have a pigeon loft and do training with birds at home rather than having to always go to our trainer who is in Eagle Creek, Oregon- a 4 hour drive, each way. While we really like our trainer and what he has done for Odin and Loki there was something about having his own birds that appealed to Ben. So after doing some research and then some more, talking with Chris about his bird lofts, pricing out materials, some more research (if you know Ben this is how he does things- lots of research before starting any project small or big) construction finally began.

The final result after the last two weeks of hard work is an 8' x 12' foot loft that any pigeon would be happy to call home. Now I guess it is time to get the birds and bird supplies.

Happy 1st Bithday Loki!

2011-05-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today our little monster, Loki turned 1. This past year with him has been wonderful and challenging since he joined our family while we were selling out house. He is becoming Odin's best friend and quite the show and hunting dog as well. He also brings life to our house and joy to our lives.

Kudos for Loki

2011-05-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend Loki competed in his very first field event- the Oregon Brittany Club's walking field trial in Madras, Oregon with our trainer Chris Tewes. He has spent the last three weeks with Chris prepping for this event and on Saturday was in brace 1 of 3 braces for open puppy.

While we didn't get to see him personally run in the field trial sicne we were at another event with Odin, the update from Chris was that Loki had a good run, handled and listened well and there were some high points (good running, pointing and holding the point for a few seconds) and low points (chasing his brace mate which is allowed in puppy, chasing tweety birds) during the run but overall has great potential to be a field trial dog and we should look at continuing to have him in the events.

We also got our other piece of good news from Chris that Loki had gotten a 3rd place finish in open puppy at the event which was huge for him since he has never been in a real field event before or run with a brace mate. Looks like we have field trail dog in the making and are now looking forward to the next field trial in June for him.

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

Wishing our moms and all of friends who are mother's a very Happy Mother's Day.

Enjoy your day!

Cinco de Mayo and Birthday Celebrations!

2011-05-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

Cinco de Mayo is always celebrated in our house since it is also Ben's birthday. Since he has a soccer game the festivities will have to wait until this weekend.

Happy 34th Birthday Ben!

94 Years Young

2011-05-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend we celebrated my grandfather's 94th birthday by having a family dinner. With everyone's busy schedules it is rare that we can all get together but we made it work and he enjoyed having everyone together for the afternoon and getting lots of goodies.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone had a nice Easter holiday!

Good Times!

2011-04-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed down to Albany, Oregon for the Chintimini Kennel Club dog shows with Odin and Loki for another round of showings in the pursuit of finishing Odin. While we came up short with Odin this weekend and the major on Saturday broke we did have a few highlights.

Saturday after we finished the show we packed Loki up since Odin was staying with his handler for the weekend and headed over to Sherwood, Oregon to visit our college friends Alex and Carissa Gran and their 8 month old daughter Emily. We hadn't seen them in quite a long time so it was great catching up and finally being able to the meet Emily in person. She's is very cute and full of energy but did super well at Red Robin while we had lunch. After a few hours of visiting and a break in the rain we decided to head back to Albany to the motel so that we could let Loki out of his crate and to relax.

Upon our arrival at the motel we were greeted to the sounds of at least 50 barking dogs since every motel in Albany and within driving distance of the fair grounds was booked for the dog show. This was lok's first time in a motel and it provided to be quite interesting for him since he was fascinated by the mirror that he could see himself him and since he could hear other dogs barking he was cure that the dog he saw was someone else. Also since this was a new space he had to sniff out every nook and cranny constantly. Luckily for us he went right to bed at bedtime with no problems event though the walls were paper thin and we could hear the dog in the next room snoring all night long.

After a long 5 hour drive home Sunday with two people and two dogs packed in the Jetta and a stop at Cabela's were were home and happy to have Odin back with us for a few weeks before the last round of shows before they get a break and head into the field for the hunt test season in pursuit of their respective hunter titles- Master Hunter for Odin and Junior Hunter for Loki.

Welcome Spring

2011-03-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

...you've been dearly missed!

With today being the second day of Spring and the weather being sunny and warm, there are a few things I am so looking forward to over the next three months:

Getting to train the boys in sunshine rather than rain ( I won't lie, standing in a field all day in the rain working dogs with birds is NO fun)
The smell of flowers on my daily walk with Odin and Loki
Blooming cherry blossom trees on my drive to work
Opening the sunroof for the first time in months
Green trees lining my yard
Being able to start opening the windows and enjoying a breeze throughout the house
Leaving to go to work when it's light out, and returning home while it's still light
Putting my peacoats away and knowing that soon, I won't have to wear a coat at all!
The need to wear sunglasses
Attending Sounders games

But most of all, Spring means anticipating the arrival of Summer (my favorite season), and all the fabulous things it brings

It' Soccer Season!

2011-03-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night we headed to Qwest Field to watch the Seattle Sounders vs. LA Galaxy for the MLS First Kick of the 2010 soccer season. The Sounders have been fortunate to host the first game of the season for the last three season so while the weather was cold and wet it was great to see the team back in action.

We upgraded our view this season by moving to section 106, row l which means we get a much better of the play field and to be a part of the rowdiness that comes with Sounders soccer. It was also nice to see that Tammy (my little sister) can see all of the action since that was a bit of an issue last season for her in our old seats.

While the Sounders suffered a 1-0 loss to the Galaxy and we were thoroughly soaked at the end of the night we are definitely looking forward to this season and the addition of teams in Portland and Vancouver for the Northwest rivalry.

Dog Handler Debut

2011-03-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we headed to the Seattle Kennel Club dog show with both Odin and Loki for another round of showing. Odin had spent the week with his handler, Kevin Chestnut in preparation for the shows so we were looking forward to seeing him and bringing him home for a few weeks before the next round of shows.

We had hoped that this would be the weekend we would finish Odin's championship title since this weekend pulled major's on both days and that is what Odin needs to finish. Sadly Odin took third in his class both days and will now be heading to shows in Oregon in April in pursuit of his major's.

This weekend was also a big one for Loki and me asI made my dog handler debut. I've decided to give dog showing a whirl and show the little man myself. Saturday we did quite well for my first handling experience and took 1st place in our puppy class despite my missteps with stacking him for the judge. Sunday we took second place since Loki was a little wild and wound up for no reason other then he's a puppy.

Next up is the Peninsula Dog Fancier's Club show in Bremerton on the 27th for Loki's next show so we'll see how that goes and then both boys are headed to the Chintimini Kennel Club shows in Albany on April 2nd & 3rd.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

I hope you all have a festive, fun, and safe St. Patrick's Day!

Mr O Turns 3!

2011-03-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe our little puppy is now 3 years old, which according to this site, is the equivalent of 28 years old in human years. Geez, he is getting old!
This year has been filled with lots of highs for our Odin. He started competing in hunt tests and even though he didn't achieve his Senior Hunter title he did great and proved he is a great bird dog. He also started working on his show championship and currently is two wins away from finishing and becoming Champion Odin. Odin also got to take his first airplane ride to Rapid City, SD where he got to go hunting in snow drifts and a blizzard. But best of all he got to become a "big brother" to the newest addition of the family Loki in July.

We celebrated Odin's birthday by being in the Seattle Kennel Club dog show and then came home and took a nice long nap. This evening he got to have his birthday treat- a milkbone with peanut butter.

Happy Birthday O!

Back to the Field

2011-03-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

We were up bright and early Sunday as we headed out of the house in the snowy weather to officially kick off the training season in preparation for the spring/summer hunt test season with a trip to Eagle Creek, Oregon to Double Gun Ranch for training with Chris. We were lucky and the weather seemed to get better as we got closer to Oregon and ended up snow free even though it was cold and windy.

Since it was only Ben and I that made the trek we were able to get about 3 hours of straight training in with the boys. We were able to get Odin out pointing and holding birds which nice to see that he hadn't lost his touch or skills after having the last few months off and being in the show ring. We worked with Loki on his hearing and his pointing planted birds. We aren't working the retrieving or too much with planted birds with Loki right now since he is at the skill level needed for the junior hunter level so we used the most of the day to work with Odin since he is going for his master hunter title.

Loki pointing a planted bird

We were also able to get some work with Odin on honoring another dog's point since this is an area we had a lot of trouble with last year during the tests. Hopefully with some more work on this skill we will be able to replicate it during a real test this year.

Odin honoring Jazzi"s point

Onto another weekend of training and seeing the boys evolve into good little hunting dogs.

February Snow

2011-02-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

We got another dose of snow yesterday in the form of 2.5" of the white stuff. We were luckily that while it was still around for the morning commute it was melted by mid afternoon on the main roads so that driving home was much easier.

At least the boys enjoy playing in it since we are ready for winter to be over. bring on Spring and sunshine please.

A New Look Unveiled

2011-02-17T22:22:00.000-08:00

5 years ago I launched Red Box Creative as a side business to my full time job as an Account Manager in the newspaper sales world as a way to provide design, advertising and marketing solutions to those in need of creative solutions to their business needs. Over the years I have added more services, gotten established as a full fledged business complete with business license, logo and website.

I've always believed that when it comes to the website that it should be simple and present just enough information to present my services and to provide my contact information since most of my clients had come from referrals and word of month but over the last year with my goals for the company actually defined and a marketing plan in place I decided a new website was needed. So after many rewrites and attempts at defining my mission and offerings I am happy to unveil the new Red Box Creative website along with corresponding Facebook and Linkedin pages. Hopefully with the additional social media pages my reach will be increased and my goals of eventually turning this into my full time business will be reached.

Feel free to check out the new site at http://www.redbox-creative.com/ and even pass it along to anyone you know who may be in need of my services. You can also "like" Red Box Creative on Facebook if you have a profile and follow me on Twitter.

Here's to a prosperous 2011 for the company!

Weekend of Wins!

2011-02-14T17:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my mom and I headed down to Albany, Or to the Linn County Kennel Club Dog Show to see Odin show since he was already down at the shows for the weekend with his handler, Kevin Chestnut as he was shown on Friday and Saturday. We had hoped that the weekend shows would be major's and that we would capture these two needed wins towards Odin's championship but sadly they broke so we are still in pursuit of these two needed wins.

We got down to the show about 2 hours before Odin's show time so we found the Chestnut's so that we could see how the shows had gone so far and we were happy to learn that on Saturday he had gone Best of Winners and earned a couple more points towards his championship. Since mom had never been to a dog show and we had time to burn before seeing Odin as we didn't want to let him see us before he showed since this causes him to get distracted we watch a couple different breeds and I tried to explain the in's and out's of the showing world to her.

Finally it was time for the Brittany's to show and once again team Odin and Kevin did great. Odin looked really good now that we have the extra weight on him and he showed great and ended up taking Best of Winner's and earned another couple of points.Kevin was happy with his performance this weekend and we discussed the upcoming shows that he'll be in and collected his collection of ribbons that we acquired over the weekend.

By the time we headed out of the show it was already 5:30pm which meant mom and I would have a long drive home in the rain and in the dark. A quick stop in Centrailia for dinner we pulled in around 11pm and boy was Odin happy to be home after being with Kevin for a week. Loki was happy to have his "big brother" home since he was quite lonely the last week. Next up will be the Seattle shows on March 12th & 13th and then the shows in Bremerton the following weekend.

Thought for the day

2011-02-09T13:28:00.000-08:00

I saw this poster on a friends blog this morning and it was a nice reminder to always follow your dreams.

Morning Visitor's

2011-02-09T13:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning we were reminded of some of the little things that only happens when you live in the "country". We were greeted to a pair of deers standing outside of our patio door. Loki was beside himself as he tried to get to them since he is not used to the deer still.

Lunchin Ladies

2011-02-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

Today after many scheduling conflicts McKenzie and her adorable 2 year-old daughter Maya and I got to meet up for lunch. Mac and I have been great friends since our days at the King County Journal where we were ad sales reps and bonding instantly. We had a great time watching Maya open her belated Christmas present- a Cabbage Patch baby doll and catching up.

It's was great seeing these two and can't wait to do it again.

Baby Victoria "Tori"

2011-01-31T09:36:00.000-08:00

Congrats to our best friends Mark and Robyn and their little guy Caleb on their addition to their family. Baby Victoria "Tori" Lilinoe Wass was born on Tuesday 1/25 at 4:08 pm and was 7 lbs 10 oz ad 18.75 inches long. We can't wait to meet her in person and I'm sure Caleb is enjoying being a big brother to Tori.

Rose City Fun

2011-01-24T10:35:00.000-08:00

This weekend we headed down to Portland for the Rose City Classic Dog Show which was taking place at the Portland Expo Center since Odin was being shown by his handler Kevin Chestnut in the Friday, Saturday and Sunday shows. We only were able to see him show on Sunday since Friday we worked and Saturday his ring time was at 8am. Since we knew we were going to miss the morning show we debated going down Saturday afternoon or leaving bright and early Sunday. After a quick search of things going on we found cheap tickets, only $12 per ticket, to the Trailblazers game Saturday night so we decided to head down that afternoon and catch the game and stay close to the expo center so that we could head over in the morning and meet up with our friends who were showing their Irish Setter and our trainer’s daughter who was showing in Junior handlers.

When we got to the show on Sunday and met up with Kevin he said the weekend theme for Odin had been consistently second in his class since he was being a dork on the leash and part of winning in confirmation is the train ability/how they behave on the leash in the ring. Once we heard this we figured our chances for doing anything spectacular in that afternoon’s show was slim since he has never been super behaved on a show leash.

We decided that since seeing Ben got him all worked up we leave for a while and allow him to settle down before show time. Ben and I headed over to the Agility area to watch the events. Wow, some of those dogs have some serious hops as we watch everything from a Poodle to a Rottweiler run through the course. By far the most common dog competing in the Agility coursers were the border collie since they are smaller, compact dogs who can jump very well. As we expected, Odin dorked around again and took second in his class to Brittany that was not as good looking but since he was behaved he advanced and we did not.

With a weekend of missed major points, and still in pursuit of the 2 major wins and the last 10 points we need for the title we regrouped with Kevin and discussed the strategy for upcoming shows and what he needed us to work on with Odin. After getting our homework of working with him on walking and behaving on the show leash and to get another couple of pounds we decided to head for home.

Wish us luck as it looks like we will be heading to Albany, Oregon in three weeks for another weekend of shows for Odin.

it's Friday!

2011-01-21T22:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

1. My favorite quote is Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

2. A bad habit I have is cleaning up after others even at their houses.

3. The first time I felt like a "grown up" is the first day I started my first real job and realized that I no longer would have summer's off.

4. Weekends are my favorite part of the week. what gets me through the week. They are for recharging and for spending time with friends and family and for sleeping in.

5. When I was a child I wished my name was hmmm...nothing else really since I like my name.

6. I wish some things in life and some relationships were a bit easier.

7. A secret I have is...I'm not telling since then it wouldn't be a secret :)

A weekend of ups and downs

2011-01-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

This weekend was filled with a lot of ups and downs for the boys. Everything started out alright Saturday as we headed out bright and early to the Western Washington Cluster of dog shows in Puyallup since the boys were showing at 8am and we had to meet Odin's handler at 7am, no sleeping in for us :(

Things quickly went downhill from there since we were greeted to a sick Odin when we got to the show which meant that he had gone from a nicely groomed show doggie to a messy dog. We quickly took him to our handler who was in the middle of grooming other dogs and he and his wife got work on trying to make Odin presentable and not so stinky. After a 30 minute scramble of washing, drying and spraying him with flowery smelling stuff he was presentable again but still not feeling well. Loki was also not feeling well so now we had two sick dogs who needed to be in the show to prevent the major from breaking. Both boys got sick again before heading into the ring for showing and respectively walked away with decent placements- 4th for Loki and 2nd for Odin despite everything. We quickly took them both home after the show where they pretty much were a mess until late that evening and got to enjoy a dinner of white rice and water and sleeping on the couch.

Sunday we headed out again bright and early since they were feeling better and we were in the ring again at 8am. Despite Odin being a little dehydrated from the day before he was able to take first in his class but lost in the winner's dog round. Loki took 4th again which for him being a puppy and only being in a couple of shows and not really liking to be on the show leash was not too bad. We would have loved to have captured a major win for Odin since that is the last things were working on to finish his championship but it wasn't in this weekends cards.

Next up is Portland for Odin. He'll leave Wednesday to get taken to his handler who will have him for shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday with both Saturday and Sunday expected to be majors again. Here's hoping for a win or two in Portland.

Snow Eveywhere

2011-01-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we got hit with another round of snow at about 8pm and woke up this morning to 6 inches. Luckily, mother nature has decided to warm us up so we got a good dose of rain and warmer weather which has melted most if not all of the snow.

While this is great news for my commute home tonight I did find this interesting weather article showing that 49 of the 50 states. The only state that doesn't currently have any snow if Florida. Yes, even Hawaii has snow right now on the Big Island. Very crazy winter we are all having.

Let's hope spring comes very soon.

New Year's Getaway to Rapid City, SD

2011-01-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

We just returned from our long New Year’s vacation to Rapid City, SD where we spent 5 days in the frozen tundra visiting our great friends Mark, Robyn and their son Caleb. We had an adventure getting to Rapid since we were flying with Odin (our almost 3 yr. old Brittany) for the first time and had to make a connection in Salt Lake City. Our plane arrived late but we still had 30 minutes to make our connection though Delta had other plans as the airport had technically issues with their walkway and held us on the plane for 25 minutes. To make a long story short Odin made the connection to Rapid and we were stuck in the airport for 11 hours. Thankfully our friends were able to pick up Odin and take care of him while we were stuck. We finally arrived in Rapid at 11pm that evening and were greeted with a blizzard warning, temps in the negatives and 65 mph wind gusts that chilled you to the core.

Friday we were greeted to whiteout conditions and stayed bundled up inside playing with Caleb most of the day. Robyn and I were also able to work on getting some of the new baby gifts put away and the stuff that needed to be moved out of the nursery packed up. Caleb though Odin was the greatest thing ever and was instant on chasing him around the house. Not so sure he enjoyed it but he was great around the little guy and did his best to not jump, lick or knock him down. That evening some of Mark and Robyn’s friends came over for dinner and to ring in the new year. The boys ended up rather sloshed that evening and were almost put into “time-out” a couple of times.

Uncle Ben reading bedtime stories to Caleb

Saturday and Sunday the boys and Odin went bird and deer hunting. They saw a couple of coveys of 50 + Pheasants but most of them were hens. Seeing this many birds at once was thrill for Odin and Ben as we rarely find more than a couple in a covey here in Washington. The boys did have some excitement Sunday night on their way home when an Antelope ran across the highway. Mark wasn’t able to miss it and they hit is broadside. Good news is that everyone and the truck were ok. Monday they headed out with a friend of Mark’s and his son for a day of deer hunting so Odin stayed home with Robyn, Caleb and I. Caleb had fun chasing and playing with him and Odin seemed to be content to lay around on the bed and play in the snow when he went outside. Sadly they came up empty handed since the deer were crafty and seemed to always know just where to stand so that it wouldn’t be legal to shoot them.

Monday the boys decided that they needed to sight the rifle in before heading out for deer hunting and were determined that I needed to come with and learn to shoot. Grudgingly I put on all my layers and joined them since they were relentless. Not really sure it is my thing and if I want to learn but at least I gave it a try.

Shooting for the first time

Luckily the weather had warmed up by Tuesday and we were able to get Odin home with no issues on the flights or the connection through Salt Lake City. Not sure how soon we will fly with him again but I am sure that Ben will want to try his luck at hunting in So. Dakota again but in warmer weather. While we were sad to say goodbye to our friends we know that another visit is in store soon as we always seem to visit them wherever they are stationed and since they are moving to Alabama in July I sense another trip in the works.

New Year's Greeting from Rapid City

2011-01-01T21:24:00.000-08:00

We are spending the New Year's holiday in Rapid City, SD with our good friends Mark and Robyn and their little guy Caleb. While the weather has been hovering around 0, wind gusts up to 55mph and we have had a blizzard warning in effect for the last two days the boys did get out for a day of hunting today which is making the trip so far all worth it. More updates to come.

Happy New Year!
Ben, Jacqui and Odin

The Best of 2010

2010-12-31T14:32:00.000-08:00

As we look back at 2010 we feel very fortunate for our happiness, friends, families and are thankful for all the wonderful memories.We can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for us.

This year was full of exciting travel with vacations getaways to South Africa, Zambia and Rapid City, SD. We also did a fair amount of driving between southern Washington and Portland for dog training and shows.

We had lots of highlights for the year such as having Odin in his first hunt tests towards his senior hunter title, being in his first dog show and winning Best of Winners in multiple shows, getting a second Brittany- Loki, buying a new house, selling our old house and best of all going to South Africa for the World Cup. But, undeniably a low point of our year was watching certain family relationships worsen rather than get better.

There were a couple of additions this year for our friends and family. The birth of Emily for the Gran's, Robin for the Shimkus's, Evan for the Purdy's and a baby coming in 2011 for the Wass's. We also celebrated the marriage of the Staneff's in September.

And, we celebrated a big marriage milestone with our 8 year anniversary in July which marked the 11th year we've been together!

We look forward to a great 2011. Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T22:59:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season! May it bring you many fun times with family and friends.

Love, The Campbell's (Ben, Jacqui, Odin and Loki)

The Big 3-0!

2010-12-17T22:58:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe I am now 30.

I must admit, my 20s were pretty exciting -- graduating college, my first job, getting engaged, getting married, buying/selling 2 houses, Odin and Loki -- I can only imagine what exciting events and milestones the next decade of my life will bring.

As I head into my 30s, I feel truly blessed. An awesome hubby, a loving family, and a group of thoughtful (and always entertaining) friends. Thanks for making my birthday so special!

Let the Celebrations Begin!

2010-12-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

Friday night Ben and I headed out to the first of my turning the Big 3-0 celebrations by going to Teatro ZinZanni in Seattle. We were lucky and secured a seat right next to the stage which meant we were close to everything and at times involved in the mayhem that evening. This was our first time to the Teatro ZinZanni so we were in for a treat as it is a 3.5 hour performance which includes acrobatic (similar to Cirque events) and comedy performances and a complete 5 course meal which is served throughout the show. This was a great start to the birthday festivities and I am looking forward to the party on Saturday with our friends and family as a way to round of this birthday.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

2010-12-09T23:22:00.000-08:00

We are slowly getting into the Christmas spirit this year and decorating the house for the holidays. It has been a little overwhelming getting our new home ready for not only our first Christmas here but also before we debut it to our friends, family and some co-workers next weekend for our housewarming/holiday/Jacqui's turning the big 3-0 party but we are finally on our way.

Fill In the Blank Friday

2010-12-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

1. Holiday spirit makes me happy and seems to make the world a little better and a little happier.

2. The holidays are incomplete without family, Christmas trees, snowman, twinkle lights and a fireplace.

3. My favorite things to do around the holidays is baking cookies and other yummy treats and hosting holiday parties.

4. A holiday tradition my family and I have is trying to get everyone together to celebrate the holidays.

5. Holiday music is not my favorite. I listen to it when it is on but I do not have favorite songs that I must hear during the season.

6. This year, I'll be spending the holidays at my house with my family on Christmas eve and on Christmas day. We will also see my husband's grandma in the afternoon on Christmas day. We will try to see my in-laws if it works into he plans.

7. Holiday wish list laptop, decorative shelves for the new house, new cookie sheets and maybe a new smartphone.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-26T20:58:00.000-08:00

We spent this Thanksgiving with my family and my dad's friend Benard who is visiting for the month of November from Chicago at our new house. Everyone braved the snow to make the trek to our house and my mom and I spent the morning cooking. We enjoyed spending time with friends and family and of course eating yummy foods and pumpkin pie.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Seattle Snow

2010-11-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

Even though winter is still officially a month away, Seattle got it a little early with 4 inches of snow at our house as proof. We both worked from home yesterday and stayed bundled up and warm while the dogs decided that they wanted to play in it. For Loki this was his first time seeing snow so he wasn't so sure about it at first but a little pushing from Odin and they were off playing.

Happy Friday!

2010-11-19T14:53:00.000-08:00

This week has been a hectic one with getting the house ready for Thanksgiving next week, repairing the newly completed fence that a deer decided to remove, craziness with work,getting over a nasty cold and of course getting the boys ready for the shows this weekend. Wish us luck as we debut the puppy in his first show tomorrow!

1. My Thanksgiving plans this year will include eating copious amounts of food at my new house with my family, grandfather and my dad's friend who is visiting from Chicago.

2. My favorite Thanksgiving was the first time I spent it with my husband's family at his grandparents and the rest of the extended family joined. It was great to see all of the extended family spending time with each other and even better that everyone got along for the most part.

3. My signature Thanksgiving dish is corn pudding. It's one of the few times a year that I make it but everyone requests it to be made and usually there is no left overs which must mean it is a crowd pleaser.
4. My favorite Thanksgiving food is mashed potatoes and gravy. Since Ben doesn't really like potatoes we don't have them very often at our house so I enjoy getting them covered in gravy during the holidays.
5. Thanksgiving free association! turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce. with the lines on it, thankfulness, family time.

6. Thanksgiving is a time to stop and pause to be thankful for the things that I have .

7. I am thankful for a best friend who is also a husband, two silly dogs, for family in general, our health and happiness and much more.

Deer-1, Fence- 0

2010-11-17T11:36:00.000-08:00

We have been working on getting a fence put up around the smaller yard for the past 3 weeks that we have been in our new house and were within a day of being finished and having a space for the boys to run free until yesterday morning. Somewhere between the time that the boys were initially let out to potty and were let out again before going into the kennel for the day a deer came through and decided he didn't agree with where we put the fence.

Guess were back to work on the fence this weekend. Deer-1, Fence-0

It's Friday!

2010-11-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

What a week! It was very long and productive one both on the work and home front. As usual, here is today's Fill in the Blank Friday...link up here to play along!

1. The most spontaneous thing I've ever done was a trip with ten other people (including Ben) packed into a SUV designed to carry six people and headed to a club in the middle of the night in a foreign country and we barely knew how to get home at the end of the night.

2. The best gift I've ever received was a strand of pearls that belonged to my grandmother for my wedding.
3. A time that I was truly and genuinely surprised was when Ben proposed. I was completely unaware he was even proposing since his line came across more like a joke than a proposal.

4. I can't leave the house without my cell phone, chapstick and GPS if driving.

5. My favorite day of the week is Saturday because I get to sleep in late and set my own agenda for the day -- whatever that may be.

6. Something that can always make me laugh is Odin and Loki. They are always doing something that will make you laugh.

7. My perfect day would include sleeping in 'til 10. Doing something with Ben and the boys- Odin and Loki and hanging out with friends in the evening.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

This evening we headed to the Sounders first play-off game against the LA Galaxy so we skipped out on the usual dressing the dogs up and passing out candy to trick-or-treaters though we are not really sure we would actually get any now that we live out in the county and our neighbors are mostly horses.

We hope everyone had a wonderful treat filled Halloween!

Fill in the Blank Friday

2010-10-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! With questions inspired by this blogger, here are my answers to fill in the blank Friday. The theme was 'Halloween.' Feel free to play along in the comments or on your blog.

1. My Halloween plans this year will include spending the day working on unpacking and finishing the fence at our new house and then heading to the Sounder playoff game with my mom and sister.

2. My most memorable Halloween costume was cat in the hat from the Doctor Seuss book when I was a freshman in high school.
3. For Halloween this year I'm going to be me, myself and I.

4. I've always wanted to dress up as...hmmm don't really dream of any costume.

5. Halloween free association! pumpkins, chocolate, orange, candy corn.

6. The worst thing about Halloween is that is usually cold and rainy here. Makes you wonder why the kids want to go out in this weather.

7. The best thing about Halloween is admiring all of the creative costumes. I love to see what people come up with.

Another Win!

2010-10-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

Odin spent October 14th - 17th being a show dog again this time in Boise, Idaho much to Ben's dismay as he would rather been hunting than packing or without hid buddy for the weekend. Odin took Best of Winner's at the Brittany Specialty which gave him another couple of points towards the championship title and some fancy ribbons for the wall.

Up next is another show for Odin the weekend before Thanksgiving and then a well deserved break for hunting season before more shows in 2011.

Odin's took Best of Winners at the the Idaho Capital City Kennel Club Brittany Specialty on Oct 15, 2010 with his pro handler Kevin Chestnut

Moving On Up!

2010-10-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

For many of you this is not new news but for some of you it is. Last week Monday we officially said goodbye to Chestnut Trails and our home for the last 5.5 years and said hello to our new home in Echo Lake on Wednesday. We have had a lot of good times in our first house and the great neighborhood that we have lived in. We have have had the pleasure of having great neighbors who have become our friends and we will miss seeing and catching up with them on our daily walks with the dogs.

While we are sad to leave the old neighborhood we are very excited to move into our new home since it is everything we have been looking for over the last few years. The house has a great room/game room for Ben and his toys and of course the dogs to roam in, a big shop for Ben's future toys and of course acreage- 5 acres to be exact. We are looking forward to getting settled in and making this our home.

Our new house

All In A Weekend

2010-10-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

This was a divide and conquer weekend as we had a couple of commitments that we need to tend to. First was our usual of taking the boys to the trainer since hunting season is upon us. Normally I wouldn't mind packing up the car for the 8 hours of driving and getting teased by our friends all day about not wanting to touch birds but this time I stayed home and let Ben, the boys, Lisa and her girls have a day of fun since I had commitment number 2 to tackle.

Since my kid sister Tammy is now a freshman in high school and that means schools dances to attend I had the fun task of getting her ready for homecoming. Normally Tammy is a tomboy and wants very little to do with being a girl, let alone a girly girl so I wasn't sure how this was going to go. We started our adventure by getting dress shoes and a haircut. Then came the fun part- deciding which dress to wear and how to do her hair. 4 dresses and an hour and half of putting curls in she was ready for the dance and I was ready for a nap. The next day report indicated a good time was had by her and her friends and the curls stayed in all night.

Sunday was our last commitment and involved lots of driving. Since Ben had shared the 8 hours of driving the day before and Odin had to be taken to Moses Lake to the Professional Handler who is showing him in 4 upcoming dog shows in Boise next weekend I took one for the team and headed over the mountain with both boys. 6+ hours later our adventure ended with one slightly confused Loki since he wasn't sure he liked not having his friend around the house to play with. Not sure how this week will go for him since he is used to being around Odin all the time but being on his own should be good for him since it will happen once in a while.

We did notice that after three months of having two dogs who like to wrestle nightly our house was very quite since Loki was content to sit in one of our laps while we watched football and relaxed before the start of another busy week.

Oh Loki!

2010-10-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

Not sure what to say about this other than we're pretty sure that the toy box is not a Loki holder. Give him another week or two and he won't fit so easily.

Sibling Fun

2010-10-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

We had a treat last weekend as our trainer Chris Tewes made the trek up to Scatter Creek to work with everyone and their dogs. Since Chris made the trip up to Washington everyone invited their fellow hunting friends and dogs to join us for the day. Ben and I have stayed in touch with Barbara, the breeder that we got Loki from and knowing that she is into hunting we invited her and the puppy she kept from the litter down for the day.

We hadn't seen any of the other puppies since we picked up Loki so it was a treat meeting and seeing Jake in over 2 months. Loki and Jake had a blast running in the field, playing with the other dogs when they could and of course doing what they do best- pointing or should I say chasing birds at this age.

From front to back- Jake, Odin, Loki and Lisa's friends German Shorthair

Ribbions and Points

2010-09-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed to the Shelton Fairgrounds for the Gig Harbor Kennel Club Dog Shows with Lisa and Odin for another round of fun in the pursuit of the championship title. This weekend Odin looked better than he did at his first three shows since the scratch on his nose has healed and the groomer did a much better job this time.

Team Lisa and Odin locked up a win in his class and then the Winner's dog spot which meant one more point towards his championships so we are now at 3 points with 12 more to go and 2 major Brittany dog shows.

Additionally while we were watching Odin in the ring a friend of Lisa's who is a professional handler (Lisa is an amateur handler) spoke to Ben about wanting to show Odin in four shows coming up in October in Boise since they would be major shows and he could get plenty of points and possibly be finished. We were happy and impressed that a professional handler would want to show him so were getting more details but it looks like Odin is headed to Boise in a couple of weeks.

Super Loki

2010-09-14T14:55:00.001-07:00

I can fly!

Something to Think About...

2010-09-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

Don't you think that "Wag More, Bark Less" is something that we all should practice a little more? (and we don't just mean the dogs, either!).

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Staneff!

2010-09-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we headed out to the Newcastle Golf Course to celebrate Sarah and Geoff's wedding. The ceremony was perfect - short and sweet and very romantic. Sarah was literally glowing and I know they will be so happy together.

We are so happy for you, Mr. & Mrs. Staneff- have a wonderful honeymoon!

Probably Not Dog Handlers...

2010-09-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend the Puyallup Fair kicked off and they once again had the All About Dogs exhibit/booths in one of the livestock barns. We were invited to bring Odin and Loki to the fair so they could be a part of the "dog show" demonstration on Friday and Saturday so that people could see what happens at a show and see the different types of breeds and classes that they belong to.

On Friday since Lisa had Daphne her English Pointer there I got the pleasure of being a handler for Odin in the show. Thankfully this was only for fun since Odin was super excited by all the dogs and people and I will be the first to admit that handling a dog and getting them to do what you need them to do in front of people is not as easy as it looks. I think we’ll leave the handling of Odin to Lisa for real shows.

On Saturday we headed back to the fair with Lisa and her mom to see the fair and let Odin be in the show again. Lennie decided that we should bring Loki along with as well and Ben and I figured it couldn’t hurt so off to the far he went as well. Lisa was back in the reigns of showing Odin since we left Daphne at home. Right before the sporting dogs took to the ring Lennie and Lisa decided that Ben should show Loki as well and give a try at handling a dog. With some prodding we were able to get him in the ring with Loki though I’m sure he want not too happy. I don’t think he’ll be taking up dog showing anytime soon.

All in all it was a good weekend of dog events at the fair with good company.

Loki with his "2nd Place" ribbon and Odin with his
"4th Place" ribbon from the Saturday "dog show"

Perfecting His Point

2010-09-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

Loki got a treat this past weekend when we went to trainer. Chris decided it was time to teach him to use his nose rather than eyes when it comes to pointing birds and wanted to see what his point looked like. We were surprised to see that at 4 months he has a pretty good point and actually held it 3 different times on planted birds. With some more training he'll be on his way to giving Odin a run for who is the better hunter.

What IS Marketing?

2010-09-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

I found this on urban dictionary and it cracked me up;

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, “I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Direct Marketing

You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, “He’s fantastic in bed.”
That’s Advertising

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Telemarketing

You’re at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, “By the way, I’m fantastic in bed.”
That’s Public Relations

You’re at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, I hear you’re fantastic in bed.”
That’s Brand Recognition

Best of Winners

2010-08-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

As mentioned a few post ago, Odin was shown in his first three dog shows and took Best of Winners in his second show. We got the picture yesterday from the show and are so proud of him and can't wait to see how he does in future shows.

Weekend of Ribbons

2010-08-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend we continued Odin's debut into the world of confirmation and headed to the Olympic Kennel Club Dog show at the fair grounds in Enumclaw on both Saturday and Sunday. Odin was shown by his amazing and talented handler Lisa Merki once again and they had a great weekend of showing.

Saturday was by far Odin's best day and took first place in his class and the winner's group which is the round of showing for all the class winners for those of you who are unfamiliar with how this whole show thing works. To our surprise Odin took first in the winner's group which meant he got to compete for Best of Breed in his second dog show ever. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Best part of him being able to compete for Best of Show was getting to see him compete against his dad, Jake and Loki's dad, Sam for the same award. While Sam took the win and won Best of Show, Odin won Best of Winners. He got a bunch of ribbons for his good work along with a food dish and leash holder which were prizes given by the Washington Brittany Club. We also got a picture with the judge, Lisa and Ben since this was his first big win with points earned towards his championship.

Competing for Best of Breed on Saturday

Sunday Odin was a little hyper since he hadn't gotten to run around much the night before since we didn't want to have to give him another bath and blow dry and decided he didn't want to stay standing in the stacked position very long so it made Lisa's day interesting. Despite this he won his class again and took reserve winner's. The other excitement for Lisa was she showed her Pointer puppy, Harper and took Best of Winners so it was a good day of dog showing for her.

Competing for Winner's Dog on Sunday

Loki also got to come to the shows with us even though he was just a spectator for now since he is too young to compete. Not sure if we'll show him but he enjoyed being around all of the other dogs and of course getting petted by all the people. We also got to see Loki next to Sam which was fun and Sam's owner Liz got to meet him as well.

All in all it was a great weekend and Odin proved that he is really a great show quality dog.

Odin's Debut

2010-08-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

For our loyal readers who probably were wondering why after 2 years we decided to get Odin professional groomed last week well it was for his ring debut today at the Rainer Sporting Dog Association Dog Show in Enumclaw at the Fair Grounds. The show had over 700 dogs and was held outdoors for the confirmation events so the cooler weather was greatly appreciated by both the people and the dogs. Odin is being shown by his wonderful handler Lisa Merki who has know him since he was a puppy. They make a great team and Odin really likes her and of course the treats that she has in her pockets :) Were so proud of him for being behaved at his first show and were happy to report that he did AWSOME- he won first place in his group and took reserve in the Winners group.

We're looking forward to this weekend as Odin will be in shows both days and are excited that we'll get to be there in person to see Team Lisa and Odin perform for the judges. Guess we truly have a show doggie after all.

All in a weekend- Birdies, Sun & Water

2010-08-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend with the weather in the high 90's we headed out bright and early Saturday morning with the boys to meet up with Lisa and her girls to head down to the trainer for some training before it got to be too hot to do anything. We met up Andy and his wife LoAnne and their boys Oscar and Chase and Dick and his boy Max who were training as well. This weekend we worked on more backing for Odin as this is his main area of concern and some fine tuning for hunting season.

While at the trainer we also decided to continue Loki's introduction to birds and based on how well he has been doing and his reaction to the pop gun and the shotgun last weekend we decided it was time to introduce him to the shotgun. After a few rounds at distances that got closer to him each time with no problems, Chris decided it was time to go for it and let him have his own bird. Boy was he a happy bird dog once he got his bird.

Since the weather wasn't cooling off on Sunday we headed down to Ben's cousins- Mike and Pam who live on Lake Hicks for a day of fun. We spent our afternoon floating around, swimming and Ben got to go tubing. The day ended with a great BBQ dinner before we packed up to head home with two very tired boys, three if you include Ben :)

All Polished Up

2010-08-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

Ben tends to like the "wildman" look when it comes to Odin but we finally decided to let him get a proper grooming. Thursday Odin headed to Der Pet Haus in Bellevue for an appointment with Keith who handles all of the Brittany's. Since we have never sent him to a professional groomer before we weren't sure what would all be done outside of trimming him.

We were pleasantly surprised by how much of a proper Brittany Odin looks now while a little puzzled that they shaved the whiskers and eyebrows but were sure he will make a grand presence at his debut in the coming days now that he is all polished looking.

Happy Boys

2010-08-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday was supposed to be a sleep in day but Ben and the boys had other plans as we headed out of the house at 4:45am to make the drive down to Chris's place in Eagle Creek for training. The drive takes about 3.5 hours each way and the boys sleep the entire way so they don't mind it, can't say the same about us.

Chis was a great host and had let everyone know the day before that he would be smoking ribs so we could have a potluck lunch. Everyone brought goodies to go with the ribs and had a good day of training and socializing.

Loki got to play with more pigeons as well and is showing that he is quite the retriever and a bird dog. While he does have a little trouble actually retrieving the birds as they are usually the same size as him he does make a good effort to figure out how to make it work.

All in all everyone had a good day and were looking forward to next weekend since hunting season is right around the corner.