Grease Monkeys

This is what happens when your dogs get around the gate that surrounds the grill.

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We found some more snakes under the tunnels. One last week, that my husband moved to the woods a few houses away. Then another one yesterday. I threw the bucket over it and called my husband. We think they are copperheads. So this one my husband killed. He chopped its head off. Who knew snakes can still bite after
their heads are chopped off. The snake was still moving around without its head. Yuk!

Day #3 of the trial

So I came home last night and was happy it was mostly over. I still have to complete the reports for the AKC within 7 days and finish out the finances. But the hard stuff done. The funny thing is, its almost time for me to fill out the application for the Spring trial.
I probably shouldn't have looked at my videos last night. I knew what happened at the trial but it didn't seem that bad in my head. Then when I watched the video, I felt like crying. It looked terrible. No wonder those ladies were looking at me like that. They probably thought I didn't know what I was doing. Lol. So last night I was pretty much over everything. I was quitting agility. I'm obviously a terrible trainer with my dog running circles around me. What was I thinking that I could do this. I couldn't read any one's blog. I was having a big pity party for myself. I didn't want to read everyones great news. Pathetic, I know. But today is a new day. I'm feeling better, although the tapes didn't get any better.

Our first run was Open JWW. I rear crossed the pinwheel into the weaves and sent my dog off course. I should have front crossed. Then when Miley realized she was wrong, she started circling. I was able, finally , to get her back and we finished nicely.
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Then there was Open Standard. I really had high hopes. We started out so nicely that I thought for sure she would get on the table. But no, she didn't. A few circles then she finally gets on. I made a mistake and made her drop a bar. I cant remember what I did, but I do remember it was my fault. Then the weaves. I decided to try and correct the weaves which I haven't been doing. I really felt like she needed to do them and not just go by. So, not a great run. More stuff to work on. Lots of people gave me advice to fix my table problem. Meagan is very nice. She always says nice things about your runs and then waits for you to bring up the bad stuff. You know, she tried to tell me this circling stuff would come back to bite me, but I didn't listen. I'm not sure why, I guess I didn't believe her. Lol . Maybe I should have just driven down 77 and just thrown my money out the window ( you know , since I didn't listen to what she said. ) I'm tired of learning lessons.

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Trial day #2

Well I could tell you that my dog and I ran awesome today but that would be a big fat lie. Im not sure where my mind was today. It wasn't on course. Poor Miley. She probably wanted to trade me in for a new model. One that knows how to run the course. Lol Everything having to do with the trial went well, so Im not sure why I was having trouble. Also today was 20 degrees cooler than yesterday. First I had Open Standard. You took the chute and then had to come out into a 180, and loop around over the jump you first took. Well I had planned to rear cross after the chute and then front cross and pull her around. I had poor timing and pushed her off the jump and then I couldnt figure out how to get back on course. Miley took the cue to start circling. Ugh! Of course the table was next. It felt like forever ( 15 seconds) to get her to come to me, I had her sit. Then I sent her to the table. Probably risky but it worked. She got on the table sat and then I put her in a down. WhooHoo! She got on the table. The rest of the run was nice. I cant believe the judge didn't whistle me off the course. I kept waiting for the whistle but it never came. And we didn't run out of time. Its just to funny, when you are out there and your dog is running around you, it feels like forever.

Next was our Open jumpers run. I did a two jump lead out to the tunnel. Released my dog and I never cued the tunnel. SO my poor dog came right to my side. I'm standing there thinking , "what is my dog doing right here". Duh! So I finally get my brain sorta back and she gets in the weaves and finishes the course beautifully. Really, she ran the course kinda by herself. Someone said to me, that was great distance you had on your dog. ( uh, that's cause her owner didn't know if her dog was running the course right and just let her run and then the owners brain engaged and figured out the dog was right.)

Last was our Open Fast run. Not much to tell there. I messed that up to. I didn't plan the course right. Not much to tell. I was just glad we were done for the day. I have to say, I think Miley was done too. I had her massaged twice today because the massage lady thought she was tight in her thighs. When I went to get Miley after her last run to do the second massage. She was sound asleep in the crate. Didnt even open her eyes when I was at the crate.

So that was that. I hope I do better tomorrow.

GCOC, Friday

Well, it was hot as heck. I think it got up to 92 degrees and the humidity was a killer. Just sitting there can make you sweat. The poor judges, but they never complained. Today was my first time as Agility Trial Chairman. Ugh!!! It kinda started out rough. The electrical hook ups for the RV's weren't right. So no one had power last night. Some people wanted to leave. We finally got that all fixed. Then the person who had the wicket for measuring the dogs was late and then there was an accident , so she became later. Measuring was suppose to be from 7:45 to 8:15. The wicket didn't get there until 8:15. Needless to say, people were mad. Then the weld under the teeter broke. Luckily the guy who made it was at the trial because he brought us a new a-frame. So he did a temporary fix. Then the large leg for the table was missing. My husband drove up to the field and found it in the shed. We had to rig up something for the first class of the day. I hope tomorrow goes smoother.

Now for my runs. First was Novice Fast. She did well except didn't do the weaves. Everything else was great and she got 70 points, "Q"ed and took 1st place. Now we move to the abyss of Open Fast.

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Now Open JWW. She keeps looking like she is going to break her stay but she didn't. We had a great run except the weaves poles. Its funny, the run felt better than it looks on video. Im going to be in Open the rest of my life.

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Open Standard. What can I say, weave pole problems and she jumped off the table again. Do you see pattern here? LoL Also, she runs right in front of me to take the wrong tunnel entrance.
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So this evening we worked on the table. Ive been trying to make her fail on the table so I could correct it. But she just wouldn't do it no matter what I did. So I had an idea. I hope you don't think I'm a bad person for doing this but I put the ferrets in a small crate and put them just pass the table. I did a couple of obstacle and sent her to the table. She jumped on and then off. I told her "no" and brought her back and put her on the table and then praised her and released her to the ferret crate. ( she couldn't get to the ferrets, she could just sniff them). We ran it again and she got on the table but when I changed the sequence she would then jump on and then off the table again. I told her "no" and brought her back and made her sit on the table. She eventually got it. She had a few, almost off the table but she caught herself. So tomorrow when she jumps on and off the table, I'm going to tell her "no" and bring her back to the table. I'm not sure if I will get whistle off or not. Will see.

My wild , crazy dog

Im going to try to post a link some pictures taken of Miley at the trial. http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=1FMG003F050043&po=43

After you get to the link , hit the right arrow to scroll through the pictures. I like the first one, the one after she gets off the teeter and her tail is flying high and the one when she is jumping on the table.

Ok here are Saturdays runs

Here is our jumpers run from Saturday. She went in at the second weave pole and if you watch she actually has to turn to take the wrong tunnel entrance.


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Now the crazy Open Standard run. She breaks her startline before Im even to where I want to be and I had my back to her. Then I get her back and we are good until the table. Its hard to see, but Im at the far left of the screen when the video starts.


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And to show how excited Miley can get. Here is what she does when we are getting ready to see the ferrets.

BRAC trial , day two

Went back to the hotel last night. It was pouring down rain. Yuk! Miley and I were so tired that we fell asleep at 8pm. My daughter called me a couple of times. Once was to ask if I could make her jeans in to Capri's when I get home. I told her not to call again because I was sleeping. "What, its only 8 o'clock!", "I know, I'm just really tired". Miley didn't bark once all night and I had the TV turned off all night too. Probably no one went outside because it was pouring down rain all night long. Then it was still pouring this morning. I went to the trial site early again. Miley wouldn't use the bathroom because it was pouring down rain and she would just stand there like it was torture. I took her up to that barn area and let her go in there. I figured all the other stock animals must go in there, what's the difference.




So my plan was to run the first run of the day , which was Jumpers. If she acts crazy, then we are going home after that. No reason to wait 4 hours to have a crazy run. But she surprised me and ran nicely. Although still a little slow for her. She usually runs a 145 yd run in about 23 sec and these courses have been 120 yards and she getting the same course time. But at least she wasn't crazy. She wanted to break her start line and kept acting like she was going to break but didn't. The only problems where she went in on the 2nd weave pole and dropped a bar. The bar drop, she took off to early.

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Open Standard:

We stayed around for our second run. I took her up to that barn area 3 times to play ball. The last time was right before our run. They had already started running Open Standard. I really wanted her to burn off some energy before getting in the ring. Plus it had been raining so much that you couldn't really walk your dog around the area. I decided to run the course with a big lead out. I know she broke her start line yesterday but I wasn't paying attention and that was probably part of the problem. I couldn't decided what to do. If I tried to do a post turn after the first two jumps , I really thought she would take the a-frame or at least go really wide. I know that the a-frame looks really far away from the jumps but when you were out there is didnt seem that way. Plus if she cant hold her start line, then I shouldn't be out there. Here was a chance to practice. Plus when watching the other dogs run, the ones that ran with their dogs and then rear crossed at #4, they either pulled their dog off the jump or their dog dropped the bar on the triple. So what did I have to lose. I did the lead out. You will see I look very unsure of her start line. But she held it and off we went. She read the lead out with the turn and did the triple without dropping the bar. And into the weaves. Perfect weaves. WhooHoo! Then the tunnel, would she take the correct tunnel entrance? Yes she does. I'm getting excited now. Most of our trouble spots are behind us now. Now the big one, the table. She gets on the teeter and then hits the table. And........ off the table. Crap! She does a huge victory lap around the ring , starts coming my way, and I send her into the chute. Over the dogwalk and she holds her contact. A couple of jumps to the a-frame, beautiful. Then the last few jumps and we are done. Beautiful run except the !#&@$! table. Guess were Miley had dinner tonight?. Yep, on the table outside .

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So we are done until next Friday, when our trial begins. At least I can sleep at home. I hope it doesn't rain next weekend. Everything we had was covered in red mud. Even Miley's face was red. So she had a bath tonight. I cant imagine washing 3 or 4 dogs. Thank god I don't have to do that. Right now I'm washing all the stuff I brought with us. Everything is red. I hope it comes clean.

Doesnt she look happy to be in her crate?

Trial results

Its been and up and down day. Miley just doesn't do well the first night at hotels. Every noise causes her to bark. So I had to have the TV on the whole night so she didnt hear doors closing and people talking. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. When I woke up at 5am,I started changing the channels on the TV. Miley jumped over to my bed and started licking my face. It was almost as if she was saying, "O'Thank god you finally woke up". Silly dog. Then all she wanted to do was leave. She kept jumping and barking at the door. If I took her out, she just kept pulling to the car. Finally I gave up and got in the car at 6:30 and drove to the trial site.

Our first run was Open JWW. She ran well. A little slow for Miley but she looked great. For some reason she took the wrong tunnel entrance. The right tunnel entrance was a straight line from the weaves, jump, the tunnel. She had to veer off into the wrong tunnel entrance. Hmmmm. But otherwise nice run.

Then came Standard open. My legs had really been hurting. I had taken medication early in the day hoping that would keep the pain away. But it didn't work. So I sat in the chair for about 2 hours and the pain was finally gone. But now Miley didnt get much exercise. The course looked very nice with a few off course traps. I didn't feel nervous at all. I set Miley and walked out pass the first jump. ( it was jump, dogwalk). Before I even turned around, my dog is running pass me. Crap. She circles me a couple of times, I finally get her back and we run the dog walk. Things are back on track. She did her contacts , did the pinwheel and teeter. Now for the a-frame. Since she was wild , I figured she would jump the contact but she didnt. Ok, then the table. She jumped right on. Ok, now we are cooking. But no, she jumped right off, the starts running big circles around me. Crap. People are saying, "she's looking for sheep". Ugh! I finally get her back and she does nice weave poles and finishes the course nicely. Crazy dog. Its funny, when that stuff starts happening it feels like you are out there forever. But it only last one minute or less. So after the crazy run, I took her to this barn area and made her chase the ball until her tongue was hanging out. When I went and looked at the Q rate for Open Standard, on 4 dogs out of 33 Qed. Most of the dogs were crazy like Miley.


Then there was Novice fast. I think its was now 5pm. Long day. Miley did ok. She didn't break her stay and started great. She was a little crazy and took some things on her own but she got the distance send bonus and did the high value obstacles. So I knew we had enough points and we finished the run. WhooHoo. A little later I went to check my score and I didn't have enough points. You need 50, they said I had 45. I knew that wasnt right. I didnt video this run. See, always tape your runs. I went to the score table and they pulled my card. They had the send bonus points on the card but not the points for the actual obstacles. So we had 60 points. We Qed and Im pretty sure took 1st place. Ill find out tomorrow when I go back.

I'm having Internet problems. I'm typing this in my car by the front office of the hotel. I couldn't get access in my room. If I can later I will post the videos.

And now there were 2

I moved the tunnel today. Look at what I found. This was number one.

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Here is snake number 2.


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I called my husband to come get the snakes. By the time he came outside, the smaller snake was gone. He did get the bigger snake.
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At least one snake is gone.

A lesson and my brain

I finally made it up to North Carolina for a lesson. I'm not sure how long its been but over a month for sure and maybe almost 2 months. And it showed. So here was the course. For some reason I forgot my notebook that I put the courses in and write notes to myself about things I need to work on. I had to pull the course lay out from my brain and my brain has been having problems working. There were 20 obstacles and I only have 19. For the life of me I cant figure out what is missing. Plus 14 and 15 may not be right but they are close.
The first time I ran the course , I did a lead out to #2 and then rear crossed between 3 and 4. I cant remember what I did, I think I crossed to early and she missed the #4 jump and took the tunnel. Good table. Then here is were we fell apart. I had her wrap to the left on jump 7 which made her go back into the tunnel because it was a straight line. We tried it again with a wrap to the right, gives a straighter line to the dog walk but she still took the tunnel. I needed to do a shoulder drop and call her over the jump to get her head and then do the dogwalk.
The rest of the course she did well. She had great contacts and awesome weaves. WhooHoo!!
I did have a problem with number 18. I wrapped her to the left when she was on the right lead and should have let her wrap to the right. So one time she missed the tire. There was a jump chute with 18 and 20 inch jumps set up after the course but perpendicular to the course. She took those jumps too. Crazy dog.
So my dog had good speed and was having lots of fun. Came when called. I really had trouble with the rear crosses. We changed they way we had to handle the course after we ran it the way we thought we should. We worked on not doing a lead out and being to the right of the dog and then rear crossing #3. I did terrible with that. My poor dog. I just was crossing way to late and causing her to drop the bars. My very nibble dog kept trying to do what I wanted by turning in the air but of course causing the bar to drop.
Then the last run we were going to put it all together one last time. We started out well but then missed the dogwalk again, started from the table. After a few misses she just couldn't handle it anymore and got the zoomies. Just running and taking anything. I couldn't get her attention, running circles. I finally got her and we did a jump to the weaves, celebrated that and ended.

This was the first time I had been to this training arena. It was very nice. Indoors and great matting. The dogwalk was very nice. I checked to make sure there were no gaps. What I didn't notice was, one side of the dogwalk ramp had slates the other side didn't. So when Miley went down the non-slated side, she did this little gait thing at first. I didn't know why she did this, but as she came down the ramp, she corrected it. Then Meagan told me that side was unslated. The rest of the time Miley ran it without problems. When I left the training building I needed to go left to get back to the highway. I was stopped and looking at the road. I see two lanes and a bunch of trees going down the far side. I wanted to turn left, but something wasn't right. There were white dashes down the middle of the two lanes. I kept sitting there trying to figure out what was wrong. Then it dawned on me, it was two on coming lanes. I had to turn right first, then take a cross path to get to the opposite side of the highway, which was also 2 lanes. No cars were coming. Thank goodness I didn't pull out into on coming traffic. I could have had a head on collision. I told you my brain hasn't been working.
I'm going to the trial tonight. Here is another example of my brain not working. I entered this trail. This club has trails at two places. I thought it was at the place, closer to me. But when people were talking about the trail on Facebook, I thought I better go look it up. Good thing I did. It wasn't were I thought it was. Ugh! That was 2 days ago. Its at least 2 1/2 hours from me so I wouldn't be able to drive back and forth every day. Luckily I found a hotel room. Its about 14 miles from the site , so not to bad. Its suppose to rain all weekend but at least it under cover. I hoping for the best, but now I'm really worried about my rear crosses.

my backyard

There a little dangers in my backyard. First I don't have a lot of trees but I do have some. Most I got rid of to make the yard bigger for agility. The trees leave these nuts in the yard. So I pick them up and put them in a pile off to the side of the yard. No one bothers with them. But winter must be coming and the squirrels have started to eat the nuts. Do they eat the nuts off in the pile. No.




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They go into the yard, find them in the yard and open them right there. They then become little shards of pain when you walk or run thur the yard. I try to pick them up so Miley doesn't have to run on them. I usually walk barefoot in the yard to find the little suckers. They are hard to see just looking for them.


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I took this picture so you could get a better idea of these little torture nuts.


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Then there is the next danger. Well I don't really know if they are dangerous or not. I just don't like them. I found this lovely thing the other day.


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Many times when I move the tunnel there is a little snake under the tunnel. It's always the same looking snake just different sizes. Ive been trying to get a picture of one . Ive been taking my camera out every day and moving the tunnel. No snakes. But this weekend , when I moved the tunnel for my son to mow the yard, there was a snake. But I didn't have the camera. I went in to get it but the snake was gone when I came out. Today when I went out to do some agility, I moved the the tunnel and there is was. A snake. A little one but none the less a snake. Did I mention , I hate snakes. ( Try not to laugh, I know its small. Chihuahua are small dogs,so this is probably relative)




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Big Problems

This morning I was so excited. I was going to take Miley up to the field to practice a course. This coming weekend is our first trial in over 2 months. I was hoping to use this trial for practice but I wasn't expecting disaster. That's what our practice was, a disaster. I don't think Ive ever had a practice go this bad. She dropped more bars then ever. Most of them I could see she was taking off to early ( but not early enough to kill herself). But I was somewhat near her, she was going through a pinwheel and was at the farthest jump, dropped that bar and the next. It was weird. Things I was expecting to be a problem, were not and things I didn't think would be a problem at all, were. Ugh!!! And to top it off, she couldn't do the weave poles if her life depended on it. She has had problems getting into the first pole but never so many pop outs as she has had today. And it made me wonder if she was injured. So I set the camera up right in front of the poles to see if I could see anything. The only thing I could see was, right before she was going to pop out, her head would come up. I could predict every time she was going to pop out. ( I had also set the camera up beside the poles and that's when I could see her head come up. ) She also seems to come down a little wider, with more spring ,on her right then on her left. Not sure if that means anything. I added the final video I taped when she finally ran a short sequence and got all the weaves with out popping out. After that she got a big jackpot and we stopped.

I feel jinxed. Every time is time for a trial or a seminar, something goes wrong.

More Park Pictures

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I really liked this picture but Miley was to washed out. I tried to retake the other picture I had on the blog header but the lighting wasnt right and it turned out to dark.
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I tried to get some action shots but Miley kept coming up blurry. Plus there was someone who was out with their dog off leash. I kept seeing the dog but not the person. I could just here them call their dog every once in a while. You cant see it but there is a big gully behind Miley. There is a long plank across the gully but the dog was to scared to cross it. I don't blame him. I don't cross it either. I walk down into the gully and back up the other side. So from here we just turned around and walked back. Maybe tomorrow I can try again. I think I need the telephoto lens.

The problem

So my dog has a problem and there for I have a problem. If she perceives that I'm going to far ahead of her and she is trying to catch me, then the fastest way from point A to point B is fly. Yep, fly. Just like she use to take flying leaps off the contacts. Why doesn't she just take more strides to try to catch up to me. No, she will instead take a flying leap and crash a jump. She is going to kill herself. I don't want you to think that I want my dog to be crazy or that I'm not careful with my training. Ive been doing lots of jump chutes trying to recreate this type of sequence ( me ahead and her trying to catch up). But she does fine in the jumps chutes no matter where I place myself or how far ahead I go. Maybe I need to practice the jump chutes at the agility field. There I can really spread them out. Also, maybe I should first put her through a tunnel and then run the chute. Do you think she panics when she thinks I'm to far ahead or if I'm picking up speed. Maybe it has to do with coming out of the tunnel. She leaves with you in one spot. When she comes out, you are in another spot and she has to think and adjust to where you are and what you are doing. I really don't want her to kill herself. I feel lucky that she didn't break her neck yesterday. Crap, what was she thinking. Maybe I need to just not go so far ahead or start speeding up , especially when she is coming out of a tunnel.

Crash and burn

I'm finally feeling better. I went back to work today and made it through the whole day. I really wanted to go up to Charlotte for lessons tonight but I just didn't want to take a chance of another relapse. So instead I went to the training field. I set up the "Box Drills with C-shaped Tunnels" that was in last months clean run. We did pretty well. A few wide turns that required me to decelerate a lot, almost to an abrupt stop , to get her to come in and take the closer jump. Not sure what that was all about. Then she ran the course and she fell head over heels. When I slowed the video down, she took off way to early. There was no way she was going to clear the jump and fell into it.

She seemed to be ok. I had her run it again and she ran clean. We did the weaves twice and they looked good. Then also did a few jumps to the table. No problems there. Well, not today anyway.

I'm not sure I'm going to facebook anymore. I just don't think its my thing. If no one reads my blog , that's ok. I'm writing more for myself as a journal. ( Its still nice when people comment)

I signed up for a couple of lessons with Karen Holik. She will be here after our trial. To bad its not before. But that's ok. I hoping to use the next two trials just as practice. I'm not really feeling very confident out about abilities right now.

Im going to post a better run too. That way you dont think Im a complete idiot. O,yea dont forget to lower the volume because Guiness is barking.

Just because I thought it was cute

Ive had a relapse. I had to leave work this morning because I was feeling so bad. Full blown cold symptoms now.

Im feeling better

I'm finally feeling better. I no longer feel like bursting into tears because I feel so bad. I'm very tired now but that's ok. I can deal with that.
I took the dogs to the field this morning. Guiness wasn't going to let me leave without him. So he got to come. We had a clean up day at the field last week and had trash that needed to be disposed of. So we took my husbands car to load the trash into. He has a Honda element, its easy to clean if something messed up the car. That was the real reason for going to the field.

I decided to set up a course and run both the dogs. Guienss was very happy to be there. I set up the course from this months Clean Run called "Can You Handle It?" I like it because it has a bunch of different ways to run the same course. First I ran Guiness. We thought that would be a good motivator for Miley. (Not that she needs any motivation). Guiness ran really well for a dog that never practices. In the beginning of the video, Miley pulled on the leash and my husband lost control of the camera.

I ran him on the course another time but a different sequence. He didn't really want to do it. He didn't want to wait at the start line, he would just walk away. Then he went around a couple of obstacles. So I didn't have him run anymore after that.

Then it was Miley's turn. Our real problem is getting into the weaves. She cant seem to get in unless I stay behind and let her find the entrance. Do you think that is a bad thing? It isn't independent obstacle performance if I have to stay behind, I should be able to be anywhere. I do think that she looks at my feet so much that if they are ahead of the weaves, she tracking my feet and misses the entrance. Then she realizes it to late, then gets in but of course its in the wrong pole. I'm not sure this is really the problem. Its just what I think is happening.

Beware Miley doesn't get on the a-frame correctly and cant keep control and jumps off. She landed fine and was ok. It looks ugly on the video. I then had her run the 2nd half of the sequence again to get the a-frame in again correctly. She did well. More the reason to have rubberized contacts. Also , Guiness is barking like crazy. You may want to turn off the sound.

Photos

Can anyone tell me why my pictures of my dogs look fuzzy in the blog header? The back ground is so crisp. Is the camera focusing on the back ground and not the dogs?

The Speakers are in.

Well I finished. I pulled the door covers off the doors, removed the speakers. I went to Best Buy and bought new speakers. My neighbor helped me wire them and then we plugged them back in. Put the doors back on. And guess what. They work!! Total cost 80.00 WhooHoo!! Life doesnt get much better than that.

And now ....Im sick

Its been a long and stressful week. Work has been crazy. With everyone worried about the flu, I'm seeing 55 kids a day. We have to track anyone with Influenza like illness we call it ILI. Everyday we have to fill out papers about how many kids are being sent home with IlI, how many are out sick with IlI and teachers too. Anyone who comes to my office that has a fever and a cough or sore throat then has to wear a mask and be isolated. Ive seen lots of kids with sore throats this week. Only a few have had IlI and had to go home. But guess what, now I woke up this morning feeling bad and have a sore throat. Great, I was so looking forward to this long weekend.
In the mist off all that, I'm trying to teach some staff members how to give emergency medication in case there is no nurse at school. They have to be able to give an epi-pen for an allergic reaction, glucagon which is a shot they have to mix up and give to a diabetic who may be unresponsive from low blood sugar. And I wanted them to be able to test a blood sugar. I wanted to meet with them after school, but 2 of the 4 said they could never stay after school. Great. So Ive been trying to get it done during there planning time, except I don't have planning time and have to still see kids. So while doing this, Stephanie calls me at work crying that her eyes are swollen and her ear hurts. I get a doctors appt. for her but now need to get someone to cover the health room. We use to have a floater nurse but they cut the position. So a regular staff member covered the health room but cant help give insulin to diabetics. I have a new diabetic that cant seem to get the hang of figuring out her carbs and calculating her insulin dose. So I have to get another nurse from another school to agree to come and help her do that. O'course I felt bad about that. But it had to be done. But I'm also feeling pressure to try and get back to school as soon as possible so that maybe she wont have to come. I got Stephanie to the doctor. They thought it was just allergies. Weird , she has never had allergies before. And I did get back in time to help the diabetic , so the other nurse didn't have to come.

I'm also having to plan out how to give swine flu shots to all the kids and staff at school when the shots become available. By Oct 3rd, I have to send a report to DEHC on all the immunizations at school. It requires me to look through 1000 records and figure out who has religious exemption and who has medical exemptions on their immunizations. Also I need to make sure everyone is up to date. Where do they keep these records? In another building that is really far from my office. Then I also need to plan the "walk to school" event. That's Oct 8th. And last but not least, I'm doing the agility trial stuff. Our trial is Sept. 25-27th. What the heck was I thinking!!! I don't know if you belong to the Agile List but all the complaining that has been going on about walk thurs at trials and if clubs take you money , they should guarantee your walk thru no matter how many dogs you run. That's all causing me stress and worry too.

Tuesday I had a nursing meeting after school. I didn't finish that until 6pm. Wednesday ,my son wanted me to come have dinner with him. I did that and left right after work. So I got home at 8pm. Then Thursday I was suppose to go to the agility clubs meeting, but I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do one more thing. So I took the dogs for a really long walk. I think we walked 5 miles that night. It felt great.

To top it all off, my husband has been in Costa Rica all week. He comes home today.

What was I going to do today? I was going to try and replace the front stereo speakers in the old van. They are blown and you cant listen to the radio. The Toyota dealer wanted 600.00 to replace the speakers. Yea, right. Then Best Buy wanted 800.00. They said they would have to replace the whole system. Again, yea right. So I googled it and found multiple people who replaced there speakers in that van. But I couldn't figure out how to get the door panel off. I googled that too. Someone of course had done it, and posted pictures. What the heck did we do before the Internet. So maybe if I feel better, my son and I can tackle this project.

I hope to get some practice in too. Not much has been getting done. I really want to continue lessons with Meagan but she trialing every weekend and only having lessons during the week. Its been a major bummer. I just don't think I can drive that hour and 45 min. after work to take lessons. That would be at least 3 hours of driving after work, I'm just not sure I'm up for that. I really want to take lessons, we do so much better when taking lessons.

Well that was basically my life for this week. Hopefully I will get back to dog stuff and can post about that this weekend. O yea I forgot. I still have that rash. I think is chigger bites. Its still driving me crazy. It looks like it takes about 2 weeks to get over chigger bites. I just finished week one.

Good practice

I took Miley to the field yesterday. It was cloudy outside and felt great. Not hot and humid like it usually is. We had a great practice. I'm planning on setting up one jumpers run and one standard run a week. So yesterday I set up the jumpers run. It was a course map from an excellent course last year. She ran well. I tried to remember that she is looking at my feet when running.


It wasnt perfect but I was still happy with it.