Saturday, December 31, 2011

Surprises in the mail

We got two packages in the mail today.  In one, our friend from Tennessee, Karen Edmondson, sent us a beautiful embroidered towel with Victory Dalmatians and a Dalmatian that looks remarkably like Victory embroidered on it!  Such gorgeous work, Karen is very talented and can embroider pretty much any pattern.  I am going to see if she can do a Dalmatian quilt.  Rog is sitting here while I’m typing this blog, with his favorite little lap dog on his lap, Vegas, of course.  She is just the right size to sit on laps, she only weights 32 pounds and 19 ½ inches tall.  What a cuddler.  I got a great picture of Rog and Vegas, along with towel that Karen embroidered.  We also got a Christmas package from my sister, Amy, with gifts for everyone.  Amy sent me a gorgeous blue fleece jacket with horses and horseshoes on it.  I just love it, exactly the kind of thing I love to wear!  We are having gorgeous weather today, with a projected high of 72 degrees.  I am heading out the door to ride horses and motorcycles.  Happy New Year, and blessings in 2012!


Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas 2011

We had a very blessed Christmas with good friends and family, including our spotted best friends.  Attached are pictures of the dogs and Luke enjoying Christmas.  Luke gave the dogs their Christmas stockings, and of course Victory knew what his stocking was all about and couldn’t wait to see what it held.  Wishbone is 12 years old, and very laid back, and is just happy to be in the middle of everything observing, but he will play with a new toy every once in awhile.  Vegas had to grab her new toys and run to her crate and hide them from the other dogs.  Such entertainment.

We went to see the movie, War Horse tonight.  What a great, epic war movie, as well as a touching story about a young man and his horse.  The war scenes were very moving and emotional, and the horses in the movie were beautiful, kind, smart, and just plain awesome.  There were some really emotional and touching parts, but the ending was good.  Highly recommend this movie.

Merry Christmas, and many blessings to you in 2012!


Monday, December 19, 2011

Reflections on 2011







I have been watching our Fall color with pleasure this year.  It seems that whenever we get a horrible drought like we had this year, the Fall leaves are beautiful.  At least the leaves are beautiful on the trees that didn’t die this year because of the heat and drought.  I’m attaching some pictures of my favorite trees by the horse barn.  I have also been reflecting on 2011 and the many blessings we have enjoyed as I wrote out about 50 Christmas cards to far away friends and family.  I am grateful for each and every one of our family and friends, for food, clothing, a home, the beauty of nature, and our wonderful pets.  As I reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, I know that if you believe in Jesus, keep His commandments, love God and love one another, He will bless you abundantly, as He has us.  Merry Christmas and many blessings in 2012!    







Sunday, December 11, 2011

Dallas Show 12-11-11




Another nice show day today for Victory and Vegas.  Vegas was winners bitch and Victory was select dog.   We showed at 8:00 A.M. this morning.  Victory now has 7 grand champion points and Vegas has 10 points.  We are looking forward to no shows for the next few weeks.  I need some horse time!  Attached are pictures from the Dallas show today and a lovely picture that Cilla Wichman took yesterday of Vegas.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Dallas Show 12-10-11

We had a successful dog show today in Dallas.  My whole family, Rog, Luke, and Mom came to the dog show today.  It seems that whenever Luke comes, he is good luck, as he has been at the dog show for some of our nicest wins.  Usually he is our support team at home, taking care of the horses, goats, ducks, geese, and Wishbone.  We appreciate Luke’s help very much.   Vegas got winners bitch, winning over her sister Diva, who usually beats her, and Luane Williams’ girl.  Vegas also got best of winners, so she picked up a point today.  Don Boyd did a nice job showing Victory to a select dog placing for him today, so it was a good day.  We had a nice lunch at Eatzi’s with Lori Finlayson and Deby Harber after the show.  The dogs got homemade turkey soup on their dog food tonight as a treat for doing such a nice job today.  They really enjoyed that.  Here are pictures of all of the lovely dogs in the show today.










Surprises

We received a huge surprise at 3:45 A.M. Wednesday morning.  Vegas started barking like crazy, so I got up to let her out of her crate, and she went tearing outside barking and wouldn’t quit.  We thought it might be coyotes howling.  Then the geese started honking like crazy.  Pretty soon the phone rang.  We wondered what in the world was going on?  We got a message on our answering machine saying someone was sitting in our yard.  Rog looked out the window and there was a car with Iowa plates.  Surprise, it was my Mom and brother.  My brother, Greg, had to come to Texas so he brought Mom along for a quick visit, and they wanted to surprise us, since they knew I was missing all the good people in Iowa.  My brother, Greg, is such an awesome guy, who does so many acts of kindness for so many people.  He is a blessing to our Mom, and to so many people that he helps.  We think the world of him.  And, it’s always great to have Mom visit.  She is so much fun, and we have a good time.  Her baking is out of this world, and so is Rog’s cooking, so we all gain weight when she is here.

Today we took Victory and Vegas to the dog show in Dallas.  Vegas has been in season for twelve days, so we are all exhausted from having upset dogs for the last two weeks.  We took two separate cars to the show, which worked very well.  It was an interesting and very disappointing show today.  There were 3 class dogs, and the judge, Ms. Terri Lyddon, decided that none of them would be winners dog.  I have not seen this happen in the 1 ½ years that I’ve been showing.  Vegas was the only female, so she got winners bitch, but did not get any points today, as she didn’t place in the best of breed class, and since there was no winners dog, she couldn’t get best of winners for a point.  Don Boyd showed Victory nicely for us in best of breed, and Victory got select dog, so at least we came away with a point for him toward his grand champion.  Here are photos from today’s dog show.

Victory and Don in front.
Vegas and Victory at the back of the line.

I am really unhappy with Victory’s champion photos from Garden Studios.  You have to pick out the photos you want on their website, and the photos were so fuzzy on the website, it was hard to tell which photos were good.  Well, I picked the photo of Victory’s championship that was not good.  One of the people had her eyes closed.  So, I have emailed Garden Studios numerous times about fixing the photo, or sending me a different one, but they will not answer my emails.  In addition, we had them take some pictures of the dogs and our Victory motorcycle at that show 2 months ago, and they aren’t responding with how we can look at those photos and pick out what we may want to purchase, so we haven’t even been able to see the motorcycle/dog pictures that were taken in October.  I am really disgusted with them, and don’t think I will be spending $100 on dog show photos with Garden Studio Photography ever again.  I really want to get pictures to Victory’s breeders of his championship photo, but I do not like the photo, and can’t get a response from the photographer about fixing it.  What a disappointment, after spending $100 to get terrible pictures.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Fun with Dalmatian Rescue of North Texas


We had a very fun morning today with our Dalmatians visiting Dalmatian Rescue of North Texas (DRNT) volunteers at K9 University in Garland, TX.   DRNT was having a Santa Paws pictures with Santa fund raiser today.  They had some awesome volunteers taking the pictures, handling the administration, setting up the shots, enticing the dogs, printing the pictures, and some neat Dal gifts for sale, too.  The photographer was awesome!  We got some really great pictures of our “kids” and the pictures were printed on the spot, and the photos were top notch.  We were really thrilled.  The picture packages were numerous and inexpensive, and the proceeds benefitted the wonderful Dalmatians looking for their forever home.  I cannot say enough about the fantastic volunteers for DRNT, and the work that they do saving Dals from dog pounds, handling their medical needs, and finding them loving homes.  We adopted Wishbone from them 10 ½ years ago, and he has been my best buddy ever since.  Who else would get up with you and go to the barn to feed the horses, rain or shine, hot or cold, at 4:45 A.M. every morning, and again at 7:00 P.M. every night?  No human would do it so happily, I can assure you!  But my Dals are raring to go to the barn every morning and every night, and always enthusiastic.  What great pals they are.   If you want an awesome Dalmatian to be your best buddy or just want to help the Dals in some way, go to www.dalpal.com, and check out Dalmatian Rescue of North Texas.  You will be glad you did.

Here are the Santa Paws pictures we got today.  Happy Holidays from Victory Dalmatians, Luke (son), Victory, Wishbone, and Vegas, and Dalmatian Rescue of North Texas!