I'm here with some INKnBURN love on a Saturday!

Hi everyone!! 

A lot has happened in the past year and a half but I'm finally getting back to blogging. Went through some rough patches but I found that making sure I exercised (even when I really, really didn't want to) kept me going. 

A couple of years ago I came across some awesome looking running gear from INKnBURN that looked like works of art.  This was a big draw to me because things had been so hard that I was struggling to find the motivation to keep working out - I found that every time I opened my dresser drawers it was like the clothes were calling to me to put them on and keep on working out, running and training my dogs :) 

I've been training for a 10k (because it was only a dollar more to buy the couch to 10k app compared to the couch to 5k app :)) and found that INKnBURN is so comfortable to not only run in but to also train my dogs because the capris and tights have pockets that are perfect for treats :) 

Here are some before and after pictures of my run on Thursday where I got completely soaked!! Finished week 4 of couch to 10k! Love this Phoenix shirt and the Liberty shorts from INKnBURN! 

And here's how my typical weekend day went today.. I threw on my INKnBURN Soaring tech and my favorite Liberty capris. Then I took Battlestar to the agility field to train. We both got a workout in and she got nice and tired and dirty!! 

Jump, Battle, jump!!

Always have to end training with a handshake :)

Perfect timing for Battlestar to get dirty because she had a grooming appointment to go to. So I dropped her off, did some shopping and got lots of compliments on my INKnBURN outfit!

I had some time to fit in a run after shopping - really love that I can go from the training field to shopping to running without changing outfits!!

I met a new friend while running in the park :)

After I finished my run it was time to pick up Battle who was nice and pretty after her spa appointment :) Then we headed home to chill for the afternoon.

I really love all the details of INKnBURN clothing - the capris look like denim and even have pocket details in the back!

I actually got the INKnBURN Liberty capris and shorts as a gift to myself for making the 2017 World Team last year - I'll be posting about that crazy, amazing experience sometime soon :) 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July weekend!! 

Trendy Thursday!

Because I'm oh so super fashionable, I thought I'd post the latest trends seen in my household :) 

Starting off with the very best - I caught my husband trying to camouflage himself to look like the couch.... 

As if crocs couldn't get any uglier... they make them in beige now... 

Apparently, he also has tan socks that match the pants, shirt and couch but went with the black socks instead. 

I think little Miss Battlestar has got to have the most fashion sense in the house - just look at how she coordinates her purple tipped tail to her rainbow bandana! And she's such a great sport when I ask her to model things I knit :) 

And now for one of my most fashionable moments - work conference in New Orleans just happened to fall on Halloween so my mom made my Zombie Snow White costume!

Yes, my mom did make this costume - she's awesome!! 

Today's WTF moment.... curtsey of the TN DMV

Nari says belly rubs are always MANDATORY!!

Well... Things kind of blow right now... guess that's what happens when your family gets a call from a a psych hospital in New Mexico informing you that your brother (who was missing on/off for over two years) has been committed and is schizophrenic. Just a little taste of what I've been dealing with this year...

This is Nari's 'GIVE ME ALL YOUR TASTEY FOOD' face. 

So as the title goes, today's WTF moment is curtesy of the not-so-nice person who I talked to at the TN DMV. Long story short... I'm trying to figure out what I need to get my brother a state ID and the conversation went kind of like this:

Me - I'm hoping you can help me get an ID for my brother. What do we need to bring?

Jerk DMV person - Original birth certificate, Social Security card, 2 pieces of mail. 

Me - My brother has been homeless and doesn't have the original Social Security card - what can we use instead?

Jerk - Work ID, insurance ID

Me - He was homeless, he has nothing - the Social Security office won't give us a card without a state ID which is what we're calling you about. What can we do? 

Jerk - A Dollywood season pass will work

Then I tried to clarify this and she hung up on me. 

WTF - even Starbuck has a Dollywood ID :)

Seriously??? They'll take a fucking Dollywood season pass but won't take a photocopy of his Social Security card - WTF?? Lately, I've been encountering lots of WTF moments but at least this one made me laugh :) 

Other than that - dogs are crazy and keeping me busy :) And Nari is SUPER CRAZY happy that she's back to competing and training regularly. She has tons of energy and doesn't let me slack in the dog walking/running/training department. 

Run, Nar, RUN!!

A new start....

The super amazing Nari! Photograph by the amazingly talented Julie Poole - please don't be an asshole and steal this photo, it's a seriously awesome photo and I don't want to waist my time and hunt down photo-stealing assholes.

Well - let's be honest here - I'm terrible at blogging (and barely anyone reads this blog anyway :)). Sometimes it's hard to get on here and write posts about how everything is great and super cute but sometimes reality is that things just fucking suck and aren't pleasant or easy or happy.

I started this blog because people seem to enjoy the super cute pictures of my dogs and I wanted to share what we have been doing with agility. But I haven't really kept up with it because sometimes it's hard to get on here and post a cute picture and talk about how great things are when they just aren't.

I think I'm going to change the focus and just start posting about what's really going on. I think it's just bad to get on Facebook or other social media sites and see that everyone's life is super perfect and awesome - my life's not perfect and quite frankly it's really fucking shitty sometimes. Not all the time - I have plenty of awesomeness going on at times but mixed in the with awesomeness is some bullshit and some okay times.

So... here's to a new start - maybe it will be helpful to people to just be honest with what's really going on.

Nari squeaking in morse code, 'This weather is no party and all bullshit!'

In lame weather news - it's been raining a lot here which means that Nari is super pissed that she can't go on long walks or play agility. So she's been squeaking/yelling/punching us non-stop to make sure we know how tragic her life is right now :) Luckily we had a couple of indoor trials the past two weeks so she at least got to do sometime (although she says it's not enough!).

Don't stop believin'!!

Look at that amazing dog and my simply brilliant skeleton pants!! 

This has all been quite a crazy couple of years for me - Nari getting so sick she can't even walk to making a recovery and running agility faster than ever!! She's like a puppy now - screaming at me, demanding walks even after she had spent an hour at the agility field. There's an amazing artist that lives a few hours from me and she created this special harness tag for Nari - I thought a winged-unicorn was appropriate for Nari because she's pretty much the most amazing being ever she might as well be a winged-unicorn :) 

Nari's kick-ass agility harness tag 

I was so crazy excited that not only was Nari able to get back to agility back in April of this year but she even qualified for Nationals AND earned byes into the semifinals for both Grand Prix and Steeplechase!! And that little amazing girl almost made the finals - she was fast and speedy but a teeter fault kept us out of Grand Prix and a pause to scratch burs stuck on her ear kept us out of Steeplechase but she tried her hardest and was simply amazing! 

I finally put together a highlight video of her runs - enjoy! 

I have some exciting ideas on what we can do in 2016 - so we will see what next year brings us :) 

Big weekend for the Battlestar!!

Battlestar had a big (and busy) weekend! Which meant that I had a very busy weekend...

First up Saturday morning was family pictures at the studio for our annual Christmas cards. The always amazing Julie Poole had her yearly benefit for the local animal shelter so we headed over to her studio around 9 am (40 min drive) with the crew. After about 45 minutes of craziness - Battlestar kept trying to get everyone to chase her so we put a show lead on to get her to finally stay still - pictures were done.

We all headed home, I grabbed lunch and then packed up Starbuck, Nari and Battlestar again and drove to the local agility trial (30 min drive) and the girls got massages. I heard that they were doing CGC tests at the show so I signed Battlestar up and she passed her CGC test!! I drove 30 mins back home - proudly told my husband that Battlestar passed her CGC test which her promptly started laughing at as she ran around the house trying to be a jerk and herd everyone while barking ever so shrilly and loudly.... :)

Starbuck demonstrating the tough life of a canine athlete!!

Nari thinks that massages aren't all that bad - as long as she can occasionally yell and kick the masseuse :) 

Battlestar looking awfully cute while watching her sister get a massage 

                           

Then - packed up the car yet again (this time with all 4 girls) and drove 3 hours to Nashville that evening for a Sunday agility trial. The girls of course had lots of hotel time fun. Sunday I ran all 4 girls in a small trial and they all had a blast!! Battlestar, Alpha and Starbuck all had 3 runs and Nari only had 2 so she was throwing a bloody fit in the car and practically trying to throw herself out of the car whenever I opened the crate door - then screaming when it was her turn to run :) I missed that so much while she was sick - it's so good to have her back :)

The big news of the weekend is that Battlestar is getting better at trials!!! This one was really small with not so many distractions so she didn't freak out on course :) I think she had a great time - she started blowing her startline stays due to excitement and not fear so that is very very good! Hopefully someday we will both get our act together and be able to run at bigger venues.



I feel like that song is very appropriate for us :) I have endured many 'Battle wounds' and even some 'Battle scars' with this girl - she's taught me a lot and kind of makes me want to punch anyone who says that training shelties is easy... but damn she's an awesome dog and hella fast! :) 

Getting ready for the holidays - who wore it best? :)

We're getting the house ready for Christmas! I pulled out the trees last night and threw on some ornaments. Battlestar and I picked up a cute little Santa hat that's just her size. Battle is crazy happy dog - always willing to do whatever I'm doing even if it involves her posing next to Santa Rex and wearing a hat :)

The Klee Kai on the other hand detest wearing any clothing at all. Here is Starbuck showing how depressing Christmas can be with a hat! 

Wordless Wednesday

Busy, busy holiday times!

Feels like Christmas now that Santa T-Rex has made his appearance

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!! The girls loved their Thanksgiving. I took them to the local agility field and they each got some one on one time with me and then roamed the several acre field in a cute little pack :) They really enjoy their field time - Battle loves to run around and bark her fool head off and the Klee Kai try to find the nastiest dead/decaying thing and roll around in it....

My husband and I had steak this year and the girls had turkey - everyone was quite happy with the Thanksgiving goodies.

I was slacking off on the decorating but did manage to put together our Christmas T-Rex - trees and lights will hopefully go up later this week.

Don't you dare get in the way of Nari and her walkies... 

Meanwhile... we've been dealing with a ton of rain the past couple of days which means that Nari is SUPER PISSED off that she doesn't get her daily walkies.... I've been getting this death stare accompanied by constant squeaking. Then she'll take a break to go beat up our walking shoes while screaming... seriously pissed of Nar!! The look above was after she had been on a 1+ hour hike, agility at the field then an hour long chase/play session with the pack at the field but she was denied her even walk because I am apparently the meanest person on the planet :)

More pictures from Cynosport World Games!

I didn't take many pictures form the 2015 Cynosport World Games this year (USDAA's national agility competition) but here are a few from the event. 

Oh, Starbuck - always looking like a silly goof during pictures. I absolutely love that about her! 

I designed team shirts for Starbuck's team, 'Turbo Boost for Starbuck's Journey', this year. Her teammates where Journey and Boost. I love the way they turned out! Sadly, we did not get team pictures - just too crazy. 

Front of the shirt - left side.

This is the design on the back of the shirts. I drew the picture and found someone to print them. 

The happy sisters on one of our many walks around the site. 

Wordless Wednesday

Happy (belated) Halloween!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween weekend. The girls enjoyed a nice long hike and took naps while I handed out candy and my old note cards from grad school :) We have a lot of science loving kids in our area so a few were actually excited to get them.

About half of my note cards waiting to go to their new homes! 

I still had hundreds of notecards left over so I started burning some of the leftovers last night - it was quite relaxing watching those suckers burn :) 

After closer inspection - I noticed that as the years went by my notecards got more colorful. Apparently I only used the glitter pens for my class notes and not my notecards :) 

5 Years Time.... and Starbuck goes to the 2015 USDAA Cynosport World Games!

I'll make this post quick....

Last week was the 2015 USDAA Cynosport World Games and both Starbuck and Nari got to play :) Some people may remember the early days of Starbuck's agility career - some running out of the ring, doing what she wanted, 'bucking' around :) Well - little Starbuck is all grown up now and she got to run in the team event as well as in the Steeplechase semifinals AND the Grand Prix semifinals!!

She was oh so very close to making the Grand Prix Finals - I learned the hard way what the teeter rules are :( but she was fast and happy and had a blast.

Enjoy Starbuck's video from Cynosport:

Halloween madness!!!

My birthday is November 2nd so I've always had Hallween birthday parties - making Halloween my favorite holiday!! So I've been known to get a little too excited over Halloween decorations :)

I came across some skeleton dogs at Costco a little while ago (they have red glowing eyes) and that started the current madness :) Then I found out that there's going to be a Halloween decoration contest at the upcoming national agility competition so things are starting to get crazy!

I've decided to go with a 'Day of the Dead' theme this year so here's a sneak peak for now and I may just be posting some random pictures in the next few weeks :) The skeletons come plain and I've been painting them and making little hats. 

Conviently, Alpha is the same size as these little guys so her coats fit them :) 

And here's a close up so you can see the eyes. 

Anyone else out there crazy about Halloween?

The story of the come back kids!!

The sisters with some of their bling!

We drove the whole gang out to Kansas for the USDAA Central Regional Championships this weekend. It was a LONG car ride but the girls love traveling so much that they just slept the whole time in their crates - they are very good little travelers!

The girls have been through a lot - Starbuck had troubles staying in the ring when we first started trialing and Nari had been sick for so very long so my only goals were to make sure we all had fun. WOW did they exceed my expectations because not only did we all have a blast the girls even made it on the podium!!!

Starbuck - Steeplechase Champion!!

Nari - 3rd place Regional Grand Prix

Nari has just started getting back into shape and trialing and not only was she able to compete again but she qualified for Cynosports!!!! I can't believe this is happening - it's been like a dream to have her back to her happy, energetic self again.

Nari - Top Overall Individual 14" dog - think she placed something like 3rd or 4th overall out of ~140 dogs!!

Both girls managed picking up semifinalist byes for Steeplechase AND Grand Prix!! Starbuck took 4th in Grand Prix and Nari took 5th in Steeplechase (her time was faster but she faulted the A-frame).

Happy (belated) Shark Week!!

Shark Week was a big deal here a few weeks ago because Nari got a new cave bed!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Shark Week :) 

DIY Saturday! Emergency IDs for car crates

Happy Saturday!!! This is a very rare Saturday for me as I have absolutely nothing planned and it feels pretty weird. So today I decided that I would finally make up IDs for the Variocage I have in my car. Since it varies which dogs are in the car with me I wanted something that was very easy to put on the crate to make it obvious which dog(s) I have with me. The Variocage has metal doors so I thought magnets would work quite well.

Here are the supplies you'll need:

1. Plain sheet of thin magnetic material. I found one at a local craft store for $4. 

2. Sheet of clear single-sided laminate - office supply stores carry these. 

3. Spray adhesive

4. IDs - you can find templates for free online. There are several out there. I used this one: http://dogandcatid.com but I may try to make my own as this one turned my high-res photos to pretty low-res when I printed it. 

As for instructions - just spray the adhesive onto the magnetic sheet, place on the paper IDs and cover with a clear sheet of laminate. Pretty simple and cheap. I like that I'll be able to store the IDs I'm not using inside the little metal flap on the Variocage doors. 

As for tips on what to put on the emergency ID cards - I will always warn that my dogs may be frightened in case of accident, Nari hates other dogs so I put that on her ID, I also guarantee vet costs/reward and never put the microchip number. That number is something I don't make public as it's something that helps me to prove I'm they're caretaker. 

I also have this magnet on my bumper that I got from a fundraiser.