i know it has been a long time since i posted. but i feel like i don’t really have much to write about that would be interesting to anyone but me — but then again, i guess it is my journal…but really, not too much is new.
we absolutely love our house. it is so fun to actually own something and be able to do what you want with it. our fence got finished on tuesday, so that has been fabulous too. unfortunately is has been extremely hot and humid here, so the dogs don’t last outside very long. humidity is really hard on dogs because they don’t sweat like we do — they only lose heat through panting & through the pads on their paws. and our dogs are not used to being outside in hot weather, so they are adjusting. we let them out to run for a while and burn off some energy, then they come in again and spend a lot of time cooling off. it is great, though. we just need to work out some landscaping for the yard. right now, we just have some day lillies by the back of the house, but nothing else in the whole yard. it looks pretty naked.
the dogs are really doing well in their training. the advice i got at the seminar has been helping a lot. i think that harley is going to be ready to compete in the next level of obedience (called “Open”, in case you were wondering) in the fall. i am just trying to figure out what show to start her at. teego is also making a lot of improvements. he celebrated his one year birthday last saturday — so maybe he knows it is time to grow up a little bit! i think in the spring he’ll be ready to do some practice shows, and start competing late next summer or fall. he is much different than harley, but is very fun to train.
we leave for our annual 4th of july trip to the cabin a week from tomorrow. i am super excited to have a week of vacation!! work has been really really busy lately — but that is a good thing. a break will be nice — it is always so relaxing to go up to the cabin, and time always goes by too quickly.
see….nothing that anyone cares about but me. oh well – tough sh!t. 
In profile…same order as previous picture… 
From left to right: Fire (brother), Blaze (dad), and Teego.
today is a happy day…the construction of our fence has finally begun! even as i type this, workers are toiling away in my yard. you see, we put a deposit down almost SIX weeks ago…at that time we were told that their lead time was 3-4 weeks. i’m not sure if all the rain we had screwed them up, or if they were just being optimistic to get our business, but we have been waiting much longer than we wanted to. today they set the posts, then after 3-7 days for the concrete to set, they will come back and stretch the chain link onto the posts. hopefully it will get done on friday — saturday is teego’s birthday. 
and i am tired of having dogs with too much energy running around my home!! praise the Lord – our fencing is almost here!!
i’m just writing because i haven’t in a while.
last weekend we drove to South Carolina for a dog training seminar with a very famous trainer. i had a really great time, and learned a lot. i also got to meet teego’s father & brother, also very cool. it was amazing how much they looked alike! i am somewhat revitalized after the seminar. i was getting into a rut because i had problems that i didn’t know how to solve. now i feel like i have ways to solve those problems, so i am excited to get going. i also realized that i need to put more conscious thought into a training plan for the dogs, and not just fly by the seat of my pants. so that is good progress. teego and i are also starting agility classes on monday — this is a totally different dog sport than we are doing now, so it will be fun to learn something new.
work has been SUPER busy, and i am starting to feel like i am actually a somewhat productive member of society, so that’s good. my days are filled with meetings and lots of things to do — it is somewhat stressful, but i prefer having days that are too full to days that are empty. i guess that is what has been making me feel good lately. plus, i kind of like the fact that i actually got a raise. i also just found out today that i get a “management-directed day off” (read: day off that doesn’t subtract from my vacation days) on friday 7/1. so obviously that is cool.
andy is coming home tomorrow — i am excited to see him! AND – last but not least — if you haven’t read eric’s blog, i highly recommend that you do so.
