Bella's First Agility Trial

I posted video from the agility show....

Getting advice from an veteran jumper.

Bella's 3 2nd Place Ribbons!!

Me and Bella about to run!! Us finishing the 1st course!

Tired and hot!!

So, Bella had her first show last night! She did a great job!! I have pictures and video to show everyone so they can see how she did and how it all works=)

This is from Bella's 2nd run....she does run off after about the 2nd jump-but that was partially my fault b/c I stopped b/c I forgot where the next jump was, so she got distracted. But it was better than the first run she did! She was only 17 seconds over on the Qualifying time too.=)

(1st just want to say-the woman in the background saying something about 'evil red dog!!' really loudly was talking about her own dog that just went...not Bella. lol)

This was Bella's last run (the 3rd one) and she did MUCH better! She was goin fast and doing all the jumps right....then, they added a tunnel..and it threw her off. She wanted to smell all the other dogs that had been in there, and then she got distracted. I had to 'pull her back' and get her to focus again, then she did a 'back' jump (which means jumping through the jump the wrong way) and that really stunk...that means minus points...plus she was wasting time. But, she finished it strong and I was very happy!!!

Overall she did REALLY well for her first time! A lot of other novice dogs had to leave, or they ran out of the ring, etc. But Bella never did that, so it was very encouraging.

Lots of fun, lots of laughs, and lots of soreness, b/c that little red thing is FAST! =)

what a week...update time!

Lately its been really crazy for Jordan and I, so lets see how much I can catch you up on!

-Jordan and I have decided to put our condo up for sale. We are doing that as a proactive approach so that we are ready if we need to move NEXT Spring or Summer. We are expecting our place to take a while to sell, so we are putting it on the market now. If for some reason it does sell before that-like this summer or something, then we plan to just rent somewhere until we know more next May from the schools he will apply to. Please pray for this situation, that we are patient and ready for whatever might happen!

-Bella has been doing really well in her training! She has her first 'trial' (that's what they call the competitions) on May 22nd in the evening!! I am super excited! She will be doing a 'jumpers course'. I will give more details to follow if you would like to come cheer her on=) I know Zeus is excited to be there...lol.

-This past week we have been working with the families at our church to get together the Bridges Safehouse Yard Sale that our church's City Impact team put together. Bridges Safehouse is a non-profit organization to help pregnant women that have become homeless get back on their feet again and to house them while they are pregnant and in need. We were pricing stuff during the week a church member's home in Cedar Hill. Then Friday night a big group of us got together to help load up the huge UHUAL van with all the stuff for the yard sale! It took about 4 hours to do this. Then we got to the site (Clark Dental in Cedar Hill let us use his land for the sale) at 4am to start setting up for the garage sale (as you know garage sales start around 6:30-7am) and we had a LOT of stuff to set up!! It was very fun to do something for someone else! And Bridges SafeHouse raised over $3000!! It was awesome...I have a few picks below....

-Also on Saturday we went to the preview day at Jordan's soon-to-be school UNTHSC in Fort Worth for the Master Program that he got into. It was neat for me b/c I got to actually meet all 100 of the students that will be in the program with him. There were a few other wives of student's there, so hopefully maybe we can get together and hang out sometime. It was kind of daunting b/c the presenters kept saying how rigorous this program is, which I kind of knew, but the way they made it sound-I don't think I'll be seeing much of Jordan come August! This summer is apparently prep courses and not as difficult as when the Fall semester starts. 

-I can't believe that there are only 5 weeks of school left! It's about to be a year since I graduated from college, and Jordan graduates in a couple weeks! How time flies, and how God has surely blessed us in ways we did not imagine. I love the school I'm at and the people I work with-and I am NOT just saying that b/c some of them read this blog, it is sincerely true-I could not have asked for a better work environment, its such a great fit for me. =) I am looking forward to the summer though...hehe

-And last but certainly not least-this Friday Jordan is taking the MCAT for the 2nd time. He is hoping to raise his score and that is for the upcoming Medical School application that he will submit in June for the 2010-2011 school year. He has been diligently studying on TOP of his 3 part time jobs and full time school load, bless his heart. He is a hard worker and I really pray that Friday goes well for him!! It will take 3 weeks to get the score back (i know-a crazy long time!) so we have to practice our patience. But again, please, please, please keep him in your prayers as he is in the final days of preparing for that exam!!! 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and caring about us;)

Here are some pics from the garage sale: (ps i'm waiting on my new camera battery so I haven't taken much pics lately, I got these from someone else..)

All the stuff out at the sale!! look how much!! and that UHUAL in the back is the big one we filled up-this is from about 100yards away...

clothes anyone??? ya try sorting that blindly at 4:30am in the dark! lol

This was loading up all the stuff Friday night before the sale-Jordan was making sure it was all going to fit! And thank goodness MOST of it did! We had to come back a couple times. lol

ya this is after a lot of it had been cleared-people gave so much, it was awesome!

this is just ONE of the garages full of stuff for the sale, there were 2. We took it out, priced it, put it back, then loaded it in the van, and unloaded it for the sale, then re-loaded what didn't sell to take to a second hand store and unloaded it there. It was awesome=)

don't laugh ok? =)

Bella has been doing really well in her training these days. She's been working 'off leash' the past couple weeks and doing really well. She is so funny to watch-her furry little body runnin all over these big obstacles and stuff. I am hoping to compete with her in May, so I will let everyone know as soon as I know!! I finally took some pics of us going some of our tricks when my mom was there. I had to keep her on the leash for pics b/c I was kind of going in 'slow motion' and she wouldn't have 'posed' had I not. lol....

Bella goin over the 'walk it' Coming throug the tunnel!

Goin over a mini jump!! She loves the 'walk it'-look how fast she goes!

Lookin at me, showin her 'sit'. Just finishing a jump..little bit higher

Huffin and puffin=) About to do a big jump=)

-this is
And the scramble=really likes this one b/c it makes her feel like a 'big dog'=) where we train.

Let's not forget Zeus, who gets 'attacked' by Bella daily......

He's so good at being pretty though, and of course, this is him doing his best trick-making a bed. We love our Zeus too though!!=)

I love that God gives us the things we need sometimes in mysterious ways=) Obviously Jordan and I don't have any kids yet, but I have definetely enjoyed having my two little doggies to love on!! They are sort of like our 'kids' right now=) I think about them on my way home, Jordan and I talk about them when we're out on dates, I take them places with me..its pretty funny. Now OBVIOUSLY they are nothing like actually having kids, that's not what I'm saying, its just cute how we love them so much, and they make us laugh. They are a such little blessings in our lives.

**On a different note, please keep Jordan in your prayers-he re-takes his MCAT on May 1st and finding time to study between work and his already demanding classes can be quite the challenge. At least he's graduating in 5 weeks!=)

This way and that a way....

So I've been thinking lately, and I think I am going to be blogging about my trip to Paris that I took last year...I didn't have a 'blog' when I went, or came back and a lot of my family and friends didn't get to see the narrated version with pictures...and since there isn't a WHOLE lot going on with us lately, it seemed like a good idea. But it will require me to 'rack' my  brain a little bit about the details of the trip....so we'll see=)

Anyway, a lot of yall don't know about our 'hobby', well, its more my hobby than Jordan's-but he does come with me to help and support! I have had a lot of fun the last few weeks 'training' Bella (and Zeus). I am trying to get mainly Bella ready to do a dog agility show! We train at the Canine Workshop off of I-20 near Mesquite. We started off there last summer just to get some obedience training in, and then we found out that Bella was pretty good at the agility courses. We kind of held off for a little while there over the holidays when it was pretty cold. Then in January I was able to start back up again! 

They look so cute runnin around on the agility track where we train. Zeus comes with us and does the same stuff Bella does, but he just doesn't enjoy it as much-so he kind of looks like an actual skunk-just kind of 'hobblin' around. It's good for Zeus to get out and get the exercise though, so I enjoy bringing him. I think sometime's Jordan gets tired of draggin him around the courses though=) Bella is a lot of fun to train. She's very smart, fast and agile....but there are times she gives in to her natural 'pomeranian ways' of randomly just running off and being very 'off-task' to put it nicely. I am not sure when she will be ready to compete, but hopefully soon. I'm going to try and get Jordan to take a couple pics next time, or possibly a little video so some of yall can see what they can do! 

I have a few pics of a regular agility course-like the ones we work on-so you can see what it kind of looks like, or until I get some pics of my own!=)

First off: I just had to add these pics of our doggies:

This is Zeus-he's a prissy little guy, very beautiful and the sweetest dog ever!

Then there's Bella....while she is a 4lb cutie, and a little prissy...but, she's a sassy little thing=)

No-this is NOT Bella-but I thought this picture was HILARIOUS!=) lol...that's kinda what Bella looks like when she's going over a jump!

This is what a course looks like that we will run with the dogs. There are a few jumps, a couple tunnels, maybe a tire jump and an 'a-frame'. Bella can run VERY fast, and has some natural talent especially since she loves doing the agility, however, trying to get her to focus is the challenge. Zeus on the other hand, just does it out of force, but he enjoys a good run every now and then. 

OK, well enough about our dogs then..I know some of yall think we are crazy!! I just kind of think of this as more of a hobby actually-I'm getting to exercise, be with Jordan, and the dogs have fun! And it's kind of unique (from anyone I know at least). So I'll keep you updated if Bella gets into a show anytime soon=) don't hold your breath on Zeus...