Birthday Montage...

Happy Birthday Lilli-Bug!!!

The Goal

There is a man down the street from our house who is CONSTANTLY cleaning his garage. There is nothing in there, with the occasional exception of his car. Not a box, not a bag of trash, not even a bike rack, much less the bike that often accompanies such a rack. A few months ago, when the Albuquerque weather turned a shade of delicious early spring warm, we drove past and observed him scrubbing the non-existant dirt from his garage floor. Paul and I have seriously considered leaving our garage door open 'by accident' just to see if his need to have a perfect garage would transfer to our own(which is beyond less-than-tidy). We have yet to attempt it. It reminds me of the Proverb that speaks of how it would be better to sleep on the corner of the roof rather than live with a contentious woman. I don't know if this is the case for our possibly OCD-ish neighbor, but it has challenged me to re-consider the impact I have on my husband and family. Am I contentious? Or am I gracious? Do I encourage security? I desire to be the Proverbs 31 woman whose husband can safely trust in, and not escape to a seperate room and distract himself with repetitive tasks. I wish the state of our garage (essentially the opposite of our neighbor) could be indicative of my husbands happiness, but I don't think it's a marriage-thermometer. Too bad. So this week, it is my goal to be intentionally patient, soft-spoken, gentle and extra, extra kind. We'll see...

I'm done...I think

I've survived it. This weekend we had guests, dog trial, migraine, tylenol, family breakfast, nursery, family lunch, 3 hours of cake decorating, present wrapping, dishes, party prep, party, and Horton Hears a Who. What a weekend yes? There will be numerous photo updates in the near future but tonight, I'm looking forward to sleep. Last night I dreamt that malinois puppies were being sold for $38. Sweet dreams indeed.

Logan Goes...

...Boing!













...and Smooch!

Heart Twins are Genetic...

Meet Jill and Ava Popp(not pictured: the original Popp, Daniel)! We met and became friends at my beloved Horn Creek and despite my (... shall we say energetic?) personality have been able to continue the friendship over the years and miles. On voyage from the islands of Hawaii to the land of Chicago, the Popps were able to stop and stay and give us a chance to share fellowship, and our new baby girls. If ever there were heart twins in the world I believe Ava and Lillian are them!






Here they are flirting with the Waiter.










Here they are sharing a book. I love the look on Ava's face! She was so patient with Lillian!













Here they are enjoying a Mum Mum. Yum Yum!

They Called Her Lo-Lo

Lo-Lo was the nick-name affectionately given to Logan by the lady who showed us the basic herding ropes, and taught me how to not get mowed down by dumb & dumber sheep (which upon consideration would also be included in the basics of herding). After a 2 1/2 hour drive in pouring rain we pulled into the mile long 'drive way' of the ranch. I could already tell that the drive was worth it. I had arrived late, of course, and everyone else had been braving the rain since 8am so I was only able to catch the tail end of a lady working her Border Collie with the instructor in the ring. The lady would yell, chase and shake her bottle (a deterrent, not an innuendo) at her dog but he kept 'cheating' and would sneak a few steps in after a commanded 'stop'. The instructor stepped in and the dog didn't miss a beat and looked like he'd been working sheep since birth. It was so very amazing to see the instructor's presence in the 40-pen. Next it was Logan's instinct test in the round pen and I learned something very neat about Logan. She doesn't care much what she's doing as long as she's with her pack. She would start after the sheep and quickly return to me to see why I wasn't chasing sheep along with her! It wasn't until the instructor brought in her Aussie 'North' that Logan would stick with the sheep for longer than a single bark. The one thing she completely rocked? Her 'come' was spot on and made me look like a fantastic obedience trainer! She was biting the sheep on his rump (never fear, faint of heart. The rump was covered in at least 6 inches of wool.) and stopped her chase and came to me immediately after I said 'come'. I was so proud of my beautiful Lo-Lo!

After we worked in the round pen everyone shared stories over lunch about our dogs, dogs we knew, dogs we wish we didn't know, the amazing sheep stories of the more weathered herders and other bits of doggy this and that. It fit my need to discuss dogs at length and I was blessed by the warm country manner they all had. If the yacht and scuba tours doesn't work out for 'Gomez dream future' I would be quite content to own land, a few plow-like sheep, and my dogs. Lillian could run out the front door and I wouldn't have to worry about cars, my dogs would have a daily job, and Paul would be out of the city and in the country that he grew up with. It sounds rather ideal.

Ya' Herd?

I'm getting ready for my very first herding trial/clinic with Logan. Logan has a few nick-names around the Gomez house. Bunny, because she jumps everywhere is the usual but occasionally 'Logey-Pogey' hits the scene in honor of pogo-sticks that enable the not naturally gifted with the ability to bounce higher than the average bear. Do these names give you a clue to Logan's temperament? She is high-drive and often times high-crazy. She is one of those crazy smart dogs who learned to sit in two tries, knows the name for ball, toy, and 30 plus other commands and directions and who will invent games if none are provided. She is the dog most people can't handle and end up in a rescue situation. I love her energy, her drive, her cuddly 50 lb. dog nature but I am also seriously trying to keep my humble-pants on as I envision our day herding sheep. I'm also hoping that sheep don't carry a 'you break 'em, you buy 'em' clause. Babysitter for Lillian? Check. Ball and snacks to call Logan off the particularly tempting sheep? Check. Sports Bra so I can chase after Logan when she ignores said treats? Check. I'll let you know how it all turns out...and if Logan 'purchases' any knew family members of the lamb variety.

And We're Back!

It's June and I haven't posted in weeks. I blame this mostly on the fact that our hard drive clocked out and we've had some trouble finding another computer that worked properly. That is, after we solved the 'Do we really need a computer' debate. Need one? No. Appreciate their convenience? Definitely! So, from the past few weeks these are the updates that seemed like pertinent information on the goings on in the Gomez household:
1. Lillian is mobile! She has for some time been able to combat crawl and had become quite proficient at it. But, alas, my little pumpkin needed to feed some speed to her ride and decided to make crawling official. She is also pushing herself up to a sitting position, pulling herself up to her feet, and perfecting the 'foreign object to the mouth' so well that she could go pro. Needless to say, I am kept quite busy chasing her, moving her, relocating her, etc.
2. Lillian is also a very verbal child. She wakes me up in the morning babbling in a wonderfully nonsensical way. She has established several words that are intelligible to most people. Baby and Puppy are the two favorites, but we also hear 'all done', 'gentle', 'good girl', 'bye-bye', 'hello', 'peekaboo', 'Dada' and... drum roll please... 'MAMA'!
3. We are officially back on the Agility scene. Titus and I entered our first trial post-baby and he did phenomenal! I wanted to take it easy our first time back since I have the tendency to be very, VERY competitive. In the two events we entered, Titus won two qualifying points with Firsts in both courses! What a dog!
Yes, my very small group of faithful readers, we are back and I'm looking forward to blogging the events of the next few weeks. Be Blessed!