Simple things bring simple pleasure

It has been a very emotionally moody sort of day.  I went to Oprah last night and was motivated, inspired and taught about finding one's purpose in life and living in it.  That high was quickly squashed with the bombing of the Boston Marathon.  I have no words to describe the grief I feel for the people affected.  Another tragedy in a complex, unpredictable world.

 But when I struggle, I come back to the simple things in life.

Spring. My dogs. My yard. My piano.

All these things help me slow down and refocus my attention into living gratefully in the moment.

So, when I had an opportunity to catch my dogs wandering and sun bathing in the weak spring sun, I had to try for photos.  We still have TONS of snow, but it's coming along.  And, with that realization is the joy of knowing my yard will soon be full of green growing things.
 (And, the horrifying realization that I have a winters full of clean up to do. You do the math:  4 dogs, 1 small yard, no cleanup most of the winter= NIGHTMARES! Ha, ignore any potential sightings of doggy doo doo in the pictures, I promise you all I will start the massive clean up tomorrow).

Sophie, coming in to say hello through the window. Yes, there is NO screen there. Yes, the dogs wrecked it last summer. Yes, I am crazy enough to put one back this summer. 

Sophie loving the sun beam.  (Please ignore the winter gunk to be cleaned off my deck. This is getting scrubbed down and refinished this summer.  It needs some stain for sure).

Reason, wandering around sniffing on the snowy half a yard.

Spikey, lying in the sun, by the tunnel.  Sorry he is hardly visible, but he avoids the camera at the best of times.  Murphy is next to him the grass, out of sight of the camera. She was avoiding me at this point; she had just tried to jump through the window and come in but was forcefully stopped by a spray of water to her little face and she marched off, out of sight to pout indignantly. 

Another image of my long but narrow lot.  

Spring is coming, I am sure of that.  And, with anticipation, I am filling out the first of my trial entries for the outdoor agility season tonight. There is a simple joy and hope in that.

Sleeping Beauties....

My girlies, napping....

Murphy..... so sweet when she is sleeping!

Sophie in the chair- (ignore the mess!! :) )

Reason, in a rare moment when she has stopped moving, all sleepy on the back of the couch.

Love my girlies!

We're BACK!!!!

Hey all!

We are back.  My apologies from the unexpected hiatus in my blogging world; I had no intentions of taking a break but I guess I needed it.  After Mango passed, then another dog blog friend (one of the very first I made!), Sophie Brador also crossed the bridge, I kinda felt like I lost my desire to blog.  So, I stopped.

I think it's time to come back; I have to admit this is an intensely crazy, busy time in my life but I am thinking I would like to get back to this old blog and to the friends I have made along the way.  I've missed you all!  And, unfortunately, I deprived you all of cute baby Reason pics along the way, too!

Anyway, there's no sense rattling through my busy, but mundane last few months.  Instead, I'll show you what the dogs and I have been keeping busy doing the last few days.  We were hit by a HUGE blizzard on March 20, the first day of Spring and I had a quilt started that I thought deserved to be finished over the evenings when we couldn't go out and do much. Too much snow.  I'll show you pictures soon of my front yard. It isn't pretty!

Alright, back to it... the quilt.  And, the dogs, enjoying the quilting time. :)

Sophie and Murphy, curled up on top of the quilt, in progress along with my fabric bin of scraps.  It can't possibly by comfortable, but they stayed there for a long time.

Spike.

Sophie, in the midst of chaos created by Reason. My house WAS clean, really... one loose puppy in the house and all mess breaks loose, ha!

The whole clan, in their usual spots.  Murphy and Reason, balanced on the back of the couch.  Sophie and Spike, always the more sensible, lying on the pillow and blankie.  I do manage to squish in there between Spike and Soph. It's the perfect spot for Rease to nap with her head on my shoulder. 

The new Rag Quilt- it hasn't been washed yet, and I haven't notched all the seams yet so they fray, but it's all sewn up at least!

All in all, it's a good way to spend a Blizzard- hunkered down with some movies, a quilt to make and my favourite dogs in the world.  Life is good.

I love Sundays....

Life is good today. I've been knitting Christmas presents and hanging out with the dogs, catching up on my Chicago Fire addiction (great show, by the way!).

My girlies decided that they wanted, no needed to be close too.... Spike, being an old grump headed upstairs to nap on the bed but the girls stick close to me, almost all the time.

Rease, chewing on a bone. Complete with the envelope she stole off the table too, ha!

Sophie on the couch. Samples of a new knitted blanket to be,  on the chair. It's going to be a soft, cozy blankie when it's finished!

Rease- why stay on the dog bed when you can lounge on the back of the couch?!?

Yummy bone!  Great spot to chew on a bone; she can reach over and give kisses from there.

Murphy- why not steal Sophie's place on the couch?!?

Murphy and Sophie.  Sunday cuddles!

6 Months Already?!?

I can't believe Rease turned 6 months old, on September 12th. Where does time go??

She is turning out to be a lovely, sweet, gentle dog who is quite crazy-high energy when she wants to be. But, she can chill on the couch with me, as long as I'm willing to cuddle. I rarely say no to puppy cuddles! :)   Rease is all legs still- a bit gangly and lanky and she is still a bit uncoordinated. But, at 38lbs and a little shorter than Sophie, I suspect she is pretty close to full grown.

So, all in all, Rease is EXACTLY what I wanted!

Not great pictures, but you get the idea at least of how big she is... Rease, and big sis Sophie.

Rease, Sophie and Spike. OF COURSE, no one wanted to look at the camera. Sigh.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

I present to you, the cutest, sweetest, best behaved (not even joking!) Labrapup in the world....

I naps, ma!

Leave me alone, I gots a bone ma!

I cute, ma!  

Yes, you might detect the tiniest (well, it's not that tiny, sigh) little scratch below her eye... poor little pup, Murphy has decided to be jealous and took it out on her yesterday. End result, big cut below her eye and blood everywhere, along with a screaming puppy.  

Any suggestions for helping Murphy learn she is still my little terror girl?

There goes sleep for awhile!

Rease has arrived! She is HERE and she is an adorable bundle of black fur and deep, brown eyes. She is dainty- way tinier than Sophie ever was. I realize that now that I see her. I can imagine this lovely pup growing up to be a slim, fine boned Labrador which is what I wanted. I see POTENTIAL stamped all over this pup.  She is smart, she is receptive, she is a thinker. She is playful, curious and motivated. She is truly showing her Labrador colours already, being incredibly food motivated. She's already learned the food cupboard and has been known to sit by it and bark.  HA! That reminds me so much of Sophie!!

Anyway, sorry for the repeat photos from facebook, but for those of you who aren't on there, here's my baby dog...

She was tired when she arrived. Deserved some cuddle on the lap time!

Rease is constantly looking for little "hidey spots" to avoid Murphy!

Sophie and her baby... she LOVES Rease already

My girls!

If in doubt, nap on top of the yarn/wool box!

Rease is already a concern... she can climb up stairs like crazy and the very first night, she managed to get on the couch to nap. All by herself. I turned my back and there she was...

Those eyes are TROUBLE! :)

Under the desk, hiding again. Of course, the Kleenex box will save her from the Mean Murphy, HA!  This was moments before she chewed through my phone cord, running to the modem. :/  Yes, she NEEDS supervision!

The Labrador Girls!

Baby Sophie/Baby Rease...

Thank goodness for my mother who had pictures of Sophie, the very day she came home. She was 7 weeks old and a sweet little ball of black fluff.  So, I can compare faces now...

Sophie at 49 days....

Rease at 7.5 weeks....

Sophie and my mama's dog Lucy.

Sophie, taking it all in.

Reason (AKA Rease for short...)

My hands are going to be full with this one... she is NOT barking here, but that's Miss Rease's troublemaker face, haha!!

Yes, I think Sophie is bigger boned that Rease is. Soph is only 52 lbs, so that bodes well for a light little labrador, quick and agile. I am so excited and can hardly wait for Monday night, when she should arrive!!

Bring on the baby labrador!!

Old Lab, New Lab...

I finally know who my puppy is and I am SO excited. Eromit's Here For a Reason, AKA Rease is moving home hopefully on May 8th. I am in the throes of last minute preparation; going to buy puppy food tonight after work and I'll be ready.  I've been showing pictures of my Rease on facebook, but someone commented that she looks nothing like Sophie did at that age.

So, I have been prompted to try and find some puppy pictures of Sophie when she was tiny. I don't have any on my computer for some reason, but I KNOW they are out there. I'll have to get my mom to email me some, so I can compare the two cuties.  I do know that Sophie was bigger boned and was a roly poly pup. She didn't look much like Rease.

But, here she is... I am getting Bernadette from the Big Bang Litter... Verona/Ace pups born March 11.

Rease was about 4 weeks old in these two photos, I believe. So cute! 

Miss Rease, on Friday. This was pretty much exactly the same age (7 weeks) that Sophie came home. Rease is smaller than Sopher was for sure.

Look at her go!  She has spunk to her for sure!!