The rest of what I've been working on...

 My friend, Meredith, recently started a blog and featured the idea for the above wreath. Check out her blog for the original inspiration from pinterest and also she's got some other great wreaths and stuff.

 I absolutely LOVE these felt flowers. Meredith's blog tells how to make them. Super easy and way cute!

I also finished Joseph's chicken pants and shoe covers for his Halloween costume:

 Daysie approves.

Then I just HAD to make a felt rose out of some of the felt left over from the shoe covers......

 And proceeded to torture Daysie with it....

 And Smokey...

 Not even Shelby was safe. Only Pumpkin...I guess she was smart and hid.

The yard sale went really great today despite being REALLY cold this morning. Sold a lot of junk..err...fantastic stuff! We will be back at it again tomorrow. Joseph was not a fan of the yardsale. He really just wanted to ride around the farm all day. He thinks yardsales are boring. Ta ta for now...I'm out!

Stuff

First of all, I would like to say Happy Birthday to Shelby. He is 3 today. No, he doesn't read my blog...it's kinda hard to work the keyboard with paws. :) It's hard to believe we have had him over 2 years now. Even though he has his issues, I wouldn't trade him for any dog in the world.

It was a pretty good weekend here. I did a good 4 mile run early Sunday morning which was a nice way to get the day started. I also finished my 2 Shaw recipes for the week....posts to come later.

It was a sad weekend for the garden. I ended up pulling up my corn because it was already all tasseled out and had no ears. :( Also I had pulled up our potatoes last week and got MAYBE 2 pounds of potatoes. Grrr. All of this was on one side of the garden, so we pulled it all up and are going to get it ready to our fall garden. Maybe we will have better luck. I mixed a bunch of our compost into the soil and maybe that will help. Live and learn as I always say.

Well, I hear a little one rustling around in his crib waking up from his nap, so I had better get to getting. :)

Patriotic 5K Fun Run!

The whole family (minus the cats...they aren't much for running as you can imagine..) ran in the Patriotic 5K Fun Run in Frankfort. How fun was it? Well, it was pretty fun...for a run. It was nice since a few people from the gym I go to were there and so there was more than just my usual cheering crew of one (Michael). I didn't run a whole lot...the road that most of the race was run on had been torn up for repaving and was rougher than a cob! Even in the very nice Baby Jogger that my friend had loaned me, Joseph was bouncing around a whole lot and was not digging it. Not to say that I could have run that much more anyway. I'm usually pretty draggy for evening 5Ks...I'm a morning person.

Joseph and Shelby are ready to go...Joseph is having a pre-race snack:
"This Baby Jogger is tasty..."

Me and the munchkin post race:
Joseph actually finished ahead of me...imagine that!! I was going to run across the line backwards, but the last stretch was up a hill and I didn't feel like getting that fancy. Everyone else (Michael and Shelby) can beat me so why not Joseph! :)

Family portrait....sweaty, red faced family portrait!
You can see the race results here! I think Michael (& Shelby) finished 82nd and Joseph and I finished 130th. I think there were around 170 runners/walkers. I think my next one is going to be the Secretariat Big Red 5K on October 2nd. It should have a pretty cool t-shirt!! :)

Shelby

I've decided that I am going to do a series of blogs about notable animals in my life. Since I talked a bit about Shelby in my last blog, I will lead off with him.

Meet Shelby: He is actually the newest addition to our household (Joseph aside). We adopted Shelby from the Kentucky Humane Society in Louisville in February 2009. He was 7 months old. He is a Border Collie/Beagle Mix but I am sure there is some bird dog in there as well. We began the search looking for a beagle. It had taken us forever to settle on a type of dog. Michael is more interested in Rotts, Pit Bulls, Labs, Boxers, etc. I told him that I wasn't having a dog that weighed more than 40 lbs in the house. He said that anything less than 40 lb wasn't a dog (Shelby comes in just under at 37 lb). We had given up on finding a dog that we could both agree on. Finally one day after working with the beagles at UK, we decided we could both live with a beagle (because beagles are super cool). So I began searching Petfinder.com. We looked at 3 dogs, a full beagle female whose name I can't recall (she was already in adotion process), a Beagle/Bassett mix named Larry, and a Border Collie/Beagle Mix named Chester (we had to change the name to Shelby...I kept calling him Chester Molester). He is named after Carroll Shelby the car designer (as in the Shelby Mustang...Eleanor in Gone in 60 Seconds). He gets mistaken for a female so often because of his name. Poor thing.


Here is Shelby not long after he was adopted:
Such a sweet face. His leg was not hurt...he has a bit of a nervous licking problem and we were trying to keep him from licking his leg raw. This is a continuous battle.

I said before that Shelby is crazy fast....it's true and very hard to catch via camera. This is maddening for my parent's border collie, Shyann, who, until I saw Shelby, was one of the fastest dogs I knew. She just can't catch him, can't herd him, just generally can't make him do. Here he is doing what I like to call his "crop circles." Seriously, the dog runs in a circle...but at least he can go clockwise and counter-clockwise...and he does lots of figure 8's.
Shelby loves to fetch and play with his Bad Cuz:

He can fetch forever. Joseph is going to have a ball playing with him when he gets older.


He gets along well with other dogs, cats, and horses...although only a few of the aforementioned care for him. He does tend to get extremely jealous though....but not as jealous as Shyann:

This is Shelby trying out to be on a PETA/Humane Society ad:

Look how pitiful..."Please help me...my parents abuse me...never mind the shiny look of my coat...look at the sadness in my eyes!" But Shelby, if you ever are on a PETA ad, you will need them to come get you because I'm throwing your butt out. Love you. :)

Generally he is a pretty happy dog:

Who likes to give Joseph kisses even though he doesn't quite know what to make of him yet.

Future best buds:

Shelby's favorite things:

Walks/Runs: don't even put walking or running shoes on without expecting to take the dog....he goes berzerk when you even touch those shoes...and he knows which ones they are!

People food: He doesn't get much (unless he is at my mom's) but he is the prime example of "you give a mouse a cookie...and he'll ask you for some milk."

Horses: If they are on TV, he's watching it...with intensity. Doesn't matter what he was doing before....that's history...now he's watching horses.

Going to the barn: It's like with the walking/running...there have actually been times I've had to take my boots with me and change them at the barn to keep him from getting too excited if I'm not planning on taking him. He almost always goes though.

Riding in the car: Doesn't matter where...if the car door opens up, he's getting in.

His Banana: That would be my mom...(it started as calling her "nana" but she didn't like that, so Banana it is). She likes to give him food....enough said...and her house is the funnest.

Hope you enjoyed a little look at our Shelby (aka Roni...all of our pets have nicknames...random nicknames)

Next up: Daysie

Running

I don't know that I would ever call myself a "runner." Michael would say I'm much more of a "shuffler." I like to try though and since people wouldn't know what shuffling is, I will say that I run. I have kind of a love-hate relationship with running as I am sure most people can relate to. It seems that I can never go more than a year of running without something happening to make me have to stop. Last July 4th, I hurt my hip during a 5K race. I had been training really hard (running 30+ miles a week) and I was watching my diet because even with all that running, I had put on quite a bit of extra weight. I was posting my best ever times up until just after the 2 mile marker when I felt a sharp pain in my hip. I stopped and walked for a bit, but I was determined to finish this race with a decent time...so I made myself keep going. I ended up finishing in 38 minutes or so. After I crossed the finish line, I found Michael and told him that we had to go home that instant. He had finished much earlier than me...he's just fast like that...makes me sick. Anyway, I was diagnosed with a strained hip flexor and also found out that I was pregnant. When I went to physical therapy, my therapist also found out that my pelvis had slipped and was tilted. I wondered why this happened and my therapist believed that it was a combination of overtraining and dieting while not knowing I was pregnant. After many weeks of physical therapy, I was much better, but by this time, I was advised not to run anymore until after the baby was born since it had been a couple of months with little activity and I was now almost 12 weeks.
Well, I have started up running again. I am starting VERY slowly. The training program I am using is for beginners...and that is what I feel like now. I feel like my body is completely different and while I have been running off and on for a few years, my body is newbie. First things first, I bought some new kicks. Check em' out: Very bright, huh? They make me look fast! JK. I doubt anything would make me look fast, but I like them. They are designed for flat footed people like me. I found out I've been using the wrong shoes the whole time. These are the ones that go with the Nike+ chip and I run with my ipod. I like to have gadgets...keeps me motivated.

The other thing that keeps me motivated:

My running buddy, Shelby. I can't even touch my shoes without him almost jumping out of his skin with excitement. He looks all depressed in this picture...probably because he wants to go for a run. He's the best running partner ever...he never runs off and leaves me...unlike someone I know...I won't name names....Michael. Of course, Shelby is on a leash, so he can't leave me. Lord knows he would. Shelby is crazy fast....in a circle...or until he smells something interesting. You would have to know him.

My comeback race is the same one I got hurt in last year: The Great Buffalo Chase 5K at Buffalo Trace Distillery on July 3rd. I won't be running. I will be walking with the rugrat in the stroller. Michael will be running.....Shelby will be at home. No dogs allowed. :'(

"Focus"

I was going to do a post about this past weekend that Michael, Shelby, and I spent at my parent's house in TN. However, I'm gonna have to split it up. I have too much material. It was a GORGEOUS weekend. Saturday was exceptionally nice. After all the snow and nastiness and cold that we've had this winter (and it looks like it's back today), it was a lovely break. I spent some time playing fetch with the dogs.
Shyann, my parent's dog, lives to fetch. Well, she lives to "do" stuff. She's a border collie in every way. She just wants to do. She has such focus and intensity. You can see it in her eyes:
She could fetch until she passed out. Fortunately I'm over it before that ever happens!

Her favorite toy is her Bad Cuz:

SOMETIMES Shelby will even get the ball:

This doesn't happen very often. He always gets to the ball first, but Shyann swoops in and grabs it. He has the speed...just not the focus. He's only part border collie....part beagle. The border collie part says, "Get to the ball....get the BALL!" The beagle part says, "SQUIRREL!"


I mean, look at this intesity:

Can you blame poor Shelby for being like, "It's cool...you can have it."

This is the same intensity that Shyann brings to all endeavors. Take the following picture for example:

Pure focus. Keeping her eye on the prize.

Yep, that is one focused dog:

This is Shelby's "focus" face:

Then the beagle part kicks in and goes "SQUIRREL!":

He's just happy to be here.

"I LOVE the farm!"

Merry Christmas, Spice!

I went out to the barn yesterday to give my horse, Spice, her Christmas gift and her stocking. Yes....my horse has a stocking: I'm sure it will be nice and dirty when I get it after Christmas.
I bought Spice a new leather halter. It's so sweet! It has five million adjustments and padding and the leather is sooo soft. I asked her to model it:

Now, Spice, you know that a "full on" pose is not your best.....you'll never make "America's Next Top Equine Model" with that pose.

Ok, that's a little better, but maybe a little more profile.....and try to "smile with your eyes" more....

OK, nice.....nice....the eyes are a little crazy, but work it!

Very Nice....

OK, I guess you're done with the photos.

OK, I'll stop now. I guess you're ready to get back to your hay.

This is what Michael does at the barn:

Yes, that would be a coat full of kittens....

Mutual benefit: Kittens stay warm...Michael stays warm....

Is NICE!
This is what Shelby does:

Look at those beagle ears!

"Finally!!! Back to my hay eating!!" Spice...you know top Equine Models don't eat....