Memorial Day

Well life continues to trudge on.  Work continues to kick my ass all over the place but I am hanging in there.  I'm starting to focus on other things.  If I build up other places in my life I should be able to muddle through until I can figure everything out.  I just hope I don't burn out before I can iron out the wrinkles.

So this past weekend was Memorial Day.  Turned out to be a two day weekend for me, which NEVER happens.  That was nice.  I didn't get to sit around on my ass and do nothing though.  My little brother was here   from Ireland where he was studying abroad.  He was only here for two days and it was so good to see him.  I know he is in the stage where hanging out with his family is lame but I really enjoyed it.  He took off back to Washington for his job and his last year of school.  I wish he wasn't so far away.  So it was good to see him and have lots of family time.  I am very blessed to have the family that I do.  I love having them nearby.

It's also important for everyone to remember our troops on Memorial Day.  The whole trend that people don't care about being American's and don't respect the troops that give up everything to fight for what we enjoy in this country really pisses me off.  You don't have to love everything about being an American but guess what, that's a right you have in the USA that soldiers have died to defend.  I respect and appreciate our troops: past, present and future.  Thank you all for serving!

I want to share the video that was posted on Postsecret.com.  For those who don't know who Postsecret is, it is a community project where people send in secrets on postcards to one very lucky guy, Frank.  Frank put together this video of secrets from or about soldiers.

Other than that I've just been existing.  I am trying to catch up on things but it never seems to happen.  Such is life.  I'm always juggling 15 million things at a time.  Inevitably I drop one of the balls and that makes me feel like a failure some of the time.  I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm not Superwoman.  If I was I could manage all of this and get a decent night's sleep.  Can't have everything I guess.

Ciao!

Some of today's images

I just thought I'd post a few images today.

Theo kindly helping me with my work.

The beautiful mountains I love so much.

 And... a few amusing pictures that sum me up so well.  They're why I love coffee so much.

A Year of Good Memories

As you know I've been feeling down for a while.  I feel pretty helpless about what to do to fix it.  For the time being, I decided that I need to focus on the good things in my life.  Those little moments of light happen everyday but if you don't take notice you get lost in the chaos.  So, while wasting time on Pinterest (which I will blog about later) I saw this really cute idea.  You take a jar and every time something makes you smile or laugh or you experience something you don't want to forget, you write it down and put it in the jar.  At the end of the year, you have a jar full of memories that remind you of the good things in life.

The way things are going for me right now this is the perfect thing for me to do.  So, even though the year is half  gone, I created my own jar.

Can you say...

Another melancholy post.  Can you say rut?  Can you say PMS and job dissatisfaction?  Can you say shoot me now?

*Sigh*  So, I've been kicking around what and what not to post for a while.  On the one hand, I hate to edit myself.  I feel like I need a place to voice my feelings and thoughts in an honest way.  Then on the flip side this is a public blog.  We've all heard the horror stories of someone who posts on the internet in a therapeutic fashion and it turns around and bites them in the ass.  The last thing I need is me putting a target on my own back.  I already have a huge target on my back through no fault of my own.

We'll just say things aren't going well.  I need to make huge changes before this completely ruins my life.  I shouldn't have to dread it every day and feel like I'm failing at something that is made impossible through other people's actions.  It's just not fair to myself.  Don't they always say life is too short?  Live while you can?

I don't know.  Whoever said that lived in a much simpler world than I do.  Man what I wouldn't give to be independently wealthy.  Lately I've just been trying to remind myself of the good things in my life.  I look around me and I do see people who have it much worse off than I do.  I should be grateful and all that.  Still, recognizing how good I have it doesn't make the bad things disappear.  Maybe it would be healthy for me to make a Pro/Con list.  Or maybe I shouldn't bother and I should just find another road for my feet.  And I should do it sooner rather than later before my spirit gets crushed.

I'm just tired.  I'm exhausted all the time in mind and body.  I need to focus on myself for a while and what I need to ease the burden.  I think I know what I need.  I just wish that this crazy world was a place that you could just leap without looking.  Sadly I have to look if I don't want to end up crashing in my sister's spare bedroom again.  I do love her dearly but that's not where I want to be.  Course I don't want to be where I am mentally either.

What a cluster f***.

Grr, Arg!

I'm in a bitchy mood.  That probably has something to do with the fact that it's super hot in here and I was napping for a little while but it wasn't enough.  It's been a long week.  It's been a long month.  I have so much going on and I feel like I'm not making progress on figuring out what I want in the future.  I think there are things I need to cut out of my life and I need to explore other areas.  It's time to move on but I have a hard time letting go.  I feel overwhelmed and stuck.  I'm getting that feeling that I need to make a jump forward.

All of that is depressing and it is making me grumpy.  The fact that I just did the dishes and my fingers are pruney.  I do love this house but I HATE the fact that there is no dishwasher.  Hate hate hate.

And as I'm sitting here writing this and being grumpy leave it to my kiddos to cheer me up.  Whitman was bopping Theo's head so Theo started chasing him around trying to jump on him.  They ended up running around the living room in a loop around Gerani.  Finally Gerani jumped up and barked; Theo and Whitman scattered.  It was like two little kids bouncing off the walls until Mom finally yells at them to just cut it out!  So funny.  They actually made me laugh when I was in this really horrible mood.  This is why I love them.  So blessed to have them.

That's exactly why I bought my flip, to catch moments like that..  Course it is downstairs.  I maybe need to keep it on the kitchen counter so that I can catch these matches between Theo and Whitman.  Hilarious.  The world needs to see that.

Hello friends!

I am already hating summer.  It's too damn hot.  I think we need to deck this house out with some more fans.  Either that or I'm going to be spending this summer plastered to the concrete floor downstairs.  I think that's a perfectly valid life choice.

The way things are going for me right now it would probably be an improvement to just lay on the floor and not move.  I'd LOVE to do that.  Right now I only usually have one day off a week.  That's too little.  Especially when the rest of the week sucks the life right out of you.  That's what I feel like lately.

I'm trying to keep things into perspective though.  As much as I dislike how it's going right now, I have a job and it does have some great benefits.  Oh no not medical benefits silly.  Benefits as in my dogs get to come to work with me.  I get all dogs stuff free or at a discount.  Mostly, having my dogs with me probably keeps me more sane than anything else.

Well that was just a small update to let you know I'm alive.

My brain is stuffed full!

I'm a little late updating this but things have been crazy.  I have several updates I need to do but I'm going to slow myself down and try to get them all in thoroughly.

First of all, I was in Denver last week to see Dr. Sophia Yin speak.  Dr. Sophia Yin is a veterinarian and behaviorist.  It's a rare thing to find a veterinarian that straddles over into behavior and training.  So there was definitely a lot to learn from her.  She's one of the great trainers out there and I highly recommend her.  It was an entertaining four days and my brain got crammed full of information.  It always is after a seminar like this.  There is a lot to learn from these big time trainers.

I was surprised to find that a lot of this was review.  There are the basics of positive reinforcement training that all the big time trainers seem to have.  Of course everyone has their own spin on it which is interesting to see.  Even if the information is review, the way that particular trainer presents it is new.  I have started to find that I can pick and choose what I want to take from each seminar.  The first bit seminar I ever went to was Dr. Ian Dunbar.  I came back from that feeling like I had to change everything I was doing and would ever do.  Then I realized the point is that you take the information you need and use it in the way you need.  So a lot of the information that Dr. Sophia Yin presented was a review and I wasn't exactly sure I bought into her take on it.  She definitely has a different style.  But I did find gems I could pick out and that I want to use in the future.

What I'm going to use:

• How to safely handle a dog at the vet.  Whitman may be my fluffly lovebug but he's not the vet's fluffy lovebug.  So if I can handle him safely and desensitize him to that our vet trips will be 100 times better.  And of course, those techniques can be used at work for handling injured or sick dogs safely.  I'm going to do my own mini seminar for the handlers at work.
• How to approach fearful dogs.  Of course because I own a fearful dog.  But I also give a bite prevention talk at a lot of events.  I want to incorporate a lot of what she had.  The biggest thing I loved was her pictures of an inappropriate greeting from the dog's point of view.  She also had some great analogies about fearful dogs meeting people being people meeting spiders.  Good stuff.
• Psychopharmacology.  It hurt my brain but I know I'm going to need to know at least some of that for my certification.
• Walking on lead.  I already have a good way to teach this and I wasn't completely in love with how she does it.  But I am going to steal starting with backing up and sitting on a hands-less leash.
• Kitty Kindergarten.  I'm super excited about this.  I want to make a kitty training class from scratch.  If that goes well then I can do a cat training class.  That's going to be SO much fun and I really hope it takes off.

There was more but I'm sure you don't all want to hear about it.  I learned A LOT!  And my brain kind of busted by the end.  That's why I take notes so that I can go back over and think about everything.

I left that seminar with a HUGE training to-do list to add to my everyday to-do list.

• Reinstate my Premiere trainer account for discounts
• Go through my IAABC notes and put those together
• Also go through the brochures I got from the IAABC and find the puppy groups I wanted to join.
• Doggone Safe
• Get my certification going with my hours, recommendations and flashcards.
• Apply to write the APDT blog
• Write a new bio
• Go through my client packets and add them on my professional Facebook.
• Update my professional Facebook, BranchOut and LinkedIn
• Set up South training
• Kitty Kindergarten
• course schedules
• Get the posters from Sophia Yin and frame them
• Look into a possible Mannersminder
• Get Whitman's blood work done so that I can find a motivation for him.
• work on targeting with Whitman

That's my to-do list.  AAAA!

So I learned a lot from Dr. Sophia Yin and got inspired but one of the best things about going to a seminar is that we have a blast!  The apprentices and trainers really get to know each other and cut loose when we go on seminars.  We all have steam to blow off and we do that.  Thanks to some liquor, a pool and Quelf.

It was an amazing experience.  I'm so lucky to be a part of an organization that gives me these opportunities.

Whitman visited the seminar!

APDT Blog Possibility

So the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), of which I am a member, are launching a new blog.  The blog is going "aimed specifically at dog trainers and behavior consultants or those who want to follow this career path".  It is supposed to cover "topics of interest to the professional community."  That is kind of broad for me to pin down exactly what to write but I'm VERY interested.  I am a writer at heart and I miss doing it as much as I did when I was in school.  This would really be the perfect mesh of both halves of my life, dogs and writing/literature.  It would be an incredible experience.  Plus it would get my name out there, which is super important.

So I am thinking I should apply.  But that makes me nervous.  I have to apply with possible topics and provide writing samples.  Now writing samples I have.  When I was in college in Boulder I wrote freelance for the Colorado Daily newspaper.  I wrote articles featuring independent businesses.  I had a lot of fun with them and I don't think they were terrible.  I can use those as writing samples.

But are they good enough?  Which is best?

Here they are:


Articles

Okay I know that's kind of awkward but that's the easiest way to do it.

So which one/s are good?  Can I use any of them?

Also, what topics should I choose?

Just one more thing to tackle.  I feel like the list is getting bigger and bigger.  Never ending list I need to get done to get my feet under myself for training.