Happy New Year!

I know I have said it before but this is my favorite time of year!  December is a great month – all the things Christmas!  Now the holidays are over and it is just about time to ring in the New Year – time to look back on 2013.

It certainly has been a year of ups and downs for me: in May I got the most amazing and cutest grandson in the world; in July I lost my Dad after a 6 month struggle; in September I traveled to Springfield, IL, to compete at the NADAC Championships and won the Double Digit division with Kant and got 3^rd place in the 12” division with Echo; and in November I found out that Kant has cancer!

I have spent a lot of wonderful times with the greatest friends and family and I have spent a lot of time doing things I wish I did not have to do!  I have cried a lot and I have laughed more!  I created a list of 47 things to do before my 48^th birthday and I have accomplished a ton like getting a tattoo, that I love, and doing 2 5k runs!  I am almost 2 years in to my five year plan – I will retire from the Treasury in 3 years and 3 months and start a new chapter of my life.  I am looking forward to all that 2014 can bring!

Happy New Year Friends and Family – may 2014 be the greatest year filled with love and happiness!

Echo and Piper puppies turn 2!!!!!

I cannot believe it has already been 2 years since Echo had puppies!

It seems like just yesterday when they were little blobs of fur! And look at them now!

This picture was taken last month in California! It is Scout, Sassy, Jet, Eris, True, and Echo in front of her puppies! It was awesome to see all the puppies and how happy they are in their incredible homes!

The biggest and littlest - Scout and True!!

We had a GREAT time at the Sheltie only herding trial in Pleasant Grove, CA. There were 2 trials in the same day. In the first trial Sassy, Echo's daughter, got High in Trial and Echo got Reserved Hight in Trial and her Started Course A Sheep title; True got a Pre-Trial leg. In the second trial Echo got HIT and True got her PT title and Scout had a beautiful HT run! It was an awesome day for Echo and her puppies!! Already looking forward to next year!

Calvin James Dietlein

On May 10, 2013, I became a Grandma or GT (Grandma Traci) when my beautiful daughter, Jordana, gave birth to the most perfect baby boy!

Calvin James was born at 4:08pm.

He weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long,

He is now 4 months old and is a wonderful baby!

I get the pleasure of watching him on any Saturday I am available and he goes to agility with us almost every Sunday!

Congratulations Stephen and Jordana!

Birthday Bucket List

Earlier this year I was inspired by a friend from high school, which we reconnected through Facebook, after she created a list of 47 things to do before her 48th birthday. It has been 6 months since I started my list and I cannot say I am half way done but I am having a blast doing the things on my list and I have checked a bunch off. If there are any of the items on my list that you want to help me with please get in touch with me.

47 things to do before I turn 48…

1) Run a 5k – June 8, Three Sisters Marathon - DONE

2) Post on my blog more frequently

3) Get a passport

4) Visit another country

5) Hike to the top of Multnomah Falls

6) Get a tattoo – July 13th! - DONE

7) Visit an old friend that I haven’t seen in at least 2 years

8) Forgive someone

9) Go to 2013 NADAC Champs in Illinois

10) Get all my scrapbooks current

11) Clean out the garage

12) Get NATCH 5 with Kant – 4 Jumpers away

13) Get NATCH 1 with Echo – 8 Regular, 2 Jumpers, and 8 Chances away

14) Spend at least one weekend a month in Redmond – May to November (May, June, July, August, September)

15) See a movie at the movie theater

16) Do at least 6 volkswalks

17) Go to California to see Echo’s puppies

18) Spend Christmas in Redmond

19) Go whitewater rafting, kayaking, and/or paddle boarding

20) Go visit Gail – April @ Sheltie National in Albany and June 1st in Spokane - DONE

21) See a glacier in Alaska – 4/26/13 - DONE

22) Go on a date

23) Get a laptop – got my dad’s - DONE

24) Get a 4 generation picture taken

25) Get a new van – 8/13/13 - DONE

26) Have dinner once a month with a friend – (April Lynda; May Carol; June Michelle, Lee, and Lydia; July Lee; August Carol)

27) Volunteer at least once

28) Go camping

29) Teach the dogs a new behavior/trick each month – April shake

30) Visit a new park each month – (April – Independence Dog Park; May – Starvation Creek; Redmond – dog park; July – Riverbend park)

31) Get a massage

32) Make Christmas cookies and candy

33) Try a new recipe every month – April breakfast casserole; May potato salad

34) Ride my bike at Eagle Crest

35) Have $2000 in savings

36) Compete in at least 1 herding trial

37) Get rid of all the clutter in the house

38) Update pictures in frames

39) Spend L.L. Bean gift card

40) Spend Amazon gift card

41) Have lunch with a friend each month – April; May; June; July; August

42) Complete a cross stich

43) Make a digital scrapbook for me of 2013

44) Take dogs to the beach and make a sandman for 2013 Christmas cards

45) Read at least 2 books

46) Take a class

47) Celebrate my 48th Birthday on 4/3/2014

A Day to Give Thanks!!

I am thankful everyday but today seemed like the perfect day to try and put it in words! November is my month to remind myself of everything I am thankful for: my health, wonderful family, incredible friends, amazing dogs, and so much happiness!

I am so thankful that I got to spend the beginning of this year helping my daughter get ready to marry a wonderful man; they bought a house and are now expecting a baby in mid-May. This made for a very busy summer filled with lots of fun with family and friends and lots to look forward to in 2013!!

I am so thankful that I became a NADAC judge! I love judging and getting to spend time with amazing people and dogs! I stayed very busy this year! I love agility!!

Agility kept me very busy this year! Kant had an awesome year and we are very close to getting NATCH4, I love running with her and all that she gives me. Echo had a very good year and we are working out the teamwork. I went to NADAC Championships in South Jordan, Utah, with both girls and Jordana & PITA!! Kant did her best ever but we stayed just out of the ribbons and Echo exceeded my expectations!! It was a wonderful road trip with Jordana!!

Echo’s puppies turn 1 today!!!!! I am so thankful they turned out to be such great puppies! Linda posts wonderful pictures and stories about Jet and Sassy; I am so glad they are doing so well!! I am blessed to have two of the puppies in my life. There is not a day that goes by that they don’t make me smile!! They are complete opposites which is fun to watch how they each learn. They are both doing great in agility and herding. I am hoping they make their herding debut in April at the Sheltie National and True makes her agility debut there also while Eris does Rally.

Happy 1st Birthday Puppies!! I hope to see all of you in 2013!!

May your Thanksgiving be filled with lots to be thankful for!!

My Baby gets married

July 3, 2012 Jordana and Stephen got married in Bend!

Thank you to my cousin, Joe; my best friend, Lee;

my mom, Ginger; my sister, Erin, my beautiful nieces, Madison

and Isabella; my sister and her husband, Jane and Randy; and of course the bride and groom for all your help getting the hall and outside set up for the wedding! Everything went together perfectly and looked incredible!

I huge THANK YOU to my best friend’s mom, Barbara,

who delivered the bride and bridesmaids in great style in her 1956 Chevy Bel-air!!

The ceremony was scheduled to start at 7pm but started in bride’s time about 30 minutes late. But a BEAUTIFUL Bride she was!!

The ceremony was perfect and the setting along the pond was gorgeous. I love the LOVE the pictures captured.

Thank you to a great photographer that did a wonderful job of capturing the evening!

The wedding was followed by a dessert bar reception in Aspen Hall!

The First Dance!

Stephen with his Mom

Jordana with her Dad

The Cake

Jim and I were very proud of our little girl!

What a perfect Day!!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Dietlein!!

June and July were good working stock months for Echo and Kant!!

The first weekend in June I headed to Spokane to work with Lynn Leach for 2 days.

My friend Heidi has a best friend that lives in Spokane so I drug her along with me.

We stopped for some photo ops at Multnomah Falls!

I got the great pleasure of staying with Gail and getting caught up!

Gail’s yard is always so beautiful

and it is so much fun spending so time with so many Shelties!!

It makes me so proud and happy to know I can take my dogs anywhere and they do great!!

I felt Echo and I finally made some forward progress with Lynn!

I cannot wait to work with her again!!

Jordana had taken Hershey so that I did not have to worry about him having to do the stairs at Gail’s house

so we detoured on the way home and went to Redmond to pick him up.

On the way we found a “Shoe Tree” so of course we had to stop and take pictures!!

We had dinner with my Mom and headed home.

What a GREAT weekend!!

2012 Sheep Camp

For years I have heard about Sheep Camp at Fido’s Farm and this year it worked out that I could go. I arrived with 5 Shelties on Sunday night

and set up our Home Away From Home!

Sheep Camp was Monday through Friday with two main instructors and 4 people helping with “practical work” stations. I came with BIG goals and HIGH expectations both I had to let go of if I was going to survive the week.

I did put both Eris and True on sheep Monday afternoon and Eris is still not ready but True was a super star.

She got to see sheep 3 times over the week and now it will be another month or so before she does that again.

Echo was going to be my main focus but since I wanted to work on a very specific issue none of the stations really worked for us. So I ended up working both Kant and Echo equal times. The last two days I finally learned a couple of things to try with Echo so we will see.

I was reminded how much I love to work Kant!!

Tuesday afternoon I took Kant out in to the very back field

where there was a large flock of sheep

and we just had a great time walking them around!

There were two campers out in that field and I fought the temptation to open their tents and fill them with sheep!!

I met some wonderful people and got reacquainted with another.

At least twice a day I took the Shelties on a big walk to the end of the field and back!

I loved watching Kant, Echo, Eris, and True play!!

Hershey was awesome and just plugged along with us!!

Tuesday and Wednesday morning I fed the ducks in one of the big fields. The previous days I had managed to avoid the pens of ducks but I took the Shelties with me to feed so now they knew there were ducks there. It was the puppies I was worried about getting them away from the ducks

but it turned out to be Hershey that LOVED the ducks.

It was funny and a bit sad Wednesday evening when we went for our walk and passed through the gate in to the field where the ducks were Hershey went straight for the ducks and I could see the pen doors were open so I knew the ducks had been moved. But Hershey was determined to see his ducks so I just watched what he would do when he discovered the ducks were gone. He walked in to the first pen, nothing, in to the second pen, still nothing then he looked at me like where are my ducks, and he hung his head and walked over to me. I did not show him that their real home was only about 100 feet from where we were camping.

Hershey

Kant

Echo

True and Eris

I am still glad I did Sheep Camp but I will not do it again!

Thank you Chris for providing such an amazing place – Fido’s Farm!!

I am looking forward to working there again and again!!