Alix is 2!!!!

I can't believe my niece, Alix is 2 years old! Her birthday was 12/20. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday at my house. We had a good time. We had a Subway party platter for lunch and then we had a cake from The Donut Bank! The theme this year was Elmo.

Here are some pics of the big day!

And again, Happy Birthday Alix!!!!

Happy Birthday Darby!

Today is Darby's 4th Birthday!! Happy Birthday Darby!

Quick Pic

Saw this and had to share!

Happy Veteran's Day

Alix and I spent the afternoon together today. She was given an American flag while we were at Toys 'r Us. I can't wait to tell her stories about how her Aunt and Uncle were in the Air Force and how proud I am to be an American.

Thanks to all the Veterans!!

Alix's new hat

One of my knitting buds, Chris, made a beautiful hat for my niece, Alix. The hat was a big hit. Alix loves it & it looks great on her!! Thanks Chris!!!
Here are some pics of Alix modeling her new hat.
Check out the big Elmo sleeping in the dog bed by the door. Alix put him there, covered him up and told him "night, night Elmo". She's such a funny girl.



I really like this pic of Alix and Amanda. Too cute!!

The Girlz got new bonz!

We got a shipment from Pet Edge today. It's an early Christmas present to my girlz. They got a bunch of bones and a new ex-pen. Now Sadie can come to agility trials with the rest of us!!! Sadie was never crate trained and has been missing out on family fun at the agility trials. So, I got the girlz a "Bumble"-sized ex-pen!! Woo hoo!
All of the girlz are enjoying the new bones.



Here is how Brindi entertains herself. She spends most of her "free" time trying to herd the water sheep. She's pretty ocd about this aquarium.

Halloween!

The girlz and I went to Princeton for an agility trial this Halloween weekend. Brindi and Cosmo enjoyed (not really) dressing up for the costume contest. They were cute, but not happy.:)

This year our theme was the book series "True Blood". Cosmo was a vampire and Brindi was Elvis (Bubba). I wore a Merlotte's shirt. Here's our pic.

Happy Birthday Jay

Today is Jay's Birthday. He would have been 51. That's so hard to believe.




I miss you Jay!!!

Love always,
Kristie

Just a quick pic

I love this!!!

Me and Alix - pretty in pink

Here's a pic of me and Alix from our slumber party on September 11th. She spent the night and we had a grand ol' time. She's a busy little girl. She loves coloring and playing on the swing set in the back yard. So far her fave is the slide :) She really laughs when one of the dogs goes down the slide too.
She's a lot of fun, but beginning to encounter the "Terrible 2's". How does an Aunt survive this time frame?

9/15/05 - 9/15/09 Still missing Jay

9/15/09 marks 4 years since Jay passed away. Our dog Taylor passed away that same day too. What a rough day.
I think this will be the first time that I haven't planned something for the day. Last year I took the day off work and took Alix to the zoo. If anything has helped me deal with grieving for Jay it's been Alix. She's so much fun and so sweet. This past Friday she spent the night at my house. All evening she went around the house looking at pictures. She would reach out for them and I would bring them closer to her. She liked the pictures of Jay alot. He would have been so proud to be her Uncle.
9/22/09 would have been our 14th Wedding Anniversary. Who knows where we would have gone for our annual trip. He always planned great anniversary trips. We went to Estes Park, CO for our honeymoon, drove by the hotel where they filmed "The Shining". Next year is was Mesa Verde, after that Vail. Then when we moved to California we went to Redwoods National Park and Monterrey Bay. AWESOME trips. I'm so happy we did all that we did. I have lots of photo albums of all the places we went.
So tomorrow 9/15/09 will be another rough day for me. I miss my best friend and my dear sweet husband Jay Alan Davis. And our faithful dog Taylor. And our cat Thomas.

I am lucky to have my AWESOME family of pets and my human family. And I have a lot of great friends who know that I have lost the love of my life and are still there for me. It's hard to be a widow at any age, but it's really hard to find someone in a similar circumstance when you're 35.

Spiderwebs and agility

How odd that these two subjects end up together? Not so odd since I feel that my agility know-how has spiderwebs. It's been so long since I've been able to run and play with my girlz. I haven't had any agility fun since mid-June and I don't know when I'll be able to run and play again. My knee is not feeling very well. Turns out that I have really bad arthritis in my knee and if I were 65 instead of 35 I'd probably have my knee replaced already. Since I'm so young, no knee replacement for me. It really sucks to have this kind of pain. I just got a new knee brace from the knee doc, I'm hoping that it will help out with the pain.

Now to the real spiderwebs. This spider builds awesome webs each night. His presence keeps me on my toes while walking around the yard. Some feel that I should KILL him. To be honest I'm afraid of spiders, but this guy is building his webs well away from my house and as long as I don't forget about him and walk into his web I think we'll be ok.

Enjoy the pics.

A day with Alix

I got to spend some time with Alix today. She's so much fun. She's really growing up fast. She's really starting to enjoy the slide and swingset in the back yard. Brindi and Darby kind of like the slide too :)

Dinner with Dad

Last night Dad and I went out to eat. Just me and him, it was nice. We went to a serious hole in the wall fish place in Southern Illinois. I had serious reservations about going in, but we did, and we survived. Their specialty is catfish. It was pretty good. Quite an experience. But mostly had fun hanging out with my Dad.

Here are some pics of the fish place.

A visit with Alix

Here is a pic of Alix from a recent visit. She's so pretty with a bow. :)

knees

I am recovering from knee surgery. I had the surgery on June 30th and am still healing up. Doc thought I had a torn meniscus, but turns out I didn't. Doc said that my patella, which should be smooth and round, was jagged and rough. Some of the pieces had broken off and were causing me pain. So he smoothed out my patella and removed the extra pieces. Recovery time is supposed to be 6 weeks. I am heading into week 5. I am back to work part time and light duty. Still walking with one crutch. I got the stitches taken out at week 2 and it appears to have been infected. A round of antibiotics were given to fight that. I'm hoping the infection is gone. I don't go back to see the doc again until August 13th, a day before my 35th birthday. My knee still doesn't feel right, and I'm still icing it frequently to help out with the pain. I'm hoping that my knee is 100% after 6 weeks, since the doc told me it would be 100% by then.

This really stinks because I will have missed out on at least 3 agility trials since this surgery. Not only missing out on trials, but also missing out on practices. I hope the girlz remember how to play this game once I'm back on my feet!

I can't wait until I'm feeling better and can run and play again :)

Happy Birthday Cosmo!!!

Today my sweet little Cosmo turns 4 years old!! Cosmo enjoyed a typical morning playing with Ellie-fun and her sisters and brother Fitz.

I am thankful everyday that someone reached out to save her. She was in Indy Animal Care and Control when a friend of mine took her in. I met Cosmo just a week after Jay passed away and I instantly fell for her. At that point my friend told me that this dog was meant to be in my home. Cosmo has a "J" birthmark on her belly. I am very certain that Jay sent Cosmo to me. She's kept me busy and keeps me laughing too.

Cosmo will be enjoying a special birthday treat later this afternoon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COSMO TOPPER!!!

Love ya!

Happy Birthday Brindisi Jean!!

Happy Birthday to Brindisi Jean and all her siblings!! Today they turn 5 years old!!

Brindi woke up this morning and woo woo'd me when I sang Happy Birthday to her. She such a great girl!!!

Here are some pics of Brindi.

These are right after she was born. Her name then was Coco.





She is one of seven pups in the litter. Her mom's name is Peaches. All the pups and mom are now in their forever homes and lovin' the good life. Peaches was taken into rescue and was heartworm positive. Peaches had one treatment for heartworms before anyone knew she was pregnant. All the pups are great!!





Here is a pic of her sis Ali and bro Danny at the Great Lakes Border Collie Rescue group's summer picnic a few years ago.



And here is a more recent pic of Brindi. She's truly starting to love the agility game we are playing.



Brindi is a very sweet girl. She's sensitive and loving. And she's kind of goofy too :)





I hope all the Peachy pups have a great day!!

Love ya Brindi!!!

And a little bit of knitting

I have to share this pic of me and my friends on board. Amanda and Susan are working on their colored pencil pics while I knit. We're sitting in one of the dining rooms on the ship. I got a little bit of knitting done while on the cruise. I started working on a scarf. It's still not finished :)



And my poor Northern Lights Wrap has barely been touched since before my cruise. It did get carried to knitting last night, but nothing was knitted. BAD, BAD KNITTER! Too much socializing happened last night. :)


I miss the Star Princess!!!!

Some more Alaska pics

Here are some more pics from Alaska.

Here are some sea lions we saw on our whale watching excursion.


And Mendenhall Glacier as we were coming from Juneau.


While in Juneau we visited the famous Red Dog Saloon. Very cool!





Some pics from the bus ride to the Yukon Trail into Canada.





And while we were there we visited a sled dog camp. It was really hard not to adopt a pup. :) I really enjoyed the sled dog stuff. They had a sled on wheels and they took us for a ride. It was GREAT! One of the dogs was being a real pain in the butt, picking on the other dogs. Her name was Cosmo. It must be the name, because my Cosmo is the one that picks on my other dogs too.

yep, still a bad blogger

Sorry, I've just been super busy. Trying to get back to "normal" after the cruise to Alaska has been rough.
Here are some more pics of my amazing trip. These are from my whale watching excursion. It was AWESOME! We saw LOTS of humpback whales, some sea lions, and some bald eagles. Alaska is truly WILD and SPECTACULAR!!!

Enjoy!
These are humpback whales.



Here's an idea as to how big a humpback is, check out the size of the whale near this boat.


Here is a pic of a bald eagle.

And here's a pic of me enjoying the whale watching trip. It was GREAT!!!