Friday, April 08, 2005

The first entry

Hi everyone. I decided (after some persuading from a friend) to start this blog. It will (hopefully) keep everyone informed about the chaotic goings-on in our household. It might be funny, it might be sad, it might be boring. I make no promises.

Hockey season officially ended for Kyle last Sunday at the 2005 Grand Canyon State Games. As we figured, the Peoria Roadrunners beat us in the championship game 3-0. The kids played really well - held them to a 0-0 tie almost through the 2nd period. But Peoria is, and has been all season, the better team, and they held out to win it. Alex Taylor (our goalie) was outstanding stopping 40 of 43 shots on goal. It was a great way to end the season.

Which means that Kyle is no longer a Squirt. He is now a PeeWee. Full contact hockey begins on 4/19 with tryouts for next fall's PeeWee94 Travel Team. While we truly hope he makes the team, we are realistic that he is a) small for a PeeWee, b) not one of the fastest kids, and c) not one of the strongest players. But he is determined to try, so we are committing to an entire summer of pre-season hockey to try to get him on the team. We won't know until August if he makes the final cut.

Today, however, we are off on our big adventure to rural New Mexico to pick up our two new Border Collie puppies. For those of you not current on the events - in February we had to put our beloved baby, Toosox, to sleep. After almost 13 years of constant companionship, lymphoma took over and claimed her little life. Our hearts are still breaking with the loss, but we knew that we owed it to her to end her life with dignity. She will forever be our one & only baby girl.

Shortly after her loss, I started looking into pups. We have promised Kyle for at least the last 5 years that when Toosox was gone, we'd get him a pup. Ron insisted on another Border Collie. Well, Borders are not easy to come by in the state of AZ. I did, finally, find a litter in Mountainair, New Mexico. Born 2 days before we put down Toosox. The females were already "reserved," but there were 4 little boys to choose from. Kyle chose a little white pup with 2 black ears and a black spot on his back. He promptly chose the name Snoopy, and has stuck with it.

Over spring break we took Kyle to the wilds of NM (little did we know that there was going to be a major snowstorm going with us) to visit his pup. The roads were closed to the ranch, so we had to spend a night between Albuquerque & Mountainair to wait out the road closure. The next morning we set off.

Sure enough, there was about a foot of snow up there in Mountainair. And they obviously aren't used to it, as none of the roads were plowed. There were tracks from the main highway onto the ranch road, so Ron got our SUV in there, but the snow was too deep to actually make it up the ranch driveway. I got out my hat & gloves and hiked in. Leon, the ranchhand, took the 4-wheeler out to the road a couple of times to dig a path for Ron to drive in on.

The pups were PRECIOUS. Six of them - 4 boys, 2 girls - all came out to visit. Mom stayed in her room so we could play with the babies. Kyle had a great time with his pup. Snoopy never once took a nap. He just played & played. I think Kyle was smitten. I grew quite attached to a little girl that curled up in my lap and slept. Ron found the runt (just like Toosox.) He was born first, and not really a "runt", just a little smaller than the rest. He was a sleepy little boy. Ron plopped him in my lap and asked, "Isn't he cute?" Fortunately for my husband, he was the only other pup not claimed. It was very obvious that Ron wanted to bring this one home, too, but he wouldn't say it.

After 2 hours, we headed back to the car for the long drive back to our cabin in Heber, AZ. I told the breeder that we would let her know in a few days about the second pup.

Sure enough, Ron did some mighty convincing to get me to commit to the puppy. Now we have 2 coming - Snoopy & Joe. We pick them up Sunday morning and take them back to the cabin. We'll be back here on Monday, with loads of news about the new babies.

And I chose now to start this blog????

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