Sadie

As many of you know, Sadie the Cocker Spaniel, has been living with us for about 2 weeks now. Sadie is very sweet and loving and loves to play fetch and sit in your lap for lot's of lovin's! Sadie isn't ours but belonged to a family member that can longer keep her due to a personal tragedy.

If you know of anyone that might be interested in a 4 month old fawn colored Cocker Spaniel please ask them to fill out a puppy questionnaire on my web site and indicate they are interested in the Cocker Spaniel. www.bellahavanese.com

Illness not allowed!

Got to sleep in till 7:30 yesterday morning, felt good, but still didn't seem like I got a good nights sleep! Don't we always want more of a good thing??!!

Travis woke up vomiting yesterday morning and he said he had horrible stomach pains all night too. I hope the rest of us don't get whatever he has. Wrote this too soon! Bryan began not feeling well last night and couldn't even eat dinner, something he never misses! I went to bed early last night too as I wasn't feeling right either. I woke up with aches, headache and a terrible sore throat! Bryan woke up with a cold. I went back to bed (not ever able to do that unless I am sick) mid-morning but could never get warm. Got up again early afternoon, took a hot shower and felt a little better but somewhat woozy and exhausted feeling, with some aches. Hopefully this will pass soon.

I was able to get most of my Christmas shopping done online. Didn't have to pay shipping on any of it, which is nice. So, I saved on gas, time and all stress free!!!

I am excited about our trip to Eukanuba this year. I look forward to seeing many I don't get to see any other time. The S. California club sounds like it will be hosting one terrific specialty. I will never forget their first specialty as a AKC licensed club back in 2006, it was nice.

All the dogs are doing great. They still don't like Sadie too much, except for Lizzie. I got some pictures this past from some of our Bellatak family, I so enjoy getting pictures and video too!

Tom was suppose to go to the storage unit yesterday and get all of our Christmas decorations, but that didn't happen. I was hoping to start some decorating today, but the way I feel I know it wouldn't have happened if he had gotten all the stuff. Maybe next weekend he will be able to get it all if the weather cooperates.

Ahhhh....

Even though I am exhausted from mostly standing in the kitchen yesterday cooking it was well worth it. Everyone said it tasted great, I on the other hand thought it all tasted the same!!! It was great having all the kids home this year. We filled our tummies until we couldn't eat anymore, we played games, drank whatever and just enjoyed "hanging out". Sarah made a delicious hot apple win punch and brought the appetizers.

Having adult children in the retail business we had to discuss the insanity that surrounds Black Friday shopping. We all think it has gotten way out of control and it should not continue. The retailers have control of it. I would much rather enjoy the day relaxing and if I want to shop, do it online!!! I not only save time and gas shopping online, but typically you don't pay for shipping either!

All the furkids enjoyed the day too. The weather was abnormally warm so we spent time outside too. I bought the grandkids these little planes that you fly using a sling shot type thing. They enjoyed them and so did all the adults. We had a contest (once grandma figured out how to make them work) to see who could get their plane to fly the farthest. Would you believe it was the youngest member of the family, the 5 year old that won!!! Who would have thought that a $1.99 set of 3 planes would be so entertaining for everyone??!!

My sister and her family came up to mom's and cooked at her house. I had hoped we all would be able to go over for dessert, however, the grandkids wanted to also go to their other grandma's and I was so exhausted it just didn't happen.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving.

Off for 5 days!!!

I enjoyed going to the dog show on Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. I got to spend quality time with Vallee, BJ, Jane, David and many other's. It was especially nice to see a friend with a true smile on her face with her new male friend and her Havanese I have not seen in a long time. The weather was nice, no rain thankfully. David and BJ were interviewed by Channel 13 news while they were waiting to go into the ring, that was fun to watch on the news that night! We had a club meeting and seeing so many present who are kind and love the breed was great too.

I will be cooking Thanksgiving this year and I look forward to having all the kids here including our grandson's who have not been here for Thanksgiving in a very long time!!!

I am looking forward to going to Eukanuba. A few of us will be caravanning down to Long Beach like we did last year and it makes the 6+ hour drive more fun!

Sadie is living her now and since she arrived 4 days ago, ALL the dogs have not been pleased she is around. Well, today I came home from work and took Sadie outside and Lizzie followed. Who would have thought that the smallest of the "crew" would break the ice first and play with Sadie. It was hysterical to say the least. Lizzie ran and ran all around the yard wanting Sadie to chase her, which she did, but Lizzie is too fast for her. That of course made Queenie want to get into the act, and it was so nice to see. CC, Poker and Teddy are still not warming up to Ms Sadie, but in due time!!!

I hope you all have a wonderfully full, healthy and happy Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for!!!

Thursday, November 19th

Well, it has been a week of many family adventures to say the least. While I won't go into any details, just know it has been a rather stressful week. Never a dull moment in our household as Tom say's!

I am looking forward to the weekend though. I am seriously considering getting the cheapest freezer I can even if it isn't frost free as I really want to try using my grinder to make a LOT of food. I just paid off the darn credit card though so not sure I should do it. The mood I am in today though I think I should by george! LOL Then next week, only 2 work days. I just realized earlier this week that Thanksgiving is NEXT week!!!! Not sure when I will get the shopping all done, but I always look forward to the wonderful feast on that day. I enjoy cooking Thanksgiving dinner and having all the kids here.

Today at work they had a Thanksgiving feast catered for all of us to enjoy. It was actually very tasty.

All the dogs are doing great. Lizzie however thinks that she can run from mommy instead of being a good girl and coming to me when called. She LOVES running in and out and in and out.....of the doggie door. While that is fine most of the time, there are times I am not comfortable with her doing that for fear a hawk will come along and grab her. Lizzie on the other hand thinks differently and after all, we do live in HER world!! LOL We have Sadie and Ollie staying here today and Lizzie doesn't like Saddie for some reason. Sadie is the sweetest girl too. So for today, Sadie, Ollie and Lizzie are all confined to separate xpens in the computer room with me! Thankfully this won't be this way for more then a few hours as they all would rather be running about! lol

A warning light came on the dashboard of my van today. I had no idea what it meant so had to pull out the manual. Well, it was telling me a tire was too low. I think I picked up a nail. I now must go to the tire store first thing tomorrow morning!! Not something I particularly look forward to doing! Time for them to be rotated anyway I suppose or I might need new ones, who knows!

Raw dog food

Yesterday I cleaned the "black hole" in our house, otherwise known as the Pantry! It was a mess. We have a large walk-in pantry and it had become the "catch all" place to throw things we didn't know where to put them. Now I can actually walk into it again. lol I wanted to make a space for the new grinder which was my motivation to clean it.

I used the new Weston #22 Grinder today. It was wonderfully easy, quiet and fast. The longest part was cleaning! It ground 5 pounds in less then 15 seconds! I can't do much more then that since I don't have enough freezer space. So, if this continues to work well, I suppose our next purchase will be a freezer! lol

REMINDER: Check your yards for mushrooms, as they can be deadly to your dog. It is the season here in California anyway. We found 2 this morning, thankfully before the dogs found them.

Grooming Day

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The work week is over!

What a day at work! I was glad to get off to say the least. There was some fog this morning on the way to work, but not bad, still could see where I needed to go.

I sent an email Tuesday to Home Depot corporate office letting them know my disappointment in their Elk Grove, CA store. Today, I received a phone call from the store manager. A very nice, polite man that really seemed interested in hearing all the details of our horrible visit to his store. At the end of the conversation, he was offering to try and make things right even though yesterday Tom and I returned the security screen door at mom's request.

My meat grinder arrived today! Wow is it big!!! LOL Not sure where we will store it. If I could get some help with a couple of family members in cleaning out the huge walk in pantry that really has become our "black hole" for storage, I know right were it should go. I can't wait to set it up and make our first batch. Hopefully this weekend.

Tuesday, November 10th

I know, call me stupid, but I just realized today after picking up the boys from school that we have ONLY 2 weeks till Thanksgiving!!!!! OH MY!!! I always have enjoyed hosting Thanksgiving. This year we may not have it on that special day though as I promised my oldest son we would work it around his new work schedule.

Mom is having more pain again, at least more then she has had for the past couple of weeks. I worry about her so much. She is so thin but she does have color in her face. The last couple of days she has seemed more down then she has been recently. Yesterday we went to Home Depot to finish the transaction on the security screen door she wanted. My advise is to never shop at Home Depot again!!! I was not only frustrated with the employees but I eventually got pretty angry at them as they were NOT treating my mother the way I felt they should. It was an awful experience and ended up costing a lot more then I feel it should have had we gone somewhere else! Price matching doesn't seem to be really true for Home Depot!!! URG!!!!

Dogs are all doing great. They of course think we live in "their" world and are here only for their pleasure and I suppose they are correct. lol Lizzie the last few days has been a wild woman! When she wants to play with the older dogs and they don't she won't let up no matter what the older dogs do to her. Their growling, snarling at her doesn't stop her, but rather almost encourages her to keep coming back for more! It is too funny really. The older dogs won't hurt her and I think she knows it! She will run around like a mad dog and then go up to one of them, doesn't matter which one, and pull their beard, which of course gets a reaction out of them every time. It is a game to her!! Man can she run and turn on a dime!!!

The boys don't have school tomorrow. I wish I didn't have to work!!!

I am hoping to get all the dogs groomed this weekend. We shall see! LOL

BJ had a wonderful day!

Today was a great day! The weather was perfect in Napa, CA and there were a lot of great dogs, great people and wine being served too. After all what is Napa known for??!!

BJ was as cool as a cucumber and very confident in himself as he should have been. His mother and grandmother on the other hand, well, not so much!! It was so wonderful to be sharing the moment of BJ in the ring with Jane, she was so excited. BJ won Winners Dog for his first major and Best of Winners and Best Puppy. Then he was to move on to the Puppy Group since he also won Best Puppy in our breed. Since the Puppy Groups were running a group behind, David couldn't show him as he had show his TT at the same time in the other ring. So, David got some young girl to show him in the Puppy Group. It started out well, but this girl obviously had never shown a Havanese before or something as she was sorta stringing up BJ and choking him. None of us were happy about that and especially Jane. I thought she was going to walk into that ring and knock this girl out. Sarah instead walked around the ring to firmly tell the girl to "knock it off!" In spite of the poor handling, BJ was awarded a Puppy Group 3!!!!

News???

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. Not a whole lot to share really.

NEWS FLASH - I am so excited about this weekend. Today, at the Napa show, Bellatak Greatest General, also known as BJ, owned by Jane Samson, is making his show career debut!!!! I am thrilled that Jane wanted to show BJ. Jane and her girlfriends (who came to visit her from the mid-west for the weekend) will be flying up to see the show too!!! Jane and I can't wait to see BJ in the ring and we both hope and pray he not only does well, but he behaves too!!! Here is a recent picture of BJ. I hope everyone will support Jane and BJ in this new adventure.

Wednesday, November 4th

PG&E showed up last night at 9:45 pm. We did in fact have a gas leak, but we had 2 leaks not just 1. I am so thankful he came even though it was after the time they told me they wouldn't come. He was able to fix it on the spot and all is good and no cost to us!

We are suppose to have rain tomorrow and possibly Friday but the weekend is suppose to be clear. I hope so, I have plans to get things done and rain is NOT part of my plan!

I can't believe we have only 50 day's till Christmas!!! We have decided this year it is time to stop buying for EVERYONE in the family and instead pick names for all the adults. My oldest grandson rattled off a few things he is asking for from Santa yesterday but he said it all so fast I had no time to write it all down. This is the same child that has future already planned out as well. I suppose I should start thoroughly cleaning the house, but just not motivated enough to do something that drastic! LOL

Here are a couple of pictures you might enjoy. First is Poker and Queenie and the second is a head shot of Queenie. She is so beautiful, at least in my opinion!

November 3rd

Work was better, but I knew yesterday that it had to be a full moon and sure enough I was right. I can always tell by the types of calls I get at work. Strange, but oh so very true!

I am having a hard time adjusting to the time change again. Seems to be harder the older I get. Tom and I both feel it, so at least I am not alone! I don't like it getting dark by 5:30pm! We typically eat dinner around 7:00ish, but not since Sunday. Now dinner is so darn early as my internal clock is saying, "time to fix dinner, it's dark outside you fool"!!!!

We couldn't cook tonight though. After I picked up the boys from school today, Bobby walked to the side of the house to put the garbage cans away (it was garbage pickup today) and he came into the house announcing he smelled "propane". I said, "What, we don't have propane, show me." He promptly walked me to the side of the house where the gas meter is located. He said, "Can't you smell it?" Well, sure enough I could smell natural gas. Called PG&E and they said they would dispatch someone right away and for us to not use the gas until they told us it was ok. Well, that was around 4:00pm and it is now 7:00pm and we have not heard anything nor have we seen anyone! I just called them and someone is still suppose to come. I sure hope so, I don't like messing with natural gas!

Monday, Monday!

This Monday was one I wish I had stayed home and slept in. Not that I ever get to do that either! lol I was awakened at 4:00am and then couldn't go back to sleep. Then of course work was abnormally busy. But alas, all good things (or bad) must come to an end.

I have learned there is a Raw Feeders Co-op here in Sacramento and in San Francisco. I am learning a lot. I can buy all kinds of wonderful things for the dogs through this co-op and at very reduced prices. Just need the grinder to get here! LOL

Vallee had a good weekend. She got a group 1 and two Group 3's at a 5 day show in Indiana.

All the dogs are doing great. Poker had to let Lizzie know today that he had enough of her shinanigans. Didn't stop Lizzie though, she kept trying to climb on his back for some reason. Finally she got the message though, poor Poker, he has never loved puppies, only tolerates them.

I can't wait to share some exciting Bellatak news with you, but....you have to be patient and wait until this coming weekend. LOLOLOL You won't guess this one Amanda!!!!

Here is Ollie posing for his Halloween photo shoot.