1st Christmas in New House

Below are some pictures of our 1st Christmas in the new house. It was great, Mom and Dad, Jimmy and his wife Kathy and their son, Tyler came along with Kathy's mom, also called Kathy. Ken's daughter Amy came by to open her gift. Sadly my sister Patricia and her husband and son were unable to come. Still all in all it was a wonder day.

The tree with all the presents that Santa brought.
Tyler opening his presents.

My husband Ken opening his gifts.

Tyler passing out gifts.

Tyler and his other Grandma.

My sister-in-law, Kathy.

My stepdaughter, Amy.

Some of the Christmas Dinner on the table.

Mom and Dad opening their gifts.

Another picture of Mom and Dad.

Ken with his new fire department throw.

My brother, Jimmy.

Kathy (in the back) and her mother Kathy.

My husband and Dad.

Mom and Dad must have been very good this year!

Another picture of my nephew.

Tyler and his Dad. We were watching Home Alone.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and here's to a great 2010! Have a safe and Happy New Year!

I Give Up

We woke up at 7 this morning to find our Witchey passed away during the night. I give up. I just lost her daughter to cancer 4 days ago. I just don't know what is going on. She was fine and healthy, ate her supper last night and a cookie just before bed time and this morning she is gone. There are some pictures below of our Witch. She was the dam of 2 Nationally Ranked Champions.

She could be a playing fool!

Sleeping Angel

Look at that face! She is saying get me out of here mom.

Bewitching of Landsend Edan OFA Hips and Elbows

3-02-1999-12-03-2009

Goodbye my Witch, I will love you forever.

Missing another piece of my heart

I was going to post Christmas photos today but I just can't do that just now. I lost Moka yesterday to cancer. My girl was fine on Christmas day, eating playing and just being Moka. On Saturday she got sick and went downhill so fast. The vets did everything they could but there was really nothing they could do that would have changed the out come. She was only 5 years old. This really sucks, losing 3 in one year.

Moka, 21 months ago with her first litter, also know as the Terrible Trio of Terror


Some other pictures of Moka as a very young girl. She never did like the show ring!

Moka with her half brother CH Magic. They were so cute sleeping together.

Beautiful puppy although a little long in the middle piece.

Where to Bury a Dog

There are various places within which a dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave. Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub of the garden, is an excellent place to bury a good dog. Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else.
For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all.
If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there.
People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.
The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.
by Ben Hur Lampman

God Speed my Moka, I am so sorry............

Witch Witch Witch v Riata Edan 2/22/04 - 12/26/09

Sire: Greatest Show on Earth of Edan OFA

Dam: Bewitching of Landsend Edan OFA

Breeders: Ken & Judy Bryan and Ann Schultz

This and That

First off Mom was only in the hospital for about 3 days. God Bless IV antibiotics and my co workers and the priests at St. Thomas High School who kept her in their prayers. My brother went up on Thursday the 3rd, the day before the great Houston snow, to help Dad out and ended up taking him to the Doctor. As it turns out Dad had a touch of pneumonia for which the doctor gave him a booster shot and antibiotics. Jimmy left on Saturday and headed back to Sealy because they were doing so much better. I talked to Mom yesterday and she did sound much improved. She said she was still a little weak and of course she will be for a few more weeks. Friday the 4th was an interesting day, it was the day it snowed in Houston. St Thomas let us all out at 12:30 since the roads were starting to freeze as the temperature took a nose dive. I could really kick myself because I did not take any pictures of the snow in Houston. I thought I would take photos of our place out in the country since we were further north. I just knew there would be a layer of snow on the ground.....WRONG! From about the Woodlands area out 1-45 the heavy snow stopped. By the time I got to our house in Willis, there was very little snow coming down at all. It was cold as hell but that was pretty much it until Saturday morning when the ground was covered in heavy duty frost. This first picture is a tree about a minute from the house. You can see a little of the dusting of snow that we got on the tree.

I am standing in the front of my house trying to get a photo of the meager amount of falling snow. You can barely see it.

This is a photo from Saturday morning. The front yard is covered in heavy frost. Kind of looks like snow. Only the open areas got this kind of frost. There was nothing under the trees in the woods across the way or in our woods beside the house.

Here is another view of the frost in our pasture. About an hour or so after the sun came up, the frost had melted.

Since it was so cold outside, I decided I better get the christmas tree finished. This will be our first christmas in the new house. We were suppose to have Mom and Dad over along with Jimmy and his family but with Mom and Dad getting over being ill, it might only be me and Ken. :-(

I loved doing our tree, it represents our life together. We have firefighter ornaments, german shepherd ornaments, a scottish terrier ornament (that represents Mr. Scotty who lived to be 14 years old), tool ornaments, fishing ornaments and 3 ornaments that have his (Ken's) daughter's names on them.

This German Shepherd Angel is for all my German Shepherds that have crossed the Rainbow Bridge, Todd, Rimfire, Storm, Jenny, Joey, Cali, Quiggy, ToyToy, CC, Star, Funny, Teddie, Blaze and Caution.

I only wish my shepherds were this innocent. :-)

Another one of the may shepherd ornaments.

Ken loves tools and so we have some tool ornaments that I got at Sears through the years

I have put together some great collectible fire department ornaments

I think this was a 1995 (I will have to check) ornament from Hallmark where some of the firetrucks come from.

Mr. Scotty

Another great Firetruck from the past

A fishing ornament for Ken's love of fishing.........and hunting.......and boating.......LOL

I love this one, the fish is as big as the boat!

This is Chocolate Moose. I fell in love this ornament because it reminded me of Caution and her "Chocolate Moose" toy.

Two final photos of our living room. We added the black leather chair and footstool along with the rug.

My father had offered to build the mantel for the fireplace just before he and mom got sick. When they are back to normal, he is coming down to measure the fireplace for the mantal. We are getting things done a little at a time.

When It Rains, It Pours!

November started out as a pretty good month, but ended up waaaaay downhill. My mom was sick at Thanksgiving. They (mom and dad) drove to my brother's house in Sealy for Thanksgiving. Ken went to San Augustine to spend the holiday with his mom and dad and I drove over to Sealy to spend time with mom, dad, my brother, his wife, their son Tyler, Kathy's mom, my sister, her husband and their son, Robert John. Not only was mom sick but so was Kathy. I had to keep my distance since I am having surgery on my left foot December 16th. Can't be sick for that. On the way back from Sealy, my husband called and said that the transmission in the van, that we just payed off and is just out of warranty, had gone out. He was about 40 minutes from the house and creeping along at about 30-35 miles per hour. He did make it to the house and it was taken on a trailer to the shop yesterday. It's going to cost us about 2500 hundred dollars to get the transmission rebuilt.......ugh. Now back to mom being sick. I called them on Sunday to make sure they got back to Marble Falls okay and dad said he had brought mom home on Saturday because she was feeling worse. When I talked to her, I thought she was dying she sounded so bad. Dad took her to the doctor Monday and they immediately put her in the hospital with double pneumonia. Thank God today she seems to be much better since they hit her with the IV antibiotics. I think she will be able to go home in a day or two, which is good since dad has a cold and we don't want it turning into what mom has. My brother will be going up on Friday to help out and make sure Dad is taking care of himself. My husband will being going up next week to help out if needed. Oh and did I mention that my husband's mother was also sick Thanksgiving with some sort of intestinal issue? I think she is suppose to go to the doctor again sometime this week........when it rains, it pours!

The only good thing that happened during the Thanksgiving holidays was on Sunday. We had entered our girl, San Jo's Ikon, at an All Breed Show in Conroe. Sunday she gaited her way to Best of Breed from the American Bred Class. She is close to finishing her championship, maybe that will happen in January. :-) I will post her Best of Breed photo (as long as it is good) when it comes in in a few weeks. Oh and for you blog lurkers, Ikon is a German Shepherd Dog. :-)

Hope everybody had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!

About time....

I finally was allowed to get this walking cast off my foot. Now its like I am learning to walk normally again. The heel is still sore (and it is letting me know it) and the skin and muscles feel very tight, but that should change with the walking and stretching of the muscles. I am also using a very good lotion so the skin does not feel so dry and tight. I have another Drs. appointment on the 16th just to make sure the healing is still going smoothly and to set up the surgery for the left foot, probably on December 16th. It has just been a long, long 8 weeks for my husband and me. I will be very happy when this is over. Its been hard moving into a new house, clearing out the old house (and we are still probably 5 months away from putting it on the market) and having the surgery. I think Ken and I need a vacation! :-)

Happy Veterans Day Dad, Jimmy, Kathy and to all those who have proudly served our great country.