Hi Zefi,
Thanks for the invitation!
It's been kind of a rough year for everyone here and I signed off the poodle lists for a bit. My husband fell 15' out of a treestand last Dec.26 breaking two vertebra in his back, two ribs and tearing all of the ligaments in his left knee requiring some major surgery. After months of therapy, he's now just been back to work two weeks--YEAH!
I had knee surgery also in April and for a time--we were doing therapy together. We entered Diana in a weekend of shows the end of May (Kaitlin wanted to do this for her birthday). I don't know what got into Diana but she pulled a "shy Di" and didn't show well. I do have some photos--
http://www.apricotpoodle.com/diananc.htmlTo top all, the third day there--my leg swelled from the knee to the ankle. We had to come home early and I had to be off it a week. My surgeon says to take it easy--so I'm going to have to sit it out for a while.
My mom went in the beginnning of May for a quadruple by-pass. She had major complications and it was very much "touch and go" for a few weeks. So, I was spending about half of each week back in PA in the intensive care unit. She is on the road to recovery but suffered a stroke during the procedure. At the moment, she's in a respiratory therapy facility and making progress.
Both of my children are doing fine and enjoying their summer. Kreg is now 15 and ended up with 100% in Language Art--not a single mistake all year! He has various advanced and gifted courses. I had taken him to Las Vegas just prior to the accident last December. I'm sure that we're probably the only 2 people who went there to look at architecture and didn't gamble.
Kaitlin is now 13 and just "chomping at the bit" to get back in the ring. She's been a tremendous help to me over the past few months and is getting very good with grooming and does most of the pet clips now. Additionally, she's been working with photography. graphics and html web design.
Sorry to be so long-winded but that's a quick recap and why I've been absent. I am still making the reborn dolls, was asked to write an article for one of the major US doll magazines (which should be published next Spring) and am currently working on a free online reborning tutorial.
All of the poodles are doing great! We had two of our residents (Warrior & Mika) take part in a documented yawning study at Hiram college last week. I had wondered what they would think of a poodle in full coat but Warrior was quite a hit. We usually are told that he looks like a lion (appropriate with his name--Lion of Judah) but one of the students said that it reminded her of the ruff on a baboon. They were very impressed with them and commented over and over about how well behaved that they were. Yesterday, they called requesting two more. So, Karat and Daria will go next week.
I also have Karat registered for an Obedience class. Kaitlin would like to run her in Rally and we have to begin with the basic obedience. Next year, we hope to be back out in full force in both Conformation and Rally too.
Oh--my Olympus camera has a broken part and the company wanted a fortune to repair it. I decided to upgrade to a new Canon. There's a new Splash/Flash entry page at my site. I've not put up the newest photos of the poodles yet.
Looking forward to seeing some old friends here!
Best,
Kelly
