Good morning friends; it's a bright new day filled with lots of possibilities. I realize if I  had heard that when I was still working, I would not have been too happy. Of course, that was before I sought to be content with all that life holds. Have I mastered that-absolutely not, but contentment is a choice and once you practice it and begin counting your blessings, it is amazing how your attitude changes.

On Saturday night as hubby and I watched t.v. we had to laugh because we each had a Bichon on our lap, in almost the same position.  Here is Hunter, claiming me as his momma, although I didn't get a photo of him tightly curled up.  These were taken with my phone-hence the blurriness. I wish I could have gotten some photos of them snuggled up together, it just looks like one big white fluff ball. Maybe next week.

Here is Lily, as happy as a clam, nice and warm on hubby's lap. She will be at home until Friday and then will return as her pack heads to Ca. for a week of r&r. 
I hope you had a great weekend and got to do something you enjoy.
Hugs, Noreen & Hunter

Bath Time

Happy Sunday friends~ I hope you are having a relaxing day filled with contentment and joy.
We had our daughter's dog, Lilly, here for the weekend and the two little white furballs got quite dirty; after the family picked Lilly up, I got the puppy shampoo and conditioner out and put our boy in the sink.  This photo  was taken about 45 min after the bath; I didn't blow dry him because the weather has been so nice.  You can't tell but when he is wet, he does look pretty small.  He and Lilly get along fabulously and we are so thankful that we can exchange dog-sitting without any problems.  We've never been able to do this before and have used kennels for most of our dogs, so this is so comforting to know the dogs love each other and it saves us all money.
Yesterday was our last Obedience 1 class and we will have a break and then start back in again.  We worked on Leave It again-this time focusing on dogs in yards that back up to an open space. Hunter did quite well but honestly isn't very successful in our neighborhood. We also, for the first time, worked on a down-stay for 5 min.  All three dogs were successful; then the trainer took the dogs across the street to a park, for 5 min., while the moms hid; she wanted to have them just stay without fussing too much.  Hunter cried a lot but finally decided their were two other dogs to pay attention to.  She told me that she thinks his crying/whining will stop as he gets older and that to pass the Canine Good Citizen test the dogs can't whine at all.  Humm-we'll see how that goes.  It will be good to have a break but I know we must continue to work on our skills each day. 
Tomorrow night we are having the family over to celebrate three special birthdays.  Our oldest girl was born on the 23rd and the two son-in-laws share the same b.d. the following week.  We will be having ice cream sundaes-they sound good already. 
Hope you have a lovely evening. 
Warm Hugs, Noreen & Hunter

Steamboat Springs

It's almost the weekend friends, yippee!

I love the look of the Aspen's tree trunk.

It amazed us at how much water was still flowing. 

We saw two of these high up in a tree; we think they are paper wasps but were so huge.  They could have held small birds but we really didn't have a clue. 

A funny little guy; we hadn't heard squirrels make chirping sounds before-so interesting.  He also chased off some really cute chipmunks.

I hope you have a great day and an even better weekend.
Joy to you!  Noreen & Hunter

Autumn in the Mountains

It's Thankful Thursday friends and I'm so thankful for the gift of nature! This week, hubby and I took a quick trip to Steamboat Springs. Ever since we had ventured down to Pagosa Springs, I wanted to get back to Steamboat Springs for a comparison. It had been about four years since we were there last and I was anxious to see whether it was as I remembered; since it is only 3.5 hrs away verses 6.5, I wanted to see if it was as pretty. We had a great time, did some hiking and explored the town and came to the conclusion that if we want a short weekend getaway this is the place, but for longer trips we would love to go back to Pagosa.

Most of the Aspens were without leaves, but we did get a few touches of color. 

Oh how I love the fall colors!  It rained and poured last night; we thoroughly expected snow this morning but woke up to sunshine.  We did see snow a bit higher up, so glad we were heading home-I am simply not ready for it yet.

We ate too much and I'm anxious to cut back now and to continue walking every morning.  Hunter had a great time with our daughter's family but came home one tired pup.  I need to give him a good brushing and then maybe even a bath. 
I will be around visiting you today; for now I'm just thankful to be home!
Hugs, Noreen & Hunter

Happy Sunday to you~We are enjoying cool and windy fall weather today. Before obedience class yesterday, I ran to the pet store again to get a jacket that would fit him, just in case we were training outside in the rain.  I will take some pics this next week and post them. Due to the heavy rain in the morning, the trainer had the class in her garage.  I will take some pics this next week and post them. It made it so much nicer  being inside and he actually got to do a little bit of beginner/basic agility that was aimed more at his gaining confidence rather than learning agility. That isn't too say though, that I wouldn't love him to learn some agility-I think it is great exercise for him and me.  We continued to work on stay and wait, sit-stay(for 2 minutes) and leave it-with a hot dog no less.  I never realized before that the command "leave-it" means they may never pick an item up or touch it-ever(this may vary with different trainers).  In our case, it happened to be pieces of hot dog-you talk about temptation, but he seemed to grasp the concept.  At home, those items I will work with him on are Kleenex and laundry, he loves to go into our laundry basket and pull out my items.  So much of his antics are puppy, but I prefer not to have my undergarments dragged throughout the house.  Hunter met two very nice cats and he was interested in them but didn't try to get them to play.  The bigger dogs are learning that they need to be careful  and gentle with our guy.  Next week is our last class of this session and then we will start his next session sometime between Nov.-Jan.  I am also teaching him "place"which can be a mat or a bed to go to, so he can wait to greet people until I've released him or to get him to stop huffing at the cabinet that holds his food.  Sounds funny but remember this is the dog that sneezes at me to get my attention and believe it or not, he does huff.  This week he will get to spend three days with Lilly, while hubby and I run to the mountains.   
I will be checking in on you all but the condo doesn't have wifi so I won't be posting. I am hoping we do get some lovely fall colors and no snow-however there has been snow in the high country this weekend, so we will see.
I hope you have a wonderful day today; hubby had to go to the golf course early so I will be sewing and maybe doing some of my bible study.
Remember to seize the moment; life goes by to fast.
Hugs, Noreen

Happy Friday to you.  I hope your week has been easy and you've enjoyed life as you know it.
We have clear skies here today with a temperature of 35 degrees; the birds are singing and the blackbirds have already been on the lawn(remember the movie "The Birds" with Alfred Hitchcock), pocking wholes in the grass and digging for bugs...take them, they're yours. 
I am walking a bit later today and this evening hubby and I are taking dinner over to our girls house; we were planning on bbqing chicken but rain is in forecast, so I may have to go to plan B.  Tomorrow, Hunter and I have training and you can be sure that we will have lots of layers in the car.  I have one quilt block left and then will begin working on the sashing and the border; the border is half-square triangles(a lot of them)so I imagine I will work on those during football on Sunday. 
I hope you have a weekend that is restful and relaxing!
Blessings, Noreen & Hunter

Stylin'

Good afternoon friends! Somewhere between this morning and this afternoon the time vanished, so I decided to post late and then tomorrow morning when I'm rushing out to bible study, I won't have to worry about it. After our cold weather moving in to stay, I decided that Hunter really needed some outerwear to keep him warm. You may remember last week, at our obedience training, it was snowing and he was so cold. I have checked online and while coats are much cheaper, the shipping gets you so hubby and I headed to our local pet store to see what we could find. Without further adieu, here is Hunter in his new fleece jacket.

Just kicking back.

This jacket/parka belongs to our daughter's dog, Lilly, but it is a size small and pretty tight.  It will do for now, but I will be on the lookout for one a bit bigger.  I was surprised when online, checking for sizes, that he can fit into a medium.

Got to love his looks!
On another note~when we moved into this house I bought a shower curtain that was quite nice and went with our tile.  Over time it needed to be washed but it said dry clean only on it, so I kept wiping it down and trying to understand why a shower curtain would  not be machine washable.  I finally got tired of knowing it needed a cleaning and threw it in the wash.  I figured if it fell apart, I would hang one of the two other really nice lace ones up.  Let me tell you, it came out fine and looks so nice.  No damage, no change in the material etc.  So girls, if you ever face this type of situation, don't hesitate to try the easy way out-if you can replace it.
Have a great evening and a good Thursday. 
Hugs, Noreen and the handsome, dashing Hunter