Trick or Treat!! Happy Halloween!

beer....  blech!!

Even though Oscar didn't deserve it after his attitudinal problem on Sunday, we did take him trick or treating to Gale and Sandeanne's house (the Johnson Ranch's favorite neighbors!)  His first trick or treat was a bottle of bud light!  Then Sandeanne thought maybe there might be something else for Oscar's treat bag!

Score!!  Meat and Crackers!!

So Sandeanne got out the Ritz crackers and fancy luncheon meat with cheese...  whoop!  Oscar thought that was better than the bud light!...  Notice.. I'm a combo Freddie Kruger / Witch...  Just like any other day.  ha ha..

Sandeanne gets to feed a mastiff lunch meat! 

What your finger's Sandeanne!

Happy Halloween and welcome to November!!  :-(  No more 31 nights of Halloween......  Sigh......

Ridin' the Struggle Bus... Train Wreck.... Craptastic.... I'm caught in a #@%* Storm!!

Whatever you want to call it...  It was bound to eventually happen and the third day of the Sioux Falls Dog show was the day.  Oscar had a horrible day.  I guess he decided two days was enough...  three was too much!!  And mother, I'm gonna make you pay...

Although he looks great...  His mood was definitely not great.  He decided he hated the judge and wouldn't let the judge touch him...  And we were lucky enough to have the same judge all day so yes...  we rode the struggle bus all the way to Sioux Falls and back.  grrrr......

This was about as close as Oscar would get to this Judge....  A bad day.....  Note to self...  No more three day shows...  Oscar says so and when your Mastiff says so, guess what...  That's the way it is.  :-) 

Best of Breed! Day Two Sioux Falls Empire Dog Show

Second day in a row we got best of breed so now we've been lucky enough to advance to the Working Group two days in a row as well...

Here's the inside of the Empire State Fairgrounds building.  It's not the biggest in the world and the rings were a bit small.  But no worries!

Here we are in our first class of the day.  Oscar did fabulous like normal.  He was juicy again this morning with a lot of spunk in his tank.  :-)

 Here we are getting our ribbons from the judge.

We also got our pictures taken for Best of Breed.  Here we are posing with the judge and our ribbons.  I've got on my Freddy Kruger sweater in honor of the Halloween season!  Forgot my Freddy Kruger hat and gloves at home.  Didn't want to poke Oscar in the eye.  ha ha!

Oscar is always happy to go to a dog show.  Look at this big smile!  Such a happy boy!

He also got the opportunity to stretch out and relax before the group class...  Careful!  Don't trip over him!

And then it was class time for us again.  Here we are entering the ring getting ready to go.

There's lots of dogs in the group class so again, we hung out with the St. Bernard.  It was a different St. Bernard today but we still hung out with him as we both run about the same speed... 

And here we are...  our turn with the judge...

We didn't place in group.  A nice Boxer won today.  But it was still very good practice for us...
 
On a different note...  Kasey had an excellent day today.  She ran in a cross country race in the Twin Cities...  275 runners...  Kasey ended up finishing first on her team, 22nd over all, bettered her best time by 30 seconds and was chosen all conference honorable mention.  Kasey had a great day today!!  Way to go Kase!!

Best of Breed! Sioux Falls Day One!

Here are all of Oscar's ribbons he has won so far this year...  Today we won best of breed and got to advance to the Group Class which is the farthest we've ever made it!  It was a first for us today.  Oscar did extremely well today and I was very proud of him.
 Here we are with our first judge and first class.  You can see Oscar is pretty frisky.  And the ring was small!! It was a bit tough with the running...  But I didn't wipe out so that's a bonus!

Ultimately we were the victors and walked away with the best of breed.  The judge was very complimentary of us.  That was nice.

When you move onto the Group Class, you get to show against all the other best of breeds in the Working Group.  I ended up in a huge class with lots of other really cool dogs..

We made good friends with the St. Bernard next to us.  His owner/handler carries a seasoned pork chop in his pocket...  Just for his St. Bernard...  We had a pretty funny conversation during the class.  Apparently the St. Bernard won't eat just any old pork chop...  It's gotta be a seasoned pork chop!

waiting...waiting...

It was a big class and we had to wait quite awhile.  Finally it was our turn!

Our turn Mom?

You can see Oscar still has the problem of his rear end outgrowing his front end.  Give him a few more months and he'll get caught up...
So Oscar did a fantastic job at our first day of the three day Sioux Falls Dog Show.  Wish us luck tomorrow!  Tomorrow we are going to try out a professional handler to see how it goes...  I'll let you know.  :-)

Always in the back seat!

This post is for you Gma Helen!!

Only two words necessary....  Hurricane Mop...  Mother gave me this Hurricane Mop over a year ago.  For the first six months it sat in a box.  For the next 6 months, it just sat there...  But at least I took it out of the box to make my mom feel better...  I tripped over it every once in awhile..  That that was the extent of my relationship with the Hurricane Mop.

Why do I despise the Hurricane Mop so??  Well, it's because it came from the Home Shopping Network.  I absolutely hate the home shopping network..  while my mother seems to embrace it.  Don't understand that... I guess my mother is more forward thinking than I am... But today, Mike forced me to use the mop...  And I have to admit, I think I've been short sighted.  So yes mother, you were correct.  The hurricane mop is pretty sweet and did a great job getting Oscar drool off of the floor.  Thank you mother.  You were right again.  And it only took me a year to figure it out this time.  :-)  I've been denser for longer periods of time...  Right mom!  :-)
It was a quiet Sunday today.  The girls decided the pumpkin action from yesterday wore them out so it was a study day today.  Kelsey studied, Kasey ran...  I did laundry...  Nothing exciting...  Even the dogs decided to capitalize on the lazy day and enjoyed the sunshine.

ahh...  sunshine!

Then all of a sudden this horrible frightening creature appeared from out of no where..  growling at us!  Well, maybe I've just seen too many scary movies this weekend.  haha.. ;-)

grrrrr......

 Later in the afternoon, Kelsey and I went to the gym for a work out while Kasey continued to study.  Then as a nice surprise, Kelsey and Kasey decided they were going to make me dinner...  Remember how clean my kitchen was??....  :-)  haha....

Dinner was delicious.  Thank you girls...  The mop is wonderful...  Thank you mom!  It's been a great weekend.  I'll see ya next time!  Sioux Falls Dog Show on tap.  Wish us luck!

Spooky!!

And here they are!  The finished punkins!

Punkin lights!

Boo!

31 days of Halloween!!! Punkin Carvin = Punkin Guts!

An epic Jack-o-lantern!!

 

eww!  An epic Halloween picture.  Punkin guts!

 It was hard not to be outside on Saturday!!  Everyone was outside enjoying the great weather. "Epic" as Kasey describes ...  Or "sick" the way Karley describes her world.  :-)

Kelsey and Kasey got home later Friday night.  We woke up Saturday to yet another beautiful day.  The temperature was in the upper 60's and it was gorgeous!  Kasey went for a run while Kelsey and I went to the gym.  It was so nice that Oscar got another bath!  Looks like he didn't enjoy one minute of it. :-)
Kasey had some biochem homework to take care of so the three of us sat down and watched a scary movie called "Pumpkin Karver".  It was a pretty bad movie but it got us in the mood to do our own pumpkin carving!  It was a fun afternoon.  We got our pumpkins carved and still had plenty of time to watch a couple of scary movies and hang up our fun pumpkin lights just like we did when the girls were little.

Homeworks!

Scary!!

So after a little lunch, homework, and a scary movie, we decided the time was here to carve our own pumpkins.  Here Kasey gets her tools ready to go!

After we all get our victims selected, we get started with the carving...  Kasey had a little bit of help getting hers going..

 Now apparently my technique is in question.  Everyone seemed to think I might lose a digit or something...  Not sure what everyone's problem is..

We all dug in and started carving.  My pumpkin went fairly smoothly!  Except I did break the stem off okay but no big deal!!

Oscar sharing with me.  yuck!

Hmmm..  I think I'll give you fangs...

Where's my punkin??

Kelsey had some problems with her pumpkin..  Turns out her little pumpkin was mostly solid inside.  She had a heck of a time trying to get it carved out...  Eventually we decided to ditch this pumpkin for the other orange pumpkin.

Supervising like normal..  :-)