I totally LOVE this little girl!

Now I remember why I wanted to get back to taking a lot of pictures of Kaylee. She is such a little angel!

She was fascinated tonight by my laptop, so we got an old one out for her to "type" on

She was hard at work

But had time for a little smile for the camera

Mommy and Daughter sharing some computer time. She looks SO tiny in this picture!

The other day Kaylee noticed the "coat hooks" we have by the door. She was facinated and just wanted to stare at them. I would pick her up and let her grab onto them, and she would squeel and laugh with glee.

She has such a cute smile!

Kaylee in her cloth, going after my phone....well my old phone.

I gave Kaylee half a banana just to see what she would do

She didn't eat much of it, but would gum off pieces, roll them around in her mouth, and then spit them out. It kept her attention for a while though!

First Barefoot Run.....

....okay, I jogged but I was TOTALLY barefoot!!

I didn't go out planning to walk or run barefoot. In fact, it was 5:30 at night and it is February so I had my VFFs on with socks (toe socks) on underneath. I got about a block into the walk with the dogs and my little toes were feeling squished by the socks. I stopped to take them off and when I put my bare foot down on the sidewalk, to put the sock in my pocket, it wasn't as cold as I had imagined it was going to be. So I thought "why not just try going totally barefoot?" I started walking, and found that it was much easier to get my foot strike right, and was impressed to find that my feet weren't as sensitive as I thought they would be.

About a block later, I decided I would just try jogging for a little ways......well, that little ways turned into at least a half mile! I haven't jogged that far in shoes in years! I wasn't breathing hard, my feet were just fine even jogging over pebbles, rough pavement, grass, mud, and a little bit of snow. They got a little sensitive once when they had gotten wet in a puddle and then I immediately had to go over several little rocks. They stuck to my feet and wouldn't come off, which wasn't to pleasant to jog on.

I finally had to stop going up a hill because my leg muscles were starting to get tired, which was making me get out of breath. I didn't get the least bit winded until the point when my legs got tired. It was interesting. I always thought it was my lungs holding me back from running, but now I am wondering if it was because my shoes were making my legs get tired before they would have normally.

After I stopped running I put my VFFs back on just to feel the difference and it was HUGE! Once I got to the top of the hill I tried jogging a little with them on and it was not as easy as barefoot. I have read a lot of things about people who run barefoot, and they almost all say that it is a totally different thing from running in minimalist shoes. Today I found out for myself that that is really really true!

I LOVED RUNNING BAREFOOT!!! I think I might be a little addicted!

Really, Why Barefoot?

Here is a video of a professor who advocates being barefoot. Enjoy!

New Shoes

I have been looking into finding some shoes that will help my feet stop hurting. They haven't been the same sense they hurt so badly during my pregnancy. Now it is mostly my right one, but it aches almost all the time.

I researched what some people consider the healthiest way to walk/run/everything. That is barefoot! Here is a website about barefooting and why it is healthier than shoes. Basically when we walk in shoes we are not using our feet the way they were made to work. Shoes in general restrict our feet from cushioning any impact naturally, and that impact creates problems all over the body.

I am not totally sold on the idea that barefoot is healthiest, but is was worth a try! So, I invested in a pain of these:

They are called Vibram Five Fingers - KSOs to be specific

They are minimalist footwear, and mimc the feeling and experience of being barefoot without going totally without footwear. When it is warmer, and my feet have gotten a little more tough I will probably try going totally barefoot too.

They are very comfortable! Sometimes I forget that I have them on.

As I have talked to different barefooting people, I have heard/read about them wishing they had pictures of their feet before they started to compare to their feet now. So, here are my "before" pictures:

Right - the problem foot

Left

And my toes:

Right

Left

A look at the KSOs from the Vibram site

So far I have really enjoyed wearing them! There is a learning curve of how to walk properly with them on because I am trying for a forefoot strike rather than a heel strike. That means I am trying to re-train myself to walk with the ball of my foot landing first. This allows my foot to absorb the impact with the ground. Walking like this took a lot of concentration at first, but it is getting easier to remember to walk that way.....at least when I am wearing the VFFs. Around the house I am trying to remember it too for the good of my feet.

The muscles in my calves and shins and ankles are sore from not being used this way in a LONG time, and my arches are sore, but it is all a good sore. The kind of sore you have after working out for a while and you can feel that you challenged your muscles and they are getting stronger. The only part of my foot that hurts while I am walking sometimes is my actual toes. I am not sure quite why this is, but I think it is because I am not walking properly doing the forefoot strike. I am asking around to see if this is the cause and how I can fix it.

I have been wearing them to walk the dogs, walk and jog on the treadmill, shop, and visit teach (they were a big hit). I put on my tennis shoes for a little while to do something outside in the snow, and my feet felt claustrophobic! After only a week of wearing the VFFs! I would really like to try them for Agility but I don't know how much traction I would get with them. They are definitely NOT good on the snow and ice! I am already looking into a second pair of them, only this time I want to get a pair of new ones that are coming out later this year. They are basically the same as the ones I have only they have better traction tread on the bottom, kind of like these:

These are suede on the top, and the ones I want will be the same tops as the regular KSOs.

They look like they would be better for running on grass, rubber mats, mud, and all the other things that I will be encountering on the agility field. I also want to start running. I want to do a 5k in either VFFs or totally barefoot. Why? Just so I can say that I have!

I am sure you will hear all sorts of stories about my barefooting experience/experiment, but here is the first one.

I was getting dog food and outside of the store was a family selling little puppies. I couldn't help but at least go look at the puppies so I went over. I asked a few questions, and all of the sudden the woman started laughing and said "Oh my gosh! I just looked at your shoes! Those are the funniest things I have ever seen!" She then asked me a few questions like "what are they?" and "where did you get them?" The whole time she was kind of giggling and staring at my feet. Hmmm, I have the feeling these shoes are going to inspire a lot of laughter.

Just tonight at the restaurant, I heard a couple discussing whether I was wearing toe socks in the restaurant or if they were just "weird shoes", it was interesting and funny.

Oops!

I totally forgot to post about class on Monday! Lol, I guess that happens when you have a teething baby.

Class was small again, so we had lots of time to work on different things. We started out again with the teeter, but we did it a little differently this week. We set up the table under it so that he would be running up the whole thing, but it would only drop a little ways. First, we had him do the regular Bang it game we have been doing and he was really happy with it. The first time he ran up the whole thing, I could see that if it had been an actual teeter he would have flown off. Luckily it had landed by the time he was at the top so it didn't scare him. The next few times he did it he was great! He tried a couple times to even do his 2o2o, but it wasn't really working and I didn't push for it at all. He was happy when we ended and I am excited with his progress so far. We will conquer this thing!

Then I had Hobbs do the A frame with the hoop a few times so that he could do it at speed. In the trial I was slowing down with him to make sure he was successfully hitting the contact zone while still kind of running it. So I had him flying over it a few times while I ran right by it. He was great and got the contacts every time.

We worked on rear crosses for a little bit both into a tunnel and over jumps. Hobbs' rear crosses over the jumps were pretty good, but through the tunnel was kind of a disaster. He just could not figure out that I was crossing behind him and that he needed to turn towards me coming out of the tunnel. He kept turning left and I was on the right. Over and over and over. If I called his name when he was half way through the tunnel he would actually turn around and come back to me! I am going to do some foundation work with him, and hopefully that will help him get it. He was turning the wrong way about 50% of the time over the jumps too. I think the problem is that he patterns SO easily that it is hard for him to keep watching me rather than just doing what he did before.

The last "station" was getting speed into the weaves without messing the dogs up. We sent them over two jump and then into the weaves. The other handler was doing Tunnel, jump, jump, weaves, but I didn't want Hobbs to fail so I just used the jumps. Hobbs was great! He only missed one entry and that was because I had stopped (without realizing it) to see if he was going to get all the poles. I am so happy that he is doing so well with the upright poles!

Our sequence for the night was pretty interesting, and all centered around handling one jump.

Jump #3 was moved up and down (in relation to the picture) so that we had to handle it differently each time. It was challenging, and fun, and we all laughed as we almost impaled ourselves on the standard of #3 when it was in the position above.

Something interesting happened on the DW. First of all, the second time over it, Hobbs blew his contact.....just like at the trial. After a couple reps he got it though and didn't try to blow it again all night. The weird thing was HOW Hobbs was going over the DW. He kept either slipping to the side, or once he got up to the top plank, he would take almost skipping step. It was really odd, and looked like he was trying to catch his balance.

After sending him over a bunch of times we all decided that he was just not traveling straight over the boards. This makes a TON of sense because he has always been crooked when he trots. When he is on the treadmill it is really noticeable, but I have never noticed him do this before on the DW.

I think it is all part of him not being is a good of shape as he could be. I have a list of things I am going to work on to get his hind end in better shape so he can handle himself better on the contact equipment. I have also been thinking that is part of why he was having trouble sticking his landings with the teeter too.

Mostly it was a great class, and I am looking forward to this coming Monday! Oh wait, no class Monday :(

7 Months and Counting

There are only 5 months until our little girl is a year old! Time is flying by, and she is growing like crazy. I had a moment today when I just started crying because she is growing up so fast, and I can't believe it.

This month has been pretty big for her. Got be stay with Grandma for almost 3 days, started solids, and is very close to getting her first teeth. She is getting solids 3 times a day now, but is still eating mostly breast milk. I decided I will be really sad the day I stop nursing her. I really enjoy it, and it is SO good for her!

As for achievements this month:

• Wobbling, but UP! - She is getting better at sitting up, but I still sit with her to catch her if she falls. Unless she is on the soft floor in our bedroom or on a bed. Then I let her fall so she can learn to catch herself. She isn't a fan of falling over though.
• Both Hands! - She has improved her scooting as well. She used to scoot with one arm bent on the floor and the other straight. Now she keeps both straight and pulls herself forward with her hands and pushes forward with her toes.
• Rocking.... - She is up on all fours a lot and rocks back and forth. I have noticed though that she can't grab for anything with one hand without falling onto her stomach. I am sure that as soon as she figures out how to do that she will be crawling!
• ....and Rolling! - Kaylee is officially rolling both ways! She rolls from front to back very carefully though, and it is adorable. She puts her head down on the ground and then heaves herself over rather than letting her head pull her over. I think she decided that way was too ouchie.
• I can has Nom noms?! - She really likes her food! Well, most of it that is. We started her with Oatmeal....well she started with rice cereal before we went to Vegas, but it gave her really bad stomach pains and gas so we went with oatmeal. Next she got Yams, and after a few days of not knowing what to thing she loves them! She loves them so much she doesn't want her oatmeal anymore! She has also had some peas, but she hasn't made up her mind if she likes them or not. Last night she got some avocado which she liked, but she didn't want much this morning.
• No Tanking! - I don't do the 11:30 dream feed with Kaylee anymore (most days). She had been slowly weaning herself from needing it, by wanting more right before bed and then only eating an oz or two for the dream feed. She would still sleep until 5:00 so I tried going without the feed and she still slept! She eats almost 7 oz right before bed and that holds her over until 4 or 5 am. I think most people call that sleeping through the night! Yes, she goes back to sleep after she eats at 5, and usually sleeps until 7:30-8:00.
• ASL - Ok, not real sign language, but I have decided that I want to start teaching Kaylee some baby signs. Her first one that we are working on is "All Done" Or basically her holding both hands up with her palms out when she is done eating. Next I am planning to work on "More" and "Milk", "Mommy", and "Daddy" from there. I am not really expecting any real signs from her for a while, but I want her at least copying our actions to some degree. I am really excited about it!

I have been really bad this month taking pictures because we have all been sick. I am really trying to be better now that we are feeling back to normal, but it isn't happening yet :-/ I did get some nice ones on her month-day though!

This is usually the face we get when we first get her up in the morning

Some cute cloth pictures:

.....ok, this one is a little evil.

Ok, I feel REALLY stupid now

After moping for the last couple days over not being able to upload my videos I logged into my youtube account. It said that I had 43 video uploads......hmmm. I knew I had a bunch on there, but 43?

Apparently, it uploaded them almost every time I tried it! It just didn't say that it was successful!

This was our Gambler's run, where he misses the second to last jump. He was SO good though! Forgive the shaky camera in the beginning. My dad was trying to get to a good spot for filming.



This was our best run of the day. It was Regular #1 and had it not been a PRE-novice class we would have gotten a Q. I noticed that I didn't make him hold his 2020 (or really even do it) going over the DW! That would explain his flying off of it the next time he went over. GRR! What was I thinking? I am going to kick myself forever if I created a problem by doing that!



This run also would have been great if I had been a bad handler and let Hobbs get away with blowing his contact. Luckily, in ASCA, I could go back and train over it. That makes us forfeit any chance to place or Q for the run, but I reinforced to him that that was NOT acceptable. Also, going up the DW the second time, Hobbs slipped and that slip resulted in him being sore for the next couple days. I need to get him in better shape so he doesn't hurt himself if something like that happens again.

Like I said, I didn't get a video of our Jumper's course. I kind of wish I had one though because I would like to see what happened. It was our worst run of the day thats for sure!

Enjoy!! Let me know if anything doesn't work!

Don't think it is going to happen

I got all the video's changed to Mpeg files, and Youtube and Blogger still wont take them. I even left my computer on for a full 24 hours with it "loading" on Youtube and it didn't finish uploading them.

So, it looks like you may all just have to imagine our agility runs.....hopefully sometime I can get them uploaded.

Video Help?

Does anyone know how best to post a AVCHD video on here? That is what format the videos from the trial are in, and YouTube isn't uploading them. Well it still might, but it has been half an hour so I am losing faith.

Thank You CrackerJack!!

I just received my first shipment of Elk antlers from the seller Cabana's mom suggested. The boys LOVE them! I only got four for now, I want to see how long they last, and will probably be getting a custom order later.

Patriot with the two dark brown ones

Hobbs with one of the light brown ones. He chewed for a little while, but hasn't ever been a big chewer.

Patriot laid like this for almost an hour straight and only wore off some of the brown on both ends of these antlers. I think they are going to hold up pretty well.

Thanks Mimi and Cabana (and CrackerJack) for suggesting these as a durable toy!

Gone on Too Long

I realized again today that I have been using the excuse (I had a baby) to justify the fact that I STILL don't fit into my pre pregnancy clothes. Ok some of them do fit, but most of them it is kind of forced.

To go to Vegas, I decided to buy some new jeans and ended up having to go up a size. It was rather discouraging because I have 5 or 6 perfectly good pairs of jeans that fit only 18 months ago :( I have used every excuse in the mommy book to get out of putting my rear end in gear and getting back into shape....

• "I was pregnant" - Yeah, you were, 6.5 Months Ago!!!
• "I am still nursing exclusively" - That doesn't mean your legs are broken!!! You just can't over do it.
• "I don't have time" - Hello!! She takes two 2 hour naps Every Day!!!
• "It is Winter" - Hey, I didn't say these excuses all made sense!!!
• "I am still losing weight, slowly" - Who are you kidding? Just because you don't get on the scale, doesn't mean the number isn't still going UP!!!
• "I can't eat dairy yet" - And that means exercise is forbidden why??
• "I don't have time to eat healthy" - So plan your time better STUPID!! Remember those 4 hours a day you have?

See, I have thought of it all. Well, today that stops.....well maybe in a couple days. This time I have a legitamate reason to not start working out like crazy yet. I am sick, and have been for almost a week now. Once I feel back to normal I am going to get going.

For now, I packed up all my maternity pants (yes I was still wearing them on the days my other jeans didn't fit very well) and went through the clothes I do have, making note of everything that doesn't fit yet. It was really difficult to realize and admit that most of my clothes still don't fit. Maybe now I will get myself back to normal.....or better!

Another reason I might finally get up and exercise is that I competed in an Agility trial on Saturday, and running around for 2 minutes at a time almost killed me! Ugh. Ok, I was sick, but I am sure sick or not it would have still kicked my butt.

It is embarrassing to be this out of shape.

I WILL DO BETTER!

Valentines Day

This year was kind of a bummer Valentines wise. Robert had to fly to Chicago early Sunday morning, so we went out to dinner on Saturday night. We were both sick, and we left Kaylee with Robert's mom.

We went to Joe's Crab Shack, and it was SO good! We usually go out for Italian on Valentines day, but I can't eat much dairy yet (it is getting better though!) so we opted out. It was nice to be able to sit and talk and laugh together.

Sadly we got home to find out that Kaylee hadn't had an easy time while we were gone, and we paid for it that night. She was up more than usual, and was VERY tired the next morning. Poor girl. She is just so sensitive to things being done the same way every day, that when that doesn't happen it really throws her off. I always try to leave VERY detailed instructions of exactly what to do, but I guess no one does it like mommy and daddy. Heres to hoping things go better next time.

I didn't do anything for Kaylee for Valentines day this year. We are really slacking on the obscure holidays this year. Next year there will be candy and a little gift for our baby girl. She will be SO big by then!

The smallest trial in the history of the world!

Yesterday was AMAZING! I am so proud of Hobbs that I can hardly express it!

The trial was really really small, and Hobbs only had 2 dogs in his classes (including him). The elite and open classes had more dogs, but not by much lol. There was an AKC trial that same weekend and I think most of the agility people in UT ended up going there. I was still just as sick as I was the day before, but I drugged up on lots of Tylenol cold and got through the day.

Our first class was Gamblers! I was really glad that it was first because we would be able to just play around and go over whatever I felt like doing. The gamble looked really tough on paper, but in real life it wasn't so bad.

Our first run ever was SOOO wonderful! Hobbs did everything I had planned for my opening, we were in the right place for the start of the gamble, and he got all but one of the gamble obstacles. The one he missed was totally my fault, because I waited for him to go into the right tunnel and then realized that I wasn't going to be there for him at the other end. I booked it, but he came towards me out of the tunnel and was moving to quickly to correct himself and get back out to the jump, so he just went over the last one. But........

I DON'T CARE!!!!

He listened really well, didn't have a problem with any of the obstacles, and I was SO excited after the run, that the judge came over to make sure that I knew that Hobbs hadn't gone over the second to last jump in the gamble. I told him that I didn't care because it was our first run ever at a trial. After the class scores were posted I had even more to celebrate. Our scores were great! We got 30 opening points (even with a dropped bar) and 12 gamble points, for a total of 42 points! I looked through the rest of the dogs in the classes (even the elite and open ones) and Hobbs had the most points of any of them!! I was so shocked and happy, that from that point on, I didn't care what happened that day.

There were 2 dogs in our height class, and Hobbs got more points so we got first place! In our first run, in our first trial EVER!!

I have videos of all but my jumpers class, but I don't know when I will be getting them from my parents.

After a pretty long wait, it was our turn to do our regular run.

This was the class I was most excited for because it was going to use all of our skills. It was perfect! It felt smooth, connected, and we didn't mess up at all. It would have been a Q, but Pre-novice isn't a qualifying class :(

It went so well, that I signed up for round 2 of regulars. That didn't go quite as well. It was the same exact course just backwards. The second obstacle was the DW, and Hobbs ran right off the end without stopping in his 2o2o. I was VERY tempted to just keep going sense he touched the contact area, but I didn't want him thinking that was ok. So I turned around and went back to the beginning (therefore giving up my run and taking an automatic elimination). I sent him over it again, and this time he did it right so we finished the run perfectly.

The scores were posted for that class, and in round 1 we took first again! Round 2 we were eliminated, but that is ok!

We had about an hour in between that run and our Jumpers run, and it is a good thing because Hobbs was getting tired. Poor puppy.

Jumpers was a pretty interesting course:

I am not 100% sure that is how it went. I don't remember if there were 3 or 4 jumps after the tunnel, and I can't remember how many were in the circle of jumps.

This is where our communication broke down a little bit, but it was mostly because I was starting to REALLY feel my cold. I walked the course over and over, but it just wasn't sticking in my head. As soon as Hobbs got over the first jump my mind went blank and I forgot that I was going to put a front cross right after #3 to keep him from heading backwards over #9. Instead I ended up with him on my right over #3, and he kept going, not only over #9, but #8 & 7 too. Once I got him back we finished the course, but he knocked two bars. I think we were both just tired, and done for the day.

The other dog in our class got the same # of faults and ran the course slower than us by a few seconds so we still got first! Lol, it was a great weekend!

I can't wait until our next trial! I am not sure when that will be because we have to get Hobbs working with the teeter. He is doing wonderfully with the weave poles, and even did them in the warm up ring at the trial! I didn't even worry about trying them in the opening of the gamblers class so that I wouldn't get stressed about them.

I had SO much more fun running in this trial than I do just watching them!

Are you KIDDING me?!?!?!?!

So, I am sick this morning.....





I need everyone to send good, healthy, energetic thoughts.





I will be competing on Saturday........unless I am on death's door, I WILL BE COMPETING!






I can only pray I will have the mental and physical energy to do Hobbs justice at his first trial.

Sippy Cups and Oatmeal

Today I gave Kaylee oatmeal cereal for the second time. She had had no interest in rice cereal so we tried this. On Monday she wasn't too interested, but today she loved it! She was smiling and giggling as I spooned the cereal to her. I also put a couple pieces or avocado on the tray, but she didn't want to touch it because it was slimy and cold lol. She is such a girl!

She kept looking at the spout and then shoving it into her mouth as hard as she could. Sometimes she would suck on it, but not very much lol.

She is coming down with a cold, and has been teething really hard the last two days. I hope this tooth comes in soon, because it is getting old! I am pretty sure I am getting sick as well, so I don't know who got who sick. Hopefully this doesn't last too long.

She's Up!

Over the past couple weeks Kaylee has gotten more and more ready for crawling! January 31st was the first day I saw her stay up on her hands and knees. I set her down and she had her knees under her, and she stayed up!

She looks a little bewildered

Now, just over a week later, she can pull her knees up under her and rocks back and forth trying to figure out what to do next. She is SO close to crawling. As it is she is scooting and army crawling everywhere and from room to room. That is new! She for a long time would only come to the doorway of a room and stop as if she didn't know how to go out of the room.

Baby proofing is right around the corner! Yesterday, I saw the electrical socket catch her eye.....that will need to be protected immediately. I need to read up on ways to baby proof, and things to do to keep her from getting herself injured while she is learning about her boundaries and her world.

Last Class

Last night was our last practice before the trial this weekend. It was great! Every time we go to class, or play anywhere, Hobbs and I feel more connected. This week was no exception, and we are SO ready for trialing.

Things started out with the Teeter. It went pretty well just having him jump on the end of it. He kept miss judging the board and bouncing off when it landed. But he didn't give up, and stayed happy and eager to try it again.

Then we worked on some gambles/mini sequences. There were 3 of them, and Hobbs rocked every one!

Click to enlarge all of these-

Gamble #1 - Hobbs didn't have any problem with this after he figured out that there was a tunnel. The tunnel we used for this is the same one that he missed during an earlier class because he just didn't know it was there. It is dark and in the muted light of the barn, he can't see into it sometimes. After he went through it the first time he didn't have any problem with it.

Gamble #2 - Really really easy, and Hobbs didn't even think about going into the tunnel instead of over the A frame! We are starting to figure these discriminations out!

Gamble #3 - This one, we just used as an opportunity to mess with the weave poles. Hobbs did them fabulously every single time the whole evening! Oh, I guess he did mess up once, but it was again because he was going to fast going into them. I didn't do any crosses with him (he isn't ready yet) but I changed my position sending him into them, and played with staying with him, being behind, and being ahead. He was consistent no matter what I did. I think he is finally starting to get his confidence back!

Then we set up the sequence for the evening, and it was a great one! It was another ASCA one, but squished down a little because we are limited on space. I made a point of going all the way through the walk through twice before I asked M any questions. I don't think I will have her there with me at the trial, so I need to make the decisions on my own.

Yes there are weave poles, and we did them every time -1! And, once again, he didn't even glance at the A frame when he was supposed to go through the #6 tunnel.

The first time we went through, we did it all perfectly, except a dropped bar at #7. I felt connected with him, it was smooth, and we didn't mess up. I did break up the run with a reward for Hobbs after he went through the tire jump. He did it after a little hesitation and was great with it the rest of the evening. Hopefully there wont be a problem at the trial.

The second time through, I tried to not say "Over" at each jump; instead running without talking except for the contact obstacles and tunnels. It was just as smooth as the first time until we go to the chute..... I had decided to run it with a rear cross into the chute, but Hobbs misjudged the entrance to it and then got tangled in the chute material. It was terrifying. I know how Hobbs is, something like this is very likely to mess him up for a LONG time. I tried to get back to him to stop him struggling in the chute, but luckily he came out the end right as I got there. I tried to pay it off like everything was okay, but my heart was about to jump out of my chest. M set the chute back up, and I sent him through again. He did it and got all the way through with no problems.

The last time we ran them, we all picked part of the course to do again. I wanted try the last portion of the course from the tunnel on, and it went well until the chute again. M was sitting on the side of the chute this time to hold it down, but Hobbs went into it trying to turn towards me and got tangled a little again. Not as badly as the first time, but still got tangled. We set it back up again, and M sent him through with me at the other end calling him through straight. It worked and he went right through with no hesitation. Ugh, I am just hoping that everything chute-wise goes well at the trial. I think it will.

I am feeling good about the trial. I purposely didn't sign Hobbs up to be eligible for ASCA points so that even if we go clear it isn't an official Q. The reason for this was so that I don't feel any pressure to be perfect. If we go clear GREAT, and if not, it was a GREAT experience! My parents are coming up to watch the trial, and hopefully they will be able to video our runs for me. Then I will finally have a video to post here!

Wish us luck!