My Funny Valentine

After dinner last night we let the kids fill out their valentines card to their friends. Their parties are on Friday and we didn't want to be doing cards mid week when we should be studying. The kids had a lot of fun. The kindergarten teacher advised breaking them up and doing a few each day so as to not overwhelm the kids with so much writing. Our son did all of his in one sitting. He was having a ball. His writing was even neat. My daughter made sure that each person got the perfect card.
The funny part came when they went to do cards for their teachers. My son made one for each of his teachers. He was only writing the first name of each child on his cards and he only wanted to write the first name of his teachers too. He however was convinced their first names were Mrs. So we have two valentines that just say Mrs.
Hilarious!

Shingles

No I'm not talking about my roof. My husband has the shingles! Seems like everyone has heard of them, and has a little understanding of them, but here is the low down. The shingles are caused by the chicken pox virus herpes zoster. After you have the chicken pox the virus layes dormant in the tissues surrounding the nerves. It becomes active in some people later in life causing a condition termed as shingles. Doctors still aren't positive as to what initiates an attack of the shingles. Immune suppression is suspected in some cases, but majority of people never identify what caused them to break out. Shingles can occur at any age, but is more common in people over 60. This bothered my husband making him feel "old." Anyway the main symptoms of shingles is a chicken pox like rash usually contained to one side of the body and extreme nerve pain. Other symptoms include fever nausea act, but those are less common.

Hubby's shingles actually started with pain. At first he thought he had pulled a muscle in his back. I rubbed him down and he took Ibuprofen, but nothing helped, the pain grew worse. Then 3 days later a small rash appeared on his right side. At first he thought it was an allergies flare up, cause he gets hives. He took his allergy pill, but by afternoon his rash was worse and blistering, definitely not a hive. He went to the Dr. who pronounced him as having the shingles. The Dr. prescribed anti-viral medication, supposed to slow the spread of the rash and prednisone to decrease nerve inflammation and help with pain. Over the next few days the rash worsened and the pain grew even worse. After finishing his 5 day course of prednisone and no change in the pain we returned to the Dr. who the prescribed Vicodan to at least help my hubby sleep. He hadn't slept in days due to the pain, and was still working. The vicodan dulls the pain enough for rest thank goodness, but the pain is still very real. It extends from his backbone to his sternum and down into his right leg. His rash is starting to crust and extends from his backbone to his sternum. The person is contagious while they have the rash before it crusts. At that point they can pass the chicken pox virus onto others who have never had the chicken pox before or who are immune compromised. They can not give you the shingles just a good case of the chicken pox. I fortunately have had the chicken pox before and the kids have been vaccinated so so far so good for us. However Shingles pain extends well past the rash phase. it usually lasts 3 to 4 weeks. It can even become a long term problem. We are hoping for the short term 3 to 4 week version. Shingles on your face can cause permanent nerve paralysis and hearing and vision loss. If shingles move internally they can cause organ damage and even death in rare cases. We are counting our blessings at this point and are hoping this will be a one time attack. You can get the shingles more than once. As I stated before the rash is looking better now just waiting out the pain with lots of drugs that really just dull the pain a little. So here is shingles in a nutshell, I hope you never have to get them.

cleansing

Over the years I have drug home just about every critter imaginable, and my wonderful hubby takes it all in stride god love him. However yet another dog show season is drawing near. I am hopeful that this will be our year. I have tried for so long to break into the dog show world, but it's tough out there and I get discouraged easily, but I think this year is going to be different. I'm working really hard with Bumpers and taking her to training class each week. She is not perfect and I am very far from it, but we are making progress and coming along nicely if I do say so myself. She is so pretty I just hope my sad handling skills can do her the justice she deserves in the ring. I am hopeful that this year we can make things happen for us. I am committing to traveling and taking her to as many shows as I can. It's hard cause I always feel guilty leaving Hubby with the chores. So to help myself feel less guilty I am trying to weed out some of the critters I have drug in to make it easier to focus on our main goal of succeeding with a show dog. All the pups are in lovely new homes, and I just placed my two nubian does. I still have a few critters i need to place. I'd like to get down to just the dogs and the rabbits, and our ancient cat of course.It is bitter sweet. I'll miss the critters, but we need to focus and free ourselves up some. I still need to place my nubian buck, my turkeys, and the stray beagle. Hoping we find homes soon, and hoping I don't regret my choices, and hoping I can make Bumpers and my family proud in the show ring.

Happy Ground Hog Day!

Our Last Two Boys

Yellow male pup #1

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Black Male pup #2

Black male pup #2 has been sold

We still have two males pups available. They are 9 weeks old now and current on all preventative health care.

Remember you can view their parents Quackers and Mile on our labrador boys and girls pages.

Both parentes have OFA hips and elbow clearances and have Canine Good Citizen titles.

Boy pups playing in the yard

It got up to 50 degrees today so the kids loaded up the pups and took them outside to play.
Everyone had fun playing chase and playing with sticks.

Remember our two black males and yellow male are still available to loving homes!

Our 2010 litter is now up for sale

This is our 2010 litter out of

Kirkland's East Hill Realtree Roadtrips CGC (Miles) and Kirkland's Quack Attack CGC (Quackers) You can view them under our labrador boys and girls page.

This litter was born on November 28, 2009. They have been dewormed 3 times and have had their first shot. We socialize them with our other dogs, our children, and any guests who visit our home. They were born in our house were they spent the first 4 weeks of life before climbing out of their pen and graduating to a larger area in our garage. They come into the house daily for play time. They also have supervised play time outside and love running in and eating the recent snow. This is a beautiful litter with both parents having excellent british champion show lines and both parents have their Canine Good Citizen titles and at one time were both certified therapy dogs. Both parents have OFA normal elbows and OFA good hips. We allow our pups to go to their new homes after they turn 7 weeks old, which will be on January 16, 2010. For further questions or to set up an appointment to view our puppies please contact us at 937-446-4307 or visit our face book page at Kirkland Acres Labradors.

Black Male #1 Sold

Black Male #2 sold
Yellow Male #2 Sold



Black Female

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Yellow Male #1 Sold