Presenting: The Derriere Press

Hey, no smart jokes about the jammies - it's freezing here and had already dipped into the low 60's when we shot this......

Dona Noblis Pacem (Grant Us Peace)

Today we celebrate with many across the world in a common hope for peace; peace for our own lives, peace for others, peace for those who struggle, peace for those we love and especially for all of the animals in our world who are living tonight without a home. Our peace globe shares some of the most special animals that have graced our lives over the years. What would your globe have in it?

Thank you, White Dog, for reminding us of this day xoxo

A Thought

"Youth is a gift of nature; age is a work of art."

Howlloween Happiness

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of being part of the San Diego Golden Retriever's Meet Up Group held at a dog park in SD. There were about 100 people that RSVP'ed, and although we don't know exactly how many showed up, all we could see everywhere we looked were dogs - lots of dogs. It was the first time we got to sell our product during a community-based event, and it was AWESOME!!! We sold all but one bag, and when we got home, were grateful that we had that one left, as our poor taste-testers supply was nearly gone. We gave out around 80 bags of brochures, business cards and treat samples, and more importantly, had the opportunity to talk with so many people who love their dogs as much as we love ours.

We wouldn't have had such a resoundingly successful (and really fun) day if it weren't for Sue and her family over at Random Ramblings. Sue is the Chairwoman of the SD chapter, which is the largest GR Meet up group in the country, and invited us to join her group for their Halloween festivities.

It was a really inspiring experience, and as we drove home, all we could talk about was how we can't wait to do more events. I heard Shar say about 100 times throughout the day that she was in her glory being surrounded by so many dogs. She wasn't alone. Our journey has truly begun.....

Quick Update

It's 9:30 pm and what we hope is the last little goblin just left! We are tired, tired, tired, but had a WONDERFUL day!!! Stay tuned mid day tomorrow as we post pictures of our awesomely wonderful Barkery debute (thank you so much Sue and Rob).

For now, we leave you with a few pictures of our neighbors. (Yes, they are all adults, and we REALLY have the best neighborhood in the world!!!)

Tony

Ryan and Lana

Terri

Ray (Frankenstein)

Ryan

Ray again.....

Could it be...no, it's Ray....

...Our Neighbors!

Getting Ready for Our First Showing

We've spent the better part of our evenings this week preparing for the San Diego Golden Retriever's Meet Up Group being held tomorrow. We are so excited, and are now at a point where we are seeing all of the work we have been doing for months finally coming together!

We made 15 bags to sell at the event, put together 100 sample bags with a brochure, business card and treats, found a way to mount our 6' banner on our display table, put the money for change in the lock box, created a few forms, order sheets, etc...and have it all neatly packed away in the car. Now all we need is our pit stop at Starbucks and we will be on our way to the Barkery's first real event!

The best part is that the kids get to come with us and help us celebrate the day!! We'll be sure to do our best to take a bunch of pictures to post tomorrow night. Thank you all for your unbelievable support the past several months! Watch out world, here we come......

A Problem....

Tonight's post is going to be a tough one....we've been avoiding this for a while now, but have come to realize that we must share this secret with you so that, in time, we can heal, and move on with our lives.

For those of you who don't know the 12-steps that are practiced by alcoholics anonymous, we'll share our version with you. It is true - we have a problem, but now that we are willing to admit it, I think we can begin the journey down a new, healthier path....

1) We admitted we were powerless over Farmville and that our lives had become unmanageable
2) Came to believe that a Farmer greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
3) Made a decision to turn our crops and cows over to the care of our neighbors
4) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our livestock
5) Admitted to the Supreme Farmer, ourselves and to another Farmville lover the exact nature of our wrongs
6) Were entirely ready to have the Supreme Farmer remove all these defects of character
7) Humbly asked HER to remove our shortcomings
8) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make a trade for new crops with them
9) Made direct trades to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure the pigs, chickens, sheep and waterfowl
10) Continued to take Farmville inventory, and when we were short a tree or bale of hay, promptly bought one
11) Sought through fertilization and harvesting to improve our conscious contact with the Supreme Farmer as we understood her, praying only for knowledge of HER will for our farms and the power to carry that out
12) Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other Farmville addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

So...there you have it. We are addicts. Junkies. What once was a simple social game has turned in to hours of harvesting, planting, buying and selling, milking and plucking, and so on. Our lives are consumed by this internet obsession, and our daily chores are being affected in ways we never could have imagined.

I know you are all offering to help us, but first we must help ourselves. I will start with the first step tonight by selling (what an evil word) a piece of my "farm" - maybe .

Phew - so glad we got this off our chests. We feel better already. Gotta go, I think we have some crops to harvest!

Barkery Update

Our guest pack is back home with their family (we miss them already), and we've settled in for another typical Sunday evening of good food (thank you for keeping me fat, Shar), catching up on some computer work, and hopefully a little later, a chance to watch some of our favorite tv shows.

We spent the later part of the day working on Barkery "stuff" . We finished a rough draft of our brochures (see below) and Shar's been working on a new post for the Barkery's blog. We're getting closer to being able to start seriously doing some marketing for the business. As for our kids? They're sleeping!!!

This is the outside of the brochure (which is a tri-fold design)

This is the inside of the brochure.......thoughts???

Why is it....

that the smallest dog in our six-pack has promoted herself to the rank of Drill Sargent?

Sargent Prinnie has had a ball with her visiting pack of Goldens. To see such a little thing herding the "big kids" around, as if corralling them into their tidy little spaces (of course where SHE wants them to be) and giving them orders that for some insane reason they obey, is, to say the least, an absolute hoot.

It's clear that our little eskie has no qualms about letting everyone know that she is the canine pack leader (fortunately for her play mates, she does recognize that mom and mommy out rank her). It has been so much fun with our gentle giants, and even funnier yet to see a 19 lb white blur molding the mini ponies into her version of "18 Kids and Counting". Our guest pack, however, is the best behaved, most loving and well-mannered group you could imagine.

Today we played Ring-Around-The Palm Tree, Musical Beds, "My Brother is Faster Than Yours", and many rounds of "Ball". It's been so wonderful to see our kids all playing so well together. We didn't really know how Prinnie or Digby would react to another pack coming in to their home and were thrilled to see that all that matters is feeding time, bed time and lots of unconditional love. How I wish the world would follow the lead of dogs!

Gold Heaven

We have the honor of getting to "doggie-sit" for our good friend Sue's (Random Ramblings) golden retriever pack (and the Barkery Taste-Testers from here in So Cal) for the weekend!

They arrived at our home this morning; all four beautiful Golden's, their mom and grandma. Prinnie gave the new kids her interpretation of the house rules with a 15 minute dissertation on the do's and don't's of her doggy-dome. Of course, Digby had to seek the most playful of the bunch (Kona) and has since fallen in love with the fact that he has a big white play mate who can challenge his skills.

After having smaller dogs for a while now, it seems so funny to see such gentle giants (and way better well-behaved than ours) roaming around. We are so excited for a fun-filled weekend of woman's best friend!!!!

Here are some pictures of the pack checking things out.....Welcome Jack, Jill, Kona and Harley!