A Kid's Best Friend

Lots of things going on around here.

First of all, I completed Phase 10 and am done with school! I announced this on Facebook but no one really seemed to care too much. One person, that's it. I was a little surprised but not disappointed. That is how Facebook is.

But inside, I am celebrating! I've never done well in school and I did well in this.

I haven't finished my tests yet, I have two more to go and then the big one that will give me my certification. But I am done with the learning part--the reading and studying. I can now start making plans with what I will do with my business.

So what to do? There is so many ways I can go about this.

I can work for a shelter and become an evaluator. This probably would be a little boring and to become an evaluator, I would need two years of experience, plus take another test. But it's something for the resume.

I could work for a dog daycare, which, personally, is last on my list. I have a hard time with the whole "dog pampering" thing. And as much as I love dogs, I'm not sure I could just stand there watching them play all day.

Or I could go on my own and do private training. Out of all three options, this is the one that appeals to me the most. It's the most flexible with time and makes the most money. There is so much to do though. You have to make all your own marketing stuff, like brochures and flyers and business cards, which means you need to have information about your business: a business name, logo, and website. I didn't have any of these things, not even a business name.

Anyway, long story short, I now have a name, theme and logo. Website will be slow in coming but there's no rush. Then the hard part will be in advertising and making connections, but I'm nowhere near ready for that.

Do you like it?? I thought up the design but had a Graphic Designer from Etsy make it for me.

I decided I want to focus on training with families. I will do basic training for starters (most beginner trainers do), but families will be my specialty. Because of what I went through with Joey, I can appreciate why parents buy dogs for their kids--because they love them! But it can be a big undertaking and I hope to give them more support with their dog and keep things safe for the kids too.

Anyway, that's as far as I've gotten. It's exciting and fun but scary too. I'm ok with taking things slow.

Other than that, nothing else exciting has happened. Unless you want to count that our trampoline nearly blew away. After a very exciting (stressful) storm this morning (with the tornado sirens going off) our trampoline blew into the swing set and literally broke in half.

Difficult to see with the wind and rain

I really don't get sentimental over "stuff". I can put baby clothes away with pretty much no emotion and I never had any sadness over leaving our first house.

But this one hurts. We've had the trampoline for three years and the kids really enjoyed it. I begged Dennis to try to weld it back together. He said he would try but he said no promises. That usually means he will fix it to appease me, but already knows that it's too broken to fix. I guess that will have to do for now. It's kind of tough thinking of buying a new trampoline when your kids bedroom has no carpeting or no door because it fell off.

That's it for now. I'm hopefully going to bed but pretty sure I will be awake tonight. I've been killing mosquitoes that somehow got in the bedroom, and Luke is still awake. He's been having a hard time sleeping in this insane heat....