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that's pretty much what i've been since thursday afternoon. i have gone places and done things, but it all feels like a blur of snot and cold medicine!

things i've done:

• akc day at fairgrounds
• panther creek band competition
• shopping with jessi
• dinner with mom
• desperate housewives with the fam
• desperate housewives marathon (by myself)
• cough and snot a lot (throughout)

so now it's off to hang out with melissa and pick up my car from my parents' house. i'll let you know if i come out of my sick-fog and do anything noteworthy.

good citizen

canine good citizen, that is. and i'm one of them! that's right, i - lillie (welch) korhonen - now hold the prestigious title of "canine good citizen" according to the akc. doesn't mom look so proud in that picture? :-)


mom and dad took me and my little sister, chloe to the fairgrounds today to meet lots of people and lots of other dogs. we saw my friends, dr. page and dr. allison, and i even got to eat some french fries on the way (which mom says was probably a bad idea because of my allergies, but i didn't care!).

i got to see some little tiny dogs (called king charles' spaniels), some gigantor dogs (called freaks of nature! err... i mean irish wolfhounds), some dogs doing agility (which mom has been wanting me to try), and even some dogs playing flyball (now that looks fun!) when we watched that flyball, i was so excited that i almost jumped out of my skin! i wanted to chase those balls and chase those dogs chasing the balls - how cool! luckily mom had a hold of the leash, or i might have gotten in some trouble, which wouldn't look very good for this canine good citizen.

the cgc test has lots of components like mom meeting a friendly stranger, being good while someone new pets you, basic commands (sit, down, stay - i've been practicing that one, and come), walking on a loose leash, passing another dog without being rude, behaving in a crowd, being faced with loud noises and scary visual distractions without freaking out, letting someone weird brush you, and staying with a person you don't know while mom disappears for 3 mins. that last one was really hard for me (i'm kind of a mama's girl), and i almost didn't pass, but once that strange lady started petting me, i figured she wasn't so bad, and i should just wait for mom to come back. i just always get so worried when she first goes away! what if she never comes back?? anyway, i did pass, and now i'm one step closer to being a therapy dog! woohoo!

here's a picture of dad with my lil' sis, chloe. she's not a cgc yet, but mom and dad think that one day she could be. for now, i'm the only daughter that gets to hold this distinction! i feel good, danananananana, i knew that i would, danananananana!

until next time... lillie

feels like fall...

this weekend, it began to feel like fall. now i've always thought, because of the automatic vacation it brings, that summer was my favorite season, but this year the arrival of fall has me feeling faaaaaantastic! it seems like the autumn breezes and the slight nip in the air, the leaves beginning to turn and the smell are all turning me nostalgic. reminding me of a time (not tooooo long ago) that was easy.

fall brings with it football season, and with football comes the more important marching band competition season. hearing west johnston practice at night and seeing jordan at mcdonald's day really have me anticipating this saturday's competition at panther creek. there is something quite magical about marching band, that for 11 or so minutes you can be totally lost in a sea of people, music, color and dancing, with drums beating through you and adrenaline coursing through your veins. a good show makes it impossible to avert your eyes and lures the audience, like the pied piper, into another world. i don't care if it makes me a geek, i love it.

fall also brings memories of horseback riding... well i guess every season brings those memories, but of horses beginning to pick up the pace after the heat of summer has stopped dragging them down. of college dressage competitions at st. andrews and averitt, virginia intermont and va tech, and dabbling in the world of hunters, of cleaning stalls during the time when you weren't sure if you had to wear shorts or bang ice out of water buckets. riding is like nothing else in the world... and i miss it terribly.

and all of this brings me to the last thing that is inevitably linked to the fall - the mountains. i was born and raised in durham, but i have always been a country girl at heart. i think it comes from my daddy's savannah heritage or something, but especially after going to app and then living in valle crucis, the fall becons me to those hazy blue ridge peaks. to football games in the FREEZING cold, to walking across campus and battling the wind, to late nights with friends, to driving on the parkway, and to hiking to beautiful views you can't get to any other way.

ahh fall! thank goodness for track-out in just 4 days so i can go enjoy it for two weeks!

[and no, i didn't take the really awesome picture at the top of the page.]

fun saturday!

this saturday was great :-)

we started the day by making it to daylight donuts, this time to the one in north raleigh (which is far superior to the cary store) in time to snag a strawberry/cheesecake glazed knot thingy and some coffee. it was extremely pleasant :-)

then we went on a dog food/pet supply run and to my parents' house for a visit. on the way, i asked andrew to drive by my old stomping ground (jordan high school) to see how the construction has changed the landscape, when we saw lots of cars parked in the "band parking lot." we decided to stop in, and we found out that it was mcdonald's day - an annual fund raiser where the band plays in the mcdonald's parking lot and a portion of the sales between 12-2pm are donated to the marching band. we went home to my parents' house, and my mother joined us for the event. afterwards, we made a pit-stop at the grocery store and headed back to my parents' place.

we hung out for a while and watched a movie, then i took a shower, and we headed off to kim's birthday extravaganza. we began with a rousing game of (very mature) boys vs. girls kickball where the "ta-ta team" totally kicked the boys' butts... kind of. and by kind of i mean we totally lost, but we played really well, and before we all passed out and headed for the much needed beer consumption, we played the best inning of the game with 3 up, 3 down for the boys -- and i tagged andrew for the last out of the game! it was definitely more fun that i anticipated.

after that, it was lots of cooking, eating, laughing, eating, drinking, eating, dancing, eating, a few rounds of catch phrase (which the ta-tas won again), and oh yeah... eating. despite my exercise explosion at kickball, i'm pretty sure i gained at least 80 lbs tonight.

now andrew and i are winding down by tucking the dogs in to bed and watching pride and prejudice on the couch! sorry, i was having too much fun enjoying the day to bother photographing it!

photobucket phun

the rules: answer the questions below, type each answer into photobucket.com and post any picture from the results.

1. What is your occupation?

2. What is your mother's first name?

3. What kind of car do you drive?

4. What kind of car do you want to drive?

5. Name something you do in your spare time?

6. What thing do you collect?

7. What is your father's name?

8. Are you male or female?

9. Describe your mood right now.

10. What is your biggest fear?

11. What are your three favorite words?



12. What is your name?


so now i think all of you blog-readers should try it :-P

facebook and blog-stalking

i am an unashamed facebook junkie and blog-stalker, but the "new facebook" is terrible, and many of the blogs i frequent have slacked-off or quit altogether. that, coupled with the fact that my now-ancient-iBook moves at a slug's pace... i guess i'll either have to find something else to do or turn to myspace and flickr?

keep on truckin'

that's what my mom always says, just keep on truckin', and that's what i'm doing. trucking, trudging, same thing, right?

the gray days continue, as do the non-blog-worthy issues, but school is going alright, and tonight andrew and i got to go over to jessi and norm's for dinner. it was definitely impromptu, as jess has been out of town for weeks. i didn't know she was back until she messaged me on g-chat this afternoon. i suggested she and i meet for coffee, but instead she invited us over for dinner. when we got there, we had the lovely pleasure of being joined by jennifer, will, and fiona! lil' miss fiona was lovely, as usual, and despite some unfortunate tummy issues was a very sweet little one to be around. the whole group hung out and chatted until the girls broke off and did our girl chatting (fiona included), and the boys talked about boy things.

it was really nice to be around people my own age!

tomorrow is thursday, which brings us one day closer to friday, which brings us almost the weekend... which means if i just keep on truckin' i'll make it to another wonderful weekend. amen, hallelujah!