Tonight my daughter hopped up on the grooming table to talk and watch me dry Lacie, and she said, "it's been a perfect day".  And I had to agree.  It was just a nice, relaxing, fun day.

We slept in a bit, took care of the dogs and horses, and headed to church. The service was very interesting and the worship music was fantastic. Our older daughter and son-in-law and grandson were there, so that was nice. After church my husband headed to Menards and the rest of us headed to my mother-in-law's house for lunch.  She is such a good cook and every Sunday she has a large lunch ready for whoever drops in.  Today it was homemade beef vegetable stew, homemade biscuits, and homemade applesauce.  My husband missed out on that but he was happy with left-over meatloaf!

We got home and played with the dogs a bit, and then while my husband got started on his building project, my daughter and I went out to brush horses. None of us got much done though because a couple of our friends dropped in.  Then our neighbors walked over, and then another friend dropped in!  We all stood around and talked, admired my poodles, and watched our daughter ride Tucker, the young Belgian she trained. 

After everyone left she and I went riding for a couple of hours.  It was getting dark so mostly we rode in the arena, but we had a lot of fun. My horse, Star, was being a brat so we ended up trading horses so my daughter could work with her for a while. She is so good at horse training.  By the time she was done and I got back on Star, she was a different horse for me.  She really is a nice horse anyway, but she gets stubborn once in a while. 

We came in the house for supper () and watched the movie "Love Comes Softly". That is such a good show.  We really enjoyed it. My husband dozed on the couch, my daughter studied for a test, and I took Lacie downstairs for a much needed bath.

Before I could get her in the tub my husband came down and offered to put the new light I bought for the grooming room up.  What a difference that made!  I can see really well now.  Then my daughter asked me to help her with Jazzy - she needed her ears washed and her nails trimmed, neither of which is an easy job with Jazzy. We put her muzzle on, got her on the grooming table and got it done. She's had a horrible ear infection - yeast and bacteria both - and her ears have to be cleaned out every other day until they're completely healed and the meds are gone. The we clipped and dremled her nails. I have to say, she's getting much better for us. I don't think we'll have to use the muzzle much longer. 

And then Lacie finally got her bath. I've been meaning to give her a bath for 3 days but things kept coming up. She was one dirty poodle!  I bought a new attachment for the sink - it's a sprayer with 3 different spray settings and a shampoo reservoir. You can spray the shampoo out, either full strength or diluted. It works wonderfully well!  So I was happy about that. 

Then I dried, brushed, dried some more, combed and then trimmed Lacie!  She is such a good girl. She's my black poodle and she looks and feels like crushed velvet when we're done - so soft and silky and shiny.  I got her nails trimmed and dremeled, her ears cleaned, her face shaved, and I trimmed her back, sides, chest and belly. Tomorrow I will scissors her legs, topknot and tail, and touch up her feet.  I was just too tired to do any more tonight.  She looks so pretty though.

Tomorrow is Keisha's turn.  That little girl is filthy too, and with that light color you can really tell. She'll be 2 shades lighter when I get done with her!!  Her coat is like lamb's wool - thick, curly and a little bit coarser. 

Rex is also ready for a bath but he was just groomed so he'll be much faster to do than the girls.  He is very, very good for grooming, but he is a pain in the tub because he wants to shake all the time.  I end up almost as wet as him by the time I'm done! 

I suppose I should get to bed. It's almost midnight, my poodles have been out for the last time, my hot chocolate is drank, and I have to be up at 4:30 for work!  I almost hate for days like this to end.  As my daughter said, it was a perfect day.