Monthly Archives: May 2012

50 for 50 #21 – My Birthday

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This week was my real 50th birthday! It was a wild and crazy week too. On Tuesday, I went to lunch with my mom and sister to Kneaders. I love their Key Lime Tart, not to sweet and light and refreshing.

Thursday through Saturday we were in Park City for Wood Badge training with the Boy Scouts of America. They sang a happy birthday to me twice and my troop (the Owls) got cup cakes from the quartermaster. I got to (or maybe had to) wear a pink stuffed birthday cake hat for the second rendering of happy birthday. The first time most of the group thought of me as Suzy. Let me try to explain. One of the traditions at Wood Badge is to circulate a Susan B. Anthony dollar among the participants by slipping it into someones pocket. Then when the Senior Patrol Leader starts singing “Where is Suzy” everyone looks in their pocket. Knowing that today was my birthday they planted the coin my pocket. I felt it go in but didn’t know what it was until they started talking about the “where is Suzy” thing. Then it all made sense and I wasn’t at all surprised to find it in my pocket. Who ever has the coin in their pocket gets to go up to the front and sing a song. They let me off the hook a bit by everyone singing happy birthday to me. It turns out that you can also lead the group in a song or you troop can join you in singing a song.

I don’t have photos from Wood Badge yet. But they have two people taking lots of photos and I’ll have access to them after the course is over. So I’ll add some photos of my birthday experience then. It was the most unusual birthday and birthday week I’ve ever had. But if you ever get the  chance to take Wood Badge you really should take advantage of the opportunity.

Have any of you been to Wood Badge?

Banta and the Furry Scurry

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Mark and Banta

Banta and Mark participated in the Furry Scurry Fund Raising walk recently. His retired guide Prestwick was also there. They had lots of fun and as usual Banta was a little superstar. She didn’t do much guide work on the walk because there were over 7000 dogs there. She was really good and got a lot of attention. A local news crew interview them at the end of the walk but their interview didn’t make it on the news. They news crew said they hadn’t seen any other guide dogs at the Furry Scurry but they did see a companion dog. Banta had struggled with a sore shoulder but it is doing just fine now. I love it when we get photos from our graduated pups. Banta looks so happy and healthy.

Walking at the Furry Scurry

A Suitcase Full of Letters

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Nancy’s suitcase full of letters

Have you ever discovered a treasure trove of family documents or photos. NotSoFancyNancy found a suitcase full of letters from her dad to her mother. Here is what Nancy had to say about the find.

When my daughter Tania first told me about the letters I knew that something had to be done with them, after all they ARE our history. I took them home and put them all in chronological order. I scanned that first letter and looked at how many were left and I became overwhelmed. There are SO many of them, did I mention it is a suitcase full? There may be thousands, but I guess we will find out together if you want to join me for this adventure.

Nancy is sharing each letter on her blog. Many of them chronicle her dads experiences in World War II. I think that Nancy has come up with a great way to deal with the overwhelming task of saving and sharing these letters. She is taking them just a little at a time. She scans them and transcribes the text, preserving the letters. Nancy does some research about the information in each letter and posts it on her blog.

Down the road she can decide if she wants to put what she has gathered into a book or share it in some other ways, but for now she is taking a huge project and moving forward in a doable and sustainable way. Great job Nancy! I look forward to seeing how your project progresses. Thanks for setting a good example.

Do you have a huge family history project like this? Have you found a way to move forward with it? What is holding you back?

Olive Us

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A new web TV series started this week that I want to share with you. I think it is a great example of another way to look at telling family tales. I really like the concept behind Olive Us and it got me thinking about new ways to look at sharing what matters to us. Stories aren’t just about events they are also about the values we live by. First watch Ben’s explanation of the concept behind the series and then watch the first episode.

 

Aren’t the Blair children amazing. Ben and Gabby live next door to us in Provo about 15 years ago when they were just starting their family. My, how grown-up they are now. Such a fun family. I’m looking forward to upcoming episodes of Olive Us.

What family values do you want to capture? Do you have any ideas on how you want to share them?

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Tribute to Shadow

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This week marks five years since the passing of our pet dog Shadow. He was an important part of our family and it was so hard when we learned he had cancer. It was fast growing and the day we sent him over the Rainbow Bridge was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. As part of my grieving process I put together a little book. I want to honor his memory this week. Shadow was our first dog. One of the reasons I looked into puppy raising after he died was because I wanted to have a dog but wasn’t ready to face the end of life process again. So in some ways it is Shadow’s fault that we are puppy raisers. I wear a silver bracelet everyday in memory of this wonderful dog. Thanks Shadow for all you taught us and all the memories!

For more information on this little book, “Shadow’s Laws” I have several posts on how I put it together here. What have you done to help you move through the grieving process? With Memorial Day coming up in a few weeks is there someone who you want to pay tribute to?

My Current Projects: Goals and Progress

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I have decided that I need to reconsider they way I’m doing my Monday posts. First off there is just too much clutter. I think I’ll create a post of each project that I’ll link to for the basic information about my current projects. Then I think I’ll rate my progress with + for good, 0 for neutral, and – no progress. Finally I’ve got to be more focused on the goals I make. I’m going to try printing out my post and refer to it every morning. These goals and getting lost in the midst of my daily to do list.

Evaluate Goals for last week:

  1. Finish Mother’s Day Project: (0) my mom loved her “infographic”, Annette will gather info for me and then I will pick this project back up again. I already have her frame. This project on hold until I hear from Annette.
  2. Continue transcribing Key West audio tape: (-) no progress, procrastination troubles.
  3. Improvements to my Blog site: thoughts on this but no work. (0) I’m happy with the posts I’ve got done and I spent 2 hours helping my friend with getting her blog started.

Progress on projects not on my goal list:

  1. First illustration from Kim. (she is now working on the fog off Newfoundland image.
  2. Today finished the last edits for Martin’s Cove Journal

The harsh reality is that I’m not spending enough time working on my projects. I’m letting too many things distract me from what I really want to do. Even with a new puppy I’ve got to find a way to make this happen. Realistically the next two weeks are crazy. We are doing Wood Badge training all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week and next. So that takes half my week right there. The training is supposed to be really good and hopefully I’ll learn some thing that I can apply to being more effective with my time.

Goals for this week:

  1. Write blog posts ahead for Thursday, Friday and Saturday
  2. Put Key West slides on to DVD for my dad
  3. Post to link to about each of my projects
  4. Work on Mary text (take to Wood Badge)
  5. Evaluate new approach at the end of the week

Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.

50 for 50 #20 – Lavender Turtleneck

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my fifth grade school picture

This is my favorite school photo when I was growing up. I thought it would be fun to have another lavender turtleneck similar to the one in this photo. This week I was at Kohl’s looking for something to spend a $10 gift card on. I wanted a small watering can for my grow-light but they don’t have stuff like that so I ended up looking through the clearance rack in women’s clothing. I felt like I hit the jack-pot when I found some basic long-sleeved shirts for $2 at 90% off. One of the tops was a dark lavender turtleneck so that made everything perfect. So I ended up with three $2 tops and one $4 top that just perfectly spent the $10 card I had. Yeah for some great shopping!

me at almost 50

Z’s First Week

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Zodiac

What a difference a week can make! Zodiac has made so much progress in the past week. The first few days were really rough, especially on the relieving.  But the first few days Zodiac peed and poop more in the house than he did outside. One thing he catch on to really fast was peeing in the kennel. He only did that once.Zodiac is now fairly reliable at relieving when you take him outside. He only has a problem when he doesn’t get taken out often enough or gets more freedom than he is ready for.

Zodiac in an x-pen

I like to use x-pens with puppies. They are bigger than kennel so pups are more likely to have accidents in them and we have carpet downstairs so we have a piece of plexiglass that we put under the x-pen to help with clean-up. I hate to haul kennels up and down the stairs so we use x-pens downstairs where I spend most of my time during the day. I like the x-pens too because it restricts their activity but given them a bit of freedom. I know they can’t get into anything and I can step out of the room for a minute and not worry. When they are older we use the x-pens restrict their access to a room or area of the house. I took Zodiac out before I started this post and he relieved perfectly. Now I want to give him some freedom but not too much so I’ve blocked off the area around my desk. He enjoys have more space and I know where he is. With each puppy we have found more ways to use the x-pens. I’d really like to find a couple more panels.

Actually relieving covers most the challenges were are having with Zodiac. Which is really good. He does struggle with whining and barking but as long as you don’t reward it that stuff takes care of its self. The first few days its was whining. Then when that didn’t get him what he wanted he tried barking. He started to bark saying, “hurry up with my food, I’m starving”. Each day it gets better so no real worries there.

Zodiac and Yakira playing in the backyard

We are really pleased with Zodiac. I think that Yakira has been a good mentor and he is learning the rules quickly. He seems to have a good middle of the road temperament and his stubborn side has not been a problem. We are looking forward to raising him and seeing how he grows up. At this early stage it looks like he will be a great dog.

Girl Scouts

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Yakira and the Girl Scouts

On Thursday, Yakira and I went to talk with a Girl Scout group about service dogs. Yakira was a good girls, as usual and she had a fun time playing tug with the girls. We talked about the kinds of service dogs and the breeds of dogs that are most often used for service dogs. The girls asked a few questions but their leaders had lots more questions. I think some of the girls were a little shy. One of the girls took a photo of her and Yakira while Yakira was giving her a kisses. It was a good experience and we will probably get more opportunities like it in the future.

Raising Skyler Video

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I love the power that images and music have together. One of the things I want to learn how to do is videos. The closest thing I’ve done was in college. I took a class on what was then called multimedia. We put together slides with music using multiple slide projectors and special equipment that kept the slides and music synchronized. It was awesome. Today we use computers and software to do a similar thing. So when I saw this effective video a few days ago I knew I wanted to feature it here on my blog.

This video brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it. I’m sure that part of the impact on me is because I relate to it as a puppy raiser. When it comes to sharing stories emotion is a big part of the impact. Stephanie did a great job combining the photos and the music to tell Skyler’s story. Here is Stephanie’s advice on how she put together this video;

I used Photostory to create this.  You import the photos into Photostory and then customize motion, choose the slide speed, add music and you are done.  I think the key to something like this is the music and the speed in which the slides switch making sure it fits with the music. And of course, good pictures 🙂

Stephanie makes this sound so doable. Now I’ve got to download Photostory and learn how to use this software. I can’t wait. Have you every done a video? What software do you do and what advice do you have for a beginner?