Sorry, I’m sick

Posted on April 16, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

I’m sorry to not be getting my posts done. I’ve got the flu. I’m feeling better and hope to be back up to speed soon.

Joy Jar

Posted on April 13, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Somehow I’ve missed posting my list of happy things for a couple of weeks. Life can get out of balance sometimes and little but important things can slip through the cracks.

a good day
Dune enjoying her stuffed Kong
April
peace and quiet
sweet and cuddly Dune
getting things on my “to do list” done
tulips blooming
getting internet access back
having a girls day with Dune
Zodiac being so good with the school kids
a double dog walk
tulips
starting our garden
happy Dune!
warmer days
grape hyacinths
walking with Cherri
cute Dune
sunshine
spring rain
cuddling with our cat
walking with Dune
beautiful music
finding one of Dune’s teeth
color
Dune & Zodiac together
sewing
a momma duck in our backyard again this year
Dune’s new blanket
Tillamook yogurt
walking the Jordan River Trail with Zodiac
20% done with my Jordan River Trail goal for the year
planting my tomato starts in the garden
radishes, greens and spinach coming up in the garden
getting a haircut
strawberries
seeing “My Grandma Mary” in print
getting flights booked for my dad
a new pair of jeans (that are long enough)
a successful birthday party for my mom
listening to General Conference
getting Yakira’s book sent off
Clifford visiting
feeling more organized

Zodiac’s Book – getting started

Posted on April 10, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Title Page for Zodiac’s Book

As our time with Zodiac comes to a close, I’ve been wanted to get started on his puppyhood book. I have a template so many of the design decisions are already made. Beside speeding up the process of completing each book the template gives a continuity to the series. Today I picked a font (Hobo Std) and two accent colors (blueish green and yellow). The colors might get changed as the book comes together but they are a good start. I also picked out 19 “Z” words to describe Zodiac. Finding “Z” words was a challenge but I did it.

zaftig – full-bodied; well-proportioned
zany – comically wild or eccentric
zap – strike suddenly and forcefully
zax – a hatchetlike tool for roofing slate
zealous – ardently active, devoted, diligent
zeek out – (slang) to lose control of oneself
zenith – highest point or state, culmination
zephyr – thing of fine, light quality
zero hour – a decisive or critical time
zesty – energetic; active
Zeus – supreme deity of the ancient Greeks
zigzag – a course with sharp turns
zillion – an extremely large number
zingy – full of zing; lively; zesty; exciting
Zion – where the pure in heart dwell
zippy – full of energy; lively; peppy
zoic – relating to or having animal life
zonked – exhausted or asleep
zoom – to move quickly or suddenly

The next steps are to work on the text for each word and find and/or take more photos to help illustrate all the “Z” words. Zenith will be used to talk about Zodiac’s partnership, hopefully as a guide dog, so that one will have to wait. Also zero hour will be about putting him on the puppy truck so I can’t do that one either. But I hope to have the rest of the pages done by the time he returns to Guide Dogs for the Blind. Then I can put it on to a cd and it will be given to his handler while they are in training. It is lots of fun for them to learn about how their dog was growing up in the raisers home.

Zodiac will probably be in the truck in 8 to 10 weeks. With 19 words to do I better get at least two spreads done each week. So that is my goal. I’ll post them here on pupdate day to help me be accountable for that goal. Since I’ve already do so much this week, I work to getting one spread done for Friday.

Do you have a project with an upcoming deadline that you are working on? I’d love to hear about it.

Pupdate

Posted on April 6, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Black Lab Clifford, Yellow Lab Dune and Black Lab Zodiac

a Dune sandwich – Clifford, Dune and Zodiac

It has been a few weeks since I actually got a pupdate post written. Zodiac and Dune are doing good. It looks like Zodiac probably won’t be returning to Guide Dogs for the Blind on the next puppy truck in May. There are 25 dogs older than him and the truck only holds 19 dogs. I’m glad to get a few more weeks with him.

We were a three dog household for the last three days. My sister’s career change, Clifford was here. The three of them had so much fun together. Clifford looks very like Zodiac so it takes careful observation to know who it who.

The other great news this week was an email from Yakira and Diane. It sounds like they are doing great. Here is some of what Diane had to say:

My orange tree is in full bloom complimented by the newly opened scents of my roses freezias and lilacs. From many other gardens the sent of jasmine contributes to the spring ambiance.

Today Yakira and I took an absolutely delightful 5 mile walk. This has been a bit of a struggle for Yakira but she is finally demonstrated a willingness to walk decent distances at an excellent rate of speed. Honestly I would call our walk today a 10. Before to long I can see that we will be enjoying a routine walk of 9 to 10 miles.

I have recently taught Yakira to drink from a safe water bottle. Our walks are long enough and the weather will be warm enough that she needed the compliment to her food rewards of, of course, a portion of her daily food ration, as well as teriyaki beef jerky from Costco. My retired Guide, Bettyjo, enjoyed the jerky as a reward and so I anticipated that Yakira would also find this an excellent motivation when developing new behaviors. I am looking forward to also incorporating apple slices into her food rewards.

I absolutely love giving Yakira water from the cute little 8 oz water bottles. She is so cute that everyone who passes by while she is drinking uuus and ahhs about her.

Yakira and Bettyjo get along famously and the cats have come to accept her as a member of the family too. It is really nice to see all of them getting along so well when we are not working.

I have to say that Yakira is the best shopper I have had. We walked along the arcade here yesterday for the first time. She did a really amazing job in stopping at each open door to determine whether or not the store was the one I was looking for.

Yeah for news from one of our puppies! Yakira sure has an awesome life with Diane.

Joy Jar

Posted on March 16, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Spring is really here! I guess the calendar says it arrives next week but it is really here. I’m so glad. I love having season but this year the winter seemed to last longer than normal.

deep blue skies
Zodiac with the kids as school
my cute puppies
finishing Dune’s blanket
finding my purse before I realized it was lost
taking a Sunday nap
crocus under our pear tree
Tricia stopping by
sweatshirt weather
warm sunshine
singing
sunny warm days
doing “go to bed” with Zodiac and Dune
taking a good walk with Dune
chatting with friends
planting starts for my garden
my lettuce coming up
Bill getting most of the garden rototilled
Dune and Zodiac snuggled together
how good Zodiac was at Costco

Joy Jar

Posted on March 9, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Another week has slipped away. Spring is really coming, I can feel it!

a puppy slumber party
Karen’s help
teaching scouts about Guide Dogs for the Blind
52 degrees outside
getting things off my “plate”
Zodiac playing tug with scouts
smell of flowers at Cook’s Greenhouse
having four big commitments finished
a laid-back kind of day
finding the crayons
quiet misty morning walk
Yukon Gold potatoes
sleeping in
Zodiac sitting calmly as a class of kids walked by
signs of spring
finishing my candy class
tulips coming up
Dune’s first neighborhood walk
one tiny crocus blossom
flock of geese
being done with my Relief Society lesson
hottest day of the year so far
Bountiful Baskets
spring!

Pupdate

Posted on March 8, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Zodiac & Dune

Dune and Zodiac are both so cute. Well maybe Zodiac is more on the handsome side these days. He is a year old now and no longer looks like a puppy. They really enjoy each other’s company. It is amazing how many times the two of them will be laying down near each other and Dune looks like an exact copy of Zodiac, except she is smaller and yellow (of course).

We found out at puppy class this week that Zodiac is scheduled to go back to Guide Dogs for the Blind on the next puppy truck. That truck is expected to come on May 18th. I’ve had it in my head that he would be returning sometime in June but it isn’t looking that way. I figured out how to put a count down widget here on my blog so I can count down to his departure. I was so proud of him on Sunday. I got up to teach a lesson at church and left him by my chair. I forgot about him because I was so focused on teaching. But he was very good, even with a little toddler distraction right by him.

Dune has had some challenges this past week or so. Our snow all melted and she didn’t like not having snow to pee on. She had 4 accidents in one day! It had been about 3 weeks or more since she had a single accident let alone 4 in one day. She is doing better now but we are having to pay a lot more attention to her relieving. Since she was very young she would let us know when she needed an extra potty break by sitting by the door. Dune isn’t doing that much any more.

Dune is making some progress on her kennel stress. While she still isn’t quiet while we are gone she isn’t stressing out so much about it. Before she would get so stressed that not only her jaw was wet with drool, but the whole front, down to her legs would be soaked. Now even her jaw is dry. She also got the last of her puppy shots this week, so now she can go on walks and to parks and places like that.

We also got an email for Banta and Mark this week. It is always so exciting when I see that I’ve received an email from one of our puppies. Here is some of what Mark had to say:

Banta is doing very well. For the most part she is working perfectly. She has her stubborn moments. We finally had a big snow a week ago. Banta likes about 6 inches of snow. We got about 10 inches and she seemed annoyed that all of her favorite places to play had too much snow. Eventually she got in there and played like a crazy little girl. She is so much fun, I love her to death.

All in all it has been a good week on the puppy raising front.

Joy Jar

Posted on March 2, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

It was a week with some challenges but it ended on a good note.

helping Heather
music
sun sparkling on fresh snow
spring-ish
the smile of a happy child
sunshine
spring!
cute puppies
my bulbs coming up
blackberries
faith
napping with my puppies
good friends
Bill
making progress on my Wood Badge goals

Joy Jar

Posted on February 23, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

This week had some great days and some challenging ones.

Karen’s baby lamb
fresh snow
finally getting some spring bulbs planted to force
sleeping puppies
seeing the photos of Karen’s twin lambs
getting my hair cut
taking a nap
scavenger hunt
Bountiful Baskets
my new “wall”
digital cameras
getting all the photos placed in Yakira’s book
the quiet of night after a snow storm
Dune in her jacket
hot lemon & honey
reading with kids at Rosamond
getting Yakira’s book done
getting over my cold
sleep

Pupdate – Scavenger Hunt

Posted on February 22, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Dune

For puppy class this week we met at the Valley Fair Mall. I thought it would be the usual socializing but our leader divided us into two team for a scavenger hunt. The two little puppies, Dune & Eagle, stayed in the center of the mall while the rest of the pups went off to find the things on the list and take photos of our puppies with the items we found. It was lots of fun. The mall was rather quiet and so the clerks were always happy to help us and the pups went lots of places all over the mall. Here are some of the photos.