30 for 30-Day 13 (Babysitting Help)

A few days ago I babysat my niece and nephew while my brother-in-law was in the hospital. Paris and Snickers were just thrilled to help me out too.

Cannon my nephew really wanted Paris to sit in the chair with him so he pulled up up and rocked for a while.
Then he wanted to brush her so he grabbed a comb.
Hazel my niece also played with Paris and crawled all over her and pulled her ears and tail. Paris was thrilled.
Of course Snickers was there as well. He was such a good boy and did really well with the kids running around.
Watching our fifteenth episode of Blues Clues. . .
It was fun to watch them for a while as I haven't seen my niece and nephew in a long time. They've both gotten so big, I love these kids to death. They are great!

Food Allergy Awareness Week

Hey Everyone,

May 9-15th is Food Allergy Awareness Week! Did you know approximately 12 million Americans suffer from Food Allergies? Eight foods account for 90% of all food allergies. If you see someone showing signs of allergic reaction (all over hives, eyes swelling, trouble breathing, heart problems, etc.) use an epi-pen and call 911 immediately!

Since it is Food Allergy Awareness Week and since food allergies have recently affected my family so much I decided to do a post about it. (Also, because my sister is doing a giveaway on her blog and to enter the giveaway we need to spread the word. I dunno if I am eligible though because I am family, but I am doing it anyway.)

I have the most adorable niece in the world and a few months ago we found out that she has severe food allergies. She is allergic to milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, almonds, oats and soy. The poor kid explodes with hives if she even touches these foods, it is really sad. We have an Epi-Pen for her in case of a reaction and luckily haven't had to use it yet. She is also on special formula (we swear it has gold dust in it because it's so expensive.) to help her out since she is 11 months old and hasn't yet doubled her birth weight. She continues to be a very chill and happy little baby. I will most likely do a few more post about food allergies this week so this is just the start.

[My happy little niece Hazel]

Not a very good hostess

Me and Paris have enjoyed having some weekend visitors, although Paris is not being a very good hostess. She doesn't like to share her things, especially not her pretty puffy princess bed as you can see in the picture below.
[Paris lounging on the double layered dog bed with Hobbs (a black lab) and Patriot (a HUGE yellow lab) laying on the floor next to her.]
Hobbs and Patriot are both career changed dogs from GDB who were raised by Brittany. It has been great to have them both here. Especially Patriot as he is the brother of the first puppy I raised, Prudy. Although he is making me miss her so much. They act very similar to each other. All three puppies have been getting along just peachy, Hobbs and Paris really like each other. They have had so much fun romping together in the yard. Patriot just kinda does his own old man stuff while the youngsters play.

[The three dogs waiting for dinner. Hobbs and Patriot both stare intently at their food while they wait and Paris looks at me. She is so funny, because she tries not to look at the food while she waits for the okay to eat.]
[The three puppies eating. Hobbs, Patriot and Paris]
Today Paris got to meet my nephew Cannon. Actually she has met him before but I didn't get pictures because she would treat him like a puppy and try to nip at him and get way excited so we have been working on her being calmer with him. I think today we had a breakthrough because she was phenomenal with him crawling all over her. Here are some pictures of the two of them. Cannon can never get enough of my puppies. Oh, and today he finally stopped calling her Fudder (He can't pronounce his L's yet) and he now calls her Paewis. (he really cracks me up cause he says everything so funny)

[Paris laying down on her side with cannon sitting on top of her. She doesn't seem to mind too much.]

[Cannon is now laying across her trying to get her to lick his hand.]

[Cannon laying on his back next to Paris watching her play with her bone.]

[And just because she is so cute here is my niece Hazel sitting on my sisters lap. Hazel has a huge smile on her face and big rosy cheeks. I love her chubby little arms and legs too.]
And Paris had a great first Halloween. We went to two Halloween parties and then the movie theater to see Paranormal Activity. By the second party she was pretty sacked out. She didn't mind any of the strange creatures running around and slept through the whole movie. (which really didn't scare me that much. . .) Everyone loved her and doted on how cute she was. Who am I to disagree? She had a great night!

Big, Fat, Busy Weekend :D

First off, Sherman is currently the month dog on the GDB calendar and I am pleased to look at this picture of him all month long. He is doing absolutely amazing work and his mom loved him to pieces and he loves her and LOVES his job! That is all I could ask for !!! Here is Mr. September:
Me and Fullerton had quite a boring week, school, school, and some job hunting. . . ugh! I hate job hunting. On Wednesday we had our first puppy class in three months, it was so fun to see everyone again. All the pups were enormous! It was really a fun class. Fuller was a bit of a pill and I was kinda disappointed in him but he regrouped towards the end.

Anyway our weekend has been really crazy. First we went to a football game. It was a high school game, the first home game for my dads new high school. It was pretty exciting. They lost by a few points but we all had fun. Fuller was amazing with all the blareingly loud music and cheering fans. He got a little nervous when everyone was stomping on the bleachers but he got used to it after the first couple times and slept through it after that. My whole family went as well as my sister, bro-in-law and my niece and nephew. I was so excited to spend some more quality time with them since being in Cali. Here is Fuller during warm ups: (It was really hot, that's why Fuller is open mouthed)
Canon was thrilled that Fuller came and barely left him alone the whole time. Fuller is such a good boy with him. I hope he ends up with a person with kids, he would love that. :D
AND my little niece, isn't she the most adorable baby EVER!?!?!? She is such a calm baby, I don't think I have ever heard her cry.

Fuller during kick off. GO THUNDER!!

The first pick of me and Hazel together. Cannon is in the back playing with my sisters hair, he was so funny.
Cannon got a little megaphone thing thrown at him from the cheerleaders, he had so much fun screaming into it, then he wanted Fuller to try.
Me and the Can-man
Fuller did great during the game, he watched a bit of it and then fell asleep for the rest. We also ran into the new raisers in our group, they just moved here from Oregon and were in Anna's group. They didn't have their puppy with them (he is a tad young) but it was fun to chat for a minute. We got home super late and then went to bed, Fuller was one tired puppy!

Then yesterday we went to a John Schmidt concert. It was amazing. We met at my sisters house and then all the boys stayed to watch the BYU football game (GO Cougs!! They won Oklahoma by 1 point btw) while the women folk went to the concert. Here is me and Hazel at the house before we left.
The concert was at the Thanksgiving Point Waterfall Amphitheatre. It was gorgeous and there were a ton of people there! I think they said around 5000. I also ran into some past raisers from our group, I have not seen them forever so it was nice to say hi. Here is me and Fuller in the theatre.

Fuller with the stage behind him.

Fuller got really upset with how much attention I was giving Hazel so he squirmed himself between me and her, he also stood up and twirled himself around and tried to sit on her. I grabbed him before he could and I know the little stinker tried to do it on purpose! :D

Beautiful girl

Fuller did great through the concert. He is at that age where you don't worry about taking him anywhere, I know he can handle anything and it is wonderful! I love that age. . . too bad I am going to have to start over next month. :( I will enjoy it while I can though.

Here are some clips from the concert. The first is called "Thanks to the Heros" Fuller was looking so regal I couldn't help but let him on tape a little. Still not sure what he was staring at. :D The second is the Charlie Brown theme song, I have always loved Snoopy so I had to get that on tape! :D The last is a goofy song he did with Celloist, Steve Nelson. They combined "Don't Worry be Happy" with "Phantom of the Opera" It was hilarious! Enjoy!

Oh, and I turned in my application for my next pup, I didn't specify anything so we will see what I get assigned. It will be a while before I get a puppy assignment but still exciting.

We're Back. . . Whew

Well, we are back home now and had a very fun, and tiring trip. The night before we left my brother and grandma decided they wanted to come too so we took the big family van or (BFV) which was okay because it was roomier, but took more gas to get there and therefore more money. *Sigh* It's all good though. :D But, I think we all had a great time. There are about a mazillion pictures in this post so bear with me. . .

On the way, I drove for 9 hours straight and then gave up the wheel so my brother could drive, I got a whole bench to myself so I let Fuller up and we cuddles for a few hours. (I know. . . bad puppy raiser)
We got to my aunts house ahead of schedule and they had a birthday party going on, so we jumped right in and helped, my brother filled water balloons while the women folk cooked hamburgers. It was fun. Unfortunately Fuller had to spend time in the kennel after 13 hours in the car and he wasn't pleased. I left the top down for him, but he kept jumping up, I figured, oh well. He didn't try to get out just wanted to see what we were all doing.
The next day was GRADUATION!!! It was amazing!! We got there about 15 minutes early and Sherman and his mom were running a little late, so we took a seat for a bit. The trainer that trained Sherman came over and chatted with me for a bit. She ADORED Sherman and just kept telling me how wonderful he was. I was so happy to hear how much everyone loved him. Sherman's trainer had this puppy with her and asked if we could hold him for a bit while she did some running around. Of course I said yes, so this guy is a Golden named Gary and he was so sweet. The most unique thing about him is that he had no tail, just a little nubbin. It was adorable and gave him so much character. (I wish I had gotten a picture.
When Sherman and his mom arrived his trainer came over and told us where to meet them and took Gary back. I walked down the isle and I saw him, and then he saw me, and then he went berserk. It was so fun to see him again. He looks so mature, and grown up.
Me, Sherman and his mom. After we chatted for a bit they had us go outside to take a bunch of pictures.

Me and Sherman.

Look Familiar?

Sherman's mom absolutely loves him and he loves her too. It was so nice to have that kind of closure. Sherman is doing what he loves. We chatted for a long time before the graduation started. During that time Sherman alerted a bunch of times. It was amazing to actually witness what he does. She told me that he usually alerts about an hour before her blood levels go high or low and he is persistent and won't let her do anything until she tests her blood. The first time he alerted (he alerts by grabbing this pouch hanging on his collar called a bringsel and he holds it in his mouth and puts his head on her lap and then she has to check her blood and then he gets a little piece of cheese for a successful alert) anyway, the first time he alerted her blood was in the hundreds so she was fine, then about fifteen minutes later he alerted again and she was still in the hundreds, then fifteen minutes later he alerted and she tested and was in the high three hundreds so she had to adjust her insulin. It was amazing. She told me that he has come out of a deep sleep several times to alert her. All the stories were just amazing. I am so proud of Sherman!! I also gave her Sherman's baby book and she loves it. Turns out she is a huge scrapbooker. I also brought a gough-nut and nyla-knot for Sherman and he loved them. His mom said she is going to have to get him another to take to work. :D She also told me that she knew Sherman was Mr. September for the 2009 GDB calendar so she bought like six of them and gave them out to friends and family. :D I am also excited to see Sherman as Mr. September.

When the graduation started they had the raisers take the dog and sit on one side of the stage while the graduates were on the other. This is Mark and his dog Armstrong. He is the founder of D4D and he spoke to us for a bit.
Here I am bringing Sherman on stage to be presented.
Sherman's mom and me.
Sherman's mom gives her speech.
After graduation we said our goodbyes, and exchanged contact info. Good job Sherman and keep it up, you are doing amazing things!! He looks so serious and professional.
Before the graduation, while I was talking to Sherman's mom this lady came over who had fostered Sherman during his training period. She told me that she adored Sherman and was telling us how much she loved having him. She had another dog in training with her and when she told me his name was Melrose I got so excited and asked if I could get a few pictures. So, we went outside so I could snap a few. I know Melrose's raiser has commented on my blog before so I hope she reads this post so she can see these pictures. He is also the brother of blogger buddy Myra. His foster mom says he has more energy than Sherman but he is doing really well and she loves him. She says his training is going great and the trainers have enjoyed having him. She also told me that Melrose's sisters Margene and Martha are also in the D4D program and doing well.
He got a little tired of pictures and started rolling around in the grass. It was nice to meet him, he is a sweet pup.
I also saw blogger dog Franklin there. I tried to get some pictures but it was after the graduation and everything was kinda chaotic, but everyone at D4D loves him and hopes that he does great.

While we were running out we stopped and got a picture by the graduation balloons. They had an arch made out of these balloons, it was so cute.
They also gave each of the puppy raisers a plaque. It was really nice and it is now proudly displayed on the GDB wall in my room.
The next day I took Fullerton to church, we only went for the first hour, but this little kid in front of us played with Fullerton the whole time. I didn't take my camera to church so these are from my phone. This little kid was crawling all over Fuller and petting him. It was cute.
He also got all his little cars and stacked them all over Fullerton's head. Fuller didn't budge a muscle the whole time we were there. Good boy Fuller!
After church we headed back to my aunts house and me, my brother and two sisters got ready for the beach!!! Fuller wasn't so sure of the water at first (and it was FREEZING!!) so he stayed in the shallows and only got wet up to almost his belly.
Fuller spend his 9 month day on the beach. He had a good time romping and is now 50.5 pounds. Woot. . . he passed the 50 pound mark. :D
It was too cold to get wet so we just layed on the beach. I really liked this picture of Fuller and my little sister.
Fuller in the sand
We dug for sand fleas and found a TON of them. They creep me out so I kept my distance.
I kept Fullerton's jacket off for most the time but we were on a No Dogs Allowed beach so when the beach police started coming over to us I grabbed his jacket and thought it would be better to keep it on. After they saw the coat they just turned the other direction. :D I love this picture, maybe a calendar 2011 submission?? Maybe if he wasn't sitting so goofy. ha ha
The next day (Monday) we went to San Francisco. Last time I drove in San Fran with my sisters we had a horrible experience (lets just say, one way streets are not my friend) so I did not want to drive down there again. So we opted for BART. Here is Fuller waiting for our train. He was great at the station, he didn't bat an eye when they trains would come whizzing by us at full speed, he was so calm and collected.
Here is Fuller on the BART train.
We got off BART at Union Square so then we took the Trolley down to the Wharf. This is Fullerton in the trolley
We ran over to the seals first (well, actually we went to peir 39 and got some Trish's Mini Donuts, which are AMAZING!!!)
Fuller watching the seals.
In some random gift shop.
Getting our picture drawn. This guy was really nice and did Fuller too, it looks really nice.
Here is the picture, I like it a lot.
Then we went to Ghirardelli Square and got the Earthquake Sundae and it was amazing.
Me and Fuller by the Ghirardelli sign.
And by the fountain.
Then in the trolly on the way home. San Francisco was so fun. We met a bunch of . . . interesting people, and ate way too much food. There was a bunch of people who kept taking picures of Fuller while we were walking around the city, I swear about 12 different people snapped a pic. There was also one lady who took about a dozen pictures while I was relieveing, so someone has some nasty pictures of my dog going #1 and #2, I thought that was so strange. I kept telling Fuller to hurry so she would stop, it was just awkward. He was great in the city!! :D
Then it was time to go home. Fuller on the drive home.
Yesterday while we were driving our little niece was born. I didn't get to see her until today and she is adorable. Her name is Hazel Gayle and she was 8 lb 2 oz and 19 inches long. Here is the happy little family.
Cannon adores her and kept running over to give her kisses. That was a nice thing to come home to. :D
Well, it was an exhausting trip and I have not slept since yesterday and Fuller needs a bath and I have spent the last three hours doing this post, so toodle-oo. Happy Summer everyone!