Awesome Weekend!

We had such an awesome weekend!!! We celebrated my brother Sam's 13th birthday by taking him and his friend Elliot to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Does anyone remember when it was Marine World Africa USA?). There were 7 of us, the boys, Adam and I, Auntie Deb, Mom and Dad.

Adam and I started off our morning by driving to Natomas to drop Jack at our friends Derek and Alyssa's house. Their dog, Athena, recently had hip surgery (pretty sure I mentioned her in a previous blog) and has been laid up for 3 months. We brought Jack over to help her get used to running again (since Jack loves it) and to help socialize her again since the only other dog she plays with is a 9 year old German Shepherd that weighs 90 lbs! After we dropped off the dog, we met up with everyone else at the hotel we were staying at in Fairfield to condense cars ($15 parking at the park!), and then drove to the park.

Dad and Mom...see all those cars in the background? The park was packed, which meant we had fun waiting to even get into the park! I wanted off that ride, unfortunately, once my seat belt was on, there was no getting off.

The first stop after getting into the park was the elephant habitat. Now, if you haven't read any of my previous blogs, this is a good time to tell you that we had a good hook up at the park. Two of our friends from college, Patrick and Abby, are animal trainers at Discover Kingdom. Patrick is an elephant trainer, and we caught the end of his show and were able to get a special meet and greet with his favorite elephant, Valerie.

Sam was chosen out of the crowd to feed Valerie a banana.Patrick and Valerie

After the show, we got to meet with Valerie for pictures and feeding. She is such an amazing animal. I can't believe she's 26! Patrick told her she's been at the park for 3 years, and he's been working with her for 2 years. Before living at D.K., she was part of a traveling circus show.

Valerie taking a banana out of my hand.

Say "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Do you see those teeth back there?

From left to right: Dad, me, Adam (peaking from behind me), Sam,
Valerie, Elliot, Auntie Deb, Mom

Auntie Deb saying "hello"

I have to admit, I was a little nervous being that close...
She's huge and could probably take me out very easily!

Valerie is quite the ham!

After meeting with Valerie and Patrick, we got to meet a baby porcupine before we met up with our other friend, Abby. We even got to pet him!

Check this little guy's nose out!

When we met up with Abby, she took us behind the scenes to tour the animal clinic and meet a Bush Baby, a tiny little monkey -like animal with HUGE eyes. The little guy was soooo cute!
After meeting the Bush Baby, Abby took us to a special feeding with the Giraffes. They were awesome...and their tongues are long and black! We even got to pet one of them!

Yum! Gimme those leaves!

We love Abby!

The boys found a game they really liked...it was a ladder that they tried to climb to the top of. If they were able to reach the top, they would have won a guitar! Unfortunately, hardly anyone wins those things, including the boys. They did get some cute stuffed animals, which they ended up giving to some little kids later on. The boys did excel at falling off the ladder with some serious flair!After playing around on the ladders, we went on some roller coasters. The favorite ride of the day was the Medusa, which is the tallest and longest roller coaster in Northern California. It was AWESOME!! We rode in the first row both times and it was so amazing! Dad didn't really like it, but the rest of us did!

While we were riding the rides, mom and Auntie Deb played some of the carnival games and won a ton of prizes, including pink superman capes! Elliot really liked them and decided he was going to wear my moms.

It was so warm outside that the boys decided it was a good idea to play in a water playground. They got soaked!!! It was fun watching them run around having fun.
We also saw the Killer Whale show. Abby and Patrick tried to hook us up with some VIP seats and a meet and greet. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet up with the trainer before the show. After the show, we weren't able to do the meet and greet because Jenny's manager wasn't in, and they aren't allowed to do meet and greets without authorization, which definitely makes sense. It was still an awesome experience to see the show and see this amazing creature!

Dad made a friend.It was such a great day! We topped it off with a family dinner at Applebee's and swimming at the hotel. Mom, Deb and I surprised Sam by getting ice cream to celebrate. Today, we took the boys to a few Skate Parks so they could skateboard. Adam and I left a little early to pick up Jack and then came home to do some cleaning and then grill some hot dogs for dinner.

This weekend was so awesome! I just can't believe how much fun we had...what an awesome birthday for the boy!

I got to play with the camera today!

I played with the new camera today at lunch and when we took the dogs for a walk tonight with Josh and Katrina. So without further ado....

I talked to a client today and what he told me just made me so angry! Not with the client, but at what happened to him.

In this gentleman's spare time, he conducts/drives/whatevers freight trains. It used to be his full-time profession, and he still enjoys it and tries to get some time in when he can. So, he was driving the train one day and some guy decided he was going to cross the tracks right before the train came in. The man stumbled on the tracks, and the train couldn't stop in time (maybe because it's hauling tons and tons of weight behind it?) and the man ended up losing his leg.

So what is this man who was an idiot doing? He's suing my client and the train company for running over him. Are you freaking kidding me? This man decided to be a jack ass and cross the railroad tracks IN FRONT OF A TRAIN, and he gets to sue people because he is a moron?!?

Now, don't get me wrong...I love this country, but I think we have definitely messed some stuff up....like everyone thinking they have a right to sue whoever they want even when they are at fault. You hear stories like this all the time. What about the one where a burglar breaks into someones home, and their dog attacks him, and he sues the home owners? It is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous!

All right...it's Friday night. I'm going to stop ranting now.

I forgot to mention this last night....

Jack had fun at Jeremy and Kippy's last night. He did very well with their dogs. We brought them some of Jack's favorite treats as a "Yay!! New friends!!" gift. Unfortunately, the play time between the dogs didn't last as long as we thought it would. Jack has an obsession with toys. More importantly, tennis balls, bouncy balls, squeaky balls...you get my point. As soon as Jack saw a tennis ball, he was done with the dogs. Conversation went about like this....

Dante/Britley: Play with us! Play with us! See the duck? Let's play with it!

Jack: Sure, I'll play...

Narator: Jack comes screeching to a halt as soon as he sees the tennis ball. He runs to it and
looks at it with love and longing.

Jack: Hey there lover...what's a good looking ball like yourself doing on the grass and not being thrown for some lucky dog to chase?

And from there, it was game on! Jack decided he'd much rather find some poor sap to throw the ball for hours and hours instead of play with Brit and Dante. They tried really hard to get his attention with their squeaky duck, and taking the ball from him and running around in circles outside, to jumping in the pool and splashing around. Jack was having none of it...he only had eyes for the ball!

We each took turns throwing the ball for a little while, and poor Brit and Dante had no chance of getting it if we threw it past them. Jack is a fast little booger! We did make sure to throw it directly to them so they'd have a chance. Jack kept losing the ball under the couch, so I decided it was time to take my one-track minded dog home so he could play with his pink glow-in-the-dark ball that doesn't fit under the couch. It was a very nice visit and Jeremy and Kippy's house is awesome! I'm so excited for them...they had some horror stories from the whole buying-a-house process, so it's nice to see them on the other end of that.

On a side note, Kippy is a professional photographer and has taken AMAZING pictures!!! She has been a close family friend for almost 6 years now, and even took the photos at Adam and my wedding. She recently posted some awesome pictures of different scenery in Nevada. I have a link to her blog listed on mine, so if you have some extra time and want to see cool pics, check it out!

Yay! New Photos!

I know I was going to take a bunch of pictures tonight with my new camera, but it just didn't happen the way I was hoping. First, I did as I always do and only took one picture of Jack at our friends' house. Then, I came home and had to get dinner ready and do this and that and the other thing. So, here's what I got....

Mom....let's play!

Playing with Dante at Jeremy and Kippy's house
On the way home from Jeremy and Kippy's wearing his seat belt, also known as the "special dog" harness

Tiger, I know you hate me and all....but any chance you'd want to play?


No, huh....Mom....wanna play?

For the last time Dog, I don't like you, and I definitely DON'T want to play!

I'm missing pictures of an orange kitty...Poor Beaker only comes out of the back bedroom at night and when Jack is in our bedroom during the day. This morning was actually the first time I've seen him in a couple of days! Here's an old picture of the baby. Awww....isn't he sweet?
That's it for new pics right now. I will have a ton more for you in a few days...exciting stuffs going on this week/weekend! Tomorrow night my mom and I have an event we are going to where we will be able to sell some of our jewelry. Jewelry? Yes. My mom, aunt and I have a family handmade jewelry business, Decorating Us. We have yet to get a web site up and going, but maybe I will post a blog sometime soon with some of the jewelry we have done. Any who, tomorrow my mom and I will be at the Dayton Valley Country Club for a "Girls' Night Out" event, where there will be us and other vendors selling fun girly stuff to some of the women who are members at the country club and their friends. My hope is that we will do really well at this event.

Friday night we are going to meet up with Josh, Katrina and Stella. I think we are going to hit up the dog park with the lake again, which, if that's the case, I'll take some pics. Then we're coming back to our house for dinner. It won't be too much of a late night simply because we are leaving early on Saturday for Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for our day with the animals for Sammy's big 13th birthday!!! I think we're also going to try to go to Scandia (mini golf, go-karts, arcade) on Sunday. Adam and are probably leaving a little earlier than everyone else because we're taking Jack to stay with our friends Derek and Alyssa for the weekend. As you can probably tell, I like to keep our family hopping! We're busy, busy, busy, but always off having fun!

Like I said, I'll try to post new stuff soon, just not sure when.

Photo madness post-poned

So, when I blogged yesterday about my camera charging as I wrote, I didn't realize two things...

1. I couldn't just hook it up to my computer at work, I had to install the software first...which I wasn't going to do on the work computer.
and
2. I'm a moron and put the battery in backwards, so even if I could have just hooked it up to my computer to charge, it wouldn't have mattered.

I charged the camera last night at home, but it wasn't fully juiced up until 9 p.m. and I was exhausted and only took one or two pics of Jack and the kitties. Tonight there will be some new pics because I'm taking Jack over to our friends Kippy and Jeremy's house so he can meet their furbabies, Dante and Britley. Plus, we're picking up an extra kiddie pool Kippy has for Jack. It's also my first time at their new house, so I'm sure I'll take some pics of that, too, if I'm not too silly and forget (which is what usually happens when I go places!).

Tune in later tonight!

Picture madness...

...will ensue later tonight. My new camera came in today's mail!! Yippee! It's charging as we speak....I hope!

Yay! Jack graduated from...

Basic Dog Obedience School!!!! He performed all of his commands very well - sit, sit-stay, down, down-stay, stand, stand-stay, come and leave it. He also learned a few new tricks - shake, roll over, sit pretty and catch the treat. At the end of the class, all the dogs received a diploma and a huge bag of doggie treats!

Next week, we are going to meet with Sarah (our trainer) and her assistant, Lori, at Petco. They are each going to bring a few of their dogs and we're going to work with Jack on his leash aggression.

Adam and I have decided we would really like to continue Jack's training. We talked about it with Sarah, and she thinks the next best class for him to take is the Canine Good Citizen course. What is the AKC's Canine Good Citizen Training? "CGC is a certification program that is designed to reward dogs that have good manners at home and in the community. The Canine Good Citizen Program is a two-part program that stresses responsible pet ownership for owners and basic good manners for dogs. All dogs who pass the CGC test receive a certificate from the American Kennel Club and as of January 1, 1999, they are automatically recorded in the AKC's Canine Good Citizen Archive (http://k9west.net/caninegoodcitizen.htm)." She has three other dogs that are interested in taking the class in Carson, which means we won't have to go to Reno once a week for class. This course is going to be really good for Jack. He will be tested on:

- Accepting a friendly stranger
- Sitting politely for petting
- Appearance and Grooming
- Out for a walk (walking on a loose lead)
- Walking through a crowd (which will include a few dogs)
- Sit and down on command - staying in place
- Coming when called
- Reaction to another dog (as in another dog walks by and he doesn't react)
- Reaction to distraction (No reaction to a loud noise)
- Supervised separation (being left with a stranger for 3 minutes without exhibiting separation anxiety)

He does well with a few of these, accepting a friendly stranger, sitting politely for petting, appearance and grooming, sit and down on command and coming when called. Those are all things he learned in the basic class. The other ones are all things he really needs to work on.

I think after this course, we would really like to find a flyball team. Flyball is a relay race with 4 dogs on a team. The course consists of a starting line, 4 hurdles spaced 10 feet apart and a box. The first hurdle is 6 feet from the start line and the box is 15 feet from the last hurdle for a 51 foot overall length. The dogs jump the hurdles and steps on a spring loaded box that shoots out a tennis ball. The dog catches the tennis ball and then runs back over the 4 hurdles. When the dog crosses the starting line the next dog goes. The first team to have all 4 dogs run without errors wins the heat. He is so good at jumping and catching balls in the air, I really think he will do a good job!

So, we've completed one training course, but as you can see, we have big plans for our little pup! We know he can do it and were excited to see him excel in his training! Wish us luck!!!

P.S. New camera is supposed to come tomorrow, which means there will be a ton of new pics for everyone to look at since I'm sure I will be super excited and will take pictures of everything!

P.P.S. Kippy, if you're reading this, I totally spaced coming over to pick up the doggie pool! We were so excited by the training and Jack graduating, that everything else I was thinking about earlier today disappeared!

Weekend full of fun!

***Warning - This is a long one!

This was a busy and very great weekend! I'll start with Thursday night. We met Josh and Katrina at a new dog park after work. It's actually a bird sanctuary that's fenced off, but it's very dog friendly and they can even go off leash. We kept Jack on the leash at first because it was a new place and there were a lot of new dogs to meet. Unfortunately, Jack has some aggression issues when he's on the leash. We're still trying to figure out what we can do to make it easier for him to trust that we will take care of him and protect him...More on that a little later. We got him to the river section of the park and he and Stella made friends with a a Chow Chow named Roxie and another dog (I can't remember the other dog's breed or name...they were both pretty exotic). Their human's name was Sandy! They had fun meeting each other and we talked for awhile. We went a little further down the river and there was a perfect area of shore where we could go down and throw Jack's ball into the river. Let me tell you, that dog LOVES the water!!! He kept jumping in and going further and further out. He was awesome!!! After swimming for awhile, Adam and Josh took the dogs to Josh and Katrina's, and Katrina and I went to Q's BBQ (Adam and I had our rehearsal dinner before the wedding there. They have AWESOME food!) and picked up dinner. We watched Boondock Saints while we ate, then Adam and I went home and started prepping for our weekend out of town.

Friday we left the house around 8:30 a.m. and took Jack to the dog park before our car trip. We played for about an hour, trying to tucker him out before we spent 3.5 hours in the car. We thought we tuckered him out good, but he was so excited about being the car for longer than 20 minutes that it took a couple of hours before he finally passed out. We got to Davis and went to meet the other alumni who show up for Picnic Day. Jack did very well with all the people. It wasn't until a few other dogs showed up that we had some problems...

And here comes the only bad part of the weekend. I had left for a few hours to help my friend address her wedding invitations when the other dogs showed up. I guess what happened was Jack was sleeping under one of the tables and the owner of the dogs didn't realize he was there. He woke up and they were right there in front of him in his "bubble" of space. He freaked out and started lunging at the other dogs. Adam kept them separated and when I got back to the pub, I took him over to talk with some friends. The other person came up with her dogs, Jack got freaked out and started lunging and barking, so I tried to remove him from the situation. I stepped in front of him to do so, at the exact same time he lunged at the dogs, and his teeth collided with my leg. This is my bruise from the collision. It's right behind my knee. It was an accident, and I'm glad it happened too me instead of someone else, but I'd obviously prefer it doesn't happen again in the future. Like I mentioned above, Jack is normally a very good dog, he just gets aggressive on the leash. Does anyone have any ideas about leash aggression and some tips about dealing with it? We really want to be able to take him places with us without coming home bruised or someone else getting hurt. We bought a gentle leader and are seeing how that works, but I'm open to any ideas.

Back to the good stuff. After spending all day on campus, we brought Jack over to our friends Derek and Alyssa's house. There he met his California girlfriend, Athena, who is a black lab. They played and played and played. Then our other friend, Eric, brought over his German Shepherd, Nyla. She is HUGE! The three of them chased each other around having a great time. The funniest part of the evening was when Jack started running around the couch and Nyla started chasing him. They kept running around the couch, and poor Athena was so confused and was standing in the way. Jack decided going around her was way too much work, so he jumped over the table instead. Because he is so much smaller than Nyla, and because Athena had hip dysplasia and had surgery on both hips with in the last three months, he was lapping both of them. Nyla decided she was tired of Jack lapping her, so she stopped running and stood still, basically like a brick wall and Jack was laid out! Needless to say, all three dogs were dead after all that playing!










Saturday, instead of being good Band Alumni, we all slept in and had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, eggs, hash browns and bacon. Then we took Athena and Jack to a dog park near Derek and Alyssa's house and ran them. It was Athena's first time at a dog park, and she had a blast! Jack had a great time retrieving his ball, and Athena caught onto what she was supposed to do after watching him chase the ball and bring it back. After the dog park, we dropped the dog's off at the house and headed to campus. We ate lunch at the Memorial Union and then walked around looking at the different exhibits. Then we headed over to the Battle of the Bands and said hello to our band friends and sat on the grass to listen to them play. We even listened to 20 minutes of Beginnings (Stanford's band plays this song and it doesn't end until EVERY drummer at the battle plays a solo. It usually lasts 45 minutes or longer). After 20 minutes, we decided it was time to go to dinner and headed down to Dos Coyotes, a very popular Mexican restaurant in Davis. Afterwards, we went to Safeway and got some mixers and decided to head back to Derek and Alyssa's for some quiet time and cocktails. Nyla came over again and the dogs played until they dropped.

This morning we all slept in again (even Jack and Athena). Alyssa and I took the dogs for a walk and then Jack tried to play with Hera, the cat. Hera didn't want to play at all...I don't know why not!

Adam and I headed for home shortly afterwards. We stopped at Chipotle for some lunch and picked up some stuff for dinner at Togo's. We really enjoy both of these eateries and try to eat there every time we come to California because, of course, neither one of them have a location in Nevada. It took us a couple of hours to get home from Sacramento and we've been home for a few hours now and are enjoying just being home. That's it for this weekend. I'm sure I'll put up a post tomorrow night...Jack and I have Pet Obedience graduation tomorrow night, and I'm going to be a total proud mama and take pictures.

Have a good rest of the weekend everyone!

Digital Camera

Adam and I have been wanting to get a digital camera for ages. I thought I would be content with having the camera function on my cell phone, but ya know....just not cutting it. My grandparents got a new camera and gave us their old camera, but that thing goes through batteries at such a fast pace that it's difficult to keep up with it.

So yesterday, I bid on a digital camera I found on eBay...and I won it! I checked Best Buy, and it retails for $130, and guess how much I got it for? $67! That's right!!! Only $67!!!

Before I go further into this blog, I need to say that I have an obsession with eBay. I love it! It is soooooo exciting to bid on something and fight with someone over it. I especially like it when I win something at the very last second! Actually, it depends what I'm bidding on. Sometimes, I bid on things and see how close I can get to the auction end without getting stuck with the item. Then there's the times where I REALLY want something, and I'm watching it like a hawk, and someone swoops in and steals it away....that makes me sad.

Back to the story...I know I hate it when other people swoop in, but this time, I swooped in and won it at the last second! I was so excited when I won it! With the new blog and all the pictures I've been taking of Jack, and the fact that I'd like to be able to take good pictures (well, I'm not a pro, so I guess I'll have to settle with good amateur pics) of the kitties, the hubby, my family, and document the events that go on in our lives, I need something that is going to work a little better than a cell phone.

I was hoping the camera would get here before Adam and I head out for Picnic Day on Friday (huge event at UC Davis coming up this weekend), but it's not scheduled to get here until Tuesday...sad. So, good new pics will be up next week. Tomorrow night, I'll post some crappy new pics taken with the cell phone. We're meeting Josh, Katrina and Stella at a new dog park tomorrow night. There is a river that runs through it, and I'm excited to get some pics of the dogs playing in the water. I'll also post an update about Picnic Day on Sunday when we get home.

The good news about the camera coming in on Tuesday is that it will be here in time for Sam's birthday. Sam is my 12 year old, soon-to-be 13 year old, brother. We're celebrating his birthday a week early as a family because he and my dad are going on a weekend ride during his actual birthday weekend. To continue holding the title of the coolest older sister ever, I was able to pull some strings with some friends of ours that work at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Where's that you say? It's actually Marine World in Vallejo renamed. Anyway, our friends are animal trainers there and are hooking us up with some amazing animal visits! We are going to have VIP seating at the Killer Whale show, an up close meeting with elephants followed by an elephant ride. Then we'll hit up the Giraffes and give them some lunch. We'll also get the chance to meet a baby porcupine, a bush baby, and sea lions!!! Plus all the rides that are there, it's going to be an amazing day!!!! I'm firming up the details this weekend and am just so excited to be able to offer something like this for Sam's birthday. There will be amazing photo opps, so make sure to tune in around April 27th or so for some super cool pics (taken with the new camera, of course!).

Wow...this became a long blog! A long rambling blog. It's funny, Adam went to bed about 45 minutes ago...I'm thinking I should wrap this up and go to bed myself. Until next time!

Back on track...sorta

I've been working on losing weight for the past 9 months. Well, let me correct that. I've been working on losing weight for the past 5.5 years. No, that's not correct. I've been gaining weight for the past 5.5 years (amazing how I started gaining weight right when Adam and I started dating!), and for the last 9-12 months, I've been trying to take it off. I'm down about 15 lbs now, which is good, but I always feel like I could be doing more.

Actually, I definitely could be doing more. I had been going to the gym a few times a week since Feb. 2007. Then I joined Weight Watchers in July 2007. I started off pretty well, but then I got off track. I've really just been yo-yoing between 10 and 15 lbs for the past 5 months. I keep going through the motions...pretending to be on track with my program. But I've been faking it. I don't track what I eat, I haven't been to the gym in two months. I make conscious decisions about what I eat, which is why I've been able to lose 15 lbs.

So I've decided....It's time I actually do it for real. The first step I've taken is to meet with my mom on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the gym. She's a personal trainer, and I'm pretty sure she takes pleasure in beating me up at the gym! I met with her last Thursday and again today. I also have been trying to do yoga with her at least once a week. I've been doing that since October 2007. I'm actually leaving for her class right after I finish this post. Getting Jack has also been very good because I walk him 1-2 times a day. Even though it's usually 20 minutes, it's still something.

The sorta part about being back on track? Getting the food situation under control. I really need to get myself completely on board with tracking and paying closer attention to what I eat. I also need to go into each day with a game plan with meals and snacks planned out for the day. AND the biggest thing I need to do to get back on the food track? STOP EATING OUT SO FREAKING MUCH!!!! We eat out all the time! It's rather ridiculous.

So, starting this week, I'm back on track! Wish me luck!!!


UPDATE: Yoga was tough!!! I swear she's trying to kill me! Well, maybe not. If she did, she couldn't torture me any more!

A photo essay of Jack

This is Jack and his favorite squeaky toy. It's orange, round, and has feet sticking out of the bottom of it. It squeaks wonderfully, and we can get his attention wherever we are in the house or outside with it. Every squeak brings an excited and happy Jack running.









Mom....throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Mom...I'm sitting like you asked....please throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Throw the ball!











Adam and Jack at the dog park today. Adam is using the "Chuck It" for the first time. It's an awesome dog toy that holds a tennis ball. You hold onto the handle and move your arm like you are going to throw the ball. The motion releases the tennis ball, which goes super far and allows the dog to do some major running without a ton of effort for the thrower. This is a very good toy for us since Jack loves to chase a ball for hours and hours.










Jack and his new favorite dog park toy taking a quick break. He must have chased that ball at least 50 times!!! Little guy drank two bottles of water during his game of fetch with Adam.









Jack and his new friends, Luna (female Great Dane), and Rocky (male Husky). Luna is a huge, gentle giant that as soon as she got out of her dad's truck, she started drooling uncontrollably. She was so sweet and cantered around the park playing with all the dogs. Rocky is a sweet pure bred husky. Our friends Josh and Katrina were at the park with us and were hoping to breed with Stella. Unfortunately, Rocky is fixed. Jack also met a beautiful miniature Australian Shepherd named Sky, a Husky/Border Collie mix named Cookie, along with a lot of other dogs.








And now we have a VERY tired doggy, that was so tired he couldn't wait for us to bring his bed out before he passed out on the ground by my feet.

Sweet dreams, Pup!