"Doggie Graduation"

Over the past 8 weeks on Thursday evenings, we have been faithfully taking our doggies to the "Beginner Training Class" at our local Pet Smart. We have definitely seen improvements with our dogs. The most noticable improvement with Maxie was her behavior with other dogs. She's never ever ever been mean to other dogs (she doesn't have a mean bone in her), but she is definitely a shy dog around other dogs! The very first week she was stuck under the chair the entire class. After about the 3rd or 4th week....she came around and started venturing to the center of the class....which is where she tried to be the entertainment of the class (she was pretty successful most times)! Of course Maxie was the oldest (almost 3), and the other dogs were all under 1, including Jeminye so some things came easier for Maxie. BUT, Maxie went through her puppy stage too!! With Jeminye, the most noticable improvement was her decreased level of hyperness during class. The first several weeks she was super hyper that it made it impossible to do anything! She finally calmed down a little bit which made it not so impossible.....not by much, but some is better than nothing!

So after the 8 long weeks the class is finally over and our doggies graduated with their "Class." Yay doggies! :)

The two pictures above are Jeminye's and Maxie's classmates. The one on the top is 1 year old Noosie, and the one on the bottom is Bono (I'm not sure how old he is, but I know he's under 1). The dogs all got so excited each time they saw each other in class!

Below are attempts to take pictures of Jeminye with the graduation cap on.........she was more interested in chewing the hat than wearing it!

Attempt 1.......

Attempt 2......

Attempt 3.......

Attempt 4......

Attempt 5.....

Attempt 6....We gave up at this point!

And then there's Maxie.......

Picture 1 of 2

Picture 2 of 2

We love our doggies!

"Trick-or-Treat"

So tonight (Saturday, October 25th), Liz, Chris, Emily, CJ, my mom, Troy, Deonte, Talia, and Demari (and me of course) all got together and went to the "Trunk-or-Treat" at the church. Emily was a cheerleader, CJ was a dragon, Talia was Cinderella, and Demari was Thomas the Train.

Normally what happens is all the kids come in their costumes, and play games inside the church gym for a little while. Then later on, they all go outside to the cars that are lined up to the sidewalk with their trunks nearest the sidewalk. They usually decorate the trunks for Halloween, and the kids go trunk-or-treating. Well, it didn't exactly happen as planned. It was raining all day so the plans had to be modified. The trunk-or-treat turned into a trick-or-treat inside the church hallways. The kids got a ton of candy..... it should last them for weeks - and halloween hasn't even arrived yet! :)

All in all, EVERYBODY really enjoyed themselves! Troy and Deonte enjoyed watching all the kids run around, and got several good laughs. The costumes were great, and the games were entertaining and rewarding! I took a bunch of pictures and couldn't decide which ones to post, so I'm posting them all.

Emily reminds me of myself when I was her age! Chris and Jessica know.... there's a picture of the three of us when we went trick-or-treating. Chris and Jessica were posing for the picture, and I was there opening a piece of candy!

Emily at the ring toss (above)

(ABOVE) Emily quickly realized that if she got closer, the ring toss would be much easier, and she would get more rings on the post.

(ABOVE) Demari, Emily, Liz, and 1/2 of moms body...at the ring toss again!

(ABOVE) Demari learned the same lesson Emily did about the ring toss....the closer he is the easier it is!

Emily gets a boost from grandma (above)

Talia has her "shot" at basketball. I think she actually made this one! (above)

Emily poses for the camera....she is too cute! :)

Talia and Demari try their luck at the bean bag toss (above)

Emily trying to hold CJ (grandma had to help)

The whole crew

Demari.....uh um, excuse me....Thomas the Tank Engine

Grandma and the little dragon, CJ

Emily and Talia at the fish pond (above and below)

FINALLY!!!

Ok, so the shoe pictured above is the first shoe I want as soon as Troy starts his new job! YAY!!! He got a job! WHEW! :) He will be working in an unnamed store that sells unnamed shoes....can't say what, otherwise it could jeopardize his job! He loves selling shoes, and he's good at selling them too! This job will be so much better than the one he had before, mainly because it won't take such a toll on his body! Brand new shoes....here I come!!

"Lifestyle Changes"

Why is there a picture of Gold's Gym and iPod Nano's you ask? Well, it's quite simple. Other than the fact that I didn't really have anything else to post.....it's here because Troy and I decided to get our non-shapely bodies in shape! Yes, I'm probably making up words, but that doesn't really matter...you all get the point! Anyways, after months of feeling like we needed to do something about our ever increasing weight, we decided to join the gym when our apartment complex was having a promotion with the gym. $25/month, and only $25/down....you can't beat that anywhere really! Usually when there's a "promotional rate", the membership is limited... but not ours! We get full benefits! The really cool thing is that there is a seperate work out room for the women. This I'm sure will be used at some point in time! :)



And for the iPod nanos......you can't work out without some tunes! Troy and I broke down and bought one for each of us. We each got an 8GB nano for a really really good price! Troy got the lime green, and I got (you guessed it), PINK!! We decided to buy them because we are always paying bills and we needed to do something for us. Yes, money is tight, but in order to stay motivated and to get our $$ worth at the gym, we needed something! So, right before I updated our blog, I played around with both iPod nanos and converted all the music I had to iTunes.... which came out to be 976 tunes! Then I synchronized our iPod's....and now we each have nearly 1,000 tunes to keep us running! That should last for quite some time....oh, and the memory isn't even 1/2 full yet! Why didn't we get one earlier??? These things are AWESOME!!!

Wish us luck!

The "boys" weekend!

Here are the "boys" in my life (from left to right).....Tyler, Troy, and Deonte (making the goofy face). This was taken last weekend at our apartment. Tyler and Deonte came up for the weekend. I'm pretty sure Tyler enjoyed himself....and Deonte always likes coming over to the house to hang out with his dad. Tyler likes to make cookies, so we made sugar cookies. He thought it was pretty neat that he was making cookies with somebody other than his mom or grandmother! Troy made a really good dinner that night (well, he always makes good dinners!) He made pork chops and I made stuffing and mashed potatoes to go with the pork chops. After we ate, the "boys" carved a pumpkin for Halloween! Too bad I wasn't smart enough to take a picture of it! What was I thinking?? (I was probably thinking I wanted to go to bed because they were carving it around midnight!!)

A picture of the boys without the funny faces!!

Tyler with Maxie. He sure does love the doggies! :)

Troy always looks so mad.....

I think he was having a lot of fun with the dogs (below)

The Greatest Gift....

August 2007 - my nephew Sammy! What a cool little guy!

August 2007 - Danny, me, Alina, and Sammy.

August 2007 - Alina (only a few days old), Danny, and Sammy.

March 3, 2008..... the newest addition to my nieces and nephews.... CJ.

March 2008 - Me, CJ, and Emily

I have the greatest and cutest nieces and nephews in the world! These children are the greatest gifts! They are all warm hearted, caring, loving, and peaceful. I know that when they grow up, they will be successful in whatever they choose to do! I love them all equally! I don't see them often, but cherish when I do get to see them. I hope they know that although Aunt "Zee" isn't always able to send them tangible things, that there is one thing I am always sending to them....my unconditional love! (uncle Troy too)