The Dog Beach at Avila

All summer I'd been wanting to take the girls to the dog beach for fun but also because Ginger had never been to the ocean before! On Thursday 7-30-09 I declared a day trip day! Mom and I drove the girls to the Dog Beach in Avila. We totally lucked out...it was a beautiful sunny, breezy 70 degree day at the beach...no clouds!!! It sure beat the 100-plus degree day Bakersfield was having!!! When you get there...you park along the shoulder of the road and then walk down this, like...big boat ramp (or at least that is what is SUPPOSED to happen!) You see, the minute we made the Avila turn off I rolled down the windows and Baylie jumped up out of a dead sleep when she smelled the ocean air! She ran from window to window and barked a few times out of excitement...Ginger didn't really know what was going on but seemed to feed off of Baylie's enthusiasm. Once we got to the people side of Avila we HAD to make a pit stop...too much water intake on the way up! Of-course near the peer there wasn't any parking so I jumped out of the car and ran to the restroom while mom drove around the block...then a quick "Chinese fire drill" and I jumped into the driver's seat and drove around the block while she ran into the bathrooms. Whew! After that I drove us down to the dog beach...the girls could SEE the other dogs down on the beach and started going crazy! I could barely keep them calm enough to get their leashes on and grab the toys, beach blanket, camera, and water! The girls were DRAGGING me toward the beach...only they were looking for the shortest way to the shore and it was all I could do to keep them from jumping down the rocky cliff and taking me with them! We made it half way down the ramp when Baylie pulled out of her collar and took off running for the water! Ginger started whimpering and so I just unhooked her collar and she sprinted after Baylie. I was shocked that she had NO hesitation when her paws hit the sand or as she dove into turbulent water! She and Baylie played for a solid 2 hours while we threw the frisbee and the ball. By the time we left they were SO tired and dehydrated they drank about a gallon of water! We were hungry for lunch and I was really craving GOOD fish and chips so we drove in to SLO and stopped at the Splash Cafe (they have outdoor tables so the dogs could come too)! I'm such a sucker, I even got them a plain burger to split between them! After lunch it was on the road toward home...the girls slept the whole way (well, with the exception of the 2 pit stops they had to make after drinking soooo much water!) Overall it was a beautiful day and everybody had fun...and only got slightly sunburt! :)

I thought I was making progress...guess not!!!

Ginger ate the futon again! It had been torn up previously and sewn back together because that is the one piece of furniture I allow them to sleep on and it happens to be Baylie's favorite place! You see, over the summer I've been trying to get Ginger more comfortable and less anxious about staying home while I go out. Before when I'd go to the gym at night I'd leave Baylie inside with free reign (as she's always had) but I'd crate Ginger...then she started becoming resistant, dodging me and the crate only to lay in her normal dog bed. I hate shoving her into the crate against her will and I don't like locking them outside when it's been so HOT either. So I started small...a quick 20-30 minute trip leaving both girls in the house with free reign of the backyard and house (with the exception of the bedrooms because I shut the doors) and everything was fine! Then slowly I added time and every time I returned home to find it untouched my confidence grew. I'd actually built up to a 4 hour trip...with the goal of a full workday I and a month left before school starts I figured I was on track to achieving it! Normally I did errands mid-day or in the evening but today I got up first thing in the morning to go to the gym with Leah...fed the girls breakfast then left. I returned only about 2 hours later to find the futon in the middle of the living room with shreds of foam everywhere!!! It had been dragged off its frame and then Ginger cured her anxiety (or boredom) by gnawing on it! I was more upset about the regression of progress than the futon itself! I re-stuffed it then sewed it back up again and got a cover to hide my ugly patch job and now I guess it's back to the drawing board when it comes to conditioning Ginger to stay home alone!

The 4th of July...2009

I have always loved fireworks but I'm glad that it is over this year!!! What happened to the good 'ole days when fireworks were only legal to light off on the of the 4th??? This year (and last) I've had to hear the squealing, cracking, and whistling of random fireworks beginning as early as the 1st! It is not really me who has the issue with it...it's the dogs (even more specifically, Baylie). At the first sound of a boom, scream, or pop she is set off on a barking spree that is tough to cease! Each night has been an adventure...I even brought my big box fan into the bedroom to help drown out the outside noises and although it helps, it does not prevent the barking! So on the 4th with my brother, (his dog Kailey) and his girlfriend Amy in town for the holiday we'd planned to have a simple BBQ/swim/hang out evening at Mom's house and then the two of them were going to the bluffs to see the big fireworks. Now...the planning began because my sister and her husband had gone to Canada on a weeks vacation and were now in Seattle for the 4th. Typically they give tranquilizer pills to their dogs because the fireworks upset them so much...but mom and I weren't comfortable just giving them pills and leaving them alone at their house so I picked them up on the way over to the BBQ. It was practically a zoo in the backyard once my carload arrived...it was the 4 of us (Mom, Wayne, Amy, and I) plus my brother's friend Jake and then 5 dogs...my 2 (Baylie & Ginger), my sister's 2 (Blue & Liberty), and my brothers 1 (Kailey). All the dogs had fun and enjoyed the smells of the BBQ. After dinner I stayed in the house while everybody else went outside to light the few fountain fireworks that Wayne got while the dogs and I watched through the window. Baylie (of-course) barked at every sound and flicker of strange light, Ginger and Liberty seemed intrigued, Kailey hid down the hall under a bed, and Blue slept on the couch. I drove Blue and Liberty home around 10pm but as I drove up their street there were still some big parties happening in the street and aerials exploding over the golf course. I decided that without the tranq. pills I was afraid to leave them alone in case the dug out or ran away etc. just one day before Sherry & Matt got home! So I went inside to get their beds and drove home for a "sleep-over". All the dogs were crazy tired and we went strait in to bed...I read for a while to make sure everyone settled in comfortably. They all slept well until 4am...when Blue and Liberty had to go outside. The bathroom break was no trouble but settling everyone back down in hopes of taking in a couple more hours of sleep was another story!!! By 6am I gave up and woke up to feed my girls breakfast and take Blue and Liberty home for their breakfast. I may have gone overboard a bit but I couldn't bear to think of anything bad happening...as it was today I've seen multiple "lost dog" signs on the mailboxes! All in all...it was a happy laid back 4th with just a few extra precautions! Hope yours was good too!

Carter at 5 months old!

Totally stole this photo off of my Sister's page because it was just too cute! He is such a happy baby! Enjoy.

Babysitting Carter

So Sherry and Matt decided that they needed a father's day date night and had chosen a late afternoon movie and I got to babysit! He is such an easy baby even though he'd been sick the whole week prior and still had a bit of a cough he was happy and smiley. Sadly, I came down with his cold within the next couple of days and almost lost my voice from coughing and hacking so much! It all seemed to land in my chest...I'd swear to it that I could almost purr...gave new meaning to "sexy phlegm" (like Phoebe on Friends always said)! I felt lethargic and crappy for the whole week...but luckily I was able to hold it together for the last week of summer school by taking LONG naps every afternoon! O-well I had a blast hanging out with him and I feel better finally, although I still have a lingering intermittent cough due to the leftover goo in my lungs that hopefully will vacate my chest soon! Fingers crossed! :)

Doggie Tricks!

So ever since I got my treadmill I'd always wanted to train Baylie and Ginger to run on it like I'd seen on an episode of the Dog Whisperer. They had trained a fire house dog to run on one because they couldn't leave the station to take him on normal walks. I just figured on days where it is too hot, too rainy, too cold or when I just don't have the time to exercise them it'd be a perfect substitute! I started pretty them pretty slow where the belt was at a slow crawl so they'd begin to understand that they needed to move their legs. Baylie caught on pretty fast and I was able to bump up the speed rather quickly....Ginger however was a different story, she sprawled her legs out trying to stop the belt from moving and I thought she'd never catch on!

Babysitting the Friesen's

So Matt and Leah had a Fed-Ex work dinner to go to and Leah was worried that she wouldn't be able to go because she couldn't get ahold of her mother and didn't have another sitter lined up. I didn't like hearing that she would have to stay at home with the kids while Matt got to go hang out with other work couples so I volunteered to watch her 3 kids. At first I think Leah thought I was kidding around but I really didn't mind and because we always go to the dog park together with the kids they are already pretty good about listening and respecting what I ask them to do or not do...so I really wasn't worried about 3 hour evening with them. The hardest decision was whether I went to their house or the kids came to mine so Leah asked the kids and it became unanimous...all at the same time the kids screamed Melissa's House again and again!!!! So that was that! Leah packed up some string cheese and some goldfish crackers for the kids and then over they came. We of-course began our evening by playing ball in the back yard with my girls. Andrew and Isabelle even played in the dogie pool and leave it to Isabelle to SIT in the dog's water dish! Madison didn't care to play very long outside...so after a while she decided to go in and watch a movie made special by me pulling out my big black beanbag for her to veg. in. Once it started getting dark outside and I got the kids dried off we all came inside to play. I had bought some "Magnetixs" a couple of years ago when they went on clearance at Target and this was the perfect time to make their debut! Andrew and Isabelle played with them for quite a while and even Madison stopped watching the movie to play for a bit. Somewhere around 9 everyone was tired (including the dogs) so we started a new movie and took up residency on the couches for a snuggle fest. Poor Isabelle...she was so offended that Baylie and Ginger would not let her lay on them (like their dog Dakota does)...every time she'd crawl over to them and try to put her head on their bellies, they'd jump up and move to another sleeping spot! It was funny and sad all in one! I tried to explain to Isabelle that my dogs are used to playing with kids but they aren't used to being laid on like pillows like her puppy is...sadly she did not accept my explanation! :)

Nephew Update!!!

So when my sister Sherry posted this updated photo of my Nephew Carter I stopped dead in my tracks! Of all the photos I've seen this one catches her likeness more than any other--it's a spitting image of her as a baby (except the blue clothes and thicker eyebrows)! Normally in pictures especially those when he was newborn I thought Matt's features were the more dominant but then he makes some faces that are totally Sherry! Either way, he has changed so much since January...it'll be exciting to see how he continues to grow and change! I also stole some of the close up face photos that my sister recently posted on her blog because they were super cute...and WOW...I'd totally KILL for his eyelashes!!! I swear, it always seems that boys get the long lushes lashes and us girls pile on the mascara to imitate such lengthy lashes!

The girls go to school...

The last day of school fell on Thursday May 28th and I left in a hurry that day because a group of us went to Goose Loonies for a goodbye lunch. However summer school was scheduled to start the following Monday and I wasn't ready with lesson plans etc...so I'd planned to go back on Friday to get my classroom cleaned, organized and make lesson plans for the following week. I only wanted to stay for an hour or two but in the back of my head I knew I'd never have everything perfect by then! I knew only the front office staff would be on campus and even they'd be on a skeleton crew so I decided to take the girls with me so I didn't feel that need to get home quickly. Besides, with them in my classroom it felt less like work (or punishment) to be working and not getting paid! They did really good and only barked and a few strange noises that the janitors made in the room next door...only a few other teachers from the SPED department popped by my room and the girls got excited but never jumped up on anyone!

Sugar & Spice and Everything Nice!

On the last week of school Me and a few other co-workers planned a little baby shower for Kim (the new teacher in the Deaf Ed. Dept.). She is actually due at the end of May...but we, at work watched her belly grow since the beginning and wanted to honor that before we all left for summer vacation. I was able to collect a few dollars from most of the people in the SPED dept. and turned that into a $100 gift card for Babies-R-Us and then got a some decorations, punch, and a photo cake that featured her 4-D sonogram photo. Kim's cousin, Katie also works in the SPED department and she has a special cake lady she goes to...so she ordered a super rich (expensive) chocolate cake that was decorated to match the invitations I sent out. I didn't think a 9x9 inch cake would be enough to serve 30-ish people so I felt more comfortable having too much cake than not enough! I've gotta admit, it was a good cake but had everyone who contributed come to the party we would've had to cut into the cake I bought as well. Cake issues aside, the best part for me was the onesies! I wanted to have a couple white onesies printed with a Highland High School logo and then sew on some bootie ruffles to make them a bit more "girlie" considering our colors are blue and green. When I got to work a co-worker named Jefferi saw the onesies on my desk and told me she'd already put in an order to have some printed...but she loved my idea to add ruffles so a perfect compromise was made and a super cute product was created! When I found out that they hadn't been printed yet Kacey (an interpreter and super creative friend) and I went up and started snooping around to see what we could create! We had to cut some of the bigger designs to get them to fit on a tiny onesie...but when we were done they were perfect! I then took everything home and stayed up until midnight sewing ruffles (which I'd never done before). I messed up on two because the cotton fabric on a onesie is so soft it tears easily...ultimately I made 4 complete ruffled bootie onesies and then picked the two that came out the most perfect. They were a hit at the party and I was pretty proud considering the process began by ripping out the sides of perfectly good onesies then relying on my novice sewing skills to put "humpty-dumpty" together again! So just as soon as I got everything ready for the work shower I had to get started rolling diapers to create the diaper cake gift for Kim's actual baby shower that was the following Sunday on May 31st. I stopped counting somewhere after 100 diapers...then comes the making of the cake form and then finally adding the decorations. I made sure to chose some of the baby necessities off of her registry and then whatever else I could use to fill in the gaps! It wasn't as good as I wanted it because I'd envisioned ruffles on every layer but I ran out and didn't have time to get back to the store before the shower...but no one could've known that if I'd've kept it a secret! O-well, I was satisfied and it was cute either way...enjoy the photos!

Bringing in the Heavy Metal...

So for the longest time I have lived without trees in my back yard, thanks to Ginger channeling the spirit of a Beaver and eating through their trunks until they fell over! She also enjoyed chewing on the plastic sprinklers that were in the planters...I literally replaced the sprinklers once a week and most of the time I just had to turn them off because there were always new geysers shooting up all over the back yard. I had bought some brass topped sprinkler heads and that helped but she was STILL chewing on the plastic parts! I was venting to my brother one day when he mentioned that I could replace all the plastic with galvanized steel risers and brass tops...so the next time he came to town he helped me convert the whole above ground sprinkler system to metal. We even encased the grass pop-ups with metal grates made for trapping leaves in rain gutters...but they have seemed to do the trick! I am happy to report that it has been nearly 2 months and ALL of my sprinklers are still intact and working...GO METAL!!!! Now that I had reliable sprinklers...it was time to get new trees! I didn't mess around with small ones this time! I saved up some money and went out to my favorite nursery (cheap and reliable...San Antonio off of Houton Road) and picked out five 25 gallon palm trees! I then took the following Monday off of work and spent the day getting a sunburn (even though I was wearing 45 sunblock!) and digging out what was left of the trunks and root balls from the old mangled palms to get the holes ready for the new ones that the guys were bringing around 4pm to plant for me! I couldn't believe how easy they make planting such big heavy trees look...I swear they were done in about an hour (of-course I helped by pre-digging most of the holes!). So...after they were done getting the trees in the ground mom helped me start the 2 hour process of staking out and wrapping each tree in SERIOUS 4 foot tall chicken wire! It has now been a couple weeks and yes my backyard has more metal in it that most but my trees and sprinklers are all still in mint condition--a HUGE success!!!!

Paws in the park

I was invited to be a vendor at the Taft "Paws in the Park" event sponsored by the West Side Humane Society. I was super excited and spent the good majority of my spring break sewing new collar and leash designs. I spent so much time trying to perfect my display and for a first timer I was pleased with my presentation. However, I was outrageously disappointed with the turn out for the event. They didn't have any festivities besides simple games and contests. so nothing to really pull the people out there. At the events I've attended in Bakersfield they always have vaccinations, micro-chipping, licensing, etc. available at reduced costs so that people have a reason to show up that will benefit them! O-well I didn't sell much and neither did any other vendors strictly because of the minimal turn-out but if I ever get to attend a better event I defiantly have ample product and the set up ready to go! I was really frustrated about the whole thing but I guess no experience or trial run is bad because it just better prepares you for the next thing!

I have a new nephew!

So...on January 22nd at 5:48pm my Sister Sherry and her husband Matt welcomed their first baby into the world. A healthy baby boy named Carter Stone Grimes who weighed in at 6 pounds 11 ounces and 20 inches long. There was a little distress at birth because the cord was wrapped up over his little shoulder and the doctor had to use the vacuum to get him out quickly because at first he wasn't breathing! They said it didn't take the nurses too long to get him stimulated, breathing, and crying but it was long enough to scare everyone! Ever since they brought him home he's had almost constant visitors so he's quite used to being passed from arm to arm and can sleep through anything and everything! He has so far been a very quiet, sweet, and cute little guy and the family animals have been VERY curious about him!

Student Driver?

Any time I ever get outta the car Ginger takes the opportunity to keep my seat warm...separation anxiety for sure!