It's been a long week!

For those of  you who don't know, I am a certified volunteer with Canine Assistants, an organization that trains service dogs for adults and children with mobility problems and other physical disabilities. We train Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, mixes of these two breeds, as well as some Golden Doodle and LabraDoodle mixes (so we can meet the needs of recipients with allergies to dog dander). These are amazing dogs! They are very smart and learn so quickly. As a certified volunteer, I take dogs on outings to stores, movies, restaurants and so forth so they can have opportunities to practice what they have learned out in the public. I also bring them home for home visits to work on basic house manners. When they are home with me, I use umbilical cord training which means that the dog is tethered to me with the leash 24/7 unless they are supervised in a fenced yard or kenneled in a crate. I don't call this volunteer experience work as I love animals and it such a rewarding experience to be able to help teach these dogs who will someday help someone become more independent in their daily lives. In the past, when I have brought a dog home for a home visit, it has been for no more than 2 nights. There are about 100 volunteers so we get a chance to work with many of the dogs. The dogs are usually fully trained and ready to go to a recipient when they are around 18 months old.

We had a pup at the farm who had some special needs of his own and could not run and interact with all the other dogs on the farm (approximately 140 of them). so volunteers were taking him home for extended periods of time. I had this dog at home with me for a week and he was the sweetest dog ever! Even though he was by my side constantly, he never got in the way.  I really hated taking him back to the farm. Since that week long experience went so well, I thought I would volunteer to be part of a new program Canine Assistants is trying - putting 10 week old pups in homes for 2 weeks at a time. It is assumed that this will expedite their training experience by exposing them to more daily household noises like washing machines, dryers, garage door openers, vacuum cleaners, etc. much earlier in their lives. It also give the pups more opportunities to go out in public since more volunteers are working with them. So, this past week I have had 2 ten week old sister pups at home. What an experience! I forgot what it takes to house break a puppy! I have been watching these little guys like a hawk for the past 7 days. I think they have finally got it though. They haven't had an "accident" in the house for the past 3 days! I am reinforcing their learning of the basic commands of sit, down, shake, roll, wait, settle, kennel, and "better hurry" (their command for going to the bathroom) as well as some other basic commands. They are really good sleepers - they have not cried at all when I tell them to go to bed each night.

I am taking the puppies back to the Canine Assistants farm tomorrow. I think I am going to miss them -  they are just so darn cute! But, at the same time, I am ready to get my house cleaned up and have some alone time once again!

By the way, Lucy, our 13 year old Aussie Shepherd-Chow mix doesn't know what to think about me bringing all of these strangers into her house. She tries to ignore the bigger dogs when I bring them home and since they are tethered to me, they usually ignore Lucy as well. Lucy has gotten to where she never knows what I am going to come into the house with next! However,it has been kind of hard for Lucy to ignore these two puppies. They want to play, play, play! They play and "fight" with each other when they are in their kennel and when they are outside, they want to play with Lucy. Well, Lucy is like an old grandma dog, she really doesn't want to be bothered by these little pups. I think she will be really glad to see them go so she can have the house all to herself once again - at least for a little while!

These are some pictures of the little guys I have had at home or have worked with at the farm. If you want to know more about this awesome  non-profit organization, please visit their website at canineassistants.org.

Oakley, a Golden Doodle, working on the agility course at the farm. The dogs work on the agility course to get them used to walking on different types of surfaces, different heights, elevations, and tight spaces.

    

Selena, Oakley's sister. She is also working on the agility course.

Raven, another Golden Doodle. Her trainer likes to groom her body close cut which makes her look very different than Oakley and Selena.

Woods, a Golden Retriever and Lucy

Cassius, a Golden Lab mix with special needs (notice his crooked front leg). He is scheduled for surgery on his leg in June.

 

Frazier, a Golden Retriever.

Some of the dogs in their kennel at the farm

The puppy building.

Sallie, a 10 week old Golden Lab mix.

Fowler, Sallie's sister, a 10 week old Golden Lab mix.

Fowler aggravating Lucy.

 

Fowler and Sallie ganging up on Lucy. They love to pull on her kerchief.

Sallie and Fowler acting like siblings - fighting over a toy.

 

They decide they may share it. The other's toy is laying on the deck right in front of them!

Or, maybe they will fight over it after all!

Spring at Stone Mountain

Well, I had my last photography class for a while on Thursday. I was taking Digital 102 and really enjoyed this class. It was more challenging, making me learn more settings on my camera and doing a lot of low light photography. I have finally learned to use my camera in the full manual mode and it gives me a lot more control on how my pictures turn out. It was a really great class. I wish I was able to take more but we will be going on vacation soon and I would miss 2 out of the 6 classes so I will wait until I can be here for the entire course. I can't decide if I want to take Photoshop or People I next. I do eventually want to take the People classes so I can learn to take better pictures of individuals and groups. I'll decide that later.

For my last Digital 102 class I had to have 10 pictures that I had taken over the past 6 weeks. I decided to go out to Stone Mountain and spend an afternoon taking pictures. It was a beautiful day, was in the middle of spring break for the schools in our area, and the park was packed. I had fun driving through the park, getting out of the car and just walking around. Everything was beautiful. Here are a few of the pictures I took that day. Enjoy!

The Carving

A gorgeous pink dogwood

Rhododendron blossom

The covered bridge behind white dogwoods

The beautiful dogwood blossom

The grist mill

Rhododendron amongst Crepe Myrtle trees

Easter Eggs and Cookies

Friday, John and I kept Kennedy while David and Summer started moving into their new house.  I told David we were going to dye some eggs for Easter decorations. I didn't want to do hard boiled eggs since it was over a week before Easter so I decided to poke holes in each end of the raw egg and blow them out. David laughed, saying that Kennedy would crush the eggs but I thought if I told her to be gentle with them, they would come out fine. We had 6 eggs and Kennedy chose the colors purple, blue, and pink. We got the water ready but what I thought was the pink dye tablet was really orange. While I had my back turned for just a second, Kennedy reached for one of the eggs. David was right! Kennedy crushed the very first egg she picked up in her tiny little hands! So, we proceeded with the 5 remaining eggs and they made it through without getting cracked.

When the eggs were dry, we decorated them with glitter and stickers.

Later in the afternoon, we baked and decorated some Easter cookies.  Kennedy had more fun eating the icing and sprinkles off of the cookies than she did baking and decorating them!

I think Kennedy had a fun day!

Fun with Michael

While Jill and Michael were here last week, we took Michael to the park close to our house. There are always so many kids there because it is such a cool place for little ones. Michael wasn't quite sure what to think of so many people being around, but he had fun. I can't wait for spring to finally decide it is here to stay - we will be spending a lot of time at the park when they visit. Who knows - I may even try to do his one year old pictures there with his mom and dad.

The surface of the playground is rubberized (not the kind that gets really hot). Michael was not sure about that feeling on his little bare feet!

Holding on while watching all of the activity around him.

Beginning to explore...

Starting to enjoy it a little more...

It's a whole new world!

Michael also enjoyed helping his grandmommy around the house (ha ha)!

Pulling the tupperware out...

and looking for the pieces that got away...

Looking for a lost movie...

and his favorite toy.

And finally, helping with the laundry!

I really enjoyed having the two of them here for several days. Jill was finally able to get a lot of scrapbooking done while she was here. As you can imagine, it's not easy to find time to get little luxuries like that done when you have an active baby around the house. Michael has just started crawling and is everywhere now. I need to baby proof my house!

Family History

It's been a while since I have done any blogging. I have been busy looking into my past!  I have recently become interested in genealogy and am trying to research my mom and dad's family roots. It has been pretty easy up to this point because my mom kept a lot of records on both hers and my dad's families. Also, both my mom and dad have one sibling left and I was lucky to be able to interview each of them and get a lot of information. Have you seen the "My Ancestry" commercials on TV? Well, they grabbed me. I went online and started doing more research. I have stored all of the information I have found along with some old pictures on the "My Ancestry" web site. Now the hard part begins. I have run out of known information and am beginning to get ancestry hints on people in the family tree on which I have no historical information. How am I supposed to know if these hints are really on my relatives? There is a lot of information out there - I just need to learn how to make it all fit. I have been able to get copies of my grandfather's World War I draft registration card and copies of census records back to 1910 so far! It's really pretty amazing. Below are some pictures that I have found in my mom and dad's things. I'll keep on digging and see what else I can come up with. It's pretty addicting. I have spent up to 6 hours at one time on the computer. Just one more thing to keep me distracted from all of the other mundane chores there are to do around this house!

My maternal great-great-grandmother.

My maternal grandmother and grandfather.

My mother at age 2, 1932.

My mother's graduation from Roosevelt High School, Atlanta, GA 1949. Pretty fancy for a public school! Those are real roses she is holding. In the class picture, each girl is dressed in a formal gown and has a bouquet of roses. I counted at least 18 from what was visible. There are probably 2 dozen of them.

My paternal grandfather, doing what I remember best - eating Whitman's chocolates!

My dad's graduation from Commercial High School, Atlanta, GA 1947.

My mom and dad at Grant Park prior to their marriage, 1952. This was probably an Easter Sunday since they both have flowers on. My dad's parents lived within walking distance to Grant Park.

My mom and dad's wedding, May 15, 1953.

What was I thinking?

I like to think that I am keeping my mind young by continuing adult education, but sometimes I wonder if it is working. I still misplace my keys, sunglasses, cell phone, etc. Sometimes my sunglasses are right on top of my head, or my keys are in my hand when I am looking for them! Today, I met some girlfriends for lunch. We were in the restaurant for about an hour and forty-five minutes. When I came out to get in my car, I approached what I thought was my car but it was running so I thought I must have gone to the wrong car. I looked in the driver's seat and no one was in there so I looked at the car more closely - yep, it was mine! I had gotten out of the car and started talking to one of the other girls that had already shown up and completely forgot to turn my car off! Boy, did I feel like an idiot and what a waste of gasoline! Actually, I feel very lucky that I even had a car when I came out of the restaurant. So much for keeping my mind young!

I do enjoy continuing adult education. I am taking photography classes to learn how to use my camera on settings other than "auto" and have also taken photoshop classes. I like the photography classes because we are assigned "homework" for the week to go out and take specific kinds of pictures. We bring the pictures in the following week and they are critiqued by the instructor. It is really a great way to learn what you are doing right and what you need to improve. I think I have learned a lot but still have a lot more to learn. In the first photography class we did a field trip to the Oakland Cemetery, an historic cemetery in Atlanta. It was very early on a very cold morning in December. It was kind of eerie walking around in the cemetery. There was a lot of damage in the cemetery from the tornado that had come through Atlanta in March of 2008. In that class, everyone was on about the same level as far as learning how to use their camera. I felt pretty good in that class. My current photography class is on composition - learning to see creatively. This is definitely something I struggle with. In this class, there are several people that could be professional photographers. Everything they bring in is perfect - good composition, good lighting, good colors, etc. I really feel like a dummy in this class - but, hey, that's why I'm there - I'm trying to learn. Our field trip for this class was to Little 5 Points in Atlanta. I have lived in Atlanta my entire life and this was a first for me. It was definitely another different experience. It was a cold and rainy Saturday but the rain did let up after we had been there about half an hour. There were homeless people around everywhere, but some of them were quite funny. Our instructor had told us that these homeless people are different from the homeless people that are in "downtown" as these homeless are friendly. They were - and seemed harmless. There were some very eclectic stores in Little 5 Points. Many of the students came in with some very unique pictures - our assignment for this shoot was similar shapes, patterns, and repetition of form in the environment. It's funny how you look at things differently when you are learning to see things creatively.

Well, there won't be any pictures for this post as I didn't think I got any good shots on Saturday. Maybe next time. In the meantime, I am constantly looking at my environment as a form of art now. Hopefully, learning to see creatively will come easier for me in the near future!

Looking forward to a New Year

Well, Christmas 2008 has now come and gone. Our families had a wonderful time celebrating the season. We started celebrating with our traditional get together with the families of our best friends. We have been celebrating Christmas with them for the past 26 years. Emily, Rita, and I have our picture made together each year and are now including our girls (sorry guys - you got left out again!) and grandkids in the pictures. We always have fun at this annual event. It's fun to watch how we change and our families grow!

Rita, Kay and Emily

...with the girls

...the girls and grandkids

Next, we celebrated with the Petzelt family. We all enjoyed having lunch together at our house then watching all the kids open their gifts. 

Dorothy with her boys

...and all of her grandchildren

Christmas night was fun with 2 little ones, 6 adults, and 2 dogs in the house. It was hectic but I did manage to get a few posed pictures. Michael arrived dressed like a snowman Christmas evening!

David and Summer with Kennedy

Jill and Sam with Michael

and Lucy got the leftovers!

John and I are now looking forward to celebrating a quite New Year's Eve at home.