Things Keep Improving!

I have such great news to share with ya'll!!!! I got the job at Northside Hospital on the 5th floor Medical Surgical unit as a LPN. It is a part time position and is everything that I wanted! We are praising God for his answers to our prayers and for his amazing goodness.

Things are much the same with Erik right now regarding school! He is still attending Marcus Autism Center full time and they are trying to find a placement for him in the public school. I am still in the process of applying for the private school (a 30 page app). Please continue to pray for Gods guidance in this area! Erik has started sleeping through the night in his own bed! He has never done that! I can get him to go to sleep in his bed but usually around 1 - 3am he wakes up and comes and crawls in bed with me! The past week he has been in his bed when it has been time to get up and get ready for school! My little man is getting so big, and Blue may just have something to do with this new little miracle!

Blue has also started to sleep in Erik's room! Since I go to bed way after Erik, Blue will hang with me until I go to bed then he goes into Erik's room and sleeps in there!

There are some really neat things going on with Blue!!! Today when I was in the shower, Erik let himself and Blue outside! When I got out of the shower and I was actually alone I knew something was up! So I threw on a rob and went running outside! Sure enough Erik is playing inside my car and I don't see Blue anywhere! All that is running through my head is Jeremy answering a question about a similar scenario "then you've lost your kid and your dog"! Well I called for Blue and he came running from around the other side of the car where he had been hanging out watching Erik! He hadn't even run off and when I called him he came straight to me and was like "Hey mom I kept an eye on him for ya!" This dog is amazing!

I have been dieing to share this story with ya'll since we got home but have had some much other things going on I forgot to tell ya'll!

September Stars and the Duck!

Now this is my memory of the event: Our 6 families were scheduled to track in the afternoon so in the morning we worked on obedience with Jennifer! While we were doing our training Homewood Suits representatives came into the training room with a person dressed in a giant duck costume and a goodie basket for the families! Everything in the room got quiet and all the dogs turned and watched this giant duck walk over to the bar! The rep's talked for a minute, now mind you all puppy eyes are on the duck and not one dog has moved a muscle! The rep then ask if we want to see the duck dance! I am immediately thinking "NO I do not want to see the creepy duck dance!" So the duck walks in front of the dry erase board and that is when Blue decides to bark at the scary duck, after he barks while he is still laying at my feet, he looks up at me like you can kick it's butt right mom, that's when I told him I was scared of the Duck too! When Blue barks then Hans barks and jumps BEHIND Indy (now remember Hans is a German Shepherd and Indy is a big fluffy lovable Golden Retriever who couldn't scare anything)! Then the other dogs likewise follow in expressing their fear and dislike of the duck! Thank goodness the duck got the hint and didn't dance but if you could have seen the look on all the dogs faces, watched Blue look at me like hey I started it you finish it and could have watched Hans hide behind Indy, he even put his nose under Indy's side, you would have laughed your butt off! The joys of the unexpected that occur during training!
Here is a picture of the infamous Homewood Suites Duck!!

Happy New Year!!!

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We hope to be able to spend time with each of you this year and we also hope that you have a wonderful year filled with love and prosperity.

Erik, Blue and I had a great Christmas. We went next door to my parents house and opened gifts! It was the first year in a long time that I was able to shop for Erik Christmas presents that weren't Spongebob DVD's! I found some toys that he loves and it was so much fun to watch him open his gifts! He got excited about a lot of them!

Blue had presents under the tree as well! My mom got Blue his own "Place" for her house and Blue's nose was all in the bag and when I pulled out the matt, laid it on the ground and told him place he gave me this look like, "well that's the crappiest Christmas present EVER!!!" So he sat on his place and we opened his new Nylabone and he was much happier laying on his place then while chewing his new bone!

New Years was a little rough, Erik spent New Years Eve at the Ped's office being diagnosed with Scarlatina Fever and Strep Throat! We stayed at home watching Spongebob until I was about to scream and then watched other movies until we crashed!

Blue is still as amazing and crazy as ever! We haven't done a lot recently due to the holidays and such, we actually have left Blue at home more then we have taken him. One is because I got our certification papers in a little late and he didn't have his updated cards the other reason is that Blue has decided that he really does enjoy pooping in Target and Kohl's! I changed the amount of food he received and everything that Jeremy told me to do when this problem first arose and everything went fine for a week or two! Then in one week, all while trying to rush around and finish up my last minute Christmas items, Blue poops 3 different times twice in Target and once in Kohl's! I was sooooo angry at him! Once I even stood outside for over 10 minutes giving him the opportunity too poop and while he is sniffing EVERYTHING within the reach of his leash I am telling him "you will not poop inside this store so go ahead and get it out now!" Well he sure showed me! We walked inside the second set of doors at Target and were not even off the entrance carpet and Blue started pooping! I was in tears, and I called Jennifer! I told her I was calling as a friend and just needed a shoulder to cry on! She gave me some advice and now that we have Blue's new certification papers I can start trying to take him back out in public again! Wish us luck, I firmly believe that Blue is just so excited with all the new smells that he isn't thinking about doing his business, instead he is checking everything out. Then once we get into the store his little insane brain is like "Oh Crap! I have to crap!", and he goes while we are walking through the store! Again I am hoping that this is just part of being an oversized puppy and we can fix the problem! He is such a goofball! Everything else is great, he wants to love on everyone and play ball until he can't take another step! Erik loves throwing Blue's Kong for him when we are trapped inside and Blue will sometimes take the Kong to Erik instead of bringing it to me! I have tried to back off loving on Blue so much so he will go to Erik more! He still hates sleeping in Erik's room! I have left him no comfy options but the bed beside Erik's but he still wants to come and lay on the hard floor beside me! I know Blue doesn't like being in there when Erik is trying to go to sleep because Erik picks on him and tries to play with him (heck I don't want to be around Erik when he is trying to wind down and go to sleep) but once Erik is asleep Blue wont stay in there either! So after I put Erik to bed I refuse to love on him and I keep putting him back in Erik's room. Hopefully this will start working soon. We just love Blue more and more everyday, not a day goes by that he doesn't make me laugh! He is such a part of our family, he and Erik both act like clowns and want to make everyone laugh and love them!

We have some great irons in the fire right now! As I posted last time Erik will be going to half days at the Marcus Autism Center starting this month and will spend the other half in either a public or private school. There is a program in our County that a Dr from Marcus oversees, it looks likely that Erik will be able to go into this program for the remainder of the year. Marcus does not know if the program will continue into the next school year though so, I have started filling out an application to a private autism school in Alpharetta! The Dr who is over Erik's program at Marcus highly recommended the school and says it is very similar to the program he is currently in. All of Erik's Dr's agree that Erik will not thrive in the public school system and will actually regress so it is really important for us to get him somewhere that he can continue to grow developmentally! The only draw back is that the private school is very expensive, $4000 a month, but they have financial aid if he is accepted so please pray that if this God's will that Erik will be accepted and we can receive the financial aid!

I have been frantically job hunting and it has been frustrating! Ya'll know that I graduated with my LPN, nursing diploma last Sept and passed my state board exam around Thanksgiving! I didn't really start researching jobs until I had my actual license number from the state. Everyone I talk to is so excited for me and they all are like "you should have no problems finding a job, nurses are in high demand"! Well RN's are in high demand and LPN's with 1+years experience are in demand! I have been turned away from so many places and asked to come back after I get that year! One place even said we need you badly so please come back once you have experience!!!! I am like are you freakin kidding me!!!!! How the heck do you expect me to get a years experience when NO ONE wants to hire me without it! So I finally called a nurse that I had worked under when I did my clinical rotations at the local hospital and asked her if she remembered me, which she did, then asked her who I should get in touch with regarding a job at the hospital! She was amazing, she was really excited and said she would put in a good word for me and connected me to her boss. Her boss told me they no longer accepted paper applications so I would have to fill out information online! I told her I had filled out the application but had not heard from anyone and asked if I could bring her my resume for future openings! She said she hadn't seen any applications from anyone and got my name and phone number. That night I got an email from a recruiter from the hospital telling me I was a candidate for an LPN position! I filled out the paperwork that was attached for them to run my background check and they said once the check was complete they would contact me! That was yesterday! I am hoping and praying that I will hear back from them around the beginning of next week! Would love your prayers as well!

I have Christmas picture to post from my new digital camera, once I figure out how to do it, one of my fave Christmas gifts! I have also been perfecting making Lattes! I received a Latte/Cappachino/Espresso maker for Christmas, I love it! I am sure Starbucks stock is dropping now that I do not have to depend on them for my coffee fixes! So when ya'll come to visit I will have to make you a coffee!!!

Sorry for the long post!! Again we cannot wait to spend this new year with all of you whom we love! Will post again soon!