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!

Tis the Season!

Ok well it is definitely the season to run around like a chicken with your head cut off!!! I am done Christmas shopping, Christmas mailing and Christmas wrapping! Now getting ready for the unwrapping!

We had an awesome time with the Lambert's again! We went to Helen (a tourist alpine village here in north Georgia) We got pics with Santa! It was really funny! I love the pic of Justice and Santa, he has this smile on his face like "hurry up take the dang picture so I can get away from the weirdo with the beard and his creepy wife!" We couldn't convince Riley to go anywhere near Santa and her daddy made her cry trying to carry her over to Santa to get a candy cane! Laura and I were reaching for Riley going NOOOOOO bring her back! Poor baby, bad daddy!

No really we had a lot of fun! We are either very brave or very stupid I have yet to figure out which! Laura's crew consisted of 2 adults, 3 small children and a Zoro; my crew was 1 adult, 1 child and 1 insane service dog! We toured the village and then went on a small hike to Anna Ruby Falls which was great and Blue did awesome with the tethering! I am so glad I had Erik tethered because he lost his balance on the trail and almost fell down a gully into the creek below, which would not have turned out well for him! So hey tethering doesn't just keep your child from running away from you it is a emergency repelling rope as well!

We came back to our house and celebrated Christmas with the Lambert crew it was great!

Erik recently started having some seizures again! We have upped medications and gone for blood test and made the weekly call to Jeremy for help in guiding Blue in seizure work! Thank God it looks like we will not need to train Blue at this time it has been 5 days since Erik had a seizure so I am hoping the medications have kicked in and we can go another year or so without them!

This has also been an amazing Christmas season because for the first time since Erik's regression and diagnosis of Autism I was able to buy Erik Christmas presents! Not just Spongebob DVD's even though we have the new ones also! I was able to buy toys that he enjoys playing with at other peoples houses and at school! This is really special also because as many of you know Erik has been attending the Marcus Institute for a long time, longer than the program he is in was supposed to last. Do to the economy and our state budget cuts to special needs programs Erik's program is being cut to half days and he will probably be discharged from the program at the end of summer. So a lot of the toys I was able to get him I can use to continue working with him as best I can the way Marcus does! I am planning on going through parent training! Please pray for this situation, there is a lot more too this then just the cutting of his program, way more than I can go into on a post! Thanks for your love and prayers!

We wanted to tell everyone Merry Christmas! We love you all and have thought about each of you this holiday season! Many of you I was able to send Christmas cards too some I was not but we wanted to wish all of ya'll an amazing Christmas Holiday and New Year!

With all our Love

Deanna, Erik and Blue

Thanksgiving with the Putnams!

Thanksgiving was very special! Our friends from West Virginia who we met through 4 Paws came down for a visit and brought their service dog Ajax! Many of you may remember Ajax, he was a service dog to a little boy named Matthew and they came to many of our fundraisers. Matthew is not an active child, he wanted a dog that was smaller and more cuddly (Ajax weighs over 100lbs) so they returned Ajax to 4 Paws. Ajax has been placed with the Putnam family and their son Tristen and they adore Ajax! Ajax is a great tracker and that is exactly what Tristen needs so all has worked out beautifully and Matthew will get his new smaller service dog in January!

Samantha, Nathan, Tristen and Rebecka all came and stayed with us! We ate an amazing meal and of course we ate too much! My parents smoked a turkey and made the vegies! I made the desserts! The kids played outside and Blue and Ajax romped around and really enjoyed having another dog to play with. We did a track where we mixed up who hid with the kids! Nathan hid with Erik for Blue's track and Papaw did the track, both Blue and Papaw did awesome! They were dead on and Papaw read Blue and didn't just run for all he was worth or loose the lead! I hid with Tristen and we made it a long track! Tristen did great we sat in the woods and I told him a story about a boy and his dog! Ajax booked it the whole way and as usual was amazing!

Tristen and Erik really started to interact which was soooo cool! Erik's favorite thing to do was to touch whatever Tristen had and make Tristen scream then run away and laugh! He never wanted the toy he just wanted the reaction! The kids played and played! I was amazed they didn't pass out every evening! Tristen just loved Erik's powerwheel Jeep and actually knows how to drive it (for Erik we cock the wheel and he presses the gas peddle and goes in circles)! Erik loves when he has someone to drive him so they were in heaven! We have 2 batteries and they killed both batteries each day, haha! Papaw drove them on the tractor which is one of Erik's favorite things to do and Tristen loves tractors also!

Rebecka is precious! Boy did she love Papaw! Papaw took her for a ride on the tractor first! He would push her on the swing! She would constantly ask for "Papaw, swing"! It would be pitch dark outside and Rebecka would come to Samantha and ask for the playground and when Samantha said "no" she would then ask for Papaw! It was really cute! After we put the kiddo's to bed Samantha, Nathan and I stayed up way too late and played cards, laughed and cut up! It was a great time! We miss them!

Updateing Ya'll!!!

Wow it has been forever since I have posted and so much has happened! I will try to post over the next few days and get everyone updated!

Blue and Erik are doing well. I am having to crack the whip with Blue, I let my training laps over the past 3 weeks while I was studying for my Nursing state board exam and Blue has acquired some bad habits but now that I am done with the test he is falling back in line, even though he has had to spend a little extra time in the kennel for thinking that Build-A-Bears are really yummy and decides to take advantage of any opportunity my back is turned to indulge in one! Also he has gotten off of his poop schedule and we have had 3 accidents in public!!! I am guessing that Blue doesn't like Target and Kohls since those are his favorite land mine targets!Little snot head even when I give him the opportunity to go before we enter the store! Of course I made my weekly phone call to Jeremy and we are reducing the am food and feeding pm food earlier!

Erik is making some incredible advancements! He will mimic us when we try to get him to make sounds! Like Bunny, we ask him to say "Ba" when he does then we ask him to say "Nie"! He is trying to say them together but the "Ba" is coming out silently when he tries that. Also I will make the sounds of the alphabet and he attempts about 1/2 of the sounds which is awesome! I am really excited! He is showing a lot of interest in trying to talk! He is also showing a lot of interest in Blue! The other day (will post pic's later) I was in the kitchen taking a practice test and it was WAY TOOOOOO QUITE, in the living room so I snuck around the corner and Erik was leaning on Blue and they were both watching Spongebob! As soon as they both saw me they both jumped away from each other like ummm we weren't hanging out together or anything! I got them back settled down together and took some great pics.

Blue is an awesome tracker and has continued to amaze us! Papaw is finally getting the hang of tracking with Blue! I have laughed at him so much! When I first let him do a track I asked him if he needed any refresher and he was like "No" and told me that he was there listening to Jeremy and even did a track at 4 Paws! So off Erik and I went to hide and I saw Papaw and Blue take off! Blue was running full force with his head up grinning and wasn't on scent at all! Papaw was being drug behind him! They were about to pass us when Erik squealed out and Blue was like Oh! Hey! So we decided to try another track when we had a 3rd person so I could guide Papaw!!! Dang it if Papaw couldn't hold onto the lead! He let it go twice the second time Blue was on scent running for all he was worth! He over shot the 90 degree turn but came back to it and over shot the next turn and was down in the woods. We were calling him and I was trying to go in the direction I last saw him! He came running out of the woods without his tracking harness or his lead!!!! Jeremy gave us Houdini the amazing escaping dog, because not only can he get out of his harness but Blue can and will jump out of windows!!!

Oh and I took my state board NCLEX exam on Nov 25th and I passed so I am unofficially (until they mail me my license) an LPN! YEAH! I can get a job now! Please keep that in your prayers I am currently job hunting, most employers want 1 yr experience so I am applying everywhere!

Well I will post more later and I have a ton of pics to show ya'll! We had the Putnam's and Ajax down for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time, can't wait to tell ya'll about that!

Tricker Treat!

Well Blue made it possible for us to go tricker treating with the Lambert's! The last time Erik had gone tricker treating was when he was about 2 years old. I tethered Erik to Blue and off we went! Blue did awesome! I was so proud of him! Erik was flopping on the ground and pulling on him but he handled it like a champ and laid down when I told him down and everything! He also did a good job at trying to ignore other dogs that were out and about!

The boys got to play outside at the Lamberts and they both LOVED it! Erik and Blue both enjoy have friends to romp around with! We ate pizza then it was time to get everyone ready! Erik was a farmer and he was so stinking cute!!! Kelly (Carter's mom) loaned us a pair of overalls and boots! I added a flannel shirt, bandanna to the back pocket and a camo ball cap and I had the cutest farmer ever! Erik hasn't worn boots in a very long time! When I put them on him he held up his foot to me and said AHHHH! I told him he had to wear them and he kept yelling at me! I finally won the battle after putting them back on 5 or 6 times but it was worth it! Justice was a solider and he won the battle of not having to wear his new helmet but instead wore a soft Marine lid with face paint! Riley was a precious Fairy Princess!!!! Finn was a leopard! Mark started out as a Nun but somehow turned into Hannibal Lector and Ricky did the opposite! Laura was a solider as well! I decided to find my overalls and go as a farmer with Erik! I put my hair in pig tails, no easy feat when you have short hair! We had such a good time! Laura said that this trip was the longest tricker treating trip that Justice has ever lasted and they got to be the first to take Erik on an official trip! We are already planning next years!

We had another amazingly successful track with Blue! It about kicked my butt! I have a horrible cold and am hacking my brains out so at the end of the quarter mile track I thought I was going to die but Blue did it! I was frustrated at first because as soon as we got outside and I had Blue hyped and hooked up he took a dive for his throw toy! I told him to leave it, he wouldn't! I finally grabbed the thing saying multiple curse words which made Blue sit and look at me with his lil ears down and the "Oh Crap, I'm Sorry" look and I told him to track again and off he went! This dog has an amazing nose! I was so proud of him! It was an extremely long track, we hurdled fallen trees and went through brush, nothing else side tracked him! I felt bad about the toy because he had been with me all day long and no play time! So I can't blame him for wanting to play, but as soon as he knew that I meant business and that we were tracking he was totally cool with playing the Tracking Game instead of his throw toy!

Halloween Fun

What a great time we had yesterday when some of our friends came over and goofed off with us! We made such fun food like a Snake Sandwich, Ghost cookies, Gollum Guts, a Grave Yard with the kids names on cookie grave stones and so much more! We carved pumpkins, played football and went on a fall hike through the woods! Check out the slide show of our Halloween Fun!!!

There were 4 families here and the kids were amazing! Laura, Mark, Justice, Riley and Finn came and brought Zoro! They also brought Pumpkins to carve! We did a practice track with Zoro! Laura talking Zoro up to get him ready to track Justice (she had said earlier in the day that Zoro doesn't get excited over much and that he didn't pull like Blue does in a track)! Well Zoro decided to prove her wrong! Zoro took off like a bat out of H*** and Laura totally about biffed it! I saw feet, legs and arms flailing! You should have seen it, it was soooo funny! I have to give Laura kudos's she didn't do a face plant and she held onto the leash! She used a line out of one of Jeremy's stories, when they got back from the track she said "I no let go"!

Kelly, Carter and Connor also came and they were able to watch Zoro's track and one of Blue's tracks! They are going to get Carter a dog from 4 Paws in Dec!!! We cannot wait! Connor and Mark had so much fun playing football and Justice was learning to punt! Carter came baring his Vampire teeth and looking cute as could be, and Kelly said she was dressed up for Halloween as a redneck girl, she looked adorable in her overalls!

My friend Donna her daughter Rachel and son Jonathan came up from Warner Robins to hang out with us and I am so glad she was able to make it! Her son Jonathan has autism and goes to school with Erik! He has many of the same issues Erik has and it was awesome that she got so see a track! They are considering fundraising for a dog for Jonathan! Rachel learned that she likes lizards! The two girls at the party, Rachel and Riley, were the ones playing with the lizards! Laura caught 2 baby lizards and the girl ran around half the day with lizards attached to their shirts! They were so cute! Rachel wants a lizard for a pet now!

Papaw is officially the kiddo whisperer! All the kids loved my dad and he helped watch all of them! He pushed them around in the car when the batteries died and baby Finn and papaw are best buddies since Ohio!

Speaking of my dad we did two amazing tracks with Blue yesterday! The first track Blue hit the scent and off he went, he took off so quickly we left some of our followers behind, he didn't veer to the right or the left he just tracked straight to Dad and Erik it was so awesome and really renewed my faith in Blue! I had really wanted Donna and Kelly to see a track so after Blue rested and chilled out we did another track! I told dad I wanted to do a short track because I didn't want to over do it with Blue! Dad took off back towards the subdivision where we had our not so good track! I waited a few minutes and off we went with Blue! By the way, don't track in Croc's! They fall off when your dog takes off!

Blue was on the scent then he kind of lost it and went in circles and came back to me! I let him work it out and got him motivated again! He hit the scent after a few diversions and off he went! Blue drug me through the path into the subdivision and drug me up the street! He did some air scenting at one point and got directly on the track again and pulled me through a gully and up a hill! Donna and Kelly are thinking that he isn't on the trail, they told me afterward, because this was supposed to be a short track! We came out of the woods onto one of our trails behind my house and Blue pulled me to Erik! He was dead on it the whole way! Donna and Kelly were totally amazed! Dad had done a circle and made it a longer track then I had planned on, and one I had no idea which path they had taken! I am doing a lot better at trusting Blue and letting him lead me as well as shutting up and letting him work things out! He did amazing! Way to go Blue!