Jackson

I wanted to give an update on Jackson. Most of you know that when we first adopted him he was very sick. I am happy to report that Jackson is very healthy and happy! He is now seven months and weighs over 80 lbs. When we first went to see him he it took him an hour to be comfortable with me and it took him even longer to be comfortable with Brent. He has really made progress. He is learning to be friendly with everyone, not just me. We have made it a point to socialize him as much as possible and I am happy to report that he loves just about everyone. He can be challenging at times but his good traits out weigh his frustrating ones. He loves to play with other dogs and exercise. Unfortunately he is on kennel rest for the next three or so days because he has hurt his shoulder. We are hoping that if we do this he will stop limping. Big dogs have a lot of joint issues especially if they grow too fast. We have really tried to keep that from happening. But alas he is having issues. I will give an update after he rests for a couple of days and let you know how he is doing.

Graduation

Ruby has been in puppy training for the past 15 weeks. Our original class was only supposed to be 10 weeks but

she needed a little extra loven care from our trainer April. She graduated today. We are so proud of her and we know that she has come such a long way!!! For those of you who remember when we first got her you know what I am talking about. She can sit on command, sit and down stay on command, and come when she is called... Well most of the time. Ruby received a hat and also a diploma. Some of the pups in our class got a diploma that had a star on it. This is not a good thing. If you get a star you have to take the whole class over again! Not Ruby, She passed with flying colors. Congrats Ruby!! What a good girl you are. We will be starting Jackson in this class in January. Please keep us in your prayer because he is going to be VERY hard to train. He is a love but pretty dumb. Lord help us!

A beautiful day in Boise!!!

Its a couple of days before Thanksgiving, and I have the week off from school. Its nice to have a break and I want to take advantage of the time. Therefore, I took the pups to Boise's greenbelt today for a nice long walk. It was beautiful out today. This is nice because the weather has been really crappy the last couple of days. Here are some picture of our walk. Enjoy!

First Blog posting

I decided to create a blog to keep friends and family updated on what is going on with Brent, myself, and the zoo we have around our house. We have another blog that I can't figure out how to get into. So this is our new one.

Here's our update. Brent is working a lot!!! He is really dedicated to his job and is working hard to get his caseload updated. He is in the middle of survey so it is a very stressful time for him. Keep your fingers crossed for him. He really has put in about a million hours in the last month. He is a busy man.

I am also pretty busy. I am about two weeks away from finishing my second semester in grad school. This semester has been really hard and has caused me to really focus on reading and writing. I have really had to improve in both of those areas. I hope it pays off.

The cats are doing great. They are happy and seem to have adjusted to Idaho. The dogs are great. We love having them in our lives. Ruby has been taking a training class through Scotch Pines dog training. She is about to graduate in two weeks. So far she has responded really well to this type of training. For those of you how knew her when she was a little puppy you know how crazy she was. She really has changed and is much more fun to be around. She and I take a walk everyday together. In fact she is completely off leash now. She does well for the most part. She does have a tendency to bolt at times. Take for example today. We had just started our walk and she took off and ran in the middle of this field. I felt bad because the field looked like it had just been plowed. Long story short she finally stopped running away from me and I corrected her . We then continued on our way. She didn't bolt at all the rest of the time. We ended up doing about three miles today. In fact we really ran most of the way.

I have been asked a lot how my running is going. I am sad to say that I have really neglected that aspect of my life sense I started school. However, I started to run yesterday and really enjoyed it. Ruby and I did two miles yesterday and we did three today. I am hoping to keep up my running through the winter. I want to get back into it. I love to run and be outside. I just need to make it a priority.

Anyway, that is about all that is going on with our little family. I will do my best to keep this blog updated once a week or so. So check back often to see whats up with us.