Amos is so full of energy. He's always running, and he's working on jumping now. He loves to climb up on the couch (which he can do himself) and slide off of it. He can go up and down stairs, but he is still learning to be careful on the stairs. He eats like each meal will be his last- just stuffing the food into his mouth, sometimes literally with both hands! He eats better than Jaren does, I think! Fruit is his favorite by far, but he also likes bread and some meat, and a few vegetables. He loves mashed potatoes- so I have someone to shared them with now who enjoys them as much as I do! The other day Sean and I went to pick him up from daycare earlier than normal, and we saw just how much energy he has. His age group was being read a story. All the other kids were huddled around the caregiver, listening or at least being quiet and calm. Amos was a few feet away, climbing on and jumping on a bean bag and generally having a grand old time. He's constantly babbling, and you can hear him actually saying something- you just can't understand it yet. But he's speaking in sentence structures, and he does use some words. He seems like he's more interested in developing his physical skills right now rather than his verbal skills.

Our little boy drew blood for the first time yesterday. He was walking by our coffee table and tripped, hitting his head against it. He must have bit his lip or his tongue because blood was coming out of his mouth. He was not happy, but that hasn't stopped him from playing near the table or banging his toys on the glass part (even though Mama and Daddy always tell him no and he gets into trouble for it).

Sean has a new job (as mentioned before) with the Icon Factory in Greensboro. He is a programmer for them, and he seems to really like working with them. They seem like a good company- much more family friendly than his previous companies. It's a major pay cut, but it looks like the nicer atmosphere will make up for it. Good thing the only debt we have is the house though, or we wouldn't have been able to survive the pay cut!

So yeah, just wanted to post out a quick update. I'm fighting a cold right now (which I probably got from Amos from his daycare) so I'm not thinking so clearly, or typing so well. I'll try to post more often! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=32 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=32 Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:29:01 -0600 And then there's today. We were playing with Amos, and he was walking with help from Sean to me and back again, a game he really loves. Then in between the steadying of our hands he took a step of his own! He wanted to play more- he was so excited and all giggles. So we continued playing, and he took two steps of his own! And then he did it again a little while later. But wait, there's more! A few minutes later, he took THREE STEPS IN A ROW all by himself! My little boy is growing up so fast! Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he did it again, and then also did some more two steppers before deciding he was tired and celebrating his success by crawling over to Lenny and squealing in his face.

My baby has 5 teeth, and is eating tons and tons of solid food- whatever we're having at supper, he has too! It's becoming increasingly common that he'll gorge himself with solid food until we think he's going to burst and then still insist on taking his bottle. With all he eats, you'd swear we never feed him. I tell him he's gonna eat us out of house and home by the time he's two at this rate!

Yep, I'm a proud momma. You would be too! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=31 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=31 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:15:22 -0500 Also, he's scary close to crawling! It's such a thrill watching him learn. If he has something to push against with his feet, he can lurch forward, and you can see him just studying and studying it. So exciting! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=30 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=30 Sat, 30 May 2009 19:43:08 -0500 Speaking of, Amos also has a new puppy to love him. Lennier is a 1 1/2 year old Rottweiler/Shepherd mix who we rescued through the shelter. Lenny spent much of his growing up in the shelter, but he's a good natured dog who is getting along real well in his obedience training. Lenny loves Amos, and is protective of him, getting all worried sometimes. Just like Boo, when Amos is gone for a while, Lenny checks in to make sure he came back intact and uninjured.

Other than that, life is pretty much the same. Boo training is crawling along, mostly because I work so much, but she loves having Lenny to play with. Amos really likes to watch his dogs play, and he has purposefully reached out to pet each of them. All three of the mammals, Boo, Zug, and Len, have all been subject to his drool, mouthing, kicking, and pulling of their fur (and the boy has a STRONG grip!), and all three don't care. The cat probably cares the most, but when Zug's had enough, he just leaves; in contrast, the dogs look to see what's going on and then go right back to sleep.

Having a baby and working long hours really eats up my time. Taking care of the animals and the house too eats up more. Sean and I have been having trouble finding time to connect lately, it feels like, but I think we just need to try harder at that. Amos is going off to be baby sat all day tomorrow, and while Sean and I are both a little apprehensive about that (we love our baby, and just can't help it, even though he'll be in super good hands), we're also both looking forward to the break. We can have some together time after I get off from work, and just hang out and de-stress. Then tomorrow, we can hang out as a family, hopefully already de-stressed a lot. It's just a lot of change that happens with having a baby, and we're both still adjusting to our new lives. Already though, I can't imagine life without Amos. :D ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=29 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=29 Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:16:49 -0500 His brain is growing too. You can almost see it. He likes to coo and talk now, and often coos and gurgles rather than crying. Of course, if he gets too frustrated or hungry, he'll still cry, but the coos and gurgles now fill out quite a bit of his vocalizing, which is nice. Sometimes I swear he's laughing! He likes to look at lights still, but sometimes will just stare at his toys or other things. He even occasionally bats his Pooh rattle with a fist, and sometimes it looks intentional. He has quite the grip, and yesterday he grabbed hold of Sean's laptop and clicked the trackpad.

Amos can hold his head up very well and often his body, too. We'll sit him on our leg and only have to correct him when he spazes. He's getting super good at balancing, and I only have to support his head when he's tired- otherwise, he does it himself. He likes his swing, but prefers to be held. He's even starting to like snuggling.

You can play with him now too. He likes games like making funny noises or kissing his face randomly, or beeping his nose or chin or forehead, etc. Today he found his mouth with his fist all on his own and was quite content. Sometimes he needs help, and he loves to suck on things still. He's beginning to like chewing on things too. He chews on his puppies (strap buddies) nearly every time he's in his car seat, and likes to chew on his rattle too.

In tummy time he can move his head when he wants, and sometimes supports himself for a little bit if he's placed on his elbows. He can't yet push his upper body up, but likes looking around if placed on his elbows, and will hold himself there for a while before sinking to lie flat. Pretty soon he'll be moving! He hasn't rolled over in a while, nor shown interest in doing so.

He falls asleep on his own, and sometimes will fuss and spontaneously stop. I think he gets distracted by learning something or watching something.

He's just growing up so fast! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=28 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=28 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:54:17 -0600 He had his 3 week checkup yesterday, and is doing great. He was 10 lbs, 9 ounces, which is a gain of exactly 3 pounds since he was born! He also grew 2 inches, which means he is 22 inches long now. That puts him in the 75th percentile for both weight and height. He's in the 50th percentile for head size, but I don't remember that number.

Last night for the first time we were able to turn off the alarms and just let him wake us up. He's big enough now we don't have to watch his eating so much. Of course, he decided to have a fussy night last night, so we didn't end up getting any more sleep, but oh well. Amos is able to roll over (though not whenever he want too- it's still really hard work) and does really well as getting over on his side. He's able to hold his head up now, too, though not for long. He's getting really strong, and yesterday decided to throw his pacifier- it went 2 or 3 feet! Apparently he didn't want it any longer.

He can track objects at least halfway across his field of view, and of course enjoys looking at faces, although lights really intrigue him as well. He has a strong grip when he happens to grab onto something, such as a finger. He's also using other sounds than crying- he has been known to coo and gurgle at his bottle. Amos is still a pretty quiet baby, all things considered, and a good baby, too.

The pets are getting along really well with him, too. He petted Boo some the other day, and she just moved a bit closer for more. Then early this morning he got mad waiting for a bottle and grabbed her muzzle in his fist. Boo didn't move- she just laid there and let him pull on her. Zuggy's also doing well, though he still mostly pretends Amos isn't there. He has also let Amos pull on him, though when that happens he gets really interested all the sudden in grooming himself. Last night before the pacifier incident, Amos was lying on a blanket sleeping and Zug decided he wanted his blanket. So he just sauntered over and laid down on the blanket as well- partially on the baby. He was no trouble once we moved him, though, and Amos didn't wake up to notice.

So yep, just a quick update on the Amos front! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=27 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=27 Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:38:35 -0600 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=26 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=26 Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:00:35 -0600 The animals are doing great with him, and he with them. Boo has calmed down a lot, which is great. She's realizing that we still love her and will still give her attention- she just has to be patient sometimes. And giving her jobs to do really seems to help her out. She now only has trouble when he has a dirty diaper (she loves to sniff it) or when he's crying for too long (she wants to help out). Zug has been good with him from the start, mostly because he started out ignoring Amos and continues to do that for the most part. Occasionally he'll get up the gumption to sniff him curiously. Then yesterday, Boo was laying down on the chaise facing Amos (who was also laying on the chaise with Sean) and she was very carefully licking his ear and his fingers. He completely by accident responded by petting her muzzle! He reached up and put his hand on the side of her muzzle, and stroked back toward her face, while she stayed completely still.

So things are going great here, and all of us wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. We hope your holidays are full of good times with family. Our best Christmas present arrived early, leaving us with all we want for Christmas is to spend time with our family and friends. Because really, how do you top the gift of a beautiful baby boy?

]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=25 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=25 Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:39:18 -0600 Click on the thumbnails to see bigger (and fuzzier) pictures of Baby Heber!

And.... stop here if you want to be surprised.

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Yes, Baby Heber is very likely going to be Baby Boy Heber (much to my sister's chagrin :) ). He looks perfectly normal, and had a heartbeat today of 139 beats per minute. His head measurements and leg measurements, etc, were all perfectly normal, and there was no signs of anything going wrong. So far, he looks like he's going to be a healthy, normal baby boy come December! The person doing the ultrasound said she was 99% certain our baby was a boy, since she couldn't be 100% certain. All of the bones looked good, and we paused for a bit to just watch the four chambers of his heart pump. Yes, I am still a biology geek. On that note, his bones were awesome! I could have just looked at them all day. At times, since it's a moving picture and not like the stills we uploaded, you could see pretty cool details, like his little legs kicking, and his head turning. It looked like he was waving at us when we snapped the picture of his hand. I think his little face is just adorable, but that could be just mama-hormones coming out in me :). Oh! and we found out why I haven't felt him moving yet- the placenta is in the front, so that's not uncommon.

We almost immediately started tossing names around, though we have a long time to decide. We have some names we like, but we also want to make sure they fit him when we finally get to see him face to face, and we have time to think about alternate names and add and subtract names from the "like list". The ultrasound technician said from the measurements that our due date should be the 9th, but our OB is keeping it the 13th, since it's an estimate anyway. She did say she wouldn't let the birth be later than the 19th, as she doesn't want pregnancies to go past the 40th week. So we'll definitely get to introduce little Baby Boy Heber to the world face to face by Christmastime! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=24 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=24 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:49:46 -0500 While at work (I work at a shelter), I received a call about a lost cat. This was an all declawed, older cat who was pretty shy and I was told she was an indoor-only cat. Since I've been doing a lot of reading and such on how best to find particular types of lost pets (indoor versus outdoor cats, shy versus confident, etc) and so I gave the lady the information I had on how best to go about finding her cat (which I do a lot nowadays), and I also put her down on the lost list at work. She was very happy with my suggestions, and then out of the blue, she asks, "Why doesn't someone train a bloodhound or something to look for animals like this?" It just hit me, the similarity between this and how this whole Boo-training thing started, and I just felt compelled to tell her that I was training my dog for this sort of situation, but she was far from down with training. Nevertheless, her need just reached out and grabbed me, and I offered to bring Boo along and talk with her later that night after work around 8 pm. I made sure to tell her that neither Boo nor I are certified yet and that Boo wasn't very good, but that we would do what we could to help her.

My husband tagged along, and we met the cat owners just a little before 8 pm. They were two very sweet nuns, and obviously distraught about their missing cat. I introduced myself, my husband, and of course, the Boo. Since the nuns had had a confirmed sighting, we tried up that way first (which I realize now was a mistake, but I wasn't exactly thinking clearly), and I got a little worried when I found out that the sighting was about 2 or 3 blocks away from the exit point. It nagged at me, and I kept telling my husband that it didn't make since, as everything I had read said the cat should be close to the house (so we should be searching close to the house). But I thought perhaps something had happened to run the cat off, and then maybe she'd hang out close to the area she was spotted. This area was filled with excellent hiding places, and I took Boo around and pointed out good spots to set traps and feeding stations. Boo was okay, checking where asked for the most part, but I wasn't sure if she would alert or not to a cat. Maybe half an hour into the search, we approached a stand of trees. We saw a cat in the trees, which spooked out of the brush and away across a neighbor's lawn. It was not our cat. Then, we saw another cat, and Boo alerted to it. It also spooked, toward a lean to which I had identified already as a good hiding spot. Boo, of her own initiative, stuck her nose to the ground and tracked that cat all the way to the lean to, under a wagon. She repeatedly alerted there when asked to find a cat, and I'm pretty positive there's a hole in the lean-to wall that leads under the shed, and around to where we set a trap.

We kept looking, and Boo alerted to a neighbor's cat, and I identified some more likely places to set up feeding stations, and then we went back to the nuns' house. I told them I wanted to check by their house, just to be sure, since it seemed so strange that this cat would be spotted so far away. We looked around, and I advised them to change the location of the feeding station they had near their house. Then, finding nothing, we stood near their garage and I was giving some final advice and also trying to boost their confidence. All of a sudden, one of the nuns stopped- she heard meowing. It was coming from the garage. We quickly opened the door and I very gingerly went into the crowded garage, without Boo so as not to spook an already shy and possibly frightened kitty (hoping this was our Katie). Finally, I lifted a sheet, and there she was! She must have heard us talking long enough to gain the confidence to meow in response to her owners voice.

I of course felt very silly, as I should have searched the house first, and I definitely should have thought of the garage! It seems so obvious now. But it was a learning experience, and Boo did very well in her search- better than I had thought, and this was when it counted!

The nuns were ecstatic. I was just so thrilled and humbled to be able to take part in their joy! It was so very amazing and... I just can't find the exact words. I am so very excited to keep training both Boo and myself, and I can't wait to truly begin helping people. I got home at 9:45, thoroughly exhausted, but I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. I knew right away that I just had to tell you about this. I learned a lot, and can't wait to learn more.

]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=23 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=23 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:20:00 -0500 I just have to say, life is good right now. I'm feeling incredibly blessed. I have an awesome husband, a great house that I can decorate to my heart's content, a well-behaved dog, and a fairly well-behaved cat. Boo is a 50 lbs tornado of energy now, at 7 months old, and Zuggy is..... actually kind of getting fat at 11 months old. He comes when called now and is learning to sit on command. He also responds surprisingly well to "No", especially for a cat. I'm going to teach him to shake- it'll be awesome! Boo has thousands of tricks at her disposal, it seems sometimes. She's getting incredibly good at all of them, which means I need to come up with new ones soon. Actually, yesterday she went and brought my shoe to me when I asked her to. It was a fluke, but a funny, funny one.

Work is great. Sure, I come home and complain to Sean about customers or coworkers or whatnot sometimes (just ask him), but really it's quite nice. I'm doing a job that I love, and I'm doing something that matters (at least I think it does). It's not glamorous, but it has intrinsic rewards. For instance, after a couple weeks of sitting in a kennel with two horribly neglected terriers from Iowa City, they are now up for adoption and actually come out to see people! They're still really afraid of the general public, but that will get better with time. When they were reunited after a week of separation (one went up for adoption before the other), they were clearly overjoyed to see each other and pressed up against each other through the fence separating them. They missed each other! It was great seeing how happy they were to be near each other again. They seem to be doing well with their new kennel-mates, too. Each is in with a more confident, outgoing dog, so hopefully that will rub off on them and help complete the process.

Yesterday I helped with a training class, which was excellent. When I decided I'd rather work in a shelter-type environment rather than be a vet, it was because I wanted to work with behavior more than anatomy. Well I got my job in a shelter, and I already wrote about all the awesome things that have happened to me since. Now, I realized that I really am going to live my dream. I'm being groomed, it seems, to take over training when the current trainer goes off to an official training school for a couple months or so. I'm helping him teach his class, and he told me on the 4th class day, I'll be teaching instead of him. That was how the former trainer (before him) became a trainer- she was just told to take over class one day. I'm psyched. I get to learn a lot from the current trainer, and then who knows what will happen? It's incredibly exciting for me.

Sometimes I wonder if all this will suddenly collapse, since it's like I'm living a dream-life. Things haven't always happened like (and when) I wanted them to, but it's better this way, I think. I guess there's nothing for it but to just appreciate it while it lasts, however long that is, and try never to take it for granted. I've a lot to be thankful for, and that's what really matters. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=22 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=22 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:16:53 -0500 I'm working salary now at my job. I haven't really been feeling like I'm working too much more than before, and I'm apparently doing a good job. I still make stupid mistakes now and then, but that's a common thing across the board, it seems. I was a little apprehensive about going salary just because I didn't want to burn out. However, I think I'm dealing with the things I need to deal with, namely that I can't save everyone. I use a lot of ethics viewpoints in my work, weighing pros and cons to make a decision, and sometimes it's really hard, but I do like it. I like having to think about ethics.

Sometimes I feel like the characters on the show Scrubs when they were interns and everything was hard. And they learned things about people. People are not always very smart, and they're often not kind, even when coming in to save a life. You'd be surprised how many times customers try to push us around. If you have a good crew that day where everyone meshes nicely, it really helps, cuz you have the support of the rest of the staff right there with you on your decision. But it's still hard when you try to show people why they can't do what they want to do and they get upset and try to make you feel guilty for even trying to help them. There are countless examples, and I won't go into them. People lie, and they are rude, and they try to belittle you. And sometimes they're just plain stupid. Sometimes they're afraid. Sometimes they feel vulnerable and so lash out at you. And sometimes they just are looking for help and don't know where to go. Sometimes you get the gems who understand how things work, or who do their very best to help out. Those are the people who you have to try to focus on. They outweigh the troublesome, even if they don't outnumber.

I don't know if this even makes sense, even to me. But, sense or no, there it is. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=21 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=21 Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:23:45 -0500 Since we decided to get a house, we knew we wanted a dog as well as a cat. We've of course got Daboo, but no kitty. Well, for a couple weeks I'd started looking for cats at work, picking out calm adults who were nice and clean. I'd picked out three that I thought would work, and then the next day all three got sick. Sick cats often just get sicker and are euthanized, so this was bad. I knew a coworker of mine would foster two of them, so Sean and I decided to foster the third. After all, it'd also work as a kind of trial period for Kitty and Boo. Well, as Sean was putting the cat carrier into the car, it broke, and out ran kitty. We haven't seen him since, despite a sprinting chase up and down the road till Kitty disappeared in the weeds near the shelter. I set traps for a couple days, but no luck. My coworker adopted the other two.

Well, I found a cat soon after that just totally caught my eye the first time I saw him. We'd named him Divit, for he'd been a stray, and we figured he was about 10 months old- almost an adult. Today we tried Divit and Daboo together, and the rest is history. Divit is now Zugzug, and home with us. He's a purring machine and loves people. He doesn't so much like Daboo's eager attempts to play tag with him, but tolerates her pretty well. I think they'll settle in well, and I know Sean likes Zugzug as much as I do.

We need to get Zuggy some toys, cuz he's working on killing the blanket with a death bite right now. :) It'l be nice when Daboo settles down and learns to relax around him. We won't have to keep yelling at her.

A portrait.

Zug and Sean.

]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=20 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=20 Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:30:21 -0500 Housetraining is going great. I think she may just have it down. And yesterday I picked up on training her again, which was great! I really enjoy working with her. Daboo's repertoire includes: inside, outside, bedtime (which means go into your crate), sit, lay down, no, slow down, up, leave it, drop it (though she's not very fast on this one), come here, bring it back, go get it (which is also sometimes find it) and wait (which means stop dancing around me and back off and lay down or sit, I don't care which, but settle down). Yesterday, something finally clicked and she learned shake. This means that now I can work with her on learning two variants of shake: high five, and something I'm going to call 'say sorry', in which she'll lay down and cover her eyes with her paws. That'll look so cute! I'm also teaching her roll over and have plans to teach her to army crawl. Sean and I noticed something interesting yesterday after Daboo learned shake. She doesn't quite get lay down yet, and so we told her to lay down, and for this difficult trick she used her most recent difficult trick- shake. Ginger, Sean's parents' dog, does the same thing. If she thinks you're asking her something hard, she'll try shake, hoping that's the right response.

As promised, pictures of the puppy are to follow.

First, this is a picture of Sean's ear now. It's healed very nicely, leaving only a faint line. If you haven't heard of that adventure, read his blog about it.

A picture of Daboo with the flash. I rather like how this one turned out.

Daboo had her head on my knee just prior to this shot, but lifted her head to watch the camera.

Daboo and Sean. Awwww!

This poor tennis ball, by the way, is nearly all unwrapped by now. Daboo loves to play fetch and catch frisbees.

Whenever one of us goes away, Daboo sits in their spot. In this case, Sean stepped out of the office for a bit.

Something interesting on the screen!

So let's see... we've met quite a few of our neighbors. Our neighbors to the right in the white house own the newest house on the block and are now the oldest couple on the block. They were friends with the couple who owned our house and they'd raised their kids together, those kids now being in their 30s and 40s. They are a very nice couple and gave us a nice rocking recliner for our living room. All they asked for payment was for us to shovel or snowblow their sidewalk a couple of times this winter. They have a slight problem with the two dogs on the other side of them, so we try to be careful. The neighbor dogs, Guiness and Sampson, apparently sometimes relieve themselves in their lawn. Guiness is a border collie mix and plays frisbee. He gets along okay with Daboo, but she annoys him with her wanting to play. Sampson hates Daboo and has now tried to attack her twice, barreling out of their yard barking all the way. He's a miniature pinscher, though, so he'll barrel up to her then stop when he realizes she's a lot bigger than him. Still, he has tried to bite her, so we keep an eye on him, but we aren't too worried. Their owners are really cool and really friendly. They told us who lived in just about every house on the block and gave us encouragement in housetraining Daboo.

Our direct neighbors on the other side are cool too. They are a couple with a cat and a little boy, I think. The cat gets taken for a walk on a leash every day. Apparently he gets very very upset if he doesn't get taken for a walk. (So, Kimberly..... cats can't be taken for walks? ;) ). It's such a weird sight watching the cat go for a walk on a leash! The guy, Wayne, is a sub-contracter with a big red dump truck, which is a great landmark for finding our house. Next to these guys are a couple with three boys. The guy apparently isn't the nicest guy on the block, but we haven't seen him much. We met them because they were playing with their border collie puppy outside, so Daboo and Zeus played together for a while. The girlfriend of one of the boys is very nice and friendly, where as the boys may be more shy.

Across the street, there is a biker neighbor named Bruce. He is apparently very serious about his bicycling, and has the gear and everything. He swung by after a bike ride to welcome us and was very friendly, telling us a little about the neighbors on that side of the street, and then after a while took his leave to go get his other bike and go out for more riding. In the back of our house, just right of straight across our backyard is a family with two little boys and a little girl. The parents are friendly, but the kids play outside unsupervised a lot, generally playing with the neighbors, I guess. The two boys love Daboo, although the older is allergic, but the little girl is terrified of her. She comes over anyway, following her brothers, and then freezes and screams and cries, even though all the way over she saw Daboo playing with her brothers. Maybe someday she'll decide Daboo isn't so bad. She has petted her before. Daboo plays great with the two little boys. At one point they made up a game in which they ran all over the yard with the leash and Daboo chased them, catching the leash (but not their clothes) in her mouth and then tug of war! It was hilarious, and they really wore her out.

The last house we know of is the house between the family with those kids and the family that owns Zeus. They're the other house with a large deck in back, and their yard is fenced in with a chain link fence. This house will soon be owned or may already be owned now by our new banker. We switched banks to Dupaco, and the banker who signed us up was really friendly and we got to talking. She and her husband graduated from UNI as well, and they were getting a new house too! Then we compared addresses and they were pretty close to us. Well we got an email from her about a week ago or so just checking up seeing how we liked our new house and stuff, and they bought a red brick house with a large deck. The only house we know of matching that description on that street is the house whose backyard touches ours- and it's for sale. So it may be their house. What a coincidence!

Well I just realized that this blog post is getting mighty long, so I'm going to stop writing for now. I'll post some more pictures of the backyard and stuff later! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=19 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=19 Fri, 25 May 2007 10:45:47 -0500 So I finally finished my thesis, which ended up being 36 pages long, I think. What a load off my shoulders when I turned it in! Apparently I visibly relaxed. And my thesis presentation went well too. I didn't stumble too much (or some said, barely at all) and I had some good questions. It was a lot of fun, and Sean gave me flowers afterward.

Then there was my last finals week, of which the first part was taken up by the afore mentioned thesis. Thursday I took my last final and then came home and cleaned up the apartment, which Sean had finished packing up, and we turned in our keys and went to party with my friends in Roth. We slept in the living room of my in-laws that night and closed on our house the next day and moved a bunch of stuff in. Saturday we were too tired to move, so we just hung out with family, which was really nice, and picked up our puppy. You'll read about puppy later on. :)

The house is so nice. It's really large, compared to the apartment, and I actually have cupboards that are empty so far. I have a box or two of the kitchen to unpack yet, and then it'll be all done. The rest of the house, however, is a different matter. Boxes everywhere! The downstairs is where we have our tv and games and all that (including the dog) and so it's like our den. It's pretty clean, as is the upstairs. But the living room, dining room, and office, all on the main level, are just full of boxes and moving stuff. Speaking up, Michelle I have boxes and paper for wrapping breakables in for you- you should get them from me. We love the house so much. We get to spread out, especially when we get more furniture.

The puppy is a farm puppy from Seth's aunt and uncles' farm. She's 3 months old and called Daboo. Though we've only had her since Saturday, so for five days, she's like, genius pup. She has her own blanket to lay on and a bunch of toys which she carries around with her. Her favorite is a green bunny the vet gave her which squeaks. She's chewing its ear off right now. She's already learned mostly how to walk on a leash (she walks better than some adult house dogs I know who've lived inside with people all their lives) and knows her name and come here and no and she plays fetch. She's learning drop it, leave it, and sit. She was basically reverse house trained, but after the first two days (which were mega-stressful), she's doing better. Her third and fourth day she only made one mess each, and the third day it was my fault for not getting to her fast enough. So far today, no messes yet, and this morning she barked to go out. Her separation anxiety is getting better, and it helps that we keep her really tired. But everywhere she goes she's praised for being 'so cute!' and 'so well behaved'. The vet and the Petsmart groomer both really liked her.

I guess the next big thing is that I got a job at the Humane Society. I'll be working part-time there. basically doing grunt work, but that's okay. I went in yesterday to shadow and orient, and it really seems like a great place to work.

Well more later- this was basically a huge data dump, I know. Pictures and stories will come later, likely of the puppy and perhaps some about our cool neighbors. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=18 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=18 Thu, 10 May 2007 11:21:36 -0500 So that just makes it all suck more. I just got my final letter today. Last week I got notice from Wisconsin that they weren't going to let me in, and just now I received another polite rejection letter from Illinois. So for the next year I won't be going to veterinary school or animal behavior school. Gar.

I just want to work with animals. One would think it wouldn't be so hard. But maybe Sean and I can move back to Dubuque and buy a house and be close to family and stuff. I don't know- we're still going over options. I have a phone meeting with CSU to review my application and see what was weakest, and I asked for the same with Illinois. Wisconsin sent me a sheet of paper showing the stats for those who had applied and those who they had accepted, both in state and out of state. My scores for almost everything (GPA and my GRE scores) were higher than the average for the accepted in state candidates and than the total who'd applied. But, they were lower across the board when compared to the out of state candidates who were accepted. We'll see what CSU says, and maybe that'll give me some options, like should I retake my GRE's, retake Organic II, both, or if it won't help enough even if I do both. We'll see, and hopefully it won't be that last scenario.

*sigh* ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=17 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=17 Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:11:45 -0500 Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul yesterday at the GBPAC. That show totally rocked- I loved it! Celtic Music is just so much fun, and you could see they were having a blast just playing with each other, walking around and playing by this musician or that in the band, challenging each other and just generally having a grand old time. It was spectacular and I relished it. :D ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=16 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=16 Sat, 03 Mar 2007 12:30:43 -0600

It is in those bad times when you can’t see up from down that your faith is tested, whatever your faith might be in. That’s when faith lives or dies. If you pray fervently for something and your prayer is answered with a “no”, you have a decision to make. You can either decide that whoever you prayed to actually doesn’t exist or just plain hates you, or you can decide that you have a lesson to learn. The former path can lead you down a road of denial, and blame, while the latter path can lead you down a path of growth and understanding. You can look back or go forward; you can wallow or continue on with life, however painful that might be. Friday night my beloved iguana whom I had rescued died after a risky surgery. Her rehabilitation had made her so healthy that her body had decided to try to lay eggs, and that process took her life. I can blame myself for any of a number of actions which may have been mistakes, or I can accept the fact that while I may sometimes make mistakes, she got a better life for almost a year and a half. I could lose faith in a God who would take something so precious from me, or I could try to learn something from the experience to take with me in a positive manner and remember all the good things about my iguana. When my first iguana died, I felt very guilty and I doubted my faith in myself and in God for a long time. This made me feel lost quite a bit of the time and very uncertain of any decision I might make. I couldn’t understand why this had to happen. This time around, I felt lost for a bit too, but not so much anymore. My tears come not from rage or guilt or uncertainty, but from the simple fact that I miss her. So in this way I can look back as see that although my faith faltered for a bit after my first bout with iguana death, it has strengthened and grown in the heuristic manner described in class. My faith is enabling me to make sense of this most recent death and come to terms with it while directing me to look for meaning and something to learn from the experience that I can add to who I am. One needs challenging experiences such as these to grow. If one continually avoids the valleys and anything which might cause a person to question their faith, that faith can never grow. Without challenge, without these trying experiences and tests, a faith becomes stale and dogmatic rather than vibrant and dynamic. I can reason in my mind to make decisions or learn lessons and my faith guides how I perceive life while also giving me a guiding rail when life drops the floor out from under me. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=15 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=15 Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:24:59 -0600

We'll never forget how much she meant to us, how alive she was. She had such real personality, and taught us both so very much. Her rehabilitation was a joint project for Sean and I, and she captured our hearts. We built her a huge, way awesome enclosure which she loved, and her heath and behavior both improved. She was healthy enough to have eggs, and calm enough to not panic at the sight of us. She recognized us, and it was amazing how much she calmed down when the vet put her in our arms.

To her personality, Her expressions, To all we learned from her, And all she taught others, as well.

If even one child from either program she went to in life goes on to not buy an iguana, spread awareness, or research proper care of an iguana, then her life impacted the world and other iguanas. And even if this doesn't happen, she impacted us, and we can go on to impact the world.

To Kala, in all her sweet life. ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=14 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=14 Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:46:10 -0600 We just got the call from the vet that Kala pulled through- there was happy dancing going on! We'll be picking her up this afternoon.

But she's hypocalcemic, and her back legs and tail aren't working so well right now. She'll be getting lots of extra special care for a while till she makes a full recovery. We'll have to rearrange her cage so she doesn't have to climb, but hopefully soon she'll be back to being unstoppable!

I'm so happy she's alive! I'll keep you updated!! ]]> http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=13 http://blog.quamada.com/?sv=13 Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:41:58 -0600