Celebrating Shelby's Birthday

Last Saturday night we went out with neighbors, Nicole, Jeff & Travis Pedigo for a fun dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate Shelby's 6th Birthday!  

We're grateful for such wonderful neighbors.  While Stacy was out of town this week, they helped get Shelby after school and take care of him till I could get home.  Yeah for the village that raises a child!

Sophie....Our First Day

There were several dogs, but Shelby wanted to know if we could walk Sophie.

Shelby was funny, negotiating with the Rescue Shelter.  He wanted to know if "we can keep the sweater".  We convinced him to relinquish the sweater to other dogs they rescue that need it, promising he can pick out a new sweater for Sophie.  LOL...I have to admit, I was proud!  We we were talking adoption and Shelby brought it up, the man said, "I'm sure we can work something out."  LOL...and that, my friends, is where I come in.  He is a SPITTING IMAGE of his father.  Then, he opens his mouth..... hehehehe

 Her first bath.  The pet store gave us a free bath for adoption purchase.  Sophie was a bit skiddish, but Stacy worked his magic and she was putty in his hands.

 And then she was home.  Shelby was the cutest, trying to make her comfy.

 Yeah...what do you want me to do with this?

Poor baby was zomped!!!!  But precious as she put her paw over her nose to sleep.  There was a serious smell...I was willing to blame the boys in my house, if ya know what I mean, till she passed gas out loud and then I couldn't help but declare, "Sophie!!!!"

 TV

 Such a sweet girl......

Shelby truly does adore her.   It already brings me to tears to watch them interact.  From the moment he saw her they had an amazing chemistry.

 Awww....guess who else she won over.  Not hard, girlfriend, as he's a really big sucker!  :-)

 Storytime.....Shelby was so excited to have Sophie as his partner in crime.

 She loves the ear...

 The happiest kid ever!!!!!!  He was sooooo excited for "his" dog to sleep with him.

 Introducing her to the "other" dogs in his life.  The kind she can't chew.

Night night Sweet Girl....you guys sleep tight.  Your new job is to protect my baby.  He's the one that chose you.

This whole transition has been harder than I could imagine.  Everything makes me cry.  It's ridiculous!!!!  But, I know Sophie is here for Shelby and she's a tremendous gift, so I will love her, gas and all, LOL, and we'll all keep moving forward. :-)

Introducing....Sophie Jones!

Introducing our newest family member...Sophie!

Last Sunday we went to lunch, and there was as animal adoption area set up outside our restaurant.  Shelby started asking when he could get his own dog.  I realized how unfair it was to him that I was still in mourning over the loss of our precious Abby.  So, we all started looking on the internet and talking about what kind of dog we wanted.  Our only criteria were: no purebred...a rescue dog (just like Abby) that needed a good home and a medium to large dog that we could trust to protect Shelby.  So, his love for chihuahuas was out.  Online we looked at pics and quickly found Shelby gravitating to German Shepherd breeds.

Today we set out, have discussions with Shelby not to settle for any dog, and only to take on one he would truly love for a long time.  We went to the Animal Shelter in Dublin and looked at several dogs, but none that grabbed him.  He even asked, "Can we leave?" while covering his ears from the barking. Then, we went to the SPCA.  There was a German Shepherd mix we wanted to look at, but they said she gnaws on your arm when excited....no gonna work with a 6 yrs old and his friends coming around. Stacy and I fell in love with Rudy, a 1 1/2 yrs old St. Bernard/Lab mix.  Soooo sweet.  But, Shelby said he wanted a really little dog that would get bigger.  He wanted a little bitty puppy......until he met Sophie.

After a few more stops and striking out, Shelby saw her.  I thought he'd like the white dog with black spots, but he said, "I like her!"  She was bigger and he even said later how he had commented he wanted a little dog, but guess not because he saw Sophie.  Watching the chemistry between them was so cute.  When I asked him what he liked about her, he said, "Her fur is so soft and her face is cute to me."  He then said, "Yup.  I love her.  That's my dog."  And that was it.  Our new addition to the family.

So far she's still a bit timid.  She's very doscile and sweet. They said she gets along well with other dogs, kids and cats.  I can see why.  She's so easy going.  She's about a year old, so Shelby decided today, January 26th will be her 1 yr birthday.

I'll admit, I cried the whole way home.  I wasn't even sure why.  I like Sophie too!!!!  But bringing another dog to Abby's home was very difficult.  My heart is so heavy, but I know Sophie's the one.  And Tesa texted that "Abby approves.  Who do you think helped Shelby pick out the right dog."  I loved it!

So, welcome Sophie!  You found a family that will love and adore you for as long as you live, sweet girl!!!!!

Eagle Awards Assembly

We were so proud of Shelby when he was honored at the first of the school year Eagle Awards Assembly!  He looked so handsome, too.  He's very big on his own style and picking out his own outfit.  He wanted to go Texas Cowboy theme with his jeans in his boots so everyone could see his boots from Tehya.  And then he wanted a mohawk hairdo.  LOL...go figure.  Cali meets Texas combo.

This is Principal Lembo's first year at Joe Michell and though I didn't know the former principal, Ms. Lembo is great!  She's highly involved and never anything but smiling and friendly.  And speaking of great, Ms. B, Shelby's teacher is tremendous!  We are spoiled rotten with Bobbi Byrnes.  She is a parent's dream in every way.  She's tough on the problem for sure (which we appreciate) but not tough on the kid themselves.  And her constant communication with parents is amazing.  I get emails back at 10pm on a Saturday night sometimes!  And the best part...Shelby just adores her!

Shelby's award was the first of 5 per class.
E - Enthusiastic Student!  Shelby is so eager to learn and willing to please Ms. B.
He absolutely LOVES school!  One Friday night he said he was sad it was the weekend, because he wouldn't get to see Ms. B.  He corrected quickly saying maybe he wasn't really sad, because he really liked the weekends and time with Mom and Dad, but wished he could see Ms. B for just a little bit.  :-)  Talk about knowing your child is so well cared for during the day!

The other awards after E - Enthusiastic Student were A - Awesome Mathematician, G - Good Responsible Student, L - Listening Expert, E - Exceptional Reader

I couldn't help but notice that girls in every grade dominated the L - Listening Expert award.  HAHAHA....and it never gets any better, guys.

 And there she is....the #2 woman in Shelby's life. ;-)

Way to go, Shelby!  We're sooo proud of your achievement, Baby!!!!!!!

GoRuck San Francisco (Stacy)

I decided in June to take a challenge called GoRuck. This challenge is put on by former green berets. The guys leading the event (Cadre) are actual green berets. One of the main requirements is to have a backpack (ruck sack) with 6 bricks. The challenge is suppose to be about 8 to 10 hours and between 10 and 20 miles. All that I knew was that it was a military style event (It was not a race). So, I did not really know what to expect. I conned a friend of mine to join me. He is a on the local SWAT team, so it should be easy for him....right?

We started at Mission Park in San Francisco at 1:00 am. We were lined up and single file and our rucks were inspected to make sure we really had the 6 bricks. We were informed to take off any watches, GPS, cell phones, etc. We were not allowed to know what time it was or where we were. Then we were lined up to be assessed by the Cadre (like a drill instructor). We did a number of physical training activities in this park. The hardest one was called inchworm pushups. This involved everyone lining up head to toe on our stomach. I had to put my feet on the person behind me's shoulders. On the Cadre's command we had to do a push up. Not only was the body weight and ruck sack weight heavy, but the person in front of me was more weight. Another one was a race. Two lines at opposite ends of the park, about 100 yards apart. One person starts by crab walking, then when he/she (yes, we had a couple of ladies do this) reaches the other side the partner goes back doing a bear crawl. Remember all this time we have our rucks on. This race was taking a lot longer then everyone expected. We finally finished this and it was time to move on to the next thing. We were then lined up in formation to go for a jog. One person at all times had to carry the American Flag. One person had to wear one of the two hats (orange cone) at all time. The team has an additional 25lbs that we had to rotate who carried it. Our choice to carry was enough canned goods to weigh 25lbs. Luckily these were in another ruck sack, which made it a little easier to carry.

We had to run at a pretty good pace and if were did not keep pace we had to drop and do inchworm pushups. The next destination was about a mile and a half. If some bystander were to ask us what we are doing, we were suppose to respond with yelling "GORUCK". Our next stop was at a place called Corona Heights Park. The nice part about this stop was the view from the top of a hill. The city was all light up below us and pretty peaceful. We got to take a rest here. Enough time to take a few sips of water and a snack. It was time to move on and our Cadre noticed a couple of logs lying to the side of the pathway. So, we had to pick one and take it with us. This log had to weigh about 2000lbs, at least that is what it felt like.

We ended up hauling this log for about 3 miles total. We had 6 people on the log at all times, and rotated personnel about every 30 to 60 seconds. There were 25 of us total, so it was not long until you were back under the log. Once the log was picked up, it was not allowed to touch the ground again. After what seem like forever, we stopped at a gas station to take a break and grab some water. Most of us had the water bladders, but we need to be refilled. We parked the log in the handicapped parking space, which got a laugh out of everyone. We were there for about 10 minutes, and of the brave ones used this opportunity to drink some beer. Needless to say, I passed on the beer. We had to carry the log again to the next destination, which seemed like 5 miles away but was only a couple of miles.

During our next route with log, if we saw a police officer, we were supposed to yell "THREAT" and hit the ground. We had to do pushups until he/she was gone. We had a number of visits from the police through the night and day. Once was someone called them to complain we were making too much noise. The others were officers on patrol and just curious what we were up to.

We finally got to the next park, which I think was south Golden Gate Park. This one had a playground, soccer field, and baseball field. The sun has been up for a couple of hours now, so there were plenty of people at the park. We dropped the log at the side of the baseball field. We got to take another break. Then it was time for a game the Cadre came up with. We split in to two different teams. This was a relay race. Team 1 has to army crawl to first base, then crap walk to second base, then bear crawl to third base, and then army crawl back to home. Team 2 had to do the same but in the opposite direction (home to third to second to first to home). Our Cadre encouraged confrontation. Meaning when we passed our opponent about second base, we were to deter them from moving on. At half way from third to home (or first to home), whichever team was losing was allowed to send one person to deter the winning team. The winning team was allowed to send one guy to defend. This was a lot of fun. By then end of the race, it turned into an all out brawl. All in good fun, no one was ever upset. The winning team (the one I was on) decided to take the punishment with the losing team. So, we all had to grab a handful of dirt and use our water to make it into mud. Then we had to "Camo Up", which means rub the mud all over our face and neck.

Next, all we knew was to run. We did not know where we were going. We ended up running to the Golden Gate Bridge and across it. Saturday in San Francisco, there was tons of people of the bridge. Most moved out of the way, but there were a few we had to persuade to move. We got to the north side of the bridge and took a break and refilled our water. I was sure by now it had been about 10 hours and we should be done...No, I was wrong. We had to run back across the bridge and down to Crissy Field (which is the park right under the Golden Gate Bridge). On the run back, we had injuries (real ones or ones that the Cadre decided were "wounded in battle"). So, either one person had to pick that person up and carry or three people had to carry that one person. By the time we made it down to the water, everyone was either hurt or carrying someone.

We had to line up single file, interlocking arms along the beach. We walked into the water until we were about knee deep, took a seat and lied on our back. Then we proceeded to do flutter kicks, sit ups, hello dollies. Then we rolled over on our stomach and had to do some more inchworm pushups. Then we had to run back on the beach and form a circle. We then had to toss sand on each other. Get back into the water for more pushups, squats, thrusters, etc. Back to the beach and toss more sand. We then had to do more inchworm pushups on a circle. We were supposed to all be in the up position and walk our hand three steps. So, the circle was supposed to rotate. This was not happening, no matter how many times we did it. Then we lined up in two lines, shoulder to shoulder next to someone. Then they told us to look at the person next to you and then buddy carry them about 30 yards. I looked at the guy next to me, and there was no way he was carry me. So, I had to carry my ruck, him and his ruck. Then the Cadre tells us to line up in two lines and follow him and keep pace. He only went about 50 yards and stopped. He looked at us in disgust and told us to get back in the water. He had us line up in two lines about knee deep of water. He then said "Do you want to quit?". We all in unison said "NO". He said "Good, now take off your ruck...you are done". There was a big sound of relief as we all dropped our rucks.

I would say it is the hardest race/challenge I have done. I would not say it was fun, but I am very glad and proud that I did it. For completing, we got a patch that says "GORUCK TOUGH". That is all that I needed. Looking back, it was a wonderful experience and I think I would do it again.

Afterwards, I ended up mapping out where we went, which is below. So, we went about 11 miles and a total of 12 hours long. Luckily there was a photographer with us the whole time. I have included the link to the flickr page with all the photos

Yes, I paid to put myself through this!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/causticjb/sets/72157631934692885/