Random Photos- 13 weeks old

Tom playing with Emme- he picked up her toys gently and put them in front of her!

Emme petting her doggies

Emme looking all cute

Emme contemplating what Baby Einstein video to watch.

Sunday Walks

Smartie visited us for a few days so Abbie could recuperate from her life saving surgery. We took advantage of a beautiful day and went for a nice long walk. (Smartie couldn't wait to go home. I had her out walking for three straight days and she was exhausted.)

Crazy Week

Last week was Emme's first week of school and I have tons of blogs written but I haven't posted them yet since I have no time SO I will get to that this week. However I will leave you with some cute pics from the week.

MIRACLE updated

We found out today that ABBIE IS CANCER FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are all walking in the American Cancer Society Dogswalk as previously planned on May 3rd. If you would like to donate please click the link on the right. Any amount is greatly appreciated.

Miracle

Smartie, Emme and Abbie (post surgery)

I am happy to say that Abbie had surgery Wednesday, was home Thursday evening and was back to kissing Emme on Friday. The oral surgeon was confident the surgery would be successful and was able to perform a less invasive surgery than what was originally thought. Abbie's canine teeth were able to be saved and from what I saw today you couldn't really tell she had surgery except for some swelling when she opened her mouth. She should be back to her old self in no time. We are all so grateful that we were able to find this cancer early and attack it and that we had the best veterinary care. Special thanks to our pal Dr. Lauren Stein, Abbie's oncologists Drs. Liebman and Taylor and her surgeon Dr. Carmichael for making this miracle happen. Also a great big thank you to all our friends and family for being so supportive during this difficult time. Now I just can't wait to see Abbie out on the agility field with my dad.

Diva

I am so stinking cute!

Easter Sunday

We spent Easter Sunday at Grandma & Grandpa Q's. Emme was very happy to see everyone especially her big brother Paul. The Easter Bunny left lots of presents too which she loves and Mommy can't wait to dress her up in. While we were at my in laws Jerry stayed at my mom's with Abbie and Tom spent the day with my dad and Smartie in Goshen for an AKC trial. I am happy to say Tom had four runs that weekend (I ran him on Sat & my dad ran him Sun) and he got four Q's- three first place and one second place along with his Novice titles in Jumpers with Weaves and Standard. My dad ran him great on Sunday and now he wants to do a class with him. Don't get any ideas Dad I am not going to let you keep him! Tom will always be a Momma's boy and I love running him. But I am glad you give him the opportunity to run more. You can rent him until Abbie is ready!

Happy Easter

On Thursday Marianne and I took the girls over to Dominick's parents Farm Market. Emme loved going through the greenhouse and looking at all the plants. It smelled so good in there! Then we put Emme in a basket for an Easter picture since I never took her to see the Easter Bunny at the mall- bad mommy. Besides I think she enjoyed having plastic eggs dumped on her instead.

Special Prayer for Abbie

Two weeks ago while visiting my parents I thought Abbie's mouth was bleeding. Upon inspection I noticed a lump on her gums covering her two bottom teeth. We took her to the vet the next day and set up surgery to have it removed two days later. The vet said it was an epilous growth that sometimes grows inside a dog's cheek but Abbie's was grwoing in an awkward spot over her teeth. So off to surgery. They then sent the growth to be biopsied and the vet said he would be surprised if it came back anything bad since she is only two and very healthy. Last Monday we got the horrible news that the growth was a very rare and aggressive form of cancer. The prognosis is terrible. What makes it worse is Abbie is running all around like nothing is wrong and not even acting sick. My parents are exploring the options and have met with an oncologist and next week an oral surgeon. This cancer is rare for animals and unheard of in Golden Retrievers. This is a very sad time for our family.

Back to Work

This past Tuesday and Wednesday I went back to work. My leave was up and I had to return to work. The kids at school missed me so much and we were back into a regular routine in no time. Emme starts daycare on April 20th so we are busy getting ready for that. Next week we will be going in a few hours each day to transition her to the new environment.

"Mow The Lawn"

Check out the link below- it is pretty funny.

My agility friend Lisa writes:

Schmutzy, Wedgie and agility are my loves, but writing silly, funny commercials is what pays the bills.
While I've never bugged anyone to look at stuff I did, this is an exception.
I just finished a viral spot for Wilkinson sword in Europe (it's Schick in the USA), for a new trimmer made especially for a ladies', um, bikini area. It's actually pretty cool - a razor on one side, and a trimmer on the other.
To get the word out, I wrote a little diddy about how great it feels to have a well-groomed bikini area -- it's a music video called "mow the lawn." It does get a little raunchy, but it's also pretty darn funny.
It's alreay getting quite the buzz on places like twitter and it has over 150,000 views on youtube.
Anyway, this is viral, so I really need help getting it out there. The more people that see it, the better its chance of winning big awards, and the better chance I have to demand time off to go to more agility trials and volunteer as a scribe or ring crew!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvFSgXpyhoM&feature=related

Emme's Shower

Emme and I had a great time at her shower. We got to see lots of friends and family, some of which we do not get to see often. We got lots of presents and thank everyone for all the wonderful gifts. Special thanks to my mom and sister for throwing such a nice shower and Keri for the delicious cookies, Kevin for doing lots of little things like piping pacifiers! and Marianne for helping to organize all the stuff once we got it home.

Y Agility Connecticut

This past weekend we did a match show for Noordelijk at FDR and then went to my baby shower and then left for Connecticut for Sunday's runs for Y Agility. It was a great weekend. We froze on Saturday morning but I think the match went very well. Tom and I did horrible in Gamblers. It was my first run outdoors post pregnancy and I think I freaked Tom out by running with a hood on. My dad ended up running him for Standard and he ran clean. This dog is a punk! We have no Advanced Standard Q's and are in Master's everything else and he runs clean in a match. It isn't even contacts that get us- it's discriminations and nonsense things. He even peed in the ring once when he heard thunder. So after the baby shower and unloading everyting and putting it away we finally left for Connecticut on Saturday night around 10pm to ensure Emme slept through the night without interruption. She was great.

Emme's first night at a hotel!

Sunday Tom had three runs- Advanced Snooker, Advanced Standard and Master's Jumpers. We started by walking the wrong course in Snooker and didn't realize until my dad was out there with Smartie. So I figured we weren't going to get far but Tom was awesome. I was in the wrong place A LOT and he worked it out and we got the Q and the Advanced Snooker title. For Standard I had perfect handling and Tom decided to wrong course out of nowhere- no Q there and Master's Jumpers was hard but we did a good job. Tom missed the reverse flow and went into the wrong end of the tunnel so we got eliminated.



The best time of the day was when my dad ran Smartie in Standard and Smartie ran beautifully and made 7 JUMPS to get her final Q to move into PII Standard. We are so proud of you Smart-O.

Emme's Baby Shower

Today was Emme's baby shower. We had a dog agility match in the morning and Tom did ok. We are packing now to go to Y Agility's trial in Connecticut. We are leaving tonight so I will post pics of everything on Monday. Emme and I had such a great time and are thankful for all the wonderful gifts and it was so great to see everyone. Thank you also to Jeanine, Keri and my mom for all the preparation and great shower. AND a super special thank you to Kevin for helping with everything too and not killing Jeanine!

Look What I Can DO!

Yesterday while I was volunteering at PCOTC for my yearly hours, I turned to see Emme pulling her rings that were hanging from her stroller and putting them in her mouth. I kept pulling them away to see if she could get them again and she did. She was able to grab them as long as they weren't too high. My friends also nicknamed her chicken since she was making clucking noises the whole time! Watch out Uncle Bob!

Emme has also been putting her hands in her mouth a ton lately especially when she is tired. She has been refusing the pacifier lately and this morning I woke up to find her with her thumb perfectly in her mouth and she was sucking away.