Slobber Boobytraps

I have always had small dogs. And they just don't slobber the way a BIG dog slobbers. Let's just say...Boy does Waylon slobber. Anytime we are in the kitchen and there might be food involved...Waylon slobbers. Heck! It you open anything in plastic the dog slobbers. And his slobber forms the spit bubbles out of the corner of his mouth and most times there is a long string of spit hanging from his mouth.

Oh yeah...and when those strings of spit fall to the floor (our house is all tile) they create these slimy, slippery wet spots. This morning Jackson has actually named these...Slobber Boobytraps.
We love you Waylon...and your slobber makes you YOU!

Waylon

On August 8th (my birthday) our new dog, Waylon came to live with us. Waylon is a 5 year old yellow lab that we adopted from the Labrador Retriever Rescue of Fresno. I had been looking at dogs for adoption for about a month when I saw Waylon on their website. I was lying in bed...I woke Lou up and showed him Waylon's profile. He was just too cute...I had to meet him.

Lou and I went the very next Sunday to meet Waylon. We were in love right away. He is so sweet and gentle. I didn't want to leave him. We found out about the adoption process and took an application. We went home and both of us kept thinking of Waylon.

We knew that the next dog we got was already promised to Jackson. We decided that if we wanted Waylon we needed to take Jackson to meet him. We took Jackson back to Petco that day to meet Waylon and they formed a cute relationship right away. As soon as Jackson got Waylon out of his kennel we laid down on the floor right next to Jackson.

We just couldn't leave without trying to get Waylon. We filled out the application right there in the store. They needed to check our references and do a home visit before we could have him. They also had another person looking at adopting Waylon. We went home and prayed that night that we would be able to bring Waylon home soon.

I prepared Jackson as best I could for the let down...just in case we didn't get him. Later that week we had our home visit and all seemed to go well. Jackson and Lou were cleaning the backyard and securing our fence to prepare for the home visit. The visit went great and that night they called to let us know that we GOT WAYLON! We were so excited.

Waylon came to live with us the following Monday. He adjusted to our family so quickly. We just love everything about him. He's so funny! So smart! So cute!
He loves to play ball. He forgets to let go of his ball sometimes, but that's okay!

He knows lots of neat tricks...he sits, stays, lays down and shakes hands/paws.
He knows that he can't sleep on my bed and he doesn't get on our furniture without an invite, but he already knows that he can get on Jackson's bed. This is where we find him a lot of the time. Most of the time he and Jackson can't sleep in his bed together because they crowed each other out. Waylon keeps it occupied when Jackson isn't home.
We love you Waylon. So glad you joined our family.

I Miss You BlogWorld

I just got onto my cute little Netbook that Lou bought me a year ago for my birthday...I haven't used it as much as I would have liked. I love that I can sit with this little computer and explore the World Wide Web all cozy in my big comfy bed.

I started reading blogs tonight...Some I haven't kept up with in way too long. And I realized how much I miss my daily routine of reading and writing blog posts. Even if I didn't have a lot to say it was still nice to spill all my thoughts for the day.

I made a goal tonight....I will check blogs daily and try to post at least twice a week.

Here's a little update on what's up with the Standifers.

I got a new job back in March. I now work for several businesses all in one. I do bookkeeping for ESPN Radio, His Magazine ( a local magazine in Fresno), a few sign companies in town , and I also help a friend of ours out with his bookkeeping when I can. My schedule is pretty jam packed, but I do find time for family and fun. I prefer to stay busy and I especially like the flexability I have working for a variety of comapnies all at once.

Every now and then I get an offer for more business, but I don't think I can take any more work on right now...this keeps me pretty busy.

I have had some health issues lately. I was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia back in July. I was happy to have a diagnosis for my crazy tooth/face pain, but I wasn't quite ready for something like this. I now take medication for nerve pain. The side effects are somewhat bothersome, but the medication seems to help the pain quite well.

For now, I am just glad to have the pain managed.

Lou is back to school...in his 3rd year of teaching. He is still coaching debate and forensics and his team just keeps growing. The kids just love him and I love watching him coach and teach. He is just so happy to be working with these great kids.

Lou is also working in a new band. It's just getting off the ground now...I'm hoping to see them play soon. I love watching my man on stage...He has such a wonderful voice.

Jackson is in the 2nd grade now. He has Mr. Amon for a teacher and he is really doing well this year. In his class this yer he "applied" for a job and got the job he wanted. He does the lunch count in the mornings and leads the flag solute. He is really proud to have that job. He never wants to miss a day of school because he's so worried about who will do his job if he's not there.

This year Jackson is playing soccer for the first time. He is playing goalie. I is actually doing an awesome job. His team hasn't won too many games yet, but they are only about half way through the season. We'll see how the rest of the season goes.

Our pups are happy and spoiled as always. Simon started taking seperation anxiety medication a few months back and they are helping him so much. He used to have some mighty distructive days while we were out of the house before...He would tear things up and chew at his paws and make them bleed. He would get so anxious and upset when we got ready to leave the house. Our vet, Dr. Gary, put him on Reconcile for anxiety and it works great. He is still playful and active, but he is much more mellow overall. He calms right down when we leave and he is getting used to our routine again.

Benji is as cute as ever. She's always been a lover. We're having a little problem with dry skin lately, but overall she is great.

I know...I'm a crazy lady...what kind of person updates on her dogs?....ME! I love them...they are part of our family.

Well, that's it for now. I'm getting tired, but I am back...Back to the Blog World. More to come from the Standifers.

Love to all.

Where's Simon

Simon LOVES to lay in clothes...Clean clothes (especially right out of the dryer) or dirty clothes. He doesn't really care. Lately we've been losing him around our house and we seem to always find him in the laundry. This is where he likes to be these days...

We Lie To Our Dogs Regularly

We have two dogs, and they are very much a part of our family. Anyone who knows us knows that we love our dogs very much. Sometimes we even do crazy things for our dogs (like throw them birthday parties).

This is Benji...She hates having her picture taken, but occasionally you get a funny one. Jackson actually took these with his camera. The quality is not great, but he does capture some good pictures.

This is Simon...He is "the bad one." He is so sweet, but boy does he get into trouble. He's a pain in the butt most of the time, but we do love him. He absolutely loves Jackson these days and usually wanders into Jackson's room and cries when he's not here.

Our dogs are inside dogs, and anytime we go anywhere we kennel them. The picture below is of our old house (they used to be kennelled in the kitchen), but now that we've moved they are kennelled in the hallway and laundry room. When I first met Lou (Benji was his dog), Benji was kenneled in a little tiny cage type kennel. She went right into it when we left to go anywhere. Simon (was my dog) and was used to being kenneled in the kitchen. When we first merged and brought the dogs together we didn't kennel them at all. It wasn't too bad at first, but Simon ate a (two actually) couches while we were out and so we had to decide quick how we were going to kennel them.

For the most part, they don't mind it. But when we leave we always tell them, "We'll be right back!" It's just what we say. Anyway, the other day Lou, Jackson and I were leaving and we kennelled our dogs like usual. Lou said, "Okay, we'll be right back." and we left. We went to a friend's house and so we didn't come "right" back. We were gone a few hours. When we got home, Jackson said, "Dogs I'm so sorry daddy lied to you. We weren't really coming 'right' back."

The next time we left and one of us said, "We'll be right back." Jackson said, "They're lying to you."

Peeing Ballet

Today Jackson let Simon outside in the backyard. He was watching him from the back sliding door and all of a sudden I hear Jackson say, "Oh my gosh! Simon's peeing ballet." I go to see what he's talking about and he goes, "He's lifting his leg up like ballet." Cracked me up!

Family Night #3 - Doggy Birthday Party

Okay...So I know what you're thinking...this crazy lady takes pictures of her dogs, blogs about her dogs and now she's having a birthday party for her dog. I know...Crazy. I never thought I'd do any of these things, but i can't help it...they are part of our family and Jackson get's a huge kick out of celebrating them too. Benji's birthday is on August 1st so we decided to have a party for her. Jackson and I went shopping for party supplies and we even bought her a new collar tag (since we just moved), and a few new toys...for presents of course.
Here's the birthday girl...looking so thrilled.
She's a typical girl...Doesn't want anyone to know her real age.
We even decorated like a party. We put up streamers and balloons.
We made cupcakes...but none for the dogs...they got an even better treat (or at least
they thought so). Here is Simon...loving every minute of Benji's party...including her new toys. What a bully. We played Pin the Tail on Benji. It's not a good picture since the light was shining through. But I put a picture of Benji on the door and we made her a body with no tail. It was so funny because when I put it up Simon barked at it for about 10 minutes. We were cracking up. Jackson helped Benji open her presents.
And then we sang happy birthday and both dogs got there very own birthday HOTDOG. They had a race to see who could eat their's fastest...Benji won.
We had a lot of fun. What an evening.

Wind In Your Hair

When ever the dogs go anywhere with me (and it's really not that often), I make them share the front passenger seat. They both try numerous times to climb over on my lap, but I never let them. On a recent trip to Poodletown (our groomer) I looked over at them while they were sharing the window. I didn't have my real camera, but my camera phone did the trick.
They are pretty good as long as I have the window down. Here are Benji's ears flyin' in the wind. Simon doesn't look too happy in this one. We might have been getting close and he figured out where he was going.
I love this picture of him in the rearview mirror. So funny!
That's it...Just my two crazy dogs.