Chloe - the "herder"!

Welcome Chloe Elder!

Since the departure of "stealth" kitty - our pup (and I can admit WE) have been pretty sad. Ceasar has been moping around the house with sad eyes and no one to wrestle with.
So we found Chloe...and she is so "PRECIOUS"! We rescued her from http://www.poundpuprescue.org/ which is a foster home that shelters the pets that the Humane Society and Animal Control cannot house. She is 8 weeks old and is a Lab/Border Collie mix. She is hilarious. She looks like a lab except for the black and white border collie markings and ears (which are so cute) - she has a great temperament - but she likes to herd me around the house - like I am cattle. She grabs my pant legs, socks - skin - whatever and guides me to where she thinks I need to go. Jon just laughs - she does not do it to him at all. I have little nipping bruises on my arms and legs - we are working on not biting when she herds. We will not be able to get rid of the herding since it is absolute instinct - but we can turn into not nudging and not biting! This is her favorite toy - her "Puppy Kong" which she shares begrudgingly with Ceasar - he is not so good at sharing! :) As you can see she has some remnants of "Kong" cookie on her nose! So cute! Ceasar LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her - they wrestle and play all day if allowed. We caught a little video of them wrestling which I will add later today!

Stealth Kitty

Well - he has done it - he finally made the great escape. Palladio (our beloved cat) has been trying to escape in every possible way for about 2 years. He wants to go outside so badly (he watches the dog), but every time he gets outside he throws himself down on the cement, rubs around and then at the slightest thump or movement he races to the door and house for safety. He thinks he is a "tough" tom cat.

Last Thursday night he made an escape- we think it happened when Jon and I returned home from visiting a neighbor. The porch light was not on and being "Stealth" kitty he must have snuck out on our way in. The sad thing is that we merely shut the door - locked it and headed upstairs to bed. It was late... Ceasar woke us up in the night barking like a maniac - but we did not think anything of it. As I see it - he must have been trying to tell us that his buddy was locked outside...we did not realize that he was missing until mid morning Friday when he did not come when we shook his food.

I suddenly realized that he did not wake me at 4am with his heavy feet crawling on me, and he did not bat my alarm clock off the night stand when I did not respond to his heavy paws, and he was not waiting for me when I got out of the shower to lick the water off my ankles. I suddenly began to frantically look everywhere in the house as he is also great at hide and seek. But to no avail - he was not in the house. I headed out to the neighborhood - asked all the workers building houses if they had seen our "Gato"... nope - asked the foreman of our development if he had seen Palladio - nope, asked the sales office manager if they had seen our cat - nope - wandered around calling for our cat bawling my eyes out - no cat!

I called Jonathan and we prayed - no cat. We posted signs in the neighborhood with pictures and a $100.00 reward - no cat. We called the Humane Society, Animal Control and the local Cat orphanage - no Palladio. Our whole family went on hunts and dad spent 2 hours combing the landscape around our house - no cat. We were heart broken and so was the dog. Palladio raised Ceasar - we had him for 9 years. He taught Ceasar to growl, hit with his paws, stretch like a feline and to curl up in a ball to sleep.

We are hoping that he has been picked up by a sweet family who loves him and does not realize that we are missing him. Unfortunately, with bobcats, owls, coyotes, rattle snakes, and 115 degree heat we are afraid our timid little prince did not make it very far. We have been mourning our loss for over a week and have cried many times. We loved him so much - even though he was a CRAZY cat! So here's to Palladio - may we meet him again some day!

NOBAMA Tee

A few have asked where they can get the cool "NOBAMA" T-shirt featured below :

Here is the link - go crazy!

http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/item/anti-obama-white-tshirt/266476967

The Pride before the FALL

Okay - so browsing the web this is what we find - can I puke? Has Obama been elected already?

Do his people know what they are paying for? I call for an audit and a removal of that chair on the "O" Force One ...

Can someone please tell me what he is really going to do for our country? He certainly cannot.

Sorry - I am feeling pretty strong about this and I usually like to keep my blogs nice and fluffy - but I am so sick of this guy.

But here is my prediction as I stated to Jonathan yesterday - this clown just asked for all of Michigan and Florida to be seated meaning counted for Hillary. I think since Mrs. Clinton has been uncharacteristically quiet that they will count the seats for Obama - the real win will go to Hillary and we will have an incredible flip at the Democratic convention. I think Obama is the Clinton stool pigeon.....just you wait!

Takes alot of Humility

Ok - this is a plea in great humility to all of our friends and family that may be peeping our blog.

As many of you know, Jonathan and I have been trying to have babies for about 5 years - I mean really trying. We have endured 4 miscarriages and 1 tubal pregnancy. I can say that it has been our only trial -but a very very emotional one. We have spent the past year working with a fantastic doc at Stanford doing IUI treatments and some endometriosis treatments. We are both extremely exhausted emotionally and physically.

We have recently decided to take a break from the "science experiment" as Jon calls it and just breathe. We have also decided to start homeopathic detox and head into adoption full throttle. We are a bit timid going into the whole adoption again, as we already had 2 fall through in the past two years when both birth mothers decided just days before giving birth that they were going to keep their babies...great for them - gut wrenching and heart breaking for us.

Many of you may be asking - why tell us all of this - and I will tell you. We need your help. We want to reach out to all of our friends who may know someone, a family member, friend, co-worker...anybody who is looking for a couple with a lot of love and security to entrust raising their child. We just met with our adoption agency and although they do a great deal of leg work for us - their advice was to get out there and network with everyone we know.

So - I am starting here and using my social skills although it is VERY hard for me to ask this - sounds kind of desperate, and in a way I guess we are.

Jonathan and I are blessed to have found each other and have had 9 1/2 WONDERFUL years of marriage. We have been able to do and see so much and really become rooted together in our relationship, our religion, our faith and purpose. The one thing that we feel is missing is the expansion of our family. (We cannot discount our pets, however not quite the same weighting as a child!)

So with incredible humility and a bit of embarrassment we ask for you to put your feelers out and if you find someone who might be a great fit for us - let us know.

We are continuing to pursue our own pregnancy - but for now are just on a break and back to enjoying the days as they pass instead of "charting" them! :)

We are grateful for each of you and all you do to touch our lives and for all the support you have offered over the years. We have definitely needed it and it has helped strengthen our hope, faith and determination.

Alicia's Baby Shower

Come one, Come all to Alicia's Baby Shower on Saturday August 9, 2008.

Time passes so quickly.

STOLE it!!

Check this out - stole it from Carrie (off her blog - back to blog spying) and LOVE IT - LOVE IT - LOVE IT!

Can someone PLEEEAAASEEE shut this clown up? Where can I get this T-shirt?