I Have Never

During my college orientation we played an ice breaker game called “I Have Never.” I don’t recall the rules of the game exactly, but basically you go around the group finishing the statement “I have never…” For example:

I have never been on a roller coaster with a height restriction over 3 feet.

I have never liked pumpkin pie. Something about the damp-mushiness makes my stomach turn.

I have never traveled by train.

I have never been to Disney World.

I have never texted.

Oh wait! Yes I have! We finally broke down and got texting a month ago.

I have never had a fake Christmas tree. This year might end up being our first.

I have never gone fishing.

I have never gone snow mobiling or ATV-ing.

I have never seen a moldy brownie.

I have never known a pan of brownies that has existed for longer than 2 days.

I have never turned a brownie down.

(Can you tell I’m craving brownies???)

On the other hand, you might be surprised to know:

I have driven a stick-shift car. Three times. In a parking lot. It was a blast… and a bust.

I have sang in front of people. Twice. The first time was when I was little as special music in church. I remember an older gentleman in the church telling me, “Don’t worry about it, you sounded fine.” I wasn’t worried at all about it. I sang my heart out. And never sang in front of people again until I got roped into a solo during a church play in highschool. My character was supposed to sing atrociously. I think I nailed it.

I have sewn a pair of pajama pants. They were perfectly tailored to fit someone with one leg longer than the other.

I have written and illustrated a book. It was called “Baliry” and I was 8 when I wrote it. I was really into the American Girls books and decided to write my own. Except I made up her name, because I thought Baliry sounded prettier than Valerie because it sounded like ballirina. Coincidently, Baliry was a ballirina.

I have failed multiple tests in college! If you know me, this is kind of shocking, because I still managed to graduate Suma Cum Laude.

I have taken the mirror off my parents’ car side-swiping a semi while fumbling to grab something from the back seat.

Huh… looking over this, I’m not sure what’s more depressing: what I have never done or what I have done! I’ll let you be the judge of my pathetic-ness score.

Thank you, good night.

Rylie Roll-Up

I know my posts have been sporadic at best, but our lives have been pretty uneventful — yet somehow busy.

Anyway, my posting material seems to revolve around Rylie right now, since she’s much more interesting than Tyler or I.

So a treat just for you: A video of me teaching Rylie a new trick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej-l1-s96aU

Enjoy!

Puppy Classes

Yesterday was class #5 out of 6 for Rylie in Puppy Kindergarten. She did pretty well, but was getting very frustrated with us during one exercise. We were teaching they to “settle down” which means “lay down and stay down until I tell you you can get up.” At first, she was like, “Piece of cake guys, I don’t know what all these other puppies are freaking out about.” Then she got up and we tried using the technique the instructor had showed us to put her back down: form a wide “C” with your finger and thumb about about 2-3 inches away from each other and use them to push down on the spot right below the puppy’s shoulder blades. It’s not meant to hurt them, but it’s uncomfortable and they supposedly lay down to avoid the pressure in that spot.

Not for our puppy. She would whip her head around and try to bite us, enraged that we would do such an awful thing to her! It really got her wound up and it took a while to get her to calm back down. She did better if we just gave her the signal for “settle down” again, but she still wouldn’t stay down until we released her. *sigh* We’ll be practicing this a lot in the next few days.

On a happier note, our poor little social outcast made a new friend! She played with a spunky little 7 pound terrier (20 pounds lighter than Rylie) named Tucker. It was so funny to watch. The terrier was chasing her all around and she was having a blast running and pawing at him.

Made this puppy-mama’s heart all warm and tingly.

My favorite things we’ve learned so far in class are “leave it” and walking on a loose leash. The loose leash was a miracle! If you want to know her technique, leave me a comment and I can email you. It’s pretty genius and it worked wonders!

Next week is puppy graduation. I guess they are getting caps and diplomas, and it should be a riot. Honestly, guys, what is cuter than spending an hour and a half with a room full of puppies every Monday?

Answer: A room full of puppies wearing graduation caps and carrying diplomas!

If you have a dog and you get the opportunity to do classes, TAKE THEM! We enrolled mostly for the social aspect, but ended up gleaning much more than we ever expected. Of course, we have a lot of work ahead of us still, but at least we feel better prepared for how to train Rylie to be a well behaved member of our family.

And who knows, maybe some Saturday you’ll be bored and turn on the Purina Dog Challenge and see her weaving through poles and climbing up see-saws.

Hey, a puppy-mama can dream, can’t she?

Rylie

I’m not even going to bring up the fact that my last post was eons ago. What an anti-climactic way to take a break from blogging! Ha.

Moving on… here is a picture of my hair post-headband wrap:

It was a very sunny day when I took this photo. Also, I have quit doing this hair-style simply because the headbands give me a headache in the morning!!! Sad…

*sigh*

In happier news, I know I’ve mentioned before that my husband is an elementary school teacher. Well since I had the day off today, he suggested that I bring our border collie puppy Rylie to school to meet the kids. They were having a walk-a-thon, where the kids walked around the playground for half an hour – the perfect activity for introducing her to 60 screaming children.

(To prepare, we gave her a bath last night. Unfortunately it resulted in a severe case of bed-head):

I was a little apprehensive, yet excited as we pulled into the school parking lot. I could already hear the music blaring from the gym teacher’s speakers and the roring laughter of kids happy to be outside.

As we approached the playground, a dozen kids came running up to us, asking if they could pet her. I got down next to her and said they could, hopeful that she wouldn’t pee like she normally does when she meets new people, and slightly nervous that she might get bite at someone if she overwhelmed. She’s never done it before, but she’s never been in this situation before, so I just didn’t know. I held her tightly until I could tell she was actually loving the attention.

And she did great the entire time! The kids LOVED her, and she ADORED them too! I can’t even describe how happy those 30 minutes made me. One of my biggest worries was that we would get this adorable puppy and then she would be aggressive towards children. And as cute as she is, we still plan to have kids someday, and that just wouldn’t be ok. Besides, I have the idea in my head that I would love to use her as a “therapy dog” someday and be able to take her into hospitals and schools.

*happy sigh*

Is she cute, or what?

Back in another 5 months!

- Cheyenne