To Crate or Not to Crate...That is the question.

for several weeks shane and i have been working with milly on housebreaking. she has only had a couple of accidents in the house and for awhile she was doing really well. the problem as of late is that we have a dog who does not want to go number 2. we will take her out and she will chase bugs, sniff around and then eventually get to the point. however, lately this process is taking up to 45 minutes and as of this morning, shane was out an hour and she still had not gone. we are having a really hard time wrapping our heads around this one. i've never had a dog that didn't want to go. we have tried changing eating schedules, taking out schedules, exercise schedules...we are just at a loss.

with school about to start for both of us we are trying to figure out what our options are and crating her seems to be the only one. however, this does concern me a little because she does have some separation anxiety, especially from shane (go figure...i get that too), and i'm afraid she might hurt herself in the crate. on the other hand the crate might help her to relax more quickly. i don't know. the method/purpose of crating is also something i'm not sure about. do we buy one that is big enough she can move freely, or do we get one that really limits her ability to move about. we also thought that if she went number 2 in the morning we would leave her out and if she didn't put her in the crate in hopes that she would get the message.

if any of you can offer some wisdom on this i would appreciate it. i haven't had a puppy since i was a young pup myself. tristan came pre-packaged perfect. milly is truly a sweet heart and we really want to find a way for all 3 of us to be happy together. please help!!!

peace and love (and hopefully some number 2s)

Cheertastic

this past thursday i returned home from cheerleading camp. when deciding where to go for camp, to me there was only one option. our girls deserve only the best and we all know what the best is. that's right boys and girls....UGA!! i'm sure my dear friend and fellow cheer coach malerie, who happens to be an auburn fan, would have something to say about the aforementioned statement but she is truly and amazing spirit and in the last couple of years working together and growing in our friendship we have both learned to say war dawg and be done with it.

back to the point. the girls were able to experience the gloriousness that is the university of georgia. i also got to experience eating in the sky box at sanford stadium. all kidding aside it was a great opportunity for them to experience another college campus besides alabama and auburn. camp itself was fantastic. the instruction was better than i had encountered at previous camps (i love will mcgintry) and the girls performed beautifully. i have to say that i have never been more proud of being a cheerleading coach than i was at camp. not because my girls were named camp champs in two different divisions...which they were, but because they showed leadership, dedication and resilience like i have never seen before. by winning the leadership award my girls showed everyone that while they are highly skilled their character is just as important to them. while this may not always be the case, it was for these few days and i have never been so proud of them.

i am also very thankful for malerie. she makes my life so much easier not just in the cheerleading world, but everywhere else as well. she does an amazing job as a coach (her girls were named camp champs in 2 divisions as well) but she is an even better friend. i'm blessed to know her.

enjoy the pics and GO PATRIOTS!!

peace and love

Like a Phoenix

with the help of God's love and compassion shane and i were able to rise from the ashes of ending a tough school year and the loss of tristan. since then God blessed us with two amazing events in our lives.

first, we were able to go to hawaii this june due to the generousity of my parents and their friends the whaleys. it was truly a dream come true. it was everything we thought it would be and more. blue water, waterfalls, flowers, mountains...everything!! while relaxing on the beach and hiking inland to search for waterfalls and pools on the road to hana was fantastic, our favorite part of the trip was taking a sunset horseback ride. we arrived at the ranch about 2 hours before sunset to prepare for the trip. it was perfect for shane and i because all the horses were named after movie stars. if you know shane and i well you know one of our favorite past times is quoting movies. shane rode russell crowe and i had mike myers (could that have been more perfect??) we rode through the pinapple fields and then down through the rain forests. at one point it started raining on us...pretty hard actually. honestly this just made it more fun for both of us. we loved it!! about the time the sun was begining to set they took us to the top of the mountain and we watched the sun set into the ocean behind a island that was across the water from maui. i wish i had the words to describe it to you, but as you can tell i'm not very good with vivid descriptions. all can say is God is one amazing artist.

the second blessing is the new addition to our family, milly. milly is a 10 month old carolina dog that shane and i adopted july 5th. we were totally not expecting to add a new animal to family so soon after tristan's passing. however, due to the way we found her, we both believed that the Lord led us to her. We were supposed to take our boat out that day but it started raining. we needed to go up to shane's school hoover for something and starting playing around on the internet and began looking at dogs. shane and i thought we might get one around christmas time and wanted to really research breeds so that we could find one to match our lifestyle (thank you caesar milan). we came across this carolina dog which is a rare breed. shane's sister courteney has one so of course we were intrigued. since we couldn't go out on the boat we thought well...we'll just go take a look at her, we're not going to do anything today. yeah right, like that was going to happen. anyway the rest is history. she is definitely a daddy's girl and she is as sweet as can be. she is trying really hard to be disciplined but after all she is still a puppy.

all of this to say we have had a busy but great summer. i hope all of you have had one too.

peace and love.

A Great Loss...

this may shane and i experienced the loss of our beloved tristan. to us she was more than just a pet, she was a child, a best friend and a great companion. i adopted tristan in 2001 during a time in which all my friends had moved away, i was in a job that i hated and shane and i were trying to seek clarity in our relationship by spending time apart. while only the Father can truly fill the emptiness we as humans can feel, tristan was a great earthly companion for me in a time of confusion.

since then tristan was the love of our lives. always greeting us with the wag of her stubby tail and an attempt to hug us with her paw. she obtained some type of infection in her left leg that caused it to swell and eventually caused the leg to "die". the vets worked so hard to try and find out what exactly was causing her to swell but to no avail. after putting our girl through many, many tests we looked into her eyes one morning and saw that our baby girl was gone and that what was left was a miserable animal. shane made the decision it was time to put her down. he was so amazing. it was so hard for him, not only because of the loss he was feeling but because he knew the devastation and pain i was feeling. i think the hardest part of her death for me was the finality of it all. with most loved ones, i know they are going to see God, but with tristan, i won't see her in heaven. that is one of the hardest parts of scripture for me. but God is sovereign and his plan is perfect. after it was all over, shane was the rock i held onto. he was there for every tear, every sob, every moment of depression i felt. i think i honestly fell more deeply in love with this man the Father blessed me with.

in the time that tristan has been gone it has gotten easier to remember the good times we had with her and the little things about her personality that we loved. even still one of us will randomly say we miss her, or a tear or two will fall at the thought of one of our memories of her. as more time passes i know that while i will never forget her, there will be a lot more smiles and a lot less tears.

so sleep in peace baby girl...where ever you are. mommy loves you!!

Maiden Voyage

after several months of reading other blogs, shane and i thought we would embark on our maiden voyage and create our first blog. we both have laughed at the idea because truly...we are not that exciting and we can not think of anyone who would really want to read about our lives. however, we are looking forward to sharing moments of our lives, both good and bad, even if it's just for ourselves. we promise to try not to bore you to death or leaving you asking yourself...did i just become less intelligent by reading that??

peace and love.