Woot!

I heard from Phantom's career change adopter today. I had never had the chance to email them before because of the timing of the career change, so I wrote him a Chrismtas letter and had GDB forward it.

This is the email I got back, along with pictures. Isn't he gorgeous?


Lacey,

I just received your letter and wanted to thank you for taking the time to write. It’s nice to hear a little more about Phantoms life before he became my dog.

As far as Phanotm, he has been an absolute love. We have gotten to know each other the past year and half and are still figuring each other out as he grows up. He loves to swim, hike, fetch, play with other dogs, bark, talk, cuddle and sometimes just be a big ole goofball. People will always say one of three things when they meet him 1) Wow, that’s a big dog…. 2) What a sweetheart…..3) He’s very well behaved….. I am not sure about the well behaved part, sometimes he seems to have a mind of his own but it seems more just out of being curious or strong willed. He doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body. He is very vocal and loves to talk or complain about things when he feels he is getting the short end of the stick. Another of Phantoms favorite things is to go into the woods and come out with the largest fallen tree he can find. You would not believe the size of some of the sticks he has retrieved. He almost drowned himself onetime while we were fishing together. He swam across the river and without getting out on the other side pulled this tree off the bank and tried bringing it back across the river. It was probably over 20 feet long and 3 inches thick at the base. I watched the whole thing in fascination until he started sinking about halfway back, damned if he wasn’t going to the bottom with his stick!!!! He did not want to let go, but did. Things like that just make me love him to death.

I have a number of friends who have dogs and Phantom is now good friends with them all, including my sister and her very large Doberman. We have been to and completed an obedience class together, come to find out I needed more help than my dog!! My parents have adopted him despite my mother’s fear of large dogs. She watches him when I go out of town; Phantom seems to enjoy watching over the old folks at their home. Other than that I feel so fortunate to have been able to adopt him. He makes my home complete and comfortable.

I have included some pictures for your review. Thank you again for getting in touch and your efforts in raising Phantom.

Warmest regards,
Todd

Back in class

So, classes started yesterday. Yesterday I had Special Ed (for all of you little sisters out there who are tempted to crack up like mine did- this is a class on teaching special ed, not my "special-ed" class), cultural psychology and ICS (international cultural studies). This morning I had statistics. In 25 minutes I have religion (the second half of the Book of Mormon) and tonight (my only night class) I have ASL.

I'm really excited about my special ed class! I can't wait until we get to the unit on visual impairments! I expect to be the star pupil. I probably shouldn't- who knows what experiences others in the class have had?

ICS seems like it could be difficult but very fun; I'm honestly not too excited about cultural psych, Book of Mormon is . . . required, ASL should be fun- I already know a lot. And although I'm really super worried about my stats class, no one was lying when they said that you don't want to miss the lectures- the teacher is enthralling! He didn't say a single thing in the whole 1 1/2 today that wasn't fascinating! So, really, I expect that class to be fun too, if also amazingly difficult.

Just a side note- my birthday is tomorrow. I'm getting terribly old! (23)

Happy Birthday to me!

Galvin

He was my near perfect puppy-sittee this past week (he went home this morning). He was so good. Kind of funny story though- he was started in my old puppy club in Roseburg. He arrived there in May (while I was moving from Albuquerque to Bend- how confusing this must be to those who don't know me) and then was transferred to Bend recently, where I live now. Kind of a coincidence.

Just for good measure, I added pictures of Cami and Jacoba too.

Galvin

Cami

Jacoba

It's hard to do my homework . . .

When the power is out. It went out sometime about 3 am this morning (there was a really bad storm) and they didn't get it working again until about 4:15 this afternoon!!!

They canceled classes (not until after my first one though- it's held in one of the three building s on campus with a generator) Most people went to town or to the beach. The smart people who are concerned about the fact that there are only two more days of classes stayed on campus doing what we could (which really isn't much). My roommate and I turned on our lights so we would know when the power came back on so we could go to the library.

So here I am working on papers, and the power has gone out a couple of times while I've been here! I've never been so "save" happy in my life.

Puppy Club

My mom went to her first puppy club meeting in years today! I'm excited because if she get's a puppy, guess who gets puppy time when I'm home at breaks?!?!!! Oh, right ME!!!!

Anyways, I go home in less than two weeks and there is a meeting in Bend the day I get there, so I'm excited about that.

Busy, busy with finals and everything. Life is going pretty well right now. I'll let you know how I feel Thursday night (the day before everything is due).

This post is green, not in honor of Christmas, but for guide dog puppy coats.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm really enjoying this opportunity to not to do homework without feeling guilty. Hope you all are too. Have a fantastic day.

Blah

I'm totally ready for this semester to be over. The end!