Peg’s Journal

looking cool and staying warm in her sweater

Cookie’s been with us for almost a month and I’m happy to say that I no longer have thoughts of giving her up. We’ve established a nice routine and she’s better behaved now. But she still has severe stranger anxiety…which I’m not used to AT ALL. Whenever we take her outside, she barks at all of our neighbors then dashes between our legs. She does the i’mgettingslaughtered yelp whenever people come over and peer into her pen. She also freaked out when we took her in for her second set of vaccines. She peed on one of the vet technicians and struggled like a rabid animal that they had to put a muzzle on her.

Every dog I’ve ever had has always been so friendly….sometimes TOO friendly – jumping up and licking everyone that walked by. So whenever Cookie goes into hysterics, I don’t know what to do.
Last weekend we brought her along to my in-law’s to play with Bubble. I was very nervous at first because of Bubble’s sheer size (Bubble’s paw is the same size as Cookie’s head!)…but Bubble, who is a few years older, is very sweet and gentle. It took less than 10 minutes for Cookie to come out of her crate uncoaxed. She spent the whole day with Bubble and eventually felt secure enough to play and run among my in-laws….but would still dash into her crate if my father-in-law approached her.

After the weekend, I felt like we made great strides in her socialization…but the very next day, she acted up again. I guess we’ll keep working on it. Maybe she’ll grow out of it as she gets older. Otherwise the vet tech suggested meds. Have you ever heard of that? Anxiety pills for dogs?! Wow.

Tags: Cookie, weekend

Happy Friday! *whew!* I’m so glad this week is finally over….it was an incredibly busy one for me. Aside from volunteering at Ashlyn’s school everyday, it was also parent/teacher conference week (which meant minimum days). I spent most of the week shuttling between school, appointments, playdates, and lots of errands.

Last year I was not as involved with Ashlyn’s school because I still had Summer at home. This year I signed on to be Ashlyn’s room-mom in class and help out during noon duty at school….which resulted in an offer for a permanent position at her school. I wasn’t really looking to get a job, but now I’m going to get paid for something I’d do for free. SWEET! Of course, the employment process for the school district was lengthier than what I’m usually used to (live scan fingerprinting, TB test/physical, and lots of paperwork). Everything should be finalized after my orientation next Monday. I’m so excited!

Noon duty isn’t as easy as it sounds. Supervising two lunch shifts (first – consisting of about 240 lower graders and second – about 160 upper graders) gets kinda noisy and chaotic. I also broke up a fight on the playground yesterday between two girls. I’m still not sure (nor confident) about what I can and can’t say to kids nowadays. I’ve been helping out with noon duty everyday for the last 3 weeks…and in the beginning, nobody really listened to me. I’d blow my whistle and they’d look my way, then continue about their business. Now when I blow my whistle, they’ll actually stop what they’re doing and wait for my instructions. I went from “Hey, Noon Duty….” to “MRS. Noon Lady…”. HAHAHA! I really enjoy it.
…and I get to spy on see Ashlyn at school everyday. *Muahahaha*

Here are a couple of pics from last weekend:

the kiddies at Samantha’s Pump it Up party

new BFFs – Bubble (my in-laws’ dog) and Cookie

The kiddies have a lot of birthday parties to attend this weekend. We’ll be going to Pump it Up again (third weekend in a row). They never seem to get sick of it, and I’m getting some exercise in the proccess.

Have a great weekend!

Tags: birthday party, Cookie, kiddies, pictures, school, weekend, work