What's making you happy today?

[Jaydaan]

22.5!

[DanaC]

And counting :p

[Undertoad]

I love boxer dawgs.

[TheMercenary]

One Day Off, Sunday. Tall ships in Savannah.

[Jaydaan]

Well that was a long an exshusting day. Driving that far with horrible roads, and a messed up back equalled all kinds of grrr and ouchies. As soon as we met up with Father-in-law and met Aesa it was all worth it! She is beautiful, much tinier than my Freya was and of course my very large Loki dog.

Her name was Jahja, pronounced Zsa Zsa. None of us liked that name one bit. We did however find her the perfect name: Aesa it was part of Greek Mythology and is the personification of fate and destiny. I think its very appropriate.

As I type my two are playing with the same tug, both having an end, and running around the house. Aesa sounds like she is rabid and is about to kill anyone and anything near her, but thats just how she sounds when she plays. She is going to take some time to get used to... still nervous when I hear her grrrr. No wonder the lady with no boxer experience was unable to handle her.
Loki is loving having a palymate around again, and is not used to one that plays quite this rough either, as Freya was always a gentle girl, and not as boxer as most boxers. As he learned his play style from her.... this is an adjustment for everyone.

So far her only issue is a bit of dribbling pee she has sometimes. We take her out she goes, she comes back in, and there is little drops for a while after. I will be contacting the vet, she may just have a weak bladder, or she may just be excited from all the things happening to her in the past 24 hours. Suprisingly, there has been no whining, no hand/head shyness, no aggression other than her play style. She is our shadow tho, and does not like it if she can't find her humans. We figure this is from her being transerfered from so many homes, including her 24 hours with "grampa". He loved having her, and is really proud of her and he raised boxers for years.

I have pictures, just no clue how to post them here....

[limey]

That sounds fab. Lookin' forward to the pics ...

[DanaC]

Jaydaan, do you have a flickr account?

[Jaydaan]

No I do not... I should look into that. Is it free?

[DanaC]

It is free aye. There's different ones. Photobucket, Flickr, and a few others. They allow you to host your pics in one place and just link straight to the pic.

Or, you can edit the pics on your hard drive so they're not too big and use the attachments feature (little paperclip at the top of the reply box on advanced)

I used to always upload pics as an attachment, but when I joined a bearded collie site they dont have that option, so I have now got more into the habit of uploading to flickr and then grabbing the code and pasting it into the reply box.

[Sundae]

Back at school today!
Happy, happy, happy!

Well.... kind of bittersweet.

Talked to Tiger's Mum after school, he's been having a really tough time with me off.
I spoke to my HLTA first thing and she said he's been fine, coped well without me.
But he was obviously storing it up for when he got home - he does this, internalises things. So he's been crying well into the night, reverting to behaviour they thought he'd grown out of.

Tiger Mum said, "We realised that this is how he would be if he didn't have your help in the classroom."

So I feel terribly for the cub, even though I had not choice to be off.
But it makes me doubly happy I am back.
And yes, there is a tiny, weeny spark which I am trying the smother which says "See - you are doing a good job." Even as I acknowledge his world would be upset if anyone who supported him was off for two weeks. Poor little chap - I smashed up his routine.

The other bittersweet happiness is about the friend of a colleague I made carrot mini cakes for (see My Cakes thread). We talked about it on a Tuesday. I made a vague agreement to make something. That Friday I was sent home from school for being to ill to work.

On Sunday (as documented in the same thread) I made carrot mini-cakes because although I hadn't officially committed, her friend had cancer and that touches my heart for so many reasons, not even just Bri. I knew Mrs K went to visit her on Monday evenings. So I made the effort to walk round to another colleague's house with the cakies, coughing all the while and I got drenched on the way home (although that was my fault for not taking an umbrella when the sky was already a purple bruise)

Anyway.
I'm not bigging up my altruism.
It was an effort I made on really nothing more than a whim.

I found out today that she had her regular Monday visit - with the cakes. Left her friend with a huge smile on her face - she was so happy that Mrs K had cared enough to bring her a special treat from the lady at school who made the wonderful cakes.

Her friend died on Wednesday. Monday was the last time she saw her smile.
I had a very little part in that.
I'm just glad I went a little more out of my way than I would usually, because it enabled someone to have a good memory at a time of loss.

Sheer luck.

[DanaC]

Goes to show does that.

[DanaC]

Carrot dropped his first tooth!

A lickle puppeh molar was on my floor this evening.

[limey]

Sundae - don't smother that tiny, weeny spark, because you are the person that is supporting him, and very few people could actually do that job.
Be proud. You deserve to be.

[Sundae]

Today, Mars acknowledged that I had been off school.
He was trying to negotiate an extra session of Friendship Club - the structured social activity we have every Wednesday afternoon (with three other children).

Which really pleased me - first he did notice my absence.
Second he actually enjoys Friendship Club - bearing in mind it replaced a session of play this is such a positive step.

I had to admit I wasn't sure if we could fit it in, but I said I would try.
It's hard to find a room on a Friday, and it eats into PE time, which means the children have one eye on the clock. But I will try.

[Sundae]

Tiger's animal collage today.

And the school is running a Reading Bug theme, so all the full time staff and teachers have been photographed holding up a favourite book from childhood. The Reception teachers have chosen books like The Tiger Who Came To Tea or We're Going on a Bear Hunt but those of us who work with more than one class have more leeway.

The children's books most precious to me I read at 10-11, so they're nearly out of the range of the school. But I managed to settle on Which Witch by Eva Ibbotsen. I read it at 9 which is still a compromise, but it is in the school library.

I have yet to find my picture and speech bubble - I am assured it is up!
I want to take Tiger to see it. He'll get a kick out of that. Also Rabbit, who needs a lot of reading encouragement, and is not always aware of his environment. I know he will be amazed when he realises there are photos of the staff on the walls. Bless him, he'll probably stop and talk to them. But if I can get across the idea they are talking about books he should enjoy the concept.

Tiger will be more interested. He'll probably just be intrigued by simply finding them at first, but I'm sure he'll relate to the fact that faces he knows are holding up books. And that he will recognise some of them. Not Which Witch though...