A shift in authors

Mom is taking over the blogging, in her voice, since she seems to have more to share and vent.

The seizure work with Monty is, well, the same.  I spoke with the trainer last night.  Gonna keep hoping, praying and working on it.  Margs had a 20 minute plus seizure on Monday, in the daylight hours, during her nap.  Both dogs were there, and I had to prompt to bark.  The 2 most confusing things are that I notice no intense sniffing, and when Margs does a "fake" seizure and shakes her arms, he will bark right away, but the real deal, he has to be prompted.  We have to work on letting him figure this out, but its very frustrating.


Here is a picture of Margs and Ashley in August at the Iowa State Fair.  WE love to go and see Hairball.  They are a very silly band from Minneapolis that does 70's and 80's and even current hair band songs. http://www.hairballonline.com/
 They are very good.  One of Margs must do's at the fair is to get her face painted.  That's a rainbow on the right side of her face, and I think on the other side she chose a spider.

Here is Margaret's Dad, Steven being sworn in as Mayor of West Des Moines for his second term.  He's the one on the left.  This happened on Dec. 28, 2010.

Here is Margs Grandma K and her cousin Grace, celebrating Grandma's birthday.  Uncle Craig is cut in 1/2 on the left

Here is the snow outside the door she goes into at school  Notice that it is the same height as the door.  It will take forever for this to melt.

A new year

Just a quick update.  3 seizures over the weekend, on Sat. night at 10pm, one Sunday afternoon at 12:30pm and one Monday am at 4:19.  Nothing from Monty. 

Today after school while I had my snack my Mom had me shake my arms.  He barked, so we kept doing it, shaking, barking and treating.  Silly dog.

He loves the snow.

Happy New Year everyone.

Christmas, my most favorite time of year

Here I am, next to my Grandma K, in church, Christmas Eve, ready with my bear and my candle, can't wait until the end when we can light the candle, turn off the lights, and sing Silent Night, its my favorite thing to do, except see Denny, Paige's Dad.

Here is my cousing Grace, at Grandma's house sorting presents

This is my big brother Jacob, Emma likes him.

He's my boy, Mr. Monty dog.

I can't wait to open presents with my Dad.

In the chaos of Christmas, Emma finds refuge lying on Monty.  He's Mr. Cool and does not get rattled.

Here are my cousins, me on the left, my brother Jacob, cousins, Mike, Grace, Chris, and Andrew.
 
We could not get a picture of the other cousins on my Dad's side, since they never sit still, or cooperate, or listen.  It was crazy madness on Christmas Day.
 
I have had 3 seizures in 3 days.  I am way overtired and now its all done.  The presents, the eating, the family and the candles.  I sang my loudest this year during Silent Night.  My mom videotaped it, and I have already watched it 4 times. 
 
Monty did not alert to any of my seizures, but when asked to bark, he did.  Maybe someday he will put it all together, but for now, he's still clueless.  He was very good in church, and at Grandma's house.  We had rain, then snow, its very pretty out, but cold.
 
Happy New Year Everyone.
 
Love,
Margs
 

Santa, on Thanksgiving

Well, I went to the Festival of the Trees on Thanksgiving Day with my cousins, my aunt, my Grandma and my Mom.  Santa was there, and he is usually not part of my Christmas, but we went to see him.  Santa and Mrs. Claus loved Monty.  My Auntie Laura took this pic.

Baby, Its cold outside

My friends, BJ and Caytie, and their dog Tillie







Mom showed me my first Christmas present today. She let me put it under the tree. I love presents. I can't wait to go to church on Christmas Eve with my Grandpa and Grandma and sing "Silent Night" and hold a candle. Its my favorite thing.

We went to see Dr. Laux in Chicago on Friday. She is very smart and we are going to increase my medicine, to see if I can stop having so many seizures. More medicine usually makes me tired. My dog Monty had not figured out my seizures yet, but he is getting a little better at giving me one kiss. After the Dr.'s appt, we went to our friends house in Park Ridge, where they live with 3 dogs, Sadie, Ohio (another adopted 4 Paws ex-service dog) and Tillie, BJ's Mobility assistance dog. They were in our class at 4 Paws when we got Emma. They treated us to really good pizza and Caytie did puzzles with me and BJ helped. Then I stole Caytie's bear. You have to watch out for me, if I ask you about your bear, don't let me hold it!

A new chapter, a new approach

My good friend Kristy stopped by on Monday night. It was a super fun surprise. She had been with her puppy, Lucy, to obedience class. She also had Paige's dog, Emmy, with her, and it was Emmy's birthday. Lucy is a King Charles..... and Emmy is a long haired Chihuahua. Emma loves them, she loves to play with them. Monty does too, but not like Ems. Emmy decided she would steal the bone that Monty and Emma had been fighting over, and the smallest dog won! It was very fun!

Today, Thursday, my Mom met with a man who has his own special dog, Reeses. She is a super soft, wonderful chocolate lab. She alerts to his seizures. He is very amazing and so kind. His dog only had obedience training, no seizure training, and within one month she was alerting him. Let go and let God. Amen. No more trying. Here is one of his stain glass windows:
http://www.vsarts.org/prebuilt/artists/registry/artistdetail.cfm?ArtistID=3678759

amen.

Well, we've been home with Mr. Monty over a month

Hello,
All in all Monty is one great dog. He loves Emma, he loves me, he sleeps with me, and he goes to school with me. He is very well behaved, so calm and so cool. He doesn't get the seizure work though. Mom tried all week to do what the trainer suggested, and then yesterday during my nap I had a mother of a seizure, over 20 minutes long, and he didn't alert. She did work him, get him to bark, and have him lap. Then I had 2 more during the night.

Today Mom stripped the bed, washed all the bedding, even my pillows.

We'll see what happens, but this seems like an awful lot of work.