Another day

Here is truly the cutest dog ever, Emma. She is sitting on her "place" next to my napping couch at school How could you not love that face? Please pray that she starts alerting to seizures.

Margaret

Emma still going to school

Here I am bringing Emma out of school. She goes on Community Training with me. On Friday she actually pooped in the Mall. OOOPs.

Molly goes in the car sometimes on the way to school, she doesn't like to be left behind. She is healing up well.

Emma hangs out

Here are some more pics of Emma, hanging out on the couch, and sitting on the steps.

Here's how beautiful Maegan looked at her wedding, her dress was a beautiful white. She gave me a big hug. I miss her.

Margs does the chicken dance

Hi,

I got to go to Maegan's wedding on October 4th at Lake Panorama. The day was beautiful, and Mom and Dad and Emma went too. Maegan was so beautiful. I asked her if she would do the chicken dance with me, and she did! I had a great time. Emma was very nervous most of the time, too many people and too much excitement.

Emma loves dogs

Emma loves dogs. She is doing well with Molly, my yellow lab who is 13 and just had major surgery on Monday to remove a 4 pound tumor and her spleen. Molly is recovering well, and the tumor was full of blood and not cancer. We are all very happy.

Emma likes to play at Paige's house, she is one of my favorite caregivers. Her dad, Denny is my buddy, and he is the vet who did Molly's surgery, he found the tumor.

This picture is Emma with Diesel, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever Puppy, and Emme, a Chihuahua, and they live at Paige's house.

Emma on the Bus

Emma goes to Valley High School

Yes, its true, Emma is now a fixture at Valley High School, the home of Margaret and world famous Shawn Johnson, although Shawn hasn't been to school yet. Emma has been hanging out with Margs, going on her walk in the hallways, been to PE, and even been on the bus to SuperTarget and Walmart. She gets to sleep with Margs during nap time, and has a little kennel time during foods class. Lets just hope she starts figuring out seizure alert. We are still working on that. Maybe we'll make some new shirts.

Graduation Day

Mom did it! We graduated. Wow, it was an eventful day, and the graduation was kinda long, but everyone was very excited. Emma is sad cause everyone at 4 Paws loves her and will miss her alot, and she saw them crying. We hope she loves her home and her work with me.

We couldn't have done this trip without my Grandma and Grandpa K, they have helped so much, read to me, played with me, helped Mom and Dad alot.

Training Day 9

Can you believe we are almost done? Tomorrow we have to meet the trainer at the mall and get tested, I think Dad is going to make Mom do it all by herself. I sure hope she passes, cause I'm ready to come home. We learned alot more about what to do when we get home, these service dogs are alot of work. Emma did well for Mom outside with hotdogs relearning how to come. She gets into trouble with that nose of hers, but the trainer is sure she will learn to detect my seizures because of that nose. She did well in the drill today, he put seizure shirts of mine in one box, and other boxes were empty. Mom led her to the boxes, asked her to check, she would sniff, and at the box with the seizure shirts she barked! Wow, it was pretty cool. Then Jeremy hid a seizure shirt under a chair, and Emma was led to the area and sniffed and sniffed, she became more excited when she got around the shirt. We will play these games when we get home, and hopefully her sniffing skills will transfer from the box to the body of me.

Mom tried to upload a video, but its not taking it, cause I had to call it a picture, cause its in my picture file. Jeepers, what a night.

Training Day 7 and 8

Hi everyone. Thanks for checking in. Seems lots going on. I have a cold and feel pretty crummy, I spent all day in bed so far, Mom had to take Emma and Grandma and Grandpa to class while Dad stayed back at the RI with me. I have had a few seizures, one when Emma wasn't here, one when she was here, but she doesn't get it yet. Jeremy the trainer said it would take time before she will get it. She's never been trained at night or in the dark. Please pray she gets it, cause Mom is sad about it so far. She is such a smart dog and is doing so well. She is so cute when she speaks when we ask her to check the bag with the seizure shirt in it.

The top picture is of our new friends Mary, Doug and Max, Next is Emma "Sitting Pretty" and the next one is Emma napping on my leg. She is just so cute.

Last night was a cookout with the other families at the RI, I sat and watched the kids swim. BJ and Caytie have been especially nice to me, Caytie played ball with me for a little while. Doug's Mom, Mary, sang Part of Your World to me while I took my pills. Everyone is so nice, and they all have their hands full.

Training Day 6

Day 5 of Training

Lets see, this blogspot is acting up today. We had a short time of instruction, then off to Mall for training. Emma did well, but we didn't get any pics, so we are borrowing Grandpa's. Lets hope this post works. This pic shows Mom and Margs acting up, and Emma looking for the bunnies which are behind her. Love,

Margaret

Day 4 of Training

Jeepers, only 6 days left. I have been lounging all day at training while Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma do all the work, and so does Emma, except when she is lounging with me. I love her to lie down with me. She is doing pretty well. We took her to Max and Erma's for dinner, and she stayed "under" the table the whole time. Mom didn't have to give her too many treats. Then we drove around til we found the Meijer store, and we took Emma in there. She has to have a gentle leader around her nose cause she likes to sniff so much. I'll post some pics. We are so proud of Shawn Johnson, maybe I'll get to meet her when I get back to Valley, since Emma will be with me when she and my Mom are ready. Whoo, that's alot of people for Emma to get used to. We still love her, she's so sweet.

Day 3 of Training

woowee are we ever tired! You'd think that sitting all day and working a dog and trying to listen and watching other dogs would be so relaxing. Oh my, it is exhausting. I had another seizure today, at 6:30 am , and Emma didn't get it. Mom and Dad rushed in and asked Emma to check and speak, check and speak, its just all so overwhelming, but I know she'll get it cause she's so smart. We just love her. She reminds Dad and Mom of my Mom's dog growing up, Heidi. She was smart and loveable, and could "sit pretty" as Emma has been taught.

Day 2 of Training

Wow, Emma slept with me all night. I had a big seizure at 4:30 am, but she didn't really understand. She was very calm, but didn't do much else. I slept most of the day through class. My Mom and Dad worked with Emma on Sit, down, shake, high five, give five and under. Mom also worked with Jennifer the trainer on heeling. Emma got to play with the other dogs and she is faster than all of them, I think she is a miniature race horse. I love her, and so do Mom and Dad.

More pictures......

Here's the first pic of Margs and Emma, waiting for her treats.

Day 1

We got Emma!!!! She is precious. She is little, I have to bend down to give her a treat. She is very smart and has given me and my mom kisses. She can sit, sit pretty, roll over, play dead, lie down and is just the best. She isn't quite sure about us yet, she misses all her friends at 4 Paws but we hope to get better aquainted every day. My Mom is working on the picture front, so far its going slow. She may be up until midnight getting it all to work.

Made it to Ohio!!

Hey!!!!!!!
We made it too Ohio on Sunday night. Didn't get to watch any of Shawn Johnson last night, big bummer for Mom. We drove to 4 Paws and peeked around but didn't go in. Now we are talking with Angel and Trevor and Jackie and Trent and found out they busted in today and saw Bruiser already, and got pictures! If we'd only known.....

The internet is very spotty here, so I'll try to post when I can.

SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

My New Dog's Name is Emma!

Oh my! I'm so excited, I got my email from Emma today, she has been working hard to be the best dog ever for me. Here is what she wrote:

My name is Emma, and my sister Ginger is already working as a seizure assistance dog with a boy named Dylan. she got to leave in the last class. You know they brought her a pillow to lay on and I think I even saw her is a pink rain coat. Will you bring me something nice. You see I was so hoping for a girl to love. I am a bit like Piper only a lot sturdier LOL I like Pink and I can't wait to be you best girl friend and sit around and talk about all those girl things like about which boys are cute and what color nail polish is the best color and what we should wear to school tomorrow and well anything else that girls talk about. Well, okay, I have no idea, I have not had a very best girl friend before so will you show me the ropes? Hurry up and get here because I have been working very hard. I know just what you smell like and bet I could pick you out in a crowd without every having set eyes on you! Love and doggie kisses, Emma

PS: Karen said she will send a more current picture tomorrow!

We have our dates for August!!

We just found out that I get my new dog August 12-21!!! I am so excited. I will get an email about a week prior to going from my dog to introduce him(her)self to me. I'll keep you all posted.

A New Puppy for Mary!

My friend Mary and her family Quinton and Quillan got a new black lab puppy! His name is Marley and he is so sweet. I got to see him and hold him, and then I got to show my Mom and Dad the birds, Fred and Baby Too.

Here is the sign outside our Villa at GKTW

Here is Dad sitting at the kitchen in the Villa

Here is where I liked to hang out in the Villa, in bed.

The sea lions at SeaWorld

They were yelling at us for fish, it was very funny.

We are home

We are back to snow and freezing temps. The trip home was rough. I slept a little on the big plane, and then we dashed through the Mpls airport to get to our gate, to have our flight delayed by 2 hours. I am at school today, but I'm very tired. I'll put more pictures on later.

Final day in Florida

Well, its over now but the flying. I got up late, ate some breakfast, and took another nap. We went to Sea World around 2. What a great place. We saw lots of birds, dolphins, that we got to feed, penguins, sea lions and sea otters, sharks, and lots of fish. We got to see a show with some really smart sea lions. The weather was fine for it with my blanket and my coat. The internet is terrible here, so I will wait to put some pictures on til tomorrow, maybe in the airport. (Are there hackers there?) Oh, and we fed the sea lions too, and a bird attacked Jacob and the Sea World lady had to get it away from us. That was hilarious. I was really tired again, but we came back and had some Target salads and ordered pizza. Did I tell you that we can order pizza here and its free? Its pretty good too, lots of cheese. Nice people deliver it to your door. My Mom and Jacob went over and played the Dino Putt, they said it was cool. I guess we missed out on some stuff here, and forgot that Sponge Bob was here tonight. Oh well, its so hard to fit it all in. My Mom can't wait to see Molly, but doesn't want it to be cold. Thanks for all of your comments, its been so fun having you be a part of my trip.

The Animal Kingdom

Birds at the Animal Kingdom

Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy

The horse named Cody

Alice from Wonderland

The nice dog named Charlotte

The life sized Candyland

Wow, a full day and I'm tired and not being very nice. We got up late this morning and its chilly, but covered up in the wheelchair and headed over to see Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. When we turned the corner, there they were with Pluto and Goofy and Alice from Wonderland. They were all very nice to me. Alice held my hand and talked to me in her British accent. She is very pretty. We went in for the formal pics, and then wheeled over to the Korral. I left my pajamas on all day. I had my fleece on and my new Tinkerbell Blanket on my legs. At the Korral there were 2 horses and a pony. I got to ride the horse named Cody for about 5 minutes. The people were very nice, and the lady that owned the horses had on her winter coat. These Florida people are silly. We came back to the Villa and woke Jacob up again (at 11) so we could go to the Animal Kingdom. There are so many animals. We rode the Safari Ride, saw some acrobats and African musicians, and went to the Bug 3-D movie. By then I was way too tired, so we came back for a nap. I want to go to Skate West. My parents can't believe it, but I do. My Mom is going to get a massage and a pedicure after we get home. I'm not sure about my Dad, and Jacob is going to go back to Iowa City so he can sleep when he wants to. We are eating lots of the free ice cream and scrambled eggs. We'll see how tomorrow goes, it might be kinda chilly again.