His Little Green Vest..

no, not an elf - It's Lafferty when he was a puppy!! Isn't he just precious!! Lafferty was in the Guide Dog for the Blind program until he was "career changed" out of the program (due to health problem) and we were soooo very fortunate to adopt him. Anyhow, I ran across this pic the other day and just had to share it. I was lucky enough to get several "puppy pics" of Lafferty from his puppy raiser Nancy.

Soon Lafferty will have a NEW VEST to wear - his Therapy Dog vest. We just recently passed our certification and now I just have to finish submitting all the paperwork and then we will be an OFFICIAL Therapy Dog Team. We are part of a local group of Therapy Dog Teams called Dogs of Endearment. Tomorrow, Sat., Dec. 8th you can find several team members and their dogs at Spiegelhoff's Grocery Store in Kenosha, WI on 80th Str. They will be bell ringing for the Salvation Army in the AM. If you are in the area, be sure to stop by and say hello. Lafferty was all set to help out too - had his Santa hat and sweater all ready, but I got poky with my paperwork and since we are not OFFICIAL, we couldn't volunteer. We hope to stop by though and show support and donate to the Salvation Army.

A Few Days Late...

but that's OK. The kids didn't mind opening three boxes on the Advent Calendar today to catch up!! I made this calendar last year, but was a little late in getting it out and filled with goodies this year!!!

The kids take turns opening one box each day ('course, Isabelle really liked opening three boxes today and thinks it should be that way everyday!!). Each box has some sort of goody inside to share, or a "CLUE" as to where to find the goody (if it won't fit in the box). So far, we have had some spiced cider, chocolate coins and new, warm fuzzy socks. I love doing this. I have goodies hid all around the house. The only thing I need to be careful about this year is GULLIVER - our new chocolate lab!!

We just adopted Gulliver from Midwest Lab Rescue in Feb. Lafferty, our yellow lab, never gets into anything, but Gulliver lately has been garbage picking!! That stinker!! He just started doing it about a couple weeks ago!! Never touched anything before that. Not sure what provoked him, but now I am not sure if I can trust him. Guess I need not only worry about Gulliver, but the kids too!! They start snooping to find gifts and such about this time. Gets harder and harder each year to hide things!! AND - not to mention, I FORGET where I hid things!! I used to wonder how my Mom could forget about gifts she hid away, but oh, how I know all about that now!! I need to make myself a list of what and where I put it!!!