Meet Yoshi...

Yoshi needs a new home - here are the details -

Kimberlee from Grand Junction, Colorado contacted us about Yoshi a tiny four pound apricot poodle that was dropped off at Mesa County Animal Services and was never claimed by his owner. They could not keep Yoshi any longer so Kimberlee took him in. Kimberlee has devoted her life to saving dogs from kill shelters and placing them in homes and now she needs help finding the perfect home for Yoshi.

We estimate Yoshi to be between 7-10 years old. He is currently living with 6 cats all of whom are bigger than him. He gets along fine with all of them. He also likes other dogs and has interacted with some as big as 65 lbs without any problems. He is neutered and current on all his shots, has a healthy appetite, and is housebroken (he lets you know when he needs to go potty). He has some tartar on his teeth so it is recommended that he eat hard food only.

Yoshi passed his temperment test with flying colors and he gets along well with people of all ages. He walks well on a leash but only uses three legs because his back left leg is folded back like a wing. We don't know if it was caused by a birth defect or an old injury but he can wiggle the leg and does not appear to be in any pain. He loves to get on his back and wiggle his body and even wiggles his winged leg when he is playing. Otherwise he is in perfect health.

We are looking for the perfect home for this wonderful, happy, playful little guy.

If you can provide the perfect home for Yoshi please contact Kimberlee at DancingPawz@msn.com or 970-250-1786.

If you can't adopt Yoshi you can still help by passing this email flyer on to people who may be interested.

MAYBE A GOOD PLAYMATE FOR ARTIE??? :)

Slacker...

Sorry I have been such a BLOG slacker the last week or so! Things have just been a little nuts with Troy back in school and me editing the 2^nd edition of Money For Life (my boss’s book) and trying to make time to work on the brochure/proposal for the Children’s Foundation (SKIDS). But…. It’s still no excuse! So… I will just update and move forward with more timely blogging. :)

Memorial weekend was a fairly mellow weekend for us… school, work, etc took up most of our time it seems but we still found time for renting some movies and enjoy the rain. On Memorial Day we went to visit Troy’s Father’s grave and take him some flowers. We also took some flowers to Grandpa Hansen and Colleen’s Grandmother while we were there too. Then we headed across the valley to visit Colleen’s Mom’s grave and to stop in and leave some flowers for Grandma and Grandpa Streiff too. They have added some pretty new garden areas at the graveyard, which we were very happy to see. Next we stopped over to leave some flowers for Grandma and Grandpa Anderson… As you can see from the photos, a few other family members stopped in to visit the graves as well. It was a fun trip down memory lane and despite the pouring rain, we had a lovely day.

On Thursday night Troy and I had the opportunity to hangout with Avery for the evening while her parents were at the new Indiana Jones movie… they said it was great! Troy and I will have to go see it soon! We worked on my car which wasn’t especially fun for Troy who was doing all the work but Avery and I raced up and down the driveway, took turns pretending to drive the car and trying on all the exciting bracelets that reside on the gear shift knob of my car. Haha! After the headlights were all fixed, we loaded up and went for a drive… which Avery thought was very cool, despite the fact that it was only to Wendy’s and back. Haha! It’s not very often that Avery gets to ride in Jen’s car so it was quite the thrill apparently. The evening took a pretty boring turn for Avery after that as she was forced to watch a movie with us that was not at all her speed. Oh well, she seemed to enjoy climbing all over the couch and all over me…. Haha!

Saturday was the Symphony…. Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. There was also a guest conductor who was very entertaining to watch… at least for me. Troy was less than enthusiastic about his style, but I thought he was hilarious. He would get very into the music in certain areas and start doing these dancing moves with his shoulders, or making these “jazz hands” type moves at the musicians. Haha! Anyway… I loved the piano concerto and the Prokofiev piece was excellent as well. I was not familiar with Prokofiev before that night but the piece had a dark, Russian kind of feel and it was very cool. It was Troy’s favorite piece of the evening.

Let’s see…. What other things do I need to catch up on? Ahhh.. yes, the latest Dog rescue. I am not sure what it is about Troy and I finding stray dogs in every neighborhood we go to!?! But, none-the-less, it seems to happen quite often. A little while back we were up in my old haunting grounds of Holladay and the surrounding area… we came across Newman (pictured below with Troy) roaming a rather busy street and getting increasing closer to Highland Drive (which many of you know is a very busy street). After several attempts to get Newman to trust Troy enough to let him grab his collar (attempts which included bribery with whatever snacks we had in the car… namely yogurt raisins and Doritos, neither of which are usually very good dog snacks) we were able to call Newman’s Dad. Unfortunately he was in Park City for the day but asked us if we would do him the huge favor of taking Newman to his house and putting him in the garage. So…. off we went. Newman was home safe and we were on our way. :)

This week we have the last Ballet of the season – Innovations, as well as the last Symphony of the season. We are looking very forward to the Deer Valley Music Festival and our picnics with the Symphony up in the mountains, under the stars!

Back to School…

Today it’s official… I am dating a college student! Haha!! Troy is officially a college student again! His classes started today at the bright and early hour of 7:30am… yuck!! While the next several months will be a little insane… I am very proud of Troy for committing to get school completed! And with his classes all mapped out and scheduled right up to graduation in December – I am sure its just going to fly right by!

And of course, the “A” parking pass makes it much easier too – THANKS DAD!!! Today Troy was able to park about 50 feet from all of his classes! Makes it much easier to get out of the there and off to work too. Gotta love that!

This past weekend we had lots of fun… we had to fit in as much play time as we could before school started today.

~We had the Race for the Cure on Saturday morning which was great, as always. There were roughly 16,000 participants here in Salt Lake and it was amazing to see so many people out supporting the cause. As usual a few times during the race, Troy and I both were very moved by the “in celebration of” signs on peoples back… seeing the little kids with signs that refer to their mothers and grandmothers are always the hardest for me. I think this year it all hit a little closer to home for me than in years past… I hope that a cure will come very soon.

~ Saturday night we went out for a yummy dinner at Bambara and headed over to the Utah Opera’s performance of Don Giovanni. Dinner was delicious, as always – we love that restaurant! And the opera was excellent. Don Giovanni was the first opera that Troy ever saw, and he saw it at the age of 8. He loved it, and has been hooked on opera ever since. This was my first time seeing Don Giovanni, and I really enjoyed it! For those that don’t know, it’s the story of Don Juan the womanizer who gets sent to hell in the end by the ghost of a man that he had killed when the man was trying to protect the honor of his daughter. The music is beautiful and the production was excellent. The opera was sung in Italian (with English super-titles on a screen above the stage) and now that my Spanish is getting a little better, I actually found myself understanding more of the Italian than I thought I would – the two languages have a lot of similarities. There was also a Vivace After-Party (and combined Cast Party), which made it an extra fun evening! A long and tiring evening after such an early start to our Saturday! haha! But a fun time!!

~ A couple weeks ago there was a huge pet adoption fair that we stopped by to play with some of the puppies and check out all the cute dogs. This past weekend we decided to do that again – so we stopped by the adoption fair they were having in the parking lot at IKEA. There weren’t very many dogs there and we were happy to hear that a few had already found new homes. We enjoyed meeting cute little Pacino and Cody and playing with them for a bit. They were such sweet little puppies! Being the dog lovers that we both are, we have a really hard time seeing the dogs in those little cages and if we could, we would take them all home! We hope that they all find loving homes soon!

~ I am also considering getting a scooter for my commute to work so we spent some time on Saturday checking out Vespa, Eco Moto, etc. Found some really cute ones that I loved, but discovered that a lot of them are too tall for me.. Haha! Apparently I am really short… Anyway, we figured out that you can have them lowered, and some of the models actually fit me pretty well. So…. perhaps my efforts to “reduce my carbon footprint” will work after all… we shall see. Do you think my Harley helmet with the flames on it will look silly with a Vespa?

~ And on to Mother’s Day… Troy had a very nice surprise planned for his Mom – speaking in church – and she loved it! Everyone else in the family knew, and we all managed to keep it a secret, right up until Troy walked up on to the stand and sat down. I didn’t see it, but apparently Colleen actually jumped with surprise when she saw this. Haha! Troy’s talk was wonderful and was an excellent tribute to his Mother. He included some great stories, and even a quote that he strongly felt his Father wanted him to include. It was an emotional time for all of us when he talked about the cancer coming back and Colleen’s strength and unwavering faith even in the face of this adversity. Her strength, testimony and faith are really an inspiration to me, and to so many others as well. ((Troy – In case I didn’t tell you enough yesterday - It was an excellent talk and I am very proud of you for doing such a great job! XOXO))

And last but not least – Happy Birthday to my favorite older brother, Craigy!! :) I hope you have a wonderful birthday!