Have you herd about Michaels story he has been working on at school? It is called the Italian Job. IT is awesome.The characters are JAKOB, MICHELLE(MI-SH-EL),DANIEL,AND KACEE.

School's Out For Winter

Yes that's right- winter. And that's dog school. Charles managed to get as picture himself with Desi at dog class in Naples. We've finally found a dog trainer that gets Desi's breed and isn't intimidated by him, so they've been going to Amys classes for two summers. Amy runs Boulder Ridge Kennels in Otisfield and breeds Mastiffs. She also has been really good about not reacting to Desi's rabid dog immitation that he does when either I or Michael is around. Neither does anyone else in the class, mostly because this class is geared toward dogs that are "reactive" in different situations. By reactive, I mean act like an idiot. Desi's previous class instructor didn't get this behavior, and it made other people with rude dogs in the class nervous so he was asked to leave instead of dealing with the issue. In this class, all these dogs and hmans get together and do things like go out for ice cream, go to the beach or the park, walk up and down the causeway, and encounter other people, dogs, and all sorts of situations. Desi, I am please to say, has been an almost perfect gentleman. He still has issues with the rest of his pack being around and his need to defend us from almost everything, but he is learning that when he's on the leash and we're out in public, we can handle ourselves without his help. And should we ever be in a true situation where somone should try to do something to one of us, we have the utmost confidence that Desi will scare the life out of them.

Belated Birthday

Michael had almost a month of birthday parties this year. One of the few benefits of having his parents divorced and remarried, I suppose. We had Michaels friends over this year for a party he pretty much planned himself. Luck, Gem, Xavier, and Michael enjoyed the festivities that included hiking with Uncle Ricky, making pizza, lots of chocolate cake, and tye dying tshirts. Everyone left with leftovers and t shirts and had a good time. When Michaels cake came out, the boys got Michaels keyboard out and they all played and sang happy birthday... wonder if they'll start a band.

I'd like to say thank you to my mom who was kind enough to bake a cake and design the ferrari logo for the top of it out of sculptable chocolate (who knew there was such a thing???). Also thank you to Uncle Ricky and Grampa Dude for helping out at the party.