The past year... A beautiful mess

Our boy turned a year old on August 9th.  Honestly, it's no different than with the kids...... I look at him and wonder where the time has gone.  

So much has happened over the past year and Max has been right in the middle of it all.  As I think back over it all, I'm in awe of him and Gracie.  Watching them grow together has been amazing.  That said, yes, it's had its rough times too.  Like when Max was attacked by Cooper because Coops felt his position in the family had changed and it left Max with only half an ear.  Or when we were going through not only the teething phase but also learning when Max was alerting and he ended up eating the sofa in the family room.  Learning what it's like to travel with a dog EVERYWHERE you go and finding that you're late and forgot to let him go potty ahead of time and then get the privilege of cleaning up in a very public place with people laughing and taking pictures to make it their FB joke of the day.  Or nearly having the airline not allow you to fly home because there's a female service dog in the airport as well and she's in heat, causing Max to bark nonstop and act like a hormonal teenage idiotic boy (incidentally, he did awesome once we were on that plane and even saved Gracie's life because she had dropped low and was going unconscious and I thought she was just sleeping).  Trying very hard to incorporate a puppy in all that you do and knowing that you look totally inept and it's not a good image for service dogs because you not only are you still struggling to learn how to handle all this but you're a frazzled mom dealing with 4 young daughters along the way too. 

As I think back over this past year with Max, would I change a thing?  Of course I would.  I'd have forseen the problem with Cooper, and Max would still have both his silky ears.  I'd had known that the water in Florida was very different than the water at home and we wouldn't have had to clean up messes in all the stores at Disney or all along Mainstreet after the parade.  I'd been paying more attention to the fact that he might have been trying to tell me to check on Gracie and not just being an energetic puppy, and I'd still have my sofa intact.  I can go on about all the "I would if's" but why?  

Our journey with Max is a beautiful mess, just like life itself is.  There's many things in life that we'd love to change, but then EVERYTHING would be changed and would we really want that?  God promises to use everything for His good.  Read that carefully... it doesn't say that He will turn everything into good and make it perfect according to our desires.  It says He will use if for HIS GOOD.  Let's look at Max loosing half his ear.  That was horrific and heartbreaking.  I still sob when I think about it (even now the tears are stinging my eyes and the screen is a blur).  However, I will never forget listening to Gracie a few days later, comforting this little pup who had his whole head wrapped like a mummy and was still hurting and on pain meds and antibiotics.  Here's what I heard this precious 7 year old child say to her furry little guardian angel... "I'm sorry Maxi.  I know it hurts.  I'll help you feel better Max.  You know what Max?  It's going to be ok, I promise.  I know what it's like to be different and now you're different just like me.  We can take care of each other now."  It was in those quiet moments that Gracie completely bonded with her dog... her service dog, the dog who's mission in life is to take care of her and keep her alive and healthy.  She was finally able to totally relate to him on a level that only she can feel.  God used Max's half an ear to help Gracie not feel so alone and different anymore as she goes through life.  Would I take her diabetes away if I could?  Absolutely!!!!  Would I give Max back his ear?  You betcha!!!!  But God, in His grace and mercy used this for HIS GOOD.  

So, as we come to another change of season and head into the glorious colors of Autumn, I hope we all take a moment and think back over the past year and see all the blessings, even the ones that were wrapped in hardships.  It was one year ago that we began the journey to getting Max William.  It's been a long year in some ways; it's gone incredibly fast, and I look back and am in awe of all that my family has faced, conquered, and enjoyed.  And I look at Max William and can't help but smile at that goofy boy who loves to talk back at me and cocks his head sideways with his eyes shining as I talk to him as if he's just one of the kids:)  Our life really is just a beautiful mess that God just continues to perfect with each stroke of His brush.  I praise Him for it all:)

Gracie...Dog Whisperer, Jr

Well, maybe not quite a dog whisperer, but she is starting to really become more of Max's handler these days.  It's fun to watch them develop and grow together.  In the very beginning, it was a little girl and her puppy.  After awhile it grew into a couple of kids.  Now, I've noticed that Gracie really is beginning to show interest in Max's handling and training.  When we are out and about, she wants to have control of him instead of being content with Mom doing it.  I'm not sure if it's because she's grown a bit and he's pretty well behaved so now she feels that she is capable of keeping him under control when we are out in public or if it's just that she is starting to fully grasp that they are a team.  Either way, it's fun to watch her take ownership of this part of her life and start to become Max's handler.  I'm very proud of both of them:)

Max is still in his teenage phase, so we get a little "tude" going every once in awhile.  But, all in all he's a really good boy.  I can count on him to keep his girl safe, and for the most part be obedient at home and in public.  He's still very opinionated and likes to voice his opinion at every opportunity; but let's face it, in this house I'm surrounded by opinionated individuals;)

We took a little family vacation to Kansas City last week.  3 days to just enjoy being together with no work, school, chores or responsibilities.  Max was AMAZING!  It was extremely hot the entire time we were there but he did great.  We had to get him some shoes because the pavement was too hot for his feet.  It was so comical the first few steps ~ like watching a duck;)  However, he got use to them almost right away and seemed to almost like sporting his yellow and black shoes.  Of course, seeing a dog in an amusement park tends to draw attention anyway... seeing a dog wearing shoes in an amusement park tends to draw crowds, giggles, stares, and even a few belly laughs.  Max took it all in stride.

We were blessed to stay at the Hotel Phillips... What a TREAT that was.  I highly recommend this hotel and if you ever have the chance to stay there, take it.  I admit though to feeling apprehensive when we arrived with 5 kids and a dog at this stately, grand, 4 star hotel.  I thought they'd take one look at our troop and lock the doors.  The staff was so gracious and fun.  Our room was HUGE; certainly large enough for us all to stretch out and not feel cramped.  They provided Max with a fluffy dog bed, china food and water bowls and gourmet treats.  They also offered complimentary aromatherapy for him as well, but since he relies on his sense of smell to keep Gracie safe and sound, I declined that.  Hotel Phillips is a landmark in KC.  Situated in the popular Light and Power district, it's walking distance to everything you could want downtown.  They just finished major renovations in November and took it back to it's 1930's Art Deco splendor with a fun twist on everything.  There's a gorgeous statue of the Goddess Dawn (yep, I had to love that;) that stands 111 feet high in the foyer.  The original owner of the hotel had this sculpted in honor of his own daughter.  It's rumored to have her face and her best friend's body.  All the woodwork, mouldings, furnishings, artwork... absolutely everything about this hotel is gorgeous.  Check out the pictures below:)

Max and Brody

As some of you know, Max isn't the only dog we have.  We also have our family pets that we adore and rescued from a shelter in Kansas about 4 1/2 years ago when they were only 7 weeks old.  They are wonderful dogs and they adore the kids.  Brody James is our big boy ~ there's just something a little extra special about him.  When he was a baby, he always reminded us of a polar bear prince:)  Not that Cooper Todd or Felicity Hope aren't special too; they are of course, but Brody has just always been more engaged and attatched to the girls.

Well, it's always been our desire for Max William to work in with our other dogs but we realized early on that Cooper just would not ever accept him.  And, not wanting to have any problems that would interfere with Max's development or his education and training for his service duties, we just really put this desire on the back burner.  I've always felt confident however, that Brody and Max could be worked in together and end up being good friends.  Several months ago, our trainer helped us introduce them and gave me a little confidence in how to handle the situation.  I've decided that now is the time to really work at fostering the relationship between my two boys and I'm pleasantly surprised at how well they are getting along.

Yesterday, I needed to walk both of them and decided to recruit some help so that they could take a walk together.  Eventually, I think that I'll be able to put them on a double lead and walk them together myself; but, these are two very big boys and there's just no way I felt confident enough to try that yesterday.  If they decided to go in two different directions, I would have had a problem;)  They did AWESOME!!!!!  Max totally loved having a buddy along and Brody showed great patience with his younger buddy's curiosity.  After we finished our walk and returned home, I let them play in the backyard together.  They both showed their manners and did really well.  They even decided to curl up together for a little R&R in the dog house:)  I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship and am thrilled that Max can have the companionship of another dog.

On a side note: Max has always been a vocal dog.  He voices his opion all the time.  I realized yesterday that he really does think he's conversing with us and that he actually "speaks" in full sentences;)  Yes, my boy cracks me up and makes me laugh all the time:)

Vacation Bible School

I'm getting brave... I decided that the benefit of having Max William along during VBS this week, outweighed the inconvenience.  You see, I'm volunteering for snacks which means that Max is part of the snack crew too.  Thankfully, he's pretty darn good about paying attention to me and what I'm doing since I tie his leash to my belt loop on my jeans for the three hours I'm there.  That said, he is a chow hound so a week on snack crew is a big challenge for him to get over.  400 kids dropping bits of food on the floor can be hard to pass up for a 10 month old puppy.  Oh, and it can be positively too tempting when I sweep up at the end of the day and he is tagging along behind the broom.  All in all, I have to say that he did really well today.  He even alerted to Gracie's high blood sugars 3 times during the morning while she was upstairs doing her VBS thing and he was down on snack crew with me:)

Celebrating Gracie and Max

Song: Angel By My Side by Francesca Battistelli

The little mommy

Gracie LOVES her dolls. She is an amazing little mommy and takes care of her babies as tho they are real babies. Here's a few pictures of her boys this morning:)

Drum Roll Please....

The results are in and once again, thanks to Max William, Gracie's A1c has shown amazing improvements.  She got an 8.3.... unbelievable!  Just think, this child has always been between 10-13.1 since her diagnosis and now, thanks to Max William, she is right where she is suppose to be:)

A1c is the blood test done on diabetics every 3 months to find out how well controlled they are.  It measures the amount of glucose in a diabetic's system for the prior 2-3 months.  For a child Gracie's age, they want to see them in the low 8's like she is right now.  By gaining good control of her blood sugar on a daily basis, we can help to prevent the long term, life threatening side effects of diabetes such as heart disease, blindness, etc.  With Max's help we are giving Gracie a healthy life now and a hope of a long, healthy future as well.

Before Max arrived, we tested Gracie every two hours around the clock, but we knew we were missing a lot that was going on in her body in between these checks.  Now, Max lets us know when something is going on ~ by testing with him rather than a clock, we are more effective at keeping Gracie in her healthy range.  Without Max, Gracie would drop dangerously low with no warning and many times so quickly there'd be no visible symptoms.  She doesn't always feel her lows either.  Max, however, let's us know when she's headed down and we can prevent her from crashing.  He also helps us keep her from skyrocketing too, which is vitally important to warding off those long term effects down the road when she is an adult.

Max is a HERO and he saves his girls life every single day.  Insulin isn't a cure; it's Gracie's life support.  Without insulin, Gracie would die.  Max is her guardian angel, watching over her and making sure that she stays well and healthy while on her life supporting insuli, since we can't always know if she's getting enough or if she's getting too much for any given moment of any given day.  Max is Gracie's miracle:)

If you would like to help us pay for Max William, you can make a donation in Max and Gracie's name to www.GuardianAngelServiceDogs.org or call (804) 883-6931.  We have a way to go before Max is paid in full, and when he is, we'd like to help other families have the blessing of a diabetic alert dog as well.  Thank you all for your continued encouragement, prayers and support:)

Gracie's fingers

As many of you know, Gracie gets her fingers poked 14-17 times a day so we can know what her blood sugar is and treat her appropriately. That's a lot of pokes over the past nearly 7 years. A couple of months ago she began to get random infections in her fingers; not from all the blood tests though so we aren't certain what's causing this. She's been on a few rounds of antibiotics but it never completely clears up. So today, we are at Children's hospital trying to figure out what's going on. The concern is that the infection may have go to her bones. We won't know for a couple weeks exactly what's causing this but hope to have answers soon. Heres a couple pictures of her getting X-rays. And, of course one of Max William as he's listening to what the doctor has to say about his girl:)

Crazy.  Crazy.  Crazy... we are only days away from dance recital.  There's sparkles, tulle, feathers, satin ribbon, dance shoes and glitter galore scattered all over my house.  Max is soooooooo tempted to snatch a tutu, but he's been pretty good  we've managed to keep them away from him and his chompers.  Dress rehearsals begin Friday and go till an hour before recital on Saturday night.  That's a lot of trips across town; delivering our little dancers, making food runs since they always seem to be starving, and me continually saying "don't let anything drop on your costume!"  Yes, I've done this enough to know to bring some old tee shirts to slip over them when they're munching to save their costumes:)  Saturday and Sunday are the performances, then it's truly summer break.  Aaaahhhh... I think this mama needs a little mom only vacation after it's all said and done.  One that involves nothing but movies, spa treatments, sinfully yummy food, lots of R&R surrounded by a body of water and nobody talking to me for a couple of days;)

Recital time

It's that crazy time of the year...dance recital. The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy busy. Great training opportunities galore for Max William:).

School time...

School time for our girls is unique to our family. As most everyone knows, we home school. It's a blessing because we have different health issues to work around and a traditional school setting would be nearly impossible. Of course our reasons for home schooling go much deeper than that.

I chuckled today when I noticed that we adapt easily around here and sometimes use the oddest items for a task just because it's within reach. I also giggled when I took this picture because the girls were slow to get moving today and I sat them down to begin working thinking they can just get dressed and brush their hair later. I mean, they've had a great breakfast and brushed their teeth...that's good enough for the moment;). I would never let them out the door like that:).
Notice in the picture the alcohol swab? Gracie grabbed that to use as a place maker because she kept losing her place on her math assignment. Only a type 1 diabetic child would have that handy and not give it a second thought:). Also, notice the picture of Max William? Yep, he attends school every day with us as well and stays quietly under our school table, keeping watch over his girl Gracie. This morning already he's alerted to a low blood sugar of 65 during her math lesson. Such a good boy:)

Max and James... part 2

Well, our time with James is over.  We are all tired but renewed in the excitement of our training efforts with Max William.  Max proved himself to far surpass what I thought he was capable of.  He is obedient, compliant, eager to learn and please, and he's excited as well that he gets to learn new things and put them into practice.

We spent time in different environments and let Max train his off lead skills.  This is something I've been hesitant to try so waited till James came back to do.  Max was amazing!  He heeled along side us as we walked through stores, zig zagging through aisles, stopping to shop and he would automatically sit and wait.  We practiced leaving him in a down position and walking off, out of his sight.  He never budged!  We went to the cemetary and practiced there as well.  Outside with lots of things to distract him... lawn mower, squirrels, birds, tall grass, golfers across the fence, he never missed a beat.  I had one tired puppy on my hands by late afternoon.  He took a very looooooooong nap when we got home:)

Over the next three months we'll continue training him in skills like this as well as teaching him to begin to differentiate to us the difference of Gracie's blood sugar being high or low.  He already knows the difference, we are just teaching him ways to tell us what's going on.  As far as I'm concerned, I think he's just an amazing little guy (OK, not so little;) and we are so very happy that he's part of our family.  He's the perfect addition:)

James and Max

Well, another 3 months has passed (don't even get me going on how fast this time goes by) which means that we are blessed to have Max's trainer, James, join us for a couple of days to see how Max is doing and help us further his training.  Our entire family looks forward to these visits.  Max loves James as well, even if I do warn him ahead of time that he'd better get his act together because "James is coming":)

Our training days with James aren't just educational, they're busy too.  We all work hard at getting in as much as possible during the time he's here.  And... we all drop at the end of the day.  There's not much that's sweeter than an exhausted puppy curled up asleep for the night.

Every time James comes, I think we've surprised him with how well Max is doing.  This is a testament to Max William, not myself.  He's a great dog... laid back, compliant, smart, calm, desiring to work and do his best; and he does an amazing job as Gracie's guardian angel, keeping her within her healthy blood sugar range to the best of his ability. I, on the other hand, am usually the one who needs the tweaking and training.  I get distracted by all that goes on around me; Max doesn't.  I forget a proper command; Max allows for this error and does what I want him to do inspite of my inability to communicate at times.  I get a little crazy with the chaos that can at times be called my life; Max stays focused on his mission in life and doesn't let Gracie down.  Yes, he's an 8 month old labador retriever, but he's not a normal lab pup.  He's Gracie's DAD and he knows that it's his mission in life to take care of his girl.  Does he still have extra puppy energy that needs to be expended at times?  Yep.  Does he still have a desire to chew on anything that doesn't chew on him first?  Yep.  Does he still want to go outside and dig in the flower beds, especially if they're muddy?  Absolutely.  But does he also keep watch over his Gracie girl 24 hours a day, whether he's asleep or awake?  You better believe he does.  And, thanks to James' gentle yet firm manner of training both Max and I, Max is a pretty well behaved service dog whom I can take anywhere and know that he's going to behave obediently.

We can never thank James enough for all he does with Max and our entire family.  We are so thankful that God not only brought Max to us, but that he also brought James along with him.  He truly is the perfect trainer as far as we are all concerned:)  And, I have to say, some of what he's taught me for Max works just as well with children.  My very favorite universal command for Max and the kids... LEAVE IT;)  Works every time:))

Wonder Dog does it again...

We were blessed to be able to host another movie night at our dance studio tonight.  What fun it is to camp out, slumber party style, on the dance floor, eating popcorn and enjoying the Muppets:)  The Hart family and the Hart Dance family have been so supportive of our fundraising for Max and we are so thankful for all they've done for us.

Tonight we opted to leave Max at home.  As awesome as he is when we are out and about, taking him along and expecting 20-30 little dancers to ignore him so he can work and they can enjoy a movie seemed an impossibility.  Sarah graciously stayed home to keep him company; or so she said... I think Miss Sarah wanted to enjoy a little quiet time without her sisters around;)  Just as we were calling it a night and cleaning up the party remains, Sarah called to say that Max was alerting.  I had Gracie test... sure enough she was high ~ 272.  Max is absolutely amazing and being able to alert when Gracie is over 2 miles away always leaves me speechless.

If you or someone in your life has diabetes and you think that having a dog like Max William would be as much of a help as he is to Gracie, please contact Guardian Angel Service Dogs at (540) 543-2307 or www.GuardianAngelServiceDogs.org

It's National Scrapbooking Month... OK, this sounds like a fun month to me:)  I have official permission to tuck away in my studio to work away to my little heart's content.  I'm going to try to get some of those projects I've been wanting to start on going, like Max's scrapbook, Gracie's Disney World scrapbook, get caught up on each of the girls scrapbooks, oh and the one I've been planning for years... taking all the photos from my growing up years and putting them into a proper scrapbook.  Ummm... maybe it should be National Scrabooking YEAR because I'm going to need more than a month to get all this done:)

As I've posted a few weeks ago, I became a Close To My Heart consultant to help earn some money to pay the remaining balance we owe for Max.  All the profits from this business will go to our fundraising for him, then once he's paid in full, we want to continue on to help others pay for their Diabetic Alert Dogs as well.  The peace of mind Max has given us is priceless and the improvement in Gracie's blood sugar numbers is beyond our expectations and what we'd hoped for.

Will you help us pay for Max William as you capture your family memories and create beautiful scrapbooks that will be enjoyed for generations to come?  It's quite simple actually... Just click on the link at the top left of my blog.  It will take you to my online store for Close To My Heart, where you can order high quality supplies, beautiful clear stamp sets, and amazing paper collections.  100% of the profit/commission will go straight into Max's fund automatically.  There is a ton of inspiration there as well to help you pull together some of those ideas floating around in your mind for the beautiful pages you want to design.  And it's not just scrapbooks; maybe you want to make cards (my favorite thing to paper craft:), or you're planning a party, baby shower, or wedding shower and need to make all the decorations, invitations and party favors.  How about those of you redecorating a room in your home?  Trust me, there's ideas to help you with that as well.  Your imagination is your only boundery:)

I look forward to serving you in your paper crafting endeavors and can't wait to see what you create during National Scrapbooking Month.  Please share your projects with me so that I can get inspired too:)  Feel free to contact me with any questions or if you'd like to schedule a workshop for yourself and a couple of friends.  Happy Scrapping!  

Disney World

Max, Gracie and I were blessed to be invited along with a dear friend, her daughter and their diabetic alert dog for a week to Disney World. What fun! It was an amazing training opportunity for the two dogs as they were in situations they'd never be in on a normal day. I mean, really, when else are you going to meet giant mice, ducks, dogs, and real life fairies? Our first day at the Magic Kingdom, we spent over 12 hours. The dogs joined us on a few rides, including It's A Small World and the Haunted Mansion, and enjoyed watching the electric lights parade as well as the fireworks show. These two amazing dogs, both still puppies, handled all the Magic Kingdom had to offer and still stayed on top of their two type 1 diabetic children. They caught all the highs and lows both girls had. AMAZING!