More Riley

Well, our little guy had to have surgery on his leg last week. When we first adopted him the shelter told us he had a limp but wasn't in any pain and that it was no big deal. Our vet, when we took him there, told us the same thing. She mentioned offhandedly that we could send in the x-rays to a specialist just to be sure. We agreed, and then a couple of days got a call back from the vet. She asked me, "are you sitting down?" Never a good sign. As it turns out Riley's leg never grew properly and one bone was longer than another. As a result his little elbow was having problems as things weren't connecting like they should. We decided to go ahead with surgery, because things had the potential to get a lot worse. I took him into Indy on Friday morning (amidst lots of tears) and left him there overnight for his procedure. We picked him up early Saturday morning, complete with a leg in a splint and a "party collar" (see below). Poor little guy!! We are glad to have him home and he is recovering well. His meds make him pretty drowsy, which is good for now because he shouldn't be doing all that much. His biggest problem right now is his "peg leg" that gets twisted sometimes when he lays down wrong on it. He gets straightened out pretty quickly, thankfully. His yelps of pain make my heart stop! I feel so bad for him! Our biggest issue right now is that we're still dealing with his separation anxiety, and coupled with a bum leg it is hard to know what to do. It should be an interesting few weeks! It sounds like we've got 4-6 weeks of him in a split. It will be a good time for bonding and such, and I'm thankful I can be home with him most of the time.

And They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

I was listening to some Derek Webb today and came across these lyrics, from a song called T-Shirts. I am often so sad and frustrated with how the world has come to know followers of Christ, and in this song Derek Webb put my feelings to words and music...

they'll know us by the t-shirts that we wear
they'll know us by the way we point and stare
at anyone whose sin looks worse than ours
who cannot hide the scars of this curse that we all bare

they’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
they’ll know us by the pride we hide behind
like anyone on earth is living right
and isn’t that why Jesus died
not to make us think we’re right

chorus
when love, love, love
is what we should be known for
love, love, love
it’s the how and it’s the why
we live and breathe and we die

they’ll know us by reasons we divide
and how we can’t seem to unify
because we’ve gotta sing songs a certain style
or we’ll walk right down that aisle
and just leave ‘em all behind

Link

Where do I start changing the world? With me. My attitudes, prejudices, and habits. If I want the world to know and grasp the love of Christ, then love should be what I'm known for as a follower of Christ.

Back To School

Josh started school this week, kind of. He had what they call "Jump Start," which was a week of basic refresher courses. They were not mandatory or for credit, but he was glad to have the opportunity to take take two classes on Excel and one in Finance this past week.

Three things he liked best about Jump Start week:

-great opportunity to meet fellow students

-learned a lot about Excel and really liked it (and we are now both big Excel fans!)

-really enjoyed the professors

So far, so good! This morning he even went golfing with some of the guys he has met in class and at Partner's Club events. It is a blessing for both of us to feel plugged in so quickly.

Coming up this week will be orientation, which we've all heard is VERY busy. He will get to meet the other students in his group, which he will be working with all semester. He also gets his first chance to compete with his group to solve a business problem already on Friday. It sounds like Thursday night will be a late one!

Can't Resist

Here are a couple more shots of us with our little guy...

Riley's Separation Anxiety

We went out for dinner last night and left Riley loose in the apartment for a couple of hours. You can see the result. This is our front window - he seems to have been so desperate for us to come home that he tore at the mini blinds in the process.

He had been SO good this past week that we hadn't worried too much about him. He was fine loose in my parent's house with Chloe when no one was home. We left him in his crate in the car when we went out to breakfast with friends for a while (it wasn't hot outside or anything) and came back to him sleeping peacefully. I even left him loose at home to bring Josh to class that morning and didn't have any problems.

It looks like we have our work cut out for us after all! I read our doggy book and found this passage:

"(Destructiveness) is the classic problem with the dog you adopt as an adult. He's had his heart broken once and his hopes rekindled, by you. And then you leave him and he copes with his anxiety - will you ever return? - by going nuts."

Our poor little guy! We are doing our best to communicate that we love him and will always come back for him.

The tips the book gave us for dealing with the issue are ones we're going to try...

1. feed him before you leave so hopefully he'll sleep while you're gone

2. give him something special to chew on just as you leave (i think his kong ball with peanut butter will be reserved for when we go)

3. leave the radio on

4. practice no-fuss comings and goings (meaning act super casual about both leaving him and coming back, so he learns that it is no big deal)

5. get him into a routine and start training him (we'll sign up for obedience classes soon, and we won't be traveling for awhile so he'll get used to us more and more)

And most importantly:

6. keep him in his crate to minimize the damage potential (and he honestly seems more secure there anyway... maybe he is used to it from the shelter)

On a fun note, we had a really great time at dinner last night - we met up with the Kelley Partner's Club (the organization for people like me) and got to meet some students and families. Everyone seemed super friendly and genuine. Tonight I'm going to take Riley on a walk along a trail in town with some of the people we met last night. A lot of them have dogs, too, and it will be good for him to socialize some more. I also talked with one girl about setting up a play date sometime with Blue, her dog, at a no-leash area in town. Should be fun!

FUN Michigan Weekend

We had so much fun in Grand Rapids this past weekend! It was honestly hard to leave!

It was nice for me to be back in the office and I had a fun lunch out with my team. We also enjoyed a campfire with our old small group (minus Julie, Pete, and Grayson, sadly). Then we had a blast at the Boeve-Tuttle wedding! They simply did a beautiful job with everything, from the pre-rehearsal happy hour at a cute bed and breakfast to the Bridgewater Place reception! We were excited to be a part of it, and Josh enjoyed being a groomsman. While hanging out with everyone we realized that we had forgotten how much we missed our old college friends! Great to celebrate with Erin and Boeve, and also great to have an excuse to all get together again. We were having so much fun Friday and Saturday nights that we caught up more with people over breakfast Sunday morning before we headed back home.

Here is Riley on his first big road trip... such a good boy!My tired boys in my old bed one morning. Love this picture!
This weekend was certainly a blessing and encouragement to us. Now we're back to reality, but a fun reality where Josh goes to work and we get to know our new little town. Very exciting.

back in G-Rap

Well, just as we were getting settled in Bloomington we headed back to Michigan once again! The road down there is getting a little too familiar! Yes, we're back in town for our the wedding of some of our friends from college. We were sad to have to pack up and leave our new little home so quickly after moving in, but are quite excited to see our college friends again. Tonight we are hanging out with other friends and bringing Riley with us to meet the gang. He did a GREAT job with the 6+ hour car ride on the way up here, pretty much sleeping on our laps the entire way. He had a nice time terrorizing Chloe, my parents' 11-year-old dog, once he got to their house, but has mellowed out nicely since he has been here. He continues to do great with potty training (no accidents yet!) and getting to know us, and we just love being with him! Josh in particular is head-over-heels for this little pup, which I love to see.