Tail Waggin' Tutors Day

Take a classroom of 27 to 30 youngsters, 7 & 8 years old, add in four therapy dogs, and you're in for an interesting and fun hour or more.  A team of four "Tail Waggin' Tutors" therapy dogs and their owner/handlers, including Katie and myself, met at a local elementary school this morning.

The premise of Tail Waggin' Tutors is to allow children to read to the dogs.  They lose their nervousness and forget about the other children as they read to a dog, who makes no judgements but simply lays there and watches and listens.  Many children choose to pet the dog while reading, others after they're done.  This activity helps the youngsters gain confidence in their reading skills.

The teacher surprised the children this morning with the visit from the dogs.  They had written their letters to Santa and she had them read the letters to the dogs.  We had two large dogs - Steve,a mastiff and Cruiser,an irish wolf hound and two smaller dogs - Charlie, a cavalier spaniel and Katie, a pomeranian/cocker mix and the only mixed breed in the group (also the only female and the senior citizen of the group).  The children were amazed at the sizes of the two larger dogs and couldn't understand how Katie could be the smallest and the oldest at the same time.  They were, to say the least, completely enthralled with these dogs.

Each dog was in its Christmas finery and had bookmarks with his (her) individual picture on them and candy canes  for all the readers, and all the children read to at least one dog.  The dogs, as usual, were all on their very best behavior ... lying on their blankets, paying attention to each reader, accepting all the petting by any number of children individually and numbers at a time.

It was a great morning!  The children had a great time, as did the adults.  Even the dogs seemed to be smiling.

Comeback Kid

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I was hit with panic and anxiety a few years back and my life went on hold.  This is the year I got my life back.

In October, the Bishop of our Anglican Diocese retired.  He has been a major player in my life and in my husband's and my lives before Larry passed away.  I love the man dearly; he has shown me care, encouragement, empathy, and strength.  So, when his retirement dinner was announced, I couldn't not go.  Stepping out in faith, I went with two friends of mine down to the city to attend this dinner ... completely out of my comfort zone.

Surprise!  I had a marvelous time!  There wasn't a single moment of concern that the ogre would rear his ugly head; rather I saw and visited with people I haven't seen in years, had a very nice dinner, enjoyed the toasts and the entire evening in general.  It was all summed up when the Bishop looked up and saw me and said, "my goodness, look at the size of this room, look at all these people, and look at you standing here.  Praise God!"  

When the dinner was over and my two friends finally dragged me out of there, I gave a loud cheer that I had achieved this victory.  You wanna talk confidence booster?!  My first major evening out in years and the realization that I could start doing more.

My youngest nephew was married recently and I was invited to the reception being held at my brother's home in southern California last weekend.  A friend has family in the area and she offered to drive down with me.  She spent the weekend at her son's and attended her grandchildren's Christmas performance, a win-win weekend for both of us.

Again, a wonderful time!  Friday night we went out to dinner with friends of my brother and sister-in-law, people I didn't know (a situation I'm usually very uncomfortable with) and it was fine; it was fun. Saturday was the reception.  I'd never met either of my nephew's wives and had never seen my grand-niece who is a year and a half old.  Family members and friends that I haven't seen in years were also there.  Saturday was just plain fun.  Sunday my brother, sister-in-law, sister and I just sat and visited.  It was the best weekend in years!!  Monday I picked up my friend and we headed home.

Don't know where the ogre went, don't want to know, don't care.  By God's will and with the power and protection of the Holy Spirit, he's gone and I look forward to him staying gone.  I'm looking forward to having my life back!  Places to go, things to do, people to see ... yee-haw!!!

I boarded the two dogs at the Pet Hotel and Judi kept care of the black tornado while we were gone.  That's a whole other story and I'll tell it in another post.