Back to School

We are trying to hard to get back into a routine. With the move, the vacations, the visitors, and school starting, we have had a lot on our plate and have just barely gotten a glimpse at a routine again. We love being busy - so much better than being bored.

Back to School -
My class is huge! Going from 16 last year to 24 this year has been rough. Especially since 16 of them are BOYS! Ugh. I always said it would be fun to have a classroom of boys because a classroom of girls would get too catty. Now that I have so many boys, I'm starting to rethink what I ask for in the future. It's definitely better to have an even mixture, I'm learning. I don't know how much longer I can listen to machine gun, car, and airplane noises all day long! Even though there are so many, they are still at the cutest age and say and do the funniest things. They are keeping me so busy and so exhausted. Matt has been an angel as he's dealt with my tired crankiness some evenings.
Matt started back to school this week. He's taking 15 credits. He has his religion class with his brother, Jay, so they have been having fun with that. He's got a writing class that is designed for Construction Management majors. It's the first semester they have offered it, so he says it's pretty low key - almost as if the teacher doesn't really know what he wants them to get out of the class. Anyway, it's the perfect writing class for Matt - turn in a resume here, and a paragraph there and you're good to go! We'll see how the rest of the semester turns out!

Wrigley -
What a pill. He's definitely getting his own ideas of how he wants things to run in this house. And he's up against some pretty firm competition. We have bells hanging from the doorknobs. He knows that when he needs to go potty, he's supposed to ring the bell to let us know. I know he knows, because he's done it before. It's just the getting it to be a regular thing that's tricky. So far he regularly uses it to get treats...ring the bell, go out, tinkle three drops, get a treat. My dad (a.k.a. the Dog Whisperer) suggested mixing up the treats with tons of praise. So far, Wrigley's just mad that we're not giving him treats. So he rings the bell again. Like I said, what a pill.
He's full of energy and life. And is a beautiful dog to boot. We love him to pieces, even when he's walking around the house not knowing that he's peeing at the same time. We probably should have put used carpet in the house until he was fully potty trained. Oh well. That's what carpet cleaners are for, right?
My sister gave him a new toy while we were in Chicago. It's made by Sherpa Pets, and is made with Chew Guard technology - basically, extra tough material and stitching - that is supposed to be extra durable and long-lasting. My parents and sister's dogs each have had one for a while and have held up great. Well, Wrigley read the fine print: "Durability not guaranteed for all dogs' strength". Two days later, he had gotten the squeaker out of one of the feet. After we got home, he started in on the nose and had the stuffing coming out one of the nostrils. We took it away, cleaned up the mess and thought "this must just be a dud, we'll get him a new one". So a few weeks later, we did. Matt came home with a brand new cow (same animal as before). What was the first spot Wrigley went for? Yup, the nose. A couple of days later, more stuffing was coming through the same nostril on the new cow. We gave up and let him have his destructive fun on the toy. I'd much rather pick up stuffing all day than hate my dog for chewing on my furniture. Last night, we were in IF and stopped at PetSmart. They have a few other animals with this same Chew Guard stuff. We decided this was going to be his last chance...yeah, right! Anyway, we got a different animal - it kind of reminds us of a Furby. We haven't given it to him yet, we want him to forget about the cows for a little bit. We also plan on limiting his playing time with it. So hopefully it will last a little longer. This is a picture of him playing with a toy rabbit at my parents' house this summer. We have some newer pictures of him, but we had to get a new printer (which is the way we upload our pictures from our camera) and I still have to figure out how it works.