Decision 2012

 Mia voted for more treats and fewer baths.  She also voted "yes" on an amendment that limits the number of pictures I can take of her. 

Babysitting Zane

Zane was Mia's first newborn friend. He was born last August to my good friends Neely & Andy and I was anxious to see how Mia would react to him. I brought her with me to visit Zane the day they came home from the hospital. My heart smiled to see her so gentle around him. They've been buddies ever since - Neely often doggie-sits for me while I'm at work (I always tell her it's too much, she has enough on her plate, but she swears she loves having her and claims that she keeps her dog and 4 year old busy). I babysat Zane for an entire day (those who know me well know this is a rarity, as I don't really know what to do with small kids). Zane was great, way easier than I thought he'd be, and I got lots of cute pictures of them interacting :)


dog bed and a bone...babies can't really be all that different from dogs can they? They're both loud, needy and stinky :P


Zane - "haha, Mia is soooo funny!"
Mia - "throw the ball kid!"


He thought he was stuck and started crying. I was laughing and taking pictures.


Toddler snack time is VERY exciting! I also watched their dog, Kobe.


Naptime in the dog bed :P


You know you have a good dog when she lets a toddler use her foot to push the music buttons on his book <3

Charleston ~ South Carolina

During our visit to Charleston, Mia got to visit Folly Beach. I was amazed how much it mirrored our Smyrna Dunes Park, from the curve of the inlet to the amount of dolphins, and even the presence of a lighthouse (although theirs is not functional and sits out in the middle of the water). It was a beautiful beach and we had a great time, especially Mia!


Crazy beach dog


I love this picture of her on driftwood (I have an obsession with driftwood)


Soooo many dolphins and a lot of them were marked


A new beach find for Mia, a horseshoe crab

All of our Folly Beach pictures

Mia's First Vacation

Mia and I took a trip to visit Charleston, South Carolina. This is her first big vacation and first time out of the state of Florida. I got her all packed up and ready to go - look how excited she looks :)

Being the picture freak that I am, I of course wanted to stop and get pics of her in the different states. Our first stop was the Georgia welcome center, where I snapped this cute picture of her - I'm not sure if Georgia is on her mind, or if the extreme heat Georgia is dealing with right now is on her mind. It was seriously hotter in Georgia (and SC for that matter) than it was in Florida!



It was right after this moment taking this picture that it dawned on me - "I think I locked the keys in the car." NOT a good way to start out vacation, especially with a dog outside when it's over 100 degrees (it's a good thing I didn't lock her in the car though, or I'd have had to immediately smash in the window). Instead, I hesitantly took her inside the welcome center, apologized to the girl at the desk since I know dogs aren't allowed inside and explained to her my situation. Luckily, she was so sweet and helpful and looked up my insurance on her computer so I could call and get road side assistance. They were more than happy to let Mia hang out inside in the A/C while we waited (it's always nice to have such a cute dog that people immediately fall in love with) :)



After road side showed up, Mia and I headed back out on our road trip and several hours later, safely made it to Charleston.

Katie (my foster dog) Update

Katie has been adopted! One of my friends who works at Sea World was always interested in her, and it finally worked out for her to take Katie home. She renamed her Kiwi and so far, it seems like a perfect match. I was very honest about any training challenges she would have with Kiwi and she's been doing great working on those challenges. They also have a baby on the way, so I can't wait to see pictures of "Nanny Kiwi" in the future :) Here are a few pictures of her settling in to her new home and with her new siblings.

Fido Commercial

Mia was sooooo close to being in a big Canadian cell phone commercial. The company is called Fido, so all of their advertisements are dog-based and they wanted to shoot a commercial with dogs "wakeboarding". We all know how great Mia is at this, so friend who works out in California for "Birds & Animals" (the company hired to supply the "talent") contacted me and put me in contact with the Orlando peops putting it all together. She did great at the test shoot, but they ended up training enough of their own dogs to do it, so they didn't want to pay me. I was so disappointed, I would have LOVED to see my monkey in a commercial. Here is the final cut and also a making-of for the finished commercial. It's pretty cute, but would have been way cuter with Mia!! And they wouldn't have needed 3 weeks to train her, just sayin'...

Mia's First Year

It took me FOREVER to finish, but I finally got "Mia's First Year" photo-book done. Who would have known it would take me over a year to get it done?! I really love how it turned out. Here are a few of the pages (in total, it's 70 pages!).


the cover


the first page - I love this quote


her adoption story from Orange County Animal Services


Hontoon Island


Mia's first pool party


Mia's first birthday


one of the many beach pages


lots of beach pages...


Christmas


our 1 year adoption anniversary at St. Augustine


last page

Father's Day Boating Day

Another day on the boat, another day on our favorite lake...Lake Butler. It was a nice day, but it honestly could have been a little bit warmer and a lot less windy! We tried to do some wakeboarding (it was my dads first time!) but the weather just wasn't cooperating. We also got Mia up on the kneeboard by herself again and we ran into some old osprey friends. Probably the most funny part of the day though was Scooter, my cousin's dog that I was watching for the weekend. He's not much of an out-doorsy doggie, but he really seemed to enjoy being on the boat and even though he might not have loved this adventure, we also got him up on the kneeboard ;)


Scooter modeling on the boat


Watch out Scooter, here comes Mia!


Scooter on the wakeboard


I didn't wakeboard for long, it was too rough out there


First timer :)


Cathy wouldn't try out the wakeboard, but we at least got her on the kneeboard


Perfect boat dog


Boat Girls :)


Mia kneeboarding - lesson learned of the day: drive faster so the board doesn't sink

New Toys!!!

Mia has gotten two new toys this week and the word "obsessed" would be a huge understatement. As soon as I pulled them out of my purse, she immediately knew they were for her - such a smart little cookie :)


She carries this one around constantly, like it's her little woobie :)


She will literally spend hours with this toy, trying to get all the treats out of the ends

Boating On The Butler

While Mia got to play on the boat recently while I was at work, this was my first time on my dad's new boat.  We did some kneeboarding and tubing and had a great time. We even got Mia to stay on the kneeboard all by herself (this is a first as normally I'm with her on the board) - what a talented little monkey :)


Gator Girls


She's excited to go kneeboarding...


"Ummm, wait a second, why did you drop off?!?!"


"Crap, no human to help me balance"


"Nevermind, I don't need a human, I got this thing!"


This is what a really tired monkey looks like...