Well, its been a while. Caitlyn is twenty months old, and speaking in sentences. She is my little angel. My husband and I are taking a vacation to California to see my family, and I'm excited because this is our first vacation in two years. I'm out of college for the summer, but I have to retake my math class because the disability support office didn't get my math book brailled for me on time so my teacher gave me an incomplete so I could finish it up in the fall. I hate it because its wasting my time, but there is nothing I can do. If they screw up again, well, they won't like me anymore.

My new obsession is Twilight fanfiction. Loved all the books but if I had to put them in order of favs it would be Twilight, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and then New Moon. I wish that Stephenie Meyer had finished Midnight son. She's already gotten halfway through it, but what can I say. Well, that's me in a nut shell. Oh, my guide dogs medical problems have been solved with a medicine called Tylan powder. She will take it forever, but you know what, she's the happiest I've ever seen her and she hasn't gotten sick since november first of last year, so keep your fingers that everything continues to be smooth sailing.

Current Mood: happy

I know it's been a while since I've poste but I've been busy with school. I'm now on Christmas break though. First lets talk about my beautiful baby. She has eight teeth and is almost walking. A couple more weeks and she will be crewsing around my house.

As for Ireland, well, I just hope she's better. I started her on Tylan powder on November the eighth, and so far so good. It usually takes at least eight weeks before her stomach problem or intestine problem reoccurs so I'm not going to say tne meds are working til then. Something new has come up with her. She's not being agressive with the baby, but I don't think she likes her much. She wags her tail when I am holding Caitlyn and sniffs at her and occasionally licks her hand or face, but id Caitlyn crawls on top of her or gets on her bed she lets out a short growl and This all started yesterday. I could tie Ireland down and keep her isolated but I want her to see the baby as a part of the family and like her. today when the baby got on her bed she growled a little and got up and moveI don't think she'd hurt my baby, but I'm concerned, well, got to go, hope someone coments.

Tags: guidedog

I'm mad. I don't know if I have the right to be furious, but I'm furious. I just checked my email and the disability support servies person said she couldn't find a copy of the third adition of the book in print on campus anywhere so she couldn't tell me by looking at my sylabus what I need to read. Then she goes on to tell me that I should get a reading macheen or scanner so that I can scan my own books and not have this kind of trouble in the future. Is it me, or am I the one at fault here. Should I haveto scan my own books from print in to an alternate format so I can download it on to my Pac Mate or computer or whatever and not expect the disability support people to get me the book in an alternate format. In my last college the disability support office got me my books because it was there responcability. My responcability was to schedule in advance so that I knew what books I'd need for the following term and tell the DsS office so they could get the book in some format for me to read. Yeah, I'm angery and frustrated and a whole bunch of other things.

Current Mood: angry

First thing you should know is that developmental services hasn't dealt with a blind student in ofer fifteen years. I expected that and so I went in to talk to them in June, explaining what I needed and so forth.

Now school has started and I am in the second week of school and still no history book. The class is using the fifth adition of the book, and my teacher said using the fourth adition would be fine because there isn't much difference between the fourth and fith aditions. However, the fourth adition isn't avalible in any format but the third adition is. Unfortunately, the third adition is way different than the fourth and fifth aditions and the disability service people want me to use it because they don't want to pay someone to put the fifth adition into an alternate format. To be fair, the person who is temporarily in charge of the disability service office really doesn't know what she is doing and I feel sorry for her because theprevious head of th office unexpectidly retired this summer to spend time with her children at home. That left the assistent director in charge. Part of me feels bad and part of me says it isn't my problem. I did what I was supposed to do and disability services hasn't.

My history teachers says I can use the third adition but someone needs to tell me what pages to read. They can look at his sylabus, see what we are studying in class, and write down the page numbers that I need to read. They want me to find out what I need to read on my own, but there are only so many hours in the day, and I do take other classes afterall. I shouldn't have to spend an hour skimming through an audio book trying to find what I need to read. I'm already behind in my reading and my first test in on September 15 and if I fail it I fail the course because the teacher only gives three exams and that's it. I can't keep playing catch up. I can't drop the class because I have a student loan and they'd ask for my money back sone this term I'm not full time. this whole mess isn't my fault, but I really am mad and frustrated because I don't know what to do. My husband is at the point where he wants to file a grievence with the university claiming that there campus isn't ADA compliant, which is isn't, and claiming that they didn't get the materals that I'd need before term started.

To make matters worse they changed my literature class to a different building and room. I don't know where every building on campus is because I'm new at the school I only learned where I needed to go and now I have to learn where this other building is. I told the disability services that it will take at least two weeks for me to learn a route to this building so until then they are having someone walk me to my class. On top of all that is the fact that I only have ten minutes to get from speech to literature, and although Ireland and I do walk farely fast, the building is now all the way across campus and I have to walk up a lot of stairs and stuff which my dog has to show me so that takes time so I'm always going to be late.

all in all, things are not going the way I need them to. I only hope that something can be figured out soon before much more happens.

On the plus side, Ireland is working very well.

Tags: s
Current Mood: frustrated

My first week of classes went all right. Ireland did pretty well. However when we went on break to the guck which is the student building where all the food is there was wall to wall people and it made Ireland nervous because I'd say forward and there was so many people that she couldn't weave through them all like she usually does. I went back through the building after classes and she did all right, but it is hard to find a place to sit during lunch because of all the people. I ask someone and some people have been helpfull. I got my world literature book in audio format from RFBD, and my spech teacher is going to send me her lectures since they are in microsoftword and she said I won't need to have the book made in a different format. My history book is a different story. My teacher is using the latest adition of the book and RfbD has the previously released aditions and I've tried using older aditions of books before and it doesn't work.


Well, I'm off to eat lunch now. Thanks to all my friends who read this and if you are on my friends list and usually don't coment just drop me a note and say hi if you feel like it.

Tags: books, i, p, s
Current Mood: happy

Yesterday my hyusband took Ireland and I to UNA to practice my routes. We went from the fountain where I'll be dropped off to biv Graves, from Bib Graves to the Guck, and from the Guck to the com building. The com building is all the way across campus, which for a sighted person is fine, but for a blind person walking across campus with a guide dog can be difficult. This campus is old and has stairs everywhere, so the simple comand find the stairs confused Ireland because she doesn't always know which set of stairs I want. So we found an alternate route but it was twice as long. Fortunate for me my husband saw that the guck had a back door leading off from the banquit hall off the second floor and I'd have to go sidewalkless for a minute or two but its on an access road so its all right. I liked the route much better. Ireland worked well though accept when we were walking to the com building going the long way there was some kind of vehicle in the road that made a funny noise. It was just idoling but the noise scared her and her tail turned down and she kept pulling me to the grass so I took off her harness and healed her past it because I didn't want to force her to work through something that was going to give her an angziety attack. In my three years of having her Ireland has never been afraid of loud trucks or wierd noises but something about this noise made her realy scared.
Once we were passed the noise, I don't even know what it was, we went on our way and she did fine. We didn't have to walk back that way and hopefuly we won't encounter that again because I've never seen her so terrified before.I praised her once we were passed the noise and gave her kibble and her tail came up and she was all right again. The whole thing was rather strange. My husband said if I had continued to incourage her to work passed it she probably would have started shaking.

All in all yesterday was a god day. The disability support office isn't prepaired for me because they can't find the books I need in an alternate format and they really don't want to fork out the money to have the books put in to an alternate format. I told them that something better be figured out before the first day of class because if I get behind it won't be my fault, and this is college, I would never catch up and be able to also focus on what was currently being taught.

Tags: disability support, g, noise, personal life, school
Current Mood: happy

I can't believe it's been a year since I moved to alabama. A lot has happened in that year, from Caitlyn arriving early to my mother-in-law moving away leaving us high and dry, to my husband geting premoted and working long hours, to me finally going back to school. Husbands hours are better now and Caitlyn is doing well. We found out that she has a little exima. She started breaking out on her stomach and around her side and the doctor is pretty sure that is what she has so she gave us a cream and it seems to have worked because its gone. She still isn't sitting up yet without us actually sitting her up and she isn't crawling yet eithor. She scoots really well and fast on her stomach though.

I've started learning my way around campus. I'm kind of nervous because this is a new area and I got so used to my old college campus where even when I got lost I could usually figure out where I was and find my way back to a folmiliar area. I'm only learning the places I need to go so if I get lost I only hope a fellow student is around to give me directions.

Ireland is doing well. Whe works pretty well for a bit but it is so hot here during the summer that it is hard to work outdoors for any long period of time. All we did last Thursday was learn where the buildings and rooms were that I'd be in. The rooms don't have braille signs on them with the room number, which kind of makes me a little uneasy, because the majority of the time I don't look at the number I do like to every now and then to assure myself that Ireland had gone to the right room. We practiced targeting her to the room using counter conditioning. Once she saw the kibel she got to work. I willg o probably Wednesday and Thursday and actually do my route.

I haven't found a babysiter for Caitlyn on Friday's yet, but I did meat a fifteen-year-old friend of my landlord who has had experiences with baby's who'd be willing to watch Caitlyn if me and my husband ever wanted to go out or if I had a big asignment do and I neded someone looking after Caitlyn now that she is more mobile. She wanted to watch her while I'm here for the first time just so she feels confortable. She's supposed to be coming over today but I didn't call her during the weekend to remind her so I hope she remembers. I want her to be able to watch Caitlyn for four hours on Sunday so me and my husband can go out for four hours to a romantic dinner and to a movie. We haven't done that since before Caitlyn was born. It will be nice to spend some quality time together. Between his work and the baby time alone hasn't happened in forever.

It will be nice to go back to school in three weks. I hope I make a lot of new friends. My husband says I will and I hope he's right. Well, I have to go do dishes and feed Caitlyn her morning fruit.

Tags: baby, guidedog, personal life, school, work
Current Location: home
Current Mood: content
Current Music: Carrie Underwood's My Last Name

Let me start by saying I am glad I'm going back to school. The year off has been great despite all the stuff that has been going on, but it will be nice to get out for a few hours by myself. Don't get me wrong, I love Caitlyn and everyday with her is a blessing and I love watching her crawl and play, but even though it is school, it will be a break for me.ffThat was a horrible runon sentence.

Anyway, the good news, I'm starting out slow. I'm only taking three classes this somester because that is all that I can fit in right now since my husband and I have to corrdinate our schedules. Bad news, not all of my college credited clases transfered to this university. The only way they all would have transfered is if I stayed in Washington. The state requires and elementary ed. major to take two Biology classes. As a totally blind person that sucks, because the majority of the time is spent looking at things and describing them and well, that might be a problem. The disability support staff said they'd find me a good lab partner or lab assistent but I said I'd feel bad for that person since they'd be doing a good portion of the labs.

Also, my college level Math didn't transfer through. No one knows why, so I have to retake one class that I've already taken plus two other math classes. I have to take two Western Lit classes which I knew, a history class which I knew, and a couple things before I even start on my classes in the education department. I can take seven classes dealing with my major without being accepted to the college of education. Just so everyone knows, the university might have accepted me, but the college of education won't allow me in until all the general stuff is done. It al would have been accept two biologys and a math if they had taken all my stuff.

It also doesn't help that I changed majors from music education to elementary education because the Theory department here was giving me trouble, and I'd already been down that road and fought tooth and nail, I just want to get through school and get my career started. Since I love kids and teaching, I chose elementary education. Nedless to say I spent three years in a comunity college, and I will spend four more at university. Not, cool.
On another note Ireland is feeling better. She is running around and is working good and got to run in a friends yard yesterday which is good for her. I will start learning the campus next week, but since I only need to learn where three buildings are this term it won't take me long because I'm a fast learner.

Just want to say thanks to the people on my friends list who take the time to read my little sometimes pointless entries and comment on them.

Tags: guidedog, personal life, school
Current Mood: aggravated

Title: Freedom
Pairing: Hp/GW Rw/Hg.
Chapter summary: Harry and friends go in to Diagon Alley to take care of some business.
A/n: Here is chapter two, hope you enjoy.
( Read more )

Current Mood: happy

Well, things are loking up for Ireland. Friday night she was getting worse and not drinking water. I had to give her ice cubes for her to stay hidrated so I took her to the vet first thing yesterday. They gave her a shot to calm her stomach, and she has to take antibiotics for five days to help get bacteria out of her intestine. She doesn't have paracites or anything, just an infection. They think it started in her stomach and moved from there so I have to give her some over the counter tagamet to help the acid in her stomach balance out. She made it through the night last night with no bouts of sickness, and will be on a bland diet until Tuesday at which time I will slowly introduce her food to her again. If ithappens again while she's on her food then the vet will take blood to insure that nothing is wrong. They didn't do that this time because she is uaually a healthy dog and they want to do that only as a last resort. If she gets sick again she might have developed a food tolerence something or other. Basically it means that she's been eating the same brand of dog food since she could eat solid food, which is usually a good thing, but sometimes dogs develope an alergy to it and the food would need to be switched. That would be the last thing we'd do though since the food usually isn't the problem. I'm glad I didn't wait til Monday to go to the vet because she might have dehydrated or something worse.

After my vet visit I spent time with my landlord, she drove me to the vet since the buses here don't run on Saturday's, and I had Caitlyn. We went to her daughters house and hung out. Her daughters eight-year-old loves baby's and spent all day playing with Caitlyn. The cool thing is that I think my landlord's daughter will babysit for us when I go back to school, which will make her daughter vary happy.

Overall, yesterday was a good day. I found out that my dog has an over sensative stomach, which I already knew, but no one knew it was as picky as it is, and I got to get out of the house. Fun fun, for everyone.

Tags: friends, guidedog, personal life
Current Mood: happy