long overdue update

Hey guys,

So here is what has been going on for the last couple of months. sorry that there are no pictures right now but I will get some for you soon. July26-28th I was invited along with my partner in crime, Faith, to accompany my AC to GEB to participate in the annual Area Coordinators Workshop. This workshop is a time for the AC's from all of the Guiding Eyes regions to gather at GEB and have time to get to know/reconnect with each other, get caught up on what's been happening in the program over the last year and to go over the goals and how to reach them for the upcoming year (whether it be new training methods or studies or whatever). We did a bunch of fun games the first night and spent the next few days in a workshop with Suzanne Clothier. The best part of the weekend was that I got to visit Mork in the kennels. The first day we got to watch community run and see them in the kennel area but the second day they actually let us go in the kennel with our dogs because we were behind schedule and most people went to lunch instead. Mork graduated in August. I went to the graduation and got to meet his partner. She's a great girl from PA and Mork was her second dog. She was very happy that he grew up in a college setting being as she is herself a college student. We took her to dinner and got to know each other as well as the puppy raiser for her first dog. While at GEB I got to visit with Sarah and Carrie as well as pet Mork's brothers in the kennel. And I also handed in paper work so that I could do my internship at Guiding Eyes Vet Hospital in January. August brought on my third semester of Vet Tech. Whew I didnt have any idea of how much work that we had to accomplish and how much we had to learn in the short few months that we had in the classes. Glacier of course accompanied me to my classes except for the labs. I also became the Secretary of the Vet Tech club so things got even more complicated. The months just flew by! I found out that Mork was returned to GEB a few days before Thanksgiving. I dont know all of the details but it was along the lines of second dog syndrome plus the fact that he was having some stress related issues and sicknesses. Christmas was excellent. We spent a quiet Christmas at home and I prepared to go to GEB the 4th of January for my preceptorship. Plans changed. My grandmother died on the 3rd of January and I spent the rest of my vacation in Alabama for the funeral. It was actually kinda fun. I got to hang out with all my cousins and met my baby (2yr old) cousin Kimora who absolutely adored me and spent most of her time with me or her dad ( my cousin who is the same age as me). I left Glacier at home the enitre time. She went to a friend of mine who was at the time on the waiting list to get a puppy. She actually got her puppy, Olympia, while we were gone. Glacier was great at both sitters houses and actually behaived like she knew what she was supposed to be doing. lol. When we got home I had in the mail my letter that said that Mork was in the January graduating class for the next saturday! I of course was super excited and decided right then that I was going no matter what...then the car broke down. Luckily it was a semi easy fix and we got to go. My Regional manager reserved my mom and I a room in the guest house so we went down Friday night and spent the night. The nesxt morning we went on the breeding kennel tour which was being run by 2 of my favorite people, Maria and Vicki. They are amazing. Maria is the breeding kennel manager and Vick is the Program Manager. They both gave me giant hugs and congratualtions on Mork's graduation. My mom finally got to see exactly how many people know me at Guiding Eyes because I was stopped by pretty much everybody. After that I tried to get my gift for Mork's graduate ready (I had started to make his partner a narrated CD of pictures but the computer crashed the friday night and it was corrupted somehow so I had to start all over again). We ended up being slightly late to the ceremony. We got there right as the graduates started to file in. Two of the dogs my friends raised, Enrico and Lava and a Yellsea half sister, Olympus, were in the January class as well. Mork was matched with a great guy named Michael who is a lawyer from California. Mork is his second dog and he was super excited to meet me. After the ceromony the raisers are invited to meet the graduates and say a final goodbye to the dogs they raised. I was about to go up and got stopped by Mike's family who were so happy that I was there and thanked me so much for raising Mork. Poor Mike thought that I didn't d come! He asked two staff memebers if I had come and finally my mom went up and told him that I had gotten stuck on my way to see him. My mom usually waits behind till I greet the graduate and dog since she feels she doenst have the connection that I have. We got our pictures taken and got to chat. I am really happy with Mike. I couldn't have asked for a better match. He was very upfront and kind about Mork being a regrad and was super happy that he had "come back to find his forever person". That night I went out to dinner with Sarah, Enrico's raiser and graduate, Lava's raiser and graduate and another friend that met up with us at graduation and her puppy in pre training, Harvey-who was the only dog as the graduates are not allowed to take their dogs with them. It was a wonderful night. Then I started school aggain. It is my final semester here at Alfred State. I will graduate in May as a Veterinary Technician! I dont know what I am going to do after school! Glacier is coming with me to school again this semester. I am only taking 4 classes but my schedule is super full!! I have the hardest two classes of my major this semester and they take over the scheduled period of time to finish everything envolved. Glacier is a huge hit in my speach class that I am taking just so that I can be up to full time. They get very sad when I dont bring her to calss with me. She is also a hit in my Genetics class that is a fun elective that Im taking. We are even going to talk about color genetics in that class because of her. Glacier is doing very well in training. She is settling down very well and doing excelent. We are working on some different shaping activities that we are doing with her. She is learning spin left and right and touch left and right as well as bow and find it. She is a super fast learner. She is again away on a puppy swap so at the moment I have Miss Jeanette who is sister to Sarah's Jo. She is a long haired black and tan and the sweetest girl ever. She has amazingly settled in the house and is excellent with obedience. She does have some issues, like Jo, with traffic but not so severe. She works well except for when there are big trucks. We are also working a lot with stairs and working when it is warm. You may be asking how we can work on being in warm to hot places when we live in western NY were it is 5 below outside not counting the wind chill. Well my brothers are swimmers so we have gone to the pool and worked on doing things in the heat. Being long haired she is not so thrilled with the heat but has been doing progressivly better and better. While here she also got to play with her sister Jillian at my 4-H meeting. Jeanette will be staying with me till Wednesday when we will switch back. That is all for now. I will hopefully be more available for updates soon. Check back for pictures as well.