Sleeping Beauties

ps
I've been taking Sadie out in the morning and then bringing her upstairs while I get ready for work. Tom has taken to snuggling with Sadie, and it looks like she's growing pretty fond of this as well.

We went to our first dog obedience class tonight called Puppy Kindergarten. It's a lot about basic puppy behavior and even more about training the owners. :)

Mom K. is heading out here tomorrow for a visit and to meet her new granddoggy!

Settling In

Sadie is starting to settle in at the derailment of Tom's work productivity. I'm going to chose to believe he did not spend all of the afternoon as shown. This was however, how I found them when I came home from work.

Sadie is seeming less timid day by day and more engaged. She's acting less timid and more interested in exploring. She's figured how to climb up on and promptly fall of the lawn furniture. The weather has been lovely here, high 70s, so I think Tom and Sadie will have many of these days.

Sadie: Day 2

Well today was our first full day with Sadie, and it was an adventure. We woke up at 6 a.m. to what I can only describe as a mix of a howl and a rooster. Apparently her lungs are healthy. I ended up taking her outside. Tom ended up promptly falling asleep. :)

She's starting to interact more and actually started exploring versus cowering behind furniture. She's starting to come when called, and she had her first leash walk. She also ended up pooping in her kennel while we were out to dinner with friends (not so fun), but she made good progress over the last day.

Here are some new pictures of her. You can get a better sense of how tiny she is!

Meet Sadie!

Most of you know that we lost our dog Satchel a few weeks ago and that we've been having a hard time getting through that. We loved him terribly, and it's left our home and hearts a little empty.

Well, we starting looking around this week just to see what was out there for rescue dogs and we have a new addition to the family. Thank you familydogsnewlife! Sadie is a 15 pound, 3 month old mix. She's seems to have a lot of German Shepherd in her, but we don't have info about the parents. She's tiny, and very, very shy, so we're going to be busy with her for awhile. Enjoy!

Rain, rain and more rain

It's been forever since I've written, and unfortunately the weather hasn't changed much in Portland since I last wrote. With the exception of three hot days, it's been cold and rainy. You know it's bad if someone in Portland is complaining about the rain.

The only positive slants I can put on the are that I've been too busy to get out to enjoy the weather, and the second is that we haven't had to water the lawn? :)

Dominican Republic

We just got back from a week's vacation in the Dominican Republic. You may be asking yourself, how does someone that live in Oregon decided to go to the DR for vacation? Well, my parents have become vacation aficionados and decided to go here on vacation. Coincidentally, Tom's parents ended up on a trip there at the same time. We decided to join in since we'd be able to see both families as once. We also had two uncles, my aunt, and two cousins join in the fun, so it was a joint reunion of sorts.

Some highlights:

Tom apparently has a secret love of karaoke and after I went to bed, gave the guests a once in a lifetime show. His performance was apparently so complelling, that two audience members joined in as his backup dancers. No pictures of that!

We went zip lining, Mom, included! We spent a beautiful day zipping over the DR.

Mom in action!

Uncle Ted on his way

Our 2007 holiday letter

As part of the madness, our holiday letter is just going out in tomorrow's mail. For those of you eagerly awaiting it, here it is with some pictures!

Hello and greetings from Portland! We hope this finds you in good health and spirits. 2007 has been another busy year for us, and we can't believe that 2008 is almost here!

Some highlights:

1. We still love Portland, though the pace has picked up here quite a bit. Between work home and friends, there doesn't leave much time for things in between as you can tell by our belated holiday letter! We still managed to squeeze in some fun trips and time with friends.
2. Jen is working on special assignment as a Quality Assurance manager for a company her company acquired. Tom is still working from the comfort of the house and likes what he does. It looks like some travel is in store for 2008 to CA and India! He got to spend two weeks in India last year as well.
3. We spent some time in Australia and New Zealand enjoying the scenery, culture, and wine. Tom literally took the plunge and went bungy jumping! (See below picture.) We had some amazing experiences and two weeks off work was an added bonus. Eventually we'll get some pictures up on Jen's blog.

Upcoming plans:

1. Tom's heading to India again. We're not sure if Jen will be able to come with this time due to work, but we're hoping it will work out.
2. We've been toying with some home renovation ideas, so who knows what's next there!
3. We'll be getting away over New Year's for some relaxation time on Mount Hood. Satchel our old German Shepherd will get some time in the snow. He still seems to be going strong and cancer free.

We hope all is well with you and yours. We hope to see all of you soon in 2008!

Jen, Tom and Satchel