Very Very Very long time o see! I'm baaaaack!!!

Hey all! I was bored today and saw somebody's post to a blog on the guide dog network group I'm apart of on facebook, and realized that I hadn't posted on here in awhile,although I've written. Yeah! Almost two years would be considered awhile! Gosh! Hmmm... An overview of the past two years... I started dating randy in April of 2012, who I met through Mike and Sara, and he stuck with me through the horrid methods experience I had, (not a good teacher placement), and student teaching, (which was with Mr. P from earlier posts, and was really good.) Now we are engaged! :d We're getting married September 27, 2013! I have my dress picked out and my bridesmaids dresses almost decided on. We're getting married in my home church and having the reception in a reception hall at our fairgrounds. I'm so excited! :D Also, I have a job now, not teaching as I'm not sure I want to do that at least right now, but as an Office Mannager at a company working with adults with cognitive disabilities. I'm living with the owner of the small company now, they thought I'd be a great fit for the company and knew my dad from school, so decided to help me out so I could find a place. They truly love having me work for them and say that the company feels complete like it hasn't for two years since the previous lady that did my job died of cancer, (R.I.P for her), so I know it isn't just because they knew my dad that they hired me haha! :) I'm moving in to my own apartment December 9th, and am really excited about it! It's unfurnished, but I have some furnature already from family and Jim and shelly,, who I'm living with now, have some they don't use that they said I could, so that's great! I like my job, although it can get boring sometimes when people are not coming in and I'm caught up on what I have to do lol! Other than that it's great, and I get to talk to clients which is fun. You'd think I had more to write... Oh! i'm still working Bilko, and he's doing great. He has some fatty sists on his sides, but the vet said they aren't cancerous so he's fine. Boy did I freak out the first time I found one though! Randy was there, and his brother's dog had some, so he calmed me down. Oh, we had to put Hope down in March. She was our standard poodle. She was having seizures and the medication was making her in to a different dog, and her organs were shutting down. The meds weren't helping much either. It was really sad, but she's with Jesus now... Mom and dad got snickers, a Golden doodle, (golden retriever/poodle cross), in april and she's a bundle of energy. she was only 8 weeks when they got her. She loves Bilko, and Bilko likes her, but not the pulling on his ears andconstantly wanting him to play part. He'll be seven in December! How'd that happen! Oh! I went to a Cincinnati Goalball group last night, a friend I know through aCBo plays and told me about it, and I absolutely love it! Shelly went with me and promptly decided we had to get a ball for OTS and play as a staff. lol! I'm sore now since I haven't played in forever, so will probably take a hot bath tonight lol. I did well though, scored the winning point in overtime for the game where the teams were ACB (mine), vs. NFB, so that was awesome. I'm planning on going whenever I can, hopefully every week, when it starts again in January. It's $25 for ten or so weeks, so pretty good. They have two weeks in December, but I hope I can convince them to let me pay half of it or something since I'm joining late. I know there's things I've forgotten to say in here, but I'm going to post this now and take Billy out. Hopefully somebody still reads this!!!!

Bilko's bloggings-- itchy itchy!

Hi all, mom finally gave me the computer again!
So she wrote earlier about my alergies--I think that's what they're called-- that make me all itchy and I hate it. I have white spots where my fur is thin from my scratching. I hate it! Mom's been giving me these pill-things that she sneaks in to my food, but since I can't taste them since I'm so focused on the food I don't care, and they help, but they make me really thirsty and have to do my business a lot. I really don't like that, because I know it's making things harder for mom since she has to take me out a lot more often. She called the Vet here in the town where we go to school, and they said the only thing they can do is give me the pills or a shot that would do the same thing. Mom's not sure she believes them, but she doesn't know what else to do. She's been giving me half the pill though, so it's not near as bad as it could be.

Any ideas anybody? I hate being itchy and hate being a burden to my mom! She says I'm not and she doesn't mind doing it because she loves me, but I can't help feeling bad! I love you mommy! You let me off harness between classes after you typed on the computer and everybody else scratched with the stick-things and nobody talked for a long time, and I had fun!
Well, mom needs the computer back, so talk to yall later!
Sargent Bilko

Bilko update

Ok, so I still have another week to post of placement at P-Burg, but I wanted to get this in first.
Bilko has been guiding well and having fun, but he's been having trouble with alergies. I really first noticed it freshman year of college, when he was scratching a lot, and my Aunt noticed he had bumps on his stomach and private area.
I took him to the vet, and the gave him meds, but I am not sure if they were steroids or not. He was on them for awhile (don't remember how long), and then it went away. I didn't have any trouble last summer, but this year he started scratching again. I took him to the vet in BG, and he gave me steroids to try and stop the itching. I put him on two pills a day for a week, then one a day, then one every other day, but (instead of putting him on half a pill every other day for a week like he suggested( I stopped giving them to him to see how he'd do. It was ok for awhile, but he's been scratching a lot again lately, and there's bumps on his legs and missing patches of fur. I didn't want to take him back to the vet, so I started him on half a pill again once a day. It's helped, but I hate the steroids, because he gets really lathargic and has to "do his business" a lot. I don't have time to take him out every twenty minutes, but the half pill has been doing pretty good, and he does have to Pea more, but that's not near as bad as it was over the summer. Today he's been extremely lazy--like not wanting to get up to go to church lazy-- but I can't decide if he's just really tired from yesterday working around the wedding shops for Sarah's wedding dress (more on that later I hope), or if something's really wrong. I'm calling the vet tomorrow to see what they can do about the scratching other than the steroids, and hopefully they can get me in. I'll be taking BG Transit, since all of my roommates that can drive are in classes all day tomorrow.
God, please let Bilko just be tired from the shopping and staying up while we played rock band until 1 in the morning and not him really sick.

Well, he hasn't thrown up (except for last week when he ate tampons) so I'm taking that as a good sign. I'm going to feed him now, so if he eats ok that's another good sign.
If anyone's actually reading this, please pray or send good thoughts/vibes or whatever that I'm just paranoid.
Thanks :)

SP--East and South

I went to East Elementary yesterday, (Thuosday), for awhile and worked with a woman I'll call Mrs. Goggles. (nickna/e a girl in my class came up with when we were younger.) I had fun helping a boy with figuring out pennies and nickles. He spoke mostly Spanish, so I greeted him and he was all smiles! It was cool. I al helped a fourth grader with multiplication and devision using fake pennies as manipulative. That was cool, because that is what we were learning how to teach before break. I then went and brought the first graders in to the hall in groups of 4, (they wanted to see Bilko and were doing reading groups), and explained to them what Bilko does for me. I had the harness on and had them read his sign, "do not pet me I am working." Then I took off the harness, made hm say sitting, and let them pet him. Mrs. Gogqles was totally amazed how well I handled that with having them read it and everything. I was thinking 'duh! what else would I do? they're first graders! They need to read.' I then talked to my mom's PE class of 3rd graders, and let them hold the harness and then let them come up in 4s to pet him before getting their shoes on.
Today I went to South Elementary and observed Mrs. Kits. She had IEP's part of the day so I got to sit through 2 of them. One the parents only spoke Spanish, and I realized how inadequate my spanish-speaking skills are. I was thinking about minoring in Spanish, but I'm not sure I will. I may try to learn on my own or something. At least enough to get by in parent-teacher conferences. I want to find spanish radio or something to listen too. I'd like to go to Spain next summer, but I don't if that will happen since I kind of want a job for the summer... The resorse room at South has a lot of kids doing lots of different subjects at once. They do tests it there, like math but the teachers aren't aloud to do more than just make sure the problems are set up right. It is interesting to see how they work with several subjects at once. they mostly give one kid a question or problem then help someone ekse than go back when the other kid is done with the question...
I really want to student-teach in Texas, especially with the crappy bill being talked about passing in Ohio. I don't know much about it except its something to do with getting rid of the teacher's union and capping pay at $34,000. That really scares me. What is this country coming to if they're running teachers out of the field? It hasn't passed quite yet but it might, and it will eventually effect everywhere! I'm horrified! how the heck can they do this? Kids NEED TO LEARN! O well, guess I can't do anything about it, so why waste time worrying? (BTW East and South are 2 schools in my town.)

Kong air squeaker football

So, I got Bilko the air kong squeaker football from dogsupplies.com
It came last week, but nobody told me I had a package notice and had to pick it up from the front office until a few days ago, and I never got a chance to go get it till today. I got it and opened it, and Bilko took it but he wasn't that interested at first, until I threw it for him! He ran and grabbed and started charging around our apartment! It was sooo funny! I recorded a sound file of him, but I don't know how to upload it to here. Help Please? If you guys wanna hear him that is...

Frogger with Chuck

I just got done with a meeting with my GDB field rep, Chuck. He came down to help me with crossing the street my apartment is on to the bus stop. I don't usually use this bus, but since I have late night classes, it would be easier to get on the "south Route" bus than call campus escort. Basically, I cross the parking lott in front of my building, and walk along the curb until I get to my usual shuddle stop that we use for the Enclave shuddle, then we turn left from the bus stop (its at our back then we do this) then he finds this curb, its kind of rounded, so he rounds it to the right and when it levels out we turn and cross the parking lott again to the sidewalk on the other side. We then turn left on the sidewalk and follow it until it T's off. We turn right and find the driveway to this house near the complex, turn left in the driveway and the street slopes up so when we find that slope we stop and wait for an all-clear and cross. The sidewalk splits at the curb, so we go streight and I tell Bilko to "find the poll." We're there! It's not near as complicated as I thought it would be. :)

After that I wanted to work on rounded curbs, so Chuck drove us to downtown BG and we worked a route of them. We basically did a large rectangle, and he did amazing! Yea Bilko! That's the best work I've seen out of him in a long time! He was having fun, and really paying attention. :D There was a large lab across the street at one point that got him distracted, but I made him sit and lay down then sit again and he was fine. :)
Chuck praised how good he looks and how mature and focused he is. He also praised my handling which is always nice to hear haha!
He said that Bilko had some tarter on his teeth, but they wern't bad, and I admitted I hadn't been brushing them as regularly as I should.

I actually should be in class right now, but decided not to go since we were going to be late anyway, and I really didn't feel like trying to explain to Chuck where the building is hahaha! Besides, I only know how to get to the classroom from one door that we can't drive too, and nothing is brailled in that building. I could have asked Chuck for help, but o well... I really didn't want to go to class! lol

Greatful for my guide ({)

So I just had to post about how much I love my dog. :)
I went out with some friends today. One is actually my O and M instructor lol. I met her and her husband at a camp for the Vblind/VI over the summer, and she ended up being my O and M instructor for college haha!
I have to say I have absolutely nothing against this school what-so-ever. . I actually considered it for getting a dog, but this guy's handling is not good! He lets people pet his dog in harness, which if the dog can handle it and not get distracted is ok, but this dog can't. The dog just randomly went over to say hi to some kids standing near us. He kept having to tell the dog to come repetedly. The dog also licked the floor... Ok its a dog, its gonna lick, but its discusting, and he didn't do anything about it. He also gave his dog icecream in harness! He can give his dog icecream if he wants, but I don't get why he'd keep him in harness to do it. Then the dog would try to get more icecream... he was watching mine lol. Bilko just layed by my side and looked around, but didn't try to say hi to anybody like the other dog did, and didn't lick the floor. I only had to correct him once for missing a curb, but it was right outside the door of DQ. The other dog tried to follow a stranger lol! O and this dog is 11, and Bilko behaved better than him. I love my boy!
I really like this guy and his wife, but yeah... his wife and I agree he doesn't handle his dog well. Yea Bilko! You rock!