Catching up...

Highlights:

• As a graduation present from her 2 Mom's & Step-Mom, Sophie got a cell phone on Sunday June 19th, 2011.  She said it was the happiest day of her life.  She earned this phone that she'd been begging for by showing great responsibility with regards to Shiloh and in doing things around both of her homes.
• Sophie graduated from 5th grade on June 21st, 2011.  After graduation, which her other Mom (G), Linda & I attended, at her request we all went out to dinner.  As we all sat down, Sophie looked around at the 3 of us and said "This is so great.  My entire family is all together." (yes, I got ferklempt!)  Without going into too many details to protect the innocent AND guilty, by the end of the dinner, Sophie was grounded and had lost her cell phone for a week.  Ugly doesn't begin to describe her behavior at that restaurant.  The good news is after a week, the attitude adjustment had been implemented and it's been fine ever since.
• Linda & I shot 2 Bat Mitzvahs.  Both went well and on the 2nd one, we received our first tip.
• Linda ran a 1/2 marathon in our town and though she didn't come in under the time she wanted, she ended up running with a friend of ours who caught up to her at mile 2!  And it was the first race that I didn't go back into the car and read/fall asleep, set my alarm to get up in time to see her cross the finish line!  I actually saw her 3 times during the race by driving my car on back roads on the course.  It was very cool!
• Linda's photography business booked a Bar Mitzvah for September and received an inquiry regarding a Bat Mitzvah for twins for November.
• Linda shot pictures of our friends' band
• Linda finished the post-processing for all of her jobs by July 3rd.
• Business Website revamping began July 4th!

Shiloh continues to grow and behave like a puppy.  This is both cute and destructive!  We're thankful that she lives at G's house!  Sophie's learning that it's not all fun and games having a puppy.

G had family (brother and sister-in-law and their 2 kids (ages 8 & 6) from out of town visit for the last 2 weeks and thus this week, they ventured into NYC for a day with them this past Wednesday.  G asked if Linda would mind going over around 1:30 to let Shiloh out.  She did and the following is an example of what she went through trying to get Shiloh to walk around to do her business:

 

Linda finally got her up and moving and then received this look:

 

Got her up again and then this happened:

 

I received these images from Linda's iPhone via e-mail as a play-by-play which had me laughing my butt off while sitting in the office.

That evening, when I got home from work, Linda asked me if my ex (G)'s Dad (who is up from Florida living with her for the new few months and who has met Linda numerous times both here AND in Florida) knows who she is.  I asked why.  She said, "Because today he asked me how long I've been doing this.  And when I asked him what he meant.  He asked how long I'd been working for the dog walking lady."  I cracked up and thought that maybe G's Dad was losing it a little.

The dog is so damn cute that it's hard to stay mad at her!  In fact, we were all over at my ex's for a 4th of July picnic on Saturday, where there was so much excitement, that when the weather turned bad and Sophie & her cousin Matthew plopped on the living room floor to play a video game on the computer, this happened:

 

Of course, people started taking pictures, and that caused Shiloh to lift her head to see what all the clicking noises were about and then she did this:

 

Yesterday (Thurs), G and her family from out of town came over with Sophie to hang at the pool at our condo for the afternoon.  I really like and miss her brother & sister-in-law, so it's been nice seeing them and having them meet Linda.  It's so incredible to me that we all can hang out together - G, Linda & I and that for Sophie's sake, we're all family.

So, I asked G what's going on with her Dad that he thought Linda was the dog walker or working for the dog walker.  She started laughing as did her brother & sister-in-law.  She said, "My Dad thinks that both of you work for the dog walker!!!".  (I had stopped over after work to take Shiloh out, sinc they were going to be in the city all day and not getting back until 9)  We were all cracking up. 

So I said, "Well, Linda would probably BE your dog walker if you wanted to pay her what you were going to pay that dog walker lady you met with the other day."  And G said, "and I'd pay her if she wanted the job."  We laughed and went onto another subject.  (Linda had not yet come outside while this conversation was going on)

That night, I told Linda about the conversation and she said, "I'd do it and she wouldn't even have to pay me as much as she was going to pay that woman."  So after a serious discussion... I called up G and told her that I had a proposition for her and by the end of the call, Linda was the official Shiloh dog walker!

I have been experiencing knee issues since last week (and then went on a 15 mile bike ride with Linda on Monday afternoon before going to the fireworks with Sophie, Linda & G's family) and went ot the dr yesterday, where it was determined that I have miniscus issues and was prescribed heavy duty anti-inflamatory pills, told to ice it at least 3 times a day and to start physical therapy next week.

So I called my boss and said I was working from home in the afternoon and today.

Since the weather was bad today - humid and chance of t-storms, we let Sophie stay home with us instead of going to camp.  I had my annual eye exam at 11:30, so Linda & Sophie came with me and then after grabbing a bite of lunch, we went to take Shiloh out.  After she peed, we decided to take her to the dog park for a walk and see how she made out.

Thankfully, she's great in the car.  (Not so good on the getting in or getting out - needs to be picked up for each direction)

Upon arrival, she had her tail down and had to be coaxed (dragged) up onto the walkway.  There were a few other dogs and she was very intimidated.  Once they smelled her and let her by, we were pretty much by ourselves but Shiloh still kept trying to turn back towards the car.  We persisted to coax her along and a little further up, a woman and her yellow lab came up from behind and the dog was very calm and friendly and Shiloh liked her.  They passed us and Shiloh, with her tail raised high and wagging, followed happily!

She's far from perfect, but by the end of the walk, she was really doing well.  Though she didn't once go to the bathroom!  On the way home, she was pretty tired and passed out on the back seat of the car, but she wasn't alone.   When Linda went to take a picture, though, this is what she caught:

 

Not only does it take a village to raise a child, but it seems it also takes a village to raise a dog!