November's a wrap!

This month we hit a huge milestone. As of November 17th, we have been married for 10 years! We had thought that, since we could not go out of town, we would try to celebrate every day for 10 days. This didn't entirely pan out, either, because we both were getting a cold (not as bad as last year, but...) We did have fun, though. We took photos for Christmas, we "recreated" our first date, and on our actual anniversary, we went to The Melting Pot for dinner. Jen had the week off so it was nice to get that break, and Jeff had a few days off here and there. It was good to help us get ready for Thanksgiving!

This year we had Thanksgiving at Jen's family's house. We had a decent turnout with both sets of parents, and Jen's oldest sister and brother. We did the bulk of the cooking and everything was very casual. So much so, we didn't even take photos! Later that night we decided to go check out the Thanksgiving night sales, but it was pretty quiet overall. We did go later than the 6 PM sales, but that just made it more fun to see how torn up everything was!

Overall it was a nice holiday. Now, time to work up to Christmas!

The Garden, Part Deux

There has been some success in our garden this year, thanks to our friend Andres helping us out with the plants. Thus far, we have:

- Our small orange tree that we bought in honor of Christopher. It's still in a smaller pot, and Jen wants to put it in something bigger this week.
- Spaghetti squash in the backyard garden.
- Peppers in the garden (cayenne, habanero, jalapeno, Peruvian, Serrano, and Thai) as well as some in pots out front (more jalapeno and habanero, plus poblano and Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper in the world.)
- Some herbs: cilantro, basil and parsley.
- Tomatoes
- Corn

We hope that we'll have more to plant this fall: zucchini, lettuce, brocolli and spinach, plus some others

The field of corn, with a view of our apple tree

Closer look at our field

The corn is almost taller than our house!

Carolina Reaper

Cilantro. Jen has to stay away from it, though; she's allergic.

Our first round got us about 30 tomatoes

Yes, Even More Paintings

We are both really getting the painting bug! In the past month we've done one painting at home, Jen did one with her friends, and we did a partner painting together! We are both enjoying the fruits of our labors, even if we are running out of wall space around here to hang everything up!!

Our partner paint project. Can you tell which one was Jeff and which was Jen?

Jen's "At Home" project. Can you guess what this was from ?

This was Jen going rogue at Paint Nite! Again, another "book-inspired" painting.

The Garden

This is the first year we've been able to do a real garden. Usually we just put plants in the front yard out of fear that the dogs will tear up and kill everything in the backyard. This year, though, Jeff and his friend Andres were able to do more.

We have two little gardens right now. The first is out front: A row of tomato plants in potters, next to the small orange tree we bought for Chris, and a few pepper plants. Our backyard, however, took more work.

We were able to actually fence off an area of the yard with posts and wire to keep the critters out, and for the most part it's been good. We were also able to get some compost to help with the plants. Right now, only the corn seems to be doing well, but at least we have a section ready for when we want to plant more stuff!

Pepino supervising Andres

Posts all laid out

They misunderstood about planting the Pepinos (cucumbers)

Finished product!

A Random Dog Post

It seems like, for the most part, the dogs have all been having their own little stories, so for giggles, I thought I'd just do a little update on the furry Perry people!

Jakey has been the least troublesome dog in our pack. His little grumble is never more than him being vocal. Lately, he and Callie have been best buddies, and whenever I look out the two of them are chasing and playing with each other. Today, he did get into a little trouble. Our next door neighbors have a female husky and her puppy, and Jake has tried to get through the fence to "meet" the other dogs.
   

Callie is just a big baby! When she is in the yard, she is either barking at her "siblings" or carrying a "baby" around. Her babies can be anything, usually stuffed animals, but she's been seen carrying other things, like socks, plastic bottles, even poor Pepino! Despite her big size and scary appearance, she's probably the sweetest of our monsters and loves everyone. Jen has been taking her for walks on her own to work on her "heeling", and whenever she sees another dog she doesn't get the chance to meet or sniff, she cries.
 

 

Pepino has been doing well. For those that don't know, Pepino is our only dog that is not yet fixed. We wanted to get his seizures under control, and now that they are, we were waiting for the next one to hit, since he may have one when he comes out of the anesthetic of the surgery. The only "problem"? As of this posting, he is 178 days without a seizure, and the one before that was about 100 days prior! We wanted to get him fixed over the summer so Jen's sister could watch him, but it never happened. We'll just have to figure something else out!

 

 

Ichabod has been keeping busy. One of our good friends is planning on running several 5k races next year and we offered up Ichabod as a running partner. It was a win all around: our friend can run with a security guard, Ichabod gets some much-needed attention and exercise, and we get a mellow puppy (okay, well, SORT OF mellow puppy). He's been a great running partner and they go about twice a week, and in between he still goes on his regular walks with the rest of the family.

Yeah, there's a reason she hides from us sometimes...

Fox has been our little troublemaker as of late. She is incredibly bright, and her favorite thing is to turn the water on in the yard and play in the muddy mess she makes. It got so bad Jen had to take her to get bathed. It only lasted a few hours: as soon as she was outside, she did it again. We brushed all her dirt out and she stayed clean this weekend, but we have to clean her again before we go to bed.

Before. Actually, she was worse :-/

What a look!

 

After: A clean Fox!

We also have had some guests over. We puppy-sat a 6-month old husky puppy a few weekends, and he loves coming over to play with our crazies. And our neighbor dog (the same husky Jake wants to meet) came over to our yard this past Monday. Fortunately, she came right up to Jeff, who leashed her and held onto her until we realized she was our neighbors and we returned her a few hours lately. It's pretty apparent that we are just a doggy epicenter!

A Pixar Weekend

This past weekend was a bit of an adventure in the city (San Francisco) and it seemed to cover everything Pixar. On Saturday, we (with Jen's sister Myra) went to the symphony to hear them perform the music from Pixar movies. We had gone before when they first did this two years ago, but this time it was completely different. There were no souvenirs, CDs or anything really the first time. Last weekend, though, it was completely different. There was a photo booth where you could be "green screened" into the movie UP. There were also cutouts and figures of different Pixar movies. And, of course, there were goodies: Jen walked away with a shirt and two CDs (Toy Story 3 and UP) and a bunch of pictures. The music was amazing, and at the end, there was a drum line, dressed in Monsters University colors.

On Sunday, we went to the AIDS Walk. Every year we go and even though we didn't do any fundraising, we go to walk and support the cause. And every year, Jen meets the Pixar folks and buys up their table. She made a pretty good haul with them this year: three more shirts to add to her collection, plus a Pixar ball, frisbee, a banner and another soundtrack (Brave). 

It's still on our "bucket list" to actually SEE Pixar studios, but for now, the swag will have to do.

The Tank (AKA The Civic)

For those who don't know about 4 years ago, Jen was rear-ended in our Civic, totaling the car. We ended up salvaging it, and had an enjoyable run with the car. Well, our little car took another hit.

Jeff was delivering a policy in Santa Rosa when a woman rear-ended him. The photos show the damage. Fortunately, Jeff was okay, although his back, neck and wrist are out of sorts. It could have been a lot worse, though, so we're grateful that he is safe.

We are in contact with the insurance but they won't give us much for the damages. Our original plan was to purchase another car in the next year or so, that way we each have a commuter car and the RAV will be the back-up for Jen's parents as well as the designated "dog-mobile". This setback, however, pushed the need for a new car up by a lot. So, we introduce our new car!

Jen's brother just recently purchased a Civic, and we went back to Honda and got a 2015 Honda Fit. It's a pretty nice little car, and it met all of our requirements:

* It had to have good mileage, since we both drive A LOT. We haven't calculated Jeff's miles, but Jen drives roughly 450 miles/week.
* It needed a decent sized back seat. It would be the car we'd use if we went anywhere with Jen's parents and sister together
* It had to have trunk space for all of Jen's therapy toys, since she can easily fill the RAV and the trunk on the old Civic
* It had to be inexpensive, because we didn't want a huge car payment bogging us down.

Jen was the one who had originally wanted the Fit, and had been saying for about 6 months that, if she got a new car, she'd get one. We test-drove a black one, and she was VERY CLOSE to getting one in purple, but the only one in stock was this snazzy red, which she was fine with, since it's her favorite color. It does come with a lot of electronic bells and whistles that are fun to play with, a back-up camera and a moon roof. It also is nice, clean, roomy, and gets good mileage. We're enjoying the new car smell for now, and this week it'll get spruced up and get the LoJack installed. Then it'll be good to go on the road!

General Informative Update!

We have been super busy with life and everything around us! Here's another short little update on the goings-on with The Perry People:

- Both of us have finished Spring semester at school. Jeff completed three classes at the local junior college and pulled off A's in the classes! He is still interested in pursuing a business degree and getting his MBA. He is also getting ready to get his licenses, but we haven't decided on the Series 6/63, or the Series 7. Jen also finished her internship with her employer in Oakland, and enjoyed the experience so much. This summer she'll take one class and then in the fall it'll be a whole boatload of classes plus internship. The fall will be the first tough semester she has, with full-time work, full-time school and an internship, so this summer she's enjoying the peace and quiet... while it lasts.

- We have had some fun outings this spring. We went to the symphony several times to hear the San Francisco Symphony perform music from the Oscars, and last weekend Jen took her sister to see Fantasia. This summer, we are also going to see a Pixar-themed performance and we're excited for that concert!

- Jen's birthday was great. She took the weekend off, and on Friday we spent the day together shopping at Stoneridge, and Jen got two stuffed penguins from Build A Bear. For dinner, we went to the Melting Pot, our favorite fondue place, and enjoyed having a nice dinner. The next night, we had a surprise party with Jen's family and her best friends, had Patxi's pizza (amazing deep-dish pizza) and cupcakes from her friend, Tarra. It was a great weekend, and Jen enjoyed all the attention.

This summer is already shaping up to be a big deal. Jen is taking on some more responsibilities at work (more on this later), and Jeff is continuing to progress in his career. This week we had Jen's mother's 70th birthday, and we have two graduations at the end of this week as well. Plus, we are redoing our backyard and looking at building a garden. We are also looking forward to other summer fun: 4th of July, possibly going camping, and other adventures.

Love to you all and we hope to hear from you soon!

Pet Updates

Hello, everyone!

As readers of the blog know, Christopher passed away last January. Well, six weeks later, we also lost Kandi, Jeff's family dog. Kandi started to decline before Christmas, and had moments where she bounced back. But by March, she was struggling, and we decided to make the painful decision to end her suffering. She had a long life (almost 16 years!) and was loved and cared for until the very end.

Chris and Kandi had a very unique bond. Kandi had stayed with my parents when Chris was there so that she could get treatment for her arthritis and the two of them were thick as thieves. We took the two of them to the Dog Days baseball game in San Francisco, they took walks around the creek by our old home, and always protected each other. If a dog or other animal charged or threatened one of them, the other stood up to the imposing animal. As you can see in the photos, they were always with each other. Even when Kandi was sick, Chris stood guard, and vice versa.

Our pups together

Kandi, as sweet as she was, was not always the brightest at times, and was accident prone. She had been hit by a car twice: once when she was younger, and again at 12. The first time, Jeff was able to help pay the bills, and the second time, she was hit in front of a vet's home, who took care of her for almost nothing. Until the very end she was very healthy, even surprising the vet with how healthy she was. She outlived her siblings by a few months, we were told.

When Chris died it was a very sad time for us, but Kandi it was mixed emotions. We were relieved that she was no longer in pain, and that she and Chris would be together taking care of each other. But there was definitely a bigger hole in the spirit of our house. Our three puppies, Fox, Jacob and Pepino, seemed like they were lost without their leaders, and it was hard to feel happy about anything. When Chris passed, we had considered looking for another dog, but weren't rushed. When Kandi passed, after some thought and prayer, we decided to pursue getting another dog.

After some thought and prayer, we decided to go back to Merced County Animal Shelter in Atwater, CA. Even though this is over a two-hour drive, this shelter has special meaning to us. This was the shelter we rescued Chris from, and where Jen's sister, Myra, got her dog, Mason. When we adopted Chris, this shelter had a very high kill rate of dogs that they took in (if you'll recall, Chris was hours from euthanasia). So, to honor our "firstborn", we returned to save another dog. Little did we realize what we were getting into.

Originally, we were debating between a female German Shepherd and a male Pitbull. Jeff went with the dogs, and together they decided on the German Shepherd. While there, though, Jeff noticed a young girl husky mix, and it was decided that Jen would go the next time to meet the German Shepherd as well as this other dog. As it turned out, the husky girl was very fearful of our pack, and especially didn't like Pepino, so we passed on her. While looking through the kennels, however, we found a large male Husky, and brought him out to meet everyone: both of us, our three dogs, and the German shepherd, and it was a match made in heaven! The deciding factor on the husky was his eyes. They reminded us so much of Christopher's, we couldn't tell him no, so we arranged for them both to get fixed, get their shots, and we drove up to pick them up!

We had a lot of names in mind for dogs, but from when they went in to get shots on Thursday until we picked them up two days later, we decided on their names. Our German shepherd girl is named Callie. It was a similar name as Kandi, and Jen wanted a dog with a C name for Chris, so Callie was a good combination. She also has that same personality as Kandi: very sweet and pretty mellow, but just a little dopey :-). She is very young and it seems like she's grown since we got her, but we have her down as about 2 years of age.

Our other pup is a little boy husky named Ichabod. Ichabod was the harder one to name, because we couldn't agree on a name. A lot of huskies have very outdoorsy and cold-weather-themed names, like Snow, or Aspen, or Laika. But when we saw the name Ichabod, we felt the name fit his personality. He is a lot like Christopher, in that he's very bright and picks up on things fast. He also is a very happy dog, and smiles a lot, but isn't too much of a handful. He doesn't walk the greatest on leash, and when one of us has him, the other one will have to man the other four dogs! But over time he'll figure things out.

 The two puppies blended in well to the pack, but they also have a unique bond with each other. Jen always jokes that they're littermates, although that isn't possible obviously. They are often cuddling with each other and tend to stay close. The only downside is that they both sleep on Jen's side of the bed, so with them both there with Fox, and Pepino usually sleeping with Jen also, it gets hard if she has to get up in the middle of the night! 

Although we are still very sad about losing our two babies, we are very happy to welcome these new babies into our home and to help save two other lives.

Paint Nite Adventures

For those that don't know or haven't seen on Facebook, we have both been attending Paint Nite. Paint Nite is where you go to a restaurant, hang out, and learn how to paint pretty cool pictures. We have gone to a few of them now, and our house is starting to look like a little art gallery. Now that we are both doing more in school, it may be less likely that we go to these events, but we are hoping to go to a few more now and then at least!

Jen's koi fish

One of our living room walls, but now the koi fish are just below the cherry tree

Jen's bridge, and the sunset one Jen made for Jeff

Jeff's bridge. He does pretty well with these!

The sea turtle painting

To Christopher

We have had a bit of sad news. For those who haven't seen on Facebook, our beloved dog, Christopher, passed away last week. I won't bog you down with the details, but he was starting to get sick, and then suddenly was in distress. Last Friday, we made the tough decision to let him go.

Everyone who has come to visit has noticed a change in the air in our home. Everyone thought of Chris as people, and he was quite the presence wherever her was. There's definitely a missing energy in this house now, and his absence is affecting us all. Not only are the two-legged parents still grieving, but the four-legged siblings are as well. In particular, our little husky Fox appeared to be hit the hardest. She and Chris did live together for a while before Jacob, Kandi and Pepino moved in, and she showed her sadness those first few days. The day after it happened, we had Chris' collar in our hands and the little tags clinked together. When they did, Fox ran for Chris' bed, looking for him, and when he wasn't there, she just flopped onto his bed. She also had a tough time eating, but that thankfully has since gone away.

We wanted to thank everyone with their thoughts, emails, texts, and phone calls. We are keeping all of these lovely notes and putting a little book together for us to remember our Christopher. We also requested that the vet take footprints for us to keep, and will be getting those after we receive his ashes. We haven't decided what to do with them, but we are also thinking of getting a miniature orange tree in his honor. For those that don't know, Chris LOVED oranges and orange juice. When he was at his sickest, he would only eat cottage cheese with blueberries and orange juice, so we want to get a small tree we can take with us when/if we ever move.

Had it not been for Chris, we would not have any dogs in our family. Because of him we rescued not only three of our pups (Fox, Jake and Pepino), but we also took in Kandi, and Jen's sisters each adopted a "cousin": Mason and Hiccup. Because Chris was the pioneer, a few dogs were saved from being put down. And someday, another one will be brought in when the time is right into our pack, and our house will be happy again.

And before we sign off, we have read this wonderful poem many times prior to Chris' death, and it's how we try to think of him now.

Our first day with Chris

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.... 

Author unknown...

Our last photo shoot with Chris

 Christopher Perry: Rescued 1/13/08 at age 1; Returned Home 1/17/14

Paint Nite!

On Monday, January 13th, Jen went with her friends for Girl's Night to do Paint Nite. One of her friends found a Groupon for it and treated everyone because their birthdays had just come up, or in Jen's case, would be at the end of the month. So it was her, her three friends from high school and her sister Myra painting. The way it works is, for two hours, you get instructions on how to paint a picture. The one they did that night was a picture of a cherry blossom tree on a dark day. It came out really cool, and Jen was very happy with it.

The girls all had so much fun that they're planning on doing it again. In fact, this Monday a larger group of ladies (plus a few guys) will head over to paint a new picture with the same instructor!

Phase 1; about halfway through the class, when they took a break.

The final product, up close

All of the girls! (L-R: Tarra, Tee, Stacey, Jen, Myra)

 

Displayed in all it's glory!

Hopefully, soon, we can add more artwork to the wall, along with some family photos and other wonderful things to decorate the house with!

The Year In Review (Just A Few Days Into the New Year!)

Hello to all! For those who aren't in the know: Our Christmas cards came late this year. In fact, they arrived yesterday. So we missed sending out the holiday cards and from what I've read on Facebook, we are in good company! Oh well. You'll still get them in the mail this week if I can find everyone's addresses. :-) We didn't do a newsletter, but here is what we would've written: This year has been a bit of a roller coaster. Good and bad, we survived another year, and are happy to be looking forward to new adventures. There have been a few struggles, changes and challenges this year. In February, we found out our dog, Christopher, had Stage 4 Lymphoma. After a lot of thinking through things and prayers, we decided as a family to try to give Chris the best shot we could, and he underwent chemotherapy. After two rounds (out of 12!) he went into clinical remission. Currently, his lymph nodes are starting to grow in size, but he does not seem to have any illness or appear sick, thankfully. Also, we were told that the average amount of time he would have left would be between 6-9 months, and even less because his cancer was the more aggressive t-cell and he was later staged. However, as of this post, Chris is hitting 11 months post-diagnosis, so we are all happy with that! As if one sick dog wasn't enough, we also acquired two more this year! Kandi is Jeff's childhood dog, and at 15, she is still around. Jeff's parents moved into a new place that she couldn't go to, so we took her in. For an older dog, she has not been difficult. The last few weeks of the year, however, have been really tough on her. California has been extremely cold (actually reaching freezing temperatures) and that is not good for an old dog that has arthritis. We took her to the vet at the beginning of the month, but the first medications she got not only weren't helping her, but made her even more frail and ill. To be honest, we weren't sure she'd make it to the new year, but when we changed her medicine, she went back to being her old self. She's not moving the greatest, but at least she isn't in pain and can get around. We also found another addition this year. Around the fourth of July, a little chihuahua found his way into our garage. We kept him, thinking his family was just on vacation, but no one ever claimed him, and a few weeks later, we discovered why he might have been thrown out. Pepino (what we've named him) is epileptic and prone to seizures. The first time this happened was very scary and we had nighgtmares the next few days about it. Now that we are more versed, we have had his seizures under better control. Medications fortunately aren't that expensive (about $10 for a 60-day script) and they have worked very well for him. He went from about a seizure every 2-3 weeks to now having had his last seizure in October! Both Pepino and Kandi get along great with our other pets, and both Fox and Jacob enjoy having new people to play with when Chris decides he's done with them! But our year wasn't just about the dogs. Both of us have returned to school. Jen took a leave of absence last year because of her migraines, and started back up this past summer. So far she has been doing well with her classes, and this semester she will not have a "bookwork" class. Rather, her bosses at Easter Seals helped her acquire an internship with their speech pathologists. She will be driving to Oakland once a week, every Monday, to do this. It means that, from mid-January until mid-May, she will essentially be "working" 6 days a week, but she is excited to learn more about her company and about how they perform therapy. In fact, her advisors are excited to have her, because they use a play-based method of interaction with the clients and have wanted BIs (Behavior Interventionists, Jen's current position) to come in and show them some tips, so everyone will be learning in this new endeavor. Jeff is also going back to school, and has completed his first term at the local junior college. Because of his company's policy, he is only able to take 2 classes at a time, which works out well enough. So far he has been looking at business classes, but ultimately he wants to go for his MBA as well as his Series 6 and 63 or Series 7. He is still working with New York Life and has enjoyed it thus far. Starting out as a new associate isn't easy but he's had some success, and a lot of his colleagues go to him for questions, especially with the Hispanic market, as Jeff is the only Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking agent in his office in Fremont. Over the past year, Jeff has acquired licenses to sell insurance in California, Utah, Arizona, Idaho and North Carolina, and recently was certified to sell health insurance as well. We haven't been able to travel, but that doesn't mean we didn't have fun! We were able to take the puppies to the snow, we went to two formal galas for our work, we went to different museums, had Thanksgiving in our house for the first time in four years of living here, celebrated our anniversary sick (And had a do-over at the ballet a few weeks later), and enjoyed a VERY long holiday season. This year, we even decked out our house, enjoyed the light show a neighbor put on that got him on the news, celebrated Christmas multiple times, and basically had a holiday-type thing every day from December 22nd until today. We really embraced the holidays! This coming year has a lot more to look forward to: hopefully another snow trip, Jeff's gala coming up in a month, more learning and growing and more travel. But we aren't going to tell you all the details; you'll just have to stay tuned to find out what we are up to. Love you you all, and we hope you had a fun and wonderful 2013. Here's to 2014! Jeffery and Jennifer Perry (and their zoo)

The Christmas Photos, AKA How Jeff Fractured His Ribs

Hello, all!

We hope you all had a great holiday! Unfortunately, this year, our holiday cards won't be in until next week, so I will send out some when I get them. Until then, enjoy the photos of us that I posted. And our card does not have the individual photos of the dogs, so here's an extra special treat!

A story until our next post: We took these at a local park, and Jeff got the idea to try to put the dogs on the playground equipment. It was a VERY cold day in Newark, about 35 degrees when we took the pictures, and there was dew all over the place. Well, Jeff decided to see if Chris would go on the suspension bridge with him. When Chris refused, Jeff walked onto it. 

Now, remember I told you how everything was covered with dew? It also made the bridge extremely slippery, because the next thing we knew, Jeff's feet slipped out from under him, and he fell forward into the bridge. He's feeling much better now, but the holidays were very difficult, and his doctor thinks he fractured his ribs. So for the next few weeks, he will still have to be careful with the lifts!

And now, for your enjoyment, the dogs!! 

(oh, yeah, and us)

Kandi

Fox

Pepino in his jacket. I told you it was cold!

Jacob

Christopher

Jeff and Jen

Happy Holidays from The Perry People!