What is Sasha?

We adopted Sasha from Mile High Humane Society on June 5th 2004. At the time, the vet thought she was about 4 years old, although we think she might have been more like 2 or 3. She has been and continues to be the best dog we could have asked for. Audrey seems closer to Sasha than Mason, perhaps because from the beginning BuBu was afraid Sasha would hurt Mason and kept him away. I would like to believe both of them love Sasha, although neither one likes to be licked and Audrey doesn't like finding Sasha's hair on her pacy.

Before kids, she had the energy to hike 14ers with us, ran next to Bill on a long bike rides. After the kids came, she has been very gentle with them and has never taken any of the kid toys (she definitely knows her toys from the kid toys). I can count two accidents from the whole time we've had her, and only because she didn't have access to a doggie door. She runs outside when she hears a baby cry (I would too if I could) and we would often find her hanging out outside on the snow in sub-zero temps. But she knows when it is dinner time, and places herself strategically under the table, near the kids. If food is dropped, it doesn't even reach the floor before she snags it away. Perhaps her one vice is her human food begging, a behavior we created, no doubt. She does shed 12 months out of the year, and is the main reason we have a cleaning crew and a Dyson vacuum. And she does walk you vs. you walking her - we've always thought of attaching a sled to her. She has a mean enough bark to greet the unwanted solicitors, but behind the mean bark, is a gentleness waiting to be petted.

We have always wondered what breeds are in Sasha. From the beginning, both us and vets thought she was a Husky mix, especially because of the nonstop shedding and the pulling. We wondered about Chow because of her blue tongue, but she has none of the aggressive behavior of Chows. Our previous vets even said Shiba Inu or Cattle dog. In recent years, we have heard of blood and saliva DNA tests. During our last annual vet check up, I decided to get her blood drawn for the Wisdom Panel test.

Surprising results came back just a week later. Surprising because in all her mixed breeds, Husky is nowhere to be found. The two main breeds are Chow Chow Mix and Collie Mix. Among the mix breeds, the highest match is Tibetan Mastiff, followed by English Cocker Spaniel, German Shepherd, Giant Schnauzer and Irish Red and White Setter!! She is truly one of a kind and very unique.

Mason turns 4!

Mason turned 4 on June 27th. We have a birthday party for him the Saturday before at My Gym, just like last year. We love My Gym because we have the whole place for ourselves, the owners have great activities for the kids, all the play equipment is very well suited for 4 year olds and the parents can just sit back and relax as the kids play. And after 2 hours at My Gym, the kids are truly exhausted!

This year the theme was Star Wars. More specifically Lego Star Wars, although for the favors and decorations, we used anything Star Wars we could find. We got an awesome Darth Vader with a light-saber candle. Mason has been playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii since Christmas and is able to play and finish levels by himself! He is Bill's son :-) He has watched 5 out of the 6 Star Wars movies, we are not letting him see episode 3 yet, as it is a little scary.

Audrey woke up with a fever on the day of the party. She looked very tired, so my Mom stayed with her at home. Other than missing Mei Mei, the party was great! 12 kids from school and our friend's kids Gavyn and Josie.

On Monday, we took more Star Wars cupcakes to school to share with his classmates. He just started his new Preschool 4 class and is once again reunited with lots of kids that moved up before him. The one friend in Preschool 3 he misses most is Kali (the girl he plans to marry, as he informed us. Kali's Mom said that marrying Mason is her master plan too.)

Father's Day at Washington Park

Bill went to the kids school of Friday for Father's Day lunch (Audrey's at 11 and Mason's at 11:30). There were pictures taken at both, but so far only Mason's arrived.

On Father's day, we decided to go to Wash Park. It is a great park South of downtown. Although we have been a few times, it was our first time with the kids. We rented a 4-person paddle boat on the small Smith Lake. We lasted almost a full hour on the paddle boat (I thought I was going to give up after the first 10 minutes) feeding the geese, snacked on oranges, and went all around. We played in the playground for another hour before heading home. What a great time!

Andy's Wedding

Our friend Andy got married to Elizabeth on June 4th. He had a small ceremony with family on Saturday, and a wonderful get together with all his friends on Sunday. It was right next to a great park and playground area, so the kids got to run around and play all night. Because we left in a hurry after the afternoon naps, I forgot our camera. We are hoping Andy's photographer got some good shots and will have them available soon. Bill did catch some videos of the kids dancing. Mason was not shy to show his moves on the dance floor, we got several comments throughout the night.

Elizabeth seems very nice, although we haven't had a lot of chance to get to know her. Out of the 2 years they've dated, they've had enough challenges coordinating their own dating schedules due to their kids. Andy and Elizabeth have moved into their new house in Golden, with 4 kids (Andy's Sarah 13, David 11, and Elizabeth's Clayton 11, Zoe 9), 1 dog, and 4 cats! Bill and I treated them to Peter Gabriel at the Red Rocks last weekend. It was a fun time, although Peter Gabriel's music can be a bit depressing and strange to me. But the Red Rocks is always beautiful.

Pool Time

As the Summer approaches and the weather gets warmer, we are enjoying the close proximity to my parent's condo and pool. Their pool's water is always warm and it is not very busy (2 out of the 3 times there, we were the only ones there). Of all the flotation devices we have purchased the kids of all shapes, sizes and prices, these Puddle Jumpers that Bill picked up during our trip to Georgia last year, are by far the best in safety, design, and comfort. The kids love them, as they can be independent in the water (with us near by, but not holding on to them). Audrey seems to be more fearless than Mason is almost everything, including in the water.

Yaya and Mimi come to visit

We haven’t seen Yaya and Mimi since Thanksgiving. It’s been too long. We talked about going to Atlanta in April or May late last year, but after the job changes we had to adjust our vacation plans.

Before Brantley and Sandra's visit, while I was in Santa Fe I woke up with a fever and very sore throat. I immediately thought of strep and the two birthday parties over the weekend, and went to the urgent care the next morning. It was strep! I don’t ever remember having strep before. I got my meds, worked in isolation for half a day, and spent the rest of the day in my hotel room in and out of consciousness. The next morning, I was feeling better and back at work. I called home to give Bill my progress, and also ask if anyone at home had symptoms. I feared that Audrey or Mason would also get sick, but they seemed all healthy. That is until I came home on Thursday night, and Audrey woke up at 1 AM with a high fever. Mason wasn’t feverish, but had unusual spots on his face, so I took both to the urgent care the next morning.

It turns out that the spots of Mason’s face were from Roseola, a harmless virus. But, he did have a sinus infection. So, he was going to be on antibiotics, which would also kill strep if he was exposed. Since Audrey still had a fever, was exposed to me and I had a confirmed case of strep, the doctor decided to give her antibiotics too. All this before 9 AM before Yaya and Mimi arrived. Oh boy!
Bill started to feel sympathetic/real fever, aches and pains. After Brantley arrived, he called in some antibiotics for Bill as well. We were all on meds and feeling half miserable on Friday, so passed on dinner plans. Brantley, Sandra and Heather had a lovely dinner at Hideaway steakhouse (very fancy and delicious steakhouse that opened just across the street from us).

Lucky we were all better by Saturday. We spent Saturday at the Museum of Nature and Science and toured their Pirates exhibit. Mason wasn’t too happy going through it, especially through the “pirate ship” area where you got onto the fake boat. Since that was the only way out, Bill had to carry thing through, which he did kicking and screaming. All better once we were out and he got to go to the Space Odyssey, his favorite part of the museum.

On Sunday, Heather came up and we drove all together to Estes Park. Brantley, Bill and Heather went on a horseback ride. Sandra and I took the kids for a stroll in town. In the madness of packing the car, we forgot the get jackets for the kids. So Mimi got the kids new Estes Park sweatshirts.

Audrey stayed crankier than usual through the weekend and not eating too well. Having just gone through strep, I knew how she felt. In addition, we suspect she has some molars coming in, and was running a low grade fever during the week again.
We hope to plan a trip to Atlanta in late August / early September to visit again. We need to coordinate some dates at work and with Nai Nai and Grandpa Jack before we settle the dates.

First 2 weeks at new job

I spent my first two weeks at the new job getting settled. I was in Santa Fe a couple of days both weeks, getting my laptop, meeting the people, and getting some training. I am getting to know the Albuquerque airport and drive to Santa Fe well. It is not a bad place to visit. My favorite part is that there is a Trader Joe’s in Santa Fe (there are no Trader Joe’s in CO!). But I am glad to be working from home all this week, before I head out again next week to LA.

My home office setup in the sitting area in our master is working great. It is efficient, clean, minimal, the way I like it! We got a second phone line put in, and I love my new Polycom phone.



It is great that Bill is working from home too. We need to find more common breaks to do lunch or workout, which so far hasn’t happened.

Birthday Parties

Mason has many friends at school that have been together for the past 2-3 years. They have all moved up together through the different classes and their birthdays are all around May. Last weekend, we had two birthday parties. One was for one of his best buddies, Jackson, who was sick the day before with confirmed strep. But he was on antibiotics for 24 hours, so the party was on. The theme was Godzilla, as you can see by the blue/black cake that gave all the kids black tongues. My Dad freaked out the next day when he saw Mason’s blue poop :-) I guess that is another side affect.

Mason doesn't move up to Pre-4 until end of June. He really misses his friends.