I Joined Blogher

Back in November I met Jesse, brother of Stephanie Nielson (the author of the blog Nie Nie) and he was innamered by my awesome working dog Charlie Pants.  Well over the course of the last couple of months we have conversed on how to increase my blog readership on Super Dog Charlie Pants, my blog about traveling with a dog and my daily life with Charlie.  He suggessted I join Blogher, a female blogging network, and so I did and I wanted to share with you my first post. If you haven't already I would love you to become a follower of Super Dog by going to the blog and clicking the Join This Site button on the right hand side.

Here is My Post on Blogher. Enjoy.

Standing Out in a Crowd by Leah Stone
 

School Loans

 Yes I walked with Charlie. He sat in every class with me, my professors loved him, and so did my classmates and I felt he should walk with me as he is huge part of my life since he is my working dog.

Paul and I made a biggish dent in our school loans this week, mostly because we thought this particular loan wasn't accruing interest and then we found out that it had already accrued a whopping $1,000.  So we bit the bullet and paid off $17,000 towards our graduate degrees.  The next batch of loans don't start getting interest until November.

I am curious to know how you paid off your loans or if you are still paying off your loans?  Did you consolidate your loans into one and take out a small loan at a bank?  Our interest rate is high for loans a whooping 6.5%.  What is your interest rate and how do I make ours smaller?

I realize that my cap is on backwards in this picture. Argh! Still love it though.

Check This OUT

Please click here to read an awesome flying with a dog on a plane story.  If Charlie did this I would die.


Click HERE.

Little Stinker Charlie Pants

Isn't this a fabulous idea for a wedding or a big event?  I love the organic, green factor of this design.  Actually, I wanted to do something like this for my wedding, so Paul and I got like 6 large square containers and I started growing wheat grass in our apartment.  Charlie (my adorable min-pin) had just arrived as our new little addition and so he was confused by all the grass growing in the house.  He decided he should pee on it, and pee on it he did.  I kept trying to get him to stop, I even moved the grass up on a table, but he just climbed up there and peed.  Needless to say I had to throw them all out cause they reeked of dog urine and had dead patches.  Thanks Charlie.


This leads me to my grateful moment for today.

I am grateful to remember funny and obscure moments in life and to take the time to laugh, smile, and shake my head.

What funny moments make you laugh?

Charlie the Scootering Dog

I guess I am not the only one who travels with her dog everywhere.

Click HERE to see how crazy people travel with their dog on their scooter.


Click HERE to see how Charlie goes to school with me via scooter.



Happy Saturday!

I have lots of homework to do today, but only 11 more weeks of Hell.

PS. If you live here in Virginia go check out Alexandria's Fall Festival or other fun fall activities going on today. Click here to see info.

This afternoon I am going here with Paul, Jack and Charlie.

Charlie Cut His Foot

Click on photo for more pictures and story. It was so sad.

Charlie and I Went to Monticello

Click on Picture for photos and story.

Christmas Time in Disneyland

For Christmas my (Leah's) parents gave the whole family a trip to Disneyland! Charlie and I met my family at the Long Beach airport and were so excited to see all of them. Counting myself and nieces and nephews and in-laws I believe there was 16 of us total (2 were MIA as they couldn't get work off, my bro-in-law Aaron and my hubby Paul--sad for them). How do you get 16 people from the airport to the hotel if the hotel doesn't offer a shuttle from the airport and you don't need to or want to rent lots of cars? By traveling in a quadruple stretched hummer limo---that's how!

Charlie wasn't so sure about the Disney Characters.

But he was definitely positive that he was a Prince and therefore deserved his own chariot!

Charlie deserved all royalty treatment since because of him I was given a special guest pass that allowed me to get in front of all the lines on all of the rides. I could get 6 people on the ride with me too. So I did a lot of riding on rides---I would ride a ride while someone sat with Charlie and I would take 6 people with me and then I would get 6 more people and do the ride again. Some rides Charlie could go on, like all the kid rides and Pirates of the Caribbean, but definitely not any of the roller-coasters or fast rides. So if anyone is planning a trip to Disneyland or Disneyworld---you should bring Charlie and me along with you. My nieces and nephews called Charlie the "Golden Special Pass"!

Disneyland was so amazing to me and Charlie--I was never discriminated against because I had a service dog. I actually saw about 5 or 6 other service dogs in the park during the 4 days we were there. Thanks Disneyland for being awesome!

I actually ran into my bestest friend Tracy while at Disneyland and also my sis-in-law (Paul's sis) Annaliese. It was fun to see both of them as well. I think they liked running into me even more because I took them on like 5 rides in an hour.

Overall, Disneyland was a blast with my family. We rang in the New Year at Disney and just had an amazing time. Mom and Dad you guys are so amazing for planning this great trip and thank you so so much!

xoxoxoxo much love xoxoxoxo

Check out the other photos on my Picasa page!

http://picasaweb.google.com/leahstone17

Ah To Be Charlie

Now that it is getting rainy and colder in Virginia, I have had to come up with a way to take Charlie with me, since he has to come with me as my seizure- alert service dog. I am going for trying to keep him warm and covered from the rain. Charlie has no undercoat and is freezing all the time.

I have tried

1. Sweaters: problem is they don't work cause Charlie pees on them and then they stink-plus his feet are always cold.

2. Baby sling: I sewed him a baby sling wrap thing, problem is that he is too fat to carry when walking the mile to the metro.

3. Dog stroller: I didn't actually get him one of these, but totally wanted one until I realized people would want to see my cute baby and out would pop Charlie.

4. Rolling scrapbook supply carrier (thanks Melissa for letting me steal this from you): this works perfectly. I can put my laptop and schoolbooks in here plus Charlie lays down inside with a blanket and is covered up from the rain. He is so spoiled. This way I don't look like too big of a rich babe/Paris Hilton wannabe cause no one can actually see him when I am pulling him around outside.

This is Charlie relaxing while I am in class.












If only I can get Paul to carry me around in a big rolling case with a blanket, my life would be complete.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I love Portland...My 1st Marathon

I had lost my pictures, but found them...so sorry about the delayed post.

The first weekend in October of 2008, I traveled to Portland with my girlfriend Jo. Our hears were set on trying to do a marathon. The day before the big day we checkout out the local farmer's market at Portland State University








Took Charlie to a fabulous dog park




And then we checked in, received our numbers, and went to a friends house for some pasta dinner and then off to bed.
I set my alarm like always to wake us up at 5:00 am so that we would have time to get up, eat, get ready, and drive 40 minutes to the starting line.

At 7:05 am I shot out of bed, looked at my phone clock and started to cry. The race had started 5 minutes ago. I called my husband in tears, said a zillion four letter words, and ran around the house throwing my clothes on. Jo and I were out of the house in under 5 minutes, stopped at a grocery store and grabbed some bananas and drove like hell to the starting line. By the time we arrived we were like almost an hour and a half behind. So we started running..



and running...


and running.


And we just kept passing people. I am so glad we didn't give up cause even though we were dead last we ended up somewhere in the middle.

Happy Birthday Jack!!!

Today marks Jack's 1st birthday.



(We ate his chocolate cake.)

A new post is due...

I figured I've kept all you blog stalkers waiting in suspense long enough. Life is good, married to the hottest woman on Earth, have two kids(we call our dogs kids, less of a time commitment and much nicer), found out that I am so popular that 14 messages have accumulated since my last post(woo woooo), and found they sell mini frozen pies, of all flavors, at your local frozen food section. Just enough for one or two people. Life is good.

Here is a quick update:

January was cold, snowy, and I had fun. My better half would have rather gone South with the birds. Plenty of snowshoeing, summitted two peaks to snowboarded down, lots of deer, moose and elk. I found myself waking up to go back to school in an attempt to become smarter. We also took a quick trip to Colorado to visit some good friends. We went to a neat little town(Ouray) that is world famous for their ice climbing, so we checked it out from the so conveniently placed hot springs.

We skipped February for some reason, at least to my remembrance. I'm sure Leah would attest that in fact it did happen and we participated in many things.

March was the month I had been waiting for since last year. Although, our three year anniversary was an important date(March 5) it was slightly overshadowed by March 6th. Jack, our new puppy, arrived in the evening. After Vixen died, the breeder promised the pick of the litter the next time around. We gladly accepted his offer and are now paying for it. Lots of peeing and pooping in the house and razor sharp teeth. Also plenty of puppy breath and eyes that will melt your heart.

April is still here and I cant wait for it to be over. The semester is almost over, freedom until summer semester starts. Although, the month of May will be spent studying for the LSAT. Jack has gained over 15 pounds and growing fast.

He got his dunce hat off and now has taped horns for ears. I also quit working with Coldwell Banker and now work with a neighbor's company, Salt Lake Investment Co. Lots more opportunity and really enjoying the move. Leah has been revamping her schedule to accommodate more students...if you want a spot you should give her a call. We have been trying to cook more and have been exploring many types of foods and new recipes. If you have any you would like to share, please do.

Gardening has already started as I have turned our flowerbeds into greenhouses. We have a plethora of flowers, fruits and vegetables planted. It seems like all the work we put into that thing would would be able to survive through the winter, but I'm sure there is less than two weeks worth of food. But its fun nonetheless.

I finally finished Leah's music studio in the garage, pictures later. It looks pretty good, but I would definitely do things differently if I had to do it again. The best part is, with the rest of the garage I was able to make into a man lair.

This should satisfy all you stalkers for a while. If your lucky I might post before the month is over...