Champ's First Blog - "Puppies are the Best"

My name is Champion Thorpe Clemmer.  Everyone calls me Champ. 

Today, September 3, 2010, is my two year anniversary with my wonderful human family.  I was five months old when I came to live with them.  Mommy asked me to write this blog since it was about me, and I am the expert, you know.

And just to warn you, Mommy loves to take pictures of me.  She has thousands.  Really.  She says I'm the guinea pig (is that like a puppy?) because I'm so cute and always happy.  It's all  Cory and Christopher's fault.  They won't let her anywhere near them with a camera.  So you'll get to see many pictures of me in my blog.  But don't let Cory fool you.  He likes to take pictures also as you can see here.

Cory and Mommy rescued me from a crazy place with lots of dogs, most of them scary and mean, a bunch of horses and lots of dirt out in the middle of nowhere.  When Mommy and Cory came to pick me up, 30-40 dogs jumped on the fence and growled so much that they couldn't even get close to me.       

I didn't have a name then but had just been called Shih-Tzu.  Mommy was so sad and also mad that I hadn't had a name for five long months and realized I couldn't have been loved or pampered much.  She asked Cory to name me.  He named me Champ, which was just perfect for me.  Because I am a champ.  It didn't take them long to realize that I was a Champ for having survived five months without much love or attention. 

I was a very happy puppy when we drove away from my first home.  I was happy to be sitting on Cory's lap.  And my first snuggles with Mommy above were awesome.

The first night I was in the family we went to a cool place called Petsmart and I got so many fun things.  Here's a picture of me snuggling in my very own bed in the shopping cart.  This bed is still my favorite to this day.  They bought me piles of toys, treats, a crate, blankets and food.  I felt so loved that first night.  And Cory held me lots, which I liked a lot then.

I slept with Cory for the first few weeks and this was cool.  He and I were buddies.  I cried a lot at night when I was in my crate and I was pretty sick at first. 

When Cory and Mommy took me to the puppy doctor the next day, they were pretty disgusted when some ticks jumped off me onto the vet's table.  Plus the vet said I had eye infections, ear infections and a weird thing called demodectic mange.  This wasn't my fault, you know.  I didn't have a lot of loving before my family adopted me.

I have two big sisters, Sunshine and Sierra.  They are 80 pound Golden Retriever puppies.  I love playing with them and teasing them also. 

 

I also have another big brother named Christopher.  He plays with me a lot now and gives great baths, too.  I love picking him up from school and get really excited to see him.  He gave me an awesome bath tonight so I would be very handsome for my second anniversary tomorrow.

I didn't really like the time I went to the doctor and came home with less body parts and a weird thing around my head.  It was called being neutered and wasn't much fun.  They said it was for my own good but I didn't like the whole thing.  And this miserable blue pillow around my head wasn't good for sleeping with, either.  I didn't even feel like smiling in this picture, which is unusual for me.

 Cory was really my pal for a long time.  He played with me, took care of me and even snuggled with me.  I don't see him much any more and miss him.  He is very busy working out and wants to be a professional body builder.  He has humungus muscles and is now over six feet and 220 pounds.

My first Halloween was really fun except that Mommy dressed me up in a weird Halloween costume that said "Trick or Treat".  Luckily, it doesn't fit anymore so I don't think I'll be seeing it next month if I'm lucky.

Thanksgiving was also a fun time when I was a young puppy.  Even though I still had that stupid blue thing around my neck, I was very thankful to be in such a great family with so much love and attention.

My life is busy and full.  One of my favorite things to do is sleep.  And I sleep a lot.  Usually within a few feet from Mommy, wherever she may be.  I'm below her desk in this picture and her sneakers are on the floor from a recent walk.

I really love to go to the park and take walks.  When I first came to the family, I was very scared at the park.  My tail was always between my legs. Whenever someone would come towards me or come up behind me, I would stop and look around nervously.  We didn't get much walking done.  Everyone at the park was so nice to me and pretty soon I got more comfortable.

 

My first Christmas was a bomb.  I didn't realize how fun it was to get presents.  I got to have a sleepover with Auntie BK and had such a great time running around her humungus backyard with orange trees.  I take my toys with me everywhere I go.  This candy cane toy was one of my favorites until I tore it apart so much. Luckily, Mommy knows how to do surgery on my toys; I usually watch her intently as she is sewing them up again.  She says this is the only time she will ever do the "S" word, whatever that means.

I snuggled quite a bit with Mommy.  She liked it a lot.  I didn't.  I'm not a lap dog but like to stay at a distance.  But sometimes I give in and let Mommy snuggle me because I know she loves it so much. 

But after all that snuggling, I'm pretty pooped and like to hang out alone especially when it is quiet and I can rest my head on the nice quilted tree skirt thingAuntie Sharyn made for Mommy years ago.

Oh I forgot to show you this picture with the Thanksgiving pumpkin top atop my head. I  wasn't a happy camper but I was comfy on the leather couch.

 

That reminds me.  I think Mommy wanted a girl puppy.  Can anyone tell me why girls find it necessary to dress up boys with hair things and cute clothes?  I don't find it amusing, but try to be a good sport, nonetheless.

Mom says it's getting late and I should stop my story.  But I'm having so much fun and it's only two in the morning. Mom and I are alike in so many ways.  We are both night owls, hate to get up in the morning, love the wind blowing in our faces, love broccoli and cabbage, love bike riding and walking.  But before I end, I want to show you a few more cute pictures. I had barely covered my first year!

My favorite thing to do, beside sleeping, is playing with my toys.  The best toys squeak, loudly.  I play with them and squeak them so much that they usually lose their voice.  But I still love and play with them because I'm a very loyal puppy. 

When Mommy says it is time to go to bed, I always run back and find my favorite toy to sleep with during the night.  The blue toy was my first ever toy and is named "Mr Blue".  He has been re-sewn so many times and has lost his voice, but he is still my favorite.  And Mommy says I'm just like having a toddler around.  By the end of the day, my toys are scattered from one end of the house to the other.  And I have LOTS of toys.

I also love going to the park and running around.  Sometimes I will hide beneath a bench and stick my head out to say hi.  I also love rolling on my back and getting a good scratch.  Mommy and Auntie BK and I go to parks and look at birds and trees almost every weekend.

I have been to four states:  California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona.  Luckily for everyone, I am a very good traveler and love road trips.  Here I am driving though Oregon snuggled up on a blanket because it was raining and very cold. 

 Here's a picture on my first birthday, April 2, 2009. 

This is Mommy's favorite picture ever.

 I love to frolick in the grass and take walks most every day.  We have a neat place with lots of ducks, geese, birds, trees and even a small dog park very close to our home.  Aren't I so handsome?

 I like to explore in the pretty shrubs and flowers.

But sometimes a boys just needs alone time.  So I crawl under Mommy's accent table.  Even though I'm at 16 pounds now, I can still fit, but not as easily as when I was a 10 pound boy.  And sometimes I only go under part of the way.

  

Sometimes I play with my toys underneath or just poke my head out and watch the action. 

But I always come out happily.

 Life is good, very good.  I'm a very happy and thankful puppy.

September 24th - A Very Special Clemmer Family Day

S e p t e m b e r   2 4 t h  is a very special day that we celebrate each year.  It is our  family anniversary.  You see, the wonderful day Cory came to our family after a very long four year wait for him was September 24, 1993, at the tender age of eight months.  Here are a few pictures of him two days later later when we went to church for the first time with him.  What a wonderfully memorable day that was, one we had been awaiting for a very long time!

Four years later to the exact day, thankfully with only a few month's wait, Christopher came to our family, on September 24, 1997, at the age of three and a half YEARS.  What are the odds that our second son would come to our family the same day of the year as our first son?  (you knew I'd tell you right?  1/365 = .00274).  Such a very small number! 

As is tradition, we took special pictures on our first Sunday together after church:

Sitting on the hearth in our St. George home with his special red blanket nearby:

Their first of many baths together.  Aren't they the cutest?

Christopher loved to ride in the swing in our backyard peach tree.  This is the outfit he wore when he came to live with us:

Well, the special family anniversaries are not over yet . . .

Then on September 24, 1999, we returned to St. George, Utah (after having moved to Corona in April, 1999) to finalize Christopher's adoption and to have him sealed to our family in the St. George Temple. I won't even try to figure the odds of all three milestone events occuring on the same day!

He and Cory wore matching white tuxedos and looked so cute together.

And here we are as a family:

So, today, September 24th, is a very special day that has a lot of heartfelt memories for us all as you can easily see! 

Normally, we do something special to celebrate.  Usually we go out to a family dinner and occasionally we go somewhere special, like Disneyland.  Today will be different.  I decided to surprise the boys with a gift of service.  I'm washing their bedding down to the bed frame and then making their beds back for them.  Usually they wash their own sheets.  And I may even clean their rooms a little.  Yikes.  I'm not sure I dare with Cory's.  And I'm going to get a cute balloon for each of them and attach a $20 bill at the bottom.  I think they would prefer this gift now that they are always wanting cash for fun teenager type activities.

These special pictures are above "Maga's antique" which sits in our family room and are a constant reminder of how our family came to be.  They show the professional picture Chris and I had taken in 1989 that was placed in the adoption matching book at LDS Social Services to use to match prospective adoptive couples with infants being placed for adoption.  The other two are the boy's first professional pictures after they arrived in our family.  Cory's was taken in November, 1993, at the age of 10 months at Olan Mills in Vista, and Christopher's was taken at his preschool in St. George, Utah right, in February 1998, the month before he turned 4 years old.

Our family has had a lot of fun times and have lived in many places over the years.  We've had many milestones:  In Vista, CA (where Cory came to live with us) and St. George, UT (where Christopher came to live with us).  We also lived in Danbury, CT and Evanston (Chicago), IL when Chris and I were working with Barbara and Sergei on the HFC acquisition.  Now we've been in Corona, CA for the past 10 years, a very long time for us!

We are also a family who loves to travel and go on vacations.   It is so fun to stay at different hotels, eat yummy food and not have to cook or clean up!  We've traveled a lot of fun places over the years: 

• Throughout Utah - Zion's Park, Bryce Canyon, Provo, Salt Lake City and surrounding areas from 1994 through 1999;
• Weekend trips through parts of Connecticut (Mystic Seaport was so much fun) and Massachusetts (Boston was the best) in 1998 while we were living in Danbury, CT and working in Brewster, NY;
• Taking the subway to New York City and visiting Central Park, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and other historical sites in 1998 (and living through crazy drives in NYC taxicabs);
• Driving through New York in 1998, visiting Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Palmyra for LDS Church History sites;
• Driving through the Appalachian Mountains to New York in 1998, stopping at Niagara Falls - wow;
• Through the southern province of Ontario, Canada in 1998 where Christopher surprised us by reading signs at the age of 4 (we didn't realize he could read yet!) and through Michigan to our new home in Evanston, Illinois, along Lake Michigan;
• To Indiana on a genealogy trip in 1999 to visit my cousin Shirley Hannaford with whom I had corresponded since 1978 but never met;
  
• To Carthage and Nauvoo, Illinois, on a church history vacation in 1999;
• To Las Vegas to celebrate the finalization of Christopher's adoption and his sealing to us in the St. George Temple;
• To Disneyland Hotel for a week long vacation on our family anniversary in 2001, only 20 minutes from our house but a world away that week;
  
• On a family vacation to Little River in Northern California in 2003 where Chris used to vacation as a child, biking through many state parks and visiting San Francisco, Yosemite and Hearst Castle as well;
  
• To Washington DC Temple for Brittany's wedding in 2004, and visiting the Smithsonian Musems and other DC sites and staying in Bethesda, Maryland, where I was born (first visit back);
  
• Traveling through Virginia to Radford to visit Jaime and family while attending Brittany's reception in Blacksburg in 2004;
  
• Cory and Christopher flying to Washington State alone in 2005 to be with Auntie Barbara and Uncle Iggy while Chris and I went to Europe for 3 weeks for our 20th wedding anniversary;
  
• Flying to Washington State in 2006 as a family after Barbara and Sergei moved there;
  
• Family vacation in Las Vegas, Nevada in July, 2008 - a week in the MGM Signature during the Summer Olympics.  What a blast watching the Olympics each night from our bedroom or bathroom tub and playing in the fantastic pool with a meandering river all day.

We're so thankful Cory and Christopher are part of our lives.  They are wonderful sons.  And while we're not a perfect family and have had many ups and downs, the most important thing is that we are a family, through thick and thin, and that we love each other.

School Starts Anew (and With a New School, Too!)

Monday marked the official end of the long summer break and the beginning of a new school for both Cory and Christopher.  They left 100+ year old Corona High with about 4,000 kids and started anew at JFK, a middle college high school of 700 students in Norco (about 20-25 minutes away).  JFK is in it's third year and is fresh and new with a uplifting attitude, too!  It is on the campus of a local two year college so the boys will be taking college classes while still high school students.  It's a great concept - teaching kids to be independent and responsible, and allowing them the freedom to move between their HS and college.  No more policeman and security guards patrolling the huge school looking for offenders out of class!  No more disgusting bathrooms with kids smoking inside and teachers with tenure that shouldn't be teaching anymore.   The stories we could tell you would shock you. 

JFK's Principal was given 1.5 years to create the philosophy and build the school.  He interviewed over 1,100 teachers, hiring 18 of the best to start this school.  I am told it is the largest middle college HS in the US.  The kids can get help from any teacher on campus and will get to know most all kids at the school.  And, as Cory says, "it's without all the drama" that he saw daily at CHS.  When we toured the campus many times last school year, the Principal would ask kids we saw walking around to tell us what they liked about JFK.  We consistently heard that kids felt lost at CHS and were now getting all A's and some B's and  about their teachers being more flexible, interesting and supportive of them.  But the biggest shock was about the "lack of drama" and problems and how they could concentrate on their studies.  While it was a big commitment on our part since there is no busing,  we feel the learning opportunities and atmosphere are well worth the cost.

Christopher is 15.5 years old and started 10th grade.  He is 5'11 inches and still growing with a size 13 shoe!  (I was going to add a picture of his feet but decided against it!)  He has 5 JFK classes and 1 college class, Intro to Sociology.  He took a summer school class as well and learned about computer animation.  By the time he graduates, he will have about 10-12 college classes under his belt.  It's great because the pace is up to him.  Some students even graduate from HS and get their AA at the same time.  He is standing in our front yard at our normal picture spot for first day school pictures.  It is a fun place because each year we see how much taller he is in relation to the Carrotwood Tree behind him!

Cory is 16.5 and in the 11th grade.  Since he didn't have take a  summer classes (and thus had no priority college registration), he wasn't able to get into a college class.  With California's budget problem, a significant number of college classes have been dropped (and class size increased).  We spent hours trying to find a college class that he could take to no avail.  At 6' tall and a social butterfly (is that still the term?!?), school is nice and to be endured but friends, clothes and fun are the most important.  He has already made many new friends there.  I included this picture which was taken in January on his 16th birthday at ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney because the first day picture wasn't as good.