Codi's Life

In Remembrance of Codi

Born April 23, 1996

Went to Heaven April 11, 2010

Codi passed away just 12 days before her 14th birthday. We had just returned from a two week vacation and she started showing some very concerning signs, such as loss of appetite, diarrhea, confusion and she looked so sad as if she was in a lot of pain. We knew something was going on internally, so we took her to the emergency room Sunday night. After an examination and discussion with the doctor, we agreed it was time for Codi to go to heaven. We knew this day would come because she was getting so old and frail, but it was so hard to say goodbye.

A special thank you to Tony & Philippa for taking care of Codi during our vacation.

This is a tribute to our best friend who had unconditional love for us. She brought so much love and happiness into our lives. We miss her very much and we will always treasure the wonderful moments we shared.

Here is message we received from Jimmy & Jessica, thank you for this!

We are so sorry to hear about Codi : ( There are really no feel good words. My heart is heavy for you and for her. It's so hard when life throws you such a tough decision. One day you're fine and the next you get a curve ball. We understand how you are feeling. We know it feels like you just lived your nightmare and the grief is overwhelming... but we wish you better days of being able to think of Codi and smile. For now, we wish you some peace in knowing that when that little girl came into your life, there was no knowing what kind of life she would have been handed. When we opened up that car and you met her for the first time, I think she already knew she found the best two people to give her that life. And indeed, you gave her all the love a little dog could ever wish for and more. Better than most. You guys will be in our thoughts and prayers. We are SO sorry. We will miss her. Love you.

This message is from Marisa. Thank you Marisa because you are one of the people responsible for putting Codi in our lives. Marisa sometimes fosters animals from the Humane Society until homes can be found.
Jimmy just told me about Codi... I am so very sorry! Just try to remember what joy and happiness she brought you and how you saved her so many years ago and gave her a wonderful life! Hang in there!

We would like to share Codi's life with you...

In early June of 1996, the kids brought over this adorable little 6 week old puppy from the Humane Society. They opened the car door and she came running over to us like she already knew us. I laid on the lawn and she cuddled up next to me; it was the strangest thing. We all said it was meant to be. We adopted her and the 3 of us started our fun life journey together.

It was hard to select just a few pictures from over the years, but here are some cute photos that we hope you will enjoy.

This is Codi's first Frisbee... it didn't last long!

Codi wasn't always the "cute little puppy". There was one day we came home from work and she had chewed all the automatic sprinkler valve wires down to the valve. Hank was sooooooooooo mad at her. Too bad we didn't get a picture of it... LOL now that we can look back at it... but not so funny then.



Hank always said I was mean to dress her up, but she didn't mind and she was always so patient. She would always just pose for the pictures... way too cute!


Codi and I are trying out my new sleeping bag I got for Christmas one year.

(sorry about the orientation of the photo; sometimes this site has a mind of it's own)


I had my bear slippers on and Codi just came right up and stuck her head in between my feet. I just happened to have my camera near by and snapped this darling picture.


More dress up pictures




Here's Codi at 3 1/2 months playing Frisbee with Daddy


I still have this picture framed in our house... 14 years later.

3 1/2 months


Tigger and Codi loved each other and were always excited to get kitty and puppy treats. Here are the little pigs waiting for a snack.


Gee whiz Mom... enough with the dress up!!!!

Codi was with us all the time and had to check everything out. She looks really comfy in our tent.

Codi loved to surround herself with her favorite beloved squeaky friends. She would constantly pull her toys out of her toy basket and would arrange them around her bed so she felt comfortable. The green bear was her first true love, which was followed by the "wild about you" tiger. Third ranking was the snake (not pictured) from Abby Jan.... just to name a few.

We trained Codi when she was a baby to carry and bring things to us. It was well worth her time and effort because she LOVED the puppy biscuits she got as a reward. She would bring in the mail every day and all the neighbors knew of the neighborhood dog mail carrier. They would always comment to us how cute she was. She helped us bring in the groceries every week as well as the Sunday newspaper. She would bring stuff downstairs on a regular basis; such as a shoe or sweatshirt. She's such a good puppy!!!

Codi's ready for her walk to the park.

She's just showing off to the neighbors here. She wore her purple bandanna (which of course matched her purple collar) often on her walks.

Here is a scrapbook that I started last year representing Codi's life. I will finish it this year.

Here's Codi in action "helping" with bringing in the groceries. Check out how cute she is!

Our Long Awaited Vacation to Jamaica

We Finally Made It to Jamaica!!!

March 24 - April 7, 2010

We actually had this trip planned in March of 2009, but had to cancel it due to my Father's illness. We decided to book a trip to Hawaii in October of 2009, but again we had to cancel it due to my Father illness. So our long awaited tropical vacation finally arrived and we had a really nice time.

We've been going to Sandals all inclusive resorts since 1996 and we finally earned our "free" week at any Sandals property. Their policy is after 70 paid nights, you get a free week. We went to Sandals Dunns River for a week, then transferred to Sandals Whitehouse for our "freebie" week.

We took A LOT of pictures... over 450, but I tried to spare you by only posting around 80.

I did some journaling so you'll know where we were and what we did. The pictures are in no particular order. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Sandals all inclusive resorts are truly all inclusive. You pay for your trip up front and put your wallet away. There is no tipping, just lots of eating, drinking, and lots of fun.

Any Sandals trip would not be complete without the normal injuries. During our 2 week stay I got a HUGE bruise on the back of my knee (got that on the plane somehow), a skinned knee from beach volleyball (that is still healing to this day), and a bruise on the bottom of my foot. I was jumping out of the snorkel boat onto the beach and landed on rock... I saw stars! I hobbled around for 3 days and it finally healed after 2 weeks. Of course to top all this off we both got colds, but we made the absolute best of it.

In the shallow water on the Whitehouse beach were dozens of these beautiful starfish just hanging out. They were so awesome. You're allowed to pick them up as long as you don't have them out of the water more than a minute or so.



Sunset on the Whitehouse beach

As far as activities go, there's usually a ton of stuff to do. Here are some of things we did besides eating and drinking....

Pitch & Putt, billiards, checkers, shuffle board, snorkeling, beach volleyball, water skiing, water slide, scavenger hunt, sand sculptors and water aerobics.

We built sand sculptures one day. Here I am creating a turtle... not too bad.

I also made a starfish

Now here's Hank's creation... WTF???? He told me he was trying to make a face of some sort. A pig maybe?*!@ He blamed it on not having any "tools" to work with. I didn't have any "tools" and mine turned out just fine! I got a great big laugh from his "sculpture". Maybe he had too may daiquiris at the bar.

These ladies were local singers in their native dress and they were really good. They performed at the Manager's Cocktail Party, which they hold once a week at all the Sandals resorts.

Here's are some friends from New Jersey, Craig & Carol, that we first met at Sandals Halcyon in St. Lucia back in the 90's. We've kept in sporadic contact over the years and it was so great to run into them again... what are the odds?!?!? Our friendship has been rekindled.

Our housekeeper created these towel art shapes for our bed almost every night at the Whitehouse.

Whitehouse grounds

This is the "beach grill" on the beach. There was always a nice cool breeze coming off the water.

This was the "pitch & putt" 9 hole course on the property at the first resort, Sandals Dunn's River. It's a small, short course, but lots of fun.

This is the 3 hour drive when we transferred from Dunn's River to the Whitehouse. These pictures are very typical of shacks and businesses that you see all along the road. Many of the structures are painted in very bright colors, as well as the houses. Jamaica is a very poor country, as you can see.

This is a roof of a house with rebar sticking out. You see this all over the island. The residents can't afford to build a whole house like we do in the States, so they start with the essential rooms; the kitchen and bathroom. They finish those rooms and move in. They complete their houses room by room as they can afford it. It usually takes years to complete a house.

This is the "rich" section and the houses are big and very expensive.

Thumbs up... that's good

On any given day you will see these guys working hard packing and unpacking luggage as guests arrive and depart.

Grounds of the Whitehouse

This is what happens when you've had too much sun!

There's nothing like a Rum Runner in a freshly cut pineapple

The main pool at Ocho Rios Manor... a great pool area with a swim up bar under the tower.

This is the main pool at Dunn's River

This is the main pool at Ocho Rios. When you stay at Dunn's River, you can 'play' at Ocho Rios, which is only a 15 minute shuttle ride. So we went back and forth to play and eat/drink at Ocho Rios.

There are sculptures all over the place!

This is back at the Whitehouse on the beach

These are some really NICE and FUN people that we hung out with at the Whitehouse.

Carrie, Mike, Chris & Ted

We met up for cocktails every night in the Martini Bar, which also turns into the singing piano bar at night. There were a few nights we met at the outdoor Neptune bar for "pre-cocktails" before the cocktails at the Martini Bar... wow we drank a lot!

So here's the story about our new friends Ted & Chris. They are affectionately known as "The Stalkers". We met them one day and from then on everytime we turned around (day or night) they were there... hence "The Stalkers"... LOL

The beach at the Whitehouse is fabulous; nice long walks were great.

Here we are in the plane as we were leaving Jamaica

These beautiful palm trees are everywhere

Little tiny beach at Ocho Rios. Needless to say we didn't hang out here.

People actually hire out this 'business' for fishing and other things... not going there!!

This bartender is making a drink on his head and delivering it to Hank... gotta love these guys.

This is Campbell and he is a Sandals employee and one of the shuttle drivers between Ocho Rios and Dunn's River. He was sooooooooooooo nice and we bonded with him. He has 3 lovely children and a beautiful wife and he works very hard at his job to provide for his family.

Check out the moss growing on this turtles shell

This is the "Tree Bar" (main bar) at Dunn's River. It is totally cool with the tree in the middle of the circular bar. This is where we hung out for cocktails.

OK... these are self portraits gone 'bad'... need I say more?!?!?

There were peacocks everywhere on the Whitehouse grounds. This male is the biggest and routinely courted the females. He would fan his tail and when he was really excited he made it shutter/vibrate and it produced a loud sound... horny little devil.

This is a VERY NICE young couple we met, Matt & Julie. They were on their honeymoon and enjoying the heck out of everything. We invited them to stay at our house if they are ever in the Sacramento area.

It was Easter week and we participated in an Easter egg scavenger hunt. We won 2 tee shirts and a bottle of Appleton Jamaican rum.

I don't know why this was there, but we had to take a picture.

Our Welcome Home balloon arrived with cupcakes

CHECK THIS OUT!!! A gift from my wonderful husband for our 25th wedding anniversary, which is April 13th. A beautiful diamond ring. I received a few comments from the ladies that they loved it.

Now here's the truth (hee-hee)

I didn't want to bring my real wedding ring (with the chance of loosing it), so I went to Kohl's ahead of time and bought this cubic zirconia for $6.00. When Chris (my stalker friend) said she loved my ring I had to fess up that it was fake; she actually liked the idea.

This is the view from our patio at Dunn's River during a rain storm.

I have no idea what this expression means, but he kicked my ass in checkers.

These guys are constantly picking up the plastic drink glasses left around the pool and property. Sometimes the stack gets really high.

Local entertainment from the contortionists

This is a group of people we met at Kimono's restaurant, which is a Japanese teppanyaki style of cooking. We all gathered around a U-shaped table & grill and had a great time meeting new friends. Here we are after dinner enjoying some dessert and after dinner drinks.

The flowers were beautiful

We saw this street sign and had to take a picture of it; considering both our Mother's names were Evelyn.

There's nothing like slamming a big plate of deep fried french fries from the beach grill at midnight, then going straight to bed. Do you wonder why I gained weight... duh

This was a competition on the beach which I did NOT participate in. The girls had to go into the ocean and get wet, then cover their bodies with as much sand as they could all over their bodies. The person with the most sand on her was the winner. She won a big bottle of Appleton Rum. The woman (2nd from the right) with her hands in the air was the winner.

Here are a bunch of really short video's if you're interested in watching them.

Here's a crazy 'snake guy' that danced with snakes and put a snake's head in his mouth. People lined up to have the snakes around their necks... not this girl!!!

The next 2 videos are the "Playmakers" doing the local dance moves (employees who organize all the activities day & night).

Here's me going down a waterslide at the Whitehouse pool

Fire Juggler

Water Aerobics - I'm the one in the back middle with a black suit

This is the very bummpy ride from Dunn's River to the Whitehouse. It was like this for about 1 1/2 hours of the trip with very a windy road with lots of really big pot holes. The drivers in Jamaica are fricken crazy by always passing while it's not safe and coming very close to other drivers. At times you wonder if you'll arrive at your destination alive or not!!! It helps to drink heavily before any car rides and you'll just think it's a roller coaster ride (hee-hee).

Here's one of the bartenders delivering a drink on his head to Hank

The next 2 clips are a guy playing the steel drums and he was fabulous!

Marching Band on the property

This is us at the Martini/Piano Bar. Although it's dark and you can't see anything, it will give you an idea how hoppin' it gets in there at night. There are always a bunch of people singing really loud. Yep, you got... I'm one of those loud people.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Thanks for visiting and come back soon for additional posts.