Puppy Daze

This post is a little late but keep reading and you will see why!!

Here is the news update on the new little guy at our house. It all started when I had Belle at the vet and they had 6 week old puppies for adoption. I told Husband #1 and to my complete surprise he agreed to go see them! Then we decided to look all over if we were looking. We found this little guy at the Humane Society. We tried to bring him home that Saturday but as we were doing the paperwork he had some diarrhea and a temperature so they kept him until he coud be cleared medically. I went back to pick him up that Wednesday. He is about 3 months old. They say he is a mix of Treeing Walker Coonhound and American Bulldog. He definitely has some kind of hound with his ears and he does try to howl. The saggy face and eyes and squat nose seems to be where they think bulldog. I guess we will see as he grows what he looks like. Yes, he does have big paws. It has been estimated he will be about 60 pounds. We'll see.

His name is Louie. Our current dog, Belle, is 10 years old and was named for the area of Nashville where we lived at the time, Bellevue. So sticking with the theme, Louie is named for St. Louis!

Belle was not too happy but is coming around to the idea. She has put Louie in his place with snarling and growling and is teaching him she is dominant. She has also started playing with him, which is so cute, like in the picture below.

The kids are pretty excited. They want Louie to be on their bed while we are reading bedtime stories.

Double A seems to think Louie's legs don't work. She carries him everywhere and really wants him to sleep with her. I told her she has to wait until she is potty trained. She has been doing very well with the training sessions and commands.Everyone likes to snuggle with Louie. He has gotten to the point that he automatically sits on someone's lap if available. He is very cuddly.

Unfortunately we have had our first major mishap with Louie which brings me to the portion of this post on explaining why it has been delayed.

Louie ate my laptop.

A new keyboard is on order so I am currently typing without those keys. More challenging than I anticipated. Who knew you used B, N and L this much?! I have gotten a replacement power cord. It was actually smoking when I pulled it out of Louie's mouth. He didn't seem harmed, though.

Potty training is going fairly well. It has been monsooning here so sometimes he does not like to go out. When it is dry he LOVES beig outside. He does wake up earlier than I want, but then again I am pretty grumpy in the mornings anyway. It realy is like having a baby. Except when I leave the house I can lock him in a kennel! Overall, it has been a good decision and he has been a good dog in the first week and a half.

Need concrete proof I have lost my mind?

He lives with us now.

We're not in Kansas anymore!

Last weekend we traveled to the Southern Miss/Kansas game in Lawrence, Kansas. We picked the kids up from school and traveled about 5 hours and stayed in a hotel that night. When we woke up and dressed in our game clothes, we were the only Southern Miss fans in the hotel! It was a pretty good game except we ended up losing. Close game, though. The kids were okay for most of it but then got pretty bored. Double A started not feeling well. We drove home after the game and she was whiny and sick. Sunday she had 102 fever and stayed home from school Monday. I then got whatever she had. I spent Wednesday in bed with slight fever and hacking cough. I still have the hacking cough and scratchy deep voice. Husband #1 has been battling it but winning and Bumblebee seems to have missed it altogether, thankfully.

Self portrait before the game

Before the game in the stands...Bumblebee wouldn't cooperate for the pic

Bumblebee loves his cotton candy!!

This is how she spent the second half of the game...not feeling well.

Double A's horse show

What a busy weekend and it is only Saturday! Double A had another horse show today. She competed in Musical Stalls and Little Squirts walk trot trail (obstacle course on the horse). She placed 2nd in musical stalls and 4th in walk trot trail. She did well. She had a little trouble with the trail course with getting her horse to "listen." It seems the other girls had trouble too so no worries. Double A tends to get discouraged easily when her horse does not behave on the first attempt. We are working on that.

We are quite proud of her today and she is proud of herself, also. Bumblebee spent the four hours catching grasshoppers, crickets and caterpillars and basically just getting very dirty!

Apple Picking!!

The kids had off school Friday for teacher conference day so we went to a local farm with some friends to go apple picking. We have been to this farm last year, also. There are rides, shows, play areas, petting zoo, etc for the kids to do. It was tons of fun and we came home with almost 20 pounds of apples! I plan on making applesauce and freezing it and I have a great recipe for a really light and yummy apple crisp.

I thought this was too cute!!

Bumblebee and his friend trying to get almost 50 pounds of apples around the farm on a wagon

Double A showing off the produce while sampling another!

Finally a photo of me on this blog! Yes, I do exist!! On our way out to the apple fields

Spaghetti day

My first grader came home from school and told me they had spaghetti for lunch. An hour or so later she then told me it was Spaghetti Day at school. I told her she already told me they had it for lunch. She then said, "yeah, but it was spaghetti day all day. We read books about spaghetti." Okay, whatever. Another hour or two passed and she informed me her teacher had them "throw spaghetti noodles against the wall to test to see if they were done and one boy actually got his on the ceiling!" WHAT??!!
me - "Why would you do this, Double A?"
AA - "My teacher told me to!!"
me - "yes, but why?"
AA - "to see if they were done."
me - "were you in the lunch room?"
AA - "no, in the classroom."

I still have no idea what this was supposed to teach the class. Why would you encourage children to throw spaghetti on the wall??

oh my

Today I asked Double A if she had a cup anywhere to use for dinner. She looked around where she was sitting and said "Not a single one in sight, giirrlll." It was shocking yet hilarious at the same time.

Just a bit later I was in the kitchen with Bumblebee. He told me this: "Mom, when I get older, like 14, a teenager, and I play in some little football game and win a trophy...I am going to give it to you." How sweet is that?!

So, do you see what I am dealing with here as far as different personalities??