Doggie Daycare

Some of you may know that we take our dog to daycare 3 times a week. DH and I work about an hour from home (he slight more than an hour, me slightly less), and we work long days, so typically we're away from the house for at least 10 hours, usually 11 hours though. I feel bad for the dog because he doesn't eat or drink during that time so that he doesn't have to go to the bathroom, we're also tired when we get home, so he doesn't get a lot of long walks to burn off the energy from sleeping all day. So Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays Drake goes to daycare and plays with lots of other dogs in the playroom all day (he even has a little lunch pail for some kibbles cause he's working up an appetite). The ladies at the daycare tell me about his little friends and his girlfriends at daycare that he plays with, there's Buddy the boxer, Summer and Taffy the goldens etc.

Tonight when I went to pick up Drake from daycare (yes he went 2 days in a row), the young lady at the counter asked me if I noticed if he was extra tired last night. I hadn't but apparently my DH had. So anyway since we couldn't get out of Drake why he was so tired she informed me of how he spent all day Wednesday fulfilling most men's primary fantasy. Yes dear internets, he was in a three.some, apparently today Drake had her all to himself, but was apparently a little worn out from yesterday.

So now I have to wonder when the ladies at day care mention Drake's little girlfriends. And I know why he gets so excited when I turn the corner towards daycare, and I so naively thought it was because of the daycare ladies paying attention to him and he getting to play all day with other dogs.

Good thing Drake's fixed or we'd have a lot of puppy support to do. Daddy's thrilled to know his "little dude" as DH calls Drake has gotten to experience safe relationships with other female dogs, he was concerned that after being fixed Drake would not get the opportunity.

This didn't come out quite as funny as the talk with hubby about Drake's escapades at daycare, but I was trying to use clean language and innuendo so as not to be picked up by a bunch of search engine results. Maybe we should drop the "D" from the dog's name...

Happy Mother's Day

Today is mother's day, and I really owe my mom a lot. I realize as I grow older just how lucky I am, and I owe that to 2 main things. God's grace, and mom's teaching.

I'm happily married because I had a good mom who loved us, cherished us which taught us to love ourselves and cherish ourselves, so that we would be able to give the same of ourselves to others. She taught us compromise and sacrifice as marriage is about that too. I'm lucky that my husband was also raised by a mom who taught him these things and that God gave us these wonderful mom's and each other. She taught us to be individuals and self sufficient, so even unmarried we would be happy.

We're not struggling financially because my mom taught me always to do my very best, to educate myself to strive to do things that I thought I might not be capable of, not to settle for good enough, when I know I can do better, but to also have compassion for myself and to give myself a chance to learn new things, they don't have to be done perfectly right away. She taught me to get an education and finish that education and not waste my intelligence. Because of this, I'm gainfully employed, even if I work too hard and I'm hard on myself if I don't complete things to my satisfaction in the timeline I set myself, I do set my expectations of myself very high.

I'm healthy because my mom taught me the importance of regular medical checkups. I see my dentist and doctor regularly, I could eat better, but I could also be worse, at least I know when I'm not eating well.

When things feel bad I learned that the world would not stop moving right along, because honestly if it did whenever someone felt bad, the world wouldn't ever move. So I learned that this too shall pass, it applies to the good and the bad though :)

I learned a lot about life from my mother, and hopefully one day I'll realize all the important things she's taught me about motherhood and I'll be able to pass them on to children of my own.

Happy mother's day mom and to all the mommies out there, may you all realize the impacts you have in the lives of those around you.

Wedding Day

Today is the day my little brother gets married. It's funny saying that... little brother... not getting married. I still think of him as about 15, probably because I don't feel very old myself (18-21 ish rather than the 34 that I am).

Today is an absolutely gorgeous day, a surprising 23 degrees Celsius, considering that on Monday it was about 5 degrees. I've been hoping for the last 2 weeks it would be warm and sunny for them, no flowers, but at least it will be warm taking pics down by the beach. Most of us are wearing suits, the Bride will probably be fine, we'll all be sweating.

I wrote my speech early this morning, I hope it's OK, I haven't practiced it a lot. Anyway, off to make myself pretty for the family photos.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's birthday, so in honour of the occassion, this post is dedicated to her.

Moms
Moms are incredible people, and my mom is no different than any other. It astounds me how moms can accomplish so many things, things that I bet none of them ever thought they could before that fist tiny helpless bundle arrived in their lives to change everything. I was that bundle for my mom. Moms sacrifice a lot for their families and from what I can see from my own mother, rather than bringing resentment it brought pleasure and I think that's one wonderful thing about my mom. I'm also astounded by all the things moms can accomplish in a 24 hour period or a 7 day week, or a 52 week year, bet you never did that pre-kids and you don't give yourselves credit for it now... give yourself a pat on the back for all those years of taking care of the family and managing all the to do lists, and still raising great, well adjusted, healthy kids, that's a major accomplishment!

My Mom

• My mom raised 2 kids, cared for a sister and husband.
• She single handedly took care of all the chores and day to day needs of so many of us, even when we could bloody well do it ourselves, and should have, lazy unappreciating buggers that we were. I dont ever remember my mom losing her temper or cool about it though. I appreciate it and recognize it now mom, I have no idea how you managed to do it all, and your deserve being recognized, however late, that it is appreciated, and your amazing.
• Mom taught us values in knowing what matters to ourselves and not being influenced by others to abandon our core beliefs
• Mom taught us honesty, she rarely got mad if we made a mistake, only if we hid it from her. Maliciousness of course was not tolerated.
• Mom taught us respect, for ourselves, for family, for others, for things. By teaching us this, we can take care of ourseves and don't fall into what the crowd might be doing, we acknowledge when we've done wrong and stick around to accept the punishment. We respect others and their things so that we get along with others, the world does not revolve around our needs, wants and desires and we take care of those without infringing on the right of another to meet their needs, wants and desires. We also know the value of a sincere apology.
• Mom taught us cooperation, because we can't do it all alone, and it lifts each of us up and builds relationship to cooperate, no man is an island.
• Mom taughts us independence, which came from respect and values, we don't ask for things we can do ourselves, it is not another's responsibility to meet our needs.

Funny puppy

I think I have mentioned before that I think it's very funny how Drake sleeps on his back. Although he does it very often as soon as you bring out the camera to snap a photo he stretches and rolls over, losing the shot. Well we finally got 2 shots, yes he woke up and started stretching. As you can see sleeping against this particular wall in the basement is where we spends about half his sleep time, and he sleeps on his back with his paws on the wall as you can see from the chipped paint and scratch marks (I painted this wall in late September, and the marks have been there for awhile now, I wonder if the chipping was him eating it or not).

Anyway on to the pics.

Mommies

Julie's post about mommies inspired me to write mine. My mommy is finally retiring this month. She actually officially retired 8 years ago, but has been working part time in her field because of the level of knowledge and expertise she has. In my field we would call her a knowledge expert, or subject matter expert, and I think she's fully deserving of that title.

My mom taught me a lot about work ethic. She works in pay & benefits for the government, which has a lot fo rules around pensions, pay and benefits. Mom has always been a conscientious worker in that she digs deeper into the rules, and the rules effective at certain times that would apply to a person so that she can help them get all that they deserve. It irks me a little bit about what some people say about government workers, because I know how hard my mom worked, and the pay for the most part was less than fair. I also used to work in the government as a research assistant and I know how the researchers worked diligently for often only a third of what they could have gotten in the states. The next time you see that government worker taking a break when there's a huge lineup. It's not true of all the workers behind the scenes that you don't see. I thank my mom for what she taught me about work ethic, maybe at times I learned it too well and put work first, rather than where it belongs, somewhere down around 5th in my books.

Happy Retirement Mom, you totally deserve it!

Drake's first picture

For Chrissa: Drake, age 4 months



He's a golden retriever

My favourite picture:



Hubby sent me the above as an email subject line "Hello from Home" and just the attachment. I call it my window to home and it's my favourite. I have it as my desktop on my laptop.

Date night

Tonight was date night, I almost forgot! Every fourth Friday night I take my little love out on a date. We go to the pet store where Drake plays with any dogs that might be there, flirts with every cashier, and usually gets a Milk Bone from all of them, and he flirts with the customers too. I usually buy him a treat too.

I almost forgot tonight though, hubby works nights every fourth Friday, so the pup and I go to PetSmart. We had only 15 minutes in the store, but he got to greet another golden retriever, and 2 cashiers (only 1 milk bone) and every customer in the store (4 families or couples). We picked up some liver treats, his favs. I had coupons, so we got 3 packages of them!

Drake is passed out in the foyer now, because the ceramic tiles are nice and cool with the AC on. It's good going to PetSmart, it tires him out and that leaves me free to "chat" with his daddy online :)

Karen's Baby Born

Quinn Sharon Joy Bellows was born on Monday, June 5th at 1:25am. Weighing 7lbs 9ozand measuing 50cm long.

I'm sure Karen won't be posting for at least a day or 2. (http://pddmommyof3.blogspot.com/)

Reasons I appreciate my hubby

I decided to write about why I fell in love with my hubby:

1) Because his hands are so gentle when he plays with my hair or rubs my back.
2) Because that first kiss was beautiful (5 years ago today).
3) Because being with him makes me sing
4) Because he used to smile so much when we were together that it would bring tears to his eyes.
5) Because he's very laid back and when he gets mad he doesn't yell.
6) Because he always carries the bags and packages when we go shopping.
7) Because he took care of cleaning up a major womanly accident when we were dating.
8) Because it was fun sneaking around with him before we told all our friends we were dating.
9) Because he's very patient and listens to me and I feel I can talk to him about anything.
10) Because he was my good friend then, and my best friend now.

Happy Anniversary darling. I love you.

Honey, Drake's barfing

Wouldn't it be nice if you could say that and have your spouse take care of it. I did, although I didn't expect honey to take care of it. I just needed him to help Drake, give him some water, comfort him (no one likes barfing, not even a dog). Mostly I wanted Drake to feel comforted because if there's just me, I'm afraid he might eat the barf (he hasn't done that yet, but a lot of dogs do, Drake just eats poo apparently, more on that later) so I push him away when he comes near while I try to clean it up, which might seem like he's been bad, and I can't communicate and explain to him what I'm doing and why. I wonder if he barfed because he ate an entire box of Triscuit crackers. It was the whole box, bought it yesterday and it hadn't been opened yet. Good think it wasn't "jumbo" or "bonus" size, he's probably going to have binding and bloating from the wheat and salt.

We started Drake on a pill from the pet shop that is supposed to help stool smell less, and one of the side effects is the dog is less likely to consume the stool, I figured for $12 it was worth the purchase. He's been on it for about 2 weeks and hasn't consumed any of his own stool. Yay! Although note the "any of his own", he has consumed cat stool, which apparently is like candy for them, and another animal's on a walk a few days after he started the pills (we can't see them under the snow, but he can smell them).

Proud mummy?

So Drake was really awesome in class on Saturday, he really impressed me (and the trainer) with his ability to stay (sit, stand and lie down positions) with distractions, and distance. I'm very proud of his accomplishments and how far he has come in his training.

So is this general glow what it feels like when your kid accomplishes something beyond what you thought they would be capable of at that age and they just amaze you?

On another note, I have an urge to go snow tubing. One of my co-workers keeps mentioning it and it sounds like a lot of fun, and apparently there is a place about 10 minutes from my home. Thing is I don't have snow pants, or kids to take. Maybe we'll borrow some by convincing friends it's a good idea to take their little one(s). Either that or the neighbours have a 7 and 9 year old who would probably enjoy it. Here's the place: http://www.ski-lakeridge.com/

Pendulum

Well Drake, my hyper little puppy, was actually very sweet and kind of cuddly last night while I was watching TV, normally he tries to jump on me and head butts me in his exuberance, but last night he sat beside me on the couch in the basement (the only one he's allowed on) and occasionally put his head on my lap. This morning he was being sweet to, until I went to iron my pants and he ate my lunch. Well I suppose it was partially my fault, I forgot to put a lid on the container and left it on the counter, you just shouldn't do that with tuna. So he knocked the container off the counter and of course it fell open part down, he pushed it across the kitchen floor slowly licking up the tuna as it came out bit by bit from under the container. When I saw this I said "Draaaaake" in the discipline tone I use and he went straight to his crate for a time out and stayed there until I finished cleaning up. I hope the kitchen doesn't smell too much like tuna since I didn't have time to pull out a mop and thoroughly clean the floor (sorry honey, but now you know why it smells if it does) the dog continued to "clean" the floor after I'd finished so I probably didn't do a very good job.

Adventures in dog training

So I've decided to blog a little bit about the funny things our puppy does. Firstly I should mention that at least in some training books dogs can be generally categorized into 6 different personality types, and although like people your dog will have traits of all of them, one will dominate. Drake is known as a joker, and was voted class clown in his puppy training classes, so it's not just me who thinks he's a nut.

Last week when I was home sick Drake was playing with his towel by taking the end and swinging it around his head, now he does this probably a couple of times a week, but I thought it was funny that day because he did it facing me the entire time, it was kind of like he was dancing or performing like little children do in gymnastics with the streamers on a stick.

Drake also often chews his toys while lying on his back and holding them to his mouth, similar to how a baby might hold a bottle. He also sometimes tries to play with 2 toys at the same time, always a ball and something else. Last night he learned control over the ball and was playing with it between his paws around the floor like soccer (football for the non-North Americans).

Lately Drake's not been feeling well, he's not eating, well not eating his food anyway, he ate my oatmeal then drank a lot of water, I bet that made him uncomfortable as it was instant oatmeal (Peaches & Cream) and he ate about 5 packages of it. He also ate one of my cell phone manuals, so he's been barfing over the weekend, strangely unlike most dogs he doesn't eat that, just everything else, including poo, tore his dog food bag of the new food we're trying and ate that, so we presumed he liked it, but he hasn't eaten much of it since, although I'm sure manuals are quite filling.

Drake loves to play with empty 500 ml water bottles (about half a quart for the Americans) we can use those to entice him to do just about anything, including bedtime which he doesn't like because he'd rather be up playing, but we try to keep him on a reasonable schedule so he's not up barking to play in the middle of the night.

Well that's all I can think of but there's pretty much something weekly, if not daily that he does, so you'll probably hear more in the future.

Wittle Puppy

I thought I'd try posting some more old pictures of Drake (he's 4 months old in these pics). So here's 2 more. Drake stretches all the way down my legs now he's such a big boy (he's 8 months old now). You know the interesting thing, holding him on my lap like that makes me look thinner (yay).

I did try posting the pics several months ago, but blogger just kept copping out on me during the upload.

Wittle Drake

We don't have children, so I'd like to join the fun and write 10 things about Drake, our puppy.

10. Drake arrived home on Sept 8 2005, just shy of being 4 months old (his D.O.B. is May 15 2005). He's from PJ Pets, so I consider him a bit of a rescue because he'd been there for so long.

9. It took about 3 weeks to get Drake to eliminate outside, the longest 3 weeks of our lives. I figure it's because he'd hadn't been eliminating outside for the first 4 months of his life.

8. The first time Drake peed in his crate in defiance was hilarious. The crate didn't have a wire bottom like at the pet store, so rather than go through it started spreading. Drake started backing up and putting his paws up on the sides of the crate to avoid the pee.

7. According to a training book I read dog personalities can be categorized into 6 main groups, I think Drake would be called a "Joker" because he's funny, sometimes hard to control and train for a golden retriever, and he was voted class clown.

6. Drake has passed his first level of training and starts the intermediate level in late January.

5. It took him 2.5 months to get excited about the word "walk".

4. He still doesn't get excited about the words "cookie" or "treat" (he gets lots since he trains daily).

3. He likes fetch, but doesn't play indefinitely at it, usually he'll only fetch between 5 and 10 times and then leave you alone.

2. Drake sleeps on his back, it's funny seeing his paws floating in the air.

1. He's fustrating at times, but we love him.

Plus One

Yesterday was my birthday, hubby woke me up at midnight to give me part 1 of his presents to me, the first 4 Harry Potter books with the new standard paperback size, so pristine they look like they've never been touched by human hands. Last night we got part 2, he's got blond hair and brown eyes, he'll be 4 months old on the 15th. We've called him Drake. He's a golden retriever, he's pretty good too, he didn't whine all night, just slept in his crate. He did have an accident in his crate though last night, being a little older he should also be easier to train and he's past the teething stage so he doesn't chew on everything. Although retrievers like to carry stuff around in their mouths, so we got him a floating kong, a rope and a glow in the dark ball. He also has some puppy cookies for treat when he's good and goes to the bathroom outside. I'll probably be like one of those new parents and be posting lots of cute pictures of my precious little boy .