Your Preference?

So would you rather have this white stuff on your trees? (courtesy of Del's parents in Norwalk, OH)...

....or this white stuff (Bradford Pears in bloom in NC)?

Del's dad decided he was tired of the snow in the north and came down to NC for the weekend. It's been a little on the cool side, but still nice enough for them to golf.

Maggie is so excited to have someone here visiting her (at least she seems to think he is here just to see her!) and she has had some added benefit to this visit. You see, she normally stays overnight in her crate in the room below the guest bedroom. The first night Del's dad was here, I think she heard him moving around and started barking at 3:30 a.m. and didn't really stop until Del went down to attend to her. The next night, we decided to let her stay in our bedroom and I have to say, I was very proud of her. She slept most of the night (only getting up once) and did exceptionally well for the first night outside her crate. Well enough that we think we might allow her to do it more often. The only draw back to this plan is poor Chalupa, who usually sleeps with us every night, has been kicked out of her bed, since she doesn't want to share any space with Maggie and we have to keep the bedroom door closed to keep Maggie in, so Chalupa can't come and go as she pleases. We may have to work out a schedule.

And as a sign off...today was a nice spring-like day, a little cool, but still a perfect day for a walk with the pooch.

P.S.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Something other than Maggie...

So just to prove that we are still doing other things than revolving our lives around Maggie...

I started a new online class at Big Picture Scrapbooking last week called Library of Memories. It is a different philosophy on how to organize your photos as well as your scrapbooks (rather than chronologically). It is a 12 week class and based on the syllabus, it is a lot of work - but the kind of work I love - organization and scrapbooking! (I've actually had people tell me I should be a professional organizer.) The system seems like it could be very motivational to scrapbook more, which I need. We'll see how it goes. The first creative project of the class was to alter a clipboard. Here is mine.

There seems to be something missing, so I'll probably be doing some type of adjustments at some point. So far, though, the class has really made me want to dig into all my pictures - even those that are 10+ years old. I'll keep you posted on the process.

She did it!!!

Maggie graduated from Puppy Kindergarten. Today was the day she had to pass her test and she did it. We were a little worried, but she made us proud.

She had to sit (pretty easy for her)...

Lay down (also fairly easy for her, although she is not the most graceful when she lays down, it's more of a plop, really)...

And she had to stay for 10 seconds - the one we were the most worried about.

She does pretty well with stay at home, but when there are so many distractions, she doesn't do so well. Fortunately, Brett, Maggie's teacher, gave her a break and counted to ten very quickly and allowed her to graduate with her class. :o)

If graduating from puppy kindergarten was not enough to prove that our baby girl is definately getting big, there are others things that do.

She is big enough now to sit in the back seat of the car by herself (after climbing in without any help!!)

She is also tall enough now to look out the window in our bonus room.

And she can get up on our red leather chair by herself and pretty much take up the entire seat when lying down now.

It amazes me how much she has grown in just the short five months of her life! She just makes us smile each and every day! :o)

Happy Valentine's Day...

So, since it is Valentine's Day and since I had the day off (not to mention I had a coupon), we decided to take Maggie to the Puppy salon. She came home with these cute, very girly bows in her hair.

She doesn't seem to even mind them one bit, either.

In other news....remember Mr. Frog?

Well...since this picture, we've had an incident....Mr. Frog's name is now Lefty. The reason for the new name....well....Lefty no longer has his left arm.

But it doesn't seem like Maggie cares that he is one arm less - she still loves him just the same.

And, of course, so as to not to leave our other child out....here is Chalupa sleeping in her favorite spot - on her Poppa's lap.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

She's growing up...

We took a lot of pictures last weekend, but due to some internet issues, I wasn't able to post until now.



Our little girl is growing so fast. And boy does she have her poppi wrapped. I would never have guessed Del to be a dog person (and he wouldn't either), but I'm afraid this little girl has stolen his heart.



She is so darn cute it is hard not to fall completely in love with her.



I was also able to do some scrapbooking last weekend, which was the first time in forever it seems. I did a 2007 year in review page.




And I did a page using pieces of some of the Christmas cards we received this year.

Since I'm feeling a little guilty about posting all these pictures of Maggie, here is one of Chalupa, who is pretty much back to normal since her surgery. (She is another one who has Del wrapped.)

This weekend (actually week for that matter), I was single mom once again. Del had to go to Carey, NC Monday night coming home Tuesday, only to leave Wednesday morning for Orlando. He extended his business trip to do some golfing with his dad. So it was just us girls again.

Today we had a vet appointment, we went for a couple walks and played in the back yard.

And now she is one tired pup.....my plan all along! :o)




We are both happy that poppa comes home tomorrow!

Just me and the children....

I was a single mom this week.


While Del traveled to Salt Lake City Monday through Thursday, I was home alone with the children.


Maggie was such a good girl staying in her crate all day long while I was at work. She still so desparately wants to play with Chalupa, but Chalupa wants no part of it.

Poor Chalupa had an extremely rough week. She had to have three teeth pulled on Friday (the vet suggested doing it on Wednesday, but with Del away, I didn't want to be here by myself if anything happened to her). We were very nervous, particularly when the vet told us there is added risk when a cat over 10 years old goes under, especially when she is FIV positive like Chalupa. Leaving her at the vet in the morning was extremely difficult, but she came through it beautifully and is recovering nicely now at home. I think she is still a little loopy, but she is acting more like herself a little each day (while keeping her distance from Maggie, of course!)

Maggie is as cute as ever and is getting bigger every day. Here are some of the newest pictures of our not-s0-"baby"-girl...

She got a new toy today after her class...

And here is one with just her hanging out with Dad...

It really is amazing how big she is getting. She weighed 30 pounds at the vet last Saturday. She is finally starting to grow into those big feet of hers. :o)

On another note...a very special shout out to my mom who celebrated her birthday on Friday and a very belated birthday wish to my sister, Tina, who celebrated a milestone birthday on the 6th of this month. (This picture was taken of the three of us when they were here visiting in September.)

Happy Birthday, mom and sis! Lot of love to both of you!

Maggie Pictures

So, just like any new parents, we are taking quite a few pictures of our baby girl. And, of course, we have to bore people by sharing all those pictures....

Not quite the blackmail pictures as a naked baby, but bath pictures that are just as cute...

Some pictures of Maggie playing...

Just hanging out in her little lounger (since her bed is really her crate) chewing on one of her favorite things - a stuffed hoof ...

And one last picture of her with her Puppy Kindergarten teacher, Bret.

This week she's been a great girl. No accidents!!!! She even stayed in her crate all day long on Friday with no breaks during the day (Del didn't come home at lunchtime to see how she would do since he is traveling at the end of the month). She also slept all night Friday night without getting up at 3:00 a.m. to go to the bathroom.

We couldn't ask for a better dog - she is so great!!!!!

New Addition

I know most of you already know that we have a new addition to our family and have been anxiously awaiting pictures. I'm finally getting around to posting our new child.

Meet Maggie.

So the story goes like this:

I've been trying to convince Del into getting a puppy for a couple of months now. My desire actually escalated when a friend of ours got a new Golden Retriever puppy, Champ. Since we were already scheduled to drive home for Christmas, Del convinced me that we couldn't do anything about a dog until after Christmas. Little did I know that there was a puppy waiting for me back in Norwalk. It seems that on the weekend that Maggie #1 moved away Del emailed his dad asking him to look for a golden for me. Two days later, Maggie #2 came into our family. This, of course, was about three weeks before Christmas, though, so Del's sister, Laurie and her husband, Bruce, became Maggie's foster parents (in the meantime, they became the actual parents of Lily - read the story here). Thanks, again, guys for taking care of Maggie for us!! We so appreciate it. Christmas day brought a big surprise for me...

So our drive home was pretty good, other than one little accident in the hotel room. I rode with Maggie in the back seat all the way home and she did so good. Here is a picture of Maggie sleeping on her little pillow in the car.

Since we've been home, we've had less than a handful of accidents in the house and they are only after an extreme puppy play session (Maggie can be quite the spaz at times). We crate her during the night and during the day while we are at work. Del comes homes at lunchtime to let her out and feed her.

Yesterday, we had our first session for puppy training at PetSmart. Our little girl was the most vocal in the class of six. Del thinks we might have a problem student on our hands. :o)

Chalupa still is not so sure about her new sibling. She mostly keeps her distance and keeps her eye on Maggie at all times.

She has at times allowed Maggie to get close enough to smell her and lick her ears a couple times, but that's about it. They are not exactly best friends just yet. But at least Chalupa is no longer hissing at her.

Maggie is a lot of work and is wearing us out at times, which I guess is normal for any new parent, but she is so very sweet (most of the time)!

And Aunt Laurie - you will be happy to know that her favortie toy is still the loofah you gave her (or she stole, anyway!).