This week in a life...

I'm beginning to think this is a good system for me - a "week in review" blog.  I'm just not focused enough to get on here as regularly as I probably should.  This week was a pretty great, interesting, amusing week.  Allow me to tell you all about it.

Sunday:  Packer bye week.  This means I should have been able to get lots done around the house instead of being consumed by football watching.  It didn't.  I'm over it.

Monday:  X rays!  Allele's Mom is a vet and she took Allele with her to work and got an X ray.  Can you count how many puppies she's going to have?

Tuesday:  I think this was the most uneventful day of the week for us.  Based on the progesterone test, Allele's mom estimated she wouldn't have the puppies until the end of the week, but Rico's mom had a hunch they would be earlier than that and she told me to keep an ear out.

Wednesday:  Work was crazy.  I was very grateful I work overnight and don't have to worry too much about extremely heavy days.  All I can say is that based on what I have seen, the economy is on the up-swing.  It was a big day for drivers.  Maybe you've seen some UPS drivers around town who already have their "helpers" with them.  Often we don't start using helpers until Thanksgiving.  This year volume is jumping earlier and we've already been sending helpers out with drivers.

 I got a phone call from a friend asking if I would be able to help in transporting a dog.  Remember Annika?  This beautiful girl:

Turns out Annika was in heat and needed to be bred.  Her owners live approximately 3 hours south of me and were planning to leave for Mexico on Friday.  Annika needed to go to Minnesota, about 4 hours west of me.  I was planning to head about an hour south on Thursday already because that's where Lilly's foster mom lives and she had free meat for me so I agreed to pickup Annika at the halfway point.


    

Thursday: PUPPIES!!  There were 7 total.  The first little girl didn't make it so there are 4 boys and 2 girls.  Here they are with their mama.
 

Lilly and I headed down to her foster mom, Cindy's, house and picked up a big box of organ meat, some freezer burned meat she had been saving for us, and a bunch of bones.  I went to the butcher with her and he lead me to 3 big barrels of "cow scraps" that I could pick through.  Those barrels would have made my dogs eyes bug out of their heads.  Here's the bones I ended up picking out of the barrels:

As you can see Lilly already swiped hers out of the bag - Mr. Picky is still deciding.

I would have taken more, but I was concerned about how much freezer space I had. 

After visiting with Cindy for a bit we headed a little further south to pick up Annika.  In order to give Annika her space, Lilly rode shotgun with me on the way home.  She didn't mind it too much, but I was mad at myself for forgetting to grab her seatbelt.  I really need to put the doggy seatbelt harnesses in the trunk and leave them there for situations like this.

Bringing Annika into the house was nothing short of hilarious, I should have taken video.  Poor Bailey was just fascinated with what I brought him.  I swear if you put one of those collars from "Up" on him you would have heard him saying something like "OH MY GOD!  I think my mom brought me a hooker!  Seriously, somebody, tell me the truth - Am I dead?  Is this heaven?"  I had to tell him in no uncertain terms that she was NOT for his pleasure and that he had better behave himself.  Knowing he would get into trouble, he tried to avoid her, but she was having NONE of that.  Miss Annika was darn near in full standing heat, and she thought Bailey looked to be a perfectly acceptable suitor - everywhere he went she got up under his chin and flagged her tail in his face.  Finally I had to let them outside to potty separately just so they would focus on the task at hand.    

Eventually, Annika went in the crate and everybody got some nice bovine pacifiers to keep them occupied.

 

Friday:  After I got done with work and took a short nap, Annika and I headed off to meet her breeder about an hour and a half west of here.  While I was getting ready she was busy listening to the neighbor's annoying Chihuahua bark.  I wish I could have let her out to eat that barking rodent.

Note:  All Chihuahuas are not created equal.  An old roommate of mine had one and she was cool, the one next door is exceptionally irritating.

When I got home I had an appointment with the photographer that took pictures of Bailey and Lilly to pick out some I wanted printed.  I can say I wouldn't exactly recommend this photographer for anything particularly important, but they were cheap and I did get a couple pictures I really like.

My primary purpose for the pictures was to get "accomplishment pictures" with Lilly's rally ribbons and both of their CGC ribbons, and for that purpose I got exactly what I needed.

This picture is an example of what I mean about the photographer.  Almost all of the pictures above are cropped by me.  This one is in the "edited" form they put up on the website for me to choose from.  Seriously?  You wouldn't choose to crop this into a landscape layout focused on the dogs instead of a huge background? 
Whatever - like I said, I went in and got what I wanted. 

As you can see, Bailey is less than impressed with this whole photo shoot business.  

It's just not his cup of tea.  I take what I can get.

This picture, while not really very well composed, is one of my favorites.  Many of our pictures were taken on a green screen so backgrounds can be added after the fact.  I put a red background that looks really cool on this one and am waiting to get it in digital format.  I think it will be good for my website, etc. 
I just love that when I look at it I think "yup, she loves me".

Friday night was "baby's first picture" day as well!!   

I can't help but hope the Red Boy ends up being the perfect one for me, red being one of my favorite colors and all.  I can't wait till they start getting fluffy!

Saturday:  Well, the only thing anybody has accomplished around here today is a new crater Lilly's working on in the back yard.  I just LOVE that she'll have that fun game to show her new little brother or sister. *sarcasm*     Now, it's time for me to go have lunch with a friend and pretend my house is not a disaster for just a little longer.  Packers play the 'Viqueens' tomorrow in Minnesota - this should be GOOOD!