I spoke too soon..

We are still considering a hunting dog, however we are now considering other breeds of dogs and not just the Brittany. Although we really like the Brittany, we are not 100% sure yet that they are the best water dog, we are getting mixed reviews on that issue. So we are also considering the Boykin Spaniel, sounds funny when you say it to fast! :) It is tough though because the part that sucks about this breed is that of ALL the breeders I have found, I have not found one West of probably MO! All the breeders are back east so if we go with this breed we would either have to buy a pup sight unseen or we'd have to fly back ourselves to see them in person.

This is going to be quite the task to find the right breeder, the right dog etc.. It's not as easy as just finding a breeder and picking the cutest one like we did when we bought our little Jack Russell puppies! :) When trying to deteremine if the dog will be the best hunting partner possible, its a little more complicated than picking the cutest one..

Here's a pic of a 12 week old puppy from a breeders site.. AHHH

We've made a decision...

For a long time, Derek has wanted a hunting dog. We've talked about it off/on over the years and we've just not been ready to take that leap and committment to that type of dog. For a while, he had wanted a German Short-Haired Pointer (very beautiful dogs) but they are not typically a water dog, so retrieving ducks on the pond would not be it's strong point. So he gave up on that idea and decided a chocolate lab was the type of dog he wanted. Of all the labs, chocolates I have to say are much prettier dogs than the black or yellow but I've never been a big lab fan. Eric has a chocolate lab (Hudson) and he is a great dog, but I just still wasnt keen on the idea for ourselves.

Now that we've decided our next dog will be a hunting dog, we've reopened the idea to maybe a different breed and I discovered that the Brittany is a great option. They typically are a little smaller than a lab and can work as a pointer and water retriever, and they are beautiful dogs! :) So we are pretty certain that this breed will be our next dog.. Now the question is, How long til we wait to get another dog? We'd like to get through the summer with just Russell, but it's gonna be tough I have to admit. Maybe as the weeks go on, Russell will stop howling and realize just how spoiled rotten he is being treated right now!!! I mean the dog sleeps with us every night! ;)

Russell, Russell, Russell

The poor guy is making me feel awfully sorry for him! I came home the other day from work and as I stood outside the front door, I could hear him in the house howling :( Which is something he just never does... I felt so sad for him, he was sitting up on the back of my recliner chair, his new found favorite spot to be. He about broke my heart when I heard him crying in the house all by himself. Last night as we packed up the camper for Derek's hunting trip this weekend, he sat in the house howling! ;(

When he does things like that it makes me want another dog to keep him company, I think the guy is lonely and sad during the day when we are gone, but then a bigger part of me enjoys the idea of having just the one dog so we can take him everywhere we go, he'll get to go horse camping with us and run errands etc... With 2 dogs, its double the hassle but manageable with just him. So it is a dilema in trying to figure out what is the right thing to do. We have talked a lot about our next dog being a hunting dog, which we are not quite ready for and in the meantime poor little Russell has to suffer, thats what my thoughts are telling me anyways. Maybe he is a happy little dog, but maybe he's not happy and misses having a friend around.

The other night we went out with the cousins to Red Robin and then the bull riding in Monroe, had a great time! There were 9 at dinner and 13 to watch the bulls.. When we got home, Russell was in the driveway!!! Scared the crap out of us to pull in the drive and see him wandering around... He was pretty wet so he'd been out a while, but we'd been gone for hours so not sure exactly how long he was out for and where he may or may not have gone. It just scared me so bad that 2 weeks after loosing Scout, here Russell is out wandering alone and who knows if he was in the street or not... The front gate can be tricky and if you dont push it closed, it sometimes pops off the latch if you just swing it closed and walk away.. we think one of us didnt pay attention or a visitor came while we were gone and didnt shut it properly. We now have a spring to put on the gate so it doesnt happen again.

I've been thinking about that track..

The train track.. yesterday I said we were still on track and basically we were just onboard and going where the train of life takes us. But that got me to thinking! Am I just a follower in life? Do I just go with the flow, jump on the train and go where it leads me?? I kinda think I am and for the past few months, I have been internally talking to myself about that subject and maybe not the train part, but that I am not a big self-starter in life.. I pick the easiest route and follow it. I mean, I will start projects here/there, I do get motivated and get things done, I'm not necessarily lazy, but when it comes to the "big" things in life, I think maybe I am the type of person I wish I wasnt.

This morning on the radio while they were discussing goals and new years resolutions, they said this quote:

"If it's meant to be, it's up to me."

I am thinking maybe I will try to be more like this with my thinking and change things because I can! I do a really good job and always telling myself "I cant, I cant, I cant". If I refer back to the train, instead of jumping on a train and following it where it leads me, maybe I need to jump on that train and work my way up from the caboose, through the cabins and into the engine and take that train down the track I want to go! ;) It might be a long process, it is not so easy to try to change "who" you are.. and not that I want to change who I am completely (I kinda like a lot about me) but some areas of me and my damn head could use some change and maybe a new direction.

A week of Adjusting...

The most exciting thing happening to me lately is that I went to Les Schwab yesterday to have our brakes checked and an hour later they told me they could not get a few lugnuts off the wheels! Apparently whomever put the last set of tires on the red truck (before we bought it) torked them so tightly that I now have to pay Les Schwab to get them off! Some of the nuts are now stripped so if I get a flat in the meantime, I'm screwed! ;) Pretty sad that that is the most interesting thing going on lately...

The house does not feel as empty and quiet as it did a week ago, but our hearts are still missing Scout every day and the character she brought to our lives. Russell still sniffs me up/down every day when I walk in the door so I believe he is still looking for her. We have been spoiling him to no end to help him adjust and not feel so sad. There was a while there where he was pretty depressed and showed little enthusiasm even for his ball, which if you know Russell, that thing is like doggy crack! There is no question, he now sleeps in the bed nightly, he goes with us to run errands whenever possible, he gets to go out in the big kid pasture every morning and evening to explore and eat horsey turds, and he gets to play a lot more ball now than he did before. So the ball has once again become the crack it used to be!!! When Scout was around we didnt play as much with him and the ball because he got a lot of excersize running around the house with her, but now that it's just him, we make sure (okay I should say he makes sure) we play ball every day! :)

Although I swore off projects for the short-term, I've decided to take on a new project! I can hardly believe it myself, but I really enjoyed the sewing wall quilt I made so I am now attempting a blanket and will definately post pics when it is finished. I have 4 fabrics I will cut into 4" squares. I sat down on the computer last night and designed my pattern so I would know how many squares to cut for each color.. I am adding some character to it by making it not quite symetrical.. is that the correct term?? basically the pattern is slightly random, but slightly similar.. very hard to explain but I'm excited that I came up with it on my own. See 2 colors will have 32 squares each, one will only have 27 and then the 4th color will only have 9 squares on the blanket.. I need to really get going on it so I can get it done in time.. lol that sounds a whole lot familiar! It HAS to be done by the 28th of this month, so I guess I have 2 weeks.

Derek and I both have switched over to basically a water-only based beverage intake! :) Every now/then we may throw in a little juice or flavored water, but I am trying really hard to only comsume water and I'm happy that Derek is as well. It will save on the cost of all that soda and it is so much better for us. Since the 1st, I've had maybe the equivilant of 1 soda and even when I drank a few gulps last weekend, I started to feel like it tasted kinda gross..

When I eat something I know I shouldnt, instead of just feeling guilty about it, I now feel gross/icky inside which I think will help me curb my appetite for the wrong foods. In the past I would eat the bad shit, love it and then felt guilty but that didnt help in the long run to keep me from eating it. But if I eat it and minutes later feel like I want to ralph it up cuz its sitting nasty on my tummy, well that feeling will help me to rethink my eating habits...

Shannon has started working Oakley on barrels this month, she has now taken over the training and selling of Oakley.. things just moved this direction which is how we had hoped it would go. She has the experience, knowledge, clients and ability to get him where he needs to be. She is confident in that he will sell when she feels he is ready to be marketed. I have pulled his ads offline and allowing her free reign on this deal. We made her an offer that should make it well worth her time to put into him. In the meantime Edgar has been hanging out just being a horse lately. I've ridden once in the past 2.5 months, I am itchen to go ride Red and for Derek and I to get back in the swing of things on our horses.

He's been pretty busy working out in the shop lately, he's working on an old 1938 panel truck that has been consuming his nights after work and atleast 1 day each weekend. He is very proud (as he should be!) of his work and its nice to see his hard work pay off every now/then! :) I think there are still a couple more weeks of work to be done for this phase anyways.

I still have a job and Derek still has a job... life is still on track! Wishin the track I was on put me in a luxury train suite instead of the caboose, but I guess we each pick our own track and follow it where it leads us.... ;)

Bye Bye Scout

Our little bean, Miss Scout died tonight. What a really shitty way to start the new year. We recently had expanded the dogs yard. Tonight, she was out with Derek feeding the big kid (Edgar) and running around and when he came back in the house, she went out the front door and when I got home a few minutes later, she was not around. We immediately went outside calling her name and walked towards the road. When we got to the road, we started to head one direction but a neighbor kitty corner to us called to us that she thought our dog just got hit by a car. We looked up that direction and just a driveway up from us, she was laying in the road. We ran to her, but she was already gone. The car that hit her had stopped up the road a ways, but never came down so it had happened seconds earlier. I dont blame the car at all, I think when we called her name, she darted out in the street to head home and the car just couldnt stop or didnt see her, it was already 5:30 so it was dark out. She didnt suffer I am so thankful for. We buried her in our yard under a tree.

Russell was pretty confused, after we buried her, he was digging at her grave and then he stood ontop of it sniffing around trying to figure out what was going on. He is upset and of course Derek and I are very upset as well. She was a fantastic dog and I dont know what the hell we do wrong to loose our animals, but we loved her so very much and things will be unbearably quiet around here.

I am posting all the best pics I have of her, there are a lot because she is just so darn adorable!!

She enjoyed camping with us!

Derek keeping her toasty on Christmas morning 2008

We like decorating too!! Or maybe we just like being lazy on the decorations :)

All snug up in the blankey

We love to play...

but I'm not ready to get up yet! :(

If I roll over all cute like, can I just go back to bed.. pleeeaaasseeee!

this is where we belong!

PeakABoo

Pretty Kids!

Nappy time

Hey, what's your name?

Did I get caught doing something wrong?

A peaceful moment

I'm a great lapdog

The family relaxing

Scout and Samantha