Lucky Amber Heart

Well it has been a very long week. Work has been really busy and I've been having a problem with this one project. The project hasn't been going as smoothly as most projects I've worked on. The biggest issue is that I have no control over what is happening. We were contracted to just install printers and no due diligence was completed. New printers in offices with no ports, no print queues opened.... problem after problem.

Lucy and I went to our first puppy class. She did a good job and I was proud of her. By taking her to puppy play, she had the confidence and wasn't afraid of the other dogs. She has been already sitting as I make her do that before she gets a treat so that command was easy for her to learn. She is getting better at focusing on me and the "off" command. This week we have to work on her "down".

So Friday night I come home from work and Lucy is giving me the love. She grabs my necklace which has on it the amber heart I bought in the Dominican. Somehow she pulls it off and swallows it. UG! All night each poop she had I tried to see if I could see it. But no luck. She had a LOT of poos but I wasn't able to see anything. Plus being dark at night didn't help!

This morning the little bugger had a poo by the fence in mom's garden. I thought to myself - "sure, have a poo by the fence and the piece that falls where I can't get it will have my heart in it!". Well I was somewhat right! I found my amber heart in her poo but I was able to save it and get it back. Ya me!!

With the amber heart cleaned up (OK I almost dropped it down the sink) it is now safe in my jewelry box until I can get a clasp to put it back on my necklace.

My amber heart went thru Lucy with no problems - how lucky is that!

After midnight...

1am : Lucy wakes up and has to go outside and pee & #2. Straight back to bed.

2am: Snoopy wakes up, shakes and jumps off the bed. Lucy wakes up thinking it is time to be fed. Take Lucy outside for a pee and back to bed.

3am: Snoopy wants to be fed NOW. Wakes Lucy by shaking and flapping her ears. Lucy wakes and starts to fidget. Go upstairs and am met by Paige. Take all three dogs outside to go pee. Come back inside and feed all three dogs. Lucy jumps, does circles and finally sits for her breakfast. She chomps down on it.

3:05am: With everyone's breakfast eaten, take Lucy back outside to do her business. This time a pee and #2. Come back in and everyone back to bed.

3:15am: Snoopy hasn't come back to bed and is sleeping on the couch. Lucy restless as Snoopy isn't in the room.

4am: Lucy restless as Snoopy is still in the other room. Attempt to get Lucy back to sleep.

4:45am: Lucy restless again but am able to get her back to sleep - 15 more minutes please!

5:04am: Alarm doesn't go off but Snoopy fidgets again and wakes Lucy. See why alarm didn't go of as it was turned on...... OH! It was set for noon!?! Everyone helps me make the bed. Take Snoopy & Lucy outside to go pee & #2 again. Back inside and downstairs to have a shower.

5:20am: Step out of the shower to find a nice surprise. Someone has learnt that if you play with the toilet paper you can gather a HUGE pile on the floor. Then you can tear it apart. Also you can pull the towel off the holder, pull on Yoga pants to drop them to the floor and tug real hard to remove the belt from the housecoat. Nice pile to play with and lay on while mom is in the shower.

5:25am: Attempt to pick up everything off the floor while wearing a towel that is being tugged on. Bend over and the towel that was on your head is magically yanked off your head. Quickly get underwear on and attempt to get housecoat on. Take Lucy outside for another pee. Come back and get back downstairs to get dressed.

5:30am: Attempt to get ready - put on make up, brush teeth, blow dry hair - while playing with a rambunctious puppy.

5:45am: Dress we head upstairs for breakfast. I send Lucy & Snoopy outside again for another pee. While outside I start making my breakfast.

5:47am: Bring dogs in and give them a cookie each so I can finish getting breakfast ready. Start eating and go into office so we can play, I can check my email, send birthday wishes to cousin Michelle and attempt to blog. Lucy harasses Snoopy so have to break that up several times. Have to chase Lucy to get her back into the office. Breakfast on hold. Go get all her toys and bring them into the office. Attempt to eat again but have to shut door to keep her from going to master bedroom door as Lucy attempts to wake Paige for playing.

6:20am: Get Lucy outside so I can go have a pee myself.

6:23am: Go get Lucy from outside to see that she has brought a present - a nice frozen poo at the back door. What is with this dog and poo!?!?! Get shoes on and go outside to pick up any poo I can find. Come back into the house. Play with Lucy and attempt to finish blog.

6:30am: Stop blog and turn off computer. Need to attempt to wind down monster before she goes into her crate. We sit in the reclining chair but she is fidgeting. Calm her down by pretending to fall asleep.

6:45am: Put calmed Lucy into her crate and head off to work.

7:15am: At work and finishing up blog as I'll forget what I was gonna write if I don't!

7:30am: Day begins.

Dear Jane on HOLD & other stuff

Well I’ve been thinking and I’m going to be putting my Dear Jane quilt project on hold – either until the Fall or until next year. I just haven’t had the chance to do any quilting since getting Lucy and this quilt requires a lot of concentration. So I’ll continue receiving the monthly patterns and fabric but will keep them boxed up until the time comes when I can work on them again.

I will be starting on my Block of the Day again as I’m falling behind on this. But if I cut out the material for 3-4 days and then put the blocks together I should get caught up again. I could get a couple of blocks done per day this way. I’d like to also get ahead on these again as I’m going to busy the next little while.

Lucy & I start puppy classes on Tuesday. Actually the first class is without her but then we are going for a good 6 weeks. After that I will be taking Project Management courses for the month of May and June. I want to get my certification and also my boss has been asking me about this. We had talked about it last year with my performance evaluation and I see he is going to bring it up again this year. I am going to make him pay for it though.

The last couple of nights/early mornings I’ve been really, really dizzy and light headed. So much so that when I take Lucy out at 1-2am I can’t stand or walk. I’m almost in a drunken state and have to hold onto things to ensure that I don’t fall over. It is very scary. Even laying down I feel like the room is spinning. I do get better as the morning goes on but I hope this stop. Two days is a row is enough for me now.

A Happy belated Birthday to Uncle Ken who is enjoying himself down in New Zealand!

The Adventures of Lucy

Today was a big day for Lucy. It was a first day that Lucy & I went out together, just the two of us. She has been full of energy all week and I've been taking her for walks after dinner but that doesn't seem to tire her out too much. Or if it does, just for an hour or so.

This week I've registered her for Puppy Kindergarten starting Tuesday. I was also looking for places to take her to play. I don't want to take her to the dog park yet as the vet said there is a big outbreak of Parvo. Plus she really hasn't been around other dogs besides Paige & Snoopy. So I found a training centre that has drop-in puppy play times. They are from 1-2pm on Saturdays and it is only $10.

I put her smaller crate in the backseat of my car and put her in it. Let's just say the drive to the training centre was a little ear piercing. She didn't settle down at all. Even when I turned the music up to try to drowned her out.

We got to the centre and I took her out hoping she'd pee before going in. No good - too many distractions and vehicles driving by.

We get into the centre and it has two sections - 1 for large puppies and the other for smaller puppies. I thought she was OK to be with the large puppies but they were just too large for her. They started to over power her so I picked her up and took her with the little puppies.

Our side only had 4 dogs - 2 Bishons, 1 Jack Russel & Lucy. The other side had a lot of larger lab-type dogs - I'd say close to 10.

The two Bishons were running around chasing each other and the Jack Russel just stood there. Lucy, she was unsure of what to make of this. She whined and tried to get into my arms for the first 50 minutes we were there. She didn't want anything to do with anyone besides me. I kept walking away from her trying to let her know it was OK to explore and play.

Finally in the last 10 minutes after watching the Bishons run around all the time, she decided maybe this wasn't so bad and started to chase them too. Still unsure but wanting to attempt to play. Unfortunately our time ran out and it was time to go.

I was proud of Lucy as she was one of the only dogs who didn't eliminate on the floor, but she headed to the door as if to tell me that she had to do out. When I took her out afterwards she didn't do anything but going to the door was a good sign.

We got back to my car and with her in my arms I opened her crate. She jumped in there so quickly - she was glad to be in a safe place.

The ride home was peaceful - who would have thunk? Not a peep out of her.

We got home and Dad & Jacki were in the back installing a new light fixture outside. Snoopy & Paige were out there too. It was actually a very nice day out.

Snoopy had to smell Lucy and check her out and then the most wonderful thing happened. Snoopy started to play with Lucy! She started chasing her around and wanted to actually play with her. Lucy was taken aback as Snoopy has been so standoffish since Lucy came home. We had to put Paige in the house as she was being a little bit of a bully and they played for a good 15 minutes. This was nice to see.

Lucy sure was tired after her adventures today and crashed on my lap on the couch.