Pages

24 February 2016

New puppy


Introducing Chewie Sir ChewsAlot Chewbacca, III

Photo at 6 weeks, 7 lb 8 oz and growing fast.

In case you missed the news on Facebook (and all the puppy videos and photo spam I've been plastering all over it) we got a new puppy.

He came home February 13th and has been keeping us busy. The kids are helping a lot with taking him out to potty and playing with him (and keeping him from chewing on things he shouldn't). He's a good puppy, learning very quickly.

His desire to chew on EVERYTHING quickly earned a nickname of Chewie while we debated for 2 weeks about what his name should be.

We went through so many names, but we kept coming back to the nickname Chewie. So voila.

It's hard to get a puppy to look at the camera while being still on a scale.

Yoda doesn't care for him (he doesn't like little animals), Simba is not cool with him, Wilbur doesn't care, and Leia started out nervous but now plays with him and worries when he is whining.

Thanks Robert for help wrangling my model. 

14 February 2016

All about the weekend

My weekend has been great.

I started out with a riding lesson on Tucker. I left feeling really happy with myself. I wanted to work on my balancing and having better control of my seat, and my steering. Tucker is a smart horse. He figures out what the pattern/routine is and then anticipates the next move and tries to cut corners so he makes me work to keep to what I say we're doing and not what he thinks we are doing. One of the exercises my trainer had me doing was riding without stirrups. Definitely used a few more muscles doing that - especially when I started doing it at a trot. I'm happy with the sore muscles I have today; let's me know my work paid off.

After my lesson, I picked up Robert and we ran errands, did some grocery shopping, got some lunch, and hung out together.

Then, Saturday evening Robert and I went and picked up our new puppy. He's really little still, but mom weaned them a little over a week ago so they were ready to go to their new homes earlier than planned (they were thinking at least another week). (This is earlier than puppies usually come home, but I didn't want him to be all alone with his siblings going home this weekend.) We surprised the kids with him; they knew we were getting a puppy, they just didn't know we were getting him so soon.


Leia and Yoda have been slightly afraid/weary of him (omg, what is that thing?), but at my 5 am wake-up Leia started to play with him. He tires out pretty quickly still so just when she was really getting into it, he sat down and promptly fell asleep. Robert had the next shift at 7:30 am and the household was up not too long after that. 

The kids have been in charge of him most of today (Sunday), with Robert and I as supervision. Carus is already pretty good at noticing potty sniffing cues. She has insisted on being on night-watch with him and has put his crate in her room already. She says he's her puppy. 

He doesn't have a name yet. We can't all agree on one. Robert likes Rex, I like Tater (as in Tater Tot) and I keep calling him Buddy, Carus likes Tater but also would like something else, and Adam has been wanting to continue the Star Wars theme we have and go with Luke or Kenobe but no one else is really feeling those names. We'll figure it out and for now it's okay because I don't think he'd come when called. Have any name suggestions? 

10 February 2016

Updates

Carus cut her hair! Like 6 weeks ago, but I'm lazy on this updating the blog thing lately. It's been shared on Facebook and Instagram though so if you follow me there this is old news.  It is stinking adorable. It's also weird cause it hasn't been anywhere near this short since she was a baby. But she loves it and that's what matters.


We colored it this evening.  And for a change my blog will get the news the same day as my Facebook did. Ha!  Better photos to come later when we have sunlight (and hopefully those will make their way here too). It's a deep purple-ish red and how it colored based on where her natural hair was at the roots and the previously colored hair, it has a nice graduation of color from red to purple to a deep wine color. 



In other Carus news:  Scout and Carus attended their first show of the year - Shaggy Days.  It was rainy and muddy because it has been raining for 5 years straight up here. No, that was not an exaggeration. We're soggy.  Fields have flooded and the roads are littered with POT HOLES so much so that trying to avoid them when driving will make you look like a drunk driver. The show - it was good. A long day, of course, because now that she has a taste for showing she wants to do as many classes as possible and that means we're there until the end of the day. She's no longer a Novice; she has advanced to Intermediate level in 4H, which means a bit more difficulty and a bit more competition.  The Showmanship pattern threw her (and others in the same competition group) for a loop by asking them to show their horse on the off-side (show from the right side of the horse when usually they show from the left). Several kids, including Carus, expressed their panic over it, but in the end they all stepped up and did their best. Carus placed 7th in Showmanship which was a little disappointing for her, but she felt she did her best and was happy with it.  In her other classes, all riding classes, she didn't place and got really frustrated by the end of the day. It's hard for us watching too because we will think she did better than some of those placing. We're a bit biased I'm sure, but also, we're not the judge who is looking for certain things and at certain times in the class. Some of it is what is going on when the judge is looking or not looking. Either way, there is stuff for Carus to practice on before their next show near the end of March. After the show it seemed that Scout developed an abscess in his hoof, and I got another lesson in horses. Man, that was some fun stuff. *sarcasm*

Lastly on Carus, her new 4H group is doing a fundraiser.  Since they are a new group this year, there are no funds from last year carrying over. We're starting fresh.  If you're local, we're collecting soda cans and I'll come pick them up. If you're not local and would still like to donate, please let me know. We have a banner to pay for that we bought (using credit of one of the parents) for a Holiday Light Parade in December that we will also use as part of our decorations for Horse Fair in June.  The kids would also like matching team shirts and sweatshirts, and we'll need more decorations besides the banner for Fair too.

Adam performed in a play at the high school. It was their annual Shakespeare play; this year they did Midsummer's Night Dream. And they were AMAZING! Adam played the Duke of Athens.  He makes a great king. I didn't get any photos of him in the play, unfortunately. So enjoy a photo of Adam and Robert in light up glasses that Adam got from one of the basketball games. He enjoys the heck out of band and playing at school sporting events. He's also started a D&D club at the school and is having fun playing that after school once a week and online every weekend.



First semester grades have come out. Carus has As, meet expectations, and exceeds expectations (As are for her high school classes, the other weird grades are for her middle school classes).   Adam has mostly As, a B, and an F. He has a problem with not turning in his work. He does it, just doesn't turn it in. Weirdo.

We have been lecturing him and grounding him for a couple years, and he still occasionally "forgets" to turn in work so this time we didn't lecture him. He was not expecting to get an F at all. He usually can just skate through his classes with very minimal effort so I think he was a bit surprised to find out otherwise.  He was also so disappointed in himself. He knew he messed up and he asked what his punishment would be. We asked in return what we should do since we didn't feel what we have done has worked. He didn't know what it should be, but for about 2 weeks now he has not gotten on his computer, nor asked to get on his computer.

My teenager grounded himself from his computer. This cracks me up to no end. I think Robert and I will just see how long he feels he needs to be grounded. I'll take bets if you want to guess when he'll give out.

As for Robert and I - work is still work, his back issues are still there, and we're doing what we do. Nothing exciting here.

Blog Archive

Popular Posts

background

a