The usual chaos

Legion is in his second week of puppy school and is doing awesome! The trainer keeps telling us what a great job we're doing with him. Well, I wonder if she'd still say that if she saw the maniac he was at home...? He's got his sit, lie down, and stand pretty consistent. At least, it's to the point where he doesn't need a treat to reward him afterwards now. He's walking better and better on leash and we're expanding on that with the lessons from school. This week, we'll be starting to work on the "leave it" command...with food. We'll see how that goes because he's more of a Hoover than Abbi is!

We took the cones out of his ears yesterday and they're standing nicely so far. Actually, Legion took one out himself and Hayden ripped the other one out. We have another vet appointment on Friday to see if anything else needs to be done, of if he can FINALLY be free of the cones. He's so much more happy without them. Poor little guy... Josh and I tried to take pictures of him last night with his naked ears. I say "tried" because I think we got maybe 2 or 3 decent pictures out of about 20.







Legion loves his big brother and Hayden loves having a little shadow.


Josh got most of the work completed on his cover-up tattoo. It's been a pain to get this thing completed because he received it as trade for some speakers he installed in a tattoo shop in Old Sac. The first guy that started it really shouldn't ever have a tattoo gun in his hand: it was horrible. The next guy to work on it was self-detoxing from heroin (yes, heroin) and wasn't able to even get started on where the first guy left off. The next guy was/is more interested in launching his mixed martial arts career than getting Josh in his chair. But he sure does make it a point to invite Josh out to every local fight he has! Finally, the shop gets a guy in there that is able to do the work consistently. Josh has had about four sittings, spending at least four hours in the chair each time. The cover-up has turned out pretty good! If you look closely, you can still see the previous tattoo but you have to know where and what it was to really see it. He has one more short sitting for the tattoo artist to go over some of the finer detail work. And then he's done!! The owner of the building in which the tattoo shop is located was impressed with his speaker/wiring work and has asked Josh to do more work in some of the other shops. For trade. We're kinda on the fence about it because of the headache that it's been to get this one completed. But even so, Josh is already planning what he wants to get next. What about me??? Here are a few (dark) pics of Josh's new tattoo. The original was two barbed-wire bands with blue flames in between them. The new one is two koi fish in the Pisces symbol position, with water and rocks for accent. It's dark but it looks really good.







The dogs have been going crazy inside this last week because it's been too warm to take them out. So they've been playing inside... These are couple of pictures of after they've been playing because when I try to take action shots of them, all I end up with is a brindle blur.

Legion pre-cone rip-out.


Seriously, can you say no to this face?


Abbi, in "her" spot, cooling down.


The boys, tuckered out from chasing each other throughout the house.


This is what you get when you don't watch the puppy AT ALL TIMES.


So.......after trying to diet on my own, joining Weight Watchers, cancelling Weight Watchers to save money, trying to diet on my own again, things weren't working. I got an early anniversary present from Josh in the form of personal training sessions at the gym. While he thinks it's super lame, it what I really, truly wanted. I'd have an actual person to be accountable to each week and she and I can track the progress, or steps backward, that I'm making towards my goal. I do have a goal though, as seen below. It's a skirt that I was wearing when I first met Josh. However, I'm hoping that my butt and thighs haven't spread so far out that I'll never be able to fit in it again!

I just peed my pants....

....laughing at this site!! I better not see my picture up on there though!! Go thru all 40 pages though, they're hilarious!

School days, school days!

Legion had his first day of school on Saturday and he did so well!! There are six other dogs in the class and I have to say that Legion was the most well-behaved out of all of them. Well, it's possible that I'm a little biased. :) Really though, he was the only dog that already had all of the commands they were focusing on down pat: his name, sit, lie down, stand, and find it (where you throw a treat and tell him to "find it"). Yeah, we kick butt. ;) This dog is so dang smart though!! We don't like to say it but we think that he's smarter than the other two. Sorry, Abbi & Hayden!!

Well, it seems that the next-door kitty got brave. Josh called me this morning while I was at work to tell me that his face was cut and bloody. I was thinking that it was from wrestling with the dogs because they can get to playing pretty rough. No, it turns out that the kitty got in our yard somehow and Abbi & Hayden had it cornered in the back corner. The cat was freaking out!! Josh was able to yank it out of the corner and bring it back to the neighbor without too much damage to his face and hands. When he told the neighbor what happened, the neighbor just said to him that the kitty needs to learn pretty quickly where his yard is. Um, dude, this is a CAT. They don't have yards.... I just hope that it doesn't come in our yard again when the dogs are out...I don't want to have to bring a dead kitty to the neighbor or worse (for us), have a dog that's lost an eye to a kitty scratch.

September Update

We started off this month by celebrating Tiny Gramma's 80th birthday. Josh and I took gramma and grampa out to dinner on Friday, the 4th, to Kico's Mexican Restaurant. It's usually pretty good food but this time, all of our dishes were overcooked. Lame...

That Sunday and Monday, Josh and I went to the State Fair. It's something that we'd been looking forward to for a long time because with the fair, comes the demolition derby!! We went both days so we were able to see both shows. And I brought my camera with me this year!!

Sunday began with some excitement on our street. I was sitting in the living room, waiting for Josh to get back from running some errands, when I hear a BANG, BANG, BANG. Well, our neighbors across the street are always making noises like that one so I thought it was them...until the dogs started going nuts. It peaked my curiosity so I went outside. Since a speed table was installed almost in front of our house, we've been waiting to hear the squeeeeeeeal and then BANG of someone getting into an accident there. So that was the first place that I looked. Nope, nothing going on. So I looked to my left. HO-LY MO-LY!! A lady in the blue car ran the red light on Whitney Avenue. The person in the white car t-boned her. The lady in the blue car was taken away in an ambulance with a small cut on her knee. The other ladies in the white car were fine. One thing we noticed about the white car though: in a head-on collision, the air-bags didn't deploy... Fire and CHP were in and out within a half hour and the cars were towed away very shortly thereafter.



Yes, I really did run down to the intersection and take pictures with my cell phone...

Here are some (read: a LOT) of the State Fair pics:

We had to fortify ourselves with a corndog!




Fried food alley!


We checked out the art exhibits. This one was actually a painting but had so much depth!


An AWESOME sculpture made entirely out of 100,000+ toothpics and Elmer's glue. Here's a video of it in action.


They had an entire exhibit hall dedicted to CANDY!!!


Resting before the derby.


It's derby time!! We got there about an hour early and the stands were already about half full. They have to prep the "course" so it's nice and sticky, rather than sandy. And then groom it to take out all of the bumps.








Notice these two cars. This could almost be a "good vs. bad" example of what car to use in a demolition derby. The car on the right was a 1996 Olds... Remember how it looks here.


During


After


Mid-Derby snack


The second day, we had to check out a couple of the rides from Neverland Ranch. They look like regular fair rides...


I love fair food!!










Como se llama?


We both love looking at and petting the animals. In all of the years of coming to the fair, I'd never seen the baby pigs being born. They'd either just been born or the sows were still preggo. But this year, TWO sows were in labor and I was able to actually see a little pink piggy being born!! I was too excited about it to get my camera though. Plus, I'm not sure if those pics would be very blog-friendly...

Derby night X2.


Josh kept trying to get me to let him take a "normal" picture of me. This is what he gets.


Girls can wreck cars too!! Just not very well...




Here are the monsters!

My little boys.


Whatcha makin', daddy?


The three waiting patiently for their food. They know they have to be out of the kitchen and lying down before we'll release them to eat.


The neighbors brought home a new kitten which will be an outdoor cat. Two things bother us about this. 1: We share a fence. We have three dogs. One of which has a high prey drive and another is developing his. 2: CAT PEE!! Nothing is better than when your curious puppy comes to love on you and his whole face smells of it! UGH! We don't think that this cat will last very long, or it will learn very quickly to stay out of our yard....

So Legion got a bath.


Puppy class for Legion started on the 12th. The first class was just an orientation so we didn't go with the dogs. Local newswoman Sharon Ito is in our class!

Things are still the same with us, nothing much changes. We're taking the dogs out to play more often because the three of them going full boar drives us batty. They absolutely love the soccer fields at the junior high by our house. We actually took Legion there last Sunday while some soccer games were going on. Just to get him used to the different noises. He did so well!! It's really important for him to experience things like that while he's young so it doesn't create a fearful 120-ish pound dog.

Legion's stats: 16 weeks old tomorrow and weighing in at 42.5 pounds. He now eats more than Hayden.

My Life

I saw this on another blog and love doing things like this. It's fun!

Bold the ones that you've done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (does 4th grade band count???)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (I help when I can...)
7. Been to Disneyland or Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (knitting??)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (with my DAD when I was a small child!!)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Olde Faithful Geyser Erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (Surprisingly, no)
47. Had your portrait painted (do the guys drawing a silly picture of you on Pier 39 count?? ;) )
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie or on a TV show
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Had an encounter with a wild animal (I was able to see an elephant being fed up-close at San Francisco zoo)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma (no.freakin.way.)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (...)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (again, surprisingly, no)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a Jury (I love it!!)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person (kinda disappointing in real life...)
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Taken a martial arts class

How we spend a hot weekend indoors

It was H-O-T this last weekend!! So much of it was spent indoors. The dogs, as well as us, get lazy in the heat too so they amused themselves indoors.

Legion literally pulled the toy basket out and dug around in all the toys to find one that he wanted. He did this about 10 times...






When the dogs get going, WATCH OUT!! You have three running balls of fur coming at your knees.


One of Legion's favorite places to play, and lay, is in the ivy. So if we can't find him laying on the hearth, on the kitchen floor, or at the side of the bed, we know that he's outside, most likely in the ivy. Crazy dog!


The little monster had an accident in his crate so he needed a bath.


Legion and Hayden play so well together! Legion sometimes does get a little rough but Hayden is pretty patient with him, for the most part...


And Abbi just watches them from her high post above. Spoiled brat dog!!


We're definitely being kept on our toes with these three mongrels!! Abbi & Hayden have pretty much adapted to the new baby but they both have their moments where they're sick of his puppy-ness. And they let him know...

His updated stats are: 14 weeks old and 36 pounds. His paws are now bigger than Hayden's....