TV Dog

Gordon loves to watch TV with us. He will sit there with his head propped up on the coffee table and stare at the screen for a really long time. Then he gets up and walks around the room and lays down again. And again. And again. He changes positions a LOT. That wood floor must be really uncomfortable.


Recently, we watched Marley & Me. Anyone who has seen that movie and is the least bit sympathetic towards dogs probably cried just as much as I did during certain parts. It didn't make it any easier with Gordon actually in the room, watching the movie right along with us.

He was fascinated by the "bad-boy" dog in this movie, and couldn't seem to tear his eyes away. We even laughed (!!!) at the antics of Marley, which Gordon just couldn't wrap his head around. HE wasn't allowed to do ANY of the things we were laughing at Marley for doing! It's just not fair!

A couple of times, Gordon got right up in front of the TV, when the action was really intense (read: beach scenes or Marley tearing up stuff in his house), because he really just wanted to be where the action was. Poor dog. He must think he leads a very boring life compared to Marley.

Dog Pillow

We got Gordon a new big, soft, plushy, multi-layered dog pillow, made by Cesar something-or-other, the "Dog Whisperer"... and as you can plainly see, the dog just LOVES his new pillow.

Yeah. Whatever. He sleeps on it sometimes (when we tell him to). Only once or twice have I found him there of his own accord. In fact, I have to take a picture of this, be right back...

We even put his "blankie" on it, and he still hasn't quite warmed up to it yet.

Sheesh.

This is what happens when the boys are quiet and sleeping. I revert to my dog-picture-taking days. I have so many pictures of animals from before we had kids. Now the animals are SO neglected.

Not really.

Here is a picture I took of Cleo last week. I actually took about 20 pictures of her, because she was doing all sorts of poses for me. We had quite the photo shoot. Isn't she cute? And she doesn't really "meow"... she squeaks. And she makes REALLY funny noises when she watches the birds out the front window.

I'm off to a kids' clothing blowout/sale/clearance event. Yay!!

Meetin' Time!

Oh, how I love Stampin' Up! meetings! We have a card club that meets once a month and we make a couple of cards and talk and hang out and, oh yeah, order a bunch of really fun stuff from Stampin' Up! :) It's a happy time. And this month the meeting was at MY house!! Which means I am the "hostess" and get all of the hostess goodies you get when you... hostess... a party. There really was no better way to word that. Or maybe there was, but I'm in a hurry to go play with my last month's order, so I'm not paying attention to grammar.



Anyway, I didn't take pictures of the meeting, but just picture a bunch of giddy women sitting around a table (okay, was I the ONLY giddy one there? nah) stamping, embossing, punching, drooling, and eating Ghirardelli -- I totally just butchered that spelling but I'm too lazy to get up and go look at the brownie box -- triple chocolate fudge brownies. Yeah, it was a good night. I had the worst headache before everyone got here, but amazingly enough it was gone by the time the meeting started! Well, it could be because I treated it with my one-two knock-em-dead headache killer combo. Caffiene and Rapid-Release Tylenol. No headache stands a chance. The chocolate didn't hurt, either, I'm sure. So now I am still wide awake, when my schedule tells me I should be going to bed in half an hour. Not gonna happen. So you get to sit there and read this rambling blog, and maybe look at some cute pictures of my animals, if I ever get around to posting them. ;)



Griffin informed me today that I need to add "reading time" to the schedule. I have stopped reading to them in their bedroom right before naptime, because that just draws the bedtime routine on for WAY too long, and they expect it Every. Single. Time. So I've stopped. We sat down to read this morning halfway in between breakfast and lunch (we were obviously not using the schedule because if we were, it would have been time to go outside and play), and the boys just loved it. Even Sammy sat still... well, okay, he paused while running around the living room... to listen to how the Magic School Bus with Ms. Frizzle's class in it got shrunk (got shrunk? I don't know...) and went inside of a moldy old log and learned all about reusing old things, recycling and not trashing something just because it is old, moldy and...old. Good times.

Oh, okay, the pictures are finally done loading to Blogger, so here they are!

Yeah, They're All Doing Fine

Miles is on antibiotics for his mangled face and also a cream for one of his eyes that had started to swell up. Cleo was given her worming medication, and is as good as new. Gordon's ears miraculously were not swollen on Saturday morning, but we took him in anyway and the vet gave us some drops to put in them, and showed us how to keep the insides of his ears cleaned out so that he won't shake his head like that and hurt his ears again. I am so glad that he won't need surgery!

Now we just have to wait to find out what is up with Griffin. I was wondering today what would happen if it isn't any of the things the pediatrician thought it might be. Griffin has told me several times in a voice filled with wonder that "She made a HOLE in my arm, Mommy." I hope they won't have to make any more holes any time soon. But he loves the little bald eagle finger puppet. To him, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Maybe even better, to Griffin, considering he isn't all that fond of bread. Pancakes, yes. Bread, not so much.

Our New Dog

Gordon's hair starts shedding in huge clumps in the spring, and he looks like he has some kind of wasting disease. His whole hind end starts losing all of the lighter colored hair, and the dark hair underneath shows where the big clumps of light hair have fallen out. I would imagine it is very itchy. And our carpets suffer too.

He is part Great Dane, part Golden Retriever, so I would imagine that this is the Golden Retriever part showing through. He has already outlived a lot of Great Danes, and he still acts like he has plenty of life in him! He turns 6 this month. Happy Birthday, Gordon!!

We got him a birthday present (actually, it was just to maintain oour sanity and hair-free carpet). It's the Shed-Ender, a professional de-shedding tool we saw on TV and bought at the As Seen on TV store. And does it ever work!! Every brush stroke resulted in a big clump of hair that was obviously coming from his undercoat. It pulled out all of the light clumps quite easily. It was time-consuming, partially because he is such a large dog and has SO much hair, and partially because of his Great-Dane-ness that causes him to be quite nervous and want to turn in circles and lick the brush and our hands and the leash we used to tie him onto a chair to keep him still.

But it all only took about two hours, which is actually a very short time compared to the time we would have spent cleaning up dog hair off of the floor if we hadn't brushed him. We had a "normal" dog brush, but it didn't get down to his undercoat very well, and would leave lots of hair that would work its way to the top. Brushing him would just make him shed even more for a few weeks while the leftover hair worked its way out.

As fascinating as this subject is, I think I'll stop here.

Let's just say that we have one very happy doggie. With a lot less hair.

Cleo and Miles

Miles and Cleo have a love-hate relationship. Most of the time, they chase each other around the house biting, scratching and generally just fighting with each other and stalking one another. Then there are rare occasions when I will catch them like this, all curled up on the couch together, with Miles giving Cleo a little tongue bath.