Meet Me At The Fair!

(I love Meet Me In St. Louis, so I had to use that line...)

We love to go to the Western Idaho Fair and we always go more than once every year. We buy our tickets in advance and save some money. This year we went the first Sunday and the last Saturday, I think it was best to do it that way, because they have different acts each weekend.

When we went last weekend, we got there around 6pm and stayed until about 10pm. We saw a couple shows, one of them being this percussion group who played on water jugs, stools and pans. The best part was (even though I was a percussionist in high school and college...) that little guy at the bottom of the stage. He had some good dance moves, and loved to clap. It was great. :) We also saw this Star Trek show, one of those where they get the audience involved, it was kind of fun. We went through the Dinosaur exhibit. You had to pay $2, and it was okay, but I don't know if it was worth $2, lol. It had animatronic (is that a word? Spell check doesn't think so...) Dinosaurs, and lots of good information on them.

It's blurry because I didn't use the flash since it was dark in there.

When we went yesterday (Saturday) we went early at 11am and avoided the main crowd. We saw a couple shows, rode some rides and played around.

 I posed with a Lego Man...

 Picked a huge nose...

And became a farmer with big ears. :)

Kelly prefers to be behind the camera... so you get three pictures of me. :) We went to the petting zoo and one goat had a cup stuck on his mouth and he was trying to get some grain at the bottom, so I took it off and fed it to him. (We're cheap - we didn't buy any)

There was an Australian show that I'm assuming talked about Australian animals that we were going to see, but we walked by and saw they had the animals in a cage, so we looked at them and took some pictures, but never came back to see the show.

 

We bought 30 tickets, so that was three rides for us. We went on one last weekend and two yesterday. I didn't get a picture of the one from last weekend, but I took pictures of the two we rode yesterday.

 The claw like thing spins while it swings back and forth - it's my favorite - I wish it lasted longer. :)

This is just a loop and it goes around like it would loop on a roller coaster, I used to love this one, but I don't know if I'm just getting older, or if I've found better rides, but it was still fun.

For the most part the fair was fun again this year. We always say "oh, we need to make sure we do this, or eat this or save up for this next year." So, I think I'm going to put a sticky note on Decembers calender page and then put it on next years August page with reminders on it. We would really like to get medieval pictures done, but never want to spend the $30 or so on it, but if we saved for it, it might be better. We got the western one done a few years ago :) 

I've got a puppy post to do, and hopefully I can fit it in tonight, but I should probably play with them first. We still have Elsie, but she will probably find her new home this week. It's been really hard to decide to give her up, but we just can't have 4 dogs. Hopefully she will go to a good family that will love her and spoil her like we want to.

And Then There Were Two

Clyde, Olive and Elsie in the kitchen.

Olive found a forever home! I know - I said we were keeping Olive, but we really had no idea who we wanted to keep. We went to the Pug Meet on Saturday and this girl just fell in love with Olive, so her mom took a picture and sent it to her husband, and her husband said yes! They are a great family, they have a 2 year old girl Pug named SweetPea, and they thought Olive would be a great addition! They kept her name (for now, they could always change it later if they want) and then the connection was made - Olive (Oil) and SweetPea - like Popeye! LOL I think Elsie was a little sad and confused when she realized Olive was gone, but she seems to be doing better every day. I briefly talked to Olive's new mom today and she said that Olive is doing great, so that was good to hear.

 Olive and I before she went to her new home.

We have decided that we are only going to keep Clyde, as hard as it is to see the puppies go, I think it's best we stick close to the original plan and only keep one. (The actual original plan was to keep one girl, but Clyde got the best of us, lol)  We wouldn't mind keeping Elsie, but four dogs would be hard. (Plans could always change, though!)

Here's Elsie and Clyde hanging out on the couch. (Clyde looks huge here!)

This is from the same "photo shoot" as above, before Maggie got distracted and ran off. lol

We have almost gotten potty training down. Tonight Elsie ran to the door, so I let her out and she went! I was so proud! :) It will be so nice when we can have our living room back soon! Clyde is doing well with it too, he knows he's in trouble if he has an accident. I absolutely hate locking them in the crate when they have an accident, but it helps them learn. I wish they knew that, but luckily they don't stay mad for long. 

I'm glad I was able to get some pictures up tonight, I don't like to post without pictures. I think maybe it had something to do with Saturday nights' storm. (Click the link if you haven't heard about it.) Our power never went out, but the internet was down for most of Sunday (Oh no!) We were pretty lucky to only have a few branches come down in our cul-de-sac. I kept running outside to feel the wind gusts and see if there was any lightning and for hours there were constant sirens because of all the fires and chaos. I may have seen the sky light up when one of the transformers blew during the fire, but it could have been some sheet lightning, too. 

Anyway, there are a few different posts I would like to to, but I'll save those for the week. I took tonight (Monday) off to get some things done during the day and just to get some extra rest, I've been extra tired the past couple weeks for some reason, and while I don't believe in catching up on sleep (Yeah, that idea flew out the window when I was working 80 hours a week a few years ago...lol), I hope I can get some needed rest tonight. G'night! :)

Ugh...

I can't upload any pictures - I've been trying all day. I've got a few things to report, but I'm going to keep trying though. Has anyone else been having problems loading pictures?

Remember This?

Kelly built this back in June, and the two small pillows held them in. We kept having to add pillows to the entrance (we have the entrance so Maggie could get in and out), but then as the puppies got older, we had to add one pillow, and then another, and another, and when we ran out of pillows, we now have to add a couch cushion when we leave so they can't jump out! This is what it looks like now:

Including their mommy on the pillow. :) They still have a tendency to squeeze between the cardboard and the pillows and get out. This morning I heard a puppy crying at 6:50am, but I wasn't going to get up until 7am, so for the next 20 minutes I dozed and then finally got up at 7:10am, and came downstairs only to see Olive and Elsie out playing. LOL The puppy I had heard crying was Clyde, who isn't big enough to get out.

We are waiting until Elsie finds her forever home to start getting to where we can take their little home apart and live normally again. Clyde has found his forever home - ours! He just makes me too happy to give up. I feel bad that we can't keep them all, but 5 dogs would be too hard to have. Maybe if Brodie wasn't like 2 or 3 dogs all by himself, it might be easier. :) We still aren't sure why we aren't keeping Elsie, but we know she will make her new owners so happy.

Aaaawwww!

Okay, so I laid Clyde there on the left, but the girls all settled down together on the couch. :) I had also turned off the lights so they would settle down quicker (It was 1am, they had gotten me up at 7am... I wanted to go to sleep :) ) so the flash was kind of bright for them, but I still like the picture. :)

For those of you here to look at Elsie - she is on the right in the middle. :)

Increasing My Odds for a Scentsy Giveaway!

My lovely backround is from The Cutest Blog On The Block and I follow the ladies that run it - 2 Moms Talk. They have all sorts of giveaways, and thier most current one is a Scentsy one. If I post this on my blog, I get an extra entry - so why not? :) Even though I want to keep my chances of winning high - head over there and enter! :) This is the warmer that is 3rd on my list - and we own the first two!

First Pug Meet!

 

The puppies went to their first Pug Meet this weekend. They got to socialize and get passed around to lots of nice people! They also met their daddy! Of course they didn't know who the other was, but it was still fun. :)

 

This is the best picture of their daddy I could get with a puppy in it. 

Things happen so fast with dogs and puppies, we couldn't get them to pose with their daddy. I think the puppy in the picture is Elsie. 

When we got there, we carried them over in the Pack N' Play and immediately they were picked up and told how cute they were. :) As people arrived, they would walk over and check them out. We took them out, and eventually they were one the grass trying to play with the big kid dogs. 

One of the puppies was playing with this big kid, I can't tell who, though

Can you see the puppy? They seemed to have a lot of fun!

They played with Toro, Brodie's Boston Terrier friend, because they like Bostons. :)

Clyde got chased by Thor - the big guy!

We put a small pink collar on Olive so we could tell who she was, since she's the one we plan on keeping.

After playing for a while, the puppies were all tuckered out. They started to get passed around as they were too tired to fight it. :)

This little girl gave Clyde some kisses. :)

These girls loved the puppies and carried them everywhere. :)

It was nice to be back at a Pug meet. We hadn't been since before the puppies were born. We let people know they were looking for forever homes, and had a couple people interested, but haven't been contacted since. 

After the Pug meet, we headed over to Kelly's mom's house since we were kind of near there, and ate some lunch. The puppies played with Maybe (Maybeline) and Harvey.

Harvey and Olive played.

Harvey seemed to like to have puppies younger than him there. (he's about 6 weeks older than them , I think) He would chase them around and tackle them. I think it was fun for them all. 

Olive (in the collar) Elsie, Maybe and Harvey all played on the bed. 

Elsie played with a big ball.

After awhile, we laid down on the couch and took a nap.(Elsie has a lot of energy - she was still playing. lol)

It was a pretty good day, it was good to get out, and take the puppies out to socialize. We are still trying to find the puppies their forever homes, and while I haven't wanted to open it to the general public, I might have to list them on ZIdaho or Craigslist. We just want to make sure they go to really good homes!

Just to complain - I've been trying to write this blog posting since Sunday morning! For some reason, my laptop just hasn't wanted to work correctly! Also, we are having battery problems, and I haven't been able to get my camera to work for very long. (We use rechargeable batteries, and I think they are getting old) Grrr.. :)

Anyway - Thanks for reading, and of course, if you know of a good family to take one of the puppies, let me know! :)

Check Out These Faces

I'm reposting this because I'm referring people to my blog to see the puppies. I took out Olive's picture because we are keeping her, but Elsie and Clyde need a GOOD home! If you know of anyone, let me know! :)

***Elsie***

***Clyde***

I mean, My Goodness, are they cute, or what?! We've been sadly trying to figure out who we are keeping (Should have known it was going to be soooo difficult). They all have their reasons to stay around. 

We didn't want another boy, but we even consider Clyde, mostly because he absolutely loves me. :) He is always climbing in my lap, like this:

 He fights his sisters from my lap because I protect him since he's so small. 

Olive has such a cute personality, she is very energetic, but we can't imagine her being like Brodie, but she would be a great playmate for him, if she keeps it up. Elsie seems like she might be a carbon copy of Maggie, she looks like her and seems to act like her, and this was the reason we bred her. (I know, you aren't supposed to breed for that reason, but we did.) It's going to be so hard to decide who to keep. We've got to make the decision soon, so that we can start focusing our energy on training just one, after the others find homes.

Here's a video of the puppies playing with Brodie. Like I've said - They love him. :)

They Love The Sun!

Every time anyone goes into the kitchen, the puppies run towards the back door. Ever since we have taken them outside, they always want to go out. We only take them out in the back yard in the morning of the evening because of the heat, but they don't understand, and just want to be outside all of the time. I've been trying to take them outside every morning when I get home from work to give them a little more room to explore and run around in (and if they go potty - that's even better! Like you want to know... :) ).

 If we let Maggie and Brodie out without them, they cry at the door. So, I take them outside.

 

They can crawl up and down the steps, even Clyde! He's very careful and kind of nervous about it, though.

They chase each other and myself across the lawn. 

 

As you look at these pictures, I'll let you know that we just got automatic sprinklers installed and for some reason, they tell us to water three times a day. The grass was dead before because the previous owners of the house (we moved in last August) had a big pool and trampoline in the back yard and it pretty much killed all the grass. 

Okay, moving on...

Clyde likes to hang out.

Elsie runs around.

So does Olive.

The chase each other up on the deck and play, but we have to be careful, because they like to try and jump off, and in some parts, it's high!

They get their mom while Brodie watches, waiting to see if they'll get him...

But then he decides it's safer up on the deck in the chair. :)

When it's time to go inside, I corral them and try to guide them inside.

This time, I got Elsie and Clyde in, but Olive escaped.

Then Elsie gets out, so I grab her. Clyde's inside, so I can easily pick Olive and Elsie up and carry them in.

Maggie can see her babies inside and wants to get inside with them.

Then Clyde and Maggie take a nap.(Olive and Elsie still have plenty of energy. :) )

And that's a typical morning outside. They absolutely love it out there! Right at the moment as I write this, Olive and Elsie are chasing each other all around the living room, weaving in and out of obstacles and under and out  from the couch, and Clyde is resting on my lap. I love it. :)

We have started to try and find them homes and we have a few prospective lookers. As of now, I think we are going to keep Olive. We look at Elsie and think - why aren't we keeping her? And we don't have a reason. There's just something in us that says that Olive will be a better match for us. I, of course, want to keep Clyde, but our biggest fear is having our already anxiety ridden Brodie lose his mind when Clyde starts marking. Brodie has always been a nervous dog with anxiety issues. When we got Maggie, he reverted back to being a puppy and we had to train him a long with Maggie. It's going to be so sad to see them go, but we are being very picky about where they will live. We love them just like we love our own big kid dogs (Maggie and Brodie) and we just want to make sure they are well taken care of. I'll keep you updated (If I'm no too upset...lol) when they find their forever homes. :)