I HATE my kitchen floor!  It is composed of that wonderful sticky tile that, I might add is not worth the 9.99$ you pay for 24 tiles.  The idea is that it is a quick, extremely cheap, fix to any flooring needs that you might have.  The individuals that owned my house before me put it down in the kitchen.  What they did not do is prep the floor right and stuck the tiles directly to the hardwood floor.  When I say hardwood I mean not finished/ sanded floor.  So, over the years the tile has molded to the peaks and valleys of the hardwood floor beneath.  Now, the tiles are chipping up and the floor underneath is being revealed and it looks HORRIBLE, never mind the pink flowered tile that is my kitchen floor.  So, now I have dark wood flooring in places in conjunction with my pink tile which, I might add my husband bitches about all the time.  I have to constantly remind him that I did not choose the wonderful sticky tile that is my current kitchen floor.  I have what I want in mind but, then I think about all the work it is going to be to scrape all of the still stuck on tiles off of the floor, I cry.  I guess I will just have to suck it up and do it, hopefully I will get some help from my friends, hint hint Dan.   

The puppies are 2 weeks old exactly.  They are getting big or should I say rolly polly.  8 of the puppies have their eyes open and 6 are pretty much still shut.  Their eyes are still cloudy…yes, all puppies are born with blue eyes and they change from there to brown or whatever color.  I measured the length of the little guys today because I was a little bored.  The longest from tip of nose to butt is 11 1/4 inches long and the smallest/ shortest is 9 inches so, you can see there is a variety in the size of all the puppies…..I have to say that Trixie’s are the larger ones.  I was chilling with the babies and I picked up the little black & white  male of Kahlua’s and he had something to say about it.  He growled and growled at me.  I laughed so hard because the more I riled him up the more he growled and the louder it was.  He has the cutes black speckles on his nose.  I have decided that later today I will be filing down the puppies nail because they are like little talons, sharp.  Right now it is -6 degrees out so, I am not going to venture out and train dogs.  I will go out tomorrow because it will be a high of 24 degrees…only in Minnesota do you have a swing in temperature like that.  Plus, dogs need a little break from training or they will get bored with it.  Tomorrow I will work on “backs” with the big dogs and more retrieves for the little girls (Shay & Brook).  Tia is coming tomorrow as well; I am excited to puppy sit for the Sole family.  I love having the opportunity to watch dogs from previous litters; it is so much fun to see how they have grown.

Grrrrr…….That is what you her when you walk into the kitchen where the puppies are.  They are starting to growl and it is so cute.  The whelping box is a moving mass of white/black/liver fur now.  Their eyes are opening wider everyday but are still cloudy.  The first puppy to open her eyes is a little black & white female of Kahlua’s; she is sold to a family in Oligvie.  The bigger or should I say chunkier ones can hold their heads up.  I crawled into the whelping box last night while the mamma’s were eating their dinner and snuggled all the babies.  To my suprise Tim crawled in to and took a seat right next to me…it was a tight fit but, we made it work.  The puppies were a little frusterated and, might I add protested, that we did not have any dinner to offer them but, it was not for lack of them not trying to find a nipple to latch on to.  Shay decided to be brave today and jump into the whelping box; as I made my way to extract her she snuggled down with the puppies and did not want to leave.  It was cute!  I trained dogs today. Yard work…lots of fun let me tell you.  I wish some of the snow would melt so I could get out in the field and run the dogs but, until the snow is not so deep it is not an option.  The fields are seas of white hard, deep snow.  I took Shay outside and gave her retrieves with a collar on with pigeons.  I also hooked a flexi lead up to her so, she learns to bring the pigeon right back, just a tip for those of you who spend most of your training session chasing your puppy to bring back a retreive.  Mini and SoBe did great with the honor drills so, hopefully that will not be a problem this spring when I run them.  For those of you who know Mini, not a peep on retreives. 

Well, Tim had to replace the battery in the truck; need one with lots of cold cranking amps here in wonderfully freezing Minnesota.  The problem was that the truck battery died in Starbuck in front of the post office so, he needed the Jeep to get a new one and replace the old one.  He did so leaving the old battery on the sidewalk.  He came home with the Jeep so we could get the vehicles straightened out.  Went back to Starbuck only to find that someone had swiped the old battery off the sidewalk so, the joke is on them!  They got a dead battery and, not a new one!

They are GROWING so fast.  Eyes are opening and they are huge; all credit goes to the wonderful mamma’s that keep them well fed.  They have earned the term of endearment “Fatties” from Tim.  I held one puppy this morning that all he could do is yawn; it was so cute, I got a great view of his incoming teeth.  The babies are so warm and snugly; it is hard for me not to fall asleep with them in the whelping box.  Trixie and Kahlua decided to cupboard surf this morning hanging ten on a wave of flour through out my living room.  Needless to say Tim and I spent the mid morning erasing flour dog paws from all of the furniture and carpet.  They had enough baking supplies strewn through out the living room to bake a four layer wedding cake!  The weather was nice today so, I trained the dogs.  Lots of Retrieves, no frozen spit on the whistle how very exciting.  I am working on honors with Mini and SoBe; it is going good.  I think that Shay (Bill Boeckman’s puppy) is ready for the buoy launcher.  She gets really exciting when she hears it fire so, I will give it a try tomorrow.

Well, the puppies are 12 days old and are starting to slowly open their eyes; just tiny cracks in the corners but, they are getting there.  They are getting mobile and can almost stand.  They smell soooo good…if only you could put puppy smell in a bottle and save it for later when they are all grown up doing something bad; break it open and remember the “cute” times.  I get to puppy sit one of Trixie’s puppies from the last litter.  She is a gorgeous tri- color liver and white female named Tia.  She comes on Thursday and stays to the 9th of Feb.  It should be a blast; I am excited.  Trixie got sick last night at 5 am; it was not fun to clean up at that hour….I heard the sound and then the smell only to realize that she came up stair next to the bed to share….yeah!  O well.  Mini snuggled between Tim and I with Jimmy and Tyrael at our feet.  kept us warm in this freezing weather.  No dog training today  to cold, just some basic obedience stuff.  When the snow is over the dogs shoulders in the field and they can’t run nothing productive will come out of the session so, we will hopefully do retrieves tomorrow with the launcher for some exercise.  Stay Warm!

Well, there is so new stuff going on in Tim and my life.  We just bought our house on the 28th of Decemeber, yes, we did sign away our lives.  Tim’s job is going great with Farm Bureau Finacial Service (hint if you need any assistance he can help!).  I am waiting for the doctors to decide what they are going to do with my arm. I am taking care of puppies and everyday catering to their every need.  I wish that it was not so cold right now…..-20 degrees.  Tim and I are getting ready for him to go on deployment for 6 months to Maryland.  I am a little nervous about being alone again but, that is what all those guns in my house are for….     My dad is over seas in the middle east working for Dyna Corp; he is gone for a year.  A little weird to go home and not have him there.  Mom stays busy.  My sister probably driving her nuts while my little brother of the ripe age of 13 tries to stay sane in a house with two women….poor guy! We are a vehicle down; Tim hit a deer with my blue Ford Contour, which hade 265,000 miles on it.  It was a buck; he drove home with antlers protruding out of the wind shield needless to say we did not fix it.  Tim let a training pigeon fly around accidently in our living room; lets just say the feathers were flying as Brooke and Shay(puppies of Bill Boeckmans) enjoyed the chase.  Boys are dumb!!  Well, nothing else in new.  I am looking forward to the spring field trialing season with SoBe, Mini, and Ace all in the Amteur.

The puppies are doing great.  They are 11 days old.   They’re all in the kitchen nice and warm in their whelping box listening to their classical music with both mamma’s watching them carefully.  The girls (Trixie and Kahlua) still get a little wary when the babies are totted away to be snuggled in human arms but what do you do……  Mini checks in on the puppies in and out of the whelping box; the girls don’t seem to mind.  When the boy dogs wander by that is a different story….lets just say they keep their distance for now.  The Puppies tails and dew claws are healing nicely and their coats are nice and shiny.  Trixie is learning that all of the babies are not hers and she HAS to share the nursing responsibilities with Kahlua.  I was working on this website most of the day and night so, no dog training today; plus it is really cold -20 degrees….spit freezes to your whistle when it is this cold out.