more work in the dry bar

Yesterday we went to Lowe's to buy the mini fridge (finally) and the rest of the hardware to finish the bar. It was a nice surprise when we went to ring up the fridge and it was on sale so we basically got all the hardware for free.

looks pretty fancy right? 

While John was fighting with the carpet to get the fridge in we decided to tear out the carpet in front of the bar. We had left over flooring from the hallway so we decided to just use that. It'll be nice for food spill clean ups and water spills with the fish tank.

We laid all the left over flooring last night, John's going to buy the rest of the flooring we need after work and I get to try laying it by myself while he's at the Jazz game.

Signs that Enna might be pregnant or we're just imagining it because we want her to be...

• Enna guards her food now. She never has before, but now Makoa hardly gets anything to eat. Which really isn't that bad because Makoa gained 5 pounds while staying with my in-laws and needs to drop the weight.
• Enna has become a pig. Before getting her to eat was always a pain. She'd eat a few pieces of food and then wander off and wouldn't go back to eat. We set the bowl down with enough food for Enna & Makoa and she usually eats most of it.
• Enna has become a super butt head. The other night Enna was sitting on my lap on one side of the couch and when Makoa went to climb on John's lap on the other side of the couch she ran across the couch, bit Makoa's face and then laid down on John's lap. She got scolded, set on the floor and not allowed to come back up, after I laughed at her of course.
• Enna's waist has seemed to have grown by an inch and a half. This could just be because I don't know how to read a tape measure.

Flashback Friday - best day at Copperton Park

My sister found this picture and delivered it to me last weekend.

I've been smiling ever since. It's when John proposed on June 8, 2007 to me :)
I'm the most gullible person ever so when he said that his mom wanted us to take her camera to see if the self timmer was working I thought nothing of it. I'm use to people asking me camera questions because of my major so off we went to Copperton Park.

We had done maybe 5 pictures when John went to set the camera again. This time he took his sweet time getting back to the tree and I yelled, "hurry! you'll miss it!" I guess the ring box got stuck in his pocket but he got there in time for the camera to go off. :)

*how sad is it that John is almost as tall as me while he's knees?*

bye bye tree

John has always hated our big maple in the backyard, I really had no preference until every storm another branch would fall down making the tree very misshapen.

(picture from when we first moved in)



The last snow storm knocked down the fifth branch and the whole right side of the tree was a disgrace so I finally agreed to let John cut it down.

He went to work right away, so happy to get rid of the tree he hates so much.

We'll have someone come and grind the stump down in the spring, but we figured it would be easier to remove the limbs without all the leaves on it and John needed a project that didn't cost any money :)

I'm sure my parents are groaning as they read this, never waste a good tree. Don't worry, we'll be adding nicer, smaller trees in the spring...once John and I can agree on the trees.

going home

Garner is getting ready to go home tomorrow. Him and Enna decided that they weren't interested in each other Sunday night so that means his breeding vacation is done.
He's really a cute dog with the funniest personality. He barks at John if he thinks he's taking too long to fill up the water bowl or put his food down and he's not scared of Enna in the slightest when she growls at him not to take her toys.
He also head butts you if he thinks he needs attention from you and crawls right into your lap if it's nap time.

Although, he does think that everything is a chew toy, in fact worse than Makoa, so that won't be missed. Neither will he constant crying at night or jumping.

We'll be finding out if Enna has a bun in the oven the first part of December so cross your fingers for us!

Fall Gardening

I finally got around to my fall gardening and it looks like just in time since it's suppose to snow Monday.
I had to dig up my Dahlias, they don't winter over here in Utah because it's just too cold.

I know they don't look at all attractive when out of the ground and not in bloom but they need to dry out before I store them away in saw dust for the winter. My only hang up is that they need to stay somewhere around 40 degrees and since I don't have a garage that makes it a tad tricky. They may be living under the stairs.
I also had to dig up my flowering shamrocks and peacock orchids to keep them snug as a bug for the winter.

While I was at it, I planted more spring bulbs because that's what gets me through the winter, just knowing that I have flowers ready to pop up in March.

 Baby daffodils - Minnows - so sweet!

 "60 days of tulips" - all different types so I can be surprised

 Bi-colored grape hyacinth - teeny tiny at 6" tall, perfect for borders

 Two types of Alliums, short and tall. I never seem to have great luck with these so we'll see.

 More hyacinths, who doesn't love hyacinths? They smell amazing and look beautiful.

This is all I have to tide me over through the long, cold winters here. I really live in the wrong state...

*All bulbs were bought from dutch gardens. They're kinda pricey but I had a coupon for free shipping*

Pictures!

To come back to a happier note then on the last post, I'm finally able to add pictures of the guest room and cabinets in the family room. For a while I didn't have access to a computer that would load pictures and then when I did I didn't have the camera cords to do so since they were stolen (who steals camera cords but not the camera, really?)

First off the guest room. Like I said before, I think it turned out fabulous and I love it. The lighting isn't too great in the pictures because we have energy saving bulbs in the fixture and I was to impatient to let them warm up :).
Speaking of light fixtures, I tried really hard to replace the one that's in the room now but after getting a broken light three times in the mail I gave up. We'll see if it ever gets replaced.

 Of course I had to get a husky pup in the room in honor of the first guest to stay in it. Too bad Makoa thinks that it's his toy and is always sneaking it out of the room to chew on.

Here are the gorgeous cabinets that John built. We picked out the hardware but haven't gone to buy it yet. We're kinda busy trying to make puppies.

Some things have changed since these pictures were taken. Nothing is sitting on the counter or the "fridge hole" anymore and the light fixture is no longer hanging from it's guts...even though that's still not fully installed yet.

Also because John and I can't go 2 whole weeks without doing some kind of house project we (meaning John) installed a new shower head in our upstairs bath.

This one was picked because it wasn't too expensive, served our needs and will eventually be upgraded once we expand our house.

Why "Dog Breeder" won't be on my next application

*WARNING - this post is long and full of breeding detail. Also please don't think of me as an abusive owner after this. It doesn't have pictures (didn't think that was appropriate) so I know that makes it harder to get through, sorry. *

Isn't this suppose to be easy? Dogs do this naturally all the time. Getting pregnant with the neighbors mutt puppies without your permission or letting any Tom, Dick or Harry mount them constantly. Come on, Stupid people do this! "My dog's cute, your dog is cute, lets make puppies without health checks or checking backgrounds!"
Then there's me. I think I have become an expert on the subject of breeding. I've bought 6 books, looked at hundreds of websites and asked my co-worker ex-vet tech thousands of questions. I think I know what I'm doing. Too bad Enna didn't do those same things.

We thought all was fine and dandy. John picked Garner up from the airport last Friday, he's sweet and bonded with us quickly. Makoa headed over to my in-laws and we were ready for the lovers to meet. All went to plan, they both thought the other was fabulous and Enna flagged (moved her tall to the side meaning she's ready to be mounted) and he went to it. Then the screech from Hell happened. You would have though she was being mauled by a grizzly bear. Of course Garner stopped once she started biting his face and looked at her like she had two heads. This went on a few more times and we decided that she just wasn't ready. But what else could she be? She was heading into week 2 of her cycle meaning that that's mating time.

Saturday John went to work and I was alone with the dogs, if I could see into the future I probably wouldn't have let them both out together while being by myself, but I was still in La La land about how this is easy.
Garner mounts Enna, she screams but by this time it was too late for him to turn back. I got down on the floor and held her into position like the books say and waited for the tie.
As far as I know only canines tie, meaning that after the mounting and humping the male then is swollen, the female clenches and he's stuck inside her. The male then usually dismounts and turns so that the dogs are rear to rear.This can last anywhere from a fraction of a minute to 20 with 10 minutes being the norm. Also during this time neither dog should move or complications can arise. The male dog is the only mammal that has a bone in his penis, if he is jerked too quickly the bone can break and then all is lost. He can't be put in a sling or cast obviously so a broken bone means no more breeding, I don't know if that means forever or until he heals by himself but I didn't want to go there.
If the female jerks to quickly away from the male he could be pulled out of her, hemorrhage and die. I really don't like the sound of death so I didn't want to head in that direction either.

Garner and Enna tie and Garner starts to dismount. I wasn't holding Enna tight enough and she freaked and started running away. I freak and try to grab her which makes Garner freak so he starts to run away also. The whole time I'm picturing broken bones and death. Finally after the dogs make a huge semi circle I carrel both of them onto the lap while almost yelling, "It's okay! Calm down!" over and over. The tie probably only lasted mere minutes, but it felt like a life time. After they separated I grabbed Enna and hauled ass upstairs. I grabbed my phone, dialed John's number and sobbed into the phone, "I broke him!! I broke him!! We'll have to call Barbara and tell her that her male can never breed again!" (have I ever mentioned that I'm a bit of a drama queen?)
After John got me to calm down and explain what happened he asked how the dogs were. Was Garner sheathed (did his penis go back inside him), was Enna bleeding or look in pain. No. Well they're probably fine.
He couldn't come home from work and I needed to calm down, everything would be fine.

Everything was not fine. I was convinced that we broke Barbara's dog and Enna was going to bleed to death. For the two hours I waited for John I text him over and over saying things like, "Why did we agree to this?" "I never want to do that again!" "This is too hard!"
By the time John got home I had calmed down but I didn't want to do any breeding for the rest of the day (or ever), I was too scarred. John told me repeatedly that we would have to try again even if I didn't want to because we had to make sure Enna got pregnant.

Sunday came and I tried to prolong the inevitable, keeping Enna locked up with me in the computer room. Soon Garner climbed the baby gate and I had no choice.
Because of Enna's screeching and face biting we had to hold her in place. This is where I don't want you to think bad of me. There was no other way this would happen (I did think of AI over and over, but it's too pricey) and the books say that's the way to do it.
John holds under her front legs and I hold her head trying to keep her calm. Everything is fine until he starts to penetrate. That's when she starts screaming. After the screaming comes whimpering and her looking up at me with the saddest blue eyes imaginable as if saying, "why are you doing this to me, you monster!" Breaks my heart.
Luckily ties don't last long, but on the other hand ties are needed for the sperm to travel so I worry that she's not getting pregnant.

If we've timed her heat cycle right then Sunday, yesterday and today are the days she's ovulating. Truthfully we could be far off, but dogs are hard to judge without getting expensive testing done so we wanted them to breed a few times to make sure that she got pregnant.
I dread the time when John says it's time. I crawl off the couch to kneel on the floor while he goes to get Enna, my stomach in twisting knots the whole time. We let the dogs jump on each other and run around for a few minutes until John grabs Enna signaling that it's time to start. I try not to be nervous since Enna can feel my fear and calmly tell her how good she's doing and that everything is okay. It doesn't help, she eventually screams and I try not to cry.
I keep telling myself we're almost done, but really I don't know. We have to keep going until one of the dogs decides the other isn't interesting anymore and won't mount/allow the mounting.

This is suppose to be the easy part, I'm not suppose to be getting stomach ulcers until the labor starts. Now I have more to stress about.
Is she pregnant? I won't know until 25 days later, that's the first time the vet can tell if pups are growing inside her.
Are the pups going to come smoothly? Is Enna going to be a good mom or decide she doesn't want a thing to do with the puppies after they're born?
Are they going to be born normal?
Can I keep them alive until they're out of the scary first days?
Can I find them good homes?

John wants to do this again, but he never worries. I on the other hand am a solid HELL NO. John says I'll want to once I see the sweet puppies, I say that I'll remember all this mess it took to get there and not change my mind. If we do do this again, it is completely against my will.

p.s. I never mentioned the after math of a tie. Enna becomes a mad women yelping, shrieking and barking while she squirms wildly in my arms. I don't know if she's trying to get away while I carry her up to her crate and just bewildered that we'd let such an awful thing happen to her. She then carries on in her crate for at least half an hour making the world believe that she is indeed dying.