Not Much Going On

There isn't anything exciting going on right now. Mom is feeling tons better. She came home and took a 3 hour nap in MY napping spot! I was okay with it because I knew she didn't feel good. 24 hours after she took the medicine she was fine. Mom does have some advice for everyone though. Don't fall asleep while watching Steve Irwin. She couldn't find anything to watch on tv and wasn't planning on falling asleep. She likes Steve Irwin and so she started watching his show about the crocs at the Australia Zoo and then she fell asleep and started having some really weird dreams.
Mom and Grandma are really excited about going to the cooking school thing tonight. Mom read in the newspaper some of the things they're going to make and got even more excited. She LOVES to bake and has always wanted to make Chocolate Molten cakes but has never tried because she was nervous. She says the instructions seem way too simple. Tonight she gets to watch someone make them! After the lady makes something, then they having a drawing to give away the dish and the food in the dish and she's keeping her fingers crossed she wins the cakes. I looked over the list, too and there were no dog treat recipes. I was bummed but I saw Mom looking over the dog treat recipe in the book that came with the food dehydrator and she also has some new dog themed cookie cutters she wants to try out so I think we'll get to try some new treat recipes.
While Mom and Grandma are off having fun Sasha and I have to help Dad get his hunting stuff together. He goes hunting starting Saturday so I have to make sure he has enough good and supplies. He'll be hunting close enough to home that he'll be able to come home every night which is great because if Dad's not home to protect the house, I don't get much sleep.
See, I told you nothing exciting was going on here. Mom says we'll gt to go do something fun this weekend, but I don't believe her. I don't think I remember how to ride in a car, play at the park, walk on a leash or eat icecream anymore! Mom wants me to point out that I get to run around our neighborhood off leash a lot now, but I'm not going to!! That totally misses my point completely!
As long as I'm not bored to death tomorrow, I'll do an Artsy Fartsy Friday post. I'm off to take another nap now.

Recovered

Hey everyone! I think I finally recoverd from all the birthday partying at my house. It looks like we're done with birthdays at my house until my birthday in February. Good thing because we're exhausted! Last night we finished off the last of the rib bones, but Mom said she has some dog treat recipes she wants to experiment with so I'm helping her decide which ones we should try first and what modifications we want to make to them.
Mom got her new food blog up and going. Right now she's bringing everything over from the old blog, but after she gets the last 2 on she'll share some more recipes and gadgets. She is much happier using Blogger for that one, too. That will teach her for thinking about trying something new! OH, almost forgot to give you the new address! Here it is: http://hilarys-kitchen.blogspot.com/. This Thursday night Mom and Grandma are going to a Taste of Home Cooking school. Taste of Home is my mom's most favorite magazine and they do these cooking school things all over the country. Last year our local paper started having them come to our town. Mom couldn't get tickets this year, but she made sure she got them this year. Mom says she'll get to win all sorts of prizes and will get a goody bag so hopefully she'll have more fun gadgets to share with you and of course some new recipes. I'm sure Mom will tell you all about it on her blog, too. She has a count down started in her calendar she carries with her. Doors don't open until 6:00, but she's thinking about getting there at 5:30. That gives her enough time to come take care of her responsibilites (ME!, Sasha and Gunnar) and then get to the school where they're holding the event. And she says I'm the weird one?!?!?!
If you haven't done your story for the DWB - What it means to me blog yet, don't feel bad. We haven't done our's either and I've been saying we were working on it for a long time now. Mom isn't going back to work after lunch today because her new medicine is making he feel not so good so after a nap, Mom and I might work on that. I'm not sure why Mom went to work this morning. I told her she was a weird shade of green and Sasha and I tried to hold her down, but she said there was stuff she needed to get done. Dad came to find the crackers for Mom a little bit ago and he said she's not getting much of anything done and isn't going back after lunch. She really needs to learn to listen to us more!

Birthday Week Day 3

Today is the final birthday. Good thing because I'm exhausted and my belly is full. Last night Dad took Mom out for dinner and Mom of course ordered ribs and they brought the bones home to us so we got to enjoy a nice rib bone plus we get more tonight and for the next couple of nights. Dad got Mom some fishing stuff and some baking stuff that I'm sure she'll be sharing on her food blog. One was a pastry mat for measuring and the other was this chopper, scooper & measuring thing. Plus after Mom's doctor's appointment they're going shopping for some more stuff. Mom sure is spoiled!
Okay, today's happy birthday goes out to Grandma. Happy Birthday Grandma! She doesn't want us to make a big deal out of it so that's all I'll say. Thank goodness because I'm exhausted. I'm going to go take a nap now to get ready for more partying tonight.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Birthday Week Day 2

First I better tell you that there won't be an Artsy Fartsy Friday this week. I'm exhausted after only 1 night of birthday partying and I still have tonight and tomorrow to go! I'm going to need to take all day to recover and I can't even talk Mom into doing it for me because she has a doctor's appointment and some shopping to do Friday. OH! I also need to tell you Mom's Food Blog is frustrating her so she's going to switch it over to a different site (probably Blogger, I told her to stick with what she knew!). The old one will stay up until she gets the new one going, but she's not going to add anything new to it. She tried all day Friday to get Bravenet to let her upload pictures and again on the weekend and she decided to give up and start over. I'll let you know the knew address.

Okay, here's pictures from Sasha's party last night. We got cheese with dinner of course and then after dinner Mom and Dad got out her gift. We had to take it outside because she goes crazy. She had one at our old house but it finally deflated. This one didn't last long at all!!!! Mom and Dad were pretty dissapointed. Part of it was Sasha though. Look at these pictures! She's crazy!!!! She eventually ran it into a rose bush and poked a hole in it and then I got it and well, no more big ball. We went back inside and played with all our other toys.

Today's birthday is my mom's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I LOVE YOU A BUNCH!!!! I don't have a picture of her to show you because she's always on the other side of the camera. We can't find the box with film pictures or I would show you some cute pictures of when she was a puppy. I think she hid it on purpose so I couldn't show you any pictures. Dad and I went out to the shop to wrap Mom's gifts a couple nights ago and then put them on the dining room table to torture - I mean tease her. Dad and I have some other surprises planned for her but I'll have to tell you about them later in case Mom gets on here today to see what I said about her. I'm going to list 10 things I love about my mom in honor of her birthday and the letter game that was so much fun to do.

1. She is a very good snuggler. I get in bed every morning to snuggle with Mom after the alarm clock goes off and before she gets up to get ready for work.

2. She is a sucker for sad puppy eyes. If I get in trouble or want something I use my big brown puppy eyes and I'm forgiven or get what I want.

3. She is a really good baker. She bakes us treats and even lets us try some of the nondog treats.

4. She is a MAJOR slob in the kitchen. When Mom is in the kitchen we know that we'll get to clean up a mess eventually. If we hear mom say crap, oops, dang it or any cuss words Sasha and I come running because we know Mom made a big mess for us to clean up.

5. She wears fake finger nails because she bites her nails and makes them sore if she doesn't and fake nails are PAWESOME for ear, belly and under the collar scratches.

6. She feels safer taking me with her when she goes to work outside the fence so I get to go explore the outside the fence area a lot.

7. I can talk her into playing fetch more and longer than anybody else I know.

8. She lets me sleep in the big bed if Dad is gone for some reason or comes to bed late.

9. She's not strong enough to pick me up and hold me like a baby like Dad does.

10. The 10th and BEST reason I love her is: She's MY Mom!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

PS Mom, if you're reading this I didn't tell them this is your 30th birthday like you said not to do. Can I get an extra cookie tonight after dinner?

Birthday Week Day 1

This week is very busy with birthdays at my house. Today is Day #1 with it being Sasha's 6th birthday. Sasha's birthday starts off the same way every year. Mom uses her highpitched voice that hurts my ears so I go hide in the living room while Mom and Sasha have their moment in another room. Every once in awhile Mom uses her high pitched voice throughout the day, but it's worth it because on Sasha's birthday we get lots of cheese. If you're wondering about what Mom is saying in her high pitched voice, don't ask me. It's something about her little girl being a year older and how cute and stuff she is. Sasha likes Mom using her high pitched voice because it usually means she gets lots of scratches and belly rubs and extra special attention.

Mom was going to make us a special treat for Sasha's birthday, but Sunday night Mom and Dad found a really good deal on t-bone steaks so we got some very yummy bones instead. It was driving us crazy waiting for Dad to give us the bones and then we saw Mom get out the special bone chewing blankets and we knew it was time. They were very yummy!

Sasha will get her gift later. Mom said they couldn't buy it early because it was too big to hide and considering what it was she knew Sasha would sense it was somewhere in the house so in this case it has to be a last minute gift. I'll show you pictures of the gift later. Okay, now I'm going to let Mom talk about Sasha's birthday. Happy Birthday to my older sister Sasha!!!! I Love You!!!!!

Kaos's Mom: Today is my little girl's 6th birthday!! I can't believe she's 6! Sasha and I have a very special connection because I had her before I met my husband. She was actually supposed to be a Christmas gift for my mom's neighbor. She didn't like all the cute puppy stuff that I thought was adorable so she gave her back to my mom. I told my mom I wanted her but at the time I was in an apartment that wouldn't allow pets. I was in month 6 of a 12 month lease. That was the longest year of my life not having a pet living with me. The day my mom was able to pick Sasha up she spent the night with me. We snuck her into the apartment that night and then they brought her neighbor over the next morning. That sucked. I was there for Sasha the first night away from her dog mom and then they came and took her away the next morning. When the neighbor gave her back she said that we could keep her until she was potty trained and calmed down and then she would take her back. My mom said noway because then we would be attached to her and wouldn't be able to give her back. Even though she was my dog I still worried about the neighbor coming and saying she was ready to have her back now and my mom letting her have her. She stayed with my mom and sister until I was able to move that June into a house that allowed pets. It was great. Sasha finally got the attention she needed and the care she needed. I got her fixed and updated on all her shots and everything was good until I had to move back to my mom's house. I couldn't stand my roommate anymore and I was completly broke. We moved into the tiny room at my mom's house and we did okay for a year. Sasha was miserable, but okay. She got blamed for stuff that she didn't do and my mom was mean to her. She had a Saint Bernard (a very sweet dog that would let Sasah sleep in her tail or on her back outin the yard and would throw pieces of her food to Sasha as a treat - it was so cute!) and there was also the black lab that my brother had abandoned onto my mom because his girlfriend didn't like the poor dog and yet my little dog got blamed for a big puddle of pee in the family room. After we moved back to my mom's Sasha started acting like she didn't know she was potty trained so she got blamed even for the large puddles. I pointed out to my mom there was no way Sasha's little bladder could hold that much liquid, but Sasha still got blamed. I was working 2 jobs at that time trying to get caught up so a lot of Sasha's care did get left with my mom and sister. My sister did okay, but she was in highschool and was busy, too. I know my mom wasn't nice to Sasha and I don't know what all she did to her but I do know it wasn't good.

When I met my husband we hung out a lot at his mom's house. It was an escape for me to get away from my mom, but Sasha got left at my mom's. Finally I asked my husband if we could talk his mom into letting Sasha come and right away Sasha and her new Grandma bonded. I was able to go to Cancun for a week (free!) and my husband came by every day to check on Sasha because he knew I was worried about her. The week I went on vacation was actually the week before we closed on our first house. When I came back I started packing and Sasha was a completely different dog. She was very clingy to be - more than she normally was - and was horrible when I was gone. We did a lot of work on the house before we actually moved into it and we started moving my stuff first because I didn't want to pay another month on my storage unit plus we needed to get Sasha and I out. The day that we actually moved into the house I wasn't planning on bringing Sasha yet because there was still painting that was being done and I wanted to be able to have her full attention when I moved her in because there was so much newness. Well, my mom called and said she was bringing Sasha over because she was going crazy. Sure enough, Sasha thought she was being left and she was acting crazy! For the first few months Sasha had some potty training issues which took her almost a year to get over. I couldn't understand why. It was only by the front door even though she went out the back to go potty and she seemed to do it mostly in the middle of the night. That first Christmas she was a mess again. We got the boxes of Christmas stuff out and she got worse about pooping by the front door and she'd hide and acted weird. Then she was fine when the boxes were away and then when the decoration boxes came back out to be put away she did it again. I thought it was because she was afraid of being abandoned again so any time there were a bunch of boxes around I made sure she had lots of attention. 3 years ago around Thanksgiving my mom stopped talking to me altogether and I quit going to her house. After a few months Sasha was fine - totally fine. We had Kaos for a year by then and she was nicer to Kaos and even to Gunnar. All I could think of was she finally was out of her puppy weirdness. When my mom died last December I had a hard time with it. Kaos is my nurse and takes care of me when I'm sick or sad, but I needed Sasha to be there for me at that time and I think she knew it because she stopped hiding under the bed all the time and would sit with me on the couch and even in my lap and she never used to do that. I know she may not have fully understood what was going on, but I believe she knew a bad part of our lives was finally over and we were free. We didn't have to worry about the mean lady anymore. Of course I was sad that my mom had died because she was my mom and I did have memories of her that were good when I was younger, but the bad ones were the ones that made me feel trapped and once she was gone her power that she had over me was gone, too and I was free and so was Sasha.

When we started the remodeling of the old house to get it sold Sasha hid a lot, especially when there were only hardwood floors. It took me awhile to realize my mom's house had hardwood floors and that's when I knew my mom did something bad to my little girl when I wasn't around and of course I started feeling even more guilty. She was a little weird about the boxes when we started moving stuff, but what we were storing stuff at Grandma's house so when we would take a load of boxes we would make sure the dogs saw it was all going to Grandma's house and when the Jeeps were being moved to Grandma's they went and then saw them there when we'd take more stuff. Kaos has abandonment issues also and I know that's pretty much a trait of a rescue dog and even though Sasha really wasn't a true rescue dog, I still consider her one because I rescued her from my mom. They would get excited seeing us load up the trucks wih boxes because that meant we were going to Grandma's. We stayed at Grandma's a week and then moved to the new house and both Kaos and Sasha are going through a puppy phase. Kaos has always been playful but when Sasha and I moved back to my mom's house Sasha stopped her playful stuff and started her hiding phase. Now, Sasha is an instagator and hardly ever hides under the bed. If she's hiding that means she's not feeling good or just needs a few minutes for some alone time, but those moments are very rare now. I think she knows she never has to worry about going to the mean lady's house ever again and she isn't reminded about the bad house anymore because there is only carpet and linoleum in the new house. I never thought about the hardwood floors being an issue for her before but when you are that low to the ground, the floor is a big part of your daily life.

Sasha may be our oldest furkid but she will always be my little baby. We've been through a lot together and take care of each other. I can't believe she's 6! I was going to show you some puppy pictures, but that was before I used my digital camera all the time and I can't find the box of pictures of her on film (I'm never moving again!!!!). Trust me, she was a cute puppy. I've learned a lot from Sasha. I've always had pets growing up so it wasn't that I learned how to take care of a living being, it was that I learned about myself and that her symptoms of abuse were very similar to how I was acting. I wasn't pooping by the front door, but I was hiding a lot. Instead of choosing to go hang out with friends, I'd hide in my room. I almost didn't go out on the first date with my husband because I wanted to hide in my room, but something made me not chicken out and I am so happy I did go and so is Sasha. I'm sure Gunnar and Kaos are, too. Now, Sasha and I don't hide, we're both more playful and smile a lot more - and they aren't fake smiles!

Happy 6th birthday to my little wiener dog. I love you very much!!

Artsy Fartsy Friday

Yes, it's true it's Friday and I'm doing an Artsy Fartsy Friday post! Mom is also supposed to be doing a post on her food blog today about some very yummy cookies. We're going to be doing some Halloween cookies this weekend, too I think so she'll have more cookie recipes next week (if she has time to do a post).
Okay, this photo is called "Eye of Heaven." We were getting ready to go up a trail and all the guys were getting their tires and shocks ready and Mom looked up and thought the sun looking through the trees was cool. When she pulled it up on the screen when we got home she said if felt like someone up above looking down on them, that's where it got it's name.


Hope you enjoy the photo. Have a good weekend everybody.

Did You Hear The News? - Updated

DWB has it's 1000th member and there's a winner for the guessing game!!! The dogs over at It's the Dog's Life are celebrating because their Mom guessed the right day we'd get our 1,000th member! I was so close! I was only a week off! That's okay though, it was a lot of fun guessing.
Since we have our 1,000th member do you know what that means? Lots of treats!!! It also means you should get your story in for the DWB What it Means to Me Blog. Don't worry, Mom hasn't done our story yet either. Mom WILL be doing our's this weekend , cuz I said so. When you have your's ready, email it to my mom (HilarysDesigns (at) yahoo (dot) com) or email it to Ben's Mum (hehe, I love saying Mum) and they will get it posted for you. If you would like your picture on, go ahead and send it, too. If you haven't checked the stories posted so far, you should definately go read the stories so far. Grab some kleenex though. Not because they're sad stories, it's because they're some very touching stories. If your Mom leaks like my Mom does, make sure it's a full box!
The 1,oooth member is a boxer named Angus. Be sure to go say hi to him. I bet when his mom submitted the request to be on DWB she had no idea that they would become so popular! When I posted my hi & congrats comment, I think I was #43. I've NEVER had that many comments for one of my posts before! That would take me forever to read all of those plus then I'd have to go visit all the new dogs that came to visit me and leave them a thank you comment! That would be an all day job.
Congratulations to It's the Dog's Life and Angus!!!!!!!! Time to PARTY!!!!!
***I just wanted to let everyone know that Marvin's story is on the DWB What it Means to Me Blog!! Have your kleenex close! Mom is still leaking after reading his poem! We've missed his poems a lot!***

Go Visit Mona & The Mommy!!

This is one of those moments that DWB members are so good at - supporting each other. For those of you that know Mona & The Mommy, you need to hurry over to their blog and send them some hugs and good vibes if you haven't already. Their good friend Jody went to the Rainbow Bridge and Mona and The Mommy need our support. If you don't know Mona & The Mommy, trust me, they have the biggest hearts ever and would definately do the same for you even if they didn't know you. We didn't personally know Jody, but we know he meant a lot to Mona and the Mommy and Mona and the Mommy mean a lot to us so we are very sad and are leaking a little, too.
Thank you!

After you go visit Mona and the Mommy I need you to keep your paws crossed for my sister Sasha. Two nights ago she kept dragging her butt on the floor and licking it a lot. Mom and Dad picked her up and looked her over to see what was wrong and she had a really bad sore on her butt. Dad cleaned her butt off a little and Mom attempted to hold on to Sasha. Mom says it's easier to hold onto me in a situation like that than it is to hold onto Sasha. After we moved, Mom can't find the stuff they put in the cheese to make it Magic Cheese that makes us feel better when we hurt so Mom asked Grandma to get some for Sasha. Yesterday morning Sasha didn't even come say bye to Mom before she left for work so Mom said if she wasn't feeling better soon she was going to call the v-e-t. The V-word seems to have had some healing powers because when Mom and Dad came home for lunch Sasha was running around and then when they came home from work she was being crazy with me. There's still a sore on her butt but it doesn't look as bad. Cross your paws that it gets better because Mom doesn't do so well when she has to take one of us to the v-e-t when we're sick (she seems okay when we have to go get shots though - what's up with that???) and Mom has a doctor's appointment next week (no worries, just a yearly check-up). Mom doesn't do good in doctor's offices, even the vet. Dad has to drive her to the appointments and go in with her and then after the appointment, he has to tell Mom what happened because Mom is focussing on not passing out. She's okay with needles and stuff like that, she just doesn't like doctors and has trust issues with them after she had a bad one. If Mom has to take Sasha to the v-e-t and then go to her appointment next week, she may end up in a corner, rocking back and forth, sucking her thumb and babbling and I don't want to see that again!!
Okay, now go visit Mona & The Mommy!

The Letter B

Hi Everybody!! Have you guys seen the letter game being played yet? I've seen a few of you play it and it looked like fun so I asked Lorenza for a letter and she gave me the letter B. I now have to list 10 things I love that start with the letter B. Here is my list.

1. Big Jeep - That's MY Jeep! I don't care that it's in Dad's name or that Dad has had it for a very long time or that Dad has done all the work on it or that Dad is the only one that drives it (Mom drove it a couple times, but it makes her nervous) or that dogs can't legally own a vehicle, it's still MY Jeep!

2. Brown Jeep Truck - I don't have any pictures of my truck!!!! I can't believe this! I'm going to have to have a word with my photographer!!!! The Jeep truck is also MY Jeep truck. I also can't drive it but like I said, that doesn't matter. There is a deck in the back that helps me to lay down and look out the window or into the cab and I love it in there! I will jump into the back of my truck before the tailgate is even town!! Dad is working on reinforcing the deck and putting some more comfortable carpeting on it for me. Moving wasn't nice to my deck.

3. Boyfriend Flash - Isn't he cute? Back off girls! He's My Boyfriend!!!

4. Blue Kia - There are also no pictures of the Blue Kia! What is up with my photographer!! The Blue Kia isn't the greatest vehicle, but it does take us on long road trips which is fun. Mom bought it way before she met Dad. It also takes us to the vet so I let Sasha say it's her's (even though it belongs to me, too).

5. Blogging Buddies - I can't put pictures of all my buddies on here because it would take forever and I would probably run out of memory allowed for this post.

6. BACON - I'm not putting a picture of bacon on here either because I don't want to be respondible for drool on the keyboards, drool on the computer screens or broken or missing computer monitors. It's safer that way.

7. Big House - OH! There is a picture of the Blue Kia! Okay, sorry Mom. You're not slacking as much as I thought you were! You can tell this picture was taken before the garage got organized a little cuz Mom parks in the garage now instead of outside. Our big house is so wonderful! The best thing is, the weather is getting cold outside and we're warm inside and the furnace hardly ever runs!!! If we were still in our old house we would be gathering wood right now for the fireplace to help warm the house without runing the furnace so much.

8. Back Yard - I'm including the fenced area and the run free area in #8. There's grass and lots of places to lay in the sun and the shade and the run free area is so much fun to chase tennis balls and explore! If you look really really really really really hard to the left of that pole you can see the topper on my brown truck. Don't hurt your eyes though!!

9. Balls For Fetching & 10. Big Bed - See that ball in my mouth? It's a really fun ball to play with in the house because it doesn't bounce and break stuff which means Mom doesn't get mad. Mom says don't look at the messy bed, but that's the best part about it! Mom hasn't fully put the bed together since the move. The comforter got stuck in a closet so it wouldn't get messed up during all the unpacking and cleaning of the new house. That fuzzy blanket I'm standing on is Sasha's favorite place to spend the day. I like it, too but Sasha will spend all day curled up in it if Mom and Dad aren't around and sometimes even if they are home but aren't doing anything Sasha things is interesting. Gunnar likes to sleep on it at night on Mom's feet. Mom says he's her foot warmer and massager. When it's cold Gunnar likes to cuddle with fuzzy blankets (the only time he ever cuddles!) and then he purs (the only time he ever purs, too). If you look close at the sheets you'll see that the decoration is labs!!! There's more black labs than any other lab. These are the warm weather sheets. The cold weather ones have fish on them, but I think these are the best sheets because there aren't any cats or dacshunds on them so what does that tell you about who Mom and Dad's favortie is? The big bed is also the best place for snuggles. Mom and I can't start our days without morning snuggles.

This was a fun game. If you would like a letter, just let me know. I promise I won't give you a hard one like "X" or "O".

7x7 Tag

No Artsy Fartsy Driday post again today. Mom says she's been too busy with work stuff to find the pictures I want.
So instead, Maggie and Mitch tagged me to do the 7x7 game. This took lots of thinking.

7 Things I Plan To Do Before I Die
1. Drive my Jeep Rock Crawler
2. Drive My Brown Jeep Truck
3. Drive my Blue Jeep Truck
4. Build a giant swimming pool in my back yard
5. Build a robot that will play fetch with me whenever I want
6. Start a dog bakery so my mom can stay home with me all day
7. Beat my cat brother at a wrestling match ( he cheats!!!!!)

7 Things I Do Now
1. Play fetch with mom everyday
2. Play fetch with dad everyday
3. Play fetch with grandma everyday
4. Run crazy around my house when I can't get someoen to play fetch
5. Cuddle with mom
6. Guard my house
7. Help Dad work on my Jeeps

7 Things I Can't Do
1. Pee on Command like Sasha
2. Drive
3. Eat anything I want
4. Play fetch 24/7
5. Sleep in the big bed all night
6. Play fetch at midnight
7. Play fetch & eat at the same time

7 Things That Atract Me to The Opposite Sex
1. Furry Butt
2. Great Smile
3. Love for human kids
4. Likes to run around crazy in his house
5. Medium size
6. Sparle in his eyes.
7. Named Flash

7 Things I say Most Often
1. Wanna play fetch?
2. Please play fetch with me!
3. here, throw my ball.
4. Please throw my rope.
5. Look! I brought you a toy to throw!
6. Can I have a treat? I haven't asked to play fetch in like 2 entire long minutes.
7. But you said you'd play fetch later and it's later!

7 Celebrities That I Admire
1. Bon Jovi - Mom is a big fan of him and I like him too because he focusses on his wife and kids a lot
2. Lorenza - check out this post for proof she's a celebritie
3. Michael Phelps - Cuz he loves his dog so much and I want to swim as fast as him some day
4. Whoever Invented the Tennis Ball
5.The person that invented the squeek toy
6. Paula Dean - because when my mom buys her magazine or watches her show she always makes something yummy I get to help with
7. The Mythbusters guys cuz those guys are way cool!!

7 Who Get to do this now
1. Flash & Peanut
2. Huskee
3.Lorenza
4. Joey & Tanner
5.Dannon
6. Petra
7. Ben The Rotti (if you have recovered from the fundraiser)

Phew, I better go take a nap now before Mom comes home to play fetch. She doesn't have to start dinner when she gets home tonight because Grandma is bringing home PIZZA!!!!! I hope its the barbeque chicken on because Mom always ends up eating an extra pice of that because it's so yummy which means Sasha and I get an extra pizza bone!!
Have a great weekend everybody!

Thanks Rocky!

I want to start this post by thanking Rocky for telling me what Ubssessive Cumpulsive means. Since my wonderful boyfriend Flash also gets called this then I know for a fact Rocky is correct. Here is what Rocky said it means: me thinks dat ubssessive cumpulsive means a very detailed pup, always on top of stuffs. That is so me!! Thank you Rocky for clearing that up!
This is a short post because Mom and I both have some stuff we need to get done like our What DWB Means To Me Story and I am busy researching recipes for the business I'm going to make Mom start up. I need to come up with a cool name for it, too.
I forgot to tell you guys that Mom posted the yummy bacon recipe on her cooking blog last week. It is very yummy so be sure you get someone to make it for you!!! I wish Mom would make it every week!! We're trying to figure out a good time to make bacon wrapped tater tots. Personally, I think any time is a good time, but Mom doesn't think so. I hope soon is a good time though because those are extremly yummy, plus as long as the human remembers to take the toothpick out, they are perfect shape and size for tossing through the air into a bacon and cheese loving dog's mouth.

I AM NOT Ubssessive Cumpulsive

Dad's uncle came to visit Friday night and left Saturday afternoon and I wanted to play lots with him. I even showed off a little bny putting my toys away and doing what I was told to do. He was very impressed with me and even told Grandma Iwas a pretty smart dog. Mom told me I was being an annoying and ubssessive cumpulsive, I have no idea what that means, but I know that's not me!
Dad took me out in the acreage to play with my tennis ball this weekend and for some reason Mom left her camera in the house. I was exhausted after a few throws of the ball. I didn't want to stop and Mom called me that thing again. I am not!!
Then Sunday Mom and Dad did a bunch of work out in the shop area. I helped a little bit but I was bored. Whenever Grandma went out in the yard I ran over and wanted in the small yard to play ball for awhile. Again Mom said I was Ubssessive Cumpulsive. I have no idea what that means but after being called it all weekend in the tone of voice she was using, I don't think it was good.
Grandma says my human cousins are supposed to come visit for Thanksgiving all the way from California! I've neer met the boy and the girl was real little when I met her and I was really hyper and she was afraid of me. That was right before they moved to California. I'm excited because they're going to stay at my house and the boy is 2 and from what I understand about 2 years old they'r really messy eaters and they carry food around with them a lot and their faces are really messy and need cleaning. Mom says I have to be careful around my human cousins because they're not used to being around Ubssessive Cumpulsive animals with a hyperness disorder. Mom makes it sound like I've got issues! My other human cousin who I've never met has a lab and some kitties at her house so Mom says if she ever comes to visit I'm okay to be crazy around her.
Dad and I have been planning some surprises for Mom's birthday. It's still a couple weeks away but it's kind of a big one. I know it's not polite to tell a woman's age so I'll give you clues and if you guess it on your own, then I don't get in trouble for tell you. Okay, ready? There's a 0 and a 3 and they're not in that order!! hehe I know you guys can guess it! I can't tell you any of the surprises though until after her birthday because I don't want you guys to guess them and then accidently tell Mom. Not that I don't trust you, just that you might slip.
Mom and Dad should be home soon. Mom didn't come home for lunch today and that makes me angry! She was supposed to have a meeting and her boss forgot to tell her it was resheduled. Mom finally went and got some lunch 2 hours after the meeting was supposed to start (she couldn't get ahold of her boss to find out what was going on). Tomorrow her office is having a party for Mom's birthday for lunch. It's actually the monthly potluck for birthdays in her office and there are 2 other October birthdays, but Mom is the most important one so I say it's for her. That means I won't see Mom at lunch tomorrow either! I really need to find her a new job where she can see me lots. I should start up a dog treat making business and she can be my baker and I'll get people to order yummy treats for their dogs and she can bake them. I'll start looking into that and finding recipes for he to try. I bet you would all volunteer to do some taste testing wouldn't you? We'd have to do some testing on methods for shipping them, too and I'm sure you would all help us with that.
Uh oh, Dad's home I better go let him know how much I missed him!

A Fun New Game

We're having company tomorrow night so I don't know if I'll be able to post tomorrow or not. I have to get the house ready for this visit. It's my dad's uncle coming to work on a Jeep. Not the one that lives near Houston, this one lives in Colorado. This uncle is my most favorite because he likes Jeeps AND he has a black lab and a dachsund at home so he knows how to play with us and where to scratch us. He's going to stay the night with us and then leave the next day. I can't wait!!! I'll try to post for Artsy Fartsy Friday, but I have to make sure all the cool toys are found before then. That reminds me! I need to get Mom take pictures of the new toys Grandma bought us - after I find them! They're sneaky little things!

Okay, now for the fun new game I've learned. When we moved to the new house we got new tags. We got both the rabies and the id. Mom hopes in 2 years they make the rabies tags smaller. Poor Sasha is going to have a hard time holding her head up if they keep getting bigger and bigger! Mom and Dad got me a shiny silver dogbone shaped id tag. You really can't see it very well in this picture, put it's hard to get a picture of this game - you'll understand in a little bit. Okay, so we have a GIANT picture window in the front of the house and then sliding glass doors to the back yard. This game is played in both areas and is equally fun in both locations. In that picture we're in the living room. Mom will be sitting on the couch and I'll stand in front of her just right and the sun will come in the picture window, reflect off my id tag and into Mom's eyes! It's BIG fun!! With the patio doors I have to stand outside to get the sun since it's a covered patio. I can get Mom good if she's walking through the dining room. It's fun to tease Gunnar, too because he'll chase the reflection on the floor. If possible, you guys have to try this game!!!! It's fun!!

There is a warning though. Before I figured out it was a cool game, I was a victim to the fun. I was standing outside Grandma's bedroom door and I kept scratching at the cartpet. Mom thought I had lost my marbles, but then she realized the light was reflecting off my id tag onto the floor and I was chasing it. That was kind of embarassing so that's why I turned it into a game to play with Mom. It's a lot of fun, but Mom hasn't realized that yet. Weirdo! Mom and Dad are thinking about getting me a new id tag. I hope it's really extra shiney and bigger so I can catch more sun!!

1000th Member Celebration

Hi! Remember me? It's been a crazy couple of weeks so I haven't been able to post. I think things are slowing down around here though so I'll hopefully be better about posting.
First I need to say a Happy Belated 21st birthday to my Aunt Gillian. You're a dork!!! (That was from Mom.)
Okay, now the super important stuff. Most of you know that my mom and Ben's mom are in charge of the 1,000th member celebration. There is a contest and a story blog. For the stories we want you to get creative. We want to know what Dogs With Blogs means to you. You can write a story, make a video, make a pice of artwork or whatever you can think of. Get funny, sentimental or weird. To submit your entry email Ben's mom or my mom. In the subject line you can put something like "DWB Story" if you email to my mom so she'll know it's an important email and will take care of it right away. She's really bad about not reading all her emails every day! She's getting better though. Here's the link to the blog where you can see everybody's stories and where your's will be posted: http://dwbwhatitmeans.blogspot.com/.
For the contest go here: http://dwbguessingcomp.blogspot.com/ and submit your guess. Better hurry and guess though, we're already at 986 members!!!! There are prizes for the closest guess!
We can't wait to read your stories or watch your stories so get started on them.
I'm so excited!!!!! I better go lay down for awhile.
WOOOHOOOOO!!!!

This is Hilarious!!!

Hi everyone! Hope your weekend was good. My weekend wasn't very exciting, but I still had fun - well except for the bath. I do feel good after my bath though so I'm not going to complain too much about it. I have a very funny picture to show you. Here it is:

Without the description it isn't that funny so here's what happened. Gunnar was on the floor (we're not exactly sure how long he'd been there) and Mom was on the couch. I was in the dining room in front of the sliding patio door enjoying the breeze and all of a sudden Mom was laughing and took this picture. I thought Gunnar had just stretched into a cute position so Mom had to take his picture. I was wrong. He'd been in this position for awhile glarring at Mom. Mom realized he was stuck and her first instinct as a Mom was to take his picture (glad I wasn't the one getting stuck!!!) and then she released his claws from the carpet. Mom has to trim his nails on a regular basis. Mom says she's never had a cat who's claws/daggers grow like Gunnar's! They get so long they curl into his feet. In the old house Mom knew it was time to trim his nails because he would click on the hardwood floors. This house is lots and lots of carpet so he doen't click unless he goes into the bathrooms and he hardly ever goes in there so Mom decided Sunday she needs to check him once in awhile instead of waiting for the clicking. He hasn't gotten clipped yet because Mom had just vacuumed and didn't want to get the vacuum out again to clean up the mess, but he will be clipped soon and I can't wait. After Gunnar gets his nails done we all get treats!!! It's great!!
I'm off to take a nap now. All this laughing at Gunnar stuck on the carpet makes me exhausted.

Artsy Fartsy Friday Returns

It's Friday!!! Know what that means? Lots of fetch for the next 2 days!! WOOHOO!!! The answer to Mom's questions are, no I'm not tired of playing fetch yet and no I don't have anything better to do than play fetch and yes I can play fetch by myself but it's not much fun and no my legs haven't fallen off yet.

First, I got an award from Dannan. I can't get the picture to cooperate so it's just going to have to stay where it is. It's supposed to be to the left, but it really wants to be centered. Anyway, Dannan is a new friend and he's really funny and cute (not like I have a crush on him cute, I want to make that very clear because that's how rumors get started and I don't want my bestest boyfriend Flash to think I'm cheating on him). Thank you Dannan!!

I'll do some thinking about who to pass the award on to.

Next I want to thank everyone for going to visit mom's new blog. She's all embarassed about it and is very happy that so far everybody likes it. The yummy cookie recipe that is not for dogs is posted today. I made sure she grabbed the card before she left. Good thing cuz she had some of the measurements confused.

Artsy Fartsy Friday is finally returning!!! Another post about Mom! Her head is going to explode with all the bragging I'm doing about her! Don't worry, next week it will be all about me again and her head will shrink back down to normal size again.

I'm going to share with you another one of Mom's photography pieces. This one is called Below Timberline. She was sitting in her chair on a camping trip once and looked up at the Aspen trees and had one of those spiritual moments. Cool huh? I'm hoping we get to go camping next summer. Last summer Mom had her surgery and was in no condition to go camping, this summer we moved and so my paws are crossed we get to go next summer! Mom hopes so to because she hasn't taken any new nature pictures in a long time and she says she's goingthrough withdrawl.

Hope you all have a good weekend! For those in the Hurricane Ike area that are still without electricity, I hope you get electricity soon and can post how you're doing SOON! Especially Mona and the Mommy! Sammy, Roxie and Andy have been able to update us on them, but it will be nice to hear directly from Mona that she's doing okay. My dad's uncle is bored. His wife went back to work (she works at a bank so they were one of the first to get power back) but Dad's uncle works at a place that isn't high on the priority list so he's been hanging out with other people in his neighborhood that can't go back to work yet and are bored because they still don't have electricity either. He's been making ice for the neighborhood since he has a generator for the fridge. He also finally had time to read the owner's manual on his generator and found out he should have changed the oil in it after Rita. Oops!

Mom's New Blog

Thanks to everybody for giving Mom some hugs. She was prepared for a bad meeting with her bosses, but it went way worse than she had planned and it threw her off guard. All of your hugs helped and of course hugs from me, Sasha, Gunnar and Dad helped a lot, too.
A few weeks ago Mom started a new blog. It was something she had been thinking of doing, but was a little nervous about doing. After being a devoted reader to Joey & Tanner's Mom's blog, Dorry's Mom's Blog and Sparky & Patches' Mom's blog she decided since they make it look easy, she could do it, too! - she hopes. She wanted to do her's a little different though and she decided only to do a weekly recipe so she doesn't stress out. What she does is talks about a gadget and does a review on it (so far they're all positive reviews because she's starting off with some of her favorite gadgets) and then she gives a recipe that you can make using the gadget. She has a really yummy cookie recipe for this week's post, but she keeps forgetting to take the recipe card with her to copy. She pretty much has it memorized because she loves the cookies, but she doesn't want to leave anything out. Check her blog tomorrow for that recipe (if she remembers to take it tomorrow). She also invites anybody else to do a guest post if you would like to review a gadget and share a recipe. Or, if you want to send her a gadget to do a review on, you could do that, too. Just email her at HilarysDesigns(at)yahoo(dot)com for more info on doing either of those.
I guess I should give you the address. It is http://HilarysKitchen.BraveLog.com. She's using the Bravenet blog and isn't too impressed with it so far, but she uses Bravenet for her art website and she thought if she was forced to log in to Bravenet weekly, she might update her art stuff. So far that hasn't happened, but it might. So go over and check out her stuff. The macaroni salad is very yummy! It has bacon in it!!! She also has a breakfast pizza recipe to share soon that has bacon (that's what I helped with the other night)! You'd think we eat a lot of bacon around here. That reminds me, she also has a recipe for bacon wrapped tater tots that are great for superbowl parties and any other kind of party. I'll have to remind her to share that one, too cuz it has bacon AND cheese!! I'm not sure what gadget she'll review with that recipe though. Maybe a toothpick or BACON! That's a cooking gadget isn't it? She could reiew our sucky oven!! That's the only appliance in the new house that mom hates.
So go check out her posts so far and then on Friday check out her cookie recipe. It's not for dogs, but your humans will all love them lots! Dad blames the weight he gained after he quit smoking on those cookies. Grandma told Mom she has to make some for her to take to work so she can take credit for them. Mom loves making them so she said sure. I'm also going to try to start doing Artsy Fartsy Friday again tomorrow. Lots of cool posts on Friday!
All this talk about bacon is making me hungry! I'm going to go see if any of us dropped and food this morning after breakfast. I hope I find some of Gunnar's food. That stuff is really yummy! Mom hates it because it stinks but after his bladder infection he has to be on a special ph level of food so he doesn't get sick again. If I could figure out how to run a camera without those fancy thumbs, I'd show you pictures of Mom feeding Gunnar. She makes lots of funny faces. She says changing his litterbox doesn't smell half as bad as that food. we all think the food smells good and tastes really good though. I really need to stop talking about food! I hope Mom comes home early to feed us!!!

Helping With Bacon

Hi everyone! A couple of you asked about how I cook the bacon so I'm going to give you the requirements and instructions on how to help cook bacon.
First, would you do me a big favor and send some virtual hugs to my mom? She is having a really bad week at work and it's only Tuesday! Your hugs will probably make her cry, but I think she needs them. Luckily she wears contacts and is having allergy issues right now so if someone walks into her office when she's got tears in her eyes she can blame it on her contacts and allergies - she does it all the time.
Okay here's the instructions for helping your parents cook bacon.
1. This is the hardest step I think. You have to learn to control your drooling. This is the part that takes the most focus because a dogs natural reaction to cooking bacon is to drool and to drool a lot!! If you drool during the process, your Mom could either step in it and get grossed out and annoyed or slip on it and get hurt which means the entire bacon process ends. If she gets grossed you, you get kicked out of the kitchen totally.
2. Next you have to figure out a safe spot to sit. You do not want to get in the way. If they trip over you, you get kicked out completely.
3. Once the bacon is in the pan and starts sizzling, watch for grease that pops out of the pan. If you have a slick floor be sure to clean it up if it gets too thick on the floor. My mom does a better job of controling her popping grease, but Dad makes a huge mess!
4. Once the bacon is almost done, create a distraction. This is where siblings come in handy. Make sure it's a big distraction so the one cooking the bacon has to go see what's going on and hopefully it will take a long time to take care of the distraction so the bacon gets a little too overcooked for human taste. Dogs don't care if the bacon is black and crispy! It still tastes like BACON!!
5. Enjoy the bacon, after all that hard work, you deserve it! This works on other foods like eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches hamburgers on the grill.
Hope this helps all of you!! Dad should be home soon. We're doing some yard work tonight which means I will annoy Mom and Dad with my tennis ball while they try to control the weeds in the back yard and fix the spot in the grass that has nothing growing on it. I think the previous owner had a pool set up for their dog and it killed the grass. When I get my new pool next summer I'll make sure Mom moves it around a lot so it doesn't kill my wonderful grass.

New Friend

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all doing okay. We're trying to log into out Bloglines account to check in on everybody, but it's having issues. I hope everyone near Ike is okay. Grandma tried calling her brother last night just to leave a message on his cellphone so when they finally get signal again he'll have a message and she couldn't even get it to let her connect to his voicemail so she sent a text message and all of a sudden her phone started beeping. They got the text message! We were all excited!! They live near Houston so they have no power except for a generator but they're almost out of gas. We all felt much better when Grandma got the text. We can't believe it went through. Grandma forwarded it on to her other brother and he was happy to get it, too. Grandma is becoming the texting master! Too bad they don't have texting on their cellphone plan. I think they're going to be adding it next time it comes up for renewal because Grandma is getting pretty good at it. She'll have to teach Mom some time. lol
Okay, now to tell you about my new friend. His name is Mr. Duckie (Don't worry Flash, he's not a boyfriend, just a friend that is a boy, Mom is the one that named him so it's her fault he's a boy). Grandma knows how to shop for toys for us. They're always cool and we play with them all day long. Grandma bought us a rubber duckie family. There was a Momma Duckie and 2 babies. Sasha killed one baby and the Momma vanished. We have no idea where she went. I think Sasha scared her away after destroying her other baby. So I took it on myself to take care of this little duckie. Here is a closeup of Mr. Duckie. Isn't he cute?

I was very protective of Mr. Duckie. This is me giving Mom the evil eye for not asking my permission to take a picture of Mr. Duckie.


Mr. Duckie and I played a lot of games together. Here we are doing some roaching in the living room. The living room floor is one of my most favorite things about our new house. It's so huge and there's so much space to play!

When I took naps, Mr. Duckie was in a safe place. I didn't want Sasha to get ahold of him! Here we are napping in front of the plants in front of the big picture window.

This is what Sasha thought of Mr. Duckie though (this was taken before Sasha's haircut so she's very fluffy. She spent all weekend curled up in a blanket shivering so we still don't have a after haircut picture of her).

Last week I went to get Mr. Duckie so we could play fetch with Mom and his entire left side was gone. If any of you live with a dacshund you'll know how sneaky they are and they can destroy a stuffie, rope or pretty much anything they want in about 22 seconds. I was very upset and took Mr. Duckie to Mom to see if she could fix him and she said she was sorry she couldn't. I was mad at Sasha. I wouldn't play with her or anything. When it was time to beg for food I wouldn't let her sit next to me and I'd try to steal her share. I've moved on though. I'm nice to Sasha again, but I still don't trust her.

For now on I don't let Sasha touch the toys I really like. I don't care if we're supposed to share. She killed Mr. Duckie! Grandma says she'll look for another Mr. Duckie and I won't let Sasha near him!

I'm going to go take a nap now. I heard Mom talking about cooking bacon tonight for dinner and I LOVE helping Mom cook bacon! It's a big job helping her and requires lots of energy and focus. That means a long afternoon nap is required.

A Bunch of Stuff

Hey everyone,
I'm done thinking for now. That much thinking makes my brain very tired.

First I want to send some good vibes out to all those that are going to be affected by Ike. My mom's grandma lives in Arkansas and she called last night to say that they are getting a ton of rain from it. They've already set up a base near where she lives to help after Ike is done being mean. She said there's already a bunch of people coming in that evacuated. My Dad's uncle lives near Houston and they boarded up the windows (they saved their stuff from Rita) and have the generator ready. Grandma wasn't very happy that they decided to stay again, but Grandma worries about everybody in her family and when they're in the way of something big like Ike, she goes into major worry mode.

I keep forgetting to post that I got an award from Ben. Thanks Ben!!!!

Speaking of Ben, if you've been on DWB lately you may know that my mom and Ben's Mom are in charge of a celebration for the 1000th member! Can you believe DWB is that big? My mom and Ben's mom are working on some ideas for the celebration so if you have any ideas for them, be sure to let us know. I'm thinking Mom should do 1,000 posts in 5 days, but she doesn't seem to think that's a good idea or possible. Maybe if we started going on adventures again we'd have 1,000 fun things to talk about!

I made sure Dad brought home the right dog yesterday. It is definately Sasha. Mom was a little frustrated when the weather turned rainy and gloomy this morning because it never fails, whenever she schedules Sasha to get a hircut, it gets cold and then Sasha shivers and whines for 2 or more weeks. It was hot all week until this morning and that's cuz Sasha got a haircut yesterday. Sasha's pretty cute after a haircut, but I do't have any pictures for you because she won't come out from the blankets unless she really has to go outside so Mom hasn't been able to get her picture. Mom set up several blanket stations throughout the house for her. Don't worry about her though, tomorrow and Sunday we're supposed to be back to sunshine and higher temperatures.

Sasha didn't have a belly under that fur so NO DIET!!! WOOHOO!!! Grandma was told to cut back on our snacks though. I say if we're not getting fat, then she's doing okay, but Mom says winter is comign and we're usually less active inthe winter and we both gain weight. I think she forgets how big this new house is so I hve plenty of room to excercise dring the winter. Ohwell, at least we're not going on a diet!

I'm hoping to get back to Artsy Fartsy Fridays soon. I think they're kind of fun, plus it's fun embarassing Mom. She has self-esteem issues so when you guys tell her how cool something is, she blushes and doesn't know what to say. I showed you the tiger and the glacier lake photo which are a couple of her coolest pieces, but I've got some really cool stuff to show you still. We're having a yard sale this weekend and then hopefully she can set up her studio in the garage and get back to work on more stuff for me to show you.

Stay safe this weekend everyone and if you are in a stormy area be sure to post when you can to let everyone know you're safe!! Next week I have a few fun posts planned like a new blog my Mom has started, my new friend and a fun trick I learned with my new id tag (that one's the best, you don't want to miss it!!!)

Have a good and safe weekend everyone!!!