Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Where Does the Time Go...


The Girls are already 7 weeks old!

Lucy, looking better than ever! She's such a good Momma!


Lily is full of spice! She is very active, running and jumping and attacking everyone else. I think she's the most curious of the bunch. Lily was the first born and is the largest of the pups. Her coat is the smoothest. Lily's new family includes a stay at home Mom with four children, ages 6 to 14. I'm sure she'll have plenty of time to run down some of her energy with this young family.

Tawny is precious! She will snuggle with you, cooing and kissing the whole time. The last born, she ranks third in size with her sisters. Her new parents are in their mid-sixties and just love her. They will give her a home full of love and attention. I might cry when this one leaves our home.

Baily looks so much like her Mom, Lucy! Full of cuddles, she will sit with you making those sweet baby pup sounds in your ear for as long as you want to hold her. She feels like a soft teddy bear! Baily's new family is a house full of boys, 14 to 4 in age. Her new family also has a 1 year old Yorkie! I'm so happy she won't be alone and will have someone to play with.

Sadie... last, but not least. The smallest of the pups, we plan on keeping her. I have been offered $1000 by three separate families, but still cannot make the decision to sell her. Sadie is quite the character, comes running, as fast as she can when called. She gives Peanut, what for. And she's in Rodney's face all the time. Sadie is right in the middle of all our bigger dogs, part of the gang! Yep, I think we're keeping her!

Last week, the puppies were 6 weeks old and running all over the house! As hard as I tried, I couldn't get a photo of them all together. They were all wigglely and racing around the house as fast as their little feet would take them! So, here's the best shot...


Update on my world...

My Mom tolerated her first chemo treatment well, a couple of weeks ago. She goes in for her second treatment tomorrow. In between chemo treatments, she has to give herself daily injections of another medicine. She's a retired Registered Nurse, so she's comfortable giving herself injections.

My brother's both came from California for a few days to visit with my Mom. They were here on Mother's Day. It was a gorgeous day (photo above). We had a really nice visit, justus kids with our parents. None of the grandkids were there until my son arrived on his split shift break. My Dad bar.b.qued his famous tri-tip steaks. I think my Mom really enjoyed her day with her kids. We took some family photos I'm sure we'll all treasure for years to come.

My daughter phoned on Mother's Day. I thought she might skip this holiday, but I was glad to learn I was wrong. She sounded good. Her job kept her at work most the day, she called me during her break that afternoon. It's always good to hear from her, she sounded real good, almost her old self. It was a good day!

My Gramma had us all in a scare this last Saturday. I received a call from my Mom Saturday morning, saying Gramma had been taken by ambulance to the hospital with a possible heart attack. I insisted my Mom stay home and stay away from the germs of the E.R. She insisted on going and making sure Gramma was doing okay before she decided she better get out of there. I spent the rest of my day with Gramma, by her side until late evening. The hospital ran all sorts of tests at specific time frames to insure her heart was okay. Gramma and I had planned all week long to have dinner together Saturday, so I stayed through her dinner there at the hospital. The nurse taking care of Gramma insisted we splurge and have a good dinner there, she would make sure of it. Gramma's heart was fine, no heart attack. Dinner together was fun for being in the hospital, in a room for testing that had no windows. Gramma was released to go home about 9:30pm that night.

My son is learning to manage his time. When he turned 16 years old a couple of months ago, he bought a truck. Now, he has to work to support the gas it takes to run this old truck. About a month ago, he found his first job. The rules of the house are, he must maintain a B average with his grades to be able to keep his driver's license. He's doing well, straight A's at the Charter High School. I'm pretty darn proud of my little guy.

My guy is gone more than I like him to be, at least, gone days when I'm off which I'm finding hard to handle. I have found myself at midlife and my empty nest has hit me from behind while I wasn't looking. I never thought I'd be my age and home alone all the time! I do not like this! (I hate it.) I'm ready for traveling, seeing places I've not seen before, enjoying life with my someone special... hmm, life. He'll be home tomorrow night for a few days. I miss him.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Five Weeks Old

The Girls ~ Five Weeks Old

These girls are running, jumping, growling, barking, biting, and tearing things up! They are so alert and bright-eyed. Talk about cute! All little cuddle-snuggle-butts! I cannot believe I come home for lunch every day to feed them and change their papers, and make it back to work. People at work look absolutely surprised to see me back at work after lunch. They are so sure, every day, that I'm going to call in and stay home because I cannot bare to leave these little pups. What they don't know is, I do know where my bread and butter comes from and wouldn't jeopardize that at all.


For all those wondering if I planned to keep any of these babies... I would love to keep them all! LOL I am thinking of keeping one, but we'll see. They will be ready for their new homes, Memorial Day Weekend. I have an ad going in the paper this weekend.

We already have five Yorkies, the boys, Lucy and Molly. Molly is also with children, due the end of this month. We are "hobby breeders" meaning, our dogs are our pets. Our dogs are treated like family, in a caring and loving environment. We take them everywhere with us, include them in almost everything we do. They have all come to work with me for months at a time, when they're little, and as often as I can bring them when they're older. Ozzy rides full-time with my guy, long haul trucking.

Tomorrow, my son will bring the puppies to my office with him. My son is doing some volunteer work for credit at school. The puppies will be there just over an hour before everyone leaves for the day, so they can get their puppy fixes. These puppies are pretty much the office's puppies. For the past three years, they've watched Harley, then Lucy the Mom, then Molly, from the time they were seven to eight weeks old to now. Everyone keeps asking when the babies are coming to work! I think people miss Peanut and Rodney, the last two pups that came to work everyday with me for four months. Peanut and Rodney are already eight months old. It's been a couple of months now, since the boys have been to work. It should be very therapeutic to have the babies there tomorrow, it's been so long since I've had puppies there, and everyone's going through puppy withdrawals.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Road Trip

Last weekend, we took four of the dogs and went trucking! Molly, Rodney, Peanut and I, joined my guy and Ozzy on a short run to Orovada, Nevada, just south of the Nevada/Oregon border. Here's Rodney and Molly, with Ozzy in the background, all smiling for the camera. We left the Boise area about 4 a.m. and headed south, down Hwy 95. We were loaded with brand new, empty, 40 gallon barrels for two different mint farmers. I found it interesting to hear, the farmers use the barrels to store mint oil they have distilled. The barrels hold 400 pounds of mint oil each. We were told the farmers get something like $12 per pound for their mint oil. That's a lot of money!

Here's Molly. She is so funny. She gets very excited about "going" anywhere. Once in the car it's a different story. She gets worried and probably wishes she stayed home. During our trip, Molly sat in my lap a lot.

New truck. My guy got a new truck about a week before this run. His employer had the fenders painted blue to match the rest of his fleet, and he put "32" on the nose for my guy. I'm not that much up on years and makes of cars, but the "32" has something to do with a "32 Ford." This was my first run in the truck. I was thrilled, it has an airseat that works on the passenger's side, AND it has arm rests! I was pretty darn comfy!

Full view. Here's the truck. We parked at the gas station/grocery store/snack bar of Orovada and had lunch after unloading with both farmers. Cheeseburgers were great. We grabbed some drinks and snacks for our drive back home.

Sawtooth Mountain. This mountain sits directly east of the little town of Orovada, Nevada, across the highway from the little truck stop we enjoyed lunch at. Sawtooth Mountain, standing 7380 feet, is in the Santa Rosa Mountain Range.

Heading home. Just south of Rome, Oregon, there's a water fountain and picnic table on the north-bound side of the highway. We pulled in there to get some photos. The land is very sandy and these ridges were so pretty. The desert is starting to bloom,everything is turning green.

Jordan Valley, Oregon.

Seems everytime I truck through Jordan Valley with my guy, we run into some sort of stage coach. This time was no different. I spotted the stage coach before we made the main turn, straight through the center of town. We parked along the side of the road and waited for the stage coach to come through. As they came through, they turned left in front of us. I thought they'd make another round and I would be able to get more photos. Seems we waited for quite awhile before they headed out again. As the stage coach took off, the weather turned violent. Thunder and lightening, and it was raining so hard. The stage coach never made it back around, but while waiting there, I tried to get a shot of the rain hitting the hood of the truck.

Fun day. I really enjoyed my time trucking with my guy and the dogs. Seems my guy is gone more and more as the spring and summer loads start to pick up. Time together with him seems to be less and less, I'm not happy about that. I try to make the best of the time we do have to share together. Before he left for southern California again, we had a very romantic lunch together at one of our nicer restaurants here. I didn't want our time together to end. I find myself missing him more and more. I think with some of the things going on with my family, I just need him home.