It's ACD time!

Gunner is doing great. He's loving the warmer weather (I think?) and getting to explore a lot more. He just finished week 3 of 6 in "Basic Manners" class at the Humane Society. The trainers keep using him as the example dog because he picks up commands/expectations very quickly. And perhaps because they both have heeler mixes? He's big and strong and beautiful and a total ham.  He attacks G's feet from under the trampoline while G is jumping.  We had to put a stop to that because he's putting little holes in the floor of the trampoline!  When you make that sshh noise you'd make to quiet a child, yeah he thinks that means he's supposed to run around like a dog on crack and bark with you, complete with play bow and Nascaresque track running.  When E let's him inside after his morning constitutional if E didn't close our bedroom door Gunner will run directly to my room and take a flying leap onto the bed, landing of course right in the middle of sleeping me.  He apparently hasn't learned not to wake a sleeping bear.  A-hole.

Digestive issues, well we're still working on it. It'd be helpful if he'd quick eating moose poop and old bones he's found in the woods but apparently they taste so good they can't be resisted? I ended up switching him to a lower quality/cheap food. I hated to do it but the vet actually suggested it, saying that lower quality foods usually have a lot more fiber in them and that that might help. He's also on a chewable probiotic and that seems to be helping a little bit too. He still has the power poops most days but typically his first one is solid and any thereafter are the same old shoots out 4 feet streak of poo. He is still healthy as a horse though so I'm going to keep going this way and maybe (please!) it'll be something he outgrows!

He still seeks out snow to poop and pee in which is hilarious to me. Yes, sadly, we do still have some snow. But with days over 80 degrees the snow is receding quickly! I am going to buy him a plastic poor in the next few weeks because anytime he's around water he's IN the water. He learned to use the Lick-It (outside faucet attachment for dogs) from the first time he saw it so he knows how to keep himself cool on the warmer days. He loves going fishing at the pond but mostly because he really, really, really wants to retrieve the bobbers when they're cast out! He scared the crap out of himself the other day when he caught a frog because it fought back. 

He loves the creek that runs behind the shop.  Remember the pond we dug out for fire suppression last year?  He loves to bite the rushing water pouring into the pond from the creek.  And then he falls in.  Every time.  He's learning how to swim quickly out of necessity because none of us have jumped in there to rescue him.  Mountain creek water in May?  Yeah, no thanks.

He doesn't stay in the yard very well presently but I think it's just because he has so much more room to explore now that the snow is mostly gone. He stays in the woods right around the house and he comes when he's called so I'm letting him figure out how far he can or can't go.  He stays in the compound well and hasn't shown any "desire" to head towards or even acknowledge the highway.  He hasn't noticed the deer near the entrance yet and for that I'm grateful because I am fairly certain his recall will go right out the window once he sees them and their need to be herded.

We have discovered that he can obliterate a tennis ball in less than ten minutes.  Like tear it to pieces.  

He was trying to share with Siren but she'd had enough of him that day.  Because he can be kind of a non-stop puppy playing jerk to her.  She has already started to lose weight though because when she feels up to it she can play like a puppy too!  

Oy.  And these two.  They're so great together and yet they drive us crazy.  G's forearms and backs of his legs from the knee down are so bruised and battered.  I worry that someone is going to call CPS to investigate or something because if I was someone else seeing this child's bruises I would!  But they just play that rough.  Don't feel bad for either of them because they give it to each other.  G is obnoxious and he screams and runs away from Gunner so that the dog will chase him.  And then when Gunner does chase G and bites him (never breaks the skin) G gets pissed and says that Gunner is breaking his heart.  Once they outgrow this behavior they are going to be the very best of friends.  Most days they already are but they each get a little mean.

So......loving life with Gunner the Wonder Dog.  I think he's going to love summertime up here...I hope his paws are ready for some serious hiking!

Me

In The Light

Two days all about moi!

Oh Mother's Day 2014, how sweet you were. I woke up to the sounds of my guys preparing me breakfast in bed. I lay in bed for almost an hour before I was served but it was TOTALLY worth the wait. Bacon AND french toast. I'm a sucker for bacon and french toast. I pretended to still be asleep and G was so excited to wake me up!

He wasn't excited because of the breakfast in bed (a first for me!) but he was excited for me to open presents. Why? Because E, in his infinite wisdom, let G pick out a gift for me...and G picked out a Lego set. Oh yes, he picked out something HE wanted and then he had to wait until my birthday (he though Sunday was my birthday) to give it to me. He thought he'd give it to me and I'd just hand it to him. Little did he know.

My MD's gifts were a set of solar powered garden lights, they're glass globes and they cycle through colors. They're along the sidewalk now and we love to go out and watch them at night! Such a pretty, fun, and unexpected addition to our very "natural" landscape. And a hammock chair. E hung it from the front porch so I can sit it and watch G play in the yard. It's wonderfully relaxing unless I start swinging it and bump my rear into the concrete porch. Oops.

As if MD's wasn't wonderful enough, the next day was my 36th birthday. Hello, middle age, nice to finally meet you. Bastard.

I got to sleep in (woohoo) and then I got to open my gifts. One was a FitBit which I've been asking for for awhile now. The other, of course, was the dreaded Lego set that I knew was only going to cause a big fight. G was so anxious for me to open it. I opened it and said thank you and then put it to the side. "Put it together now mommy." "Nah, I'll wait because it'll drive you crazy." Well I got tired of driving him crazy and I put it together and he disappeared with it, happily. Oy. All my work each Christmas and at friends' birthdays of having him think of someone other than himself...pick out gifts for someone else, not based on what he wants but on what he thinks they want, etc. down the drain. Okay, maybe that's being dramatic but sure enough when I asked G what we should do for daddy's day this year he said, "Let's go buy him a Lego set, he loves to play Lego with me!" Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Anyway, remember that I had bought my own birthday present (basic manners classes for me and Gunner) so the Fitbit was a surprise! My mom and sister got me lovely gifts too, because they like me. Well, I think that's why. Or they feel obligated, I don't know?

A lovely dinner was made for me and the boys even baked a cake. The neighbor brought over a strawberry rhubarb pie his mom had made and I got to eat that instead of the cake. Ha! I hate cake.

A lovely two days where my two guys made me feel very special and very loved.

And a few more birthday cards from family members to give you an idea of the people I hang out with.  A birthday card about boob sag and one about asshole bunnies.  Yep.

I have a personality?

Your personality tendencies in a nutshell...

You are very dependable and almost always follow through with your commitments. You value different and aesthetic experiences more than the average person. You are calm and logical for the most part, but some things worry you more than others. You are typically respectful toward others and dislike confrontation. You may be outgoing or reserved depending on the situation.

YouJustGetMe.com's guest psychologist Dr. Peggy has a little more, uh, informalinterpretation of your traits... 

About that "Disciplined" bubble... To always be responsible and dependable gets too heavy at times and you just have to shirk it all sometimes of and do something that is wild and crazy, like going to sleep WITHOUT brushing your teeth. Come and do your worst, dental bacteria! No one is arguing that you are not reliable; it's just that you differ from your very high conscientious peers in that you also have some streaks of impulsivity and can make some spontaneous decisions, rather than lumbering through all of the alternative scenarios. Maybe you're disorganized (God forbid), or perhaps you like to leave your dirty socks all over the house (the horror), or you're a procrastinator (that's the worst one of all). Whatever is the case, you are not conscientious to the extent that you bore people with your stodgy ways.

About that "Abstract" bubble... Your scores indicate that while you are clearly a non-traditionalist, there are some aspects of your personality that are rooted in the comforts of the mundane. You may value artistic expression to the extent that walking through museums full of antiquities is your favorite thing to do. Perhaps you revel in the abstract and the unknown. Yet, you also shake your head in wonderment as to why some people choose to live their lives or decorate their bodies so non-traditionally. At times, you may also find yourself fixed in certain ideas, even though you pride yourself in being open to novelty and creative thinking. In the end, all this suggests is that you take a pinch of convention along with a scoopful of whimsy in your drink of choice.

About those "Unemotional" and "Neurotic" bubbles... To quote the Hershey chocolate company, "sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't." That pretty much sums up your score on the trait of emotional stability. There are times when you feel such intensity of emotions, mostly negative, that you just want to lie down and spend the day thinking about how you can score Prozac. In other contexts (like when you are on your meds), you feel just fine - calm, happy, ready to face the day. The emotions cancel each other out and you look like you are dealing with life fairly well statistically. Another possibility for your middle scores on emotional stability is that some things push your button more than others and when your buttons get pushed, you stress and freak. What's that I hear? Is that your mom calling? For the most part though, you are the epitome of grace under pressure.

About that "Cooperative" bubble... Your scores would suggest that you tend to be more agreeable than you are competitive. What does that mean? For starters, it means that you have a fairly strong tendency to believe in social harmony and cooperation. You are a nice person. You want people to get along and do the right thing - for each other, for the greater humanity. That's not to say that you are a total pushover, but that you believe in the niceties of life. This is probably why you are very popular with people and have many friends. The difference between you and someone who is very high in agreeableness is that you have a bit of an edge. Maybe you laugh when people fall down and hurt themselves, maybe you secretly occasionally think people suck. Whatever it is that's holding you back from winning Ms. or Mr. Congeniality, that's also what makes you more interesting.

About those "Introverted" and "Extraverted" bubbles... There are two possible reasons why you might have scored right smack dab in the middle on the trait of extraversion/introversion. First, you may be the type of person that answers "that sort of sounds like me" to questions about how you interact with the world. Do you like to party like it's 1999? Do you enjoy making small talk with the walls at a friendly get together? The answer to these incisive questions and other similar inquiries that tap into your social prowess would typically be "sometimes." The second possible reason why you are both extraverted and introverted (or neither of these traits, depending on how you look at it) is because you are statistically bipolar - answering an emphatic, "yessiree Bob" to some questions, while inaudibly whispering "that's not me" to other questions - causing your answers to cancel each other out. Never fear, balance is here. Frankly, being capable of enjoying time out with friends and sharing a laugh or two is that much sweeter if you can also savor time alone and take pleasure in quiet.

http://www.youjustgetme.com/?page=self_test_new