Painting fireplace and a new puppy!

Trav and I started off the weekend right! With dinner and movies. It was a nice relaxing Friday evening.

Saturday we slept in, and went jogging first thing in the morning. After our jog we got ready, and decided to tackle painting the fireplace with our brick-a-new. We worked on it from 2 - 7, and we are very pleased with the results. It really updates the fireplace, but without taking away from the brick. We are happy with how it turned out! And it's one more thing we get to mark off the to-do list!! That evening we went to visit Trav's co-worker Bob's new puppy.

We’ve been talking about getting a dog for a few years but we just never felt the time was right. They are a LOT of work and require us to be home more than we usually are. We were going to wait until we had children since I’m planning to stay home with the kids and we thought that would be easier with the puppy/dog as well.

Bob got a new puppy for his 15 year old son for Christmas. He got him a 6 week old AKC yellow lab. Trav and I are pretty good friends with his co-worker Bob, and his wife and we've been over to thier house several times for dinner. I LOVE kittens and puppies so of course I wanted to go meet her! They just picked her up 1/17/09 so she was still so tiny when we went to visit on 1/24/09. She was such a good girl, and very smart. They had already taught her to sit, and to stay on the kitchen floor and off the carpet. She did well in her kennel already to!

Trav had been telling me all the things Bob had already gotten for her….a huge kennel that she could still use when she was full grown, a couple blankets, food, food dishes, treats, a brush, a collar, shampoo, urine neutralizer, bitter apple spray to put on things so she wouldn’t chew on them, toys, bones….the list when on and on. Not to mention how much SHE cost, $650! Ouch! AKC dogs are expensive! It confirmed in my mind that we couldn’t afford a dog right now! All those things were very expensive, not to mention the food we’d always have to buy, and the vet visits.

So, we went to visit the cutest little puppy in the world. My husband fell in love and the whole way home talked about dogs. There are a lot of positive sides….I’d love to have a dog for protection. Even if it’s not a guard dog, the bark will usually scare predator’s away. I’d also love to have a dog to go jogging with me, and get me to go at least for a walk every day. And to go spend time at the park with, playing fetch. A dog would be a great companion for going to the beach, camping, or to the lake! But, the expense and the work involved pushed the idea out of my mind.

Sunday morning Trav got a phone call from Bob. His son wasn’t taking care of the puppy and they had a talk with him about it. They said if he wasn’t going to commit to taking care of her, they were going to have to get rid of her. He said he just didn’t know all the responsibility involved and with sports, friends, and school he just didn’t have time to take care of her. SO they wanted to offer her to us before placing an ad in the paper. They’d give her to us WITH all the things they had bought for her, for $400. I knew that was a great deal but it was still a lot of money and still a lot of work.

Trav and I talked about it for hours, and finally decided that we were ready for a dog. We called Bob back and accepted. We picked her up and brought her home, and she is pretty much the cutest thing ever. We named her Emma. We are already in love.

Emma at 7 weeks old

We are enjoying raising a puppy. It is a lot of work, just like everyone says. We figure it’s good practice for having kids!! We are getting up 2 - 3 times a night to let her out, and she keeps us busy from when we get home until we go to bed. Luckily she is very good in her kennel and she is great about waiting until we can let her out before using the bathroom. We are able to come home for our lunch break everyday which is great for letting her out. She is a blessing.