Never alone....

The Door has closed,

Goodbyes where said

As the cars drive away I notice the silence of an empty house,

Even John and Dominic have left to run errands,

it is just me, alone at last

So I pick up the laptop

I sit on the couch

I get all sorts of comfortable

and right as soon as I begin to soak in the feeling of being a lone

I am quickly reminded by 2 mangy dogs tug-a-waring over a toy that I am never alone

at least not while I am at The Animal House

(Which is actually good, because I am extremely afraid of being alone)

The animal House has some new additions...

I want to tell you all about a few changes we have made...

Friday we had a group of guys come out and rate our house on energy efficency of our Air Conditioner and we failed big time, they made some changes to improve things, and so did we, and now instead of a doggy door made out of plywood and a black trashbag we have a new doggy door that John has constructed out of 1x1's and plexi-glass that we just happened to have laying around. The dogs are a bit concerned about their new doggy door and I think that is because they looks so good they think it is actually the window, but we have been working with them on getting use to going out it.

Some of the benefits of this new doggy door is not only that it saves energy by not letting all the cold air out, but John didn't screw it into the window like the last one--it is secured to some degree but in an emegency can be removed and the window can be used by all as an emergency exit which brings us one step closer to becoming state certified because one of there requirments is 2 emergency exits, one neither of which can be the kitchen door--SO YEAH ME (as London Typton would say)

Also, since the doogy door looked so nice and John was on a roll I was able to convince him to finally put up the wood fence panels on the side of the House where the vegitable garden is and so now the bunnies have an area of their own where their cage can go and they won't be bothered by the dogs, after the scare we had when Red knocked over the cage last week we realized hwo big a problem having the bunnies in the backyard could really be. Also, now that we have an area outside the back yard that is fenced in we have an area where we can pitch the tent for camp outs, and were we can set up the blow up pool without fear of the dogs puncturing it--not all at once because the area still is small, but we can now do things that we have been prevented from doing because fo fear that the dogs would be a problem--not only that, but if we ever have to we can lock the dogs in that area while we occupy the back yard dog free--See there are so many possabilities

SO, I am sorry iI haven't been on all weekend, but as you all can see, I have had a very busy week getting all this stuff taken care of --telling John what to do can be a full time job in and of itself ;)

And for all of you who are wondering, my laptop has finally been sent out for repairs and should be returning to us fuly functioning at the end of the month so I will be going back through these posts and posting pictures then.

Play Dough

Who invented playdough? I don't know whether to hug them or hate them, I love how happy and content the children are when they play with it, I hate the mess that some how always creates. Play Dough, in my opinion, might just be one of the simplest educational toys you can get, and this is why I love it:

• the bright colors stimulate a young childs mind
• it can help a child learn about colors
• a child has fun with playdough whether playing by themself or with 20 other kids
• playdough doesn't need accesories
• it can honestly entertain a child for hours
• Imagination builder--need I say more

I only have a few gripes about playdough--the mess it makes and how it seems to be a one time only thing, cause after you give a child playdough it always seems to go from solid color to marble in a matter of secondse--why is this?

Child proofing

SO a few weeks ago we bought this childgate that goes in wide doorways, we use it to block the walkway from the front room to the dinning room, it is metal and very sturdy so we were certain it coudl outstand Dominic, he though figured out how to open the door, and since we don't have all that much need to keep the door closed it stays open most the time, the problem is that the gate wasn't deigned to sit flush with the floor and so this little bar hangs about 2 inches off the floor causing anybody who doesn't realize its presence to trip over it, causing it to be more of a hazard than a help (oh the storied I could tell)

NOW, I ask you all--what childproofing item do you feel does more damage than good? which one do you feel the house would be safer without? (you all know atleast one)

animal house going hairless for the summer

With temperatures reaching well over 100 degrees the other day we have decided to go hairless--well John has anyways. I cut over 2 ft of hair off, trimmed dominics down from 2 inches to half a centemeter---sorta.....next the dogs, wait, Besi is short haird and Red was shaved last month (kinda) either way, we have definately got our money out of those $10 clippers from walmart...I will post pics later

Camping out on the tramp

I don't have time to post a long post right now as we are getting ready to run out the door to do some more 4th of July Celebrating, but I did want to pop in and say that last night Dominic had a friend sleep over and daddy slept with them out on the trampoline--that is a special treat.

I started the night out there but came in about midnight so I could use my Cpap mask and get to sleep (all the boys were asleep at this point) and when I came in I found that even though we were all outside sleeping the dogs were still assuming there regular bedtime spots--Besi on our bed, and Red on the floor next to it, laying on some blankets, and to think we thought that was where they felt they could protect us best, we should have known they slept there cause they liked it and that they wouldn't be sleeping out with us last night.

Gotto love our dogs and how they are still in denial that they are, infact, actual dogs.

I will post pics later, by the way

sorry it took so long to post the pics

No name (the bunnie) Has an official name

I forgot to tell you all that John and I finally decided on an official name for No Name the male bunnie, and as much as I thought No Name would be his official name, and as much as the kids wanted to name it Care Bear or its original name Bell Bell, we have decided the best name for him would be Skiddish, he is so small and everything around our house is so big and lound that he can't help it if he is a bit Skittish, but since we come from Utah where "T" sound more like "D" we Utahn'ed his name and now call him Skiddish.

Excitement

Image by roberthuffstutter via Flickr

OK, so today was an even more exciting day than we had originally planned it to be, we had 2 new additions arrive at our house around 4 am, I would like to say all the commotion they made woke us up but we actually were already awake, I woke up at 3, Dominic woke up about 3:45, and John joined the crew around 4--granted he woke up cause his alarm went off, he had to leave early to get "Jessica" since her car broke down yesterday and so she couldn't drive here at her usual time today, instead John had to go and pick her up before he went to work.





Anyhow, the commotion started about 4 am, but I didn't find out who was really the cause till about 7:45, at which point I tried to welcome the 2 little strangers into the home, I flea bathed them and then we let them outside. Unfortunately Red is just fine being the baby of the family and was not about to let 2 strays take his place, and so before he could literally kill the 2 puppies we had to seperate him from the bunch--but that didn't work out so smoothly.






Anyhow, we finally decided what I already knew--it wasn't meant to be, but unfortunately the new puppies didn't see it that way, I never thought I could keep them, but I at least thought we could hold on to them till we found them a new home. Either way, the commotion the dogs were making and the point that I had little sleep the night before made for a bad equation, I finally decided to crate the puppies on the front porch till I could figure out what to do with them--silence is bliss, and that is what we experienced while they were in the crate.






About 3 pm I decided they needed to be walked and that was when we came to the brilliant idea of how to get them a new home--no we didn't drop them on the side of the rode, we just took them for a walk without a leash and they were so eager to join some other kids "jessica" said she figured that was their home and left them there (way to go "Jessica") either way, they are probably safer there then they were here with attack dog Red (note to self, Red does not do well with other male dogs)


Oh and if having the visitors for 12 hours wasn't bad enough, during that time we decided to take the bunnies outside, well Skiddish got out of "Jessica's" hands and Red for the first time tried to eat him, it wasn't pretty but Skiddish (our male baby bunny) survived and was safely returned to the cage after the 5 minutes it took us chasing Red and him before we finally caught him, speaking about that, now that all is said and done (we had a small dinner party) we should probably go and let those 2 little bunnies inside to continue guarding their "bathroom"

Knowing our luck our little visitors will return biright and early tomorrow morning.

update:
to our amazement it has been a while and they have yet to return--Yeah, turns out they just needed to be reminded that they had a home of their own.