Eve's Last Week

This last week was pretty rough -- I knew Eve was going back, but it was still hard to believe. So, I made sure I spent as much time with her as I possibly could -- I think by the end of the week were Eve was definitley tired of snuggling me!

I think she'll do great -- thank you all for your kind words!

Awww. What a pretty dog!

As a last hurrah, we took her to the park and practiced "come" off leash. Eve loves running. You can see Rob in the background -- notice how they started running at the same time, but Eve was a little bit faster ;) She ran so fast that she plowed right into me!

After a few times back and forth, Eve was tired and content!

Cakes 101

This month I am taking a cake decorating class with my friend Rachel. We had our first class last week, where the instructor made everything look so easy -- of course you cake always comes out smooth I thought to myself....

Alas, my first frosted cake didn't come out as smooth as I would have hoped, but practice makes perfect so they say....

The cake out of the oven ( a nice marble fudge cake!)

I tried 'torting' the cake (cutting it in half) and filling it with pudding. I learned that I should use a decorating tip to make the rim because using a knife certainly didn't work. I ended up thinning the frosting too as it was too thick to begin with.

Then I frosted the top... looks good so far! Unfortunately when I put the two pieces together my cake wasn't quite as even as it was when it was just one piece :(

The final frosted cake. Not great, but not bad for a first try...

And to top off the evening Eve got sick tonight so was throwing up :( Not the way I want to spend my last few days with her... but she stayed with me in the kitchen and slept. Poor puppy....

That time of year....

It's summer! Now typically everyone knows that summer brings heat, but for us it really brings the heat .... Eve went into heat for the 2nd time on Saturday... poor little Eve (and us!)... now she has to stay inside all the time unless she is in our backyard. I'm so thankful we have a nice big backyard for her to play in while I'm watching.

Since the weather was nice out this weekend, I did get some gardening done! I like gardening because it is so different from what I do during the week. And it is really just a miracle how much things grow and how beautiful flowers are!

These are some columbines that come up year after year.... I love the light on the petals that changes the color of the flower completely!

This was my big project today -- finishing the flower garden... Rob and I went to Lowes and bought 5 bags of mulch which I layed out around all the plants after weeding. I think it makes for a finely finished flower bed! I planted some more bulbs today, and I have planted Dahlias (my favorite, the big plate size ones), gladiolous, clematis, and of course some vegetables. I just saw that my asparagus are acutally growing, so I am excited about that!

Our other project for today was finding a spot for my hanging tomato plant. My neighbor has his on the side of his house, but considering they can weigh up to 70 lbs, Rob and I didn't want to take that risk. So Rob and I came up with this solution in the corner of our yard, using the fence for support! Thanks Rob for helping me! Maybe we'll have a lot of cherry tomatoes!! At least it gets sun!

Furry Friends in the Garden

Today we were thinking about going on a photo trip to take pictures, but as it is gloomy outside, we decided to stay home. So, I used this nice day to do some gardening. I had several furry friends help me with the garden (Eve being the biggest one). When I first went out to garden, there was another friend in my garden. Eve didn't see it (Thank Goodness!) In fact, she just laid down, and I told her to stay so I could grab my camera... if you look in the picture below, in the upper right hand corner, you can see my other furry friend hiding from Eve.

Click on the picture to make it larger....
in case you couldn't see it, it was a cute little bunny rabbit. It scampered off shortly once I started working out there!

Eve Day 4

Eve loves snuggling. A lot.

So every night when I go to bed, or when I wake up in the morning, she is looking at me with these SAD eyes, saying, "Please, won't you snuggle me? I NEED someone to snuggle me! -- Mostly, I need Brianna to snuggle me because she gives in more than Rob..."

What can I say? I love snuggling too!

Really, how can you resist this cute face? Looks like she might just cry if you don't give in....

Eve Day 3

Eve is a very smart dog. (if I do say so myself!)

One of the tricks we taught her is to bow. We started teaching her this because she always stretches and it looks like a bow, so we just started teaching her that way. Now she is pretty good at it, and we're pretty proud of her!

We think it would be fun to have her bow at graduation.

Here you can really tell she is bowing!

Eve day 2

Well I did say Eve loves to spend time on her back, didn't I?

Tonight I was trying to teach her some tricks, and she always thought I would be happy if she rolled on her back... I think her thought processing was something like this... "Well, I don't understand what you want me to do, but you can rub my belly while I think about it!"

I love her facial expression here -- "Why are you taking my picture and not rubbing my belly?!"

The Eve Eval

Yesterday Eve got evaluated by our regional coordinator for Guide Dogs. Our evaluation was at 6 pm, so I had all day to make Eve tired (and hence well behaved) and to clean her up. I gave her a bath and then let her play outside.

Eve did awesome at her evaluation. It wasn't anything like I thought it would be -- it was very basic. We did some checks to see if the dogs were scared, such as walking over a cardbord box or walking by a dumpster when the leader was banging the lid closed. All the dogs did great. There was nothing Eve couldn't handle :)

These are a few of the snapshots that I took with a portrait lens of a semi-wet dog...

I like to think of Eve as a speed skater in this picture -- look at that angle of her body!

Merry Christmas!

Well I can't believe how fast Christmas is coming. Although Rob and I have not yet finished our Christmas shopping for each other, we have finished shopping for Eve :) We bought her some toys and put them in her stocking. Without even us pointing it out, Eve found her stocking and loves to patiently stay staring at her stocking....

It's like that dog from the movie UP......"Point!"

"Is anyone going to help me get this stocking down, or do I have to do it myself?" asks Eve

ColdSpell

For a while, it was REALLY, REALLY cold. I woke up one morning and it was -13 degrees! It made us bundle up everywhere we went. We even bundled Eve up! I'm not sure she loved the hat though, but it was cute!

Guide Dogs Christmas Party

Tis the season to dress up your dog (or kid) in all sorts of funny attire!

This weekend we went to the Guide Dog Christmas Party. The hostess, my good friend Stacie, had a bunch of funny outfits for the dogs to try on. Eve was very good as we continued to try on different costumes!



"Look, I'm an elf!"

Eve and the Firetruck

The fun didn't stop for Eve at the Rockies Game. Nope, she got more fun on Sunday, when we took her to a social outing at the firestation. She got to meet a fireman, who she was scared of at first. It is one of the few things Eve is scared of.... but as soon as the fireman gave her a piece of dog food, she wanted to play with him. Silly Eve!

All the Guide Dog puppies in our club

Eve in the firetruck... wheee!!!

The Rockies Game

This weekend was very busy! After helping some friends move for a good portion of the day on Saturday, we headed down to the Rockies game to meet some other friends. And of course, we couldn't leave Eve all by herself, so she got to come as well. We didn't remember how close the seats were until we tried to fit Eve in front of us. Thankfully, the people in front of us were dog lovers, and they didn't mind when Eve leaned her head on the guys shoulder or coughed in the girls face. Oops! Eve was really good, and sometimes she even seemed to be enjoying the game.We met Eve's foster parents there, Alex and Stacie, who kindly took Eve for a few innings where she could have a little more room. Funny how we all ended up at Coors field on the same night!

Thank goodness for friends who can help with the puppy!

Eve intently watches the game....

Yes, I think Eve is actually resting her head on that guy's shoulder... hmmm

Go Rockies!!!

Eve vs the Bike

Our weekend toy!!! We got this neat dog carrier for Eve so we could take her out on bike rides with us. We are not supposed to run with her because her hips are still developing and we don't want to cause hip displaysia (sp?). So we bought this carrier specifically for dogs online.

This weekend was the first time we got the chance to try it out..

At first Eve didn't know quite what to make of it....she says, "Guys, I trusted you and you put me in here... please take me out...."
Another shot of Eve giving us a sad face. We try to tell her that it will be fun!


And we're off -- I snapped some shots while Rob rode ahead. We rode to a concert in a nearby park. It was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed the jazz music. I think Eve liked her first bike ride, although she never seemed quite to settle down. Amazingly enough in the below picture she is sitting, which was unusual.

Usually Eve liked to practice her surfing skills and stand and balance. This picture below she is staring at Rob. Rob did a great job driving slowly so Eve had a good time! We also took her in the carrier to church on Sunday.

Weekend chores

I think it is almost a universal truth -- weekends are good times to catch up with chores and housework. This weekend we did laundry and some cleaning. Eve decided to help us with the cleaning. How nice of her! Silly dog wasn't quite strong enough to lift the detergent up enough to pour into the washer, so she just decided to chew on the bottle (And run around with it gleefully in the back yard)

Little Miracle

I'm in a recreational softball league with work. Tonight we had a game after work -- typically we play on Tues/Wed but since today was Thursday, we were down a few players and only had enough to make an entire team with no subs. I brought Eve to the game anyways, because it was better than sitting in her kennel. I tied her up to the bench where she couldn't get into any trouble.

Typically I like playing 1st base, but tonight we all played different positions. So I initially went to third. 3rd was on the opposite side of the field from our dugout. During the first few innings, Eve was great -- she just sat there and watched all of us. But then in the third inning, I moved to right field. During this inning Eve went to the end of her leash and started licking/eating things off the ground. I had checked the ground earlier, so I knew there was nothing bad around, but I suspected she was just eating the gravel, which is not good anyways. But I figured it would be too distracting if I yelled all the way from the outfield. So I thought of sending Eve telepathic thoughts, but to no luck. And then I thought, "Well God could help me!". So, not really thinking too much about it, I casually asked God to make Eve stop eating whatever she was munching on. And about 10 seconds later, this little girl comes wandering over to our dugout (which Eve was at all alone), and walks straight over to Eve to pet her. Of course as soon as Eve sees the girl walking toward her, she stops licking/eating the ground and goes to see the girl.

Think what you may, but God works in mysterious ways! Even in little miracles...

Eve gives it her all....

So Eve was a little sad after Gromit didn't want to play with her this morning. But luckily, we had the Guide Dog Annual Picnic this afternoon, where Eve got to play and play and play. I think she was the only dog that didn't get tired -- she just cycled through the dogs playing tug and chase with them. I think this is Eve and Dickens... Dickens is the same age as Eve.

Eve and Tim duke it out -- Tim is 13 months old, but they are about the same size

The two little puppies, Betsy and Anthony decide to try to play with the big dogs. It looks like so much fun!

Run Eve, Run!

A new tug toy -- who is winning?

Eve practicing her olympic jumping skills :)