Staring Contest: Stella vs. Ball

 

The ball won.

Stella's Present

The only thing Stella wanted for her birthday (I'm assuming) was a big bone to snack on.

 

 

And it took her about 10 minutes to finish it off.

 

We gave her a few more 'treats' for her 1st birthday as well. Obviously, the way to her heart is through her stomach.

 

The birthday girl! And yes, I did sing her happy birthday. Joe didn't join me on that one though.

 

Stella's 1st Birthday was a success!

It's Stella's 1st Birthday!!!

Stella turns the big ONE today.

 

 

It's hard to believe she's already been part of our family since January.

 

I wish I could say, "I remember the day you were born", but I definitely remember the memories we've made since the day we took you home.

 

Joe and I always say, "I couldn't imagine her not in our lives." It's so true.

And I know, I know, she's 'just' a dog.

 

Happy 1st Birthday my dear Stella girl.

And a hunter was born...

 

Stella on the hunt for squirrels again.

 

Stella's Recent Doings...

Oh sure. Stella has been a very good puppy. And I mean VERY good.

 

She...

 

...Doesn't bark. Unless she sees something that spooks her a bit which is understandable.

...Loves to cuddle. Yes, we have a 60 pound dog who thinks she's a lap dog. And I love it.

...Is smart. For example, I can say "Where's your ball?" and she'll go and find it and bring it back to me. It's awesome.

...Didn't have a huge chewing phase like a lot of puppies do...she mostly got at our toilet paper which is a lot better than our shoes or socks.

...Is calm for a lab. Meaning, in a room full of people with things going on she'll just lay down in the middle of it all and hang out.

...Is a good listener...when she chooses to be. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times when I tell her to come and she's way to busy investigating something to pay any attention to me.

 

However, lately...she's been a little trouble maker. We've been leaving her out of her kennel since she was about six months old and we've rarely had a problem. Remember the toilet paper I mentioned above? That would be the extent of what she'd get into and we solved that problem by shutting the doors to the bathrooms. However, the real mess started last week.

 

Monday I ran to the grocery store and when I came home she had chewed up Joe's Chaco sandals. Plus, she had my good walking/hiking shoes next in line. They were wet like she'd been licking them but no sign of destruction yet. Okay...Joe needs a new pair of sandals...we can handle that.

 

Then that same night, I left to volunteer at the hospital and Joe was taking one of his finals. I left at 6pm and he got home at 7pm. Within that hour she managed chew up about four decks of cards and our games UNO and Farkle. (For those of you who don't know what Farkle is...it's a dice game that comes in this heavy plastic like cup thing that you use to shake up the dice.) Nothing was salvageable. Not even the plastic!

 

Ugh. She knows what she does is wrong (see she's smart) because as soon as you walk in the door she is crawling to you with her ears as low as they can go. And she looks sad.

 

The next incident happened on Thursday. Joe and I went out for dinner, we were gone for about an hour, and this time she pulled books off our bookshelf and decided to chew those up! AHHH! We got mad at her again...I don't think I've said the word NO so many times within a five minute time span and we hoped she learned her lesson.

 

Not quite. Saturday we had to run about an hours worth of errands and although I mentioned putting her in the kennel, Joe wanted to give her one more try. He has a lot of faith in her. She got into the ONE thing I really care/need. My nursing textbook that I use for every. single. class. My heart sank and I started crying. Thankfully, I found my $180 book on Amazon for $90 and I should be getting it today or tomorrow.

 

Now, Stella is back in the kennel when we leave the house. The poor girl is to big for it too and can't sit up straight in it. Hopefully she'll realize it's not okay to chew on anything except for her toys. And it's so hard to stay mad when you're looking at this face...

 



Stella's Girls' Night

On Saturday night Joe and I had a few friends over for a fire. It was such a perfect night for hopefully many more fires to come this fall. However, we're not the only ones who had friends over. Stella had her first "Girls' Night" as I like to call it. :) I know, she has no understanding of what "girls night" means but just let me roll with it. Our friends Megan and Matt brought their yellow lab, Charlie, and Joe and Britta brought their black lab, Ruby! Ruby was the boss lady and the other two girls just followed along haha.

Stella and Charlie could be twins...seriously. Stella is the one standing, Charlie has the ball.

This was the best we could do to get them to sit still for a quick picture or two...distract them with a ball. It was so hard to get a picture since they were all over the place.

Having these three girls run around like crazy made our house feel very tiny but it was so much fun to watch them play together. All. Night. Long. There heads and necks were sopping wet from playing with their mouths wide open. When every left for the night, Stella collapsed from exhaustion. She got up the next morning to eat and then went back to bed for the morning.  

Can't wait for the next get together!!

A little bit more from the wedding weekend...

Happy 4th of July! Er, well now 5th of July but I hope everyone had a great day celebrating America yesterday. We hit an actual temp of 101 degrees...with the heat index it felt like 110 degrees or something like that. hot! Hot! HOT! Joe and I worked on a very big project all day long in the AC, more details on that Monday and then we walked to the fireworks. Stella did great too and the loud booms didn't seem to bother her.

After Joe gets home from work today, we're packing up our stuff and headed to the lake for the weekend! We are so excited to finally get out to the cabin (Joe's parent's cabin) and soak up the sun! Then on Sunday we'll be celebrating his grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary with them and the family!!

Before I get to baking some goodies to bring with us, packing, laundry, grocery shopping and whatever else I need to get together I thought I'd share some photos from Sadie and Tyler's groom dinner and I have a story to share with you as well...

Now for the story. So my Mom and I had put out a couple plates of homemade bars before the rehearsal started and when we were done she went back in there to start bringing in the food. What she found was an empty plate of bars including the saran wrap with scratch marks on the tablecloth. The culprit...Stella. My heart sank with the thought of all the chocolate in those bars. I lost it and was in tears while my calm sister Andrea called a vet to see what we needed to do.

The magic answer: Hydrogen Peroxide. We had to give her 3 tablespoons of that stuff which helped to induce some vomiting action. Thankfully she was able to get everything up and out, including the saran wrap in about five separate rounds. Thanks for giving me a heart attack Stella. My mom's words to me...Welcome to Motherhood. Thanks Mom.

Stella vs. Toliet Paper

On Wednesday when I got back from Andrea's birthday dinner, I was greeted with a little surprise that Stella had left for me. She has a thing for anything paper like...

The culprit

What did you do?!!

Here's a video from the incident. Forgive me, I say "I didn't shut the toy" when I meant "door". haha. Stella would just start crawling and be right under my feet like she knew what she did was wrong. It's hard to be mad at her though:)

Here Birdy Birdy...

Last weekend when we were home I was walking through the yard and noticed my Mom's new garden decor. I'm usually not one for things like this but we went to the place where she got it from and I got one for myself! Hey Mr. Bird!!!

I thought he was kinda cute:) While I was admiring my bird, Stella was playing with a moth she found. She also learned how to catch ants last weekend thanks to my father. Yuck!

Sarah's Summer To Do List!!!

Yep. That's the real name of my summer to do/DIY list...clever I know:) I'm still working on going through our 2000+ pictures from the trip. It took almost a full 48 hours to wirelessly send them from Joe's computer to my computer so that's why its taken me a wee bit longer to show you but I'm making progress. I hope.

In the meantime I've made a list of all the things I'd like to accomplish this summer but I don't necessarily feel like I have to which is good since it is a pretty big list.

Here's what it says...

For the house:

* make curtains for the kitchen

* paint living room/bedroom

* picture collage in living room/upstairs hallway

* find new bedspread for our room

* build coffee table

* build bookshelf

* build shelf & bench for kitchen

* make curtains for living room

* finish Xmas tree skirt

* was bottles from wedding

* corkboard cubboard

* blinds for bathroom

* frame both bathroom mirrors

* XL shower curtain

For the yard:

* plant wine barrel

* add plants/flowers behind garage

* build a deck

* keep growing grass & picking weeds

* border around front/side of house

Can't forget about food:

* can lots of different things

* prepare freezer meals

Now, where to start?

Hopefully Stella will be a good help to me this summer...

The Cone Days Are Over...

Some of you may remember this picture I put up a bit ago with Stella and her cone. She needed to wear it when we left the house so she didn't lick at her stitches and let's be honest, the cone was not her favorite thing. Although, I can't imagine it would be any one's favorite thing. She had been doing really well with it. I'd put it on her before I left for school and when I'd come home, she couldn't wait to get it off.

Until yesterday.

I came home and she had some how gotten it off and really showed her hatred toward the thing. Here it is in pieces...

There were four loops around the neck part of it. Now, one lonely loop remains.

Today was her lucky day though. We went to the vet this morning and they took out her stitches and gave her the go ahead to run, jump, swim and do whatever her puppy heart desires.

This spot looks good!

As Joe and I were laying on the living room floor, Stella decided she wanted to come join us. Naturally she thought Joe's head would be the most comfortable spot.

Stella's Little Quirk

This girl's personality is one in a million. She loves to cuddle and is quite the Mama's girl, although in Joe's defense, she is forced to be with me a lot more than Joe because of our schedules - she really has no choice. But one thing that we can't get over is the fact that she likes to chew gum. Let me explain.

Occassionaly on our walks, she'll find somebody's old piece of gum, pick it up and start chewing it. I know! I know! Gross!! Everything else she finds on our walks I'm usually pulling it out of her mouth before she has the chance to swallow it but the gum, she just chews away. It's the weirdest thing.

She hasn't quite figured out how to doggie paddle which isn't that suppose to be an instinct for them? Yet she knows exactly what to do with the gum. There are some things I'll never understand...