Snow and a puppy

It’s April 22nd and we are expecting 6-10 inches of snow today here in Minnesota.  ENOUGH ALREADY!  There does seem to be light at the end of this winter tunnel.  Early reports show we should be hitting 70’s by this weekend.  But, it’s depressing to think we have already lost almost a month of spring.

The end of this week will bring about more change than just the weather.  I have talked often about getting a new puppy and have shown updated pictures of the litter throughout.  Well, either this Friday or Saturday, we will be heading north about 3 and a half hours to pick him up.  At this point, he is nameless.  My wife and I have arguing back and forth with names we prefer and so far, neither has budged.  We will come up with something, hopefully in the next day or two.

Here are the most resent pictures we received.  The litter weights range from 15 to 23.1 pounds.  Our boy is the largest puppy in the litter, by far.  Just look at those feet!  He’s going to be a giant.  Which is remarkable considering we went into this process as the last pick of 7 with the preference of the largest male.  We got exactly what we wanted.  To make things even better, the reports we get back about his temperament and personality are very similar to that of Kodi.  We can’t wait to finally meet him.

Bam! New Puppy

Meet our new puppy. Not named yet. We went into this process hoping for the biggest male. However, we were 7th on the list and 5 in front of us wanted males. So, we would have to wait till everyone else picked and we focused on a female.

Two days ago we find out two backed out and we would be able to get the male left. Well, today another backed out and we got to choose between the two remaining males. He is the biggest Saint in the litter, by far, at a whopping 18.1 pounds at 6.5 weeks. He actually gained 1.6 pounds in half a week. He’s going to be a BIG boy.

Introducing….

Puppy Update

If you have been following along, you would know we are pick 7 out of 7 puppies and have a male preference.  However, 5 in front of us also have male preference.  So, we have been focusing on the females.

We got a curve ball last night.  An e-mail stating two people backed out and we now get to choose between one of the remaining male puppies and the two females.  At this point, there is no choice.  I really wanted a male dog and now we have the opportunity to have one.  So, we are scrambling to come up with a couple of male names to pick from.

We don’t know which male puppy will be left to us just yet.  But, here are the two remaining:

Male Puppy A

Male Puppy B

Updated Puppy Pictures

We are getting closer to getting our puppy.  In fact, this weekend people started reserving the puppies they wanted.  So far, one boy was picked and to our surprise, one of the girls was chosen with one of the first two picks.

If you have been following along, we are pick number 7 out of 7 puppies.  So, in other words…we don’t get to pick.  Most of the people picking in front of us want males, so we are fairly confident we will end with a female.  But, as the picks are going so far…you never know.

Regardless, here is the updated pictures we have.  Each puppy has three pictures showing their face, markings and them sitting.  This first puppy is being referred to as Stella for now and she was the first female born and 2nd puppy born overall

Stella – Face

Stella – Markings

Stella – Sitting

The second available female is being referred to as Gertie.  Gertie was the 3rd puppy born and 2nd female overall.  Again, here is the face, markings and sitting shots.

Gertie – Face

Gertie – Markings

Gertie – Sitting

One of these two puppies, will more than likely, be part of our family by April 26th.  We are very excited and Mia has promised to take full control of it.  Besides letting her out in the middle of the night and picking up after her when she goes outside.  Those chores still belong to me apparently.

Easter

Saturday

We went to Jennifer’s mom’s for Easter weekend.  It’s about a 2 and a half hour ride.  Which isn’t long, but I hate riding in the car.  My wife got sick of me constantly asking, “are we there yet?”  After we got there, we had a bite to eat and checked into the hotel.  Then we just sort of hung around until dinner and basically had a Thanksgiving Day feast.

Around 6PM went to the pool so Mia and our nephew (CT) could swim.  CT lasted about three minutes before he wanted out because it was “to cold”.  So CT and I sat in the hot tub and he made sure to let us know that “this is warm”.

After swimming (sitting in a “warm-tub”), we went back to Jennifer’s mom’s so the kids could color Easter eggs.

Sunday

We woke up to discover the Easter Bunny found us at the hotel and left Mia a basket full of candy and a couple gifts.  When we got to Jennifer’s mom’s, we discovered the bunny also stopped there and left Mia with a table full of candy and gifts.  That bunny sure did spoil her.  We had brunch and left for home by 12:30.

Season Three of Game of Thrones started Sunday night and it was awesome.  I thought it was a bit curious that Arya wasn’t shown in this episode as her character really started taking a lead role in Season 2.  But I read later that they scrapped her scenes and put them in episode two because there was too much other stuff going on.

Monday

April Fools!  I didn’t fall for a single April Fools joke.  I also didn’t go to work and wasn’t around anyone for most of the day.  Other than Mia.  Mia is on spring break, so I took Monday and this coming Friday off so Jennifer doesn’t have to be away from her business too much.

Monday was also Opening Day of the baseball season (other than one game on Sunday that is).  I love baseball, so I watched parts of a few different games and caught some action from the MLB Network.

Welcome to MN in April Prince Fielder

The Twins game started at 3, so I started that game until I dropped Mia off at gymnastics.  Then came home and finished the game.  It was 30 some degrees in MN and the Twins opened up at home.  I am sure they weren’t expecting that kind of weather for opening day.  But, in Minnesota, you never know.

They lost, but we are used to losing in Minnesota and I fully expect them to lose close to 100 games this year.  So, my expectations are in check.  The major league club is poorly constructed.  However, the minor league system is loaded.  So, in a couple years the Twins will be relevant again.

Over the weekend, we also got updated puppy pictures.  The puppies are now 33 days old and as you can see, they are growing…

Spring is Coming?

They say spring is coming.  Well, one look outside and I disagree.  It’s cold and we still have a lot of snow.  One year ago, we had our trampoline put up and Mia was doing back flips on it while wearing a sun dress.  Fast forward one year and I am trying to figure out how the Minnesota Twins are going to play their season opener next Monday.

Over the weekend, we got some updated puppy pictures.  The puppies are now 26 days old and weigh between 5 ¼ and 7 ½ pounds.  Once again, we are focusing on the females in this litter.

We watched This is Forty over the weekend.  We had heard this was a hilarious movie.  So, we actually bought it.  It started off with some good laughs, less so in the middle and the end was horrible.  They left a ton of things open.  We asked each other: “what did they do about this” and “what did they do about that”?  This is Forty, Minutes too Long, is a more appropriate title to this movie.  In hindsight, we should have rented it from the RedBox in lieu of buying the Blu-Ray.

March Madness has come and gone and it was a good tournament.  Dake verses Taylor was as good as advertised.  Going into the match Dake hadn’t allowed a point in his previous four matches.  Taylor was more dominate with four pins in his previous four matches.

Kyle Dake – 165 pound Champ

The match started off with a quick takedown from Taylor.  At that point, I was a bit worried.  However, Dake quickly earned an escape and followed that up with a takedown of his own.  The final score was 5-4, in favor of Dake.  In doing so, Dake made history by being the first wrestler to win four National Championships in four different weight classes.

2013 Individual Champs

Penn State ended up winning the team championship for the third straight year.  The Gophers ended up in third and had one champion, HWY Tony Nelson (his 2^nd).  Oklahoma State got 2^nd.

In the other event (basketball)…some refer to as March Madness, both my Iowa State Cyclones and Minnesota Gophers lost in the second round.  So, my interest in that event went from “somewhat interested” to “not interested”.

Updated puppy pic

Here is a picture of our new puppy. Still about seven weeks away from getting her. We are 7th on the list out of seven puppies, so we get which ever one is left. And since those above us have male preference, we will more than likely end up with one of these little ladies. Can’t wait to see: Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Rhaella Targaryen or Shae grow over the next few weeks.

UPDATE: My wife is pushing back on the naming of our puppy after a character from Game of Thrones.  She wants to name her S’Mores.  To make matters worse, she got Mia on her side.  I’ve got work to do!

Cyrus

On a completely unrelated note; here is Cyrus, our Siberian Husky, enjoying the fresh snow. Or maybe he knows a puppy is coming and is trying to enjoy a little peace and quiet.

A puppy is born

So, yesterday was Mia’s birthday.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do much with her.  She had school; however, Jennifer and I met her there and had lunch with her (Subway).  After school she had gymnastics till 7:45 and Jennifer had to stay and sell pizza for the booster club till 8:15.  Tonight we will be taking her out to dinner for her birthday.  She wants to go to Red Robin.

I haven’t mentioned this yet, but we are getting a new puppy.  Our house is really quiet and seems empty without that big personality that was Kodi.  So, we decided a month or so ago that we would add another dog to the mix.

Jada & Yogi (mom & dad)

We found a place, somewhat local, that breed Saints and they actually had a litter that was expecting late Feb.  Perfect, I placed the call and we were placed 8^th on the list.  About a week ago I sent a follow-up e-mail to find out if we moved up (we were worried she might not have 8 puppies) and to ask how Jada (the Saint mommy) was doing.  We found out we jumped one spot to number 7.

Jada and her puppies

Well, yesterday Jada had her puppies!  She had 7 of them on Mia’s birthday.  So, we took that as a sign that it was meant to be.  She had 4 males and 3 females, so we are almost assured a female as there are 5 ahead of us that have preference on males.  That was our preference as well.  But, it really doesn’t matter either way.

Since we decided to get a puppy…we have been thinking about male dog names and suddenly we have to switch that.  So, I went to Game of Thrones and came up with the following names:

• Daenerys
• Rhaella
• Arya
• Shae

Is one of these little Daenerys Targaryen?

Hopefully I can convince Jennifer to go with one of them.  She did say she liked Rhaella.  Although I prefer Daenerys and Arya.  But, that is probably more to do with how much I like those characters on G of T.  Anyway, that’s what’s going on in our world.  We will be getting our puppy in late April and that is going to change our world as we know it.