Go Hawks!

I have a little time to kill before meeting a friend for coffee and decided to catch up on blog land. I have visited all the blogs I know and while I didn't leave a message on any of them - I sure enjoy this part of the day! Lots of new posts to read and I love that!


We have begun our search for another German Shepherd. What a learning experience this has become. I have run into dogs costing as much as $2000.00. While the first place I found is close to us and I really had a good feeling about the family raising them, I could not support the many layers that buying a $2000.00 dog feeds into (no pun intended). Not to mention, I just will not spend that much money on a dog...plain and simple.


We will probably adopt another dog, too, from the local shelter this spring, but we both decided that Jack is/was probably one of our best alert systems ever as far as dogs go. Raising him from a puppy allowed us to have a tough looking, intimidating watch dog who just happened to be a harmless cupcake at heart. That is what we are shooting for. We have had some impressive outside friends in our history here, but there was no dog that was more alert and on the job than Jack. Lucy will grace us with a bark about once a week, beyond that she is just content in the yard looking for her next toy to chase around and if someone drives in or something is amiss....it may as well be a cloud passing over head.


Speaking of Lucy - she seems lost at times as she wanders around outside by herself and that is tough to watch. A lonely looking dog just yanks the heart strings completely out of my chest. So, Ms. Lucy has had lots of house time and we hope have someone nipping at her heels before long. She will be a great companion with her sweet, social personality.


Long story short, after A LOT of phone calls all over Iowa, I managed to find a place in Greene, Iowa and I am going to look at three puppies tomorrow. They won't be ready to leave mom for 3-4 more weeks, but I can look at them and the mom and dad and put my mind at rest I am not supporting a puppy mill. It is an older couple raising them and he has done so since 1959. I felt nothing but warmth and the love of dogs from him and he said we were welcome to look around wherever we wanted to. The price is right so I hope it all pans out.

On to other business, this weekend is my husband's family Christmas in Des Moines. Well, it is really less about Christmas and more about a semi annual gathering where attendance is not optional. It happens to be a Redneck theme, thanks to my husband and his brother, so we are encouraged to dress the part. Mark and I will be going as the characters from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation:

My friend is letting me borrow her mothers "holiday sweater" (you know the kind ;-) and it happens to light up. I will be sure to try and capture a kodak moment to share! We are going down a day early (no one knows this) and we will be placing carefully painted tires in their front yard in the wee hours of Saturday morning. They say things like, "No Hunting", "No Tresspassirs", "No Overnight Camping" and things of that nature. I suppose it is worth mentioning they live in a trailer village and his brother is also a police officer. I questioned going to his house in the middle of the night knowing he has a loaded gun in his house, but Mark seems assured that he can be quiet enough that know one will be the wiser. It should be a lovely greeting for all family and friends that plan to arrive Saturday morning.

Iowa plays tonight! Go Hawkeye's!!!