Loyal

We sure love our sweet golden boy. I wish he listened better but he is a really good boy. He is SO good around our kids. I love that they can play out there now without him getting so excited and knocking them down. It helps that our kids are getting older and he is getting older as well. He will be 3 this year. So exciting. I am hoping it is the magical age where he starts mellowing out a little. At least that was Ren and Heidi's experience with Hurley. This golden is a true golden through and through. He is an absolute goof ball, fetches everything around the house, loves his kids and family, and smiles all of the time. He never has a bad day. I love how he is fur is maturing and getting more older golden looking. His tail is all filled out and it looks like he is getting a skirt on the bottom half of his body. He is such a pretty boy.

A while ago, Jeff and Gunnar slept outside in a tent. Jeff told me that Diesel slept outside the door the entire night. He probably wanted in so badly but settled on being this close. He sure loves to be a part of the family. What a sweet guy.

Happy First Birthday Diesel!

Yesterday Diesel turned 1 years old! I have never had a dog where we actually knew their birthday. Gunnar and I headed to Petsmart to pick him out a toy. Gunnar insisted on a Martha Stewart skull and crossbones soft toy that plays creepy laughs when the button inside is pushed.

Diesel loves it and carries it everywhere inside. Just like I thought, the tag is already missing and he is onto the stuffing inside. Whatever, it is his birthday.

This morning as I was feeding Brecken on the couch, I watched Diesel run full speed ahead into the closed sliding glass door. He then freaked and ran into the baby swing tipping it over, then the ottoman knocking it over along with the laptop. I screamed for Jeff to help him. He was freaked out. Jeff said he was shaking pretty bad. I guess that is what happens after super clean windows from the weekend. Usually they are covered in his muddy pawprints or wet nose marks.

We love this goofy, high energy guy. He may cause us to want to pull our hair out at times but it is worth it.

Don't Say the "N" Word

Don't say the "N" word with Diesel around. He may sulk off around the corner because he lost his manhood April 12th. I am also pretty sure that Kaika gave him some word of advice before she went about the vet's office because he did not want to get out of the car. Not one bit. I had to yank him by the collar to come. Once inside he was perfectly fine. Again, I am going to mention how I love our vet. They are the nicest people there.

I really, really wanted to know how much he weighed. So they went back and weighed him and gave me the news. This beast of a 7 month old puppy weighs 76lbs! That is huge. They told me that a Golden was dropped off that very morning, for the same exact procedure, was totally full grown and weighed exactly 76lbs too. He is going to be a big boy unless he maintains now and just lengthens out like a chubby baby.

The procedure was a one day thing. Drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. I was told that he may be a little groggy afterwards but he will be able to walk out of there. Uh no...we knew he was going to be okay when we could hear the vet tech being pulled down the hallway to the waiting room. He was full of energy and really happy to see us. A couple of days later he just laid around exhausted and he has been more clingy but he has been doing that since. Maybe the surgery mellowed him out a little...and really just a little.

This last weekend, Mindy and Rillz left for Portland to a friend's wedding. I quickly volunteered our house for the dogs. Kaika just died and we figured he needed playmates. On a trial run, we discovered that Simon (a Cairn terrier) and Diesel would not work out so he went to my parent's where he got the kings treatment anyway. Malu (boxer) and Diesel had the best 3 days ever. For 12 hours the first day, they played nonstop. I never saw them stop. At midnight, I told Jeff that Malu just had to go in the crate because I couldn't take their playing. The next 2 days they did rest a little but did lots of playing.

Friday, we took Malu, Diesel, and Hurley (Heidi and Ren's Golden) to the park to let them run and play. Gunnar rode his bike and the rest of us walked. All of us had so much fun until the skies became gray and thunder could be heard. We figured it would be best to head back. Good thing because it did rain a little later on. Heidi and Ren stayed for pizza and it was fun hanging out with them.

Saturday we headed to Jeff's brother's house for dinner. We brought Diesel along to let him play with their black lab, Sam. However Sam is about 10 years old and going blind so he really wasn't that interested in a rambuntious in-your-face puppy. On the other hand, we had a great dinner and watched a movie on their wall with the projection thingy. We also learned that Diesel gets car sick extremely bad. Thank goodness he was in a crate in the back of the truck.

Mindy and Rillz finally rolled into town and stopped to eat dinner at our house. Surprisingly Simon and Diesel now get along. It really may have had something to do with the neuter because he wasn't on our trial run the weekend before. That night, this gigantic puppy was tired. I've never seen him quite like that before.

Diesel is the best dog, by far that we have ever had. We are thrilled to have him in our family. He will continue to be a great family dog as we all get older and yes, this is how he sleeps on a very regular basis.

Twinsies

Our two dogs look like a big and a little twin. They are the exact same color. Kind of fun. Diesel is growing up to be a big boy really fast. He is going on 4 months this week and is big. Every week Jeff and I look at him and always comment on how he is starting to thin out and get his teenage features.

He is getting strong and one of the dogs favorite things to do is play rope with each other. Kaika has always loved this and Diesel has quickly picked up the love. He is so good at fetch. We ask him to sit and then throw the toy telling him to fetch. He is great at it and brings it back with come. He has been a lot of fun. We haven't had an accident for a while. We watch him like a hawk. The other day Jeff thought he latched the kennel when he took him out for the potty the other morning. Some time later I heard little paws on the kitchen floor. It scared me because nothing should be out. Sure enough, it was Diesel and he decided to help himself to Christmas decorations while he was alone. He is such a great boy at staying around us. He goes potty outside on command which saves my cold self this time of year. He is my big baby and I can't wait to see what kind of dog he grows up to be.

Year of Thanksgiving

This year was actually a fun year. My parent's ditched us for Thanksgiving and headed down to Arizona to be with my aunt. After that, they were headed over to San Diego to get on their cruise. They were going to be gone for some time. All of us kids decided that we would get together and prepare Thanksgiving dinner ourselves. It was really fun and really easy since we divided out all of the assignments. We were naturally in charge of the turkey. We had the turkey and we did one last year for Jeff's family. So we were the only ones that knew how to really do it. I was watching the TODAY show the day before and they showed 4-5 different ways to prepare a turkey.

One of them was putting bacon across the top and cooking it. I like bacon, it was worth the try. The bacon flavored the turkey but more importantly kept the breast meat moist. It totally worked.

As we were driving over to my parent's house, I had the hot turkey on my lap. We took the dogs with us so that they could play with their cousins. I thought that it would be a great idea to put Diesel in the back of the truck with Kaika. He would stay back there with her and learn the ropes of riding in a truck. He did okay for a while until half way there, he started putting his paws on the railing. The problem was that he was too short to see over so he would do that for a better view. Closer to my parent's house, we noticed that he was starting to hang over more than he should. We were going about 30mph when all of a sudden I saw him completely topple over the side. It was the saddest thing. He flipped and landed on his back, let out this horrible yelp and took off running away from the truck down the road. I had a turkey on my lap. I was stuck. Jeff jumped out and took chase. He found him in a horse field running like mad somewhere. I was so scared for him. We've only had him for 1 week and he was already badly injured. I hoped not. We put him in the back with Gunnar and got to my parent's to access the damage. He walked perfectly fine and the only thing that we could find was a little skin knick on his leg and a teeny tiny bit of blood on his nose. He was tired and calm all afternoon. He really was traumatized and scared I think. To this day, he is frightened of the truck when it is on or any moving car going by when we take him on walks. Great...

Jeff has sort of become the resident turkey carver...

And Gunnar was eating the turkey as fast as it was put on the platter.

Brent was making gravy...

As Noelle and I scooped mashed potatoes into this bowl. This was an enormous amount of potatoes and the funny part was that this was only about half that Noelle made. Not sure why she made so much!

For some reason these were the only pictures I got. We had such a fun time together. Later that night we headed over to Jeff's brother's house because it was his birthday. Him and I have birthdays two days apart so his this year happen to be on Thanksgiving. We had more pie and fun family time. We headed back to my parent's to fetch our dog and hang out more looking at the ads for the next day and then headed home. Heidi during the day mentioned how bad she felt that she didn't help mom with dinner all these years. It was so easy and could have saved my mom hours of preparation. Now our mad Thanksgiving skills have been revealed for years to come.

What Do I Get to Do Every Friday...

mow my parent's lawn! I found it to be one of the most relaxing fun things to do there. I love to be out there on the lawnmower all by myself for an hour or two. I also have this weird thing for great looking lines in a lawn. I like seeing the old mowed making way for the fresh look of mowed grass. I love to think out there. I like to pretend that I am a racecar driver on a lawnmower. Weird I know. I love that their lawnmower is spankin' new, as of last year, so it is really easy to use. Because it is newer it also has a larger mow area so the lawn doesn't take as long as it used to.

BUT...there is one thing that has to take place before I mow. I can't stand doing it. I refused to do it at my own house. If I have to do it, I gag. I gag no matter what. I just do. I can't help it. It is poop scooping. When my dad left, there were two dogs. My parents two. To date, there are 4 sometimes 5 dogs that I clean up after. It is SO gross! Mindy brings her two over every weekend and Heidi's sometimes comes over making that 5. My dog, Kaika, has come over twice but I don't count her because she is my dog. Just gross I tell ya. Especially when they eat wood, or play toys, or birds or .... whatever. It is just gross. So lets look at the regular culprits:

Kalea: She is old. She is as old as our dog. She is about 10 years old. She is such an old lady. Not very tolerant of little kids. Very large and furry. One of her nicknames is "K" but the other one is "fatty". She loves to chase balls and toys. She gets to it first everytime. She loves to walk across the dirt road to the canal for a dip in the water. Her original name was Ginger but it was changed to Kalea (bright in Hawaiian) when my parents got her. She is part golden retriever and Belgium shephard.

Nani: She is the same age as Gunnar. She is just a couple of months younger. She is a purebred white german shephard and still acts very much like a puppy. She drives us insane most days but she really is a good girl. She sheds like crazy. Think of shedding and then magnify that about 10 times. It is pretty bad. She is pretty tolerant of young kids. She still acts like a puppy so she quickly forgets that she can be a little too much for younger children. She loves to walk right in front of cars when coming up the driveway. You always think that she is going to get hit. She is just a silly, huge goofball. Her name is Hawaiian for beautiful or pretty.Simon: Boy is this dog nutso. He is probably about 2 years old. He is a purebred brindle Cairn Terrier (think Toto). Mindy got him off of craigslist last year. He has a mind of his own like most terriers do. He is not allowed off of the tether or else he will run. He loves to poop under my mom's dining room table which is soooo gross. Nobody knows why. The best thing going for him is that he does not shed. Now that would be nice. I can't remember his name before Simon. All that we know is that he wouldn't listen to anything for a time. Malu: She is the latest edition of the Hollingsworth family dogs. Mindy got her off of craigslist for her boyfriend Rillz. He always wanted a boxer, so he got one. She is about 8 months old (I think, can't remember). However old she is, I do know that she is very much in the puppy months. She is pretty cute and obedient. I just can't get over the stubby tail. It is so weird to watch it wag and move around. We have always had dogs with long tails so this is new to me. Her original name was Mala. They wanted to change it so it ended up being Malu which means shade, shelter, protection, peace, control, strength, quiet, safe, reserved. Hurley: He is a purebred golden retriever that Heidi got off of craigslist. He is the perfect golden color with a big blocky head. His original name was Cinnamon. He is about 2.5-3 years old (I think). He is a typical golden in that he LOVES water. He is nuts for water. I love seeing him after he runs through my parent's sprinklers because he is as curly as can be. Such a high energy cutie. He is named after the Hurley brand.

Kaika: my girly. She is about 10.5 years old. We got her as a puppy and named her Kaikamahine which means daughter in Hawaiian. She is my baby. I just love her to death. She is a yellow lab/bloodhound mix. I will never, ever own any sort of hound again. Her nose gets her into so much trouble. When she gets out of the yard she is so hard to catch because of that nose. She loves sprinklers but hates ponds/lakes/rivers. She tolerates Gunnar pretty well. She is extremely protective of her family especially me. We just love her so much.

As you can see, the majority of the dogs are HUGE. Huge equals big poop. Gross. Anyway, I now wish that I was just poop scooping my house with one dog not 4,5 or sometimes 6!

On a funny dog note. We decided to stick with one dog for now. We realized that our yard is really made for one dog if we want it to look good. And our budget has really liked one dog. Plus we aren't around much. My dad told Gunnar on the phone a couple of weeks ago that he would get him a puppy when he got home. My mom was sure that that would never happen. Knowing my dad, he would easily make that happen. Gunnar has now told several people that papa is getting him a puppy. Oh great!

Out of Contril Hair

Our dog's fur is out of control. It is everywhere and never ending. Thankfully the days and nights are warm, so they have been outside pretty much all of the time right now. Their hair is still everywhere outside. Jeff decided to brush Rusty and Gunnar wanted to help. He loves his dogs. We bought the Furminator a while back and this thing just keeps the hair coming. It never seems to end. Jeff just brushed the tip of the iceburg off of this dog.

Doggy Chores

Gunnar absolutely loves being responsible for feeding the 2 gigantic dogs that we have. I have no idea really and it came out of the blue one day. So thus the start of Gunnar's first chore ever and probably a chore that he will have the rest of his life living at home. I just had to get a picture, because it is way to funny.