Falon’s World

Unfortunately, I began to feel sick right after we went bowling and that seeped over into Christmas . So, I ended up missing out on both of Eric’s Mom’s side of the family’s Christmas’ (wow, did that make any sense??) and staying at my parents’ the whole time.

We celebrated Christmas early (so as not to have to bring everything up North and then back again). I took pictures of Eric’s gifts to me, but there are no photos of my gifts to him as yet (why is that Eric??? hmmm? lol).

ETA: the photos are up now

This is the laptop/camera bag I got him. I also got him a new lens (visible in the last photo):

At my parents’, we started out by giving all 5 dogs their gifts:

After that, the immediate fam opened gifts.

Eric, Adam and I made two large-ish framed photos for Mom:

Dad got her some very nice sweaters:

We got Dad tickets to see Larry the Cable Guy at the end of January and Mom got him a new (tiny!) laptop:

Eric and I got Adam a gift card to American Eagle:

Eric got some reflectors for his camera that he had been really wanting and some pajama pants, white tees (badly needed!) and some new socks:

I got a new toaster oven (for Eric too) from my brother:

some clothing and books from my mom and…

A NEW BOOKCASE (from Mom and Eric)!!!! Isn’t it awesome????

We did some seating rearranging and then did it all over again with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Sheila:

Aunt Sheila made me a sweater:

Some people had smart comments to make, to which I responded:

Adam is wearing the blanket Aunt Sheila made him. Then he wanted to try on my new sweater:

His boobs may be bigger than mine…LOL

The rest of the time we lounged around and put concerted effort into relaxing…including a 3-D movie:

As I said before, this vacation had several different goals, all of which (for once), we reached .

Eric maneuvered all of my living room furniture and manipulating it to fit into the bed of the truck, which was a pretty amazing feat actually. It all made it safely up to my parents’ house where Mom helped us refinish it. The tables had never been done, since before I bought them, but the chest had to be redone, since Eric scratched it all up again. Mom had generously offered to help us out (and let us use all of her stuff), so we took her up on that .

First stripper had to be poured on top, and then all of the old finish scraped off:

That took us a really, really long time. And multiple applications of the very potent stripper:

Then everything had to be sanded, first with medium grit sandpaper, then with fine.

Since the edges ended up a different color, they had to be stained multiple times to even up the color with the table tops.

We still weren’t attaining the desired results so (with Mom’s suggestion) we decided to apply a layer of polyurethane combined with a darker stain, in hopes it would hold the color and even out. Then I applied the stain to the table tops:

After that dried, Mom added the top layer of polyurethane. Then we had to wait all night for it to dry before Eric added the final layer. They look fantastic!! And they’re waterproof. But, the chest wasn’t quite ready to go home, Mom is going to add yet another layer of polyurethane for us and then we’ll pick it up next time we come to visit.

We spent the rest of the time outside with the dogs or playing in the pool. Mom did quite a bit of gardening, here is her dog, Magnum (our old foster), he likes to hang outside in the yard.

Here’s Tess, she gets locked in the house unless someone is right there to watch her, because she will run herself into the ground.

I also got some photos of a couple of Mom’s flowers while we were looking at the garden.

Mom also found a baby praying mantis while she was in the garden:

The tables weren’t our only project. We also made some new leads for Mason and Kya. They already have some leads that we made but I wanted lighter-weight slip leads to use for SAR for Mason and on Kya when she’s not wearing a martingale. We are trying out some new rope clamps on Mason’s lead, we’ll see how they do.

I made them so I could also clip them on a collar if needed. This enables them to be clipped around my body, over my shoulder for ease of carry as well.

The Rollenhagen’s were up visiting again but I wasn’t feeling good in the evening so I laid down and watched a movie while my parents and Eric partied with them. He didn’t come to bed until really late but he got some amazing star photos and some neat night shots of their house. Hopefully he’ll post those later…

After the Family Gathering, we headed over to my parents’ house to drop off the rocking chair/table set that we picked up for mom the other day. While we were there, I got to pick up my birthday presents . I also played around with the camera some more.

I ordered Magnum a spiffy collar from Collarmania with his name on it. It looks fantastic, but convincing him to come, sit, stay and not bark was near to impossible!!!

I also snapped a couple shots of Tess going like crazy…which is why she’s so incredibly skinny, she refuses to eat any more food and she’s already eating double what Kya eats a day, the same as Magnum and more than Midas does!!!

They did both take a breather to see Eric…momentarily:

I got some neat shots of Mom and her flowers too – at least I like them .

After that we headed to the beach so that Eric could try out his new lens contraption on me before he tries it on a couple for their engagement photos. I felt ridiculous but it was for a good cause .

Then I got to take a photo of Eric

HERE are the rest of Eric’s photos.

After that we finally made it home, exhausted, had some dinner and went to bed. A good day!

Today was Adam’s birthday party at my parent’s house. We had a DELICIOUS meal and dessert! We didn’t get to stay long because Eric had invited people over to our house.

Here’s the birthday boy:

Magnum just got back from bird training camp, so he was utterly exhausted!

After a yawn, but I did catch his tongue still out .

I love his paw pads, they’re so unique!

I didn’t want Tess to feel left out…

Size comparison (Tess is wearing a little turtle-neck sweater because it’s been cold):

For fun:

They usually share a bed now:

Well, Magnum went up north this weekend to stay with my parents on Friday night and then try out a potential home on Saturday. The potential didn’t work out. But, during the course of Friday night, my Mom fell in love with him.

Who couldn’t love this face?

So, now my parents are adopting him! It was a total surprise when I heard this. I actually didn’t believe Dad when he told me. My mom is soooo picky on the quirks that are unacceptable in dogs but apparently Magnum possesses none of them. He was even allowed on the carpet in the living room (note: Tess their 7 year old Vizsla and neither of my boys have ever been allowed in there).

Here is Magnum with his new “sister”:

Tess looks so tiny next to him:

He thinks she is silly:

Here is Magnum with Mom (she can’t keep her hands off his big ol’ soft, floppy ears):

He seems pretty content

Friday I skipped my last class of the day and met Eric, we packed up Mason (because he wouldn’t be able to hold “it” for as long as we were probably going to end up being gone) and headed up north. This was Eric’s last time hunting, and he didn’t see a thing . Oh well, next year. I got to spend a lot of time with Coco’s puppies again. They’re so adorable and they’re getting so active and growing so fast. These are my favorite photos:

After having dinner with my parents we headed back home to Midas and Magnum.

Saturday Eric had a football game bright and early and so he was out of the house right away. I’d had just about enough of Magnum’s smelly body and he was definitely getting comfortable with us so I decided to “treat” him to a bath. It was warm and in the bath tub and he was a perfect angel: didn’t move, try to escape, shake or anything until I told him he could. Now he smells WAY better!

Oh! Late Saturday night Eric shot Tara and Nate’s “proposal” photos. As in, Nate arranged for Eric to be there without Tara knowing while he proposed. Pretty coo. The photos are here, but these are my favorites:

Sunday was very eventful in that I got a lot done, but it wasn’t a whole lot of fun, mostly homework. Eric slept most of the day.

Well, after Midas and Magnum worked out their differences (i.e. Magnum learned that if he ignores Midas, he will go away bored), everything has gone very smoothly. I’ve noticed that while Magnum is very affectionate to me, he really likes men. We had a friend (guy) and my dad over tonight and he was soooo excited he could hardly contain himself. It was rather humorous really. He also is in dire need of a bath, which I’m hoping to get to later this week. And he’s a little frightened of stairs, but as we dole out dinner in the basement, he’s rapidly getting over that. He’s doing much better out on the tie-out but still would rather be by our sides all the time.

Except for when he’s watching the fish:

While he starts out back like that, he moves closer and closer. The fish, being fish, think that someone is coming to feed them and move into a little knot near the top, at which point Magnum BOPS the tank with his nose. Effectively startling the fish and slopping water. It’s pretty funny. Then he’ll wait patiently for the next “gathering”.

Imagine his excitement when I cleaned the tank this afternoon and he got to watch my disembodied arm float through the water (goldfish are SO filthy!). It got even better when I drew my arm out and in the split second that I reached for the towel Magnum and Mason each got a lick in (Midas is above that lol). Ewww.

Then we moved into the bedroom so I could do some work on my computer. There were a couple of growls while everyone settled into their spot. Mason is a little over-protective of Midas and any toy that he currently is playing with but we worked it out.

Midas looks very thick in the middle compared to Magnum (who is not headless, he was just snuggled right up to my chair), but he’s really not – he’s in terrific shape. Notice the enormous red bone that Mason is chewing on, while Magnum settled for the tiny white one by his leg? Yeah lol. Midas got over his great and abounding joy of aggravating Magnum to catch a little nap. They even cuddled…sort of:

While Mason continued his quest to completely destroy any toy we buy for him:

You can almost feel the enjoyment by the way his eyes are blissfully closed haha.

Eric and I decided to foster a German Shorthair Pointer from the West Michigan German Shorthair Pointer Rescue which is run by some friends of ours from the Ultimate Air Dogs Forum. Here is his (and his brother’s) listing on Petfinder.

We took in Magnum. He is one tall boy too. He’s four years old, housetrained, up to date on all of his shots, microchipped and neutered. He’s shown interest in birds and has even pointed. He’s an excellent frisbee player and can catch a decent throw (which Eric and I have not by any means perfected).

Jeff had a much better throw:

He’s very athletic looking and knows basic commands. His “come” is pretty rusty but that may be due to his constant moves the last few days from home to home and all the different people and animals he’s been in contact with. We took him to the park with a couple of Jeff and Beth’s GSPs to let him get to know us before bringing him to our house.

This is their dog Moose:

He hopped right into the truck and was ready to go. I didn’t realize how much taller he was than our boys until his head almost touched the ceiling in the back.

Eric dropped me and Magnum off at a park not far from our house and then went to get the boys.

We figured neutral territory would be the best place for him to meet our two unaltered males.

Magnum and Midas exchanged some growls but that was about it…until Midas decided that aggravating poor Magnum into growling and chasing was much more fun. We struggled with that little habit all evening. Magnum overall was very stoic but sometimes he got over-aggravated enough to snap at Midas, which was exactly what Midas was going for. He’s kind of a turd, he likes to aggravate. But, Magnum is beginning to get Midas’s measure and ignoring him, which ruins it for Midas and makes everything much quieter.

Mason and Magnum got into one tussle. Mason reached the frisbee first and Magnum tackled him and tried to take it from him. Mason reacted by snapping back and chasing Magnum off. Since then they’ve been relaxed. Neither pushes the others’ buttons and Magnum is very accepting of Mason’s playful advances. Mason tends to have a calming effect and seems to come across as endearing even to other dogs.

Look at the size comparison of Midas and Magnum.

I’m not used to having such a tall dog. He can see over the bed, out all the windows, the top of the table…and the counter tops.

We’re working on that.

After all that rough housing, we all had dinner…

…and then Magnum was whooped.

He’s quite the cuddler too. He rubs right up against me and just leans in. He is extremely affectionate and really likes to have the spot right above his tail scratched.