Monday, July 14, 2008

Alone, again...

Being alone is part of Army life, and alas, I find myself alone again. Alan was sent to the mainland for training for three weeks. While I do not think that being apart from my husband is something that I will ever get used to, it is definitely something that I have learned to deal with. I learn to keep as busy as I can, and to surround myself with good people. I can finally get to that project that I have been putting off, or visit that person I have not seen in a while. Moreover, I think that being apart makes the time we are together more valuable. Although I hate Alan being gone at all, especially during those fifteen month deployments, it is the life we have chosen and I would not change it for anything in the world. You may have your Prince Charming, but mine wears combat boots!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Finally puppies!!!!

What an eventful night we had last night!!! This post will be especially long as I won't spare any details!!!

I worked all day yesterday, and at the last minute, I was asked if I could stay and manage the computer lab that would turn my 8 hour day into a 13 hour day. I agreed, as I always love to have more hours, and was prepared to have a long night. Not long after Alan brought my dinner to me, the guy I was filling in for showed up and told me I could stay or leave, and I decided to go so I could spend the evening with Alan. Well, I am glad I made that choice because soon after I got home, foxy went into labor.

I had only been home for about an hour. It was a little after 7pm and Alan had just walked across the street to check on his work schedule. I was reading my book, and looking out for foxy (she had been in her whelping box all day, and was panting, and wouldn't eat). I saw her stomach tighten up real tight, and I knew that it was a contraction. I called Alan to tell him we were going to have puppies soon, and got my neighbor up here quick.

Foxy started pushing at 7:21pm and when we didn't see a puppy come for 10 minutes, me being the worry wart I am called the emergency vet. I explained what happened, that she had been pushing off and on for 10 minutes, and nothing was coming out, and the vet told me to wait for an hour to an hour and a half then if she still wasn't pushing out puppies to bring her in. So, not two seconds after I had gotten off the phone a puppy started to appear, FEET FIRST! You know me, I called the vet again. :D The vet said to watch her and if she hadn't pushed it out after a while to bring her in. I felt silly calling the vet so much, but hey, better safe than sorry right?

So, It was about 7:50 and by this time, the first puppy had two feet and his tail out of Foxy. Me and my neighbor were worried and decided to try to pull it out. (Alan still hadn't gotten home by this time.) So, as foxy pushed, we pulled, and together, we got our first girl puppy.

While we were waiting for the next one, Foxy's motherly instinct took right over, and she started bathing her new pup and letting it eat. It was pretty cute. When foxy started to contract again, we knew it was time for another, and got ready for number two. Well, guess what? He was backwards too!!! We first saw his paw, and knew we were going to have a problem. The first one was hard to pull out, but this next one had MUCH LARGER PAWS! We were worried...


Foxy just kept pushing, and when we saw two paws and a tail, and she was trying to push out the rest of this big puppy, we had to get to pulling again. This time I was scared. This puppy was much bigger, and I kept pulling and he wouldn't come out, I was so scared that I was going to crush this baby puppy that Alan had to take over, and wouldn't you know it, we finally pulled the big one out! (Thanks to Alan!) This one was a boy, and came about two hours after the first.

Me and Dani (my neighbor) figured we had a good break before the next one so we decided to clean ourselves up. While we were washing our hands, the men shouted, "Oh my GOSH!" Me and Dani rushed into the living room to see what was wrong, and there on the towel was number three!!! Number three was a boy, and the runt of the litter, I guess that after pushing out the big one, the littlest one just slipped right out, about five minutes later!

We took some time to clean each one after they were born to make sure they were breathing and didn't have any fluid in their noses or mouths.

The vet told us to expect three, but foxy still had a little lump in her tummy. It wasn't moving, and foxy didn't contract or push for about 45 minutes, so we got up and cleaned the little swimming pool we used as foxys whelping box, and got all clean linens, washed up foxy, and got everything clean and situated.

Well, right after we had finished cleaning foxy and getting clean towels in foxys box, more fluid ran out of her, and she started contracting! What a surprise for us! NUMBER FOUR!!! He cam out head first, and foxy was SO tired, Dani had to push on her stomach when she contracted to help the last one out! Another boy!

We were so surprised that Foxy had four puppy's! She is SO skinny, and I am a little worried about that, but she seems to be eating a lot, and we have a vet appointment tomorrow, so I will have to bring it up. So, all four puppies are alive and well, we have three boys and a girl! It is fun to watch them move around, and foxy is being such a good mother! We are so lucky to not have had any problems!

All four puppies and mommy sleeping after a long night!

Alans promotion

Alan finally got promoted today! He would have gotten promoted last week, but there were some problems with his promotion orders (shocking I know...) Anyway, Luckily I had work off and was able to promote him and stick on his new rank. It was awesome, and Alan really deserves this new path. I am very proud of you Alan!

After putting his new rank on, I got to punch him in the chest over the rank (It's customary :D)Together after the ceremony, Sergeant and Mrs. Burns
The first soldier Alan made do push ups as an NCO :D

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Fourth of July Fun!

The fourth of July was fun, Alan had to work (of course) but I took off with some friends and headed over to Schofield Barracks for the celebration. Billy Ray Cyrus preformed for about two hours, it was awesome, I was too late to get close to the stage, but they had this screen set up so those of us without binoculars could watch the show :D It was definitely fun... free concerts, one perk for putting up with the Army... :D
After the concert, they had this really neat ceremony (I guess they do it often at military posts for the 4th, but I had never seen it...). The brought out 50 soldiers, each one carrying a state flag, in the order of when they became a state, then went through each state, and fired a canon after the state was announced. It was TOTALLY awesome! 50 cannons, 50 states, and each time a state was called, people from that state cheered, so, naturally, when Utah was called, I let out the biggest scream and 'woot woot' I could, and in a field full of a few thousand people, I was probably the only one :D but don't worry, you could definitely hear me :D
My neighbors came after the concert to watch the fireworks, and it was fun to watch with them. They have a 5 year old son, and he was rocking out those glow stick things... yeah so, here are some pictures...
Billy Ray CyrusMe and Dani, rocking the glow sticks... :D

I love the fireworks with the palm trees in the background :D
I love this picture, with the palm tree shadows and the fireworks...

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

More and more pregnant every day...

So, no puppies yet. Foxy is getting huge though! Her belly gets bigger
and bigger every day. Last night and this morning, I could see the puppies kicking her belly! It was so cute!!! I just sat there for a LONG time with my hand over her belly just feeling the puppies kick, It was the most amazing thing ever! I get such a kick out of it! She will hopefully go into labor soon, the way she is growing she may not be able to push the puppies out if she gets any bigger... Poor foxy, I almost feel bad for her, she is just so tired and lethargic, she cant even jump up on the bed or the couch anymore, and she waddles everywhere she goes, it is adorable! Anyway, we are just waiting to have puppies, I will keep you updated!

Julie

Twilight Saga

I am in LOVE! I had heard about this book, or series rather, just browsing through peoples blogs, and had seen them in book stores, but I didn't really have any interest until my friend Melanie told me I HAD to read them. Melanie HATES to read, and I knew if she liked the books enough to read the whole series, there had to be something about it. So, I bought the first one, 'Twilight', in the airport on the way home from Utah, but hadn't taken the time to sit back and get into it until a few days ago. Once I got started I could not put it down. I have since ordered the 2nd and 3rd and have the 4th on pre-order (it gets released on August 2nd :D). There are four books total in the series, and ladies, it is TOTALLY the most AWESOMEST, AMAZING novel EVER! I cant wait to start the second one.

So, add that to my list of obsessions, I am never going to get anything done until I have read all these books :D

~~Jules
http://www.twilightnovel.com/