Scrapbook Saturday 18/10: Pepsi & Max 2

All the papers and elements I have used this week are by Antoinette at Sparky's Scratches. She lives in Holland and has loads of really great freebies on her site. Most of the papers and elements I have used this week are from a super set called Stained Glass Tulips.

Don't forget to hop on over to MammaDawg.com and check out all the other great entries for this weeks Scrapbook Saturday and add yourself to the blogroll.

My latest bookmarked links on Del.cio.us

Countdown to Halloween 2!: Dressed up Doggies!

Other posts in this series: Countdown to Halloween- The Time Warp!

Wordless Wednesday 15/10: Dog Tired 2

Ruby Tuesday 14/10: Dog Tired!

Pepsi has found himself a comfy cosy perch!
Why not join in and post a Ruby Tuesday picture yourself, the rules are simple. Just post a picture with red in it, but it must be one of your own and it can be of anything you like. For more details hop over to The Teach at Work of the Poet and check out the blogroll.

My Diet Monday: Week Three - 274lbs

In the immortal words of Victor Meldrew "I don't believe it!". That was my reaction when I got on the scales this morning and discovered to my horror, that not only had I not lost any weight - I'd put 2lbs on!!! WTF!?

This is despite the fact I have been as good as gold this week, sticking religiously to my Slimfast milkshakes for breakfast and lunch, with just some fruit (usually a handful of grapes) as a snack and a good dinner of about 600 calories. Usually this makes my daily calorie intake between 1200 and 1500 calories. This should work!

OK so I have not had much exercise. I've been checking out the daily exercise videos that Ranae at Ranaesheart.com has found on YouTube for the 3 Week Challenge on MedHelp. I did do the first couple but the last few days it's fallen by the wayside. But even so!! I am in high dudgeon, especially after the brilliant start I had of 8lbs in the first week!

Anyway, I'm determined not to let it get me down (not too much, anyway!) Onwards and downwards, will be my motto, and keep plugging away - only this week I will definitely be doing more exercise. There is no way I am not going to have some kind of loss to report next week! My journey continues - despite the odd detour!

My little jellybaby!

This is my new little grandson JB, or as I call him my jellybaby, cause he's just so scrumptious and squishy! He's 6 months old today and he came up to see us with his Mum yesterday. Of course I was there with the camera snapping away like crazy :-)

He gave us all such a scare on friday when his temperature suddenly shot through the roof and he started having convulsions. The next thing his mum knows is he's turning blue! Fortunately the ambulance had already been called and was there within minutes and he was whisked off to A & E which has a very good dedicated pediatric dept. He was pumped full of antiobiotics and they had quite a job to bring his temperature down by all accounts. Eventually it did return to normal but they kept him in overnight just to be on the safe side. They seemed to think it was caused by a urinary tract infection.

Anyway he woke up saturday morning as bright as a button as if nothing had happened, smiling and cooing away and just his normal happy self. Which as you can imagine was an enormous relief to everybody, especially his mum and dad. Caitibug had been visiting her mum and brother in Salisbury when all this happened, and of course she rang to tell JB's dad who made a 5 hour dash down from Manchester to be with them.

Dad Jezzy went back to Manchester yesterday and Caitibug followed later, stopping off at our place to break the journey, but it became obvious she was exhausted and we invited her to stay the night. JB decided to disturb us all at 12 o'clock and again at 4am and in the end she had to take him downstairs and the two of them slept on the sofa, where we found them this morning. Of course JB was all smiles and coos as if he hadn't been screaming his head off several times during the night! But of course we didn't mind, it was just lovely to know he was safe and well.

Pepsi & Max become victims of the Credit Crunch!

How is the Credit Crunch affecting you? Well I don't know about anyone else but it's certainly affecting us! Everything has become a lot more expensive over the last 10 months, and our wages have not increased to reflect that, so things are starting to squeeze.

One of the ways we have decided we can save money in the long run is to stop taking Pepsi and Max to the groomers. This costs us £50 (about $100) every 3 months, thats £200 a year. So we have bought a grooming kit complete with trimming shears, scissors, training DVD etc. and the idea is that we learn to do it ourselves! The kit cost £25 which is the price of one dogs professional grooming.

Hubby is dead keen on the idea and has been doing his research on the internet - it's amazing how many dog grooming tutorials you can find on YouTube! He figures it's not too difficult when you get the hang of it.

Today we decided to have our first go at trimming the boys and Pepsi was up first, as we figured he would be easiest and more cooperative (yeah right!). We have set up a table in the garage with some leatherette taped to it to protect the top and stop the dogs slipping.

After combing through Pepsi's fur so it was at least tidy, Hubby started with the shears, set on the largest size of comb, as we didn't know what we'd be like to start with, so didn't want to take too much off at first. Having run through his fur a couple of times,taking about a quarter of an inch off, we got a bit more adventurous and went down to the next size shears. This time the amount of fur falling on the table was decidely more scary! In the end we just concentrated on his back, sides & chest and left his underbelly alone. Then we got cracking with the scissors, trimming his beard and ruff and the hair in front of his eyes, and we also trimmed his feet. Pepsi was so good, he obviously wasn't happy about the process and often tried to get to the furthest corner he could reach, but in the end we got the job done and although it was nowhere near the close clip he usually gets at the groomers it wasn't bad for our first attempt. Hopefully the more we do it the more he will get used to it, we should get better with practice and he should be more relaxed.

Max on the other hand was a completely different ballgame! He has much thicker, stronger fur and is a stubborn little cuss. He wasn't cooperating at all and refused to stand up! So after several minutes of working on his beard, which we managed to comb out, we called it a day, as we were pretty shattered from doing Pepsi anyway. Max is just going to have to wait a little longer until we get ourselves a proper harness arm to clamp to the table. These allow you to keep the dog in a standing position with it's head in the air so you can see what your doing properly. Which helps!