The Pressure Is On

Hey everyone! It's Austin's girlfriend, Bri. Renee has decided that since I have been a part of Yesteryear Acres for a little over a year, my job title will now not only include cleaning up puppy poop, cleaning up doodle doggie poop, watering the garden (whenever it rains, I watered the garden that day, too!), cleaning the house from top to bottom, playing with the precious puppies (my personal favorite), but also.......you guessed it. Writing the blog as the guest blogger. She has decided to throw me to the wolves for ONE WHOLE WEEK to see how I like writing the blog. As you can all see, I have big shoes to fill. She says it will be interesting to read about life here from my point of view. I say it will be interesting to see my awesome writing skills. Being a student in Nursing School, we shall see if writing is my forte. For now, I guess you can say there is a new sheriff in town! Stay tuned for stories of my experience here at Yesteryear Acres!!

Best Recess Ever!

This week my son decided that he would like to try taking pictures for Puppy Picture Monday. Bri was his lovely assistant and I got the job of playing with the puppies in between photo sessions. It was a lot of fun!

Truffles puppies love venturing outside for recess!

"Tag, you're it!"

Break time...more pictures!

They have the cutest little faces!

"Austin...is picture time over yet?"

The puppies loved their new photographer as they kept running up to the camera for his attention. 

"Taking pictures is hard work!"

"But not as hard as landscaping!"

"I like when Bri holds me the best."

"Haha just kidding...Austin!!"

"Annnnnnd..that's a wrap!"

And LOOK WHAT WE HAVE!

New Double Doodle babies!

Grits has 5 girls and 5 boys and they are so adorable. We are excited for our first time Mommy!

Happy Puppy Picture Monday!!

199 Degrees

Today we celebrated Mr. Yesteryear Acres Dad's 82nd Birthday. We had a lovely party full of food, family and fun.  This is our 3rd annual big summer family party to celebrate his birthday and we all really look forward to it. My great niece was super excited to see me and couldn't wait for us to take a walk together. She had a lot to tell me like.....
1) She just got back from North Carolina and it was SO FAR! She had to sit in the car for an HOUR to get there!

2) It is sooooooo hot outside.  It is 199 degrees!

3) She can count to 100. "1, 2, skip a few, 100"

4) She needed fresh air so it would be a good idea if I would jog to keep her company so she could ride her bike!
I certainly couldn't ignore the wisdom of a 6 year old so we started out on our walk. First up.....picking mulberries.

Then we HAD to get our picture on the bridge.

I was informed I wasn't doing it right

"Aunt Renee, you have to say 'HEY'!"

See? "Hey!"

Then it was time to jog. "Come on Aunt Renee! I am beating you! Jog faster! I am winning!"

She did not feel she had an advantage going by bike

"HURRY UP!"

We made it all the way to the barn and then it was time to jog back 

but......could I go a little faster this time?

Once we were all done with our walk/bike/jog, I realized my great niece was right.  It was 199 degrees outside!!!!!

Happy Birthday Mr. Yesteryear Acres Dad! It was a great day!

3 O'Clock right on time!

Our puppy pick up day went really well today.  The puppies all loved their new families and the new families all loved their new families. My Saturday's 3 O'Clock appointment was right on time!!!!  Perfect!!!!!  It is amazing what the right day will do for a schedule!  Even the rain worked with my schedule today and all the puppies were able to go outside in between the showers and everyone stayed dry. After the puppies went home Bri and I made a great big stockpot of Beef Stroganoff which is currently simmering on the stove.  We will be making homemade pasta for the Stroganoff right after we are done with the most important part of tonight's meal....BROWNIES!  Mmmmmmm.  I am ready for our feast!  There is the slightest chance that we may finish all our chores at a reasonable hour tonight and get a little time to put our feet up.  Tomorrow's schedule is super busy so I am looking forward to a little down time tonight.  Fingers crossed! For now...back to it. Time to make the pasta!

That 3 O'Clock

Being the typical Type A person, I am not a big fan of being late.  I do not like to be late.  I also do not like it when other people are late.  I always allow for extra time to be sure that I am on time for my appointments and I appreciate it very much when others show the same courtesy. Whenever I schedule puppy visit days or puppy going home days, I send a friendly reminder to please be on time.  And then I ask if for some reason a family is running late, please text or email me so I can adjust my schedule.  I re-arrange my whole day so I am sure to be ready for puppy visitors. If I spend time just waiting and waiting and waiting, I think about all the other things I could be doing like picking up puppy poop, watering the garden, folding laundry, cleaning my house, making dinner etc. etc. etc.  I am not one to idly waste time.  So today I had a puppy pick up at 3:00pm.  I was outside by 2:40pm walking the puppy and making sure the puppy had the chance to go potty before the big car trip home.  By the time 3:00pm rolled around, the puppy was ready.  So we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  At 3:15pm I told the puppy that his family was late.  At 3:30pm, I told the puppy that his family was REALLY late.  At 3:45pm, I told the puppy I wasn't too happy and the puppy shared my sentiments and didn't want to be outside playing anymore.  So the puppy and I went back inside and by 4:00pm, I was seriously wondering how anyone could be an hour late without letting me know.  At 4:15pm, I was really irritated.  I just spent 1.5 hours waiting and waiting and I still had a huge list of things I needed to do for the day. I was in the middle of telling Bri how mad I was that someone was this late and it couldn't be rush hour traffic because there isn't any rush hour traffic on Saturday. That is when Bri said........"Today is Friday".  OH. What kind of Type A person am I?  The kind that doesn't know the days of the week!!!!  My puppy family is still coming. At 3 O'Clock. On Saturday.  Oh THAT 3 O'Clock!  Ooooops!  Well it looks like I am really ready!!!!!

Almost time!

Bright and early tomorrow morning, Marmalade's puppies will start leaving for their new homes.  We will have a full day here sending off our furry babies to their new families. I will have a house full of smiles and happiness! Today we put together all the puppy care packages for tomorrow's big day.  We have toys and blankets, food, brush, treats.... the going home puppy care bags look great! The only tough part of our day was keeping the doodle puppy toys from all the doodle puppies and doggies!  They wanted to play with them NOW.  Almost time doodle puppies...almost time.  One sleep to go!

This or That?

Today my son's girlfriend Bri and I visited Mount Carmel School of Nursing. Bri has been accepted into Mount Carmel's Nursing program AND she has been accepted into Kent State University's Nursing program.  I am super proud of her! Bri is totally on her own for paying for Nursing school and for making her own way through life. She doesn't have anyone to help and I am amazed at her determination and happy optimistic attitude. She is a ray of sunshine every day!  She made the President's list her freshman year at Kent and is an excellent student.  Now she has the big decision as to where to spend the next 3 years. Since she has already spent an entire year at Kent State, I suggested that we go tour Mount Carmel so that she could see the college before making her big decision. So this morning we were on the road bright and early and had a lovely tour of the Nursing school and the facilities were really nice. The housing was awesome too.  Each dorm room comes with a complete kitchen and washer and dryer which is obviously a huge plus.  Bri and I spent the rest of the afternoon talking about her big choice.  Pros and Cons.  This or That? Obviously the biggest pro in going to Mount Carmel is that Bri will be close by and I won't have to miss her! And she won't have to miss me! Oh yeah.....and maybe just maybe it might be nice that my son will be close by as well. A big pro might also be that Mount Carmel is awesome. The biggest pro in going to Kent State University is that she is ahead of schedule with her credits as she took a heavy class load her freshman year so she will have a perfect schedule for nursing school.

Mount Carmel......Excellent Facilities, Excellent Job Placement, Small Teacher to Student Ratio, and close to me!

or

Kent State....More Affordable, Big Campus, President's List and Merit Scholarships, Way Ahead of Schedule with Classes already taken

Hmmmmm ...What shall she do?

Not Even a Bite

Yesterday I spent hours on my website and I didn't finish working until midnight.  I really have to change web servers! This continual delay in uploading my pictures and the constant wheel spinning is getting beyond frustrating.  I am going to start researching various options and then begin the gigantic project of migrating my website to a new hosting server. I dread doing it but now it has come to the point, where I dread losing an entire Monday every single week, watching a wheel spin endlessly.  By the time I was done working yesterday, I realized I hadn't even exercised at all. In fact, I barely had any steps.  The only exercise I got was taking the puppies inside and outside and back inside and back outside (which actually add up to about 7,000 steps a day!).  This however doesn't count as "real" exercise and even with my puppy steps, I wasn't even close to my daily goal.  The rule I have made for myself is - no exercise.......no ice cream!!!!!! That is a hard fast rule.  In order to indulge in my favorite desserts, I have to burn some calories. So there I was, at midnight, with my tummy grumbling, wanting to be rewarded with ice cream and I couldn't have any. Not even a bite. Until........ I realized that in fact it was NOT yesterday but it was TODAY!  And TODAY I would exercise! Soooooo I had my ice cream! And today I exercised!  So now the dilemma is......can I have seconds?????

Can we do this again?

Today has been a fun puppy play day!  All the puppies are now big enough to go outside and have some fun play time.

Truffles puppies just love going outside to play

They are getting really good at going potty outside now

They are just the cutest

and so sweet!

Play time is the best!

Such a good little puppy

And adorable! 

Can we do this again?

Of course we can!

So much love!

Marmalade's Double Doodle puppies have mastered the art of fetch

 

"Bri! Look what I found!"

"Let's show her our new trick!"

"You brought me leaves! I love them!"

A perfect puppy picture and........

what happens one second after I click the shutter button!

 

One last potty break

Ok! Back inside we go!

I hope we can do this again!

Sweet Pea's puppies are now venturing outside too!

 

"I have a secret"

"That was so much fun"

"Can we do this again?"

Of course!

Happy Puppy Picture Monday!

It isn't dark yet!

We had a super busy day here at Yesteryear Acres complete with a graduation party that took up most of the afternoon.  By the time we got home and unloaded the car, it was a little after 6pm. You would think that it would be dinner time right? No - not at all.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres was quick to point out that we had lots of work left to do! Time to change clothes and get busy!  "We have overdue gardening to get done and it isn't dark yet!"

Given the late hour, we brought in reinforcements!

We needed a qualified supervisor for the job

Thankfully she gave us a paw's up!

Oh boy!  We get to put sawdust on all the sweet pea plants.

And weed the cucumber patch

And tie up tomato plants

Hurry!  The sun is setting!

Time to clean up

Thanks to super garden kitty - we got it all done!