Christmas and My Amazing Birthday

So it is now January, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all an awesome 2012! 

First of all I would like to say that I did actually solve the advent calendar problem, if I acted like a small child trying to open it rather then ripping into it, like come sort of crazed being, then I did actually have to break the tin foil. I just had to remember to be a child when opening it. That probably made absolutely no sense what so ever... but it works. 

You may or may not know that it was my 18th birthday on the 22nd and a couple of my friends, Dan, Amy and Maddy (mainly Dan), had been going on about my birthday surprise. Now I literally thought they were going to decorate the table at the meal or something but oh no... they can do SO much better than that!  At some point in the afternoon around 3pm I think, I was just in my room with my sister and I was checking out my new laptop, which by the way is gorgeous, and I realised I hadn't had lunch yet. I was literally just getting up to go and make some toast when I received a call from a very creppy Maddy, who had made it an unknown call to add to the creepyness, telling me that a package had been left outside my house and I was to get it, read the instructions and leave the house in approximately 5 minutes with Ella. 

Maddy then hung up before I could even say anything, but as you can imagine I was a little confused and so my facial expression was a mixture of :S and :O 

Anyway, I went to the door and there was a HUGE brown envelope (they had stuck lots of big ones together) with a little white envelope stuck to it with 'Instuctions' written on. Me being me was to excited and opened the big envelope first to find a Stephopoly (Steph monopoly) board. It was awesome, it had road names round my area and so I was confused what I had to do. Zoe, my sister, told me that I should probably have opened the instructions first, so I did that and basically I had to leave the house and follow the board round. I left the house with Ella and Zoe and started to walk down the road. My board told me to look out for a fellow blonde and the first thing I saw was a blonde haired girl at the bottom of the road and I immediately knew it was Katie. As we got closer I could see she was holding a balloon, something Ella had not seen before, and so there was a lot of barking and dragging and eventually Zoe ended up taking her home - too much excitement! 

She gave me a 'cheeky chance card' telling me to swap an item of clothing with her, Katie gave me a scarf and I forgot to even give her anything - fail. I then walked down an alley way to find pictures up of me on the fences and my friend Amy at the other end, who's chance card told me to pole dance on the next lamp post. I thought they were filming me so I only swung round it... soz. There was also something about giving someone a piggy back but I don't know where that fitted in. We then walked on to where the board told us and found my friend Dani, and later on Keely and then finally Tim. All had chance cards but I did not fancy begging the person on my left to squeeze my bum - Daniel you disturbed little boy. 

The board then led me back down my road and to my house, where I found a banner and balloons on the door and Happy Birthday music coming from my bedroom. I entered the room to find it decorated with more balloons and banners and Dan, Amy and Maddy having a little party in my room. We then hugged it out, because we are awesome like that and then they gave me lots of lovely cards and presents. 

Later on we went to Zizzi for my birthday meal, where we wore pirate party hats and threw table confetti at each other. Mature adults we are. At one point they all passed party poppers around the table without me knowing and then all at once popped them over me! After the meal the restaurant staff dimmed the lights and they all sang happy birthday to me while they brought out a cake Dan and Amy had made. Unfortunately I laughed and blew the candle out early... oops :( never mind. I was so stuffed from my meal I could not even have a small slice of cake, I had to leave it until the next day and it was DELICIOUS!!! 

After the meal we went into a pub and Imy bought me my first legal drink, a cider. And it was very nice too! After staying a while in the pub we went back to mine and then after a while everyone but Dani was gone and she traditionally always sleeps over for my birthday. 

It was, to say the least, the BEST birthday EVER! And I would just like to say a MAHOOSIVE, GIGANTIC thank you to the lovely Dan, Amy, Maddy, Imy, Dani, Amy, Katie, Keely and Tim for making it so awesome!! I do love you guys rather a lot!!! Also a huge thank you to all my family that came round in the morning to give me cards and presents, and well done all of those from keeping the secret - I had no idea what so ever!! 

How Life Changes When You Get a Dog

Just a little list I came up with about how your life changes when you get a dog:

• You find yourself casually talking to them as if they are people, it's like cats really. You just say random stuff to them when you're not with anyone. It's great for when the house is empty, although when my sister hears me she thinks it's wierd. You can tell them anything, they won't understand a single word but they'll look at you as if they're listening... sometimes. 

• You find yourself with mysterious stratches on your arms and legs, then remember it was from the dog jumping up or getting angry. Although that stage fizzles out. Thank God!

• You find yourself ironically shouting 'quiet' at them when they are barking. I find that funny every time! Although I doubt this will be any different if you have children. 

• You end up not being able to walk anywhere without people wanting to see the dog. It's cute because the dog loves it as much as the person. 

• You find yourself having to apologise to people after your dog jumps up at them. Most don't mind but you get the occasional 'you will be, I hate dogs.' Ok, I've only got one of those. Most people don't mind at all. They generally say hello. 

• You will talk in funny high pitch voices when talking to them. You'll sound ridiculous but you won't care but you can take the mick out of each other for it. 

• You will find that all of your friends will want to be the first to see the puppy when you get it and you'll just end up having lots of visitors within the first few weeks. 

• You might find a shrub or 2 looking a little sorry for themselves in the garden. 

Its great having a dog, I'm sure there are more things I could write here too, but I'll leave it there! I hope you liked it, thanks for reading! 

Wow, I haven't written in ages!

So, I've been busy trying to find university courses, doing school work, procrastinating and other things and so have either forgotten or just not had inspiration write a blog! Sorry. 

I'll just do a little summary of things I have been doing:

• I found the university that I REALLY want to go to, I love it! It's really nice and small, cosy, everyone knows each other. It's just generally lovely and the courses there sound really good too. So yeah, I'm really hoping to go there now. 

• I made a cake shaped like a banana... but tastes like chocolate. If you read my blogs from aaaaages ago you'd probably get the Colin reference - it was for Dan's 18th! It was pretty good! Nice and tasty too. Well I was pleased with it anyway, as was Dan and everyone else who ate it. 

• I also made a cake that looks like the YouTube logo for my YouTube freak of a friend, Maddy. I also made her a massive card and got lots of people to write messages and we made her a video with birthday messages etc too. Needless to say she loved it all! What made it even better was that I got one of her favourite YouTubers to record a little birthday message for me to put on there too! 
• At the end of term, practically everyone was ill. Everyone was passing on colds and sore throats. I think I was one of the first to have it but man did my throat hurt! Never had one so bad. Although, honey tea saved the day! It is literally liquid magic - cures any sinus type stuff - remember that one! Probably the most useful thing I'll ever say. 

• I've been looking after my 'little' pupsicle. Yes, that cute thing that I wrote about back in July... or June... I can't remember! Yeah well now it looks like Ella has eaten the 'little' pupsicle we once had! But nevertheless... I love her! She's the best thing ever - even when she does bite my bum! 

• Ok, this one may sound a bit geeky. But... my brother let me play Minecraft and I've gotten in to it quite a bit, it is really good! At first the sound of the zombies and the spiders freaked me out so much so I put it on peaceful but now I have manned up and play it on easy atm... I'm working myself up! Only thing it... I HATE creepers... they blew me up when I was on my way home and I lost all my good stuff! Sucks! I want to get myself some wolves but I haven't been able to find them since I started one of my games but at that point I had no bones :/ ah well! I don't know anyone who plays it... I'm sure some do but I just don't know about them! 

Here are the pictures of the 2 cakes I said about:

Thanks for reading! 

'Help I'm stuck, gimme a push'

After repeatedly pulling the cat flap, barking at it, sticking her head in etc, Ella finally managed to get through!! I knew we had a Houdini dog, she has already managed get from the trellised patio into the grassy area, and we have no idea how.

My mum texted me around lunch time to tell me that Ella had got out through the cat flap, and sent me a picture at evidence. Apparently, she then did it another 2 times, so Zoe got a video (which I will upload at another point)

When I got home I took her outside etc and then took her back in and gave her a toy. When Zoe came in she was very eager to go outside, so decided she would take the cat flap route. She stopped while going thought the gap, with her little back legs trying to get in. She got stuck... so I obviously just took my phone out and took her picture because she looked so funny!!

I told her that she wasn't a cat, but she wasn't having any of it. Then Zoe gave her a little nudge in the backside so I could gently let her out the other side. It was very funny to say the least.

Ella's New Tricks and a New Blog Layout

The first thing to notice are the changes to my blog. Basically, I felt like a bit of a change. So I sorted out a nice little banner for the top, using Photoshop and a little help from my brother to cut out the image of Ella and I. I'm pretty pleased with it, but it didn't fit in with the pinkness of the blog before so I thought I ought to change it. After all, I have had it like that since the beginning, so a change is quite nice! It now feels like a completely new blog. I tried to write a little sentence for the description but I couldn't really describe what my blog is, so I just left it! 

Now to the main bit of my blog. As you know, we got a puppy 2 weeks ago, so I thought I better update you on how she is getting on. 

She has settled in extremely well, and Zoe and I even taught her to sit on the second day of having her! Wow! Clever little pup. Then, within the first week Graham taught her 'paw' and then this trick:

Isn't that amazing? Well I think it is, considering she was only 8 weeks! We sent a link of the video to the breeders on facebook and they were amazed that she had managed to learnt that trick so quickly! Graham has also taught her to lay down, which is always helpful. We are now working on roll over, she seems to be thinking about it but isn't too sure. She did it for me yesterday, but it took a while.

Other than all the tricks she has been learning, she has been having good and bad days. She's been really good house training wise, absolutely brilliant! 

However, one thing we are working on is her getting aggressive, it's not nice. She ripped my favourite shorts, which I wasn't happy about. And also ripped Zoe's pj shorts, perhaps she just doesn't like shorts, haha! We have found a couple of good techniques... either putting her in her crate for a couple of minutes or everyone leaving the room. 

When she is put in her crate after being aggressive, she either rips the newspaper to shreds, knocks over her water and then we wait until she calms down, or she just goes to sleep. So it seems that she mainly gets aggressive when she is getting tired. Silly little puppy... just go to sleep. When we leave the room, she tends to bark fairly loudly for a bit, as it is as if she has been abandoned by her 'pack', and then she goes and finds something to chew on. 

We, well Graham, have had to make some adaptations to the house and garden too. A baby gate on the kitchen door, a little homemade wooden gate on the back door (for when we want the back door open but Ella inside), and a short trellis for the patio to stop her jumping off of it.

Today, she got a little aggressive, but calmed down quickly, which is always nice. Everyone went out this afternoon, so I stayed home to dog sit, as it was nearly dindins time. I took her outside for a run around but put her collar and lead on because the cat was out there too, and the lead takes up a lot of her attention so she wouldn't notice the cat. While I wasn't looking she got herself in a pickle with her lead, so I ran inside to get my camera...

'Help, I'm stuck'

 I made some icing for mum's cake so Ella decided to come and lay down by my feet, how sweet is that? It was probably just in case anything dropped...

'What you got cooking'

Last weekend, Mum and Graham went out and they bought Ella a little bed for during the day if she doesn't want to use her crate, or for if we want to let her come in the living room with us. She seems to like it, but is also equally happy in her crate.

Zzzzzz

Don't fancy the comfy vet bed then?

It is safe to say that we have all fallen totally in love with her, she is absolutely adorable... apart from when she is biting your bum and ripping shorts! Even James absolutely loves her, which is really nice, as he wasn't sure about having a dog at first. How cute, I'm so pleased that he loves her. 

Cuddles

If you come and visit us, I advise you to count fingers and toes first... ;)

Introducing Ella

So, yesterday was the day that I have been looking forward to for weeks - d-day (or e-day or p-day, whatever you want to call it!) As you can imagine I was extremely excited about the prospects of getting our puppy! I mean... who wouldn't be!

After sorting out the necessaries at the breeders' house we were given Ella, and she was officially ours... wow! We were told to expect her being sick, or tiddling in the car but she was very good and she didn't do any of that. She only had a little bit of a moan, but soon settled down and had a snooze in mum's arms! 

We did exactly as the breeders told us to do and took her straight into the back garden and waited for her to have a weewee (this took about an hour, as she was far too busy exploring and enjoying some of the longer pieces of grass, which have since been cut). During this time, she had her first encounter with the cat, although Ella seemed pretty oblivious to the whole thing! Although, the cat didn't seem very pleased and will still need time to adapt!

Snugglies

After this, we spent another half an hour or so trying to get her to follow us indoors! Once indoors, she discovered the dining table and the small gaps under the chair... and how fun they are to crawl under!

Comfy?

Then, we sorted out some din dins!! Although, she was too preoccupied with the garden so we decided to just leave it for when she came back in... and she went straight to it when she came back in. However, in the time between us putting the dinner down and Ella eating it, this happened...

'Am I meant to eat this?'

'Ok, if you're sure...'

 It was amusing to say the least anyway, but we did stop her eating it as it obviously wasn't for her and we didn't want her getting ill or anything! While Ella was eating her dinner, Amy kept a clear distance and occasionally poked her head around the bottom of the stairs...

'What... the hell is THAT!!'

After having her dindins, Ella went a 'christened' the garden before laying down next to me on the grass for a little snooze! I realised it was going to rain and didn't fancy getting completely soaked so I tried getting her to follow me but she just kept laying down, bless her! So I picked her up and carried her inside, and she fell asleep in the process!

Zzzzzz

It was very cute, but I thought it would best to get her to go in her crate for the first time, and she soon settled down and snoozed some more... I think I wore her out when she was chasing me round the garden!

What a cutie!

And the rest of the day involved more running, more eating, more chewing on things and a couple more encounters with the cat, including a little bit of hissing (from Amy... not Ella of course), but again she didn't seem to care at all!

Then mum, Zoe and I had to leave to go and do our Moonlight Walk for Pilgrims Hospice, and we raised £370 for them, just so you know. :) So Graham had her on his own for the whole evening! He said that she settled down very well in her crate when it was bed time and only cried for a minute or so, which is pretty damn good!

Today, Zoe and I have taught her how to sit... wow! It's amazing how she picked it up so quickly! We have also had a trip to pets at home (in our arms of course, as she is yet to have her inoculations) to get her socialising with people and we needed a few bits and bobs anyway! She was most definitely a hit, everyone loved her... after all she is absolutely adorable!! And right now she is crashed out in her crate once again, after another little moan about being there but she was fine after a few minutes!!

So yeah, that's Ella! I'm pretty sure there will be some more updates very soon!