More pictures

Haley has finally established dominance.  She is moderating play and fight time and she has reclaimed her bed and is sharing.

Feeding time at the Trahan Kennel

Feeding time was a little crazy the first few times, but Robert managed to enforce the Trahan feeding rules on the new comers. Haley and Rain learned to wait for their food so that no one would get trampled (especially my 83 year old grandmother who lived with us for 2.5 years after H. Katrina) during feeding time. Haley (yellow lab) has incredible control when it comes to feeding, not so much during fetching time. Rain (on the left) has a hard time controlling his excitement during feeding time, but he is the BEST walker of all time. He doesn't even need a leash. The other two (Jada and Mojo) have learned quickly. Jada is still a little nervous about eating around all of the other dogs, so Robert has to coax her to eat. She is so sweet. Sorry the lighting is bad. There is probably a way to fix it, but I'm not that educated.


We're doing fine here. I'm SO tired. I take a nap after breakfast, get up for breakfast part 2, take another nap, wake up for a late lunch, then beat myself up for sleeping so much. I guess this is the way it's going to be. I don't know ... Can any of you mamas out there tell me if this is normal? I feel like such a bum. Six weeks to go and I've popped out again in the past two weeks. I'm starting to need help turning over and I can no longer shave 75% of my legs. I'll have to start recruiting Robert to do the job.

Monday, Sept. 1, 2008 - H. Gustav

All of the pups finally settled down and we all took a long nap ...

(l. to r., clockwise)  Rain, Haley, Mojo and Jada

Well now we have an idea of what it is going to be like when the baby comes ... the puppy, Mojo, had us up every 2-3 hours.  He woke us up having to go outside, to eat and he wanted to play.  I'm so tired!  Both of our dogs (they are about 6 years old) are like, "why did you have to bring these two here?"  Mojo and Jada (she's 3 years old) play well together.

As for H. Gustav, I was too tired to hear any heavy rain last night, but we did get some.  We are just now starting to get some heavy winds.  We were really dealt a blessing with this one because a dry air system came up from the gulf and squashed the east side of the hurricane (our side).  We are still expecting 80 mph gusts and tornados, but nothing like what we would have had if it continued to strengthen.  Whew!  I'll update again later.

p.s.- we just had a power surge and it fried our Bose audio/video system.  Darn!

UPDATE ***** 9:30 p.m.

I slept through most of the day, feeling achy and big.  I missed most of the storm, the wind and the rain and thankfully the tornados.  One of our oak trees fell down in the backyard.  I'm really bummed about that.  We planted three when we moved in 6 years ago.  One died when H. Katrina hit, now this one. I hope it continues to live after Robert picks it up and stakes it back down. It is pretty big though, about 12 inches or so in circumference and about 2.5 stories high.  We shall see.  We haven't lost power, thank God!  So, now we have some friends over that lost power earlier today.  I will be able to post aftermath pictures tomorrow.  Our internet and cable has been out most of the day, but thankfully we at least have internet back.  Thanks y'all for checking in.

Sunday, August 30, 2008 - H. Gustav

As promised, here is a picture of my 33 wk +1 day belly.  I've really popped out in the past two weeks.   I also updated the belly pics slideshow on the side bar.

Things are looking better for us.  the track is moving further west and Gustav weakened to a Cat. 3 hurricane.  We are all ready for it.  As I mentioned yesterday we took in another dog.  Her name is Jada and the last time she was here was for H. Katrina.  She was only a couple of months old at that time.  She looks just like our Rain, she is also a chocolate lab/pit bull mix.  We found out that ANOTHER lab/pit bull puppy was left behind, chained to a tree near my brother's house, so Robert is over there to retrieve that one too.  He's not back yet.  I'll be sure to get pictures of all of them. 

We are a little worried about all of these pit bull mixes and our cat, Rita.  Rita doesn't like dogs ... she tolerates ours, but she has charged and attacked unfamiliar dogs before.  Luckily, Jada doesn't want anything to do with cats and she tucks her tail in and scrams when Rita hisses at her.  None the less, we will take some precautions when we go to sleep tonight to keep Rita out of their hair.

UPDATE *** I think Mojo is full blood pit bull ... he's SO cute!  Haley doesn't like him at all.  I think she doesn't have the patience for a puppy, which is really wierd because Haley is Ms. ADHD!  Rain is having a good time playing with his two new friends.  It was hard getting pictures because they are wrestling all over the place.  Here is a little slide show for your viewing pleasure.

The rain last night lasted for only a few minutes.  We are expected to start getting the REAL bands from H. Gustav at around 10:00 pm tonight.  I'll keep updating as things happen.  We do have backup plans should the house get damaged.  Thanks to our friends for offering to take us in (even with the pets) should something happen.  Also, thanks Ms. J for checking in.  The blog scene has been pretty slow lately, so it's really nice to have someone take a special interest in our well being.