So what is new in my life these days?? Just about everything. The past week has been so crazy and exciting. I have hardly had a moment to soak everything in. In less than one week, I turned 20, got keys to my first house, and found out who my new puppy is. I am having a very difficult time staying sane in the midst of all of this excitement. I want to try to describe all of these changes as best as I can so I will start with last week.
20. Scary, huh? I don't feel old enough to sound that grown-up. Sometimes I seriously don't feel much older than the day I graduated high school. These past two years have been such a roller coaster for me, but I'm at such a great place in my life right now. Things are really looking up. I know the next 10 years will be pretty action packed and I'm ready to take on whatever life throws at me. On Tuesday, we got to walk through the house, paid the first month's rent, and got the keys. I should explain who "we" is. I will be living with Blake, and my other friend Megan. I am so thrilled to be living with these people. We are renting an adorable 3 bedroom and 3 full bathroom house (YES NO ONE HAS TO SHARE A BATHROOM!!!) just two streets away from my classes. Being a biology major (with chemistry and math minors) I pretty much live on one side of campus. Unfortunately, where I currently live, I have at least a ten minute bike ride to class, and I am FAST. The walk used to take me about 25 minutes. So during the winter, I was enjoying freezing my butt on the lovely walk to the other side of campus off while my friends were rolling out of bed. It's hard to believe that by moving off campus, I will be living so much closer to class. The house has it all: a great kitchen, covered patio with screen doors and windows, big backyard, 6 foot high privacy fence, garage, a deck with access from my bedroom. I just can't wait to move in. Blake and I were saying we should start cooking dinners over there with our brand new gas stove and oven! Too bad the seating options at the moment are the floor or the grass! Originally, I thought that I would be living in an apartment, but Blake and I happened upon this house Easter weekend when his mother was in town. We drove around the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Denver after lunch. We took down some numbers and Cindy even made a few phone calls. We knew this house was the one the moment that we saw it. As we drove down the street and saw the sign, Blake said, "We'll take it. That's the one. We're done." Blake has a way with knowing when something is "the one".. I'll talk more about that later. We called and got a showing the next day. Our decision was made. We fell in love that Saturday. By the next week, I contacted Megan, we signed the contract, and it was ours! We are so lucky that we happened upon the house because it got 15 calls in the first day the sign was in the yard. The landlord had not even listed the house online yet!
Yesterday, I found out my puppy is Mr. Teal. I had not even planned on getting a puppy until a year from now, or at least 6 months from now. However, back in January, I saw that plans changed for the sire of Chex's last litter at Gaylan's Golden Retrievers. I fell absolutely in love with Striker the moment I saw his picture and pedigree. I knew that I wanted one of his puppies. Striker is a stunning Red son. He is a fabulous worker in the field, but a team player as well- not a combination that you always find. He had the brains, personality, looks, pedigree, and health that I was looking for. I absolutely love Chex as well so I was thrilled when I found out she was bred to Striker. I contacted Gayle Watkins and things started moving right along. This litter is very special because this was Chex's last time to be bred. Chex had one litter back in 2007, which produced her daughter, Scoop. Marcy Burke owns both Chex and Scoop and co-breeds with Gayle. Gayle and Marcy decided that because Chex's breedings were not taking in the past couple of years, they would try one last time, but they would also breed Scoop as well for her first litter. Scoop is a young bitch, so she would likely take. As luck would have it, an ultrasound in February confirmed both girls were pregnant. Two litters were born within 2 days of each other. There were 13 puppies between the Country Music and Heart Litters- what a fun handful! I watched the Heart Litter grow up from the very first ultrasound. During whelping, one big boy decided that he would like to try to enter the world by a backwards "swan-dive". That just doesn't work out too well for both Mama and puppy. Chex had to have a c-section. Thankfully, the vets saved both the boy and his younger sister. This boy just caught my eye at that moment. He was Mr. Teal.
I watched the litters grow up week after week. Marcy and Gayle do an excellent job at posting on their blog for Gaylan's litters and filling albums with puppy pictures and videos. Mr. Teal was by far the darkest of the two litters. I told Gayle at the beginning that I would prefer a red male (I love Striker so much), but that comes after health, personality, and working ability. Blake told me, "You know Mr. Teal is yours. Gayle is going to give him to you." I remember saying, "How can you say that when the puppies don't even have their eyes open yet? You just can't say something like that." I kept a close eye on Teal in the following weeks, but I told myself, don't get too attached or excited about him. I kept really quiet about my preference. I even tried to picture myself having a girl, but Mr. Teal was just tugging at my heartstrings.
Tuesday morning, I got the news that will change my life forever. Mr. Teal is the one. I was reading Gayle's email on my phone. My hands were shaking so badly and I was blinking back tears. Was I reading this correctly? Had O Chem really drained me that badly in the hour and a half before? I called Blake right away. He didn't seem very surprised. Apparently my mother was. Anticipating a girl, she bought my boy a pink toy before the decision was made. My poor baby boy!! I am most impressed by Teal's temperament testing. Every Gaylan's puppy goes through Gayle's impressive puppy raising curriculum and testing. All of the puppies passed hearts and eyes at the cardiologist and opthamologist. Teal's testing went very well! He is a confident puppy and his tail never stops wagging. He is neither dominant nor submissive. Teal has excellent prey, tug, and food drives. He is a great retriever with a strong hold. He is very birdy and patient. He is stable and resilient. He is biddible with medium to high energy. Teal has great structure with a sweet expression and head, lovely coat, strong topline, correct tail set, good substance, and nice angulation. I cannot believe how wonderful my little boy sounds! Did I mention that he's a beautiful red too?? ;)
Mr. Teal will be called Jade. This name has a lot of meaning. As I mentioned previously, the theme of the litter is "Heart". Jade is the stone of the heart chakra. It is actually blue-green in color! Also, the first bracelet Blake made me was almost entirely of jade. Jade is supposed to be given to someone who you love. The night that Blake gave me the bracelet was the night that we nearly burned down my kitchen while attempting to make falafel (but that is another story altogether!). We were starving and had not eaten (it was nearly 10 pm). We arrived in the restaurant parking lot. Blake turned his car off and was silent for awhile. I was asking what was wrong and he pulled out the jade bracelet. He explained the significance of the stone, how you are never supposed to buy it but receive it from a lover, and told me that he loved me. It was magical. Blake suggested I name the puppy Jade, and it took me awhile before I thought that would be a suitable name for a boy. It has grown on me so much. Jade's registered name with be Gaylan's Stolen My Heart. Both of my boys have stolen my heart (and I have not even met one of them yet!).
I am just so excited and so very jealous that my dad is flying to New York tomorrow to pick up my boy. Unfortunately, I am still in school for a couple of weeks. It is just going to break my heart to be without my baby for that long, but he is in good hands with my parents at home. I even Skyped with Jade today. I do not know how I already love him so much without formally meeting him. I just wanted to reach through the computer screen and give him a big hug!
I realized that I have not mentioned Layla, my sweet Golden girl, but I promise she will appear in plenty of posts. I am sure I will have tons of pictures of Layla and Jade in my inbox this weekend, and I will be sure to share several of them here!
Gotta get back to studying for stupid Calc. I am attaching a few pictures below of the house, of Layla, and of my baby boy! Enjoy!
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