And Thry Called It Puppy Love

A few play dates with Daisy and seven puppies later...

We did not have the opportunity to see them right after birth. The owners of Daisy said that by the time we arrived, they had already doubled in size. I could hardly imagine as the puppies seemed tiny to me. One puppy did not make it, which naturally made us sad.

From the litter there were 2 male and 4 female and a variety of colors.  I fell for the Da Vinci look alike and Noah immediately began begging for the black one.

We had hoped to return, but it's just too tempting...I thought maybe we would end up coming home with a new Great Dane or two.

At six weeks old, I saw one of the owners and he had just captured a video of the puppies out playing and talk about adorable. 

Later in the month, all had found new homes but one. The Da Vinci look alike showed up at school and I quickly snuggled my grandpuppy one last time.

Traveling Book

The Original ABC Book of Great Danes book was lamenated. Fed Ex Kinkos then said it would be too difficult to bind. After much trepidaton, I finally found a way to hold the pages together--ribbons and bows.

One book was copied and pasted into a blank book.

Two books were saved and printed on Blurb, which are available for sale. 

Two of the books were copied and Spiral Bound. One was given to Noah's friend and cousin Johnathan. 

With the other, we would like to try an experiment. I saw the movie, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." That prompted an idea. What if we gave this book to someone to read. When that person finished, they could comment on the blog. Then they could select someone to pass the book on to and so forth. It would be interesting to see all the places that the book would travel.

Will you help in this experiment?

Da Vinici Has a Girlfriend

ABC Book of Great Danes

Noah had a school project. They were to write an alphabet book on something that was of interest to them. Noah chose to do it on his dog, Da Vinci. I thought it was so cute, I had to add to the illustrations and make it into a book to share.

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Tug-O-War

After a night's rest and a day in the kennel, Vinci has pent up energy. He does not know how terribly frightening he is to be around as leaps and bounds through narrow halls. Da Vinci also has a competitive edge. If he thinks you are either going up or down the stairs, he will mow over you just to be first. The other morning was no different. Normally, I dress in my room but I had laundry items all over the house. I grabbed by brassiere and headed down the stairs to finish dressing. Da Vinci's feet of thunder began and the race was on. I tried to get out of the way. I felt a tug at my arm and then a snap and quick release. Da Vinci's schozznla found the armhole of my brassiere. The speed and force of one Great Dane dog made the elasticity obsolete. There I stood with only half of my undergarment. Oh my mischievieous dog...Dog's do not wear BRAS!

Dogs and Homework

Some kids say, "The dog ate my homework!"

Some teachers think, 

"That is a lame excuse for not coming to school prepared."

AND some student's HOMEWORK IS THEIR DOG!

Thanks for not eating my homework Da Vinci.

Assignment: 

Measure at Least 10 Items in a Different Units

 Compare and Contrast Size to Other Common Items

Guess what Noah chose to measure?

"DA VINCI DAYNE GROENDYKE"

An excerpt from my mom:

*Do Dogs Eat Homework?

Myth?

Fact?

Both?

All the cartoons and comics elude to the idea it is a common story of the imagination used to explain to teachers the reason for no assignment. Growing up...it was a joke teachers would use or hear on many occasion. I was a conscientous student and so I did not know what to believe. Usually, I would roll my eyes after seeing an expression of disbelief on the other observer's face.

In High School, I was an avid journal writer as were most of my friends. I selected lovely hard bound jounals in which to record my words.  A fantastic English Teacher, Mrs. Clark requested the first portion of  her class be devoted to journal writing in hopes of developing better, more free, writers...a chance to practice what we learned in class. Every week we would turn in those journals. She would glance through the pages, make a comment, initial and return on Monday. I had made special arrangements to turn in my hard bound journal instead of a class notebook so I would not have to do the same assignment twice. She agreed.

My brother's Bryan and Richard talked my parents into a puppy, a Beagle named Bruiser. He was adorable until I walked into my room to get my special journal. Today we would turn it into Mrs. Clark. When I spotted my journal, I cringed. Cute little Bruiser had used it for a chew toy. There were bite marks around the perimeter of my book and there was one corner where there was a whole bite taken from the cover and first several pages. Being a perfectionist, how could I continue to write in this marred journal? How could I possibly turn this into Mrs. Clark? How could I NOT turn my journal in on time? I would have to tell her the infamous words, "My dog ate my homework." As I weighed my pros and cons, I knew the best thing to do was to turn it in.

On Monday, my chewed uo journal was returned. I flipped to the end of the entries to see her initials and comment, "It looks like someone was hungry. :)" I was so grateful she had a sense of humor. I was able to convince my need for perfection that a "dog bite" gave my journal character. I also had physical proof and evidence to doubting teachers as to whether or not dogs eat homework. They do. Now the question will be which students have nibbling puppies and which students are unprepared?

As an adult living with a Great Dane...the better question is,

"What do dogs NOT EAT?"

Privacy Please

Mom says that if you want to come upstairs then you have to bathe with soap and water at LEAST every week. Good luck with that one.