Week 1 with Jake

Oh my gosh... we LOVE him. I never had a dog and never appreciated their smell or being licked or anything like that. But he is MY dog and I love him so much and tell him all day long that he is the best puppy ever. He is so sweet and so smart and such a good runner.

The night before we got him, we went and got all our supplies and engraved his OU name tag.

It has been officially one week together now and it has been a lot of work to take him out to go to the bathroom a lot (or clean up after him when we don't make it outside) and we play with him a LOT (instead of doing work) but its been worth it.

Blaine lays down on his back and Jake will get excited and crawl back and forth over his face, biting Blaine's ears and hair and beard. I think Blaine's better at playing with him because he's good at tug of war and stuff. I try to do it, but I don't play very rough so I think he gets bored of me. He likes to snuggle a lot, too, either with us or between the couches, or on top of my Uggs. We think its because thats how he slept on top of all of his brothers and sisters. But he'll take naps with us under blankets with us or curled up by our feet.

We gave him a bath last Sunday and he liked wading in the warm water until we tried to lather him up and rinse him off. But then a couple days ago, Blaine sat in the bathtub with him and liked that better. He is so playful and fun. Blaine took him to the vet for the first time yesterday and said that everyone just loved him. The vet did all these tests and said that he's really healthy and has good genes, which I guess he could tell by Jake's teeth and bite. He also assessed his temperament and personality and told us what we already knew - he's perfect.

The first 2 nights we put him in his crate to go to bed and he cried for a long time, so we brought him in bed between us and we all slept great. Then starting on our third night together, we just left him in the kitchen with his bed and food and toys and put a baby gate up and he's been fine ever since. Blaine goes and tucks him in his bed and pets him for a while until he's ready to be left alone.

Since I get up first, I get to see him in the morning and take him outside to go to the bathroom. I try to get up earlier than usual to play with him and turn on Disney Channel for him :)

He has also been a good conversation starter. Everyone wants to be your friend when you have a cute golden retriever puppy. Seriously. Everyone. Never talked to our neighbors until this week. Anyways, he are a million pictures from the last 7 days.

First Sooner Football Game

October 26 was our first football game at the University of Oklahoma, and it was wonderful!!! We wanted to get season tickets, but we kept putting it off to save money and finally decided that we would only go to one game this year, since their home schedule wasn’t that great. So I made sure we went to the absolute best game of the season and we were sure successful!!

I think Gameday should have come to this once, since #10 Texas Tech was playing at #15 Oklahoma. It was a close one, and we won and upset the #10 team! The stadium is huge and loud and big time in the Big 12. I really missed being in stadiums that big and around games that big. I loved BYU, but lets be honest, LaVell Edwards stadium is much smaller and BYU’s schedules were not as prestigious. Growing up, I watched all my games on the 50 yard line at the Orange Bowl, so this felt like a little taste of home and old times. 

We got there early, parked on the grass of a sorority house, and found out the game had been delayed an hour and a half due to the rain. It was pretty overcast, but only sprinkling. We stayed in the car for a little bit, but were hungry, so we got out and found this pizza shack selling beer by the pitcher. The lady let me pick the slice I wanted, but then it stuck to the one next to it, so I got a free slice!!

We started walking toward the stadium and ate our pizza under the awning of the Institute building. It was funny because when we drove past it, I pointed it out to Blaine because I knew it was a church building before we saw the plaque. So we walked past it and just finished our pizza outside the door to get out of the rain. We checked the doors just for fun, but they were locked.

Then this guy opened the door and invited us in. So we went inside and it turned out that it was just him and his roommate in there killing time before the game. And his roommate turned out to be one of Blaine’s dental school friends. The one guy that let us in said that we weren’t holding any beer, so he thought he’d be nice and let us in and out of the rain because we might be members, and if not, he could do some missionary work. It wasn’t a bad place to hang out for an hour and a half. They had popcorn, a ping pong table, and a pool table.

We hung out there for a while, dried off, got warm, and then headed over to the stadium so we could see all the pre-game festivities, and it was just delightful! There was so much team spirit and little OU specific hand gestures and chants that I need to learn. The only one I remember now, is that after we all sing the National Anthem TOGETHER, they change the lyrics to, "o'er the land of the free, and the home of the SOONERS!!!"

We sat in the student section because they were the cheapest tickets and were first come first serve. So we actually had pretty great seats, but probably not the best company. Luckily most of the loud-foul-mouth, football-know-nothings moved away by halftime, but someone did get mad and throw their hat on the ground, whipping my back in the process...which did not make me a very happy camper. But we stood on our seats the whole time just like the rest of the student section. 

The game was pretty close the whole time, which was really exciting. I especially loved how the Sooner Schooner wagon and REAL LIVE HORSES ran out on the field after each score! It was a little rainy and a little chilly, but it was fine. WORTH IT! We wanted to go to the one best game of OU's season, and we did. BOOMER SOONER!!! We can't wait to go back again :)

NIKE FREE Family (the type of shoe) ;)