Where/How to begin?

The last week and a half of my life has brought forth some everlasting changes which I have decided are worthy of blogging about.  I have never blogged before and don't know how it's going to work out, but why not add one more new thing to the mix?

On New Years Eve G (I will use only initials to protect the innocent) and I decided to add to our quiet, peaceful, rested family by adopting a 10 1/2 week old black Lab puppy.  This is not something that we took lightly.  We had been researching, reading, and contemplating which dog would best fit into our tranquil family.  There were many considerations, but after this little lab came to our attention we knew he was the one!  Everything fell into place and on December 31 we drove to Lafollette and brought little Steinway Minor home.  Ok...so now that we have him what do we do with him?  For those of you who have never integrated a puppy into your lives, it's not exactly the easiest feat.  Some friends stepped up with a crate that we could use and we had gotten a bag of food.  Armed with the essentials (as far as we knew) we were ready to begin puppy training.  Much to our surprise our little peaceful, rested family soon turned into chaotic craziness.  We first put the crate in the living room and went to bed for our nights rest.  Soon after, we were woken with a smell that had never filled our house before.  Turns out Labs are 'pack animals' and want to stick close to their family.  So Steinway had relieved himself (in a not so pleasing way) all inside his crate.  That was lesson 1.  We moved the crate into the bedroom and he was content...for about a couple of hours.  We then realized that we were going to have to get up every 2 hours to take this mut outside.  That was lesson 2.  Why did we think potty training was going to be a good idea in January?!?  G and I both armed for the January weather went outside to convince this little puppy that he needed to pee/poop out there.  We did this every night for a week and finally started to see results.  Steinway is starting to go to the door whenever he needs to potty!!  However, we do still get up with him in the night a couple of times.  I thought we got a dog, not a child.  But through it all this dog is our child.  He is who we are excited to come home to, lose our sleep for, and spend our time with.  We take him to family functions and talk about taking him on our vacations.  He has imprinted a paw into both our hearts and is now a part of us.