Attention

Attention, kind readers: the dogs have been returned to the state of happy puffs.

I was informed by one of my good friends a few days ago that Mackenzie especially needed to be walked every day.  You see, this is an upgrade from our regular schedule of once a week, maybe once every other week.  So, I have increased the frequency of our walks to once every other day.  I will hopefully work up to walking every day. Maybe.

Today I just got back from walking them for 25 minutes around our quiet neighborhood.  They both had a great time, and we got some good obedience/ dominance training in.  I was also told by the aforementioned friend that I needed to seriously consider letting them know who is top dog around here.  So, we've been working on that.  Mackenzie still struggles with not going into hyper-blur speed every time she's in my presence, so it is definitely a work in progress with her.  Zenzi totally gets it, and is fine with it- most of the time.  Unless Mackenzie starts getting a little uppity.

Plus, I brushed and cuddled each of them for awhile after we got back, and they were both very appreciative.  Mackenzie was actually calm in my lap after our walk.  I was amazed.  So now they are both happy puffs.

As far as other happenings, this past week and a half has been very eventful and fun. The weekend before last we went down to central Texas to visit the Br--- side of the family (David's family).  We spent just shy of 24 hours there, but it was a good visit nonetheless.  I went with my wonderful sister Amie and mother-in-law Nancy to a craft fair the local town was having, and we saw lots of cute crafts.  I got several ideas for making Christmas gifts. 

Then we had a wonderful lunch, and stuffed ourselves (preceded by a delicious roast beef dinner the night before). Then, we drove home and headed straight to my friend DeAnne's house for our church ministry group, and to celebrate the baptism of their two daughters.

We missed getting to see the actual baptism of the girls, but I got to see pictures afterwards, and I was so impressed at the way they did it.  They had their daughters write personal testimonies (about a  paragraph each), then at the meeting they read it in front of everyone, then their father baptized them in their swimming pool.  I love that the girls got to share their testimony, and that it was such a personalized thing for them.

The next day we went to church and I did the art project with the 2-3 year old class, then taught the kindergarten Sunday school, then taught the bible lesson for the older kids in children's church.  We covered the Ten Commandments in the Sunday school class, and the jury is still out on whether or not my sweet little four and five year olds in my class absorbed the point of the lesson.  But, they enjoyed playing the game that went along with it, and I promised them that if they memorized the commandments and told them to me the next week they would get a prize.  They really liked that part.

After church we went out to lunch with some more good friends and their three little kids to Ali Baba's.  If you are ever in the Dallas metroplex, you need need need to look up one of their locations and try it.  It's the very best Mediterranean restaurant chain in the Dallas area, at least that I've been to so far.  Their gyro meat and tzatziki are the real deal- just like the stuff they make in Greece.

Monday I slept in, worked on the house, and cooked.  Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat so I slept in again. Wednesday I got up a little earlier, worked on the house, and cooked.  Then, late that night David and I went to the store to get some last minute items for Thanksgiving.  Thursday we got up early, cooked some broccoli cheese casserole, and then headed over to DeAnne's and had lunch with her and her family.  Then we visited a little while and had dessert.  Then, we headed over to my sister's house for a little while to see my side of the family.  It's nice that we only live about 5 minutes away from Melanie's house now.

After finishing at Melanie's house we went to Toys 'R' Us  for their Black Friday sale.  The doors opened at 10pm, and we got there at around 10:30.  We stood in line outside in the cold until just before midnight, then we finally got in the door at just before midnight.  We finished shopping in just less than 30 minutes, and then stood in line to check out for 2 hours.  The line wound its way all around through the store, up and down the aisles.  I don't know how anybody managed to navigate to shop.  But, the good part is that we saved a lot of money. We got a bunch of stuff for just less than 80 dollars.  And, we made friends while in line! One of them shared a coupon with us for 6 dollars off, and another one shared her cart with us so that David didn't have to stand for two hours holding a tower of items.  And, while we were in line we got to wind our way through the baby section and ogle all the cute little things!

Friday we slept in, and then I went and looked at puppies with my good friend Summer.  She had a puppy in mind at the city shelter nearby (which I totally love- they are a no-kill shelter), but we went and looked at Petland anyhow just for fun.  And it was a lot of fun.  They let you hold their puppies, no strings attached.  I held a little shih-poo that was cuddly and adorable.  I wasn't too tempted to take it home.

After the puppy-holding, we went to half-price books and shopped the clearance section.  It is seriously addictive.  It's way too easy to walk out of there with 15 dollars of books that were "only a dollar or two apiece!"  When we were done at Half-price books, we went to Golden Corral with David and had dinner.  I got to have turkey and stuffing again!  I have to admit, it's one of my favorite meals.

Saturday totally felt like Sunday to me.  I kept losing track of what day it was.  I can't really remember what we did, so we must not have done much.  Sunday I taught my little kindergartners in Sunday school again, and 3 of them were able to say all of the ten commandments! I was impressed.  And then another one was able to say the memory verse as well!

Monday I slept in a little, then worked on the house and worked on one of the Christmas gifts I'm making.  Yesterday I went to BSF, then picked David up so he could drop me off at home and have the car the rest of the day.  We ended up talking for an hour or so before he left to go back to work.  I am so thankful for what a wonderful husband I have, who does little things like that to let me know just how much he cares about me! After he left to go back to work, I worked on organizing the garage, then I walked around the house picking things up and putting them away, then I watched some TV and had a snack, and then worked on my crocheting, and then I started cooking dinner. 

I saw a dinner idea on TV and tried it a couple of weeks ago, and it has become one of our go-to options for dinner when we don't really have anything else planned.  It's where you make mashed potatoes, then heat a can of Campbell's "Beef with Country Vegetables" chunky soup, and then serve the soup on top of the potatoes.  It is Super Yum! So, that's what I made for dinner last night, along with a loaf of  chocolate chip banana bread.  It was filling and delicious, and cheap! The entire dinner cost me less than 4 dollars.

This morning I got a call from my OB/GYN, and they were checking in on me to see how everything is going.  They asked me a few questions, and determined that they needed to see me asap to do another blood test and ultrasound  and see what is going on with me.  They are probably going to be switching medications around and going to the next step to get my PCOS under control.  The friendly nurse said that from what I was telling her it didn't sound like the medicine I'm on now is working.  So I made an appointment to go in first thing tomorrow morning, and I'm nervous because I absolutely hate having my blood drawn, and I hate being weighed, and other things and so on.  Plus, we are leaving tomorrow to go out of town to visit Aaron and Amie.  So, the good balances out the bad.  I am just praying that the outcome of the doctor visit tomorrow will be good.