Things of a Home: Dog Baths & Leather Sofas

When I woke up today next to a big, furry cuddler with her nose in my hair, I realized something:

She smelled like a hamster. I love my dogs, but in the hustle and bustle of moving and everything that came with it, I couldn't remember the last time I gave them baths. It immediately went onto the agenda for this evening, and much to their dismay, it happened. They are clean.

And they were adorable while it happened. I exploited every second I could between soapy hands and the girls doing that whole-body shake that every wet dog does exactly when you don't want her to.

pre-bath...
... looking at me like, "wwwhaaaat did we do now?"

From there, they spent about 10 minutes each looking like sad, soapy little propane tanks on table legs as they took turns standing in the tub being jealous of the other who was just outside. We flipped a coin and Sasha landed first turn..

mawmmmm.. my nose is wet!

stella bella... looking so forlorn!

We somehow completed two baths without getting mom soaked with trying to shake the water out, and while I toweled off most of the excess, I knew I needn't worry about final drying. They are each other's detailers...

clean girls!

They just wanted answers after that. I may have had to do some light bragging with dog treats to coax them both into the bathroom, so I spent a few minutes afterwards on trial about my misleading them to a fake yummy food feast that was actually a scary, sudsy rainstorm.

sorry girls.

Luckily for me, our pups are forgiving souls, and in no time were back to romping around in the living room waiting for Rob to get home.

 

.. And when that happened... we did what every couple does after work on a Thursday: buy a couch.

before & after

before & after

The dogs of course, still jaded about their forced showers, made sure to photobomb our pictures, but they are more a part of our home than any couch will ever be, so I suppose it's fair. Rob on the other hand deserves an award for putting up with me tonight as we [more like I] fumbled our way around the house with the sections of the couch unloading it into our living room. The biggest disadvantage of Rob transferring to Cincinnati is for certain the absence of his friends. He misses them, of course, but on nights like this and a couple other instances thus far, it wouldn't have killed us to have a bit more brawn than I can offer to help move our stuff around. I've managed, sure.. but I'll just say I'm okay not doing this stuff for a living ;)

 

Eventful day, that's for sure.

Tomorrow's FRIDAY! [wootwoooot!] If I'm right, it's gonna be a pretty good day.

 

Let's see if I'm right (:

 

xo | cmd

Some Light On a Sick Day

I knew it. Sydni got me sick. It's rare that I ever fall ill, but when I do, it's usually because Sydni's passed along some new strain I've never had before. Go figure.

Today started off by me missing my alarm all together. I got to work at 8:30, as opposed to my usual arrival time nearly an hour earlier than that. I spent all morning and the first part of the afternoon in a cloud of bland haze, with my head pounding and my sinuses threatening to black everything out. My bosses finally beckoned me to call it a day, an hour and a half early, and I was in no shape to argue.

i barely recognized my own eyes today for how exhausted they looked...

homemade soup. win.

Within 15 minutes of being home, I was curled up with my favorite blanket in a heap on the couch, fast asleep. I woke up a few hours later and threw together some homemade chicken noodle soup [delicious, despite the irritating head-throbs from standing up at all]. Then it was back to sleep for another couple of hours. It's nearly 10pm and I just woke up. I still feel awful.

The good news today: I came across the video blog links for Sadie Robertson [Duck Dynasty] and her best friend, who have started a series of video devotionals. If you haven't seen Duck Dynasty, well, I won't get into explaining it aside from saying that it's hilarious and if you're anything like me with a dry sense of humor and affinity for downhome country things, you'll love it.

Oh, and if you're a Christian, or really even a parent of children you hope will model their lives after something with more substance and class than the recent meanderings of Miley Cyrus and other followed starlets, then I would certainly recommend you and your family look into Sadie's videos. I know I will be doing the same; I truly admire Sadie and her friend for the courage it takes to stand up for this, for the God we love, and for their beliefs in a world that will, without blinking, do everything it can to bash them and destroy what they're creating. Amen, girls. And thank you.

Thanks, girls. (:
We'll be following TheNewDifferent and its positive message! The world could use more encouragement like this, especially to our youth, who now face more trial and decision that even my generation did when we were teenagers.

*sigh. Now if I could only shake this sinus bug I've got, this would be a perfect evening. I'm on my way to my fail-proof method of the poor man's remedy [aka, sleep]. See ya'll in the morning...

xo | cmd

Churchin' ... & Chompin' ... & Couchin' [Sunday]

I'm not ready for this weekend to end. It's been one of the best so far. If Sydni were here, I can almost guarantee this would've been as close to perfect as we could've been. No worries, though, we'll get plenty caught up with the munchkin in no time. 

Anyway, today started off with Rob and I making a trip over to Cornerstone to meet up with Ali and Joey for the late service. I went last week with just Ali; they started a new series this week, detailing the scandalous beliefs and accusations of those surrounding the crucifixion. Interesting stuff. 

Post church meant a trip to Crackerbarrel. DeShawn met us there and we had some good old country breakfast fun. 

macgyver mode to replace a missing tee
ali's first attempt to re-define "genius" ;) 

By fun, I mean eating a copious amount of food and making the best out of a missing-peg-situation with that triangle peg game. None of us were able to get it all the way down to 1, but 2 wasn't all that shabby, and it was well worth it for the food & company. 

only four of us... haha.. 

... and by food, I did mean food. Haha. We had some still left on the plates when we finished, that's for sure... but it was delicious.... and coma-inducing....

.... = midday nap.... (: 

= WIN. 

We're back up now, and completely fine with resigning ourselves to an evening of couched-up nerd mode: Rob on COD, me on blog.. and tattoo designing [to be shared oh-so-soon....], and Stella to whatever pup dream she's having right now... haha. 

Let's see if this week can be a little nicer than last week. Hoping for some Monday - Friday work week MANNERS... heh.

Happy Sunday, blogbots! 

xo | cmd

Trailor Couch Surfing

'Twas a good night for trailored couch surfing. 'Twas. Haha. 

that's right. good stuff. couch surfing at its finest.

There's been a lot going on at the house lately, which has created the need for me to update some of the furniture inventory. As it happened, Ali thought she's step in and offer up a piece her grandma had just replaced at her house. Lucky me (:

Ali and I trekked over to her grandma's place in Missouri, where we met up with her friend Scott [not to be confused with her boyfriend Scott], who had a trailor in tow and had volunteered to tote a sectional back to my house.

As payment, I fed them. I'm happy we all share the same great affinity for food. Haha. 

Thanks again, Ali!! I'm super comfy, now. Couch party?

xo | cmd

Koinonia :)

Koinonia night, as always, was a huge succes. Tonight was something of a unique night, in that Joe was still gone in Reno for work. The Page family joined our group for the evening, as well, since the members of their extension had regretfully opted out for other obligations. It was awesome having them; we so rarely see the other families of the original large group if we're  not at one of those gatherings. I felt like we'd exhausted the typical food themes, so we went with a more simple menu of "finger foods."

I think this may've been the best buffet we've had yet! :) I think the highlight of the spread was the batch of whoopie pies that Cathie baked. Apparently, this is a Maine thing, because not only had I never heard of them before, I'd certainly not ever tried one. Yes, yes I will be asking her for that recipe ;)

Oh, and that little couch debacle we'd had a few weeks back? Well, leave it to Jarod and Jimmy to engineer an almost embarrassingly-quick remedy to that whole transferring of couches from room to room. Solution? Remove the door from the guest room and haul that sucker in. Really? Haha. I'm almost glad Joe wasn't here to witness this, since it was a pretty polar contrast to the hassle he and Jimmy had faced in the original attempt to store the Prescotts' couch in our basement..... or guestroom.... or the living room. Haha. This ended tonight with the loveseat in the guestroom; Jarod and Jimmy snapped a couple shots of their success. 

Pretty funny stuff. I love these people. I wish every Friday was Koinonia Friday :) 

xo | cmd

USA Olympic Hardware

fab 5! | olympics 2012

Olympic coverage post #8953479257803478105734021...

Who cares, CONGRATULATIONS to the Fab Five!!

I'm such a junkie for gymnastics! I grew up on the stuff, from the time I was about 3 until I traded in my spandex for shin guards and went full time with soccer. It was a weighted decision, but my fond memories of spending hours at the gym, bending toes into perfect points and having blisters on the inside of bar grips will always stay. I love gymnastics, and I love watching the pros go at it the way it was meant to be done.

These 5 girls (Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Kyla Ross & McKayla Maroney) did a stellar job holding their own in competition and keeping Russia at bay for the all-around team gold. There was mass amount of speculation from just about every website and news channel; word is that this calibur of performance hasn't been seen or achieved since the Magnificent Seven of 1996. [Pause - I just realized how the years are flying by; I remember very clearly those epic moments of Kerri Strug's vault injury, Domenique Moceanu's tenacious beam routine, and of course, Awesome Dawsome. I just realized I was only in sixth grade. Haha. Whoa.]

magnificent seven | olympics 1996

Speaking of gold medals for team USA, kudos to the swimmers, too! Jimmy & Mo came by tonight with a couch and a few tables they are going to store temporarily at our place, and once we settled for homing the couch in the living room due to its inability to fit through any of our doorways [long story....], we settled in to watch the finals of the men's 4x200m relay. We were talking tonight about how the records being set by Michael Phelps will not likely be broken for years to come, and that these historic moments are happening in our lifetime. Our kids won't know anything about this other than what they read in books or online. Crazy. 

michael phelps. conor dwyer. ryan lochte. ricky berens
2012 olympic gold medalists

And tribute to the women, too! Bronze medalists - still hardware!!

lia neal. allison schmitt. jessica hardy. missy franklin
2012 olympic bronze medalists

Yay, London Olympics! 

It's late. I'm outta here. 

xo | cmd