Pitter Patter

There are going to be 4 dogs at my parents for Christmas. It is going to be interesting. Rumor has it, there is going to be a lot of pitter patter of doggy feet on the hard wood floors. I'm looking forward to seeing Shalom running full speed like he does here, not realizing he has zero traction on the smooth floors.

Tonight, we enjoyed a fun evening out at Fuddruckers, Hershey Chocolate World, and Hershey Sweet Lights with our good friends and neighbours, Michelle and Dan. We love them. We love chocolate. It was a good night. Thanks Michelle and Dan!


I've been doing a little bit of Christmas baking to take along, to help out my mom who is trying to get the house ready for company. Today I made Hot Pretzels. I highly recommend them if you like a little spice. Here's the recipe:

1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp Broiled Steak seasoning
1 package dry ranch dressing
1 tsp dill weed
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup veggie oil
2 bags unsalted pretzels

Mix dry ingredients and stir in oil. Pour over pretzels and bake at 200degrees for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. We used salted pretzels because the unsalted ones were practically twice the price. They are still good but a little over salty, so I would recommend the unsalted. Let me know if you try them!

Cerenia or Caffienia???

We are heading to Ontario in seven sleeps (Christmas morning). This is the first long drive that Shalom will be joining us on since the trip to New Brunswick when he was 12 weeks old. Back then, he was fine -- he loved to peek out the window, jump from the front seat to the back seat and back again. He would settle only after making sure he had checked in every corner of the car. And then only for a moment. If we wanted a moment of no moving dog, we needed to lock him in the kennel -- and then we got to listen to him whine until he settled down.

Since then, however, he has gotten very uncomfortable in the car. A ten minute drive will **always** contain at least one puking episode, if not two or three.

So we asked the vet about motion sickness meds for puppies and picked up some pills called Cerenia. We were told we should have a trial run to get the dose correct before we go. So tonight, we piled in the car, meds in tummy, and went to check out some Christmas lights around town. Ten minutes in -- BLAH.. all over my seat. So puppy went home and took another pill, but we decided to leave him home for the rest of the night and check the dose by seeing how sleepy it made him instead. When we got home, he was ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was hilarious, much the opposite effect that we expected from this "may cause drowsiness" medicine.

Needless to say, it's going to be an interesting trip to Ontario next week...

2008 in 2008 Lost!

Well, I hate to have to admit this -- but I lost ALL my 2008 in 2008 pictures when my computer died a couple months ago :( I had so many moments captured on film and now they're GONE! :(

Ok, I lie. My computer IS dead, but I believe I only would have lost a couple hundred pictures. Sigh. Can I keep no commitment?? My new blogging commitment I will keep.

Today marks yet another day where I did NOT catch up on house work. Why is it that more often than not, our home looks like a tornado went through it?? I'm ashamed to say, I would be terribly embarrassed if someone I knew decided to drop in on us. This is to my shame because, in all truth, I would love for friends to feel welcome to just drop in.. Yet I would be careful to only open the door far enough for me to slip out and enjoy a chilly hello in the drive way. What a way to share a new home.....

Commitment #2- Something has GOT to change. "Neat" has never been my middle name, or even a term loosely associated with me, but this is not only MY house. I have a husband, who on many more than one occasion has commented on how much more relaxed he is in a clean house. So should I not do my best to do my part in keeping it that way?? I have been abundantly blessed with a husband who more often than not will use his day off from working to clean the house.

Perhaps I am lazy. But this I will find a way to overcome. I need to. It must be done.

On that note, I'm going to change the laundry and finish cleaning the kitchen/dining room.

Life.

Just when I was wondering what I could possibly blog about as often as I promised yesterday, life came along and is doing its job of filling in. First thing this morning, Jer and I were able to share in a moment together -- huddled on the ground, pushed as far under the car as we could manage, attempting to bunji cord the otherwise detached exhaust up high enough to not scratch the pavement the entire way to the shop... As we expected, "Mike" was very surprised that we would have such a problem with an '07 Taurus. Now we are awaiting the phone call with the estimate on cost so we can decide if we should just let them take care of it or have it towed across town to Family Ford where they will hopefully honour our warranty...

Sometimes being a one car family is interesting... Anyone want to give us a ride to church in the morning??

Newspapers

Based on a recent phone conversation with my sister, I decided to come out of the world of hiding. Basically, she told me (via phone message because I didn't get to the phone) that she was going to start having Jeremiah take a picture of me every day with the newspaper so that she knows I"m still alive. Apparently, I'm not very good at keeping in touch with anyone, so no one should feel offended -- it's not just you!!

But that said, I'm going to start blogging more. I can't promise it will be exciting, but I will do my best to blog at least 4 times a week for the next 8 weeks. That's 32 posts in 56 days. That's pretty decent considering my last post was mid August.

That said -- here's an update.

1- I no longer hate my job. It has taken some twists and turns and is still not my dream job, but my responsibilities have increased and I no longer feel like I'm wasting everyone's time (including my own). That said, however, the same week that I started enjoying my job (more on how that came about another day), my hours got cut from 40 to 30. Then this past week, they were cut from 30 to 25... makes budgeting interesting......

2- The babies from the post before the job post have been born! Seth Daniel MacGillivary is alive and well in Nova Scotia. I get to meet him in just 13 short days!! Yay for Christmas with family! Mathias William Bonner came a couple weeks early to very excited mommy and daddy, Jeremiah's sister and her husband. After a couple extra days in the hospital, he is home and doing very well. No plans in the making to meet him yet, but the day will come!!!!! From what I've seen, he's another precious little bundle!

3- WE HAVE FRIENDS! Haha, that sounds so lame. But it's true! In fact, in a couple minutes I have to cut this post short because I need to freshen up as I'm "going out with the girls" for some drinks this evening (Yummy hot chai tea.... MMmmmmm!!) We've become really good friends with our neighbours and our dogs have fallen in love -- YIKES!

4- Christmas is coming. My house feels festive. Outside is not very festive at all. It has rained for the last three days. The day before yesterday was 62 degrees outside, and Monday is supposed to be in the 50s again. Good thing we're going to Ontario for Christmas or I might not get any home made ice cream this year!!

5- More will have to wait for other days.

My puppy says hello.

Jobs

To have a job which one cared about would be grand.

2.5 hours and counting :)

2.5 hours and counting until we hit the road and head north. Puppy has his shots and records, Jeremiah has his passport, I have my green card. OH -- that reminds me, I need to find the stuff that I need to apply for a new Canadian passport while I am there... Hmmm.. now where did I put that envelope....


Anyway, off for a week of family and fun. You won't hear from me until I get back - i'm leaving my computer here.

I probably won't do much eating while we're away... my tongue has once again birthed a second tongue... Yes, you heard me correctly, I once again have 2 tongues. This time I'm going to do something about it though!! I have a doctors appointment when I get back and I'm going to request and see what he says to taking out the salivary gland (I have a salivary gland stone.. again...) Enough is enough. I have 6, surely I can do fine with 5!!!!!

Enough gross talk. I'm OUT!