Dirt, Dinner, and the Possibility of a Donut

I'm hoping that although we've only been up for about an hour, that my darling puppies are completely exhausted and ready for their morning nap. I let them out around eight this morning. Our backyard got flooded again Saturday night (very shortly after I wrote a post celebrating our dried up backyard), so yesterday (Tuesday) was the first day they could go out back again. However, Sabre gallops more than runs so he ends up with dirt (clay-like dirt, I might add) stuck in between his toes. A lot of it. So he would come to the door and try to jump through the closed window. That's his way of telling me that he's ready to come inside. However, one look at his feet and I knew I needed to go out and wipe them off. I got one, but then he ran back out into the yard and started sprinting around with Tatum again. And we continued in that pattern for a while. He'd come to the door, I'd go outside to wipe off his feet, he'd go play. It was like he'd only play if I was outside. I finally got them inside and into the bathroom where I wiped off his feet. Tatum was much easier. But either way, they both need a bath even though they'll be all dirty again as soon as the bath is over. Puppies.

My husband has finally switched over to his official 2nd shift. This means that instead of working from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm, he now works from 3:30 pm to 2:30 am. It's pretty different. Definitely going to take some getting used to. Sabre's having a hard time with it as well. You see, since Travis doesn't get to bed until 3:00 (at the earliest), he sleeps till sometime between 10 and 11. And since the rest of us wake up before 8, Sabre gets antsy and starts jumping and barking at the bedroom door. We're working on fixing this rather annoying behavior. And by we, I mean I am. Travis is sleeping. He can't help.

I finally followed a recipe! Travis has been coming home for dinner during his shift, so on Monday night I made chili! I was very tempted as I was chopping six cloves of garlic to just...eliminate a couple. No big deal. But I reminded myself that it's a very good idea to follow the recipe as written. I'm sure they had a good reason for including six garlic cloves. AND, the best part of the whole thing, I chopped an onion! If you know me even a little bit, you know that I hate onions. I've learned over the last couple of years to eat very very cooked onions. But they have to be very cooked and very thin and, more or less, not taste like onions at all. Raw onions... yeah, I can't do raw onions. The smell, the watery eyes, the taste.. all bad. But this recipe called for an onion. I read up on how to cut an onion without crying and found that cold onions don't make you cry. I put the onion in the freezer for a few minutes. I just happened to be watching The Help while I was chopping garlic, and in the movie they say that putting a matchstick in between your teeth helps. So I did that too! And I didn't cry at all! I couldn't even smell the onion! (Which in my book is really really good!) And when Travis came home and tried the chili, he said that it was super delicious and better than any chili he's made. Pretty high compliment!

Pst, my puppies are falling asleep! Hip hip horray!! The only problem is, now I'm scared to move.

Oh yeah, and I think my sister is going to help me get ahold of a chocolate cake donut this weekend while I'm visiting! So excited! I mean, not just about the donut but also about visiting Dallas. I have to leave my puppies behind. (We're boarding them, not just leaving them in the house all weekend.) I'm probably going to look like a crazy person when I get all emotional about leaving my babies, but what can you do? I'm a naturally emotional person. I've tried to overcome this in my life, but it's a lot harder than it sounds. But I have improved quite a lot since high school. And I can promise you, everyone is grateful for that! ;) It'll be good for the puppies though. They've never spent the night away from us. I do worry that we'll be knocked over when we pick them up on Monday though. Considering how excited they are when we come back from the grocery store, it's going to be a sight to see.

OK. I've said all I came to say. Which, as it turns out, isn't a lot of substance, but maybe next time I'll have more enlightening, exciting, wonderful things to share with you. Have a wonderful Wednesday!