Eventually I’ll remember to buy Xmas gifts….

Since the epic “bathroom redo to end all bathroom redos“ (I mean that literally…no more bathroom redos. For like, 2 years at least) I have been trying to catch my breath. Luke & Leia had their PetSmart Puppy Class Graduation on Saturday! The graduation requirements were that they each had to “sit stay” for 30 seconds, “leave it” for 30 seconds (put a treat on the floor in front of them and they can’t touch it until they’re allowed), “come when called” the length of an aisle, and do a trick. They had everything down *except* for the trick. We chose “shake”, but through a combination of us forgetting to work with them on it, and them not wanting to do it, they barely squeaked by on that one. The trainer has a soft spot for little dogs, and what can I say? Ours are exceptionally precious;) As long as these crazy babies sit on command and stop chewing on my chair slipcover when I frantically yell LEAVE IT!!! it was well worth the $$. The hard part is that you have to catch them in the act in order to enforce Leave It, otherwise they have no idea why mommy’s pissed off. I now have 3 1-gallon paint cans on the floor of my kitchen with no labels. The labels have been chewed right off! I’m pretty sure one is semigloss, one is eggshell, and one is satin… Pretty sure. @_@

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The adorable Hubs with the adorable Luke. Luke looks like he’s had a few drinks already this morning! Baha!

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With the trainer. She was great! We’ll definitely use her for the babies’ intermediate class, whenever we get around to it.

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The weather has majorly chillified, so I’m glad we took the time to load up our wood shed earlier this month with two truck-bed-fulls of ash wood we tracked down on Craigslist. Have you ever smelled ash wood burning? It is SWEET! Honest-to-god, it has a sweet, delicious fragrance when flaming up. It smells like camping trips, Christmas, and happiness. We’ve been having a wood fire nearly every evening recently=) The Hubs banks the fire before we head to bed and the residual heat in the house keeps our thermostat from kicking on for almost the entire next day.

I have also “cold-weather-proofed” my office food. Instead of my regular greek yoghurt (Oikos blueberry on the bottom is soooo good!) for breakfast and organic baby green salads for lunch, I’ve upgraded to Bob’s Red Mill organic 5-grain rolled breakfast cereal and canned Progresso soups. I cook the 5-grain cereal in our office microwave like oatmeal, with a heaping spoonful of dark brown sugar and a splash of organic 2% milk. My favorite lunchtime soup is Progresso’s Hearty Tomato, with a handful of saltine crackers for crunch. I’ve found that mealtimes are easier for me when I eat the same thing every day. If I have too many options, I tend to go a little crazy and eat way more than I need! There’s something very satisfying about watching leaves blow past my office window while enjoying a bowl of something hot & delicious.

Something about this brisk, blue-skied time of year also makes me want to update my accessories. A brief jaunt to Target for a b-day gift for a younger sister (happy 13th, Patience!) turned into an Epic Trip when The Hubs said that I could have an advance on my allowance…haha, just kidding. I told myself that:P I picked up a few treasures that had been calling my name for months:

Gold Owl Candleholder, $10-ish from Target, Green cable-knit style candle, $4 from Target (both on clearance)

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White ceramic cable-knit style vase, $12 from Target (on clearance)

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United States of America silhouette wooden cutting board, $12.50 from Target (also on clearance)

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In retrospect, I should probably have spent that Target outing looking for Christmas presents, instead of stuff for my house. Oh what the heck. I’ll get around to gift-buying eventually! And I just luuuuurve my cable-knit vase=) Have you picked up anything fun for your house recently?

xo,