Highlights of the Week

It's time for a day of appreciating the little things (or big things) that made me smile during the week, and it was a fairly eventful one.

Kent came home!  On Monday I got to pick him up from the airport, and I also found out that he will be around a good bit longer than I previously thought.  Pretty awesome if you ask me. :)

Since he got back early in the day, he decided to treat me to a mini "date night" and take me out for dinner.  We went downtown to enjoy a nice evening.

When we got back home, however, I was terribly afraid my nice evening was going to end in disaster.

I don't remember if I've shared this little tidbit about my four-legged love named Duke, but he's a sneaky little thief when left alone in the house for longer than an hour.

Don't let that innocent face fool you...

Don't get me wrong.  He's a wonderful, very well-behaved, sweet dog.  He just gets a little anxious when we leave him home alone, and he starts searching for things to get into... mainly food.  I've gotten very good about remembering to keep food items well out of his reach after several stolen hamburger patties, a bag of frozen chicken breasts thawing in the sink, and two bags of tortilla chips that were demolished, among others.  I had gone without incident for months.  Kent, however, didn't turn on the "oh yes, I have a big dog that can jump on counters and reach high shelves" part of his brain upon his return.  Without my knowledge, he placed a zip-lock bag of chocolate flavored protein powder from his last trip on a shelf that Duke could reach.  Let's just say that when we returned from out night out, it looked like a chocolate powder explosion had occurred in the carpeted areas of my house.

Powder was on the carpet.  Powder that had been moistened from doggie tongues formed three great big chocolate pudding-like splotches in my light colored carpet.  Chocolate pudding-like gunk was caked on my little red and white Murphy's chest, feet, and face, along with Duke's legs and face.  Chocolate pudding-like gunk was smeared on some of the walls, and tracked by little paws into the kitchen.  I wanted to scream.

Not only did I flip out about the ginormous mess that I was going to have to clean, but I immediately started worrying myself sick that my dogs had ingested enough cocoa to harm them or potentially kill them.  I started cleaning while Kent called the vet who then told him to call Poison Control who then said they wouldn't give advice without charging $39... What?!?!  Add that to my frustration.  We then did our own research online and our own calculations.  According to the small amount of cocoa in the small amount of powder that he had put in the baggie, we finally determined that there was no way they had ingested enough cocoa to truly harm them.  They were only "intoxicated" from the chocolate for a couple of hours.  Just to be on the safe side, we gave them the recommended amount of hydrogen peroxide so they would clear their stomachs.  Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck for half the night cleaning, walking dogs until they cleared their tummies, and watching them for signs of distress.  

As bad as all of that was, I'm incredibly thankful that it all turned out just fine.  I don't know what I would do without my furry "boys." We ended up with a funny story and a good reminder to pay more attention.

When all of the smoke had cleared from that episode, Kent and I had a few errands to run and things to take care of.  While visiting the Satellite City Hall, which happens to be inside a mall, Kent decided to stop by the Verizon store to talk about rates for switching back after the last couple of years with AT&T.  I thought he was only going to talk, but all of a sudden, he decided on impulse to switch over right then and there.  We walked out with brand new iPhones.  It sounds silly, but I'm thankful for such awesome technology that allows me to talk to my friends and family back home, and I'm thankful for a husband that takes care of business and does all he can to keep me connected to everything I miss, all while spending wonderful quality time with me every chance he gets.

It's been a good week for me.  How about you guys?  What put a smile on your face?