THE DOGS STOLE R'S PIZZA...FROM THE REFRIGERATOR

That's right. Our lovely dogs, Cheyenne and Sasha, have learned how to open up our fridge. They could not ignore the tantalizing smell of R's leftover Papa Murphy's pizza.

Now, before you give them too much credit, our fridge door hasn't been catching right lately. If you don't close it just so, it hangs open just the tiniest little bit. But still, they would have had to nudge at it pretty good with their noses to get the door to open enough.

When I first caught them with the pizza out of the fridge yesterday, they had only managed to eat one slice. I figured one of the kids had went in the fridge and left the door open (which has happened before, resulting in the whole top of R's birthday cheesecake being licked off by Sasha, which then resulted in an emergency run to the store by nana and papa who found the whole situation so very hilarious...). So the dogs got yelled at and ran off with their tails between their legs, and then I reminded the boys to close the fridge after they open it (when I asked who was the one that was in the fridge, they looked at me like they had no freaking clue what I was talking about and then blamed each other, which is funny now that I know they didn't do it).

I spent the next half hour to forty five minutes with both boys on the couch, reading them stories. I then got up to head to the kitchen to make their lunches. I could not believe my eyes. There in the middle of the kitchen floor was the empty cardboard platter that used to hold the leftover pizza. Not a crumb of pizza was left. I never even heard a thing. We have sneaky, sneaky dogs...

When R came home, the first thing out of C's mouth was "Daddy! The dogs ate your pizza!". R sat on the couch and pouted for a while since he was really looking forward to eating that pizza. I felt for him, but you have to admit it's kind of funny. Guess he should have put his pizza in a container...

And maybe now R will fix the fridge door. :)

ONE LOOOONG WEEK...CONTINUED

Last Thursday I made the third trip in a week to a certain medical center, but this time it wasn't for me. Wednesday night C started complaining of a sore throat, which wouldn't have been a huge deal if nana hadn't contracted strep a few days prior. So C missed school Thursday so we could head off to the medical center, again, since they have a walk-in clinic. Now normally I would take the boys to their pediatrician, and I called the office first thing Thursday morning. But they didn't have any openings until Monday. Monday! Freaking hell, the whole town must be sick. Obviously if C had strep I couldn't wait until Monday, so off to the medical center we went...

All of the medical center offices I was in Monday and Tuesday had toys in the waiting room. I knew it would be a long wait to be seen in the walk-in clinic, but I figured that office would also have toys, so I didn't bring anything with me. I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this: not a single toy in sight in that waiting room. And the boys were not in any mood to sit nicely in a chair. They wanted to run around and play. They traded chairs every two seconds. They tickled each other. Then they tried biting each other's fingers on purpose. Finally a lady pointed out to me that there was a very small box of kids books behind a chair in a corner. The books kept them occupied, although they seemed to think they needed a new book every two seconds. And for some reason, IJ seemed to think that the guy sitting next to the box was the Keeper of the Books. The guy didn't seem to mind, even though he was reading his own book, and played along. So when IJ was done with a book, he would hand it to the guy, then the guy would rifle through the box and give him a new one. It was pretty cute, and I'm glad the guy was nice about it.

Forever and a day later, we were finally called in. The verdict: no strep throat. But the boys have been sick with colds for a while (seems like ever since C started preschool), so the doctor diagnosed sinusitis. So C and IJ are both on antibiotics (which will also take care of any strep germs that maybe weren't presenting themselves), so now hopefully they'll finally kick their stuffy noses. Cause the snot has been flying here.

On Friday we got our first significant snowfall, a couple of inches that have since melted. I think that usually by this time we should have a lot more snow, but that doesn't bother me any. I don't really enjoy the snow and cold. Particularly the cold. I was born in Arizona, in the nice hot desert. My father was in the Air Force and they closed the base where we lived, and he actually picked to be sent to the base up here when I was in first grade (the base here eventually closed and my father took early retirement). So it's my father's fault that I live in the land of snow and cold. But there are a lot of good things about living in the U.P. that cancel out the cold part, so Yoopers we will stay. :)

C is a different story, though. He has been asking me for weeks when it would snow and when winter would come. I do not know how I produced this snow loving child. He obviously gets that from his daddy. :) So when he looked out the window Friday morning he was thrilled. "We can make snowmen and snowballs and have a snowball fight and build an igloo!" I hated telling him that he couldn't go out and play in it yet, first of all since he was still sick, and second of all since I haven't been able to get out shopping and get him new boots, snowpants, and gloves (IJ is all set with hand-me-downs). So R brought both boys a snowball before he left for work, and told them to throw it at me. Which of course they did since they listen to everything daddy tells them. :) Then of course I took them downstairs to attack nana and get her all wet. Hehe, that was fun.

snow covered bushes

more of our snow covered bushes

Cheyenne and Sasha went crazy playing in the snow, running around and around our deck and leaping at each other. You would think they'd never seen snow before. (I took these through a foggy door window)

Sasha butt :)

weighed down power lines

Sunday C got to sing with his preschool class at the church service (C's school is at a church), but I will save that for a post on it's own since I have some video to share.

So now I'm finally caught up! :)

WE'LL NEVER LOSE HER NOW...

Sasha's identification tag finally came in the mail today. And I mean finally. I thought that it maybe got lost in the mail, and I was considering sending in another order form (and another 8 bucks). But now it's finally here, yippee! :) It's a silver bone with her name, address and phone number on it. And now she jingles when she walks like Cheyenne does. ;D

Sasha showing off her new silver tag

Smile for the camera! Sasha and Cheyenne