Thankful Thursday - 19

This week I'm thankful for...

1. Sherlock's quick recovery. Sherlock was neutered a week ago, and he's recovering very well. He doesn't seem to notice there is anything different, so that's great. It's still a struggle to keep him mentally/physically tired enough to not be a nuisance when we can't take him for the long walks we typically do. A few more days of that before we can start up again!

2. Fun Halloween decorations! Our new neighborhood goes crazy for Halloween! I'll post some more pictures after Halloween night of the other decorations around the neighborhood, but here's one prime example. Anyone recognize that car? They dressed up their old car to look like the one in Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets! Spiders and all. Love the creativity. I'm not typically a huge fan of Halloween decorations - all the blood and guts and gore... I do, however, love when people are a little cheeky or creative with their decorations. 

3. Frequently connecting with my family. I love that our family is so close. We're all friends. We all go out to eat or just to hang out together often. While food, drink and connecting in that environment is our familial love language (is that a thing?... It is now!), it still surprises me how often we get together. We couldn't all make it to Uli's on Sunday, but it was still some nice family bonding time. 

Best Burger Ever???

Now that I have your attention, I'd like to re-cap my weekend, which includes what I consider to be the best burger ever!

Friday evening David and I stayed home with Sherlock, as he was neutered on Thursday. If you missed my post about that, you can read it here. Lots of fun Sherlock photos!

This one pretty much sums it up.

I also made a batch of cookies, as we had halloween candy in the house that I didn't want to open! I got the recipe off of allrecipes.com and it really is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever had. Always fluffy, light, soft. Mmm... delicous. I'll post the recipe another day.

On Saturday, David had a shoot in the morning, and then my mom picked me up and we went to Costco. How do I survive Costco on a Saturday afternoon as Christmas approaches? I go into my own little world where no one else exists. I hum whatever tune I want and don't make eye contact with anyone. It is best for me to ignore the millions of people surrounding me in those situations.

I came home and David and I decided we should probably carve pumpkins so kids know we're open for business on Halloween! I had a cute plan for my pumpkin... 

Once we got started though, on my very first cut, I messed it up. I then decided to scrap the template, and David and I both did free-hand cutting of pumpkin faces.

David and I both wore our aprons that were a wedding gift from Jeff and Marta.

They did a great job picking aprons that suit our personalities. 

David's says "May the Forks Be With You"

Mine says, "Wine improves with age; I improve with wine."

Can you guess whose is whose? I'm not particularly proud of mine, but at least there will be a pumpkin out there!

Saturday evening, I wanted to cook dinner. I don't enjoy cooking for just the two of us as much, so we invited David's parents over for dinner and games. I cooked up some "Dilly Beloved" chicken from my favorite Looneyspoons cookbook along with some boiled potatoes with sour cream and bacon bits, and some blanched green beans sauteed in butter and salt. I forgot to take photos of our dinner (nuts), which is a shame because it was so tasty! The dilly beloved chicken is always a crowd favorite. After dinner we played some Rumoli and "the crazy dice game". 

Shelly and I drank lots of wine and we all enjoyed each other's company, as usual!

Sunday morning was the usual - I was playing bass in church. We headed to Larry & Shelley's for Sunday brunch, followed by some more card games!

In the afternoon I went home and had a nap. Ahh the joys of having a free afternoon! We got a text from my parents asking if any of us wanted to go to Uli's in White Rock for dinner. ALWAYS A YES! Jeff, Mom, Dad, David and I went and all ordered the same thing...

The Uli's 2.0 Burger is literally the most delicious burger I've ever had. I always get it cooked medium, so it's still a little red in the middle, but SO so juicy. Paired with house salad and french fries with their homemade ketchup. Something magical happens when you take a bite of this burger. 

Obligatory selfie before dinner.

Obligatory train-track photo

And again

Uli's has very eclectic decor inside. We've always enjoyed the waiters/waitresses there as well. Overall a great experience every time.

And here it is... the 2.0 burger. Mom and I shared one because it's just too much for us to eat alone. I could have eaten a whole one, but then I wouldn't have been able to walk the pier afterwards!

David and I took our walk on the pier before heading back to the car. I would have been okay without the walk, but we paid for two hours of parking and I'll be damned if I let that parking company take my free money! We have to use every last minute of it!

I couldn't get a good shot of it, but there was a SEAL swimming along the pier on the right hand side as well. I always get giddy when I see wild-life in it's natural habitat; even if it's just a chipmunk or something small like that.

What a lovely way to end our weekend. The weather was gorgeous too! Much warmer than expected for October 25!

Poor Sherlock

Our poor puppy was neutered last Thursday. 

He's 14 months old, and talking with the breeder we decided this was an appropriate time to have him neutered. 

We picked him up from the vet at 6pm Thursday evening, and he was just an hour and a half out of surgery. He was barely coming out of the anesthetic. 

Here he is looking stoned as ever on the vet office floor. I'll have what he's having. Haha

We took him home and as per the vet's instructions, put his cone on. I don't know if he was just too stoned to understand what was happening, or if the cone is really such a terrible thing. We took a video of him and Scott took charge and added some sorrowful music to it. 

Photo version of the video in case link doesn't work!

Such a sad case

We took Sherlock upstairs and he spent the rest of the evening chilling in the living room. Whimpering slightly, but mostly just looking stoned. 

Taking advantage of our throw pillows!

In the evening, we set up an X-Pen in our bedroom with his big bed in it, and left him in there with his cone on. After a quick snuggle in bed, we sent him to his pen. 

Yup... he's spoiled

I had to be up for work at 5:45 Friday morning, but Sherlock kept us up for 3 hours when we went to bed whining. We figured we'd let him "cry it out" but after 3 hours we had had enough. I figured he was upset because of the cone, so I went and took the cone off him. he took this opportunity to LEAP out of the pen and fly onto our bed straight to my pillow where he curled up and closed his eyes. What a stinker. Lo and behold, he slept on our bed with us that first night... And every night since... I swore I'd never be that person. All night we were worried about him licking his wounds, but he's been pretty good. 

**When I say he sleeps on our bed every night it's actually a mixture of our bed and his crate. He either sleeps on our pillows right behind our heads or curled up in his crate. The occasional time he'll do the "toller flop" on the foot of our bed. He's so cute he gets away with it from time to time, but if we ever kicked him off he'd be happy in his crate too.**

Here's a good example of Sherlock doing the "toller flop"

David stayed home with Sherlock on Friday, and we were home on the weekend as well. Sherlock spent most of his time Friday relaxing and hobbling around. 

We were watching scary TV shows

Typical day with Sherlock.

By Saturday, however, he was READY TO GO! It's hard to keep an energetic dog on lock-down for 3 days! He was bouncing off the walls... literally at times. We decided to spend some time making the cone "fun-time!" We put it on him and filled it with toys. 

It was fun for about 5 minutes, until Sherlock decided he'd rather play without the cone, or shut down and protest it. 

On Saturday he continued his craziness while we carved pumpkins and had David's parents over. He escaped from the house TWICE and went for a rip around the complex. FREEDOM!! We wrangled him back in, and put him on lock-down again until Sunday. He went for a little on-leash outing to David's parent's for brunch, and then it was home for some R&R.

TMI Moment... Since Sherlock "developed" he hasn't sat like this. When he was little he used to all the time. I guess now that we've removed the "obstruction(s)" he can superman again! 

Bonus photos! I saw a trailer for Season 4 of the Sherlock BBC series, and got excited. I remembered we had a scarf and a hat that looks like a Sherlock hat, so Sherlock and I had a photo shoot while David vacuumed. The deck is Sherlock's "safe-zone" when the vacuum is going.

Mysterious Sherlock

Patient Sherlock

Pondering Sherlock

Thankful Thursday - 18

Wow! Thankful Thursday sneaks up on me every week!

This week I'm grateful for...

1. Seeing Janine again. Janine may make the blog every time I get to see her. She was in town for a short time this trip, and most of it was set aside for wedding planning! However, on Monday, her and Neil came over for dinner and then we went out to Crystal's with Michelle. It was a fun night, and I'm glad we got some "Janee" time. Neil decided to stay back while we went to Crystal's to hang out with David. They had some manly time with beer and a movie, while we went and had some girly time with wine and cake!

I think it's time I get a haircut or SOMETHING!

Crystal's First Born, Burman

Is this what my eventual future looks like? 

2. Good wine. At Crystal's on Monday, Michelle and I both brought a bottle of wine. They were both delicious. When I buy myself wine, it's often something cheaper and palatable, but not fantastic. We (or I) got this Woodwork wine as a gift for our housewarming. I was pleasantly surprised! I think it's time for me to start buying less wine, but better quality wine for at home. 

3. Sherlock at Agility. I am sure I've been thankful for agility before, or mentioned it a number of times on this blog. Sherlock has been progressing really well the past couple months. Last night was pretty amazing. We're working now more on handling and doing courses and multiple obstacles instead of just getting him used to each individual obstacle. Definitely much more fun for me! 

This was 4 or 5 runs in, so we're both pretty tired already. His first two runs were super quick! He's sort of dawdling, but you can see he knows what he's doing and is paying attention to me!

What are YOU thankful for this week?

The Weekend. Never Long Enough!

The past few days were busy for David and I, but all good things again!

Friday
We were given front-row tickets to a Giants game as a housewarming gift for Friday, October 16. 
First, we brought Sherlock over to Uncle Jeff's house to be puppysat. We had dinner with Jeff, and then David and I headed off to the game. It was cool to have that different perspective being right on the boards. It was a good game, and the Giants won! Yay!! David gets to go to a couple more games with the friend that gave us the tickets, so that's a plus as well!

Sherlock having some play time with Uncle Jeff in the front yard!

The Frat House. Many nights spent on this porch sharing a beer or 10

Hanging out with the boys before we head out to the Giants game!

Wait... what's that up on the wall? This calls for some ZOOMAGE!

Are you as confused as I am?

Row 1; Seats 1 & 2!

What a perfect spot to put my beer. Until the players smash each other into the boards!

Our view of the ice

Fun Fact. David and I had our first official date as boyfriend and girlfriend at a Giants game back in 2007!

Yup.... here we are! 8 years ago! Adorable.

Aww. Is it sad that after only 3 years of marriage we hardly ever hold hands? I think we need to do that more. It's such a simple, effective way of showing affection, and making each other feel loved. Physical touch is not my love language. At all. It's something I'll have to work on, as it's a major part of David's love language. 

Saturday
Saturday morning was filled with the typical weekend activities such as vacuuming, clipping dog's nails, tidying, laundry, other chores around the house. 

Poser <3

Got this lovely postcard in the mail from Tom & Juanita in Holland! Snail Mail is definitely a lost art. It feels so special to receive something in the mail. 

At 2pm I went out to Mylana's house as she was hosting a "Welcome Reuben" party for Brittany Groen and her new baby boy. Lots of ladies from the church were there and it was great to get to chat to them outside of the church environment. Also I got to snuggle a precious baby. Doesn't get much better than that!

Baby Reuben. 3 weeks old. He is so so precious!

Mylana did a great job setting up and decorating everything! It was beautiful.

Saturday night David went to a Giants game again with his friend Keith. I took the dog for a walk in the crisp fall air. I then watched Magic Mike XXL. I don't often get evenings on my own, so what do I decide to do?! Watch crap movies! Yes, it was crap. Yes, the plot was non-existent. Yes, the dialogue was horrible. Yes, the content was questionable at times. Yes, their bodies were very nice. Yes, it was ENTERTAINING. I do not regret it. Can't say I'd spend another two hours to watch it again, but I did have a few good chuckles. Nice trashy way to spend the evening(?).

Fall is so beautiful. I love an evening walk in this season.

Sunday
Sunday morning I was playing bass in church (again). After church we did the usual and went to David's parents for brunch and games! In the afternoon, Opa dropped by with Aunty Lani who was visiting from the Kelowna area where she lives. She hadn't seen our house yet, so naturally we wanted to show it off! While she was there, we video-chatted with Aunty Candace from California! Definitely don't get to see her often enough. In the evening we got an invite to go for sushi with Opa and Oma and Aunty Lani. We went to this great place close to our house called Sushi Mori. I would recommend it. 

Lovely evening out!

So great to reconnect with Aunty Lani

Weekends tend to be very busy for us. I feel like there isn't enough time. I never feel rested enough to come back to work on Monday. Monday at work sometimes feels like a break from the craziness of life! I am not complaining though :). We're blessed to have many people to visit and things to do!