Travel Tales: New York City (again)

Phil and I spent the last part of last week in New York City. When we made it home, I have never been more thankful for my own bed in my entire life! I’m not sure if there was even a mattress on our bed at the hotel or if we were just sleeping on a box spring. I wish I was kidding. We now have a new winner in the “Worst Bed I’ve Ever Slept On” category. We both walked around like zombies on Friday due to a lack of restful sleep and sore muscles 😫. While I’m complaining (I’ll be done in a minute, I promise 😉), I also want to say that W 23rd St. on 7th Ave. must be where the people go to be loud and honk their horns at all hours of the night. Or maybe they do that everywhere and the exterior walls of our hotel were just the same quality as the mattress 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

Anyway, aside from crippling back pain and minimal sleep, we had a great time on our mini vacay to New York City! 😃😃 Driving ourselves was much more pleasant than our previous trip this summer on the bus with people we wanted to vote off and that broke down on the way home. Although, driving in NYC is a nerve-wracking experience, especially at night when people are out in herds and don’t follow crosswalk signs, and even worse, the other drivers don’t use signals and just cut you off. Fun times. I drove into the city because Philip says he’s a much better navigator than me (he is, but we won’t tell him that 😉). We parked and walked for the duration of our stay. When we left on Saturday morning at 8am, it was much easier getting around; almost no traffic or pedestrians so we’ve decided our next trip will be timed to arrive then. We’ll drive through the night and avoid all the chaos. There will be a next trip because I love NYC. I would never want to live there because too much time spent would cause me to become annoyed with all the crowds, but I love it in small doses. We’ve decided that mastering driving in NYC with all the people and aggressive drivers and also in WV with all the hills and potholes and most weather conditions means that you could probably drive anywhere in this country comfortably. 

Since we arrived at around 8pm the first night, we just ate dinner and went back to the room. We mistakenly thought we could get some sleep and start out sort of early the next morning. The guy working the front desk made a dinner recommendation when we asked where we could get good Chinese food. He said he didn’t recommend the place across the street, saying he didn’t trust them in his wonderful New York accent that amused me. He asked if we wanted Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. etc. We were like, “umm? Idk” because there’s one Chinese restaurant in our town and we have no idea what nationality they are 😳. He recommended BonChon, a Korean place right down the street, so that’s where we went. He had good taste. The food was great and so was the Brooklyn Lager.

The next morning, after a slow start due to sore muscles from the damn bed, we hit Starbucks and headed to 34th St. to explore the iconic Macy’s. There were 9 floors! The escalators look as though they are originals from when the store was built. Everything else is gorgeously renovated. It’s interesting though to see all the wealth it has to offer in a place where some people have so little. I saw a sweatshirt hanging in a designer store within Macy’s (I can’t remember which one) and it had the words New York City printed on it with intentional paint splatters all over. A “ruined” sweatshirt with a price tag of $150. There are literally homeless people who live on the street and people pay $150 for a shirt with paint splattered on it. That weighed heavy on my heart while we were there. It certainly is a site to see though. Macy’s Herald Square is the largest department store in the U.S. and second largest in the world, according to wikipedia, if you trust that source. 

Liars! 😳 (maybe)

When we left Macy’s I was on a mission to hit up a bakery that we had passed on the way up. It was called Caked Up and boy did I get caked up. Getting too caked up makes one feel like throwing up. Just a warning for you. They were so freaking good though. There were many flavors to choose from and it was hard to make a choice. Which is why we ended up with 4 cupcakes for two people 🤷🏻‍♀️. We got cookie dough, chocolate coconut caramel, cannoli, and banana cream pie. They were all amazing and I would highly recommend any of them but cookie dough was my favorite. Philip liked the chocolate coconut caramel best, which was my second fav. 

All Caked Up

Since we obviously needed to walk some of that off, we decided to go see the Empire State building, something we didn’t do last time. I gotta tell ya, the view is nice but not worth the $32 per person it costs to see it. Save your money, if you’ve never been. I can’t imagine how much money they take in each day there. Unbelievable. There were tons of people and you had to wait to ride the elevators, first to the 68th (?) floor to an informational display (that we didn’t really have time to look at because we had Broadway tickets and wanted to eat dinner first) and then to the 80 something floor for an outside view. Too much time was spent getting there to spend a few minutes outside. Maybe going when it’s warmer would make this excursion more enjoyable but I imagine only slightly. Again, save your money. 

Anyway, about that Broadway show; make sure you’re on time. We are not usually late for anything. Philip likes to be early and I like to be less early but definitely on time and we had every intention of being there almost half an hour early. However, the subway fooled us again 😡 and we got  on a train going the wrong direction. I’m going to blame the freaking map app this time because it told us where to go and it was wrong. Anyway, instead of going up to 50th street, we went down to 14th street. We got off and just decided to walk instead of risking getting on the wrong train again. If you ever plan to go to NYC, you should definitely train for a half marathon beforehand. Earlier this year we walked 16 miles in one day and this time we walked close to 12. It was a fast paced walk to try to make it to our show on-time. The GPS said we would arrive at 7:05 and we made it at 7:02. I wasn’t worried because I didn’t know that they were super strict about showtimes and we when we got there the attendant was like, “hurry up and run to the door so you can get in. They’ll be closing in a minute!” We made it in in time but I did see another couple come in about 10 minutes after the show started. So I think they just try to scare you into being on time in the future; a rule I am fine with people enforcing. I hate when other people are late and I hate being late. We watched Wicked and it was amazing! Our seats were so good that we could see the spit coming out of the actor’s mouths…seriously.. if you’ve ever watched that episode of Friends where Joey is acting alongside Richard Crosby, who teaches him to enunciate by spitting then you can envision what it was like. We will definitely see another play in the future. The only thing I don’t like about Broadway is getting there. Once you hit 34th at night, it’s like an aggressive game of Red Rover when the crosswalk sign turns white. There’s always a huge crowd of people heading both directions and you have to fight your way through the crowd. On our second night we had to walk back to Broadway to PlayStation theater to see the comedian Stephen Lynch. During our walk we were befriended by a couple in front of us because the guy was very excited that they got to be first three times (!) at the crosswalk and he said that had never happened to him before. He felt like it was an important duty because he got to tell us when to go 😂🤷🏻‍♀️. I think we may have been his lucky charms because that happened to us many times in the few hours that we were there. I think he may just not walk at a regular pace on the norm lol. I also got fist bumped my Batman in Times Square and how often can you say that? Anyway, Stephen Lynch’s show was great and if you’re not easily offended, check him out on YouTube. I’m warning you though, he makes fun of just about every group of people there is and you’ll likely be one of them. He sings and aside from his songs being totally ridiculous, he really has a great voice. 

The view from our seats for Wicked. You’re not allowed to take pics during the play. 

Our seats were great for Stephen Lynch’s concert, too! I tried to take pics of him but the lights interfered 😒. 

Earlier in the day we decided to kill time before his show by going to the Ocean Odyssey attraction. It was an educational event that teaches you about animals in the ocean and there’s a lot of technological interactive equipment. The first room we went into looked like the floor was an ocean and you could stomp on the floor at fish and they would swim away from you. It made me kind of motion sick. Everything was pretty cool and we’re both animal lovers so we enjoyed learning about them. However, again, the admission price may have been a bit steep for the experience it offers. I had a truly unique experience with the bathroom though. It was an all gender restroom, which was fine; the doors went all the way to the floor, and had none of that crack in the wall between stalls bullshit that is everywhere. However, coming out and washing my hands alongside men was a little weird and took me by surprise. Which was kind of dumb since I knew going in that it was for everyone. Just not something I do every day, outside my home anyway. 

Google the Humboldt squid, aka red devil, and hope that you never encounter one 😳

Our trip was short but perfect (minus the bed 😑) and I can’t wait to go again! Our drive home was shorter than the drive up due to the timing. If you don’t know this already, you are not allowed to pump your own gas in New Jersey. We had an awkward experience when we got off the interstate to get gas. Phil got out to pump and the attendant came over to talk to me because I was driving. He didn’t realize Phil was doing it and I didn’t realize he was waiting on me to give him my card. Once we figured each other out due to a language barrier, he went over to talk to Phil, who was having issues with our card. We forgot to mark it for travel and apparently using a debit card for two days in NYC is fine but getting gas in NJ is suspicious so the transaction was blocked until I got a text and confirmed my attempted purchase was legit. Anyway, this didn’t happen in a timely manner so Philip told him we were just going to have to go elsewhere because our card wouldn’t work there, to which the man replied, “gas is cheaper here!” And Phil told him, honestly at this point, “I just don’t have another card to use, sorry.” BUT that man was a LIAR and right down the road the gas was FIFTEEN cents cheaper! GRRR. So I’m glad it didn’t work and I was able to confirm the purchase and our card worked without a problem. However, we really needed to pee at that point and that bathroom was horrendous. Thank goodness I keep sanitizing wipes in my car. Oh, we didn’t know why both places had an attendant come out to talk to us and I remembered reading one time about not being able to pump your own gas somewhere so I googled it and sure enough, NJ is the only state where that is illegal. Get with the times NJ! 

Another thing you should know if you’re ever road tripping to NYC, the PA turnpike is ridiculously expensive..like twenty-some dollars to drive on it (each way!) and if you get off, there may not be a way back on, meaning you’ll be taking an alternative route that adds forty minutes onto your trip. We found this out on the way up. Ugh. 

We spent way too much money, had more bellyaches than I care to count (the first one started on the way up because all road trips require snacks and I saw a meme that perfectly sums it up, saying something like, all road trip snacks should look like a 9 year old was left alone with $100 to spend. We definitely did it right with oreos, pop tarts, snickers, peach rings, Cheetos, almonds, and I don’t even remember what else. The calorie and sugar counts was horrendous), walked several miles, endured back pain and other muscle aches, got homesick while seeing other pups around, and resisted the urge to throat punch a few people while making our way through the cluster **** that is Times Square BUT we had an amazing trip and enjoyed every minute of it. I could never live in a huge city but it’s exhilarating to be there. I’ll be counting down the days until the next time!

Travel Tales: Phoenix, AZ

I made it to Phoenix and back but the way things started out and continued, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it there or home. I went with four of my coworkers/friends for the Parents As Teachers National Conference. They picked me up because I live closest to the airport and the ride up went smoothly. We even caught a bus to the terminal fairly quickly. We boarded in the last group (don’t even get me started on how dumb I think the boarding process is. Who thinks that the middle seats should board last? It makes no sense) so we didn’t have to wait long after being seated to start the take off process. Just when I thought we were all set to go, the captain announced that he had a light on in his dashboard and we had to return to the terminal for a maintenance check 😳. Not exactly what you want to hear but at least he discovered it while we were still on the ground. They let us de-plane and I thought for sure that meant we weren’t getting back on anytime soon but unbelievably, not more than 30 minutes later, they were boarding again. I wasn’t sold on the idea of flying in a plane that just had issues but I buckled my seatbelt and hoped for the best. The flight was fine and we were only delayed by about an hour for the whole ordeal. It was a straight flight to Phoenix so the only pressing matter once we landed was check-in and finding food. When we arrived at the hotel and tried to check in, the front desk clerk said there was a problem and only one of our three rooms was paid for. Since it was after midnight at home by that point, we weren’t able to contact our boss, who they said needed to authorize the charges. So off to Marsha’s room we all went, planning to crash for the night. Since we were starving and didn’t know the area, we decided pizza delivery was our best dinner option. I ordered online and the site told me it would be 27-37 minutes. Okay, cool. Forty-five minutes later and after 11 pm, their closing time, I called to check on our order. The guy on the phone informed me that they only had one driver and the online time was wrong. He said he would be out with ours shortly though. The delivery driving ended up coming about 15 minutes later and we inhaled that pizza. It was delicious. Of course, being overly hungry can make any food taste amazing. Miraculously, in the meantime, the front desk called and said they got our room problem sorted out for the night and they would just need Beth to call and authorize in the morning. Great. Regina and I got the best end of the deal because our room was upgraded for free and it was HUGE. It had a full kitchen, complete with a full-size fridge, stove, and dishwasher. The bathroom was gigantic and Chris estimated that our shower was big enough to fit the five of us while doing yoga poses lol. Although we didn’t try there, we did have a great yoga pose photo on a bridge that crossed the pond. I directed everyone’s moves and we helped Marsha into her signature pose on the bridge wall. I sat up my phone and took the photo from my Apple Watch. It was one take and it was the best photo I’ve ever taken, hands down. We couldn’t have done it better if we tried. When I posted it to facebook, a few people didn’t see Marsha and a couple thought that I was floating. My bottom leg is precisely lined up with Chris’s so I can kind of see how they thought that. I didn’t plan that at all so that was a funny outcome. 

Pottery in the lobby that looks like male anatomy 😳😂

Starving to death while waiting on pizza. 

Best pizza of my life 

Best photo ever. Ever. 

The conference was good, but we didn’t like the “first come, first serve” style of attendance. They had several rooms set up with speakers presenting different topics. You could choose wherever you wanted to go but if the room filled up then you had to choose another topic. It seemed as though the most popular topics were in the smallest room. It was a little frustrating trying to get into something that interested you and then having to quickly make a second  or even a third choice, which sometimes required going to another floor. Our center was recognized for earning Blue Ribbon status in our Quality Endorsement and Improvement Process. This means we met (and totally exceeded!) the Parents As Teacher Essential Requirements. And this means that we are awesome and provide great services to the families that we serve.

Chilling between sessions. 

Leaving about self care. 

They had lots of books for sale at the conference at amazing prices. I bought a book that was for sure written about me, called Princess Kim and Too Much Truth. It’s about a girl named Kim who decides she’s only going to tell the truth. Of course, she learns that sometimes telling the truth hurts people’s feelings and the gist is: if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. I read it to Kate and Link and Kate wanted to keep it but I told her no because it’s my favorite book 😂. I will cherish it forever. I need to write a children’s book. We got lots of books to take back for the families we serve and since I had a big suitcase that wasn’t full on the way in, I volunteered to take them home. My suitcase weighed 62 pounds at check-in and I’m grateful that the attendant was being extra nice and ignoring my overweight bag, sparing me an extra fee. 

After our sessions the first day, Chris, Michelle, and I took an Uber to a consignment shop. It was awesome and I could have stayed there all night. While we were out I got a text from Marsha saying that we had been locked out of our rooms because the authorization didn’t go through and they weren’t paid for. Luckily for us, Marsha and Regina got it all straighten out by the time we got back and we just had to get new keys. We were meeting Marsha’s cousin who lives in AZ for dinner at a restaurant at our resort. She told him we wanted to eat at a really good Mexican restaurant and he said Aunt Chilada’s, located at the Arizona Grand Resort and Spa, was one of the best. The food was great and we enjoyed talking with Chuck, Marsha’s cousin. On our walk back to our room we made a pitstop at the fountain at the front of the resort for another yoga photo shoot. Marsha did her fav pose and I did a couple different ones. The pics were pretty cool. 

Taking a break

The next day after sessions we Uber’d to Camelback Mountain to go hiking. The Uber driver was a total creep who kept leering at me. I had the unfortune of  having to sit up front and I kept wondering why he was looking out my side window, until I realized that he wasn’t. I’ve nicknamed him the “Forty Year Old Virgin” and I hope he gets a bad rating. As soon as we got out of the car Michelle, who was sitting in the third row, asked if I noticed that we kept staring at me, so I wasn’t imagining it. Ugh. 🙄😡

Anyway, Camelback Mountain was one of my favorite excursions on any vacation I’ve been to so far just because it is not commercialized. There’s no gift shop, no one is trying to sell you something, and it’s beautiful. The view from the top is breathtaking. Everyone made it as far as they could and Chris and I got to the top of one part of the mountain but didn’t make it to the very top because of the time restriction. We met another hiker who told us you had to be off the mountain and out of the park by sundown or they will fine you. I imagine that’s because it’s a very dangerous place to be at dark. Before we started hiking there was a park ranger at the foot of the trail giving us advice about when to turn around (when half your water is gone) and warning us not to leave the trail. There was a sign erected several feet up that had a picture of a young man who had died on the mountain just last month from leaving the trail and falling. The trail we hiked was categorized as Extremely Difficult. I would love to do it again with Philip!

That piece behind us is the top, which we didn’t have time to get to. 

Pano

Oh ya know, just feeling a little zen at the top of a mountain. 

This is where things got crazy. Chris and I are to the left. 

Without the rails to the left or the one going up the middle, there’s no way I would’ve made it up or down. 

We had another Uber take us back to our resort and it became a party bus. Chris is crazy (which is why I love her) and got the driver to play all kinds of fun songs. Marsha learned some new terms from the rap music and Chris and I danced in the back seat. That guy was cracking up and that ride was one of the highlights of my trip 😂. We ate dinner at Rustler’s Rooste, another great restaurant at our resort. This is a steakhouse that has a slide parallel to the stairs and the hostess said we were welcome to use the slide. Umm, yes please! There were children waiting in line but that didn’t stop me from wanting to do it. It was super slippery and I learned you should keep your feet up because touching them down will bring you to an abrupt halt. 

The food was great, we got a huge assortment of meats-steak, chicken, salmon, shrimp, and ribs; veggies-salad, corn on the cob, carrots, and potato wedges, and at the end they bring you cotton candy! They have a photo booth, a penny machine, and a live bull who lives outside. Personally, I didn’t care for the bull ring because he seemed sad and I think they drug him to keep him calm. Hopefully I’m wrong about that. 

They reuse big cans for cotton candy holders! 😍


On the last day, the drama from the first day continued when we tried to check into our flight online. It said we were unable to checkin because they couldn’t assign seats at that time. When we got to the airport and checked in, everyone else had a seat but Chris and I didn’t. Marsha asked the woman working if that meant the flight was oversold and she “yes, it was oversold but they’ll ask people to move.” 😳. That did not make me feel better. When we got through security there wasn’t anyone working the gate yet so we got lunch in the meantime. I had a bottle of water and dropped the cap when I went to take a drink. There was a man sitting diagonal from me and he bent down to get it and when he handed it back, I accidentally dropped it again. I apologized and thanked him. A few minutes later I dropped it again but I was trying to pour what was left from the plastic bottle into my reusable one. I told him I didn’t need it and he said, “Good. I wasn’t going to get it again anyway. I’m too fat to keep bending over.” 😂 Alright then. When I went to the gate to check on my seat, they had already printed a boarding pass and I had a window seat, with Chris right beside me 😄. That was good news. I promised to bring cactuses home for my brother’s kids so I went looking for a gift shop. I bought one last month when I had a layover in Phoenix on my way to San Diego. The instructions say to only water it once a month so I planned to water on the first, an easy time to remember. However, I forgot this first time and it almost died. Philip told me I’m less nurturing than the desert 🤷🏻‍♀️. Anyway, the flight went smoothly but we didn’t get back to town until 1 am. Friday was spent sleeping in and cuddling my pups. The last two days were spent ripping up the last of the carpet on the main floor, which was in our bedroom. The rain from this past week caused the yard to be a mess and the girls came running inside with muddy paw prints all over the place, including the carpet. That carpet has been my nemesis for years and this was the final straw. It’s gone and I have a rug being delivered Tuesday. The hardwood underneath is damaged in spots from my previous dogs favoring two spots in particular to pee 😡. I’m going to see what google suggests for cleaning it up. I don’t plan on sanding it any time soon. That’s one project that I never want to do again, honestly. 

This coming week Philip and I are heading to NYC to see Stephen Lynch in concert and Wicked on Broadway. I hope the weather turns back warm for our trip!

Oh My Garden!

It’s been a plentiful summer in the way of cucumbers and tomatoes and I’m sad to see the growing season end! This past week I had the opportunity to go into New Martinsville School and speak to the pre-k classes about the pop-up farmer’s market that 3 locals farmers set up outside their building. I talked to the children about the fresh fruits and veggies that they would see outside. I got a consistent response to the name “banana” pepper of “ewww” because I’m pretty sure they thought it tasted like a banana and I asked if they ever ate it on pizza. The answer to that question was an empathic “no!” I took on this speaking engagement as a service of our Family Resource Center at WCCCF but also because I recently joined the board of Grow Local Go Local. It’s a nonprofit organization that provides local food educational programs, such as the farmer’s market and community garden projects. This is something I’m excited to be part of because I am passionate about people eating nutritious foods, especially those grown in their own communities. Why give giant corporations your hard earned money when you can pay a local farmer (who’s using the money to keep his lights on rather than buy his second vacation home in the Maldives) and get fresher food. Win-win. And best of all, you can use these fresh foods to make things like apple crisp! It was delicious! Thanks for the apples, Holly!

The small group of local farmers in Wetzel and Tyler counties have been providing the food for pop-up markets in these two counties for the past month and hope to expand even more next year. They partner with the schools and they allow the students to come out to the market and use “market money” to trade for fresh produce. It’s all free to the kids. They get to experience what a farmer’s market is like and get to take fresh food (possibly even new foods to try) home to cook and/or eat. There’s a chance I may grow some produce next year to help supplement these markets. If you’re a gardener and would like to help, contact me. I can put you in touch with the people in charge (not me, although I did get suckered into being the secretary of GLGL 🙄). 

So, about my garden. Earlier in the summer we had cucumbers coming out of our ears. I even cut down on the number of plants this year and we were still overflowing. If you followed along in August, you know that you made a ton of pickles. They were delicious. Except for the ones we added minced onion to; those were kinda gross. We won’t do that again. We followed a bad recipe. Last summer we had an infestation of beetles on our cucumber plants, that ended up ruining our crops. I did some research and read that marigolds are supposed to keep beetles away. That must have been sound advice because I didn’t see one beetle this year! My marigold plant, that I started from a seed and only used organic soil and fertilizer on, grew massively out of control. I have never seen a marigold get that big. Maybe there are different varieties and I have a behemoth one, I don’t know. My mom loved marigolds and planted them most summers and I never saw them like that growing up. 

As soon as the cucumbers dried up, the tomatoes started coming on and I’m ashamed to say that a portion went to waste because I wasn’t prepared to deal with the quantity that they produced! I picked and canned over 35 pounds of tomatoes. I made salsa, pizza sauce, and spaghetti sauce. Let me just make a public service announcement about canning food. It sucks and it takes FOREVER. Therefore, if someone offers you food that they have canned, do not accept it unless you intend to eat it. It’s far too shameful to waste it, believe me. We tried very hard not to have a tomato jungle again this year, and while it was slightly more manageable than the mess that was last year, it still could have gone much better. I didn’t sucker the plants in time and they needed staked long before I got around to doing it. We traveled quite a bit this summer and I felt like every time we came home there was a new mess. 

Just a fraction of the harvest!

Surprisingly, we had far less issues with the rabbits this year. We put a small garden fence around the lettuce at the beginning of summer and they were unable to get in.  We also fenced in the watermelon plant. We had one watermelon grow to bursting and when I cleaned it out of the bed, seeds dropped all over the place and now we have over twenty new plants sprouting. I left them just to see what would happen. I think that fall may come eventually (maybe 🤷🏻‍♀️) and with it will come frost and they will die off. 

I also had to fence in my bushes in the back yard because some dog that I shall not name kept eating my blueberry bush down to the ground 😡. She wouldn’t touch the blackberry one for some reason. Since I’ve fenced it, she can no longer bother it and it’s starting to come back. My friend, Kim, told me I planted them too close together and she’s probably right. I’m good at doing that 🤷🏻‍♀️. So we’ll see what kind of mess these become next summer. 

It may be the end of the growing season outdoors but our aquaponics garden is able to grow all year round! Unfortunately, mint is the only thing that has survived so far, and that could be because mint is invasive and easy to grow. I just like watching the fish, whose names are Smurfette (blue), Lucy (pink), Ethel (purple), Jon Snow (green), and Bumblebee (yellow). Can you guess who named which fish? Ethel had a hard time when we first introduced them to our tank. She wasn’t eating and Jon Snow was a total jerk and kept biting her. I know I’m not supposed to smack a fish but I wanted to. His behavior was uncalled for. She must have recovered because now she’s one of the bigger fish and they all seem to get along. We bought Jon Snow, Bumblebee, Lucy and Ethel at the same time and got Smurfette a week or so later. She was considerably smaller than the others but she didn’t seem to have any issues with them. Luckily, because I just told you I don’t know how to properly punish fish. Philip primarily feeds them during the week but I usually feed them on weekend mornings because he sleeps later and I love going in and telling them good morning (Philip tells me they can’t hear but that doesn’t matter) and getting their food. They know what you’re doing and they become very active in anticipation of breakfast. They know that’s what it’s called, too, because I asked if they’re ready for their breakfast 😉. It works with the girls, so why not?

Mint growing in the aquaponics garden. 

Speaking of the girls, you have got to see some recent pics we’ve taken of them. These two are the biggest goofballs I’ve ever seen. 

Yeah, Soph, it’s totally fine to eat Sansa’s ear. I’m sure she doesn’t mind 🙄. 

Sansa’s cute snoot. Yes, I know I shared this one on FB. It’s worth seeing again 😃. 

A small glimpse of the drama that is Sophie. She was mad because I was on my computer, not paying attention to her. I would have paid attention to her but she had just jumped on me and throat punched me so I pushed her back to a sitting position. This resulted in indignation, failed attempts at being sly and trying to sneak in front of my laptop, a dramatic head toss and then pleading eyes 🙄🙄🙄. 

I finally got around to installing a new screen door that opens in the middle to the sliding glass door to the deck (the second one because the first got chewed on by someone.) Could someone please tell her that’s not quite how it works?

Sansa just chillin with her tongue out. 

Awww. That fuzz is from an explosion  

This one. Or the first one. I’m not sure which. They got new stuffed toys yesterday; they are both dead today 🙄. RIP leather rabbit and spiky fox. 

She was wagging her tail because I asked her who did that 🙄. This explosion involved the couch pillow behind her and is the reason she will be going back into her crate when we leave for a while longer. 

Watching the Mountaineer game. 

This is what I see when I open the door to the bathroom. I call them my shower chaperones. 

Taking the girls to visit my new workplace and get loved on by all coworkers. Sansa was in Heaven with having so many people to scratch her butt 😂. 

And Soph freaked out and pooped on the floor. Good thing the new tile isn’t down yet!🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Chillaxin on the couch after a hard day of getting muddy paw prints all over mom’s clean floor 😡. 

I love how sweet they look when they’re sleeping. I saw a meme that said, “I wonder what my dog would think if she went through my phone and found the hundreds of pictures I have of her sleeping.” Bahahaha I like to think they would be flattered 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

Sansa on her bed, probably hiding from Sophie. Unsuccessfully. 

Yes, Soph, that does seem like the easiest way to get to that toy 🙄😂. 

I was leaning on the arm of the chair and looked down to find this. She’s never far away from us. 

This one had me cracking up the other day. I was on the deck loving up Sansa, giving her some butt scratches and kisses and I looked up to see this creeper watching us 😂. 

That’s all for tonight. I leave for Phoenix tomorrow for the Parents As Teachers National Conference. I’ll only be gone for a few days. I always hate leaving but I’m looking forward to spending time with my coworkers/friends. I know we’ll have a good time. Tune in next week to see if I was able to strike a yoga pose on a cactus or another interesting place 😉.