Friday Favorites

Didn't I mention last week that my picks were a little all over the place? Well... you ain't seen nothin' yet. Today, we make last week's choices look positively coherent.

 -- First, a Friday Favorites dream-come-true: look what arrived on my doorstep yesterday...

Even cuter in real life!

 

decked out for St. Patrick's day

 -- The hubs and I are on a working-out-together kick -- he has come with me to the gym every day except one this week, and we've been doing stuff together while we're there. This means that for the first time in forever (forever) I've been doing strength training, core work, and all those other things you're supposed to add to the cardio for a well-balanced workout... yuck. I'm lucky to have my very own personal personal trainer to make me feel like a wimp encourage me to keep pushing, but I'm going to be very ungrateful here for a minute: this strength stuff is for the birds. I have been so incredibly sore all week, words truly can't describe it. Sitting down hurts. Standing up hurts. Breathing hurts. I can't even begin to get comfortable at night, so I've been sleeping horribly. And let. me. tell. you. I sneezed on Wednesday, and I swear my life flashed before my eyes. I was absolutely positive that my head was going to pop off in that instant. Dan keeps telling me that it will get better, and today I am finally slightly less achy (until I try to move, at least). All I can say is that this had better be worth it.
The "favorite" part of this little topic (I bet you didn't think there was one!) was that I've been able to spend lots of quality time with Dan. Because of his funky work schedule, sometimes I feel like we barely see each other during the week. But even when I was yelling at him to get out of bed already and we were glaring at each other as we got dressed for the gym before the crack of dawn, it was nice to get to see his face a little more this week. He hits just the right balance of encouragement and making me laugh like crazy... which would be wonderful if it didn't hurt so damn much.


 -- After our gym date last night, we headed to check out a new local grocery store and grab a few last minute ingredients for dinner. This place has a ton of bulk nuts, snack mixes, and candy (dangerous), and as we browsed I spotted these beauties.

I have not eaten or even thought about mustard pretzels in YEARS, but I used to love these things when I was little. I bought a little container, and oh my goodness, they took me right back to childhood. They are super salty but incredibly good.

 -- Speaking of childhood food, I whipped up another kid favorite for dessert last night. When we were grocery shopping last week, I pointed out the pre-made Jello version of the "dirt" dessert, and Dan's eyes got all wide. I sent him back for chocolate pudding mix, grabbed a container of cool whip, and even tracked down a bag of gummi worms. Last night, we indulged:

  -- On Wednesday, we took Teddy for his first real puppy class. We signed him up a month ago, but our class didn't fill up and eventually got canceled, so we're starting again now. Our new class includes a sweet Doberman, an adorable German Shepherd, and a teeny-tiny terrier mix. Teddy did pretty well and made it clear that he's going to be a teacher's pet: while the other puppies played after class, Teddy stuck close to the trainer and did his best to look cute. The trainer even picked him up (not exactly an easy feat, since he's grown so much) to give him some love, and Teddy was clearly in heaven. We definitely have a mooch on our hands. 

The best part, though? During a "puppy recess," Teddy meandered over to the other pups, picked up the leash of the little bitty terrier in his mouth, and dragged both it and the attached dog halfway across the room to us. He sat down right in front of Dan, leash still in his mouth and terrier still struggling to get back on his feet, and looked at us like "I brought you something, can we keep it??" Everyone (including the terrier's mama, thank goodness) got a good laugh.

 -- And in the interest of equal air-time for all furballs (no one likes a furry mutiny), we'll end with this little graphic that I whipped up the other day:

Truer than you can imagine... he is not a morning cat.
Happy weekend, everyone!

   Love,

    Meg