The Monday Morning Weekend Recap

Good Monday morning friends. I'm slowly getting back into the groove here, and by slowly I mean moving at a snail's pace. 

We had a fairly quiet weekend and spent most of it putting the house back in order. There was also some reading and some lounging in front of the TV with the Olympics on, and we got together with some friends, but mostly it was laundry, changing beds, vacuuming, and the great re-set. 

We had a surprisingly uneventful trip to the Atlanta airport on Wednesday and got home about 4PM. We were both completely exhausted. I told hubs I was not cooking, maybe ever again-ha! but we had two burgers leftover from the night before so we warmed those up, put a few things away, then called it a night. 

Thursdays are my volunteer day and I haven't been in a month so was anxious to get back to it. I was up and out by 8:30 and generally am there until about 1 PM. I swung by the library afterwards to make some returns and pick-up a couple of holds that had come in, then I dashed into the market to grab enough items to get us through the weekend. I could not face doing a big shop just yet. I got home around 3, and asked hubs if it was too early to take a bath and put on my pajamas, and he said no, so that's what I did. It felt glorious. 

We baked a frozen pizza then watched a really good movie-One Life with Anthony Hopkins. If you haven't seen it I recommend. It tells the true story of Sir Nicholas Winton, a young London stockbroker who in the months leading up to WW2 rescued over 600 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Such courage people displayed in the face of so much evil. 

Friday a handful of my college friends had plans to get together for lunch. There's a restaurant we like in Weaverville NC, not far from Asheville, called The Stoney Knob Cafe, and we we decided to meet there. Originally I didn't think I'd be up for another drive, but I don't see this group very often so carpe diem, right? 

There were six of us meeting, one lives near Asheville, two just over the mountain on the Tennessee side, and then three of us over the mountain the other direction, in South Carolina. I was coming the furthest, but met up with the other two SC girls so we could all ride together. 

It was such a nice day. We made it through the Asheville area without any real delays and then spent the afternoon talking and catching up on our lives. Once upon a time we were all young college students who joined the same sorority and we've been friends ever since. 

We don't see one another often, but when we do it's like no time at all has passed. That's the best kind of friends, don't you think? 

The restaurant is filled with all sorts of very eclectic art work, and their menu features a lot of Greek dishes. I opted for the Greek platter which was so delicious-Greek salad, pork souvlaki, tzatziki, pita, and feta. 

Six spoons and one bowl of their rice pudding brulee for dessert made for a sweet ending to a sweet afternoon spent with sweet friends. 

I hate to mention another meal, but hubs and I ended up going out for Mexican food that night with our next door neighbors, which is alway fun. 

Saturday hubs and I had a long leisurely coffee hour (or two) on the deck. It was nice not to have anywhere to go or anything we absolutely had to do. 

Except all the stuff that still needed doing I mean.  

We watched some of the Olympics, read a little, did several more loads of laundry (will it never end???), and I made BLT's for dinner, which in my book isn't technically cooking. Hubs did get out on the paddleboard for a bit on Saturday morning because somebody wanted to go swimming. 

The little brown dog is not the least bit sad to have his best bud all to himself again.  

Sunday night some neighbors invited us over for a BBQ they were hosting for two new neighbors and we enjoyed that a lot. I was supposed to bring a broccoli salad and deviled eggs, but the eggs refused to peel in a way that was pretty so I had to quickly regroup. I turned the eggs into egg salad, then sliced up some fresh from the garden cucumbers and put a dollop on each with a little sprinkle of dill. Voila! Plan B. 

One item of business-I've had a few new visitors to my blog recently so here's a friendly reminder letting you know I host The Wednesday Hodgepodge each week, and you're welcome to join. I post the questions on Tuesday and the link is up on Wednesday. There's no real rhyme or reason to the questions, hence the name Hodgepodge. Random is my blog lane and I try to stay in it. 

Have a great week everyone, and thanks to Holly and Sarah for hosting the Hello Monday party each week! 

Hot Diggety Dog!

We've had a busy fun few days which means I haven't spent a lot of time planning my A-Z blog challenge posts. I asked my daughter what I should write about for today's letter, something that would tie in with my theme, and she said I couldn't write about grandparenting, grandchildren, or grand things without talking about the 'grand' dogs. 

D is for Dogs

And we do think ours are pretty grand. I love dogs but am not someone who refers to them as people. Although, quite often they do act so much like humans you can forget they're not. 

If you read here regularly you know we currently have custody of our daughter1's dog while she and her family are living in South Korea. Does she know we're not giving him back? I guess she does now-ha! The dog hubs absolutely positively did not want is now his best friend and closest companion. 

A magnet stuck to his side from sun up to sun down. Where hubs goes he goes including the daily bluebird feeding, the dock, the boat, the mailbox, the front yard, the back yard, the patio, the porch, Lowes (his favorite) and waiting not so patiently just outside the shower door, the screened porch door, the garage door, any door where hubs is on the other side. 

The little brown dog is obedient, well-behaved (unless you're popping popcorn then all bets are off), always ready to go where you're going, and needs an excessive and steady stream of belly rubs-exercise-and attention. Hubs obliges because he is a man who should always have a dog even when he says he will never have another dog because you love them too much and lose them too soon. 

This is one of the lessons dogs teach us. 

There is a cost to loving with your whole heart, but the reward is worth the cost. 

We spent the Easter weekend with our other 'granddogs'. One being the sweetest dog we've ever known and the other, her new best friend even though she might not admit it...

The little guy who will keep her young, who thinks he's boss, and who jumps like the very best player in the NBA, who was abandoned by someone but loved and cared for by my son-in-law. 

Dogs are a lot of work. They need feeding and walking, and owning a dog means you can't just jump in the car and road trip spur of the moment because you need to consider the dog. Who will care for the dog and will they care the way you care?

We think the joys of owning a dog far outweigh the aggravations. Dogs love without reservation. They throw a party every time you walk through the door even if they saw you five minutes ago. They teach you patience, but they also know instinctively when you need them to snuggle up beside you because you've had a bad day or you're having a bad moment. 

Dogs fill empty spaces in your home and heart you didn't even know were there. 

And while life would likely be less trouble, it would also be far less grand without our little brown dog and his 'cousins'.