Snowy Sunday

It seems like the weekend flies by so quickly..  and before you know it, it's Monday again.

Yesterday it snowed, so we didn't go to church.  Our church is in WV and it's about a 40 minute drive back a country road for us.   I've ventured out that way on plenty a snowy Sunday, but not no more...  I'm not nearly as adventurous!
And speaking of our church on that winding country road, one evening about 10 years ago Lindsey and I left an evening service, got in my red Saturn, and headed for home.  It had just turned dark.  Suddenly WHAM on the drivers side of the car.  I said "WOW!  What was THAT?"  Then I looked into the rear view mirror to see that a deer was pulling itself up off the road and then it ran into the woods.  The $1,000 damage to the side of my car (my door and mirror) was unsettling, but not nearly as unsettling as  *the scare and *knowing if the poor deer was okay.

I'm rambling, I know.

I really missed going to church yesterday.  But I hear tell Spring is next month...  so it's all good, right?

Pip and Puddles Come to Visit!

Mr. Pip and Ms. Puddles continued their world Bucket List tour today and arrived in style on the steam locomotive, Western Maryland's famous tourist attraction, as it chugged into town with the two celebrities onboard.  

Not since Jeopardy's host Alex Trebek visited a few years back has there been such a stir in the Western Maryland mountains.

After a celebrity greet and meet at the station, Puddles car was delivered to her there and before you could say 'It's Groundhog Day' Puddles and Pip were at our door!

I told Gracie, no partying at our house!  (I've heard stories).  So the group took the party to Rocky Gap State Park Resort several miles east of us, where they rented a cabin, a Cheeto bubble machine, and a keg of Bud Light.  Gracie invited some friends to meet the famous P & P.

Wanting to cram as much into the day as possible, the next stop was Deep Creek Lake where the two put on skis and joined others at the Wisp ski resort.  Within seconds, Pip lost one of his ski's and then decided he'd rather be eating cheeseburgers, so the pair of party-ers shot out to Gracie's place for some late day partying antics before the paw-rents got home.

Since there were no chandeliers to hang from, Puddles did some ear-aerobics while Pip watched for the po-po.

Being just a hop a skip and a jump away from WV seemed to bring out the redneck in the team as they partied hardy into the night...  Leaving just minutes before the humans returned home.

Dear Diary,

What a day!  I never knew what I'd been missing until Pip and Puddles came to visit! They taught me some pretty important stuff... like, according to Pip you can never eat too many cheeseburgers and Puddles showed me how to catch vermin. I have been coddled, protected and smothered all of my life.  And now...  I can only dream of someday when I can spend time once again with 2 of the funn-est, funniest, craziest friends I know.  I miss them already.  Gracie.

Short-Stuff and The Dog

Cheerio's on the floor can mean only one thing...

Summer spent the night and she has defied all odds and found a way to spill food from her no-spill bowl.

Summer carrying her 'no spill bowl'

Dear Diary,  I laid down the rules for Short-Stuff when she got here last night.  No ear pulling.  No playing with my toys.  No stealing all of the attention.  Got it Short-Stuff?

She assured me that she got it.

Then she had a few rules of her own.

'No tickling my face with your whiskers, Big Dog' she said.

'And no stealing my toys...'

Then Mom showed her how to feed me cookies.  But she needed to have some extra tutoring on the feeding cookies to the dog lesson.  Oh sure, she had no problem putting the cookie to my mouth.  But she just didn't want to let go of it..

By the end of her stay, she had it down pat. 

And I had a job to do.  Cheerios were everywhere.  A dog's work is never done.  Gracie.