New Book, New Puppy, and a Sprouting Garden

Happy Monday!!! I am trying to stay really positive this week because it may be my last week of freedom from a job. I have to make this week the best one yet. While I will miss having all the free time in the world, I really can't wait to start working again, especially because it's going to be a job that I LOVE!

My Family's Newest Addition

All my life my dad has insisted that he would never buy a small dog. When I was young I had a large Airedale Terrier, named Nicki. We got rid of Nicki when Joe was born (my parents, both at age 40, couldn't handle a dog, a 13 year-old, and a newborn...oh well, I understood). So now that my brother is 13 my parents have finally decided to let him have a dog. For some strange reason they chose one of the smallest dogs known to man (and the ugliest, in my opinion); a wire haired dachshund (aka a Weiner dog!).

When they told me they were buying a weiner dog, I laughed out loud. I'll admit, however, this dog is actually quite cute, but what dog isn't cute at 10 weeks old? My family chose this small dog because they had met its mother and saw how tame and relaxed she was. My dad had this false impression that all small dogs were wild and crazy, but this dog proved him wrong.

Oh, by the way, her name is Scarlet. When you live in Ohio it's fairly common to have a pet named Scarlet, Gray, or Buckeye (yeah, we're all OSU football freaks!).

Garden Update

Not only do we have flowers blooming in our backyard....

We also have kale (below), pumpkins, and acorn squash! The broccoli, peppers, cilantro, and spinach have yet to show their pretty little faces.

These (below) are the rows of pumpkin and acorn squash. We've got about three pumpkin and three acorn squash sprouting. We're not sure why the other seeds haven't sprouted yet, but we're not too worried about it. This was our first experience building a garden from scratch so we didn't expect everything to go perfectly.

Funniest Book Ever

Are you in the mood to laugh so hard, you cry? You've GOT to read this book! It's called "This is Where I Leave You", By Jonathan Tropper. I'll admit straight up, it's pretty crass. Believe it or not I'm pretty crass myself, so this was right up my alley. It's about a Jewish family who is sitting shiva (sitting for 7 days, mourning the death of a loved one). The man narrating the story is taking us back through his hilarious childhood throughout the seven day shiva. The stories are just so funny, I can't put this book down! I promise you will not regret checking this book out at your local library.

GIVEAWAY UPDATE

Gina is having a SALSA giveaway to celebrate here one year blog anniversary!

Coming Up

Tomorrow I will post 5 urban food legends (ex: sugar causes diabetes....not so much!).

Here is a challenge for you; today, stay positive no matter what. My plan is to look at everything as if the glass is half full. This will help make the day fly by.

Thanks for reading everyone, and have a GREAT Monday!