The Cold

It has been a long, cold, boring week here. Between the end of the Lions game on Saturday until mid-afternoon on Tuesday, I was completely knocked out of commission by my cold and I spent most of my time sleeping.  

Sunday and Monday were definitely the worst of it with head congestion, a little cough, and exhaustion.  On top of me being sick, we spent the early part of the week in a deep freeze here.

With temperatures barely making it out of the single digits and me barely functioning, the dogs were forced to spend a lot of time relaxing inside.  Thankfully they were pretty good for the most part.  

I did ensure that they had some enrichment games for meals, and while heating up some soup for my lunch one of the days, I forced  myself to prepare some Kongs for the freezer so that they could have some entertainment while I rested.

They did spend some small amounts of time out in the yard each day.  Mina would happily zoom around, and if the neighbor dogs were out, there would be rounds of chase along the fence.  Smokey loves to run back and forth barking along the fence with Mina, and Peaches loves to join along too.  But they were never out more than 5 minutes.  It seemed to help keep them happy,  though.

I had a MLK day off Monday and took a sick day on Tuesday, but I was feeling a bit better on Wednesday, so I decided I would be able to work.  Since I was more active, the dogs were a little less patient, no one more so than Smokey who stood in front of me staring and whining.

Since we had gotten a decent amount of snow Monday into Tuesday, I knew I needed to get out and shovel.  I hadn't been out of the house since getting home on Saturday, but I was feeling a little better so I decided to spend part of my lunch shoveling.  The fresh air felt nice, but boy it was cold. As a reward for being so good while I was sick, I decided to get the dogs in the car and take them for a short drive when I finished shoveling.  Then I came home to finish my work day.

After a busy day, I was completely exhausted,  so I was thankful that the girls were willing to quietly snuggle while I rested.  I think all of the rest over the course of the week helped my body fight off whatever was ailing me, and when I woke up Thursday,  I felt so much better.  We got more snow overnight and I had to shovel again and took the dogs for another ride on my lunch.  Otherwise it was another quiet day.

On Friday afternoon I took a late lunch to take Smokey for another post-surgery check-up with Dr. Jason.  He had a great appointment and is healing really well.  We have one more follow-up scheduled in two weeks, and then I think he'll finally be finished with all of his vetting and available for adoption.  I'm excited for him to finally be able to get a home of his very own.

After work I knew that I had to do something with the dogs, so we got in the car and made the drive to Preuss Pets for a visit.  We hadn't been there since Peaches' birthday, so everyone was excited to go inside.  I got each dog out for a walk around the block and a visit to the store, and of course they got some love and attention from their favorite Preuss Pets employees. Then we came home for dinner, and then they each got a special treat that I had bought while we were at the store.  Finally we settled in for a quiet night at home.

While I still had some sinus congestion and my energy levels were less than normal, I was otherwise feeling pretty much back to normal, so when Vanessa invited us to join her while she ran some errands out of town on Saturday, I was happy to ride along.  I think the dogs were pretty happy to be out for a road trip and to spend some time with someone other than just me too.

We did a little geocaching, made a couple stops for her errands, and stopped for a yummy lunch before we headed to West Bloomfield to get out for a walk and some fresh air.

It was such a beautiful day.  The sun was shining, the temperatures were right around freezing, and the trail was excellent.  Really just a lovely Winter's day.

The dogs were in rare form.  They were definitely happy to be outside and they were CRAZY.  But eventually they settled in and started walking better so I could enjoy my walk too.

After our walk, we loaded up the car to start our trek toward home.  Everyone happily settled in for a quiet ride.  

After eating dinner and making a trip outside for a potty break when we got home, everyone was down for the count for the evening.   It had been a great day, but boy was I exhausted!  We all slept really well!

We're ending our week with a relaxing Sunday at home.  Yesterday's adventure really took a lot out of me, so I'm going to use the day to rest up for the week ahead.  Luckily the dogs are cooperating. 

As we enter the final week of January,  it's hard for me to believe how fast this month has gone.  But I'm so excited that its almost February.  Days are getting longer with sunsets getting later (today in Lansing the sunset is 5:44pm!).  The weather this week is looking good with temperatures in the 30s so hopefully we can get out and enjoy some winter fun.  I'm really glad we finally got some real winter weather this year because I've missed it the last few winters.  It may not be my favorite season, but it's a big part of living in Michigan and it sure is pretty.

But what I'm most excited about?!?  We're less than two months from Spring!