Just got home from visiting family for Christmas (will post more about that later) and downloaded the pictures from my camera. This one I had to post because it was so darn cute!

I spent yesterday Geocaching in Spearfish with Oscar the Wonder Dog. No one else in my family enjoys it as much as I do, so it was just the dog and me. We got nine (8 in Spearfish, one only about 5 miles from our house) for the day. A personal record.

Oscar took a dive yesterday. Spearfish (which is about 50 miles from my house) has a creek that runs through it. Now, I think it's larger than a creek, but it's not a river, so whatever.... ANYWAY, one of the caches was right next to this body of water. I find the cache and sit down to sign the log. Oscar has his two front paws in the water and is lapping it up. Then he stops and climbs on a different rock (closer to me). I thought he was coming to me.

I was wrong. He jumped in and took a swim. I think he stayed in there about 2 or 3 minutes was all and I was laughing the whole time!

Later, we found this church. One of the caches, a micro, was hidden near here. I thought the church was so beautiful I just had to get a picture. It's on the national historic registry, too, so the place has been here for a bit. I may try painting it next.

Today was filled with sewing. Did a few pillows out of old t-shirts for the kid, hemmed some jeans for her, put elastic in a pair of shorts my sister made (also from a t-shirt) and did a few more bookmarks. Tomorrow will be more embroidery, I think.

Notice there's not a lot of WRITING in any of that....

Found a new way to do dishes at my house... OK, not really, but this picture was just too cute NOT to post!

Well, last week I may have gained, but I lost this week! In fact, I lost twice what I gained the week before.

My biggest problem is I HATE exercising. I don't have time for it. Between running here and there and everywhere to get *stuff* done, there's not much time for me. I guess that's what it boils down to -- time for me.

I plan to make exercise a bigger priority. To be honest, that's one reason I got Oscar. I planned to take him on walks and I know that would be good for me. And I have. Just not as often as I wanted.

Right this minute I could be in yoga/pilates class. But I'm not. I skipped it this morning. Maybe I'll take Oscar on a geocache and then I won't feel so bad. I just wish that exercise was something I could be more motivated about....

OK, so I forgot how tiring a new pup can be! And I obviously live life on the edge since the cat was sleeping, too!

Finished Oscar's toy today. It's knit with Red Heart yarn on size 4 dpns. I got the pattern from the Spring/Summer 2006 issue of Kint It Magazine.

Like a typical kid, though, he was pretty happy with the feather that he brought in from outside.

Gotta love it!

Tubby. Buddy. Merlin. Arthur. Lugos. Dylan. Oscar. Magic. These were the names our newest family member had. Most of them for only about 10 minutes or so. Oscar, the name I picked. I *my* puppy. Let me explain. Everyone else has a pet — or two. The kid has two cats and a dog. Hubby has a dog. Special daughter who lives in another state has a cat here. Hmmmm....

So, as only a mean wife can, I got a little jealous. I wanted one of my own. I did some research and decided I wanted an indoor dog. (The cats are indoor, the other dogs are outdoor.) I wanted something small that I could take with me to get more exercise. Something loyal that I could play with. A dog which would easily go geocaching with me since the rest of the family doesn't like the hobby as much as I do.

So my loving hubby and I went to a local pet shop and bought Oscar. He's a 10-week old Cairn Terrier. I wanted to name him after a Celtic god, but those guys had some odd names. Cool goddess names, not so cool god names. (Side note: I've been doing some research on Celtic mythology, some for the book I'm writing and some because it started to interest me. Although, for those wondering, it does explain where "Arthur" and "Merlin" and even "Lugos" and "Dylan" came from!) So I picked Oscar. The name means "deer lover" and in Irish mythology Oscar was said to be a mighty hunter.

Yep. He's a hunter alright!

The one thing I forgot was how much work it can be to housebreak a puppy. That's OK, though. This one is mine! *smile!*