Have you ever had one of those days where everything seemed to go wrong? Not even necessarily wrong, but the kind of day where for every item you crossed off your 'To Do' list, you seemed to add two more? Usually they call that a 'Monday'. But sometimes a 'Monday' can seem like it repeats itself in the same week. Just this afternoon a co-worker was filling out their time sheet and said 'Is today Monday?'. I couldn't help but smile and say 'Sorry, but it's already Wednesday'. We both chuckled over that one.
For me, this week has been pretty good. Busy as usual, but I think that's the only routine I know. Sometimes I have a difficult time shutting my brain off at night to go to sleep and this has definately been one of those weeks. But I noticed something over the past couple of days. Nothing really startling, but something I apparently needed reminding of ... that sometimes it's the little things that can make you smile. In the midst of life's craziness I had a couple of those little moments.
Earlier this week, my husband and I had our weekly date night while our daughter was at the high school having a marching band sectional (don't get all excited ... it was our $5.00 pizza night at Little Caesars, although they do have the best crust in town.) The thing that made me smile was when we got out of the car there were a few puddles in the parking lot from an earlier afternoon rain shower. Apparently there was narrow drain pipe that ran underneath the sidewalk (probably from the gutters). Water was trickling out of the pipe into the puddle. My husband said 'Look at that.' There was a big frog sitting in the opening of the pipe playing peak-a-boo with us. It was pretty comical and definately made me smile. When we came out afterwards he was still there.
The 2nd thing that made me smile happened just last night. It's been in the mid 90s here all week. My neighbor was just heading out to take his dog, Ruby, for a walk. To appreciate this you have to know Ruby. She is a 2 1/2 year old yellow lab and truly a wonderful dog. She has this thing she does when she's on her leash in her front yard (she sits under a tree and watches 'life' go by ... whether it's a car, a walker, or a kid on a bike). She likes plastic water bottles and even better if they still have water in them. I generally refill my water bottle several times throughout the day, so when I get home from work and she's sitting in her usual spot I usually bring her my bottle, of course I always make a point to add some water to it just before I head home. She gets so excited. I toss her the bottle and she catches it then heads over to lay down under her tree. She then proceeds with her little routine. She traps the bottle under paws, chews on it a bit and very orderly removes the cap, followed by the plastic ring, followed by the paper label. Then she barks at it, tosses it in the air, barks at it again, then spills the water out, then finally chews the bottle apart until there is nothing left. She's never swallowed the plastic pieces and she's never choked. She is REALLY ocd about her routine. But the other night she was getting ready to go for her walk when my daughter rushed out of the house and said 'Ruby ... I got something for you!'. Before I could explain that Ruby was about to go for a walk, my daughter had already completed the official 'toss of the bottle'. Ruby caught it, but was completely thrown off by the fact that she was in my driveway - not her front yard. Her owner still wanted to take her for the walk, so Ruby carried the full bottle of water in her mouth all the way down the street and all the way back. When she returned home to her own front yard, she looked at me, barked as if to announce herself and then did her entire water bottle routine. This one definately made me smile and definately made my night!
