Niva did it. She’s approved and ready to take her therapy dog test next month! We had our final class this week and passed the practice test. I was nervous as all get out.

We demonstrated “leave it,” “sit,” “down,” “stay,” “come,” walking past another dog, loose leash walking, entering a room calmly, signing in with her sitting at my side, meeting someone in a wheelchair, someone laying down, someone with crutches, and someone with a walker.

She did really good with everything! She also had to be “vet restrained” in a hug and have her tail and paws touched. Those things made her nervous, but she didn’t demonstrate any aggression at all.

Check out her little report card! I’m proud of her. The biggest change for the test is that I can’t use treats to lure her into any behaviors. Praying all goes well!

Want to hear something I don’t recommend? Taking a five-year-old and one-year-old to Bath and Body Works during the busiest shopping time of the year 😉

The store was having a one day sale with 40% off of everything. I was on a mission: I wanted to get our neighbor a candle and hand soap for Christmas. Not sure if it was worth it because I aged about 10 years while shopping.

The store was bursting at the seams, Sadie wanted to smell every single candle, and Mordecai was in his carrier and feeling very… grabby. He snatched a hand soap lightning fast and dropped it. The plastic dispenser on top broke. Ugh. I offered to pay for it, but the worker said not to worry. She was definitely not impressed with us and I booked it out of there as fast as possible.

We had a good time poking fun at the experience in our family text group. If I’ve learned anything about parenting, it’s that you can’t take yourself too seriously.

Sadie’s interest in Peanuts is still going strong. I printed out a few coloring pages and she did some painting and coloring. We picked up Snoopy Christmas wrapping paper at the store and she slept with it?!

Moving on from sleeping with wrapping paper to bananas. Do you enjoy bananas? I have one on the daily and the picture below is how I like them. Pretty much green with a bit of yellow. No brown spots allowed! What’s your ideal banana color?

Also, Jimmy randomly gave me a banana hook as a gift a few months ago and it has been one of my favorite gifts. It keeps the bananas from ripening really fast because they’re not sitting on a counter or in a bowl.

Other interesting things that have happened lately include Sadie riding a train at the mall! This was before the Bath and Body Works debacle. Can’t wait until next Christmas when Mordecai can ride with her!

I’ve been continuing to work on holiday recipes for my business! I got creative with chocolate covered Oreos and enjoyed it so much.

Well, I better end this post here. Mordecai just woke up from his nap. It’s all systems go once he’s up an at ’em!