So Many Pictures of Watson

I feel like the past week went by in a blur - perhaps that's going to be the theme of 2016? Time flies when you're having fun? I feel like time just flies in general these days...does anyone else?

I will say that since last week was the first full week of the New Year, it seemed like a whole lot of nothing happened. It was juts a week for getting back in the swing of things; readjusting to waking up at 6 in the morning for work...not being able to just do whatever I wanted between the hours of 8 and 5...realizing that staying up until 11 at night would hurt in the morning...

Okay - I'm kidding about that last one because if there is one thing I love, it is getting in the bed. My family make fun of me on a routine basis because I go to bed at like...9:30. What can I say? I know what I like. I also obviously really like my dog and felt like I needed to make up for all the pictures I didn't take of him while I was in London for a week. Because man, I have a ton of pictures of him in this post! That just makes it that much cuter, right?

A little overlap from the previous weekend - I sure did miss my Saturday morning cuddles with this guy.

He's very serious about watching Downton Abbey on Sunday night.

We were lucky during our trip to London - it was unseasonably warm - I'm talking, in the 50's every day. It was nice. We returned home to the mountains of Virginia and it is NOT unseasonably warm here any longer - it got COLD last week. I'm talking, cold in the way that if you walk around outside without gloves for longer than a minute or two...you won't feel your fingers anymore. Between the bitter cold and the fact that my crazy ankle (the lingering souvenir from London that no one wants) I didn't do much in the way of tackling my fitness goals - and it looks like this week will be no different, as far as the weather is concerned. I'm determined to buckle down and learn to love the elliptical until at least mid-February. Perhaps by then the sun will be out long enough that I can get outside again....

Hehehehehe

This dog loves clothes - especially the fabulous sweater he's modeling here.

Reunited & it feels so good....

I suppose one thing I haven't shared is the saga of our luggage and it's delayed return to us. I'll elaborate more on this in another post, but we chose to forego our original flight on American and take seats on a Virgin Atlantic flight - it was a direct flight and we were all offered $800 a piece in vouchers. So, it seemed a win/win situation. The one concern was that our bags wouldn't make it onto the correct plane and our worst fears were confirmed when we arrived in DC but our bags did not. 

We filled out the appropriate paperwork and assumed they'd be arriving later on Saturday night; much like we'd have been doing if we'd stayed on the American Airlines flight, we were wrong though. Apparently Virgin (I had such high hopes for this airline too...) removed our bags from the American plane but never put them on any other flight...so our bags hung around at Heathrow until sometimes Sunday - we didn't receive the call that they'd arrived at Dulles until Monday morning. We were told we'd be contacted about delivery later in the day, but as the hours passed and no one called, we started to get worried. How long can a bag really sit before it gets pilfered through or shoved into a corner because no one knows what it's doing there?

My Mom called on Monday night and asked if we could simply come pick the bags up ourselves; my Dad works not far from Dulles and so he decided to head by after work on Monday night and grab them, and thank goodness for that! He arrived at Dulles and couldn't find anyone to help him - but happened to spot our bags just hanging out behind an American Airlines counter! When he finally found someone to help him, they admitted they had no clue why the bags were just sitting there, they didn't even know what they were supposed to be doing with them!!! Initially they weren't so sure about letting my Dad leave with the bags, but persistence paid off and we were finally all reunited with our things late Monday night.

My Stonehenge sheep - Dave.

I missed this view. 

The week was really nothing special...in so far as weeks go. I suppose that's why I have so few pictures of much of anything and so many pictures of Watson. My week consisted of going to work, coming home and just being chill - I finally was able to unpack on Tuesday night and on Wednesday I decided to go against my social anxiety fueled nature and attend Pizza with the Pastors at the church I've been visiting for some time now. I'm sure it's no shock to you that I came out the other side unscathed, but I am just no good at doing the whole attending events alone - although apparently I'm getting better at it, ha! Thursday evening I did a whole bunch of nothing...except put together a shadow box with the leftover coins, ticket stubs and little doo dads I have from London. I was pleased with how it turned out and I'm glad I can take random scraps of an experience and turn it into something I can look at and cherish forever.

The completed shadow box.

My completely rotten dog - seriously, he is living the life.

Friday night I had supper out with my parents and then we de-Christmased (that's not a word, huh?) the house...which I always hate. The house seems so empty once the tree(s) and the twinkling lights are gone. We went shopping on Saturday and I helped work toward filling the empty space in the living room by buying Watson the most gigantic dog bed ever...which he immediately took a liking to and has been snoozing in on repeat ever since Saturday afternoon. I went out for dinner with friends on Saturday night and we probably had more fun than a person should wandering the aisles of Target together after dinner. But hey - aren't friends meant to make the mundane tasks of life more fun? 

After church on Sunday - our sermon series this month is Star Wars themed by the way; not to say my church is cooler than yours, but it might be - I finally found a pair of black boots on sale at Kohl's and ended the weekend long hunt! I went to see Star Wars for the second time on Sunday afternoon and it was just as good the second time around; especially since I saw it in 3D this time, thank goodness for movie gift cards! I wound the weekend up watching Downton Abbey on Sunday night and then...sweet, sweet sleep...at least until that alarm went off this morning.

See - he & this bed are now the best of friends. 

And there is my week in a nutshell! I know it's so exciting you could weep; I'll do my best to try and be just as thrilling next week, ha! I plan to finish up my London recapping tomorrow and then I suppose I'll get on with this new year and new posts. Until then - hope you have a good Monday; mine isn't quite unfolding like I'd planned...but hey, what can you do?