Ahh, Monday. Monday after a busy weekend. Even more welcome than usual!

We began our Friday with breakfast at McDonald’s, courtesy of Wes. Have I ever told you that while I was pregnant with Emma, I had McDonald’s pancakes at least twice a week every week? During the week, we would put Ana in her stroller, and we would trek the two miles downhill to Awase, home of one of Okinawa’s two Toys R Us stores and, as you might have guessed, home to one of Okinawa’s many McDonald’s. (Of course, this also meant a two mile walk UPHILL, which wasn’t too bad, since it was along “Lovers’ Lane,” a street that was full of pay-by-the-hour hotels, each one of them as elaborately-themed as an amusement park. Interesting scenery, as you can imagine. No, I’m not kidding.) As Wes and I were talking about this over my order of pancakes while the girls were playing on the PlayPlace, I remembered how angry I got with him one Sunday back then for missing the turn off for the McDonald’s just a few kilometers north of the church. I all but threw my five hundred yen piece out the window in my hormone-fueled pancake-deprived state. (It wasn’t my finest moment.) Remembering this caused us to gasp at the price — that’s over five US dollars for two tiny pancakes and a children’s sized Coke. Unbelievable.

Anyway. All that said, the pancakes were every bit as good as I remembered. Mmmm… And they were even more delicious because they certainly didn’t cost what they had in Japan.

From there, we went on to a craft fair, which I thought would’ve been out of Wes’s comfort zone, but after only ten minutes, he was wheelin’ and dealin’ with a vendor and actually buying something. I would tell you what he bought, but it’s a gift for someone who reads the blog, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say that he did a great job. Wes Faulk — craft buyer!

When we got home, I let Charlie and BC out in the backyard then went to set up their food bowls for lunch. I went back outside to call them in, and BC was sitting at the bottom of the steps, tail wagging yet seemingly unable to jump up even the lowest step. Dachshunds are notorious for developing back problems, but since BC is so trim and fit, I never worried much about it with her. I brought her into the house, put her down to see her walk, and sure enough, she was hobbling on her back legs. We’ve been keeping her as immobile as possible since, hoping that it’s just her age showing after so much playtime with Charlie. She’s been getting better, slowly but surely. We’ve been careful to keep her from jumping, but there was an unfortunate moment when she heard us unwrapping a slice of cheese in the kitchen and jumped from the living room couch to come and investigate. Even this didn’t seem to make the problem worse, but we’re trying to avoid any and all jumping in the future. We’ve been pampering her from her perch on the couch, feeding her buttered pancakes and letting her drink milk. I’m surprised Charlie hasn’t faked a back injury himself so that he can partake of the high life as well!

In the meantime, Charlie has been even more energetic since his wrestling partner is out of commission. I’ve been waking up early to take him on little two mile jaunts to expel some of that energy and have concluded that walking Charlie that far is MORE exhausting than running that far on my own. He’s having some trouble concentrating with his extra energy, and because I refuse to let him walk in front of me (and drag me), holding him on the leash in the correct position (nose level with my knees) has been a challenge. And he enjoys taking a friendly nip of my leg every quarter mile or so just to communicate his joy in being paraded around. Ex-hau-sting. I had to get down on his level once today to tell him who was boss, and he flung his paws on my shoulders and kissed the entire length of my face with one lick. How can you even correct a dog that is so sweet? I don’t know, but I have to figure it out at 22 pounds, or he’s going to drag me all over the neighborhood in a few months.

I shampooed the carpets this morning, finished sealing the grout on our new tile, and am in the middle of the laundry. Wes built two new bookshelves for the living room this weekend (hooray!) so I still need to work on organizing all that I just haphazardly put up this weekend. The girls’ giant princess castle has been moved to the playroom, which means that THERE ARE NO MORE TOYS IN MY LIVING ROOM. Oh, it’s a big day, y’all.

Hope you’re having a great start to the week! (Oh, and that picture is of a McDonald’s in Okinawa. Just picture my very pregnant self of yesteryear walking in and ordering hotcakes. It’s almost like you took a little trip to Japan just by reading this blog!)