I've been trying to make a conscious effort...

I've been trying to make a conscious effort to eat less sugar. But if you have a Crumbl Cookies near you, try this damn cake. It's similar to a Gooey Butter Bar (like you can get from the bakery section in Wal-Mart [if you live in the south, anyway], but the sugar crystal crunch is SO. DAMN. SATISFYING. I like the icing, too. It's very light.

Look at this Toebean.

Look at this Toebean. He's crashed out. 😂

Bear had bloodwork today and Balthazar was checked to see how he was recovering from surgery. His incisions looked great, but he probably still has pain in his lower teeth, so he's back on pain meds.

We scheduled some re-check appointments and a surgery today. Feels like it's always something around here. We're doing our best we can for these kids, though.

Look, I am not a loser, ok?

Look, I am not a loser, ok? I'm not just out here losing stuff. Even as a kid I don't recall it happening much. I was brought up to appreciate what I had. If I lost something, it was not getting replaced.

So anyway, we were out last year and Kira wanted this bracelet. It was sometime before Christmas, so I told her we'd get it and it could be part of her holiday gifts. It came from a local Hispanic grocer. The person at the checkout handed it back to me after we paid, so when I got back to the car I dropped it in a Walgreens bag that was going in the house.

We got home and I was aware that we needed to put the bracelet up somewhere safe. I told Shaun that it was still in the bag and to hide it (because he is the gift-hider). Then, I assumed that he did.

Y'all, he DIDN'T. 😂

So anyway, Christmas came and went and we couldn't find this bracelet. Kira was like "Find it for my birthday, then." Fair enough, but if we couldn't find it for Christmas then we really had no idea where to look, though we tried. So her birthday (in March) came and went and STILL no bracelet. We eventually just took her back to the market and replaced it since that was definitely on us.

So today - this morning - I found it. Completely by accident.

Guess where it was.

You can't. 😂

It was still in the Walgreens bag, which was now under my bathroom sink.

The bag was under my sink upstairs because it was going to be used as a trash bag. I grabbed a handful of them recently from our bag drawer in the kitchen and I guess it was in that bunch. So last year someone crammed that "empty" bag in the bag drawer without checking and lost Kira's bracelet. I don't have any idea who did that. But we finally found it.

Happy June 24th, Kira. 😂

We went to Los Cuates for a lunch date...

We went to Los Cuates for a lunch date and the food was great, as usual.  But this time, there was live music!  We thought there must have been a stage somewhere and we just hadn't seen it before, but NO!  There was a Mariachi group going from table to table taking requests!  I was wondering why they played "Happy Birthday" so many times!  😅

When they came to our table, they asked what we'd like to hear.  I said to surprise me, and they asked "Romantic, upbeat, ?"  I said something upbeat would be great.  They played "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" and I loved it!  While they were playing I couldn't stop smiling.  I kept watching them play and sing and I thought it would be awkward, but it wasn't.  I was so happy for the rest of the day.

They gave us a card with their name on it.  They are Trio Jalisciense.  They had QR codes to Venmo and CashApp and their Zelle phone number on their cards, which was super smart.  I wanted to tip them and checked the car, but we had no cash, so I Venmo'd them to thank them for their lovely performance.

I got part of La Bamba on video, and as much as I wanted to video them singing to us, I didn't.  It was so up-close that I felt it would be rude or maybe feel weird to them, so I didn't.  If we go there again when they're around, I will definitely ask if it's ok.

The hole adventures continue.

The hole adventures continue. Cub dug it out more and wouldn't let Bear do any digging at first, but he got distracted (by people, of course), so Bear got to try.

Bear's leg goes janky at one point (I'm glad I caught that on camera for his doctor). He also falls in. 😂  But I love his can-do attitude because he got back up and kept trying. ❤️

I think this video highlights how front-heavy he is. He is so well-muscled in the front half of his body. I really think the vet could have removed his back legs and left him practically unphased. He's definitely using his back legs more since the surgery, but it's pretty obvious that he's skipped leg day for most of his life.

I was contacted by ViralHog...

I was contacted by ViralHog about this video of Bear. After going back and forth on it for a while, I figured no harm in sharing his beautiful self with the world, so here's his official link:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lX_iox4Uq3k

I sat out with Bear for a while yesterday evening...

I sat out with Bear for a while yesterday evening so he could have some outdoor time since he loves it so much. Just me and my Booger.

He got to dig a little bit without Cub hogging the hole.  I guess Bear has not yet figured out that there can be holes anywhere there is dirt, but anyway.

He was already tired from his zoomies, but I think he had fun. And I caught him on camera laying down. It still looks like a bit of a struggle, but he no longer spins himself until he's flat on the ground so I think this is improvement. His back leg muscles are probably not nearly as strong as they would be if he didn't have such jacked knees before. But we'll get him there.

Volume up if you wanna hear him fuss at the hole. 😂