Dog Sitting is overrated

So, Christmas morning Peter had to be at work at 8:00am. We left the house together and I went directly to the Butler's - a family in our ward who's out of town in UT for 9 days. They asked me to help out with the dog sitting duties, which I agreed to reluctantly. It requires me to walk 25 minutes one-way (good exercise!), to feed the dog, let her out, and walk her if I'm so inclined. I figured it was a good act of service and I wanted to do something b/c the prophets tell us our prayers are more likely to be answered if we actually help others. :) I know thats true, by the way. So, I get there Christmas morning about 8:45am... probably a little later than I should have arrived. Obviously. I let the dog out and walked around the kitchen for a bit when my eyes settled on the HUGE, fresh pile of dog poop by the back door. !?#$%^! Too late, I had smeared it on my new boots and on various sections of the floor. Poor doggie, she knew that she had done something "bad" so my reprimanding was pointless. But I did it anyway. I let her have it. I threw the back rug away (hey, I'm not going to clean that up). I then forgave the dog and took her on a walk. It was a gorgeous sunny Christmas morning. And my good deeds allowed the Lord to answer my prayer later that day. I had prayed that Peter could actually stay for Christmas dinner at our friends' house and not have to go to the hospital (he was on call that day). He stayed the full FIVE hours. What a blessing. Merry Christmas everyone!