Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. To all of our readers, we hope you have a prosperous 2013.

We’re taking it easy this afternoon. We started out the day by making cheese and mushroom omelets, doing dishes and doing a few loads of laundry. Then to top off the morning we spent 45 minutes outside in the backyard. It was a sunny 14 degree morning and we thought picking up doggy poop might be fun. Actually tomorrow is garbage day, so might as well get it done today. It’s always fun chipping out frozen poopsickles from the grass.

After a nice lunch of smoked ribs sandwiches we sat down. I started to write, hubby decided to lay back in his recliner and take nap. I guess Bubba’s bed wasn’t good enough for him so he decided to join Jim in the recliner:

There’s a symphony going on over there. Both Jim and Bubba are snoring.

Not to be outdone, Callie decided she too needed a lap. I’m holding the Ipad up high trying not to disturb her.

So, this is how we start out 2013. Not a bad start.

Sleeping dogs

Last week my friend Wendy emailed me this photo:
http://anongallery.org/3814/the-ray-of-death-takes-more-victims

Today Bubba, too, was laying in the ray of death.

Dogs have no shame, do they? We’d get arrested if we sprawled out like that.

At the same time, Callie was sleeping in Bubba’s new bed. The photo is a little out of focus, but that white thing in her mouth is a doggie bone. She actually fell asleep with the bone in her mouth.

Isn’t it amazing how our dogs keep us entertained, even when they sleep.

Electric blanket

Last night I turned on the electric blanket. Bubba immediately went to bed and stretched out. Now my tummy is nice and warm and if only mommy would leave me alone with that darn camera

Getting a bath must be exhausting

Bubba got a bath at lunch today. Then he chased Callie around for 30 or so minutes. Tonight he turned into a couch potato.

My baby, isn’t he cute.

How to find a ball in the snow

It seems like forever ago since I’ve blogged. My intentions are good, it’s the fingers and the brain that aren’t cooperating. Seems like everything else is getting in the way too. Between work, writing, cooking and cleaning, oh and yes, sleeping that I’m not just not finding time for other things.

Part of this is self induced. I’ve been on a “only eat what is made from scratch” kick. I’ve been making my own granola, bread, pasta, tortilla’s, chicken broth to name just a few things. Now that I’ve found the right combinations, I’ll have to start posting some recipes.

Oh, and speaking of recipes. I tried this granola bar recipe Saturday. Delicious and so easy.
http://thehungryartist.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/peanut-butter-chewy-granola-bars/

Everything of hers I’ve tried has turned out really good.

Now, on to the dogs. Last week we had a snow. Only about 3 inches, but I was lucky enough to have the day off.

Where the heck is that ball anyway?

Of course we have the running doggies. There were two balls, but they both wanted the same one. Why is that anyway?

Now we have cute pictures. Callie loved diving in the snow and Bubba loved taking the ball from her. He didn’t really want the ball for long, he just wanted to be chased.

Then for dinner we humans had stuffed peppers. Ummy.

I’ll start posting some of my homemade food. Jim is really enjoying the cooking and the experiments. The cooking and baking is a great stress relief to me plus it tastes so darn good.

Morning kiss

When Jim heads out to work each morning, I make sure he gets a nice sloppy kiss to start his day.

A few weeks ago Callie started barking at him as he got ready. She would jump up on the arm of the couch and bark. At first we couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Then one morning Jim bent down to her and she gave him a doggie kiss. She’s been giving him a goodbye kiss each morning.

This morning while Jim was putting on his coat, both dogs lined up on the couch. The photo is pretty grainy, as the only camera I had at that moment was the IPad.

Bubba looks so regal. Callie is such a lady, well, when she wants to be. Aren’t they cute.

Lazy Saturday

This is what weekends are for.

Shhh, almost asleep

ahhh, bliss

Wish I could sleep like that.

The king

All he needs is a crown

Back in time part 2

Going back in time again and looking at past doggies. It’s so bittersweet looking through the doggie photo’s. I miss every single one of them.

All of our puppy pictures for Humphrey, our Boxer, were taken with our film camera. I have the pictures, but we just haven’t scanned them yet. Humphrey was my dog. I swear we could read each others minds. I miss him each and every day. Jim used to get so frustrated when Humphrey would walk into the room, look at me and I’d get up to get him more water, let him out, find a lost toy, whatever it was at the time he was thinking. Jim never could figure out how I knew what Humphrey wanted. I’m not sure either. I just knew.

I’m sure you’ve heard stories like this, but there was a period of time before we moved to Colorado when Jim was between jobs. Jim was at home with the dogs and I was commuting about 40 minutes each way. I had an 8-5 job, but if we were busy at work, I might work late on any given evening. I never had to call home. Jim knew when I was on my way home just by watching Humphrey. About 15 minutes before I arrived Humphrey would go sit by the door. Whether it was 5:45 or 7pm, Humphrey would not go to the door until I was almost home. I miss him so much.

Atlas, our English Mastiff was practically raised by Humphrey. Humphrey pottie trained him, played with him and taught him both good and bad habits. As usual with English Mastiffs, Atlas was truly a gentle giant. He loved everyone. He loved children, adults, other animals, everyone.

Funny story. Atlas loved peppermint. Not to eat, just to smell. If you had a peppermint in your mouth, or peppermint gum, he would stick his nose up to your mouth and smell. It was kind of freaky at first, then it just got to be funny.

Atlas loved to play tug of war. And, playing tug of war with a 150 pound dog is not easy. When we wanted to be lazy, we would sit on the ottoman, give Atlas the tug toy and let him pull us around the house.

Atlas had a sense of humor, too. He would play tug and just as you were pulling really hard, he would let go. Many a time I would plop on my butt and I swear he was laughing.

Humphrey is two and Atlas is about 4 months old.

Why Atlas like tug of war, maybe?

Oh, and one of the bad habits that Humphrey taught Atlas. Cleaning dishes.

This is a love seat, their favorite spot. Dogs get the couch I got the floor.

My human baby being cleaned.

Atlas had a short life as most large doggies do.

Atlas we miss you.

Project weekend

What a weekend. I”m finally getting to sit down. We started off with a list of to-do’s. Not all of them have been finished, which means we’ll just have to work on them next weekend.

The funny thing is when I look at the list it makes me wonder where did the time go. Really, the list didn’t look that long. We should have been able to complete them all, right? Obviously not.

What I did get done:
Cleaned and organized my pantry. I’m embarrassed to say it took me almost 3 hours. I really thought out the organization process and didn’t rush. Perhaps had I moved a little faster I could have gotten more done. Oh, well, it’s nice and organized and I actually know what’s in the pantry now.

Menu for the week is all done. This means when I shopped this morning I only purchased what was needed for the meals this week. Let me tell you that was really hard, too. There was so much food that was calling to me. The eggplant looked good this week at the store. The cookies looked good, the brownie mixes. But, I was so good and only bought what was on my list.

Played with Callie. Worked with both dogs on training. Little at a time. Throw the ball for Callie, reward Bubba when he did not bark at people. Made Callie stay while I threw the ball, rewarded Bubba when he did not bark at people. Hid the ball and made Callie find it, rewarded Bubba when he did not bark at people. See a pattern?

Saturday night we made homemade pasta and it was oh, so good. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. Next time.

A few of our tiles in the kitchen had broken, so Jim got that all fixed up.

All of JIm’s laundry is done from his trip. Towels, sheets all done too.

Bills paid.

This morning I made some granola. First time, too. We love it for breakfast with fresh fruit and yogurt. Boxed granola cereal is so expensive and so full of calories. I found an easy recipe and after making it wondered why it had taken me so long to make it.

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/146/Homemade_Granola38838.shtml

We’ll have that with fresh fruit in the morning

Almost can’t wait for Monday morning. At least to eat.

We worked in the yard, ran errands, worked in the basement and the weekend flew by.

Things we didn’t get to.
Winterize the RV, which we must do next weekend.
Install the new ceiling fan.

Wash the patio windows.

Why is it that with dogs the windows are always icky? Why is it that it really doesn’t bother me all that much.

I did get them to “stay” while I took this picture.

So, Sunday night and Jim is home, some things are done, the doggies are sleeping and snoring and all is right with my world.