One party down and hopefully more to come, but for now I shall kick my feet up and enjoy a gorgeous day...
Many prayers to those families who've lost soldiers fighting for our country's freedom for hundreds of years, for those still fighting and waiting to come home.
Because freedom its never free of cost.
Mum has been afflicted!!! Apparently while she was bushwhacking down the stuff in the side yard she rubbed up against some poison ivy and now has a rash all over her hands and forearms. So you know what that means? NO MORE YARD WORK!!
The best part, we get to do more of this kinda work... sleeping!
You've got to be kidding me!!
Ignore her and she might let us go back inside to sleep!
We have been busy all last week and this past weekend at my house trying to whip the backyard and deck into shape. As the skies have been flooding the earth with rain it was difficult!! I actually feel bad for the poor garbage man who will have to haul away my many, many, many bags of lawn debris. -sigh-
I am exhausted!! And, as you can see from Dixie's expression about more work being needed, so are the pups!
I will post more after I finish up.
I am getting ready for my next 'event' (seriously I am a girl who LOVES to entertain!) on May 29th.
We used to have an annual Memorial Day "Drive-in" until a couple years ago. We would start about 9 or so, right when the sun was setting, have lots of movie food -popcorn, hot dogs, nachos-, and watch a family friendly movie under the stars and the smoke from tiki torches! So this will be the first one I have had for the neighbors and friends in a while.
Right now the menu is up in the air, as I am girl on a budget -read cheap- and Reed hasn't told me who is coming yet, besides the normal family/friends. Also, I am in remodel mode which makes my budget even tighter for entertainment.
Current projects:
--I have stripped the wallpaper in Reed's bathroom and haven't put up the new (cannot find the blades I bought Friday for my x-acto knife and refuse to purchase more!! -_-). I have new artwork for that room which is still awaiting the painting of their frames.
--Have a new duvet planned for my bedroom.. haven't purchased a thing, but feel I must do it prior to the party as this is the only room that would be half finished.
--I have a chest of drawers in my extra bedroom which needs refinishing.. have the stuff, just haven't started it.
--For the outside, I must to clean and strip my deck -le sigh-, seriously clean and redo the insides of my gas grill or throw away and purchase new, have planned a really cool drop cloth painted and sealed rug to break up the space (none of the materials have been purchased) and de-weed-i-fy my back planting beds. Oh, yeah, and I have planned out some really cool seating, which I need to build.... you know... in two weeks!
Its gonna get rather bumpy... just sit back and ride it out with me!
Best time of the day for ANY dog, especially the dachshund, is car ride time. :) It was a bit cold yesterday, but we bundled up and headed out to get Reed from school.
Dixie is waiting for something to be caught in the G(round hog) O(pposum L(emur) F(urry thing) net... Something besides those little yellow foam balls that are being hit into it.
Dixie was excited about the prospect of staying outside while I worked in the yard...'but mom...i haven't gotten my sixteen hours of napping in today!'
Cause God knows that I cannot shuddup.
Squirrel.
Where?
Right there!!!
I think you are delusional and blind. There is NOTHING there... shuddup!!
Ok, so maybe is not a squirrel....
Bet its a possum!!
It's my birthday! Yay, me!! :) So today I am going to spend it doing what I really want to do...
(sing with me) "Its my birthday so I'll play golf if I want to.. golf if I want to.. you'd play golf too if the skies were this blue!!!!"
--(In picture) Milo waiting patiently for my new golf driving practice net to be installed so he can practice his swing.
Happy Monday... I have a little boy who is sick, so I do not have much time to share our weekend with you... So I shall share a little bit Milo and Dixie.
Dixie isn't always the bane of Milo's existence. On occasion she will redeem herself in Doh's eyes so that he doesn't kill her.. or lock her out of the house... or eat all her food... or whatever his non-creative mind comes up with...
Milo on occasion will allow the fussing of Dixie over his face and ear cleanly condition. So yesterday, instead of snuggling up to Jean Claude the space heater Doh and Dixie thought they would snuggle up to me which gave Dixie prime grooming time.
But of course just a wee bit later she was hording her rawhide and he was whining like a baby. Ah, the joys of puppy parenting.
Speaking of parenting... today is my Mom's birthday... :) And she would probably have something to say about me having sweat pants, 2 camisoles, 1 long sleeved shirt and no socks on... But Mom!! Its Kentucky!!!
I 
found this post and knew I had to try this out. You'd never believe how easy this project was... I honestly put it together in less than 10 minutes. :)
I found the necklace at Goodwill for 25 cents. Yes, a necklace... I couldn't find a thick bracelet like that so I found the next best thing. I simply opened the links with my key-nosed pliers, took out the necessary links to make it my length and closed it back up again.
Off last night to Joann's fabric for some embroidery thread; this project took 4 of the little skeins of thread. Then this morning I cut my thread, braided the bracelet and had in on my arm in 10 minutes. :)
Now gold isn't my favorite color to wear, but I couldn't find anything silver.... This gives me great knowledge of how to do them so I can certainly whip up a bunch of them for friends and family should a surprise get together happen.
You gotta try it... for less than $2.00 I have a brilliant looking bracelet which is eye catching for sure!
Lemme start this post by saying it was all cause of Dixie... k?
Dixie has this sadistic streak which she inflicts every single day just to make Milo crazyy. Each day they get one rawhide bone. Just one. No more no less... One! Usually around dinner time as we have gotten into this habit of eating dinner, then dog piling while watching tv in the evening. Milo, being the diva dog he is, brings me his bone, places it on or near my hand, and then expects me to hold it while he chews. Spoiled? Possibly. Dixie will calmly sit at or near my feet and watch Milo getting his chew on.
This started out as every normal evening. Bone, drop on my hand, chew it up, get a drink of water, then notice that Dixie hasn't chewed hers, and then begin barking and whining.. cause in Milo's brain, sometime during his chewing and drinking, I've given Dixie a new bone and he didn't get one. Dixie then proceeds to begin S L O W L Y chewing her bone, relishing every single gnaw, licking her lips and oftentimes looking over at Milo and winking (yes, she winks, for realz).
This happens every night...
every.
single.
night.
Told ya, Dixie is sadistic.
So I took pity on the poor diva dog, and started to give him a butt scratch.... Milo gets all into the butt scratch. Its his WORLD. He rolls over, four paws up in the air, arches his back, moans a little, and when you find the right spot, he thrashes his head from side to side and makes these little barking sounds...its sorta like a doggy soft porn flick on the Dog-emax Channel or something.
Last evening's butt scratch was the best apparently... he is shedding his winter undercoat so getting a little help with the shed made him almost wanna tip me I think. But while I was scratching I noticed something on the inside of his back right leg... it was (duh duh duh!!!!) a tick.
Now I have never, ever, ever seen a tick on any animal I have had in my adult life. I was like "WTH???? How?? What??? OMG!!" Milo was like "Woman! Hey, you!! Get back to scratching me!!" Dixie was like "I got a rawhide and you don't!"
First thought? tweezers.
And guess what? that does not work. The little #&^%er wouldn't let go of my baby's skin!! All I was doing was removing hair. Milo was now, not happy.
Second thought? call a friend. Noticed then it was after 10pm, and my momma taught me that you do not call people after 9pm unless someone is dying, ofc momma's training still kicks in every now and again.
Third thought? internet... which I am not sure why this was my third thought... hell, its all I do every single day, but I digress.
Googled "tick on my baby help me out I am going out of my miiiiinnnnnddddd" which resulted in 467,890 results. Amazing, I am not the only diva dog owner out there.
But I found an article regarding "tick removal for diva dog owners who are freaking out cause its almost bed time and if she doesn't get it out she is gonna have to sleep with it and that just isn't gonna happen because what if it likes my blood better than Milo's blood and abandons ship for my Caspar the ghost white legs??"
First thing to try... tweezers. Already told you... didn't work! I couldn't grasp it around the head and mouth and I was merely giving Milo a slow and painful Brazilian.
Second thing to try... rubbing alcohol. Great. I don't have any. But I do have hand santizer which is pretty much alcohol right? I mean if you have a paper cut it will hurt like a mofo for hours and days. So I tried a dab of the alcohol and it didn't work. -_-
By this point, Milo, who already hates the bathroom, is freaking out as every time I leave him and walk in there I come back out with some new torture devise. I should have just put on my leather S&M outfit and be done with it... don't really have one, that you know of... :D
Third thing to try? Liquid soap. Soap? Really... yeah.. ok, cause I am at this point going OUT OF MY MIND and Milo is trying to call a friend no matter what time of night it is. So, some cheap off brand "Aloe Vera moisturizing nourishing hand soap with light moisturizers to keep skin silky and soft" to the rescue, right? I figure at this rate I am just giving the tick a sanitized and soft place to nom.
It suggested a cotton ball to apply... yeah, I do not have alcohol and now I don't have cotton balls. I am the WORST DOGGIE PARENT EV-AH!!! -sob- I have cotton pads, but for the life of me I have no clue which bathroom or drawer they are in and Milo would be gone like a bullet if I was to turn my back on him to go searching. So I grabbed the soap and a q-tip.
Milo is like...Mmmm.. ok, this is not a butt scratch, but after losing 10,087 hair to the metal pinchers and then burning thru 116 layers of skin with that little bottle of nasty smelling stuff this isn't bad...
I think I put about 14 cups of soap on him and then rubbed in circles like the article said. Now, the article read "rub for 5 seconds" which I read "5 minutes"... which is good as if I had really read 5 seconds then I would have been at an all night clinic getting the tick taken off.... but since in my mind I read 5 minutes I just sat there rubbing and rubbing and circling and circling... and voila! the tick let go and stuck to my q-tip! Take that you parasitic b&^%!!!
I flushed it down the toilet... did a victory dance.. and realized that Milo would need a bath to rid him off all the crap I had put on his leg. :(
So I picked him up and told him what a good boy he was, and whilst taking him to the bathroom for a quick doggie shower, I noticed Dixie, still watching the proceedings, her bone between her paw. She looked at me... then looked at 'Doh... then she winked.
Sadistic dog.
I hear that tomorrow there might be a little sun again. I sure hope so, cause one of the most bestest things in the world is taking a drive to pick up the hoo-puppy, Reed, from school.
Last Friday I was able to go on a drive all by myself with mom. She asked Milo to go, but the butthead only wanted to stay in bed. The older 'Doh gets the grouchier he becomes if you ask me!
It was so nice barking at the cars and seeing all the stuff going on! What was also nice was not having to share my "car seat" with 'Doh's big butt.
Mom always parks next to the play ground so I can watch the kids play and hear all the noise. But today I wasn't content just to stay in the car, I wanted out so I could show off my pretty pink outfit!! Look how my collar, lead and shirt even match my 'car seat'? :D
I loved the strange smells. I bet Milo would have loved to have smelled the smells I smelled!
But then we got Reed and after I loved on him it was time to get back into my 'car seat' and go home!!
But as a Friday surprise Mom didn't turn onto our street. She just kept driving straight and before I knew it there was even better smells to be smelt! And I got to enjoy the Friday treat, too!!!
Milo would definitely be jealous if he knew mom shared a Chick-fil-a fry with me!!
So, Mr. Sun come back out!! I am all for going on another adventure with my mom and hoo-puppy!
Here is my menu for this week:
Monday Easy Chicken with Potatoes and Ginger Honey-Glazed Carrots
Tuesday: Ravioli Bake, Caesar Salad and Garlic Bread
Wednesday: Parmesan Crusted Tilapia, Baked Potatoes, and Cheddar Biscuits
Thursday: Cinco de Mayo... haven't decided yet
Friday: Chicken Club Pizza *Recipe to come when I decide how to fix
I had never tried one, never really heard of one, until I went to a birthday party for a friend's child over the weekend. This things are INCREDIBLE in a OMG I CAN ONLY EAT ONE kinda way. I am going to try her recipe this week, I hope, you know if I can find enough people I can give them to as these things are not going to sit around my house and attach themselves to my hips!! :)
Thanks, Melissa for sharing the recipe!
Whoopie Pies
For cakes
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
**I would use 1 cup of milk with 1 tbsp of white vinegar which I had let stand for 5 minutes as I never have buttermilk in the house
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened **(Do not use margarine)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
For filling
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened **(Do not use margarine)
1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
2 cups marshmallow fluff
1 teaspoon vanilla
Make cakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until combined. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a handheld, then add egg, beating until combined well. Reduce speed to low and alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, scraping down side of bowl occasionally, and mixing until smooth.
Spoon 1/4-cup mounds of batter about 2 inches apart onto 2 buttered large baking sheets. Bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched, 11 to 13 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack to cool completely.
Make filling:
Beat together butter, confectioners sugar, marshmallow, and vanilla in a bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Assemble pies:
Spread a rounded tablespoon filling on flat sides of half of cakes and top with remaining cakes.
