Weekend Wrap Up April 28, 2013

I had a busy yet relaxing weekend! I feel refreshed! I'm not sure it was just being away from work or being around my hubby, puppies, and friends! Maybe a little bit of everything!

This is my sweet Kona! He is only 4 months old and already 45 pounds! He is getting BIG!

Random thought... I really love the headband I am wearing. It is one of my favorites! If anyone knows where I can get great headbands, let me know! I am always looking a something new!

My sweet girl, Daisy! She is kinda shy!

and my sweet baby girl, Bear! I love her ears!

Kona just loves our bed! Bear does too but Kona acts like he owns it!

Friday night, Mikes new food dehydrator came in! We weren't expecting it to arrive until Monday, so we were excited. He got the Excalibur. He did a ton of research and narrowed it down to this one. I will let you know how it works out for us! We started out with fruit. I had fresh mango, pineapple and bananas. The fruit turned out pretty good. I think I sliced the fruit to thin though. But, it was really sweet. It tasted like it soaked in sugar for hours. I will make the cuts bigger next time. Saturday is when Mike made the beef jerky. It takes forever to make it. It was to marinade over night and then it cooks or dehydrates for about 12 hours.

 

I was out with my friends Monica and Lyn early Saturday evening when Mike sent me this text.  LOL

I thought I would share with y'all!

 

Apparently, Daisy thought the beef jerky was for her.  She is very tall and can stretch pretty far. She jumped up on the counter and reached across it to grab the container that the jerky was in. She knocked it over and had a field day!  Her belly was full! I'm glad she didn't sick. Luckily, Mike made two containers. So he was still able to enjoy his first batch!

 

This is where I was when all the chaos was going on at the house....

 

Me, Monica, and Lyn at Sprinkles Cupcakes in Dallas!

I got the Cuban Coffee and Milk Chocolate cupcakes. I shared with Mike once I got home. I think Mike's cupcakes are pretty good but I cant pass up a "girls night out" that involves cupcakes and tacos from On the Border. We all had a good time just hanging out and laughing and cutting up and of course eating! It is always great to be with friends!

 

FRESH BERRY SMOOTHIE!

Sunday has been a lazy day for us! Mike was craving something with fruit and we decided to make fruit smoothies. This is actually part of our normal routine but this time we didn't add all the veggies. This was just pure fruit greatness! Mike even served mine to me in our beautiful crystal stemware that we got as a wedding gift from my mom and step-dad. I don't usually use the glasses, but it made this a nice treat.

oh yea, that grass behind the glass is wheat grass. I'm a big fan of it! I try and do my 2oz's everyday.

 

Bear, Daisy,Mike, and Kona (he is the chocolate blob in the back) ... they were all waiting on me to get in the truck so we can go PLAY!

 

We ended this weekend by going to one of our favorite parks. Arbor Hills Nature Preserve. It's in Plano. If you ever get the chance to go, its worth your time. The doggies love the creek. it is very relaxing there. I enjoy walking through park and seeing all the trees and flowers. I hear all sorts of noises though and I don't investigate. I don't actually want to know where most of those noises come from. I did see a tarantula tonight though. It gave me the ebbie-jeebies. ( I WAS SCARED TO DEATH!!!)  but it was ok. I still had a good time!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!
Thank you for reading my blog!

Julie

 

Chopping Wood

I have to start out by saying.. I havent figured out how to do the placement of pictures yet on my blog through my phone. Please advise me, if you know. :-)

I had a long work week ( last week ) and I was ready for the weekend! I had no idea I was gonna be doing all this "boy stuff".
We planned on grilling cedar plank salmon, so I stopped by our local CostCo after work on Friday. They have a great selection of fish, by the way! We thought we'd splurge and make a nice dinner for date nite!
We were out of wood and luckily Tom Thumb was selling large "potato sacks" of Hickory. Mike broke his fingers the week before. ( actually, Daisy broke them ) So I was forced into chopping wood for us! I wasn't real excited about it. I didn't even know how! Mike is a pretty good teacher though. Who would of thought that there's a certain way you have to stand so you don't accidentally chop your leg off!! And there's a "better" way to place the wood on the chopping block so it will split better! It was a whole lot harder than I thought it would be. I thought I was going to get all sorts of splinters in my hands. Either way, I actually kind of enjoyed the whole thing! It was a great stress reliever. I'm not saying I want to do this all of the time, but it was kinda fun in a weird sort of "learning something new" and "boy stuff" kinda way. I even had to brag about it to my Step-Dad! Haha. He always has jokes as you can see by the screen shot of our texting back and forth.
.... Oh and our Cedar Plank Salmon turned out wonderful!

Other than that and taking the dogs to the neighborhood park, Saturday-day was a lazy day. That night we went to the book store. We didn't get anything but we like to go there once in a while just to look. When we came back home, Daisy let me know in a hurry something was on the deck in the backyard. It was about midnight at this point. She was going nuts! I had to investigate! Eeeek!!! There was a baby possum. Holy crap, I was a little freaked out. I'm glad Bear didn't see it; she would have killed it. Daisy was just barking and bouncing all over the place. Mike and I had to corner the little critter and get him in a trash can so we can take him to the woods behind the neighborhood. It was a little bit of chaos to end our evening with.
Sunday was another lazy day!...more or less! We took the scooter out and ran over a nail. Again, Mike with his broken fingers needed my assistance in fixing it! I can honestly say...fixing a flat or whatever it is called wasn't any fun. I had to get the nail out which is a lot tougher than I thought and plug the whole which is lot gooier than I knew. However, I DID IT! I don't want to do that again, but I DID IT! I'm rather proud of it too! Mike stood there guiding me through the whole experience. It wasn't a lot of fun but at least he had enough patience to deal with me in what I would NOT consider common sense. Haha. It was a challenge but I did it! WooHoo!
It was a pretty day on Sunday and the doggies wanted us to take them to the dog park. We couldn't resist their sad puppy dog eyes. It was Kona's first time to go there. He loved it! He greeted everyone! Bear is more content with just smelling all the flowers and trees with an occasional greeting to strangers. Daisy on the other hand, our wild women that refuses to be tamed...The one that Caesar would have to keep for months on end! Our Daisy gets scared at the dog park. She says away from all people and dogs. She stays as close to us as she possible can. She eventually warmed up once we got her to the water side of the park and she began to play. It was a messy muddy wet good time! It was a great way to end the weekend!

Perspective.....my graphic and sad reality

It's been a sad week for a whole lot of people. It all makes my issues seem so ridiculous....

I was dreading a "bitch session/front office meeting" at work that I was advised about the previous Friday. Honestly, it wasn't the meeting I was dreading, it was the going back to work that I wasn't looking forward to. However, that's another story for another day.

Monday, Marathon Monday, as in the Boston Marathon, as in one of the best known marathons to all competitive and non-competitive runners, as in the worlds oldest annual marathons around has been forever marked with tragedy. Two men who I won't be giving credit to or any other personal recognition to (by naming them) bombed the finish line. Over a hundred people were severely injured, a few were killed, and thousands were impacted forever by this event. I wasn't near a tv, so I turned to social media to see and read what was unfolding. Seeing words that no one should ever witness in real life...GRAPHIC BLOODY SCENE, COMBAT ZONE, SECOND BOMB, MISSING PEOPLE. Along with reading about the chaos, I was seeing pictures that would be otherwise censored on any network. I will be forever be taunted by what few pictures and video I saw on a simple iPhone screen. I can't imagine the horror of what these people went through. My prayers goes out to all of those that were there or had someone there.

Thankfully, the bombers have been caught.....one dead and one is probably wishing he was dead as of April 19, 2013!

A couple days later, the fertilizer plant in the small town of West, Texas exploded.( The city of West is about 75 miles South of Dallas ) Almost 3 dozen people were killed including first responders and a couple hundred were injured. Many lost their homes. Damage was seen 5 blocks away. The explosion was compared to a magnitude 2.1, which is a minor earthquake.

There were many people that felt the tragedy this week held. Seeing the aftermath and the stories that go with it make my heart sink. With both tragic events there is the obvious of loss of life and the injured. However, there is also the fear, anger, guilt, and many other emotions that so many are dealing with. There is loss of homes and memories and loss of pets. (I saw where Dallas is trying to find homes for over 70 pets that are being brought up from West, Texas.) The stories on the news, the internet, Instagram, and twitter, have put my life and my issues for the week in perspective. My prayers are with everyone of them and their families.



Thank you for reading my story.

Julie

Earth box Garden

Mike got me a couple Earth Boxes a few years ago for my edible garden. Some years I have awesome luck and some years I have no luck. It seem like the birds and tomato horn worms get to eat more of my home grown veggies than we do. .. And that is just yuck! This year we have new soil, fertilizer, hydrated lime, and new plants of corse.

This year I have tomatoes planted, as well as cucumbers, peppers and strawberries.

So far my newest puppy, Kona, has already dug up the tomatoes and cucumbers. I don't blame him, the plants smell wonderful! So the pictures I have posted are the 2nd batch! I have added a fence to keep the pups out. I'm hoping I will be adding another post in a couple months with veggies!!!