Midweek Randoms :)

Ready for a post of bulleted style awesome-sauce? You better be!

• Thank the Lord it is Wednesday, I am looking forward to the weekends more and more these days. Anyone else in that boat?
• I am so thankful for my husband. Stephen is incredible and always helping me around the house and with Louie. I know how blessed I am!
• I am pretty thankful for Louie too. He is such a sweet pup and makes us laugh everyday with his antics. Having a pet has been so good for us!
• Have I mentioned I have a new boss at work? Well, I do. It has been 2 weeks of long days and lots of overtime, which certainly helps the checkbook but totally wears me out. I am very much looking forward to things settling down and a routine forming.
• I like routines and doing the same thing everyday. There, I said it.
• I participated in my first ever assimilation meeting/process for said new boss this week and it was very interesting. Have you ever participated in one?
• We may have some warmer weather later this week and I am kind of looking forward to it. I am upset that we had a lousy winter, but I am over these cold, gray days that do not result in snow.
• I feel like last year we went sledding like 10+ times during the winter and this year we have gone 0 times. This is not okay with me.
• With the mild weather we have been having I really have Spring fever. I am ready for sandals and suntans! At least I have some pink nail polish to help put a spring in my step! :)
• Speaking of nail polish...a good color can totally lift my mood and spirit. I love a good pink color! Color of choice this week is "two hour lunch". So fun!
• 17 days until vacation in Florida...woo! I think "two hour lunch" will be my vacation color...
• I am already planning what to pack for Florida and have bought a couple new things. I don't know why but I always want/need something new before a vacation...no idea why.
• While in Florida we are hitting the Magic Kingdom. It will be Stephen's first trip and I am so excited. I might even make him wear a "My 1st Visit" Disney pin! :) Any tips or comments on things we need to do while there?
• I got Stephen Star Wars on BluRay for Valentine's Day...meaning I have to watch them. We started on Saturday and I actually like them. I was shocked that they interested me at all...Anakin just became Darth Vader though so I think it goes downhill from here. I liked him as a good guy!
• I am loving the longer days, it is daylight outside when I leave for work and still light out when I get home...love love LOVE that!

You know me...I could probably keep going and going but I better stop. If you made it to the end of this post, bravo to you! I hope everyone has a great Wednesday! :)

Adios for now!

Home Improvement Project #1

A few weekends ago we tackled our biggest home improvement project thus far: the kitchen backsplash. We had found the tile we loved and purchased it the same day we got our new(er) car and it was finally time to get it up on the wall. Did we know what we were in for? Well, Stephen did...but me? Notsomuch.

Here are the before pictures:

And some during photos:

That is what Louie did for most of the day...lay in the living room, looking into the kitchen wondering what in the world we were doing!

...and the after photos:

We LOVE it!

 I think this was a great project for us to get started with, and the outcome is great. We both agree that the tiles add so much to the kitchen.

What do you think?  

Weekend Wrap-Up

I feel the need to pat myself on that back for actually getting this weekend wrap-up typed and published before Friday! Life just gets so busy sometimes that it's hard to sit down and get the details out, you know?

We were both really looking forward to this weekend and the downtime that came with it. The past couple of weekends have been busy with home improvement projects and/or family in town...which we love, but is exhausting! My number one goal for this weekend was to sleep in. Did I? You betcha I did, and it was LOVELY! We stayed in bed on Saturday until around 10 just being lazy...I loved it. Once we got up we started getting ready for a different kind of shopping adventure and had a little photo shoot:

Back story: We are travelling to Florida in 19 days AND we are taking Louie with us. Our vet said that if he handled shorter car rides that he would be fine on a longer one. We decided to take a trip to Fort Wayne (about 45 min away) with Louie in tow as a test. I was excited to spend the day with him! We ended up taking him to the pet store and also Honda because we needed to stop by there. He was such a trooper and handled the trip so well!

He really was so good in the car and stayed right on my lap the entire time we were driving. The only time we were in the car and not driving was when we were eating Chick-Fil-A in the parking lot because it was way too cold to eat outside anywhere...Louie was just begging for french fries then :) He may have gotten a couple...

He was funny shopping at the pet store, also. He seemed totally unbothered by all the other animals and was fine as long as I stayed right by him. At one point I walked away from the cart and he jumped out after me. Woops!

Louie was totally spoiled on this trip. That's okay though, because he deserves it!

After lunch and the pet store, we needed to stop at Honda about the floor mats they ordered for our vehicle. Basically, they don't fit.at.all! It took quite awhile but they ended up ordering us new ones and washing the car. I love getting free car washes!

Louie in mid-lick while waiting at Honda :)

Saturday night we went to a game night at a co-workers house and had a great time. Their house was so beautiful and I got some great decorating ideas, too. Actually, I was intrigued by all the maps she has used to decorate their house and I might have ordered an antique map of the county we live in...by the time we got home that night, ha! Fun times!

Sunday we went to church and then did some things at the house and relaxed. It is tough to stay on top of ever thing...owning a house means there is always something to do. That is good usually, but not so good when we want to relax. Agree? It's okay...only 19 days until vacation in Florida. We will relax then at some point!

Now I will leave you with one super cute picture of Louie and one of his treats we picked for him while shopping Saturday. I think he face screams "don't you dare touch my rawhide, Mom!"

Well folks, that's the low down on our weekend. Hope you had a great one!

Louie's Favorite Dog Treats!

I can thank Pinterest for this find (and many others)!

A couple months ago I started to research making our own dog treats for Mr. Louie. I felt that the store bought ones probably were not that good for him and when he started having an upset stomach, I blamed them. I search high and low for an easy and safe alternative for him and found this recipe on Pinterest from Paula Deen. I gave it a try and what can I say?

Louie LOVES them! AND they are gentle on his stomach! I think it's a win-win!

If you have a puppy that you love and want to give them safe treats and/or save money-I think you should give these a try!

Cheesy Dog Treats

Ingredients

1/2 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1/2 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix cheeses with oil. Stir in flour, dry milk, and salt until blended. Add water and knead until dough comes together. Roll dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness, and cut out treats using a cookie cutter. Repeat until all dough is used. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until treats are golden brown.

Allow to cool thoroughly before serving to your four-legged friend.

Note: You can substitute whole wheat flour for the all-purpose to make an even healthier treat for your dog.

The first two times I made these for Louie I used a small heart cookie cutter, but the treats were still a little big. Last time I decided to use the cap of our Orange Juice carton  which made smaller, bite size pieces for Louie. This worked perfectly for us!

Let me know if you plan on trying this recipe or if you have one your dog loves!

 

Family Visits: The Morris' come to Indiana!

Hi Y'all!

I know it has been a while since I last blogged...more than two weeks actually. BUT, some things have been going on making life crazy and busy. I didn't mean for that to sound negative if it did because God is SO good, all the time! I have a post in progress with life updates, but in the meantime I wanted to share with you about our awesome weekend last weekend!

The Morris family from Florida came to visit us! I had been looking forward to this weekend for months and I think the Morris girls had been too! Hannah and Haley are the sweetest and funniest girls to be around, we just love them! Their Mom & Dad aren't bad either!

I was able to take a half day from work on Friday and meet them at their hotel around lunch time. We grabbed a bite to eat at The Boathouse in Winona Lake and then took the rest of the afternoon pretty easy. Eventually we made it to our house where we watched Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and relaxed. Our nieces were able to come over after school too, which was great. Emma, Ainsley, Hannah and Haley were flower girls and jr. bridesmaids in our wedding and they hit it off great together. In fact, Emma and Hannah frequently write each other letters to this day. How sweet is that? Needless to say, it was exciting for them to see each other again!

We had dinner together at El Mez (our favorite Mexican place near our house) and went bowling afterwards with the girls. We had a great time at the bowling alley and I think the girls did too!

Other than visiting us and seeing our house, the purpose of this trip was for the girls to see snow. Of course, they came when we had zero snow. Actually, we had some snow...dirty snow in parking lots and on the side of the road. It didn't matter to the girls though! Saturday we drove to Michigan for some snow tubing. Once Haley got over the fact that she had to wear to many clothes (funny!) we had a great time. The girls LOVED tubing and said they could have done it all day long. This was perfect because they got to see snow...not real snow, but still. Here are some pictures from the day:

The tubing lanes...ending right in the middle of a muddy corn field.

I LOVE this picture of Haley...so cute!

At the end of the middle lane they had built a speed bump out of snow...too bad we went over it many times into the corn field. My back is still a little sore!

Beth got some great action shots while we went down the hill. I thought she was so brave to have her camera out on the ride down!

After tubing Saturday we had a sleepover at our house with Emma, Hannah and Haley. We enjoyed a night of pizza and movies. I think everyone was tired from the events of the day because we went to bed pretty early with no arguments from the girls, ha! I will say that it felt so good to lay down after our fun and adventurous day!

Sunday morning Hannah & Haley's parents met us and we went to church. After church we decided on a whim to head to a State Park we had heard about and read about in the newspaper. Pokagon State Park was a little bit of a drive for us, but it was totally worth it! They have a toboggan run that was built in the 30s or 40s that has been maintained and is still open in the winters. They have a system that refrigerates the track so you can still go tobogganing when there is no snow and the temperature us above freezing. How cool is that?

The only negative thing was the weight of our toboggans. They were 60 pounds! I think that we all got our exercise carrying those back up the hill after our runs! Oh, and they tell you your speed at the end of the run, too. Our fastest was 35mph, and the record is 42mph. That is fast!

...and they're off!

The last time we went down we were all too tired to carry our toboggans back up so we brought down the car and shoved them in the back. Redneck? Maybe! BUT, we did see other people do it. Sometimes that makes it okay!

We drove around the park as much as we could to see it, and it really looks nice. I think this may be a potential camping spot for us in the future...maybe next fall we will do some tent camping? We'll see!

Sunday night we had dinner at El Mez (again) and just took is easy...Monday was back to the grind for Stephen and back home for the Morris'. I had Monday off to take Louie to the vet (more on that later) and I was so thankful I had a day to relax and do some laundry...it was an exhausting but FUN weekend for sure! Thanks for visiting us Morris' family! You guys are always welcome, anytime! See you in Florida in 23 days! :)