Two Dogs, Two Houses, and Two Years Later...

Sorry for the total lack of posting last week.  Andrew was on vacation last week, so we were on the run quite a bit.  Last Tuesday, the 24th, we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. We had a pretty low key day, but it was wonderful.  We took the dogs for a walk, ate the wedding cake we ordered from the same bakery that did our wedding cake, worked on a new project for the house, and Andrew fixed dinner. 

Andrew made us some amazing Parmesan chicken for dinner, which was followed by cake.  It was some pretty delicious cake, as always.  Brings back lots of good memories of our wedding day.  It is hard to believe in two years we have done so much and things have changed a ton.  We have two wonderful dogs now that bring us joy daily, and a new house we enjoy calling home. 

I decided to celebrate our anniversary, we should build something!  We kept all the panels from the fence we tore down when the chain link fence went up.  They have been stacked in the garage waiting for a project.  I decided to make a bench for the front porch; I felt like it was a little naked and needed some dressing up. 

I found an idea for a project on Etsy and showed Andrew to see if he thought we could do it.  We decided to give it a try, and I'm thrilled with the results.  I can't wait to decorate it for all the seasons! 

 

 This is the start of our bench, above.

  

Here is the bench on the front porch with some fall decorations.  Check out the awesome monogram pumpkin one of my friends made for us as a housewarming gift.  I LOVE it!  

We had our official house warming party this weekend, and enjoyed spending the day with some amazing family and friends.  We are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.  Buddy and Maya even broke out their party outfits! 

OK, this picture of Buddy might be after a long day, but how cute is he in his Packers sweater? 

Here are a couple of shots from the party.  Yes, these are only of the food.  We had several soups, breads and fall desserts!  

I made soda bread, honey beer bread, and spice bread.  For dessert, I made pumpkin bars and apple cake.  The pumpkin bars are something I always remember my mom making when I was younger.  Just as I remembered, they were delicious.  The apple cake was also delicious, and would be amazing warmed up and served with vanilla ice cream.  Seeing as we are on a low carb diet though, that probably isn't the best option right now.  I'm afraid to weigh myself after stuffing my face with bread and cake pretty much all week.  We did have a few healthy meals in there though.  I suppose I need to develop some self restraint before the holidays roll around.  Now that you are caught up to speed on the last week, I will try to stick with a regular posting schedule this week, not that there really is a schedule.  

A Vet Visit

Having Buddy or Maya sick is like having a child sick in this house. Whenever one of them is doing something out of the ordinary  them, I'm immediately online trying to figure out what is going on. Lately, Buddy has been doing what we like to refer to as the poop scoot more and more. We recently switched him from a senior pet food to half senior food and half light food. We noticed he was putting on some extra weight, so we wanted to get that off if we could. We weren't sure if the change in diet had something to do with this issue.

We went to the vet on Wednesday this last week to see if we could get some answers about what was going on with Buddy; I'm glad we went because it was a very informational trip.  Luckily, Buddy's anal scent glands were fine. That was the first thing that came to mind when we were trying to figure out what was going on. They also tested to see if he had any parasites or anything; they called Friday and said that text came back showing nothing.  That leaves us thinking perhaps he just is having a skin allergy and things are a little itchy. We hope when allergy season is done, the problem will resolve.

We also had the vet check out Buddy's eyes while we were there. I have especially noticed with Maya around that his eyes don't seem as crisp as they used to be.  Many times he won't know we are around until he hears us. It isn't to the point that he is running into things, but we still wanted to get it checked out.   Turns out Buddy has nuclear sclerosis, which the vet explained basically means he needs glasses. As dogs age, their eye sight deteriorates much like people. Since they don't make doggy glasses, which they should because they would be adorable, it is just something we have to be aware of.

The vet also talked to us about Buddy's weight gain. Turns out, his blood tests that we had done last February came back right on the border of needing thyroid medication.  We also found out that we have been feeding him about twice as much as he should be having. We flowed the directions on the bag, so we aren't intentionally  feeding him too much. We have to restrict his diet for the next couple of months and then go in and have his blood work drawn again if he doesn't drop weight. So, there is a potential for Buddy to be starting thyroid medication as he rounds the corner to his 10th birthday. Whatever keeps him healthy as long as possible.

Recipe Wednesday On Thursday

Once again, I thank my lucky stars for Pinterest while on this low carb diet.  Lately, I have been missing sweets like crazy.  I think my body knows it is getting to be that time of year when sweets are all around.  Before I get into the recipe for the week though, I will share the promised after photos with you for the tree.

So, there you have the photos of the tree and the bushes we planted.  As you can see, this is going to be our fire pit seating area.  Once the bushes get bigger, we should have some nice privacy.

My recipe for the week from Pinterest is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Sound good, don't they?  The best part of these is that they only have four ingredients and you don't have to go out and buy anything special.  That is the one gripe I have about low carb cooking/baking is that I could currently have about 20 different types of flour in the house if I followed every single recipe.



The four ingredients are:
1 C. Peanut Butter
1 Egg
3/4 C. Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
Sprinkle of chocolate chips

mix all together and drop onto a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for around 8 to 10 minutes. 

We Will Watch It Grow

I think I mentioned before that we were planning to plant a tree in the back yard that would eventually provide shade to the deck.  Since it finally cooled off enough to be outside and not feel like dying from the heat, we decided this was the weekend to plant a tree! 

We picked out an Silver Linden tree.  We initially picked out a different type of Linden tree, but then we were told that it is highly attractive to the Japanese Beetles.  We didn't want to deal with keeping them at bay each year, so we went with a variety that they seem to leave alone. 

It took a Bobcat to get the tree into the truck, and we thought we could get it to the backyard with no problem.  I'm not sure what we were thinking, but the tree made it to the back yard.  I'm sure our neighbors were entertained by us this weekend.   

Here is the tree in the driveway.  We were able to bring it down out of the truck and then roll it to the backyard.  Andrew used a metal hook to grab on to the metal stakes in the root ball and pull it while I hung on to the trunk of the tree.  We managed to get it back to the hole we dug. 

 

Maya inspecting the dirt pile.  This is right before the tree went in. 

 

The pile of dirt we dug out from the hole

 

Andrew working on the hole.

 

A better look at the tree. 

 

 

Alright, I just realized I forgot to take a true after picture, so I will try and get a picture tomorrow night for you.  The tree looks so good in its new home, and I can't wait to watch it grow. 

 

We also worked on planting our privacy hedge for our fire pit area this weekend.  I didn't get a photo of the final planted bushes, so I will get that tomorrow as well.  We ended up planting eight Viburnum bushes.  We planted four Northern Burgundy Arrowwood Viburnum, and four Blue Muffin Arrowwood Viburnum. 

 

I will be sure to post the final product tomorrow!   

A Diet Update

We have been on the low carb plan now for a couple of weeks, so I thought it was time to post an update on how things are going.  I was at the doctor yesterday, so I actually have an official weight loss number.  The last time I was at the doctor was mid June, and since then I am down 10 lbs.  I have to say, I was pretty excited when they told me that, and my doctor was really happy for me because she knows how much I have struggled. 

While I was at the doctor, I asked her to go back through my records for the last couple of years and tell me where my weight has been.  I think I can safely say since Andrew and I's wedding two years ago, I have put on between 40-50 lbs.  I can tell you it is much more enjoyable to put the weight on than it is to take it off.  But, I'm sure you all know that!

I would say a bulk of my weight loss has come in the last month, and about five of the pounds that I have lost have been in the last couple of weeks.  At the beginning and end of each week I do a weigh in.  Each week since starting the low carb plan, I have lost 2.5 lbs.  They say to lose weight and do it in a healthy way, you should drop about 2 to 3 lbs. per week, so I am right on track. 

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I stick to my low carb diet all the time.  During week one, we attended a wedding reception with a meal of delicious BBQ.  I enjoyed a small helping of cheesy potatoes (clearly not on a low carb diet), and some lemon wedding cake.  That same night I also enjoyed a small twist cone from our favorite ice cream shop before it closed for the season.  During week two, I had a pop one day for lunch and had a chimichanga while I was out for lunch with the girls at work.  I did leave some of the extra part of the tortilla on the plate, but I normally would have eaten that right up.  Occasionally at night, I will enjoy a scoop or two of chocolate frozen yogurt.  As Andrew told me early on in this diet, if you don't have things once in a while that you really enjoy, you aren't going to stick to the diet very long. 

It hasn't always been easy, but I have to say I feel better overall so far.  I don't feel as bloated when I am done with meals.  The first week or so I had a lot less energy while my body adjusted to the changes, and I felt like I was hungry all the time.  But, I feel like I have made some adjustments and my body is getting used to its new fuel.  I'm glad I finally have a plan that seems to be working.  I will be sure to keep you guys posted on the progress!  

A Low Carb Snack

In an effort to keep with the recipe Wednesday's, and to stick with my low carb diet, I'm posting about a yummy treat I made tonight.



I wasn't sure about these when I first saw the ingredient list, but they are actually quite yummy!  It is a little like eating oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough, and let me tell you how much I love cookie dough.

These call for:

1/4 Cup oat flour (we found this in the health food section at out local grocery store)
1 1/4 Cup oats (I used the one minute kind)
1/4 tsp of salt, which I just realized I left out and they taste just fine
1/2 Cup of peanut butter
1/4 Cup of unsweetened applesauce
1/3 Cup of sugar free maple syrup
2 tsp of vanilla
1/4 Cup of chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips because that is what I had on hand)

Mix the peanut butter, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla together until they are blended together.  Add in the oat flour, oats, salt, and chocolate chips.  Stir everything together.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  The recipe I use says to roll the dough into a ball, but that was making a mess, so I used a spoon to drop them onto the cookie sheet and it worked out just fine.

I hope you enjoy this low carb, yummy treat! 

It Is Football Time In This House

We were on the run most of the weekend, so I didn't get around to my weekend project until yesterday.  In support of the amazing Green Bay Packers, I wanted to make a wreath for our front door.  Fall is football season in this house.  I can't wait to park my rear in front of the TV on Sunday afternoon! 

I started with a wire wreath frame, three different fabrics, and a spool of ribbon.  I bought some Packers print fabric, plain green fabric, plain gold fabric, and football print ribbon.  In hindsight, I would have purchased more of the ribbon.  I wanted football fabric, but the only football fabric they had was bright blue, which wasn't going to work for me.  I bought a yard and a half of each and could have easily been fine with a yard and maybe even 3/4 of a yard of each fabric.  I laid everything out and cut the fabric into strips seven inches long by one inch wide.  I cut the Packers fabric eight inches long to try and get more of the pattern to show.  The ribbon was already 1" wide, so I just cut it into seven inch long strips.  For my first set of strips, I just cut one width of the fabric because I didn't want a ton of strips leftover.   To finish the wreath, I ended up using three strips from the fabric for each one.

In this photo, you can see everything laid out.  To cut these strips, I highly recommend using a mat (you can see mine at the top of the photo) and a rotary cutter.  My mat had one inch increments on it, which makes it super easy to cut the strips out.

Once you have all your strips cut, you start tying them on the frame.  Be sure to double knot each piece so it doesn't come undone.

Materials for the project:
Fabric/Ribbon- if you are using two colors, I would reccommend getting 1 1/2 yards of both colors.  if you are getting three or four colors, you would be fine with 3/4 yard to one yard of each color.
18" wire wreath frame
Cutting Mat
Rotary Cutter 

Here is the finished product

When you get closer to the wreath, you can see the Packers ribbon a little better.  I love how it turned out and hope this brings the Packers some luck this week on their opening game because it might be a tough one.  Go PACK!