Pages

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Buddy Turns 11

Today is Buddy's 11th birthday.  Anyone who sees him or watches him chase after Maya would never know he was that old.  He is still a very youthful dog.  We got Buddy when he was 8 years old from a local rescue.  Sometimes we talk about what Buddy would have been like in his younger years.  He was a breeder reduction who was given up when he was past his prime.  As annoying as it is for me to think a breeder thought Buddy was something that could just be discarded when they were finished with it, I'm overjoyed that he found his way into our life.  We hope he has many years to come with us and will cherish the time we have with him.


Where is all started... this is Buddy the day we first saw him at the shelter.  He won me over when he drug his bed to the front of the kennel so he could see out.  When we first spent time with him at the shelter, he wouldn't even take a treat from us.  Fast forward a few years, and he hasn't turned down a treat yet!  Poor guy was recovering from kennel cough when we got him. 

 How Buddy decided to watch fireworks this past 4th of July

 Notice he likes to hide under stuff? 


 One of his favorite spots; a basket of laundry that just came out of the dryer.  
He's no dummy!

 Curled up with Maya

 First day home! 

 Ahh, the good life.  Warm soft places to sleep! 

 More warm places to sleep!

 This is how Buddy deals with storms

 He found the sun again! 

 As you can tell, dinner just came out of the oven.  Not only was the floor warm right there, 
but there was a good chance food might drop!



The first time Buddy let me pet his tummy!  I knew things were going to be just fine! 


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Recipe Wednesday - Healthy Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

Who knew alfredo could be somewhat healthy?  I didn't, but was glad I came across this recipe.  I tried it out last week, and it was delicious.  Super easy to make for a weeknight meal.  One tip when making this, don't be tempted to dump the whole box of pasta in.  If you are going to do that, you might want to consider increasing the recipe for the sauce.  Yes, I learned this the hard way.  It works, but not all the noodles had a proper coating of delicious, creamy alfredo sauce. 

Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats

Monday, January 19, 2015

Pants

That's right, the title of this post is pants.  When I hear the word in conjunction with the word shopping, it seriously sends a chill down my spine.  Shopping for pants has been the bane of my existence for as long as I can remember. 

We were walking through Target one night doing our grocery shopping and Andrew pointed out that my jeans looked like they were about to fall off of me.  I responded with an "I know" that sounded rather painful.  He looked at me puzzled and replied "aren't you supposed to be happy when your clothes are too big."  Poor guy, he can't win.  I am happy that my clothes are now loose.  What I'm not so happy about is the prospect of shopping for new pants.  Since my current pants aren't literally falling off when I stand up, I have pushed off buying pants for as long as humanly possible. 

You see, I was gifted with these things called thighs.  In combination with a rather well endowed rear end that is not proportional to my waist, it creates a bit of a problem when trying to buy pants.  You may be wondering why, of all topics, I went with this one for this post.  Let me enlighten you.  At the moment, I have no fewer than 20 pairs of dress pants hanging in my closet.  I'm sure many of you can relate when I say only about five of them fit.  If we want to get technical about it, only one or two fit properly.  The others are passable.  They are either too loose, slightly too tight, can only be worn with flats because they are too short, or can only be worn with heels because they drag. 

Today, I set out on a mission to find pants.  I should have known I was setting myself up for failure on this mission.  I was on the hunt for brown dress pants.  I know, I got greedy.  I wanted something specific rather than settling for fabric that would cover my lower half and not make me look like a stuffed sausage.  But, of all the dress pants I have, brown is the color I need the most.  The last time I wore my brown dress pants, I pulled them off without unbuttoning or unzipping them.  Needless to say, it looks like I am wearing a potato sack on my bottom half when I have them on; not exactly professional.  Upon entering the store, I realized my selection was VERY limited and my hope quickly faded.  I walked over to the rack to survey my options.  What follows is the conversation that played out in my head....

"Lovely, about five to choose from in my prospective sizes.  Who knows what size I am these days; I'm probably in between sizes again.  Oh, I hope one of those ladies doesn't come over here to help me.  Unless they have a seamstress in a back closet who is going to personally measure me for a pair of pants, I'm pretty sure they can't help me.  Skinny legs, that isn't going to happen.  Straight legs, also doubtful.  How about some wide legs? Trouser pants?  Do they make anything for people that have a shape?  Have they looked at the average America woman lately?  Alright, I suppose I will try these on.  Two different sizes just to be on the safe side.  Oh good, so the option is stuffed sausage or a little bit less stuffed sausage.  Hey, at least I found a pair of shorts out of the ordeal; I hate shorts.  I can't believe I bought a pair of shorts; am I even going to wear these?"

This was all over the course of about twenty minutes.  Luckily, I have reached the point I don't need to pull the pants all the way up onto my thighs to figure out if they are going to work or not.  It really saves some time and frustration.  One store was all I could handle today for personal torture.  Perhaps I will try again later this week when I have mustered up enough courage to venture out again.  Does anyone else have this problem when shopping for pants?  I know there are others out there!  Does anyone have a brand of dress pants they recommend that recognizes not all women are sticks?   

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

New Year, New Recipes

With the weather turning cold and feeling a little more like winter these days, I thought it would be the perfect time to share a few soup recipes.

On Monday night, I made a new crock pot chicken noodle soup recipe.  It only took a few hours, and it was nice to have something warm to enjoy after a quick walk with the dogs.




If you are looking to keep things healthy while still enjoying something warm, here is a healthy chicken chili recipe.



For this next recipe, I went in search of a good vegetable beef soup to use up some of the stew meat we had in the freezer from the quarter beef we purchased last fall.



I hope these soups give you something to warm you up on these cold days.

Stay Warm!