Curly-Cutie

Break Time

Be back to blogging soon (maybe?)

Titan

The weather people are naming snowstorms now, this one is called Titan. Snow is falling hard and should continue until this evening.  Every blogger has to include a deck photo of the snow accumulation (or if you are a fitness blogger, you need to include a picture of your Garmin or your feet while wearing your Brooks Pure Flows or some other fabulous shoe that Linda can't afford since she buys her sneakers at Marshal's on clearance.  (No digs or sarcasm intended, just the truth.) Since it will be a day where absolutely nothing blog worthy will happen, you get to see both pictures of Linda's favorite running shoe and snow on our deck.  Hold on, it's going to be exciting.

In all seriousness, these running sneakers from Target are really comfortable and at less than $25, a good buy.  Once she got a free pair of $150 sneakers from a company to test and review.  They killed her feet the first 3 weeks and she had all sorts of ankle and foot issues. 

This is the first few inches of the 12" that are predicted for today.  Linda was already out early shoveling the deck, steps and a patch of the backyard for us to pee.  When she had Sheba (the Siberian Husky) and Snickers (Doberman/German Shepard) she never once had to shovel the steps or deck.  They would go barreling down the steps and make their own paths.  Linda would have to drag them both back inside on snowy days.  They loved to romp and run through the drifts!

She called her the Demon Dog.  Her eyes were so blue they always photographed red.

Since my belly is only 4" off the ground, I can't physically get down the stairs when there is snow, so it's not like I'm being a pampered princess.  Chimi is bigger than me, he is just to afraid to go down the steps if he can't see each and every one.

There was a day when Chimi and I were the same size.  That lasted about one week before he started his growth spurt.

Surprise shower & more snow

Last night the family gave Sarah a surprise shower for the baby who will be here soon.  She really was surprised!  She almost looked shocked when she walked in and saw everyone.  Linda was totally lame and didn't take one picture, but she'll see if she can get a few from her brother or sister (who took a ton!)  Everyone chipped in and bought all of Sarah's favorite foods. Beef on Weck, shrimp, potato salad, mac-n-cheese and Nutella desserts (from recipes that she had pinned on her Pintrest board.)  She got a lot of cute baby outfits, a mini motorcycle made out of diapers and an amazing double stroller!

 Too bad Sarah didn't get this Crib Dribbler.  Could come in handy for those middle of the night thirsty cries. If it only had an exercise hamster type wheel, it would be perfect!

This is the first day in as long as Linda can remember that she hasn't worked out.  Not even a walk.  This morning after only 5 hours of sleep, she turned off the 5:30 a.m. alarm and blew off the gym before church.  Instead, she planned on running outside after church.  Due to extreme laziness, that didn't happen.  The temperature outside was fine, she wasn't overly tired or sore but she just never got around to actually going.  I doubt she'll be doing much tomorrow (besides shoveling!)  The predictions are 8-12 inches of snow right through Monday evening.  Linda has plenty to keep her busy at home... Like dressing Chimi up as a bride.

Chimi Bridezilla

Cookie Success!

Finally!  The latest batch of chocolate chip cookies didn't come out flat.  She used two new recipes and made a few changes. This time she didn't over-mix the dry ingredients into the creamed butter/sugar/egg mixture.  The Oatmeal-Banana-Chocolate Chip are her favorite.

Anyone who knows Linda knows that she loves to Swiffer our hardwood floors.  With two dogs in the house, Swiffing once a day sometimes isn't enough for her liking.  This morning she read that the wet Swiffer pads are dangerous to animals.  The pets could lick their paws and get sick from the cleaner on the pads.  This was not good news since she uses the wet pad every other cleaning. She decided to do some  more research and found out on Snopes that the sick pet stories are just rumors. The wet pads and Jet mop are fine and pose no danger to dogs or babies.  Whew... Linda would not be happy if she had to find an alternate method of daily cleaning.  Once a week she has been doing a deeper cleaning with the washcloth method (tucking the corners in the grippers) and a little hardwood cleaner.

Cleaning the hardwood is her favorite chore.  It's so relaxing.

Chimi is being strange and is afraid of his food bowl again.  He went through this particular drama sometime last month, but be seemed to get over it and was fine.  Today he refused to go near the bowl; shying away and acting scared out of his wits. Linda changed the food into another bowl and tried again.  He finally ate some, but he took the bites out of the bowl and ran to hide while he ate it.  Such a strange dog.

"So what?  Things scare me. At least I don't have cleaning OCD."

Just Add Water

Today Linda took Penelope to the library for their Thursday playtime. When they pulled into the parking lot, she yelled "Look, Kevin and Ryan's car!" They didn't see Kevin and Ryan (her friends), but they did see another friend from church.  She recognized the car, just got confused who it belonged to. They just missed Toddler Story time, so instead they tried preschool story time. She actually would have done OK, but decided in the first 5 minutes that she NEEDED an APPLE RIGHT NOW for she would faint from hunger.  It didn't seem like a good idea to bring the snack bag out in the library story room, so they left and found a comfy place to read some books while she snacked.  Penny's new favorite books are actually the same ones that her Daddy and Aunt Tierney used to love; Richard Scarry word books.

Penny was fascinated with this page in particular.  She loved the rolling pin, sink and best of all, the pan with the eggs and bacon in it.  They had to keep turning back to the page because she asked "Nana, where did the eggs go?"

Linda stopped at the local pet store to get a bigger bag of the food we love so much.  This small bag makes 66 pounds of dog food!  How crazy is that?  When you mix the dehydrated food with water, it grows like those magic pills that turn into spongy animals.  Instead of animals, you get full size peas, carrots, veggies and oats. 

Linda used to love these when she was little! I wonder if she ever swallowed one.

Sun Snow

I wish this picture was better.  It was snowing really hard yesterday but the sun was shining bright and warm.  This morning, schools weren't canceled or delayed (great for Linda being able to teach her morning classes!) but it was snowing really hard when she had to leave for the gym.  Our road is a good size hill and it hadn't been treated or plowed.  The little Kia made it up the  hill, but the rear of the car was a little sideways.  Once Linda got to the main road, it wasn't too slippery. She usually has about 25-35 people in each class but today only 1/2 that showed up.  The snow is gone from the roads and sidewalks now, so the afternoon classes should be back to normal.

We are trying out this new dog food that Linda found on sale.  She was skeptical since I hate anything different in my bowl.  Surprise!  I love it and lick my bowl clean.  Chimi took a couple of feedings to get used to it but now he is fine.  Linda mixes in a little chicken (or you can use any protein) and a dab of olive oil. 

Good for you food

This little bag of dehydrated flakes makes over 8 pounds of dog food.  There are peas, sweet potatoes, oats, zucchini, carrots and other healthy things that grow 10x the size when mixed with hot water.  She only bought a small bag just in case we hated it.  Today before church she'll stop at the pet store and buy the larger bag.   By the way, Chimi doesn't love his fire hose toy.  He'll only play with it if Linda tosses it around or plays tug of war with him.  Lately, he wants to just snuggle under the blankets and nap.

90% of his day is spent just like this

There hasn't been any new food recipes or baking in a few days.  The giant container of salad greens Linda bought on Sunday has an expiration date of March 1st, so lunch and dinner have to be a salad until its gone.  (Oh, and the reheated pizza wasn't any better the second time.  There is still another meal left of it and she is not wasting food.  It looks like soggy, bland pizza with her salad for dinner again tonight.)