Life with Puppy: Six Months

I can't believe my little baby puppy is going to be six months old on Saturday!!!  I tell Bryan all the time, JD is the best investment we have ever made!  He is so much fun to have around has so much personality!!  To date, he has only destroyed a down-alternative comforter which is fixable and a strap on a Camelback that Bryan bought me, which is also fixable.

JD is proving to be very much a people person, LOVES meeting new people and new puppies as well.  I weigh him in weekly and as of this week, he weighed in at 57 pounds!!!  (It's kind of fun because our Wii Fit has a "Pet Profile" section, so we entered both JD and Wrigley under there.)  He doesn't quite comprehend how big he is yet, he still thinks he is a tiny little puppy.  He's fun to when he plays with other dogs because he has learned to "box them out" (like in basketball).  He puts his little butt right in their faces and pushes them back until he gets to toy or whatever he is trying to achieve.

He's also hilarious to watch run - he runs with his butt down.  At first we always thought he was scared, but now he just does it all the time!  It's the weirdest thing.  Another weird habit is his need to suck, yes suck, on blankets.  A lady at our puppy class said it's because he never had a mama dog and so he does that as security, but he'll take his paw and "knead" the blanket like a puppy kneads a mama pup's belly to get milk. (Side note: Bryan's parents dog nips on blankets all the time and she too did not have a mama pup.)

While he is pretty much crate trained, he still prefers sleeping in our bed (a bad habit that I started when he weighed 20 pounds.) Every night he will jump into our bed and I'll let him lay there until about 10:30 and then he knows it's time to get in his kennel.  The minute he hears an alarm in the morning though, he rattles around in his kennel until we let him out and then he runs and jumps back into our bed where he'll go right back to sleep.

JD is also loving the snow.  I wish I had a better camera so I could capture it out side, (that is next on our wish list is a nice SLR camera.) Although temps have gotten down to negative 30 this winter, the cold doesn't phase him at all!  He'll still run and run in the back yard.  I can't wait for the summer when we can take him swimming and hiking.      

New 'Do

Before:

After

Fab Find: The Magic Bullet

Get your mind out of the gutter - this is the best blender EVER.  Yet another Christmas present from Santa (aka, my parents,) I requested the Magic Bullet to blend my morning protein shakes that I always drink.  I usually either make a smoothie and toss in some protein powder or make Carnation instant breakfast and add a scoop of protein powder.  Either way, protein powder needs to be blended in REALLY well in order for you not to taste it.  I had been using a regular blender, but it was cheap, loud, annoying and messy.  The Magic Bullet is super easy to use, it is made for one serving of drinks, but you can also make dips, desserts, sauces and all sorts of stuff in there!  I especially can not wait to make salsa this summer.  And guacamole. Mmmm...

It's a little on the pricey side - around $50, but totally worth it.  You get all sorts of attachments and a recipe book with it, so I say it's a good deal.  It's especially geared towards health conscious peeps and those who are watching what they eat/drink.  

You can find more information at their web site: www.buythebullet.com

Fab Find: The Slanket

I am always cold.  Always.  I run my space heater at work in July (and I get a lot of crap for it.)  I have no boundaries when it comes to what I will do to stay warm.  I will wear long underwear, spend $200 on a winter coat, wear dorky snow boots - anything.  

I am sure you have all heard of the Snuggie.  When I first saw a commercial for it, I knew it was made for me.  I was going to ask for one for Christmas, but as I usually do, I searched for reviews on the product before I made my official request.  While searching reviews, I came across the Slanket.

The Slanket is a high-end Snuggie basically.  I immediately requested one from Santa.  Sure enough, Santa delivered and I am now the proud owner of a gray Slanket.  I have compared the Slanket to the Snuggie and I will say, the Slanket was well worth the extra money.  It is thicker, softer fleece and there is much more blanket.  The sleeves are also longer, which is slightly annoying, but nothing that a few safety pins can't fix  

Oh how I love my Slanket, I am actually thinking about getting a second one for work - like I said, I have no boundaries. :)

You can find the Slanket here: http://www.theslanket.com/

Fab Find: Cuisinart Grind & Brew

Um... I've been slacking on the blog posts lately... Sorry!  I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas, Bryan and I sure did!!!  Our families were beyond generous to us!!!  I definitely got some very Fab Finds under my tree this year.  The first of them is the Cuisinart Grind & Brew coffee maker.  

Bryan is what I call a "coffee snob" and we can only drink freshly ground coffee beans, not the pre-ground stuff. I admit, the fresh ground does taste better, but the whole beans annoy me for two reasons.  1.) I find it the biggest pain in the ass to grind the beans in a grinder, and then transfer them to the coffee maker.  It adds a full two minutes to the coffee making process and I am far too impatient for that. 2.) They cost about $10/bag/week.  I am far to cheap for that.

Well, one of my annoyances has been alleviated. Enter Cuisinart Grind & Brew, the 12-cup PROGRAMMABLE coffee maker. (Our old coffee maker was not programmable, so this is very exciting to me.)  With this coffee maker, you put the water, filter and beans into one machine, press the button and *poof*  The coffee maker grinds the beans FOR YOU and then MAKES THE COFFEE.  ALL AT ONCE.  NO TRANSFERRING BEANS!

It's a little on the pricey side, $99, but I find it totally worth the investment that Santa made. :)

You can find this Fab Find here: http://www.cuisinart.com/products/coffee_bar/dgb-550bk.html

Recipe: P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps

As I get more and more domesticated, I am enjoying making good meals.  So, I am going to start posting recipes that Bryan and I enjoy for my groupies.  



P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps

CHICKEN FILLING

• 1 cup water chestnut
• 2/3 cup mushroom
• 3 tablespoons chopped onions
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4-5 leaves iceberg lettuce

SPECIAL SAUCE

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon hot mustard
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

STIR FRY SAUCE

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions

SPECIAL SAUCE

• Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.
• Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.
• Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.
• Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.
• Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.

CHICKEN FILLING

• Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.
• Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.
• Remove chicken from the pan and cool.
• Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.
• As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.
• Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.
• When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.
• With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.
• Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.
• Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and sauté the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce "cups".
• Top with "Special Sauce".

Or you can visit the web site where I got this recipe

Christmas Tree Part Duex

Your eyes do not deceive you, yes, that is a different Christmas tree than we originally had.  Here's the story:

This is my first Christmas with a cat.  In all fairness, Bryan did try to warn me that Wrigley would think the tree is a giant toy.  But I have had dogs in the past who messed with the tree and even had one pull the tree on top of them, so I thought "Oh, it won't be THAT bad..."

I was wrong.

So very wrong.

We put the tree up on a Saturday afternoon and then left that evening to go to a movie. Upon our return, Bryan opened the door, closed it, looked at me and said. "You should probably just stay out here."  I pushed my way past him to find EVERY ordainment, candy cane, snow flake and even the star on the TOP of the tree was now scattered all over the living room floor.  You could even see where he had JUMPED to the top of the tree to get more ordainments.

 I hit the roof.

 Hard.

 I was threatening to take him back to the shelter, I was SO mad!  Bryan calmed me down (that's the short version of that portion of the drama) and the next day we put the tree back together and began putting Wrigley in the back room when we couldn't watch him. (With his litter, food and water of course... That didn't matter, he still meowed up a storm while he was in there.)

This strategy worked for a few days, but we left for a week-long trip to Phoenix that Wednesday and so he couldn't be locked in the back room while we were gone.  So the tree got locked in the back room.  As you can imagine, moving a tree to the back of the house caused the decorations to get just as messed up as when Wrigley attacked the tree.  

The whole reason behind putting an artificial tree up was so that it would last 5 weeks. (We put it up the weekend before Thanksgiving because we were in Phoenix until the 30th and I didn't want to deal with putting it up when we got home.)

 Well, deal with it I did.  Since I already had to re-decorate my tree, we went out and got a real one, something I never had as a kid but Bryan did have and loved.  I have to admit, I love how much taller it is.  It's not the fullest, but next year we'll spend more time picking it out.

 As for Wrigely and the new tree... Well, stay tuned, I have a good story about that too. :)

It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

I am so not afraid to admit that I LOOOOVVVEEEE Christmas!  I love the decorations, the food, the shopping and of course, the presents!  I am not, I repeat NOT one of those crazy people who put their decorations up as soon as Halloween is over.  I normally wait until the day after Thanksgiving, however, this year, Bryan and I will be in Phoenix until the 30th, so I wanted to get it done since I know I will be tired once we return.

This year is especially fun because we are in our new house!  I already had plenty of decor from apartment living, but a new house calls for new decor, right?...  That's what I thought too! Above you'll see the outside of our house... I am thinking we need to add more to it though... Maybe some lights on each pillar? Yeah, that's what I thought.  Next you'll see my tree.  You can see my holiday colors of choice are red, silver and white.  It just so happens to match our curtains too!  I think my favorite part of my tree is my tree skirt... It is actually just a red flat-sheet because I couldn't afford a real one when I was in college, but I love how full it looks compared to a regular tree skirt, so I've kept it!

Next is our entertainment area, easily my favorite area I decorated. I got the "Ho,Ho, Ho" sign at Target for $2.50!!! Score! I also have some candle holders that were not done in time for the picture that I will post some other time that I Love! ... Yes, there are four stockings and two humans in the house... I am that crazy person who gets gifts for their pets. Deal with it.

I love ball ordainments.  I love how simple and classic they look.  I also love how it is a huge decor trend right now! So, this year I threw them in wherever I usually use vase filler.  Easy AND cheap!!!

More ordainment decor... The bow is too big, gonna have to change that.

A close up of the entertainment area.

Let the Holidays begin!!! (Bryan and Wrigley refused to pose for the picture, so it's just JD and I.)

New Moon Review

I will probably get stoned to death by Twi-hards for saying this, but I thought the first Twilight movie was horrible!  I am not sure why they didn't put more money into it to make it a better film, with the following that the book series has, any person with a pulse and a half a brain would know that Summit Entertainment would make their money back ten-fold.

Thankfully, Summit put their money where their mouth is for the sequel, New Moon.  I will admit, I was one of the crazy fans in line for the midnight showing last night... Not because I was just DYING to see the movie, but it just sounded like something fun to do.  (The next day at work?  Not so fun.)  

The movie was of course cheesy and sappy at times but the two male leads were easy on the eyes and this installation of the Twilight series provided some comic relief at just the right points in the movie.  I thought there could have been more fireworks between Edward and Bella, just didn't sense the passion that they seemed to have in the books but I was happy that the acting seemed far less awkward than the last movie.

Overall?  Two thumbs up!  Probably won't see it in the theater again, but because I am a nerd, I will probably buy the DVD. :)  

Black Friday

Black Friday is like a drug for me... I love all the sales, I get giddy and my heart starts to race just from the thought of saving 50% on ANYTHING. But I know I should not go, I know Black Friday is NOT good for me.   Usually I don't go.  Because if I were to go shopping on Black Friday, I would shop for me and not for people I need to buy Christmas presents for.  I save all my shopping for the day after Christmas.  However, Bryan's sister-in-law sent me this AWESOME web site this year that you simply MUST check out.  It's called Live Black Friday and it has all the Black Friday advertisements ALREADY!!!!  Now you have a good week to map out your Black Friday strategy and to prepare yourself for all the crowds. Enjoy!

http://liveblackfriday.com/ 

TextsFromLastNight.com

Enter my absolute new favorite web site: TextsFromLastNight.com.  This site is beyond HI-larious.  The site is exactly what it says: people send in their random text messages from last night (or whenever).  The randomness is what makes it hilarious.  Most of the text messages have something to do with drinking too much or indulging in, ahem, "special" brownies or similar smokeable grasses.  But many of the texts contain an underlying sarcasm, which, if you know me, I find hilarious.  

To add your own text (or forward a text you got) all you have to do is include your area code - no names or anything tying you to the message.  GENIUS!  

Here is a little sampling:

• (516): Thank God they found balloon boy, I was afraid that Michael Jackson was ordering take out from heaven.
•  (630): all i remember is you climbed in a garbage can and said you were trashed
• (774): i just walked into a room at this party and someone yelled "dibs!"...
  

My New Lover er Computer

Yes, you've probably figured out by now that I have a lot of Love's in my life.  Here is one of my newest: My MacBook Pro!  That's right, I ditched my PC for a Mac and L-O-V-E it!!!  

Here are the things I love the most about it:

1. iPhoto - so easy to upload, organize and find pictures
2. Numbers - incredibly easy to organize my finances as well as track them with charts and categories. 
3. iTunes - I've never used iTunes before, I always used Limewire, but will never go back!  iTunes is so fast and easy and I love how it organizes my music, with album art. 
4. Safari - I stopped using Explorer when I started blogging because Explorer... Well, it just sucks.  I had been using Firefox, but Safari is much easier to navigate and much faster. 
5. Speed - there are only 14 known viruses for Macs at the moment, unlike PCs which are susceptible to... Well, a lot more (I don't know the number.)  Therefore, Macs are much, much faster.
6. Size - I travel for work about every 6 -8 weeks or so and lugging my 10+ laptop around, plus it's cords and everything else was not fun.  It made my back hurt and frankly, I just dreaded it.  My Mac weighs 4.5 pounds.  I carried it through the airport today and it was much, much more pleasant.  
7. Battery - My battery lasts 7 hours!!! Yes, 7!  Traveling today, I was able to pull it out at multiple times to use it without pulling out the cord with it!  Those of you who travel a lot, especially for work, understand how wonderful that it.  
8. Sleekness - You know me, things have to be cute! And this is cute!  So sleek, modern and hip looking.  Love walking around with it. :)

There are many more things that I love about this wonderful machine, but I will stop with my list there.  The only con to my Lover is the cost, you can definitely get a PC for half the price.  However, if anyone asked me before buying a PC, I would totally try to talk them into a Mac.  It was worth every cent!

I'm in Love

I have to thank my friend Stephanie for this next find I have... I can't believe I've gone so long without knowing about it!  Have any of you guys heard about "Real Simple" magazine?  Um, I haven't!  But I have now!  I have been pursing their web site all afternoon and have so many things I am going to be trying around our house!!!  Check out their web site: RealSimple.com, so many great tips!!!

Life with Puppy: Week One

We survived our first week with our puppy!  Bryan said  to me today "I think you should get paternity leave when you get a puppy!"  That would be nice... Doubt that will ever happen though. 

I think the first week went pretty good though!  Potty training is going... OK.  I thought it was going well at the beginning.  At first, he would go to the back door and bark if he needed to go out, which I thought was just amazing!  However, he has since figured out that he really doesn't like cold and rain (which we've had a lot of lately) and therefore, finds it much easier to just pee wherever he might be standing, which is most often a carpeted area.  So, we've got to get him broke of that, I'll let you know how that goes.  We only had one major accident this week and that was because we tried leaving him in his kennel for 9 straight hours - not a good idea at all!  Our wonderful parents have offered to come over on their lunch hours though to let him out until he gets older so we don't have to deal with a smelly mess and batheing him every night - thanks Parentals!!!

So far he hasn't chewed anything of extreme importance.  I learned VERY fast to pick up my shoes as well as my purse - anything is fair game to him!  He loves his squeaky toys as well as any type of bone.  We started putting peanut butter in his Kong, however, I don't think that is agreeing with him tummy, so that has stopped for the time being.  He and the cat are developing a love hate relationship - JD loves to chase Wrigley and therefore, Wrigley hates JD.  However, we did see Wrigley try to play with JD once this week, but that was before JD caught him in his mouth... Poor kitty.

He is not quite sleeping through the night yet which is making for two very tired masters.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that it is coming soon though!  He loves sleeping in our bed with us and we've made the mistake of letting him in the moring between his 5 a.m. potty break and when we get up.  Now he thinks if he barks long enough, we'll let him up.  So that too has stopped. 

Even thought we're tired and a little frustrated with the potty training, Bryan and I LOVE having him around.  He is so funny to watch and has such a little doggie personality!  We start puppy classes on November 3rd, hopefully he'll be the smartest kid in the class. :)  I'll give you guys another update when there is something more to report on that his bathroom habits.

Introducing Jack Daniel aka "JD"

So, I finally won the battle of getting a puppy!!! :)  After months of BEGGING and quite frankly annoying the living hell out of Bryan, we picked up our 12 week old puppy on Friday afternoon: JD, which is short for Jack Daniel - Bryan's favorite thing in the world (next to me of course.)
 
We had a great first weekend at home with him, he is doing great with potty training, 85% of the time he will go to a door and bark when he needs to go out. Hallelujah! He is also doing very well with crate training, he didn't like being in there the first night, but by Sunday, he was going back to his kennel just to take a nap with the door open! It just warms a mother's heart! :)  

JD also met mom and dad's dog Sadie this weekend.  Sadie does not like other dogs and proceeded to show her teeth everytime JD got too close.  But Sadie is such a froo-froo dog that it was more funny than anything.  He also met Bryan's parent's dog Maggie.  Maggie is a pit-bull/terrier/beagle/boxer mix and VERY territorial.  She decided to claim all of JD's toys as her own and not let JD near them.  She snarled at him a few times which caused me to freak out and Bryan to laugh.  They'll be good friends though once the whole territorial thing has been established.  Which is good, cause we're going to need puppy-sitters! 

JD also met our cat Wrigley this weekend.  Wrigley has never encountered a dog that was not afriad of him, so he's not really sure what to make of this dog who is not intimidated by him at all... JD thinks Wrigley is there solely for him to chase... Which is pretty entertaining to Bryan and I for now, but we should probably break him of this.  

I'll post some more pictures of JD as he gets bigger, at 12 weeks he weighed in at 18 pounds!!! He is going to be a moose, his paws and ears are gi-normous!