Christmas

Well, as good as I thought I was yesterday, today has started out very shaky.  I let my bread rising over night and the loaf bread fell because it rose to long, it did cook well, but looks like hell.  The rolls that I made looked perfect, but I over cooked them.  Yes, I said I over cooked them. SOOOO, I am having to start over with the bread which is going to be very tough since I need the oven all day for the other food.  And bread is suppose to be my thing....how did this happen!

And by the way, the popcorn balls that look wonderful, taste good but are a little soft.  What the F#@@$.

Arg....

It has been a few hours and I am almost over my meltdown.  I will say that John is happy to see me recover.  I think he thought it was touch and go for a while.

Since we are not opening presents till after lunch, when the kids arrive, John has been spending his time playing games on the iPad.  Yes, he has a tough life. 

Dinner did go well.  My second batch of bread turned out perfect.  The prime rib was delicious and everyone got great gifts.  Cheri and the girls came over.  It was wonderful to see them, but of course, I got no pictures during the event except for a few of the kids opening presents.  I am so bad at taking pictures.

Christmas was great!

And then there is the day after (Boxing Day for those born over the pond) ......

And yes, Tasha is still asleep (the only person in the family that can stay up past 10:00 pm).

The Day Before Christmas Eve

Today was a very busy day of cooking.  John and I have had so much fun and it has been a very nice and quite day.  Lot's was cooked, but there is one thing I have never made before and if I do say so myself, turned out really good.  During my research of this recipe, I saw multiple times were numerous people had posted, that if you ever make it, you will never buy store bought again.  And I have discovered, they are right.  Homemade marshmallows are wonderful.    And surprising it was not that difficult.  DAMN I AM GOOD!

I made these so we could have hot chocolate with marshmallows. 

My next thing was the holiday tradition of popcorn balls.    This is for Matt who loves them.

Then to finish off the day, I cooked ham, spaghetti sauce and am making ciabatta bread.  Another thing that John and I learned today is that we are no longer able to eat ham.  We thought we would have a ham sandwich for dinner.  It was wonderful, but both of our stomachs got tore up.  Oh well....
Was that too much information.

Starting the Barn

Well, we have finally begun the barn. Today we got the four corner posts in. Yes, it was a great feeling. And, I will say no major problems or delays, unless you can count forgetting the post hole diggers and shovel. Yes, I had to go buy each. This would be the first post hole dug.

And finally....all four in.

And this is Tyke exhausted from all his running. 

Farm

Pictures of the ‘FARM’, at least that is what I call it. Although nothing is planted, it is still the ‘Farm’. Besides that what else do you call it? We have completed one fence line and for a pair of rockies, it does not look too bad. We are going to start on the barn soon, baring weather and the holiday schedule.

Farmer John... We have gotten some rain, which has been really nice. Of course, not enough but just happy to get what we get at this point.

The Month of February

The month of February was very busy for John and myself. We had the grand puppies and the grandkids. Each of our children went on their respective vacations and we watched the little ones.

First was Matt’s dogs. They are such great animals. They are very well behaved and was very good with the other ones in our herd. I will say that Hooch and Sandy got along brilliantly. But Sandy can defiantly would win on the length of time playing should occur. Hooch was good for about 15 minutes and then he was tired of the whole thing. Tuff on the other hand is not a great player. He enjoys sitting on your lap and getting petted.

But what would babysitting be without some type of injury. Tuff has a tail that is like a steel rod and when he wags his tail is goes with 5g force. So, right before I was to return them, they went outside for the last time and Tuff came in happy as a lark. I took all the dogs upstairs and noticed something on the walls. Well before I could figure out what it was, there was blood all over upstairs. It was like there was a knife fight. He had somehow cut the tip of his tail. Matt later found out that there is an actual condition for dogs call ‘Happy Tail’. Yes, that is correct there is really such a condition (at least on the internet). The other important thing to remember is that it is almost impossible to bandage the tip of a Pit Bull’s tail. And each time he wags his tail it again would start bleeding so this was not good. It took me an hour to try to get the bleeding stopped and get some type of bandage on it. After a stop at Walgreens to try to get the correct bandages we finally got them home. Tuff did live up to his name. He did not even wince once when I tried to bandage or when I was squeeze it to try to get the blood stopped. Although it would have made me very happy if he would have stopped wagging his tail; which he never did.

My upstairs had to be repainted (but I will say that it needed it anyways). I can still find blood drops in places I did not notice before.



When we kept Lucy and Oliver a week later, we thought we were totally prepared, gate on the stairwell, toys purchased, snackies obtained. Little did we know! I did not have any cheezy pasta which in Lucy’s world is very very bad. I tried making cheezy pasta; that did not turn out that good. Lucy loved it but John and Sr said it was too cheezy; therefore, homemade cheezy pasta needs work. We had an emergency run to the store for cheezy pasta and the world was again in line and Lucy was very appreciative.

I will say that they were a lot of fun to have. They were extremely well behaved children. The weather was very cold and rainy so we could not get outside except for one outing to the mail. Lucy , painted, played with playdo, COLORED, played with Legos and then there was Nanna and Papa time. We talked about Pumas, being a princess and danced till our legs were tired.

Oliver was the best thing. He only cried when he was hungry or tired. Eating was an interesting event because he makes horrible faces and holds his breath when he eats. I have never seen anything like it. I would say that he must have really disliked the food but he always ate everything. He was just starting to crawl so he was everywhere.

We made some cookies and a cake which was fun with the kids. I think Lucy had more batter than baked goods. John and I had a good routine in the evenings, dinner, bath, play for a little while and bed by 8:30. And I mean everyone was in bed by 8;30. I would say by 9:00 there was not a person awake upstairs or downstairs.

Bubba went to lunch with us on Saturday (our only big outing) and then we went to Barnes and Noble. As we were informed by Lucy, they have TRAINS!

As always, we love keeping our grand-dogs and kids!

It's Ok to Love your Pet BUT NOT LOVE YOUR PET

Our Grandpuppies

We kept Hooch and Tuff last week and it always amazes me what good dogs they are. I know that Matt is a terrific owner and he is a great trainer, but they are great fun to be around. Hooch is the only dog who I think can really smile. When he looks at you with that grin and those pretty eyes, you can’t help but smile and he is still such a puppy. He and Sandy played most of the weekend. Although I will say that Sandy could out last him in that area. Tuff just wants to be petted, hugged and would love to sit on your lap the whole time.

We did have one minor emergency, Tuff went outside and somehow cut the very tip of his tail. Now Tuff wags his tail with the force of a bull whip. If it hit you while he is wagging his tail, it will hurt and at the right angle can leave a mark. We did not notice that his tail was bleeding when we brought him in the house but a few minutes after he had run all over, I noticed. While he was running and wagging his tail, blood went all over; walls, floor, doors, other dogs, etc. It was quite a mess. There will need to be some re-painting in the house. It looks there was a knife fight in the house. There is blood spattered everywhere.

Another problem is how do you bandage the tip of a dog’s tail? Well let me tell you it is not easy, especially one that never stops wagging. I was very lucky in that it didn’t seem to hurt Tuff at all. He was oblivious to the whole thing. If you can image, me holding the tip of the tail with paper towels trying to get it to stop bleeding, 4 other dogs trying to see what is going on, then Tuff who has no clue what is happening, trying to look at what I am doing and then John trying to find something in our house to bandage this up. Well of course, we didn’t have anything we needed. The only thing we had was an ace bandage and some cotton pads for wounds, no tape or anything really useful. After a couple of tries that were semi-successful we finally got the bleeding somewhat stopped until he hit it against something (which was often). I had to sit with him for a couple of hours to keep him still, if not he would get up and swing the tail again until he either hit something or the bandage went flying.

On our way to Matt’s, John went to Walgreens and we finally got the tape and gauze that helped greatly. The bleeding finally did stop and he was fine but what an adventure. It is never boring at our house…