Wordless Wednesday

Getting There

About 5 months ago I decided to grow my hair out from the short cut I had been rockin'. Well After much anticipation...I can finally do something with it!

This weekend here in MN we had really weird weather: raining, not raining, cold/chilly, blistering hot, etc. But the overall weather "issue" that I deal with: humidity. Ugh my hair HATES humidity. I have tried sooo many products but it just doesn't do well in MN's infamous humid season. 2 years ago I learned how to french braid my own hair in an attempt to not look like a wet, scraggly cat all summer. After getting the technique down I started rockin' the french braided bangs/front portion of my hair. It worked great...because I had long hair!

Well for the past couple months I have been trying to just simply bobby pin my bangs back in a little "poof". But I was getting bored with that because it was the same damn thing everyday. Well this serves as proof that my hair really is growing! Yeah!

(Please excuse the crappy, uneven braid, I've been out of practice for a while. Oh and also ignore the little baby hairs all around my forehead...they have never gone away, regardless of the length of my hair)

How We Cool Off

Today was extremely hot...I mean it's only May and it reached 90 degrees. Come July it likely won't be anything new, but like I said, it's only May and this is MN!

Well, despite temps this warm, the pups still like to (and need to) go outside. One of Hank's favorite activities: getting sprayed with the hose!

And of course no "water montage" would be complete without some shaking off! Haha just love it!

Where was Stanley this whole time you ask?

On the deck, keeping watch over his "kingdom"...and staying far away from the hose!

Always Good For a Laugh

As I've said before, I really do love taking photos of the shelter animals, especially the dogs. It's not that I don't like cats, because I honestly do...I'm just more of a dog person.

Well it isn't always easy working with dogs who don't know the same commands that my dogs know...especially when you throw in a puppy who is just so dang excited that someone wants to "play" with her !

So I thought I would show the bloopers from one of my sessions at the shelter, enjoy the laughs because no matter what, that's what dogs and puppies are ALWAYS good at, making us laugh!

Happy Birthday Present

For Matt's birthday this year I gave him tickets to a Reba concert. Well the concert was this past weekend and was wonderful...except for the storm.

Notice the bright blue skies behind us?

Reba is sooo good!

uh-oh dark skies rolled in, thankfully the venue handed out raincoats

but they didn't prevent us from getting soaked from waist down 

hiding out in the truck waiting for the thunderstorm to pass

The storm cleared, Reba came back on, and there were fireworks afterwards

Happy Birthday celebration Matt!

Baby Shower

This past weekend I was finally able to host the baby shower that had been postponed from earlier this spring. It was so fun to see some ladies I hadn't seen in a long while and of course seeing all the babies was super fun. The babies were 4 months, 3 months, and 2 months old! The favorite "game" was Pass the Baby :)

I found the idea of "Breakfast Skewers" was found on Pinterest...but was originally from this blog. They were super easy to put together and were a huge hit!

Word-Up Wednesday

The pups have started stressing out about the recent storms we've been having so I thought trying out some background noise might help. The result: they aren't really sure where the voices were coming from but it seems to distract them enough from the ongoing thunder.

Wordless Wednesday

Yum Yum Yum

The other night I was digging around trying to figure out what to make for dinner and came up with noodles and shrimp and some almost wilty spinach leaves hmmm....

I then turned to Allrecipes and found these 2 recipes: Spinach Tomato Tortellini and Creamy Baked Ziti. Using both of these recipes as a base I created my own:

1/2 box angel hair pasta (or any pasta you want)
Quart size Ziploc back of thawed pureed tomatoes (from my in-laws' garden)
1/2 small can of tomato paste
1/2 block of cream cheese
3/4 cup sour cream
salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic (or to taste)
2 cups fresh spinach leaves

1) Cook noodles according to package description

2) In large kettle combine: tomatoes, tomato paste, cream cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, basil and garlic until lightly boiling.

3) When sauce is lightly boiling and everything is mixed together and creamy, add spinach leaves. Stir and cover and return to a light boil. Leaves should be slightly wilty/cooked.

4) Combine noodles into sauce and stir together.

This turned out sooooo good! Matt had 3 servings!

*Take aways: for a creamier sauce use an immersion blender and I would use plain yogurt instead of sour cream next time

Quote of the Day

"We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are."

~Tobias Wolff, Writer

Wordy Wednesday

This past Monday I went back to the shelter and was fortunate that it was a gorgeous day out. So of course I rounded up some puppies and went a little "click happy"

Wyatt (Lhasa Apso/Yorkshire Terrier mix - appx 2 years young)

Harley (Labrador retriever - appx 8 months young)

Lamb Chop (Chihuahua - appx 1 year young)

Minnie (Chihuahua mix - appx 5 1/2 years young)

Nitro (Puggle aka Pug/Beagle mix - 5 years young)

If you or anyone you know is interested, please check out these amazing dogs that are available through Northwoods Humane Society

Happy Birthday Mom!

So yesterday I wrote about my dad's birthday and today I'm writing about my mom's!

On Sunday was mom's birthday and although it wasn't a huge surprise party (because she's not 60) my sis and I went out to lunch with her. Earlier in the week me, Matt and the puppies sent her a rose bush/plant at work :) She said she was very surprised and loved it, yeah!

Here are some pictures from our lunch together at Axel's Bonfire...yes we ate a TON and they finished off a bottle of red wine (I'm not a fan of reds).

Such a good afternoon!

Happy (belated) Birthday Dad!

Ok ok, I know it's waaay late as his birthday was February 1st. But as I was backing up some pics on my laptop to my external hard drive I came across these from my dad's surprise 60th birthday party.

In late December my mom had decided to through my dad a surprise party for his upcoming 60th. 20 years ago in October we had moved into the home they still live in and the following February threw my dad a surprise 40th and my mom thought it would be fun to do something again for the big 6-0. Well who better to enlist for help than me, her unemployed (at the time) daughter.

I was all too excited to get going on details. The first thing we decided on was a theme! I love a good theme. As he is an avid hockey fan we chose the MN Wild (as he was a HUGE Minnesota Northstars fan...until they left us) and used their colors as our decor colors.

Here is the invite I created. It is supposed to resemble a hockey game ticket and I printed it like a postcard to be mailed. The only bad thing that came of this: at least 6 invites got lost in the mail! I was sooo "annoyed" to say the least and didn't know people never got their invite until we started calling the folks who hadn't rsvp'd yet! Luckily most people we associate with are easy going and were able to make it.

The other project I got put in charge of was a way to display pictures. My mom had compiled all of these photos from my dad's life and wanted a fun way to display them. Well I of course turned to Pinterest and found this idea:

But of course I had to "make it my own". I started with a huge cardboard box, traced a "6" and "0" and then got cutting.

yep, that's Stanley always around when cardboard is involved

And then to make it "special" I (carefully) wrapped it in tinfoil

At my parents' house (where the party was held) we layered photos over the numbers and propped them up for all to check out. Here are just a few of the pictures from the party (which my uncle took):

Dad was super surprised!

The gift most frequently given: beer!

just a few of the guests, there was just as many in the kitchen and downstairs and notice ALL the food! Sooo much, good thing my sister works at a restaurant and they were awesome to basically cater most of it!

Terri (my mother-in-law), me, and good family friend catching up

My Uncle (Pat) and my Dad

And some photos from my dad's childhood

My dad and his sister-in-law (Shirley)

And a photo of my dad in grade school!

Follow-Up

So after much heartache and tears, this week I emailed with the staff at the shelter (which I need to state is a no-kill shelter) to learn more information. I learned that although Olive was GREAT with Matt and me and all the females at the shelter (which is the majority of the volunteers and staff) she was not ok around some of the other males. She actually went "berserk" with one of the male cleaners which lead to a temperament test being performed.

I'm still not entirely sure what all is involved in a temperament test but she did not "pass". She was aggressive towards a few of the staff who were involved in the test. The staff who shared this with me has had a lot of training and on a personal note she also owns a pittie. We have had many conversations regarding our love of the breed so I truly believe she cared for Olive also...but also believe that when she said it was a horrible decision, it was a necessary decision as Olive was not a good "breed mascot".

We have talked about and did again this week talk about how we both agree it's important for the pit bulls out there to be good mascots of the breed as they already have such a fragile reputation. If Olive had been adopted out (or fostered) and then hurt someone it would have been bad for the breed as a whole.

We also agreed that it sucks because of the "if"s. "If" she attacked someone. "If" she bit someone. She may never have hurt someone...but with having showed aggression towards 3/4 of the males she encountered...it wasn't good odds.

So with a heavy heart I at least have some answers.

Wordless Wednesday

Heart Pains

To say my heart hurts would be an understatement. It aches. It throbs. It feels as though it is fighting to keep beating but is realizing that some moments it is just too painful.

My throat hurts from choked back sobs, my eyes hurt from the pressure of tears that won't release, my ears hurt from the throbbing in my head. Breathing hurts, thinking hurts, feeling hurts, my whole being hurts. I still cry, rarely do tears come but instead I'm overtaken by dry sobs that leave me breathless and feeling claustrophobic in my clothes...and I am sad. So incredibly sad that the word sad doesn't even feel comparable to what I feel. And I don't know what to do to make these pains go away. 

This has definitely put my "silver lining" perspective to test. What is the lesson? What am I suppose to be taking away from this? There has to be a reason that I'm just not seeing. There has to be. This can't be for naught. This can't be wasteful. This can't be ok. This can't be a "just because and move on" occurrence.

Don't delay? Act faster? Speak up? Do something.

That's what I think ("think" is how far I've gotten) I need to realize. What I'm supposed to be learning.

Do something...but what?

Please just tell me what? Anything to make this pain and hurt and sadness go away. I'll do it. Just tell me...

what?