How to Make Easy Dog Treats

Okay, I promised you a dog treat recipe so here it is. And did I mention that it is super simple dog treat recipe? Even if you aren't Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart I have complete faith that anyone can make these.

There is a grand total of 3 ingredients! I would also say there is a pretty good chance you have these ingredients on hand. Are  your ready??

Here it is:

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups flour

(Now the hard part, but not really.)

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together.
Roll dough out on a floured counter top (so it doesn't stick).

Cut dough into dog treat shapes, or if you're like me, little flowers and hearts because you don't have a dog bone cookie cutter. (Trust me, your dog won't care what they look like.)

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8 minutes or so, depending on the size of your treats.

I just baked them until they were a little more well done than a human cookie. Basically, not rock hard but not fall apart chewy. (It's an exact science obviously).

Take out of the oven and let cool before serving to your dog. He will love you forever.

I use these a lot as training treats since they are little and I don't feel bad giving Gunnar a handful of them. He doesn't mind either. Let me know if you have questions and enjoy!

I'm a big fat liar.

Obviously, when I said "I'm back" I lied. Not sure why it's so hard to find the time to write now but it is. Maybe I'm afraid of boring you because I like my job and what's going on in my life (for the most part) so it might be a little dull to read. Or maybe it's because I really am busy and I really don't have the time. Maybe I forgot how to be entertaining. Yeah, right.

Guess I'll give all of you a short list of what's happened in my life in the last several months.

• I lost my job due to a layoff and was unemployed over the holidays. Not fun.
• I found a new job through Linked In and have currently been here for about 3 1/2 months. 
• I love my new job and my boss and the people I work with and the whole shebang. It's fantastic.
• My dog was chasing was chasing something and somehow managed to dislocate his front elbow (Is that what it's called on a dog??). He recovered just fine.
• My dog felt the need to chase a car and got hit (at 9:30pm), we took him to the Animal Hospital at K-State (at 2am) after visiting another clinic and they kept him overnight. He has since recovered.
• I got my garden planted.
• I have tried and successfully added a few new homemade recipes (that Seth also enjoys) to the rotation. 
• Seth built me some awesome shelves in my craft closet that are yet to be filled because I'm pathetic. 
• I made some new friends at my new job that are pretty great.
• I have finally been working out again and trying to eat healthy which is way easier said than done. 
• I joined Weight Watchers to help my drop a few extra winter lbs and to make myself focus on making better food decisions. Let's say overall it's gone well but this week I sort of fell off the wagon and it backed up and ran over me again.
• I have seen a million different movies over the past months and would be happy to give you a review if you are interested. 
• I got my hair done with ombre highlights which was the first time I have ever had color added so that was fun and I love it. 

I suppose all that stuff catches you up to date on what's happened in my world in the last few months. Boring, right? Maybe I will just write a few boring posts to try and get back into the swing of things. Or maybe I will suck again and not write for months. Feel free to send me suggestions, or leave comments, about what you think I should write about so maybe you will want to read it :)

I'm BAAAACKKK! (I hope)

It's about time to get back into this whole blog thing (I think anyway). I've been gone for way too long and I really miss it. I think life has finally settled down and now maybe I can figure out a new routine for writing. 

I'll try to do some recaps through the next couple posts to get you all (all...more like 3 maybe?) up to speed on what you missed in my ever so fascinating life. Have no fear I'm sarcastic as ever and willing to share:)

I don't want to get too carried away on my first post back so I'll just leave you with this little tid-bit...

My husbands new nickname for me is  pillow princess. Why you ask? Maybe because we have 5 pillows on our bed and I use 4 of them. I personally don't see a problem with it but apparently he does.

Soon to come...

My new job (amazing-sauce)
Adventures in puppy land
Recipes I invented while jobless for months
And much much more!

Christmas Letter 2013

I finally wrote my Christmas Letter today so I thought I would share it here as well. Obviously if you read my blog you probably know just about everything that's in the letter but I thought you might still enjoy it :)

Merry Christmas dear humans! My mom figured out how smart I was so she made me write the letter this year. I was going to refuse until she promised me homemade dog treats, so obviously my tail said yes. Apparently I’m supposed to tell you what’s going on in our world, so here it is.  

The biggest bit of news is my dad (you humans call him Seth) finally moved home in August. Him and my mom went on a second honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean and when they got back he was at home. Thank goodness because Mom and I spent the beginning of the year seeing him only every other weekend when he made the long drive home from Texas. Before he moved home though my mom got to go to down to Texas for a long weekend in April to check out the big job he was building. She tells me it’s pretty awesome and that she’s not quite sure how he figured out how to build the job, but that he must be pretty smart. (Obviously he’s not smart enough to keep his shoes put away so I don’t chew on them though.) Anyway, dad’s in the Topeka office now being a Project Manager. He still travels a couple days a month but most nights he comes home to rub my belly, so I’m glad for the change. My mom must be glad too because she keeps making dinner. She must be wanting to keep him around or something. 

My mom spent most of the year working for the printing company she worked for last year. In November she was laid off though. It kinda came as a surprise, but I must say that I don’t mind, because now she hangs out with me everyday while looking for jobs. She has also kept pretty busy as a part time photographer when she’s not taking pictures of me, instagramming her food, or blogging. In November she got the chance to go to Indianapolis to the the National Catholic Youth Conference as a chaperone, since she volunteers with the high school youth group at church. She said it was awesome and that it was incredible to see so many young people there celebrating their faith.  

Since I’m sure you are all wondering, no she’s not pregnant with humans or puppies or anything else so you can quit asking. My mom and dad know God has a plan for them and until he decides to bless them with children, I’m the one getting the attention around here (as it should be).  

In other news, my dad has pretty much completed the giant shop and has been building workbenches, a house for me, and he even installed the wood stove last weekend. Now it’s nice and cozy. My mom spent the summer gardening and making fresh salsa, canning spaghetti sauce and trying out new recipes. Most of which have been approved by dad, all have been approved by me. They celebrated 2 years of marriage in October and feel blessed to finally live under the same roof.  

Okay, enough about them. I turned 1 in April and my parents didn’t even throw a party for me. To show them I wasn’t happy about it, I ate the neighbors UPS deliveries. Luckily the neighbors seem to like me so they weren’t really mad. I got lost in October when I was hanging out with another neighbor and got locked in their shed. My mom and dad came to search for me though and managed to find me at about 11pm! Thank goodness the neighbors were nice and weren’t too mad about being woken up to rescue me. I continue to live a pretty good life out here in the country. I dig lots of holes trying to catch moles, I bark at birds and the mail lady likes to give me treats. Speaking of treats, it’s about time for me to go get those homemade treats my mom promised. So, see ya later humans. Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year!
 

                                                          Gunnar Johnson
(Seth and Julie)

This is actually last years photo because we still haven't taken one.
Story of my life. 

Lost Puppy

I promised a post about my puppy yesterday so that's what you're gonna get. (and it's long)

Friday started off like every other day. I had to work. Seth was off work and at home most of the day. After surviving the work week I hurried home to see what was for dinner. Obviously I would have a delicious meal waiting for me since I worked all day while Seth was at home. Not. 

Anyway, I digress. 

While pulling in the driveway I looked for Gunnar to come bounding towards me as fast as doggedly possible (like always) but he never came. I figured, oh, he must be off playing since Seth was home all day he wasn't waiting for us to pull in the drive. I started some dinner and kept waiting for him to come up to the house looking for food. He never came. Seth said he hadn't seen him since he left to get his haircut around eleven that morning which is weird. Gunnar ALWAYS comes running when we pull in the drive. While I continued cooking, trying not to freak out, Seth decided to go drive down the roads around our house calling for him. 

Since we live in the country, our dog pretty much runs around the fields all around our house. He's a free spirit. He could also be anywhere. 

Seth got back to the house and reported that he hadn't seen him or heard him. He also hadn't seen him laying in a ditch which was a good thing. I figured he must be out hanging with his dog buddies, One-eye and Hound I like to call them, and would come back in a little bit because he would want some food. 

We settled in to watch a movie and kept jumping up to go look outside and call for him. Nothing. Half way through the movie we went to drive around again, looking in ditches and calling for him. (Keep in mind, it was rainy and cold and in general really nasty out). Still no Gunnar. We came back home, not sure what else to do so we let the rest of the movie play while we kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. 

Once the movie was over Seth decided he wanted to take the four wheeler out to look on the back of our property (we have 10 acres and it's in the shape of a rectangle). We wondered if maybe Gunnar got stuck in a fence or something. I went with him so I could look around the sides of us while Seth tried not to drive into any trees. At this time it's 10:45 and the rain has at least stopped but it's cold and gross. 

I hopped on the back of the four wheeler while Seth drove us around. Every few minutes we would turn the motor off so we could call Gunnar's name and then listen for him. After about 3 times of doing this we heard whimpering! Apparently Gunnar doesn't believe in barking at anything but birds and bugs because a bark would have helped us out a WHOLE lot sooner but whateves. We jumped off the four wheeler and took off through the woods behind our neighbor (4 doors downs) house. Gunnar was locked in their detached garage workshop. 

Seth scrambled up the porch to ring the doorbell of our poor sleeping neighbors (it was after 11) while I stood at the bottom of the steps. He told me I should probably come stand by him so he doesn't get shot when the people come to the door. Oh yeah, we have never met these neighbors. When they opened the door we blurted out "our dog's in your garage". The half sleeping lady looked at us like we were crazy (which I'm sure we looked in layers of clothes and woodsy tangled hair) and said "who are you?" Seth explained the situation and she said, "oh, you're Gunnar's parents?!" Yes! 

The lady and her husband came outside to unlock their garage to let Gunnar out who was SO excited to see us. She explained that her Dad had been working on something in the garage earlier and Gunnar likes to hang out with him so he must have gotten locked in by accident. Thank goodness we found him and he was safe though.

We scrambled back to the four wheeler and then drove home with Gunnar right beside us. Sweet puppy got a leftover steak for dinner.

Needless to say my photo session the next day didn't result in any tears since we found Gunnar. I'm pretty sure it would have if he'd still been missing.  

Gunnar photos below. Enjoy:)

Monday Monday

Monday Monday. I. Am. Tired. 

I swear, we tried to fit every possible thing into this weekend and now I'm exhausted and in need of some caffeine to get me through this day. Sadly, I don't drink coffee and I'm not going to let myself drink a Pepsi, so I'm sorta screwed. 

Since so much happened this weekend I'm gonna do a little recap but you can expect several posts to come that will give many more entertaining/exciting details. I promise, you will want to read them.

Friday

We lost our dog. Not just a little lost either. More like we drove around looking in ditches because we were afraid that's where he probably was. Not fun:(

Saturday

Maple Leaf Festival. Food. Crafts. All the fun you can imagine at a festival that celebrates tree leaves. 

That cute kid is our nephew, Ryder. He just turned 4.  

It was a little chilly during the parade. Seth and his little sister, Destiny. 

Luckily it warmed up and the kids rode the rides. 

We managed a decent photo in between all the beautiful faces Seth loves to make. 

I had a photo shoot for a high school senior in the evening. The family had a German Short Hair (same as my dog) and the kid whose photo I was taking was named Gunnar. Coincidence? Ironic? Stay tuned to future posts to figure out what happened Friday and if the photo session turned me into a crying baby.

Date night. It was supposed to be an anniversary dinner but we decided since it was already kinda late that we would wait until next weekend. So we ate Fuzzy's Taco (SO GOOD) and Seth told me during dinner that he should start a blog. It was such a brilliant idea I decided he deserves his own post. Wait for it. 

Sunday

Moving day for my parents. We spent the whole day helping them pack up, load up, and move their treasures (and junk) from their rental duplex to their new home a few blocks away. Let's just say they had a little more stuff than what I thought. It's all moved over though and is now mostly cluttering up their garage. 

Seth and I  made it home around 7 and we spent the next hour painting the floor of the shop. It's done (finally) so he can finish building shelves and we can put stuff away. 

And That is why I'm a little sleepy. Maybe I can squeeze in a nap after work tonight....

Linking up with Sami. 

7 Quick Takes {18}

1. Chilly morning in the land of oz. Winter better slow it's roll because I need some more fall before the Wicked Witch of the North decides it's time to freeze. Cold+Julie=unhappy eskimo. Ironic since my blog name includes the word freezing? Maybe.

Since it was cold last night as well, I decided to make some soup. I must say it turned out pretty fan-freaking-tastic. Not sure what kind of soup I would call it except maybe a cheesy potato (plus some extra veggies so I wouldn't feel so guilty about eating such an unhealthy soup). Maybe soup making is my real calling in life. Thoughts to ponder. 

That's a big bowl of healthy right there!

2. You know how sometimes when you're texting two people at the same time and you accidentally call your blog friend "lovey" and let her know that you're going to shower... instead of your husband. Yeah, I don't know what that's like either. 

Better than when I called another RA sexy...

3. It's Maple Leaf Festival weekend! Yippee skippy. I'm pretty pumped to get some good food and peruse the hand-crocheted kitchen towels that this fine festival has to offer. Since when did everyone with a Pinterest account think their crafts are sellable? No, I wouldn't like to buy your mason jar modge podged like a pumpkin. I can modge podge one myself, thank you very much (after making homemade modge podge). 

via

4. My parents are FINALLY moving into their house on Sunday. Praise you Jesus! It's taken a long time to build and many a problems along the way, but it's just about there. One more coat of sealer on the floors and they can start moving stuff in. Their marriage survived so I'll chalk that up to a win. 

Loving their tile backsplash!

5. Apparently Gunnar fell of the wagon and felt the need to eat some mail again. Obviously, the neighbors books delivered to their porch seemed like a good idea. Just when we thought he had outgrown it. 

6. Seth got home yesterday so we will get to celebrate our anniversary this weekend. Yay! Probably means dinner at one of our usual places. We are SO exciting! Two years down and zero anniversary days actually spent together. Maybe next year. I wonder if it's still safe to eat our cake topper that's buried in the freezer....

7. I'm on week 3 of only drinking two pops a week. Yes sir-ee. I'm doing pretty freakin darn amazing if I do say so myself. Now if only I can cut back on all the other unhealthy stuff I eat. Refer to numero uno. 

Happy weekend friends. 

Linking up with Jen.

Weekend Recap

Busy weekend once again. Does anyone ever have a non-busy weekend? Tell me your secret please.

Friday morning I managed to remember to start the crockpot (miracle), so by the time we got home from work we had a delicious roast waiting for us. OMG yum. Having Seth home in the evenings now is awesome. Even if it means he falls asleep in the recliner at 9:00 while watching Dateline. He did manage to wake up long enough to crawl in bed. The lives of the rich and the famous right here peoples.

Saturday morning was your usual fair of laundry and picking up around the house while Seth worked on a few things outside. I managed to make some dried cinnamon apple chips though (which you will find a recipe for soon). 

Hello fall in a jar. 

We like to have date nights at least once a week but we've been trying to be on a budget (see this purchase) so we haven't gone out as much lately. Since we've been being good we went ahead and splurged (ha) on dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings before meeting up with Seth's brother, Kyle, to go see Captain Phillips. I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for something to see. I still want to google and see how accurate it is to the real events that happened to Captain Phillips. Crazy stuff though. 

Around our house, Sunday morning involves Church and then stopping by my parents house to see how the process is going. It's almost done praise the lord. We even managed to help by hanging a kitchen light fixture and not getting electrocuted. Winning. By the time we got home it was already almost one and I helped Seth paint the last section of the floor in his shop. After getting high on paint fumes we watched Gunnar try to catch a bird on the pond for approximately 30 minutes before Seth shot it so Gunnar could retrieve. Poor puppy wasn't quitting 'til he got the bird so good thing that doggy can paddle!

Somehow we managed no naps all weekend which I find to be a bit of a shame, but I'm glad we got some stuff accomplished. Including dinner of taco salad with homemade pico de gallo salsa (recipe also coming to the blog soon). 

Get in my belly. 

Seth's out of town this week (again) and our two year anniversary is on Tuesday so I'm a little bummed about that but I guess we will just have to celebrate this weekend. 

Happy Monday!

Linking up with Sami. 

Married Life in a Nutshell

I swear yesterday was Monday. 

Whatevs. 

I'm pretty sure I lead one of the most boring blog lives ever. I mean seriously, lets recap.

I left work a little early Friday and went home to help the husband finish building a tool bench in his shop. Turns out I'm not too terrible with a screw gun...is that what it's called? I asked him to take a picture of me, for blog purposes obviously, and a got a look that basically said "you are a weirdo". So, you will just have to take my word with no visual evidence that I can screw screws. (That's what she said.)

Since I didn't whine too much Seth suggested we go out to eat. Obviously, I never say no to eating out (or food in general) so we hit up the fanciest place we could think of... Buffalo Wild Wings. I gorged myself on fried food and boneless wings while watching the Royals game. Then we hit up the Home Depot for more screws. Damn the excitingness of this post is over the top. Buckle your seat belts people this is what married life is all about!

Saturday was a fun filled day of meeting with our tax guy, yay IRS audit! Signing paperwork, mailing paperwork. Drop off at the Salvation Army and consignment store. Groceries, prescription pickup and visit to the bank. Is it possible to fit more un-fun errands in one day?? But wait, there's more! I got to follow that up with cleaning out the garage while Seth built more shelves. Better keep that green-eyed monster in check people. Jealousy is vicious!

Garages look so much cleaner when you carry
everything out of them and set it in the driveway.

It was only 9pm when we decided to grill out since we were both starving. Cheeseburgers, potatoes and onions, and corn on the cob. Not gonna lie, it was pretty darn good. Followed up our food with a trip to Sonic for ice cream. Nevermind that my hair was like a lion and I had dirt smudged all over me. I think we made it about 20 minutes into the movie I rented before we both fell asleep. 

Best Friends ForEvah!

Good thing the photos blurry so you can't see how muddy I am. 

Spoiled puppy with his ice cream.

After church Sunday we headed to the city to hit up Nebraska Furniture Mart to buy a mattress! Wow, it's depressing to think that we are excited about buying a mattress. In my book, mattress shopping ranks right up there with tires and trash bags. BORING. I managed to drive Seth completely crazy when I found bad reviews online about the mattress we picked out. So, we spent an hour and a half driving to another store to check out their mattresses only to return and buy the same one we had previously picked out. Time will tell I guess. 

That exciting adventure was followed up with a nap, another late dinner and the movie we failed to finish the night before. 

And that my friends is what married life is all about! 

Act like our dog child isn't pretty. 

Linking up with Sami's Shenanigans. 

The Carnival Came to Town!

It's Tuesday, it's raining and I just want to go back to bed. I'm pretty sure it will be the weekend though before I can catch back up on my sleep from this past weekend. It was a good one though so I guess I shouldn't complain. 

Let's recap so I can re-live it for a few minutes, shall we?

Friday I left work early to go work the church food stand at the carnival (CPA). I got lucky to get the 4-6 shift so it wasn't crowded at all. We mostly just had to cut pies and get set up for the crowds that would come after we left. After my shift I found my cousin Maria who was visiting for the weekend from St. Louis. Maria and I are bff's and I'm her daughter, Zoey's, Godmother. We got to hang out together and watch the children's parade before walking around and soaking up the carnival goodness. The people-watching at this thing is to die for and I always have to remind first time visitors not to judge my whole town based on what they might see at the CPA. 

I love her pigtails!

Are they not the cutest Grandparents you have ever seen?

Zoey loved the band.

I left the CPA early so I could head home to see my husband and change clothes before heading out to his 10-yr reunion gathering. It was 10 before we arrived but there was still a large group hanging out. Since Seth and I went to high school together, I knew everyone also, so it was good being able to see people and catch up. 

It was almost one by the time we left the bar and headed down to Mass Street, in Lawrence, where we stopped in for some Fuzzy's Tacos. Umm...why has no one ever made me go to this place before? It's so good! Seth and I split a plate of nachos that, I kid you not, was as big as my head. And, it was only $6! I love finding places like this except for the fact that it's 9am and now I'm thinking about Mexican food. Sorry the food didn't last long enough to take a photo. Actually, I didn't take any photos this night. Fail:(

We probably made it to bed by 3 so I call that a win. Plus we didn't wake up until almost noon the next day. So a win-win maybe?

I should probably add that the self tanner worked out fine and the wanna-be-husband stealer decided to steer clear. Pretty sure she wasn't very excited to see me though:)  

Saturday we got ready and headed over to Church before I dropped Seth off at the start of the parade route. He joined his classmates along with a cooler full of beer to ride a trailer down main street for the parade. We met up after the parade and chowed down on some food booth hot dogs and nachos. So good. (Is it lunch time yet?)

My mom is in the top middle. It was her 40th reunion.

Seth in the blue looking like he just drank 6 beers in less than an hour. 

Then we meandered around the carnival soaking in all of the sights and sounds that only the CPA has to offer. Before it got too late we obviously had to hit up the cotton candy booth so I could get my fix. I told the cotton candy man to feel free to make me the largest cotton candy that has ever been made. He was happy to oblige. So, I gorged myself on beautifully pink spun sugar and managed to eat it all except the part that melted all over my hand and dress. NBD.

Gimme gimme gimme!

This is what your tongue looks like on cotton candy.

Managed one decent photo of us for the whole weekend.

Wolf Hamlin who made a short appearance on American Idol a couple years ago was playing some music at the grandstand. Everyone seemed to congregate there so we hung out and chatted away for awhile before heading home to our pillows. So sad I have to wait another full year for the CPA to come back to town. 

Sunday we got a little bit of sleep before Seth got up to mow the yard and I decided I should probably clean a little since my house was a disaster. We had our very first bacon tomato sandwiches of the summer and I have been craving them ever since. Sadly Seth had to leave to drive back to Texas:( I managed a mini-nap before going to hang out with Maria's family so we could have a birthday dinner for Zoey's 1st birthday.

She loved her cupcake!

Then I went back home to this sweet guy who has been keeping dad's chair warm while he's gone.

Until later my people.