First Time at the Farmers Market

With my new job comes this lovely little perk called "summer hours". Basically, Monday through Thursday you work an extra hour each day and then you get every other Friday off. For a grand total of 5 Friday's off throughout summer. It's fantastic! 

I enjoyed my first Friday off this past Friday. I spent the day catching up on cleaning. Boring I know, but I did have family coming over on Saturday for a Fathers Day cookout so I figured I better make the main floor presentable. 

Besides wasting my whole day doing laundry and cleaning, I decided to do some baking to take to the local Farmer's Market. Since I have a fairly large garden and I'm hoping to take some extra produce to the Farmers Market later this summer I wanted to check it out before hand. 

I baked up some super simple peanut butter dog treats as well as some super delicious human treats that I like to call chocolate chip cookies. (P.S. I'm a CCC addict. The first step is admitting the problem right?!) 

Guess which is which!

I decided to give my  Grandma, who is a notorious bread maker in my home town, a call and see if she wanted to bake a few loaves I could sell for her. She contributed 8 still warm from the oven loaves of bread. My mom also added in some of her beautifully iced sugar cookies and I threw in a couple jars of my homemade apple butter. I was all set and ready for the sale. 

Since you only have to pay 5 bucks for a space I figured the worst case scenario was I lost 5 dollars and gained a few extra pounds eating the cookies. Luckily the FM had a decent crowd during the 5-7 time period and I sold 6 loaves of Grandma's bread and several packages of both kinds of cookies and dog treats plus almost all the apple butter.

The next day my parents were having a garage sale so my mom sold almost all the rest of my homemade goodies. Now don't get me wrong, I still ate my fair share of cookies but I'm okay with that:)

I spent the rest of the long weekend hanging out at home cleaning up the house and having a cookout. My mom and I did manage a mini movie marathon and watched The Fault in Our Stars and Maleficent on Sunday. I haven't read The Fault in Our Stars yet which I hate because I always prefer reading the book first but I thought the movie was excellent and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye by the end of it. Maleficent was also good but not quite what I was expecting. Overall I would recommend TFIOS if you can only pick one. 

Hope you all had a good weekend! Maybe I'll share my dog treat recipe soon. 

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 don't eat healthy...

It's Monday and I don't hate it. Despite the white crap falling from the sky for half the weekend I had a pretty fantastic one. Which is maybe why my Monday seems pretty good. 

Nothing like leaving work on Friday and heading straight to the spa for a full body massage to get your weekend started off right. I managed to make it home early enough to head out to dinner at Fuzzy's with Seth and a quick stop into the ice cream shop for some "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" which consists of chocolate, fudge bites and more chocolate all scooped into a melt in your mouth waffle cone. Aka: heaven. After the massage, dinner and ice cream I slipped into a food coma on my couch until Seth woke me up to go to bed. Success. 

Take me back

I had to set my alarm so I wouldn't be late to pick up my mom and head to the movie theatre for an all day movie marathon on Saturday. We started the marathon with popcorn for breakfast as we watched Disneys Frozen, which I loved. It was so cute to see all the dads there with their young daughters. (Somebody please put me on the list for my own kid. K thanks.)

Please excuse our lack of photography skills. (I blame the butter.)

Once Frozen ended we hustled over to the other side of the theatre to catch American Hustle while we ate concession nachos for lunch. Fantastic. Definitely recommend. (Both the movie and the nachos.) 

We finished out the marathon with Non-stop, the new action flick with Liam Neeson. I'd say it was pretty good, but I liked the other two movies better. It kept you guessing the whole movie but seemed a little unrealistic which is okay with me since it's a movie. 

To end our day properly (I feel British when I say that word) we hit up Sam's club for a hot dog and frozen yogurt for dinner before braving the blizzard to head home. 

I now weigh 500 pounds. 

Sunday consisted of Church, followed by breakfast with my Mom and then the rest of the day with my butt planted firmly on the couch. 

I now weigh 600 pounds. 

I managed to pry myself from the couch in time to make dinner. And, since I was feeling a little guilty from my weekend gorge-fest I decided to shred a little zucchini to add to the spaghetti pie I made. That counts for something right? 

See, healthy.

I'm told mozzarella now has 0 calories. 

Plus I only ate one spoonful of Nutella as my dessert during the Oscars. #winning #fatkid #fattuesdaymorelikefatweekend

Winter will you please end before I weigh 1000 lbs? Thanks! 

Unemployment

Where to start... I was jobless through all of November, December, and January. Being laid off is depressing I will tell you. 

At first it's kind of nice, like a vacation, then you realize it's not a vacation (at all) since you can't spend money, because you don't know how long the vacation will last. And you still have bills.  

Thankfully Seth and I had saved for a rainy day and luckily we didn't really have to touch it. I got the chance to feel what it was like applying for unemployment weekly. I hated being asked what I did during those months and having to tell people I was unemployed (laid off) and I would always feel the need to give people lots of extra details so they didn't just think I was lazy.

Unemployment helped Seth and I to focus on our spending and learn a little lesson in needs versus wants, which I think we all need reminding of every now and then;) Let's face it, we all have way more wants than needs and I think we both learned to appreciate things a little more.  

We definitely stepped out of our boxes a little bit and challenged ourselves to try new things. I pretty much quit grocery shopping except for the produce and milk and such and tried new recipes with products we already had or used up things we had avoided for way too long.  

The house was kept super clean and dinner was often made and ready when Seth got home from work. Since I was home all day it was easy to find time for these things in between applying for jobs.  

Unemployment can be stressful for sure, but I'm glad it happened when it did. As I've said before I think everything happens for a reason and I think the reason for losing my job is that I was looking for a new job at the right time. I found a new job. A job that (so far anyway;) I love. A job that is more me and that appreciates it's employees and who they are and what they do. And I'm happy.

Happy Friday! (It's nice to enjoy Fridays again, weekends don't mean much when everyday is the same)

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. 

Walking Disasters - the story of us

Well, I guess it's about time I end my pity party and get back into the swing of things. Before I catch the ole' blog up on the happenings over the last month I thought I would share a short story.

I like to call this one "we are walking disasters".

Somehow over the weekend Seth managed to lose his wallet. The last place we know he had it was at the gas station on Saturday night. We filled up with fuel and left and he didn't realize he was missing it until Monday morning when he got up to go to work. Since I'm still unemployed I spent the majority of my day (after an interview) on a hunt for a long lost wallet. I scoured every corner of the house, yard, shop, Seth's truck and the side of the road from our house into town and at the gas station. I called the police station to see if it had been turned in. Nothing. Plus no charges on our credit cards so we are assuming it's really lost and not found by someone else.

Tuesday, Seth left work early to come home and look a little more before we went to the bank and DMV to get new credit cards and him a new drivers license. He was supposed to go out of town this morning (that changed) so he figured he would need those things. Somehow in one of our many stops at the gas station, post office, police station, the in-laws (for his birth certificate), the bank, and dmv, I managed to lose the keys to my car (Seth was driving which is why I didn't notice until we were home).

This is the part where you figure out why I refer to us as "walking disasters." I mean seriously, who loses their keys when searching for their wallet. Me apparently.

So, this morning I woke up and called the post office. Nope, they don't have my keys. Since they obviously took zero time to look for them I figured I better head into town to retrace our steps and see if I can find them. I stopped into the post office where I thought I saw them on a counter until realizing that some lady had just set her keys down and they weren't mine. Bummer. Next I headed to the gas station I have visited the last 3 days looking for the wallet. Frank, the owner asked me "find the wallet?" I embarrassingly had to admit no and now I've lost my keys. I'm sure he thinks we are two fries short of supersized but he said, "are they Honda keys?" This is when the skies opened up and the angels sang "hallelujah, hallelujah" and I told him yes! And that's where I found my lost keys.

It's been a good day. Now, if only we can find the dang wallet.