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Winter in February

Everyone who knows me knows I do not have kids.. They also have probably heard me giving my list of reasons why NOT to have them.. I think we are currently up to reason #374.

I DO however have my "tootsie". Her name is Maggie Sue Pieprzyca and she is my buddy.. This past week it got very cold and I decided that I was going to get her a dog sweater to wear outside to keep her furry little self warm.

So I packed up my stuff and went to the local "gettin' place" (Walmart) looking for a doggie sweater. Then I looked at the selection and came up with this:

1. She's not wearing pink.
2. She's not a Chi-weenie or a Shnitzer-doodle and wears a size large. (she's big boned!!)
3. They wanted $18.65 for the only large in stock and it had a faux fur collar.
4. This was a stupid idea!
5. She's going to rip it off her body under 6 minutes flat.
6. Why buy a "dog" sweater when I can buy a tee-shirt?
7. Tee-shirts will be too cold.
8. A sweater!!!
9. This IS the best idea I think I've probably ever had.

She's BEGGING the man-friend to take it off...

Yes.... She's barking at me..

We were pretty beyond barking... She bit me right after...

She went bannana's when it came off and tossed it all over the place..

I think she hates me..

She's telling me how much she wishes that shirt was me..

I love animals

1 cup All-purpose Flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp sea salt
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
6 oz. low fat vanilla yogurt ( I used Yoplait Very Vanilla light)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 large egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
6 oz. light cream cheese, room temp.
1/3 cup raspberry jam or preserves (seedless and sugar free is best for this mixture)
3/4 cup fresh raspberries (used 1 1/2 of the small containers of fresh raspberries)
3 Tbsp sliced almonds (I used more, just sprinkling to suit my taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combaine flour, sugar, and salt in lg bowl: cut in butter with pastry blender or forks until crumbly. Reserve 1/2 cup of mixture for later use.

Add yogurt, vanilla and almond extracts, egg, baking powder, and baking soda to mixture. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed till blended.

Spray 8-inch round nonstick baking pan or pie plate with baking spray, pour mixture inside pan and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine cream cheese with jam, mix on low till blended. Spread evenly over batter mixture.

Top with remaining flour and butter mix, then sprinkle fresh raspberries and sliced almonds.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until edges are browned, and center is set. Cool on wire rack, refridgerate 3 hours, or until well chilled, cut into 8 wedges.

250 calories, 5 g protein, 30 g carbohydrates, 12g fat, 1 g fiber.

He looked so old, tired, and his colors were beautiful..


His wings were very tattered and I think he was looking for a place to die..


I thought he would have had a great story if he could have talked..

My first trip to Colorado

Early last year I got to take a scouting trip to Colorado with Noah and got to see the most amazing mountains. It literally took my breath away...

Noah and I packed in 15 miles in the first day and it kicked my hiney! But it was beautiful and I am in loove!!!!! I cannot wait to go back.

End of school????

I have NEVER been accused of being a studious person. In fact, (and you con confirm this with my mother) I would rather sleep than study. Then I got old. And I pay my own bills. Which automatically means I care because I don't want to pay to retake classes or miss any more sleep. I am now about 6 weeks away from my Associates degree, and I'll have A's in everything but Allgebra, and a 3.84 GPA.

I got my official acceptance letter (I never really got why they send you a letter to "accept" your application to a school.. You're paying, they should want you right??) yesterday for the BBA program. Which basically means if you are a friend of family member.. consider this my official break-up letter for the next year and a half. I love you.. haven't forgotten you.. just kickin' some ass and takin' some names..

School

One of the reason's I never update this thing is I have no time anymore. Well that's not entirely true, I just choose to do other things with my free time. Like hunting! That totally qualifies as a very valid reason. Anyways, I started using my GI Bill and taking classes. I forgot how much work school is! It's paying off however, I'm getting all A's in my classes, and 100's on all of my assignments so far.

One of the main reasons it's taken me so long to go back to school is lack of confidence in myself as a student. Growing up, I was home schooled and never had the "classroom" experience that pretty much everyone else has. I've never had to compare myself to others in a learning environment. That has made me EXTREMELY nervous that I would be a complete failure and get kicked out.

After only a month, I'm not worried about that anymore. I'm still learning how to manage my time with working till 6PM and then school all week, but it's working for me.

So, I'm still here! I've just been pretty busy lately, so drop me a line if you feel like talking!

Halloween

It's Halloween and I dressed up as a fisherman.

I was in the store yesterday and found the most amazing and wonderful thing! CHOCOLATE GRAHAM CRACKERS!!!!! Why am I 27 and just now finding this out?

Thanks Tom Clancy!!

Have you ever believed something you were told or read as a child? Then one day you are saying it or repeating it to someone like it's real or true, and suddenly have that moment of clarity about halfway through whatever it is that you're telling the other person, and you realize that it is in fact NOT true!?

Shark Week is always the first week of August on the Discovery channel. Noah and I were watching one night and he turns to me and asks, "Do you know how to avoid a shark attack?" without missing a beat I reply, "Sure do, you just pee on yourself."

When I was about 10 I read a Tom Clancy book about some Special Ops guy that was shot in the leg, floating out to sea, and he kept peeing on his leg and the ammonia was keeping sharks away. It sounded so scientific and factual that I have believed this to be true ever since. Hey I was 10, give me a break!

Well the Man-Friend thought this was the funniest thing he's EVER heard and has NOT stopped laughing since. (He later told me he was just going to say "You just have to outswim your buddy") I thought this was going to be one of those, "Sshhh don't tell anyone" It's just between us kind of things. Pretty much I was the only one who had that thought, because last night He told me that my Dad laughed for like an hour about peeing on your leg. It's been the running joke that "Peeing on yourself helps".

Later on that night after all the laughter had stopped, Discovery went on to explain that peeing in the water is actually an attractant to sharks.

I talk with my hands a lot. That does not mean that I know sign language or could communicate with a special needs person. Well, My sisters and I communicate and understand each other perfectly!
Noah however, does not understand half of the time what I'm talking about. For example, If I was trying to say "I am craving turkey and dressing." But had forgotten what what dressing was called. Rubbing your fingers together right underneath your face like you were crumbling cornbread and saying "Ah come on! You know what that stuff is called! It's that stuff!" He doesn't get the language! Same thing with my Jeep. If it does something weird or makes a sound. First it will only do it when I'm alone in the vehicle. Second, trying to explain car noises to a man is the most difficult thing I've ever tried to do in my entire life! Saying that "It's just doing something funny." or "It made a weird noise." Does nothing to satisfy a guy. He will always say, "Well what did it do?" or "What did the noise sound like?" In my language this means recreate it. You can only imagine what that looks like. But eventually he will figure out what it is that I'm saying and he will ask "So it's making a knocking noise when you turn" or something along those lines, and I normally respond with a yes. In two seconds he can say in perfect english what I'm been miming for the past half hour. Needless to say, it drives him crazy! But we finally are on the same page.
Last week my little sister B texted and was asking about a diagnostics check on her vehicle because it was "Doing something funny." After about 16 texts back and forth, I told her to call Noah and ask him. Why? He's the smartest man I know and thats who I'd ask. I gave her his number, and about a half hour later he calls and says "Do you know how hard it is to know what's wrong with a vehicle a couple hundred miles away when you can't see it, or see hand and arm signals?"

Experimentation #1

Contrary to popular belief, It's actually quite impossible to boil water for oatmeal in the morning, if you forget to turn on the stove top. Sitting there for 4-5 minutes wondering why it won't, will NOT make it boil any faster on it's own.

"Sometimes the truth hurts"

I was trying on a pink striped tank top just a couple of minutes ago, that my sister forced me buy. (True story! It's NOT something I would've picked out) I turned to my best friend in the whole world and said, "would I look gay running in this?" To which he replied, "Are you KIDDING me? You run in an old pair of my Marine Corps shorts, a tie-died tee-shirt and a camo doo-rag on your head! You already look gay!"

Chocolate

Well if you have ever wondered what a Chocolate Atomic Bomb going off looks like, just drop the container of cocoa on the floor from about 4 feet up. A billowing mushroom cloud that covers everything within 30 yards in a fine dust of unpleasant tasting cocoa. I'm quite sure that if I blow my nose, It will look like something is VERY wrong with me!!!

Almost there!

It doesn't matter that you can hardly tell what it is yet. It's still going to grow into a big cucumber and I'll eat it, and it will be awesome!

I remember a discussion Noah and I had right after we got married. We were talking about working out and I remember telling him that "I just don't sweat". I remember it because he laughed in my face, and told me that it was because I didn't work out very hard and my workout ethic sucked. I'd like to say that my workouts have improved a lot since then.

It's the last few days of May and on June 11th. Noah and I will find out if we drew tags to go back to New Mexico to Mule Deer hunt.

In preparation, Noah got out a pack frame and filled it up with random heavy stuff we had laying around and we hiked over to his Mom's for coffee. After we got back to our house, I got Noah to help me put the pack on and I went a lap around our neighborhood (just almost a mile). I even ran the last little bit.

I totally got sweaty.

What the hell!!

I was sitting at the computer a couple of minutes ago and kept hearing something go thump, thump, thump. I go to see what it is...

It was to dark to shoot outside....

Noah just sold his compound bow and is getting ready for a new seaon of hunting with a recurve bow. He told me he needed the practice time.

A different type of farming

So I have a worm farm. That's right, You heard me. A worm farm.