Category: Life At Home

January 9 – Happy Birthday

Meet Tiny! Mine and J's new puppy saved from the highway in #PoplarBluff. #saveastray #dog #petadoption

Meet Tiny Dodger! The newest addition to mine and J’s family.

#dogloveMaggie watching over her new sister, Tiny. #dog
Tiny got her name from the fact that she dodges traffic like a pro. So here I was driving home from my hometown back to Springfield on Wednesday I spot this little pup jumping through the tall grass in between two lanes of traffic along the highway. Knowing that I just could not leave her, I turned around. Picture this: me running along the side of a highway in muddy grass chasing a dog. It was pretty hilarious for drivers passing by.
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Tiny is absolute skin and bones. I have to say J and I were thrilled when she took her first bite, which was after she watched Maggie take a bite. The vet thinks that she is about 7-8 weeks old and she currently weighs 3.7 pounds. Crazy!

Not knowing when her actually birthday is – I’ve decided that January 9 (the day I spotted her on the highway) is her birthday.  She has hit the jackpot with J and I!

Cheers!

reflection of the past 3 years

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I know, I know.  It’s a bit late around here, but I’ve been working all day and then came home to cook a delicious dinner for J and I.  Then in ironic fashion I sat on the couch for two hours while watching The Biggest Loser.  At least I got in some activity at work today!

Now, here I am prepping for my Weight Watchers meeting tomorrow and it’s got me thinking about where my life has taken me the past 3 years.  It’s been a pretty amazing journey and I’m happy to say that it’s nowhere near over.

I’ve discovered so much about myself.  For instance, I’m an extrovert.  I didn’t know that 3 years ago.  I love to cook healthy.  Developing a healthy body starts with your mind.  When I started to lose weight 3 years ago it never occurred to me that your mind needs to be in partnership with your body.  Once my mind snapped to it, then the rest followed in suit.  Such a great feeling!

Cheers!

P.S. I am still well aware that I need to share my Resolutions still.  However, for January I decided no more Diet Coke and so far … so good! I’m a week strong!

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Life is a ride. Simple phrase that explains so much.

I graduated from college with my Masters. Celebrated Christmas with my family and J’s family. Traveled over 8 hours in a car in less than 36 hours. Rang in the New Year with J and some great friends. Started living on my own again. survived what felt like a plague that lasted way too long.

I plan on sharing my New Year’s Resolutions with you in the next few days and to blog a bit more consistently in 2013.

Here’s to hoping and trying to develop better habits, spend more time laughing and less time stressing this year.

Cheers!

Diet 7-Up Biscuits

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a day filled with love and yummy goodness!


J and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving together this year.  Due to work schedules we both weren’t able to make the drive home, especially since our drive is in opposite directions of one another.  It just made it too difficult.  So, we made the best of it and celebrated on our own.

I got there just in time for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to start, which is my absolute favorite part of the day.  I’ve seen a 7-Up Biscuit recipe on Pinterest lately and it looked delicious.  I adapted the recipe to be a bit more Weight Watcher friendly and the results were a-mazing.

Ingredients:

2 C. Heart Smart Bisquick
1/2 C. light Sour Cream
1/2 C. diet 7-Up
1/4 C. melted butter (I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix sour cream and bisquick together.  Add 7-Up to mix.  The dough will be really soft.  Melt the butter and pour into the bottom of a 9×9 pan.  Next, sprinkle some bisquick mix onto the counter and spread out the dough.  You don’t want to knead the dough, but just pat and spread to be about one-inch thick.  Use a glass or a biscuit cutter and cut out biscuits.  Place in pan and bake at 450 degree for about 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Makes 9 servings – 4 WWPointsPlus per serving

I had one biscuit that didn’t want to cooperate when I was putting it into the pan… I’m sure you can figure out which one that was.  Oh well! Recipes can’t always be picture perfect, but they were still delicious.

Check Marks for Fall

fall

Now that it is finally starting to feel like fall around the heartland I can create my fall to do list.  Here are a few of the things that I cannot wait to cross off with my favorite season of the year.

1) Ghost Tour of the historic Pythian Castle here in Springfield.

2) Carve a pumpkin.

3) Host a ‘family’ Thanksgiving dinner with J and the pup.  Since are families live 3 hours apart it will be hard to spend time together on the actual day, so we have hopes of celebrating together – just our little family.

4) Update my wardrobe with a few new chunky cardigans and eye catching scarves.

5) Spend some time reading something out of enjoyment and not necessity.  First up – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

6) Complete a few crafts that I have been putting off, including my new nail polish display rack.

7) Start researching a new home to rent this coming Spring.

8) Become a bit more organized with my budgeting.

9) Drive to my absolute favorite in the world Apple Butter Festival in Kimmswick, MO

10) Develop some new post ideas and tutorials.

Now that fall has officially arrived, what are your plans?

Days like these

Sleeping beauty.
On days that start off like this one
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where Maggie and I spend most of morning in bed, watching rom-coms on Netflix and being lazy
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then I can guarantee you that my class notes for the day will look a little like this.

Here’s hoping today is better than yesterday for my attention span.

Trouble, Trouble

Is this not the face of one pup that knows she’s in trouble, but is hoping that this pathetic look will make it all go away?  I get this look … a lot.  Maggie is a very well-behaved pup, normally.  She does like to push her limits though.  When she does, I get this look. It works.  Every time.  That look can melt my heart so fast.

Maggie – so grownup


Maggie will be four in a few months and it’s hard to believe. I honestly couldn’t imagine a life without her or the past four years with another dog. Maggie came into my life at a time of transition. I was going to embark living on my own for the first time – no parents and no roommates. At the time I learned that I was going to be all on my own, my Mom’s coworker discovered a pregnant stray on her farm. The mom had a litter of puppies. All looked very different. Knowing that she couldn’t keep all of these puppies, she began to search for new homes. I drove over 2 hours to see the two females out of the group. The one that stuck out and the cutest with her black fluffy hair was Maggie.

That was it. I was hooked. Now, I’m a dog mom.

Four years have flown by. We’ve lived in three different homes. By ourselves and with a roommate including a chihuahua. Maggie has a personality all her own and she no longer is a black fluffy girl, now she is a long, blonde hair dog that loves to sleep on my feet throughout the night and cuddle with my pillow in the early morning hours.

It really has been a wonderful four years and I can’t wait to see what the next phase will be for her and for me.

September Favorites


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Looking back at my favorite fall posts for the month of September.