Sunday, February 26, 2012

Baking

We finally had a chance to break out our Kitchenaid. We're making some chocolate chip cookies tonight for our personal Oscar viewing non-party. 


Looks delicious, right?

The Copley picture. I was trying to get a picture of his really cute St. Patty's Day bandana. Steven is not into bandanas so this was removed immediately after the picture. 

Did I mention this was the best weekend? We went to a crazy flea market/antique show at the Lancaster Event Center. It seemed like it was the only day the hicks were let out of their trailers and they brought all their personal junk to sell. Needless to say, we weren't successful. It was quite an eye-opening day for the boy from New York City.
 We had a great dinner at Andy's on Saturday night with my parents and kept the parental weekend going with a little solo appearance at church with the choir for me and then brunch today.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

delayed posting

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been pretty busy since I started working a full-time, big girl job. (more on that later). We've also been presented with a bit of a conundrum. Our dishwasher leaked the other day and not just a little leak, a huge leak. It ruined our brand new floor and created some major damage to our cabinets. We had to have a clean up crew come in to take care of the water and lived in insanity for 2 days as we listened to the roar of commercial fans.
Now we must have the floors redone entirely as well as putting in a new subfloor. And we're going to have to put in new cabinets. It's damn near impossible to fix 30 year old cabinets (especially when you can put your fist through them with ease) and they're impossible to try to find a match. Sooooooo this means new cabinets too. The ideas are flowing and we're getting as many estimates and quotes as we can. So basically that's where my free time has gone.
I'm also trying to step up the running since my friends and I are doing a 10K in 2 weeks. I'm about ready for a 5K, so we'll see how this goes.
Copley is doing well. He had his teeth cleaned today, which in doggie land means that you are put under total anesthesia. He is sleeping it off right now.
Did I mention I'm taking a couple of classes? This is Copley studying with me. He really loves developmental psychology. 

It'll be a few more days until he can have one of his bones again. He LOVES these.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sunday Randoms

I am watching the Grammys, blogging, and making some wonderful baked oatmeal. You know, the usual multi-tasking. These baked oatmeal squares are the best breakfast/snack ever. They are only about 200 calories for 1/4 of an 8x8 pan size. That's a huge slice and you can pack it full of all the extras you want/need. Here's the recipe:
Baked Oatmeal
2 C Oatmeal (quick oats)
1.5 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp salt
1 C Milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1/4 cup sugar (you can use white or brown, you can also omit)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon (you can use whatever spices you like, pumpkin pie spices are a good alternative)
fruit (optional, I use blueberries)

Mix together and bake for 35 to 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

It's best to store these squares in the fridge or freezer. I cut them and put them in a ziploc after they are cooled.

Oh, and remember when I said I'd no longer have any posts that wouldn't include a picture of this cutie. Not to disappoint, here's Mr. Copley with his new bone. He loves hiding it. (great!)

Today we bought him this little lion at Walmart. He LOVED it and had it destroyed in 30 minutes. (thank goodness it was a cheapie). It was hilarious watching him methodically pull out all the stuffing and chew off the lion's mane. And I'm a bad owner cause I should have taken it away but I was too busy laughing. I made Steven do the dirty work. 

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Winter Wonderland

It is finally winter in Nebraska. It snowed 10 inches last night and has not stopped yet. Good thing we have nothing to do on this lazy Saturday. We're going to hunker down and enjoy life.
I'm guessing every post will now have a picture of Copley. I mean, he's ridiculously cute so it's necessary.

This is the view from our garage.

This is as far as Copley made it this morning. That's about 12 inches from the garage.

Looking east down 77th street.

The front of our house.

You are barely see these 2 guys. It was snowing and Copley was pretty much buried.

He has that nice scooped walk thanks to me. I spent what felt like hours scooping this morning. Turns out it was only 30 min, but my back and wrists can tell.

The view of our backyard.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The newest addition

The story of Copley. 
For the past couple of weeks Steven has been saying he'd like a pet. I was a little reluctant because I know how messy they can be as well as how much work they are. We ruled out a cat due to allergies. I started just perusing the area shelters online and saw some really cute dogs that needed homes. My "care" instinct kicked in and I thought I we need to do this. We decided to go check out the Capital Human Society on Wednesday. It was just about closing time but we spotted the cutest little Shih Tzu mix named Willie. We asked to play with him for a little bit and I was smitten. He was surrendered by his owners because they didn't have enough room for him in their apartment. They were probably also neglecting his cares since they brought him in with super matted hair that had to be shaved off. We went home and made several phone calls to all the dog gurus in our life and went back today to check him out. My dad happened to be in town and he came with us. After checking out all the other dogs and branding them "psychotic", he thought we had picked the best one there. We thought so too. He's hypoallergenic and a no shed dog! We filled out the paperwork, changed his (awful) name to Copley, and we were on our way. On our way right to Petco. We had nothing for the dog. He helped us pick out his bed, collar, harness, clothes (yes, matching jacket and shoes!), and toys. 
I read an adoption journal for bringing shelter dogs home and we tried to follow it to a "T". We came home and took him for a long walk and then introduced him to his new area. He is such a good dog. He is doing so well for his first night. He's been drinking a ton of water (we think they dehydrated him at the shelter) and had his dinner. We gave him a bath to get the shelter stink off of him. He's now relaxing and watching James Bond. Fitting in perfectly! 
We take this cutie to the vet tomorrow morning to make sure he's as healthy as they said he was.


Playing with his new Valentine toy.

Looking crazy after his bath.

Doing his post supper relaxing. 

The name Copley (pronounced cop-lee) was the name of our apartment building in New York and was our first home together. It seemed only appropriate and fits his personality. It's also proving to be an easy switch from Willie.

the upstairs

I realize I've been neglecting the upstairs (well except for those 2 pesky bathrooms). All the bedrooms need paint, but I'm a little burned out right now. Give me a few weeks and maybe I'll get inspired. We've already bought the paint for our room. It's called beeswax. The color in there right now is not bad at all but she did such a crappy job painting that we need to do it again. There's just huge patches where she missed. I wish she would have left a few cans of paint around. Then we could just do some fixing.
We got the bedspread from Dillards this fall. The bed was a gently used gift from my mom. We put it up on risers which makes it fit the room better.  The decor has a bit of a Euro feel. Those lamps have Eifel towers on them when you turn them on. The other picture in the room is of a Parisian cafe.

Steven's office is finally somewhat habitable. I had to just go in there and make it happen. He's been painstakingly organizing his music, but it needed a complete overhaul. That's his dad's desk, which was "fun" to get moved in. It only involved taking off the door frame. I bought him that little chair from Pier One with one of their great coupons I got on facebook. This means I have a place to sit when I stop by the visit. There's a giant tv on the other wall to complete his man cave.