A Sock Monkey for Zoey

I had to run in the Walgreen's to pick something up the other day. As I walked across the front of the store, this fantastic little dog bed caught my eye. It was a sock monkey! Not that we had particularly been looking for a sock monkey bed for her, or any new bed for that matter, but it was too cute not to investigate. I spent a good couple of minutes checking out the sock monkey bed. It was only $13 (cleverly disguised as $12.99), but I just couldn't decide whether she needed it or not. After a couple of minutes I went on my way and left the sock monkey bed.

By the time I got in the car, I was already regretting my decision to leave without the precious little monkey bed. Had I made a mistake? When I got home and saw our poor neglected little Zoey I knew I was going to have to go back and fetch her a new bed. Never mind the bed she already had, complete with three blankets of her own, and her special big fluffy pillow that I made for her. They're not enough! So I returned to the Walgreen's for a special sock monkey for our pampered puppy.

How can you say no to this face?



Zoey loves her new bed!



She napped in it all day after I brought it home.



Of course, now I am going to have to get her a blanket that matches her new bed.

I Should Never be Allowed to go to the Outlet Mall Unattended...

You see, the outlet mall has bargains, and I am a big fan of bargains. My husband had asked me to get him a black tie to wear to an event this weekend, so I figured I would head up to the Van Heusen outlet. That's my favorite place to shop for his dress clothes. They always have good deals. I also needed a pair of shoes to wear to the same event and I planned to hit the Rack Room Shoes while I was up there to find some. A black tie and a pair of shoes. Easy, right?

So I started out at the Van Heusen, where they not only had a black tie for Hubby, but also two dress shirts and a cute shirt for me. After I left the Van Heusen I noticed that the Haggar outlet had up to 75% off, so I thought I better check that out. Interestingly enough they had a polo shirt and shorts that my husband needed. He didn't know he needed them, but he did. The Gap Outlet was next. I can't go to the outlet mall without stopping there, and Hubby had mentioned that he might like a new pair of jeans... They didn't have any good deals on jeans, but they had some really cute shirts for me on clearance that I couldn't pass up. Once I finally made it to the Rack Room, I saw that they had buy one pair get one half off. Danger! So we each got a pair of shoes out of the deal. So on my trip to the outlet mall for a tie and a pair of shoes, I ended up buying a tie, 8 shirts, a pair of shorts and 2 pairs of shoes. And here are a few of the deals that were too good to pass up.

I found these shorts on the clearance rack at the Haggar outlet:



They were 50% off the lowest ticketed price, so they ended up being $7.48



Really cute shirts from the Gap outlet



And check out the price!



More shirts from the Gap outlet



Saved the best deal for last!

The Most Exciting Morning!

The weathermen have been telling us for a few days that it's going to get cold. This is very exciting to me - I've always loved cold weather for some reason. You know what I like even more than cold weather? Snow! So I woke up this morning and turned on the morning news. The weatherman was on there telling us all about how it was snowing in Denton. The radar only had green (rain) showing in our area, though. I got out of bed and came into the living room where my hubby was working. He works from home on Wednesdays. I started complaining about how it was snowing in Denton, and why can't is just snow here? Then I went to the back door and pulled the blinds back to let the dog out and said "It's snowing!!!" That's right, it's snowing in Texas, and here's the proof!





It's even sticking, but it's supposed to get into the 40s later today, so it won't last long. We'll enjoy it while we can, though!

My Favorite Blog - Vote For Suzanne!

A while back my wonderful mother-in-law told me about this blog she thought I would like. She said "She's got goats and chickens. You'd like it." This blog quickly became my very favorite website. It is one of the first places I visit on the web in the morning. The blog I am referring to is Chickens in the Road. If you haven't seen it before, you should go check it out now! It is the blog of a romance author, Suzanne McMinn, who went from suburban life to farm life in rural West Virginia. I won't tell you too much, in case you want to visit her blog and read all about it yourself!

I have learned alot from Chickens in the Road, with my favorite things being about about canning and bread-baking, and other yumminess in the kitchen. I think my husband is glad I found the site, because there are so many new things I found there that I just had to try. Canning my own hot sauce, soups, chili, jams, apple butter, and so many other things makes for much tastier meals. After reading so much about homemade bread, I just had to try that too, and it's just so good that I can't imagine going back to store bought.

Suzanne's blog is not just about cooking, though. There are posts about crafts, gardening, the antics of her farm animals and just country life in general. There is also a forum, just in case you can't find anything left that you haven't read on her blog but you just can't bring yourself to leave yet. There are some wonderful people who participate in the forum, and there is even a community cookbook with recipes contributed by forum members. It is an active forum, and the people who participate are there because Suzanne's blog has meant something to them.

So now I will get to the point of this post. Suzanne is a finalist in the Sam-e "Good Mood Gig" Talent Search. She has already gone through one round, and for the final round she submitted a video about why she would be perfect for the job, along with some info you can read. If she wins, she gets to blog for Sam-e for 6 months. It is a paying gig, and it would mean a lot to her and her family. It would only take a few seconds for you to vote for Suzanne on the Sam-e website, and if you would like to help her out, please CLICK HERE! Voting ends on December 7th and you can vote once per day, so be sure to bookmark her page so you can go back and vote each day. Voting is only a small part of winning, there will be judges looking at the finalists' applications as well, but it doesn't hurt to get her as many votes as possible!

Yes, I Know it's Early

It's early, I know, but I just couldn't wait! Every year, around the time the calendar turns to November, I get antsy to decorate for Christmas. I have always loved Christmas, with all the shiny and sparkly decorations and the fun music. When I was growing up, we decorated the day after Thanksgiving, though I would have loved to bust out the Christmas stuff earlier than that. Once I got married, my husband and I figured we would step outside the box and decorate the weekend before Thanksgiving. We were living on the edge, I tell you! Well, we've been getting really unruly the last couple of years, because we've been decorating for Christmas even earlier than that! So here I am, eleven days before Thanksgiving, admiring our lovely Christmas tree, the North Pole Village and various other festive decorations, while listening to my favorite holiday tunes.

It started Friday afternoon. We always set the village up first, and I had the boxes out and ready to go by the time my husband got home from work. Zoey was watching me from her bed in the corner, wondering what I was up to.




I actually had some of my part of the village set up before he got home. Like I said before, I just couldn't wait! There is still a finishing touch (some nice fluffy snow) to be put on the village displays, and there are a few light bulbs to replace, but they are pretty much finished. The first picture is the North Pole Woods, and that is my husband's part of the village. The other pictures are what I am in charge of.





Saturday morning was when the fun really started. I get really excited, like freak-out excited, when it's time to set up the Christmas tree. I got up that morning and got dressed and wanted to put up the tree RIGHT THEN! My husband, on the other hand, had plans to have a cup of coffee and check his email and whatnot on the computer for a few minutes before we got started. What is WRONG with him? Finally we got on track and boxes of Christmas goodies started making their way into the house. I didn't take any pictures of the actual decorating because I was too excited about it, but here is our tree all finished. All that's missing is some festive packages!



Once the tree was done, I moved on to all the "sittin' out stuff". You know, the fun stuff that sits around and looks cute. Here are the denizens of the Christmas forest.



The kitchen tree - Because even though I can see the regular tree perfectly fine from the kitchen, I still like to have a tree in there.



Here's the fireplace, all decorated. The stockings hanging on the fireplace tools rack are for the dog and the bird. Santa even comes to fill them when they've been bad!



And here's the view looking into the living room. I couldn't get this picture to come out very well, but you get the idea. The tree is actually set up where the bird's cage usually sits. Every year, we rock his world and move him to a different part of the room. We like to think of it as Bob's fun adventure to visit the fishes.



And last but not least, the clothespin reindeer is ready to greet everyone who comes in the front door!



There are some other decorations that didn't make it into this post, but I figured if I tried to get everything on here, there would just be way too many pictures. I hope this got you into the holiday spirit!

Zoey's Sad Day

I'm pretty sure I have probably mentioned before that Zoey likes blankets. If I haven't, I'll tell you now. Zoey likes blankets. Actually, she is blanket obsessed. She has three of her very own blankets in her bed, and she tries to appropriate our blankets into her collection. Her blankets are in her bed over in the corner of the living room where she can surround herself in fluffy blankety goodness as she gazes out around her kingdom.

One day, when I went over to her bed to pet her and giver her a proper belly-rubbing, I noticed a stench. I meant to wash the blankets, but I got sidetracked and forgot about it. A few days later, my husband walked over to the fish tank and commented on the foul odor. He wasn't even leaned over near her bed - He could smell it standing up. You see, blankets aren't just for warmth and softness. They are also for licking. Perhaps she has saturated them in nutrients to sustain her until her next meal, or maybe that is just her way of loving them. Whatever the case, her breath is far from a pleasant fragrance, and she had spread the odor to her blankets through her licking. It was time to wash the blankets.

The next morning, I took the blankets and the cover for the bed and put them in the washer. The foam bed form was put away for the time being so she wouldn't try to lay in it and lick it and get it all stinky. It was a very sad day. Just look how sad she was without her blankets!

She waited and waited for her blankets to return. All day long she moped around, mourning the loss of her blankets. Hours went by as she suffered. A little while after my husband got home from work, I remembered that they were still in the dryer, so we turned it on to warm them up before we put her bed back together. She likes it when the blankets are warm.

First came the bed cover. The blankets stayed in the dryer fluffing so they would still be nice and warm when we put them in the bed. Little Zoey could hardly wait until hubby finished putting the cover on the bed to get in it!

Zoey was so glad to have her bed back - Now if she just had some blankets!

Here come the blankets!

Aah... the world is right again... A nice soft bed with warm blankets fresh from the dryer!

Here was the really fun part. Zoey got herself all buried in her warm blankets to take a nap. A little while later, I was working in the kitchen and my husband was sitting in the living room. He suddenly said "What's wrong with Zoey???" She had stuck her head out of her blankets and she was panting. She never pants, because she's just to prissy to do anything that would bring on panting. I went over there and stuck my hand in the blankets and it was HOT in there! She just didn't want to get out of the warm blankets! I pulled her out and made her stay out until things cooled off a bit. She fought me on that, but I put my foot down. I think in the future we'll let the blankets cool down a little before we put them back in the bed.

Construction

Boy, when that guy said they would be sending a construction crew to fix the main phone line, he wasn't kidding! I was sitting on the couch when I heard "beep beep beep". I thought "Is that on TV or is there a big truck backing up outside?" Here is what I saw out the back window.

I'd say a backhoe qualified the group that was out working in the alley as a construction crew! There were 5 trucks and a bunch of workers out there. They got their work done, so we are crossing our fingers that we're permanently fixed up now. That is, unless the neighbor decides to build another new fence.