Happy 2008!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe New Year! Hooray for going to bed at 10pm and ringing in the new year with a good night's sleep!

Merry Christmas!

On the 21st, we had a "Christmas Party" with my day care kids. As you can see, we made little elf hats and then danced around to Christmas music for a half hour or so. They seemed to enjoy thems-elves!

Its amazing how kids will sit still and watch a movie when you actually sit down with them.

We had a great Christmas and the kids, as usual, got lots of stuff. Robby has had a Harry Potter movie in his stocking for the past 5 years!

Natalie got this cute shopping cart that actually squeeks like a real one! So annoying! Santa left it for her and she didn't want to open anything else.

We had to help her to get her to acutally do it!

Hope everyone had as great a Christmas as we did! Have a Happy and Safe New Year!

Congrats, My Awesome Hubby!

I just want to post on here that my hubby is awesome! He just passed his test to be a Certified Building Official this past weekend, which means he is qualified to run a jurisdiction now. He is currently a building inspector for the county we live in, but hopefully someday he will hold a higher position. For now we will stay put. Hooray for Mark!!!

Super Fudge!

Okay, so I have been asked by several people this year how I make my delicious fudge. Since my recipe is awesome, I am posting it here. If you do make it, leave me a comment on how yours turned out! I am curious to know!

You will need:
4 cups white sugar
1 cube (1/2 cup) real butter
1 can evaporated milk
1 10-12 oz. bag of chips (chocolate or other, I have made this with many flavors. Use milk chocolate if you go with the chocolate flavor)Don't use Generic!
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can marshmallow fluff

First, put the can of fluff, the chips and the vanilla in glass bowl (or anything that won't melt) and set aside.

Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick spray.

In large pot, add the sugar, milk, and butter and bring to a boil. I never use a thermometer, but you want it to boil until it reaches the soft ball stage and then maybe a little longer. Make sure you stir the entire time to prevent scorching the beloved fudge! You can also drizzle a bit of the potion into a glass of ice water and then see if it rolls into a nice ball.
Once the mixture is ready, pour it into the bowl with the fluff and chips and stir like crazy. You want it to be nice and smooth. Once it is smooth, pour the mixture into the pan and let it set.
I usually cover it and put it in the frige as it will set much fast.
Don't forget to lick the spoon!
You can always add nuts to add a bit of flavor. I like to put them into the bottom of the pan, then it is not so hard to stir.
This only takes about 20 minutes to make!
It is so smooth and so good! The Nestle Swirl chips work really good. Last year I made chocolate mint, butterscotch, chocolate raspberry, milk chocolate, milk chocolate-walnut, and white chocolate. I didn't go as crazy this year. I only made four kinds and I did make peanut butter-chocolate, which was delicious!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Rock Eater!

So Benelli likes to eat rocks! Who knew dogs could have such poor taste in menu items. Last week Benelli started to make that wonderful gagging noise that dog owners everywhere dread. I picked him up and ran into the kitchen and low and behold, he vomited up two large lava rocks! They were probably golf ball sized. Great! So two nights ago, he was lying in the couch with me and his stomache felt weird. It was kind of grinding. I realized he had swallowed two more lava rocks and they were grinding together. The next day I went out into the kennel hoping to find the remains of vomit with rocks in them. When I found nothing, I went over to Benelli and felt his little belly. Not only could I feel a lot of rocks, but I could actually hear them. It was like holding a bag of really large marbles.

Thus, my research began. I researched rock eating online and found that Benelli is not the only dog to do this. People had taken many dogs in for surgery to remove rocks and other things from their stomaches and intestines. These surgeries were running more than $1000 a piece! WHAT!

New research topic: How to make dog vomit rocks. Success! I found two ways: the first was to pour peroxide right down its throat--but make sure it does actually vomit because it can poison them--HUH! The second way was to put a 1/2 teaspoon of salt on the back of its tongue and they will vomit from drinking so much water. Yeah, I think I'll go with #2!

So I did the salt thing and he threw up his food. Wow, it worked, but where are the rocks? I tried it again. Vomit and two gravel rocks. Benelli's stomache still feels like a bag of marbles. One more try. Vomit and 6 rocks! Golly Gee Willakers!

Benelli and Misty have since been banned from the kennel until all rocks have been removed. I guess putting rocks in areas of high water flows and dogs are not a good mix.



6 bags of rocks: $25, 1 can of Morton's Iodized Salt: $1.00 Watching your dog vomit and possibly saving its life AND $1000: priceless.



P.S. I actually called the vets office and they suggested giving him canned pumpkin to get his bowels moving. As if I really wanted those rocks to go all the way through!

Turkey Day!

It took me awhile to get around to posting about Thanksgiving, but here it is. We had a great time playing on the wii and we had a lot of good food.

Robby and Papa had a blast boxing each other. I think Papa really, REALLY enjoyed the bowling. It is quite addicting!

Teddy joined us as well. Misty and Benelli treated their cousin very nicely, even though he was scared to death!

Natalie sure doesn't fall far from the Nana tree!