Pumpkin Carving - A New Tradition

The last time I "helped" carve a pumpkin was when I was 8 years old.  And I have the scar on my chin from falling off the stool and hitting the edge of the washer as proof.  (Long story.) 

Anyway, Troy and I have never carved pumpkins together.  So we decided to do it this year.  We picked three pumpkins, one for each of us and one for the dogs.  I think we did a pretty good job.

Can you pick out Troy's???  :)

The Gifts That Keep on Giving!

I know, I know you've heard enough about the dogs.  This week, and it's only Monday, I've SEEN enough about the dogs. 

Per my post yesterday, you know that they had a feast on the perfect home made garlic bread I had prepared for Sunday lunch guests.  Well, last night the once tasty bread came back to haunt them.  They weren't hungry for even a fraction of their usual night time meal.  One of them (we're pretty sure it was Luke) vomited on our bed AND his bed.  We didn't notice it until Troy threw their beds from our bedroom to the den.  (Yes, they are spoiled.)  As he was throwing, he saw the aforementioned puke.  Go ahead, you know you want to say it. "EWWWW!"  So we had to stop the presses and clean up beds, carpets, chairs, walls.

This morning, I was going through my ritual of cleaning and started to vacuum the stairs.  We have a Dyson vacuum.  I mention this so that you can get a visual if you have this model.  I was attaching the "stair cleaning" tool to the hose and noticed that the inside of the hose was coated with, yep you guessed it, the aforementioned puke.  My eyes watered and my gag reflex introduced itself to me again. 

The hose is detachable.  (Thank you Dyson.  You should put that in your ads.)  And the detached hose is now in the kitchen sink getting cleaned and sanitized. 

I feel like the Cat in the Hat has come for a visit.  We keep cleaning up the spot and it keeps coming back bigger and better!

God's Provision

Most of you have read from the bible the account of Jesus taking the boy's meager lunch of five loaves of bread and two fish and fed a crowd of 5,000 with food left over.  Well, this post follows the same line, but God took two loaves of bread and turned it into 3 1/2 slices to feed 7 people.

Our church is studying about the five purposes in life:  Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Evangelism, and Ministry.  In addition to the sermons about each of these purposes, our Sunday School class which Troy teaches is also studying these purposes.  This week was about Fellowship, so Troy invited the class to our house for lunch after church.  I didn't know how many of the 20 or so people were coming so I, of course, cooked for 100.  I made a crockpot full of spaghetti sauce with meat, two packages of spaghetti noodles, two big bowls of salad, and two loaves of garlic bread (made in the bread machine).  I was most proud of the bread because it was the best bread I've ever made. 

I didn't know why at the time, but this morning, before church, I decided to cut one of the loaves in half and then slice that half and put the slices on the cake pedestal for "presentation".  I wrapped the other loaf and a half in foil and left them on the counter.  So essentially, there were 7 half slices of bread ready to eat, 3 1/2 full slices. 

Troy and I went to church.  I came home just a bit before the guests arrived to find that the foil wrapped bread had been eaten by the dogs we had left in the house because it was cold and snowy outside.  Foil and crumbs were everywhere.  But there were those 7 half slices under the dome of the cake plate. 

And how many showed up for lunch?  Five people plus Troy and me. 

God provides all our needs.  Even when we have the "best laid plans".  God takes care of us.

 

Home Improvement

So, I wouldn't call us home improvement project savvy.  Don't get me wrong.  Troy is a wonderful carpenter/handy man but we tend to only make major improvements on a "need to" basis or on a whim.  Never somewhere in the middle.
 
Troy is usually ready to tackle the project as long as we have the money and he is not asked to paint.  I am the one who walks in and out of the doors of Home Depot and Lowe's hoping "Yard Crashers" or "House Crashers" will ask me if I need any help with projects.  I just never have a plan for how to start.  (For those of you who  have a life  don't watch home improvement shows, the designers on the "Crashers" programs catch unsuspecting customers of Home Depot and Lowe's and ask if they can come in and do the improvement project for the home owner.)  I keep an eye out for TV camera's everytime I walk into Home Depot now.  Maybe I look too needy! 

Anyway, back to the original purpose of this post.

As you all know, our life A.D. (After Dogs) is very different than B.D.  For example, we were perfectly happy with the fact that even though the fence around our backyard looked a little worse for the wear, it fit the purpose for the moment.  Within 3 days A.D., the dogs had made a break for it and were finally coerced back into the yard by our wonderful neighbor, Monica.  So, we had to rebuild the fence sooner than originally intended.  A long week of backbreaking work later, Troy and some hearty helpers from our church rebuilt the fence.  It is beautiful and dog proof! 

Now that the fence looked FABulous, it made the overgrown weed infested flowerbed surrounding the front of the house look even more disgusting.  So, we decided to pull out all the vegetation in the bed, lay down a weed blocker, and cover the whole area in landscape pebble.  Good idea, right? 

Not so much.

Three trips to Home Depot and thirty, count them thirty bags of pebbles later, we decided it looked too plain.  So, I bought two new shrubs (exactly like the two on the side of the house that by the grace of God we haven't killed) and I planted them in front of the bay window.  I know that sounds simple enough but, if you remember, the dirt in the flower bed is now covered in weed block material AND 30 bags of pebble!  But I was determined and finally planted both shrubs.  See?

I'm so proud, I took two pictures!

This was our big project for the summer.  Pretty cool, huh?

I know I promised to post pictures of the new office we redecorated this past spring but my side is totally covered in piles of paperwork  it's not totally picture ready, yet.  As soon as I finally organize my messiness it is, I'll post pics.

Humiliation

I did it.  I finally gave in and bought the Gentle Leader "bridle" for Luke and Leia about a month ago.  The loose leash training was too hard and I didn't want to deal with it wasn't working.  They were still dragging me all over the neighborhood and walks were becoming a dreaded experience every morning.  I actually started dreading them the night before. The Gentle Leader is like a bridle on a horse.  It keeps the dog from pulling because when the dog pulls it makes its head turn toward the leash. 
Getting the contraption on the dogs the first time was a circus in and of itself.  But now they are compliant and patiently sit with their little muzzles uplifted so that I can slide it on.  Leia, however, starts making snorting sounds like it's cutting off her airway passages as soon as I start to put hers on.  After a month, they still fight their bridles when they want to pull ahead, but this invention has made our morning walks much better for me.
Before our walks, Luke and Leia are filled with anticipation and ignore the humiliation of this binding headgear.  But as soon as we walk in the front door after our walks, Luke sits patiently with sad puppy eyes begging me to take the headgear off and Leia immediately throws herself in the floor in what I assume is a puppy temper tantrum to try to rid herself of this atrocious contraption before I can take it off for her.  I had to take pictures of them with their new headgear on so that I could document this scene.