My Hairy Home.

So who would've thought that two short-haired Labradors would SHED SO MUCH! Holy crap there's a mess of hair around our home! I swear I'm sweeping up MOUNDS of hair every couple of days. Apparently labs shed their undercoat every Spring and Fall and frankly its quite disgusting. We could superglue their hair onto a stuffed animal and we'd have another Labrador.

I'm so not kidding.

Then you factor in a shedding cat and its just outright nasty around our house right now. So our plan of defense is this - I introduce you to the FUR-MI-NA-TOR! These bad boys are $45 and apparently comb out all the undercoat decreasing the shedding by 90%. Oh but of course I wasn't willing to pay that much, so I found a brand new one on Ebay for $13.50 - holla! So as soon as it arrives in the mail, we'll be having ourselves a Furminator party in the backyard. And I do hope to take pictures of the removed hair in all its glory. I'm REALLY hoping this does the trick!

These are the images of how much hair this little miracle worker can remove: (see the black lab in the center picture?)
And speaking of labs - thankfully both Jeep & Seven are doing much better with the infections they both had. Seven's eyes are back to normal and looking beautiful and Jeep's bacterial infection on his face is starting to clear up. Even with all the vet bills, they are the best dogs in the world. And I know I sound crazy, but as soon as we get more land and a bigger house, I would love to get one or two more! After all, we don't have our Chocolate Lab and I would love a Silver one too!

Have you ever seen a silver lab? GORGEOUS! I think if we get one, we should name him Sterling.

I know what you're all thinking - I'm crazy for wanting so many pets. But they are so fun and they bring so much joy to our lives. And ultimately I want a house full of kids, dogs, and my cat Banks!~

Not an ounce of inspiration.

So yeah, I've been asked lately why I haven't updated the blog. *big sigh* I just haven't been inspired to do so. It might have something to do with the fact that I spend 40 hours a week typing my butt off as my job. So anything extra in front of the computer is oftentimes just more work. And these last two weeks have been A TON of work.

Ok so enough whining about it. Here's some random thoughts Jason and I have been throwing out there lately.

First of all - Jason was offered his friend's landscaping business. Jason has been working for his friend Moke over the last summer as a way to earn some extra cash when work at the restaurant is slow. But just recently Moke and his wife Tracy decided they were going to put their house on the market come spring and head to California. We've been praying about this a lot trying to hear the Lord's direction on whether we should do it. Jason's done some number crunching and I've even discussed it with one of my attorneys. It's looking like an awesome opportunity for us because 1. it will provide us with some serious cash next spring, summer & fall to pay off our car & hopefully get our roof replaced and 2. it will allow Jason to cut back nights at the restaurant to spend more time at home!!!! (I love this one most!) AND 3. he can be his own boss determining when he works, for how long and how much. We're thinking the plan will be to give this business a couple years and see where it goes and where we're at with things.

(Jeep likes to wear Jason's protective goggles.)

Hmmm...second. We're trying very hard to find some good flights out to Seattle to see family and friends over Christmas. The difficulty this year is the added financial burden of boarding the puppies while we're gone. We found a great place for a great price, but it still adds to the cost of flights and gifts. Holidays don't come cheap for us. :-) This year, we may just have to wrap a big bow around ourselves and show up. Merry Christmas - we're your gifts! That, or I'll be making handmade ornaments again like I did back in the MC days. Ha! (So all you crafty people out there, feel free to send some clever homemade ideas my way!) Oh and baking always works wonders with my family, so at least there's that.

What else...I'm trying desperately this afternoon to focus on the fun things coming up in the next couple months so I don't start getting anxious over my 3 hour dental appointment tomorrow afternoon. I broke part of a tooth off and it needs a crown, along with the tooth behind it also needing a crown. They're hoping they can save the broken tooth, otherwise they're going to have to pull it and put in a graft for an implant. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I should start charging my iPod as soon as I get home, I'm going to need lots of music to listen to.

And so what are these fun things I'm choosing to think on instead??? WELL LET ME TELL YOU!

Next month Jason and I are taking a few days and heading down to Chattanooga for some good 'ol fashioned camping. Just us and the dogs. I'm so pumped to just relax, snuggle with my man, sleep in, read and walk with the pups. And of course we have to stop at Rembrandt's Coffee Company to stock up on their delicious roasted coffee and grab a quick bite to eat!

(This is where I plan to spend most of the weekend while camping!)

Then in November, I'll be joining my friend Julie and some other girls for a Fall Reading Weekend at a farm/lodge near town. It'll be two nights & three days of hearty soups, cozy blankets, fuzzy jammies, dear friends and good books. I can hardly wait!!!

And finally December, where I hope to spend a good amount of time with family and friends over Christmas and maybe even the New Year. My dear friend Jess will be in town and I can hardly contain myself at being able to spend some time with her!

Lots of awesome things to day dream about other than this nasty dentist appointment tomorrow.

I'm ready for fall....

I guess we've "unofficially" had our last day of summer, but you wouldn't know it here in Nashville. It's still been a gorgeous 75-85 degrees on average and no signs of the leaves turning or cooler weather. But I am looking forward to putting the dresses and skirts away (yes you heard me right, I wear those now) and get out the cords, jeans and sweaters.



I'm ready for simmering soups, warm pies and soft blankets. In October, Jason and I are taking the dogs camping for a long weekend in Chattanooga. Just us, nature, a campfire, some books and lots of relaxation - I'm already excited about it and trying to resist writing out a packing list.

Thankfully the weekend is here and I'm looking forward to chillaxin a while. This week was a tad busy with the Memorial Day BBQ at our friends house with the small group, then cleaning my house and making caramel popcorn all Wednesday night for Book Club at our house last night. Nothing on the calendar this weekend and its just the way I like it!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

August Daring Bakers - Dobos Torta

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular DobosTorte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: ExquisiteDesserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

I headed over to my friend Jill's house to spend a Saturday baking our challenge together, and really it was WAY more fun doing it with someone rather than alone. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and ask questions - AND laugh together at our creation in the making.

Seriously, I was totally thinking this was going to be a total flop, but in the end, I was so pleasantly surprised!! I will definitely try it again, but with different caramel because ours tasted like lemon. Who puts lemon juice in their caramel? It was kinda messy and the frosting was nothing like a buttercream to me, but then after two hours in the fridge - HOLLA!! Oh sweet Lord was it ever divine.

Yum-my!!

Jill took some pics, cause her camera is WAAAYY better than mine, but I don't have the pics quite ready to post yet.

For the recipe, you can click here. (But just skip over all her drool-worthy pictures, cause then you won't be able to compare ours to her magnificent cake!)

Looking forward to another challenge!

Cleaning With Dogs

We had ourselves a bit of a busy afternoon taking the dogs to the vet and then getting the oil changed as the puppies were still with us. They were so exhausted when we got home, that they passed out cold on the floor. It's not rare that they will tear up tons of cardboard and envelopes that we give them to chew on in the living room and Jason was helping by sweeping it up this afternoon. Very cute video of Jason sweeping up around Jeep :-) Unfortunately I recorded it holding the camera in a portrait position, but can't flip the view around so it looks a bit sideways.
(**Please ignore the snorting, I have no idea who that was.)

Okay Krissy-Poo, I got on it and uploaded what few pics I took in California last week :-) This Jason and I at some tower landmark in San Francisco. There was a great view of the Bay from up on that hill.Here's the tower. I guess it was built to make the city more beautiful. Nope, not seeing it.Here's about as close to Alcatraz as we got. Unfortunately the tours were sold out for weeks in advance and there was no way we were going to be able to get a ticket - shoot! Sorry honey!
We walked halfway across the Golden Gate bridge with Scott & Kelley, my bro & sis in law's. It was so fun to spend a few days with them exploring the city.
Awww....here we are. And the white sweatshirt I wore every day because IT WAS FREEZING! Note to self - pack sweaters when visiting San Francisco, it is nothing like Clovis.And here we have Clovis. :-) Just kidding. We drove by these adorable cows and ducks feeding on the grass on our way back from the reunion and we had to pull over a get a couple of pics!

Moo. Quack.
Who's that dashing young couple??!! They can't possibly be going to a 20 year high school reunion??!! They look far too young ;-)

I know, I know.

So yes, it has been painfully long since I last posted. Things have been crazy for what seems like forever and I just haven't slowed down enough to try and update on life for Jason and I.

Last Monday night we got back from a 10 day trip to California. We flew into San Francisco (because it was cheaper) and spent the weekend downtown with Scott & Kelley. Do I have pictures? A few. Did I upload them yet? No. We rode the trolley, walked along the pier, bought 5 pounds of taffy (yes 5!!!!), saw my first H&M (of which I did not spend a dime in! Tragic, I know!), ate Ghiradelli's ice cream, saw the seals, drove down the crooked street, saw an old lady's tower (can't remember the name) and watched naked man across the street. You think I'm kidding about naked man? Oh no my friends, we had our own "naked guy" like in the show Friends who provided the four of us in our hotel room with MUCH entertainment. Don't worry, the window was frosted. But still - HILARIOUS!

After a few days in San Francisco, Scott & Kelley drove us back up to Clovis where Jerry & Sherry, my in-laws live. Thankfully, we had a nice reprieve from all the California summer heat and it remained in the upper 80's and low 90's. It was absolutely perfect. I brought some books, bought some books and read some books while I was there :-) We saw Julie & Julia, which was fabulous (note to self: must buy that cookbook!), gorged ourselves on taffy, stayed up late with games, walked downtown Clovis for coffee and slept in late. Everything a vacation should be!

The main reason for our trip to California, other than to see our family of course, was also to attend Jason's 20th high school reunion! 20!!! I however, will never have the opportunity to actually attend my own since I was home-schooled. Boo. But attending Jason's reunion was a lot of fun and I heard some great stories I had never heard before. I admit I was a bit overwhelmed with being surrounded by 200 strangers in a party setting, cause that is totally not my thing, but I surprised even myself by mingling and making lots of small talk. It went kinda something like this: "Hi, I'm Kimberly. And you are?" "Nice to meet you ____, so how many kids do YOU have?" "Oh wow, and how old are they?" Pause for stunned silence and then smile politely. I suck at small talk and I always feel so awkward, but asking if they had kids and how old they were, was a sure-fire question because I didn't meet any other couple without kids!!! It was a nice little reality check for the two of us ;-) Some couples had been married for like 17 years and had kids in high school - uh hum. I felt a teensy bit out of place. Definatley the highlight for me was when the slideshow showed a home video of Jason performing in a boy band lip synching to The Right Stuff by New Kids on the Block! It was awesome and I wish I could get my hands on a copy! But for now, here's a copy of a picture I snagged off of facebook with unfortunately the other four guys doing the dance, but not Jason :-( He was on the far right and cut off - but at least you get an idea of what he was wearing!
I would say the highlight of the reunion for Jason was reconnecting with his old friends Drew and Canise from high school. They started dating in the 8th grade and have been together ever since!! Of course, I had to include a little before & after picture of the two of them I found!

Drew & Jason were able to hit the golf course the morning of the reunion and catch up. I really enjoyed getting to know them and hopefully they'll be able to make it out here on Thanksgiving for a visit!

We're back in Nashville now and trying to get back into the swing of things. Our friend Ida saved our butts and was able to housesit and take care of our animals :-) Thank you Ida!!! We missed our boys and Banks so much! So much in fact (wait for it) that we slept with them in the living room Monday night after we got home. Don't say it, we already know. I hope you're all well and enjoying what's left of the summer! Schools have just started this week in Tennessee, but we still have a good month and a half left of hot weather - sheesh! I'm hoping we can get in a few more drive-ins before the season's over and Jason and I have talked about maybe going camping with the dogs for a weekend or two when the weather cools off.

More to come - stay tuned!

July Daring Bakers - Milan Cookies

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Now THESE I can get down with! We had the option to choose making either the Mallow Cookies or the Milan Cookies or both. I'm not a huge fan of marshmallows, so I went with the Milans. Annnnddd....they're not exactly finished. I know, I suck on deadlines. I stayed up till midnight last night baking batches of Milans in between catching up on The Bachelorette which I had TIVO'd.

Milans are so easy to make and taste divine (beware this is a deadly combination!). And they're super light in texture and taste, so they're easy to gobble up a few at a time. I believe my husband can testify to this one.

But one little caution note that I wish I would have known ahead of time - do NOT stack these once they've been baked. Mine were still too moist and soft and they stuck together overnight. Boo. :-(

I managed to salvage quite a few that I plan to coat in chocolate glaze tonight before heading over to my friend Jill's house to swap my Milans with her Mallows. I'm sure it will be nothing less than divine. I'm crossing my fingers that her son John Mark will give me a better score than last month's Bakewell Tart. I can't blame him either, it just wasn't all that good.

It must have been pure torture on Jeep & Seven cause they stuck by me the entire time I was baking last night. And Seven just layed down in front of the oven hoping to catch a crumb or two.

June Daring Bakers - Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Bakewell tarts…er…puddings combine a number of dessert elements but still let you show off your area’s seasonal fruits.

Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

The version we’re daring you to make is a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavoured shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam.

This month I was super excited to participate in the Daring Baker Challenge, because I was going to be joining up with my friend Jill to share our results together. Plus my sister Kati is in town and she's been wanting to try out one of my "experiments". Sadly, I wasn't all that thrilled with how it turned out. It tasted bland to me, even with the lemon curd filling I had chosen to use rather than a jam. Jill had chosen to use a strawberry-rhubarb filling and hers was much more moist than mine and I absolutely loved her tart tin!~ (*note to self, must buy tart tin from Target*) Mine also fell in the middle (pictures to come later). Not really sure what was going on there with that. Sigh.... But if you want the recipe and feel up to the challenge, you can visit Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar for the full recipe and directions.

OH well, it wasn't a complete disaster. I was able to hang out with friends and share some fun stories and good laughs. PLUS, I stored the leftovers in the fridge, so maybe once its chilled a bit I'll enjoy it more. AND I had a ton of lemon curd leftover that I was able to use with some fresh homemade scones and whipped cream, which was a total bonus. Yum-my.

I'm very excited to see what's next and meet up again with my new friend Jill for another taste-testing event! :-)

Recap of the weekend

This weekend was so awesome and so relaxing. I FINALLY caught up on some of my favorite shows, finished a book and cleaned up the house on Friday night. Then on Saturday Jason and I were able to hang out around the house and picked up a pool at KMart for Jeep & Seven. And to say they love it is a complete understatement...
And around and around they went....

The best part about this little pool - it wears them completely out! They were asleep at 8pm and didn't wake up for 12 hours. (*Sigh*)....best dog toy ever!
Look at cute little Jeep all curled up for the night. That's my boy!

Then yesterday we spent an awesome afternoon & evening with our friends Dana & Julie before they headed out on their 2 month tour/trip. Ben & Alicia came over and we BBQ'd out and just enjoyed each other's company. I'm going to miss Julie so much this summer!!

Hope you all had an awesome weekend as well!

An Opportunity For Praise!

This last week was an opportunity to trust God. A couple of our dearest friends, Dana & Julie had quite the scare this last week. Over the camping trip a few weeks back Dana had Julie show us a suspicious mole on her arm. Jason, being familiar now a couple times with what irregular moles look like, mentioned to her she really should get it looked at. So she tried for a couple of weeks to get in touch with a dermatologist from our church who practices at Vanderbilt. For whatever reason, the nurse just wasn't calling her back and finally Julie just had to corner the guy at church and ask him to please look at it and let her know if she should come in. He wanted to see her the very next day.

Last Tuesday they did the biopsy and said they would have the results within a couple days. On Thursday she got the call from the doctor, it was malignant melanoma. His prognosis wasn't good and he said he needed to measure it to find out how deep the cancer cells went. If it was .75-1.0 mm dense, he was going to ask Julie to undergo lymph node mapping to see where else the cancer might have spread to. And then they would discuss treatment options. She called me Thursday evening barely able to communicate the news through her tears, and said she was hoping some of us from the small group could come over that night and pray over her. Within a few hours, everyone had dropped what they were doing and headed over to be with her and Dana. We all surrounded her, anointed her with oil and prayed faith and healing over her body. It was awesome to see everyone come together so quickly as a family and be there in a time of need. And yet as scary as it was, I didn't feel fear. I knew God would move on her behalf.

Friday afternoon I get a call from her that the cancer was only .71 mm thick. Wow. God moved and answered our prayers down to the specifics. It was incredible and Julie was ecstatic. As we all were. She headed back to Vanderbilt that afternoon and they removed more tissue just to be safe, in all its probably a 4-5 inch gash in her arm and then they stitched her up. She was so brave and I am beyond grateful. I love this girl dearly. She has been a gift that God has added to my life and to our small group since last fall. We have quickly become the closest of friends. That's what friends are for. To be family when family is not close by. To pray at a moment's notice when needed. To hold and comfort when there is fear and uncertainty. And to stand beside in battle when the trumpet sounds. I am so grateful, so blessed beyond words with the friends God has brought into my life here in Nashville and even more grateful He answers prayers.

The Calm After The Storm

To say I've been slammed these last few weeks is an understatement for sure. I was able to pick up a transcription job for the same folks I did last time, and ended up transcribing 15, 40 minute sermons over a period of three weeks. WHILE still meeting with our small group, WHILE planning out a small group camping trip over Memorial Day Weekend, WHILE meeting with my high school girls D group, WHILE going to a friend's baby shower, WHILE watching out-of-control and ridiculously adorable 4 month old puppies. It was insane and I think my arms are going to fall off now. Or maybe just my fingers. Either way, I really could do without being around a computer for a while.

But the good thing is - the transcriptions are done! I've made some extra moolah! Our small group ended for the summer with a bang! The camping trip went off without a hitch (for the most part anyway). The shower was a blast! And the puppies are still out-of-control and ridiculously adorable 4 month old puppies, only now a few pounds bigger.

For fun, let's just do a little comparison right now, shall we? Yes, I think we shall.
Aww....so cute. Just 8 weeks old. Jason's hands held their little chests close to him.

And now.

Holy Crap! ONLY 11 WEEKS LATER!!! And they're not even half way grown yet!!! We are now accepting donations for dog food to keep them from eating us out of our home. Just kidding. Sorta.

And really that's about it for news around these parts. Well EXCEPT for the fact that Jason and I bought our plane tickets to California in August! We decided to spend the first couple days in San Francisco with Scott & Kelley, enjoying the city for a couple days and then driving up to Clovis to stay with Jason's family and attend his 20th high school reunion. I know right? 20 years!!! At least he gets a reunion. I just get to live vicariously through him and see what the hoopla is all about.

So I leave you with these photos from our camping trip. Yes, I know, more dog pictures. But what can I say, we love them and they're a big part of our lives. And I'm sorry, but if you don't love looking at adorable Labrador puppies, then seriously you must have no heart.

I know, your wondering if Tim McGraw joined up on our little camping excursion, but alas, its just my redneck-trucker-wannabe husband that decided to surprise me with this fun little look when I met him up at the campgrounds. No, no, no, it's not Earl from My Name is Earl. Ah yes, that would be a nice close shot of the hotness I like to call my man. Though that day, I was more referring to him as a convict from America's Most Wanted. Scary.If you notice, we camped on the side of a hill. Thankfully the place where our tents were are nice and level, but everywhere else was like camping in a Dr. Seuss book, all topsy-turvy.

Look at Jason's truck and you get an idea how steep it was. My calves STILL hurt from walking around.

Probably the highlights for us was taking the pups for their first swims in the lake. It was awesome, they loved it and we loved how much it wore them out! I got some great shots of them on the rocks and learning how to swim.

Seven is a born natural at fetching sticks out of the water. And I know the water looks nasty. It was really muddy by the beach, but a lot nicer further out. Regardless, please believe there was no way I was getting in that nastiness.

Though Seven had no problem bringing the nastiness over to me. He was sopping wet and decided he'd like to snuggle. My new shirt is still stained and I'm tried to get the mud out. But he's too cute to stay mad at for long.

This close up of Seven is why I need an SLR. Our friend Chad took this shot and I'm in love with it. What a beautiful boy.

Seven learning to swim with Jason.

Jeep also learning to swim. He wasn't a big fan of it at first and had no intentions of fetching a stick. But as soon as he got his paws on a water bottle, he was all about the fetching. That's my boy, nothing but the best :-)

Typical fetch with Seven & Jeep. Seven fetches and Jeep waits to take it from him.

A whole lotta wet dog. The dark brown puppy is our friends Chad & Tabby's dog Beasley.

Resting and drying in the sun.

They're cleaning each other here - I love the tiny bit of Jeep's tongue you can see. So cute.

I'm proud to say I took this pic. It was pure luck it turned out the way it did, but I love it.

Home sweet home. Jeep is not our cuddler, but he's learning :-) They are too adorable. I look at this and know someday Jason is going to be an amazing dad.

And finally here's Seven sleeping behind the couch and up against the wall. What a goober, my monkey.

If you're still reading this, I hope you have a great weekend - I know I will! Nothing but catching up on shows, coffee, reading, sleeping in and a hair appointment - ahhh, perfection!