The Joys of Puppy Parenthood

This morning got off to a great start.

I mean that sarcastically.

I went to bed last night with an excruciating headache. I told Lance that if Reece needed out in the night, he was going to have to do it. She got up at 6:30 and tried to get me up. Lance got up, thinking she needed out, but as soon as he left the room, she jumped on me.

Oof.

Lance came back and we all cuddled together and went back to sleep for a bit. Then we woke up and came out of the bedroom to start the day.

Reece walked to the back door, but before I could even get up to let her out, she had squatted and peed all over the rug.

So in the interest of getting that cleaned up, I pushed her outside.

Then when she came in, it took me a minute to realize that one of her back paws was completely covered in poop. She had left little poopy paw prints in a couple of spots on the carpet. When I tried to grab her, she thought I was playing chase and proceeded to run all over the house, leaving poopy paw prints in her wake.

Lance came out of the office once he heard the commotion and tried to call her to him, but I told him that she had to stay where she was to avoid messing up the house even further. I grabbed her collar and held on to her tightly and struggled with her as I tried to get her paw cleaned off. Lance had to come over and help.

And then I had to go around and clean up all those little messes.

So yeah...that's been my Sunday morning. How was yours?

(no subject)

I gave Reece a bath not 2 hours ago, and shortly after we dried her off and were letting her air dry the rest of the way, she started shivering really really badly. This never happened before.

Lance and I wrapped her in a couple of dry towels and just sat and held her tightly, trying to warm her with our body heat. It worked...she stopped shivering within minutes, and she was much, much dryer too.

So now I'm going to need to find a solution for the winter months. Obviously if it's any cooler than this, it will be a problem. She refuses to get anywhere near a dryer, so blow drying her afterwards isn't an option.

I went to Target earlier...bought another pair of jeans (I'm down to one pair that fits me right now, since the other pair is covered in paint and now serves as my household project jeans). I bought the same jeans that I already have, just a different wash. They fit well and are as comfortable as you can get for jeans (when I'm lounging around the house, I prefer yoga pants). Since I only wear jeans on the weekends, I don't need many pairs...I usually wear Dockers or dress pants at work. Then I come home and change into my yoga pants.

I bought a cute Halloween shirt for $5. I hope, since Halloween is on a Friday, that we'll be allowed to have casual day that day.

I got some other odds and ends...orange mini-lights to drape over the fireplace mantel (I just need to go out to JoAnn or something and find some leaf garlands)...that will get me through Thanksgiving, since it's autumn decor and not particularly Halloween. Mom always put orange lights on her mantel around Halloween and left it up until she put out the Christmas decorations. Always looked very nice. We don't have a lot of storage for different holiday decorations, so I'm just going to decorate for fall and not do the skeletons and witches and all that other stuff.

Most of the household work is finished that I had planned for today. I still need to vacuum. I filled the bird feeders. The sun is actually coming out now, so it's not such a bad day. Maybe I can still take Reece for a walk after dinner.

I'm making sloppy joe pasta for dinner - a recipe that I got from one of those little recipe magazines that you get in the checkout at the grocery store. It's basically a pasta casserole with sloppy joe meat sauce and cheddar cheese. It's got cottage cheese in it too, instead of ricotta. We'll see if it's any good. There were a lot of decent looking recipes in that magazine. I bought one for Mom too, since she looked through mine and wanted to copy a lot of the recipes.

Anyway, I have to finish putting together a few things here online that I've been working on. I still want some time to find some new LJ icons, but at least I have a new layout. I would rather have a custom one, but I have no clue how to make one.

Nom nom nom...

Dinner tonight (recipe from a Taste of Home pasta recipes booklet that came out this summer):

Sloppy Joe Pasta

1 lb. ground beef
1 envelope sloppy joe mix
6 oz. can tomato paste
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 cup water
8 oz. cottage cheese (2% is fine)
7 oz. small seashell pasta, cooked and drained
at least 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (as Lance and I are cheese fanatics, we do this to taste)

In a skillet, brown ground beef. Drain. Add sloppy joe mix, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Bring to a boil, turn heat to low, then simmer for 5-8 minutes, or until heated through.

Remove from heat, add pasta.

Pour half of pasta mixture into a greased 2.5 quart casserole dish. Spread cottage cheese over this layer. Top with remaining pasta. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until bubbly and melty. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The only variation to this recipe was that I added minced garlic after I finished browning the beef. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly (except I used way more than half a cup of cheese).

Lance very enthusiastically gave his thumbs up. Wants me to include this in my regular rotation.

The only criticism I have of this dish is that it's not spicy enough to really taste like sloppy joes to me. But then again, I never use a sloppy joe mix when I make sloppy joes. I always use whatever seasonings I have in my spice cabinet and barbecue sauce/ketchup/Heinz 57 and worchestershire. I wonder if using a chili mix might give it the kick I was hoping for...or adding chili powder to it next time.

Still...it was tasty. And great for when I want to have sloppy joes, but don't want to worry about leftover buns going to waste.