Our Sweet, Sweet Girls

December, in addition to it being a crazy busy month, was a sad month for us as well.  After 13 wonderful years together, we had to have our sweet Slippers put down.

For a while she just hadn't been herself.  She had slowed way down, which is normal for a 14 year old dog I think.  She had pretty severe arthritis in her hips and it was quite difficult for her to get around.  She was on several medications to help ease the pain, and though we knew she was sometimes uncomfortable, she greeted us every morning with a wagging tail, a beautiful smile, and enthusiasm to start a brand new day.  Early in December, though, things changed.  She was breathing funny, coughing a bit as though she had a dry throat, and we noticed that one side of her torso had become quite enlarged.  Kevin took her to the vet where they told us that she had fluid in her lungs.  They drained the fluid and prescribed lasix and sent her home.  It seemed like she was better for a day or two, but the coughing returned and, within a few more days, so did the fluid in her lungs.  We called the vet again, and they gave us more lasix and we tried that…but it wasn't working.

When I got home from work the Friday evening before Christmas, there was no one to greet me at the door and I knew something was wrong.  I went to the living room where I found Slippers lying on the floor; she was alert, but not moving.  She'd lost control of her bowels and looked kind of dazed, I thought - and still think - that she had a stroke.  I went right to her side and started comforting her telling her it was okay, and petting her gently.  Within a few minutes Kevin got home and came in and found both of us sitting on the floor.  He immediately got down on the floor and we all three sat there for a while.  Kevin and I took turns sitting with Slips and trying to clean up the floor around her.  The whole time she was very calm, but didn't make any attempt to move - we determined that she probably could not move on her own.  We both tried to get her up, but it almost seemed as if she didn't want to move.  Both Kevin and I were devastated.  We knew that we had a very difficult decision to make, and we just looked at each other and started crying.

One of our neighbors had told me about a year before about a vet that comes to your house to euthanize your pets.  They can stay put and be in the comfort of their own homes, without having to get into the car and head to a vets office that is cold and unfamiliar.  Kevin and I called several services and found a vet who was willing to come out that evening. I won't go into details - it still crushes me to even think about it - but we were satisfied that our baby Slippers lived a good, long life with people who took good care of her and loved her immensely.  Kevin and I were both able to be there with her and comfort her as she drifted into a peaceful sleep.  We will be forever grateful to have had Slippers in our life.  She made us better people.

For the remainder of our winter break, we both pined for a dog.  We both just feel that a house is not a home without a dog.  We were betwixt and between wondering if we should wait longer, or if it was okay to begin looking for a new buddy.  We finally decided that Slippers would understand, and maybe even help guide us to find her sister or brother.  A new doggy out there waiting for a mommy and daddy to adopt and love him or her, just as we had Slippers all those years ago.

After a few false starts, I'm happy to say that we finally found the baby girl for us.  We found her in a nearby shelter where she'd come in as a stray.  She is three years old, black and white like her sister, and we fell in love with her instantly.  We had to wait for several days before we could adopt her, so we visited several times.  She was a bit frightened at first, but warmed up to both of us right away and we knew we had chosen well.

Meet Millie…

If you think she looks a lot like her sister, you'd be right.  Slippers had about 60 pounds on her, but other than that Millie and Slippers kinda look like twins.  And oh.my.gosh. is Millie ever spirited!  If only I had half the energy she does I would accomplish 10 times more each and every day!  Something tells me there will be many Millie the Mischief Maker posts in the coming months and years.  Stay tuned!

So there you have it…the Tail of Two Doggies.  Sisters forever linked together by one mommy and daddy.  Love you both!

Hoppy Easter!

This year we celebrated Easter at our house.  You kinda just have to - this is the place where we've held all of our Easter egg hunts over the years.  I mean, would it really be an egg hunt if no one looked under the ceramic ducks or gnomes?  And who could forget the floating egg in the pool, or the 'ooops, dropped that in the rain gutter above the office' egg.  Can it really be the spring celebration without these fond memories?  We thought not.

And wouldn't you just know it ... after all the work we'd put in out in the backyard to get things in shape, it was cold and drizzly on Easter!  It had been beautiful all week and then - POOF - overnight the weather changed and we had cool, gray skies.  Thankfully, we did manage to ward off a full on rain storm and we were able to hide and hunt eggs, and even eat a late lunch/early dinner outdoors before we called it too cold to be outside.  

Here's a glimpse of our Easter celebration:

I've included a few photos of our little neighbors enjoying their morning egg hunt, as well as Pat and Drew on the hunt in the afternoon and a few photos of our front yard since most things were in bloom at the time.

Our little next door neighbors were very cute; they shared one egg each with Kevin and I.  They were a true treat indeed as their plastic eggs contained candy - a very rare treat for them!  In return, we gave each of them one of the eggs from our upcoming hunt; the moment I handed it to them, 'O' (the little boy) has a gleam in his eye and a huge grin on his face.  'MONEY!' he said.  I asked him why he thought it had money in it - it hadn't rattled or made any noise at all.  He told me that he 'just knew!'  And he was right! 

The dirty little secret that nooooooone ever tells you about butternut squash...

So, it's fall (or as Kevin likes to say 'nothing says fall like 105 degree temperatures. ...smarty pants!). And being the fall-loving girl that I am, I've been thinking about all sorts of scrumptious, can't-hardly-wait-for-fall dishes I want to make and enjoy. Mmmmmm....it's time for SQUASH! ROASTS!! PUMPKINS!! SOUPS!!

The other day I ran across a yummy sounding recipe for butternut squash lasagna. (insert Scooby Doo 'HUH?' here). I think I'm going to have to make us some of that!

I read the recipe and, to be honest, while it didn't *sound* difficult, there are lot of steps involved to make the lasagna. (thank you, Michael Chiarello!) Oh well, I thought, we're making it for Sunday dinner and what are Sundays for but making special recipes that you don't have time to create during the week? Right?

We were so excited about making the squash this weekend that we went during the week and did all of our grocery shopping so that we could make sure we had all of the ingredients on hand for the Sunday cookfest. (Okay, okay ... I did forget mozzarella, but Kevin was running an errand anyway and picked some up on his way home this morning).

Because the process is so involved, I thought I'd knock out the first step - roasting the squash - earlier this morning before it got too hot. I re-read the recipe: Cut the tops and bottoms off of two 3-5 pound butternut squash. Use vegetable peeler to remove the tough skin on the outside of the squash. Cut squash in half; scoop out seeds. Lay squash flat side down on cutting board and cut into 1" chunks. Season squash with specified ingredients; place on roasting pan and roast for 50 minutes until tender. See what I mean? That doesn't sound so difficult, does it?

Until...

Have you ever tried to cut a butternut squash? Let me tell you, it is woefully misnamed as there is nothing 'squashy' about it (until it's roasted, of course). I placed the squash on a cutting board, took out the largest serrated knife we own (barring a saw from the garage, which, by the way, I was sorely tempted to use!) and *tried* to cut the top from one of the two squash. Uh, yeah...RIGHT. I made it about a quarter of the way through and the knife got stuck. Plan B: use the electric knife!! Once I was able to (very carefully) remove the first knife, I assembled the electric knife and assumed it would now be a piece of cake to cut that darn squash. WRONG I changed the knife blades in the electric knife to blades that, no kidding, resembled a small saw, and tried again. Well, it F-I-N-A-L-L-Y worked! But make no mistake, it still wasn't easy!

Then came the peeling portion of the preparation. REALLY? I'm not sure which is worse, attempting to *cut* the squash, or attempting to *peel* the squash. It may be a toss up. Several times I stopped to count and make sure all of my fingers were still attached. They were, but only by the grace of God!

Now that we have two peeled butternut squash, it's time to cut them in half and scoop out the seeds. Let me say this about that, the next time the damn seeds can stay INside for all I care. At one point, I literally held up a squash half and threatened 'You'd better be worth it!' Once again, I employed the use of the electric saw ... er ... knife with less than stellar results. Well, eventually the results were stellar, but not until I wrangled with those darn squash for a while. WHEW!

Next step: lay squash flat side down and cut into 1" chunks. Uh, yeah, I think NOT! I decided to ROAST the squash first, and then I'll cut it into chunks - when it actually lives up to the name 'squash'. I couldn't fathom putting the poor little electric knife through anymore; the motor was already hot and I swear I thought I saw a little trickle of smoke escape from the handle. I *know* I heard it whimper.

Here it is, looking all yummy and innocent getting ready to have the dickens roasted out of it:

Even Slippers seemed to be disgusted by the whole affair. Her look says it all ("What do you mean it's a 'vegetarian' lasagna? Where's the meat?)

I can only hope it's all worth it in the end. I'll letcha know how it all turns out. Either way, now I know why people buy those small bags of peeled, cored, and chunked butternut squash. *IF* we make it again, that's what I'll be using! Next Sunday we'll stick with an easy recipe - I've experimented enough for a week or two anyway.

Bon Appetit!

Urban Gardening: Woohoo - We have veggies!

So it's been a while since I posted about our urban garden - and it's growing like crazy!

Tonight when I went to water, I was happily surprised to find all sorts of new discoveries out there. The first discovery is that we have tomatoes - and quite a few of them!! We found about 8 or 10 of them just sitting there pretty as you please. I swear, we were out there on Sunday and there were only flowers on the plants - no actual fruit. Those little lovelies just seemed to burst out over night!
Next, while we were looking at the greens in the raised bed, we discovered cucumbers! Right now they are still teensy weensy, but before you know it, the'll be ready to pick and enjoy. Can hardly wait!
Then, just outside of the Fern Grotto, we have grapes. We didn't know that until last year when one of our neighbors pointed it out to us. Now that we know they're there, I've been keeping an eye on them. The other day I noticed that we had baby green grapes. I don't know what variety the grapes are, but I'm guessing the small champagne variety. Last year there were a ton of them and they all ripened but they stayed very small. Anyway, while watering tonight I went over to check them out. The vines are loaded! I think they just look so cool! We do have a lot of deer in the area and last year I noticed them munching on some of the grapes; hopefully we'll be able to keep them more to ourselves this year. I'm sure we'll be able to salvage at least some of them - some of the clusters are pretty far up in the yard and I didn't see the deer up quite that far in the yard.


I saved the best discovery for last. Isn't she cute?She always turns to the side just as I snap her picture. Silly girl. No matter - she's cute from every angle ;o)

Pumpkin Update

It's been just about 5 weeks now and the pumpkins and veggies are growing like crazy!

Kevin and I are both very excited by the progress and can hardly wait until mid-summer to reign in some of the veggie harvest. The lettuce is leaf lettuce and will be ready before then; hopefully we'll have enough to make it through the summer - we'll see. There are quite a few flowers on the tomatoes right now. If luck is with us, they'll stay on the vines and turn into lots of delicious tomatoes. As for the pumpkins...I'm hoping we have jack-o-lanterns everywhere come Halloween!
Veggies, looking good!



Look who else has been enjoying the Pumpkin Patch:
Yep, Miss Slippers and Miss Daisy enjoy roaming around the patch watching the pumpkin vines grow. Slippers typically lays behind the patch while Daisy, being a cat, pretty much enjoys it from wherever she wants to =)

New Growth

Well the garden had a great week last week. It got lots of sunshine and water and, as a happy result, the lettuce seeds began to sprout and so did the pumpkin seeds!! Everyone keeps telling me that the pumpkins will take over once they start growing. I hope so. The area where they are planted could use more foliage and I'm hoping that, come fall, we will have lots and lots of pumpkins!!

Here's a peek at what's growing in the garden:
The two pictures above are the pumpkins just yesterday (Sunday), and the pictures below they are today


Crazy! Yesterday there were 3, today there are about 7! Here are the other veggies and herbs:

Just look at these two Ja'moes. They have so much fun playing together and chasing each other around. They're hilarious! Kevin says one of his favorite things is to see me sitting on the couch with Slippers curled up at my right hip, Daisy sitting on my lap and the three of us nodding off to napville. Awwww, how cute! ;o)