Slider's 2nd Birthday

I have been the very dedicated mother to one corgi puppy for almost 2 years now. Slider (our little BERGER...hehe) turned 2 years old on July 5th. I decided I needed to make this a special birthday for him. Yes, I know he is a dog. But he has been through a lot. He was stressed the month leading up to the move (lost excess hair and gave himself hot spots). Then we everything in "his" house disappeared. He got loaded up in a cramped car and we drove for 2 1/2 days to arrive at a huge empty house. Then we had service people show up every day for almost 2 weeks. So it has been just a little crazy for him.

My snuggle puppy :)

So to start off the day we snuggled up on the floor while I drank my coffee. Normally I would have taken him to a park or for an extra long walk but it was 105 degrees so staying inside was our only option. Slider loves to snuggle on the floor. I then looked up some recopies for doggy cakes and here is what I found.
A peanut butter cake at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/doggie-birthday-cake/
and a cream cheese icing at http://www.dogtreatkitchen.com/dog-treat-frosting.html They also have comments and other options for the recipies. Here is what I did:


Peanut Butter Cake:
ingredients:
1 egg
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey (optional- i did not add this because I didn't have it)
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup whole wheat or white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the egg, peanut butter, oil, vanilla and honey in large bowl; blend well. Stir in the carrots and mix thoroughly. Sift together the flour and baking soda and fold into the carrot mixture. Spoon into greased pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out to cool completely

I could not find my muffin tin or any of my small pans ( I think they are still packed somewhere) so I used as small casserole dish. The cake is very dry so it crumbled as I removed it from the pan. I think that honey might help hold it together. I just placed the pieces together, because Slider does not mind. If doing again, I would make in a muffin tin (even a mini muffin tin) and defiantly make sure I wait the 10 minutes (I got impatient)

Cream Cheese Icing: 
Ingredients:
8 ounces of cream cheese (low or fat free)
2 Tbsp. Honey
2 Tbsp. plain yogurt (low or fat free)
3 Tbsp. Flour (approx. amount, you might need a little more)

Mix first 3 ingredients in a bowl until smooth. Mix in one tablespoon of flour at a time until you have a good consistency for spreading.

I did not use the honey because I did not have any. Instead I used peanut butter. I also used a little more than 2 Tbsp. of yogurt. I would defiantly suggest letting the cream cheese get to room temp before making.

I then spread over my crumbled up cake and decorated with carrots and treats.

my attempt :)

Slider going to town on his treat

Slider really liked the icing and ate all of that off the top first. After a few bites of the cake we took it away so he would not get sick. I then broke up the cake and used them as treats for the next few days. This is why I suggest the mini-muffin size. He got this cake instead of dinner that night because we did not want a sick corgi. If I had smaller sizes I would have just supplemented his dinner with it.

Slider also got a new nylabone. His favorite. Lots of belly rubs and a few dropped carrots while I was baking. We also played his favorite games. It was a long day so he ended up falling asleep in Daddy's lap :)

Here are a few of the pictures of slider over the past 22 months that he has been a part of our family :)

The day he came home

what a cute face:)

he crawled right up next to me and fell asleep

He falls asleep in the funniest positions

he likes to sneak up on the couch

It was so sad after his surgery but he still smiled at everything !

Slider likes to play games with daddy on the computer

See he still sleeps funny :)

Meal Plan/ Coupon Binder

I have decided to start couponing. Don't worry you will not see me on any tv shows. But now that I have more time I am planning ahead with my meals and if I am going to do that might as well use some coupons. Every little bit counts right?

So, to keep everything organized I made a binder for it all. This was a cheap little project because we save all our office/school supplies and re-use them. I used dividers and page protectors and organized as follows:
1. Grocery list: I formatted and printed off a grocery list outline. I like printed lists but that would be crazy so the outline should keep everything organized before I go to the store and should limit last minute runs to pick up one thing. This is at the front of the binder so when I think of something needed I can write it down real fast.
2. Meal plan list: The best way to save money at the store is to plan your meals a head of time, other wise you just buy junk. This also will help to you make healthy meals. So this page has 7 spots for 7 days. I put the date of the meal, what it is, and what is needed (this will help make the grocery list after the planning). Plus with this planning if you have 2 meals that need the same ingredient you can cut down on prep time. example: grilled chicken- you can plan ahead and grill enough for both nights and then freeze the extra or have the meals one day after the other.
3. Recipe pages: I like to look up new recipes online but now that my computer is on a different floor than my kitchen it makes it hard to run back and forth. We have an ipad but usually I have to fight my husband for it and it always goes missing halfway through my cooking. So, to make life easier any meals that are new or that I can never remember the ingredient amounts for I will write on the recipe outlines. I made it really simple: Name of meal, ingredient list, directions. I have 2 recipes per page.

I printed extras of these pages but also saved them on my computer under their own file for easy find and print later

Next for coupons:

I broke my coupons into 3 groups: Food, non-food, store specific
Each group has its own page protector- I tried writing on the outside of the protectors with dry erase markers but it just wipes off, so I will use a permanent marker once I can find mine :)

Now when writing my grocery list I will pull out the coupons and star the items I have a coupon for.

Yay! I feel so productive. Now to write my meal plan and then off to the Gym!

Last week: Birthdays, DMVs and pregnancy dreams

So all my fun crafty projects have been put on the back burner due to the need to accomplish things related to our move. You know important things like getting MO drivers licences and voter registration, inspecting the cars, titling the cars, all that stuff. But lots has happened in the last week so here is a peak into the happenings.

So far we have MO drivers licences and are registered to vote. That was the shortest time I have spent at a DMV ever. We were there for a total of 10 minutes and it only cost us $40. Today I am going to title the cars (we had to wait to get them inspected) but before I do that I have to go to a different office and prove I did not have to pay property tax on them in the state of MO for last year, that is what I get for having an awesome time at the DMV earlier :(

Wednesday was my 25th birthday. Hello mid twenties. I remember when I thought 25 was so old, I don't feel old. It is funny how perceptions of age change. I received my birthday present from my husband about 3 months ago (a coach diaper bag) but we celebrated with dinner at the Boathouse in Forest Park. We sat outside and watched the sun set. It was a nice evening even if it was a little hot. James bought me a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing, it was amazing ;) I treated myself to the new Jeaniene Frost book, Once Burned. Which was awesome of her to release for my birthday :). This book is a spin off of her very popular Night Huntress series and I was not disappointed. You can find it here if you are interested in finding out more it is on Amazon or on Jeaniene Frost's website . Charlaine Harris recommended it on the Today show earlier this week as well. Check it out she has published a part of the book on her website and you can find out more about all of her other books.

I have been having weird dreams lately. But the weirdest one was where I was married to a sock puppet (you know that monkey looking one that is everywhere) and I gave birth to a sock puppet baby. I think the problem is that my husband often says horrible things right before I go to bed. Example: Last night he asked what we would do if our daughter did not have earlobes. I was like WHAT! he does this just to torture me

My dog does not know how to be a dog. We bought a house with a nice back yard and a fence just for him (you would think he would be a little more appreciative) and he does not know how to use it. So I have to walk him on a leash in the fenced back yard so that he knows how to go to the bathroom out there. Weirdest part is that he has no problem in the back yard at my parents house. Also, our deck gets really hot and we found it burns his feet (really horrible screaming one day followed by me saving him, burning my own feet and then placing cold compresses on his feet for 10 minutes) so I have to carry him outside to the yard. Yes, I know he is spoiled but what can I do?

We have been watching the Olympic Trials in our house and my husband makes the best comments. Here are some examples:

• Floor routines would be so much better if they had light sabers. 
• Oh look at all the fishies! (watching butterfly race)
• Hey the flying squirrel monkey is on now! (whenever Gabby Douglas had a routine)

He wont be too happy I posted those. I do have to give him credit. He took me to see Magic Mike on Saturday. Yes, he is a good husband :)