Where are the cows?

I was awakened from my sleep at 2:30 a.m. to the sound of a cowbell. It really isn't all that unusual (Grandma's bed alarm broke a few weeks ago, so she uses a cow bell to let us know when she needs to get up), but it's still quite alarming.

I stumbled into Grandma's room to find her sitting on the edge of her bed looking around. I asked her what she needed.

"I don't know. I've been sitting here for hours and hours with all these people. They told me all the cows in the world are gone. I thought I would ring this bell to find out."

(Suppressing a laugh, or as much of a laugh as is possible at 2:30 a.m.) "Well, there aren't any cows here. Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

"I guess. Is there any in there?"

"No, there aren't any cows in there."

After we get done in the bathroom, I take her back to her bed. I try my best to explain to her that she was having a dream. She didn't ask much more about the cows and went back to bed pretty easily.

Maybe we should take the cowbell away.

Enjoying Warmer Weather

We've been so thankful that the weather has warmed up recently. It's been so nice to open the windows, get outside, and not have the heat on all the time!

I took Grandma and the dogs outside one day last week to enjoy the sunshine. Wilson had a blast playing fetch with a stick. Wesley isn't into playing fetch. He would rather explore the yard and, unfortunately, the neighborhood.

As you can see, Wesley is too busy checking out the yard to be concerned with fetching the stick.

He always wants to bring sticks in to chew on. He would run to the door like this every time I would throw the stick.

Grandma just sitting and taking it all in.

It's pitiful to have to watch one dog play outside and not be able to go out! Wesley and Wilson love sitting on the bed like this and looking out the window.

Our dogs sure know how to get comfortable!

Mom, I'm eating my veggies

One of my goals for 2011 is to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. I don't have any problem eating fruit. I love almost any kind of fruit. Lately, I've been having a smoothie in the morning with whatever fruit is available at the store. I've had a lot of blackberries and bananas.

Vegetables are a little harder for me to eat. I've been trying to come up with creative ways to get at least 2 servings of vegetables a day. So far this year, I've tried the following ways of eating vegetables:

• fresh spinach in smoothies
• carrots pureed in spaghetti sauce
• roasted squash
• roasted asparagus
• carrots and celery with buffalo chicken dip
• cauliflower in mashed potatoes

And most recently, I have tried kale. I've heard a lot about how healthy kale is and all the vitamins and nutrients it provides. So, last week I tried it 2 different ways. First, I sauteed it in olive oil, salt, and pepper. This was really good!

I read of baking kale and eating it like potato chips. I drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper on the kale and baked it. This was also really good! I used a little too much olive oil and salt, but otherwise they were quite tasty and a bit addictive!

This is a picture of my kale chips as they came out of the oven.

Our Part of the Snowstorm

It's hard to believe that 4 days ago we were enjoying 76 degree temperatures and spending most of the day outside. Just yesterday afternoon, I was driving with my windows down and had the doors open because it was hot in the house. It's a much different story today!

First thing Wesley did this morning was try to dig around in the snow with his nose. The ground is so frozen that he couldn't dig very much. You can see a little bit of snow on his nose and face in this picture.




Wesley and Wilson get so frisky out in the snow. Wilson wasn't a big fan of it at first, but he loves it now. They just run and run!


It's supposed to get down to 7 tonight with a wind chill of -15. That's just a little too cold for Jake (who is usually outside all the time), so we decided to bring him in.

Wesley and Wilson aren't quite sure what to think of this! Poor Jake looks scared to death!