Poor Girl!

This morning when I woke up Kati and took her out to go potty, I noticed she was limping! She has been holding her back right leg up, not even letting it get close to the ground. When she was peeing, she was holing it up too and balancing herself on the other three legs! So G and I both got her to roll over so we could see if there was something happing on the outside of her that was bothersome. With nothing to be found in her paw and not a whimper or whine from her when we were feeling her foot knee and hip we both agreed that we would just supervise her for an hour or so to see if it was just something easy like sleeping on it funny. But at noon she was still limping so I called the vet. She is probably fine, but I always figure it is better to be safe! She has an appointment at 4:30 and I will try to post again soon to let you all know how she's doing and what they figure out is wrong (hopefully nothing or something very minor!).

Happy DOT to you all! Good thoughts for a world of healthy dogs!

Kati: Kute as can be!

Some pics of the sweet and oh so lovable pup!



I was trying not to let her grow on me...I really was. Since I am just the nanny, it is inevitable that one day I will leave. Sad but true... That means tears for the family for sure, but I was trying to keep it as easy as possible.. and then they went out and got a dog! Now not only will I leave the family, but I will leave little miss Kati too! Oh well...... I guess that is why they came up with the phrase "you can always visit"... That is all.


Not much else new here, just keeping on with the training and the weekly classes. We are currently working on getting her to come when called in a variety of situations, and we are still working on drop it... She is getting a lot better at dropping her toys so that we can throw them again, she loves playing fetch! And she love, love, loves to be motivated with treats!!! (Don't we all!)

Happy DOT!

Sometimes I just get bored!

So I decide to re-arrange my room...isn't that what everyone does when they are bored? Oh and I also bought new curtains...my windows just needed something more substantial than frilly tool... Here is what it looked like before:

And here are the lesser window treatments:


And now...ta da...The finished product:
This is the what you see when you first walk in.

On the wall to the left.

Then my bed is on angle here in the corner opposite the corner b/w the dresser and t.v.

See what I mean about the curtains though? I think the new ones look much better...and I like having them on one long curtain rod to help lengthen the size of my room.
Anyhow... I certainly found something to do over my three day weekend!

Roasting My Heart Out

With the decision to become a healthy eater once again...I have been cleaning out the produce dept. in the grocery store! You think I'm kidding! Ha! This week I bought:


5 Honey Crisp Apples
5 Granny Smiths
4 Oranges
4 kiwis
2 plums
2 bananas
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Eggplant
1 container of brussel sprouts
1 container of sliced mushrooms
1 container of whole mushrooms
1 bag of broccoli
2 bags of snap peas
2 bags of green beans
2 bags of baby carrots
2 containers of cherry tomatoes
1 bunch of leafy green lettuce
1 bag of romaine lettuce


Now keep in mind that most of the fruits and veggies are eaten by me. Little Dan will help me with some of the fruit, and Little Ann will work on the carrots and the green beans, but that's about it...the rest is all mine...and so far I have chipped away a pretty little portion! Basically I have 2-3 pieces of fruit for breaky and then for lunch and dinner I have just been having veggies as the main part of my meal, and then some meat...either just plain rolled up lunch meat or tuna, or half a chicken breast. That way I get my veggies in and some meat for my proteins, and its all good! And if they are pre-chopped and washed they are easy to grab for a snack too....These are just the things that I have to do for myself....otherwise I go straight for the cookies and potato chips


A lot of the veggies, I tossed into a big baking dish and roasted...I did some roasted layers of veggies.... I even roasted a whole chicken! All the roasting is shown above. In the layers it is: Eggplant, Green Beans, Carrots, Mushrooms, and Bell Peppers...Then the finished product is here.

And people say that brussel sprouts are disgusting, Just roast them up and they are great! Cut their ends off peel the outer 2-3 leaves away, and slice them in half..toss them in "EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)" -Rachel Ray, and salt and pepper then toss 'em into your oven at 365...I always cover mine with foil so that they cook faster and the moisture that tries to escape stays in them..and in 45 minutes +/- you have some delicious, and very pretty, brussel sprouts!

So...Florida was pretty much amazing!

We arrived On Wednesday at 11-ish (pm). Laura came in from Seattle to meet me for my birthday! What a great gal!!! :) Anyhow our flights arrived within 10 minutes of each other, and we rented a car and head off to the hotel--which had a balcony and an amazing inner-coastal view!!. We figured that by the time we got to the hotel, we could quick primp and change out of airplane clothes, and head out for one drink. By the time we would get to the bar it would technically be my birthday so it would be a birthday drink and hang out a little, then off to bed. Well when we got to the bar, we discovered that they were open until 5 am! How frickin ridiculous is that!?!?! Who stays out drinking until 5 am? Not us don't worry... we left at 3:30 :)

Anyhow we were both still set on schedules... Laura's being West Coast time, and mine being to wake up and be to work at 7:30 every morning...So we woke up at 8. 4 hours of sleep...... that equals to cranky ladies!! Watch out..
We got ready to head out and went straight to the beach (after getting our morning coffee of course!). It was wonderful! The weather was in the 80's and the water temp was 70-75 somewhere, not to mention that the sand was the softest sand I have ever felt in my life... it felt like chinchilla fir! It was white and glorious, and the water was that turquoise-y blue.. which I wasn't expecting. But it was beyond gorgeous! So it was quite the relaxing morning... filled with all kinds of birthday love! if you haven't gotten the memo... it was my birthday and I love, love, love my birthday :D
Anyhow after enjoying the rays, we went off for lunch and to get ready to meet my grandpa and uncle for dinner. (oh and these are the dad's side relatives... not the grandpa that I used to go golfing with back home). For dinner we went to this place called the Okeechobe Steak House...... such a fun name to say Oh-key-cho-bee. Anyhow it was excellent food! In fact the food was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip! I had steak and lobster... mmmmm..
After dinner we went into the down-town area of West Palm Beach, where all of the quaint shops and restaurants are. We each had one martini at this place called the Blue martini, before heading home.... back in Boca Raton, we were going to try to find another place to go out to, but decided that after 4 hours of sleep we were both to cranky and tired to deal with it so we went home early (around midnight). Definitely up there on the list of great birthdays.. My golden birthday was pretty sweet too... :)

Friday we slept in so we were all caught up in that department, and we needed to catch up in the becoming tan department! We are soooo white!!! So off to the beach we went again.. and again we only stopped first to get our java! It was a very windy day, but it was perfect because the wind would blow the heat around, and so you felt just right! The water was a little more wild, so we didn't stay in it for long... also we noticed the dangerous aquatic life flag that was flying... later to lear that it was due to Jelly Fish and Man-O-Wars. Other beach-life included, the strangely well-behaved seagulls and the ridiculously orange leather people. Today we left the beach only to get subs and beverages and then to return to camp out some more.
When we actually came in, we decided we needed to find the local shopping.... we love to shop! (its sort of a problem... we've even developed a way to shop together cross country--picture messaging is a wonderful thing!) Surprisingly enough neither of us bought much. I bought some new flip flops b/c mine broke on the walk from the beach, and then we each got some cute clearance sweaters at AE. We had dinner at a place called McCormick & Schmicks..... it was sooo incredibly amazing, Oh yea....
I had the Atlantic Salmon, stuffed with Crab, Shrimp and Brie, and Laur had the swordfish with lumps of dungenous Crab on top. Again just an amazing meal.


Saturday we went out to spend the day with the family again. My uncle builds houses in West Palm. They range in selling price between 4-19 million dollars when they are done! Yowzahs! These were some pretty crazy mansions. This is just the maids suite at one of the houses. We were able to see 3 different houses. They were awesome.... Stuff like this really fascinates me too...I love to see different architecture of houses, ant then all of the details that go into them, and it is just obscene the extremities that these people go to. I'm talking, each bedroom had a full bathroom, a walk in closet, and a balcony! It was nuts! And I loved it! Then we went out to lunch with the relatives, and then back to Boca to get ready for our last night out.
We decided to go to this italian restaurant that night for dinner, and boy am I telling you, we found the most wonderful restaurants to dine at! They were all just scrumptious. And it was a really fun atmosphere, so we decided to go home and change into our night clothes... gotta be dressed up for the last night out, and then we returned to the same restaurant for drinks. It was fun... and within walking distance of our hotel.. even better!

Sunday, we woke up early and ordered room service. Then packed and loaded into the rental.... and of course we used our last hour of time to go to the beach one last time. Do you blame us.. it was such a fun time! And then it was back to real life :(

A great way to start off 2008 and my 22nd year! hooray!

DOT

Kati, Kati, Kati....

(turns out all this time, i'd been spelling it wrong!)

She is just about 5 months old now, and she is learning! It is so great to have her understanding commands! Although, her increase in knowledge seems to mean an increase in tricks and being sneaky!
Kati just advanced from the beginning more playful puppy class to the level one training class. So far she has learned: Come, Sit, Down (as in get off of that right now!), and she is in the process of learning Drop (as in drop to the floor...or lay down).

Kati is also becoming more easily worn out! This just means that instead of running around the freezing cold yard with her for half an hour, and then tossing the ball for her for half an hour, and then coming back inside and wanting to play with all of her toys inside too....now I can run with her outside for a half hour and then bring her back in to play with the ball for another ten or so minutes before she goes and zonks out under the hutch.

It has been a week

And with good reason, I haven't posted. Last wednesday I went to Florida!!! It was for my birthday celebration...and what a great celebration it was! Anyhow, I just got home last night and It was a wonderous trip! I Met my friend Laura down there, and my Uncle and Grandpa were there too (my uncle lives there and my grandpa lives in the bahamas and he came up). Anyhow it was a blast, and I will post more with pictures later on.

Munchkin Monday

Little A is such a little B sometimes! For being 6, oh excuse me....almost 7!...she sure is sassy cute!

This morning I was getting her ready for the bus b/c G had to catch an early train to get to a meeting. She almost missed the bus because she was trying to find a toy. They aren't allowed to bring toys to school...so when I told her that it didn't matter b/c she couldn't bring it with her...she started screaming and crying because I am soo mean! And then she told me that she just wanted to find it so she could hide it from Little Dan so that he wouldn't get it while she was in school. I know that its difficult to see the obvious when you are almost 7 but come on! If A can't find it then chances are that D isn't going to find it either! Anyhow she was throwing such a fit that she wouldn't just put her coat on and get to the bus! It is a good thing that we live on a cul-de-sac and that the bus has to go by 2x!!

And then Little D was crying so much today right around noon...nap time. But of course, lying down when you are tired is simply too easy. So he went to bed, for 5 minutes! And then he needed a bottle, then back to bed. For 10 minutes this time (long enough to finish said bottle), then it was more blankets that he needed, and back to bed. This time he stayed put stayed quiet for long enough to throw all of his bedding on the ground. Then I went in and fixed that and told him he needed to sleep or at least that it was quiet time, and we needed to make not a peep for at least 30 minutes. This usually works, b/c he'll play until he finds a favorite stuffed animal and then he'll bring the animal to bed, and then he'll fall asleep. Not today. Nope...taking a nap when you're exhausted is just too simple when you could cry and be needy instead! Eventually he decided to stay quiet and maybe even shut his eyes for about an hour until the little Blittle angel came home and started yelling at me b/c I didn't find her toy.

Oh to be an ill-logical child.

mmm..food

I love photographing food! The colors are always vibrant...and it always looks good! Here are some pics of some recent veggies, and eggs/omelets that I have made.

Snowy Dogs on Thurs.

Here are just a few pics of my four-legged family from back home in WA.

On Christmas day, we took all 4 of the hounds out to the dog park. And it was a white Christmas! So beautiful and snowy!

The first time that Abby had ever seen snow, we tried to call her to come inside, but she just wanted to sit out on the hillside and ponder. howl...what is this stuff...howl...why is it cold and wet and sticking to my face...howl...no I don't want to come in! I'm doing research!...howl howl

She sat out on the hill just staring up into the falling snow for a very long time...It was pretty cute!
This time, they all just ran and played and had a dandy ol' time!