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So yesterday our dogs got fixed. They called us and told us to come pick them up at 2:30. I think they forgot that Jack was put under awhile after Padfoot. When I started to bring him outside he was walking very slow and looked really tired. Then I had to help him up into the Jeep. When we got home I noticed that he was still not out of the anesthesia and must have forced himself to walk so he could get the heck out of the vets office.

He could barely stand as I tried to get him in the house. His legs kept wobbling and his tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth. He was so happy to be home that he kept staggering around like a drunk between the girls because they kept laughing at him. So I had him lay in the corner and I told Neona to pet him until he relaxed and fell asleep.

Padfoot was walking around happy to see us right away when we got to the vet but when we got home he quickly passed out. The poor things must have just really wanted to get out of the vets office and forced themselves to walk.

They are a lot better today. They got some pain killer this morning and now they are moving around more. I even had to muzzle Padfoot because he tried to rough house Jack earlier. The vet said that a cone will not help when there are two dogs because they will just lick each other and licking is the biggest problem. So he told us to put men's boxers on them.

No matter how many times we move and get rid of things James always keeps some boxers that have stretched out elastic so it worked out. He will never want to wear them again so I will finally be rid of them. So the dogs are in undies. Or as the girls call them... Daddy Panties

My big dogs look very silly.

It feels so strange to be sitting in an empty house again. The girls had no school on Friday because of conferences. So they had a three day weekend. The house has been so loud and busy that now it really seems quiet. I think the dogs are even quiet from getting all worn out.

Sunday James' dad came to visit. We have asked him to come visit for awhile but it has been too cold. It is about an hour and a half drive and he does not go anywhere without his dogs. So we had 4 dogs running around yesterday. James keeps making brats and kraut whenever people come over and I think his dad is sick of it. He made a surprise, surprise kind of comment. I offered to make the Greek chicken I was planning on making Tuesday but James said no.

So Noelle and I made potato salad and the apple crisp that we never got around to making. It worked out well because that way we got to use up some of the fake white and brown sugar we had leftover from making his dad Christmas cookies. If I make it again I will have to remember to add more butter or something to the topping. I did not think about the fact that you only use half as much fake brown sugar as you do real brown sugar so the topping was kind of dry. It still tasted good though.

Ahhh a moment of peace and quiet. The girls wanted to get a lot of things done today so they raced to get the chores done. I can not believe that all the chores were done and everyone was showered by 11am.

Two days ago as I made spaghetti I accidentally opened a can of beets instead of mushrooms. We do not usually buy beets but Noelle has been wanting them. She started eating them at James' dad's house and she likes them. That is when I saw the color of the juice and decided that it would make a pretty substitute for food coloring.

So today we made some pretty pink playdough. It worked out great. I just used some of the juice as part of the water needed. If I do it again I think I will use all of the juice instead of just half of it. It looked like it would be darker than what it was in the end.

Now the kids are all busy playing in the kitchen and I am catching up with a couple of TV shows that I have recorded. After a bit I think we will make apple crisp so I can get rid of some apples I have in the fridge that no one has been eating.

That is about it for today. James is supposed to leave work by 3pm. He and Noelle are going to get some groceries. She insists on going with him now so she can pick out some healthy foods. She also wants to make sure he remembers to get some cornstarch. We still have some beet juice left so she wants to see how ooze will look with beet juice coloring.

After all the time I spent on the computer yesterday I think I will just sit around all day. Maybe this will be a popcorn and movie kind of day.

The girls stayed up late last night to watch the eclipse. It was only -2 degrees last night so the girls were all bundled up in snow suits. After awhile Nicole said, " Forget this I can see it from the couch". LOL

Then Noelle and Neona started coming in to warm up every once in awhile. Noelle got very excited and said that she can not wait until summer so it is warm enough to lay out in the yard and watch the stars. It was much easier to see the stars in Arizona because they have no clouds and there are regulations on how bright lights can be. She is hoping that with us living in the country now she will be able to see the stars again. Plus she wants a better telescope this year. LOL

Well, I better get busy I have to get all my daily stuff done plus get showered and ready to go to the last conference and the book fair tonight. All of our conferences have been right around dinner time so I think tonight I will start spaghetti sauce before we go and then just boil the pasta when we get back. We should not be gone that long it is just a conference, book fair, and then we have to drop off the soccer forms. Maybe I will brown the meat and then put it and the sauce into the slow cooker.

Well it is Thursday already. The days just keep flying by. Actually this month has flown by. This is the last day of school this week for the girls. It is teacher conference time again so no school tomorrow. I think I may get just as excited about them being home as they do. LOL


We will have to decided how to spend our extra time. I will also have to think up something for us to cook. I try to make meals that take longer and they can help with when they have no school. Last time we created a meatball hot pocket type thing.


I always freeze containers of any leftover sauces for just such on the spot creations. We had a package of meatballs and a container of leftover spaghetti sauce in the freezer so we tried to create something with them. These are the times when I love that James overstocks the pantry so I have a lot of things ready when I want to come up with ideas.


We had meatballs, mozzarella cheese and sauce so I thought about making meatball bombers but we had no bread. Then I thought that the kids might want to make homemade bread. If we were going to make homemade bread we might as well go all the way and make a hot pocket calzone kind of thing. So we made a double batch of pizza dough and let it rise.


The girls love rolling out their little dough balls and filling them so we make calzones and pasties a lot. With those it is thin crust and then a thicker pinched crust to the side and I did not want that. I wanted them to turn out more like a meatball bomber with a bun, but closed up. So we rolled the dough out like a big thin tortilla and wrapped up the filling like a burrito. I stretched the dough so it would be able to go around two times. That way the likelihood of it opening would be less and it would have bread around it evenly.

We baked them at 350 for probably 25 minutes until they got brown. Some of them did start to lose some sauce out of the side but I am glad we did it that way. The dough was nice and thick and chewy like fresh baked buns. The girls loved them. Well until Nicole found that the sauce I used had mushrooms in it so she kept picking out mushrooms. LOL

Hmmm I will have to dig through the pantry tomorrow and find some fun things to make this weekend. I love making stuff with homemade bread. I do not know why people are so afraid of it. It really is easy and the flavor can't be beat.

For some reason today I remembered a web site that I have been wanting to check out but I keep forgetting. Noelle came home from school one day saying that she did a virtual knee surgery at school and it was gross. I told her that she should be happy that they are doing stuff on the computer and not dissecting anything yet. She said that the web site was gross enough and that she does not want to ever dissect anything.

I kept meaning to check out the web site and today when I got home I finally remembered to. It has a couple of things on there like a hip replacement and a car accident investigation but today I just did the knee replacement so I could see what it was that she did and found gross. The other stuff looked interesting but did not have time.

She made it sound so gross that I did not expect it to just be computer generated cartoon looking people. Then it has you actually pick up the instruments with your mouse and do the operation. I have to say I did not think I would find it gross but when it got to the bone saw I was a bit grossed out. It was not too bad though and it is a neat learning thing for kids. Just not little kids.

If any one wants to check out the website you can click on it here.

It is called Edheads.