Round and Round... and round and round and round and round....

These pictures pretty much describe how I am feeling right now. I feel like I am going around and around doing things but nothing is getting done! Plus everything is just way out of focus! For example, the shutters and trim are now finished but I have yet to decide on a door color so my door is still 3 different colors. I just can't decide! Since they are replacing the surround of the door (rotted wood) in a few weeks I asked them if they could just paint it them to buy me some more time in choosing a color.

Also - I'm working on the church directory right now and I'm getting close to being done but tonight I just realized that my card reader wasn't reading all the pictures that were on the church's camera. No wonder I was confused to where certain pictures were! Well, if I had realized that a few weeks ago I might have actually be a lot closer to being finished that I am right now. I just feel as though this project is never going to end!

Also - I can't find our stud finder and it is driving me crazy!!! I need it to hang our curtain rods and if it's not found tomorrow I might just go out and buy a new one. These curtains have been a project now for weeks. I've been getting stuff done on them but there's always something that holds the project up for a few days.

Whew. I am just in way over my head right now. But - you know what... I totally lost it this afternoon. Straight out I thought they might have to send me to the loony bin. Thankfully it wasn't for long though. I just cried a bit and out of my mouth came a prayer for help. In just a few minutes I was feeling a lot better. I definitely still have a lot weighing on me but it just doesn't seem so depressing right now. I'm ok with going around and around with things out of focus as long as I keep a smile on my face. I just want to stay happy during this time. With a little perseverance and prayer I'm hoping I can keep that up.

Until next time...

Thanksgiving Gravy

My favorite gravy... I make this every year! We fry our turkey so we never have drippings left over from roasting so I make the gravy about a week to 2 weeks ahead of time. I made the gravy today (although I usually try to make it a lot earlier!) and it is now sitting in the fridge overnight waiting for the fat to rise so that I can scrape it off tomorrow. Then it will go in the freezer until Tuesday. I'll then transfer to the fridge to thaw and warm up on Thanksgiving! I try to do most of the "work" ahead of time although I usually end up running around crazy on Thanksgiving!

I LOVE Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday and I always host it at my house. Even though it usually is a huge task and sometimes a hassle, I am so content while cooking for Thanksgiving. No matter what goes wrong - I just love putting this big meal together. Of course, I usually crash the day after (hence why I have NEVER gone shopping on Black Friday). This year we well have 13 people (last year was 20 but my cousin is heading up to NY this year for the holiday). It's a full day of eating. We start off by having a family breakfast of Overnight Blueberry French Toast... then it's appetizers mid afternoon followed by a huge feast and then dessert. Yum!!

Without further ado, the recipe I use for Gravy:

MAKE AHEAD TURKEY GRAVY

Ingredients:

• 4 turkey wings (about 3 to 4 lb)
• 2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 3/4 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp stick butter
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

PREPARATION

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Have ready a large roasting pan, 5- to 6-qt pot and 3-qt saucepan.


2. Put wings in a single layer in roasting pan; scatter onions on top. Roast 11/4 hours or until wings are browned.


3. Put wings and onions in pot. Add 1 cup water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on bottom. Add to pot. Add 6 cups broth (refrigerate remaining 2 cups), the carrots and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 11/2 hours.


4. Remove wings. When cool, pull off skin and meat. Discard skin; save meat for another use.


5. Strain broth into saucepan, pressing vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard vegetables; skim fat off broth. (If time permits, refrigerate over-night so fat that rises to the top solidifies and can be easily removed.)


6. Whisk flour into the remaining 2 cups broth until thoroughly blended and smooth.


7. Bring broth in the saucepan to a gentle boil. Whisk in flour mixture and boil 4 to 5 minutes to thicken gravy and remove floury taste. Stir in butter and pepper.


Planning Tip: Freeze in an airtight container up to 1 month. Refrigerate 2 days to thaw. Reheat in saucepan, whisking often (see Note).

(Recipe and Photo taken from womensday.com)

P.S. Many of you left comments on my facebook profile instead of on here (although there were a lot of people that looked at the blog and just didn't comment! That's ok though - it's nice to know there are people out there in Blog world that are nice enough just to see what I needed help with!!). I started what I am going to do with the door today and hopefully it will be secured tomorrow. As soon as it is I will post photos! Thanks for all of your help!

Desperate for some Decorating Help!

Ok, so we have a new couch - it's what I've been waiting on to finish the living room (well, I need new chairs too but I can hang stuff w/o the chairs). I bought an old door to go over the couch but low and behold the greens clashed so that won't work. Then I thought I'd hang the door in my kitchen to discourage dirty handprints on the wall that leads into the dining room. Well, I looked at the back of the door today and it's white - so I put it above the couch. Yeah... it looks good. Just when I got used to the thought that it would be in the kitchen!! So... I need help!!! Here are the pics...

Door or....

(close up of the fabric... I wanted a burgandy couch but they don't make it in this fabric and I have spend 1.5 years now looking for a couch that I liked... this matched the carpet ok and the fabric is pet & kid proof so green it was...)

... or picture (it's a painting done by my great great Uncle... I think, well, its someone in the family!))
Door in the kitchen... or over couch?
instead of the door in the kitchen I could get one of these shutters...
Shutters are now green instead of reddish brown. I am going for "english cottage" look... yes, I know... I own a colonial. Anyhow... the bushes will flower orange red in the summer and I want reds, blues, yellows and purples in the garden beds next year. I can't pick out a door color though! I want it to be lighter than the shutters so that a wreath will stand out. We are replacing the surround around the door and the pediment on top of the door because of rot. The top thing will be a simple triangle instead of the acorn thing that is there now.

too yellow of a green on the door?a view of the door from the inside. Actually the original color goes better in the house because I've got some red accents but the color was so blah on the outside of the house. It was the same color as the roof and so much brown made the house disappear and also look way too traditional for me. I really hate having a brown roof!
Comments... Ideas... Suggestions... PLEASE!

Being with hubby...

I love my hubby! He's an awesome guy - I'll have to tell you about him sometime soon! But for this weekend we are going to spend some good quality time together so I am going to forgo the computer this weekend. Ack! We're going to be content together :-).

Blog you Monday!

Our Foster Dogs

Along the years we have had a few fosters that did not stay with us. The dog in the front is Troy. He was our 2nd foster (after Emmi). The dog behind Troy is Marty and my neighbor adopted her through Ratbone Rescues as well.

>Then came Oreo. She's the pup standing on the chair. She was a fantastic dog with TONS of energy. She was adopted out to a woman in Baltimore that eventually moved to North Carolina. Oreo left us right before Bryce was born and she spent most of my bedrest on the bed with me. She was a cuddler.

Last but not least came Sharky. When we had Bryce we decided that it was too much for us to foster dogs but when they asked me to foster Sharky I couldn't resist and David let me get him. He was an American Hairless Terrier and I WANT one! I know I'll never have one because David doesn't really like them so I wanted to foster one so that I could experience one! He was really cool. He got along with Bryce just fine and after a few months he joined a family in Jacksonville, Fl. I had to put him on a place and that was one of the hardest things I had to do because not only did he have to wait a few hours in the crate at the airport he was also going to have a layover and I felt so bad for him! But he made it down there just fine and I heard he was doing just fine with his brother dog down there. Here's a pic that his new family down in Florida sent me. He's here with his brother. I can hardly tell the difference between the 2! Sharky is the one sitting. Well, those are all of the dogs Dave and I have had in the past 8 years. Right now we're just fine with the 2 - I wish I could foster again but it's just so much work and with the amount of kids that go through the house I just can't chance getting a dog that might have a problem with them. I definitely have to say that I am totally content with my dogs - through thick and thin - they bring great satisfaction to my life. I've always been a dog person (since really young) and I think I will always be a dog person. They just love you unconditionally and that's so amazing!

Emmi

Next came Emmi. We brought Emmi to our home as a foster dog through Ratbone Rescues. I was expecting a larger dog than Zena because she looked huge in the pictures. I was shocked when we picked her up in Virginia - she was 8 lbs! I instantly fell in love. She was so funny looking. Her back legs are longer than her front legs (I call her my little dragster), her ears are huge for her head, her tail has a kink in it and she sounds like she's talking when she growls. It turns out that she had grade 3/4 patellas in her back legs and she would need surgery on them. They wanted me to send her to the midwest because the surgeries were cheaper out there but I just couldn't let go. I was convinced that no one else would love her like I did. She had so many behavioral problems I really thought she'd be returned and how could I just let her go like that? So hubby and I discussed it and she became a member of the family.

We got her the patella surgery that we thought would fix a lot of behavioral issues - and it didn't. She still has a tendancy to go in the house (hence when we moved we got hardwoods because she will only go on carpet) and as she's gotten older she's gotten crankier. She is now 6 and has arthritis in all 4 legs. Her back hock joint is curved from arthritis so it almost sits on the floor and her front left joint is very swollen. She's on pain meds and prozac for anxiety. She's good with kids when she's awake - she LOVES people - excpet if you bother her while she's sleeping she turns into Cujo. She's really bad if she's sleeping and so I usually lock her in her crate if other kids are coming over. The vet says that while she is in pain, it can be managed with the meds and she's got YEARS left on her. Sigh. While I love this dog so much - she can be difficult. She now has to be carried up and down stairs and she has to be carried off the porch to go potty. Oh yeah, and I'm also convinced that she's not totally all there (brainwise I mean). Last week she barked to get off the bed so I put her on the floor. She followed me into the den and barked at me so I got up and followed her. She went back to the bed and barked to get back up. She found a new spot, laid down and was totally happy. Here's our little wacky Emmi (she's about 10 lbs now):

This is a picture of her shortly after we got her about 6 years ago (it'll be 6 years in December!). She has always sat like this and still does. She sits on the side of her bum, never on it like Zena does!

This is her after her surgery. She had double patella surgery. She was such a trooper! She walked around on her casts just fine (vet said that was ok after a few days) and this is how she sat while they were on.

Partners in crime. Bryce used to love to unroll the toilet paper and Emmi is obsessed with shredding any kind of paper. I caught the 2 of them doing this and made them pose for it as a reminder - you can see how happy Emmi is to do a sit stay!

And this is where the naughty kids go....

Just kidding! Bryce used to love going into the dog's crates when he was younger. He thought it was so much fun! Now he enjoys just taking them apart! We only crate Emmi now because of her issues. Zena has the run of the house now that we're not in a townhouse. I was afraid she would bark constantly in the townhouse because of all of the noise and I didn't want to disturb the neighbors. Now they can't hear her if she does (well, I hope not!) because we're in a detached house.

Zena

Well, it's about time that I tell you what makes me extremely content with my life... besides my hubby and son! My doggies! I can't remember if I'd written about them before but I love them both so much they deserve another blog entry if I have! We have 2 rat terriers, Zena and Emmi.

Zena is a purebred rattie. I was bad with her... she is a puppy store dog. I know, I know.... bad... but I was young and she was so cute. I did do some research on the breed before I went back to get her and I did look around a bit to see if there were breeders in the area but I couldn't find any at the time and she was just so darn cute! We have been lucky with her so far though - no big health problems and she's pretty well socialized for a pet store pup. She's not extremely keen about kids but she will tolerate them to a point. She does not like to be poked at or have her ears pulled and she will warn you if you do so. She's pretty good at just warning and not snapping at the kids. I see it as the "mommy" dog disciplining her pups. She was our first "kid" and it's pretty obvious. The poor gal has this look she gives me when Bryce is acting up.... "when is he going back mom???". She's now a tad bit overweight (she probably needs to lose about 4 lbs) but I'm finding it very hard to find the time to get out there and walk her. Here's a picture of our darling Miss Piggy:

This is taken when she was about 1 and before Bryce.

I can't find any recent pictures of her - she tries to stay clear of Bryce and most of my pics are of him now! Here she is at a playdate from this spring eyeing the popsicles. She's not a huge fan of kids but if they've got food, she wants to be near them!

Next came Emmi.... and I think I'll keep you in suspense about her... till tomorrow!