Roxy

This is our beautiful pug, Roxy. She is my protector! When possible, she will not let me out of her sight. I love this gal. We adopted her into our home and our hearts almost 2 years ago. We found out 2 days ago (when this pic was taken) that the lump in her mouth is a tumor. It is a fast growing cancer, and she might not make it through the year. We are saddened by this news.
My experience with pugs- My daughter had been begging for a pug for about 3 years, finally, her boyfriend gave her one for Christmas. Roxy! I was not happy about this as we had 3 dogs and did not need another. But she kept looking at me with that face, and her temperament is amazing, Soon, she won me over and I did not want her to go. We can walk her around the neighborhood without a leash, she will not leave my side, even if we pass another dog or person. I have never had a dog that I could do that with, usually they are dragging me or I am dragging them. I would recommend a pug to anyone now that I have had an opportunity to have one. (You just have to be able to tolerate snoring and snorting noises).

Here she is, 2 months later and still with us. She is loving her stuffy. Roxy's tumor has gown to 3 or 4 times the size it was when she was first diagnosed in Sept. She seems to be getting weaker, but she is still eating and like to take short walks. She hasn't needed medication yet. We spoil her rotten. She gets to go everywhere we can take her, and I stop at the gas station and get her pepperoni sticks whenever I can, she expects it now :)

Cruise to Cabo San Lucas

We took a cruise on Carnival Cruise lines for our anniversary in 2011 to Cabo San Lucas The first day was fun, everything was new and exciting. The next day we felt trapped and it got kinda boring, we wanted to explore. Finally we docked at Cabo and it was beautiful. We went shopping and had lunch at Cabo Wabo, that may have been the funnest part, there was a band playing at the bar and it was packed at noon time. We took an excursion that included a boat ride, then a meal on the beach, we even had a bucket of Corona like a TV commercial. Then we went shopping at the mall, which was too much like the American Malls, so that part we could have skipped. The authentic shops and flee markets
are a better shopping experience.
As Far as cruising goes, it was not my favorite
I got sea sick, and medication just makes you sleepy.
I would definitely go back to Cabo, but next time, by air.

View of Cabo at night from the ship.

View of Cabo from the ship

Bucket of Corona on the beach :)

Creamy chicken pasta caserole

Creamy Chicken Pasta Caserole

I wanted something fast and easy, so I threw a few things together and came up with this. It was delicious!
4 tbsp Butter
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 C of spinach
Saute garlic for 2 min. then add spinach and cook about 3 more min.
Then add
1 Can of chicken
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 C sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 to 1 tsp of Curry
                                             1/4 C Parmesan cheese
Stir together and cook over medium heat until combined and smooth then add cooked past of choice (I used penne pasta, cause it is my family's favorite shape.                                            

Maple Grove

One of the spots we like to camp at every summer is Maple Grove Hot Springs in Idaho. It is not a real well known place, so I am almost hesitant to mention it, but here it is. It is right next to the Onieda Resevoir, there is fishing, boating, swimming and hot tubs. The kids like it because of the swimming. We like it because the kids can swim and we can just relax without hearing "I am bored". Some times the camp ground is a little over grown with weeds, and it can be expensive staying in the camp ground, you have to pay for each person to use the facilities, weather you want to swim or not. But it is still one of our favorites.

Jamaica

The beach at Sandals Resort- Ocho Rios

The beautiful sunset on the beach.
Every time we snapped a picture it was more amazing than the first.

 For our first anniversary, we took a trip to Jamaica. We stayed at the all inclusive resort Sandals. It was our first experience with all inclusive resort. That is a great way to travel, you don't have to worry about carrying money around, you eat when you want and all drinks, including alcohol, is included. (Unlike a cruise where they gouge you with alcohol sales.)  They have several Sandals Resort on Jamaica and would bus you around to the others if you wanted to explore or eat at a different place. The food was surprising great. We enjoyed everything we ate. Our favorite was a little place they set up on the dock, it was so romantic. Everything about this trip was romantic. We did try one excursion hiking up a very large waterfall with a group. It took about and hour. We had a whole disk of pictures that got destroyed in our luggage on the flight home :(  But the hike was amazing. While you are staying at the resort, they encourage you not to leave alone and only go to where they bus you to, and that is what we did. It is our only regret of the trip. We wished we would have ventured out and explored more of Jamaica. But it was an incredible trip.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

We finally, for the first time ever, got a usable crop of strawberries. I have already made crisp with it. Now we have enough to make strawberry jam. We had about 7 cups of berries. We cleaned and halved them. We put them in a pot with 1/2 tsp. of margarine and a package of canning gel, we like the Kroger brand. Bring to a rolling boil, then add 7 cups of sugar all  at once. Bring to a boil again. Stir and skim (push the foam to the sides) for 5 min. Then it is ready to put in the clean jars. Put the lids on and tun upside down for a few minutes to help the lid seal.

Hanging Planter Boxes

 Here is another use for recycled wood. Last year for father's day, I wanted to create something cool. I had seen one of these boxes at Home Depot and thought " I can do that." So I took some of the old wood we had collected, including old fencing and old pallets, and created these. They really are pretty easy to make and turned out nice. I made one for my husband and both of our fathers. It is just a box with sections inside and then a front piece to hold in the dirt and a back piece- (8 pieces of wood). Some of them use chicken wire over the front of the squares to hold the dirt in, but I opted not to. For the boxes I gave away, I put brackets on the back making it easy to just hang on the deck or over the fence. If you have a chop saw, tape measure and old wood, you can do this.