Shoemaker Sheraton

We had the 3rd Annual Shoemaker Sheraton Weekend this past weekend. We spent a lot of time eating good food, playing in and around the pool and getting a sneak peak at what will hopefully be Uncle Rob & Aunt Jenny's new house in Sunblest! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Budget Week 6

Menu Plan:

Sunday: Father's Day Dinner at Mom & Dad's
Monday: Pizza, Salad & Breadsticks (yes, we make homemade pizza a lot...it's quick & easy and we can pile a lot of good veggies on top! Plus, I got a bunch of Pillsbury pizza crusts awhile back from Kroger for about 25 cents each that we need to use up!)
Tuesday: Cheeseburgers, Leftover baked beans, Strawberries, Leftover Potato Salad/Potato Chips
Wednesday: Dinner at Joey & Suzi's House - Molly & John are here for a visit! Yeah!
Thursday: Omelets - use up the rest of the pizza veggies and use up some eggs as well
Friday - Saturday: at Mom & Dad's for the weekend with Uncle Rob & Aunt Jenny as well!

Only one shopping trip this week:
Monday - Meijer - spent $15.90
4 bags of Kitten Chow (Free after coupons - will donate to Humane Society)
1 onion
2 packages of Marshmallows (goes great with cheap Rice Krispies from Walgreens next week)
1 gallon whole milk
4 packages of Taco shells (will take to the annual Mexican party for part of my contribution)
2 frozen Eggo pancakes/waffles
6 jars of Smucker's ice cream toppings
1 bag of frozen hashbrown potatoes

Total for the week: $15.90

Such a good boy

Brendan is such a good boy...if he's getting cranky and we think that he's getting tired, we just tell him to get his blankie and go lay down on "his" pillows. And this is exactly what he does. :) He never actually goes to sleep, but he does seem to be happier after he lays down for a little bit.

Brendan and Dora

Brendan really seems to enjoy Dora's company. So far he's been very nice with her...we keep telling him that he has to be "gentle" and Dora's been great in return.

Feeding the Swans in my PJs

Molly was in town for a visit, so we had dinner at Uncle Joe & Aunt Suzi's house. They have a family of swans that usually swim by in the evenings. Brendan was lucky enough to get to help feed them all.

Father's Day Gift

This is what Brendan "made" for this Daddy for Father's Day this year. :)

Prayers

I think that God's been very busy answering some long sought after prayer requests this month...

My only question is, they say bad things come in "threes". Is the same true for good things?

Grocery Budget Week 5:

Sunday: Pineapple Pork Chops with Rice & Carrots
Monday: Pizza, Breadsticks, Salad
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken on Grill, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans
Thursday: Orange Roughy, Cheesy Pasta, Creamed Spinach
Friday: Cheeseburgers, Baked Beans, Potato salad & Fruit
Saturday: in Terre Haute to celebrate Father's Day with Grandpa/Great Grandpa Bill - probably leftovers for dinner (we'll have a big lunch there) taking Brownies to have for dessert!

Monday: Marsh $1.72 for 2 green bell peppers

Tuesday: Target $2.13 for strawberries, chocolate angel food cups, salad dressing x2, 1 gallon milk, 5 1.5qt containers of Breyer's ice cream (Buy 5 Breyer's Ice Creams @ $2.50 each minus 5 $1 coupons, get back $5 gift card) used $10 in Target gift cards in addition to cash, and got back $5 gift card from Breyer's ice cream deal.

Wednesday: Kroger $10.42 for 8 rolls of paper towels (free after doubled coupon) 3 one pound rolls of ground beef, 1 one pound roll of Italian sausage (all meat was on sale), 1 can Bush's baked beans

Walgreens $1.59 one package of Sara Lee Hamburger buns

Thursday: Kroger $3.26 for 1 roll of paper towels, 4 McCormick spices, 6 Suave deodorants, 1 lbs. potato salad, 2 Healthy choice Fresh Mixers. (paper towels, spices & deodorants were free after coupons)

Target: $.99 1 lb. Strawberries

Saturday: Target: 4 boxes of Kashi TLC bars (If you haven't tried these, check them out...they're like 10x better than nutrigrain bars!) $5.20 (These are normally $3.29 per box at Target...they had them on price cut/sale for $2.89 and I had 4 $1.50 off coupons. I wasn't sure when the sale was going to end, hence why I bought all four tonight! )

Total spent: $ 25.31 (dug some extra change out of my purse!)

Work!

Chris got an email out of the blue from a former co-worker on Tuesday. They were looking for an extra pair of hands to work on a 120 hr. project. They had no idea that Chris was even out of work! He met with them on Wednesday morning and worked out the particulars. He started work on Thursday of this week, and should have about 3 weeks of work ahead of him! It's amazing how our prayers were answered.

He's also got a few more interviews lined up with some smaller companies about some small contracts. So, we keep plodding along. :)

So cute!

We were eating dinner this evening and Brendan was playing...doing his usual, pulling up on the bar of the stove, necessitating me getting up from my dinner multiple times to pull him off. After returning to my plate, I looked back to check on him to see if he had returned to the stove. Sure enough he had...BUT...he apparently noticed the cutest little man looking back at him and decided to give him a big kiss!

South Chicago Dachshund Lovers Meet-up

So on Saturday morning, we all piled into the Escape to make the 3 1/2 hour drive to Mokena, IL to meet Dora. Ellie got to ride in style in the back in her crate...it was too crowded to have her roaming the car with Chris & I in there plus Brendan in his carseat and all of our stuff! She whined a little off & on, but nothing that prevent Brendan from catching a two hour nap! We stopped at a McDonald's for lunch about 40 minutes away from Mokena. Ellie stretched her legs and we all had a little lunch.

The meet-up was occurring at a doggie play place. Here are some pictures. It was pretty neat. Brendan enjoyed throwing the balls around and didn't terrorize too many of the dogs. Supposedly, this was a low turn out, but it was still pretty loud inside!




Amy, Dora's foster mom, brought her down from Wisconsin so we could meet her and introduce her to Ellie. We found a smaller room where the girls could wander and check each other out as well as we could get our questions answered about Dora.

After getting all our questions answered, we agreed to take the plunge and take Dora home with us. Amy snapped a picture of us with Ellie & Dora.


Then we started on our journey home. It was not the most pleasant 3 1/2 hours of our lives. :) Dora was very good...a little whiny/talkative at first and each time we stopped or started again, but overall, I was impressed. Brendan on the other hand had had enough of his carseat and was generally unhappy most of the way home. We ended up stopping 3 times on the way back for human potty breaks, a rest area where the dogs could walk a little & potty, and Brendan could run around a little, and then for gas. We didn't get home until 7:30pm. Luckily everyone was pretty tuckered out and Brendan didn't put up much of fight on going to bed.

Then we spent some time with Dora, getting to know her personality a little bit better. She thoroughly inspected the whole family room/kitchen/laundry where the dogs are confined to. She could obviously smell the cats as she vigorously sniffed thru the bars of the gates, but no kitties made an appearance for her. She followed Chris around like a little shadow and cried/talked if he left her sight. She also hopped right up on his lap (a little on mine as well) and snuggled/gave kisses.

After a couple hours of relaxing/snuggling, we called it a night. Dora slept pretty well in her crate next to Ellie's crate. There was a little whining initially and Chris heard some around 4:30am when he was awake, but otherwise, no major issues. :)

This morning (Sunday) we got up and she was a busy body again...followed us around, hardly sat down at all! We ended up all going for a walk...Brendan and Ellie in the wagon and Dora on her leash. She walked very nice, just as Amy had said she would. She only barked once at a neighbor dog in a fenced in yard. After our walk, she did seem a little tuckered out and did lay down, but I don't think that she actually napped at all...unlike Princess Ellie who slept all morning except for her ride (& short walk) in the wagon.

This afternoon, Dora was a little calmer and didn't cry quite so much when Chris left the room, which was a relief...I know that he needs to go upstairs sometimes to deal with work stuff and can't do it or have Brendan napping if she's yapping! However, it was mildly amusing to come back from being upstairs to find that Dora had followed Chris into the bathroom, as she didn't want to let him out of her sight!

She's currently dozing on a pillow on the couch next to Chris. I may try to snap a couple pictures and add them here in a little bit.

We think that we've (actually) Chris has come up with a nick-name for her already! She's a little bit bigger dog, 19 lbs, and maybe could lose another pound of baby fat and is this beautiful chocolate color that I love! Chris just started calling her "Chocolate Chunk". I think that it's kinda cute. :) And it totally fits with her absolutely sweet personality.

Grocery Budget Week 4:

(I may try to go back and post about week 3...I ended up spending probably about $10 over the $25...need to check my receipts. But not bad considering Chris' parents were here too.)

But I have pictures for this week...does that make up for it!?!

Monday: Target $3.13


Wednesday: Walgreens $1.99 for one gallon of milk (I have several Walgreens register rewards and they have a current promotion where you buy two packages of Nabisco cookies plus a gallon of milk, you get $3 in Register Rewards that are good on your next purchase) Cookies are $2.50 each, but I can pay for them with a previous register reward, so those don't come out of the budget.

Thursday: Kroger $17.24

(The kitten food will get donated to a local animal shelter)
Walgreens: $2.29 for 1 gallon of milk

Meals for the week: (Ended up cleaning out the fridge part of this week!)

Sunday: Dinner at Mamaw & GrandBob's (Pat & Tom still in town)
Monday: Leftover Tri Tip Roast that Pat made...still yum!
Tuesday: Leftover Pesto Chicken (from Anniversary Party) with cheesy pasta
Wednesday: Leftover Pizza
Thursday: Apple Ham Crescents (one of my new favorite recipes!) with Broccoli
Friday: Tacos
Saturday: Spaghetti & Meatballs with Salad & Bread

Maybe adding to our menagerie tomorrow!

A couple weeks ago, Chris & I started talking about adopting another dog. Ellie seems a little lost and lonely and we thought that she needed a new sister/friend. Of course, the plan was to rescue/adopt again, but the challenge was to find a dog that would fit into our household at this point...somewhat cat friendly, child friendly, and blind dog friendly...that's a tall order for a dachshund to fill! :)

Dachshund Rescue of North America (www.drna.org) is a wonderful organization where Abby & Ellie were both rescued from and we decided to work with them again. We've completed our application and have had our home visit...yes, a little over the top, but these volunteers put a lot of time and money into rescuing these dogs and they want to make sure that they go to good homes. So...anyway...

The local rep, Chris, suggested that we take a look at a dog named Dora. She is an 11 year old (same as Ellie) chocolate tweenie dachshund. She was surrendered after her owners moved and decided that they didn't want to take her with them. Unfortunately, even at nearly 11 years old, they had been letting her have puppies! She has now of course been spayed and has lost 6 pounds so far! She is living in a foster home in Wisconsin with four other dachshunds, one of whom is blind! She also has a minor medical issue - she had a difficult dental extraction - which resulted in a canal between her mouth and nasal cavity. Nothing that can't be dealt with fairly easily. Besides that living with a blind dog that made me think that this is just meant to be, is that June is "Senior Month" at DRNA - they waive the adoption fee on all seniors. (Yes, money is tight right now, but we've trimmed our budget and still have a couple hundred dollars a month as a "surplus", so while we can't afford a lot of luxuries, we can still afford to give this doggie a safe, happy home and a full (well, not too full, she still needs to lose a little weight!) food bowl. But it sure is nice to not have to pay for her. Granted, as soon as Chris gets a job we will be making a donation to DRNA to help them continue the work that they do.)

Here is her petfinder page http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13223035

Chris, Brendan & I are driving up to a suburb of Chicago (Hi Chrissi!) to meet her tomorrow afternoon and possibly bring her home with us if all goes well. Wish us luck!

Good news & Bad news

Chris got offered a job!

In Bloomington...and they want him to relocate there for it. They don't want him commuting...something about a work/family balance.

We have thought a lot about this and there's just no way that we can feel good about this opportunity. There are so many good things here in Indy/Fishers and the only good thing about moving to Bloomington would be this awesome job opportunity for him. I would like have to leave my job (1 1/2 hour commute just doesn't seem realistic for me, esp. if we have no family support in Bloomington to help out with Brendan), we'd have to sell our house in a difficult market, we'd have to quickly buy a new house in Bloomington, we'd have to find a new daycare for Brendan if I was to find a job in Bloomington, which after a quick search, I found zilch!

So after re-examining our budget and trimming a little bit more, we've decided that we can last several months without Chris working (for a paycheck...he's going to have a nice honey do list to work on! ;) ) rather than make a drastic move to beautiful southern Indiana. Oh, don't get me wrong, I love Bloomington and a few years ago, might have considered living there, but now is just not the time for us to uproot our family and make drastic changes.

16 Months Old - Picture added!

Our little man is 16 months old today! So hard to believe!

Just being cute...

Running away from home...

Bisia & Grampy's visit & Biking Riding

Chris' parents (Pat & Tom), who Brendan calls or will call Bisia & Grampy came to visit for a long weekend and to help Mimi & Papaw celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Bisia, as always, made us lots of yummy, yummy food, esp. her famous apple pie and a wonderful beef roast (don't have the name with me and too tired to get off the couch to find the recipe card that she left me). Grampy kept himself busy by helping Chris out around the house...mowing the grass, pulling weeds, transplanting a small maple tree, running some wire in the basement. He also got the bike trailer put together that I had gotten Chris for his birthday. So both Grampy & Daddy took Brendan for a spin behind the bike. He really seemed to enjoy it, especially once he got moving. Bisia & Grampy also were nice enough to get Brendan his very own helmet to wear on bike rides...keep your fingers crossed that Brendan will let us put it on his head!

Just Playing Outside

Brendan really loves pushing his lion toy on the driveway and down the sidewalk...has some trouble getting stuck in the grass though! He knows exactly where we keep it in the garage and goes to get it out every chance he gets.

Carrying around one of his beloved blankies...