A big fat FAIL

The other night I was watching something on TV (cannot remember for the life of me what it was), but it gave me a sudden urge to make granola bars. So I spent a little while trying to find an awesome recipe online. I eventually used this recipe, but adapted it to what I had on hand. I basically ended up using oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, pecans, banana chips, dried cranberries, vanilla, and honey for Round #1 of Granola-Making Shenanigans.

That's just the background to this little lovely story (but you shoul definitely try to make your own granola bars, sooo yummy!).

I'm not sure if other people do this, but when I've baked something or have some type of food that needs to be sitting out on the counter, when we leave we stick said item in the microwave or oven so that the dog doesn't decide to get on the counter and eat it. Ok so the dog doesn't really just eat whatever is on the counter, she rips it to shreds, all over the house. Yesterday it was a bag of brown sugar. All. Over. The. Couch.

Anyways! I came home from a lovely shopping trip at Ross with a friend (where I may or may not have bought the cutest measuring cups and spoons EVER), and I said "Wow, it smells like cookies...I thought you were cooking dinner?"

Chris: "Uhh yeah...the granola bars were in the oven when I turned it on to preheat"

So basically, he cooked my granola bars, which were wrapped in CELLOPHANE. Oh yeah, and he also added that he thought I took them out, when HE was the one that put them in there.

Boys...

You make me want to punch you

I wish I owned this blog: Things I Want to Punch in the Face. Seriously, what's more fun that complaining about things that...make you want to punch it in the face!? Oh, is that what Twitter is for? Darn...

Things that are currently making me what to punch them in the face:

• Our neighbors. (Last night was awoken too all hell breaking loose as we heard a fight breaking out at who-knows-what time...loud yelling...yadda yadda. It scared the pee out of me...WHAT IF THEY JUMP INTO MY BACKYARD AND KILL ME?!?!!?)
• The fact that I wasn't one of the lucky people to go to Vegas. Whatever. I'll have to live with not being in the cool club.
• Celebrities. Okay...I'm probably the only one that doesn't keep up on celebrity gossip. I. Don't. Care. Mostly because 99% of them are idiots. Last week we caught an episode of "I'm a Celebrity..." and I saw who Spencer was for the first time. REALLY, PEOPLE? It us us, who drool over their every moving moments, that make doucheness like this possible to survive. gag me.
• Allergies. Why is it that every time I want to do something outside, I have to be afraid of DYING??? I seriously pulled weeds for like 10 minutes, all to suffer from DEATH all day long.
• Un-ripe avocados. This really makes me cry. Why would I buy a bag of them, and want to wait 3+ days for them to be edible. WHY?!?!

Ok, I think I may have to stop myself...my list could go on forever. I'm a really happy person, I promise :)

What makes you want to punch it??

Doggie Mama

Get it? har...har...oi.

So I feel I haven't talked about my "dawgz" lately (ala Randy Jackson).

Seriously, I think her tongue is 80 feet long.

Sadie has grown a TON in the past month and a half. No more little fuzball. And her baby teeth have all fallen out. She is super loving and a bit of a spaz at times when she is happy to see people. Lately I have noticed she has taken to sometimes barking at strangers (ie., when we're going somewhere in the car and she see's a person walking), and at Tundra or the kitties when she wants attention. It wouldn't be so bad if her bark wasn't as annoying as a boy going through puberty. The little terror has broken THREE harnesses that I've bought her (chewed the clasps). 2 of these were still in the package. According to this she is supposed to know sit, stay, lay down, and how to walk on a leash...UM FAIL. She is so bad on the leash. I've never had dogs that pull. Tundra isn't so bad, plus I give her slack because she IS a sled dog. Oh and when you call Sadie, be prepared to cover your face becase she will come at you like a rabid BEAST!!!



Tundra has seemed to have taken on the "mommy" role; she doesn't usually get too upset if Sadie is annoying her, and Sadie has really calmed her down, A TON. She is no longer a "jealous Jessica" as I used to call her. I think she is acting so much better because she wants to be the favorite :) Don't worry little Tundies, you are my fav. Oh oh, and I think I've talked about her many running away moments and not listening. The last time she ran out the door, she only went to the driveway and turned around and actually came to me when I told her too. IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!! (Now that I am remembering, last time we went to the dog park, she bolted out of the car before I could grab her leash...but she ran to the gate to get inside and waited!!!)

We are still, for the most part, going on walks every night; and we take them to the dog park sporadically. Sadie has become a master fetcher, and knows the difference between her "ball", the "puppy" stuffed animal, and "sheep" stuffed animal. She is sort of learning "sit" and "no" thanks to Tundra ;) I am so excited and nervous to take them up to the lake this summer. I have NO idea how good they will be or how they will act towards the water/boat.

This post really sounded like one of those annoying Christmas "letters" you get from your not-so-close relatives. Oops.

Nay-bors

When we moved out of apartment living, one of the things I was most excited about is that our neighbors would be further away than sharing a wall with someone. Back then we didn't have horrible neighbors, we just had the old lady underneath us that I avoided at all costs (lonnnnggg story).

I've always heard people with these horrible neighbor stories, and I'd always think wow, well sucks for them because I've never experienced that! People can't be THAT bad!

WRONG.

We are surrounded by douchy neighbors. Not one, not two, but three (maybe more?)! I don't even think I'm being overly dramatic here, they each make me want to come over and punch them in the eye for very different reasons.

Neighbors #1: the gigantic family next door. These people are actually very nice, but they piss us off for other reasons. They have a 3-car garage and a driveway that could probably fit 4 cars across. Do they park cars in their garage? Nope. They do, however, park about 6 cars in their driveway and sometimes on their grass. Yes, apparently I live in Oildale. (No offense to those who live in Oildale who do not park in their lawn). They also park 3-4 cars on the street at all times, which almost always take up ALL THE PARKING SPACE in front of our house. I'd guess that at least 3 of these cars do not even run. I even saw a ticket on one of them once for that reason. Thankfully they got rid of their mini-doberman that used to run around the neighborhood and chase me up to my front door with it's scabies.

Neighbors #2: Douch-y family across the street. These people have never said a word to us, yet they are always outside. They always have BBQ's in their front yard. HELLO - we do have backyards, people! They also enjoy parking in front of our house, even when they have room for parking in front of theirs. Maybe if they'd move the half-pipe and trailer (with a scrunched up race car on it) out of their driveway they would not be so douch-y. Also, their little kids run around outside while they are being ridiculously profane. It's pretty sad to hear them drunkenly yelling EFF THIS AND THAT right in front of little kids.

Neighbors #3, the noisy teenagers(?) behind us. If you enjoy waking up at 2am on a Thursday to loud pool parties then you should definitely live in our house. This is not just your every-so-often house party, it's like multiple times a week. I feel like a grumpy old lady complaining about people having fun, but it's just a little ridiculous. I can hear their conversations about getting high from inside our house. SO ANNOYING.


Do you guys think I'm being overly annoyed with all of them? Do you have any past or present bad neighbors?



Apologies for using the word "douche" 80 times in this post!!!

Cuteness in the Kitchen

I thought I would share some lovely kitchen things I have found on the Internetz lately (ie., I have nothing better to do). Hope you enjoy :)

Lovebird S&P shakers! SO CUTE! I am determined to have somebody buy me these (hint hint wink wink, anyone? Bueller?)


These awesome bird measuring spoons. Yeah they are uber expensive, at least in my book. Maybe something to stick on a wedding registry?

Graphic bowl/plates found at Urban. I saw these a few weeks ago, they are so adorable. If only mis-matched dishes were cool...


I still think my friend over at BeanPickleSprout has the cuuuuutest potholders/placemats/dish towels on the entire Internet!

I could list about 80 things from Anthropologie on this one, but this honey jar is calling my name at the moment. My other fav's are the grapefruit sugar bowl and goose measuring cups. Heart.

I purchased a few different kitchen prints not to long ago, but this one was also on my list of NEEDS. Who doesn't need a cupcake?

And how about something for the dogs and cats? These pet feeders are simple, yet awesome. And! You can get the painted any color, win-win.


And who could forget a cute apron? There are millions out there, MILLIONS I tell ya! I could waste hours finding the best of the best. But right now, this one does it for me.

I haven't posted a blog in 8 days

So I feel like I should write something. Nothing much going on around here except TOO MUCH WORKING. But here is some stuff to cheer you (and me) up.

Baby time.

I didn't notice how creepy Minnie looks in this picture. I think Maddy is going to have nightmares of a scary mouse-woman watching over her in the future - Yikes!

I think I've officially turned into one of those annoying people that constantly takes pictures of everything. I seemed to inherit this from my Grandma :)

And, I made the Internet-famous Rainbow Cake for Mother's Day, and added a bit of my own "flare". It was the most awesome-tasting cake ever. I mean...everything was vanilla but I SWEAR each color tasted like something else! I SWEARRRRRRRRRRRR. Ok. Yeah you get it.


Oh and I swear I am doing Steph's 30 days of flippin' fitness...however, my daily "exercise" consists solely of walking the dogs. I figure we both need the exercise so why not hit two birds with one stone, and that is that. I probably need more but I'm just going to have to be okay with the fact that there are only so many hours in the day and I also have other things to do. Like watch American Idol (ohhh Kris, I love youuu).

Maddy

I'm an aunt now (most of you know this!)!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!

Madelyn Rae Kapral Pittack was born May 6th at 6:33 pm, weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz. I am so proud of my sister!!!!

Check out that hair!!!

Sister and baby.

Hopefully soon I will have more non-cell phone pics. Blasphemy I know!!! :D