Lauren's Love List

Since it's Valentine's Day, a day all about LOVE, I decided to write my love list.  I've been thinking about this for a few days, so here are 50 things Lauren loves (some of these things are material things, some are not, and this list is not necessarily in order):

1.) My dear husband
2.) My puppy wuppy Kato
3.) My immediate family-Mommy, Daddy, and Sissy
4.) My extended family-The Watkins' and the Harts
5.) My in-laws
6.) My in-law extended family-The Eders and the Siegels
7.) Mexican Food
8.) Jesus
9.) The beach
10.) Going on vacation to anywhere, but my absolute fav vacations are cruises
11.) Road trips
12.) Disney World
12.) Social media
13. ) The Pioneer Woman (seriously-new life goal: Be the Pioneer Woman, think Ben is up for cattle ranching?)
14.) Snuggles
15.) Scarves
16.) Apple products
17.) Blogging
18.) Cupcakes-making and consuming
19.) Christmas
20.) Spring
21.) The weather in North Carolina
22.) Babies
23.) Gymnastics
24.) Boots (NOT snow boots. Cute boots.)
25.) Cooking
26.) Baking
27.) Kisses from Kato
28.) Spending time with the ones I love
29.) The Louisville Cardinals
30.) Summertime
31.) Swimming pools
32.) Country music
33.) Driving while listening to country music
34.) The movie Titanic
35.) The movie Mean Girls
36.) The movie My Girl
37.) Going to the movies (I'm sensing a theme)
38.) Playing Call of Duty
39.) Pizza
40.) Fruit
41.) Waking up next to my husband
42.) Taylor Swift
43.) Watching IndyCar races
44.) Road tripping to IndyCar races, especially with my Dad
45.) Girl talk with my Mom & Sister
46.) Skinny jeans
47.) Painting my nails
48.) Starbucks (I know I'm such a basic white girl. Not ashamed)
49.) Going out to dinner with people I love
50.) Buffalo wings
51.) Weddings
52.) New friends
53.) Friendly neighbors
54.) Sim City on my iPad
55.) Fruity girly cocktails
56.) Fruity cheerleader beer
57.) Budweiser
58.) Getting dressed up
59.) Lifelong friends




Okay 59 things I love.  That was not a hard list to come up with, and there are so many more things I could add.  I know I have a really blessed life, to be able to easily come up with so many things that I love. #Blessed.   :) :) Happy Valentine's Day! <3

Latest in cooking and baking

I have done a LOT of baking and cooking in the last month.  So I thought I would share some of what I made...I love to cook, and I was talking to my Grandma recently who mentioned that cooking is a hobby.  She is right, cooking is definitely one of my hobbies.  I'm thankful I have this blog, so that I can share my hobby with the world. :) 

Superbowl Sunday

    We had 0 plans for Superbowl Sunday, other than to sit on our couch and watch the game.  I decided to make some yummies for us to enjoy.  One of my favorite recipes right now is chicken "wings".  They are really just homemade chicken nuggets.  I cut up a few chicken breasts into small pieces and marinate them...mine in buffalo sauce and Ben's in barbecue sauce.  I only marinate them for a half hour or so.  Then I roll each piece in Panko and put them all together on a baking sheet.  Pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes, (sometimes longer depending on how big the pieces are). When they come out I usually put a little more buffalo sauce on top of mine and dip them in ranch for eating.  Mmmm.  Ben dips his in more barbecue sauce. Of course we had to have wings while watching football, so I made those.  

      We also had Skyline dip, (I luckily had 1 can of Skyline that moved with us...it is nowhere to be found in the South. Wah wah).  Skyline dip is super easy...soften up some cream cheese and spread it around a glass baking dish. It doesn't even have to be glass.  Then pour on some Skyline chili (that has been heated), and top it with a bag of cheese.  The best way to eat it is with Fritos Scoops.  It is truly delish. I even had Skyline dip for lunch the next day.  #sorrynotsorry

     I made Oreo cupcakes for a Super Bowl dessert.  They were awesome, although I did struggle somewhat.  I have been working on my cupcake making, (watching a LOT of Cupcake Wars, makes me wanna open a bakery!), and for Christmas I got an awesome cupcake recipe book.  I made a huge mess while making these cupcakes.  Flour for the batter went everywhere. So did the powdered sugar for the frosting.  I know you should only put a little bit of these things into the mixer at a time, but I feel like it doesn't matter how much I put in, there is going to be white powder ALL OVER my kitchen.  Luckily, the taste wasn't affected.  I also didn't have cupcake liners, which made the outside of the cupcakes a weird texture.  Oh AND I was supposed to put chopped oreos in the batter and totally forgot.  Not my best cupcakes in terms of technique, but they tasted pretty good! I have a LOT more cupcake recipes to make, so watch out for more blog posts.  :)

 I believe they were titled "Cookies and Cream" cupcakes in the book...delish!  

A whole book about cupcakes!

Dinner

    I have cooked dinner a LOT in the last month.  Almost every night.  We've ordered pizza a couple times and gone out a couple times, but mostly I cook.  I have made a lot of recipes from Pinterest, and even came up with a meal plan for a month.  That's helpful in the motivation to cook, as well as for making a grocery list. I HATE making a grocery list.  But it must be done or I will buy the entire store.  Anyways, some of things I have made this month: Crock-pot roast, roasted sausage and potatoes, pork tenderloin, crock-pot creamy chicken tacos (they were awesome btw and I don't know if I will make beef tacos again. Like ever.), and ham and hash brown casserole, (also awesome), among other things.  

   Last night I made homemade Hot Pockets.  They were great, although again, my technique wasn't so good.  It was my first time using Puff Pastry, and it didn't occur to me to thaw out the dough before I had to use it.  The recipe said to roll it out, but when I went to unfold it out of the box, the pieces snapped, because they were frozen.  Whoops.  It's alright, I made it work by microwaving what I could save, and ended up making 4 large pockets.  I put sliced deli ham and cheddar cheese inside the pockets.  I  put 1 piece of puff pastry on the bottom, layered the ham and cheese, then put another piece of puff pastry on top. Then I pressed the edges together. Next I brushed on some whisked egg, and then popped them in the oven for 20 minutes.  They were fantastic, and it was nice to have something kinda different for dinner.  I even put some slits in the top for decoration..thank you Pinterest for your awesome ideas!

I don't like how the cheese melted out of the pockets but it didn't affect the texture or taste.  Turned out just fine!

Cheesecake Fail

    I think I've mentioned how I fail at cheesecake.  I decided to try again, with a recipe from my cupcake book for cute little individual cheesecakes. They were real cheesecakes...made with ricotta cheese.  The technique wasn't difficult, other than my powdered sugar all over the kitchen problem.  I actually found more powdered sugar under the Keurig just yesterday, and I made these cheesecakes like 2 weeks ago.  Ridiculous.  I really think the only reason I failed at these was because they didn't cook long enough.  When I pulled them out of the oven they were liquid in the middle, and instead of putting them back in I thought maybe they would cool and set up. Nope, they were liquid even after sitting out for a few hours.  It wasn't a total fail though, I had a lot of batter (is the stuff that makes cheesecake considered batter?) leftover, so I made a large cheesecake and cooked it for almost an hour, and it turned out great.  Too bad I couldn't eat it, because it had orange extract in it and I'm allergic to oranges and orange flavored things. Oh well. I did taste it and it tasted good, just like a real cheesecake. If I do this again I will swap out the orange for vanilla, to make it a little sweeter.  The crust was really good...graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and honey, all blended together, chilled, and pressed.  I could have eaten the crust by itself.  

Failed mini cheesecakes

Succesful large cheesecake

I have had a really good month of cooking and baking, and I'm looking forward to more kitchen adventures in the next few weeks.  Valentine's Day is a great excuse to bake, and we will hopefully have some visitors soon, who I'm sure would love to have some meals and goodies made by yours truly.  :) :)

Thanks for reading!

A Year in Review: 2014

It is now the 20th day of 2015 and I realized I haven't done a year in review of 2014! Here's what happened in 2014:

Ben traveled with work, a LOT.  It started in February, and continued on to Labor Day.  I have to say, the 3rd year in IndyCar was the hardest on our relationship.  I am so thankful we are on to other things now, although the current transition period is a bit tough...but more on that in another post! :)

2014 started out with a polar vortex, and Ben and I, and Kato, were stuck in the house for days.  That turned out alright, it was nice to just have time together and do nothing but eat macaroni and cheese and watch Netflix.  Our furnace started leaking during this time, although we didn't know it until Spring.  Our electric bills went up and up and up (like up to $800) before we decided something wasn't right and called someone to fix it.  Whoops. Luckily it was still under warranty and we didn't have to pay for repairs.

Polar Vortex- 9 inches of snow at this point, the total was 14!

Through January and February of 2014, I was unemployed by choice. I started to get bored towards the end of February, when an opportunity popped up! I was got to be our neighbors nanny for March, April, and May.  What a fun experience! I watched 2 of the sweetest and best-behaved little girls I've ever met, and I truly enjoyed spending days with them.  Plus, I was able to get closer with their Mama, and she ended up being one of my few close friends in Indy.  I also met other nannies during this time, and we went on lots of adventures! Another reason nannying was great-I was able to introduce Kato to young children while he was a young puppy, which I think is really important. Especially being that I would like a house full of children in the not-so-distant future. :) Kato did great with the girls, and they did great with him.  Fun times for sure!

Dad, Morgan and I drove to St. Pete for the first IndyCar race in March...which was a blast! St. Pete is beautiful, and the race experience was spectacular. I loved it and would like to go back again. I sadly don't have pics on my computer from that because I dropped my phone in the toilet in April and pretty much lost all my pictures from February and March. Rawr!

In April Dad and I did the Mutt Strutt-basically a walk for dogs around IMS! This was a blast, and I wish we could do it again.

We celebrated Easter with my family, which was fun as usual.  :) 

Cousins!

May started with Derby Day! Sister and I went and met up with my buds and had so much fun!

We also spent a ton of time at IMS. Ben was obviously there everyday all day, and I took the girls for practice (fun!), went to the Grand Prix with Dad and sat in the Cummins suite (Awesome!), and went to Carb Day by myself.  I witnessed Ed Carpenter (Ben's driver) get the pole for the Indy 500 for the 2nd year in a row and that was AWESOME! I was in the Fuzzy's Vodka suite at the track with several other families, and a great time was had by all! The 500 started out great, but Ed got crashed towards the end. Major bummer.

In June,  I started nannying for another family, this time with 3 boys, and woo! What an adventure.  All I can say about boys is that they have a LOT of energy. Their favorite activity was to take off their shirts and play UFC in the bouncy house in their basement.  Yep. Haha. We had a fun summer though, going to lots of parks, SkyZone and BounceU, and pools.  That was the best strategy I could come up with to keep everything under control, get them out of the house! I babysat them 3 days per week through August, and the summer went by so fast!

Dad and I drove to Belle Isle (Detroit) for the race there in June.  The races (double header) were great and Belle Isle was fine...but Detroit is not that nice of a place. I was glad Dad was with me, and we had a fun race weekend as we usually do! I got super sunburned though..


In July, my insane wedding season schedule started. I literally had a wedding to attend or be in every weekend from the middle of July through Labor Day.  It was nuts! But-I LOVE weddings and continue to love them, even after attending so many! I love that they are all different and have unique qualities about them.  I love seeing friends and family I haven't seen in a long time, I love the beautiful emotions on display, I love trying the food, love the unique decor and details at each one, and I love the dancing. :)  The only downside to this summer's wedding season was that Ben was only with me at 1 or 2 of them.  Going to weddings alone is kinda lame....but I still had a great time at every one of them!

This is just a sampling of wedding pics...there are so many more! 

August=weddings. My sister also turned 21 in August so that was exciting! I picked her up from the airport when she returned from her summer at Disney, and took her balloons since it was shortly after her birthday.  She cried when she saw me. Hehe.

The fall of 2014 was great simply because the racing season was over and we could get back to some semblance of normal married life.

In September, we went to Naples with Ben's German brother-from-another-mother Alex, his girlfriend, his girlfriend's brother and girlfriend, and Ben's parents.  We had a GREAT trip.  The weather was fantastic and it was so great to spend time with our friends from across the pond! We went to the beach (obvi), went on a catamaran, shopped, and sat by the pool. It was SO nice, and I can't wait to go back!

(This is where pictures end because I haven't uploaded the rest of the year! Wah wah..)


Halloween was kinda sad because the weather was terrible and we had about 4 trick or treaters.



Just before Thanksgiving is when our life began to change, because Ben heard from this Nascar team. We spent Thanksgiving with our amazing families, eating and enjoying each other's company.  We were blessed to spend time with my family as well as Ben's family, so that was great.

Christmas was BUSY.  We started our Christmas on Monday night, when we went and saw Straight No Chaser.  They were amazing, and if you ever get the chance to go see them please do.  It was seriously awesome.  Ben and I had our Christmas morning on Tuesday, and got some great and useful gifts.  On Tuesday afternoon we went to Georgetown.  We spent Christmas Eve with Ben's parents, letting Kato run around on the farm and eating a fantastic meal.  Christmas Day was with my family, and that was amazing as usual. We got to see many of our friends from high school in the days following Christmas so that was fun.  We even got a group of friends together and surprised our high school band director at his house.  I'm pretty sure we made his week.  It was the strangest yet coolest thing, standing around drinking bourbon (straight up! agh) with our teacher.  His quote was: "I really liked you all as students, but I like you even better as friends!" Love it.

After Christmas the real craziness began, and we spent the rest of 2014 preparing for our move! When our house sells, (hopefully soon), I will do a post about the moving process and the adjustment to North Carolina life..thanks for reading all of this if you made it through! 2014 was a great year, and we can't wait to see what 2015 holds! :) :)

Through all our adventures in life together..

One particular part of our vows has been running through my mind for about a month.  I can't remember the exact line or wording...but it was something to the effect of "I promise to stand by you through all of our adventures in life together." I loved that line then, and I love it now, especially because it is VERY applicable!

We are moving....to North Carolina! An amazing opportunity has arrived for Ben, so we are packing up, putting the house on the market, and heading south!

It's hard to believe, but Ben has accepted a job with a NASCAR team.  I never, in a million years, thought we would even consider the world of NASCAR, but opportunity (aka money) talks! This is a great option for us for a lot of reasons.  Obviously the money is better which is great. We are going to live in an apartment for at least a year, and assuming we can get what we need out of the house, (which looks very promising!), we can be 100% DEBT-FREE.  No house payment, no car payment, nothing.  It is hard to imagine going from a house to an apartment, and I keep thinking we are going to have less money, but in reality, we are making ourselves so much richer by becoming debt-free.  Like Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else." Awesome. The thought of downsizing is stressful for me, but the apartment situation will be temporary.  Plus, this is an opportunity to save money as well, and build up a great emergency fund.  In fact, with the sale of our home, (at the right price), we will jump like 3 baby steps on the Dave Ramsey system.  Hooray!

  The position he has accepted is also shop-based, which means just a little travel! For about a year we have been trying to figure out how Ben could have a non-travel job and still be in racing, and it is really a blessing that this has happened the way it has.  The traveling with his current job has been a real strain on our relationship and our life in general, so a shop-based position was something we just couldn't pass up. With him being home maybe it will finally be time to start a family! We sure hope so. :)

I have to say, it will be tough to leave our friends and a few family members that we have close by here in Indy.   We have the world's greatest neighbors, and I can't imagine we will meet anyone better than them.  We've also got several couple friends, work friends, and ECR team members here in Indy that we have really developed relationships with.  Moving away from all of these people is going to be TOUGH, but we are thankful for phones and social media. That's something I love about social media, we can all be connected across the miles, and it makes me feel just a little closer to everyone.  We are also moving 3 hours further away from our parents.  (We are 3 hours away now, and will be 6 hours away down there).  Luckily, both of our parents are good travelers, and will be down to visit all the time.

Good news: My grandma, uncle, aunt and cousin in South Carolina will only be 2 hours from us! So we won't be completely alone.  I also have friends on the coast (4 hours) and my biffle is in DC (5 hours).  I am excited to be closer to these people!

Although I feel like we were JUST settling in to life in Indiana, and now we are up and leaving, I know we are doing the right thing by moving.  This is the right thing for Ben, it's the right thing for our family, and the right thing for our life together.  We are so excited for the next adventure!!

Blog About a Dog: Kato is 1 YEAR OLD!

Wow, it has been a very long time since I have blogged about our sweet puppy.  Apparently the last time was when he was 15 weeks old, way back in February! It is October and tomorrow, Kato will be 1 year old.  This means in 2 months it will be 1 year since we brought him home. SO much has changed in Kato's life! Here are the highlights:

Manners
Kato in general has good manners.  He waits for his food, walks nicely on a leash (as long as we are using a pronged collar..), rarely barks, and loves to please. (Aka loves to get treats!).  He is nice to everyone he meets, dog and human alike, although he does get wound up when someone comes in the front door. This is one thing we have not mastered yet.  He still runs for the door when the doorbell rings, and usually jumps on the poor person that comes in. However, this only lasts for about 2 minutes, and then he is good.  He also gets really excited when he sees another dog.  All he wants to do is sniff and play with whoever this other dog is.  It has been tough to get him to break his focus when he is looking at another dog.  In our neighborhood we have a large park and anytime we take Kato there for a walk, you can bet money there will be another dog there.  He will jump around and stare and be crazy, but we do our best to keep moving forward.  In instances where he has met other dogs, he is very playful. Sometimes other dogs like this and sometimes they do not.  Some can't understand why this crazy dog is jumping around like a maniac! However, in general, Kato is a very well-mannered boy.

Personality
If there is one word to describe Kato's personality, it would be GOOFY.  He is the biggest goof I have ever seen. He sighs when he is bored(? honestly I don't know why he sighs but it is funny!), and he grumbles (like back talk) when he is mad. He is very expressive, and we can always tell what he is thinking.  He is so silly, and he loves to make us laugh, which he does on the daily.   He stares at us with toys hanging out of his mouth, or sleeps with his huge tongue out, gives the world's slobberiest kisses and loves to run sprints in the house when he hasn't received enough exercise.  Kato needs at least 2 walks per day at this point in his life, and luckily the weather has been nice enough the past few months to make that happen. He also loves to take bike rides, aka run along side the bike while we ride. This is a great way to burn off his extra energy. When he is being extra crazy, we take him out for a bike ride. Works every time. Of course, when we get back, he looks like this:

 Tongue hanging out, waitin' for some water!

 Kato LOVES toys. Currently he has a moose, a beaver, an alligator, a Kong Wubba, a bone, a rope, a few balls, and a raccoon.  He loves all of them, although many toys have been destroyed within 1 day of purchase.  He doesn't know his own strength.  He tries to kill the animals by shaking them or stomping on them, and loves to play tug with the rope.  He is also getting pretty good at fetch with the ball, although he doesn't always like to give the ball back! In general, Kato just really loves to play.  He loves to be chased, although we don't play chase in the house anymore because for a while he would steal things like socks and try to get us to chase him around! He had to learn that he can only play with his things, not ours!

Kato-Potato is the snuggliest dog ever. He loves to lay on the couch with us, head in our lap.  Or. if you are sitting on the couch, (or the ground!), there is an 85% chance Kato will come and sit ON you.  No matter that he is huge, he just wants to be on your lap! I think this is because he was on our laps so much as a little pup, and he just doesn't know how big he is these days. :)  

He is also very good with children. I was a nanny this Spring and Summer and whenever I would bring the children over to "see Kato" (We were really coming over to let him go potty, I still don't trust him to go 8 hours in the crate during the day without peeing), he would do great! He loves to lick baby's hands, and chase kids around, and he loves when kids give him treats! One day this summer I had 7 kids over to the house to see him, and Kato did AMAZING.  He just stood there while they all petted him, played with his ears, touched his tail, and tried to get him to do tricks.  He is such a good kid-dog, and I can't wait to see him interact with his future human brothers and sisters. :)

Training
Kato has done very well with his training.  He can sit, lay down, play dead, shake, give high 5's, leave  it, and stay.  He has only escaped from the house once. That was mortifying, but I caught him pretty quickly, no harm done.  He is potty trained, but it took a long time to be able to say that.  Probably 6 months, which seems ridiculous for such a smart dog. It also took a long time after he was potty trained to get him to stop peeing in his crate. The crate-wetting thing started this spring after he had been at a kennel. (We no longer take him to that particular kennel,  bed-wetting wasn't the only issue).   I think he was used to going out on a certain schedule at home, usually exactly 8 hours after he had gone to bed, and when no one was around at the kennel to take him out from whenever they closed to whenever they opened, he just went.  Which is to be expected. However, for some reason he couldn't differentiate between the kennel and his crate, and peed in his crate every night or every other night for months.  The peeing in the crate has only stopped in the last 2-3 months, which is nuts.  I'm glad it has stopped though, it was getting old washing his blanket every single day.   Now he can go 8-10 hours in his crate at night with no problems.  However, we have another crate issue...Kato has become a bed-ripper.  This has started within the last month.  When I made him a pillow in January, he only wanted to chew it up but I assumed it was because he was a puppy.   I made him a blanket that he slept on in his crate for a long time, but I ended up having to throw it away because it was just nasty.  I made him a new one, and ever since then, he tears up whatever is in his crate.  The new blanket has a huge tear in it. He had a wonderful cushy bed at my parents, and while they babysat him last month, he completely destroyed it.  Then, a few weeks ago, my mom gave us a comforter for him to sleep on. It was eaten and destroyed within 2 days.  I put a blanket from the couch in there thinking that he loves this blanket (he sleeps on it on the couch ALL the time), surely he won't chew it up.  Wrong. Destroyed.  So now, I have ordered an "indestructible" crate pad.  We shall see if it holds up to Jaws over here...I think he is chewing because he is bored, but Kato cannot be trusted out of his crate at this point.  It ends up like this...

We tried to buy Kato a bigger crate just last week, because he is really starting to grow out of his.  Guess what? He HATED it. Refused to go in.  We would coax him with treats and he would run in grab it and run right out. Guess he likes his tiny house....

Other than the crate issues, Kato is a very good boy! He has done so well with training, and is a well-behaved, mostly balanced puppy dog!

Physical changes

The last time we weighed Kato was about 3 weeks ago, and he was 63 pounds. This is actually a lot smaller than I thought he would be at this point, but that is a good thing! He still has his puppy face, but his body is really filling out, and he is very muscular.  We can feel all 63 of those pounds when he sits on us. :) 

Here are some recent photos of my boy....we love this dog so much, and are so thankful he is a part of our family!! 

Kato being the bestest boy and Gramma and Grampas!

Here are some photos for perspective...he is HUGE compared to the tiny puppy he was!

Kato at his "Birthday Party". He was waiting very patiently for that cake!

He loves this green ball!

 Kato got to meet his cousin Frankie! They were besties.

LOVE this look that he often gives when someone is leaving...like "Um excuse me..where are you going?

His favorite spot to lay while Mommy is working!

Blog About a Dog: Kato at 15 weeks!

Our puppy-boo is 15 weeks old! The last 2 weeks have been pretty crazy for Kato. This past week him & I spent 3 days just hanging out, because Ben was traveling. He was a pretty good boy, and we even learned a new trick! I taught him to "Leave it".  He picked it up really fast with the treats.  Now we are working on "leaving it" with other things, especially things that aren't supposed to be in his mouth.

I also made Kato a bed a few weeks ago, and I don't think I've posted a picture. It was intended to be a bed for him to lay on, but it turned into a pillow that he mostly just chews on.  Oh well, it's something fun for him, and I improved my sewing machine skills while making it!

I got him to sit on it for about 2 minutes while I took the picture. Then he was back to chewing it.

The biggest thing that Kato did recently was attend his first puppy class.  THAT was interesting.  Ben was out of town so I had to take him by myself.  The day started out really well, and as soon as Kato woke up, he knew something was up.  Probably because I was running around packing and getting things together, as we were leaving from puppy class to head for Kentucky.  Kato is still doing really well in the car, whenever he sees me grab the keys he gets really excited and ready to go.  It never fails though, the day that Kato is going in the car, the weather is AWFUL. Last time I had to put him in by myself, (and by him I mean him and all of his stuff. Bag of food, treats, blankets, toys, bowls, etc., AND the giant crate), it was snowing like crazy. Snowing so hard the car was covered by the time we were able to leave. This time it was POURING rain. Not just drizzle or rain, but POURING. Ugh. Poor dog was all excited to leave, but as soon as we got to the edge of the garage he wanted to go back in. I don't blame him. The rain was horrendous.  

Anyways-finally get him in the car and he settled in, relaxing, ready to take a nap. Little did he know, this was not a sleeping trip.  The kennel where puppy class is held is only 5 minutes from our house. We arrived and I let Kato walk on the leash into the building, and there was already another dog in the lobby.  My dog went ballistic. To be fair, the other dog was just as excited, but she was WAY smaller than Kato.  The trainer let us into the room, and Kato continued to be ridiculous.  All he wanted was to play with that smaller dog. He was pulling and jumping and barking. I had never seen him act like this, and even his physical state was crazy.  His skin was bright pink, the inside of his ears were beet red, and his eyes were very bloodshot. I didn't know what to do, I knew the point of the class was to socialize, but I was so afraid he would hurt the little dog because he was just SO much bigger.  The trainer told me that his response was a normal stress response and to just let him play.  In fact, the trainer took the leash from me so I could see what would happen.  Kato was all over the smaller dog. Jumping on her, biting her ears, grabbing her tail, but the whole time, the little dog just took it.  Not only did she take it, but she gave it right back! I had never seen anything like it. I was continuing to freak out, (which I KNOW is the wrong response, Kato was probably freaked out because I was, but hey, this was completely new to me too!), but the trainer said that if he got too rough, the little dog would let him know.  I kept telling myself that.  By this time, more puppies had arrived.  Every single one of them was at least 15-20 pounds lighter than our bruiser of a K-9. I was worried the other puppy parents would be freaked out by their tiny dogs playing with my huge dog, but everyone seemed to love him. They all thought he was such a handsome boy with his tiger stripes. :) The guys in the class especially liked him, he is a man's dog after all. During class we learned how to sit (which Kato already knows!), but my pup was just so distracted. He sat maybe twice on command. I was fine with that, because I know he knows how to sit. All those cute girls were distracting him! (Yep, every puppy in the class is a girl except for my boy!) I'm curious to see how he acts this week, because now he has been around other dogs, and because Ben will be there. I'll be sure to update this blog, and maybe take some pictures this time!

Saturday was probably the biggest day of Kato's life so far.  Not only did he have puppy class, but then we drove 3 hours to Kentucky. He was a good boy in the car of course, slept most of the way, and we didn't even stop to potty.  As soon as we pulled in the driveway at my mom and dad's the neighbor came over with the news that her grand puppy Jax was visiting! Jax is a golden retriever, about a year old, so this was the perfect playmate for my little guy. We have really been wanting him to play with a bigger dog. The two of them were BFF's immediately. They played and played, and ran and ran. It was really great to see. By the time we went inside, Kato was completely wiped out again. Later that night, around 9, (way past Kato's usual bed time), we took him out to play with Jax again.  That night he slept from 11 pm-7:30 am....the longest he's ever slept, and the longest he's ever gone without peeing.  Good boy Kato!

Kato & Jax liked to roll around in the bushes 

Crazy pups!

The next day my mom, sister and I took Kato to the new pet store in town. Ben's mom is working there so it was great to see her, and great for Kato to go out in public again.  He was a very good boy at the store, he got his nails clipped, picked out a new toy, and completely ignored the cats in cages. What a good puppy!

Kato had lots of bonding time with his Aunt Mo this weekend.  He loved her, and she loved him.  All weekend he was such a good boy. Very calm, played with his toys or slept, and only had 1 or 2 accidents.  My parents pointed out that he was maturing some, and I really thought he was just being calm because he was tired.  I think they were right though, since we've been home I have noticed him being calmer, and being a better listener. (Not perfect though that's for sure! He still has his moments).  Thank goodness!

Getting some snuggles from his Aunt Mo!

Being a silly boy with Gramma and Grampa!

He LOVES to play with his Grampa!

More snuggles!

We ended the weekend with a very special visit from my old roommate and her little girl. Kato had a blast, and it was great to see him interact with a child.  He hadn't done that yet, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good he was with her.  He wasn't too rough, just played and tried to eat her headband. =) We went on a great walk in the snow.  Later that day they brought over their yorkie-schnauzer mix....that didn't go so well. Little Millie wasn't interested in playing with Kato, and that drove Kato nuts.  It was alright though, we went on a walk again, and let the pups and AB play in the snow.  

Love this picture. AB was loving my silly boy!

Daw, what cuties!

AB put the headband on Kato's head! :)

We had a great weekend, and we are really looking forward to puppy class again this week! Kato goes to the vet today, can't wait to see what he's weighing in at these days!

I just love this picture.  Sweet snuggles with Daddy when we finally got home!

Taking Care of Me: Week 1 Complete!

Here's what I did to take care of myself this week!

I have not had a Coke since last Monday. That is 8 whole days. I am pretty proud of myself I have to say.  I have not had a headache, or really even wanted to drink a pop, and for me, this is a HUGE accomplishment.  I have been drinking a lot of white and green tea, to satisfy my want for caffeine and sweetness, and it really seems to be working.

We ate out twice in the last 7 days. :( However, I do find success in this because I had lemonade to drink both times, no pop!

I cooked dinner at home every night, except for the night I failed. I did cook, but it didn't work so we went and got pizza with friends. Sigh. I'm not totally upset about it, it was nice to get out of the house and see people I hadn't seen in a while. And I had salad with my pizza. :) The meals I cooked this week were:

Barbecue chicken from the crockpot with roasted potatoes and green beans
Stuffed shells (I snuck some spinach in the stuffing!) & salad
Skinny alfredo with whole wheat penne
Breakfast for dinner: Scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and home fries
Whole wheat angel hair with garlic butter sauce and peas

I am forgetting one meal, but whatevs. The point is, I tried to make a vegetable with each meal, and I tried to make the pasta dishes as healthy as possible. We really really love pasta and it is really really hard to give it up. So I'm doing the best I can-buying whole wheat, (I like Ronzoni Healthy Harvest, the only ingredient is whole wheat durum (?) flour), making homemade sauce, and being sure to pair it with a vegetable.

For lunches this week I had salad or leftovers. I snacked on yogurt, granola, fruit, cashews, or veggie straws. (Those things are fantastic. They are the texture of chips-the best part-but are made of vegetables. Yum). Okay okay and one time I had Skyline with Ben. I needed to get out of the house. But I didn't drink pop while I was there!

Overall I would say this week was 85% successful. The next few days should be interesting as Kato and I are planning on going away this weekend, because Ben will be gone. No point in sitting at home alone, might as well go see my family! Hopefully I can maintain my new habits. I plan on taking some snacks with me.  The Superbowl is this weekend, so I'll be looking for something homemade, minimally processed, and delicious to make!

Here is my angel hair dish this week.  Yes. That is bacon on top. I know I know, bacon is terrible. No health benefit whatsoever. But it is SO yummy.  I got the most natural bacon I could find, and man it was so good. It really made the dish. Maybe someday I will give up bacon, but this is not the week.  

Note: I have now had 2 people in about a week talk about Green Bean Delivery. This is something I am seriously considering, everyone seems to love it. I want to do a price comparison first, but I really think we could benefit from it!

Here's hoping I can continue this plan, and be a healthier me again this week!!