Mr & Mrs Peters

This year I was in the mood to do a lot of holiday baking. I decided to make treats for our neighbors and hand them out with Christmas cards. This is the first year we have done it, and I think I will continue with this tradition in the future. I made the mistake of having Radar go with me to deliver the first set of popcorn, and the poor elderly lady who lives across from us looked a bit overwhelmed when he tried to bust down her door!

For our neighbors, I made Maple Brown Sugar Popcorn. It was delicious! I purchased super cute 1/2 gallon Christmas tins to put the popcorn in. Here is the recipe:

Prudy’s Maple Brown Sugar Popcorn

For Christmas Eve I made holiday bark to share with everyone. It was fun to make and because it is so rich- a little goes a long way.

Here are the two recipes I used for inspiration with the chocolate bark… I sort of mixed what I liked about the two. I ended up doing two kinds of bark: Double Chocolate Peppermint and Double Chocolate Pretzel with holiday sprinkles.

Noble Pig’s Double Chocolate Peppermint Bark

Maria’s Holiday Bark

Christmas has come and gone and thus the countdown to December 25th begins once again. This year I was reminded time and time again why this IS the most wonderful time of the year. Throughout this month I had so many opportunities to spend precious moments with loved ones. We ate amazing food ’til we nearly burst and were spoiled with gifts from our family.

One of the best parts of family gatherings? The laugh-out-loud moments where someone inevitably has to run out of the room to the bathroom to avoid an emergency.

One memory that will stand out this year? I was opening gifts from my Mom and she gave me a beautiful roasting pan. I began to feel confused when I realized the box was awfully light for such a heavy item. I peered into the box and saw nothing but air. As I looked up and around the room, people began to laugh hysterically. Mom, with an incredibly guilty expression on her face, said, “We needed to use it tonight for the prime rib!” She then confessed to opening up the side of the wrapping paper and slipping the pan out. Classy, Mom, very classy.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones too. Oh, and Mom?? You better watch out because your birthday is coming and I am already plotting!!

First, I must congratulate my cousins Paul and Paige. Today they found out that their baby-on-the-way is a sweet little girl. Well, I suppose they didn’t find out that she is a “sweet” little girl, but I think it is safe to make that assumption. Their firstborn daughter, Charley, is a total cutie pie and I look forward to seeing this new one in a few months!

Now, onto a very serious matter.

Have you ever thought about what you would do in the case of a major natural disaster? Because I am a paranoid freak and worry about my personal safety approximately 73 times a day, I think about disasters a lot.

As a little girl every night I would pray there would not be a fire or earthquake. One night I forgot to do my prayers and in the early morning we were awoken by an earthquake. I am not lying, people.

Last month I was sent to a Disaster Preparedness Academy to work on our company’s emergency plan. Honestly, it was a terrible idea for ME to go. All it did was send me into a tailspin of worries, fear, and anxieties. But, on the upside, I did learn what to do with Radar if we ever get hit by a tsunami. Anyway, there was an entire ballroom filled with safety products. Going in to the day, I told myself that I could not buy anything, no matter how panicked or scared I became after hearing the geologist talk about the 9.8 earthquake that is going to strike us any minute.

Free samples? That was a totally different story. Please look at what was delivered to the hotel today, just for me.

I will now be able to survive an earthquake even if I am stuck in the middle of the freeway in my car for several days. Merry Christmas to me!

At work, we get freebies (like shirts and wine) donated by our vendors fairly frequently. Tonight, I was lucky enough to come home with a nice bottle of Cab that I was VERY much looking forward to enjoying.

And then this happened.

Seriously? It is in these moments that I just want to walk out the door and leave the mess for someone else to take care of. The wine got EVERYWHERE. The wall, under the washer/dryer, nothing was spared.

So, after I fished out the glass shards from Radar’s mouth (he started licking up the mess before I could even react) and changed my pants and shoes, I set out to the garage to get a pack of paper towels. OUT. Of course we are out of paper towels in my moment of need!

Hey, at least red wine doesn’t stain, right?!?

After several rounds of sweeping, mopping, bleaching, drying, sweeping, mopping, etc… I got the mess all cleaned up. I think. We will see how many tiny shards of glass I step on in the coming days.

The one upside of this incident is that I don’t think my laundry room floor has been this clean in a year.

Because my husband is a freak when it comes to the cleanliness of our cars, he set me up with an unlimited car wash plan. Essentially, I can go as many times as I want to get my car washed- no matter how often I go, I pay $35 per month.

My favorite part of going to get the car washed is how cleansing it is to my soul. I am referring not to the car washing, but the organization of my purse. You see, everytime I go to the car wash I force myself to empty my purse, organize receipts, and throw out all the random crap that ends up in there. You have no idea how freeing these sessions are… No where else could you find therapy this cheap!

This is an actual picture of one of my purse cleaning sessions.

Ages ago, Karen tagged me in her blog post… Karen, please forgive me for being so delinquent in my blogging. So, without delay, here are my 10 honest truths.

1. I talk to Radar like he is a human, which I think is because we are alone together so often. I know he isn’t going to answer me back, but I do it anyway. Every day when I come home from work I pet him and ask, “How was your day… What did you do today?” When I am laying in bed at night I call out, “Goodnight Radar.” Justin usually resorts to one of three tactics: mocking me, pretending to talk back in Radar’s voice, or just ignoring it all together.

2. To remember where I have parked in large structures/lots, I assign curse words to my parking spots. (example: If I parked in 3J I would remember 3 jerks- Not really a curse word but you get the idea.)

3. As I go about life, I am constantly asking myself, “What would Michael Scott do in this situation?” It’s not that I want to emulate him, but more that I am obsessed with how he handles social situations.

4. One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is holding babies. I am scared that when I have my own kids I am not going to be able to let others hold them. I promise, I am normally a good sharer!

5. Like many people (I hope), I occasionally get the urge to laugh during the most inappropriate times. Being in HR, this can be a huge problem. Imagine how you would feel if someone started laughing uncontrollably at you during your interview… Or, even worse, while you were being fired? The worst, however, was when I got the giggles during my great grandmother’s funeral.

6. During high school I worked as a hostess at an Italian restaurant. We were located near a big military base so people would come in wearing their uniforms somewhat frequently. I would try to thank each one who came in to eat… Usually the service people appreciated my sentiments, but it would turn me into a mushy wreck. One time I got so distracted thanking a pilot that I walked into another table right in front of his whole family.

7. When I was little, I played a game with my little sister Allie that revolved around a blizzard at an airport. I don’t remember all the details, but I would basically cover her with every blanket we owned, to keep her from dying. She was probably 3 at the time, which explains why the heck she let me do this to her. This story also shows that my fear of natural disasters started at a young age.

8. I have tried dressing up Radar in human clothes. Don’t judge.

9. If I could have 3 wishes, one would be to sing like Lea Michele from Glee.

10. When I laugh too hard, I sometimes pee my pants. Again, don’t judge.

Can anyone please tell me why the sound of Michael McDonald’s voice makes me want to gouge out my eyes with a dull pencil?

Yes, I know this is a strange thought with which to re-embark on my blog writing, but I just cannot get it out of my mind.

I promise to be back soon with something a little less gruesome.

So, it’s been awhile. A long while. More than a month. Not that anyone is counting… besides my mom, that is.

In the month that has passed, a lot has happened. Our Alaska cruise was super fun, and I plan to blog more about it in the future. First though, I need to cover something a bit more sad. Several days before we left for Alaska, our Skyla girl got very ill and we had to put her to sleep. It was all incredibly sudden- she was fine one minute and within 3 hours, she was gone. The first few days were the worst, but there are still moments where I am overcome with sadness and the pang of missing her so much it hurts.

Sweet girl, I miss you so much. I miss our nights together- watching old TV episodes, napping, going on walks around the neighborhood. I miss the sound of your feeble old body walking around the house, and I miss seeing you first thing in the morning. Somehow, my morning routine is just not the same without you poking your head into the shower. You were a good dog and a loyal companion. You were truly our first “baby” and I love you- even if you were the world’s worst guard dog.

Some of my favorite Skyla posts…

Skyla’s Adventure

Getting Ready for a Brother

Skyla Speaks

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The amount of bruises I have on my legs from Radar ramming his cone up against me.

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The number of times I was called yesterday by a telemarketer on my cell. I have now joined the “Do Not Call” registry.

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The hours that are left until I am holding my Stoney, gabbing with Amy, and trying to keep Justin and Bryant from running around the house naked.

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The days that stand in between now and the day we leave for Alaska!

When Radar was discharged after his surgery on Monday, we were given very strict instructions for his post-operative care. He isn’t allowed outside (except to use the restroom), we can’t let him get too excited- yea… right, and he has to wear a cone for 10-12 days. Trust me when I say these were only a few of the instructions given to us. Before I left the vet’s office the receptionist helped me schedule his two follow up appointments, one for bandage removal and the other to remove his stitches.

Here is a picture of my pitiful puppy:

As of right now, we are still 36 hours away from his bandage removal appointment. You can imagine my horror, then, when I came home today and found that he had chewed off his left leg bandage… (How he did that with the cone on, I will never know. He is a very resourceful puppy) I called the vet to find out what to do and happened to speak with the very same receptionist who set up my appointments on Monday. After consulting my charts she told me in a very snarky voice, “You were supposed to come back to get his bandages removed 2-3 days later. They should have already been taken off.” I gently asked what my appointment was for on Saturday… I am sure you can guess where the conversation went from there. She sure never owned up to making a mistake when scheduling the appointment! I bet I am now on their list of poor puppy owners. I mean, I can’t even follow their detailed instructions! Sheesh…

As Miss Stephanie Tanner would say, “How rude!”