You can lead a dog to water, but you can't stop her from laying in the trough...

We had a great weekend and were able to relax and get some things done around the house. I must be getting really old and really boring, because that's how I measure success nowadays...by the number of things crossed off the To-Do list. I was lamenting to Brent how boring I was getting at dinner on Saturday night. He immediately disagreed because he is well trained. Later that night when we drove home with a car full of patio furniture that we really had no intention of purchasing, I realized he was right. Unpredicatable...yes, boring....not all the time.

Let me explain. We're going on our third summer in this house without real furniture in our great screened-in porch. I've stalked conversation sets, as they're called, online for many months. So when we went to Target to look, and there happened to be a set on clearance being discontinued, it seemed like fate to me. Brent spent yesterday evening putting it together and it's shaping up to be a great summer!

We walked with Rachel, Justin and Charlie at the Mutt Strut at the track yesterday and were lucky to meet Baby Liam briefly at the gate. I stole a picture of us from Emily's blog since I didn't get one of us together.

Charlie is hot!

Oh my word, the Mutt Strut is a riot. I couldn't stop laughing in the beginning. You've never seen so many dogs in your life. Bonnie was overstimulated and acted like a maniac, but not worse than normal I'd say. She kept waiting for dogs coming up behind us so she could walk beside them. Another trick up her sleeve was walking right in front of someone (usually Rachel and Justin) and then coming to an abrupt stop and laying down on the concrete.





My favorite was when she decided to lie in the water trough. Just her size! Everyone laughed. Yup, that's my dog, folks. The one laying IN the water. The spazz.

Tips for TET -

Making its first appearance on my blog is a Stevenson Tip for TET (tough economic times). I heard that Aldi is a great place to pick up good produce for cheap, so I checked it out myself yesterday. I bought: 2 lbs. of grapes, 1 pineapple, 1 bag of kiwi, 1 container of blueberries, and a quart of strawberries. Guess how much I paid? Just guess!

$20 - you're too high.

$15 - still too high.

$10 - lower. Yes, I said lower.

$8.49. Can you believe that???? And it's good fruit!

Another tip - rent your movies through Redbox. There are about 5 Redbox stands within 3 miles of our house that rent movies, even new releases, for $1. You also get a free movie for each new registration, so depending on how many email addresses you have, you may be set through the summer. We rented "Burn After Reading" which I liked even though it was pretty dark.

All in all a pretty cheap weekend for us, except for the furniture and all.

"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

The pup's been doing a lot of this the past few days. And several days last week. It must suck for her, being a white little pup with a muddy yard and parents that are trying to salvage somewhat clean carpets...

Really, my plan was to post a picture of her standing on top of the coffee table with the caption "We've lost all control...", because that's how we've been finding her lately, typically with an ink pen in her mouth. Unfortunately, I can't catch her like that while I'm holding the camera. And let's face it, I would be sending a mixed message to put her back up on the coffee table just for a photo op after we repeatedly yell at her to get down. (Plus, I've already tried this, but she wouldn't stay up there. I'm desperate for blog material this week. Brent saw me do it last night and thinks I am I-N-S-A-N-E...so I tried it again today when he wasn't home.)

Moving on...

After one more final, I'm officially on vacation from class for two+ weeks! Yahoo-ski! For the summer session a few peeps from my class and I are going to take one course away from the co-hort and actually attend an evening class on campus. I've gone to UIndy for almost two years now and have never stepped foot on campus. Weird! Tomorrow I'm going to venture down and have an ID card made since I have just two semesters left...makes sense, right?

In landscaping news, our neighbors can breathe a sigh of relief tonight because we finally put some fertilizer on it during our third spring of living here. I guess we're those people. I couldn't stand it anymore...I called Scotts and a landscaping company the same day to come help us with this mess. There is a little Scotts' flag in my front yard this evening and a landscaping estimate in my inbox and my landscaping anxiety is subsiding. I'm hoping after this overhaul we can keep up with it ourselves next year, but right now it is beyond amateur intervention.

Off to make dinner, and maybe clean out a closet! Which lucky closet will it be?? Ohhhh, the anticipation...

Bring on sun and 80 degrees!!

Easter Festivities and The Daily Grind

Hey friends! Hope you all had a great Easter. We did! We went to Kendallville on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the afternoon coloring eggs, hanging around, and making trips to Wal-Mart/Scott's to retrieve items for Easter dinner. Big Lou made us homemade fries for dinner, which is something I had been looking forward to for days. Honestly, it's the little things, right?

We went to early church at Trinity and then headed home to make the Easter meal. Stormy and Nick joined us and we had the traditional fare. I think we've had the same meal for the last 10+ Easters, and when I heard that the cheesy potatoes might be replaced by potatoes au gratin this year, I have to say I was a little sad. Good news - cheesy potatoes live on and the tradition remains.

Here are some Easter pics...

Maddie is ready for her houseguests to leave...

Other than that, no news is good news, right? I just turned in a paper to all but finish up my Tuesday night class, and all that's left for Thursday night is a presentation and a test. Then...three weeks off. Yeeeeeesssssssssssss. Brent's downstairs working right now and from the sound of it Bonnie must be tormenting him by running behind his TV. He just hates that.

I think I'm so boring this week because I haven't been able to talk to anyone in what feels like AGES!!! My phone was dropped for the 18th and final time on Saturday. I can hear emails coming in, but can't see them. It's for the best anyway, because I shattered the screen a few weeks ago and everytime I went to type my fingers would start to hurt...what with the tiny shavings of glass digging into my skin and all. Oh insurance company, I would like to make my first claim, please! I have three more days to wait, so if you need to chat...send me an email and I'll call you from Brent's phone. I've already purchased a hard case for my next Blackberry. :)

Off to finish up the Biggest Loser and get to bed. I cannot wait...

P.S. - I just realized that the dog is in every picture. She's the closet thing we have to a white rabbit, so this must be her holiday to shine...

Zilch...Nada...

I really have nothing to blog about. Seriously, nothing. I am trying to avoid starting my Operations Strategy case study (due tomorrow), so lucky for you to get to read my Procrastination Dribble.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Finance Center...
So I was walking into work on Saturday morning when I hear Queen playing faintly in the background. Before I know it, this huge motorcycle with huge American and Mexican flags driven by a large, bald man comes zipping up to the front of the building blaring "Somebody to Love." Hilarious to me, and probably not to you. Had to be there. Man, I love that song. Symphony on the Prairie is having a Queen concert this year to make up for it being an off summer for their ABBA show. You better believe I'm there!

Spring Cleaning...
I saw this list on the Glamorous Girlfriend's website and was instantly inspired to deep clean our house. It comes from Martha's Housekeeping Handbook, if I'm giving credit where credit is due. After reading through it, I realized that I have never done ANY of the things on the list (okay that might be an exaggeration, but not by much...) in the 2+ years we've lived here. And the Inspire-o-Meter fell a little bit. Then, I went to Ace and bought the Windex Outdoor garden hose attachment so I don't have to physically wash the windows on the outside, just turn the hose on them and rinse. Sounds like it's worth the 8 bucks to me! Cleaning inspiration then became non-existent. I once considered purchasing Martha's Housekeeping Handbook, but there's no need to rub salt in an open bad-housekeeping-skills wound.

Weekend Shenannigans...
Okay, "shenannigans" may not be the word to use here. It was pretty calm. We had dinner with the Sinders' at Bravo on Friday and then I met my friends Christi and Candy at Maggianno's on Saturday night. I barely made my dinner date on Saturday because I ran 9 miles that afternoon in the sun without any water stops, and I paid dearly for it. I had to have been dehydrated because after about half an hour back from the run I started to feel like crap...like pale-faced, seconds-from-passing-out crap. After laying around through two Sex and the City episodes and two I Love Raymonds and lots of V-8 Fusion, I felt like I could drag myself to the shower and make it to dinner. Two lessons learned here: 1.) DRINK WATER!, and 2.) STOP RUNNING! I have finally faced the fact that I am not a runner and that I am ready for the mini to be over with so I can start behaving like I have some common sense again.

That's about all from me. It's 6:30 and it's time to face the facts on this paper. Only three more weeks until the semester's over! Ya-hoo!

Mutt Strut!

When Bonnie's not busy destroying our house or being engaged in Navy Seal covert ops in the backyard, she likes to raise money for other animals at the Humane Society. That, and she loves to walk and pounce on other dogs....all of which she will get a chance to do on Sunday, April 26th when we walk around the track at the Speedway. The Sinders' and the Mitchell's walk in the Mutt Strut every year and I'm pumped that we finally have a pet so we can join in the fun!

If you would like to donate to the Humane Society of Indianapolis, here's the link to our page. Sorry it's not too spiffy...I went back to add a picture and can't remember my username or password.

Thanks!