Going to the dogs (part 2)

An update to Sadie's goal of raising $250.00 for S.P.O.T, Saving Pets one at a Time (please scroll down to see details from the original post).

At this point Sadie has received three donations and has raised over $100.00. We wanted to show you which clay art was sold and new ones that are available for donation (all donations are based on what you are able to do in order to support this organization, please consider making a donation in the monetary amount you feel comfortable with). To read more about S.P.O.T and the 600 dogs that were rescued last week, please click here.

Still available

~~~~~~~~~~~NEW CREATIONS~~~~~~~~~~~

To make a donations please contact Sadie at: sadiesavingdogs@gmail.com

a great recipe

French Pot Roast:

4lb roast

1 bottle Worcestershire sauce

1 package dry onion soup mix

3 cans cream of mushroom soup

4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped

8 carrots, peeled and chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large roasting pan place roast. Pour Worcestershire sauce all over meat. Put potatoes and carrots around roast. Sprinkle onion soup mix on top of roast. Pour all cream of mushroom soup cans over meat. Cover with foil and bake for at least 2 hours until potatoes and carrots are brown. Serves 4.

Billy and I rated this one a 5 - I LOVED the flavor of the meat, potatoes and carrots! I cut this recipe in 1/2 and it still made enough to serve 4 and left-overs.

Recipe from Mariners menus published years ago (back when they won games...oh, was that my out loud voice?). Recipe provided by Ron Villone, pitcher #47.

Going to the dogs!!!

Recently there was a local story near Seattle about two women who were running puppy mills out of separate locations (apparently mother and daughter). The dogs that they had in there care were in horrible condition and were all taken from them. This lead to 600 (yes, I said 600) dogs being taken in by a local shelter. Most of the dogs are in horrible condition, not cared for well at all and come to find out that 80% of them are pregnant. You can read about this situation here.

Sadie has a passion for dogs, anyone who knows her knows that she has a heart for animals. This story of the dogs touched her very deeply and she had decided to do something to help. She has turned over all the money she currently has and is working to earn more to buy supplies for the shelter which is desperately crying for food, beds, toys and money to help them care for these dogs. One way that Sadie has decided to raise money is to make some of her clay creations and sell them for donations that will go 100% to the shelter. If you are interested in making a donation she will mail (or hand deliver where possible) one of her creations. Sadie has a goal of raising $250.00 by the middle of February. Many of these dogs will be in the shelter for that long or more while obtaining the medical help they need to be adopted out.

To read more about the need that the shelters have, please click here this link will take you to the organization of Saving Pets One at a Time which is currently helping these dogs. Obviously the goal here is to help this shelter, so PLEASE consider making a donation of your time if possible or money to help these poor puppies.

Sadie's clay art is being sold at no specific cost; just donations please... we will update with new clay creations as money is raised and post when Sadie delivers the donations. Also, please keep the workers in your prayers. Many of them are seeing animals in who have been treated horribly and are in a very sad conditions. They are not facing an easy job.

If you are interested in donating by ordering one of Sadie's clay art projects, please email sadiesavingdogs@gmail.com. Thank you for considering!!

more recipes

It has been a while since we posted our family recipes, so here are a few that we have tried and enjoyed:

Pork Fried Rice

1 egg, lightly beaten
1 lb boneless, center-cut pork chops, fat trimmed and cut into 1/4 inch strips
2 scallions, trimmed and sliced
2 packages (8.8 ounces each) fully cooked brown rice
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil

Coat a 12 inch nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add beaten egg and scramble. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into small bites.

Increase heat under skillet to medium-high and add pork. Cook 3 minutes, until no longer pink, then add scallions, brown rice and peas. Cover with a sheet of foil and cook an additional 2 minutes. Stir in egg, soy sauce and sesame oil and heat through. Serve warm.

We loved this meal, loved it! However, we decided next time we make it we will add zucchini and mushrooms. All us rated this a FIVE! YEAH!!!



America's Favorite Pot Roast:

(have to admit here that I have never made a pot roast in my life, so this was an experience)

3-1/2 to 4lb boneless pot roast
1/4 cup flour
2tsp salt
1/8tsp. pepper
3 carrots, chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 small onions, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
10 button mushrooms, sliced

Trim all excess fat from the roast, brown and drain. Combine 1/4 cup flour, salt and pepper and coat meat with the flour mixture. Place all vegetables except mushrooms in the crock-pot and top with the roast. Spread mushrooms evenly over the top of the roast. Cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours (or high for 4-6 hours).

This meal was again super yummy, but it made me a little nervous that there was no liquid in the crock pot when I left it. Next time I will probably add two teaspoons of water. The other thing I noticed was that it was a tad salty. The girls really don't love chunks of meat, but both ate it, but would rate it only a 2. Billy and I rated this one a four, if you have a crock pot roast recipe, I would LOVE it!!!

Creamy Tortellini Alfredo:

1 can chicken broth
1 cup water
2 packages frozen cheese tortellini
4oz cream cheese, cubed
1 cup frozen peas
3/4 Italian five cheese blend
6 slices bacon, cooked, drained.

Pour broth and water in saucepan, stir. Bring to boil on medium high. Add tortellini. Reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 8-9 minutes or until tortellini is tender - DO NOT DRAIN.
Add cream cheese and peas, stir.
Heat 2-3 minutes or until cream cheese is completely melted.
Stir in cheese and bacon and serve.

This meal was super easy and very good. It was VERY rich and really need a good size bowl of fresh fruit to balance it out. We all rated this one a 4!

We have another new meal in the oven right now and several on the list to try over the next few weeks, so hopefully we will be able to post some successful ones soon!

Long between updates, again...

Our lack of posting has been mainly due to the fact we haven't had a lot to report (which is nice sometimes). Two weeks ago Sadie had her first band performance which was fun to watch. There were so many kids involved in band, it was nice to see.

Sadie in on the clarinet.

Here is a short sample of one of the songs they did called "Surprise Symphony" by Joseph Hayden. What was really fun is that as soon as they started to play this song Syrah said "hey, I know this song" and she started to giggle because she knew what the surprise was. Their music teacher does a great job of teaching them of many different composers and the history behind why they wrote the songs they did.

Besides band concerts we haven't had a lot going on... we had to postpone some friends coming over because I feel ill with the flu, but we were able to have them over for dinner last night and it was a great time!

For those of you who read our blog and are not from the area; we are getting more snow. It started last night and left us a nice covering over night. Then today it has pretty much been snowing all day and it feels VERY cold outside. I will say, it is beautiful, but we are hopeful it doesn't turn into what is was last month (sounds like this should be going away fairly soon).

Hopefully the updates will be sooner than later.

God Bless America!

Today our nation and many around the world are captivated by the historic event of the day; may all Chrisitan brothers and sisters come together to pray for our new President and his family as he leads our country!!

Weekend projects

For the past two weekends we have been working on getting the girls rooms done... both of them had half their rooms painted and many "personal" touches, but there was some work left to be done. We are glad to say with some hard work today... both rooms are completed!!

Syrah's Room:

Sadie's Room

Syrah's First lost tooth

Syrah has had a wiggly tooth for weeks now and I thought on Thursday it would fall out, but it held on. Well, today she lost her first tooth!!! She was very excited!

Sadie's Shots

Saturday the girls and I went to the zoo for a few hours (hint: the zoo is a great place to go on a cool day, there is hardly anyone there). Sadie had the camera during our visit and I thought I would share a few of the favorite shots. We decided that we would only do one small section of the zoo and really take our time. We spent almost an hour in the night exhibit (which was fantastic!).

Strange email...

This morning at 11:26 I received a very strange email, I thought I would share it with you all. Here is what it said:

Hello, do you remember me? You put pictures on me, you write lovely things about your days and share them with your family and friends!!! I miss you and wish that you would give me some attention. I know you have children, a husband and job, I am just asking that you try to sneak me in a little on the side….. missing you, Love YOUR BLOG

I had NO idea that when you neglected the BLOG it had feelings, but I guess it is somewhat flattering to know my computer misses me! I wish I had some exciting news to share as to what we have been up to the last nine days, but really, I don't. We stayed up together on New Year's Eve (ever notice that it is easy to stay up until midnight on accident, but when you are trying to stay up it is very difficult). We did some projects around the house (Billy finished painting some rooms, we hung pictures, re-arranged shelving to make room for the growing number of books the girls have). We enjoyed the last few days of winter break... stayed up a bit later, woke up a bit later, just generally enjoyed being together. This last week we have been working hard to get back into the routine of getting up to an alarm clock and getting out the door in an organized and timely manner.

Last weekend we did get to have one last Christmas celebration at my moms to have some time with my brother Eric and his wife Lauren, who were in Lauren's home town of Nashville, TN over Christmas. We were surprised to be witnessing even more snow come down on that day and Eric got his white Christmas as he had wanted (kinda!).

Eric (check out those fogged up glasses) and Billy after making a trip to the car in the snow!!!

I am glad to say we are getting a break from the snow, but sure have been hit with some wind and rain since... please continue to pray for those that are affected by flooding (which are many!).

I would like to thank my blog for motivating me to get back here... I will do my best to update more often and not go 9-10 days absent!