Pop Pop Poppity Popcorn

I've been craving popcorn lately.  Like to the point that Tom made some soup the other night and I thought it smelled like popcorn and I kept asking him if he actually made popcorn not soup and was just hiding the popcorn from me.
I understand that I could actually just throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave to cure this craving, however I would eat the entire bag and then feel awful.  So I have been resisting.
That is until yesterday.  Yesterday the Polar Arctic Freeze wave hit North Carolina and it went from 60* to 9* in like an hour.  Of course this happened the day I had to take the damn dogs to the vet.  Which of course I had so carefully planned so that I could walk them to the vet so they wouldn't loose their damn minds / rip my arm off getting to ride in the car and go into a new place.  So yesterday I walked the dogs 1.5 miles to the vet and 1.5 miles back home in 9* weather, which I believed allowed me to succumb to my recent craving of popcorn.
Now again, you would think I could just throw a bag in the microwave and be done with it.  BUT the problem still existed that I would eat the entire bag and feel like barfing afterwards.  Also the apartment would smell like popcorn for the next year and every time I walked in I would want more popcorn.  So what is a girl to do???
Luckily I also needed to buy a special kind of battery for our scale at home.  I knew they sold them across the street from where I work at Ace Hardware....
Ace Hardware has popcorn machines and free popcorn for customers.
I literally left work in 9* weather drove across the street to Ace Hardware picked up my battery and a key chain, paid, got my free bag of popcorn and went back to work.  Craving satisfied, didn't feel like barfing.

I am very resourceful :)

Now head on over to your local Ace Hardware to get your free popcorn and a new key chain.  I promise it's worth it!

XO XO,
Molly

And She's Off

November 5, 2013
Today I am thankful that we live in a fully fenced in / gated apartment complex.
Tuesdays are my one morning to sleep in.  I don't work until 12:15pm.  Generally its quite lovely.  However, this morning Addie had other ideas.
Usually the dogs sleep until I wake up.  They don't even stir if Tom is up before me.  It doesn't matter what time I get up they sleep until I do.  This morning, of all mornings, Addie broke our sleep in pact.  She started whining at 9am.  I figured she must really have to go potty so I quickly threw on a sweatshirt over my pj's and flip flops and went to let her and Rocky out.
Now technically we are supposed to put our dogs on a leash every time we let them out, but our dogs are used to going out without a leash and staying in an unfenced specified area, so often we let them out without a leash.  We lucked out with the location and set up of our apartment building.  All the apartments have entrances from outside.  Ours is on the ground level in the back of the building and has a nice grassy area right outside our door.  So it makes it pretty easy to just let the dogs out, watch them from the door, and have them run right back in.  Also there aren't very many other dogs in our building so we don't have to worry about them coming out.
Now when I let the dogs out my routine is always the same.  Open the apartment door and make sure no one is outside and no other dogs are out back.  I tell my dogs to wait at the door and they do.  Then I go back open the door and let them out.  They usually just run right to the grass and go potty and come right back.  Usually being the key word in that sentence.
This morning when I opened the door Addie took off like a horse in the Kentucky Derby.  Rocky and I looked at each other like "sam hell is she going?"  Rocky went off to his secret corner to pee and I started walking back to where she ran quietly yelling her name, trying not to wake any other neighbors or bring attention to the fact that I was A.) letting my dogs out off leash and B.) doing all this in my pajamas.  When I couldn't find her I tried to get Rocky back in the apartment but he wouldn't leave my side.  I knew if I started walking to the front of the building he would take off too, getting excited by all the new smells.  So I started running back and forth with Rocky chasing me all the while quietly yelling for Addie.  Hoping she would just show up.
Luckily after about 5 minutes she ran back and was immediately in time out in her kennel.  I think she just went to the front of our building, but who really knows.  The only small piece of positive pie I can find in all this is that our entire apartment complex is fenced / gated in so unless she actually went to the front or side gate where you can drive in and out and they happened to be open she would be stuck in the complex.  Not necessarily safe because people drive like idiots, but at least stuck inside.
Of all the factors that I thought of about how we could possibly get kicked out of our apartment (Rocky barking, Tom farting, our crazy parties, etc.)  Addie was never once one of them.  Who knew she would want to make the list?!?!?  Dumb dog.
Oh well, we haven't been kicked out yet!  Here's to hoping we can make it a year :)


XO XO,
Molly

P.S. I want some pie...not just positive pie actual pie.

You'll thank me for sharing all of this in one post

Recent happenings that I have chosen not to write entire blog posts about.  You will understand quickly why.

• I sat on the couch and smelled a smell.  I thought Tom was making a hot dog.  I then looked to my left and saw a pile of dog poop on the floor.  Not good for hot dogs.

Yes the poop is steaming

• I have a new appreciation for a friend.  We absolutely can't stand the same person.  Have you ever noticed how if you don't like someone or something and another person feels the same way you instantly become friends?  Love it!
•  Tom and I hopped on the green smoothie bandwagon.  We are both really loving it as are our intestines.  Although the budget for Febreeze air freshener has gone up considerably.

Tom happy with his smoothie.  Check out those guns!

 My favorite green smoothie concoction so far is: 1cup spinach leaves, small handful of cucumber, small handful of celery, big handful of broccoli, half an avocado, banana, honey, water, ice.  Blend it up and drink.  I use this one for breakfast since its a bit higher in the calorie department.

• Do you ever have those mornings where the outfit you imagine in your head doesn't turn out and you don't have time to change so you just have to go to work looking like a fool in an outfit that looks terrible?  That happened to me this week.  I imagined my skirt a different color and my top a cardigan instead of a flowing top and my shoes not black.  It was bad friends.  So bad in fact I went home and changed on my lunch break.  The weirdest part of the whole thing?  No one at work even noticed I changed my clothes.  And it wasn't a subtle change.
• My work is trying to get away from the IT company they currently use.  They have asked me and two other people to be our new IT department.  I had to look up what IT stood for.  I really hope they aren't expecting much :)  I mean I was pretty sure it stood for Information Technology, but not 100%.

Thank you all for your kindness after the last post and for your patience.  I feel like real life is just boring lately.  Except I did go to a bridal shower this past weekend (for a co-worker) and all there was was wine and fruit salad.  All the church people got drunk.  It was awesome.


 XO XO,
Going to buy more Kale and Febreeze now :)

7 Dreaded Words (this is your warning that things are getting gross today do not eat while reading this post)

Last Friday I had to bring the dogs in to see Uncle Josh (Tom's good friend and our vet).  It was just their annual exam and both dogs needed to get a few shots.  No big deal right???

WRONG.

As I was hanging up the phone with the office after scheduling the appointment I heard those dreaded words.  Seven little words that you just know are going to change the rest of your week until the appointment.  Seven words that mean you can't just let the dogs be dogs.  Seven words that are the most dreaded words to a pet owner.  Seven words...that's all.
.
.
.
.
.

We're going to need a stool sample.

.

.

.

.

.

*$?@! *$&@#*!&@# =  my reaction.  Wednesday (3 days before the appointment) I pull out two plastic sandwich baggies and write in permanent marker "Rocky" on one and "Addie" on another.  I then turn the baggies inside out so when you grab the "thimble size amount of stool sample" it is in the inside of the baggie and you can zip it up with their name on the outside.  (This isn't my first rodeo.)  Finally I put the baggies in the mudroom on the door handle of the door we let the dogs out of so they are RIGHT THERE when the time comes.  I tell Tom I've done all of this and that we really need to pay attention when we let them out because we need this by Friday afternoon.  Tom's response?  "They never poop when I let them out."  Really Tom??? Really?????  That's how your going to play this game???  @^!&^@*&$

I swear once the dogs see the plastic baggies they know and get shy.  Rocky is always a private pooper, going behind the shed to do his biznezz, but Addie will normally take a shit anywhere (she's very liberal).  But once they see those baggies they're like, "Nope not pooping in the flat grassy area now, gonna go down the hill in the farthest back tree line corner.  HAHA come and find me now!"

So Wednesday was unsuccessful.  Thursday I tried hiding the baggies, but that didn't help either.  By Thursday night I was desperate.  It was late.  I was ready for bed.  It was cold and dark.  I had to let them out one more time.  So I threw on my big honking snow boots, Tom's big coat grabbed the baggies and headed out with them to try and follow them around the back yard.  Of course they go in two completely opposite directions, so I try and stand in the middle of both of them flipping my head back and forth like I'm at a tennis match.

Then it happens...Rocky starts turning circles and sniffing.  I don't want to scare him off so I stand super still and wait.  He finishes and I start to walk into the line of trees to get it and POOF! the motion sensor light turns off.  I jump and wave my hands and it doesn't turn back on.  I try and memorize exactly where I am and start walking back up the hill towards the light to get it to turn on.  Finally it turns back on.  I walk back to the place I so carefully memorized only to find no poop.  Now here is where I should have thought, "go get a flashlight" but I was tired and my brain wasn't thinking and also it was really cold.  So instead of going inside to get a flashlight I start sniffing.  Yep here I am in the middle of the night in my pj's, snow boots, and Tom's coat sniffing around the back yard for dog shit.  What has my life come to?!?

I quickly realize this is ridiculous after touching (through the baggie) the same pile of poop three times to see if its warm and go back inside defeated once again.

I had one more opportunity and I had to get both dogs to poop at the same time and be able to find it and it will be in the morning which means I have to get my lazy ass out of bed with enough time to spare for all this rigamaroll.  You can imagine how happy I was about this.  Especially when I pulled myself out of bed and Tom continued to snore away.

I sleepily climbed into my poop scooping uniform from the night before and had a come to Jesus meeting with the dogs before letting them out.  Luckily both dogs listened (there may have been some divine intervention happening too) and I was able to collect both samples for the upcoming appointment with no further problems (except getting a twig stuck in my hair).

Those of you who say dogs don't prepare you in anyway for having kids must be kidding right?!?!?  I better not ever have to chase my kid around looking for their poop in the middle of the freezing cold night in the backyard (but I guess I will if I have to).

XO XO,

I've dealt with enough dog poop for my life Molly

Random Tuesday

Randomness #1:

Last night I went to the grocery store.  There were a series of ads where you checkout.

Apparently Addie got a modeling gig I was unaware of :)  Seriously though, doesn't that look just like Addie who is in the right picture???  I told my Dad she was available for his next advertising campaign.  Ha!

Randomness #2:

I woke up this morning with three bruises on my leg.  I have no idea how I got them.

Randomness #3:

 Have you ever ridden in a limo with all the lights on???  It's like sitting in a hot tub without the jets on...awkward.  AND, why is it whenever the jets go off the naked people are always the first to jump out to turn them back on?  Seriously people, let the clothed people take care of it...we don't mind.

Randomness #4:

 We very rarely have ice cream in the house, but when we do I try to buy frozen yogurt or at least the low fat stuff.  I usually get cookie dough (obviously) or cookies & cream.  The other day I accidentally bought real cookie dough ice cream.  DID YOU KNOW THEY PUT WAAAAAY MORE BIG CHUNKS OF COOKIE DOUGH IN THE REAL STUFF?!?!?!?!?!?!?  I feel like I've been totally ripped off.  I thought I was just buying the low fat ice cream part not low fat mix-in's.  So, basically I am saying I want low fat vanilla ice cream with full fat, big chunks of cookie dough.  Does that diminish the purpose of low fat ice cream???

Randomness #5:

Tom tried to teach me how to use the snow blower.  I felt like it went really well.  He felt like it went really not well.  We still have some lessons ahead of us.

XO XO,

My Dog is a Model

Ah...Ah...Ah...CHOOOOOOO

Sorry for being MIA the last week.  An idiot I work with decided to come to work sick and has now proceeded to get EVERYONE sick.  And by everyone I mean everyone...literally the entire staff is sick and we just keep passing it around.  It's a petri dish full of germs up in here.  One girl has already used all her sick days for the year and it's only January (and she's still sick now for the second time).  I had to use two sick days, but don't worry Tom said it was just a cold and I needed to suck it up (he has the best bedside manner).

The nightstand with Lysol, sudafed, and kleenex.  The pups who are good snugglers and have a good bedside manner (clearly they got that from their mom).

I knew I was officially sick when nothing sounded good to eat (not even cookie dough).  I think I ate 2 pieces of toast in a three day period.  And you better believe the first thing I did once I was feeling better was to step on the scale to see how much weight I'd lost (4lbs).

I guess the only good thing about being sick was that I happened to be sick on the two coldest days in the last 1,466 days.  I think the high Monday was like -10 and the windshield was -40 (those numbers are probably wildly inaccurate double check with Belinda Jensen if you want accuracy) but I do know they were in the negatives.  When I finally graced everyone the dogs with my presence Monday morning afternoon night and let them out they looked at me like I was crazy.  Addie ran out the door obviously not expecting the cold got half way down the hill and then the cold hit her.  She looked back at me peed and ran back inside narrowly escaping Rocky who was smarter and practically peed right on the step.

Top Left = the door in the mudroom.  No we do not have fancy frosted glass, that is actual frost on the glass INSIDE!  Bottom Right = the door handle covered in frost.  The other two pictures you can't tell very well but there is frost there I promise, and these are INSIDE with storm windows / storm door!  That is how cold it is!

Finally by Tuesday late afternoon I was feeling better and decided January 22 was a good day to finally take down the Christmas tree.  Tom and I have been busy playing "guess the tune", "finger or twig", and "which dog is licking me?" lately and didn't make taking the tree down a priority.  Now I'm sure you're all wondering about the games we've been playing, and no they aren't inappropriate if that's what you're thinking.

These boxes may or may not still be sitting in the living room (they are).

Tom is crazy good at knowing a song after just the first chord.  Seriously, next time you're around him play a song...any song and he will know what it is.  AND if it was in a movie he will be able to tell you what movie and describe the scene for you.  It's mind blowing.  So "guess the tune" is a game that I inevitably always lose.  Basically we open iTunes or pandora put the songs on shuffle and see who can name the artist and title first.  Pretty much the only songs I ever win are Christmas Songs, Mozart, Beyonce, James Taylor and Chris Isaac.

Finger or twig (can be played with any other object not just a twig) is a game Tom invented in Jamaica a few years ago.  One person closes their eyes and the other touches them with either their finger or the twig.  Wow, the more I describe it the worse it sounds...I'm just gonna quit while I'm ahead.  But I will say this, we played it with my Mom on the beach and she thought it was fun too.  Yeah Molly, still sounding bad and now getting weird.

Ok well moving on, the final game "which dog is licking me" is self explanatory.  You have to guess without looking which dog is licking you.  Seriously, what is up with these games sounding so weird?!?  They don't seem weird in the moment...

Tom cheated...he knew it was Addie all along :)

Well this post has gone from sick to I don't even know, so I'm going to stop here.  Hopefully things will get back to normal soon.  Until then...

XO XO,
I've Shared Too Much Molly

A Lesson From Bambi

*I've been debating whether or not to say anything...I don't like conflict or confrontation.*

We all remember the cute little deer named Bambi who stole our hearts in the animated movie.  There is a specific scene in that movie where a little bunny named Thumper tries to teach Bambi words.  He teaches him the words bird and flower.  As Bambi gets more confident in using his words he accidentally calls a skunk flower.  Thumper laughs at Bambi, but is quickly reprimanded by his mother who asks him, "what did your father teach you this morning?"  And Thumper replies, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."

I believe we all need to take a moment to remember the lesson little Thumper taught us.  It seems like lately people are forgetting how hurtful words can be, or how ignorant they can sound if they speak before they think.

I first want to say I am not pointing fingers at any specific people or using this post as a way to confront people without actually confronting them (there is a term for this but I can't think of what it is).  Believe me, I've confronted people already.  I second want to say I often do not think before I speak and am sorry if this has caused you any hurt.  I know I eat my words a lot, and sound ignorant a lot and I am working on it.  Thirdly and lastly I want to say that yes, I would much rather hear the truth from someone rather than something nice.  For example, I would much rather hear "Molly your house smells like dog" so I can fix it rather than people saying my house smells good but really they are holding their breath.  Get it???

Ok, so the reason for all of this.

Since the announcement of Duke people keep asking about our living / moving / my job / etc. situations and to be honest we haven't even talked about it.  Before match day we talked about many, many, many different scenarios.  Would we sell our house, would we rent our house, would Tom move and I stay, would we both go, and the list went on and on.  We never made any decisions, but kind of felt like since the fellowship is only a year I might stay and Tom might go.  Many factors go into this decision (that hasn't been made yet) one of which is the dogs.

Because the fellowship is only a year we obviously wouldn't purchase a new home, but instead try and rent an apartment or house.  Many Most rental places do not allow you to have dogs.  If they do it is like one dog under 50 pounds if that, so having 2 dogs over 50 pounds puts us at a huge disadvantage.

Lately, as I've explained our situation I've gotten a wide variety of responses / opinions.  Most ranging from, "Wow I don't know if I could be away from my husband for a year!" to "He'll be super busy anyway you might as well stay."  Those kinds of responses are great.  The responses like, "Why don't you just take your dogs back to the shelter you got them from, then your problems will be solved" and "Can't you just kennel your dogs for the year" are not great.  Seriously people?!?!?  You obviously do NOT know Tom or I very well to suggest something like that.

First of all, we rescued both of our dogs from Shelters.  They both had been abused and still show signs of it when scared.  We've worked really hard to get them where they are today, and honestly they are a part of our family.  They've learned to trust and love us, and we've learned to trust and love them.  I can't imagine taking a shower and not having Rocky laying on the bath mat next to me, or Addie licking my hand in the morning after she hears me press snooze one to many times.

Yes I know I bitch and moan about them, and yes they drive me crazy half the time, but so does Tom and I wouldn't send him back to the shelter just to make my life easier.  I love him and I love them and getting rid of them is NOT an option.

Opinions and honesty are appreciated when helpful and realistic but let's all remember, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."  Because hearing "get rid of your dogs" makes me sad and is not nice.

And really, who could get rid of these sweet babies???

Yes I realize they are dogs and not humans, but I believe they have feelings just like we do.  I could never let them down after all this and send them back to a Shelter or Kennel for that matter.

XO XO,

Rocky and Addie's Mom

P.S. please remember this is ONE factor in a bucket of many that will determine what Tom and I feel is best for OUR marriage, and OUR situation.  Thank you to those of you who have been supportive and have listened, Tom and I both really appreciate it.

Holidays in the Traditional Happiness House

Holidays in the Traditional Happiness house are quite well...traditional.

We I set up a Christmas Tree

We have fires in the fireplace and listen to Christmas Music

 

We go to church on Christmas Eve

We open presents and wear what we've opened immediately

Even the dogs get presents mailed to them

This year the dogs got extra special presents from their Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandma and Grandpa Mullin gave them special treats, and Grandma and Grandpa Langwith sent them new Holiday collars.

They especially loved sniffing each others collars.

Now Addie girl got a sweet green and white fuzzy collar, but poor Rocky boy got a collar with jingle bells on it.  The bells were not quiet to say the least, and poor Rocky kept trying to get away from all the noise.  Little did he know he couldn't!  Every slight movement he made they jingled.  He even got Addie to try and bite the collar off, but with no success.  Needless to say we didn't make him wear it very often, except when people were coming over or to terrorize the poor guy :)

A close up of the jingle jangle collar.

Luckily Tom went to a staff Christmas party where they exchange white elephant gifts and got this bad boy:

Yes that is a blow up moose/deer head.

Which has nice antlers for the loud collar to hang on.  The dogs have a love / hate relationship with the deer/moose.

Addie is a bit braver than Rocky, who wouldn't go near the thing, but did do a lot of growling from far away :)

Overall we had a lovely, very relaxing holiday and hope you did too.

XO XO,

Sad that the Holidays are over Molly

"Oh the weather outside is frightful and it makes me really crabby, and since there's no place to go I'll go to work and be crabby there" (sung to the tune of Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow) Also, a weekend recap.

I'm crabby and I blame Mother Nature...seriously what a bitch.  Dropping 15+ inches of snow is not cool.  The snow started Friday and continued until the wee hours this morning.

Top picture was taken about 10am

Bottom picture was taken about 10pm.  Notice how much shorter the shed and bird feeder are?

Yes, I know these are beautiful pictures and snow can be beautiful blah de blah de blah, but when you have a husband who is working all day and is trying to get home and can hardly get in the neighborhood it's not beautiful.  When you have an important Dr.'s appointment and try leaving the driveway and get all the way to the big hill and realize if you go down the hill you won't be able to get back up and then have to back up all the way back home, it's not pretty.  When you have to try and get to work and the plows have not come, it's not pretty.

But you know what is pretty?  Our amazing neighbor plowing our driveway just because he saw ours wasn't done yet and he was already out doing his.  The dogs jumping and frolicking in the snow and having a great time.  And knowing truly how fortunate I really am to be in a nice warm house when many people are standing in line hoping to get a place in a Shelter for the night.  I guess that puts it in perspective right there, although I'm not going to lie...I'm still crabby.

Since all this snow decided to fall on the weekend, I got to get a lot of projects done around the house, and by projects done around the house I mean two baking fails, organize pinterest, and watch a bunch of Netflix.

Pinterest is amazeballs.  I am so jealous of the people who get to have weddings with pinterest.  I really think there is a true divide between pre & post pinterest weddings.  There are so many cool ideas out there.  Anyway, I was looking for a recipe on my pinterest board this weekend, and realized I really needed to organize my pinterest boards now that I have so many pins.  So that took almost all of Sunday and part of Saturday, oh and also a bit of Friday night.  (This makes me sound super cool doesn't it...a weekend full of pinterest organization).  I'm sure my husband would have liked me to be organizing the house instead of an online bulletin board, but alas, we can't all get what we want now can we?!?  Now, when I go on pinterest it is much easier to find a specific pin.  If you're interested you can follow me on pinterest by clicking the link above in the header!

While organizing all my pinterest boards I came across a few new recipes I'd forgotten I'd pinned.  Since I had time, and all the ingredients I decided to try two of them out.  Both failures.  The first was peanut butter fudge.  Sounds delish right?  Basically the recipe said you just boil some milk and sugar together then add the peanut butter.  So I boiled and added and cooled and when I went to try some...it had separated.  The milk and sugar was all on the bottom and the peanut butter was on the top!  A few minor things I didn't mention...I used skim milk when it called for whole and used all natural chunky peanut butter when it called for Jiff.  Apparently those minor things made a big difference and it all got thrown in the trash.

Second failure (that wasn't a true failure but didn't turn out right)?  These bad boys...

Again, look delish right?  Seemed easy enough put a scoop of brownie batter at the bottom of a muffin tin and top with cookie dough and bake.  So I scooped and topped and baked and got this...

The centers collapsed and the brownies got super hard, but they still tasted good so I brought a plate full over to the neighbor who plowed our driveway.  Hopefully he doesn't break a tooth trying to eat them!

During all of this, I also was able to get our Bose wifi set up (after having it for a year), watched a ton of Netflix, shoveled off the back steps, put beer in the snow for Tom so it would be 'ice' cold, and tried one of the aforementioned beers and decided it tasted like chemicals.  Tom said that's what it is supposed to taste like so he finished it for me and I had a margarita.

Pretty productive weekend I'd say!

XO XO,
cold crabby Molly

Pretty Pup (a post by Addie)...yes my dog is that smart...she can type and write a blog post.

Yesterday morning my mom dropped me off at the beauty parlor.  I didn't think I looked that bad, but she told me I was too shaggy and my nails were too long.  You should see her eyebrows and nails.  Shaggy and not even painted!  But alas, I couldn't pass up a trip in the car so I went.  Mom even put the windows down for me and it was 20* outside!  When we got to the beauty parlor the jingle bells on the door scared me a little and mom had to drag me inside, but once we were inside I remembered the place and mom gave me a treat from the counter.  I always try to be a good girl whenever I go somewhere so I gave Kathy, my stylists lots of kisses.  Kathy is really nice and gives me lots of pets on my belly.  She also makes my haircuts flatter my figure and give me good shape around my face.  What more could a girl want in a stylist?!?
When I was all done and beautified my Dad came and picked me up.  I jumped and danced around to show him how beautiful I was.  As I was jumping around this thing kept hitting my face.  I couldn't figure out what it was so I starting biting at it and it wouldn't come off.  When I got home I tried to get Rocky to bite it off for me, but it's still stuck on!  I am starting to feel a bit claustrophobic and am hoping Mom or Dad will take whatever this thing is off soon!  They probably think it's cute, but it's in my way.  I can't do all my smelling outside without it falling to the ground and it got wet when I was trying to get some water.  Whatever happened to the cute bows they used to put in my hair?  Those never got in the way!

XO XO,
Addie

Before: Shaggy Pup

After: Pretty Pup

She's referring to the bandanna above that she hates, but she looks so cute with it on that I make it stay.  Don't call child protective services on me though :)