Henry's Friend

Well it seems as if Pig Pen the duck is here to stay. Yes we named him Pig Pen as he loves the mud and is never completely white. I still haven't been able to get him to go into the pool. Don't figure.

Anyhow, he's lonely I guess, or he just likes dogs. Henry in particular. Henry likes him too, but I'm pretty sure Henry has other ideas than just playing like old friends. 

It never fails that when I let Henry out to do his business Pig Pen will come running, ok maybe waddling really fast up the yard to see Henry. He knows just how far the leash will go, and he will then just sit there and look at Henry. 

Pig Pen likes to mess with all the dogs, but especially Henry. Pig Pen will wait until the dogs turn around and start walking away, and then he will follow them. I think he has a death wish or something, maybe he likes to mess with me too and give me a heart attack. Anyhow once the dog gets so far, he will let out a quack and wait for the dog to turn around...and then run just past where the leash will end. I think he finds it comical to watch the dogs get whiplash. 

 Pig Pen and Henry

The other night, after I locked Pig Pen up for the night in the garden I grabbed the walking leash and hooked Henry up and walked him to the garden. He was so intent on smelling the duck smell on the ground that he didn't even realize that there was a duck standing right in front of him, separated only by some chicken wire, that is until Pig Pen charged the fence. Henry finally focused on the duck, and the two of them just stared at each other. It was intense I tell you. Neither of them moved a muscle for about two minutes. Then Henry couldn't contain himself any longer. The sound he let out resembled something between a yip and a bark. Guess it doesn't matter what the sound was, the effect had me almost on the ground rolling.  As soon as the sound left Henry, poor Pig Pen, who was in the zone and focusing on Henry almost did a back flip he was startled so badly.

Things here might settle down just a bit, but there is always little things like this that keep us off balance just enough to keep us on our feet.

Catching Up

Well I suppose I should be writing more blogs lately but things have gotten a bit more crazy around here. With all the calls to Texas regarding the kids I'm trying to adopt. I find this very hard to deal with since I seem to lack patience. I want call backs right now, I want answers right now, I really don't like being jerked around, but here I am.

So on the home front here, the kids are getting restless as there are only about 2.5 weeks of school left. However there wont really be much of a break since Princess goes to college for two weeks, and Jokester goes to Reading and Writing summer camp. My running around will actually get a bit worse as I have to bring Princess to her classes and pick her up. 

Superman is in a opposites mood, I guess I can't really call it that because it's not really opposites. He just makes things up for what he wants them to be. The other day he said he hated someone, and I told him that it isn't nice to say that about someone. He tells me, " oh when I say that I really mean that I like them a lot." Here's another one, " when I say stop it means I like BG." I'm not sure where he is getting this from, but at first it was kinda cute, but now he seems to think he can apply it in all situations and make his own reality, and it's becoming irritating now. 

Henry did something the other day that just blew my mind...he came upstairs with the boys and I when it was time for bed. He walked around, turned and looked at me and popped a squat and peed. The little bastard peed in my house! He hasn't done that since he was 2 months old!
Then to make matters worse, DH notices a wet spot on the floor and finds out it was BG. The only dog who was behaving himself was Smokey and he's usually the one peeing all over. My house is revolting against me or something. Ha! They have a lesson to learn, and that is...I shall not let them win! It is war! Bring on the water balloons household get your squirt guns cuz here we go!

No seriously we probably will have ourselves a water war here soon, but in the mean time...the things that stray from the norm of our family life with continue to shock me, make me just stop and bust out laughing, make me cry, or just plain stump me. I wouldn't trade it for the world either.
Well maybe the dog pee would be a good thing to go, but you get my drift. This is who we are, we learn new things each day, face new trials, and over come hurdles, but through it all we are still here and not somewhere else. 

Speaking of trying days...tomorrow the entire street can not use their drains. Why? They are repairing the sewer line and plugging everyone's drains to the sewer. Use the drains and there just might be sewer backing up into the house. That would not be fun, nor would I be happy, and it would be about the same time as the lady from CPS in Texas called me.

Wish me luck getting through 12 hours of that, thankfully most of the family will be at school/work for the duration. Now I just have to figure out where to do my business all day. Yes, yes I went there. Everyone has to do it, there is no denying it.

SOPA , Dogs, Balls and of Course Chili

Well it's been a bit busy around here the last two days, and that would be why there hasn't been anything new. Well that and honoring the internet blackout...sort of. Ok, I have to call it what it is and it's laziness for the most part. I really tried to read the bill for SOPA, but alas it was too dry of a read for me. What I did happen to gather is that this bill is pretty vague in some very important areas, and usually when you have that it leads to a whole lot of confusion and bad out comes. We have to make sure we do our own homework when dealing with things of this nature to make sure we have the whole picture, and not just rely on someone to give us their take on it, so I do recommend that you actually read the bill for your self. I will warn you it's a long one.

Now for something a bit more lighthearted. 

It seems that BG doesn't really know how to play. I have bought different toys for her, and the out come with that was she adopted one as her baby. Wont play with it just protects it, and certainly wont let others play with it. Now Henry on the other hand LOVES to play...anything! Catch, fetch, tug, bones, rough housing, chase, track...I'm sure you have the picture now. Anyhow, I have been trying to get BG to play, and it's not going so great. 

So far the only things I have found that she likes is playing chase with me and the laser light. She will stalk it like a cat would stalk something, she will chase it, she even asks to play with it. Small problem here though and that is that our house is small. There isn't much space for her to run after it. The kitchen is out since the girl only has three legs and non-carpeted surfaces are a nightmare for her. Our living room is pretty much a walkway between the couch and tv, and the hallway ends in tiled floor so she must scrunch herself into a ball just to turn around in it. Even though we have these obstacles, we manage to have fun each night.

Now I know she does like to play, because when she first came here, at first she would just watch me and Henry play fetch and she would whine to play. Now she wants to play, and her little stub tail wags like crazy. The only problem is that instead of chasing the ball and fetching it, she thinks she is supposed to chase Henry and fetch him. She has absolutely no interest in the ball. She hasn't actually tried to fetch him, but she jumps around in confusion trying to figure out how to grab him and bring him to me without hurting him. Poor Henry is totally oblivious to the fact that she thinks he is her ball, all he cares about is fetching the ball. It is a work in progress in teaching her how to play, we just have to figure out how to teach her that it's the ball and not Henry she is supposed to fetch. 

Tonight I had a craving for Chili, and since the only meat we had in the house was hamburger I thought why not? I looked high and low for a packet of Chili mix, but we didn't have any so off to the internet to find a recipe for the mix. Boy oh boy did I strike gold! This stuff was amazing, plus I had all the ingredients so that's a bonus! Since owning a restaurant on DH's Reservation we make Chili a bit different now. We add elbow macaroni noodles in it. It helps make a bigger batch for just a 
couple of pennies, and is more filling.  So without further adieu I bring you...

Rez Chili   serves: 6-10, in other words...BIG ole batch!

Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger browned and grease  drained
1 small onion chopped
3 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
2 15oz. cans tomato sauce
1 10oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 15.5oz. can of light red kidney beans
2 c. water, or to the consistency you want
1/4 c. or to your taste chili mix*


Directions:
1)Cook the elbow macaroni noodles per box instructions, and set aside
2)In a large pot brown hamburger and chopped onions; drain grease
3)Add all ingredients into the large pot along with the noodles.
4)Bring to a boil, turn heat down cover and simmer for 30+ minutes. The longer you let simmer the better the flavors mix. I only simmered for 30 minutes since it was already past dinner time. 
5)Serve with shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream if desired.


This is in no way something I came up with, so I am due no credit to this great recipe. Click on the link to see the original recipe.


*Chili Mix 


Mix the following together. 
1/4 c. flour
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper (I forgot to add these and it still had quite the kick)
1 tablespoon dry minced onion, or 1 teaspoon powder
1 tablespoon dry minced garlic, or 1 teaspoon powder
2 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper


The recipe for this says it makes 6 servings, but I used about half of it for this batch of Chili. Make sure you add the mix a little at a time so you don't go over the top. I started out with 1/8 c. and increased to 1/4 c.


Ha! DH will be so proud of me, I actually wrote down one of my recipes! He gets so mad when I create something and don't write it down for him to make too.