Never Baked, Always Delicious...

The Facts

Kristi made “no bake” cookies.

His Side

My first ever job was in high school. I was a bakery clerk at a Lowes Foods in Fort Mill, SC. Despite working professionally in a bakery, I did not learn how to bake. Luckily you don’t have to know how to bake to make some delicious treats. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of “no bake” cookies, but they are awesome and, as their name implies, you don’t have to bake them. The other important thing to know about these cookies is that my wife makes them and she makes them very well.

I came home from work one day and noticed a bunch of rows of cookies sitting out on the counters in our kitchen to cool. I had known she was going to make them because we bought all the stuff at the grocery store a few days prior. What I didn’t know, though, was that she was going to double the recipe. It was A LOT of cookies but I’m okay with that. And so are the people with whom we have shared them.

Now we have our freezer full of no bake cookies so, if we get a craving for something sweet, we can pull out a couple and munch. Hopefully they last us a while but, if they don’t, we’ll just have to make some more! 

Her Side

I have an undeniable sweet tooth. Anyone who knows me knows this fact. It should also be noted that my sweet tooth is pretty specific… it ALWAYS wants chocolate. Nolan and I have been trying to eat a little bit better recently and, in line with that effort, we have tried to keep sweets out of the house. Unfortunately, this plan doesn’t usually work in the long term. We do well for about a week, and then I go crazy. “I. Want. Chocolate”… says my sweet tooth. So, I come up with some excuse for needing to go to the grocery store and then manage to swing by an aisle carrying some type of chocolate. I’m not picky, well, as long as it’s not dark chocolate (that’s just nasty).

Recently, in an effort to watch my waist line and be mindful of our budget, I decided that making some sweets and keeping them in the freezer would be a good compromise. That way, if I do get a hankering for something sweet, I don’t have to run to the store and inevitably spend way more than is necessary (and let’s be honest… if it’s a trip for chocolate, none of it is necessary). Also, when making cookies, there is only a finite amount and if they are good enough (and trust me, these are) I would be more inclined to make them last and think twice about stuffing my face with them just because they are there.

I grew up on these cookies; they were a favorite of my dad’s. I also just discovered that my father-in-law loves these cookies… I knew there was a reason I liked him! (haha) Taste them and you will see what the hype is all about. I’m not great at cooking or baking, so a recipe that doesn’t require me to bake and watch for that perfect golden brown top to appear is pretty amazing. Seriously, try these bad boys out… they will not disappoint.

This is how you make them...

½ cup cocoa

½ cup milk

½ stick margarine

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

½ cup peanut butter

3 cups quick oatmeal

Combine the first 4 ingredients in saucepan. 

Bring to a boil over low heat. 

Boil for 1 minute.  

Remove from heat.  

Stir in remaining ingredients.  

Drop onto wax paper.  

Let cool then ENJOY!

It yields approximately 2 dozen. 

Let us know what you think of this recipe! We are certain you will love them.

Fletcher's Traumatic Loss...

The Facts

Fletcher got neutered.

His Side

Bob Barker may not host “The Price Is Right” anymore, but his effect on our society is still felt every time someone gets their pet spayed or neutered. I never understood why he always encouraged us to do that at the end of each episode until I realized how many animals are without loving homes. We were also required to get Fletcher neutered in accordance with our adoption agreement. I’m not sure what they would do if we didn’t but I didn’t intend to find out. 

The poor guy lost part of his manhood and I thought he would be depressed after such a traumatic loss. It turns out that he isn’t. Over a month later, he is the same hyper, sometimes annoying, fun-loving, needy, but cute-as-a-button pup that he was before he was neutered. Even right after the surgery, he wanted to run around and play. We received strict instructions to not let him jump up on stuff or run around too much in an effort to keep his stitches in place while his incision healed. He made it very difficult to obey those instructions. 

He did, however, have to wear the “cone of shame” as it’s called. Well, we put one on him and he promptly figured out how to get out of it. So we tried this inflatable neck thing that helped keep him from licking. It looked more tolerable on him but he didn’t ever tell me which one he liked better. It stayed on him (except for this one time… he’s stubborn), and his incision healed perfectly. He did, somehow, get his stitches out before his follow-up appointment when the vet was going to take them out. It was okay, though, because he was just fine. At his follow-up visit, they took him to the back for about two minutes and brought him back out. They told us “he looks great, and everyone loves him back there!” He must really put on the charm for them!

The other thing to note is that we got some pain pills to give him to help with the pain he may experience during healing. The vet told us that they may make him tired, which I would have been cool with. Despite him acting like he had no pain, we gave him the pills because the vet suggested it. They didn’t make him tired. Not at all. All they did was make him use the bathroom a lot… the smelly kind. And it was more smelly than usual on this medicine. Like, remarkably smelly. He had never really had an issue with waking up in the middle of the night until this medicine. And he was waking up to go to the bathroom. When we told the vet this, they said he may be having a slight reaction to the medicine and, if he seemed okay, we could take him off the medicine. Oh, if only we had known this three days before! 

It comes as no surprise to me that Fletcher acts the same now as he did before his surgery but one thing does surprise me… he still humps stuff. He has his favorite towel that we allow him to do with as he pleases and he certainly still does as he pleases with it. I guess I figured that kind of behavior would cease once he was “snipped” but I guess not. His energetic behavior, biting, and scratching must not have had anything to do with his manhood and have everything to do with him being a puppy. Hopefully he will calm down a little as he gets older but, if not, we will love him all the same!

Her Side

So, our little puppy has grown up so fast. We knew the day would come, but we didn’t think much about it. Yep, he had to get neutered. Even if the shelter from which we adopted him didn’t require such an action to be taken, I assure you we would have done this of our own accord. We scheduled his surgery a month in advance and by the end of that month we were more than ready to take his “manhood” away from him, after all, some his actions were becoming a bit graphic. We dealt with his mannerisms by telling ourselves that once he was neutered he would be a changed dog. It’s the little bit of hope we had left to cling to.

Fletcher had to be at the vet bright and early on the morning of his surgery, so we both got up and took him. We were told he wouldn’t be able to go home until that evening, so that they could monitor him after being put under anesthesia. I nervously awaited and finally received the call from his vet that the surgery went well and he was waking up nicely. She mentioned that he might be groggy and may not act like himself for at least a day (something I was, honestly, completely okay with). Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not what happened at all. I picked him up and he literally acted like he had nothing done to him at all. He wanted to jump up and down and run around and play. I tried to discourage his behavior, but there is only so much you can do to keep a dog calm and still… and none of my tactics seemed to work.

As a result of his surgery, Fletcher was bound to the cone of shame. I felt like a horrible pet parent for making him wear it because he looked absolutely pitiful with it on and I can’t imagine it would be very comfortable. Nonetheless, I wasn’t about to have him pop out stitches and have to go back in for another surgery. So, we stuck with it. I’m pretty sure that Fletcher was trying to get back at us for making him have this surgery done because he began to wake up in the middle of the night… at 1:00, then 3:00 and then 5:00. Each time we tried to make sure he wasn’t in pain, and he wasn’t… he just wanted to play. How can such a small puppy be such a big jerk?

Well, we followed the vet’s orders of keeping him in the cone of shame until we noticed that he had somehow removed both of his stitches. Thankfully he was completely healed at this point, so we didn’t have any trips back to the vet to fix anything.

Now, I don’t know if we had just been misinformed all of our lives about what neutering does to a dog… temperamentally speaking (we know what the physical manifestations of it are), but what ensued after he completely healed is not at all what we thought it would be. We thought Fletcher would calm down a bit and not be so graphic with some of his mannerisms. We thought that his energy level might mellow out just a tad. We thought that he might somehow be less naughty and realize that he isn’t allowed to do certain things (well this one is more out of wishful thinking). NONE OF THIS IS TRUE. He is just as hyper as he was before and he absolutely does not act like we had him neutered.

So, now that we have let the reality of the situation sink in; that our dog is un-phased by his surgery and that he’s destined to be a hyper puppy for at least another year, we are slowly trying to figure out how to deal with him. There are still days that I would like to give him a doggy chill pill (I’m only halfway joking about this) and we are now awaiting the day that he grows out of his “puppy” stage… if that ever actually happens.

Turns out we might have chosen the most hyperactive dog to call our own but we love him despite his hyperactivity. Some days it’s harder than others, especially when he destroys something that is near and dear to your heart, but at the end of the day he is ours… and that is something I wouldn’t dream of changing.

Comforts of home...

The Facts

We bought a new sectional.

His Side

Kristi and I usually differ on our attitudes toward money. I generally take the approach that we make money to spend it. I’m not against saving or anything, I just think that having steady jobs affords you the opportunity to get things you want sometimes; it’s not just about getting the things you need. With Kristi usually taking the opposite approach of saying “well we don’t really need that so why spend the money on it,” I was shocked when she texted me one day and said “we should get a couch.” It shocked me because we have a couch that works just fine. But I’m not one to turn down the prospect of a new couch, so I said “let’s go shopping.”

The shopping part took a lot longer than I expected and we saw a lot of comfortable things. It seemed like each place we went had something we liked better than the last place. We eventually finalized the fact that we wanted a sectional with built in recliners. I wanted built in recliners all along, though, because there is something inborn in all men that makes them want to sit in a recliner.

Before the couch

We finally found what we wanted and I went into negotiating mode which was more successful than I expected. We got the price we wanted so we signed on the dotted line and ordered the pieces to our sectional.

That week of waiting for our sectional to arrive was bad. I just wanted to lounge on the new couch already! But the day finally arrived and I had confirmed a 2-5pm window for the delivery. That was perfect because my nephew’s first birthday party was that same day and ended at 1pm. While at the party, though (around 11:30am), I got a call saying that the delivery truck would arrive in thirty minutes. That was frustrating, but I left the party, let the delivery guys in to set everything up, then hightailed it back to the party.

After the couch

When we got home, though, I realized that I had overlooked a minor flaw in the couch. Two of the pieces don’t fit exactly like they should. Kristi noticed this and I felt like I should have seen it while the guys were there so they could fix it. After some phone calls and getting stern with customer service, they sent a technician out to fix the problem. He was very nice and tried a lot of things, but couldn’t fix it. It seemed that the pieces were just slightly defective.

Luckily, the manager at the store from which we bought the couch has been very helpful and we will be receiving replacement pieces later this month. Hopefully they fit better than these do! In the meantime, we have been thoroughly enjoying our new couch. And so has Fletcher!

Her Side

I’ll just come right out and say it… we bought a sofa. It’s not just any sofa, but one that is so comfortable I might be willing to give up sleeping in our beloved king bed (ok, well not exactly since I LOVE that bed). This sofa is one that puts comfort above all, and I’m ok with that. Now, let me walk you through how we went from being content with our previous sofa to the proud new owners of this brand spanking new sofa. It all happened rather suddenly. In fact, it really came out of nowhere and I’m pretty sure Nolan was blindsided when I casually brought up the idea of a new sofa one day about two weeks ago.

New look of the office

Nolan and I have actually been tossing around the idea of getting a new sofa for a while. It’s not that the one we had didn’t suffice, but it simply did not allow us to comfortably have another couple over without feeling like sardines lined up on the sofa. I have always dreamed of having a sectional… and honestly that dream has come from very selfish reasons. I want that corner section all to myself. After all, everyone knows that is the most comfortable spot there has been and ever will be. So, my heart has been set on finding the perfect one. The only problem we have had up until now is that the space we have in which to fit a sectional is rather small. In past times, we have fallen in love with sofas only to find out they were inches and sometimes even feet too large for our room. I thought we would never be able to find the perfect fit.

So, when I suggested that we start the search again, we wasted no time. Before we started our search, we made sure to take specific measurements so we would know what we could and could not fall in love with! We went from store to store and found a few that would fit in our space. It seemed that in each store we went we found one we liked better than another at the previous store. After sitting on sofa after sofa we finally found one that we both loved and our wallet wasn’t as unhappy about. If it were up to me, I would have chosen a sofa that was first and foremost aesthetically pleasing and, if it were up to Nolan, comfort would be the key. Well, when we stumbled upon THE sofa, I’m pretty sure we both knew it was the one; it was both stylish and comfortable. It was the right color, we could configure it to fit our space, it was so comfortable, and even though we weren’t even looking at this feature… it had reclining sections. As soon as we sat down we both knew we would have that sofa in our home.

Nolan took some lessons from the agents on Million Dollar Listing and did some hard bargaining to get the sofa at our “magic number.” He did great and we left the store with huge smiles on our faces!

Now, with every great thing comes some hiccups (at least in our household that’s the case). We had to wait a whole week and a few days before we could actually enjoy this new sofa… a definite test of our patience! Once delivered, we discovered that two of the pieces don’t quite fit together like they should, so we are in the process of having new pieces delivered to fix the issue.

New look of the living room

Even though we purchased only one new piece of furniture, the result was a makeover of three rooms in our house. We were able to rid our living room of a hand-me-down sofa and love seat and put our old sofa in that room. We moved my piano out of Nolan’s office and down the hall and it now has a new home in the living room. Our living room was one that we NEVER used before, but now it’s so inviting that I can see myself wandering out there to play a little piano or maybe just to sit down and read a book! After moving my piano out of Nolan’s office, we were able to move our nice recliner that was previously in the family room into his office (lucky guy) and my stationary bike found a home there as well thanks to Nolan’s generosity in giving up some space!

It feels like we have a new home now, and that’s kind of refreshing. Sometimes you just need to rearrange a few things to have an entirely different outlook on your home. It’s not that I wasn’t excited about our home before, but now I find myself walking through the house with a silly grin on my face.

So, if you come over to our house in the next few months, kindly oblige us and go on a brief tour of our “new” home. We’re proud and definitely want others to enjoy it just as much as we do!