Stone Wave Cooker

Have you heard of this?  I purchased 6 total which ended up to cost $10.66 each.  I love cooking and baking using stoneware.  It is not my intent to sell you on this product.  I am just sharing with you a temptation that I gave into.  In all seriousness, I gave two to my sister, two went to Dales and the other two stayed at my place.


Stone Wave Cooker

I don't trust "as seen on TV" - just ask Dale.  He always wants to order the items and I just roll my eyes.  Then I do my due diligence and look up on the Internet to see what I can find good or bad.  I usually find both.  I was surprised.  I checked half a dozen notices about this product and I didn't find anything bad.  A small warning about up-sales. But really?  All "as seen on TV" sales are surrounded by up-sales.


2 eggs scrambled. 

They claim that it will cook fast, be moist and remove easily from the cooker.  It cooked fast, the cheese sprinkled on top melted well (with the top put back on for 30 seconds as directed) it was moist but it did not come out of the pot very well.  After all it is an egg and they do leave a bit of residue. 


2 eggs scrambled with cheese

I must say that it did wash up well.  You could add vegetables and cooked meat and make a small omelet.  I had it that morning with my cinnamon/honey toast.



A good well balanced breakfast

Working with Clay

One of the things that Heavenly Paws offered as a service was to take an impression of My Jenny's paw before she was cremated.  We debated whether we should have them do it or not.  We ended up ordering two. 

They were some kind of a soft molding clay.  My Jenny's large paw barely fit in the round sphere.  I pulled out my stylus set for working with clay so that I could carve her name, birthdate and deathdate on the front by her paw.  There was very little space to work.

Normally, this would have been a very difficult task to do 10 days after loosing her.  But there was something therapeutic about engraving the information into the molding clay. 



Heavenly Paws took a paw print of My Jenny

I have to say that I was craving a large ball of clay.  I had a sudden urge to sculpt.  I may yet buy some clay and try my hand sculpting a Doberman.


My Jenny Memorial Paw Print

We weren't sure what we were going to do with the paw prints.  I put a hole in them so that we could tie a bow on them or a ribbon for them to hang onto.  Then the other day, a couple that had purchased a puppy from us this spring stopped by with their puppy.  They had made these beautiful memorial plaques for us.  I set the paw print on top of an open spot in the lower right hand corner of the print.  It was like the two were designed for each other.  I refer to that as "a God thing".  I need to figure out how to adhere the baked modeling clay to the glass.  

My Jenny Memorial

Below is the 8 month old boy that came with to drop off the gift.  His is already significantly bigger than his mother, Duchess.  Look at the markings on his chest.  As he leans over Grandpa in his, "I'm still your little puppy" hug, his tan marking looks like a heart.  That is very appropriate because he loves his Grandpa Dale.  When I greeted him, he immediately recognized my voice.  I invited him to stand up and he put his front paws on my shoulders and gave me a puppy kiss.  Yup, he is one very big puppy.

Onyx comforting Grandpa

Kennel Training

This is a point of debate for many people.  Do you train your dog to a kennel or not?  Duchess and My Jenny were not kennel trained.  When they miss-behaved, they were put in the kennel so they thought of it at a punishment. 

I would like to train Misty Blue to think of her kennel as a safe haven and a place of comfort.  She has been staying nights over at my place.  When it is almost time for bed I put her in the kennel.  Sometimes I need to put my head inside and snuggle with her.  Within minutes, she is sound asleep.  When I left the door open this evening, she was running in and out.  I think she hid a few kernels of food inside just incase she was hungry when she woke up.



Duchess lays by Misty at naptime

 You would not believe how surprised I was when I looked down from working on my computer and Duchess was laying by the kennel door keeping Misty Blue company and both of them sound asleep. 


A comfortable napping spot

She is doing well with her kennel.  I have started leaving the door open when Duchess isn't around and she will go in there to lay down on the comfortable pillow. 

My blog tomorrow will be posted very late in the day.  I have an early start on Sunday and I am NOT a morning person.  Have a wonderful weekend! I hope the rain we desperately need doesn't hamper your plans.

I LOVE Fridays

And God must too because this morning he gave us a valentine.


God says "I Love You"

I have heard people use the phrase, "I claim ___________ as a message from God."  I will encourage you this morning to claim this morning's cloud as a message from God to you.  A message of I Love You.  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John 3:16&version=NIV

John 3:16

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

YES! God loves you! Say your name in place of "the world" and "whoever" because if you were the only person that needed forgiveness, God would have still given his one and only son to save you. 

Hopefully you don't need to work this weekend.  Have a wonderful and beautiful weekend.  Find a way to send a love letter back to God.  Give a random act of kindness to someone in need. Take extra time to spend in study of the bible, prayer with God or in an act of praise. Did you know what God wants most from us is for us to take time from our busy scheduled to nurture our relationship with Him.

Saturday post 5 - Visiting Nala

We pulled up into the driveway and at first Nala and Taffy were barking at the strangers driving in.  But as soon as we said, "Nala it's grandma and grandpa" the bark changed from the stranger bark to "Get out of the car already so I can say hello!"  There was no doubt that 18 month old Nala still remembered us.



Nala smiles after giving grandpa kisses.

 Nala also has a play friend and her name is Taffy.  She is a beautiful red/rust Doberman several years older than Nala.


Nala & Taffy

 Grandpa being a typical grandpa is treating the girls with Cheetos.  Despite popular belief, Dobermans take treats very gently.


Cheetos anypup?

 If it wouldn't be for the cropped ears, I would think this is Duchess.  Nala has all the facial markings as her mother.  Grandpa was doting on her and she was absorbing it all the way.


Grandpa Loves on Nala

 Nala lives out in the country with a huge yard.  She has strong leg muscles from running.  Look at this cool trick; she hangs onto her people's arm for balance and stands on her back legs.


"Walk like a Man"

 Being in the country has some wonderful benefits.  The large yard to run in and Nala's people have bought her all these fun friends: sheep, cows, chicken, ducks, rabbits.  Huh? Those weren't bought for Nala?  Don't tell her, she runs from one end of the property to the other checking out the cages and penned in areas.


Jealous Nala, "Pet me not the sheep."

We had a wonderful visit.  It was late and the long ride to go home so the visit was shorter than we had hoped.  It was so fun to see Nala's family and where she lives. 

Saturday Post 4 - The Miracle Baby (puppy)

If you remember a post several months ago, I shared about one of the puppies that almost died during the ear posting operation.  Dale kept talking to her and stimulating her by petting her and tapping her paws his intervention saved her life.  So we called her Precious Hope.

The vet had told us that there would most likely be severe medical issues with her and possibly brain damage.  Knowing all that Sylvia decided to buy the puppy.  This puppy is very special to grandpa and we keep in touch the most with them. She is our miracle puppy. 


Grandpa, Fel-felly and Sylvia

 It was a very active day at Sylvia's home.  There were a lot of visitors and because of that Fel-felly was very stimulated and would not sit too still for pictures.  I took almost a hundred and did come up with a few good ones.


Old T-shirts are great toys

 Fel-felly grabbed and old t-shirt that she has commandeered for her toy. She picked it up flung it in the air, then took off running with it.  When that was done, she brought it to me for a game of tug-o-war.  When she won, she grabbed it and took a victory lap around the yard with it.


Posing for the Camera

 I got her to stop long enough for me to snap this picture. Or was it that snapping so many pictures I got lucky and caught her still. She is beautiful and so energetic.


I think she lost 5 pounds in 30 minutes.

 She eats like a horse, and they know because they own many horses, still she is very skinny.  Watching her run it is obvious that she is full of energy.  For people that don't have a Doberman, don't worry, this is a common look for a Doberman until they are at least three years old. 



Run Fel-felly RUN!

Fel-felly had a second toy in the yard.  It was a stuffed rabbit.  She would catch it, kill it and do victory laps around the yard with it. 


Fel-felly with her friend

When she isn't running and playing with her people, she has another friend to run and play with and living in the country there is no lack of play space.



Saturday Post 3 - Visiting Sonya

We only got to visit with Sonya for about half an hour.  But we didn't worry too much about that because next Saturday we knew that we would be there for a few hours for the puppy reunion (weather providing). 


Sonya sit's well

 Sonya is in training to be a service animal.  She will go into hospitals and nursing homes to help encourage the people.


Grandpa Gives Good Treats

 Because Duchess was staying for the day, Dale aka Grandpa, brought a large bag of treats.  Between Sonya and Duchess half the bag was gone before we left on our day. 


Grandpa gives Sonya kisses

 They are trying to break Sonya from giving doggie kisses.  Grandpa got told he was being a trouble maker by leaning down and asking for a kiss.  Can you imagine that?  A grandpa being a troublemaker? I thought that was what grandpa's were for!!!!


Grandpa rubs Sonya's ears

 If a dog could purr, Sonya would be purring right now.  She loved the way grandpa was petting her ears.  She has natural ears and I didn't show you the pictures before this one but grandpa had just given her an ear massage an Dobermans with natural ears usually love ear massages.  Some dobies that have cropped ears like it too. It depends on how the cropping was done and if there was any injury (if done wrong.)


Grandpa gives Sonya hug

When grandpa finished the meeting with a big hug, Sonya ate it all up!  She loves being spoiled by grandpa and I dare say that grandpa enjoyed spoiling her. 

They day was off to a good start.  UNTIL I got into the car and although my battery wasn't 100% dead there wasn't enough battery left to start the car.  Do you want to hear why?  The night before I showed Dale the time schedule of where we would be and when and how much time we had at each place.  (I schedule and then go with whatever happens.) 

Dale believes that we must be everywhere EARLY.  I build the schedule so everything is early and if we don't make the schedule we will still be on time.  So when I was on time, he was freaking out because I wasn't even more early.  He didn't charge his cell phone the night before so he plugged it into my car charger.  It doesn't charge unless the key is turned.  I didn't want to waste gas so I only turned the key. 

The phone was charging, the radio was on, and last but not least because I drive with lights on all the time the lights were also on.  Thirty minutes later and my battery was nearly dead.  Julie's son, took out his battery cables and used his car to jump my car and we were on our way.  A few minutes late but still on time.

Saturday post 2 - Maggie Mae in Concert

The main purpose for the trip up North was to go to the Maggie Mae concert at Midwest Country in Sandstone.  http://www.midwestcountry.com/


Maggie Mae & Dale

 Maggie Mae started singing at her café "Maggie Mae's Café" in Oxford, Wisconsin. http://www.maggiemaecountry.com/bio.html


Maggie Mae

 Stewart is on the keyboard.  He is a bit of a clown and Dale loves his antics. 


Dale's favorite "Stewart"

 They switch instruments several times during the concert.  They really put on a terrific show! The show includes old time country music, a tribute to veterans, and a gospel song or hymn just like many of the shows in Branson.


The whole band

As I said, towards the end of each show, they play and sing a hymn.  I asked Maggie May before the show, "What hymn do I get to sign to tonight?" Her eyes lit up.  We discussed where I should stand and I recommended on the floor right in front of the stage.  They tape the concert for TV. It airs on RFD TV on Saturday nights.   I'm not sure if or when this segment will be on TV but watch for Maggie Mae on Midwest Country who knows, maybe you'll see me on there one day.



Trisha Signing to Amazing Grace

I want to point out that I even matched their outfits by coincidence. Isn't that sort of cool?  In the layout of the day this was 3rd from the last thing we did even though it was the original purpose for the day.
The WILD SATURDAY was as follows:

• Dropped off Duchess and visited Puppy Sanya from last litter.
• Printed Memorial pictures of My Jenny
• Stopped by to look at Blue Doberman (purchased her) - this was not planned.  We called they were home and on the way to where we were going.
• Stopped by Sylvia's to visit Precious Hope aka Fel-felly (the puppy that almost died and Dale brought back to life.)
• Went to the Maggie Mae Show
• Stopped by Naomi's to visit puppy from litter 2, Nala
• Stopped back to pick up Misty Blue then HOME, home, home!

Saturday post 1 - Meet Misty Blue

Saturday was such a busy day that it is going to take me several days to tell you everything that we did.  These posts will NOT be in order.  We had a great day and it was what we needed after the difficult week that we had. 

Duchess has been having a big problem since losing My Jenny.  We don't know any dog psychologists or psychiatrists so we have been trying to comfort her as much as possible.  We've been talking the last couple days about possibly getting another dog as a playmate for her. Out of curiosity, I checked out the Internet.  There were several Dobermans at various ages for sale online.  I wrote down the two possibilities that I thought looked most promising.

There was a red/rust male about a year old at a shelter.  It already had it 's ears cropped and it loved to swim.  They also noted that it was very energetic.  All that sounded good.  I sent an e-mail and called.  They were in our path of travel today.  So we were hoping to stop by there.

The other ad was also in our path.  It had black/rust Doberman puppies 8 weeks old.  Now we were really looking for another red, but some breeders don't list the off colors if they have only one of the off colors because for some people if you have more than black it turns them off.  Also, blue, red, and fawn can often be sold word of mouth.  When we called, we were told that they also had a blue female.

Since Dale bought Duchess, he has been talking about also buying a blue female but three dogs in town were too much.  So we decided to stop by and take a look. 


Misty Blue Field

Yes, we bought the blue female Doberman.  So far we are calling her Misty Blue.  Beulah was Dale's first choice.  One of my choices was Princess.  I teased him with "Sissy" and he thought I said, "Missy" and he liked it.  Sounded better than any of the other wild options that showed up during the day but by the end of it Missy changed to Misty and Misty Blue sounds like a description of her color.  Even though it is really a beautiful steel grey.

Duchess was spending the Day, Saturday, at her favorite kennel with Julie and one of her puppies from the last litter, Sonya.  So I called and they agreed to keep her overnight.  We will introduce them at a neutral location on Sunday.  UPDATE:


Duchess and Misty Blue playing in a country park

The introduction went marvelous.  I picked up Duchess from the kennel home where she slept in the bed with Julie.  Dale met us at the "pioneer cemetery" or a country park near our town.  Duchess knew something was up when Dale got out of the passenger side of the van.  She ran past giving Dale only a short greeting and peeked inside the van window.  The window was down and Misty Blue stood up so they were nose to nose.  A few seconds of sniffs an then puppy kisses from both sides.  They played together wonderfully at the park.


Are you robbing God? or is he pouring out his blessings in your life?

Tithing: God’s most challenging commandment.  It is my belief that God put mankind in this world to be caretakers of the world.  Everything belongs to him and we are only the caretakers.  God gives us the choice to return 10%, a tithe, and in return we can use the other 90%.  He also encourages us to give offerings above the 10%. 

Malachi 3:8-12

New International Version (NIV)

⁸ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Did you see that in verse 10?  God says “Test me in this … and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”  Have you ever taken God up on that challenge?  Today is the story of a woman that did.

A woman sat in her kitchen with an envelope.  When she received her pay, she put 10% into the envelope and placed the envelope in her bible to take to church the next time she got to church.  Then she paid her bills.  Little by little her bills got further behind.  Attempting to do her part to make ends meet, she got a loan and went back to school while continuing to work nearly full time and taking care of her family. 

She was worried about how far behind she was getting with the family bills.  But the only thing she could do about it was pray and give it to God.  Then one day out of the blue, a friend approached her about a grant.  She worked with an organization that helped women that went back to school with some of their school expenses. 

It was an encouraging event on the day that she was told that she had qualified for the grant.  She knew that God had just blessed her through her friend’s organization.  But the blessing didn’t stop there.  The group directed her to another grant in the same organization.  At the critical point, where it was going to compromise the families living situation, she was given the word that she had been given the personal grant as well.  All of her bills that were in arrears were going to be paid in full.  Plus she was going to be given an amount for four months to keep up with the winter heating and utility bills. 

God poured out his blessings from heaven over her and made her bills once again manageable.  Her stress from finance was now gone.  - This is a true story.

Comfort Food

I was actually going to share this with you on Monday.  But I took the pictures on my cell phone and it is a bit of a pain to upload the photos.  Enough with my whining.

I bought 1.5 pounds of ground chuck and browned it.


Browned Ground Chuck

We made so much salsa last year and we haven't eaten half of it.  Dale said it doesn't have enough kick for him and it has too much for me.  So I added it to the ground beef and cooked it in as part of the base.


Add the Veggies!

 I added green beans because I love them and you need some kind of vegetables.  Then I added a jar of spaghetti sauce to the mix.


Adding another layer of flavors

Somewhere between a hotdish (must have cream of soup) and goulash (tomato soup and tomato chunks).  I added cream of mushroom soup and those canned soups just never have enough mushrooms so I added more and then I added even more.


Mushrooms!

I bought a bulk box of three flavor vegetable noodles a few months ago.  So instead of using the traditional egg noodles, I used vegetable noodles.  Hopefully they are a bit more healthy but I doubt it. I mixed them in with my base.


Vegetable Noodles

I baked for an hour at 375 degrees long enough for the tastes to bake into the pasta.  I salted and peppered in the earlier parts of the process.  But Dale needed to add more pepper - he is a pepper fiend!  There was one time that I actually added too much pepper.  For those that are confused, I am not allergic to black ground peppercorns.  I am allergic to red, yellow, and green bell peppers.



A Hot Dish with Attitude!

I enjoy working flavor into food without the bell peppers that so many chef's feel are essential to good tasting food.  It isn't that I don't like the taste, they just make me very sick.  Food should be enjoyable at every level.  Getting sick after eating it isn't a good thing. 

Seasons of Life

Writer's Block.  I started out with writers block.  I've been going through photos trying to choose a picture for the side of My Jenny's Urn and several photos for a memory book.  So I thought, I'd share a picture from each season that displays my mood.


Winter Frost

The dark complicated twists and gnarls in the tree are covered by the beauty of the white frost sparkling in the sunshine on a sunny-blue sky day.

Spring Blossoms

The dark complicated twists and gnarls in the tree are broken by the beauty of the white flowers blooming before the leaves roll open welcoming the newness of summer.

Mini- Summer Waterfall

The gray sharp rocks allowing the water to flow over them creating a soothing peaceful blessing from God and a visually pleasing edge to the lake.

The Circle of Life

The dead tree falls and becomes the basis for the spring mushrooms that dry up and create a piece of art that man can not duplicate.  There is a starkness in the dark and light contrast as there was a hardness to the feel of the piece yet it hits a soft part of my brain.  As I saw this I thought, "God has a wonderful aesthetic viewpoint."

Despite the periodic darkness that comes into our lives, God always provides a sunny-side.  We just need to be able to open our mind to see it.

The sun is always shining - some days it doesn't come out from behind the clouds.

The Dusk must come before Dawn begins anew refreshing us!

I would love this blog to be positive and sunshiny everyday.  But that is not the life we live.  We are in a world filled with sin and along with those sinful choices people make, bad things happen to innocent people and animals.  It is getting harder everyday to watch the news. A majority of the stories are shootings, killings, death and destruction.  It is like God knew thousands of years ago what the world was going to be like today.  He has provided for us the pathway to deal with those problems.

Philippians 4:6-7

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%204:6-7&version=NIV

 

God wants to bless us with peace that will guard our hearts and minds.  It takes us walking in Christ Jesus.  It takes us lifting up our troubles, problems and absolutely everything to him in prayer.  He doesn't hold back anything from us.  We usually lack the faith to act and receive from him. 

 

Verse 6 says with prayer and petition; for many years I thought these were the same thing.  Why be so redundant?  Prayer is our conversation method with God.  We can talk to him like we do our friends and family while sitting around the table.  Petition is much more passionate.  A petition is presented before God with extreme desire and earnestness.  Verse 6 also tells us to go before God with Thanksgiving. 

 

With Thanksgiving!  That can be so difficult some days.  And I believe that God appreciates our honesty and those days that we aren't feeling so thankful, if we tell him about it he will understand. He loves us no matter what.  After all he created us and he knows our heart. 

Everyone morns differently

When my mom passed away, I had a dog also called Dutchess.  Mom was in the hospital for 17 days before she passed away.  After the funeral, we noticed that Dutchess sat at the end of the driveway waiting for mom to come home.  Afterwards someone said that often times pets are brought into the funeral home to see their owners so they understand that they are no longer alive.

We took Duchess, My Jenny's mom, into the vet's office after she had passed away.  I put her paws up on the side of the table so that she was nose to nose with My Jenny and could tell that she had stopped breathing.  Duchess gave My Jenny puppy kisses and we left.  After coming home from choosing out an Urn I walked into the living room and Duchess had her paw wrapped around the box of Kleenexes.  (I must have left them on the couch in her place and she wrapped herself around them.)


Duchess with a box of Kleenex

I covered her up with a blanket because she likes to stay warm.  When I turned around, she had put her nose on the top of the box.  Do dogs feel loss the way we do? They can't talk to us and share what they are going through.  We are doing our best to help her deal with the loss of her daughter and companion.  But every time we take her to a different place where she and My Jenny played, she spends for first five to ten minutes looking for her baby.  It is like trying to explain the loss of a loved one to a toddler.  No matter what you say and do, the comprehension just doesn't seem to be there.


Sad Mama at the loss of her baby.

At least Duchess does not feel the anger that we feel as humans.  We are angry at all the stray cats in town and angry at the driver that was driving too fast down main street.  Anger always seems to be such an easy feeling to feel.  Lord, please help take the anger away.

On a totally unrelated thought:

After I posted my blog yesterday, I watched a 1984 episode of Highway to Heaven staring Michael Landon and Victor French.  Being able to rewind TV shows is so cool.  I was able to transcribe two lines from the end of the show.  The scene is set when the son of Arthur is trying to talk Jonathan into staying on after helping mend their family.  May we open our hearts to bless those that come through our lives with Arthur's blessing.

Jonathan...Your Father made me promise to serve no earthly kings,

Arthur...
I understand:
May the road rise up to greet you,
May the wind be always at your backs.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
 the rain fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand

In Memory of My Jenny

It is with an already sad heart that I share a second loss in so few days.  For people who don't have pets it is difficult to understand.  But pets take up a huge place in our hearts and lives.


My Jenny playing in the open field

The status quo for My Jenny and Duchess is that one stays overnight at my house and the other stays at Dale's place.  In the morning the girl at Dale's place, goes for a ride and sometimes they stop in the country for a short run.  Dale drops the girl off at my place (when I am working from home.)

This morning, as My Jenny was loading into the van to come over, she saw one of the city wild cats in they yard and she took off after it.  The cat headed across the street and when My Jenny followed, she ran in front of a car and was hit.  She died a short time later of internal bleeding.



My Jenny ready for water fetch

 Born 2/16/2012 she passed away 9/16/2013.  In between, she enjoyed running, swimming (sort of), playing fetch, and playing "let's pretend to go potty so that we can get treats."  She would beg to go outside, sniff around the yard, come back in, and nudge my left hand.  If I didn't give her a treat right away, she would put her chest down on the ground with her paws in front and butt up in the air which was her begging position.  Then she would come back up and nudge my left hand.


My Jenny napping

My Jenny loved visiting grandma's house.  It was her second home.  She would lay with her head on the puppy pillow and take her morning and afternoon naps.  We will miss our sweetheart so very much.