happy valentime :)

Happy Birthday Meiby!

It's Meiby's 2nd birthday... and it snowed a bunch:





Ok, I'm done now. It's cold!

Meiby Xmas!

yummy winter food!

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe here but these were so good I felt I needed to share. The first is a Moroccan Lentil Stew adapted from this recipe. The second is the veggie dish I made for Thanksgiving. Both are vegan (if you use olive oil instead of butter for the latter) crockpot recipes. Great for winter!

Moroccan Lentil Stew

-3/4 cup dried lentils
-1/2 can garbanzo beans
-2 sweet potatoes chopped into 2 inch chunks
-an equal amount of another veggie (I used broccoli but zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peas, etc. would be good too)
-3 1/4 cups water
-1 veggie bouillon cube
-1 t cumin
-1 t ginger
-1 t salt
-1 t pepper
-1/2 t cinnamon
-1/2 t coriander
-1/2 t allspice
-1/4 t cloves


Chop up all of your vegetables and add them to the crockpot. Drain and rinse off the beans, add to the pot. Add the dried lentils and the dried spices. Stir in the water and bouillon (or use broth instead). Lentils will be softer if you add any tomatoes and salt at the very end.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Soup tastes best the longer you cook it, and it is even better the next day.



Roasted Root Veggies

-1 rutabaga
-1 bag of whole carrots
-2 parsnips
-1 bunch of chopped fresh parsley
-4 Tbsp butter (I didn't measure so I'm guessing at this amount)
-1/4 chopped white onion
-2 or 3 finely chopped garlic cloves
-salt and pepper to taste


Peel all of your vegetables, and cut into 2-inch chunks. Saute onion and garlic in the butter on the stove until they are soft. Pour over veggies and parsley in a big bowl and mix well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour it all into crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.

pugsgiving

We took Meiby to Nick's grandparent's house on Thanksgiving again this year. Last year we took her crate with us and locked her up while we ate. This year she's not so tolerant of the crate. She doesn't sleep in there anymore and she's trustworthy to leave loose when we are gone now so she's never locked up. Instead, I concocted a special treat for her to keep her busy while we ate:

I filled a hollow bone with carrots. Worked like a charm!

happy halloween!

Happy Pugiversary!

One year ago today we first brought Meiby home with us. She was very shy at first but immediately became a member of the family. She has changed quite a bit since then but we couldn't have asked for a better pup.

Her first 2 days with us she wouldn't eat - now she lives for food and will eat anything you give her without question.

For the first 2 weeks we had a "no dogs on the couch" rule - that quickly went out the window when we realized it was just sad to have a lap dog that you have to sit on the floor to cuddle with.

She was scared to death of her first squeaky toy.

It took us a week to work out a sleeping arrangement that worked for all of us. Having her sleep in her crate in our bedroom worked for about 8 months until she figured out that the earlier she wakes me up with her whining, the earlier she gets food. Now that we trust her loose in the house, she just sleeps out in the living room.

One of the first toys I bought for Meiby was a Nylabone Dental Chew. She wouldn't even look at it for months and then all of a sudden it was her favorite thing ever. We've replaced it 5 times now and moved up to a bigger size. It's become her comfort bone.

We kept Meiby crated whenever we were gone for the first 6 months or so. We experimented with leaving her loose for short periods of time until we finally trusted her enough to leave her loose. Now she's a full time free range pug!

We had an extremely cold and snowy winter this past year and while Meiby loves the snow, she's no fan of the sub-zero temperatures. Because of this we trained her to use puppy pads when needed and this is, for better or worse, still in effect.

On January 3rd she was a year old. We switched her to adult food and had taught her lots of tricks.

This summer I took Meiby to obedience classes and she is much more observant now. She'll now wait for us to tell her to eat rather than diving into her food. She will also "come" on command pretty consistently and "get off" of me or the couch when I tell her to. She's still begs like crazy though... perhaps because someone spoils her ;)

It has been just wonderful having Meiby around for the past year. We're so lucky to have such a sweet little pug around! We loves you Meibs :)

Memorial Day Weekend

I spent the holiday weekend mostly at home: gardening and relaxing in the backyard. I got off work early on Friday and the weather was beautiful and sunny so I hung out in the backyard with a book and a beer and a pug :)




Saturday I bought some potted plants for my planter: Lavender, Bleeding hearts and something that resembles purple daisys.




On Monday I worked on the herb garden I've been wanting to start all spring. I potted sweet basil, cinnamon basil and lemon balm plants. I also planted seeds for cherry tomatoes, brussels sprouts, patty-pan squash, cilantro, and chives.




All this to go along with my already sprouting strawberry plants.



We'll see how it goes!

Mother's Day outing

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and fur-baby moms! I spent the day with my mom at her house in the country: cooking out, hiking in the woods, having a few drinks...

I took my pug-daughter out there with me and she had a great time running around in the woods, barking at the horses (those are some BIG dogs!), and stirring up trouble with my parent's dog and cat.

Some Inaugurational Fun

from obamicon.me

Happy Birthday Meiby!

It's Meiby's first birthday today! We didn't have a big celebration or anything but Meiby did get a little bite of my bacon for breakfast and I took some birthday photos and video. The video is her showing off all of her tricks. The photos are really me experimenting with lighting, white balance, flash, etc...

Wordless Wednesday 10

...and Happy New Year!

Tug-a-Jug

We got Meiby a Tug-a-Jug for Xmas and I think she hates it!

Someone's Been Naughty...

I told Meiby that she needs to be good so Santa will bring her treats... but she doesn't get it. It fact, I think she's grounded after yesterday. We've been leaving her loose while we're gone for short periods of time for several weeks now without incident. We'll leave a puppy pad out for her in case she needs it. We also close off the bedroom door (because, for some reason, she thinks the bedroom is a big litter box) and, generally she's very good on her own. She doesn't get into anything she shouldn't, etc.
Well, yesterday she pushed the pad upside-down and then pooped on the kitchen rug while we ran out to get some lunch. Then later, while I was at work, Nick left her loose for a couple hours while he went out to get some gifts. When he returned she had shredded the puppy pad and somehow gotten into the bedroom (must not have been properly latched and she pushed it open), pooped and peed on the carpet and then got into the garbage and shredded used kleenex all over the room. When Nick got home she was making a bunch of noise because she couldn't get out of the bedroom (the door shuts by itself and she has no nose to pry it open with.) I'm glad I wasn't there when he discovered what she had done. So after Nick cleaned up her mess he started wrapping presents and of course she's got to walk all over the paper and chase the scissors... but she's "helping" ...
I'm not at all surprised about any of this, though, except for the puppy pad shredding. I know she'll get into the bedroom garbage and poop in there any chance she gets, especially if she gets stuck in there, but she's never destroyed anything in the living room. I guess it's back to the crate for Meiby when we're gone... at least until after Xmas.

Wordless Wednesday 9

Tuesday Review: Pug Ornament

As I said I would, I ordered an ornament from Pugnotes.com with some super cute black pug artwork. The site says to allow 2-3 weeks for delivery but this got to my house in about 4 days (so you probably still have time to get one before Xmas.) Thank you Melissa and Emmitt ;)

What do you want for Xmas, Meiby?

Food

Treats

Snacks

Toys

Cookies

Warmth

... did I say Treats?

I put up our tree this past weekend, for the first time in our new house and, obviously, the first time since we've had Meiby. She seems pretty unphased by it. She did try to eat the fur off the top of a stocking though. We just have a small fake tree with fiber optic lights and it's lifted off the ground so there's nothing for Meiby to get into trouble with. We only have about 8 ornaments but I'll probably get a few more this year (like this one.)

VOTE!

Find out where to vote...

Halloween Weekend

We had a little Halloween party this weekend. I chose not to put the Meiby in a costume (because she's already a monster ;P) but I was dressed up as Lydia from Beetlejuice. Meiby, of course, was loved and fawned over by all of our guests. She looked a little overwhelmed because everyone was standing and she couldn't see what was going on or climb into a lap and get comfortable...



So we took turns holding her:

Happy Halloween!