It's RAINING!!!!!

This will be great for my garden!!!  I'm off the next couple of days, so check back - I'll be posting updated pictures of the garden!!!!

In other news, Brute has fully recovered from his whiplash. YAY!!!  No more drugged dog in the house! He's back to his normal self.  Not enjoying the rain tonight, though.  He's been shaking like a leaf and hiding under the couch.

Pictures to follow - I promise!!!!

I worked in the garden this morning, but didn't take any pictures.

Maybe sometime this week.  I figured out the Mockingbirds have been trying to eat the tomatoes as they ripen, so I ordered some bird netting on Amazon and put it over the entire top of the garden enclosure.  A few days later, the birds had figured out they are small enough to fly THROUGH the fence, so I took the top off and wrapped each individual tomato plant with the netting.  I'm really hoping that works!!!  I've gotten quite a few tomatoes out of the garden, a few radishes and FINALLY the cucumbers and zucchini have started to produce! Still waiting on the onions, I've pretty much decided those won't be large enough to harvest until late summer/early fall.

I was sitting out in the garden one Monday morning enjoying my coffee and Kindle, when Brute saw some deer in the neighbors back yard.  Being the tough guy that he is, he started off at full speed to get the deer, but instead when head-first into the side of the garden.  He cried for a little and couldn't use his front feet for a few minutes, but then seemed OK.  I was busy working Tues, Wed, and Thurs and also dealing with some family issues, and it wasn't until that Friday that I noticed he just wasn't himself.  Called the vet and they couldn't get him in until Monday. All weekend I was beside myself thinking he did something really bad and I'd have to put him down  :(  .  Sunday night he wouldn't even be in the living room with me - he was all by himself on the other side of the house!!!!  Anyway, the vet said he had Whiplash!  Gave him some muscle relaxants, pain pills and anti-inflammatories and he was getting better by Wednesday morning.  (What a relief!!!)  Now he'd pretty much back to himself.   Since his neck was sore, the vet said it would be a good idea to raise his food and water, so I did that and decided to leave them like that.  I used an old box from one of our laptops and just wrapped it with some "dog footprint" flannel I had.  He also has some "belly bands" that match, along with mattresses for his kennel - he's a SPOILED DOG!!!!

I've heard many people say it's better for dogs to have their food up, anyway.

I'll try to get some more pictures of the garden and the harvest - I have a bunch of tomatoes ripening on the window sil in the kitchen!

So Brute got a haircut last week,

then we had a short cold-spell come through.  The poor little thing was sitting on the floor shaking, so I decided he needed to have a shirt on.  (I have a couple sweaters for him, too.)  He didn't like having it on much, though.  He stood in the same spot in the office for a good 10 minutes before he took any steps, so I snapped a quick picture.


I guess I need to put making him a sweater on my "Things to Knit" list.  lol

Just because I haven't had much to post lately,

I decided to post our meal plan for the week.   I started doing this a while ago because when I worked full-time (and after Todd came home), I always forgot to get something out of the freezer for supper and then I'd panic, or I couldn't figure out what to make each night.  It seemed like I made the same things all the time.  After that, I signed up at Meal Time Makeover (endorsed by Dave Ramsey) for a few months and got lots of good, new recipes.  It gives you a meal for each day of the week, the recipe and grocery list that you can print out each week - so it made things SO MUCH easier for me!

Since then, I've kinda made the same concept for me, but we now have much more variety for supper.  However, since we bought a new gas grill a few weeks ago and this week is supposed to be really hot, I tried to do a lot of meals on the grill.

So here's our menu for the week of 7/31 to 8/6/10:

Saturday:      Lunch:  Left overs
                     Dinner:  Out (we only eat out once a week or less)

Sunday:        Lunch:      Mushroom Swiss Burgers (on Grill)
                                     Sweet Potato Fries (on Grill)
                    Dinner:    Salmon (on Grill)
                                   Green Beans
                                   Salad

Monday:        Dinner:    Chicken Kabobs (on Grill) (marinated chicken, red pepper, red onion  and                                                                                     marinated  mushrooms)
                                     Rice
  
Tuesday:        Dinner:    Steak (on Grill)
                                     Sautéed Mushrooms
                                     New Potatoes

Wednesday:    Dinner:    BBQ Chicken Thighs (on Grill) - trying new recipe
                                       Grilled Zucchini
                                       Salad

Thursday:    Dinner:    Burritos
                                    Charro Beans (made last weekend, need to eat)
                                    Spanish Rice

Friday:        Dinner:    Sausage (on Grill)
                                   Sauerkraut



Todd takes leftover for lunch every day, so I do usually make more than enough for us.  I usually have leftovers or a sandwich for lunch.

Today we're going to Walburg to meet with a Thrivent rep to get our IRA's started and hopefully he'll be able to help us out with a Health Savings Account.  Todd signed up for one back in March when his company was bought out and they've been taking money out of his paychecks, but never got an account set up for us.  This week they finally said we could do one on our own, but our bank in town doesn't do them.  I looked online and Thrivent does, so we'll talk to him about that, too.

In other news, our new Plasma TV that we bought in March quit working last night.  It doesn't turn on at all, so Philips is going to pay for someone to come out to the house to fix it.  Good thing it happened now while it's under warranty!

This morning while Todd's at work, I'm getting groceries, then back home to hopefully hear from the company about setting up a time to come fix the TV and getting other things ready for our meals this week.  I don't buy taco seasoning anymore, I found a recipe online and make it at home!!!  Along with Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning, Lipton Onion Soup mix and a mix to make Spicy Hamburgers (bought the original stuff at a craft show and it's hard to find).  Anything to save a buck!!!!

Brute got his hair cut again yesterday, but this time they didn't charge us because they nicked him!  He's got a little cut on one of his back legs where it meets his body.  It doesn't seem to hurt him too much and doesn't bleed, but the poor thing!  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to take him back there next time or not.  Usually if I take him early in the morning, they have him done around noon.   Yesterday I took him at 8:30 am and didn't pick him up until 4:00 pm.  When I dropped him off, I asked her how long it would take and she said she had four dogs in front of him to do - so I don't know why she had me drop him off so early!  That should have been a hint.   Anyway, busy weekend and I need to get going.

Have a wonderful week everyone!  And let me know if any of the dinners sound good and you want me to take a picture!