Walking with Pippen

I decided to walk around the block with Pippen this morning.  The trails are covered with snow, so I have to walk on the street.  Pippen isn't exactly the easiest dog to walk.  All this time (3 years) and he refuses to be trained on how to walk properly on a leash.

The walk started out nicely until we encountered a sewer.  Pippen has a fear of sewers (or sewer grates).  He will stop, lay down with all his weight and not move.  If he sees it before you do, he will try to dart into the middle of the street.  Yea.  He's a little.....different.  Because of this behavior, I try to pull him and say, "heal," which really doesn't mean anything to him.  He will ignore me and hang out in the middle of the street.  Today, I finally said, "get over to the side before you get hit by a car!"  Pippen looked at me and then moved to the side. I think he understands when I speak to him like he's a human.

Since he has this fear of grates/sewers, I decided to start walking to the center of the street with him when I saw one up ahead.  This worked out perfectly, unless there was a sewer grate on the other side of the street. 

I wonder how we looked walking around the block?  Weaving in and out on the street?  The neighbors probably think there's something wrong with me.  They must think that I'm drunk (at 8am) and can't walk a straight line.

Never a dull moment....... 

Search Words

Google search words, again.  I love seeing how people find this blog.  It cracks me up.

buried in sand

I was curious about this one.  I searched my blog and found the post that they would have come to, but couldn't see what came up on google search.  And, why are people searching buried in sand pictures, anyway?

scary gas station

And that person landed on my blog from putting that in the search engine?  Why were they searching for a scary gas station?   Did they find what they were looking for?  I guess I will never know.

Extra roll of toilet paper

It's good to see that my family has my back. 

Daddy Daughter Dance 2015

It's that time of year again!  The Daddy Daughter Dance!  This year it was on RT's birthday.  What a great way to spend your birthday.  At a dance with your daughter.

Umm...yea...
Piling the dishes in the sink is not cleaning up.

Awesome Carrot Cupcakes

Bella has been hooked on the show Cupcake Wars.  RT decided that the two of them should have their own cupcake wars.  They decided to make two different cupcakes.  I loved them both, but feel that these were, hands down, the winner.    Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

Here's the recipe.  Try them and decide for yourself.

Awesome Carrot Cupcakes

• Cream Cheese Icing:
• 2 ounces white chocolate
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 
  
• Carrot Cake:
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/8 cups white sugar

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.
2. In small saucepan, melt white chocolate over low heat. Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature.
3. In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in white chocolate, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and orange extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in heavy cream.
4. Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Fold in 1/2 cup walnuts. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups.
5. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before topping with the icing and sprinkling with remaining walnuts.

*I substituted sunflower oil for vegetable oil

*I used 1/2 cup white sugar

Of course, I forgot to add the walnuts when I made them.....Not sure how that happened...

If you make them, let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Monthly Random Acts of Kindness - February

Here I am again with an update on my goal for the year.  My monthly Random Acts of Kindness.

As I said in my January post, it's pretty easy to reach a goal of one random act of kindness a month.  Especially if you look at all of the little things that you do.  I think I will just make these a summary of some of the kind things that I have done this month.

Let person get ahead of me in line
Hold door open for someone
Watched child for a sick friend
Help cookie mom pick up and sort cookies (hey, that was fun and worth it...I mean, COOKIES!)
Drive sick friends daughter to Brownie meeting
Donate money to Breast Cancer Awareness

How did your list for Random Acts of Kindness look this month?

Looking for ideas for Random Acts of Kindness?  Check out this post here.