Update

Things have been pretty uneventful here, which is good.

We've been enjoying the warm(ish) days and spending a lot of time outside walking, playing frisbee with Moose, grilling, and cleaning up our enormous overgrown yard.

One of Moose's favorite parts about the warm days is that he gets to go outside when I get home and stay out for a few hours. I love it too because it keeps our house cleaner and keeps him out of my hair so I can get stuff done. (This is his "attack" pose...isn't the "wonky" ear intimidating?)

He loves to hang out on the back deck while I am cooking dinner.

Check out the bulldog beanie baby in the picture. That's Moose's "baby." Steve and I both thought he would destroy it (like everything else), but he LOVES it. He never bites down hard on it and just carries it around wherever he goes.
Our yard is looking better and better every day. I have to give the credit to Steve. He spent a lot of time this winter clearing out the trees. There were a lot of dead trees he had to cut down along with a lot of poison ivy and prickly vines he had to clear out. Now, we are down to sticks, more prickly vines, and leaves to clear out. Nobody has lived in this house for a couple years, and it shows!

We bought the house last fall after a very dry summer. When we moved in, everything was already dead. It's been pretty exciting watching plants start to grow. There are THOUSANDS of tiny blooms all around the front and side of our house in the trees. I have no idea what they are, but I am excited to find out. If anybody could identify these leaves, I would LOVE it. I'll post pictures when/if they bloom.

Moose turned 8 months old on Thursday. We have no idea how much he weighs but he's getting big! :) About a month ago, I taught him to put his front paw on my shoulder when I sit in front of him. He picked up on it really quicklybut then decided to make the trick even better by putting both paws on my shoulders so we can sit eye to eye.

Playing outside all evening makes Moose a sleepy pup! After 3 or 4 hours of playing outside, I bring him in to cuddle with me on the couch. When it's time to go to bed, it's always hard to get him to stand up and go downstairs to his crate. One night, he decided to be even more defiant and "flop" away from Steve each time he tried to grab him. It was funny to watch a 100 lb dog wiggle his way out of Steve's hands. Eventually, Moose flopped himself under the table where he thought he was safe. This made it even more difficult to get him because he was almost wedged under the table. Steve was pretty made and laughing at the same time.

Moose is still having a hard time sleeping on the couch. He just doesn't fit so well. We made the loveseat Moose's by putting sheets on it. If only he would lay like this all the time.

Usually, it's like this....

Or this. Isn't that bed I made a great pillow?

Recipes

This weekend I found two great recipes that I definitely want to share.

First, Friday night we went out with some of our friends. At this time, none of us have children so we love talking about our dogs. One of our friends asked me if Moose has dry skin....well, yeah! I bathe him once a week! She told me about a spray she had mixed up for her dog after finding it on the internet.

1 part water
1 part baby oil
1 part Listerine (I am guessing it doesn't have to be brand name, but that's her exact words)

Her dog had seriously dry skin (and it worked on him), but Moose just has some dandruff-like stuff. Since he's black, it shows up a lot and annoys me. Last night after Moose had dried off from his bath I sprayed it on and rubbed it in. It was not oily at all! I was a little worried that he would lick it off and it would make him sick. He did lick, but he did not get sick. Today, I gave him a good scratch and checked it out and it seems to really work (and it smells good, too). I am not sure how often to apply it, but I will definitely keep a bottle of it on hand.

Second, I took some time over the weekend to check out some beer bread mix recipes. The third Woods women craft night is coming up and this time we are putting together mixes to keep in our pantry. Each person is supposed to find a recipe for a mix (bread, dessert, soup, dip, whatever) and bring the recipe, ingredients (enough for the group), and a sample to craft night. I chose beer bread because we love it, and it's expensive to buy the mix ($9 in Pampered Chef). I found a couple recipes that looked simple and tried them both. Here's my favorite.

Ingredients
3 cups flour (sifted)
3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
1 teaspoon salt (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
1/4 cup sugar
1 (12 ounce) can beer
1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup will do just fine)
Directions
1Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2Mix dry ingredients and beer.
3Pour into a greased loaf pan.
4Pour melted butter over mixture.
5Bake 1 hour, remove from pan and cool for at least 15 minutes.

Using self-rising flour made it even more easy! I'm excited to meet up with the other Woods women and go home with a bunch of fun mixes!