Most Recent Covet I Can't Get Over: Waffle Iron

If I didn't have a legitimate reason to buy a waffle maker before, I do now.

Look at these waffled chocolate chip cookies. And waffeled falafels!!

Oh now I have a craving....

You Knew I Would....

Couldn't help but share a couple pics of the Bean settling into our life

Green Bean

Well, most of you probably know by now that Dwight (who is now called Bean) is a permanent fixture in our house. We officially adopted him yesterday. I think somewhere in the back of our minds, we knew we were horrible at fostering, but it was always one of those "what if" lingering questions of mine.... Now I have my final answer: we suck at fostering. Maybe when we are older and have no other permanent dogs, we will get to a place where we can be a revolving door of dogs in need, but for now, if it has four legs and enters our home, it generally stays.

Actually, since getting Monkey, we have discussed the "need" for a third dog. Horton will be 11 in May and Monkey is probably around 2, so their energy levels are not a good match. Bean is a nice buffer that helps meet Monkey's need for play, and Horton's need for rest. (And my need to fill the house with as much furry love as possible.) Bean seems to be that magical dog that had the ability to slide into our family without missing a beat. Monkey even shares her toys with him, which is a small miracle in and of itself.

In any case, beyond doggie news, the weekend has been kind of depressing. It was beautiful all week while I was stuck indoors at work, and I was so excited for the weekend, making big plans to do some yardwork, grill out, and enjoy some summery drinks. Instead, in a bipolar moment, Mother Nature dumped a few inches of snow, completely covering my very first daffodil that bloomed this season. I have pretty much been sulking ever since. On top of that, Jesse didn't get in until 3 something last night, courtesy of the crap weather, delayed flights, and poor McManagement.

Oh well, hopefully this time next weekend I will be outside enjoying some sun! Next Saturday is the inaugural Rock the Parkway and I am eagerly anticipating seeing the hubs run a sub-20 5k. After that, a 4 day work week and Easter are in the pipe! So really, I guess once this snow melts, everything is looking up.

But until then, I mope.

Too Much Happy!!

Weeeeeee!!!!!!!! I picked up Dwight tonight on my way home from work! After the shelter, we stopped for some gas and then headed to Petsmart to get some supplies... I was so wound up, I paid, and then left without my stuff. Didn't realize it until I got to the car, loaded Dwight, and felt kind of empty handed. I turned around and the guy who was in line behind me was coming out with my stuff. I mumbled something about being distracted by the dog, and then as I was driving home, I couldn't remember if I even told him thank you!! I hope I did, but I was just all squirrely.

Dwight had 2 major admirers in PetSmart. One lady even circled back around the store just so she could pet him again...and then talked to me for about ten minutes about what a sweet dog he is, and how if people meet him and he will get adopted right away and this and that. He sits very politely for petting, which I think won him some brownie points.

They got the lab results back and he does have a slight bladder infection, so he will be on meds for a while. I hope this means his accidents at the shelter were due to that and not a lack of being potty trained. It would make it much easier on us if he is housebroken!

The shelter has a very distinct smell. It's this odd mix of the floor cleaner we use there, plus dog food, plus dirty dog. Dwight smells 100% shelter. And he was farting the whole drive home. He just went through his deworming session, so I am sure he will have some interesting gut action happening over the next few days.

He is guessed to be about 10 months old...a stray that was found way up north. A lab mix of some sort. And he has a 3/4 length tail that I hope is by genetics and not a stupid person.

When I got home, Jesse had already left for class, so I had to strategize the introductions. I have had to break up dog fights on my own before, and it's not fun at all. I left Dwight in the car, put a lead on Monkey and then let she and Horton in the backyard. After that, I went around and got out Dwight, thinking they would sniff through the fence. It was clearly too much distraction being outdoors, as Monkey and Horton were crazy wound up. I could see a "red zone" situation brewing so I put Dwight back, then decided to change my strategy a little. I went and let Monkey in the backdoor, kept Horton out, then brought Dwight in the front door, so that I had a hold of both Dwight and Monkey's leads. When I was confident in their "I am not planning to kill you" messages to one another, I let Horton in. (I never worry about him meeting new dogs...he is an angel and loves everyone.)

There was a ton of communication at the beginning....Monkey putting her head over Dwight's again and again (a sign that she is higher in the pack), Dwight licking her and Horton's mouths (a sign he is willing to submit), and a fair amount of humping as well! (Also a way to display dominance.) Since then, they have been playing non-stop!

Anyway, here is part of our introductions...about 15 minutes after they had all met. (I realize the odds of anyone but my mother watching a minute and 45 seconds of dogs is slim. Still, I post.)

Happy Heart

My heart is soooo happy. I am thrilled to introduce you to Dwight, the little lab mix below!

For nearly two years, Jesse and I have talked about fostering. When the idea first came up, most of our resources (including time and heart) were going toward caring for Abe in his final year, so fostering got set aside. We didn't feel it would be fair to subject Abe to a revolving door of dogs coming and going. Then, when we had to say bye to Abe, we were just too sad to foster. Plus, at some point through all this, Monkey made an appearance, and we were definitely not looking for a third dog when she showed up! So, we felt there was enough to deal with without having a foster.

Enter spring time this year, and the timing finally seemed right...or at least okay. So, I nervously e-mailed Leslie (pres. of the doggie non-profit I volunteer with) and we began chatting about some possibilities. Yesterday when I was at the shelter for my regular routine, Leslie and I narrowed it down to two dogs, so I called Jesse and asked if he wanted to bring Horton and Monkey over for a meet and greet, which is exactly what we did.

(Side story: Monkey was terrified at the shelter. She was about frozen stiff, and was frothing so bad she had a huge white beard by the end of the evening. And, she did not want to leave Horton's side. I don't know her history beyond when Jesse found her as a starving little stray downtown, so who knows if she had been in some sort of animal control facility before or if she just knew the shelter was not a place she wanted to stay for very long...but the poor girl was just worried sick.)

Anyway, despite Monks nerves, we did our meet and greet, and the clear choice by Horton and Monkey was Dwight. He was submissive to both and proved that he could slide right into the Nikkel pack without missing a beat. We did not bring him home with us right then though, as I could tell I had overwhelmed Jesse by the sudden, excited phone call. Bring Horton and Monkey over to meet some dogs!!! I am hoping to pick Dwight up one evening this week.

We are currently waiting on some lab tests. He may have a bladder infection, or possibly just needs house training. We should know this week. Regardless, this is Dwight, who will be bunking at the Nikkel house until he finds his forever family.

All that to say.....BEWARE!!!! I have another dog in my home....annoying stories and photos about all the wonderful cuteness happening in my house shall be exploding soon! Another dog....ahhhh!! I'm so happy!!!

Garden Update

One thing I am trying to do better at this year in the garden is planning. As I was out working this morning, I kept making new diagrams in my head, trying to figure out the timing, remember what was where last year (I try not to put the same plant in the same bed two years in a row), and keep it all straight. Lots of people told me I should keep a garden journal every year, which I thought seemed so silly, but the more years that go by, the more I find myself wishing I would have kept better records.

Anyway, I got my chard and sugar snaps planted today, but after that, my fingers were feeling too chilly in the soil, so I decided to leave the rest for later this week. Here is what I am thinking for my plan this year, though I realized after I made this, that I already have strawberries where my swiss chard is on this diagram, so I think I will probably relocate the chard to the pepper & herb bed. That bed is pretty flexible anyway. I still haven't decided for sure what I will put in there, so I may scrap it all together and start anew. I will probably end up putting the peppers to the pea bed, since they won't be going in until the peas are winding down anyway. Then, that will free up an entire row where I could put in something like cucumbers or watermelon.


Anyway, here is my diagram, but I guess it's already out of date due to my strawberry forgetfulness and change of heart on my pepper location!

Biographical Bodies

The other day at work I was chatting with one of my co-workers about her new gym membership. I found myself laughing in familiar recognition as she described various areas that could "be improved". I don't know why, but I've had a lot of these types of conversations lately. Maybe it is the life stage I'm in, where I have a lot of friends having kids, and of course pregnancy is doing all kinds of new things to the body.

Whether thanks to pop culture and Hollywood, or expectations of women in general - whatever the reason - my body used to be about how it looked, and not much more. It was a decoration to me - the poster of which I present myself to the world. In a sense, I was mostly unaware of it....only really taking time to think about it when I had to try on a swimsuit or stand next to a tall blond.

Now, I realize how blind and silly I have been. Of course looks will always be a part of our culture and to some extent, an extension of our personality, but I have come to realize that is such a small fraction of what the body is about. I can just hear your collective sigh...well duh, Natasha! But, I honestly never realized this until the last year or so. And the realization has made me infinitely more kind to myself.

So my legs will always look like a gymnast's, in the worse sense of the word, but who cares? These are the legs that let me walk my dogs. These are the legs let me feel the rush of wind when they pedal my bike fast. They let me kneel in my garden, kneel to receive a puppy kiss at the shelter, and kneel when I'm sad and angry and confused and happy and everything in between in awe of God. Why would it even cross my mind to think about how they look when they afford me all of this?

We, as humans, women in particular, are the worst kind of cruel to ourselves. We beat ourselves up over words we wish we would not have said, we replay life moments in our minds and focus on our inadequacies, and we spend too much time trying to make our bodies be what they are not. Maybe you are one of the weird ones who was spared all self-doubt and criticism, but I would dare to say most of us are not. Men are included here, though it's not as socially acceptable for men to lament their bodily state as it is for women. Even so, when the walls come down and the vulnerability is exposed, I know of plenty of guys who mourn the loss of their hair, who feel self-conscious over the spare tire... but really, why do we do this to ourselves?

I for one am tired of it. If I can't appreciate my body for how it looks, surely I can appreciate it because it lets me taste, it lets me see, it lets me laugh and smile and communicate to the world. It tells me when something is wrong, and lets me know when I've left my life get all of whack and I need to step back and have a time out. And women who are mothers - this is the ultimate - your body gave life. How dare our society look at it in judgement, how dare so many industries focus be on preventing stretch marks and too much weight gain when you are in the middle of growing a child?

In a sense, our bodies are our biographies.

There's a scar on my wrist. I got it playing "wolf" as a little girl when I fell onto some exposed box mattress springs. There's also a scar on my forehead. I got it during an accident in the Philippines. There are my brown eyes, who allowed a total stranger in the airport to recognize some part of my grandmother and mother in me. He knew, just by looking, that I was "one of those Green girls". There are two holes in my right ear, and only one in my left, from the time I was in 6th grade and my friend and I thought it was super cool to have lop sided piercings. There is my short stature, courtesy of two grandfathers who barely top 5'6. This is all part of my story, part of my heritage, part of what makes me who I am. How could I have ever wished to have another person's story?

For whatever reason, I am coming to gain a deep respect and appreciation for this vessel that I am in. Out of gratitude, I want to tread easy on it.

And maybe as I gain a deeper appreciation for the outside, I can start to be a little kinder to the inside too.

Sure, I have yet to master the art of telling jokes, and I have a nagging problem of saying too little, surely out of fear that one of my (usually very strong) opinions will come out with too much force and scare someone away. But once the social awkwardness disappears, there's some pretty good left overs.

I think there is in all of us. So, even though we are inevitably present in the moments where the very worst of us comes out, let's not dismiss the moments where we are overflowing with mercy and grace for those around us and the person within us.

Spring has sprung and that means garden geek out time.

Every year about this time, I get my seeds and I start prepping my soil, and I doubt.

Will my plants grow?

I don't know why I have this feeling, but inevitably, as I'm sowing my seeds, there is some fret that nothing will come of it, and I find myself praying.

Please make these plants grow.

Sure enough, each summer, I watch as the seeds grow, and each summer, I am amazed. The simple awe of a growing plant still gets me every time, as if I were five years old. I have been proud lately because spring is here and we are still eating tomatoes I grew and preserved last summer. I love the idea of being able to feed my little family (which I guess is just Jesse at this point) a meal that I literally made from scratch - from soil to table. It's a beautiful storyline that makes me go all vegan geek out.

Anyway, none the less, today falls in the in the season of doubt, before anything has grown, and I can't help but wonder....

What if this is the year nothing grows? What if I neglected my soil too much last year? What if I have overworked my beds, demanding too much of too few square feet?

Even so, despite the doubt, I will prep my soil and I will write love letters to my earthworms, and I will yell at my dogs when they jump in my gardens.

Also, I decided this year, I will do the "garden savings" tracker again. The first year I did it, I started a bit late, so things weren't completely precise. Plus, I find myself forgetting details of my garden that I wish I'd have written down somewhere. (Like what variety of lettuce I used last year...it was very slow to bolt.) My blog will be a good record for me, even if no one else cares to read it.

Thus begins my garden savings for 2010. (I am in the hole right now.)

Seeds:

Spinach (Double Choice Hybrid...I think I did Grand Teton last year) - 1.88

Peas (Cascadia Sugar Snap...have never ventured away from this variety) - 1.07

Lettuce (Little Gem) - 2.47

Marigold (Petite Yellow) x 4 packs - 1.25

*New for 2010!* Swiss Chard (Large Ribbed Dark Green) - .97

*New for 2010!* Kale (Dwarf Blue Curled, Vate's Straing) - .97

Total Garden Savings to Date = -13.11 (I'm including tax)