Move over Marley, I've got the World's Worst Dog

Mia pooped in her kennel yesterday (which is pretty normal when I don't get home at lunch to take her out -- don't get me started - apparently she pooped her whole life in a kennel at hunting school and now there's nothing I can do now that she's old bc she doesn't seem to care about getting punished), so the floor of it was still drying out today, and since it's been raining for 3 days straight, the "drying out" isn't going so well. So, the kennel wasn't ready for her to stay in today. And this morning, in the pouring rain, and in order to keep Mia out of one of the two dirt holes she dug for herself to lay in under my flower beds during the day to keep 'cool' when I leave her outside, my boyfriend had this plan to tie her up next to her little trampoline bed in the yard. Well, I came home today at lunch to a filthy dog, who had pooped ON the trampoline bed, then chewed threw her leash, then got free and straight into one of her mud pits to cool off. Beautiful. Just beautiful. Oh, and it was still raining.

The Aunt Cooking Class - Fruit Pizza

My nieces were in town, and I thought Fruit Pizza would be a fun cooking project for us. Everyone thought I was getting in over my head - cooking with two 4 year olds, but whatever, it was worth a shot.  First, I looked up an easy sugar cookie recipe online, and found one on allrecipes.com, which didn't require any sort of dough chilling. And it was a very simple recipe. Here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/easy-sugar-cookies/Detail.aspx - I'm sure there's a healthier crust you can make for this sweet pizza, but hey, I'm an aunt, so I don't have to worry about that :). So, we whipped together some softened butter, sugar, an egg, and added in flour, baking soda and baking powder and vanilla and had a great time, and of course, some samples.

Then, we formed the dough into Lean Cuisine pizza-size crusts, and had some lunch. While the twins were eating lunch, I whipped together cream cheese and powdered sugar for our "sauce." We then realized we didn't have enough cream cheese, so we also used some chocolate icing on some of the pizzas. The dough made six pizzas.

And voila! Beautiful fruit pizzas that everybody loved, and that the girls loved decorating. So, my cooking class was a success, and I win the aunt of the day award (I've obviously awarded this to myself, but I think the twins would vote for me too).

Old Dogs, No New Tricks

My dog is 7 and a half years old. She is truly living up to the expression that old dogs can't learn new tricks. I think, however, that she can learn them, and she knows exactly what's going on, she just doesn't want to. As a puppy, my dog Mia was raised in a cement, gated kennel as her house and in a kennel at the hunting school she attended for at least a year. So, I've got a true outside dog posing as an inside dog. Trust, me it ain't easy. Although Mia is living the life she has always dreamed of, there are certain things she simply won't change.

Example: She poops in her kennel if she has to go. She obviously did this her entire life being an outside kenneled dog, and I've googled the issue, and tried all types of punishments for this, but at the end of the day, she just doesn't care. She knows I'm coming home to let her out and go to the bathroom outside, but she doesn't seem to care to wait. It's like I'm putting her out.

Maybe there is something to be said for the old expression about old dogs and new tricks. I have cracked the code! Old dogs can learn new tricks, they just don't really care enough to do it.