Happy Birthday Nova Lee!

Happy New Years Eve! Nova Lee turns 1 year old today! Sometimes I forget that she's 7 months younger than Bozley. They've always been kinda on the same "level" since she was 6 months old when we brought her home AND she was already bigger than Boz (and with bigger paws!). But this sweet girl has been such a wonderful addition to our family...especially for Bozzy. I think she really boosts his confidence and has lessened his anxiety. He's not as nervous around new people or surroundings. AND he's eating much better as well (thank goodness!). They also get a lot of exercise playing together and it's so fun to watch them interact. They seem to have really bonded with each other from the moment we brought her home. 

Novee and Bozzy are so different...they even look a lot different. Nova is a lighter golden color and Boz is much more red. He has a long, straight coat while hers is thicker, shorter, and the fur on her back and tail is wavy. Bozzy has a wider head and Novee's is more slender. He has round eyes while her eyes are more narrow. She is also quite a bit bigger than Boz with larger paws. 

Their personalities are a lot different too. He is a little more high-strung and she's pretty calm. Boz barks far more than she does, but she has a bigger/deeper bark than him. Nova does bark at the TV though...especially when there are lions or tigers on the TV. Nova loves to cuddle more than Bozley. He'll cuddle for a little while but then he'll get up and go lay in his bed. Nova will cuddle up between me and Johnny all night long. She likes to lay on the couches with us while we're watching TV too. Generally Nova loves to lay all sprawled out...usually on her back. Bozley likes to curl up in his favorite spot by the vent. Bozley will sit in front of the back door when he wants to go out and bark if we don't pay attention. Nova never "alerts" us when she wants to go out...she'll just wait until Bozley wants to go (which is usually pretty frequently anyway). Nova always takes my spot on the couch whenever I get up and refuses to move (I just have to scoot her a little bit and sit under her with her butt in my lap lol). But then Bozley is a gentleman and will immediately jump up before I even get back to the couch. Boz is kind of a "serious" guy while Nova is such a funny, goofy girl. She always looks sad though because her jowls hang more than Bozley's...but she acts pretty happy! We always joke around that Nova just seems to have an attitude like, "I don't know what we're doing but let's do it!" She just seems to be a sweet, fun-loving girl who wants to be a part of whatever is going on. 

They've picked up some habits from each other as well. Bozzy has always wanted to have something in his mouth (usually one of his stuffed toys) when he gets excited...and now Nova has started doing the same thing (although sometimes it's just a matter of taking the stuffie away from Boz). Another habit she picked up from Boz is to bark at the cats when they're on the other side of the gate at the top of the stairs. We had taken the gate down when it was just Boz, because he's afraid of going down the stairs. Not Nova...she ran right downstairs shortly after we brought her home for the first time! Even though Novee will go downstairs, Boz still doesn't have any desire to. But one bad habit Boz has picked up from Nova is standing at the kitchen counter to eat whatever might be up there when we're not in the room. Their favorite is napkins. :P So now we have a gate in front of the kitchen and keep the napkins on the other side of the kitchen. I tried putting them in the middle of the dining room table where they can't reach...but then our cat, Milo, digs in them. :P 

Unlike Boz, mealtime is Nova's favorite time. She will go in her kennel and stare at me to tell me she wants to eat (often before it's actually time to eat) and then follow me to the kitchen while I put the food in their bowls. She bounces around and then runs back to her kennel as soon as I pick the bowls back up. She eats all of her food no problem...while Bozley is usually still pushing around his food and hasn't even started by the time she's done. But the good news is that he DOES eat all his food now! :) And there are a lot of times when he'll turn his nose at something...but then once Nova eats it, he decides he wants to try it too. 

Watching Bozzy and Novee play is so much fun. They'll chase each other around the yard, fight over sticks, and play tug-of-war with all of their stuffed animals. We never had any torn up toys or slippers or anything until Nova Lee came along...because now they "fight" over everything. So most of their stuffed toys have legs or tails that have been pulled off. Nova also likes to chew the squeakers out of the stuffed animals if we're not paying attention. :P I've found that the Kong knot toys hold up really well so far. Instead of stuffing, they have a rope inside the toy. 

For Nova's birthday today, we took the pups to Petco. Bozzy was not having a good time...so Johnny ended up taking him back out to the car. But Novee had a blast! She was very calm in the store and wandered around looking at everything. There were a lot of people who asked to pet her and she met a pittie puppy and another older terrier-looking dog while we were there. She was also very interested in the small animals! She spent the most time watching the hamsters but she liked seeing the guinea pigs and ferrets as well. She was very calm and just watched them moving around. She picked out a braided bully stick and she got a new toy, a birthday cookie, and we got some puppy frozen yogurt and a bag of various treats as well. I think she had a good birthday. :) 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

When we brought Nova home, she was covered in sores/scabs from an untreated food allergy. She was friendly and sweet and loved to cuddle with us...but she didn't really like to make eye contact with us. She has always been playful and never seemed fearful or anything...but she would turn or lower her head instead of make eye contact. But now? She's on the right kind of food for her allergies so her skin is free from sores and her coat is softer. And it took several months, but now she has no problem making eye contact for long periods of time. She has been doing so well with us. It's hard to remember what life was like before Nova joined us. She just seamlessly blended in with our family. We definitely feel lucky to have such happy, healthy pups in our lives. Happy first birthday sweet Nova Lee! <3 

The year is almost over already!

I hope everyone has had a very merry Christmas! Our Christmas was a little more low-key than we'd originally planned. We went to my sisters on the 12th to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my mom's mom. I got a bunch of plastic storage bins (which is what I asked for) because we have a ton of stuff in the basement that I want to sort and move out to the garage so we can actually make the basement a usable space again. :P Most of what is down there is garage sale stuff. My 2022 resolution is to finally have a garage sale! We've just been setting aside stuff for years but then never actually having the garage sale. So...my mission this year is to actually have the garage sale. :P Johnny got a really neat hatchet tool and some storage straps. The girls got gift cards, fuzzy socks, a neat pen, etc. 

I haven't been feeling well (migraines, horrible nausea, and sciatica) so I haven't had a whole lot of energy. We were supposed to go to the annual pizza party with my mom's dad's side of the family last week but I was super dizzy and nauseous all week so Johnny and I stayed home. Ashlyn tagged along with my mom and sister though and they had a good time (Aubry had to work). Then shortly after that, my sister and her family came down with Covid. Ashlyn already gone to XH's parents' house but I had her get tested before she went to the Christmas party down there just as a precaution. She tested negative and hasn't shown any symptoms since. But my grandparents went ahead and brought all of our gifts from them over to our house on Christmas Eve so Johnny and I stayed home over the weekend and lounged with the dogs. The girls came over Christmas Day to open their gifts and then eat dinner with us.  

Johnny is back at work today after a nice three-day weekend. He'll have a three-day weekend over New Years too...so we're looking forward to that. There hasn't been much transcription work available lately but I've been working on CandiMaker stuff off and on when I've felt up to it. Other than that...we've just been hanging out and enjoying the peace and quiet. :) 

RECIPE: Mexican Chicken Bake

It's been a little while since I've posted a regular dinner recipe. I've mostly just been making dinners I've previously posted. But last night I tried a new one and it tastes pretty yummy! Like most of my recipes...it was inspired by other recipes that I've found but I've changed them up. This idea actually came from a little Jiffy cookbook that I got for free in the mail. But the surprise ingredient in this recipe...pancake mix! Johnny is always skeptical when something seems to have weird ingredients (like the Mayonnaise Chocolate Cake) but he liked it. :) It tastes kind of like a spicy chicken pot pie. 

Mexican Chicken Bake 

Ingredients:

2-3 chicken breast halves, cooked and cubed
8 oz sour cream
1 can cream of chicken 
2 cups Mexican/Fiesta blend shredded cheese
1 can diced peas and carrots, drained
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 small sweet onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup) 
1 tsp celery flakes 
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic salt 
1/2 tsp cumin 
1/8 tsp oregano 
1/8 tsp chili powder 
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup pancake mix 
1 small red pepper, chopped (about 1/2 cup) 
1 small green pepper, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a sauce pan, simmer chicken broth, peas and carrots, onion, celery flakes, paprika, garlic salt, cumin, oregano, and chili powder for 15 minutes. 
3. In a 9x13 pan, mix together chicken, sour cream, and cream of chicken. 
4. Pour the contents of the saucepan into the 9x13 pan and mix well with the chicken mixture. Spread evenly in the pan.  
5. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, milk, pancake mix, red and green peppers, and 1 cup of cheese. 
6. Spread the pancake batter evenly on top of the chicken mixture. 
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven and spread the remaining cup of cheese on top. Bake for another 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

Another December!

I can't believe how quickly we are to approaching the end of another year! The weather has been pretty up and down lately. We actually had record highs in the area last week. It usually averages about 50 degrees around here in the month of December, but it was 74 degrees on the 2nd! I love temps in the 70s. :) But...I'm definitely not a fan of the wind we've had lately. Ugh. 

Ashlyn had Hollyball on Saturday. She just went with some friends this year. Her dad's sister helped her get ready and then she stopped by here so I could take some pictures. She hung out at a friend's house before and took pictures and then they went to the dance. Ashlyn said she had a really good time. :)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

Johnny and I went to get our Covid boosters on Sunday. It was basically just like the first two doses. Our arms were pretty sore that night and the next day. Then the following two days we were kinda tired and sore all over. But we're both feeling much better now. I made some vegetable beef soup Sunday night and then we had leftovers until Tuesday when I made some taco meat for Johnny and Ashlyn and then I wanted Mexican cheese soup so I made some of that. It's one of my favorites and so easy to make...just dump it in the crockpot. AND...more leftovers! I love leftovers because it means that for a day or two I don't have to decide what to make for dinner. :P I also need to remember to make chocolate chip cookies to take to my sister's house for our family's early Christmas party.  

This weekend I'll be working on Christmas presents. So far I just have one present figured out for each of the kids and grandkids that I'm personalizing for them. I think we may just do gift cards and/or stocking stuffers as well...but we still haven't decided on all that yet. Probably should...but my husband tends to be a procrastinator. ;) 

Well...I better get back to work! :)  

Last Day of November!

I haven't posted much lately because I've been super busy with transcription work until late last night. I ended up having several long breaks where I was cleaning and getting everything ready for Thanksgiving...and I didn't work at all ON Thanksgiving. 

And now this week I'm taking a break from transcription and getting some sublimation designs done! I planned to have a Black Friday sale in my Etsy shop with a lot more holiday designs available, but then I was just too busy with my transcription work to get it done. So that's what I'm going to focus on right now. I also need to get started on making Christmas gifts for everyone. :) But...I'm still having a hard time finding the blanks I need. So I'll be trying to get all that figured out too. 

We had a really nice Thanksgiving! My mom wasn't able to make it since she's been sick for the last week or so...but my grandma and my sister and her family came to have dinner with us. My sister brought deviled eggs and some desserts. As always, we had a lot of food! :) My sister packed some to-go helpings to drop off at my parents' house for them and we've been having leftovers for dinner every night. :) I'll be sad when the leftovers are gone and I have to figure out what to make for dinner again. And it appears that's going to be, like, tomorrow. :P Dang it! I don't mind cooking dinner...it's the figuring out what to cook every single night that is exhausting. lol

I didn't do any Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping for Christmas gifts this year. However, I did take advantage of some sales for CandiMaker stuff. I was able to get 50% off the annual subscription for the website that I use to make my mock-ups. And then one of the graphic sites had a $1 event and I found quite a few bundles that I liked. So that was the only money I spent during Black Friday...and it'll be written off as business expenses when I do my taxes. :)

Well...I'm gonna get back to working on designs. :)

Thanksgiving 2021

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for my family. My mom has been sick so she wasn't able to come, but my grandma and my sister and her family joined us for dinner. I made basically the same things as last year, except I doubled the green bean casserole and candied yams recipes (probably didn't actually need to), and then I added a couple more recipes. Johnny made a whole turkey in the oven this year, so I made a spiral cut ham in the pressure cooker. And instead of buying Stouffer's Mac n Cheese, this year I made the Crockpot recipe from my grandma. It was delicious and we had plenty of leftovers! :) 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

Pressure Cooker: Spiral-Cut Ham

Ingredients:

5 lb spiral-cut ham
1 1/2 cups water 

1/2 cup honey 

3 tbs brown sugar 

1 can sliced pineapple 

Heavy-duty aluminum foil

Directions: 

1. Cut a very large piece of aluminum foil (enough to cover the ham completely) and spread it out on the counter. Remove ham from the packaging and place in the middle of the aluminum foil. Fold up the sides around the ham so it will hold liquid.  

2. Open the can of sliced pineapple. Drain the pineapple juice into a bowl. Set pineapple aside. Stir in the honey and brown sugar.

3. Pour about 1/3 of the glaze over the ham. Then carefully pour a little glaze in between each cut of the ham. 

4. Place the pineapple slices on top of the ham then wrap the foil around the ham.  

5. Pour water into the bottom of the pressure cooker. Place the foil-wrapped ham on a trivet in the pressure cooker and lock the lid. 

6. The spiral-cut ham is precooked, so it only needs to be heated. Cook the ham on high pressure for 2 minutes per pound plus 10 minutes to account for the aluminum foil. Then let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes before releasing the rest of the pressure. 

OPTIONS: You can reduce the remaining liquid to further glaze the ham after it has cooked. You can also broil the ham after cooking for a crust. You can also fancy it up by preparing it with cloves, apricot jelly, etc. 
(this was made in an 8qt oval pressure cooker) 

Creamy Crockpot Mac N Cheese

Ingredients:

1 16 oz package of elbow macaroni, cooked for 6 minutes and drained  
1/2 lb Velveeta, cubed

1/2 stick of butter, sliced 

1 can cheddar cheese soup 

2 cups milk

Directions: 

1. Combine all ingredients in the Crockpot.   
2. Heat on high for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  

Just a few more days!

Today I got the last things that we'll need for Thanksgiving dinner. :) Over the weekend I talked to my mom and sister (and later my grandma) about dinner at our house this year. So they'll be coming over to have dinner with us Thursday evening. :) I'm changing up the menu from last year a little bit to accommodate a larger number of people. 

Johnny is making a turkey and I'm going to make a spiral ham in my pressure cooker (which is a first for me because I don't personally like ham). He'll start the turkey in the morning sometime and then I'll start the ham around 2:30 pm or so. 

Then I'm going to make a double helping of the green bean casserole, cornbread casserole, and candied yams in the toaster oven while the turkey breast and ham are cooking. I'll also make a double helping of the turkey stuffing and noodles on the stovetop. Instead of just heating up Stouffers macaroni and cheese like I did last year, I'm going to make the slow cooker creamy macaroni and cheese recipe from my grandma. It only takes about an hour in the crockpot so it'll be super easy. 

The night before I plan on cleaning house and making the banana cake bread, strawberry whip dream, and the pumpkin pie. I'll wait to vacuum Thursday morning because otherwise it'll look like I didn't vacuum at all with the large amount of pet hair we have around here. :P 

But for now...I need to get back to work! I still have a lot of minutes to transcribe! 

The year will be over before we know it!

I can't believe it'll be Thanksgiving next week! I'm not sure exactly what we're doing other than making Thanksgiving dinner here at home. We've had Thanksgiving here at the house every year since 2013. Sometimes we have a house full of people and a couple years it was just the two of us...usually it's somewhere in between. Each year it's mostly just a matter of...we're making dinner so anyone who doesn't have other plans is welcome to join us (except last year before the Covid vaccine was available for everyone). But we generally make a lot of food for Thanksgiving whether we plan to have anyone over or not. We really like leftovers! ;) In fact, I usually wish we had even MORE leftovers after we finish them. :P I already got all the groceries for Thanksgiving except the turkey, strawberries, bananas, and Hawaiian rolls. I'll probably go ahead and get pie crusts too because I don't feel like making them from scratch when I don't even eat pumpkin pie. :P Last year I went ahead and bought a pre-made pie, but I have some pumpkin pie filling in the cabinet that I need to use. Other than that I just plan on making basically the same stuff I did last year.  

I've been working a little bit on some winter/holiday sublimation designs for my Etsy shop. I'm trying to get some Christmas gifts done as well. I have the design done for my mom's Christmas gift but I still need to finish my mother-in-law's design. And then I have a few other gifts I need to make as well. 

I've also been trying to get some transcription files done so we'll have a bit more money for other Christmas gifts. So...I better get back to work! :) 

Definitely a Monday!

I swear...today is the Monday-est Monday of all Mondays. Johnny has been having the same kind of day as well. I assume it's a matter of still getting used to Daylight Savings Time ending again. I wish we'd just switch to Daylight Savings and keep it forever instead of going back and forth. Because who really wants it to start getting dark at 5pm anyway? It just makes winter seem even more gloomy than it already does. :P But on top of today just being BLAH...my transcription headset stopped working so now I have to get a new one. These things are supposed to come with a 1-year warranty but I have never, ever had a pair of these last an entire year. They work great for being able to hear spoken words...when they actually work. :P Hopefully my new headset arrives in time on Wednesday. 

Yesterday was my grandparents' 40th anniversary party with the family. Everyone had a really nice time. My sister did an excellent job with the decorations. I designed the image and printed the sublimation transfers...then my sister was the one who pressed them onto the can coolers that were given out as party favors. :) 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candi Pride (@candimaker)

My mom used my photography equipment to set up a decorated backdrop to take pictures against. She did an amazing job, as always. We haven't had a family photo of the four of us since 2017 so it was really nice to finally take a new one! :) 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

And just to compare, this is the four of us in January 2017...also in similar colors! Oh...and Johnny and I are standing on a higher step...we were not that much taller than the girls in 2017. ;) Actually...I'm pretty sure Aubry and I were the same height by that point. :P 

Turning into cooler weather!

I love fall. I love the colors and the cooler weather. I like it when you can just wear a sweatshirt and still be comfortable. There have been several days when it was a little too cold for just a sweatshirt though. :( I'm really not a fan of winter and fall never seems to last long enough. 

I've been really busy with CandiMaker stuff. I worked on my invoice/order form for my end-product sales and I like how they turned out. I use Excel spreadsheets for everything like that. You can add graphics and change the fonts to make it look nice...but you can also use formulas in the spreadsheet to automatically add up totals, shipping, tax, etc. I have SO many spreadsheets for so many things. Eventually I plan to offer some for sale in my Etsy shop too. :) 

Last weekend Johnny and Ashlyn did a little shopping. I had a pair of jeans that needed to be returned to Kohls for a difference size and Johnny exchanged them for me. :) Then he and Ashlyn looked at some shirts on clearance and found a few that she liked. I always like Kohls clearance. Some of the shirts she got were less than $2! Johnny also found some slippers to replace the ones that had worn out. We love our PJ pants and slippers around here! :) She also tried on a lot of dresses and skirts that she wasn't going to get. :P They have fun shopping around though. Saturday my mom and sister stopped by after they were done running some errands. They tried the cake Johnny made for my birthday and chatted for a little while. So that was a nice visit. :) 

We didn't have any plans for Halloween. Since the kids have gotten older, they make their own plans now. Well...Ashlyn is grounded so she didn't have any plans. :P Aubry was hanging out with a friend of hers that lives near us. She stopped by for a little bit to hang out. Then that evening Johnny, Ashlyn and I met my mom over at my grandparents' house to play the Pegs and Jokers game that my grandpa made. I was dead last the first round but then I came in first during the second round and Johnny came in second! He has only played a couple of times so he's definitely getting the hang of it now! :) We had a lot of fun playing and joking around with everyone. My mom goes over there every Sunday for dinner and to play games. I think we'll have to start making it more of a regular thing for all of us to go over there. :) I think next time that there's an even number of us we're going to play in teams. Since Johnny is getting the hang of it now, we can add another level. ;) 

Tomorrow I plan to clean house and get some laundry done. You know...all the boring stuff. :P We have my grandparents' anniversary party to go to in the afternoon. They've been together for 40 years (it's the second marriage for both of them)! I was two weeks old when they were married. I hope Johnny and I will be able to celebrate 40 years of marriage! We'd have to make it to 2057...so Johnny better live past 89 years old and I'll have to make it to almost 76. Man...that seems so far away! But next year Johnny and I will celebrate 5 years of marriage (and 10 years back together). This is the longest relationship either one of us have had. Johnny was in a relationship with his first wife for 8.5 years, another relationship off and on for 9 years, and then he was with his second wife for about 3.5 years. My relationships before have lasted 3 years, 5 years, and 6 years...so this relationship is by far my longest. And it has definitely been the best relationship I've ever had. :) So...here's to working toward 40 years! :)

FORTY?!

Yep. I'm officially 40 years old now! Honestly I'm not that upset about it. I had kids relatively young. One has graduated high school already and the other will graduate in about a year and a half. I've also been a grandma basically since Johnny and I got back together. The first night we spent together was the night his daughter had her first child...and there have been seven more grandkids since then. And even though Johnny had already turned 40 before we even got back together...I'm the more mature and responsible one. ;) LOL. He's more the playful and spontaneous one and I'm the boring one who makes sure the bills get paid and things get done on time. ;) So we balance each other well. I've also had health issues for many, many years that always made me feel old anyway. :P 

But I had a really good birthday! We went miniature golfing and had dinner here at our house on October 10th. And then on my birthday, my mom and grandma took me shopping in town for the day. We walked around the mall for a little bit. I got four pairs of shoes: a really soft pair of BOBS slippers with adorable black cat faces on them, black Roxy slip-on sneakers, white Skechers slip-on sneakers that were on clearance, and a grey/blue pair of Asics running shoes that I definitely will not be using for running. ;) We also stopped by Michaels for some things I've been wanting...including some hanging vinyl storage so I can see all the colors that I have and a knife blade for my Cricut Maker with some chipboard to try my hand at making Christmas ornaments. :) 

And then my amazing husband made a strawberry chantilly cake from scratch! It tastes AMAZING. It's also the first time someone other than my grandma has baked me a cake so that makes it even more special. :) 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

I'm definitely a lucky girl who has some pretty awesome people in my life. <3 

RECIPE: Fajita Chicken Alfredo

I was looking for something to make the other day with the ingredients I had on hand. So...I came up with this recipe for Fajita Chicken Alfredo. It turned out pretty good! Aubry stopped by after work to grab some as well and she liked it. :) 

Fajita Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients:

4 chicken breast halves, cooked and shredded or cubed 
16 oz penne pasta, prepared according to package 
1 quart heavy cream
2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese 
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese 
1 pkg McCormick fajita seasoning mix 

Directions: 

1. Combine heavy cream, shredded cheese, parmesan, and fajita seasoning in a large saucepan. 
2. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring often for about 5 minutes. 
3. Turn heat to low until all the cheese is melted and the sauce has reached the desired thickness, stirring occasionally. 
4. Add the chicken to the sauce and stir well. Heat for another 5 minutes. 
5. Pour over pasta and enjoy!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

Work, Work, Work

I've been super busy the last week with transcription files. Most of my work is done in the evenings after Johnny gets off work, but I also get a lot of work done after everyone else goes to bed. There have been a few nights when I've stayed up almost all night to get more work done. 

I did take a couple breaks during the week. I made fajitas for dinner on Tuesday. Sunday Johnny and I had McAlister's for a late lunch and watched Going In Style on Netflix. It was such a good movie! It's been out since 2017 but we'd never watched it before. It has Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, and Michael Caine and they decide to rob a bank. It was SO funny. Oh and another good movie we watched a month or two ago on Netflix was Sweet Girl. It stars Jason Momoa and we enjoyed it too. 

I am so tired today...so I was relieved when Ashlyn made the spaghetti for dinner tonight. I love spaghetti...plus it's quick and easy. We have it at least twice a month or so...especially since it's one of the few things Ashlyn actually likes. :P Tomorrow I'm making a new recipe for Taco Tuesday...Fajita Chicken Alfredo. It was one of those recipes that came to me because I was looking at what ingredients I have on hand and thinking of what I could throw together for a meal. Hopefully it'll turn out well! We'll see if picky Ashlyn eats it...she wasn't impressed when I told her what I was making. :P Aubry was excited to try it when I mentioned it to her, though. So I'll save her a helping that she can pick up sometime after work. She likes most of the new recipes I try...especially the pasta ones. 

Usually after I have an extremely busy week with transcription work, I like to take the following week off. It definitely helps prevent burnout. This week I'm going to work on getting more designs finished to put in my shop. I'll be having a big sale for my Halloween/Fall designs and I want to have some more Christmas/winter files up by then. So...I better get back to work so I can get something done before bed. :)

Ugghhhhhh.

For the last two weeks my back has hurt horribly bad. I mean, I typically always have back pain. I have scoliosis which has caused me quite a bit of pain since I was about 11 years old. Scoliosis is a hereditary spinal deformity. I have an S-curve as well as twisting at the top and the bottom of the S-curve. It's actually severe enough that I'd shrunk an inch two separate times while in middle school (my arms also measure 5'5" from fingertip to fingertip but I'm only 5'3"). So I've always had a lot of back pain and muscle spasms...but this pain felt different. And then a few days ago, the pain started radiating down my leg and that's when I finally realized that it was sciatica. :( It does seem to finally be letting up a little bit. Friday night I was up all night long. I could not get comfortable because of the pain radiating down my leg and none of my meds were helping at all. The only thing that really helped me sleep after that was laying on an ice pack. I'm still having trouble sleeping, but it's better than it was. It has definitely been making it hard to concentrate on anything. 

Luckily I was feeling a little better today because we had plans to celebrate my (early) birthday with my family. :) My mom had purchased a Groupon for some discounted miniature golf here in town and thought it would be something fun to do for my big 40th birthday coming up. My parents stopped by about an hour before to get the food and everything set up at our house. My mom made meatballs and cheesy potatoes...my favorite! :) Then we all met over at mini golf. Since there was a 5-person limit per group, we broke up into 3 groups of 4. My dad played with my 2 nieces and Aubry. Then it was me, Johnny, Ashlyn, and my sister in another group. And then my brother-in-law, my mom, and my grandma and grandpa were in the last group. They didn't have any scorecards available but we didn't mind...we were just there to have fun. :) We picked a perfect day for it...the weather was mild and cloudy. There was quite a bit of wind that helped keep us cool as well. I went ahead and wore my mask so that the wind wouldn't trigger my trigeminal neuralgia pain though. Then after we were done, we headed back to our house. I opened my presents and then we ate dinner and chatted for awhile. My mom picked up individual ice cream cake cups from Dairy Queen...they're awesome! My grandma found them there last year. It's so convenient not to have to cut the ice cream cake. Just as we were finishing up getting mom's car loaded, it started pouring down rain. But at least it held off until then and it made for some really nice weather while we were miniature golfing. It was just a really lovely day and everyone had a good time. I took a few pictures while we were playing miniature golf. This is one of the pictures where I got *almost* everyone in it. My brother-in-law, Tyler, isn't in the photo and you can only see a little bit of my dad...but it's the best one that I got. My mom and sister took a lot of photos as well but I haven't seen those yet. :) 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

My birthday is actually in a couple weeks. That afternoon I'm going to go shopping with my mom and grandma and then we're gonna pick up McAlister's on the way back to my house. I really love their grilled chicken Caesar wraps. So I'm looking forward to that too. :)

Today was the first time we've had a group of people in the house and I was curious how Bozley and Nova would do...but they were great. They were excited at first, of course, but they calmed down pretty quickly after they said hi to everyone. 

Oh, and despite Nova and Bozley not wanting to adhere to the whole "Nova needs to rest after surgery" thing, she seems to be healing well. :) Her incision looks good. They shaved a really large area of her belly in a perfect rectangle, but her hair is starting to grow back and it's less prickly now. ;) Biggest puppy news is that Bozley is finally eating his food! We've had such a hard time finding a food that picky dog will eat. Nova is on the food Bozley was originally on...Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach. We've tried SO MANY different foods with Bozley. We found The Honest Kitchen dehydrated food that you mix with water to make a wet food...and he liked that for a little while. So then we tried The Honest Kitchen dehydrated kibble...and he liked that for about a week too. BUT...I figured out that it helps to feed Nova some food out of his bowl and then he'll eat it. LOL. He'll even eat the Purina food that he used to be on when I do that! So I've started switching up his food a little bit each week between the three types of food. I've been watching to make sure he doesn't get diarrhea or anything from the three different foods, but so far so good! Nova has never had a problem...she gets so excited when it's time to eat! She stands right next to me watching me scoop the food and then runs over to the kennel and jumps right in to wait for me to bring it to her. It's so cute. :) She has to eat in the kennel because Bozley eats super slow and she would eat all his food when she's done with hers if she wasn't in the kennel. :P We also stopped feeding them while we're eating. I started feeding them earlier so they're done eating before we get our food...since Bozley tends to be more interested in our food than his own. So I think that has helped a lot, too. 

Now if we could just get them to not be so rowdy around the cats. :P