Been busy busy busy as usual.

Pups.

Work.

Pups.

Work.

MIL.

Pups.

Work.

The usual.

It's getting closer to the time where my coworker can retire which is great news for me!

She always told me I can't leave work until she does.  Her last day is at the end of July!

Time for me do possibly do something else with my life.  Orrrrr.

Just go back to Customer Service again.

Hopefully I can find someplace quiet to work this time.

I know that sometimes we can ask for certain things to help us do the job we are supposed to do,

I can ask them for a quiet noise proof clear box to work in.  Lol.

Been working on some other craft items too.  Kept doing my research after seeing

someone sublimating a tumbler on TikTok.  I loved the idea and it looked so easy!!

I gathered all of the necessary supplies, a new printer, ink, paper, tumblers of all kinds

and then I was finally ready to give it a shot.  I just started yesterday and so far, it's been 

mixed results!  The Chiefs cooler cups are great - except that the print is upside down!  Lol.

Tried it twice, thinking that I had the paper right side up last time only to have another

upside down print.  However!  I did a Hello Kitty cup for myself with a Fruit Infusion

cup and it turned out fantastic!  Most people cover the entire cup with the picture, but they

also fight "ghosting" and usually have a well defined line on the back where the ends of the

paper meet.  I chose to leave space at the bottom, top and the side of the cup instead.

I bought a Cricut Air Explorer 2 and some vinyl and added my initials in my

niece in law's font that she calls, "HeartFreakinTastic!"  I love it because it looks

great and has hearts on the letters.  It looks great on the cup as well.

I have a used convection oven that worked yesterday but with some issues!

It doesn't have a setting for 400 degrees, and stalled at warming up at 350 until

I turned the dial past 400.  Then it got TOO hot, and then too COLD while trying to do the 

cups.  One cup had a silver metal tab at the bottom that not only made the cup and oven

smoke, but also burned the tab off.  That can't be good!  I'm replacing the oven after

finding a great replacement on Ebay.  All in all, I did pretty well on my 1st day, even

with my boo boo/s!!  Here are the pictures!

Our dog Milo helped with my cup making yesterday, running in and out constantly

as well as bringing part of the outdoors inside, not only grass, but mud too!  What Fun!!

Here's the picture of my upside down Chiefs cup..

I will get it figured out though!

Wish me luck!

: )..

Luna Sea Designs.. 💙💚🤍💚💙

Found some new things to do to occupy any time outside of work, home, the pups, my MIL who moved back to KC in April.  I need to set up our spare bedroom as a partial craft room for now.  Dang Tik Tok drew me in and taught me all kinds of fun things to make.  I’ve finally gotten all my supplies, just need to set it up and let ‘er rip!  Got some of these cuties done today.  😁😁.

Blingy Thingy #1!

Blingy Thingy #2!

My favorite Hello Kitty Kat Thingy!

Reowr Thingy #1!

A more sedate, "manly" choice and one that was 

popular with the guys at my group home. 

Macho Thingy #1!

 

Celebrating the unconditional love

from the doggos..

Doggo Thingy #1!

They are my minifobs that are $3 for 2”, $5 for 3” or $7 for 5”, or might be tossed in for a freebie prize with the purchase of upcoming items.  I will be glad to finally get set up and going!  Been planning this for months.  It’s go time! 

💙💚🤍💚💙  Introducing Luna Sea Designs  💙💚🤍💚💙 

Hot Dog Bar..

 Doesn’t seem like I make it over here much these past few years. Things get busy and the weeks fly by.  Tried something different with our guys today and made a hot dog bar.

We had regular chili dogs because some aren’t very keen on experimenting with their palettes. 😁..  For those who gave it a shot, we had three choices.

#1 A"Seattle Cream Cheese Hot Dog" from an idea found on Vixen's Kitchen on Pinterest.

Here's the link!

It was scrumptious!!

#2 A Kraft Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce and Crushed Pineapple Hot Dog from an idea found on the Strawberry Blondie Kitchen website on Pinterest too but I left off the Grilled Pineapple Cucumber Salsa because I was footing part of the lunch bill and I'm just not that great at cooking / making things!  Lol.  This was probably my favorite hot dog out of all three choices, although it was awfully close!!

It was absolutely amazing!!

The Brown Sugar really sets it off!!

Here's the link!!

And finally #3 A Walmart / Great Value Mild Wing Sauce (because I'm a wuss with hot stuff!) and Ranch hot dog inspired by this offering from Lemon Tree Dwelling, also found on Pinterest.

It was fantastic!!

Definitely a winner, winner, hot dogs for dinner winner.

Here's the link!!

Here's a pic of most of my ingredients..

Some of the onions are raw and some were sauteed..

I used Bar S Jumbo Dogs and Air Fried them to a lovely brown char in spots..

Our guys really liked the different options, so we might have to do this again 
and possibly try some other hot dog ingredients!

I really wanted to make a Reuben Hot Dog too!  I love me some Reubens!

Alrighty!  Hang in until the next time I drop by!

7 months away and things have changed a lot!

It's been crazy busy the last 7 months.

Christmas.

New Years.

FebruaryCovid.

CovidMarch.

CovidApril.

CovidMay.

CovidJune.
CovidJuly.

Shutdowns.

A few re-openings.

I'm an "essential (peon) employee"

but it's funny how low the totem pole

people are the actual ones who keep the

business running.

Those above?

They couldn't have done the work us

lowly peons have done at all!

Then there were Murder Hornets.

Talk of the 17 year Locusts this year.

Masks.

A horrid death in Minneapolis that we ALL

agree was unjustified and unacceptable.

Don't get me started on all the political stuff.

Work.  Work.  Work.

Milo and Fergus.

Milo and Fergus.

Milo and Fergus.

Fergus with a double ear infection who had to go

to the vet several times for treatments

that finally have worked and he's

all better now.

Milo and Fergus versus several Paper Mulberry

trees and now "bushes" after the trees

were cut down.  If anyone has ever encountered these

Paper Mulberry trees!!  Ohhhh!  They are just as bad or worse

as any Poison Oak or Poison Ivy and it makes them

itch just as bad!  They are miserable even if I spray them with an

anti-itch spray, or give them part of a Benadryl at night.

Those trees aren't a joke at all!  I was itching just trying to rake the

leaves up and dispose of them last fall.  They alllll fell off at

the same exact time and fanned out all around our little clump of

trees that grew up in the backyard.

Coin Shortages.

Politicians.

Don't get me started on the whole Wayfair and

Chrissy Teigen deal either.

I will say - deleting thousands of tweets made over

several years does NOT make one look guilty..  Does it?

#SheWasOnlyJOKINGFolks

#SheSurePickedUpThatPedophileLingoPrettyDarnFastAMIRIGHT?

Don't Google "Pizza" OR "Ranch Dressing" if you

don't want to know.

TRIGGER WARNING!!!

But don't worry folks.

She was just joking.

Or was hacked for 11 years.

Right.

Her kids need to be removed IMMEDIATELY

and she needs to be investigated thoroughly!!

Nothing to see here folks.

Just move along.

It's just a revenge / conspiracy theory.

And finally - changes to Blogger.

It took a LONG time to figure out how to created a

new post.  They changed the format and layout.

But I am back.

For a bit.

Until next time.

Keep your eyes and ears and mouths open!

Children need you and me to be their voices!!

Spaghetti Sauce... Alrighty! With Raisins.. Wait! Whut? Yup!! Raisins!

Growing up, one of my favorite dinners was spaghetti.

My mom used to make the best spaghetti sauce ever.

I found the recipe in her book and have made

it from time to time, but it's been so long

since I made it.

I told the guys I work with that I would make it for

them and so I finally got around to starting it today.

I made some with raisins and some without.

The key is to let it simmer and plump

up the raisins, because the sauce

soaks in and gives the raisins a great saucy taste

and the sauce a great, sweet taste.

I can't wait until lunch.

This house is smelling great.

Add all ingredients and let them simmer for 4-6 hours.

Add some extra water to thin it out if needed.

Enjoy!



My Favorite Part of the Zoo... : )..

Survived the zoo on Monday..

Made it even though we

walked around almost the entire

park.  Missed seeing the Tigers and the

Tree Kangaroo areas, but

we ended up getting to see a lot of other

great exhibits instead.

A lot of the animals were taking a breather

and just laying around not doing much..

But then!  There was this great treat!

Stingray Bay!

We got to pet the Stingrays..

I know that a lot of the zoos and

aquariums have this activity now and I'm glad

that the KC Zoo does too.

I realized after petting a few of them,

the longer you leave your hand in the water,

the more stingrays come to greet you.

I think I had about 5-7 lined up in a row just waiting

to cruise by and be pet.

They feel a lot different than what I expected.

Some had hard bodies and some were

super soft and squishy towards their little wings.

 : )..  Lol.

 I absolutely loved it!

And I highly recommend it if y'all ever get the

chance - don't pass it up!!

These little creatures are super duper friendly and sweet!

Check out this great video!



Back.. Again..

Never seem to make it back here very often these days.

Getting ready to enjoy a trip to the Kansas City Zoo tomorrow.

Started looking at some of the animals there

and found some curious ones..

Of course, our favorite is Nakita the Polar Bear..

But there are some cute animals that I

don't remember seeing before..

This one is a Tree Kangaroo..

And this is a "Black-Foot Cat"...

Kinda looks like...

A normal cat?

Definitely not something you

would expect to see at the Zoo..

Right?

This should be fun minus all of the walking..

Our zoo is spread out over a large area

and although I've walked the entire zoo before,

I'm not as excited as I once was.  Lol.

There are some animals that I'm like..

Yup.  Seen 'em!

Don't reallllly need to see them again.

I'll hang back with the slower people and take our

time moseying around the front to middle

zoo area..   : )..

Besides!  Most of my favorites are closer

to the front!  Toss in my penguins

that are right next to the Polar Bears and

I'm good!

Spread out for sure!!

And that little spot in between the two big pictures?

It's got a good sized concrete bridge that is over what has

to be about a 50' gulley.  It freaks me out to walk across it..

I am NOT a fan of heights!  ACK!!!

And that swinging bridge? 

I'm ok if I'm on it by myself.

Which is hardly ever..

Yikes!!!

I think I will skip that area.

Been there and done that several times!

I'm good skipping the Gorillas!

: )..

Alrighty..

Catch ya later..

Gotta make some Rotel,

Taquitos and Pizza Rolls for our

Kansas City Chiefs party at work today!

Go Chiefs!!



Another long break from my blog..

Been crazy busy around here lately..

My mother in law moved to Fort Meyers, Florida

at the end of April and we ended up

inheriting several bits of furniture before she left,

which I truly appreciate!  : )..

I don't blame her for moving down there,

you sure wouldn't have to twist my arm!!

Sun?  Sand?  The Gulf of Mexico?

She's living with my brother in law and his wife

in a senior gated community close to the beach..

I've always said I wanted to end up somewhere

coastal and this looks like a great place!

Humidity?  We have it too.

Big bugs?  Yikes!  Sprays!  Electric flyswatters?

Bug zappers?  : )..  I could still make it work!

Started a new healthy lifestyle program at

work and did really well at first.

I was on a roll eating the Fold It Flatout wraps

with turkey bacon (nuke it in the microwave for two minutes!)

for breakfast and making some deeeelicious

and healthy lunch pizzas with the same wraps in the

air fryer.  I would add a little pizza sauce, a couple

pieces of turkey bacon, veggies and a little cheese and cook

them for about 5 minutes in our Power Fryer XL

where they came out nice and crispy and

amazing.  I dropped 8 pounds in three weeks.

Until I started stress eating...

I have always said that I have a split personality and

her name is Aunt Dorine.  However, there have been times here

lately where I've been SOOOOO irritated that I found out

SHE has a split personality named, "Aunt Dayum!!!"

She needs chocolate to soothe her irritability.  : )..

Whodathunkit?  "Aunt Dayum!!!" has a split personality

named, "Aunt Dammit!"

She requires shrimp or pizza.

If you could make a shrimp pizza?

That would be great!

Just put it on the table quietly and slide it over!

So now you might understand why I started

stress eating.  Lol.  Whew.

Good news though!!

Lives have been saved with chocolate, shrimp and pizza.

On another note..  We have battled house mice for about

five years.  Battled being a subjective term.

More like lost the battle.

Someone warned us - Don't put brush up against your

house because you will end up with mice.

Pfffft.  Whatever.

Yeah.

Be warned.

DON'T put brush up against your house.

Mice will get in.

And never get out.

Ever.

Never ever.

If you see one?  It's too late.  You have more.

Trust us.

Hubs finally decided to put out a gob of mouse poison

and put one little chunk under one of our appliances.

We think a mouse must have pushed it back out

and our youngest dog was playing with it until my hubs

tried to get it from him - and the dog ate it.

I got Fergus to the emergency vet's office within the hour

and they made him toss his cookies and a fairly good sized chunk

of the poison tablet.  They gave him charcoal and some Vitamin K1 and

sent us on our way in exchange for a huge vet bill.

Fergus is still doing alright but is still taking Vitamin K1 just in case.

After that, I decided to try some of the little

Victor Pest Chaser Plug Ins.  They are expensive,

it's $18 for a set of three plug ins at Walmart.

However?

I bought four packs.

I put one plug in in every room of our house.

I have not seen one mouse since then!

Seriously?

Hubs says it's because of the poison.

Right.

Not one mouse since April 2nd.

We used to have four or five of them running around upstairs

and in the basement at any given time.

They were starting to become used to us as well,

and almost friendly.  One was hanging out

on the couch with my hubs one day like,
"Hey.  'Sup?"

I plugged these in and all of a sudden!!

The mice were gone!

GONE.

They packed their ditty bags and left the building.

I've had better luck finding Elvis!

These little doo dads?

They are AMAZING!!!!!

If you have mice and you don't want them???

I HIGHLY recommend these!!

No poison! No poisoned pets!

No muss!  No fuss!

No dead, smelly mice!

Gone.

Zero mice.

Five years.

Five whole years.

Gone after plugging these in.

I cannot say enough about these plug ins.

Trick is to get enough to cover every area in your house.

They work.  And they work very well!

No mice.

Well - lemme digress for a moment.

I didn't plug any in the garage.

I tried selling some Hempworx CBD Oil products a while ago.

I had six packages of dog cookies.

I didn't want the house mice to get them so.....

I put them in the garage.

Where I didn't plug any of these doo dads in.

Guess what happened?

Yup.

Our garage mice ate every single cookie.

Every.  Single.  Cookie.

SMH.

I'm guessing the garage mice are feeling pretty good

right about now.  Talk about Mighty Mouse!

Thankfully - I haven't seen any out there.

Guess where I'm going to plug these boogers next?

And finally - over the lull in posting..

I have de-cluttered every room in our house

in the attempt to combat the mouse issue along the way.

We got rid of all kinds of things that have accumulated

since we moved into our house over ten years ago.

You never know how much stuff you have

until you have to do something with it.  Yikes! 

It wore me out!!

I'm trying to accomplish this..

And feel like I'm doing this.

* My hubs thinks so too *

* He swears I could be on the Hoarders show - but I'm not that bad

and in the meantime?  He has a garage full of car parts, tools, automotive

accessories and should we mention?  We have seven vehicles?

Literally - A Blazer, a Saab 9-3, a Dodge Ram, a TBucket Hot Rod that

somehow drove itself to St. Louis and got a parking ticket while we

thought it was in our garage for the past 2 years (lol), two Subaru Outbacks

and one Subaru Forrester.  And I'M the "hoarder"?  ; )..*

But honestly I'm like this..

Just kidding.  I have eaten a lot of the veggies.

: )..  Yummy!

And finally.

Somewhere in all this time.

I turned 600 months old.

2609 weeks.

18,262 days old.

438,291 hours.

26,297,460 minutes and

1,577,847,600 seconds old.

I hit my 5th decade.

smh

I fought 40 with a vengeance.

50?

Meh.

Shrug.

Sigh.

Lol.

I figure if Jennifer Anniston, JLo, Eva LaRue and a whole

host of others have made it past 50, so can I.

shrug

sigh

Oh AND the Blues won the Stanley Cup!!!

Way to go St Louis!!!!

Woot!!

Until next time..

: )..



Five Month Absence? Wow..

It's been quite a while since I've blogged on here.

I did start a small Facebook version of

My Suburban Life though 

in the meantime.  It's been a while since I posted there too.  Lol.

Lots of things happened in the interim.

Work.

Work.

Work.

More work.

A craft fair with bath bombs this time.

More work.

Work.

Work.

Work.

Auntie Em got sick with Pancreatitis and we lost

her shortly after she came home from the

vets office.  She passed away one day

after her 9th birthday.

Work - missing Emmy.

Work - missing Emmy.

Work - missing Emmy.

The boys know it's quiet in the house but seem

to be doing ok otherwise.  They miss Em too.

And finally - we've come full circle to the time

where I started my blogs.

Here is the post that started it all on Milo's blog

E'UnaVitaBella.

Just another crazy day.

It all started at 7am yesterday morning. My momma was blissfully sleeping with me at the foot of the bed, keeping watch over her.  She was totally unaware of the chaos that was about to ensue.

Chirp!  Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! My sister, Auntie Em, or Emmy as we fondly call her, and I immediately sprung into action!  My momma's in danger!  Stop!  Who goes there?!  Halt!  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!  Emmy waivered and decided to hide under the bed.  I, however, am on the job!  I jumped off the bed and raced to the front door.  No one gets past me!  You should see vat I do to bears and beavers!  Grrr.

No one was there.  I patrolled the hall.  Nothing there either.  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! "Calm down, Milo, it's just the battery in the smoke detector downstairs."  Oh.  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!  I'm not so sure. 

She went to get a new battery and returned.  She put it in.  Silence.  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! "What the..." she asked.  Don't worry, momma, I've got it covered!  She called the people at her work.  After looking for a hush button and not finding one, she took the smoke detector down.  I watched, fascinated, barking occasionally at each chirp.  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! She unhooked the alarm system.  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!  She started upstairs and I followed, bound and determined to save her from impending doom.

She tried pulling the attic door, screamed (I was there!  in a flash!) and let it slam shut.  A huge spider fell out and ran across the floor.  I like spiders, but that one was HUGE!  I don't know how he fit through that door!  Well, alright, it wasn't THAT big, but he was huge!  She killed him with a shoe, saying, "ughhgh" all the time.  He's not dead yet!!  His leg is detached and twitching!  Ack!  Kill it!  Kill it!  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!

By this time, we know there has to be another smoke detector somewhere, but daddy's still sleeping.  How can he sleep through all of this?  There is something dangerous in the house!  Is it a bear?  I can handle bears.  Is it a beaver?  I've got them covered too.  Squirrel?  I'm on it!  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!

Daddy finally gets up and comes upstairs.  After a few minutes, momma has a flashlight in hand, and finally discovers that it is only an old, dying carbon monoxide detector that keeps chirping.  Chirp! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!  Wheee!  e  e  e  e....  It squealed when she took it out of the wall and then finally.  Silence.  Chirp?  Nope.  Silence.  Blissful, beautiful silence.  Ahh..  Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!  Squirrel!

Our Carbon Monoxide detector has been chirping non-stop at us 

for the last few days.  It's been seven whole years since we

bought one.  And it's been seven whole years since I started my poor, 

neglected, sparse blog.  Lol.  I promise to get back to it soon.

But!  That's what I keep saying about swimming too!

Speaking of swimming!  I think I'm about to go.

Thankfully even though there is snow

on the ground outside (ick! I hate snow)

I still have 24/7 access to an indoor pool at one of

our local hospitals.  It's been a couple months

since I went the last time soooo,

I would say it's about time that I get back in there.

: )..

Ciao!

4 month absence? Wow! That time flew by!!

It's been a crazy, hectic four months.

We are losing two more of our group homes at work

and I've been temporarily reassigned to one of them because

all of their day shift staff quit.  It's coming to a close

on July 1st though so I will finally be back at my

old group home and closer to where I live.

Can't wait, although it's only 7 miles right now to work,

it will be 2.5 miles soon.  It's also in a better area

so that will be nice.

I also got back to swimming again.

Dropped out of the North Kansas City Hospital's

Health and Fitness Center / Pool program from November

last year until this month.  I love swimming but with

everything going on, it's been too hectic to even

try to get back over there.  That's an additional

10 miles one way to the pool.

It's definitely worth it though!

$24 a month, we get 24/7 access to the

fitness center and the pool.

Can't beat that!!

I can't even begin to describe how much I love

getting to swim again.  I swear that I am

definitely a mermaid at heart.

Not only do I love them,

I drink like a fish at times.  Mostly water.

Sometimes wine.  Lol.

What mermaid / swimmer wouldn't love to be

able to listen to their music while floating

peacefully in the pool?

I sure love it.

I get people asking me about my little

MP3 player allllll the time.

It's truly a God Send!

I looked around on Amazon and finally found

one that had better reviews than most of the

other waterproof items.

It's from Underwater Audio and let me tell you!

Not only is their product fantastic and super easy to use,

but their customer service is phenomenal.

I had dropped my player a couple times,

which I'm sure isn't very good for them,

and I had left it on a charger too long a couple times too.

My first shuffle stopped charging and went to a permanent

red light, which the customer service rep verified was the light of death on them.

They sent me all of the instructions to return my defective

player and once I had a tracking number, they immediately sent

out my replacement shuffle.  How great is that?

It comes in some super great colors and it's super duper

cute!  It comes with a sticky goo to help the earbuds that

come with it stay in your ears, but I ended up buying

another set of waterproof headphones that not only stick up into

the ear canal, but they have a wire that flips over and then

behind your ear.  They come in several different colors too!

The IPod Shuffle is easy to charge, usually takes less than an hour,

depending on how low you let it run.  It's also super, duper easy

to load with music.  Just open ITunes and click on the IPod Shuffle

on the screen and then click Music, Sync and voila!  It loads it

quickly and away you can go.  You can use it in or out of the

water.  I do both at times.  It has a great clip on the back

that really holds onto whatever clothes you clip it to.

It's small and sometimes I tend to drop things (I've never had

much strength / grip with my hands), but if it's got the headphones

plugged in, I can catch it before it falls.

It's got a shuffle or non shuffle feature so you can choose

how to listen to your playlist.  It also stores quite a bit

of music and although I have gotten the "Low Battery"

voice warning a couple times (mostly because I didn't let it charge

all the way), I haven't ever had either shuffle run out of

power and shut off.  I usually swim for an hour and usually

charge it each time before I go.  I don't always go every single

day, sometimes there are a day or two in between trips to

the pool.

If you love swimming, especially if you love doing laps,

let me tell you!  This is the waterproof MP3 player

that you need. You will be the

envy of the other swimmers as you glide by, drowning out any and all

noise and jamming on your own great music choices!

It's well worth the money!  Best money I've spent in a long time!

I love it, love it, love it!

Click Here for the IPod Link..