My Husband's Favorite Dinner

Before I get to my recipe, I have to freak out for a minute. Bryan informed me this evening that over the course of the past three-ish days, he has found a total of five-ish (I think he is underestimating a bit) ticks on HIM and a few on our dogs. No sooner did he say this, that I demanded that he check Josie where he found three just tonight! Then he found one crawling on my wall!

This is by far one of my worst nightmares. I feel the need to sanitize my entire house somehow.

The current view of half of our backyard and the wooded area beyond the yard. 

The ticks are totally coming from the wooded area that lies right behind our lot line. When we bought this lot, the wooded area behind our lot was a huge selling point. (Especially because the chances of it being developed while we are living in this house are slim to none.) Now, I am rethinking it's appeal.

Josie hanging out on top of the dirt pile while Bryan works outside.

I guess the sudden increase in temps (finally) combined with Bryan working outside as much as possible to get our deck built (so we can then level our yard and put our fence in!), has brought this tick epidemic to light. Josie, being a beagle, loves to be outside, so Bryan has been taking her outside with him as much as possible.

Bleh. Meh.

On a happier note, I am happy to share with you my husband's favorite recipe. Every time I ask him what should be on the menu for the week, he immediately says "Dorito Chicken". As the name suggests, it's not the healthiest of meals, but it's quick, easy, has protein in it and tastes great. Serve it with a couple sides of vegetables and you're good to go.

(I didn't take a picture of it, so you'll have to use your imagination on it's looks.)

• 4 boneless chicken breasts (I pound mine out with a meat tenderizer to get them to cook faster)
• 2c crushed Doritos
• 1 can Rotel
• 1 can Cream of Chicken soup
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
• 1 c. grated cheese(we use taco flavored cheese)

Line casserole dish with Doritos. Mix Rotel and soups. Layer chicken then mixture. Top with grated cheese and bake at 375 degrees until cheese is melted approximately 30 minutes. You can serve it on top of rice or by itself. I usually serve it with a huge side of broccoli and mix it in with the extra sauce. 

Weekend Rewind

One thing that I love about weekends now that I did not anticipate loving, is the inability to sleep late anymore. I think if I could stay up past 10:30, I might be able to sleep a little later than 6:45/7, but why bother? I have found that it has been helping Mondays as well as I am not as tired as I used to be sine my sleep schedule it not all thrown off.

That being said, I have found myself with some extra time on Saturdays and Sundays. This Saturday morning started off a little on the weird side. Bryan called me Friday night when I was on my way home to let me know that Josie (the beagle) was peeing blood. Let me clarify - there was not just a little blood in her pee, she was straight up peeing blood. Having already put one animal down this year, my mind immediately jumped to the worst. He had already called the vet's emergency line and they said it sounded like a urinary tract infection. Now, I have had a UTI or two in my life, and I have never peed blood,so I did not think this was a good diagnosis, but whatever. They told us to bring a urine sample in the next morning. After three potty trips, we managed to extract maybe 3/4 of a tablespoon of pee/blood from her and I dropped it off on my way to garage sales with my mom. The vet called Bryan back a couple of hours later to let him know that they think it's kidney stones. So we have to bring her in Monday and they'll sedate her and take some X-rays to determine the next course of action. On the bright side, I think she may have passed them because she is no longer peeing blood and she doesn't have to go outside every five minutes. Guess we'll find out tomorrow!

My sick puppy

On to brighter points of the weekend. As I mentioned above, my mom and I hit up garage sales this weekend. Oh lord - I am SO thankful our baby is being born at the end of garage sale season - we are scoring some awesome deals! No big purchases this week, but we did spend $140 between the two of us on clothes, toys and a Tigger Halloween costume. I am talking name-brand, BARELY worn clothes.  I sorted out all of his clothes when I got home and I am feeling pretty good about his newborn and three month stash - we might need a few more fall-ish outfits for three months, but other than that, I feel good about the amount of sleepers and summery outfits. We have a good jump on six months and a small start on nine months. I am going to focus on six to 12 months for the rest of this garage sale season.

Garage sale loot this week

Saturday afternoon I met up with a friend from my fertility support group. She and her husband and have been through far more than we have been through and I admire her strength. Following coffee with her, I met up with the girls from Iowa City Moms Blog - where I am a contributor. (I can't remember if I mentioned that before or not...)  Following THAT meeting, I made my first trip to Molly's Cupcakes. All I can say is AMAZING! (I should have taken pictures of them, but they got a little jostled on the trip back when I got caught in a downpour. They still tasted amazing!)

Remnants of Molly's Cupcakes...

By the time I got home, my back was KILLING me. I have had sciatica problems since I was 14 and man oh man, Baby Ripke is making them worse. I woke up Sunday and it wasn't much better, but it was a beautiful day and I didn't want to spend it inside. I put some ice on it, popped some Tylenol (what I would give for some Advil right now) and made my way into Cedar Rapids. I added a few things to my registries, got a pedicure, picked up a paint sample for Little Man's room, picked up some sewing supplies for a project I am working on and made my way home. And then I put a lot of ice on my back. I am probably going to pay for this tomorrow, I am still in A LOT of pain. I'm not complaining, just stating a painful fact.

Sewing supplies!

Pink tooties - hello spring!

It's been a great weekend - I think the cold weather is finally behind us, Bryan is making progress on our house projects and I am in the double digits (out of the triples!) for days till due date. :) I am going to try to post more often on here, so look for a BumpDate tomorrow or Tuesday and maybe a sewing tutorial.