How can someone so small, be so intimidating?

Yes, I am currently hiding from a 1 year old.  Well, not hiding in the traditional sense.  But if you've even put a toddler down to nap, and they give you "the sign" that the nap just may not happen, you do everything in your power to Make. It. Happen.

Now I'll take most of the blame, the toddler in question is quite possible the easiest child I have ever taken care of.  So no, I'm not talking about Will, ha!!

We had to run an unexpected errand at 12:40....daaaangerously close to naptime.  So of course, he fell asleep in the car.  I knew that I was losing control of the day.

I got him home, got him and Will upstairs (still sleeping), got his paci and other naptime essentials out, (still sleeping), got his fan and white noise on (still sleeping) and laid him gently in bed (AWAKE!!!!).

I patted his tummy and told him night night and slipped out.

Got Will to bed, easy, he doesn't sleep in the car anymore.

After about 25 min, I decide it's safe to slip into my bedroom where P was sleeping to get my hairdryer and some other tools, I have a dr appt at 3:00.  

Nope.

Totally clued him in on the idea that I was indeed awake and probably playing with toys while he was a sucker in bed...sigh...

Now you get to the tricky part.  You tell them night night again, b/c you, being the rational adult know that they need a good nap to be a happy kid later on.  But now you are trapped by not peeking in the room anymore for fear they'll see you and you'll ruin nap for good!

It's quiet now.  But much too late to wash my hair.  So....here I am on the couch.  I just went outside and shook baby powder into my hair to de-grease it.  I smell like a Johnson & Johnson factory is all.

Oh the power they have over us.  Who knows, he's probably in there dreaming right now.  But I'm not checking!!!  All I know is that I hear...nothing!!

Four legged friends...

I have plugged adopting animals before, and I'm sure I'll do it again!  Our sweet hound dog mix is from the Pulaski County Humane Society and he has been the sweetest, most devoted, loyal pup I've even known.  He's so lovable, we tell him we love him ALL the time!  

He also loves hats ;)

But, our house has a pretty strict 1 pet limit. :(  

It's the hair.  And the vet bills.  And the poo.  And mostly the hair.

So since we can't adopt anymore animals, I try to do what I can for the places that help those little furr-balls trying to find their forever home!  

Last week we went up to the local animal control office to play with cats and dogs, oh man, can't believe we've never done this before!  It was a blast, Will loved it, he really liked the cats and ran around making sure every cat had a toy.  They were not in cages.  Anyways, the cats mostly just wandered off from their assigned toy so as soon as he got all the toys passed out he started over picking the toys up and bringing them to wherever the asssigned cat had wandered to!  He's such a hoot!  We went again today.

I tried to get him to name some of them, (even though I'm sure they have names, but we didn't know any of them...), and here are the names: Kitty Cat, Kitten, Black and Orange.  Pretty funny.

We also paint fire hydrants around town!  If you know where I live, and have driven around much, you've seen these adorable little fire dogs!!  All you have to do to get a hydrant named for your pooch is call the shelter, tell them where you saw a bland, plain ol' red hydrant, what name you would like on it and give them $25 and someone like me will slap a coat of paint on it and the shelter pockets the $$!!

Here's my little helper...

And here's a finished one, it was the first one I did and I was told that it did not have enough spots...

So once again, don't breed or buy!  Adopt a new friend if you're looking to grow your family!!

BIG Pizza Crust!!

The other day I was in the mood for a big. thick. pizza...John and I have a few places around town that we eat pizza at, but I knew this was going to be an "eating at home" night...So I went online and searched for "pizza hut crust recipe" and my afternoon began.

I have a good crust recipe, it's simple, it's healthy and it always turns out.  But I wanted a BIG one!  I remember my mom often made us pizza using a 9x13 cookie sheet.  And since our little family of 3 can pound a large pizza in one sitting, I thought this would be the way to go.  I found a website with a lot of variations and with a couple of tweaks, the following recipe has made it onto a permanent recipe card filed away in my recipe box!

I know it looks like a lot of steps, but once you've made it once you'll be super confident!  I start this at about 3ish to have a 5:30 dinner.  About 20 minutes of hands on time.

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

1 packet of yeast

2 Tbsp oil (I use evoo)

1 cup of milk (warm)

1/3 cup of water (warm)

4 cups of flour 

1. Mix salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl

2. Add water and milk, wait 2 minutes for yeast to dissolve

3. Stir in oil

4. Add flour 1 cup at a time and stir until dough forms

5. Knead dough on a floured surface for 10 minutes (this is where I throw some freshly chopped rosemary into the dough, you can add anything or nothing!)

6. Lightly coat ball of dough ball in oil and put in a bowl, covered with a towl, to rise in a warm spot for about an hour or until doubled in size.

7. Get your pan ready, pour in enough oil to coat the bottom.  I used 1 9"X13", but you can use 3 9" rounds.

8. When your dough is ready, work it into the pan, it won't quite reach the edges, so after you've done what you can, throw the towel back on and let it rise for another 5-10 min.

9. Spread it to the edges and top as desired!!
10. Cook on 450 for 10-15 minutes, keep an eye on it towards the end till you find out what works in your oven.  450 is h-o-t and it can burn in a flash!

This makes a giant pizza with nice thick crust.  It was deeee-lish!

 This is how big the dough gets after about an hour in the window of the hottest room of our house.

 This was after I spread it out, but then I set it in the garage (covered) for about 10 more minutes to let it get just a little fluffier.

And this was our dinner!!!  It was so yummy...and totally customizable!  Go nuts!