Should have named him Sleepy

While we spent the weekend in Rhode Island, Hamilton spent the weekend with our friends, The Alexanders and their two huskies, Fiama and Fuego.

And he's been sleeping ever since we picked him up! We brought him home around 7:45pm on Sunday evening, he put himself to bed at 8pm. We tried to wake him up to play with him a few times, but he wanted none of it. He slept until we woke him up at 8am on Monday morning.

from 8am to 8:30 he went for a walk, took care of business, and ate breakfast. At 8:45am he went back to sleep and didn't wake up until 11am.

Awake long enough to go outside, then back to sleep until late in the afternoon. Again put himself to bed around 8:30pm and slept until 8:30am. He did wake up at 11pm, wanted to be taken outside, then put himself right back to bed.

This continued through today - the dog has done absolutely nothing for two full days!! it is like a preview of what is to come when he is a stinky old basset, but for now I am torn between deep gratitude to the Alexanders and missing my puppy!

I'm sure that over the next few days he'll come back to normal and I'll long for the days when he just slept

PW's Chicken Pot Pie

I made dinner last night (and cookies)! It was my first attempt at making something from the new Pioneer Woman Cookbook and it was a smashing success!

First I made the dough for the top crust, from scratch! It was easy and tasty in the end

Second, I chopped a lot of carrots and onions - Tina later pointed out that I could have used my food processor to do this, but these are the mistakes of those who don't spend much time in their own kitchens...

The recipe calls for carrots, onion, peas, and celery - we forgot the celery, but Frank was ok with that because he isn't a celery fan...next time I'll say I "left it out on purpose"

The chicken cooked alone as the veggies sauteed in a nice pan of butter. mmmmm

Having the pictures in PW's cookbook really helped; there were times when I thought "this can't be right" but the pictures in the cookbook were just like what I saw in front of me, so I kept going!

The above picture is of the thick inside goodness of the pie, and it is where I stopped and went to sewing. I just wrapped up the dough and the pie in plastic wrap and threw it in the fridge.

Frank says we needed proof that I really did make this dinner (from scratch), so here I am putting the pie in the oven!

This is the end product, and it is tasty, too! I had extra filling and extra pastry so I made mini-pot pies in a muffin tin.

A New England Wedding

We traveled to Rhode Island this weekend for the Crosby/Dziok wedding, and it was a blast! We landed in the early evening, got settled in the hotel and then headed out to meet Mom & Dad Webb for dinner at Smokey Bones.

I should have taken a picture of my dinner - pulled pork on top of a halved baked potato with all the fixin's! mmmmmmmm

Then we met up with the wedding crew at McFadden's in Providence

Saturday came around, starting with the hotel breakfast around 9:30am then there was time to hang out and get ready before our shuttle left for the ceremony. The shuttle to/from the ceremony was fun, it was great to be traveling with so many friends!

The wedding was in Dave's parents' church, and it was beautiful

as was Rachel's hair - so curly and sparkly!

The reception was in southern RI, in Quonset and it was a heck of a party!

The bride and groom were having so much fun that there were only about 12 of us around to bid them farewell with the wedding bubbles when they finally left! And that is what we love about Mr. and Mrs. Dziok, they know a good party when they seen one!

Congratulations to the newlyweds! We love you!

**sneak peek of professional pics can be found here: http://www.melissamanzione.net/ **

After

Sorry for the delay, I looked so cute that Frank insisted on taking me out for an impromptu date night!

Here it is 11 inches later......

From the side....

from the back...

It is pretty darn short, but I think I'll get used to it!

and I don't have a ruler, but you'll have to trust me that this thing is between 10 and 11 inches of hair - woo!

Before

Here are the before pictures...I took them last night before I went to bed. I'm so nervous about the big cut today, but I'm sure everything will turn out alright!

My appointment is at 1pm today, I'll post pictures of the cut tonight after class (class is over at 8pm, so I'm guessing I'll have pictures by 9:30)

oh, and Go Gamecocks!

It is almost time

A while ago I told you that my hair has gotten way long and that I had planned to cut off 8 inches to donate to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program.

My decision to do this is multi-layered:
-my hair is way way way too long
-my too long hair is driving my poor husband crazy because it is everywhere and sticks to everything
-I'm not willing to commit the time I would need to manage hair of this length on a daily basis
-I had a friend lose her hair in junior high school due to cancer and while she managed it like nothing ever happened, not everyone can make the 'full head of hair to bald' transition as well as she did
-I have pretty great hair, it is a nice color, it holds curl, and I haven't dyed it since that one time in college so it is pretty darn healthy, too!
-I promised Frank that I would get it cut before the Crosby/Dziok wedding (which is this weekend!!)
-Halloween is over and I no longer need to look like Dorothy

The appointment is set for Thursday at 1pm. I'm really nervous because I'm afraid they will cut it too short and I'll hate it - but a promise is a promise and I'm going for it!

I'll post before and after pictures after the big cut

Hamilton has chosen a side

It seems as though our dog has chosen a side in our on-going argument of Colts vs. Patriots. We tried to keep it civil and to keep Hamilton out of it, but I guess the tension was getting to him and he decided he'd just rather pick a side and be done with it.

I'm happy to report that he is wearing the #44 Dallas Clark jersey, of the Indianapolis Colts!

Though it does appear that he got into the spirit of Halloween a bit by tying his jersey to the side like we used to do to our shirts in the 80's.

Welcome to the team, Hamilton! We're happy to have you - and I'll be expecting your support when the Patriots play the Colts on Nov. 115th!

Now take off that jersey; dogs aren't supposed to wear clothes, silly