my favorite things: september edition

Maltese are prone to tear stains because of something the vet told me about their tear ducts. Scout was not lucky enough to avoid this pesky feature. 

May 2010

See?

Well, I researched a little and asked the vet and he recommended Angel Eyes. So that's what we tried.

I found some on Amazon and bought the beef flavor. The medicine itself is a powder, so I had to figure out a way to mix it so Scout would actually eat it. At first I poured it on his food and he didn't eat for three days. Really. He eventually figured out a way to eat around it somehow. Then I mixed it with water. It smelled nasty. And he still didn't eat it. THEN I finally figured out if I mixed a tiny bit of water and peanut butter it's the perfect consistency to mix and he ate every bit of it.

We started Angel Eyes  at the beginning of May 2011.

May 31, 2011

 August 2011 (after Angel Eyes!)

 

The tear stains are gone. I think we are supposed to still do the medicine every so often, but we haven't in about 2 and a half months and they haven't come back. I'm glad we found an easy-ish fix to his tear stains!

Chris and I gave each other Toms for Christmas last year. Mine were too big (or so I thought), so I tried to take them back to the local place here where Chris got them but they never had my size. I eventually just gave up. Well, fast forward to late July. Chris and I got $15 vouchers for Toms and we each got a pair. When we got home from buying them, I tried my "old" ones on and they FIT! Not really sure if they shrunk or my foot grew or I'm crazy, but now I have 2 pairs of Toms! (I must mention that Chris just couldn't understand how they suddenly fit 7 months later..it's a mystery!) :)

Here are our newest ones.

For my birthday, my parents got me this ice cream/yogurt maker. I remember our old ice cream maker that took 27.5 hours to make homemade ice cream, not to mention the pounds of rock salt you had to use. (maybe I'm being dramatic, when I was little it seemed like a looong time) Well, this little sucker only takes about 20 minutes to make!! You do have to then put it in the fridge for 2 hours, but it's so worth it! 

I made strawberry and vanilla so far, but it came with a recipe book with all sorts of DELICIOUS recipes!

Here is our nephew Kaden helping make the strawberry ice cream.

 

I didn't use to love OJ, until I found Simply Orange. It seriously tastes like a freshly squeezed orange, but with no pulp. I usually get the Calcium rich kind, mostly because I know it's 'better' for me and it doesn't change the taste at all.

And then...I found Simply Lemonade. 

and Simply Lemonade with Raspberry. 

AND Simply Apple. Geez.

So here's my 2 cents on each of them. (because you know I had to try them all!)

Lemonade....don't love it. 

Lemonade with Raspberry....it's grown on me. Chris LOVES it. I usually add water to it, about 1/3 water, 2/3 lemonade.

Apple....this one seriously tastes like you are sucking on an apple. I know that would be difficult to do, but just imagine with me! It probably tastes the most "fresh". Love it!

(They also have Lemonade with lime and Lemonade with grapefruit. We don't like either of those fruits, so I haven't tried them.)

That's my September edition of my favorite things! I'll be back next month with more!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm linking up with Jamie today for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm {loving} the new project my husband and his cousin launched this weekend, 10can. 

10dollars. 10days. 10causes. 10can.
Want to be a part of changing the world?
Buy a shirt...

For each shirt sold,10can will donate $10 to Mercy Project, who fights child slavery in Ghana.  
(check 10can out on facebook)
10can change the world!

I'm {loving} volunteering with the children's ministry at church!
I started in the toddler room this past week and am so glad to be back with children's ministry!

I'm {loving} this cute Target giftcard I got for someone this week! 
It's a water gun!

I'm {loving} that I get to see my sweet friend, Megan this weekend!

[at my Longview bridal shower, July 2009]

[we were in College Station at the same time! February 2009]

It's time for an updated picture of the two of us!

I'm {loving} pinterest!

I know I know, it's obvious. There's much to love about Pinterest. But since I haven't mentioned it on my blog yet, I'd thought I would today. 

I love it.

I've cooked a few new recipes, I've gotten tons (maybe too many) ideas for holiday decorations, gift ideas...agggh. It's an obsession! You can follow me if you need to feed your Pinterest habit.

I'm {loving} my man! 

This semester we are co-leading the college small group at church. Chris has been blessed with the gift of speaking. That's why he loves teaching, probably because he is good at it! He spoke at our first meeting last week and I was so proud! It had been a couple years since I had heard him speak/teach and I was impressed and reminded at how engaging he is when he is in front of a crowd. Just another reason I love him. :D

we remember.

Ten years. 
Ten years ago I was a freshman in high school. 
On September 11, 2001 I had band first period. We had to be there pretty early to practice our drill for the football game that friday night. From what I remember, our practice wasn't going very well. Our band director stopped us and let us know there had just been a terrorist attack on the world trade center. 
on the what? 
I didn't have a clue what the world trade center was. Some of us (including me) assumed that she was telling us this to motivate us to march better with more emotion and passion because our drill was patriotic. I remember my best friend crying. Her sister lived in NYC attending NYU. (she eventually got word the her sister was okay) We went on to english for second period and watched the news the entire time. It was unreal.

I remember in the days to come, so many local businesses changed their marquees to read "God Bless America" or "United We Stand" and other patriotic phrases.

here are scrapbook pages I made in the months after the attacks.

So many songs were remixed with all sorts of audio from that day. The one I remember the most is Enrique Iglesias' song Hero. You can watch the video here.

I found this commercial recently. Very respectful. I read that it only aired once because Budweiser only wanted to pay their respects, not make a bunch of money off of it.

I read these books a few years ago and they are so good.

On September 22, 2001, the game day after the attacks, three students had organized a "Red, White and Blue-out" at A&M. Students assigned each deck a different color to wear for the game. Despite the short notice, attendees followed the instructions. Over 80k shirts were sold, which raised more than $150k for FDNY charities.

After visiting NYC this summer and hearing stories first-hand from people whose lives were personally affected from that tragic day, we've watched several documentaries and Chris read this book. It's not a book you really enjoy, but it is well researched and gives you insight into those who survived. 

And this I came across on a friend's facebook. This guy was in the Pentagon when Flight 77 crashed into it. I know it's 15 minutes long, but this guy has such a testimony. (if you can't spare 15 minutes, at least watch for 2 minutes starting at 10:02. wow)

Where were you that Tuesday morning?

Labor Day weekend

Our weekend was pretty laid back. Thursday night we stayed in and watched TV and I whipped up a fancy schmancy dinner. That's right, chicken nuggets with chips and green sauce/hot sauce. I've been loving green sauce lately, so I went by Casa Ole and picked some up while Chris fired up the chicken nuggets. 

We are trying to be more disciplined with our budget starting this month because very soon we will have the monster student loan payments and we would LOVE to get those paid off (along with the rest of our debt), like yesterday.

Then Friday night I went with a friend and saw The Help. Absolutely one of the best movies I've seen. Would highly recommend it.

Saturday we pretty much laid in bed and cleaned up some around the house. I worked Saturday night. Came home, napped for about 3 and a half hours, then went to church. Chris helped lead worship on Sunday. Our church has 4 services, so when he sings or plays bass, he's there from 7am-2:15pm!

After church we came home and I made these!!

{pinned here}

Then is was time for some Fightin' Texas Aggie Football!!! These are our seats for the season! Thankfully it DID cool off a little this weekend, so we didn't diiie at the game. #sodramatic 

Soo excited football season is underway. The Ags have a bye week this week, so they'll play again next weekend!

Monday was a busy-ish day for Chris, as he was back to the Maroon Weekly office. I stayed home and cleaned the house. Like vacuumed and stuff. That doesn't happen often enough, so it's definitely blog-worthy when it does! And now I'm working the next 3 nights. Woo! 

How was your Labor Day weekend?