Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 59

I'm definitely feeling better today after being so frustrated yesterday. Jerry and I went to our friends' house last night and it definitely turned my mood around. Renee and I talked about cross country, and we are going to coach together again! My last year coaching was 2019, when I did it myself, and then she took over for two years. So, the last time we coached together was 2018.

I'm excited about coaching again. I'm also really nervous because I don't know a single kid who will be on the team (the ones I coached before are in middle school now, so they are too old for our team (3rd-5th grades). New kids means new parents, and I get really nervous when meeting new people. Thankfully, Renee is a pro at it (she's a teacher).

We work well together; she is great with communication with the parents and my strength is putting together a coaching plan. We start practices at the end of August, so I'm going to try to come up with some new fun games to play.

Anyway, moving on to today's weigh-in...

I had a really great week. I stopped snacking at night, which was really difficult for the first few days, but I feel much better when I go to bed. I also drank more water--not as much as I would like, but I really did make a strong effort. I was excited, then, when I got on the scale this morning:

I was at 144.4, down from 148 last week. (I was probably more like 146 last week, but I'd had a lot of sodium before my weigh-in.) 

Being at 144.4 means I am finally back in the "normal" category on the BMI chart!

From the BMI calculator found here

I know how flawed the BMI assessment is, but it was still a big milestone I wanted to reach. Although, I cannot FATHOM what I would look like at 108 pounds--that's crazy. When I was 121 pounds I wore a size 2. So at 108 pounds, I think I would look sickly. I'd love to lose about 10 more pounds, but even if I can just maintain this weight, I'll be thrilled.

The jeans in my mirror photo are my old skinny jeans--the ones I wore in my goal weight photo from, well, I can't even remember. I loved those jeans so much! They are super comfy. I haven't been able to wear them for four years. I know skinny jeans are out of style now, and jeans are going in the opposite direction (very baggy); I've never cared about what's in style or not, but unless I find a top that really works well with these jeans, I will probably retire them. I think I may buy some new jeans to celebrate my new milestone :)

Well, I'm going to cut this off here because we are going to take Noah out for his birthday. He wants to go to La Pita for dinner and--I was very surprised by this--to go to the Henry Ford Museum. We've been there a million times for field trips, but Noah really loves it and that's what he chose to do. Can you believe I'm the mom of an ADULT now? He was only six when I started this blog!

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Burn-the-World Frustration

Gah! I could not be more frustrated right now. When Jerry or I get this frustrated, we always say "I want to burn the world!" to express that it is our maximum tolerance level of frustration.

I was already in a terrible mood because I've been trying to work on a woodworking project but I cannot, for the life of me, align the blades in my jointer. I've spent umpteen hours working on it--I even wrote about it a couple of weeks ago when I cut my fingers--and I have a jig specifically designed to align blades.

However, every time I think I have it, I test a piece of wood and it's still not right. And now, because I've been messing with it so much, the new blades look even worse than the old ones with little nicks here and there. I've watched so many YouTube videos about it and they make it look so fast and easy!

I came back into the house in a terrible mood, but started to work on Transformation Tuesday. I was almost done and when I tried to upload a photo, Blogger is just not having it for some reason. I've tried everything I can think of but I just can't get my photos uploaded.

So, if there is a level of frustration beyond "burn the world!" frustration, that's the level that I'm at right now. Jerry and I are going to Dave and Renee's tonight (I can't even remember the last time I saw them) so I need to chill out before we leave.

Anyway, I hope everything with my blog is back to normal tomorrow. Sorry that I don't have a Transformation Tuesday to post--I only have one submission, so please send me some more for next week! Just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com and include your name and description of your transformation. Thanks!

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Choose Your Battles: Round 1

This is kind of an odd post and I certainly didn't plan to do it, but after the day I had today, it seemed like it would be fun. It all started with my frustration while cleaning my oven. I despise cleaning the oven/stove and anything around it because the grease gets baked onto the glass (and other surfaces) and despite multiple cleaning attempts, I just assumed it was stained there permanently.

You know those dark brown grease spatters that I'm talking about? They somehow get on the oven door, even though your food isn't anywhere near it? It gets baked on so that it's nearly impossible to remove. No matter how much I scrubbed, I couldn't get it off. I probably tried every commercial cleaner on the market, and nothing loosened it up enough to scrub it away.

So, I made do with the oven's steam cleaning cycle--I would put on some degreaser, hope it worked, steam clean, scrub until my arm felt like Jello--only to see that the oven was clean, but those stubborn grease spots seemed to be a permanent stain. Today, I was ready to tackle it--I just couldn't stand looking at it anymore.

Battle #1: Oven Grease vs. Elbow Grease (and baking soda)

After Googling how to remove the grease from the oven door, all the sites were saying the same thing: a paste made of baking soda and water. You just mix water into the baking soda until it's the texture of shaving cream. Then you spread it all over the oven door, let it sit for 30 minutes or so, and wipe it off.

HAHAHA. I used every cleaner imaginable, so I thought there was no way that baking soda would work on something like that. I decided to give it a try and see what happened. This turned into a bit of an experiment with not only the oven, but a couple of other "battles" as well.

I spread the paste all over the oven door (and the countertop oven door as well). I let it sit for 30 minutes, then tried wiping it off. I could see that it was actually working! However, I thought it needed more time, so I waited another 20 minutes or so. Then I grabbed a scour pad and microfiber washcloth began to wipe off the baking soda, using a little elbow grease as well.

Well, the joke was on me! IT WORKED. I couldn't believe my eyes. All of this time... BAKING SODA?! 

It worked really well for the countertop oven, too. I totally forgot to take a before picture, but you can still see it through the baking soda:

And then afterward:

I am still shocked. I told Noah to go look in the oven, and (typical teen boy) he opened the oven door and asked, "What about it?"

I just blinked at him. Seriously? But I pulled up the before picture to show him, and his jaw dropped. He couldn't believe it, either. I'm so excited that it worked and that my oven "stains" are gone!

Battle #2: Vacuum Cleaners (Black & Decker vs. Shark)

Remember the vacuum that I said was the best $50 I ever spent? Well, I still love it! But one of the pieces of plastic recently broke off (I may have dropped it...) and sometimes it's hard to get it to work well without holding the plastic piece tight against the vacuum--it's difficult to describe. I still use it because I love how powerful it is, but Jerry wanted to get a cordless stick vacuum to use for quick clean-ups. After looking at some on Amazon, I agreed that it would be super convenient--I loved that you can detach the top and use it as a hand vacuum so easily.

The one we picked specified that it was great for picking up pet hair, which is exactly what we wanted it for. It was a mid-priced one, but it was still over $200--hard to bite the bullet when the last vacuum I bought was only $50 and it could suck your basement right through the living room floor. Unfortunately, it's discontinued and to order the part for it would cost about as much as the vacuum did. I hoped that the stick vacuum would work just as well.

It arrived a few days ago and I actually had fun vacuuming to try it out. The detachable parts are awesome and not having a cord is a luxury I didn't know I was missing. However, I wasn't sure what to think about it--it's super quiet but the suction didn't feel very powerful. Still, it managed to pick up quite a bit of pet hair, even though I'd just vacuumed the day before. I figured I'd give it some more time before deciding whether we should even keep it.

I was about to clean the cat beds with it when I had the idea to battle it out--the new vacuum versus the old one--by using the hose attachments to clean two cat beds that were loaded with cat hair. I actually let them accumulate quite a bit of hair on purpose so that I could see which one did a better job cleaning it off.

Here they are with their attachments:

Today, I set them side by side and to be fair, I decided to give each bed three minutes with the brush attachment and one minute with the crevice attachment. Then I'd compare them again to see which did the better job. First, the "before" photo--SO much hair! (Canvas like this is the WORST for accumulating pet hair. I didn't realize it when I made these beds.)

I started with the new Shark vacuum, using it as a handheld vacuum with the brush attachment. I set my timer for three minutes and got to work. After that, I set the timer for one minute and used the crevice tool to get in the--well, crevices.

Not too bad! But I wasn't super impressed. There was still quite a bit of hair stuck to it. I did the routine again with the Black & Decker vacuum (that's the $50 one): three minutes with the brush, one minute with the crevice tool.

I immediately knew it was going to be the winner. It took all of 45 seconds to look as clean as the other bed. Still, I gave it the same amount of time. In the end? The Black & Decker vacuum won, hands-down.

The one on the left was cleaned with the Black & Decker vacuum, and on the right was cleaned with the new Shark one

Some things I noted: Using the Shark as a handheld gets VERY tiresome on my arm. It's pretty heavy to hold and maneuver and my forearm was killing me after just four minutes. The Black & Decker vacuum was super light because I only had to hold the attachment--not the motor. 

The Shark vacuum didn't really suck up the hair--the hair stuck to the bristles on the brush attachment, so I had to stop frequently to pull the hair off of the bristles and let the vacuum suck it up. This was super annoying. The pet hair attachment on the Black & Decker vacuum works like a dream; however, the crevice attachment sucks doesn't work well. It's finicky.

So, this little experiment was super helpful! I'm going to return the Shark vacuum; the suction isn't great, hair kept getting stuck in the bristles and in every little nook and cranny of the canister. I had to reach in to pull stuff out into the garbage, so it was messy. (To be fair, the Black & Decker one has this problem, too, especially since I broke it the plastic piece broke off somehow. But the Shark was much worse.)

Battle #3: Vegan Mozzarella vs. Yours Truly

I wrote about my attempts at making vegan mozzarella--they were a miserable fail. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong and it was driving me crazy. I eventually gave up on it, but I knew I wanted to try again. I found a different recipe and today I gave it a go. (The first recipe I tried was from The Vegan Blueberry)

This current recipe (found at The Hidden Veggies) didn't call for cashews, so it was quite a bit different. The main ingredient is actually full-fat coconut milk. Still, I had to do pretty much the same process--mix the ingredients, then cook on the stove, pour into molds, and cross my fingers that it would be "sliceable and shreddable", as the recipe promised. We all know how badly it turned out last time...

At that point, I'd figured it just wasn't going to happen, but I'm glad I tried again... 

BECAUSE IT WORKED! Look how beautiful this came out:

The color doesn't look quite as good, but the texture was a million times better, and it tastes really good. The texture is more like a fresh mozzarella ball than the pre-shredded stuff. There is a little garlic powder in there which I can definitely pick out (I love garlic, so this wasn't a problem).

This recipe was actually easier to make than the previous because I didn't have to blend cashews. I didn't even have to blend anything--just put the ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for six minutes, adding the tapioca flour with only one minute left.

I may have had the heat too low because I had to cook it longer--probably nine minutes?--but now I know what to expect. The blogger who published this recipe has been making vegan cheese for 20 years and even has a free e-book about vegan cheesemaking. It was super helpful to read about WHY each ingredient is important. (Again, you can find the recipe on The Hidden Veggies.)

I am going to make homemade pizza tomorrow and try out the mozzarella. If it melts and it still tastes good, I'll consider myself the winner of this battle ;)

The battles today were fun! I think it would be cool to do this with other things as well, especially to compare products. That's why I called this post "Round 1"--I may have a Round 2 in the future.

As for today: I beat the oven grease; I beat the vegan cheese; and, well, let's just say we have a lot less cat hair on those cat beds.

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Forever Friends

I've been posting every single day for two and a half years now--it started as a New Year's resolution in 2020 and then I just didn't want to break the streak. I thought about doing it today, but I still can't bring myself to do it!

I was just about to go to bed when I realized I hadn't prepped a post today. For the past few months, I've been writing in the morning on most days and it's nice knowing it's done. I guess I just forgot that I hadn't written already.

My friend Sarah is visiting from Arizona (I've mentioned her quite a bit on my blog, but not regularly because she lives so far away) and she and her husband, Ne, came over. (The Spanish word nene--pronounced "nay-nay"--is a reference to a young child. Sarah's husband is Mexican and his name is actually Norberto, but his childhood nickname stuck and everyone calls him Ne now.)

Sarah and I were born three days apart and grew up two houses apart on the same street. We were best friends all through school and then college roommates. After college, Sarah moved out to Phoenix and has been there ever since. I always look forward to her visits, though. And Ne is a great guy--interestingly, he and Jerry are very much alike. We chose well ;) 

It's so weird to think that Sarah and Ne have been married since October 2011, when Jerry and I flew out to Arizona for the wedding. I wrote about that trip on my blog at the time--and now they have two kids and a house and the whole shebang. Time goes SO fast. Things like that make me glad that I've been blogging, because it's kind of like a journal; I can go back and read about things like that!

Anyway, Sarah and Ne came over this afternoon to visit with Jerry and me. I love that no matter how much time has passed or how infrequently we see each other, Sarah and I can jump right into a conversation like we'd talked every day. Jerry and Ne have always been kind of fascinated at how Sarah and I can finish each other's sentences and practically read each other's minds.

The most extreme example I can think of: we were playing a board game where you have to describe a word without using particular words. My word was "cliff" and knowing Sarah as well as I do, I said, "Murdoc..." and she yelled "Cliff!" without missing a beat. The guys thought we were totally cheating. 

When I was young, MacGyver was my very favorite TV show--my siblings and I loved it and we watched reruns as well as new episodes. There was an infamous villain named Murdoc on the show, and I remember the scene of an episode where Murdoc falls off a cliff. I guess I told Sarah about it and for some reason, it remained memorable to us both. We used to try to convert each other to our favorite shows--she watched Alf, which was in the same time slot as MacGyver. So... that's how "cliff" and "Murdoc" relate to each other ;) 

This was the first time Ne has been here since I finished remodeling the house. I'm so glad that things are feeling a little more normal since the pandemic. Visiting with friends feels like a luxury!

I forgot to get a picture with Sarah today, which is a bummer, but here is a fun picture of the two of us from when we were little. How funny would it be to recreate this photo?! 

I would probably have to make the bathing suits--I can't imagine finding some that are even similar. But it would be a fun picture to do over!

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VEGAN RECIPE REVIEW: Orange Tofu

Well, Friends, I have been vegan for almost six months now, and I decided it's time to try tofu--basically a rite of passage for vegans/vegetarians. I only say that because I grew up having no clue what tofu is and it always seemed at the top of the "weird foods" list to me; it's a very common ingredient for the most part, but it was completely new to me. But I was interested to try it!

After reading a ton of info about the best ways to prepare it, I ended up combining a prep method with someone else's recipe and then my own recipe, so this isn't really a review of one recipe like I normally do. This was more of an adventure in tofu.

First, I read on this site about how freezing and then thawing extra-firm tofu can give it a firmer, chewier texture that is closer to meat. I got this info from Plant Power Couple. I bought some extra-firm tofu, which looked like this:

I'd had it in the freezer for a couple of weeks (not necessary to freeze that long, but since I wasn't sure what to do with it yet, I just had it hanging out in the freezer). Then I thawed in the refrigerator overnight. When I opened it, there was no smell from it at all, which was a relief to me. The texture was just like a sponge--it was tempting to squeeze it hard to get all the water out!

Following the instructions from Plant Power Couple, I drained the tofu and then placed it between some paper towels and put "something heavy" on it. I used a Corningware dish and added some cans of beans to weigh it down more. The whole purpose of this is to remove as much liquid as possible from the tofu.

This is what it looked like right after setting the dish on top:

And about four hours later, after a couple of paper towel changes:

You can see how much it shrank from removing the excess liquid. From there, I cut it into cubes:

After this, per the same site, I made a marinade. For that, I followed the recipe for Sweet & Sour Marinade at Andi Anne.

It started looking really gross once it was in the marinade:

After about four hours, I started on the cooking process. From that point, I started following the recipe for Orange Tofu from Healthy Simple Yum. I wanted to make a batter for it to hopefully make the tofu more appealing to someone who has never eaten it (i.e. me). These ingredients are for the batter and the sauce:

The batter consists of flour, cornstarch, garlic powder, salt, and water. I messed this up a little by just coating it with the flour/cornstarch mixture and leaving out the water--I realized that just before I started cooking it, so I added a little water and tried to stir it in, but it just kind of made a goopy mess. I hoped it was good enough.

This was before adding the water

I didn't use all the oil called for (1/2 cup) to cook the tofu--I just used a couple of tablespoons. While I'm sure that much oil makes it very crispy and delicious, I just didn't feel good about pouring all that oil into the pan. Using the small amount I did actually worked very well:

It was really starting to look edible! I set the cooked tofu aside while I mixed the sauce ingredients and then brought it up to a simmer to thicken. The sauce was really good! I used less sugar than called for, though--the recipe said 1/3 to 1/2 cup, but I used 1/4 cup (and I wouldn't change that--I may use even less next time). This is the texture of the sauce before adding the tofu:

I dumped the tofu back into the pan with the sauce:

I was careful when stirring it together, because I was worried the tofu would crumble apart or something (it didn't). I cooked some basmati rice (yum!) and served the Orange Tofu on top of the rice.

Holy smokes--I have to say, tofu is the vegan ingredient that has surprised me the most so far! It was SO GOOD. It wasn't mushy at all--not the same texture as chicken, but very close--more like chicken nugget-type meat than chunks of chicken, if that makes sense.

The only thing I wished I could change was the amount of salt. It was right at my threshold of saltiness. I'm absolutely sure it's because I used the salty marinade followed by a salty sauce (I'm going to start using liquid coconut aminos instead of my usual tamari or liquid aminos to reduce the sodium in things like this). This was the "salty meal" that I was referring to on Wednesday when I said I knew my weight was going to be up for my weigh-in.

I have to say, though, that my family wasn't as crazy about the Orange Tofu as I was. They didn't dislike it, but they weren't raving about it either. The kids were comparing it to chicken, which I don't think is a fair comparison. They were saying that they liked the taste, but it's "not the same as chicken". Tofu and chicken couldn't be any different--tofu is made from soybeans while chicken is animal flesh--so trying to make one perfectly match the other just doesn't work.

When I said I wanted to get a meaty texture, it wasn't to try to match the texture of chicken, but to firm it up because soft tofu would gross me out. Regardless, I think if you eat it with the mindset that it's tofu and not chicken, it's easier to accept. Hopefully that makes sense!

Final thoughts:

A block of tofu is definitely going to be sitting in my freezer at all times. I will absolutely make it again using this cooking method.

In the future, I will use the advice of Plant Power Couple and use oil-based marinades rather than water-based ones. You're basically replacing the water you drained from the tofu with more water if you use a water-based marinade. While the texture wasn't what I would consider soft, I'd like to see if I can get an even firmer texture by using less liquid in the marinade. The marinade is important because it's what flavors the tofu itself.

I will definitely remember to add water to the batter before adding the tofu; it will be much easier to coat the pieces that way.

Again, at the advice of Plant Power Couple, I'll try baking it low and slow next time. (I'll use the convection oven, which is essentially an air fryer.)

Overall, I'm so glad that my first tofu adventure was a good one! I liked it so much that I'm marinating some more right now to make Lemon Pepper Tofu Cutlets from Plant Power Couple. I've never made tofu without freezing it first, but their freezer idea is perfect for me so I can just keep some in there all the time. The only problem is remembering to thaw it out by putting it in the fridge the day before.

Yay tofu! ;)

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Friday Night Photos

It's Friday night--my favorite! I've had a very busy day today, so I'm looking forward to a relaxing evening. I have kind of a lot of photos from this week, but not much of a common theme--a big mishmash of stuff.

Peppers were on sale at Kroger when I went grocery shopping and I love bell peppers! I may have gone a little overboard by buying seven peppers, but they looked so good. This morning, I decided to make a spread of stuff for fajitas/burritos/burrito bowls. I always love how pretty the different colors of bell peppers look when they come together:

It was kind of funny while I was slicing the peppers because Eli came into the kitchen and told me how sore his thumbs were from prepping peppers at Qdoba (where he works). He said they cut the peppers a little differently than I do (I hold the pepper upright and slice all of the sides off, then throw away the core and cut into strips). 

At Qdoba, they use their thumb to punch out the stem (push on it straight down until the stem snaps and falls down into the pepper). Then they split the pepper in half with their hands and use some sort of machine to push down on the pepper halves, which slices them in one push. Eli said he preps about 200 peppers(!) in the mornings at work. I tried doing just two peppers by punching in the stem with my thumb and it hurt--I can't even imagine doing 200. Something to keep in mind when deciding how much to leave as a tip ;) 

Anyway, I made a ton of food today (basically the entire menu of Qdoba, haha): both brown and white cilantro-lime rice, carne asada and marinated chicken, peppers and onions sautéed with homemade fajita seasoning, black beans, corn, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, and salsa. I pretty much spent the entire morning and afternoon in the kitchen prepping food. (Burrito bowls are perfect for vegans and meat-eaters alike; I made a delicious vegan burrito bowl with just the rice, peppers and onions, black beans, corn, guacamole, and salsa.)

Eli had his girlfriend over and my parents came over for dinner as well, so it was worth the effort. (It drives me crazy when I spend time making dinner and then nobody is here to eat! Teens are totally unpredictable.)

Speaking of guacamole, I love this meme that I found this week:

I can't even remember what I wrote about already this week, so hopefully it's not redundant. We went to my parents' house for the 4th, and Brian, Becky, Luke and Riley were there. I always love seeing the kiddos!

Luke is very into Minecraft right now, which reminds me of when my kids were little. They LOVED Minecraft! I didn't know it was still "a thing". It was cute listening to Luke talk about it because Noah and Eli knew exactly what he was referring to. I, of course, nodded along like I was in the know as well.

This was adorable, even though the picture is bad (I was taking it from the house with my cell phone, so this was the best I could do). I looked up and saw Luke pushing a stroller with Riley's doll in it. I was thinking how sweet it was, and then right after this picture he broke into a run, with the stroller bouncing all over the place and the baby doll barely staying inside. Haha!

Riley was on the tire swing and Brian was lying on the ground. She ran and jumped, letting the swing fall back right over Brian--so he was trying to get a picture of her from his perspective while she was swinging right over him. I don't know if you can tell, but there is an incline in the yard there, so when the swing came back, it went right over Brian. I just thought it was a cute moment!

Jerry and I went to a local bar to play Keno last weekend, which was fun. We hadn't played Keno in SO long--since before the pandemic for sure. We didn't play it frequently before that (maybe 3-4 times a year) but it was always fun and I was happy to get to play again! (That's a Heineken 0.0, if you're wondering; I still don't drink.)

I noticed this sign and I liked it for some reason--it's true! People want good, cheap, and fast when it comes to food, but I don't know of any place that can do all three.

This is a weird quirk of Duck's that I don't think I've written about before. Duck watches me while I blog. And I don't mean that he just glances at me once in a while. I like to sit in the corner of the sectional couch while I write and Duck sits on the floor right in front of me and just STARES. It is the weirdest thing! When I took this picture yesterday, he'd already been sitting there for probably an hour. Then I took a few more pictures over the course of a couple of hours--where you can see from the timestamp that he hasn't moved.

Sometimes he'll fall asleep while sitting there like that. I always feel so bad for him! I would love to play with him all day, but yesterday I spent literally the entire day working on my blog post. I usually end up making paper balls to throw for him while I work (he plays fetch).

Duck needs constant stimulation, where the other cats are content to sleep most of the day. I love this about Duck, but I always feel bad when I'm not able to keep him occupied. I was heading out to the garage a few days ago and he clearly wanted to talk (he meows like he's having a conversation with me) and he was following me around.

I was desperate to distract him so I could go outside without feeling too bad, so I moved around a few toys and I made a little fort with the scratcher. Chick even got up from his nap to check it out! It's so funny how moving a few things around is SO fascinating to cats.

I'd started by just flipping the nail scratcher on its side and putting some toys around. That didn't seem like it would last long enough, so I made the fort. I'm a sucker.

I ended up leaving it like that for a couple of days because the cats loved playing in it. After that, however, Chick and Duck have been practically glued to the window. There are still a few fish flies around, which just sit on the window screen until they die; the birds fly up to the window to grab one, and Duck and Chick go crazy for the birds. Duck always seems to forget about the window and he crashes into it.

I think it's so interesting that they have NO interest in squirrels, who come right up to the door for walnuts. They must think of them as other pets because we interact with them. The birds, though, are the cats' favorite entertainment.

Meanwhile, in Illinois and northern Michigan, Joey is having the time of his life on his very own vacation! When Noah and Eli drove to Jeanie and Shawn's property up north, they brought Joey and then left him there with Jeanie and Shawn. Remy, their elderly basset hound, passed away recently and her other basset was feeling a little lonely; since Joey is an angel-dog (he really is a GOOD DOG), Jeanie asked if he could stay with her for a while.

So, during the week, he gets to stay at Jeanie's house with Bentley (his basset cousin); and then on the weekends, they go up north. He's going to stay until the end of this month. It's been SO weird not having him at home! There have been several times where I've thought, "It's so nice out--I'm going to take Joey for a walk... oh, wait." I'm 100% sure he's having a blast, though, and I'm not too certain he's going to want to come home! (I'm going to write a post about his vacation once he gets home so we can see his adventures, haha.)

Here are few pictures so far...

Relaxing with Shawn. Clearly, Bentley is as thrilled as Joey about the long visit ;)

Might as well take a ride on the side-by-side! (Look how spoiled they are with their dog bed on the side-by-side)

And follow it with a nice nap by the fire

I think Joey's going to come home very spoiled and want to make this an annual vacation!

Finally, here is a sneak peak at tomorrow's post about my latest vegan cooking adventure...

And that's all I've got. Have a great weekend! xo

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