I learned something new today!

I learned how to import the posts from my old blogger account into my now self-hosted blog Confessions of a Country Girl. I’m sure that there may be some duplicate posts but that means you’ll have twice the fun reading it right?!

Bubba J and Jeff

Jeff and Peanut

Just a little something

Last night we went and saw ventriliquist Jeff Dunham!  It was an AWESOME show!  My personal favorite puppet is Achmed the Dead Terrorist.  Here’s a little video of Achmed singing “Jingle Bombs.”  Enjoy!

A couple little sidenotes: I have my blog up and running through my personal domain now. This link (http://confessionsofacountrygirl.wordpress.com) still works or you can use my personal domain link (http://confessionsofacountrygirl.com). Also coming up next week: My good mail post, Turning my trash pit back into my bedroom post, and maybe even about 3 weeks worth of blessings.

We are SOOOOOO NOT happy right now

Let’s just say that I don’t think we will be adopting anymore animals from the shelter we got Gus out of anymore.  Yesterday, I took her to the vet for her free Wellness exam and found out that she has 5 mammary tumors along her spay incision.  How did the shelter’s vet miss this….Two of them that the vet I took her to had me feel are the size of pencil erasers.  When we adopted her the shelter made no indication that there were any major medical problems after their vet did a “complete” exam on her before her spay.  Now Gus needs major surgery to remove these tumors so we can find out if our dog has K-9 Breast Cancer or not.  If we don’t do the surgery we could potentially be slowly killing our dog.  So much to think about.  Feeling so very cheated.

Making my pets more budget friendly

I’ve posted before that we are now a 2 dog household again.  On Mother’s day we brought home our new dog Augusta or “Gus” and we already had a 6 year old Cocker Spaniel named Laci at that point.  We actually got a second dog because Laci has always had at least 1 companion and we had put our 19 year old Lab/Cocker mix down in November and Laci wasn’t adjusting to single dogdom real well.  So, now that I’ve sidetracked from the orginal point of this post, I think I will get back on task now.

Now that we are a 2 dog household again I am trying to figure out a way to make our girls more budget friendly.  Right now the girls are a little hard on the pocket book, which isn’t a real good thing.  Love them to death…Just have to get them more budget friendly.

Where do I begin….Laci our Cocker Spaniel…Well the vet says she’s tooooo loved and is now dieting.  But now that we’ve brought Gus home she would rather eat Gus’ food than her own.  So we currently have 3 different bags of dog food going around our house (we’re slowly trying to put weight on Gus so we’re adding a little bit of puppy food to her regular kibble to help with that process), so I need to find a food that both dogs like, that’s healthy (to help with Laci’s weight problem) and doesn’t cost a fortune to buy.

The grooming bill is a rough spot too.  Laci HATES being brushed and when we take her to the groomer’s she gets cut into the “Cocker Cut.”  Why we keep getting her cut like this when we know that she doesn’t like being brushed boggles me.  It’s hard to maintain that cut when the dog won’t let you come near her with a brush.  Now  Gus is a little bit easier because she’s smaller.  Actually, when we had her groomed last week (pictures coming soon) the groomer said that her coat was so thick that depending upon how it grows out she could actually stay “short haired” year round.

Since when did dog treats get so expensive and so unhealthy?  It’s almost cheaper to make our own at this point, which I just might do anyway!  Wish me luck!

Well, there’s a start for now.   I’ll be blogging about my journey to be a better money manager so please feel free to check out the other posts on my The Country Girl Talks Money page.

Jamie

I joined Bossy’s Poverty Party

I’ve posted before on my old blogger blog that I was in the process of trying to be a better money manger with my funds.  Yesterday, I was out surfing the bloggy world and I came across I Am Bossy’s blog and found that her and her husband are trying to work themselves out of debt and Bossy started herself a little “poverty support group” which I have now joined.  I’ve been over scanning the archives and I’m learning sooo much in the short amount of time that I’ve been participating.

Tasty Tuesday ~ Ryan’s Bolognese Sauce

The photo I borrowed from PW’s webpage.  Her photography is soooo much better than my not-so-good photography.

Recently, Ree had a guest out at the ranch….Pastor Ryan from This Is Reverb.  I made this recipe last Thursday and it was AWESOME!  I will sooo be making this again!

Here is the recipe:

Ryan’s Bolognese

1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 large red onion, diced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 pounds ground beef
2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes CORRECTED: OREGANO flakes
2 tablespoons dried basil flakes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 cups red wine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
salt
pepper
2 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes
1 cup milk
Fresh Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add grated carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes.
Make a well in the center of the mixture, then add in the ground beef. Cook for a few minutes until brown, gradually stirring it into the carrot mixture.
Throw in oregano and basil. Use fresh if you have it; if you don’t, it’s fine.
When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients, make another well. Add tomato paste and let it heat.
Add garlic and stir to combine.
Make a well in the center of the mixture and add red wine. Stir together.
Add Worcestershire and stir.
Add canned tomatoes.
Finally, pour in milk, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—however long you need.

Serve with pasta and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Scrumptious!

Happy Memorial Day

Please help this family kick Cancer’s ass!

I was checking in on my comment support group SITS this morning when I came across a shout out for one of our SITSah’s who’s little boy has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  This is a terrible thing to happen to any family but take a looksie at this cutie, his story is posted in the link (click on SITSah or on the photo):

I’m passing this along because the family is asking for help from us the bloggy community.  Some have donated money but if you can’t donate money, please consider twittering, blogging, just getting the word out there.  Any help is greatly appreciated by this family.