Rats, Dachshunds and Iphones... oh my

These three things really have nothing in common aside from making last week quite the action packed week around here. While this week is proving to be much less chaotic on the home front, work is picking up the slack in that department!

So what's been going on here? Oh ya know.. Just relaxing last Monday night, husband does into the pantry for a snack and finds a huge RAT sitting on the shelf like he owns the place! Tim quickly shut him in the pantry and blocked under the door with towels and stacked books to make sure our friend didn't wander off anywhere else. I went to Lowe's to get a trap. Tim was brave enough to shove the trap in the pantry overnight until I could get an animal control company out the next morning.

Luckily, I remembered that a local Animal Trapper lived on the next street over. I called them at 8am the next morning and they agreed to come over. Good news: the rat was no longer in the pantry and we  knew how he got there so we were able to remedy the situation ( a small opening in the electrical from when the pantry was built). Bad news: the company did a free inspection of our property and found several "access points" and droppings in our attic. Just what you want to hear when you are 7+ months pregnant. We ended up contracting with them to close off all the access points around the exterior of the house, set traps in the attic and treat the attic for any bacteria. Unfortunately, I don't have a "rat removal" line item in my budget and it wasn't exactly cheap... although it was necessary.

So exactly one week later, our house is secure and the traps are set in the attic. The animal trappers come over every other day to check the traps since the rats cannot escape at this point. After a week or so of consistently empty traps, they will treat for bacteria.

Let's see... on a related note. Lucy, our middle Dachshund, somehow got in the pantry when the rat trap was set and decided to eat the peanut butter out of the trap. Let's just say she is lucky to still have a tongue!! It was an AWFUL, AWFUL sound and she was quite frightened but 100% OK... Thank God!

While we are on the subject of dogs.. Lily, the baby dachshund, started acting really strange. I took her for a walk one night and she got spooked by something and literally could not walk home. So I carried her home but after that she was fine. Several days pass and she is fine so I thought it was a one time thing. Then on the 4th of July, she started doing it more consistently. We would take her out in the grass to go potty, her eyes would get glassy, she would start shaking and be unable to move. She literally fell over on her side with all 4 feet in the air when she tried to walk...almost like she was having a seizure. So Friday I called the vet and brought her in. They ran some lab work and everything came back normal. She gained a lot of weight and has been increasingly hungry and thirsty which the vet said is because of the prednisone she was on for a hot spot (even though she finished the medication a week before). At this point, they want me to try to catch it on video so they can consult with a neurologist. Of course, now she hasn't done it since Saturday!  I am hoping its some weird reaction to prednisone or the antibiotic... even though not a known side effect, it is a better alternative than a seizure disorder. Poor little girl!

And while minor, it still contributed to an eventful week... Tim dropped his IPhone in the salt water while fishing. Since we just got the phones relatively recently, we have to pay a ridiculous sum of money to get a new phone without signing a contract. Needless to say, It has been sitting in rice and silica beads since Wednesday. Surprisingly, it looks like it is going to regain most of it's functionality. We may have to get a replacement camera for it because that seems to have been damaged. Oh and a waterproof case, definitely a waterproof case!

Fingers crossed for a "normal" week ahead! :)

Christmas Decor

The weekend following Thanksgiving, we take the Christmas Decorations down from the attic and begin the process of decorating the house. Tim, as usual, has outdoor duty while I am responsible for indoor decorations. Well, Tim beat me this year! While I started decorating the house the weekend after Thanksgiving, I dragged it out a little more than usual!

I am happy to report that everything is now decorated. One of my favorite part's of Christmas is having the Christmas tree be the only source of light in a room. I love the ambiance.

I stuck with the Silver and Gold theme.

Aside from the tree, I hang our stockings from the bookshelves since we do not a fireplace in this house. I never got around to having the stockings embroidered last year and now I am not sure that I will. I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was a cute idea. So now I am on the hunt for some cute initial ornaments!

I keep the table pretty basic: silver and gold place mats along with a silver centerpiece. I LOVE the flame less candles!

The bowl on top of the wine rack gets filled with silver and gold ornaments.

I switch out the wreath on the front door and add something Christmasy to the planter. Last year it was spray painted pine cones, this year... more silver and gold ornaments!

This weekend we received our first two Christmas cards. So I turned to my friend Pinterest and searched for ways to display Christmas cards. I wanted something inexpensive (it is the Holiday season after all) and easy to make. I liked the idea of this and this. So I picked up a cheap sign (around $7 at Joann's) and attached some ribbon from my stash. Instant card holder.

LOVED that someone mailed me a dachshund Christmas card! 

Oh and my other favorite part of Christmas: The outside of the house! We have some reindeer in the front yard but it is too hard to get them all in one shot!

Having a festive house definitely helps you get into the Christmas spirit! I am about 85% done shopping and hope to finish up this weekend! Now if only we would get some cooler weather...

Oh and the dogs are also "decorated"!

Wordless Wednesday: I am not ashamed

For the Fusion :)

A fabulous, low-key St. Paddy's Day

Growing up we always celebrated St. Patrick's Day, primarily because it was also my maternal grandfather's birthday. He and my grandmother were both Irish and would always have the family over to celebrate the day. My grandfather died in 2000, but it is crazy to think that yesterday would have been his 90th birthday!

So ever since I can remember we always had a traditional Irish meal for St. Patrick's Day... Corned beef, cabbage and Irish soda bread. Wanting to carry on the tradition, last night I made my first corned beef. My mom always made the corned beef by boiling it in a pot for several hours and then adding in the potatoes and the cabbage. While I have enjoyed corned beef this way for years, I wanted to try something different.

After searching around Google for inspiration, I decided that I was going to bake my corned beef. Let's just say I will NEVER boil corned beef. It was delicious! First, I rinsed the corned beef  and placed it fat side up on a piece of foil big enough to wrap it in. Then I smeared Hot & Sweet Mustard all over the top of the meat and sprinkled a handful of brown sugar over that. I wrapped it all in the foil to keep the juices in and then stuck it in the oven on 350. My corned beef was around 2.5 pounds and I cooked it about an hour and forty minutes.
Tim and I both love roasted cabbage wedges and will often have that as a side dish. So I made the cabbage that way. (Cut into 8 edges, seasoned with garlic, lemon and olive oil, roast at 450).  And I cooked the potatoes in the corned beef seasoning that came with the meat.
We skipped the Irish Soda Bread this year, but a wonderful meal nonetheless.

Oh, And I have to share this picture of the Harrigan clan in their St. Paddy's day collars!

Seriously, how cute are they?