A new favorite

The McMom turned the McHusband and me onto Dietz & Watson's Cranberry Honey Mustard. We get it at Harris Teeter. She also turned the McHusband into a cheese snob; he likes Havarti now.

The Cranberry Honey Mustard makes for an awesome panini, but it makes a great cold sandwich, too. The McHusband eats ham sandwiches on bagels and I eat turkey sandwiches on rye bread, but the Cranberry Honey Mustard doesn't discriminate - it tastes delicious on both.

I highly recommend you sandwich-eaters out there give it a try and if you do, let me know what you think.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Well, let's hope I don't arrive home to a mess in the bonus room like I did last month on Friday the 13th.

We have our St. Patrick's Day party tomorrow and hopefully I'll feel up to adding lots of updates on Sunday. I make no promises though.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a picture from an email that my friend Bronwyn sent me. The email was a warning about dangerous dog breeds and children. I hope everyone can learn something from this picture.



















Pretty scary what can happen when you turn your back for a few seconds, isn't it?

Division of labor

The McHusband and I have an understanding - I'll do the inside stuff and he'll do the outside stuff. So I vacuum, dust, mop, and scrub and he mows, fixes, changes (oil), and washes (cars).

However, there's one outside chore for which the McWife gets mad props: poop patrol. Actually, I get credit for most of the inside poop patrol (litterboxes), too, but it's the exterior services that really count.

Have you seen our dogs?

Don't worry, I don't have any pictures of poop or anything. Dirty-looking (emphasis on the looking) toilets are okay, but pictures of poop would cross a line and this just isn't that kind of blog.

Instead, I'm going to show you how the McHusband spent the latter part of his beautiful Sunday. I went out to pick up poop, he got to listen to his music while riding around on the mower. Something's just not right...

"What a beautiful day. I'm so glad I have something fun to do outside."














"Hmmm, did I miss a spot?"














"I wonder if I could add a supercharger to this thing?"














"Done! I hope Steph's done with poop patrol and has a beer for me."














I love you, McHusband!

Thinking green

We saved all the old countertops when we replaced them in the kitchen. The McHusband is going to put a sink in the garage so he's reusing part of the island countertop as well as the actual sink.

I wanted to add some counter space in the laundry room so even though the old counters aren't the prettiest ones, I didn't mind letting a little bit back into the house.














As you can see, installing a coat rack in the laundry room has suddenly moved up the list.



















Check out that Wolfpack trash can. That's about as supportive as we get of our alma mater. And you know what? The McHusband's actually had that thing since long before either of us went to NCSU.

Tucker actually didn't like the trash can at first. Wait, I just remembered that I have a video of him as a puppy and that trash can! Except...it might be sideways, but I'm gonna include it anyway. I apologize in advance for the crick in your neck.


He was just so darn cute! I love the pitiful whine at the end. While he's not bothered by trash cans anymore, I can't say he's exactly brave either.

Porcelain god

Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. Barkeeper's Friend. Glass cooktop cleaner. The Works from the Dollar Tree. Iron Out, the fumes of which almost killed me.

Those are all things I used to try to get rid of the stains in our toilets, stains that we were included at no extra cost when we bought the house.

Yes, this is a clean toilet.














You can tell it's clean because the bowl under the water is sparkling clean.














The one thing I didn't try? A McHusband and some sandpaper. He was brave enough to reach into the toilet to feel the stains and guess what? They were 3-D stains, which meant they should be removable.

A little elbow grease and voila! A clean toilet that *gasp!* actually looks clean.














And with our 3rd Annual St. Patrick's Day Party right around the corner, the timing couldn't be better. Especially since there's a chance that the McHusband, I, or both of us might be getting up close and personal with the toilet come Sunday morning. :(














Those stains would just be adding insult to injury, staring back at us and mocking our inability to both hold our alcohol and perform simple household chores.

Hah! Take THAT, toilets!

Beautiful spring weather: Part II

We gave the dogs baths today (Sunday) so I waited until today to wash all their bedding so that it would be clean at the same time they were. While the bed covers were in the wash, the interior "pillow" was in its usual spot - with one difference. The occupant wasn't who'd you expect.














There's cedar in the filling and I think Emma likes the scent because I've caught her rolling around on the ground where the bed was if I move it. Emma's been known to make herself very comfortable when she knows the dogs aren't in the house and that was definitely the case today.

Look at her. Those of you who know her probably can't believe how comfy she looks.














The McHusband decided that today was the day to clean the gutters. I held the extension ladder for him when he had it on the deck and was crawling a hundred feet (okay, maybe not that far, but it was pretty high) up to clean out the gutters.

In order to get to the gutters that weren't over the deck, he used the ladder to get on the roof at the front of the house, then he scrambled to the back.

I did what you'd expect - grabbed the camera, of course. Actually, I yelled at him first, forbade him from falling, told him to scream really loud if he did happen to fall (I was vacuuming, I wanted to make sure I heard him), THEN I got the camera out.

































His strategy was to pull the detritus from the gutters and throw it down to the ground then clean it up. Tori was enthralled with the crap falling from the sky.




























I had the windows open all day. With the breeze and no humidity, it was a great day to air out the house. I thought so anyway. Tucker, however, thought it got a little warm.














I took that picture around 5:30. He'd normally be taking his pre-dinner nap behind the couch ON THE CARPET. Apparently, it was too warm in the house so he decided the kitchen was the place to be.














Hope everyone else in NC enjoyed their beautiful weekends!

Beautiful spring weather: Part I

Weekends like these are why we live in NC. Quick reminder: we had SNOW and temps in the teens at the beginning of the week. This weekend, we had tons of sun and temps in the 80's. Too bad typical March weather is returning later this week. Bummer.

Anyway, we took advantage of the wonderful weather on Saturday and took the dogs on a long walk around 11:00. Within the first 10 minutes, I think Tucker had had enough. I don't know if it's his extra fur or the extra chub or the Mastiff in him, but he would've been perfectly happy to just head back to the house as soon as we got to the first cross street in the neighborhood. Too bad for him we kept walking for another 20 minutes.

Tucker couldn't lay himself down in the kitchen any faster. He literally bypassed the water so he could lay down ASAP.














Tongue lolling out the side of the mouth = much cooler.














He had picked the perfect spot to collapse. (Note Morgan in the laundry room.)



















I don't know why Morgan thought the rug in front of the door to the garage was the best place to settle after the walk. Maybe she thought the dark room was cooler?














We went to Chelle and Jeremy's that night for a cookout. They have a screened-in porch and it was so nice to just sit outside and enjoy the nice night. Until it got to about 65 degrees (I'm not making that up; Jeremy's slightly obsessed with the outside temperature and there was - were? - not one but TWO digital thermostats out there.) and then it was time to take the party inside.