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Dec 6, 2013

Even Dogs Have Clothing Fit Issues

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It’s been two years since we first met Cosmo and brought him into our family. And since that time, he’s grown from a lanky pup with gigantic paws into the solid dog (still with gigantic paws) that he is today.

 Cosmo as a puppyCosmo at 5mo old

Even though he’s nearly one hundred pounds now, he still gets cold easily. That large size didn’t come with a lot of fur. He’s got the ultra-short pit bull coat that is nearly bare on his underside, and he doesn’t have a large amount of fat for insulation. So when he goes outside on frigid days, he gets cold. It’s common to see him dash to the fireplace after a trip outside, trying to warm himself while he shivers.

Last year I bought Cosmo a sweater for the holidays. He didn’t seem to mind wearing it, but he didn’t seem particularly thrilled with it, either. And I felt a little like the crazy dog lady who dresses up her dog like a child.

But as fall arrived this year, I noticed that the cold did affect Cosmo. We had bought him a cute Superman sweater for Halloween, and I put it on him a couple of weeks ago when it was particularly cold. I’ve never seen a dog look so happy in a sweater. He seemed upset when I took it off of him. The next day, when I held it up, he practically put it on by himself, lifting his paws in advance of me taking them to guide them into the holes. I can’t feel guilty about putting him in sweaters anymore – he clearly likes it and wants additional layers of warmth.

Now, it’s not easy to find sweaters for Cosmo. He wears an XXL. I know, right? He’s not THAT big of a dog. But his chest and neck are so massive that nothing less than an XXL will fit across his front half.

I wanted to find something warmer for him for the freezing days ahead of us, so I looked online and found a sweatshirt for dogs. It came in XXL, and the description even mentioned that it was designed to fit dogs with a thick, muscular neck. I checked his measurements against the size chart, and he easily fell within the requirements. Even better, it opened in the back with velcro – if it was too loose on his back half, I could possibly add more velcro to make it tighter.

When it finally arrived this week, I pulled it out of the bag and Cosmo was immediately sniffing it. It was a nice heavyweight sweatshirt material, so I knew it would be plenty warm on him. Cosmo wouldn’t leave me alone, so I tried it on him right away.

Um…this is an XXL?

An XXL dog sweatshirt?
It fit without any trouble around his back half, but the top 4″ or so were impossible to close around his deep chest and neck.

Too small dog sweatshirt

Cosmo's too-small sweatshirt

Poor guy. He was so excited to get new clothing, and it’s too small for him to wear. I feel your pain, Cosmo. Clothing never fits me right, either. Your chest, my hips – we’re not made for standard clothing templates.

Only in his case, there’s no option above XXL.

Is there a Big & Tall clothing store for cold dogs?

Filed Under: Cosmo ·


Dec 3, 2013

Easy Chicken Dinner with Campbell’s Soup

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Evenings have been a bit of a blur around here lately. With therapy appointments, gymnastics, homework, and everything else going on, it feels like we’re trading off who’s home each night, coming and going constantly. Tonight, for example, shortly after the kids are home from school, I have to get them in the car to go to Mira’s gymnastics, where we’ll meet up with Aaron after he’s done with work. Depending on who has more to do, one of us will stay at gymnastics and the other will take Cordy home to finish homework.

I’d be embarrassed to tell you the number of times we grab food on the go each week. I know it’s not healthy for us, but with such little time, it’s hard to put together quick meals that the kids will eat. And let’s be honest – I’m a lousy cook. Domestic tasks aren’t my strength. I usually leave the cooking to Aaron, but occasionally I’m called on to come up with a meal for the family.

When that happens, I’m thankful to find easy recipes that even I have trouble screwing up. Recently I heard about Campbell’s Wisest Kid in the Whole World promotion and their kid-friendly, easy recipes involving Campbell’s soups. I was invited to give one a try to see just how simple and tasty it could be. I love soup as an easy meal itself, but had never considered cooking with soup.

The hardest part was finding a recipe my family would all eat. Cordy is picky, Aaron is gluten-free, and Mira just occasionally decides she doesn’t like certain foods, after they were her favorite foods last month. (In other words, typical kid.) We looked over the recipes together and agreed on the Fiesta Chicken & Rice Bake, though, so that was my mission.

I liked the simplicity of this recipe: a can of tomato soup, some chicken breasts, rice, chili powder and cheese. I looked through the comments on this recipe and decided to add some corn to the mix, too. (Look at me, going off-script for a recipe like I think I know what I’m doing!)

Fiesta Chicken ingredientsThis is all you need to make this meal. (Plus a little water, if you don’t use pre-cooked rice like me.)

This recipe is also a single dish recipe, cutting down on anything complicated by mixing it all together in the same dish. It was honestly so easy to put together – I had it ready to go before the oven had even pre-heated! I was a little generous with the chili powder, as we like our dishes on the spicy side here.

Once the oven was ready, I covered the dish in foil, put it in, and baked for 45 minutes. I spent that time pondering how I could put together a dinner so quickly, and wondered if there was a catch.

Fiesta Chicken in the oven

When the timer went off, I pulled out the dish and peeled back the foil. I cut into a chicken breast to make sure it was cooked all the way through, which it was. And ta-da! – there was a perfect Fiesta Chicken and Rice Bake.

 Fiesta Chicken & Rice BakeI’m a lousy food photographer, but I can assure you this smelled and tasted delicious.

All that was needed at that point was a hefty dose of cheese and serving it to the family. It smelled SO good! I split a chicken breast between Cordy and Mira, and Aaron and I each took the other ones.

The result? Cordy loved the chicken, and ate some of the corn and rice. I’ll call that a success. Mira liked the chicken, didn’t like the rice, but singled out the corn to eat. I knew she’d like the corn. Adding the corn was a great idea and helped provide some additional flavor to the dish. I might even try adding black beans next time.

I thought the chicken was just right, tender without being dried out, but Aaron and I agreed it could have used a little additional spice. However, seeing how easy this recipe is, it would be equally easy to quickly add additional spice to meet the needs of our spicy-food-loving family. Even being light on spice, though, it was still delicious.

I was surprised just how simple it was to make this dish from Campbell’s. It’s easy enough that the kids can help with the prep work, giving them more control over their dinner. Or if we’re rushed, it’s easy for one person at home to start the meal while waiting on everyone else to get home.

You can find the recipe for the Fiesta Chicken and Rice Bake at Campbell’s website, along with several other kid-friendly recipes your family will love.

Filed Under: domestic zero, sponsored ·


Dec 2, 2013

A Tree Dilemma

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I had mentioned that we bought a new Christmas tree last week. This tree was just what I wanted: 7.5 ft, pre-lit artificial tree with LED lights. Even better, this tree has a little box on the cord that lets you switch the lights on the tree from white lights to multicolor lights. I generally prefer white lights, but I thought it would be fun to let the kids get to see it with multicolor lights now and then.

On Friday afternoon, we set up the tree in the living room. Aaron plugged it in and we verified that the lights worked. The multicolor lights were disco-party colorful and the white lights were a bright, yet warm, white light. The kids asked to put it on the multicolor lights while we decorated the tree, so we switched it over to the colorful confetti of lights.

The next day, our tree fully decorated, I stood back and admired the total look. It was still set on multicolor lights, so I reached down to the controller and flipped it over to white lights.

But this time, the white lights weren’t so bright. In fact, they were very dim, barely lit at all.

I thought I might have wiggled the plug loose, so I reached back to the plug and verified it was fully plugged in. The lights were still dim. I turned the switch on the box back to multicolor, and suddenly they were blindingly bright again.

What?? I tried switching it back and forth a few more times, but the white lights remained dim, while the multicolor option worked perfectly. When we first set it up, the white lights worked without any trouble – why are they now not working?

So now, we have a dilemma: what do we do with this brand new tree? Do we continue trying to make the white lights work again? I still have the receipt – do we take all of the decorations off, take down the tree, box it up and return it to the store, only to get a new one and go through decorating it all over again?

Or do I just put my love of white lights behind me and learn to embrace the rainbow?

Christmas tree, 2013Cosmo would prefer we leave it, as he was slightly traumatized by bringing this giant thing into the house.

Filed Under: holidays, home ·


Dec 1, 2013

Best Buy Is A Top Holiday Shopping Destination #bbyHoliday13

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Thank you to Best Buy for sponsoring this post.

Best Buy gift cardsIt’s December 1 – are you done with your holiday shopping yet? Contrary to the Black Friday messaging that you need to get all of your shopping done the day after Thanksgiving, I don’t think many of us are actually done yet. I got several great deals for Black Friday, but a few of those items were just for us, not for gifts. We still have a handful of gifts that we need to find for friends and family members.

Best Buy is one of the best destinations for all your technology and appliance product gifting needs this holiday. On Thanksgiving night, BestBuy.com was where I went to buy Cordy’s most-wanted gift this year,  a Nintendo 3DS in blue. (No, no, I wasn’t about to go fight the crowds that night!) I got it for a great price, and I know she’s going to love it.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Sponsored-AF ·


Nov 30, 2013

Easiest Black Friday Ever

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I’ve always been a Black Friday shopper. Oh, I know, it’s a crazy pastime to fight crowds in the cold early morning hours, but I’ve enjoyed the sport of it. However, it’s been less and less fun over the past few years. For all that I like scoring good deals, I really haven’t liked how early stores have been opening, or how some of the crowd have become more fierce. Fist fights over a TV? Trampling each other to get in? That doesn’t sound like fun at all.

Midnight openings were about the limit of what I accepted in the past. Opening at 8pm on Thanksgiving day seems a little extreme. Or like yesterday, opening at 5pm on Thanksgiving day, Toys R Us? Oh no, that’s too early. I like to shop, but no way I’m cutting my family time short for some cheaper toys.

This year, seeing how early stores were opening, I decided I wasn’t all that interested in being a part of the madness. Beyond that, we also haven’t felt the need to buy as much this year. So this time, I used the online Black Friday sites to look through the scanned ads, made note of the deals we wanted to take advantage of, and which ones would be offered online. I wanted to try to find as much as possible online.

I stayed up late Wednesday night, and when midnight came, I checked out Lowe’s website and bought my first Black Friday deal. With free shipping to the store, it cost the same as it would have waiting in line. Easy.

Thursday morning, while the kids were taking baths, I took a peek at Target’s website. All of the sale items I wanted there were available, so I added them to my cart and checked out while still in my PJs. I was already halfway done with my Black Friday shopping, before Thanksgiving had really even started, and without standing in a single line.

Thursday evening, my mom kept the kids overnight for us. She had originally offered so that we could go out shopping. But when we arrived home after Thanksgiving dinner, we realized we didn’t need to go out shopping. We looked at Best Buy’s website and found the Nintendo 3DS (that Cordy had been wanting) at the best price yet, so we bought it with free shipping.

With no need to go out to the stores that evening, Aaron and I took advantage of the time by going to the movie theater to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. (Good movie, by the way.)

There was only one item we wanted that would require a trip out to the stores. We’ve been wanting to replace our older Christmas tree, since it looks a little sparse and half of the pre-lit branches are no longer lit. We saw a great deal at Home Depot, but we knew it would go quickly. Aaron and I decided to go for it, waking up at 4am Friday morning to be in line at Home Depot for their 5am opening.

Of all of the lines I’ve ever stood in for Black Friday, the Home Depot line was the best ever. The store manager was outside chatting with the crowd, and one of his associates was walking up and down the line, offering free donuts and coffee to everyone. It was bitterly cold, so the manager quickly produced hand warmers for the early morning shoppers as well. Even Santa came out to greet the crowd, wearing a Home Depot apron and handing out store maps for the sale items.

Home Depot SantaSanta was dressed for comfort with sneakers, too.

I’ve never seen such an amazingly friendly staff for an event like this. It made being up that early not nearly as painful as it could have been. At 5am sharp, they opened the doors and welcomed us inside. I quickly had the tree (got the next to last one – whew!), checked out, and was home and back in bed by 5:30am. I stood in line for a total of 20 minutes before the store opened.

So simple.

We’re done with our shopping now, and managed to avoid most of the craziness involved. (And the little bit of craziness we did participate in, we were rewarded with coffee and donuts!)

I think I may do as much online Black Friday shopping as possible now. It was painless, it let me enjoy Thanksgiving with my family, and I didn’t have to spend the whole night out in the cold. I also used my Ebates account to get cash back on each online purchase, so really, I saved even more than those who did brave the crowds.

I like the idea of starting a new family tradition of shopping online for the items we really want and then catching a movie, leaving the lines and crowds for everyone else.

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Filed Under: clearly insane, holidays ·