weather

Cats, cookies, and more

This post is going to be r-a-n-d-o-m. Sorry! First things first, I have to share this video of Jimmy!

Mine and Jimmy’s friend, Brett, studied cinematography at Point Park University and he purchased a new camera a while back. He decided to film Jimmy welding, with a little (furry) surprise at the end!

Speaking of furryness (<– totally not a word), I was crazy excited a few weeks ago when a new pet sitting client asked if I could watch his cats! I pet sit dogs on the daily, so getting to watch two cats was a nice treat. I took care of Taco and Huey this past week, and it was lovely.

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Taco and Huey are litter mates, which is pretty neat. They’re a little over a year old, and super playful. I adore cats, and miss living with my parents’ cats, Lily and Felix.

Speaking of work, I got to do something really fun last week. As I’ve mentioned before, I work as a personal assistant for a family. I do a little bit of everything–cooking, cleaning, bookkeeping, errands, baby sitting, etc.–and last week I had to make penguin cookies for the youngest child’s birthday party. I went on Pinterest, typed in “penguin cookies” and hoped for the best. I used two different recipes; one featured Oreos, and the other was made with crackers and peanut butter. They both looked pretty similar, though. Here’s they came out…

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While I was making the cookies, I was listening to Christmas music and just jammin’ out with the family’s dog by my side. I kept thinking how blessed I feel that I get to do things like this for my job. When I graduated from college a year ago, I had no idea what was in store for me work-wise, but I would have laughed if you told me I’d be making penguin cookies in someone else’s house on a Friday afternoon. I can’t imagine life any other way right now, though!

Since we’re on the topic of food, I thought I’d share a soup recipe I recently made. I found this chicken and parsnip soup recipe online and gave it a whirl. Jimmy wasn’t a huge fan–I think the parsnips freaked him out–but I really enjoyed it. I loved that it was different than a basic chicken soup recipe because the parsnips added a nice kick. It goes great with corn muffins, but I’m probably biased because cornbread is one of my favorite foods.

Continuing with the randomness… guess what! Jimmy and I bought new windows for our house! They were much needed, and we can already feel a difference in heat retention overnight. Though, we didn’t have a problem with cold weather today. I took a snapshot on my phone of my weather app while I was walking Lola today.

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70 degrees in Pittsburgh. In December. Wow! I’ll take it 🙂

Alright, that’s enough randomness for today. I’m off to print cookie recipes. My mom and I are baking cookies together next weekend to assemble cookie trays to give to our neighbors as Christmas gifts. I’m so excited!

How is the weather where you live?
Tell me something random!

Two screen shots + some pictures

First of all, thank you to everyone who commented (and emailed/Facebooked/text messgaed) me about my last post.

Wow. I didn’t expect to receive so much support and advice. I love the blogging community and the amazing friendships I’ve made. I will definitely keep everyone updated on my situation and how I’m handling things!

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Two screenshots

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The temperature was 39° when I woke up the other day, and I continued to be crabby about the chilly weather by complaining to Jimmy. I better suck it up because I lived through 8° weather in January!

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I’ve been listening to this song way too much.

Some pictures

Hannah
Hannah stole my phone the other day and took some selfies. Now they are on the internet. Love you, Hannah 😉

crocs
I’m really sorry, but I think Crocs are my favorite shoes. I even wear them out in public.

pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is pretty awesome.

Did you know it’s officially fall? Yeah, I bet you already knew that.

Here are some of my favorite fall recipes:
Butternut squash muffins–Don’t knock ’em till you try ’em!
Pumpkin muffins
Pumpkin smoothie
Pumpkin spice pancakes
Butternut squash soup–it only has five ingredients!
Mom’s chili
Rosemary Chicken
Sweet potato-lentil stew
Vegan oatmeal cookies

What’s your favorite fall recipe? Please share!