Twice Eatened Steak

Before jumping directly into the main event of the blog, let me breifly show everyone the Christmas presents that I got for two of my nephews. These little stocking stuffers are called Flarp bags (or Stink bags). Each of them received a five pack of these little ditties. I knew that the potential was high for a little drama when I purchased them but I didn't plan on getting into trouble buying them. It took the boys less than five minutes to read the instructions (that is rare) and to go outside and sabotage someone with them. Apparently the smell is very similar to rotten eggs. Of course, that action took less than 5 seconds for me to be blamed. IT WAS WORTH IT THOUGH!!!!



Now back to the main event .... Is "eatened" even a word? If it isn't it, you will understand it by the end of the post (I hope).

New Years Day is a very special day at the Lee House. On top of being off work, watching lots of football and eating too much, it is also Rusty's birthday. This year he turned six.

By all rights, Rusty lives a VERY good life. He even has his own special "puppy" schedule:

1. He wakes up around 6:00 each morning and goes to the bathroom with me. Usually, he sleeps while I shower, brush my teeth and prepare for the day.

2. He gets fed around 6:30 each morning. This means that he needs to go outside around 6:35.

3. After breakfast, he spends the day laying around the house. He has a crate where he spends some time, he lays on the sofa for a little while and spends some more time staring out the front door protecting the house.

4. Around 3:30 the girls get home from school and basically ignore him, except to let him go outside and potty.

5. Around 5:00 I get home and we go out to play. This is immediately followed by dinner for him.

6. He spends the evening going in and out, time to potty, chase squirels, etc. Sometimes, he simply lays up against on of us and naps.

7. Around 10:00, he climbs into the bed (with or without us) and goes to sleep.

I know that we all have internal clocks but this dog has mastered the art. He knows breakfast, dinner, playtime, and has even mastered the days of the week to know when he gets to go on a "bye bye" trip versus when I am simply getting ready to go to work. Amazing.

Due to his food allergies, we do not feed Rusty table scraps. But being his birthday, I decided to share a small piece of steak with him. The steak was a little too spiced for Rusty's taste and stomach. Within one minute of munching down the steak, he threw it right back up.

This occurred right beside the dinner table right beind me. I can't handle these moments in life. My general rule is that if I see someone throw up OR if I can smell the throw up, I am going to sympathy throw up.

In this instance, Rusty managed to throw up within two feet of my chair directly behind me. Grrrrooooossssss!!!!!!! Thankfully, I did not follow suit.

Immediately following the disgusting sound of Rusty expelling the steak, I heard the sound of licking. Can you imagine?

I refused to look, but it was clear that Rusty was right behind me cleaning up his mess. Big E and Brooke were laughing and starring at Rusty (they were both still eating!!!!) as he ate the previously launched contents of his stomach. Little E and I were not laughing and could have done without the play-by-play of the events from Big E and Brooke.

I don't know how he managed to do it but the dog ate the steak twice. When he was done, he had the nerve to come sit right beside me and stare while I finished my dinner. He actually wanted more!!!!!

Thankfully, the steak stayed down the second time!!! If the steak had made a third appearance, I probably would have given him even more to eat (if you know what I mean).

Green Tip of the Post: This really isn't a tip as much as a brag. I've been watching and reading a handful of blogs and websites devoted to living frugally. I decided that one of my goals this year to be more frugal without impacting our daily lives. To do this, I've been devoting a little time almost each day to collecting coupons, reviewing sales ads (online and in store), and planning trips to stores rather than going and grabbing.

My first big change was to sign up for the CVS extra care card. This card actually provides extra discounts on some items, cash back in the form of CVS dollars (Extra Care Bucks) on some items and rewards us with another percentage (2%) back on our purchases quarterly.

Our latest trip to CVS cost a total of $39.40 which was a total savings of $53.35. The biggest cost items where the razors (which cost a fortune each month in a house with four women) and the hair coloring stuff. The picture below doesn't look like much, but there was just short of $40 dollars retail of razors and blades in the pile alone.

In addition to our CVS trips, we have also been working on our grocery store trips. Today, we managed to return home with $194.58 in retail value for a total cost of $110.91. Considering that the majority of the products where meat or entree related, we should be set for food for at least two maybe three weeks.