Party Pizzas

Kevin's Nana makes the yummiest Party Pizzas for holiday gatherings and I finally asked her for the recipe.  We enjoyed them for NYE and plan to make them again for the Super Bowl.

Recipe:

1 loaf of mini/ party rye bread

1 lb pork sausage

1T Kinder The Blend seasoning

1 lb of original Velveeta cheese

Directions:

Brown the sausage with a generous sprinkle of The Blend seasoning.  I like to do the sausage extra crispy.  Drain and pat off any excess grease with a paper towel.  Cube up the Velveeta.  This feels like a very Midwest thing to say :)  Return to the skillet and add in Velveeta cubes.  Melt and stir until well combined.  Lay the mini slices of bread out on a cookie sheet.  Scoop a spoonful of sausage + cheese mixture onto each piece of bread.  Spread out evenly.  Pop them in a preheated 400 oven for 8-10 minutes until the mixture is bubbly and a little toasty.  Serve warm!  These reheat well, too.

These Party Pizzas would be a delicious addition to any appetizer spread.

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday, friends!  I'm thrilled to report this week was a really nice week.  We had a long weekend, Mr. Mittens is recovering nicely and we are heading into the weekend with a huge snow storm headed our way.  We are all dreaming of some virtual learning days in our future.

1. A parent in my room this year is an artist and she has painted me the cutest things.  Her latest gift - a Valentine's Day rug!  It's so cute!

2. Leo would like to recommend his favorite book series - Bad Kitty!  He says he can read them with just a little bit of help.  

3. I am loving seeing all of the National Championship merch that is coming out.  The boys love the bison.  We haven't gotten over the IU excitement yet!

4. Bonus points!  Fletcher had the opportunity to earn some bonus points by going to Coldstone and ordering a certain flavor.  Sign me up for that kind of homework.  He loved the Peanut Butter Perfection.

5. Mr. Mittens is on the mend.  We have eased up on his restrictions and he couldn't be happier.  He's got a follow up vet visit soon, but all signs indicate he's getting better every day.

6. Deep Blue!  We are making the most of our month long Deep Blue play pass.  We have been 3 times and plan to go again soon.  The boys would recommend wearing grippy socks if you want to climb to the tippy top.

7. Report card rewards.  We are going around collecting report card rewards and really enjoying it.  We haven't really done much of this before, but Fletcher is determined to get all the rewards for his good grades.

8. Warning!  This pasta salad from Costco is delicious, but it's expensive.  I thought we were paying $5.95 for a container, but it turns out somewhere, somehow we paid $5.95/lb and I actually paid $20 for this container of pasta salad.  Yuck!!  We all agreed that we sampled it, saw the $5.95 label on the display and none of us saw it say per pound.  We felt tricked so don't make our same mistake.

9. Blueberry muffin donuts.  We used my new donut pans that I got for Christmas to make the yummiest donuts.  Use the Krusteaz blueberry muffin box mix and it'll work perfectly for donuts.

10. Yay for screen free, creative play!  These two have been making wooden monsters to surprise us at the top of the stairs all week.  

11. Burger bowls!  I love to make a burger with all the toppings and eat it on a bed of lettuce.  It's the yummiest salad.  My family prefers their burger on a bun, but this option works great for me. I also take the leftovers in my lunch.

12. Book club!  I met my friends at a favorite local sushi spot - Wasabi and ordered Hibachi chicken.  It was amazing.  We loved our latest book - On a Quiet Street and it was great to catch up with everyone.

13. Kevin got back from a fun trip with his Dad & brothers to Vegas.  The weather was so nice and he got to see Bumblebee!

14. My favorite weekend splurge - a Parlor donut & iced coffee delivery!  I have everyone's orders saved so I can wake up, hit order and an hour later this arrives on our porch.

15. The big kids have been making blankets and Penny approves.  They have been gifting them and finding people in need of a little extra love to share them with.

16. If you shop at Sams, we highly recommend these two for an easy dinner.  The chicken potstickers are so yummy cooked on the stove top and Teppanyaki vegetable friend rice.  Yummy!  It'll be so much cheaper than eating out and it's delicious.

I hope you have the best weekend!  Stay safe and warm if the snow is headed your way.

See you back here next week.

Linking up with Momfessionals

Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!

It's an exciting time to be a Hoosier!  Indiana fans and residents are beaming with pride, IU apparel is flooding the streets and there is a buzz about Indiana football.  Music teachers are teaching the Indiana fight song and my students are all decked out in IU gear.  I never expected this to happen.  

IU has always been a basketball school.  Home of Bobby Knight. The movie Hoosiers and everything was all about basketball.  Bloomington is the perfect college town.  I loved my years there so much.  When I was a student, we enjoyed a Final Four run in basketball, Bobby Knight was fired and football wasn't on my radar.  And now it's all changed in a very short period of time.  IU football is king.  In Indiana and in the Big 10!?  It's the most surprising and exciting turn of events.  It'll be fun to see how the rules of college football adapt and change in the coming years with NIL $$, the transfer portal and so many changes.

The big game was a school night so we made plans to stay home and watch it.  The boys made decorations for the game - IU logos and bisons.  The bison mascot is something we're still getting used to after it's debut this season.  The boys LOVE him so it's been fun to embrace Hoosier the bison.

I made an IU charcuterie board for the big game.

We all sported red for the Hoosiers.

Olive made us a Crimson mocktail (Lemonade + cherry juice) to go with our game day appetizers.

Leo tried to convince our friends to love IU.  He says he's going to play football at IU and made me promise to come to all of his games.  I promised to be his biggest fan.  I also promised to sign him up for flag football as soon as he's old enough to play.

The game was close.  Miami kept coming back and IU would repsond.  It was a little stressful at times, but it was so much fun to see this team work together and fight for one more win.  Mendoza is an amazing QB and it's been so much fun to cheer for IU football.  The kids have it on their radar to make it to a game next season.  Yes, please!

Sign me up for all of the cute IU merch, celebrations and parades.  I loved hearing about so many friends making the trip to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl and then to Miami for the National Title Game.  It felt like the whole state stayed up late to cheer on the Hoosiers.  My students were worn out the next day.

How long is too long to leave up our candy cane Hoosier Christmas lights!?

Asking for a friend.

A season we will never forget!

We Survived

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you are just happy to survive?

That was us this week.

We survived... barely.  And we are thrilled for a three day weekend.

It all started last Saturday when Mr. Mittens started throwing up.  That's not his normal behavior so I kept an eye on him for several days and it didn't stop.  We felt so bad for him.  I called first thing Monday morning to get him an appointment ASAP.  The vet could see him right away based on his symptoms.  I'm so thankful we found a great vet that we love last year.  I dropped the kids off at home after school and then took him to the vet.  He wasn't thrilled about it.

They did an exam and xrays.  He had a fever and xrays didn't show anything concerning.  All signs pointed to an irritated stomach and stomach/flu like symptoms.  They gave him a hydration shot, an anti nausea shot and special food to calm his belly.  I had to call in the next day to let them know how he was doing.

Tuesday, still sick.  Not showing any signs of improving.  Getting worse really because he was withdrawing more.  Back to the vet.  About the same temp, he was dehydrated and still not eating/drinking or moving much.  They did bloodwork and it all came back fine.  More hydration shots, anti nausea shots and call with an update in the morning.

Everyone loved him at the vet's office.  He was curious and sweet, but I just knew something was going on with him.  It was so stressful to not know what was wrong.

Leo's version of our week: 

Sick kitty at the vet all week long.

We talked about our options of an overnight stay to IV hydrate him and more xrays, but decided he'd be most comfortable at home and that more xrays might not really be that helpful.  He was not a fan of the big dogs.  He did love all the ladies loving on him in the office.

Wednesday morning: Worse.  Not moving, lethargic, no eating or drinking and still throwing up despite having strong meds in his system.  Bring him back in ASAP to be seen.  I was at work so Kevin took him in and dropped him off before he went to work.

Lots of phone calls back and forth with the vet.  

She asked to do an ultrasound instead of an xray this time because it would be more accurate.  I guess cats are challenging to xray and his first xray wasn't very helpful.  I agreed.  They found what appeared to be a foreign body stuck in his intestines.  No clue what it was at that point.  But they were pretty sure something was lodged in his intestines.

Our options: Surgery immediately or end of life care plan to put him to sleep.  I cried.  

I wasn't expecting those to be our options.  She said he could not survive this obstruction in his intestines.  We had to do something.  We talked through all the details, I talked to Kevin and we came up with a plan.  Mr. Mittens is YOUNG (not even 2) and overall really HEALTHY.  We had no clue on Monday that we'd be dealing with these options on Wednesday.  I wasn't prepared to say goodbye to him.  None of us were.  We'd just gotten him a new brother in the Fall and they have become the cutest friends.  It wasn't time to say goodbye.  So we settled on a plan and his surgery was scheduled for that afternoon.

School was crazy.  I was teaching and had a surprise observation that went great and managing all the vet phone calls in between.  No wonder this felt like the longest week ever.

I called for an update around 1:00pm.  They let me know that he did great!  Surgery was very straight forward and that they did find something in his intestines.  An earbud!?!  We don't really even use ear buds so I was shocked. They said he was up and moving and already seemed so happy.  I cried again.  He was instantly feeling better.  We made the right decision.  They said to pick him up after 4:00pm.

I dropped the kids off at home and zoomed to get him.  

This is where it gets a little funny.  The tech tells me she can tell Mr. Mittens has a big personality.  She says he pulled out his IV before surgery, pulled out 3 staples before they could get his cone on him, wiggled out of his cone like Houdini and so he'd be coming home in a surgery suit to protect his incision and 10 staples.  She said it was nearly impossible for him to remove.  She showed me the foreign object - which I immediately recognized as the orange tip of a Nerf gun bullet.  That little stinker!  We have these all over the house and I never ever thought about the cats eating one.  We are doing a whole house Nerf clean up this weekend.  Those will be outside toys from now on.  And then she gave me special food and a list of restrictions.  We got checked out and headed home.

Mr. Mittens was groggy and glassy eyed, but happy to be home.  We were all so happy to see him.  He started purring and laid on my lap.  He was not a fan of his surgery suit and he seemed annoyed about his new haircut.  We keep laughing at his furry boots.

We have since learned that surgery suits are not impossible for cats to remove.

The special diet is very tasty.

Restrictions of keeping him in a bathroom to prevent him from jumping are tolerable, but not ideal.

Pumpkin really missed his brother.

We head back in a week or so to get his staples out.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation with a pet??  Swallowing something they shouldn't have?  We have had cats for 15+ years and never had anything like this happen.

We survived.  

We took good care of Mr. Mittens and we are all ready for a quiet rest of the month.  Or maybe a quiet rest of the year.  

Hope you have a great weekend!  See you back here next week :)

Linking up with Momfessionals

Most Likely to...

I have a cute cat round up today to tell you a little more about my cats!  We're a cat family through and through and it's been so fun to have an equal number of cats again.  We have had great luck matching cat BFFs when we have two boys (this combo has worked twice for us) and sisters.

Pumpkin //

Most likely to be the boss.

Most likely to be first to the food bowl.

Most likely to get ready with you every morning.

Mostly like to purr first, snuggle first and be in the middle of whatever you're doing.

He is nosey and we joke that his tail takes up its own zip code.

Mr. Mittens //

Most likely to look annoyed.

Most likely to want a sink drink.

Most likely to sleep with one eye open.

Most likely to do something naughty - hop in the washer, dryer, run a lap or two around the house, etc.

We joke that he's so fancy in his tuxedo that he can't be bothered with our antics.

Penny //

Most likely to snuggle you.

First to find Fletcher.

Most likely to be the easiest pet ever.

Most likely to welcome a new family member.  

Most likely to be sad when we travel.

Pearl //

Most likely to keep to herself.

Most likely to be grumpy with her siblings.

Most likely to howl and yowl.

Most likely to sleep with you at night.

Most likely to end up with a cut on her nose from fighting with the boys who have claws.

Pumpkin wants to be close.  Mr Mittens prefers to sleep in a basket nearby.

But set a pretty table and you've got his attention.

We bought new toys for the boys for Christmas and we keep finding Penny playing with them.

Thanks for humoring my cat loving post today :)