A life update!

Life has been a little crazy here recently. For those of you that know my husband is in the Air Force he recently deployed for six months. My best friend has moved into the house with me so my food budget is slightly lower cooking for two females.

Cooper our puppy is now six months old. He had the snip yesterday so unfortunatly he is feeling a little groggy and struggling to get around with his cone but I'm hoping he will start feeling better soon. I plan to write his 6 month update soon.

Our biggest upcoming life change is that we are expecting our first baby in November. I am currently 16 weeks pregnant. We are very excited for this change and now that the morning sickness phrase has stopped I'm hoping to get back to blogging. I will most likely be including updates on what we are buying and taking pictures of our nursery. However I still plan on doing recipes, food hauls, food plans and some natural alternatives.

I hope you will enjoy reading about these big changes we have coming up. Have any of you got anything life changing happening this year?

Claire

My apologies

First off all I offer my apologies for the lack of posts. I'm hoping to be much more organised over the next couple of weeks but here is a round up of what we've been up to.

Cooper went for the last of his vaccines and had doubled in weight since his last appointment. We have also started puppy training classes with him and today will be week 2 of 6. He did really well last week and seemed to enjoy himself. He knew how to do the tricks they started on but with being a typical lab I don't think he minded taking part as it meant he got treats! The rest of the puppies are small breeds and he is already the biggest by a fair bit so we imagine by week 6 he will seem like a giant to the rest!!

 We have got two anniversaries coming up within the next week. Ours on Sunday where my parents are going to puppy sit and we will go out for the day, we are unsure of where yet so anyone who's in the Norfolk/suffolk area with some ideas please share!  Then on Tuesday we have my parents 25th anniversary! A group of use are going away Monday to Friday to celebrate this.

The last few weeks have seemed very busy with doing a bit of early spring cleaning, enjoying some walks with the lovely weather we've been having and generally just getting ready to go away. My car also failed it's mot so is having to have some work done. This was budgeted for but I still begrudge handing the money over! If we didn't both work early mornings we could just have the one car as I rarely use mine other than to and from work and the occasional visit to friends.
We stuck to our food budget this month with a little left to spare. Once we are back from our trip we are thinking about going paleo-ish. My sinuses have been playing up which I think is dairy related and I have been falling on cereal and toast for quick breakfasts that I would like to be more motivated to change. When away I will make a meal plan out of the list of meal ideas I've gathered and we will see how it goes.
How was the end of February for you? Have you got anything planned this month?

Claire

Coopers new car harness and a walk!

As my husband is american he had Monday off for Presidents' Day. Once I had come home from work and we had breakfast we decided to go out. Our first stop of the day was pets at home. We have been holding cooper on our laps in the car but now that's he's going for slightly longer walks we decided it was time to get him a car harness so I can travel to nice walking spots with him. As you can see from the pictures below he didn't mind it but needed bribing at first!!

Not far from out house is elveden estate. This is a courtyard with some nice shops and a cafe but our main reason for going was for their nature trail. It was a nice day and we all really enjoyed being out in the fresh air. The fresh air defiantly made us hungry so we treated ourselves to a warm drink and a sandwich in their cafe. It's more expensive than we like to pay for a casual meal but we haven't eaten out much lately so we thought it would be a nice treat.

Once we were home cooper slept for most of the afternoon and we got to enjoy our beef stew which had been cooking away in the slow cooker all day.

Tesco food haul

After our  Last shop we had £27 left in our budget. Tesco send  an email with a £15 off a £60 voucher and I also had a voucher though the post for £5 off £25. I decided if these worked together and that we could save £20 we would use it before they expire and take the extra money out of next months budget. The total shop came too £41.81. Therefore we will take £14.21 out of next month. I didn't take any photos but I will list the items below and include some recent pictures of our puppy towards the end.

Fruit and vegetables:

• Organic potatoes
• Pears
• Bananas
• Organic lemons
• Grapes
• Organic pink lady apples
• Mixed peppers

Fridge

• Cheese
• Organic Greek yogurts
• Organic milk

Meat

• Chicken leg quarters
• Chicken breast packs x2
• Steak x2
• Streaky bacon
• Gammon steaks
• Diced beef
• Salmon fillets

Other

• Popadoms
• Curry sauce
• Passata x3
• Ice cream
• Granola
• Cleaning spray for pets

Puppy update

So cooper has been with us for 12 days!  He's settled in well and is feeling very much at home!

The picture above is him after he had his first bath! He's a real water baby he even licks water off the ground  when it's been raining! Since being here he has learn to sit, he goes in his crate by himself and is happy most of the time to west his collar. He is also mostly toilet trained with just a couple of accidents indoors.

On Tuesday he went to the vets for his second round of vaccines and was really well behaved. We had him weighed and we guessed correctly with him being 5.8kg. He is a typical Labrador who loves food and will do anything for it so we are hoping this will help with trick training.

Today he is meeting my cousins dog who is an 8 year old Labrador so we are excited to see how he reacts.

Welcoming cooper to the family

Yesterday we picked up a yellow Labrador puppy who we have called cooper. He is settling in well with minimal accidents.

He is already enjoying ruling the household and has found his spot near the sofa for sleeping. I hope to include some blogs on some natural dog care such as home made treats and eco friendly accessories. 

Is there anything you would recommend?