Spotlight Thursday – Meet Sugar

Spotlight Thursday

Welcome my friends to SPOTLIGHT THURSDAY.  This is the time that I will introduce you to one of my fellow anipals so you can get to know them better.  Some of them, you may already know.  We hope that you enjoy this series!

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Name:  Sugar (Goffin’s Cockatoo)

Age:   at least 25 years (as a rescue, we’re not sure, but he was born before the import ban of wild-caught birds)

Location:  Colorado

Web/Blog Page:  https://peacewithmylife.com/

What were your first thoughts when you met your new parents?  I was so depressed at the rescue that I didn’t care much if I had new parents or not. The rescue had taken away my mate, and the boy I adored forever (a man, now) didn’t love me anymore. I was too sad to care.

What was the defining moment when you knew you were in your forever home?  When they let me out of my cage to fly around the house, I knew that I wanted to stay and it would all be okay. Flying fixes everything!

What has been your biggest “Oh no, now I’ve done it” moment so far in your home?  Probably the time I bit mom so deeply that she bled a lot, cursed a little, and had to go to get a tetanus shot. I’ve got a powerful beak, you know. I’d bitten everyone by then, and no one liked me; I thought they were going to send me away like the boy did (*hangs head in shame*). I’m so happy they kept me. I don’t bite anymore. Much.

Who do you have wrapped around your paws more – mom or dad – and why? Definitely Mom! I spend a lot of time on her shoulder, and I supervise all her work on the computer. We usually eat together, too, which I just love! I test everything she eats!

What’s the biggest misconception that humans think about you?  They think that just because I’m old, I’m grown up. What are they thinking? I’m a cockatoo! We never really grow up!

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Hope you enjoyed meeting my friend – check back next week for another Spotlight edition!

 

Peep Show – Hint to the Bunny Rabbit

Snorts – I thought that title might get your attention – “Peep Show”. I wasn’t lying. This is a Peep show. Easter is this weekend and we have to think about those famous ever lasting Peeps. They make them in so many different colors and are wonderful! They’re just marshmallow goodness – I heart them!

You can find Peeps shaped like chicks, bunnies and even other animals. They are mainly sugar, corn syrup, gelatin and food dyes. Mommy tells me that they are 100% sugar and she actually limits me on what I can have. Can you believe that?

Hopefully the Easter Bunny – hint hint – will remember that I especially love Peeps and bring me some in my basket. Just a few. I wouldn’t want to get any cavities or anything.

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Or hey mom – maybe we can remember Peeps the next time we cook out in the magical backyard here at the Hotel Thompson? I’ve heard they can be good over the fire too in between some graham crackers. Hint – hint

Do you like Peeps? What’s your favorite kind? I particularly like the yellow chicks… or the chocolate covered ones… or the LARGE ones… or ooohhh the Ghosts at Halloween.

Okay – I give. I LOVE THEM ALL!

 

Travels in the South

Hello friends – welcome to another week of Travels in the South.  Today I bring you one of my dad’s favorite sandwiches.  Doesn’t it look delicious?  This is called a Monte Cristo.  Whenever dad sees it on the menu at a restaurant, he has to try it. Are you asking yourself what exactly is a Monte Cristo?

Well, a Monte Cristo sandwich has smoked ham, smoked turkey and two cheeses in the sandwich.  The sandwich is then lightly battered and fried until golden brown.  See I told you about us before being in the south and frying anything and everything – snorts with piggy laughter.  After the Monte Cristo comes out of the fryer, it’s dusted with powdered sugar, cut into corners and served with an awesome raspberry preserve for dipping.

Be prepared to get messy when you eat this creation.  There will be powdered sugar everywhere.  There will also be groans of OMP this is so good!  So the next time you check out a menu at a restaurant, look for the Monte Cristo.  You won’t be disappointed.

 

Journey with Friends

Welcome my friends to our weekly issue of Journey with Friends. This is a time that we come together for support, for encouragement, for fellowship – all with one single goal in mind – to live better. Welcome to our journey to share our goals and our accomplishments and our disappointments and frustrations.

Together we can do this!

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Hello sweet friends. How did you do last week?  Ups or downs?  Remember life is a process. Things don’t happen overnight and changes take time.

I have great news to share. Six months ago, I had bloodwork done where my A1C came back at the time as 8.3 – not extremely high but too high in my world. Well that is where Journey with Friends started. Little changes at first – cutting back on food, making better choices, walking more. Nothing happened overnight and there were stumbling blocks, ups and downs but still I continued. Well last week I went for my six month check up and had bloodwork done again. Are you ready for this?  My A1C came back 5.9!  Yay me!!  This makes it all worth it in the long run. I’m so thankful for this change.

So I leave you this week my friends with a question.  What are you thankful for this week?  ❤️

 

Paw Time with Houdini

Hello my dear sweet friends.  Another week has come and gone.  Have you had a great one?  The weekend is what I live for here at the Hotel Thompson.  That’s when mom and dad are both home and I can get extra loving in between Mouse Girl, Hemi and Bacon.  But don’t worry about me, I find me some loving for sure.  Like in the afternoons when mom gets home from the worky place.  Guess who gets to go to the mailbox with her to get the mail.  This puppy.  That’s right.  Mommy takes me to the mailbox with her.  There’s all kinds of weird smells out there for a pup like me.  I just sniff at the wind while being carried of course.  Barks – did you think I walked.  No way?

Mom is also down a week on her 8 week challenge.  She and dad are doing 8 weeks of eating straight – no sweets/sugar and mom has given up her soda for that time.  Now that is a HUGE challenge right there in itself.  She only drank soda maybe once a day sometimes two but there’s a lot of sugar in a can so it’s gone and hello water – lots of water.  Tomorrow ends week 1 and only 7 weeks more to go.  They will weigh in officially tomorrow.  I’ll keep you posted next week about mom and how she is doing.

Mom got a picture of me and dad doing what we do best this week.  As you can see, I’ve been working out too – look at those muscles – barks with puppy laughter.  If you look down the hall, you will see the red of my lobster bed.  I spent a while pulling it out of my bedroom and that was as far as I got.  It wore me out and I had to take a power nap with daddy.

 

Well that’s all for me my friends – yawns – I hope you had a wonderful week as well.  Happy weekend!

 

Shopping Around the World

My friends – thank YOU so very much for everyone’s wonderful responses to my and Fozzie’s Shopping Around the World blog posts.  We are having so much fun seeing the different prices from around the world AND looking at some intriguing recipes and dinner suggestions.  They are so totally awesome!  Let’s keep up the great work – remember to link back to my blog here so we can keep up with who is playing and keep up with all of the recipes.

This month we focused on FIVE items of your choice in a dessert.  MMM – licking my piggy lips – this sounds so delicious already!  My mommy promised to make me and daddy one of her all time wonderful desserts – Easy Peanut Butter Pie.

   Now I know you are looking at this picture and going there’s six ingredients not five.  Bacon, can your mom count?  Yep, she can.  One is up to you.  Let’s break the items down first with prices:

Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust – $1.50; Jif Peanut Butter, smooth – $2.50; Lite Whip Cream – $1.00; Cream Cheese – $1.00; and Confectioner’s Sugar – $3.29; Reese’s Mini Cups – $.69= $9.98

Now you really can’t say this easy Peanut Butter Pie cost $10.00 to make because it didn’t.  You’re not going to use the entire jar of peanut butter or the entire bag of confectioner’s sugar.  With that in mind, I would guess perhaps around $5.00.  And the Reese’s Mini cups are optional.  Mom just thinks they look pretty decorated on the finished pie.  And yes she got the mini cups because the paper is already taken off of them – that’s right.  Mom goes for easy – easy to eat while decorating the pie that is – snorts.

  Directions from mom for Easy Peanut Butter Pie:

Make sure that the cream cheese and cool whip are at room temperature.  Mix the cream cheese (1 package), 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and 1/2 cup peanut butter until smooth.  Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.  Spoon the mixture onto the chocolate graham cracker crust.  You can use regular flavor graham cracker – the chocolate just kicks it up a bit.

Please the remaining whip cream topping over the pie.  Now we garnish with chopped up Reese’s peanut butter cups.  This is optional.  You can also drizzle with chocolate.  Chill for at least two hours or overnight.  Now, I would like to say that this picture is what mine looked like.  We made the pie.  Popped it in the fridge overnight and then after dinner the next night we had some friends over and ate the pie…. without taking a picture of it!  Of course, that could have given us an excuse to make another 🙂 winks.

 

Letter From Summer Camp

Dear Family,

Bacon here from Summer Camp.  This will be my final letter from camp.  WOW – it’s been a long week in a lot of different ways and on the other hoof a very short week.  I really didn’t want to come but I have to admit that it’s been kind of fun.  I’ve met a lot of great friends – Scott and Piper.  You are probably wondering who the heck is Piper.  Piggy blushes… she was the strawberry that I had dinner with the other night.  She’s sweet and cute and all girly and from the south.  She gave me her phone number and address so we can stay in touch ❤ .  Oh, and so did Scott.

Last night was talent night here at camp.  All of us had to come up with some kind of talent for the show.  Heck, I had to think hard.  I mean what talent do I have besides pounding a keyboard.. which I’m pretty good with cause the last time I checked I was up at 25hpm (hooves per minute).  So I thought about biting into an apple and laying on the floor but I’m not sure how many of the gang would get that one.  Then it hit me.  I would dance and sing a song of my people so I did.

“I’m a little teapot short and stout.  Here is my handle and here is my … handle.  Damn I’m a sugar bowl.”

It got a great snort and got me off of the stage quickly.

So today mom/dad are coming to pick me up.  I can’t wait.  I’m so ready to jump in the back of the Smart car and get home to my kingdom… my castle… my own bed… my air conditioning.  aaww – I miss that life.  I hope you’ve been entertained this week and that my little brother Houdini has done a good job on my blog.  I instructed him before I left to take care of everyone.

See you soon my friends!

 

Score for the Piggy!

Score for me!  The Easter bun-bun didn’t forget about my love for peeps.  The Easter bun-bun brought me not necessarily a “Peep” product but something similar and look at it – it’s shaped like something I know but I can’t put my snout on it – snorts and rolls with piggy laughter.

It’s a piggy vanilla marshmallow like peep thing.  I was so thrilled to have found it in the bottom of my big bucket.  And trust me my friends.  It was delicious!  Of course, I ate it’s head off first.  What?  Mom was holding his feet – snorts.

And yes – I ate the whole thing.  Daddy couldn’t understand why I was running around the Hotel Thompson afterwards.  Maybe it was all of that sugar sweet daddy of mine.  Snorts – thankfully there wasn’t anyone else here when I devoured my little friend.  Have you ever seen anything so cute?  Squeals!