Last fall my sister was in town with her 9 month old Silky Terrier, Louie.. she brought him over to play with Enzo, our Italian Greyhound puppy who was about 14 weeks or so. They had a lot of fun playing.

Originally uploaded by madaise.

I was loading some pictures to a local-to-me pet group (937pets.com, if you happen to be in the area).. and I was going through my flickr account looking for a few cute pics of the furry kids.

I came across this one of Enzo (italian greyhound @ 6 mos old)… he’s in his red long-john pjs, helping me with laundry. Of course.. he’s the one that pees on it.. and then I wash it..

He’s been the hardest pup to housetrain.. but he is getting better. I knew going into our “relationship” that IG’s were typically hard to house train. Really, I don’t think he’s as bad as I thought he’d be. He learned the potty box (indoor) pretty quick, but he still piddles on clothes on the floor (I need to work on training US to not leave things lying on the floor) and he’ll sneak and pee on the blankets – rotten.. so we have to keep bedroom doors shut… We’re learning real well.. lol.

But aside from that.. he’s just the cutest pooch. He’s my little love.

Originally uploaded by madaise.

I was just going to introduce Enzo our newest addition to the family (as of October).. he’s a 6th month old italian greyhound… he’s my little love, my little snuggler.. he’s a thief.. full of energy and orneriness.. loving, caring… and he’s best known around the house as the “pooping machine”.. ( (you see.. iggy’s are notoriously difficult to house train.. adding insult to injury, Enzo cannot eat anything other than dog food (and don’t even think about switching up the dog food!), otherwise, his poor system gets all out of whack and we end up with 20 piles of nasty poopies in about 6 hours time – that’s TOO much! – oh.. sorry.. did I share too much?… it’s gets better..) )

Just as I was about to share Enzo (altho if you are a semi-frequent visitor here, you have probably seen his picture in my flickr bar).. I started to get sick (as in toss my dinner)… Now.. my whine.. I was diagnosed with crohn’s disease about May 2006.. but I started getting very sick around January of that same year.. so sick, I was losing weight (20 pounds – know me in person? I can’t afford that!), in so much pain.. but without insurance, it’s hard to get much done.

Thanks to my mom, I got the main test done to confirm that yes, I really have crohn’s disease (and apparently it was pretty bad – according to the dr, as if I didn’t know that, lol).. so now I’m on meds (that cost a fortune!).. but over the holidays I switched (per dr) to a different med, one that is much cheaper.. within just a few short weeks I was feeling like I did last January.. so much pain.. and now it’s taking time to get back to where I was around Thanksgiving time…

My whine tonight was feeling sorry for myself.. I hate feeling so sick.. I hate this pain.. but I’m not going to whine.. I’m ok. I haven’t shared much about the crohn’s in the past year.. I don’t know why. I will, I should, I guess?

1 lb. ground beef
3 large onions
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 can (16 oz.) tomatoes
1/2 c. uncooked regular rice
1 to 2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees

In a large pan, cook ground beef, onion and green pepper until meat is brown and vegetables are tender.

Drain off fat.

Stir in tomatoes, rice, chili powder, salt and pepper; heat through.

Pour into ungreased 2 qt. casserole dish.

Cover and bake 1 hour.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Recipe Credit: Betty Crocker’s Piggy Bank Casseroles Copyright 1976, 1970 by General Mills, Inc.