Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend!

This was a great weekend for us here in the Dackel Princess House. Our very own Emily was here for the weekend and we did what we love to do the best when Emily is here!

We cooked and we baked and we played games and watched movies and we hugged dackels!

This morning we took a few more pictures. I was just awake, still in my nightgown and a jacket, as we had cold weather move in last night, so please forgive my somewhat disheveled appearance.

You can see how Greta helps me write my blog!

Then it was my turn to take pictures of Emily. The pups were spreading their love onto her, and she enjoyed every minute!

After this, Emily was off to visit with her other friends for the afternoon and I watched The US Open Tennis. Hubby has been complaining that he is “Tennis-d Out” and longs to watch almost anything else on the TV. He better be careful or I will put on my favorite junkie TV show, “Ice Road Truckers”! He really hates that!

So with family, friends and dogs, my weekend was nice and relaxed and very, very, full of love!

Today is another big cooking day. I have more zucchini to use up, so I will be making at least two batches of zucchini bread, and I also have about 4 pounds of ripe tomatoes, so I will be making more sauce to freeze.

I’m really amazed at how prolific my garden has been this year! In the past we have had good luck with things, but nothing like this. Everything is growing, and I have been able to put up so much, in the freezer for enjoyment this winter!

On Saturday I made Hubby one of his favorite meals. Slow-Cooked Boneless Pork Ribs. You toss them in the slow cooker with sliced onions and some of your favorite barbecue sauce and cook them on low all day. They are just yummy!

Oh yes, and the best news regarding eating comes about Anneliese. She is back to eating normally again! This is something I am so happy about.

She’s lost a lot of weight and I was starting to worry, but she is looking good now and when I came home yesterday from getting the mail, she heard me in the basement and started to bark a greeting!

In other words, she is close to being back to her old self!

Arnie was very cute today with Hubby, trying to get on his good side.

It’s my theory that Arnie is trying to convince Hubby that he should be the one to go off on these grand adventures that Hubby takes Fritz on. I’m sure that Fritz tells Arnie how wonderful the adventures are, and poor Arnie feels like he is really missing out on things.

I’ve told him that he’’s not, but a trip to the Post Office with me next week may be what he needs, or perhaps I’ll take him off to the park all by himself for a nice long walk!

So the day dawned, and Anneliese, Arnie, Greta, Fritz and I woke like we always do, and after a walk in the yard where they communed with nature, and I stood there in my robe, slippers, and sunglasses and watched them, we were able to come back in to my freshly brewed coffee.  It always amazes me that until I have that first cup of coffee, I remain in lala land.

We came in and by that time the coffee was made and my first cup of pleasure was poured. I fixed it up, sat down and read my email, while I sipped it.

Have you ever noticed how wonderful that first cup tastes in the morning? I’m not sure why, perhaps it is that after a long night’s sleep, it just makes the taste that much nicer.

I brought Anneliese in this morning for her post operative check up. She is doing very well, and aside from her discomfort, she is healthy and will be well. She has followed me around all day and wanted to sit in my lap or next to me, but all is going as it should.

I’ve got my very last batch of Bread and Butter Pickles soaking and they will be canned tomorrow. After that, I’ve got plums coming and I want to make a couple of batches of Plum Jam. I also plan to bake a Peach Kuchen for Hubby, who has been so wonderful the last few days.

Yes, life goes on, doesn’t it? Yes, sometimes we stumble and fall, sometimes the world doesn’t turn the way you wish that it did, but then…you wake up. You put on your robe and slippers and sunglasses and go outside and breathe.

And you just know, that life is good.

This morning, as I sipped my first cup of coffee, I noticed Greta, sitting quietly in the front window. She looked so beautiful and sweet that I quickly snapped these two pictures.

And I called her name and she looked over at me.

Now isn’t she a beauty?

(Even if she is slightly pudgy!)

My day was spent canning. I made two batches of my Heavenly Peach Jam (19 jars!), as well as peeling, scooping and chopping cucumbers for Moonglow Pickles. That alone (the cucumbers) took me two hours!

I was feeling rather tired and frankly, I would have enjoyed going out for dinner, but both Hubby and I were too tired to even do that, so I made a less than wonderful dinner, which gave me heartburn, and the day finally ended.

Saturday I will can 6 jars of Moonglow Pickles, and perhaps do a little laundry. There is no news on Anneliese at this moment, but I hope there will be soon!

The dogs are all feeling very clingy right now. Here Arnie, Anneliese and Fritz are with Hubby.

Greta was in my lap!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fritz went in to the Vet’s office today to have his ankle re-checked. They removed his cast and and examined him and he appears to be doing well. They want him to be quiet, but they did not recast his leg! So that is true progress! Fritz is thrilled and he is happy to go on short walks in the yard.

After lunch I set up the kitchen to work on my Moon Glow Pickles! I had peeled, scooped out the insides and then diced the cucumbers up yesterday, added 2 chopped onions and one green pepper and one red pepper, also chopped. I soaked this in salt water overnight, and today drained it, and then set it on the stove with vinegar, cloves, mustard seed, and turmeric.

The recipe can be found HERE.

I started to slowly simmer it until it was just starting to get soft. Then I got out my sterilized pint jars and canned 6 pints. I’d only made a half batch, thus the smaller number of jars put up. However, my garden is full of baby cucumbers and soon I will make another batch!

I made our lunch and asked Hubby to take a picture of Anneliese’s ever growing belly. I’m not sure, but she looks smaller to me this time. Part of me worries that this is just a false pregnancy. I’m grateful that we go again on Monday for another ultra-sound. That should reassure me. How does she look to you?

After I see the Vets on Monday I will set up the puppy room. Then I will post pictures of that. I wonder if Anneliese will remember the room and her birthing bed once it is set up?

Sunday I need to DO MY IRONING! Oh, how I dread that job, but I have been very lax about getting that job done, and I’m afraid it has piled up. I’ll break out the ironing board and iron until it is all done. I imagine it will take me a couple of hours.

The next thing on my list is to figure out what to do with all the zucchini I have growing in my garden! Oh dear, you should see the pile of zucchini I have! I’ve been giving it away to friends and neighbors, but I have noticed them avoiding me, whenever they see me, so perhaps I need to stop ’sharing the wealth’!

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone, and Happy Birthday to my brother in-law, Ron!

Well my first day back at Weight Watchers was not as bad as it could have been, but then, not as good either. I decided to adopt the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for this week, as I weighed in. I know exactly what I have to do, and now I just need to get on with it, and do it!

After the meeting I came home, stopping at the grocery long enough to buy some fresh fruit. I know that the more fresh produce that I eat, the better I will do. So I stocked up.

Then I came home and began to prepare for dinner guests. It was an easy meal of chicken and steaks with corn on the cob, potato salad and fresh fruit. Hubby dressed in his finest Barbecue clothes,

and the dogs got ready too.

Greta

Anneliese

Arnie

While we dined outside on the patio with our friends, the moon began to rise and it was so beautiful that I grabbed my camera and snapped this picture.

We had a great evening, and it lasted fairly late, which is why I need to close this off and get myself into bed. The day will start fairly early tomorrow and I absolutely need my beauty sleep!

I started my day off with the dreaded 3 dackel shower. Oh they were all good, as they got soaped up, and then rinsed off, but I have a feeling that given a chance, the three of them would have ganged up on me, and taken me down! LOL

It’d been a while since I’d bathed all three. Usually it’s one here, or one there, but seldom is it that I bring all three in the shower with me.

Today was that day.

I started with Anneliese, because she is the easiest. I soaped her up and rinsed her off. Zip, zip, zip! Then Greta, who was fairly easy to do, and really didn’t fight me, and lastly was Arnie. He squirmed a bit, and wiggled around a little more, but in the end, they were all clean!

Actually, I think they had a lot of fun! At least now, they are clean!

Monday was Veterinarian day. The three dackels went in for their yearly shots, examinations and I bought their heart-worm and flea & tick medications. Now I am broke for the rest of the month! Not really, but it did take my breath away when I got the final bill!

All the dackels are healthy. The two girls are, a little too healthy! Like their Mama Maribeth, they need to be on a strict Weight Watchers program for myself and my girls! Greta has a good 2 pounds to lose and Anneliese is about 1 pound over.

What I am planning is to take the girls on walks once this rain stops. I could use the exercise myself. I’d like to take the girls out in the morning. Walk down and get the mail, and then in the afternoon, take Arnie and Anneliese out for a walk. Fritz doesn’t need to be walked as he is the best boy in the entire world, and runs between our house and our neighbors, but never goes any further. Unfortunately the dackels do, so they need to be walked.

I actually got some spring cleaning done today. Hubby is off training for working on the US Census during the day, and this gives me all kinds of time to clean. What I need now is motivation!

Does anyone out there like to clean?

Tuesday morning we all slept in! I mention this because lately I have been awake by 6 or 6:30 each morning. However, today the dogs and Hubby all were feeling sleepy and no one wanted to get up.

I did move about quarter to 8 and Anneliese leapt onto me with glee! I was covered with kisses by the happiest pup ever. Arnie joined in, greeting the day with pleasure, and Greta lay between Hubby and me putting up with the frivolity. The next thing we knew, Fritz jumped up to join in the celebration of a new day! Both Hubby and I laughed. We are very lucky to have this pack of dogs!

I immediately asked Hubby who had won the ice dancing the night before. The darned skating runs so late that I end up going to sleep about half way through it. I really love the skating and I wish the time was such that I could watch the whole thing. My favorite couple, Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the silver medal! I am so happy for them!!!

Of course none of us see the whole of anything, except maybe Curling and Hockey. We get those completely and at decent times. I have been less than thrilled with NBC’s coverage because they don’t show things live, like the skiing, or ski jumping, when they could. They also do not show us the “minor” players in these events.

You know, if I made it to the Olympics in any sport, I would hope that the world would see me. Think about it. These kids practice 7 days a week, for years and years and years. Don’t they deserve their moment of glory as much as the medal winners do?

I can tell you that I have watched a ton of Curling. Do I understand it at all? Not really. Hubby does. His parents came from Canada and apparently has played and watched the sport over the years enough to tell what the heck they are doing. I do know one thing…there was a girl from Denmark on the Women’s Curling team and she looked really tough. I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark ally.

Best moments, Lindsey Vonn winning gold and Bode Miller winning his medals, all three of them!  And of course Meryl and Charlie! What are your favorite moments?

After breakfast I got all the dackels together and washed them down in the shower. I think I had not bathed them since last summer! In any case, Jack came into the bathroom and I was going to hand him Anneliese to dry, when Greta snuck out of the shower dripping wet and ran from the room! Oh my goodness everything got soaked! We tried to find and dry off each of the girls, and then we got Arnie out. The poor little guy was all alone in the shower. Ah well, rugs dry!

Bathing beauty and all around sneak, Greta!

Now if I had been smart I would have just stayed home, and done housework all day. But no, I decided to run some errands, which is never a good idea.

I did the usual. I got the mail, went to the grocery store and then on my way back home I saw that the car wash was open. Hmmmm, I thought, this Jeep sure could use a wash. It was covered with sand and salt and grime from our sloppy winter roads. However, in the last few days things have dried out and I knew that this would be a great day to get it washed.

I turned in, paid my money, and started through the automatic wash. Splish, splash, spray, and the brushless system, cleaned the Jeep right off. I could hear the under carriage jets washing off below. All was going along well, until we reached the rinsing part of the cycle.

The water came pouring into the Jeep through the drivers side door frame! I got soaked! I tried to put my hand up to stop the water coming in (like that would even have worked!), but it didn’t. I sort of felt like  I was in an “I Love Lucy” episode and glanced around for Lucy’s faithful sidekick Ethel! But all I found was a drenched Maribeth!

I came home soaking wet!

As I sit here tonight, giggling over the events of the day, I have to say one thing, besides having a clean car and clean doggies, I also laughed a lot!

Isn’t that what we hope for at the end of the day?

Love, Life and Lots of Laughter!