Dackel Princess

Slimming

I have now stayed faithful to the Weight Watchers Plan for two days. I can tell my clothes are starting to feel big on me! I swear to God they do!

I saw a woman in a store who knows me from class and she tried, in a very nice way, to make me feel less bad about the weight I have gained back. Her smiling face, just made me want to do this even more.

So, we are eating fish tonight for dinner!

I also made up one of my favorite drinks. Lemonade. I make it with Splenda and it just quenches my thirst like nothing else (except a good cold German Beer! Ah, I digress!), and helps me stay on the plan.

I leave for my sister’s home on Friday, and we are taking my Mom out for dinner to celebrate her 81st birthday, I groaned when she told me this, not because I don’t want to go out, but because it is hard for me to stay on plan when I am not in control of the food.

I told her we have to go to a place where they have grilled or broiled fish and salads! I really do not want to jinx myself the first week back. Perhaps, I will take my sister on a couple of walks around her neighborhood and swim in her pool to keep my calorie intake under control!

I will also get to see my nephews and niece, their children and my cousins and their kids as well. It should be a fun summer family reunion!

Barbecues & Cute Dogs

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

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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!

Back On The Wagon

It’s now 7 PM on Tuesday night and I have finally had a chance to sit down! The best part of a vacation is all that you get to do while you are on it. The worst part is trying to catch up on everything, when you get back!

Today I started the day paying bills, washing shelves and organizing the house. I walked the dogs, tidied their toys and then I started the ironing. Oh, I cannot begin to tell you how much ironing I had to do. I ironed and watched “All My Children“, I ironed and watched an hour of “Wimbledon Tennis“, I ironed while Hubby attempted to watch “World Cup Soccer“. Finally, just before it was time to start dinner, I finished ironing.

I got our dinner started and then made dinner for the dogs. At this point the day seemed to be dragging along. No matter how productive it was, my mood was grumpy and unsettled and then it hit me.

Wednesday is Weight Watchers Day!

Let’s just say that I REALLY enjoyed Germany! I mean REALLY! So Wednesday is going to be sobering to say the least!

See how much I enjoyed Germany!

I have determined not to beat myself up, but to go to class, and get onto the program again. I know what I have to do and so I will stop crying like a baby and just DO IT!

Anneliese is showing early signs of being pregnant. Besides being very tired, she wants her Mama (me, not Greta) all of the time. I am really hopeful that a week from now, we will be getting a positive exam with our Vets.

Fritz & Berlin

I need to start off this post by letting you all know that Fritz’s pathology report came back and he is going to be okay! The doctors got all the tumor and there shouldn’t be a re-occurrence of the problem! Hubby and I are rejoicing tonight!!!

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I was sitting here thinking of Uschi and Volker and the wonderful time I had with them in Berlin. So, I went through all the pictures we took, found my favorites (way too many, so this is a tad long) and made a montage.

Watching it brings tears to my eyes, as I recall the time spent with my dear friends! I hope I will be able to make a trip back, soon!

Berlin June 2010 Germany from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

As I said the video is a little long, but full of smiles and doggies and happiness!

Fun Monday

Melli over at Prevailing Insanity is hosting this weeks “Fun Monday”. So here we go…

Show me (or tell me about) that ONE item in your house that you would just LOVE to put in the next neighborhood yard sale – or take to the dump – but that for SOME reason you just “can’t”… and share the reason too!

Okay, let’s see, my bedroom set. The furniture is about 40 years old and it is not something I picked out. It came with Hubby when we married. Over the 22 years of our marriage I figured it wasn’t important enough to do anything about, because after all, how much time are you in bed awake over the years, looking at this?

But it is boring, and old and I just do not like it! Here are a few pictures.

This is my dresser. You can probably tell because of the jewelry box (not much there, I don’t wear too much) and the dackel items and the red-headed dancer stuck in the mirror.

This is Hubby’s dresser. Trust me, it usually isn’t that neat (neither is mine!).

And our bed. I really dislike the headboard and would like an entirely new set. However, I realize that this set will do until I move from this house…someday.

Three Dackels & A Shower

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!

Fritz News!

Yesterday our White Shepherd, Fritz was operated on. He had a rather suspicious lump on his neck and we became quite worried about it when it began to grow. So, we arranged surgery to remove it. We are still hoping for the best, as our Vets have sent the tumor off to pathology for a definite diagnosis, but my Vets told us to be prepared for the worst.

So, I brought Fritz home last night and went back and forth between steely determination and tears. I really am hoping that all will be well, but I am fairly convinced that it is malignant as they suspect.

I’m holding the right thoughts, that my furry white friend will be making a complete recovery!

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Anneliese is showing me many signs of the early part of pregnancy. She puts herself to bed at about 8-8:30 each night, and then the rest of the time is stuck to me like glue! She is cuddly, and loving and very sweet. Not that she isn’t like this normally, but it is just more so right now.

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I decided to make a beer batter fish and chips tonight for dinner. I found a recipe, even watched a video showing how to do this. The end result…It was terrible. The fish was cooked, so we peeled off the beer batter, and ate the white meat of the Haddock, but both of us agreed we enjoy the Haddock broiled much better.

So we will chalk that up to experience! Ha!

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I got my peas tied up, and the garden is doing well. I need to get some Miracle Grow vegetable plant food, and spray that out. All in all, I am really pleased with the garden this year!

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Have a great Saturday, Everyone!

Friday Fil-Ins

1. _I woke at_ 6:58.
2. It was the reason, of course, _due to jet-lag_.
3. _Staying up all night long_ is something I no longer feel the need to do.
4. I have another errand to run, then _I’ll be able to sit back and relax for a while_.
5. _Love is everywhere_…just go find it
6. What were once vices _are now virtues_.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to _a quiet dinner with Hubby_, tomorrow my plans include _catching up with house work_ and Sunday, I want to _enjoy my furkids and husband_!

Hitting The Wall

I woke up this morning early, very early, again. I felt bright eyed, so I got up and walked the dogs, made coffee and answered some email. You know those people who ask what time of day is your best time of day? This morning I would have answered “morning”, although I have really never been a morning person.

I digress.

I made breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, and finished netting the cherry tree by putting a skirt along the bottom. I came in, kissed Hubby good-bye, and then, while talking on the phone with my sister, swept the bathroom and kitchen, washed both floors and took the throw rugs down to the basement to wash.

Late morning found me washing shelves in the bath and kitchen and then actually stopping long enough to make my lunch. A lovely salad. Yes, I was being super productive and seemed to have endless energy.

Until I finished my lunch, and then I slowly started to feel woozy!

My brain felt like it was stuffed with wool, and I felt chilled, despite the warm and humid temperatures.

I kicked off my shoes and took my blanket and lay down on the sofa with Anneliese, Arnie and Greta, who were all a little concerned about this uncharacteristic behavior, and all jumped to my side to nurse me.

I fell instantly asleep, a deep, heavy sleep and stayed this way for over an hour before waking with an aching head, and feeling even more tired than I did before.

COFFEE!!!

I made myself a strong cup, splashed some water on my face and tried to wake up. As the coffee warmed me, and I shook the cobwebs from my head, I realized that I had hit the wall! The Jet-lag wall. This was bad, but then good too.

You see, now that I have hit the wall, I should wake up on Thursday in my own time zone, functioning at my usual lazy level. Not too awake and not too sleepy either.

So it’s back to my life here in New Hampshire. Back to meetings, and dogs, and husbands that must be fed proper meals.

I’m finally back home.

Tuesday In New Hampshire!

Tuesday I was officially initiated into my Altrusa Club. Altrusa is a great way to give back to your community and there are a wonderful group of women here in town that I will be working with. I’d started several months back to apply and tonight was the ceremony. It was so special and made me feel very much wanted and needed as an important part of our community.

Here we are being initiated. It was such a lovely ceremony, full of care and love.

With my sponsor, Vickie. She has been so supportive of my desire not only to join Altrusa, but to run for Library Trustee.

I arrived home rather late and found Hubby had enjoyed some of the Beef Burgundy that I prepared for him. He said it was very good. It definitely smelled like it!

Anneliese is still going to sleep very early at night. Either she is pregnant and feeling exhausted by it, or she has very bad “doggy jet lag”.

I planted a few extra squash plants today that I had been growing as backups in the green house. Now everything is planted.

We have just one last skirting to tie onto the smaller cherry tree. I think next year we will have to get new netting and figure out another way to net those trees. It has really been a challenge to net them this year!

It was an amazingly beautiful day here today! 74 degrees, bright sunshine and a gentle breeze! It reminded me why I love New England summers!

Have a great Wednesday Everyone!