Dackel Princess

Saturday

It wasn’t a very productive day today. Besides walking dogs, and cooking meals, I’m not sure I did much else that was useful today.

I think it all sort of caught up to me. I just felt tired.

I did watch a few episodes of “What Not To Wear”, and I decided that their hairdresser sure could use a refresher course on restyling hair.

I watched the news and decided that I was glad I was home in my nice warm house and not standing on some railroad platform waiting……….

I made a batch of black bean soup, only to discover that it wasn’t really a great recipe after all.

I went through my closet and took out the clothes that no longer fit me and set them aside. Some for friends and some for charity.

I stripped the extra fur off the ears of Arnie and Greta, and picked up piles of Fritz fur off the floor. Wow, that dog can shed!

I got the mail and picked up some groceries to finish off the weekend, before doing a big shopping next week.

Wait!

I was pretty productive today, wasn’t I? Well, no wonder I’m tired! I think I need to tell Hubby I need a vacation! All this work and no play makes Maribeth a dull girl!

LOL!!!

Tomorrow I will be doing a post on my new jacket. I will be taking a picture of me in it, and then you can all vote if I should keep it or give it to Mandy. Personally, I love the jacket, but I’m going to let you all decide.

Fantastic Friday

Despite the cold weather, today was a great day. I was able to get a lot of things done, and the last box of ordered clothing from Coldwater Creek arrived. Everything fits wonderfully, but one item, a jacket, that I love, Hubby isn’t so sure of.

He says that he has never seen me in such a wild printed “anything” before. I am finding now that I am slimmer, I want to sort of “push the envelope” and try new things. I’ll give it a go at Weight Watchers next week and if the consensus is a no go, then Mandy is a lucky girl, because it is definitely something she would wear.

Hubby is staying busy with games of Scrabble, and this afternoon we got a nice fire going int he hearth to take the chill off of the family room. It’s so cozy when we have the fire .

I also heard back from a woman in Berlin, Germany about fixing up Anneliese for a “hot date” when she comes into heat. Can you believe I get this excited about mating my dog? Woo-hoo!!!

The best part is that I get to see Uschi!

I also made an interesting recipe. A Weight Watchers Blueberry Buckle. If you’re interested, leave a comment and I’ll send you the recipe. It’s super easy, and delicious!

Have a good weekend!

Fffffreeezing!

Okay, it’s cold.

Friday morning 7 AM temperature, -18 degrees (F) !!!!

This is the part of the winter that I just don’t like. The frozen part. We’re having temperatures well before zero (F) and everything has that dry, crunchy feeling that comes with these temperatures.

Of course it’s great for the lakes. It means that our annual Ice Fishing Derby in February will probably go off without a hitch because the ice will surely be thick enough.

It also means that the dogs, even Fritz run in and out to do their business. No one is out for too long. Me either. I’ve had to go out for the mail and a doctor’s appointment, and trust me when I say that I was well gloved, coated and hatted, and went from house to post office to car as quickly as I could!

Tonight my hands feel cold even though I’m sitting here in my skiing, super warm, long johns and a fleece robe, two pairs of socks and have a blanket over my knees!

It’s not that the house is all that cold, it isn’t really, but my body seems to react to the cold in strange ways even if I am sitting in a warm place!

They are predicting this cold for the next few days. I guess that means I will be going out for short intervals and dressing for it.

Sheesh! Here I work at losing all this weight and in order to dress warmly enough now, I have to put on so many layers that it makes me look like I did a year ago!

Come on Springtime!!!

I’m “Lifetime”

Today at Weight Watchers I got my “Lifetime” card. Basically this means that for the last six weeks I have been able to maintain my weight, and now I enter a new phase of maintaining my weight on a long term basis.

You know a year ago I looked like this:

But with hard work, and learning a new way to look at food, prepare it and portion it out, I met my goal and now I look like this:

(Me with my daughter, Mandy)

I’ve set a few new goals for myself. I would like to firm up my body now and get in shape. Unfortunately the old body doesn’t respond at 50 the way it did at 20, but that’s okay. I think I’ll use the same philosophy to get in shape physically, that I did to lose the weight. “One Day At A Time”.

I think that in time I would like to go on and perhaps become a Weight Watchers leader. I would like to be at my goal weight for a little longer, but I think I have a lot I could offer to other people searching to control their weight.

But for tonight I’m enjoying the achievement of reaching “Lifetime” at Weight Watchers!

A Three Dackel Day

Here is another post about my dackels.

It started this morning when I went into my bedroom to wake Hubby. I’d gotten up about an hour before, but I needed to shower and dress for an appointment, so I went in to wake him and say good morning.

As I walked in and pulled up the shade, what did I see?

Yes the adorable Miss Greta, curled up underneath the covers with her Daddy! I stopped and stroked her and talked to her, and I could feel her tail wagging. Greta can be the sweetest little Angel. When she wants to be! lol! In the mornings, when the puppies have gotten up and she is alone in bed with her Daddy, she WANTS to be.

Later in the morning we were having a tough time with the puppies. They kept sitting up on the back of the sofa barking at the birds.

Eventually I had to pull the shades because the barking was so loud. I truly think it is a plot by those wild birds to drive the dackels insane. Or perhaps the plan is to drive me insane, because the barking really drives me up the wall!

Later in the afternoon the temperatures began dropping. Anneliese was chilled and shaking, so I brought out her little doggy sweater. She loves the sweater!

She wore it around the house, snapped at Arnie when he got to close to it, and just kept it on. She stretched out on the carpet, snuggled in the chair next to me and eventually wanted to go outside.

So I let her out and I watched. My crazy dackel ran through a foot of snow with a joy, seen only when observing little kids playing in the snow, after school has been called off! She ran and ran and eventually I called her in. The sweater was totally covered with snowballs! I lifted it off her and hung it to dry. And Anneliese climbed up in the chair next to me and fell asleep.

Ah, it sure is a dog’s life, isn’t it?

Therapy

I put Hubby to work today. Yesterday he mentioned that he’d like me to make him a Splenda (sugar free) Apple Pie. I was too tired to make it last night, but this afternoon I had him up and peeling apples for the pie. I think he enjoyed using his New England Apple peeling, coring and slicing machine. It certainly was good therapy, with a tasty payoff!

Once he filled the bowl with sliced apples, I mixed up the Splenda and spices and put them into a pie shell and baked it. We’ll have it for dessert tonight after dinner.

During the day today the pups played and were enjoying their usual good life, when the phone rang and it was Mr. UPS Man. He was at the top of our driveway and had a box of goodies for the doggies. I drove the Jeep up and picked up the box, then came back and let each of the dogs have a fresh, yummy basted bone!

As you can see, Anneliese really enjoyed hers! lol!!!

I noticed as I was getting the picture of Anneliese that I was being watched. I turned around slowly and then backed up just a little.

I mean, how cute is this? Mr. Arnie tends to be my model. He is sort of a ham that way, and has been since he was just a little guy.

It was a nice day, a quiet day and I was happy about that. Later this week things will get busy with doctor’s appointments and the possibility of more snow, so it was nice to have a day of rest.

De-Lurking Day

Hi Everyone. Once a year a whole handful of bloggers I know get together and we have a day we call De-Lurking Day.

This is a day when we ask everyone who may be reading our blogs to comment. Just say hi, guten tag, bonjour, hola, ciao, or well, you get the idea.

We all love to get comments, and more than anything we love to know from what part of the world you are commenting from.

So don’t be shy, join the fun and De-Lurk!

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Meanwhile, here is the latest news from New Hampshire. On Saturday night we got 8 inches of fluffy white snow. Oh how pretty!

NOT!

Not when you are the one chiefly responsible for clearing the walk and pathways up. Fortunately we have a man who is plowing our 500 foot driveway while Hubby is not well, but the pathways, stairs and dackel runways, are now my responsibility. All I can say is: WOW! Pass the anti-inflammatory medication! I’ve decided that it’s time to invest in a smaller snow blower just for me to use.

We also had to pull the shades in the family room. Why, you ask? Well because we have 3 dachshunds and a German Shepherd that hop up on the sofa and watch all the snow mobiles on the lake and the barking is enough to cause permanent deafness!

The good news is that Hubby is feeling a bit better. He even got out of his chair today and took a shower and shaved, and despite my aching muscles, that alone made me smile!

Now remember to leave a little comment. It’s De-Lurking Day!!!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Each year on January 12th I celebrate the day that my dear friend and sister, Uschi and I met each other. What a lucky day that was! This year we are celebrating 8 years of friendship! Two women, from very different backgrounds, who found each other and learned that we are “sisters”. I wish she and I lived closer (she is in Germany and I am in New Hampshire, USA), but we have never allowed those miles to matter to us.

So Happy Anniversary, dearest and may we know many more years together, as friends and sisters in our hearts and souls!

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Dogs, Cameras & More

Last night was a cold, clear night and when I went out with Anneliese I saw the moon and how beautiful it looked. Many of you know how to take great night pictures with your cameras, but I have never had much luck. Until now. Remember I bought Hubby a new camera for Christmas? Well, I’m having a great time with it….and it takes great night shots easily!

Anneliese watched me quite intently.

During the day today I practiced a little more with it and both Anneliese and Arnie were great models.

Anneliese loves to dig in the snow and sometimes tunnel underneath.

You see how Arnie was able to get the snow just so on his beard so that he looks simply adorable!

I was able to get out to the grocery store today and get the last few things I need before the next snow storm, which is forecast for tomorrow.

Hubby is doing well. We’ve been watching movies, and reruns of NCIS and keeping busy. One movie we watched was “True Grit” with John Wayne. That was a great movie, with fabulous cinematography.

It looks like tomorrow I will have to conquer the recycling center. It’s not my favorite place to go, but I think I should get the trash dumped before the snow comes.

Wish me luck!