Author: Dackel Princess

I mentioned yesterday that I had found a wonderful hat for protecting my face from the sun. I received several requests for a picture and so dutifully, Hubby took a couple of pictures of me tonight. Arnie loved the fact that I was sitting down on the floor and he immediately came over and started to kiss me. What a guy!

I really love this hat. It is comfortable and not only keeps the sun out of my eyes and off my nose, but it keeps my hair in place.

This will all be very important because…..as some of you know I will be turning 50 in November and for my birthday, Hubby is taking me on a cruise!

We’ll be cruising out of Puerto Rico again, and will stop in Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Dominica and St Thomas before returning to Puerto Rico. I can’t imagine a nicer way to welcome in the next chapter of my life.

I just love my Hubby!

On Sunday I asked Hubby if he wanted to go to the closest “Big City” and have lunch with me and shop. The day looked to be one where it would rain more than the sun would shine, so why not spend it catching up on shopping for food, clothes and have a little Chinese food to boot?

Around 11 o’clock we got into our station wagon and headed down the highway. Our first stop was one of my favorite shops. LL Bean. It’s been one of my favorite places to get clothes for many years, but as I roamed through the racks of clothes I realized I have changed a little. You see, now that I have a “good figure” I want to dress “Pretty”! In a few months when we have colder weather I will be right back at LL Bean for warm sweaters and turtlenecks, but their summer clothes are just not “pretty”. Serviceable, yes, pretty, no! Hubby wasn’t thrilled with the men’s selection either, so off we went.

Our next stop was the Chinese restaurant where we had a nice peaceful lunch. It was crowded, but we were able to eat leisurely and then get back to shopping!

The next stop was at my new favorite shop, Coldwater Creek. The clothes there make me feel beautiful, slim and good about the weight that I have lost over the last 8 months. I tried on many things and came away with a pair of casual trousers, 2 shirts and a new straw hat to protect my nose from further sun damage.

I actually LOVE the hat best of all. I can tie a scarf around the top, or wear it plain, it’s just so nicely made and I actually think that THIS hat looks good on me. I’m not much of a hat person, so finding one I feel good in, makes me happy.

We finished up there, went grocery shopping and then began the trip back home. It started to rain and as we turned off the highway the most beautiful rainbow appeared. It was large, full and the rows of color thick. From a distance it appeared that the rainbow swept over the sky and was actually touching down at my home. I stared at it the entire time, watching, commenting, utterly transfixed.

Then we turned down the road that led to my home, and like magic the beautiful rainbow disappeared! I felt such disappointment. I’d wanted to run out in our back yard and capture the beauty with my camera, but it was gone.

I walked into the house and grumbled something to Hubby about the lost rainbow, and he said something beautiful. He said, “You can’t see the rainbow when you are inside of it!”

I smiled and thought how lucky we are to live at the Rainbow’s End!

It’s zucchini season! I wonder sometimes why I even bother to plant the stuff. I like zucchini. The first time I have it anyway. But day after day, after day…..well, let’s just say, it gets old really fast!

Tonight I made stuffed zucchini boats. They came out well and Hubby seemed to enjoy them, but all I could think of was that this is only the beginning.

In the past I used to make a lot of zucchini bread, muffins, starchy things, things that are now forbidden to me on my quest for smaller thighs.

As we sat eating tonight Hubby also reminded me that in a few days our purple string beans will be ready to eat. We have a lot of those! I like purple string beans, perhaps more than I like zucchini.

Let me share with you a true story about me and my very first attempts at gardening and perhaps the reason why zucchini is no longer my favorite vegetable.

I was a new bride to Hubby and I had moved into his farm in Southern New Hampshire. That spring I looked out and mentioned that it had always been a dream of mine to have a garden. Hubby was so sweet. He went right out and plowed the garden for me. Then we went and bought the seeds for the garden. Oh I just new I was going to be the very best little gardener ever!

That evening Hubby was preparing to go to work as a pilot, and he remarked that this was the weekend to plant the garden.

Terror filled me! I had no idea what I was supposed to do. However, I was stubborn and determined to succeed, so the next day after I said good bye to Hubby, I stood in my garden and tried to think.

I remembered all those movies where the people dug trenches, scattered the seeds and covered them. Surely that was all there was to it!

Carefully I laid out my row after row after row of vegetables. Using up the very last seed in every package.

For those of you who know, you are probably guessing the outcome with some laughter. For those of you who have never gardened, I will tell you the result.

I had more zucchini than the local grocery store. I sent it into work with Hubby until even he couldn’t find people to take it. I put out a small table on the side of the road with a sign, “FREE ZUCCHINI”! No one stopped.

I made muffins and bread and zucchini boats and stir fry, until I never wanted to see another zucchini!

Hubby didn’t say too much during the growing season to me about my inaugural garden. He ate everything I cooked and only later in the season did he suggest that perhaps I had planted too many zucchini seeds.

I try to plant 2 hills of zucchini now and still I find it hard to eat what we have, it makes looking back at that first garden pretty funny. Like something you might see Lucille Ball do on “I love Lucy”.

Tuesday was spent with my best friend, Gail doing what we two do best….shop! We headed out to a local Outlet Mall, and after hitting the Outlet Office for coupon books, we started in Liz Claiborne. I’d been in there a month or so ago, and I had not found anything that fit me. But since then, I’ve lost more weight, and firmed up a bit, so I found quite a few items that look pretty darn good.

Now this shocked me! I mean, when I look into the mirror, I still see myself the way I did last year before I started Weight Watchers. Today I stood in front of a 3 way mirror in smaller clothes than I have worn in many years, and gazed at this person standing in front of me. Shopping was actually fun.

After dinner tonight I gave Hubby a little fashion show and I think he liked all the things that I got. One thing is for sure, I really don’t need much more in the way of clothes to wear for the summer.

The only down part of my day occurred when we came out of the grocery store and walked back to the trunk of my car and found that someone had sideswiped me! No dents, but the passenger side fender is badly scraped and will need to be repainted.

Oooooooooh, it made me so mad!

But then I came home and Hubby hugged me and I didn’t feel so bad. After all, I didn’t do it, but still it angered me that someone else did and didn’t have the ability to fess up and offer to pay for the damage they had caused.