Dackel Princess

It’s My Third Blog-A-Versary!

Three years ago I sat in front of my computer and asked myself this question…”Who in the world is going to read about some crazy woman with three dogs who lives in the mountains of New Hampshire?”

I started off slowly, writing my Blog a little at a time, and I visited some other blogs that interested me.

Three years later I can tell you that I have readers from all over the world, some of whom have even become friends of mine.

My beloved
Shubi passed away in February of 2006

but Arnie and Anneliese

were born to Greta, and just never left home. Thus giving me FOUR dogs to love!

Fritz,

is a fabulous boy and

Greta

still rules the roost!

I still enjoy writing my Blog. I look forward to sharing my thoughts, ideas and plans with you all while hopefully entertaining you just a bit.

I have learned so much about this big world of ours and about the people in it, that I look forward to sharing more time with you all!

Thanks for reading, for commenting and for sharing my world!

Saturday Scavenger Photo Hunt

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~Any Photo~

This is a picture of me, the Dackel Princess, at about age 4 or 5. My passion for dogs began at this time, as our female Beagle had just had a litter and I discovered the wonder of puppies! As an adult I was introduced to a wire-haired dackel named Shubi, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Me with three of the puppies from Greta’s last litter.

Good News

Today we did the Spring Check-up of our bodies. The bi-annual physical with our doctor.

When last we visited the doctor we discovered that my cholesterol level was significantly higher than Hubby’s, (his was perfect, mine was not!) and I was also significantly overweight. That was pre Weight Watchers. I told him of my plans to go to class and to follow the diet, but I’m sure if people actually did this when they told their doctor, the doctors would all be very happy!

At that time Hubby’s A1C level was quite high. This is the blood test that measures his blood sugar over a three month period. I was betting that if Hubby ate what I was eating for my Weight Watcher meals, his A1C levels would come down.

***************

Okay so that was about 6 months ago. Since then I have lost 31.2 pounds, and Hubby has lost about 12 pounds and we have really stuck to the Weight Watchers low fat, low calorie, high fiber diet. The results?

My cholesterol is now over 40 points lower and back in normal range! Hubby’s A1C level is 6.2 nearly 1 1/2 points lower! His blood pressure is good and mine is fabulous! All in all, when the doctor looked us over, he was actually smiling!!!

I still have a ways to go with my weight loss. About 22 pounds or so. Then the real challenge will begin. How to maintain this weight. I know that for Hubby and myself, we need to stay eating the good healthful foods that have become a part of our life. For me, to control the weight, and for Hubby to keep his diabetes and blood pressure under control.

So the Spring Check-up of our bodies went well, and in another 6 months, who knows where we will be. Hopefully in an even better place as we prepare for the winter and the 2008-2009 ski season!

Thursday Thirteen #76

Thursday Thirteen Brought To You By The Letter:

1. Husband. I’ve known him for 26 years. The first few years just as a casual neighbor. Our kids played together. Our love developed after our divorces and we found something that neither one of us expected. Love and friendship all rolled into one. Lucky us!

2. Home. We built our home back in 1999-2000. Over the years our home has become an oasis, a place where we can rest, relax and enjoy ourselves.

3. Homepage. I’ve been blogging since 2005 and I’ve really enjoy having my own homepage!

4. Happy. I strive to maintain a happy home for all who dwell here, and for those who visit. I sure hope I achieve this.

5. Hershey Bars. Deep dark chocolate Hershey Bars! Need I say more?

6. Hadrian’s Wall. We visited Hadrian’s Wall back in 1991 when we visited England and Scotland. It is so interesting, and I would suggest a quick stop at the above link to learn more.

7. Hymns. One thing that I love are the old hymns in church. It’s funny because it’s something that both Hubby and I share. We were in the choir for many years.

8. Hiking. New Hampshire is full of great places to hike.

9. Honey. Mmmmmm! Yum!

10. Horses. I have always loved horses. They are such smart, beautiful creatures.

11. Hounds. With four dogs, I don’t think I need to say much about my love of “the hounds”.

12. Hotdogs. Not on my diet, really, but I sure do love a good grilled hot-dog!

13. Heart. In “The Wizard of Oz”, the Wizard tells The Tin Man this: “A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others. “. I sure hope that at the end of my life, I can have lived a life that exemplifies that phrase. You see I believe that when you give your love freely and give of yourself often, the love that comes back is the very best!

My Bionic Hubby

Hubby had his two year check up on his artificial knees. For those of you who were not regular readers back then take a moment and go back and read about the first surgery and the second surgery, which gave me a Bionic Husband!

Looking back, it was a tough time for Hubby, and for me as his care-giver. Somehow, we teamed up and made it through, but I would not want to go back and go through that again. Yet, if we had to, I suppose I would do it all over again if it meant giving Hubby freedom from pain and the ability to ski 58 days during the season!

The ride over to the Medical Center was a pretty one, with a lot of spring flowers and blooming forsythia. It was warm and sunny and just the sort of day one can enjoy a ride. I felt only a slight twinge of guilt because I should have stayed home and worked more on the Spring Cleaning, but I opted to let it wait. After all, there is always cleaning to be done, but not always springs days like this.

I will say that once we returned, with a clean bill of health for Hubby’s knees in hand, I returned to the cleaning and actually got the family room curtains, washed, dried and re-hung. I’m already feeling better!

Spring Cleaning

After our weekend celebrations, it was back to the grind today. We woke early to sunshine and blue skies! The weekend had been full of cloudy skies and rain, so this was welcome, indeed.

After doing the usual early morning stuff, I went to the garden room to check my plants. Not sure if I mentioned but those eggplant plants that I was despairing about finally have started to sprout!

As always you can click to enlarge the pictures.

Then I set to work Spring Cleaning. Now I would not suggest this to anyone at all because once you start it just keeps growing. You see, I decided to clean the mud room so that it would be ready for when Hubby and I put the air conditioner in the window. I got that done, but then thought I would do the other two windows where we place air conditioners, and as I washed those windows I noticed dust on the curtains.

Now dust and I go way back. I hate it, but I also hate to dust, so I ~~try to~~ dust every so often. Today’s dust was really quite awful! I’m not sure when it crept in here, but I’m thinking it took up residence during our long cold winter to escape the snow. There was a ton of it and I decided to take down the curtains and wash them. It was then, with the bright and clean windows allowing even more light into the room, that I SAW IT!

Dust on my walls!!!

I got out my dust mop and sprayed it with cleaner and then wiped down the walls. I went from one room to the next wiping, until my arms began to ache. My big question in all of this is: “How the heck does dust stick to the walls?”

No, don’t tell me, I’m not even sure I want to know. What I’ve got to do now is finish wiping down my walls and wash all the curtains. This wasn’t something I planned, but as I stated above, when you start Spring Cleaning things just happen! Two air conditioners are in and one out of 5 rooms is almost done.

Once the Spring Cleaning is done inside then it’s time to scrape and paint outside. Yes, I’ll be climbing on ladders and painting the trim on our house this summer.

Does the fun ever end?

Hubby’s Big Day

Sunday dawned quite early. You see, with all the pollen and molds in the air outside right now, allergy season has been really tough. As we lay in peaceful slumber, we were startled awake by the sound of Hubby’s allergic sneeze rattling the room! Greta and I jumped and Fritz happily went to his Daddy’s side. Oh boy. I’d wanted to sleep late, but what the heck, I was awake, so off I went to make the coffee!

I asked Hubby what he wanted for his birthday breakfast and he wanted a “Farmer’s Omelet”. Sure, why not? So, I went to the kitchen and in no time made the omelet (eggs, onions, peppers, ham, potatoes and cheese) and an English Muffin. I had my usual Weight Watchers meal of yogurt and a Weight Watcher bagel.

The rain was coming down and it felt cool to us, but at 8:30 the twins arrived. They were so excited to celebrate Hubby’s birthday with us. Emily arrived around 10 o’clock and the party began!

We made a rather eclectic luncheon of noodles and pigs in a blanket for the kids, while Hubby had leftover spaghetti and meatballs and I made a salad.

But then the good part happened! CAKE!!!!!

Hubby getting his Angel Food Birthday Cake.

Hubby and his girls!

Cutting the cake.

Yes, even I indulged in a piece of the cake. It’s only 2 points!

After that the day passed as usual and then we got ourselves ready to go out to our favorite restaurant Canoe. Hubby had a wonderful Lobster and Shrimp Scampi and I had a special item on tonight’s menu Broiled Swordfish, with Asparagus! It was quiet and the scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed our evening out.

We ended Hubby’s special day watching some TV and catching up on our email, and watching one of the loveliest sunsets over the lake that we have seen in a while. All in all, a pretty good day of celebration for my sweetheart!

Happy Birthday, Dearest Hubby

Today is my dearest Hubby’s Birthday! I’ve celebrated 21 of his birthdays with him and I hope to celebrate many, many more.

Happy Birthday, My Love!

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Saturday Scavenger Photo

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Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

~Time~

The first picture is my sister Melodie, our brother Richard, who passed away when he was 26 from cancer, and me. I think I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. But time passes doesn’t it?

This second picture is of me with Melodie last week when we went to see the cherry blossoms. It’s so nice to have such a loving relationship with your sister.

Friday Musings

I gave Fritz his spring bath on Thursday. This requires great skill, a lot of water and the ability to show no fear while in the shower with my big white boy.

Fritz hates baths with a passion that is truly unparalleled. I had to literally drag him into our bathroom, and then drag him into our walk in shower. I’d stripped down naked, because any hope of staying dry during this process was futile, and I set out about 6 towels to help dry him off after the big event.

I use Dove bar soap on him, as he tends to have slightly dry skin, and also the white of the soap helps to brighten his coat. I soaped and sudsed, and rubbed and soaped some more. Then it was time for the real fun….the final rinsing.

If you have never rinsed a German Shepherd in a shower, then you don’t know the real fun that I had. I had to pick up his front feet and hold them so I could get his belly, neck and ears all rinsed.

I’d expected Hubby to help, but the phone had rung just as I was going in, and so I was on my own. You should have seen the hair coming out of that boy! I kept freeing up the drain and it would just fill up again.

Finally he was rinsed and I kept bringing the towels into the shower and drying him off until he was finally fairly dry.

I let him out of the shower and allowed him tio sit in the kitchen in the sun and finish the drying process. Soon Hubby brought him outside for his annual stripping of the coat.

As you can see, Fritz loses quite a bit of fur in the spring, and this is just a small part of it. We used to brush him inside and then we noticed that everything would be covered with white fur, so we decided to de-fur him outside. One day we noticed birds flying in and picking up the fur to line their nests with. So if anyone in New Hampshire sees a fur lined nest, well, you’ll know where the fur came from!

The twins were here modeling their new dresses! They looked so adorable that I just had to take their picture.

That’s Sarah on the left and Kimmie on the right. We really enjoy those two!

Friday finds Hubby and I doing errands. Groceries, registering the cars and cholesterol checks. Oh joy! I’m hoping that my work on the Weight Watchers diet plan will have brought down my cholesterol level.

And speaking of Weight Watchers, I have now lost 31.4 pounds! I’m back in size 10/12 and feeling good! Yay!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!