Dackel Princess

Hot-Flashes or Power Surges?

Okay, I am almost up-to-here with these hot-flashes! I mean, this is getting to be too much!

When they started, I sort of thought, great, I won’t be freezing cold any more. Then they started coming in the night, and I thought, great, I won’t have to heat my bedroom so much. But now they are coming all the time, and that, my friends, is too much!

I try to dress once in the morning and then I do my hair. Fifteen minutes later, I am on fire and pulling off my clothes, my hair is askew and I look like I have fought a battle and lost.

The worst part is that the hot-flashes have started arriving about one per hour. Then I get so cold after them that I feel chilled.

This creates a tough atmosphere for sleep. Let’s just say I’m not sleeping much. I go from feeling suffocated to being ice cold and shaking. I try to just keep blankets around for a quick cover up, but then I’m on fire, and…..

I know, some of you are laughing. I admit when I had the first few hot-flashes I thought they were funny too, but right now, smack dab in the middle of menopause I’m just not laughing any more!

I remember years ago when I was a kid and I saw an episode on “All In The Family” about Edith going through the “change“, and Archie yelling at her to hurry up and finish “changing“!

Man, I wish it were that easy!

Thoughts

This weekend has been a quiet one. I think we all need those once in a while. Granted, yesterday was busy with all the cooking, but today I have just put my feet up and allowed the leftovers to feed us at mealtimes.

I’ve been thinking about where we were a year ago. We still had all the puppies, and all the fun that goes along with that. Hubby was still skiing a lot, although I had wrenched my knee and was down and out for the season.

I look back and then I look at today and the puppies are fully grown.

Arnie now has a rating and as of March 10th if a cute little wire-haired dachshund female comes a calling for him, he is eligible for stud service.

Anneliese is improving with her shyness and she is just the sweetest little love ever. I’m glad she decided that she was staying. It’s funny when a dog picks you out like that! She’ll go to the dog show in September and we will see how she is rated. I think she will do well, if we can just get her over her shyness with strangers. If only the Judge were a child I’d be all set! LOL

Greta. Ah yes. A year ago she was still in charge of her brood. Now she treats Arnie and Anneliese like part of her pack, but not like her babies. Someday, Greta will go into heat again and I will stop obsessing about my dogs menstrual cycle!

Fritz, who was deathly afraid of the puppies a year ago, and wouldn’t even look at them, now plays with both the puppies and even lets Anneliese kiss his teeth. She just loves her “Uncle Fritz” and showers him with affection.

A year ago we had some snow, but nothing like the 4 feet of the white stuff that currently fills my back yard! This year driving around New Hampshire means going down roads that are like toboggan runs, with high snow banks on both sides.

Tonight the Oscar Awards will be on and I plan to plant myself in my chair and watch it all. Or almost…I usually can’t make it until midnight!

Could this be the year that they actually finish the Oscar broadcast on time?

It’s Soup!

Today was cooking day here at The Dackel Princess House! I wanted to make a recipe that I’d gotten at Weight Watchers for points free vegetable soup. It has just about every vegetable known to man in it, and actually required very little work putting it together. I did, however, have a helper! Sarah was over early today and she worked with me all morning to prepare the soup, and then stayed for lunch. During our cooking preparations, she peeled her first carrot! I must add that she did it perfectly! She also helped measure out the spices and stir them into the pot! Oh, what fun we had!!

It was so much fun having a helper in the kitchen again. It’s been a long time since I had a child that small to work with and keep me company. And she worked hard on this soup and then enjoyed every bite of it once it was cooked.

After lunch we colored in some new coloring books and played with the dogs. Sarah climbs right up on the sofa with the pups and hugs and kisses them. Needless to say, they love it!

By mid afternoon we were both pretty tired, so Sarah went to her house for a while and I fell asleep in my chair with Greta and the two puppies. What a warm snuggly feeling that was! I slept like a baby for about 30 minutes.

The Sarah and her sister Kimmy were back for a while before they headed home for the night. I’m tired! I’d forgotten how wonderfully exhausting six year olds can be!

Saturday Scavenger Photo

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~Wooden~

This is a small children’s toy from Germany that my grandfather brought with him when his family emigrated from Mülheim an der Ruhr, back in the early 1900’s. I was allowed to play with this on Sundays in their living room, under their watchful eye as a child. It is one of my treasured possessions.

Weigh In

This week I decided to use the Weight Watcher web site to track my points. I didn’t realize how good their on-line tracker was. Since I am back and forth on my computer all day, it works out quite well. I go to the tracker page, enter what I eat, the amount I eat and the computer figures out the points used and the points left for the day. It just doesn’t get any easier than that.

The result of my efforts was that I lost 4.6 pounds! Also, I lost 10% of my body weight and received a key-chain! At the meeting many of the other members asked me questions about what I am doing, how I am staying motivated, and if others supported me in my endeavors. I was sort of the star of the show for a little while and I felt special!

I still have a lot more to go, but when I look at how far I have come 19.6 pounds down, I feel very proud of myself.

The program is fairly easy to follow, but I admit that there are times that I am weak and have a tough time. The thing is, I plan to stay with this for life. I want a nice healthy, trim body and I know Weight Watchers is the way to do it!

Thursday Thirteen #66

Here are thirteen things about me, that all begin with the letter A.

1. April. That is the month that Hubby and I promised to love, honor and cherish each other until death shall part us. Our anniversary is April 9th and we will be married 20 years this year!

2. Amanda. My daughter with my favorite girls name!

3. Apples. Hubby owned a large pick your own apple orchard and I helped him the last season it was open. Now we have our own small orchard in our yard.

4. Arnie and Anneliese. Products of Greta’s first litter, which was her A litter.

5. Arrivals. Hubby was a pilot and I remember spending a lot of time waiting for his plane to arrive so I could either take him home or rendezvous with him for a romantic weekend.

6. Arrangements. Over the years I think we all make a lot of arrangements. For me, I have enjoyed the arrangements I have made for our wedding, trips, or even just a meal.

7. Avocados. One of my favorite things to eat. Hubby seems to have a real knack for picking out the very best and yummiest Avocados!

8. Artichokes. Love them. Either freshly steamed or marinated.

9. Apple pie. I have a great recipe for apple pie that uses Splenda.

10. Architecture. Many of you probably don’t know that I designed our house. I did take my plans to an Architect to have him design the structure, but the floor plan was all mine.

11. Auf Kirchen. The town where our dear friends live in Germany. These are the friends that helped us to find Shubi!

12. Abby. The name of my grandniece.

13. Atmosphere. I try to have a quiet and tranquil atmosphere here in my home. I hope I am succeeding!

The One About Hair

Two years ago I went in to have my hair done. I wanted a light trim and a little color, to perk me up. That day changed the way I was going to look at my hair for the foreseeable future!

The hair stylist, and I use that term lightly, butchered my hair. I had literally an inch left all over my head! I cried. I came home and Hubby didn’t know what to say. Both of us knew though, that it wasn’t good. I cried some more!

That day I called another hair stylist to correct the color. Her name was Margarita and she has been doing my hair ever since. She knew I wanted to grow it out, and so you can see how in two years things have changed on my head! I love Margarita and I love how she is helping to keep my hair shaped while it grows.

I’m still not done growing it out. I want to grow it another 4-6 inches. I want really long hair again. When I first met Hubby all those years ago my hair was nearly down to my waist! I don’t think I will let it get that long, but…

you never know!

Rain, Rain…

Today, after a night of icing, everything warmed up and we had rain! Fog descended down over the lake, and just hovered over the snow in our yard. It made everything look very mysterious!

The puppies were not entirely convinced that they wanted to go out. Imagine having to walk though ankle deep ice cold water to get to a snow bank to do your business. I think if it were me, I would be in quite a pickle! (Bad situation!)

The puppies, however, have rallied and slip, slip slipped around out there and eventually got things done.

Hubby has been working hard in the driveway, as we had a good 2 inches of ice on it. He had to chop it, break it up and then shovel it off. Fritz, faithful dog that he is, sat there keeping his Daddy company the entire time.

My job was to prepare good hot meals for Hubby all day long, and go out with the puppies too.

It’s still raining, but in a few hours a cold front will clear the skies and our temperatures will drop from the warm upper 40’s (F) back into the low 20’s. Oh well it still is winter, after all.

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Today is also the second anniversary of Shubi’s passing. She was such a great dog and I still miss her every day. Greta and the puppies help, but…

FOUR FEET

I have done mostly what men do,
And pushed it out of my mind;
But I can’t forget, if I wanted to,
Four-Feet trotting behind.

Day after day, the whole day through–
Wherever my road inclined–
Four-Feet said, ‘I am coming with you!’
And trotted along behind.

Now I must go by some other round–
Which I shall never find–
Some where that does not carry the sound
Of Four-Feet trotting behind.

— Rudyard Kipling —

Kids and Dogs

Have I mentioned that we have new neighbors? Neighbors with twin six year old daughters. Sarah and Kimmy. They have found us and the dogs, and we see them almost every day. They were over bright and early today and brought along their friend, Jacob. I pulled up the stools to the breakfast bar and they all sat coloring and I thought this would make a good picture.

Jacob, Sarah and Kimmy

I love the fact that the neighborhood kids all feel comfortable coming here. The only thing is I need to buy some more art supplies. Crayons, coloring books and some activity books. I want to have things to keep the younger ones busy. Perhaps some reading books as well.

Hubby and I were standing in the kitchen after the kids left today and he looked over at me and said, “You are really a kid magnet”.

I guess he is right. I love the fact that they come, and I know that here they are safe.

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My back is better, and I am finally able to sleep at night. Yay!!! I was starting to think that something drastic would need to be done, but it looks like resting it is doing the trick.

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That wraps things up from cold, snowy, icy and rainy New Hampshire. Have a good week everyone!

Baby It’s Cold Outside!

Today I decided that I needed to move around a little. So each time one of the dachshunds wanted to go out, I dressed up in my warmed coat, hat and gloves and took them out. They took advantage of me terribly, as they kept going to the door and barking to go out.

In the early morning hours and the early afternoon it wasn’t too bad. The sun was shining, there wasn’t too much of a breeze and I was dressed warmly. It felt good!

But as the day wore on, and the sun got quite low in the sky, it began to really cool off and a light wind began, thus making me feel very chilled each time we went out.

And of course, the puppies decided that this was the perfect time to go out and look around. I would stand there encouraging them to do their “business”, and they would look at me like I was crazy.

I actually have a lot of sympathy for the dogs. I mean, I wouldn’t want to have to go outside in the middle of the winter on such a frosty day and do my “business” on a snow bank!

However, as I stood there freezing my butt off, I began to feel less bad for them and more sorry for myself! I mean, wow, it was cold!

Hubby got a fire started in the hearth, Now it’s taking the chill out of my bones, although my feet still feel pretty numb.

The funny thing here, by Monday it is supposed to warm up and heavy rain will fall. Ah yes, this winter has been full of surprises!