My Life – The Dackel Princess

TBT: The Beach & Me

I guess you could say I am a beach baby. Since I was 6 months old I have spent part of every Spring, Summer, and Fall at the beach. Listening to the waves lap against the shore, and feeling the sun soak into my bones. I just knew from a very early age that the beach, the ocean was my home.

I was a bit of a fish, really. My mother was concerned that I would swim away over my head and had a rope on me until she was certain of my abilities. Those came from swimming lessons at Surf Drive Beach, come rain or shine, thick fog or freezing cold water temperatures. I did not care. The ocean was in my blood!

Yes, that is me. I am thinking I am perhaps 6 years old. At my beach, Surf Drive Beach. The one place that fills my soul.

Over the years, I have been many places where I felt that same kismet! One such place was Barbados, where the ocean also called my name. This is actually a full-scale picture I am cropping, but I told Jack when I die I want this picture published with my obituary! Even if I am 90!

I was 29 years old in this picture, and for once in my life skinny! And I remember how much I loved that bikini.

I’m at the beach now. Somewhere. It’s warm and I am happy. Solitary happiness on the beach. My idea of a grand vacation.

What a Dog Knows

I brought out my suitcase and tote bag and started packing. I looked over at the bed and there, sitting with the saddest eyes I have ever seen was Mr. Arnie. Each time an item went in, I could almost hear him sigh with unhappiness. He knows what a suitcase is, and what happens after they are all packed. Mommy disappears!

After a bit, I brought him out, and I decided to trim and clean the hair on his paws. He is so good and just lay in my lap while I trimmed him up.

I decided to do Anneliese too, as she was a bit of a mess. She was nervous, so I didn’t do her as nicely as Arnie came out, but close enough. At least she is cleaned up and matt-free.

I made up a wonderful meatloaf for Jack. Not only was it a good meal for tonight, but it will give him another meal and meatloaf sandwiches.

About the only thing left to do is a little laundry, a little vacuuming, and the printing of my boarding pass.

Busy-ness

Last week flew by for me. I was so incredibly busy trying to get organized. I am really not an organized person, try as I might. I somehow know how I would like things to be but have trouble following through.

In any case, last week each day with Jack’s help, I was able to get a lot done. Some of it was paperwork, some of it was laundry and some was packing for my mysterious solo vacation.

But I think the most labor intensive job was getting out the dogs crunchies and measuring out their food for the days I will be gone. To Anneliese’s bags, I add her pills and sealed them up. Then all Jack has to do is toss each bag into the appropriate dish and add the wet food.

My suitcase is nearly packed now, and yesterday I pulled out my travel documents.

I also have a new hair cut. I have not gotten a good picture yet. The new style is stacked in the back, and a little longer in the front. I can wear it like this, or tucked behind my ears.

I’m enjoying the shorter hair. And the straighter hair. After over a decade of curly curls, I needed a change. Of course, this means I am learning to master a flat iron! It’s a challenge, but I’ll get there.

During my vacation, I will try to post, but this trip is really quiet downtime, so I may not do much. I will try to at least ready everyone, but I may not comment.

Have a great week everyone!

Working The Program

Well, I had a great week last week and when I weighed in at WW on Wednesday, I had lost 2.4 pounds! I had also had a week where things went well. I felt good and strong in the program.

In fact, the meeting was sort of geared to the things I had done all week. And I never mind sharing.

It seemed everyone else was not talking, and so when the Leader asked questions, up went my hand, and I answered.

Finally, the Leader asked another question and I raised my hand and she said (sweetly, I might add), “Let’s give someone else a chance to answer.”

I was fine, really. I sort of felt like Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter books! Yesterday I actually had answers. Now what I need to do is take what I learned last week and keep applying it.

Honestly, it is not hard to put on weight, but it sure is hard to take it off!

Up & Running!

I would like to believe I am computer savvy, but really, I think I am lucky more than anything.

Still, when our old Router showed signs of letting us down and not giving us the streaming video we would like, we knew it was time to splurge and get a new one!

I researched and we got a TP-Link AC1900 Smart Wireless Router – High Speed, Long Range, Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Internet Router. After it arrived, it was just a matter of setting it all up.

First, she is a beauty to look at, and what I did to help myself was to buy all new, highspeed cables, and then I lay everything out and made a checklist of steps of how to hook it all up.

Then I started and went methodically through each and every step until things were all set up. Then, I went to each TV, Amazon Fire Stick, Cell Phone, Tablet and such, and connected them to the new Network!

But, I did it all myself! I am extremely proud and I thank my teacher in all things computer, Brad, for patiently explaining things to me. I really was a little sponge and learned so much just by watching you! Thank you!!!

Cleaning

Monday found me full of things to do. I was going to make a list but then thought that if I did that, I might talk myself out of doing it all. So, I just dove in after breakfast, and the things I wanted to get done kept me bust all day long.

I think the funniest thing was, that after 20 years I thought perhaps our master bath light globes needed to be washed. I thought the frosted finish looked a bit dull.

So, I took them all down, washed the fixture and dusted the light bulbs, and then put the globes into the dishwasher on a short cycle.

I’m here to report that they are not frosted globes at all. They were quite simply that dusty!

I worked very hard in that room, vacuuming, washing, and then putting it all back together again. Why I even washed the bath mats! Only to discover that I must splurge and buy new ones very soon.

About the time I got the bathroom done, I came out to the kitchen to find that one of the dogs had thrown up on two of the throw carpets. We have four in the kitchen. So, I threw caution to the wind, brought all four down to the laundry room to wash and then after vacuuming the kitchen floor, washed it down too! Along with the countertops!

I made dinner, cleaned it up and now, at 8 PM on Monday night I am ready for bed!

Thoughts On A Cloudy Sunday

On Friday I went and had my medical appointments at the VA. The news was not great, but I’m not dead, so there is always room for improvement.

After I finished that, I popped off to my daughter’s home, and played Words With Friends, while she finished up her work from home day!

I also played with her sweet puppy, Freya as we waited to go and pick up Savannah, and afterward drop her back at the house with her Daddy, so we could leave for dinner and a show.

After dropping Savi off, we drove to Nashua and went to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. We ordered two appetizers and one meal that we split, Mandy had a fruity cocktail and I had my new drink of choice, a nice Scotch!

Then we headed to the John Edward Event, which was just down the street. Surprisingly, it wasn’t mobbed yet, and Mandy dropped me at the door and parked.

We entered the event, and Mandy eyed some seats, but just as we reached them, some people swooped in and took them. So we scanned the room, walked to the other side of the room and sat down.

The event started on time, and almost immediately John was talking to two women who sat just across the aisle from us.

Now here’s the thing, although many of the things he said resonated with the women, there were a few things that did not, and I believe the reading was seeping out, over to us. The items listed below he was so adamant about and when the ladies kept declining, I suspected they were for us.

Here are the things that he said that did not fit them, but fit us so perfectly.

K name
Died in a car accident
Was organ donor
June was an important month.
Mentioned Roz, Rosa, Rosamond
Parents passed. One from heart failure
Dad was easier to get along with
Mother was difficult
Mentioned numbers 11, that repeat

During his reading, I felt a very overwhelming hotness inside. Not like a hot flash at all, but almost like I had a furnace radiating through my body starting from my stomach.

I tried to raise my hand to alert him about the organ donor aspect of the reading, especially when the women said no so many times. But he kind of waved me off.

But I am convinced that those words were for us.

K name…My daughter Katie
Died in a car accident… She did.
Was an organ donor…Katie was
June was important month….it is when the accident happened
Mentioned Roz, Rosa, Rosamond…My mother’s name
Parents passed. One from heart failure…true, Dad
Dad was easier to get along with…yes
Mother was difficult……yes
Mentioned numbers 11, that repeat…Katie’s birthday month was November

Once he turned to read away from us, the hot feeling disappeared as quickly as it had come on me.

My daughter is more skeptical than I am. She mentioned that a lot of the reading did resonate with the other two women. And that is true, but I wrote down the things that felt important for us. So in that first 20 minutes, there were more things that made no sense to us, but to the other women.

But thinking back to when we arrived and how we had lost those first seats and moved closer to the woman who was selected for the first reading. made me feel that we were right where we were supposed to be.

At the very end of the event, I was chosen to ask a question of John. I asked him a question about the horrific ways people die. When they come through to him, do they talk or reveal much about that?

He said that Spirit does not want to be remembered for how they died but rather, how they lived.

So, people, I guess the biggest thing I got out of that one question, was I needed to move away from how Katie and my friend Candy have died, and focus on how beautifully, happily, they had lived their lives!

A Very Busy Day!

Saturday found me awake at 6:15 AM. I put the coffee on, walked the dogs in the rain, and then came in, stripped the bed, and started washing sheets, blankets, towels, etc. All in all, I did 9 loads of laundry. Washed, dried and put away. Not to mention remaking the beds.

I made a nice breakfast for us, which included my new favorite. A flaxseed (meal) muffin. It’s made in the microwave in a coffee mug and it really is good! The added bonus here is that the freshly ground flaxseed is good for lowering your cholesterol naturally.

I am posting the Flaxseed Muffin recipe on Saturday, so just scroll down for the recipe.

Lunch was interesting too. I made a cauliflower pizza crust and topped it with onions, peppers, mushrooms, and roasted eggplant. Topped off with a quarter of a cup of fat-free mozzarella cheese and baked for 20 minutes! Delish!

After that I cleaned the freezer in the kitchen out and organized it, as the last time I opened the freezer door, a pound of ground beef fell out, just missing my toes!

My new shoes arrived and they fit perfectly and I love them! The burgundy ones are for wearing with dressy slacks when I want to walk on the wild side, and the other pair is for me to use as slippers around the house. I have terrible feet and need arch supports all the time. What do you think of them?

I love the burgundy ones. The shape, the style and yes, I adore the color! It certainly perked me up to get the mail today!

I also stopped in at Walmart and found a DVD of the movie “Sully” for $5.00! Call me a very happy girl!

It’s A Wrap!

Since I had worked pretty hard on Saturday, I decided I wanted to relax a bit on Sunday. Somehow, it did not turn out that way.

I seemed to be consumed with shelf clearing and organizing, but sometimes I feel like I am losing the battle.

Jack had seen a show about a woman who comes in and whips your home into shape. Her website is called Horderly.com and he said I should look it over.

I did, and I would love to be able to purge the entire house, but I live with Mr. Hoarder! So this would be quite difficult.

However, 2018 saw me finally finish clearing my office out and fixing it all up, so why not start with another room. I think the formal living room that we never use may be the next place on my list.

I think Spring is here, finally. We have had two pretty nice days and I am hopeful that this is it, but you never know.

One year we had a massive blizzard on May 9-10 we got 13 inches of snow! So, yeah, one never rules out snow until well after that! At least I don’t.

Jack got up early on Sunday so he could watch the Masters Golf. It was a wonderful round of golf to watch and we both were pleased to see Tiger Woods win after so much adversity in his life. Both emotionally and physically.

So, my friends, that’s a wrap of my weekend!

I Feel Sick!

On Tuesday life was going pretty well. I got up, made coffee, drank several cups and proceeded to start a project of catching up on my filing.

All was going well until about 11:45 AM when I started to feel ill. At first, it was nothing much, but within an hour I was in terrible pain. I thought it was a UTI and all I needed was antibiotics. In fact, I have some leftovers and I almost self-medicated, but I held off.

Good thing. As the day wore on I felt worse and worse. E-gads! I wondered if I had a kidney stone. Honestly, I felt like I was giving birth to a Rhinoceros!

We got a test to see if I had a UTI, and yes I did. So, I decided I would go to the Walk-in Clinic on Wednesday morning before WW. And it’s a good thing I did.

I was up bright and early on Wednesday, went to the walk-in and was their first patient of the day.

It turned out I have a UTI that had backed up to the kidneys. Talk about pain.

So, they started me with a very strong antibiotic and sent me home with orders to drink, rest and drink some more! And not adult beverages either.

I’m resting, drinking, and taking my medication and I hope I will get well quickly. I really hate being sick!