Category: My Life

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~Wrinkled~

A picture of Anneliese and me, nearly 50 years old, showing just a few wrinkles!

Today the sun came out again. This is two days in a row with no rain! I am so happy, but admit that my eyes are slightly sensitive to all this sunshine!

Since Anneliese will be entering a Dog Show at the end of September, I decided I needed to begin training her to walk on a lead without her getting upset, or trying to pull me off of my feet. I also want her to meet many new people so the chances of her growling, barking or biting the Judge at the show are lessened.

So, I packed my back pack with water for her and for me, and off we went to the Post Office.

As we walked up our driveway, I noted the large gully on the left hand side of the drive. All I can say is, we are lucky it wasn’t worse!

Right now we have many large State Highway Department vehicles in our town working to repair the roads damaged by the torrential downpours of rain that have plagued us all summer long, but most recently last week. They are noisy and create a whooshing feeling as they drive by you and I was worried it might upset the little dog.

However, Anneliese proved that she is truly a dachshund. She pranced right by my left side, and never shied away from a truck or a noise or any of the people that we encountered.

She was even happy when we went into the Post Office and she got to see the Postal Clerks. Several people stopped us to admire the pretty little dog, and Anneliese was more than accepting of their attention. In fact, she seemed to like it!

At one point I wondered if I had the wrong dog!

We walked home and came back along the lake front where I caught a Loon family taking their young baby Loon for a swim.

You almost never see the Loons swimming this close to the shore, but there they were and I was thrilled to get this picture. The young Loon is in the center,

I also got a picture of a very funny sign along the lakeside.

As you can see this sign covers all the seasons!

Once I returned home, I decided to go out and weed in my garden. It’s a rather depressing thing to do, as this years garden has been a real disaster. Due to the wet weather we have not had many delicious vegetables. Usually at this time of year my cucumbers are overwhelming us. This year I am lucky if I have 2 or three a week. I only have 4 Butternut Squash, and no corn at all.

My potted tomatoes have produced quite a few yummy tomatoes, and my Japanese eggplant truly is prolific and it’s vegetation delicious, so perhaps all is not lost.

The sun did shine today and I hope tomorrow too, and if it does I will take Anneliese for another walk and hope she continues to show me how well she can do out in the big world!

Did you ever have one of those days that went so well that you stand there in the sunshine (yes, the sun is shining today!) and with every breath you take, you feel wonderful and happy?

Today was one of those days.

It started with me losing 1.6 pounds at Weight Watchers, thus putting me over 40 pounds down from my starting weight, and just a mere 6 1/2 pounds from my goal weight! Once I weighed in, I felt absolutely slender!

Top that off with the fact that I was mistaken for being less than 40 years old, and I was truly ecstatic!

I had a rather cute gentleman flirt with me in the grocery store, and today I seemed to find everything I needed and wanted without a problem.

When I was driving home I listened to one of my favorite CD’s. It’s mostly instrumental music as it is from the sound track of “The Lake House”, and I felt my spirit soar.

Arriving home, I was greeted by Hubby and the dogs with such happiness, I thought I should probably go off more frequently just so I can enjoy the welcome home!

The sun continued to shine all afternoon and I was able to actually get a few things done outside, like fertilize my plants. I also got to eat my first plum of the season. It was bruise from the hail, but the flavor was good, so I guess that will mean great jam!

Yes, it’s been a good day!

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.

I was up a tad late on Wednesday and decided to make coffee and breakfast for Hubby before I left to go to Weight Watchers. Once that was done I dressed and weighed myself here.

Groan!

I came out and told Hubby that I thought I might have either stayed the same or gained weight, but that it just didn’t look good. I decided to go to class though, as I’d promised myself when I started I would go unless I was in the Intensive Care Unit at the local hospital.

So I went.

I stepped up on the scale when I arrived and I’d lost ONE WHOLE POUND!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!

I felt pretty happy about that because I had made some adjustments in my eating and it turns out that a little adjustment had made all the difference! I stayed for the meeting and saw my ladies. These women always make me feel stronger and better about my quest for control of my weight problem.

I came right home after and made myself breakfast. The children descended upon the house and the glorious chaos of kids and dogs soon took over. I just love the sounds of giggling children and the sight of wiggling dogs!

So, here I am back home and settling in. It really feels great. I puttered around the house today and did a few things. For instance, I made more potato salad for Hubby. The 5 pounds I made before I left for my sister’s house disappeared while I was gone. I also cooked a big pan of sautéed zucchini and summer squash. The garden is starting to offer us vegetables on a regular basis, so the real fun starts now!

I went out to the garden to check on things and carefully fed each plant. They all looked a bit unhealthy, so I used Miracle Grow to feed them with. I hope this helps.

I get my stitches out at 1:30 today. I can hardly wait. I think my nose looks pretty good though, I just hope there isn’t a big scar.

As you can see it really has healed well. Another few days and I think the ouch factor will be gone! I will let you know.

I have started to work with Anneliese getting her ready for the German Dog Show. Today we walked in a heel pattern up the drive and around the block. She did very well. I have two months to get her trained for the show. Wish me luck!