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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.
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!
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!
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?
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!!!
5 THINGS
I have been tagged by Maribeth (yes, another Maribeth!) to do a meme. Since she and I are name-twins, how could I possibly refuse?
5 Things found in my bag (purse)
In my purse right now
1… My Weight Watchers cards! They mean so much to me and I look at them often to remind myself of how many small goals I have reached.
2… My small photo album with pictures of Hubby and Amanda and the pups.
3… My wallet.
4… Dachshund date book.
5… My bifocal sunglasses. This way I can read a map in the car!
1… Hubby
2… Fritz
3…Greta
4… Anneliese
5… Arnie
5 things you always wanted to do
1… Travel all through Europe for a year or more.
2… Take a cruise down to South America and then take a land tour to Machu Picchu.
3… Take a cruise that goes out to the Galapagos Islands, then spend time there seeing everything!
4… Go to Australia and see as much as I can before getting onto a cruise and cruising the coast of Australia as well as New Zealand.
5… Visit Asia. Starting in China and going all down the coast.
5 things you are currently into
1…Hubby and me. My marriage is at the top of all my lists.
2… My photography.
3… My garden.
4… My dogs, and raising healthy puppies.
5… Planning on what we will can from this years harvest!
5 People you want to tag:
Anyone who would like to do this. Let me know and I will link to your blog.
Michele at Smoochdog has joined the Meme. Go on over and check her Meme answers out!
Happy Meme-ing!!!
As always click on any picture to enlarge it.
I started Weight Watchers right after the New Year. I had been planning it for a couple of months because when we arrived home after our cruise I realized that my backside was not the size it once was!
I think I have tried every diet known to man. I think I have lost thousands of pounds over the last 49 years of my life. This time I decided that I needed something more permanent, something akin to AA, because yes, I am a food addict. I love to cook and I love to eat!
So I started. My first meeting was scary, but I went and weighed in and made it through. I came home planning each and every thing I would eat the next day and I started keeping a food journal.
And little by little, inch by inch, pound by pound, the weight started to come off. I did very well in January and February and then March and April were sort of slow, but my weight loss has picked up again and as of last Wednesday I have now lost 29.8 pounds!
I have 23 pounds to go until I reach my goal weight, and I feel pretty sure that I can and will do it. Spring is here, I’m doing more things outside, I will start my seeds for the garden tomorrow and plant them outside on the first of June, just before the puppies come. (That is, if Greta is, in fact, pregnant)
Hubby is taking a real notice of my weight loss and I think he likes the new slender me! Or perhaps I just like myself a little better. I wasn’t happy with the extra weight and I sure feel better about myself now.
So I am a happy, slimming woman, whose dog is possibly pregnant. Does life get any better than that?
Spring has come to the Dackel Princess household. It was in the upper 70’s and so totally beautiful that Hubby worked outside and I worked inside, spring cleaning. I did take time to go out and take a few pictures of our much anticipated springtime!!!
Hubby Pruning the Peach tree.
Look! No Snow!!!
We can now fly our flag once again!
You can see that our lake is still frozen! I guess it will be a little while longer until the open water returns.
Hubby is going to go skiing in the morning. I plan more spring cleaning and perhaps a leisurely moment sipping my coffee and reading the Sunday newspaper. The best way to spend a Sunday!
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~Thirteen~
These are thirteen of my favorite pictures. The bottom picture is of Greta with her first litter of pups back in 2006. We will know in two weeks if she is expecting her next litter! I’ve got my fingers crossed!
It was a very busy day for me today, but all in a good way, so there will be no complaining. Here is how I spent this wonderful spring day.
After getting up and making breakfast and sending Hubby off to ski (Day 57), I poured myself a coffee and got the two new pillows I’d purchased a few days ago, put them back in their bag and tossed them in the trunk of the car to return to the store.
Those of you who have been with me a while will recall that I have major pillow problems and my quest for the right pillow continues to this day. I thought I had found a good pillow last week, but alas, I was incorrect and found that these pillows were so hard that we felt like we were sleeping on concrete! So back they have gone. Now the quest begins again! This isn’t a complaint, just more of a long term search that isn’t over yet.
After I dropped those off, I went to a coffee shop and met up with my girlfriend, Barbie, for a coffee and a chat. We sat there for a long time talking and laughing and speculating on whether or not Greta is with children. Barbie is the proud Mama of Greta’s boyfriend, Bernie.
We dropped in at LL Bean and I found the cutest tote for myself, an LL Bean tote with a dachshund on it! I mean, it is so totally ME!
I said good-bye to Barbie then and hopped on the highway to head back north, intending to shop for food at the grocery and personal items at Wal-Mart. I was enjoying the ride, as today was just a perfect spring day, sunny, about 70 degrees (F) and not a cloud in the sky. I put on the satellite radio and sang my heart out!
Just then my cell phone went off and it was Hubby. He was done for the day skiing and was heading home. I explained what I was up to and he decided to meet me at the grocery store and then go out to our favorite Chinese Buffet for lunch. I just love this place because they have so many wonderful vegetables and salads and I do not have to stray from my Weight Watchers program.
So I drove to Wal-Mart and got the things I needed there and then met Hubby at the grocery store. We got that job done quickly and then we both needed to stop and fill up our cars with gas. Okay, we all know the price of gas, so I won’t go into how much we paid. Let’s just say we’re spending our kid’s inheritance each time we need to fill up!
Lunch was so relaxing and the food was great. I had my vegetable egg foo yung and hot and sour soup and salad. Yum, yum, yum!!!
We drove home, put everything away and played outside with the dogs for a bit, before sitting down to check our e-mail. I was going through mine and I saw a post from Hubby. I read it and it was such a funny joke that I started laughing and he knew immediately what I was laughing about and he started to laugh again too. Yep, life on the Internet!
Kimmie was over right after school today with a book she’d taken out of the school library. She came up to the door and asked for Hubby! Then she came in and wanted to read with him. It was so much fun to watch them.
I made a new recipe tonight using Dover Sole, Baby Bok Choy, and lots of ginger. It actually came out pretty well, although next time I will do a few things a little differently. However, I just adore the Baby Bok Choy. Oh, that is just the best!
Now the day is ending, and I’m sitting here with Greta beside me. I’m hoping she is pregnant. I am sort of thinking that she is. There is just something in the way she is acting. Keep your fingers crossed!
Time for a cup of tea. The perfect end to a perfect day!