Category: My Life

Thirteen things that begin with the Letter C that I like!

1. Cake. Yes, my favorite cake is chocolate cake with butter cream frosting! Hmmmm!

2. Canning. I love to can our fruits and vegetables each year! Then taste their sweetness all winter long!

3. Car. I love my car it’s a 2004 Cadillac DeVille. Oh it drives like a dream!

4. Chicken. Good thing for me. I am eating a lot of it on Weight Watchers! LOL!

5. Charcoal. I know many people like to cook on a gas grille outside, but I love charcoal. It just ads so much flavor to the meat/chicken/fish that I cook!

6. Candles. I love a certain candle that my sister gave me. It smells like Angel-food Cake!

7. Coffee. Yes, I love coffee. Any old way it is made.

8. Cruising. I never thought I would like it, but it turns out that I LOVE it.

9. Champagne. Although I don’t drink any longer, I really do love champagne! Ooooh, the bubbles!

10. Christmas! What a wonderful time of year. Bright lights, candles in the window and Christmas carols. Not to mention the presents!

11. Cats. I have had many cats in my life, from the one who was already with my family when I was born, Smoky, to the very last cat I had, Tigger. Cats are so neat, but my love of dogs doesn’t leave me a lot of room in my house or my heart for another cat.

12. Comfy chair. I have a Lane Snuggler, which is almost a mini love seat. I get a small corner of it, while the three dachshunds take over the rest. I think if I get another chair I will have to get the same one, or I will end up on the floor!

13. Canoe. My favorite restaurant ever. I am going to suggest to Hubby that we go there this week for dinner.

Today I decided to take a little time out for myself. I decided that I should go and find a new purse. I’ve lost 22 pounds, and I didn’t want to buy clothes, but a new purse would be perfect. So off I went.

Now I am not the type of person that will go into a store and just spend wildly. No, I love a good deal! I went to my favorite discounter and started to paw through their purses.

As I was entering the store I got a call from my friend, Gail. She lives in another state and quite often we will call each other and then through the marvels of the Verizon network, we go shopping together even though we are separated by several hundred miles.

We were chatting away, and I actually found a great bag.

While we continued our chat and I was wandering through the store, I happened to mention my inability to find a certain pair of shoes that I love! Gail asked who made them. I responded “Merrell”. She asked which ones and I described them and told her I was looking for the black leather ones, like this.

I have been all over New Hampshire looking for them with no luck. Gail has the same shoe! In fact she is also a big lover of this model. And as it turns out, Gail has an Outlet for these shoes near her home, and she got in her car and drove over (all while we were still on the phone) and although they didn’t have them right there, they called the distributor and they will be mailed directly to me! I am so excited!

You see, Gentle Reader, I am a shoe and purse junkie. There are two things that I absolutely love. Pocketbooks (purses) and shoes! It’s like an illness. Today I realized just how bad it was. Being in the purse section of this shop found me touching all the purses, smelling them, gently running my fingers over the softness of the leather. Yes, I am completely crazed when I get near discounted leather products!

It was a nice way to spend the day, and to treat myself for the last 6 weeks and the 22 pound weight loss.

I knew it was going to be a good night at Weight Watchers. I fixed Hubby his dinner, fed the dogs and walked them and then headed out through the snow laden streets of New Hampshire to my meeting.

I was the second person to arrive, and I weighed in. 2.4 pounds down! Yippee!!! I was so excited that I actually threw my arms in the air.

Because I was early I was able to talk to the Leader of our group and two other women about the program. We exchanged some thoughts and ideas and I really felt good about my accomplishment.

I love to eat. I love to cook. Embarking on this program was a big step for me. One I wasn’t sure I could do. However, since I am learning new ways to cook the foods I like, discovering new recipes for new foods, new ideas for meals, I find that it really does keep me interested, and I keep some quick meals in the freezer for those moments when I am not in the mood to cook anything at all.

Now here is the real challenge. Going out to eat. I haven’t been doing that at all since I started the diet, but I think it is time to give it a try. Perhaps a trip to Canoe next week would be fun!

After losing 22 pounds, I think it would be a nice way to celebrate!

Here are 13 things about me that begin with the letter B!

1. Bride. Getting married to Hubby and being his Bride was such a happy time in our life. I look back now, almost 20 years and being his Bride, still makes me smile!

2. Babies. Giving birth to my two daughters was the absolute BEST!!! I remember when the doctor handed Amanda to me and I saw her face for the first time. Talk about instant LOVE!

3. Berlin. Hubby and I lived there back in 1989. It was before the Berlin Wall came down and looking back, a fascinating time in history. Now, my best friend Uschi lives there!

4. Bavaria. One of the most beautiful places on earth. Also the place where we found our beloved Shubi!

5. Bread. This is my downfall. I love bread. I also make bread. Good bread. I had to stop baking it because I would eat way too much.

6. Bermuda. One of my favorite warm spots. I first went there when I was 13 with my parents, and years later spent several layovers there with Hubby.

7. Briarwood. This is a summer camp where I met my oldest and dearest friend, Gail. We were two 13 year old kids looking for something, and we found each other and the friendship of a lifetime.

8. Best Friends. I am so lucky to have several women who are my best and dearest friends. Some I have known since I first drew breath, others I have found along life’s road. All are special in their own ways!

9. Beaches. I grew up just down the road from the beach. So you could say that the sea and the sand are in my soul!

10. Bacon. I can’t help it. I love bacon. Crisp and smoky!

11. Bananas. Call me a monkey, but I love those too!

12. Breakfast. When I am not really watching what I eat, I love a good big breakfast. Bacon, pancakes, eggs, the lot! I love it so much I could eat Breakfast any time during the day.

13. Backpack. I have a great backpack and I love to use it when I travel. It is so comfortable and convenient to use.

13 A. Blog. I really love writing my blog and I hope that you all enjoy what I do too! (Thanks, Mar for reminding me! How could I have missed this one?)

There you go. Thirteen + things brought to you by the letter B about me this week!

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!

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!

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!

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!