Category: My Life

Yesterday I was sitting in my chair crocheting after lunch. I looked out the window at the skies and knew that if we were going to go for a walk, we’d better do it! So, I got Jack in his coat, and picked up the leashes for Lili and Arnie and off we went.

The wind had picked up, and although the thermometer said 52 degrees, it felt much colder. I should have worn my hat and gloves, but seeing the temperature on the machine, I definitely had made a poor choice.

Our routine walk was nice. No one was around today to talk to, so we simply did our walk and came back. One notable thing was that a rather large rotten tree near our friend’s cabin, had fallen in  pieces onto the right of way road. They will need some young hands to help them get the tree moved.

Upon arriving at home, I walked Anneliese and Greta before settling in to finish up some computer work, and eventually warm up leftover Prime Rib. And I just have to say that the meat was even better the second time around! Best of all, we have one more meal of this wonderful cut of beef left.

Shortly after that, I looked out the window and it was SNOWING! Oh man! It snowed all evening, despite the temperature being in the upper 30’s.

I woke this morning and it is 32 degrees, and raining hard. Usually I walk the dackels early on, but with the rain falling, I knew they would not linger outside! And I was right. Not even Lili wanted to be out there.

My day today will be a quiet one. Maybe a little laundry, but definitely a lot of crocheting! Have a great Wednesday everyone!!!

Today is Dental Day. Every six months I force myself to put all my childhood fears aside, and “man up” and go to the dentist and smile a lot and breathe deeply and get through yet another appointment.

Now don’t get me wrong. My Dentist is a very nice man and the hygienist I use is very sweet, kind, and friendly. It’s just that all those times I went to the horrible, child-hating, dentist of my youth, really scarred me for life.

It makes me so happy that Mandy found a wonderful children’s dentist for Savannah, who proclaimed that she wanted to go to the dentist soon because she missed them! What a wonderful thing.

In many ways, life has changed for kids, since I was one. Both doctors and dentists make a point to treat their little patients well. When I met Savannah’s Pediatrician, I was so impressed by the real joy she had upon seeing Savannah again.

I recently decided to switch doctors. It was a difficult decision, mostly because I will admit to being lazy. The office was familiar, and close, even if I didn’t feel I was getting the best care. But with a little nudge from Jack, I switched to a female doctor in Manchester. She was really on the ball, took a detailed history, did a first class physical, and blood-work which found me having a cholesterol problem, and the fact that the old doctor had me on too much thyroid medication!

I bought a book on lowering my cholesterol naturally, and my medications have been adjusted. She also lined up a skin cancer screening and a few more tests.

Now I concentrate on actually eating with a purpose. Lowering my Cholesterol numbers so I can avoid taking any new medications. Anyone have any Cholesterol lowering secrets?

I am not quite sure where the time is going. All I know is, tomorrow is April 1st! Our days are getting longer and we have more daylight, so even if the temperatures are still cold, the light gives me hope that Springtime is on it’s way.

Yesterday we were in the middle of watching an old movie, “Sense and Sensibility” when the dogs reminded us that it was time for our walk. Jack and I looked at each other and decided that it was time. So, we abandoned the movie, and off we went with Arnie and Lili for our walk.

We’ve been building up and expanding our walk, and the dogs really look forward to it. I cannot recall if I mentioned that Mr. Arnie has a heart murmur now that he has entered his golden years. We have slowly increased his exercise (Arnie is a couch potato!) and changed his food. I am hopeful that we can keep him nice and healthy for a very long time!

Lili is crazy healthy, and she needs these walks to burn off all that energy! And boy does she run all around while Jack and I walk at a sedate pace. The good news here is, Jack and I both are getting stronger and Lili gets to crazy run all over the place. We do leash her when we get close to the busy road, but once we are away from it heading home, we let her go and off she runs. And there is such joy in her heart!

This morning the last Blue Moon until 2020 was just starting to set when I got up. I grabbed my old camera and my cell phone and after walking the dackels, I ran outside and took a bunch of pictures. Surprisingly, my cell phone took much better pictures than my Olympus camera.

I wish my camera was good enough to catch all the shadows on the moon itself. They were there, but not captured. I can see it in my mind, and many times I find that those types of memories are stored for me to look back on and enjoy in private.

I wish you all a blessed Easter.

I am playing with the new phone like crazy. I especially love the camera. The shots are nice and crisp and clear. The camera is easy to use and so is the phone. In any case here are some pictures I’ve taken. The poor dogs keep trying to hide! But I track them down!!!

After a little struggle, my computer is once again up and running. It seems that there was a virus in the Firefox program causing all sorts of weird things to happen. I’m not the fastest typist around, but when I typed and stopped and went back to read what I had written, it was depressing to find that the computer was only a quarter of the way through the sentence I had typed.

What my computer guru did was completely uninstall Firefox and all of it’s sub folders, and then we did a fresh install of the program. So far it seems to have worked and I am hopeful that we got all of the virus out. I really do not want to have to have the hard drive wiped.

So, most of my day has been spent setting up Firefox, installing my bookmarks and then making sure that all the passwords were up to date. And about passwords, all I can say is EEEEEK! I have so many, that I can no longer keep up. I have a locked file in a different place where I keep them all. But my goodness, it can be confusing. Especially now where many sites want you to change your password frequently and then not use any password that you might ever have used with them! Oh my!

But the machine is now almost completely programmed, at least with the important stuff, so I can sit back once again, and crochet!

On Sunday I woke up to discover that 8 inches of snow had fallen overnight. Now we were supposed to only have 2-3 inches, so 8 inches was a real surprise! I felt bad for Jack, who would have to go out with the snow-blower to clear our drive. I decided to spoil Jack with three nice meals during the day. I admit breakfast, and lunch were nice, but ordinary.

As Jack finished his breakfast he went to get dressed and said, “Maribeth, someone plowed our driveway!” We both were surprised, as I had been out around 8 o’clock and the driveway was un-plowed. An hour later, it was done. I guess by the snow-plowing fairy! Whoever it was, I thank them, with all my heart!

During the day I had felt tired once again, and I lay down on the sofa. The next thing I knew, Jack said, “Are you awake?” I groaned a little as I began to wake. “It’s five o’clock” he said.

What? How could this be? I just lay down at 3:15 for a little nap. Now it was 5:00 and time for the dogs to eat!

I realized that yesterday I slept for an hour in the afternoon and today over an hour and a half, and I am filled up in my sinuses again. Ugh! At least I still have my medication for that, which I started on Sunday night.

Later  in the afternoon I made  a dinner that was really good! I made Brussel sprouts sauteed with onions, garlic and bacon, pork chops sauteed with fresh rosemary and thyme, and in a country gravy, and mashed herbed potatoes, served with our own apple sauce.

Jack was delighted and I admit, it was easily enjoyed. I just love it when a meal comes together like this.

So that wraps up my somewhat sleep filled weekend. I hope you all had a nice weekend and enjoyed yourselves.

-Things I’ve Done Or Not Done-

1. Fired a gun – Yes and I wasn’t a bad shot.
   
2. Gone on a blind date – No. I haven’t had time to do that.I got married at 17 the first time and 29 the second time. I’ve pretty much been spoken for all my life!
   
3. Watched someone give birth – Yes. Me. Twice!
   
4. Watched someone die – Sadly, yes.
   
5. Visited Canada – Yes. Hubby’s family are mostly Canadian.
   
6. Visited Hawaii – No and I really want to go!
   
7. Visited Las Vegas – No and don’t really want to.
8. Visited Asia – Not yet, but really want to.
   
9. Visited Africa – Not yet.
   
10. Visited Florida – Not just visited, but lived there for 6 years.
    
11. Visited Mexico – Yes, but Mexico and I are enemies. All three times I got very ill.
    
12. Visited Australia – Not yet, but one day!
    
13. Seen the Grand Canyon in person – Yes! And it was amazing!
    
14. Flown in a helicopter – Yes. Not sure I liked it.
    
15. Flown an airplane – Never flown an airplane, but did have the chance to fly in the cockpit when Hubby was helping to ferry a plane to Germany. If I had known how fabulous it was to do, I would have paid more attention in my math and science classes!
16. Served on a jury – Well sort of. I was selected for two jury’s, but both cases were plea bargained before the jury heard the case.
    
17. Visited L.A – Yes, briefly.
    
18. Been to New York City – Yes, but not a big fan.
    
19. Cried yourself to sleep – Yes.
    
20. Recently colored with pencils- No, but I’ve been looking at the adults coloring books.
    
21. Sang karaoke – Not really.
    
22. Paid for a meal with coins only – When I was very little I went to see my Grandma Elsie. She always saved coins in a tea cup for us to have for spending money when we came up. I got my money (all coins) and we went to Woolworths to shop. Grandma decided to stop there and have lunch at the counter. When we finished she went to get her wallet and realized she had left it at home. She asked me to let her have the money, and she would pay me back when she got home. I did. As we walked back home she tried her best to make me promise not to tell Papa Sam. Being the rotten six year old I was, as soon as he walked in the door that night I told him all about the adventure and how I had save the day!
    
23. Made prank phone calls – No. Phones were a different thing back in the day. I think I had more respect for them
    
24. Laughed so much you cried – Yes.
    
25. Caught a snowflake on your tongue – I live in the White Mountain Region of New Hampshire. We can have literally several feet of snow in our winters. One of my favorite things to do is to go outside, listen to the quiet and catch snow flakes!
    
26. Had children – Yes, two beautiful daughters.
    
27. Had a pet – Oh yes. Let’s see: Smokey (cat) Baby, Lorelei, (dogs), Terry-Ho, Daisy, (cats), Rex, Max, Fritz, Lili, (white German shepherds), Shubi, Greta, Arnie, Anneliese, (dackels) .
    
28. Been skinny dipping – Yes. But who with and when, I am not telling!
    
29. Rapelled down a building / cliff – When I saw this question I laughed. Knowing me to be one disaster away from death, I do not think I will ever want to do this!
    
30. Been downhill skiing – Yes, Not very good at it though.
    
31. Been water skiing – Yes, years ago.
    
32. Been camping in a tent – No. I am not the roughing it type.
    
33. Driven a motorcycle – No. Let’s just say I have a healthy respect for them.
    
34. Jumped out of a plane – LOL…no.
    
35. Gone to a drive-in movie – Yes, and that was so much fun, back in the day!
    
36. Done something that could have killed you – Yes, but I survived and will never be that stupid again.
    
37. Done something that you will regret for the rest of your life – People who know me, know I regret only one day of my life. The day my daughter died. And that day I didn’t do anything, but was rather a victim.
    
38. Rode an elephant – Yes, and perhaps that is why I love elephants so much!
    
39. Rode a camel – Yes, I did that too.
    
40. Eaten just cookies or cake or ice cream for dinner – Sure. Long, long, ago, in a galaxy, far, far, away!
    
41. Been on TV – Not really.
    
42. Been in newspapers – Yes a number of times. Most notably, when I appeared as a child in the Sound of Music.
    
43. Stolen any traffic signs – Nope!
    
44. Been in a car accident – Yes. And it haunts me to this day.
45. Stayed in Hospital – Yes. Unfortunately, many times.
46. Donated blood – Yes.
47. Had to pay a fine in the past 12 months – No, I’ve lived a clean life.
48. Gotten a piercing – Just my ears.
49. Gotten a tattoo – Ah, no.
50. Driven a standard car – Oh yeah, piece of cake.
51. Ever owned your dream car – Yes. Still have it.
52. Been Married – Twice.
53. Been divorced – Yes, once.

Just a little Yahoo for me. After trying to figure out how to add back in the two items that the last WordPress Platform took out of my composition page, today I sat down and found the update on WordPress and downloaded it and then activated it!

Now I’m not sure how many of you use the Justify and Underline, but I sure do, and it was adding a lot of time to my compositions, when I had to put in the codes by hand!

I cannot tell you how proud I am of myself. One giant step for me, in my ability to learn another something new in how to keep my blog up to date!