Category: Family & Friends

Today is the birthday of my best friend, Uschi. I cannot begin to explain how special she is, or how important she is to me. I love her like a sister and I am so grateful that the good Lord brought us together! How else can you explain a woman in New Hampshire and another in Germany finding each other in this big, big world?

So Happy Birthday, dearest Uschi and many, many more!!!

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~Road~

One of my favorite pictures. This is me with my friend, Otto and Shubi walking along a road in a Bavarian Forest with Otto’s dog, Kapu.

Otto, Kapu and Shubi are all gone now, but their loving memory will be with me always.

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~Beautiful~

Uschi and her new puppy, Noa. They are both so beautiful!

My dearest friend, Uschi lost her beloved doggy, Gilli last spring. He was such a wonderful boy, and without him, I never would have found Uschi. You see, Uschi and I met in a chat room for dog lovers. All too soon it was his time and he went to the Rainbow Bridge. My Uschi was so lost without her companion. I understood her pain so well as I have said goodbye to too many wonderful pets.

Yesterday I got a wonderful post from her showing me a picture of her new baby. His name is Noa! He is too young yet to be away from his mother, but in September he will go home with Uschi and her husband and start his new life with them.

Noa is a Chocolate Labrador! Isn’t he just the cutest thing in the world? I am so happy for Uschi and her husband and I can hardly wait until I can go over to Germany and see this precious new baby!

I went to Weight Watchers on Wednesday and was down another 1/2 a pound. I can’t say I was the best little weight watcher this week, but I sure was active. I think this is why I lost anything. I was thrilled, but also determined that now that I am so close to my goal, I’ve got to step up my moving around a bit and really watch what I eat.

I hadn’t been home too long when I noticed the dachshunds all smelled like they had been out rolling around on a dead slug! Ugh! Bath time!

Hubby was using the hose to water the garden, so I looked around outside, not wanting to bring the little devils into the house smelling like that! The puppy pool!

The water in there was reasonably fresh, and very warm. I brought out the doggy soap, towels and tossed the three dachshunds in one by one and soaped them up and rinsed them.

Can I just say how wonderful it is to have three sweet smelling dackels to go to bed with tonight. I think they are even happy with the way they are smelling!

Dinner was at Canoe this evening, courtesy of my friend, Gail. We feasted on Sweet and Sour Calamari, Mussels, and I had the most wonderful baby spinach salad with goat cheese spiced walnuts and three Cajun shrimp. Granted, this was not a sanctioned Weight Watcher meal, but it was good, and I did not have dessert!

My friend, Gail and her son leave us tomorrow and I know I will cry when she does. Our visits are always too brief and yet now all these years since we first met (37 years) I am happy to say that we can talk more on the phone due to Verizon cell phone service and we are closer than ever.

Here’s to friendship!~

Monday we took a ride on the Mount Washington Cruise Ship. It takes you around Lake Winnipesaukee for a leisurely cruise. We sat on the upper deck, with the wind gently blowing on us to cool us off. We enjoyed a wonderful Lobster salad, and tall Starbuck’s coffees.

A sign for the cruise ship.

Waiting to board the ship.

Gail and I with the Lake all around us.

The home of the Mount Washington Cruise Ship.

I love going on this cruise. It is so relaxing and whenever we have guests we drive over and hop on board. I never tire of it and hope that I will always be able to share this with my friends and family when they come to visit.

Each year in the neighboring town, my next door neighbor’s church has a festival of food, fun and music. Aglaia is Greek and the festival has always been a favorite of ours because we both love Greek food and appreciate their heritage.

This year I offered Aglaia another worker for her food table, and in the end two of us worked for her. Emily came with me and we put her to work too! On Saturday we went down to the church and worked serving goodies. Here is a picture of me at my station on the dessert table, with Aglaia’s youngest daughter, Elena.

Emily and I were were in charge of the lemon squares, fig bars and apple turnovers. People would walk down the line filling up their take away box with treats.

Then they got into another line for lunch. Their were lamb shanks, pastichio, stuffed grape leaves, greek salads and more.

I love that people from the local nearby towns come and spend part of their day at the festival. I saw so many familiar faces and everyone was having fun, at the same time the money made from the festival will go into their outreach programs.

As the afternoon progressed, the children came out in traditional costumes and danced for the crowd. They were very good and I loved their costumes!

At the end of the day I was exhausted, and still had to run home make Fritz’s birthday cake, potato salad for his party today and tidy up the house. I finally sat down with Hubby at 8 o’clock and watched a documentary on the Transcontinental Railroad, before falling asleep!

Today is my sister’s birthday. What can you say about someone who has been such an important part of your life?

She was there in the beginning. I simply cannot remember a day when she wasn’t there for me.

As I grew she became even more important. Playing Barbie Dolls with me, fixing me snacks or telling me stories while we washed and dried the dishes.

We’ve shared our lives, enjoyed the good times together and held each other together through the bad.

Still, here we are, approaching middle age and not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for her love, her loyalty and her friendship.

Happy Birthday Mel!!!

My dear friend and neighbor had a big family party today. She is the type of person who is so loving and giving of her self that she tends to adopt people along the way, so Hubby and I as well as several other “non family” members were invited to the party. We all consider ourselves extended family.
We had wonderful Greek dishes of lamb shish kababs, spanakopita, stuffed grape leaves, tsatziki, and these delicious philo dough triangles stuffed with feta cheese! It was mouth watering good!!!

I can’t begin to tell you how much fun this was. The party started at noon and we left at about 7:30. Mostly we left the dachsies at home, but Fritz is so good at a party that he stayed all throughout the day.

Here I am with my neighbor Aglaia. I am so lucky that she lives next door!


Here’s Fritz with Hubby and I at the party.

Here is the whole gang enjoying the day.

We all caught up with stories from the last year or so. There were two worth sharing. One, because it is truly incredible and the other because it is just short of a miracle.

One of the kids (age 16) went on safari with his family in Kenya. During a break at one of the preserves that they visited he and his older brother were walking along when they were confronted by a group of baboons. Now, baboons are not nice. They attacked. The two boys fought back and finally were able to run for it, when S. fell. He got up quickly and continued to run, but when he fell he broke his hand. This poor kid had to fly all the way back to New Jersey to get hand surgery to correct the spiral fracture in his hand. It’s looking better, but just imagine the pain! Luckily, there shouldn’t be any permanent damage, just three pins in his hand to hold it in place.

Now here is the miracle. Two years ago some mutual friends adopted a little boy from China. He was a special needs child, as he was born with only one hand, but his adoptive parents didn’t care and loved him with all their hearts. Shortly after he arrived he began having seizures, along with a few strokes, and things became very grim. They predicted he would not be much more than a vegetable. Well his new parents brought him to Boston and found a doctor who operated on his brain, they refused to give up. Today he is a happy, healthy child!

Here he is with his Mommy and sister!

So the day was filled with goodness and happiness and I am content. There are days that are just plain good and uplifting and this was one of them!