Category: Family & Friends

Girl’s Day

On Saturday I drove down to the closest “big city” to us. Mandy drove up and we met at a local bookstore well known for their double cappuccino’s! After Mandy arrived, we got our coffees and then got into my car and headed over to the Mall. We stopped first at Applebees and had lunch and then the shopping commenced!

This is actually a pretty good mall, as malls go, and Mandy, who has also been dieting and lost even more weight than me, needed some new office clothes. We started in “Coldwater Creek” where there was a “70% Sale” sign in the window! I have to say that Mandy looks adorable in clothes, and I enjoyed watching her trying on different outfits.

I hadn’t intended to buy anything, but recently I had experienced our anniversary where I literally had NOTHING to wear. I did not want to buy anything that I really liked because I know in another 6 months it won’t fit, but I decided to try on a new pair of coral colored denim jeans, and a flowery top that matched. Both fit nicely, and the jeans were a size 12 and the blouse was a medium!!!

That was all I bought, but Mandy has an office job, so she truly needed a few outfits, and luckily, she found them and at sale prices.

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Dinner was at a local placed called “The Common Man”. We met up with my cousin Janet. The place was mobbed! Talk about a place where you really want to either have a reservation or perhaps eliminate from your weekend dining list. They told us it would be over 1 hour, but we could wait in the bar!!!

We sat in there and decided that we would order dinner sitting at the bar. We ordered salads and lobster corn chowder.

Janet and I talked and talked and it was so nice. I’d brought with me old pictures that I’d gotten when my sister and I were going through things from our parents home. There were great pictures of Janet’s parents, grandmother and yes, even her brother. I was so happy to be able to give them to her. We also exchanged Christmas gifts! Janet gave me

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Patty Boyd’s book on her life with George Harrison and Eric Clapton, and I gave her the cutest purse, with a Johnny Depp pirate inside. I hope she liked them!

My cell phone went off twice (I’d set it to vibrate), thus giving me a short thrill and the experience of trying to talk over so many bar patrons! I’ve decided that I like the thrill, but not the talking in a crowded bar.

I got home late. A first for me, the original country mouse who is usually in pajamas by 7:30!!!

Today? Well, I’m tired, but happily so!

Blogging, A Givers Gain

I have always wanted to travel around the world. I’ve actually been lucky to do quite a bit of traveling and the more I traveled the more I wanted to learn about other places.

I have tried to open my mind and my blog to people around this world in hopes that we can share our lives with each other, and I have been lucky, very lucky, to meet some wonderful people who share my interest in learning about each other’s cultures.

I’ve been reading RennyBa’s Terella for a couple of years. I could tell that he was interested in other places, other people and traditions.

I wanted to know more about his Norway, what the people were like, what traditions were held dear, what made Norway tick. Much of this has been answered in his blog, as he writes about the life and culture of Norway, but I wanted to share my little piece of New Hampshire with him and his wife Diane. So Renny and I decided to share packages with each other, containing just a little bit of our worlds! Today Renny is linking to me and I am linking to him so that you can see how our exchange went.

The most interesting was learning about the traditional dress of Norway known as the Bunad. As you can see in the photo below, (click to enlarge) there is a doll with this dress on, but I learned that depending on your particular part of the country there are many Bunad designs.

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I am also enjoying the music that Renny and Diane sent to us which included part of the Peer Gynt Suite. What a treat for us! I love the information on the artists of the country as well.

I hope you will spend a moment and go over and visit Renny. Read from his archives and learn a little bit more about his part of our world. Tell him I sent you.

Happy 13th Birthday Emily!!!

Today was Emily’s thirteenth birthday! Wow! I cannot believe it. We went out for Chinese food at the local Buffet (we all love it there, as the food is great!) and celebrated this special day.

After dinner we came back here to our house and mily got to open our gifts to her.

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After presents we sat down and watched the movie “The Goonies” and ate popcorn. The dogs led us out the door off and on and Em got to program her new track phone.

Em will spend the night with us and she’ll get to sleep with Anneliese, and tomorrow I’ll make a nice big breakfast for her and for Jack. Perhaps pancakes!

It’s so wonderful spending this time with her!

Happy Birthday, Emily!!!

~Best Friends For 36 Years!~

My dearest and oldest friend came for a visit! Her Hubby and son are skiing with my Hubby, and Gail and I are drinking tea, going out shopping and talking. Lots and lots of talking. Emily arrived and she got the camera that I use for the kids, and she began snapping pictures. So here for your (hopefully) enjoyment is a small montage of me with my friend Gail and the pups!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Friends & Doggies

My oldest friend is coming to see me this week. She’ll arrive tomorrow night with her husband and son. The boys will go skiing and Gail and I will sit here, sipping tea and just talk non-stop.

We will also go to my favorite restaurant Canoe! I’m excited about this because now that I have gone out to eat there and I’ve found many things on their menu that I can eat, and stay on my diet, I am anxious to go back.

Now more big news!

Greta is in heat. It started this morning, slowly, and so if all goes well puppies will arrive in early June and be ready for their new homes later in the summer!!! I am so excited about this, even if Greta isn’t.

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One thing is for sure though, Greta loves her little pants! I swear that she is strutting her stuff like a runway model! Look out Gisela Bündchen! Greta Garbo is walking the catwalk now!

In A Flash

It’s entirely possible to view ones life in a day. You can see it flash before your very eyes if….you have a mother like mine, who tossed pictures in boxes and let them sit for 50 years! Today, my sister and I spent the entire day going through these boxes (and we know there are even more!) watching our lives unfold.

I was a cute enough kid growing up. I went from blond curls, to a pixie cut by the time I was 5. After that my hair grew in full and thick, but gone were the baby curls that my mother had so carelessly cut off. (I have never quite forgiver her for that!)

There were the pictures of me with my High School boyfriend, who became my first husband and the father of my two daughters. There were the pictures of me as I carried my two children through pregnancy. (I felt like no one had been as big as I was!) There were the pictures of me holding my babies for the fist time.

And there I was at the baptisms of my children… So small so sweet…that time flew by, too fast.

Then there I was with my current Hubby. The first few time I brought him to meet my parents and then the early years of our married life. Sharing the looks that only newly married couples share. Something so intimate and knowing.

Yes, my sister and I shared today. We watched our lives flash before our eyes. We watched our children grow, the birth of her grandchildren and the constant renewal of life.

In a flash…..

Playing!

The puppies had their first year Vet visit today. They were weighed (Arnie was 18.8 pounds and Anneliese was 16.2 pounds), examined and given all their shots. They were exceptionally good pups, until a teacup poodle and his owner entered the clinic and then they began to bark like two wild maniacs! The old man looked down his nose at them, and then glared at me and said, “I think you need the Dog Whisperer!”

The funny thing is, had he just put the dog down, my two would have played with it and all would have been fine. In any case, I felt firmly chastised for being the owner of these two little, wild, beasts! LOL!

Next week is Greta’s appointment for her shots, and then in April Fritz will go have his teeth cleaned and get all his shots done.

I stopped at the New Hampshire Crafts Shop to visit my friend, with both puppies, as well as the Post Office. The pups loved this, and everyone was pleased to see them too.

It actually became sunny and a bit warm (40 degrees F) by noon. Emily had a half day of school, so once she was here, we had lunch and after that we went out to play with the dogs.

Hubby worked on the path around the house again today, blowing the snow back down to a passable pathway. Then we came in and Emily and I did some computer work together, looked at magazines and chatted until it was time for her to go home.

All in all, a very nice day!

She’s Back!

Emily arrived home after a week in sunny/rainy Florida. She came over after lunch and told me all about her trip, showed me pictures and the things that she had gotten while shopping on her trip. She said she hadn’t gotten any sun, but I could see where the sun had kissed her cheeks while she was away.

Emily on the left and Jacqui on the right
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Of course she arrived just before our latest storm. We got another 8 inches of snow last night, which means that our yard is now officially buried beyond anything that I have ever seen in my life. In fact they say we have had well over 100 inches of snow, and they do believe we will break the all time record for snow in New Hampshire this year.

I was going to take some pictures today, but when I went out with my model, Arnie, he jumped up on top of the snow and headed across our yard and into the yard of our neighbors, disappearing from my sight. I wasn’t in my boots so I had to run back in the house before attempting to slog my way through 4 1/2 feet of snow to retrieve him. By the time I got back out the little turkey had burrowed back through the snow and was standing there wagging his tail at me!

Hubby spent the entire day blowing snow and he fell asleep right after dinner in his chair. All I can say is, come on, Mother Nature, give us a break!

Kids and Dogs

Have I mentioned that we have new neighbors? Neighbors with twin six year old daughters. Sarah and Kimmy. They have found us and the dogs, and we see them almost every day. They were over bright and early today and brought along their friend, Jacob. I pulled up the stools to the breakfast bar and they all sat coloring and I thought this would make a good picture.

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Jacob, Sarah and Kimmy

I love the fact that the neighborhood kids all feel comfortable coming here. The only thing is I need to buy some more art supplies. Crayons, coloring books and some activity books. I want to have things to keep the younger ones busy. Perhaps some reading books as well.

Hubby and I were standing in the kitchen after the kids left today and he looked over at me and said, “You are really a kid magnet”.

I guess he is right. I love the fact that they come, and I know that here they are safe.

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My back is better, and I am finally able to sleep at night. Yay!!! I was starting to think that something drastic would need to be done, but it looks like resting it is doing the trick.

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That wraps things up from cold, snowy, icy and rainy New Hampshire. Have a good week everyone!