Category: Friday Five

I seem to be list oriented this week, as we start the month of February. The first Friday of February, can you believe it?

I returned to Weight Watchers on Wednesday and here are my thoughts on getting back to taking care of my eating and my health.

1. I returned to Class after nearly a year hiatus. Not because I wanted to be, but because 2017 was a tough health year for me I had lost quite a bit of weight, mostly because I could not eat.
2. It was more than wonderful to see my old friends in Class. I got so many hugs, and so much love. If that isn’t encouraging, I don’t know what is. My main goal now is to finish losing the extra weight and to learn to make healthier choices!
3. I stayed after class to learn about Weight Watchers new program. It sounds very good, but I have to tell you that my head is still swimming with all the information!
4. I started out on Thursday morning, trying to make sense of this program. After lunch I felt a bit overwhelmed and also hungry. Now here is the deal, I had eaten a wonderful breakfast, and I spent time making a good lunch. There was no reason I should have been hungry, except you say “diet” to me and suddenly my mind thinks I’m starving!
5. I’ve still got 19 points to use today, so I guess I will try to plan a normal dinner. I think chicken fajitas. I have steak fajitas for Jack. If I am lucky and this works well, by my birthday in November I will be at my goal weight.

This week the Friday Five will center on my feelings about keeping Dackel Princess alive. I’ve been keeping her going since 2005!  It all started out during the Blog craze, where everyone was blogging. I was feeling frustrated having no where to share my thoughts about Shubi’s illness and my cousin Janet, and our friend Megan, suggested I start a blog. I tossed out several titles, and Megan like The Dackel Princess. And in May of 2005, Dackel Princess was born. So, here is The Friday Five for January 26th, 2018!

1. Originally I wrote about Shubi. My very first dackel.

My darling Shubi!

She had gotten sick in 2003 and I had no outlet for my feelings, as I watched her getting sicker and sicker with a disease called GME. (Granulomatous Meningoencephalitis (GME) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system.) Shubi fought the disease valiantly, with monthly capsules of Chemotherapy, and high doses of Prednisone. Eventually I could see what the medications were doing to Shubi and I stopped them, and 2 years after her diagnosis, Shubi went to Rainbow Bridge.

2. When I learned Shubi was so ill and would not survive, I wrote to a friend in Germany telling her about it. She arranged for me to get a dackel from German Champions. After a phone call, where Jack used his best German, we arranged to go over in May of 2004 to get baby Greta.

Baby Greta!

3. After Shubi’s death, we brought Greta to a German dog show where she got her rating. She was rated as Excellent! Then I found a German boy dog, who happened to live quite close to us here in New Hampshire and Greta became a mother December 10th, 2006 to five beautiful babies.

Anneliese & Arnie when they were babies!

That was when Dackel Princess became a puppy blog. I wrote about the puppies and how they grew and of course Arnie and Anneliese stayed with me, and I wrote all about them. Anneliese’s puppies, and life amongst the hounds!

4. But eventually I stopped breeding and then the grandchildren came and I began to write about them, my home, my love of cooking, traveling and photography.  Now I realize, that I may not be a dachshund, but because of my love for dackels, I am The Dackel Princess!

5. I’m not sure how much longer I will continue to write. I suppose as long as I have something to say. I love sharing my life, my thoughts, my recipes, with all of you. And I sure hope that you enjoy reading it.

Another week has come and gone. It seems that January is flying by, and as I write, I wonder if all of 2018 will be like this? In any case, here are five things I am thinking of as the week closes and the weekend begins.

1. Finally Jack and I are recovering from out mid winter colds. It’s been a real monster and very hard to shake. In fact it has lasted almost 3 full weeks.
2. We are finally warming up a bit, after several weeks of below zero or single digit temperatures. In many ways, I am ready for Spring!
3. I have actually gotten some important house work done the last few days. I do what I’ve been told. Work for an hour and then take an hour off…It’s worked and in many ways it’s like Spring cleaning, without the warmer temperatures!
4. I made a great Prime Rib Roast the other night. It came out quite well, and today I will make a nice beef stew with some of the leftovers.
5. This weekend, my big plan is to get all the Christmas stuff together and get it put away for another year. I have wrapping paper I bought for 50 cents, and bags of bows for 25 cents! I also bought my Christmas cards because they were on sale, but also because I loved their antique style! So I am already for Christmas 2018

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and my your days be filled with fun things and good friends and family times!

Oh yes, and GO PATRIOTS!!!

I woke this morning and I am actually feeling better. After being ill since just after Christmas, it made me very happy to actually feel better. So here is today’s Friday Five!

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1. After not being able to breathe through my nose for weeks, I can actually breathe and not have to blow my nose every two seconds! Yay nose!

2. I can once again swallow. I have lived on liquids for a couple of weeks because swallowing has been hard. My cough is also slowing down, after weeks of gagging, hard, coughing.

3. Despite the fact that I could not eat whole foods, I have not lost any weight. Thus confirming my belief that I could survive a nuclear holocaust as long as I had some sort of liquid. Vodka perhaps?

4. Jack bought me a new rug cleaner in November for my birthday. At first I was nervous about using it, but I have to say, it is the best machine (Bissell ProHeat 2X® Revolution™ Pet Pro Carpet Cleaner/2007) I have ever owned! And the cleaning fluid, Bissell 1990 Pro Pet Urine Eliminator Upright Deep Cleaner Formula + Oxy, is magic! It has worked on old stains as well as new ones. If you have a dog or cat, trust me this works like a charm!

5. Jack is also a bit better, although not quite on par with me. I am hoping that with a few more days of rest he will be on the mend along with me.

I woke up this morning to more snow. Now ordinarily I could care less, but I had an important doctors appointment and this rapidly falling snow was only going to make it more difficult. Here is how my day went.

1. I kept waiting, hoping they would call and reschedule my appointment. But they never did. In fact once I got there, the secretary told me that almost everyone had cancelled today I could have come in sooner. Grrr!
2. Jack and I had a quick small lunch and then we headed to the doctor’s office. The roads were terrible! This was at 1:15 PM and at that time we had probably 6-8 inches of snow.
3. Jack drove (thank goodness as I really flip out driving in those situations and Jack does not). Everyone was driving about 15 to 25 miles per hour, as things were brutally bad. Jack is such a great driver and I knew we would be fine.
4. However, there was one guy in a little sports car that was driving so fast and fishtailed his car’s rear end all over the place. I seriously thought he was going to go into a tree.
5. Jack just came in from digging a little path for the dachshunds. He says there is at least 10 inches now and they have forecast more snow until 4 AM on Friday. So when all is said and done we will probably have over a foot.
6. Oh yes, I did make it in to see my doctor. Well, actually he wasn’t there and I saw this wonderful Nurse Practitioner. Truth be told, I liked her more than I did him, and I felt that she listened to me better, as well as gave me a more thorough physical exam. Diagnosis, Bacterial Sinus Infection, which explains the high fevers, painful sinuses, and a rather gruesome multitude of other symptoms! Treatment: nasal sprays and antibiotics. Then all should be well.

Here we are the last week in 2017. The last Friday. Not only has this week gone by quickly, but the entire year seems to have flown by. But as the year ends here are some things on my mind.

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1. There really isn’t anything more important than Love. Love for your family, your friends, but probably most importantly, love for yourself. If you do not love yourself first and take care of yourself, you will be unable to truly love anyone else.

2. After love, I think physical health is most important. Thus, my New Years Resolution (of which there are a few this year) is to go back to Weight Watchers and not only lose a little weight, but to get healthy! This will mean eating well, and getting out and moving again. 2017, where I was so ill, has found me in the worst shape of my life. I need to be healthy, body, mind and spirit!

3. Care. This year I plan to dedicate myself to caring more for my home. Being unwell, I let a lot of things go. This year (Resolution) I want to get each room cleaned  and spend time painting and resealing each window. The painting and sealing is so important.

4. I want to work on my blog more. (Resolution) I let it go so much. Thanks so my friend, Megan, I have a new look and now I am ready to daily blog once again! I have so much to say, so much to share. So 2018, look out, here I come with some new posts!

5. Back to crocheting. I love working with my hands, and while making Savannah’s afghan I found that the motions of crocheting, helped the arthritis in my hands! So I have two projects I would like to do this year. Both are big projects. Both will be incredibly fun!

So I think 2018 will be a wonderful year, full of hope, dreams and excitement! Spent with the ones that I love, and of course, watching my grandchildren grow! Life is good and if there are days it deals me lemons, I shall make lemonade!

So, here we are, another week has flown by. Hard to believe, but in just a few more weeks 2017 will be over, and we will be starting a New Year! So here are my Friday Five for the holiday season.

1. Looking back I can absolutely say that I am glad 2017 is coming to an end! I felt very much like we were being challenged medically all throughout the year!

2. I can safely say that I do not want to have another operation for the rest of my life. The Staph infection really scared the heck out of me.

3. And to have Jack’s infected Toe and amputation come right on the heels of my illness, just seemed to add insult to injury!

4. But we are all doing well, even my old lady Greta, who seems to have bounced back. So as we enter the Christmas Season, all is calm, all is bright!

5. I have just three more presents to get and then I am done for the year! Let the wrapping begin!

You know you are getting older when you look at your weekly calendar, and 4 out of the 5 working days are filled with doctor’s appointments! LOL! So it was, this week for Jack and me.

This lead to some interesting encounters and so here are my happenings for the week of October 9 – 13.

1. I started off the week with an appointment with my Primary Care Physician. All went very well, although tests have been ordered to check on the Cervical Fusion I had back in February. An MRI has been ordered. Otherwise, I am in very good shape.
2. The next day, Jack went in to have blood work in the morning. You know, those pesky fasting blood work types? He and I were both starved when he got done, but it was late in the morning, and not many places were still serving breakfast. Except this diner over by the Manchester Airport, called “The Airport Diner”. The menu was good, the food was so tasty and the people were friendly and nice.
3. After this, we headed back to the VA for Jack’s Podiatrist appointment. The good news is, that the infected toe is healing up nicely and I have really become a very good nurse for him.
4. Thursday we were over at the White River Junction, Vermont VA. They do Audiology there. Jack already has hearing aids, and today the wonderful Audiologist was able to adjust them so he is hearing much better again! I really like the White River Junction VA. It seems everyone is friendly and kind, and very respectful to each and every one of the Vets who come in for care.
5. Now here is the “I can’t believe…” of the week. I was in the grocery store the other day, and I was talking with the young checkout clerk. I think he might have been 21 or so. The conversation went to Vietnam and Agent Orange and the effects it has had on so many of our Vietnam Veterans. The young man was interested and as I finished telling him that Jack had served in Vietnam, and his health had really suffered, the young man said, (and I kid you not!), “I don’t know much about Vietnam, just what I’ve seen on M.A.S.H.“!!!!!!!! Now I can’t make this up folks. I told him (gently) that M.A.S.H. dealt with the Korean War, and if he wanted to know what it was like in Vietnam, he should go to the local American Legion and buy a beer for a few of the Veterans and ask them about what Vietnam meant for them.

And that folks, was my week. Have a great weekend and enjoy the Autumn weather!!!