The Dackel Princess

Fantastic Friday

Despite the cold weather, today was a great day. I was able to get a lot of things done, and the last box of ordered clothing from Coldwater Creek arrived. Everything fits wonderfully, but one item, a jacket, that I love, Hubby isn’t so sure of.

He says that he has never seen me in such a wild printed “anything” before. I am finding now that I am slimmer, I want to sort of “push the envelope” and try new things. I’ll give it a go at Weight Watchers next week and if the consensus is a no go, then Mandy is a lucky girl, because it is definitely something she would wear.

Hubby is staying busy with games of Scrabble, and this afternoon we got a nice fire going int he hearth to take the chill off of the family room. It’s so cozy when we have the fire .

I also heard back from a woman in Berlin, Germany about fixing up Anneliese for a “hot date” when she comes into heat. Can you believe I get this excited about mating my dog? Woo-hoo!!!

The best part is that I get to see Uschi!

I also made an interesting recipe. A Weight Watchers Blueberry Buckle. If you’re interested, leave a comment and I’ll send you the recipe. It’s super easy, and delicious!

Have a good weekend!

Fffffreeezing!

Okay, it’s cold.

Friday morning 7 AM temperature, -18 degrees (F) !!!!

This is the part of the winter that I just don’t like. The frozen part. We’re having temperatures well before zero (F) and everything has that dry, crunchy feeling that comes with these temperatures.

Of course it’s great for the lakes. It means that our annual Ice Fishing Derby in February will probably go off without a hitch because the ice will surely be thick enough.

It also means that the dogs, even Fritz run in and out to do their business. No one is out for too long. Me either. I’ve had to go out for the mail and a doctor’s appointment, and trust me when I say that I was well gloved, coated and hatted, and went from house to post office to car as quickly as I could!

Tonight my hands feel cold even though I’m sitting here in my skiing, super warm, long johns and a fleece robe, two pairs of socks and have a blanket over my knees!

It’s not that the house is all that cold, it isn’t really, but my body seems to react to the cold in strange ways even if I am sitting in a warm place!

They are predicting this cold for the next few days. I guess that means I will be going out for short intervals and dressing for it.

Sheesh! Here I work at losing all this weight and in order to dress warmly enough now, I have to put on so many layers that it makes me look like I did a year ago!

Come on Springtime!!!

I’m “Lifetime”

Today at Weight Watchers I got my “Lifetime” card. Basically this means that for the last six weeks I have been able to maintain my weight, and now I enter a new phase of maintaining my weight on a long term basis.

You know a year ago I looked like this:

But with hard work, and learning a new way to look at food, prepare it and portion it out, I met my goal and now I look like this:

(Me with my daughter, Mandy)

I’ve set a few new goals for myself. I would like to firm up my body now and get in shape. Unfortunately the old body doesn’t respond at 50 the way it did at 20, but that’s okay. I think I’ll use the same philosophy to get in shape physically, that I did to lose the weight. “One Day At A Time”.

I think that in time I would like to go on and perhaps become a Weight Watchers leader. I would like to be at my goal weight for a little longer, but I think I have a lot I could offer to other people searching to control their weight.

But for tonight I’m enjoying the achievement of reaching “Lifetime” at Weight Watchers!

A Three Dackel Day

Here is another post about my dackels.

It started this morning when I went into my bedroom to wake Hubby. I’d gotten up about an hour before, but I needed to shower and dress for an appointment, so I went in to wake him and say good morning.

As I walked in and pulled up the shade, what did I see?

Yes the adorable Miss Greta, curled up underneath the covers with her Daddy! I stopped and stroked her and talked to her, and I could feel her tail wagging. Greta can be the sweetest little Angel. When she wants to be! lol! In the mornings, when the puppies have gotten up and she is alone in bed with her Daddy, she WANTS to be.

Later in the morning we were having a tough time with the puppies. They kept sitting up on the back of the sofa barking at the birds.

Eventually I had to pull the shades because the barking was so loud. I truly think it is a plot by those wild birds to drive the dackels insane. Or perhaps the plan is to drive me insane, because the barking really drives me up the wall!

Later in the afternoon the temperatures began dropping. Anneliese was chilled and shaking, so I brought out her little doggy sweater. She loves the sweater!

She wore it around the house, snapped at Arnie when he got to close to it, and just kept it on. She stretched out on the carpet, snuggled in the chair next to me and eventually wanted to go outside.

So I let her out and I watched. My crazy dackel ran through a foot of snow with a joy, seen only when observing little kids playing in the snow, after school has been called off! She ran and ran and eventually I called her in. The sweater was totally covered with snowballs! I lifted it off her and hung it to dry. And Anneliese climbed up in the chair next to me and fell asleep.

Ah, it sure is a dog’s life, isn’t it?

Therapy

I put Hubby to work today. Yesterday he mentioned that he’d like me to make him a Splenda (sugar free) Apple Pie. I was too tired to make it last night, but this afternoon I had him up and peeling apples for the pie. I think he enjoyed using his New England Apple peeling, coring and slicing machine. It certainly was good therapy, with a tasty payoff!

Once he filled the bowl with sliced apples, I mixed up the Splenda and spices and put them into a pie shell and baked it. We’ll have it for dessert tonight after dinner.

During the day today the pups played and were enjoying their usual good life, when the phone rang and it was Mr. UPS Man. He was at the top of our driveway and had a box of goodies for the doggies. I drove the Jeep up and picked up the box, then came back and let each of the dogs have a fresh, yummy basted bone!

As you can see, Anneliese really enjoyed hers! lol!!!

I noticed as I was getting the picture of Anneliese that I was being watched. I turned around slowly and then backed up just a little.

I mean, how cute is this? Mr. Arnie tends to be my model. He is sort of a ham that way, and has been since he was just a little guy.

It was a nice day, a quiet day and I was happy about that. Later this week things will get busy with doctor’s appointments and the possibility of more snow, so it was nice to have a day of rest.

De-Lurking Day

Hi Everyone. Once a year a whole handful of bloggers I know get together and we have a day we call De-Lurking Day.

This is a day when we ask everyone who may be reading our blogs to comment. Just say hi, guten tag, bonjour, hola, ciao, or well, you get the idea.

We all love to get comments, and more than anything we love to know from what part of the world you are commenting from.

So don’t be shy, join the fun and De-Lurk!

*******************************

Meanwhile, here is the latest news from New Hampshire. On Saturday night we got 8 inches of fluffy white snow. Oh how pretty!

NOT!

Not when you are the one chiefly responsible for clearing the walk and pathways up. Fortunately we have a man who is plowing our 500 foot driveway while Hubby is not well, but the pathways, stairs and dackel runways, are now my responsibility. All I can say is: WOW! Pass the anti-inflammatory medication! I’ve decided that it’s time to invest in a smaller snow blower just for me to use.

We also had to pull the shades in the family room. Why, you ask? Well because we have 3 dachshunds and a German Shepherd that hop up on the sofa and watch all the snow mobiles on the lake and the barking is enough to cause permanent deafness!

The good news is that Hubby is feeling a bit better. He even got out of his chair today and took a shower and shaved, and despite my aching muscles, that alone made me smile!

Now remember to leave a little comment. It’s De-Lurking Day!!!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Each year on January 12th I celebrate the day that my dear friend and sister, Uschi and I met each other. What a lucky day that was! This year we are celebrating 8 years of friendship! Two women, from very different backgrounds, who found each other and learned that we are “sisters”. I wish she and I lived closer (she is in Germany and I am in New Hampshire, USA), but we have never allowed those miles to matter to us.

So Happy Anniversary, dearest and may we know many more years together, as friends and sisters in our hearts and souls!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Dogs, Cameras & More

Last night was a cold, clear night and when I went out with Anneliese I saw the moon and how beautiful it looked. Many of you know how to take great night pictures with your cameras, but I have never had much luck. Until now. Remember I bought Hubby a new camera for Christmas? Well, I’m having a great time with it….and it takes great night shots easily!

Anneliese watched me quite intently.

During the day today I practiced a little more with it and both Anneliese and Arnie were great models.

Anneliese loves to dig in the snow and sometimes tunnel underneath.

You see how Arnie was able to get the snow just so on his beard so that he looks simply adorable!

I was able to get out to the grocery store today and get the last few things I need before the next snow storm, which is forecast for tomorrow.

Hubby is doing well. We’ve been watching movies, and reruns of NCIS and keeping busy. One movie we watched was “True Grit” with John Wayne. That was a great movie, with fabulous cinematography.

It looks like tomorrow I will have to conquer the recycling center. It’s not my favorite place to go, but I think I should get the trash dumped before the snow comes.

Wish me luck!

Life Goes On

We had about 5 inches of snow here between Wednesday and Thursday. I’d called and arranged to have the driveway plowed and the driver arrived here at 6:30 this morning to clear us out. I heard him and popped up to check out what he was up to. Not one dog (or husband) moved!

An hour or so later I got up and after turning on the coffee, I stepped outside with the dogs and pushed a few paths of snow from the doorway. There I was in my pajamas, robe, coat, hat and gloves, pushing snow around. I’m sure it was quite a sight!

The plowman called just after we had our breakfast and needed us to move one of the cars so he has a place to put snow after the next storm. So I went out to move the car we actually don’t drive in the winter, and as I opened the door to turn it on, snow blew in! I dusted off the seat so I didn’t get my pants wet, then got in and moved that car into the garage to thaw out.

I managed a quick hair trim with my stylist, Margarita before she leaves on vacation, and a run to the Post Office for more mail of no value. Lucky for us that we have such great neighbors because one looked in on Hubby while I was gone.

Hubby is doing somewhat better, but our new motto is “Slow & Steady Wins The Race”.

Hubby was good and took things extremely easy all day. I am really pleased about that. It will take time, trial and error with medications until we get him back to normal. That’s okay, I know he will get there.

It’s the power of prayer and positive thinking!

Quiet Day

I woke up early on Wednesday and after surveying the horrible weather and the cancellation of nearly all schools in the state, I decided I wasn’t going to attempt going to Weight Watchers. I later discovered that they’d canceled the meeting, so I had no reason to feel guilty.

Hubby slept 11 hours last night! I finally decided to make him some breakfast and wake him, but he came out and sleepily had his meal and read the paper.

He’s doing okay. He says he just feels tired. I know I sure am, and nothing serious has happened to me! All his appointments were made for his post-hospitalization care, and things are settling down.

He read his email, watched TV and did what I told him (I have been terribly bossy all day long!) and I am grateful.

I did manage a trip to the Post Office to get the mail and surprisingly little was there. I could have stayed home!

The dogs are thrilled to have Hubby here and take turns showering him with love. I plan another quiet evening tonight, and hopefully I will sleep better than I did last night.

Thank you all for your love and your prayers and for your good wishes. They really mean a lot to me, and to Hubby too.