The Dackel Princess

Thursday Thirteen #76

Thursday Thirteen Brought To You By The Letter:

1. Husband. I’ve known him for 26 years. The first few years just as a casual neighbor. Our kids played together. Our love developed after our divorces and we found something that neither one of us expected. Love and friendship all rolled into one. Lucky us!

2. Home. We built our home back in 1999-2000. Over the years our home has become an oasis, a place where we can rest, relax and enjoy ourselves.

3. Homepage. I’ve been blogging since 2005 and I’ve really enjoy having my own homepage!

4. Happy. I strive to maintain a happy home for all who dwell here, and for those who visit. I sure hope I achieve this.

5. Hershey Bars. Deep dark chocolate Hershey Bars! Need I say more?

6. Hadrian’s Wall. We visited Hadrian’s Wall back in 1991 when we visited England and Scotland. It is so interesting, and I would suggest a quick stop at the above link to learn more.

7. Hymns. One thing that I love are the old hymns in church. It’s funny because it’s something that both Hubby and I share. We were in the choir for many years.

8. Hiking. New Hampshire is full of great places to hike.

9. Honey. Mmmmmm! Yum!

10. Horses. I have always loved horses. They are such smart, beautiful creatures.

11. Hounds. With four dogs, I don’t think I need to say much about my love of “the hounds”.

12. Hotdogs. Not on my diet, really, but I sure do love a good grilled hot-dog!

13. Heart. In “The Wizard of Oz”, the Wizard tells The Tin Man this: “A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others. “. I sure hope that at the end of my life, I can have lived a life that exemplifies that phrase. You see I believe that when you give your love freely and give of yourself often, the love that comes back is the very best!

My Bionic Hubby

Hubby had his two year check up on his artificial knees. For those of you who were not regular readers back then take a moment and go back and read about the first surgery and the second surgery, which gave me a Bionic Husband!

Looking back, it was a tough time for Hubby, and for me as his care-giver. Somehow, we teamed up and made it through, but I would not want to go back and go through that again. Yet, if we had to, I suppose I would do it all over again if it meant giving Hubby freedom from pain and the ability to ski 58 days during the season!

The ride over to the Medical Center was a pretty one, with a lot of spring flowers and blooming forsythia. It was warm and sunny and just the sort of day one can enjoy a ride. I felt only a slight twinge of guilt because I should have stayed home and worked more on the Spring Cleaning, but I opted to let it wait. After all, there is always cleaning to be done, but not always springs days like this.

I will say that once we returned, with a clean bill of health for Hubby’s knees in hand, I returned to the cleaning and actually got the family room curtains, washed, dried and re-hung. I’m already feeling better!

Spring Cleaning

After our weekend celebrations, it was back to the grind today. We woke early to sunshine and blue skies! The weekend had been full of cloudy skies and rain, so this was welcome, indeed.

After doing the usual early morning stuff, I went to the garden room to check my plants. Not sure if I mentioned but those eggplant plants that I was despairing about finally have started to sprout!

As always you can click to enlarge the pictures.

Then I set to work Spring Cleaning. Now I would not suggest this to anyone at all because once you start it just keeps growing. You see, I decided to clean the mud room so that it would be ready for when Hubby and I put the air conditioner in the window. I got that done, but then thought I would do the other two windows where we place air conditioners, and as I washed those windows I noticed dust on the curtains.

Now dust and I go way back. I hate it, but I also hate to dust, so I ~~try to~~ dust every so often. Today’s dust was really quite awful! I’m not sure when it crept in here, but I’m thinking it took up residence during our long cold winter to escape the snow. There was a ton of it and I decided to take down the curtains and wash them. It was then, with the bright and clean windows allowing even more light into the room, that I SAW IT!

Dust on my walls!!!

I got out my dust mop and sprayed it with cleaner and then wiped down the walls. I went from one room to the next wiping, until my arms began to ache. My big question in all of this is: “How the heck does dust stick to the walls?”

No, don’t tell me, I’m not even sure I want to know. What I’ve got to do now is finish wiping down my walls and wash all the curtains. This wasn’t something I planned, but as I stated above, when you start Spring Cleaning things just happen! Two air conditioners are in and one out of 5 rooms is almost done.

Once the Spring Cleaning is done inside then it’s time to scrape and paint outside. Yes, I’ll be climbing on ladders and painting the trim on our house this summer.

Does the fun ever end?

Hubby’s Big Day

Sunday dawned quite early. You see, with all the pollen and molds in the air outside right now, allergy season has been really tough. As we lay in peaceful slumber, we were startled awake by the sound of Hubby’s allergic sneeze rattling the room! Greta and I jumped and Fritz happily went to his Daddy’s side. Oh boy. I’d wanted to sleep late, but what the heck, I was awake, so off I went to make the coffee!

I asked Hubby what he wanted for his birthday breakfast and he wanted a “Farmer’s Omelet”. Sure, why not? So, I went to the kitchen and in no time made the omelet (eggs, onions, peppers, ham, potatoes and cheese) and an English Muffin. I had my usual Weight Watchers meal of yogurt and a Weight Watcher bagel.

The rain was coming down and it felt cool to us, but at 8:30 the twins arrived. They were so excited to celebrate Hubby’s birthday with us. Emily arrived around 10 o’clock and the party began!

We made a rather eclectic luncheon of noodles and pigs in a blanket for the kids, while Hubby had leftover spaghetti and meatballs and I made a salad.

But then the good part happened! CAKE!!!!!

Hubby getting his Angel Food Birthday Cake.

Hubby and his girls!

Cutting the cake.

Yes, even I indulged in a piece of the cake. It’s only 2 points!

After that the day passed as usual and then we got ourselves ready to go out to our favorite restaurant Canoe. Hubby had a wonderful Lobster and Shrimp Scampi and I had a special item on tonight’s menu Broiled Swordfish, with Asparagus! It was quiet and the scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed our evening out.

We ended Hubby’s special day watching some TV and catching up on our email, and watching one of the loveliest sunsets over the lake that we have seen in a while. All in all, a pretty good day of celebration for my sweetheart!

Happy Birthday, Dearest Hubby

Today is my dearest Hubby’s Birthday! I’ve celebrated 21 of his birthdays with him and I hope to celebrate many, many more.

Happy Birthday, My Love!

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Saturday Scavenger Photo

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~Time~

The first picture is my sister Melodie, our brother Richard, who passed away when he was 26 from cancer, and me. I think I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. But time passes doesn’t it?

This second picture is of me with Melodie last week when we went to see the cherry blossoms. It’s so nice to have such a loving relationship with your sister.

Friday Musings

I gave Fritz his spring bath on Thursday. This requires great skill, a lot of water and the ability to show no fear while in the shower with my big white boy.

Fritz hates baths with a passion that is truly unparalleled. I had to literally drag him into our bathroom, and then drag him into our walk in shower. I’d stripped down naked, because any hope of staying dry during this process was futile, and I set out about 6 towels to help dry him off after the big event.

I use Dove bar soap on him, as he tends to have slightly dry skin, and also the white of the soap helps to brighten his coat. I soaped and sudsed, and rubbed and soaped some more. Then it was time for the real fun….the final rinsing.

If you have never rinsed a German Shepherd in a shower, then you don’t know the real fun that I had. I had to pick up his front feet and hold them so I could get his belly, neck and ears all rinsed.

I’d expected Hubby to help, but the phone had rung just as I was going in, and so I was on my own. You should have seen the hair coming out of that boy! I kept freeing up the drain and it would just fill up again.

Finally he was rinsed and I kept bringing the towels into the shower and drying him off until he was finally fairly dry.

I let him out of the shower and allowed him tio sit in the kitchen in the sun and finish the drying process. Soon Hubby brought him outside for his annual stripping of the coat.

As you can see, Fritz loses quite a bit of fur in the spring, and this is just a small part of it. We used to brush him inside and then we noticed that everything would be covered with white fur, so we decided to de-fur him outside. One day we noticed birds flying in and picking up the fur to line their nests with. So if anyone in New Hampshire sees a fur lined nest, well, you’ll know where the fur came from!

The twins were here modeling their new dresses! They looked so adorable that I just had to take their picture.

That’s Sarah on the left and Kimmie on the right. We really enjoy those two!

Friday finds Hubby and I doing errands. Groceries, registering the cars and cholesterol checks. Oh joy! I’m hoping that my work on the Weight Watchers diet plan will have brought down my cholesterol level.

And speaking of Weight Watchers, I have now lost 31.4 pounds! I’m back in size 10/12 and feeling good! Yay!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Negative

I had Greta in the the Veterinarian’s Office today for what I had hoped would be her first prenatal visit. Unfortunately, when the doctor examined her, she could not find any babies inside of my Greta. (sob!)

What we do now is watch her to be sure she is not having a single puppy pregnancy, but more than likely she just isn’t pregnant at all. (sob!)

I’d really hoped that she was. I’d had such plans for this litter of pups. The timing was perfect, I have all the gear I need to birth and house the pups and I am ready to go. But, Greta isn’t.

I talked to her on our way home. I patted her and told her that I loved her and that it was okay. She looked at me with those big brown eyes and I think she sensed that I was disappointed, even though I tried not to let it show.

Since we came home she has been attached to me like she has been glued to me. I keep reaching over and patting her and telling her that I love her, because when it comes right down to it, I don’t care if she never has another litter of puppies or not. I love Greta. I love that she fills up my life in her own little way. I love that she cuddles up to me at night and comes running when she hears my voice.

Still, I admit to being disappointed. I was so looking forward to being a grandma again.

Meme X 5

5 THINGS

I have been tagged by Maribeth (yes, another Maribeth!) to do a meme. Since she and I are name-twins, how could I possibly refuse?

5 Things found in my bag (purse)

In my purse right now

1… My Weight Watchers cards! They mean so much to me and I look at them often to remind myself of how many small goals I have reached.

2… My small photo album with pictures of Hubby and Amanda and the pups.

3… My wallet.

4… Dachshund date book.

5… My bifocal sunglasses. This way I can read a map in the car!

5 Favorite Things In your Room

1… Hubby

2… Fritz

3…Greta

4… Anneliese

5… Arnie

5 things you always wanted to do

1… Travel all through Europe for a year or more.

2… Take a cruise down to South America and then take a land tour to Machu Picchu.

3… Take a cruise that goes out to the Galapagos Islands, then spend time there seeing everything!

4… Go to Australia and see as much as I can before getting onto a cruise and cruising the coast of Australia as well as New Zealand.

5… Visit Asia. Starting in China and going all down the coast.

5 things you are currently into

1…Hubby and me. My marriage is at the top of all my lists.

2… My photography.

3… My garden.

4… My dogs, and raising healthy puppies.

5… Planning on what we will can from this years harvest!

5 People you want to tag:

Anyone who would like to do this. Let me know and I will link to your blog.

Michele at Smoochdog has joined the Meme. Go on over and check her Meme answers out!

Happy Meme-ing!!!

As always click on any picture to enlarge it.

Rain & Big Bellies

The day dawned dark and dreary. Rain was forecast and by the time Hubby and I finished our breakfasts, the rain had started to fall. Hubby was out tending his apple trees in the rain, while I took our laundry down to the laundry room in the basement and sorted it all out.

As I was looking around the laundry room I noted that the winter had not been kind to it, and I needed to spend some time cleaning it up and organizing it once again. While I spoke to my sister on my cell phone, I cleaned and put things away and got the room actually looking presentable.

Then while the machines whirred and groaned cleaning and drying my clothes, I came upstairs and worked on vacuuming. One thing is for sure, when you own 4 dogs, and both you and your Hubby garden and work in the yard, there is no end to the dirt that gets tracked into the house! It used to bother me, but now, well if I can vacuum a couple of times a week, then I feel I have done well.

The rain continued as the afternoon wore on and before we knew it the kids arrived here after school. Hubby worked with the twins on their reading and I helped Em get her eye drops in.

One thing that I have to share with you all is something about Greta. Today I was patting her belly and I could feel a nice round little package in there. It is so totally different than it feels when she is not pregnant, so I am hoping that perhaps I have felt the babies before anyone else. Just two more days and we will find out!