Thursday 13 #35

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A bunch of questions were in a survey about 2006 that I got from Goofy Girl. I took what I thought was most interesting and made it into the TT.

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?

I bred a litter of wire-haired dachshunds. I witnessed their birth via c-section too, and helped to awaken the puppies.

2. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?

I feel pretty lucky because Hubby and I have our health and this is the most important thing. Perhaps I would like the willpower to diet and exercise myself back into good shape.

3. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? happier
thinner or fatter?

I am Happier. But I am also fatter. Depressingly so.

4. What was your biggest failure?

Gaining weight due to my stress after losing Shubi and Hubby’s knee surgeries.

5. What was your biggest accomplishment?

The litter of puppies.

6. What was the best thing you bought?

All the Christmas gifts for those I love.

7. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My daughter. She has grown into such a wonderful, lovely, competent woman. She not only works hard at her job, she is an excellent friend, and she has cared for her elderly grandmother almost single handedly. My hats off to this fabulous woman!

8. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The PUPPIES!!!

9. What was your favorite TV program?

NCIS & House

10. What song will always remind you of 2006?

None really. You can tell you are getting old when the oldies stations are the ones you listen to.

11. What did you want and get?

PUPPIES!!!

12. What did you want and not get?

A miracle recovery for Shubi.

13. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006?

Life rolls along and many times you need to be able to roll with the punches. The most important thing in life above all, is the health and happiness of your family~

Happy New Year Everyone!



“Year Of Living Healthfully”

It was time to put up or shut up, and since I live in a house with my husband, who wasn’t about to let me forget my New Years resolution this soon, I actually started my “Year Of Living Healthfully” today.

Hubby reminded me last night. He placed the application for the Health Club on the breakfast bar with a pen. He also “noticed” what I was eating on New Years Day (still a holiday, right?), so I knew I was sunk.

I packed a bag with sneakers, a towel, a stretchy leotard type thing that I’ve had for years, and my swim suit. After eating my diet breakfast this morning, off to the gym we went.

I have to tell you, I’m a shy sort of girl. I don’t like changing my clothes in front of anyone, Hubby laughs because he says he’s not sure I am totally comfortable changing in front of him. Needless to say, since gaining back some of this weight, he is probably right.

I put on a cheerful face and off we went. I signed in, and tried not to feel as if I were signing my death warrant, however, tonight I am here to tell you, I sure feel like I did.

I rode bikes, I walked on treadmills, I pushed weighed, I pulled weighs, I lifted a little. I walked some more. Then I changed into my swim suit and did laps. Actually the pool part was the best. Warm water soothing all the places that had already started to ache.

Now the really tough part. Showering, and getting from the showers to the changing area without anyone seeing me. You see, my towel was too small. I am not sure what I was thinking when I packed it, but this thing only covered about 1/2 my body! So I raced from the showers to the dressing room, opened my combination lock in record time, and got into my clothes with the speed of a teenager who attempts to put out his cigarette and clear the smoke, when he hears his parents drive up early from a movie!

Thankfully, I was able to get into my unmentionables before anyone walked in on me. I quickly finished dressing, and did my hair and then chatted nervously with a few women who had come in to change.

Tonight I feel as if I have been worked over by a prize fighter. Everything sort of hurts, aches and feels heavy, reminding me that what I once got away with in my 20’s I can’t get away with now in my (eeek!) late 40’s.

Day 1 of the “Year Of Living Healthfully” has ended with me eating correctly all day and exercising more than I have in about three years!

A Good Start To A New Year

It’s simply amazing. Each day when I awaken I go in and check on the puppies.

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Most of the time they are asleep. Today, however, they were wide awake and actually standing up on their feet, looking like proper dogs! Not that they move around normally yet. They are exceptional crawlers, they also appear to be professional “moon-walkers”. You remember that dance move, right? You make actions like you are moving forward, all the while sliding your feet backwards. Well, the puppies do this very well. A few of them can go forward, and two of them now bark these adorable little barks!

My sister took this picture of me holding the babies when Greta was outside. Needless to say, she would never have allowed the shot, if she had been in the house!

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This is truly a wonderful way to start the New Year. With good health, sweet puppies and a little bit of snow, which fell on Saturday.

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Yes, 2007 may be a very good year.

New Year 2007

Ah my dear readers A Happy New Year to you all! I hope you spent your nights celebrating with good food, good drink, and good friends!

Now that we have hit 2007, I must confess that I have several New Years resolutions. I am counting on you all to keep me in line. So, in no particular order, here are my resolutions.

1. To lose the weight I have gained back. I won’t shock you by divulging the actual numbers, let’s just say it’s more than 5 pounds and much less than 100. LOL!

2. To get myself into shape. I can’t even come close to claiming I am in shape at all. You see, back in the day when I was 22 (you know yesterday), I could not exercise for weeks on end and then go out and do a long hike and not feel it at all. I will tell you that at the age of (gasp) 48 it is not possible to do this any more! I will be going to the health club with Hubby starting on January 2nd when they open.

3. To continue to grow out my hair. I have not had any real length to my hair since 1984. I decided that I wanted to grow it out one more time before I am too old.

4. To over come my fear of crowds and show the puppy I keep in AKC sanctioned shows, and not be upset when or if she doesn’t do well.

5. To successfully house train this puppy that I keep in record time! LOL

Lest I overwhelm myself with too much, I will stop here.

The Cute Factor

All is quiet in the blogosphere.

I actually had some time on Thursday to check out the Thursday Thirteen’s, and to go and visit some long neglected bloggers that I enjoy reading, but I was surprised to find that many people have taken the week off from work and from logging.

I guess you can call me either conscientious or compulsive, because here I am again. I think I would almost feel guilty if I missed a day. I’m sure you all would survive, but the real question here is, would I?

After finishing up my own Thursday Thirteen, and posting a short video of the little female pup, Anita, I started in on observing life, the universe and everything. By everything I mean the pups.

They are all growing by leaps and bounds. Angelika is well over 2 pounds and is as strong as a horse. All the other pups are either at 2 pounds or an ounce below. They are all as cute as can be and I am not looking forward to the day when I have to decide which of the girls will be staying with us. Just when I think I have one all picked out, one of the other girls does something really adorable and I am lost.

Emily was no help at all. She suggested I just keep them all! Now there, that would fix that problem!

For those who didn’t catch the video yesterday, scroll down and check it out. Anita put on quite a show and she is a nice looking little girl.

Meanwhile here are today’s ahhhhhhhhhhh pictures.

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Angelika

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Anneliese

Thursday 13 #34

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1. Friday, I kicked off my Christmas celebrations watching “A Christmas Story” with Hubby and Emily. Since Emily hadn’t seen it, it was really fun to watch it with her.
2. I then proceeded to watch “The Santa Claus” (first one), “Rudolph The Rednose Reindeer”, and “Miracle on 34th Street” while I wrapped, cooked and wrote letters.
3. Saturday, my cousin Janet came up and we watched “Scrooged” with Bill Murray (first time I’d seen it and I really liked it. then I put together a sort of appetizer’s delight of meatballs, artichoke dip (see recipe below), stuffed grape leaves and my own potato salad. I’d give you a recipe for that if I could, but it’s mostly a little bit of this and a little bit of that and then it’s done.
4. Janet and I made her Mom’s recipe for Sand Tart cookies. What was sort of funny about this was that when she sprinkled the colored sugar on them I kept almost seeing writing. Janet said, “Some people use Ouija boards, our family uses Christmas cookies.” But I never could read what was written on the cookies, still I know that they were speaking to me! Then we watched “Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest”. I love Orlando Bloom and Janet loves Johnny Depp so we can watch these sorts of movies without feelings of competition! LOL
5. Sunday we had a big breakfast, exchanged Christmas gifts, I got an awesome Beatles CD and a Lennox Christmas tree ornament, and Hubby got a bottle of Glenfiddich Scotch!
6. Then we took puppy pictures.

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7. Sunday afternoon, I prepared for evening guests. We were going to serve Fondue, so I got everything out for that, plus I made a pumpkin pie for Christmas day.
8. Emily and her family came over for dinner Christmas Eve. We ate like crazy, talked and, of course, played with the puppies!
9. Christmas Day I made an Herb Crusted Rib Roast (see recipe below). That was so good. I also watched “Little Women” “The Horse Whisperer” , “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “The Bishop’s Wife” with Cary Grant.
10. The next day my daughter Mandy came up and we had our Christmas. We ate a ton of food, exchanged gifts and played with the puppies! What fun.
11. We also took a bunch of pictures of the puppies too!
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12. I set up the two Christmas statuary that Mandy gave me. Snowmen that sing “Let it Snow”, and my church scene with two skaters that play a montage of Christmas tunes. (I adore this!)
13. I end the list of Christmas Happenings with the purchase of my Christmas cards for next year. I did this today when they were 60% off. I love to send cards, and unfortunately in this day and age it’s becoming pretty expensive. So, by buying them now I can continue to send them to all the people that I love.

Merry Christmas!



The Day After Christmas

The day dawn with a fresh dusting of heavy slushy snow. Poor Hubby was dispatched to clear the drive, while I prepared the house for my daughter’s visit. I was so excited about it and I could hardly wait to show her the puppies. Today their little eyes opened wide for the very first time. Little Anya, picked her head up and looked me square in the eye, and I had to laugh, as she looks so much like Greta when she does this.

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I finished getting packages wrapped and lunch ready, when Mandy arrived. We all sat down for Fondue and then we opened presents. I got so many wonderful things from a dachshunds calendar, to a couple of new turtlenecks, to a singing snowman set, to an electric lighted church with skaters out in front. It plays a series of Christmas carols in a beautiful music box fashion.

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I love this and I can see it becoming the centerpiece of my Christmas decorations for many years to come! Mandy also made me the most awesome gift basket with Christmas tree ornaments, stocking holders, The singing Snowmen and potpourri.

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After we finished opening gifts, we played with the puppies! Mandy really fell for them and if I turned around and I couldn’t find her, all I had to do was look and she was in with the pups!

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The puppies really love to be held, and now that their eyes are open they are so interested in who has them. Of course they are still small so their awake time isn’t too long and then they are back asleep.

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Our dinner meal was fresh Maine Lobster, corn on the cob and boiled potatoes, with a Yule Log for dessert. Yum!

The day ended all too soon, and Mandy packed up her car, and hit the road. What a great day. I really enjoyed having her here and look forward to her coming back.