Snow and Sore Throats

It has been snowing off and on for the last week and although we did have a couple of warm sunny days when we actually had puddles in the driveway, it started snowing again this morning and everything is white and gray and cold. Along with a little wind that makes it miserable to be outside.
I am not a little kid anymore who loves to play in the snow, make snowmen or dig snow caves. I don't think I was ever a little kid anyway.
We had a kind of different week in other ways too. Sweet hubby decided to have some medical tests done, which so far have turned out just fine thank you very much. But it involved driving into Rexburger at least twice a day for 4 days running. It also involved a very cranky sweet hubby, who is finally back to being a sweet hubby.

On top of all that, I started last Monday morning sneezing my head off, and then decided I had a head cold, which then turned into a sore throat, which turned into laryngitis, which turned into a sneezing, blowing, coughing, sore throat, raspy voice. Now, its Sunday and I am finally starting to feel better.

All in all, it's been a mucky week, but I got some wonderful news tonight from a grandson and I know that sweet hubby is fine and another grandson will be baptized this next week and everyone else seems to be doing ok, so life is good and this tough ol' bird will keep on keeping on!

Doggie Dementia

Rawhide Rowdy Boy Odin, better known as Odie in this neck of the woods is 9, going on 70 years old and showing signs of "Old Timers'", or Doggie Dementia!

He can often be found late at night or early, early in the morning out at the end of the driveway barking at things only he can see. Maybe there are snow rabbits or deer somewhere out there in the fields that spread out everywhere around us, but they would have all taken cover at the first sound of him high tailing it out the dog doors at the darkest hour of the night. He has a deep, loud bark that a neighbor over a mile away has reported hearing at 3 a.m.

Tennis balls are his passion! Give him a brand new tennis ball and he will have it torn to shreds in 10 minutes flat! Either that or he immediately takes them outside and drops them out in the yard after carrying them around in his mouth while he barks at invisible rabbits.

His other obsession is digging. He loves to go out in the field and dig for mice and after he has completely dug out the burrow he will come happily into the house with mud and weeds covering his nose, feet and belly. Sometimes he brings the half dead mouse in as a gift.

Friday he decided something was in the snow in our front yard so he spent the day pursuing whatever he thought was at the bottom of the dig. All day long he dug and soon grass and mud where being flung behind him and all we could see was his stubby tailed butt sticking up in the air while his front was deep into the crater now in the middle of our front lawn.

Occasionally he would come up for air, twice he came in to beg for a snack or have a drink of pure toilet water and then out he would go again in search of the treasure.

Finally around 8 or 9 p.m. came in, drug himself over to his dog bed and collapsed and slept straight through until 8 the next morning. No barking that night.

What did he find? Maybe it was the chewed up bone I found on the living room carpet that day...I don't know, but he's back to barking again now!

Maybe I will have sweet hubby go bury some tasty treat in the snow in the back yard for Odie to dig for tomorrow!

Progress!

Since I posted the blog about Lot's wife, I have tried hard not to look back and I can truly say that I have only gained a couple of salty toes and maybe a finger or two since!

I haven't been as good as I should with the exercising, but I am watching what I eat and I am realizing that if I eat something sweet, it gives me indigestion!

I have lost a couple of pounds and better yet, the doc says I have lost fat and gained muscle!! Also my overall cholestrol numbers are down and so is my A1C!

So, I am looking alittle less like Joe Blow on the left and a little more like Slim Jim on the right!

Hurray for me!

Lot's Wife

I just read an interesting article about looking forward and not looking back.
The article referred to the story in the Bible about Lot leaving Sodom and Gomorah and his wife looking back and being turned into a pillar of salt.
The reason the article gave was not so much that she looked back, but that she looked back with regrets and longing for what she was leaving behind.
It said that she was leaving the city, but she still wanted to be part of the life that she had there.
This view point made me immediately think of dieting......yeah it's been on my mind alot, ok always.
I want to lose weight, I want to eat healthy, I want to be lean, mean and HOT! But I still want to eat shakes, fries and burgers.
So I am just like Lot's wife. I want to go with the new, but I'm not willing to give up the old.
If I truly, honestly want to be slim and healthy, I have to look only forward with the new eating plan and exercise. I cannot always wish for the sweet desserts and fatty foods that taste so good and linger so long on the hips.
I guess I could say that unless I want to turn into a pillar...or glob...of hardened fat(salt), then I need to face toward that list of "free carbs" and step on the treadmill of life and get moving!!
No more looking back towards that old lifestyle of indulging and then guilt......wish me luck!