The Weekend is Upon us

This week went fast. Hard to believe it is Friday already. Two days of not having to get up early sounds great. This morning was my day to get up and get Bradly off to school at 6:15 am. Unfortunately Nicholas and Karli (our new puppy) decided they should also get up. Nick stayed up but Karli went potty and went back to sleep. Nick is back to sleep on the couch, so that is good.

Speaking of Karli and potty....if anyone has any advise to offer on puppy potty training, we would love to hear it. When we got her, she was all paper trained. We brought her home and she went on the paper which was good, but she would only pee.....the other was where ever she felt like leaving it. :o( We have three spots with papers and now she refuses to use them at all. We keep putting her on the papers and she will walk right off and do her business somewhere else. We had decided to continue with using the paper until it warmed up outside. She is so little and she just shivers out there...so do we.. LOL. I have heard that she might be testing us, but we are doing what we are supposed to do and she isn't responding. So if any of you doggie lovers out there have a thought on this, please leave a comment. I would appreciate it.

I wanted to let every one know that the Etsy Carried Away Bag Makers team St. Patrick's day give away that was supposed to begin tomorrow has been backed up and will begin on March 13th. I will keep everyone informed and would love to see some of my blog followers win some of the prizes. :o)

Life With a Puppy

Whew, I am tired. Karli is a bundle of activity. I had forgotten that having a puppy is very much like having a baby around again...LOL It is amazing the things she finds to chew that we didn't even know we had. She also loves to chew my slippers (especially if they are on my feet), my shoe laces, our toes and socks and , well, basically everything. Our "Russian Blue" cat loves the puppy. He is twice as big as Karli, but they tussel and roll around and have a ball. He has claws, but he never uses them when they are playing. I appreciate all the comments about yesterday's blog. I have a pic of Karli and our 7 year old son on here now. Aren't they so cute?? I must say that no matter how tiring it is having her, we would not trade her for anything. She has brought even more joy to our family, and she is so good for our boys.

On another note, I want to talk a little about how our diet is going. As most of you know, we started on the "South Beach Diet" on Jan. 20th. We have been doing great, and I am pleased to say that I weighed this morning and am down 2 more pounds. When I lose anymore I will drop into a new catagory. Truthfully, we are in the groove and don't even have to think to much about what we are doing. As I said, it really helps that we have several places where we can eat out and have what we should have. This is so important because it is enjoyable not too cook once in a while, and to be able to get a break once in a while. The more weight I drop and the longer I eat healthy, the more I actually feel like exercising. I still can't do much, but at least I am doing some. I am sure the amount of exercise I do will increase the longer I eat right and continue to lose weight. :o)

We got our Puppy!!

Yes, we did it!! We got the cutest little miniature Dachshund mixed with Jack Russel. She is the sweetest thing. Megan found her in a Kijiji ad and went to Stony Creek, which is near Hamilton. She picked her up and then drove to Buffalo where we met her. It worked out perfect that it was Megan's day off. By the time she got her to us, Megan was in love and hated to part with her. Rachel met us also and of course, she adored the puppy. We named her Karli Madison. The Madison was Reid's contribution. Karli slept all night in her crate up next to our bed. She cried out a couple of times, but then settled in and went to sleep. About 4 am though she started crying and wouldn't stop....we figured she must have to go potty. We were right. She snuggled and played a few minutes afterward, and then she went back in her crate and is actually still sleeping. Brad and Nick adore her and think she is the greatest thing ever. We met Megan at the Pet Smart by the Galaria Mall and we picked up a few things for Karli. Megan was allowed to use her employee discount, so that was nice. Megan bought her the cutest little pink sweater with a gray scarf. She really needed it yesterday as it was so cold here. The poor think just shivered when she had to go outside. Karli is a nice addition to our family. She was not intimidated in the least by Chloe. Actually within a half hour she was playing with Chloe and one of the cats. She is smaller than the cat..LOL

I don't know if anyone who reads my blog has tried the new "Natural" pizza from Pizza Hut. It is made with a delicious, whole grain crust. We decided to get one for dinner last night. It was awesome and we will surely be getting another one sometime soon. We got a medium for the 4 of us, which is another step toward healthier eating as we would normally have gotten a large. Every little bit helps. :o)

Lots to Do!!

Well, it is another super cold morning, but at least the sun is shining. Nick will be leaving for school in about 10 minutes and then I plan to jump in the shower and get ready for the day. I cut out a bag yesterday that I would like to get sewn and listed today. Business is still quite slow, but I want to keep building my stock. In a few more days the "Carried Away Bag Makers Team", an Etsy group I belong to, will start promoting a great St. Patricks Day giveaway. Keep watching because I want everyone to get a chance to win some great prizes. I believe this promotion will run from March 7th until the March 17th.

I was pleasantly surprised to step on my scales this morning and see that I was down another pound. Three more and I will drop into the next category. It seems so good to step on the scales and either stay the same or have another loss. I hiked around Walmart yesterday and then came home and exercised a bit on my machine. We have discovered a great lunch that we can have when we need to eat out. You know how hard it is sometimes to eat out and stick to your eating plan?? Yesterday we got one sub from Subway and Steve and I shared it. We get a wheat roll with either ham or tuna. Lately we have been on a tuna kick and they make it fresh everyday, and it is great. Anyway, we also get provolone cheese, onion, spinach, tomato and cucumbers. We ask for the light mayo and olive oil. It is incredibly good and we are eating healthy and within our diet guidelines. I love the weight loss, but the best part is knowing I am eating healthy and taking care of my diabetis, which I hope dissapears when my weight gets lower. :o)

Love being a member of CABTeam

Reflection

Strange how when someone you know passes away, you think about things in a different way. It seems that so often the not so great memories just disappear and the great memories bombard you. We lost a member of our family last night, pretty much through the ravages of that horrible disease "Diabetes". I would like to say that I will always remember that when I first met Steve and then his family, that I kept hearing about his cousin Sue. She was basically a family icon. Long before I met her all I heard was Sue this and Sue that. Steve's family loved her so much and respected her thoughts and opinions. Truthfully she seemed more like Steve's sister than his cousin. When I finally met her, I saw someone who worked tirelessly cleaning at the school in the afternoons My first impressions of Sue were first of all what a generous person she was, how much she loved to clean and how well she decorated her house on a shoestring budget. She helped Steve's mom a lot like washing curtains and stuff like that, and Sue and Gerry and their kids spent many a Friday night at Maxines. Over the years we had times when we didn't see see each other for long stretches of time. It always seemed that no matter how much time had passed since we had seen each other, that she always made herself available when we really needed her. The last time was when Steve's mom was sick and dying. Sue and Gerry came and sat at the hospital with us and other family members. Their presence was comforting. Gerry found us a tape with Maxine's favorite song on it which we sang as she passed from this world to God's world. Sue and her daughter Sherry were there a number of days as we began the overwhelming, daunting task of sorting and packing Maxine's apartment. More recently, despite her failing health, Sue came to Megan's wedding and reception because Megan had always had a special place in her heart. Anyway, I guess what I have realized while reflecting on Sue's life, is that the kind things you do for people through your life, does make an impression and has an influence even after you are gone from this earth. My heart is so heavy as I think of Gerry and how lonely it will be at his house....Sue was the heart of it. I know the Lord will comfort his heart as only he can.

Frustration

Ugh, I have spent half the day trying to update the photos in my slideshow by using Flickr. Many of the items pictured had already been sold. I finally figured out how to delete the unwanted pics, and then I figured out how to upload all of my new items onto Flickr. So, that being done, I redid the slideshow and not one of the thirty some pics I had uploaded were showing up. I finally decided it just might take awhile for them to stream. So, anyway I decided to write a new post. Well, it seems that in my quest to update my blog I had actived a language thing. Here I am typing away, not looking att he screen, and when I look up, everything I had written was in Hindu. I couldn't believe it. I finally found how to correct it, but when I went back and started again, it was still in Hindu. Grrrr. I went into settings one more time and that did the trick. So here I am feeling very inadequate at best.

Well, my parents just walked int he door, so I best log off. Keep checking and see if I ever figure out the slideshow. :o)