Today the sky was blue and it was not damp. Chelsea and I went for a walk this morning and though there was a rather chilly breeze it was very nice with the sun shinning down on us.

Dick and I went to Sears to get some sox for him. They have done a lot of rearranging in the store, so we looked around a bit. We went into the appliance department and were surprised at the new washing machines. They are front loading and look really weird. You can get them on a pedistal so you don't even have to bend over to load. The look very futuristic.

I finished drawing out the plans for the banner that I want to make for church for Celtic Mass. It should work. I must now start looking for fabric.

I also got the plans for the Senior program that will be presented in February. We, Senior Saints, will join the school kids at their 1:00PM Mass on Wednesday Feb 22, then I will have refreshments in the vestibule followed by a concert of the Golden Chordaliers, a Senior Chorus who sing four part harmony. One of their members is 94 years old. Wow. My friend Dorothy Ruh is a member of the chorus. I made up a flyer for the bulletin and to send to the seniors. I will put an ad in the Sheboygan Falls News too. Perhaps some people from the greater community will come.

When Bart and I came to Wisconsin from Minnesota, I did not have a job. We found an apartment in Sheboygan. Bart told me later that he was really scared at that time. Later on, when he was older, and he found out how little I was making at that time he asked me how I ever did it. He said that anytime he wanted anything I always managed to get it for him. Fortunately, he was not a demanding kid and his requests were always reasonable. I was a pretty good manager of our funds and we did OK.
He was the one who always wanted to go looking at houses on weekends and when we found our little house in Sheboygan Falls he kind of pushed me to buy it. It was perfect for the two of us and Zero and Waylon. Two little bedrooms upstairs. One bathroom, a kitchen a dining room, a living room and another small room downstairs. They were all little teeny rooms but they were fine for us. I think it made him feel more secure to be in our own place. It was not an easy time, but I did the best I could.

Tomorrow, Bobbie and I work at Rhine. We will have to shoot pistol league too. Have a nice day.

Mary

I told Dick the other day that I was hungry for a fish fry. He said that it sounded like a great idea to him, so - tonight we went to Zana's for a Lake Perch Dinner. It was very good. The only complaint is that they serve WAY too much food. We brought enough potatoes for breakfast and fish for lunch. I guess that is OK, but if they served less and charged less I would be happier.

It was damp and chilly today thought the temperatures stayed in the upper 30s.

We also went to see Narnia this afternoon. Thank you Brenda. It is a wonderful movie. I can see why it is getting all the award nominations. I understand it is full of symbols about the war. It would be really interesting to find them out. I think I will have to read the story. I don't think I ever did. At least I didn't remember the story line.

Tomorrow is pretty quiet, but we do have to go out and do a bit of clothes shopping for Dick. Sox mainly. Aside from that, I intend to write and sew. I hope Chelsea stops being such a pest. She wants to go out too much. I am beginning to think she just wants lettuce. If she doesn't "perform", I am not giving her any.

I have always had dogs and cats. We had them growing up and I had them in my
California life also. I told you a bit about my Sam cat yesterday. She was quite a girl. Once, she had climbed into the camper when I went to the store to pick something up. I opened the camper door to put my purchased in and she shot out and took off. I was only about five blocks from home so after a cursery search, figured she would find her way. However, she did not come home that night or for the next three weeks. Boy, was my neighbor, John, who adored her mad at me. He spoiled her terribly. He used to fix her fresh chopped liver for treats.

To continue, one evening I heard a noise at the kitchen screen and there was my Sam.
I rushed to open the door and she glided in. I was SO elated, I called John. Then she turned her other side to me and I almost collapsed. There was a scar, an inch wide and running almost the full length of her body. It was healed over, but was still awful. I called the Vet immediately. The first thing he asked was why was she not brought in sooner. So I told him what happened. As it turned out it was a flesh wound. A huge one for sure but a flesh wound. He gave me a salve to put on it and it healed so well that you would never have known. The only thing that we can figure is that she climbed under the hood of a car to get warm and got clipped by the fan. Then she must have crawled off to nurse her wounds until she was well enough to make her way home.

We had her for quite a while after that. I really loved that cat.

Have a special weekend.

Mary

I was on the run all day today. This morning, Dick and I went out to breakfast after we got the trash out. Then we went grocery shopping and on to Fessler's Drug Store to pick up the last pair of the compression stockings that he has to wear.

We got home just in time for me to get the groceries put away before I had to pick up Mother for her appointment with the hearing aid doctor. Both of her hearing aids needed cleaning and adjustment. One of them is failing fast so Dr. Nytis fitted her for a new one. The new one will filter out some background noises and can be directed to the front in some conversation situations so that conversations in back won't be rattling around. We HOPE to have it by next Friday so that she will be able to wear it at the big Birthday Bash. But the doctor does have the old one functioning if that doesn't happen.

When I got home, it was so beatiful and the sun was shining so Chelsea and I went for a walk. Was that ever nice. Then I cleaned bathrooms, fixed dinner and headed for choir.

I also got a welcome call from Jacquie, my ex-sister-in-law. It is always so good to hear her voice and catch up on all those people that were a part of my life for so many years. Aunt Velma, my mother in law's sister, is going to be 95 in February. We exchange Christmas Cards and I am always SO very glad to get hers. She is a lovely person. I will be sure to get a card off to her for her special day, February 4th.

This morning, I was remembering friends from years gone by. One friend that came to mind was Karl Kendall. Crazy Karl we used to call him. Karl was a carpenter. One time he fell off a roof and landed upside down with his head stuck between the fender and the front of a car. He wasn't hurt a bit. We always told him that if he had landed on his feet he would have killed himself.

One time he did some work for Dick (my ex) and me on our house. He was getting ready to go into the house and saw our cat, Samantha, a beautiful black cat with emerald green eyes, sitting on the neighbor's fence. He figured that we probably didn't want her in because we were both at work. So he kept his eyes on her as he opened the door and sidled into the kitchen. Then he turned to go into the hall and there was Sam. In the middle of the kitchen floor. She was a work of art too.

Anyway, Karl lives in Bullhead City, about a mile from Jacquie and she said he is as crazy as he ever was. So things don't change much.

Have a nice Friday.

Mary

I went to quilt guild today. Usually I try to avoid going to the day meetings - however - I want to make a quilt for the At Risk Babies at Childrens Hospital and if I hadn't gone today I would not have gotten the kit in time to get it done. I also wanted to pick up a Challenge Block for the yearly raffle. We had a speaker from The Sewing Basket talk to us about thread. I learned quite a lot. The Guild is probably not going to have a Quilt Show this year because noone came forward to chair the event. It sounded like there were a couple of people who might take the challege up for the following year. Apparently some guilds only do one every two years. Everyone can be very proud of me - I did not volunteer for ANYTHING.

We had good old Kraft Dinner for supper - I made it with ham in it. Sure tasted good. We shop tomorrow. Good thing as we are out of fruit and even more serious. There is NO MORE LETTUCE left for Chelsea. She may leave home. Of course, we can Kind of fake her out with celery or carrots, but lettuce is the creme de la creme in her mind.

It is still gloomy around here. There was even some rain but the temps went up to 40 this afternoon, so Chelsea and I did take a short walk. I saw the people who lost their dog and they still have not found poor old Wishbone. I hope someone took him in and will try to find his owners. Dogs like that keep wandering. I had a black lab named Buddy once. He got out of the yard and it was a few days later before I got a call from a school miles away. He had traveled several miles and crossed several busy streets to get there. I think she just kept wandering one way and then another and finally someone corralled her. The guy kept saying "Are you sure she is yours? You live WHERE?" But Buddy knew me and that is always a pretty good clue. Of course, Chelsea would probably run right by me. She is such a silly girl.

Have a nice Thursday.

Mary

We did have some sun today but it never got as warm as Sally Severson from Channel 12 said it would. The highest that I saw was 33 degrees. Chelsea and I went for a nice walk this afternoon anyway. On our walk, one of our neighbors and a boy stopped us and asked us to keep our eyes out for their dog, Wishbone. He is a beagle, black, brown and white with some gray around his whiskers. Apparantly he wandered off and they can't find him. They said he likes to chase rabbits. Chelsea and I saw no sign of him but will continue to look as we walk each day. Poor little dog, I am sure he is frightened by now.

Aside from my walk, I did NOT leave the yard today. It was really quite nice. Kitties followed me all over the house. Roxie was naughty this evening. I was in the den sewing. Chelsea was sleeping peacefully in front of Jim's chair and Roxie just walked up to her and started beating her up. Chelsea looked hurt, so I told her to come and sit with me for a while. Right now, Roxie is acting like little Miss Innocent, sleeping peacefully on the desk underneath the lamp.

I guess that I had better make a coconut cream pie this weekend. I made banana cream for New Year's Day and Jim said that he thought that coconut should be next. This is a quiet weekend, a good thing since the next weekend is Mom's birthday and the following weekend we are going to the Fireside to see the Fabulous 50s. I don't know why everything always has to come at once. But at least we had a couple of quiet weekends in between.

Yesterday the Cadfael Book of Days said. "There is a right place for every soul under the sun." I liked that. It is nice to think that everybody is special and has his/her own place. Bloom in yours today

Mary

Today was a very nice Monday.

Started off with the very first Bible Study of the year. As we are studying the scriptures of the upcoming Sunday, it does become quite timely. Sunday is about answering the call of Jesus. We also reviewed a few things. I realized that a couple of our members are not too familiar with the order of the books of the bible so just before we left I reviewed things a bit.

There are two books - the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament is as follows: the four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (in that order. When I was young, I learned this little poem which always helped me remember. "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, went to bed with their britches on." The word britches always makes things easy for a kid to remember.) After the Gospels comes the Acts of the Apostles. Next are the letters or epistles (one of our members did not know that letters and epistles were the same thing.) and last but not least is the Book of Revelation.

Anyway, sometimes we assume that people know things that we do. Not everybody has been exposed to the same things.

Today, the travel channel featured a parasail adventure. It reminded me of the time I went up on a parasail behind a jeep out on the desert. There are no words to describe the peace and beauty of such a ride. I did attempt it in a poem. Did I ever publish that on this site? If I didn't and you would like to read it let me know.

Went to Writers Club this afternoon. I read and sang the song lyrics that I wrote for Celtic Faire. They liked them and Ann Pirrung said that she figures she does not have to go to church for a while.

We did a fun little exercize of a type of poem called a Cin Quain.

Here is my little poem

Puppy
Chubby - Happy
Yipping - Jumping - Licking
Goffy little ball of slobber
Cuddly


Be Happy today

Mary

We had SUNSHINE today. While Bobbie and I were driving back from Rhine after shooting, we suddenly saw shadows. Then we saw blue sky. What a wonderful pleasure. As soon as I got home, Chelsea and I went out for a nice long walk. She didn't turn in at the driveway this time. She even took the extra little dogleg that we sometimes skip. We both felt WONDERFUL when we got back home.

The singing at Mass went very well. The kids sing well and we blended together nicely. I think the congregation liked it too.

I fixed venison steaks with baked potato, fresh green beans and tossed salad for supper tonight. I marinaded the steaks in a steak rub that I often use. They were tender and very tasty.

The teens at Blessed Trinity that are planning on going on mission this summer are selling cinnamon rolls again this year. I bought four. We shared one tonight so we could have a taste (we are still dieting, you know) Then there is one for each of us. Dick an I figure on that for breakfast on Tuesday, as we will be done with the blast off week and can have just that and fruit for breakfast and still not be overdoing.

I have decided to make two wall hangings for Church for Celtic Mass. I am beginning to draw out the first which will be adapted from a design that I have on a pin called the Hand Of God. It is full of Celtic Knots rising up to a hand in the sky with a halo surrounding the hand. I will have to do it in thirds so that it will be big enough. The companion piece, (if the first works) will be a Celtic High Cross adapted from the pictures of high crosses that I took on my trips to Ireland. I will keep you posted.

Less than two weeks to Mom's Birthday. Time is a flyin'. Haven't heard from anybody, so I guess that all I have to do is order the corsage for her. I wrote to the White House requesting a birthday card. I know she doesn't think much of Bush, but I still think that she deserves recognition from our President.

Have a nice Monday. I have Bible Study AND Writer's Club. I have decided to share the song lyrics that I wrote and we sang at Celtic Mass.

Love

Mary