We stayed home all day today. The driveway was solid ice, so Chelsea and I did not go for a walk this morning. I am starting to get a little restless myself and she certainly is. The sun was out part of the day and did melt some of the ice away. I went out and scraped a path so that we can walk to the street without slipping. Hopefully, It will still be clear tomorrow and we can go for a bit of a walk in the morning.

I packed the boxes for Leslie, Bret and Bart today. Whew. When we get those off, I always feel better. We DO have to get the gift certificates yet. This year Sara and Nora are out of school and on their own so we are using Mother's rule that they will no longer will get presents. We don't know their addresses either so it is a good cut off time. I hope they are doing well, we have not talked to them or heard from them directly for at least three years.


Leslie has sent pictures and some updates. They are good looking girls. One of my favorite pictures of them, however, is the one of them in the tea party hats that Bobbie made for them when they were just little. I enlarged it and hung it in this house. We had it in the office at Hunters Glen.

We were watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire tonight. I was remembering that I have watched Regis Philbin off and on for over 30 years. He was a local celebrity in Los Angeles when I lived there and co hosted with Cyndy Garvey, Steve Garvey's now Ex Wife. She was a lovely blond lady. They used to refer to her and Steve Garvey as Ken and Barbie. They were a beautiful couple but that did not last. She has gone down hill from there I understand. Too bad. She and Regis were a good mix at the time.

It was snowing a bit this evening when I took Chelsea out before dinner. It is not supposed to be too messy though and will not get as low at the 10degrees that I woke up to this morning.

Talked to Mother this morning. Randy went to St. Louis on Wednesday and as of last night was still waiting to get out of the St. Louis Airport. He had spent the night before in the airport and was still waiting. I hope he is home now. He told Donna that it was useless to try to get a hotel room too because of the crowds, they were all full.

Take care and enjoy your Sunday. I am sure that we will. I do have to work at Rhine, but Dick is putting up the tree while I am gone so I can start decorating it this week.

Love

Mary

We got our first blizzard of the season. It was bad and we did not get hit as hard as Milwaukee and Chicago.

I did go to my doctor's appointment and did everything else that I planned in Sheboygan. Jim and Michelle started to work this morning but were back by 6:30AM. It was so bad when they hit Ozaukee County that they turned back so they drove into Sheboygan with me and they did an errand or two also.

I had my physical, my mammogram, gave blood and got my hair cut. Jim gave blood for the first time today. Michelle's iron count was a bit low so she has to wait. She is going to try again on Monday. We left Carina Capelle, the beauty shop, at about 11:00 and headed home. Michelle drove. It was AWFUL. The windshield wipers froze and were almost useless. Fortunately they did clear a nice spot for Michelle and after all the driver DOES need to see. There were at least 10 cars in the ditch including a couple of semis. None of them rolled. Three police cars were assisting some of the problem areas and probably had to move on the the next ones. I don't envy them their job. Hwy 23 was the worst. When we turned off on 57 the plows had been through and it was not too bad getting the rest of the way home. The snow was done by three and the sun actually came out. We are now plowed out completely.

I spent this afternoon clearing my desk, cleaning the kitchen and taking a nap.

We went to the Wilderness for supper tonight. We got the buffet. They did have perch on the buffet, and smelt. I think I much prefer on the menu items. I should really know that and just go for it. But it was good.

Time for bed. Tomorrow we are going to the house in Sheboygan to run the water and such.

Take care.

Mary

Prime Minister Tony Blair's words during a recent interview.
When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America, he said:
"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in ... and how many want out."

That is my thought for today.

It DID cool down today and it is supposed to start snowing at 3:AM. Chelsea will like that. She loves nothing more that jumping around in the snow.

Dick and I started this morning with breakfast at Mc Donalds. Then we went to the clinic for his blood test. He is perfect again. Sue wants to see him in three weeks again, to be sure that we are REALLY back on track. Then we went directly up to see Dr. Hodous to have his feet checked. They are healing quite well, but we have real hope of the insoles that we have ordered that should take the pressure off of those sensitive areas.

Grocery shopping was next. Then we got to stay home the whole rest of the day. I finally got around to dipping the buckeyes and I made fudge so that I can get the Christmas packages for the out of towners ready soon. Hopefully I can mail them next Monday or Tuesday.

Tomorrow is MY doctor day. I have my annual checkup followed by a mamagram (ick). Then I am going to get my hair cut and out to lunch with the bank ladies. Guess what, Saturday, IU don't have to go ANYWHERE.

Tomorrow, Dick and I are going out to dinner with Jim and Michelle using our coupons from the Welcome Lady. That should be nice. I won't be cooking at all.


Guess that is all

Love

Mary

The weather - it is a'changin'. It was very warm this morning, so warm that I was able to wear a light jacket and a baseball cap on our walk. This evening it is cooling down and there is a possibility of snow showers tonight and tomorrow.

I had a dentist appointment today for a cleaning and checkup. I went right over to Mother's fromt he appointment and picked up the deer hide. Then after lunch, Dick and I drove to Hartford to W. B. Place to drop the hide off for tanning. I will have 5 hides. That will probably be enough for a jacket. they say 5 to 7 and I am not really very big. So maybe it will work. Otherwise, I will just have to wait until next year.

I made some Hello Dollies, or as they are sometimes called. 7 Layer Cookies. I made a few changes. I used chocolate graham crackers and substituted white chocolate chips for the butterscotch chips. They are REALLY good. I will have to rename them.

Tomorrow we take Dick to get the blood tested and to see Dr. Hodous for his feet. Then we will grocery shop and I will be able to stay home for the rest of the day.

I guess that is all for today. I am really tired and haven't much imagination left.

Have a good day tomorrow.

Love

Mary

It rained again today. Not too bad but it did rain. This is probably the last day that it will be warm enough to rain. Chelsea and I has a nice walk in the fog. Did I ever tell you that there are fairy rings in Lion's Park. Well there are. LOTS of them. I suppose the fairies like the fact that children play there.

After the walk I spent most of the morning on the phone trying to get some appointments scheduled and clear up some loose ends. Then this afternoon I went to Wells to talk to our investment broker about some stuff. Every so often I like to review a few things. Then I went to talk to Bill Cain, our real estate broker. We adjusted the sales price and will do a new push with the new price to see if we can drum up some action. Come on St. Joseph. Do your stuff.

Dick and I went over to K Mart and found a tree that is already lighted. That should make it very easy to get up for Dick. I want to start this week so I can be done by the end of next week. I started the Buckeyes today too.

I heard something on TV this morning about children who have imaginary friends. My Dad had two imaginary friends. Grandma Deeley and Aunt Helen told me about them. They were called Beanie and Ga Ga.

Jacquie called tonight. She liked the slippers that I sent her and wants to get some for Christmas gifts so I gave her all the information. I think I WILL get a pair for myself.

Tomorrow , the dentist and then Dick and I will take the deerskin down the Hartford for tanning.

This week is much too busy but it tapers off for the rest of the month.

Have a nice evening.

Love

Mary

We are experiencing rather steady rain tonight. This is supposed to continue for the next couple of days with temps staying "high" and then drop like a rock on Thursday.

This morning's bible study was rather lively. The commentary on the 2nd reading, one of Paul's letters, mentions that the early Christians expected Jesus to be coming back rather quickly. There were lots of problems because of that feeling. As an example, some people were not working ( why bother since they expected Jesus to come and get them soon.) It has been almost 2000 years now and He still hasn't come. Do you think He would have come sooner if we had listened and obeyed his message to Love God above all and to Love our Neighbor as ourselves. I mean REALLY did it.

This afternoon, I took care of several phone calls. A Christmas order, an insurance clarification and a conference call with the Celtic Women International Board and then tonight was the Rhine Plymouth board meeting. This is my last board meeting for Rhine Plymouth. So that will be one thing that I am done with by the end of the year.

Today I was thinking of a friend and old neighbor of mine who lived next door to us when I lived in Santa Ana Heights. Her name was Joyce Nusser and she had a boy the same age as Bret. Chip was his name. It was really Michael but he went by Chip. I remembered how we tried to get gardens growing in our back yards with dirt that was basically clay and almost impossible to dig in.

One year we sent for rosebushes out of a catalog and Joyce sent for a privet hedge. It should have been obvious from the price what we were going to face. Anyway when the privet hedge, which was supposed to consist of 50 plants, along with the roses arrived in a package weighing about 10 lbs, we DID know. We opened that box and took out what looked like a bouquet of sticks, some as small as a pencil. We laughed our heads of and later we laughed at ourselves even more because Joyce actually planted those sticks and not a one came up.

I am trying to find Joyce. Haven't seen or heard from her in probably 25 years. I found a Joyce Nusser related to a Michael D and Matthew D Nusser that might be her. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, Mom and I went out to Gibbsville and did some Christmas shopping there too. Love Gibbsville cheese.

Have a nice evening

Love

Mary

Chelsea and I had the nicest walk this morning. It was dark when we started out but the temps were in the 40s and it got brighter the further we walked. We started at 6:00 and got home about 40 minutes later.

I went to the 8AM Mass this morning and sat next to my friend Ceil. On the way out I ran into Pat O Reilly and his wife so had a bit of a visit with him. Pat is getting much older and said that when the snow comes he will be snowbound and have to stay home. (You have to see the twinkle in his eye as he tells this.) He then said that they had better plow him out for March 16 and 17. I told him that if it was snowing then I would come to get him.

This afternoon I worked at Rhine. We were unexpectedly busy. We ran 14 teams so did very will. I had fully expected it to be much slower because of the holiday weekend and the end of the deer hunting season. I am glad it was busy because the afternoon does not drag that way. I shot three pistol targets and was quite pleased with the results. I got, in this order, a 53, a 62 and a 68. And I even lost one on the last target so WOW.

A story: I took Bret and Bart to and Earth Festival at the Orange County Fairgrounds when they were quite young. I took them to the children's area where there was this giant sand pile along with other things to play with. The kids were supervised lightly and they were told to build sand castles. After a while Bart was just sitting there with this stick stuck into the ground. The helpers asked if he wanted help and he said he was all done. That the rooms and everything were underground.

I left Bret in charge for about a half an hour so I could zip though a couple of the tents. Suddenly I heard myself paged from the bandstand. "Could Bart Johnston's mother please come to get him." He had gotten bored, sneaked away from Bret and went directly to the bandstand and told them his name and that he was lost. No dummy that boy.

Have a good week.

Love

Mary