The Wild Game Dinner was a wild success. We had a sumptuous feast at Becky and Bryan's house. There was a big crowd. A happy crowd.

The beer tasting contest had 20 participants and 18 different beers. Donna won this year. She said she would and then she did - with 6 right. A pretty impressive win. We had several with 5 right, including Shawn, my nephew, who had come up with John and Holly from Chicago. That would have been an adventure. We would have all had to go to Chicago next year. Jim suggested that perhaps we could just rent a Discovery Coach.

Kurt and Jody are expecting another baby. They were trying to decide between a baby and a puppy. (Joke, Joke.) Actually Jody said that when they told Brandon, Brandon said that he really had wanted a puppy.

We went for Dick's two intravenous, this morning at Valley View and this evening at Memorial Hospital. It is so cold and is supposed to stay this way through Tuesday morning. I looked a few minutes ago and it is minus 5. Wouldn't you know that we would have to drive to Sheboygan two of the coldest evenings of the year.


Say a prayer that these treatments clear up the infections in Dick's legs. Also we really need a buyer for the house in Sheboygan. Pray for that too.

A Friend Is Like A Good Bra...
Hard to Find
Supportive
Comfortable
Always Lifts You Up
Never Lets You Down or Leaves You Hanging
And Is Always Close To Your Heart

Love

Mary

Another LONG day. We switched cars with Jim and Michelle because we thought they would need the Santa Fe to transport a new shower door for the downstairs bathroom at Hunters Glen. As it turned out the door has to be special ordered but this meant that we were switching cars at 5:45 AM. I was up at 5 anyway and took my shower because of the trip to Valley View at 6:00AM. Chelsea didn't want to walk too far. It was only 7 degrees out there.

When we got home I cleaned the kitchen and made the stew for the Wild Game Dinner which is tomorrow. I think I will bring a loaf of Irish Brown Bread and butter too. It goes so well with the stew. Must remember to get wine up too. We have tested the wine I made with the wild grapes from Becky and Bryan's place and it is ready and tastes pretty good. I want to bring some current for Jeff and Kathy too. It is still a little sharp, but we can share more later.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. Jim and Michelle are going and Michelle said she will help with the beer tasting serving. I think she will get a big kick out of it. I am also looking forward to the fact that for the first time in five days we don't have to be at the hospital until 8:00AM. What a luxury. I can sleep until 6:00AM, maybe even 6:30 if Chelsea doesn't bug me.

We got home in time to watch a bit of the "Greatest TV Commercials" featuring the Super Bowl commercials. The one of Mean Joe Green drinking the coke is considered the best of all. You remember that don't you? Mean Joe is limping off the screen and this little boy gives him his coke and Mean Joe throws him his old sweaty jersey. Cute as can be. It reminded me of something else cute as can be.

Sara and Nora went to a Packer Practice, either with the Recreation department or the Boys and Girls Club. They came home just agog and Nora, literally wide eyed and breathless said in a voice trembling with excitement that Reggie White had touched her hand. She held her hand like it was a treasure. I have this picture in my head of teeny blond Nora and big black gentle Reggie clasping hands as he went into the practice session. Beautiful.

Have a nice weekend.

Love You

Mary

It is 20 minutes to 9. We JUST got home from Dick's evening intravenous. We had a different nurse and it took forever. She was very nice and careful but first she set the half hour one to dispense in an hour then we had to wait for the second one. She was, of course, getting used to his routine so if we ever have her again it will not take so long. We are really beat though and 5:00AM comes mighty early. Tomorrow will be the end of the first week. One more to go.

We did our grocery shopping today. This is the week we shop at the Pig. This was also their big meat sale day and the lot was full and the store was jammed and there was meat everywhere. I did get a nice pork tenderloin that I divided into four good sized pieces and some lunch meat, brats and smoked sausages. I was a bit worried at that because the freezers are really quite full but I easily found room. I am keeping an inventory lately and it is helping me manage and rotate the food.

I managed to get a little sewing in and even cut out the pieces for one of the squares for the quilt for Celtic Faire.

Tomorrow, I am planning on giving poor little old Chelsea a bath. She will be very disappointed in me but there is no help for it. She looks like a gray puppy instead of a white one. Tonight when we got home she seemed to be limping a bit. I think from stiffness. Poor little girl, is almost 13.

I am going to have lunch with the bank ladies tomorrow noon. I need a break. Too bad Dick can't get one. He seems to be exceptionally tired these days, I hope it is just a reaction to the medication or possibly the infection itself. His legs don't look "better" but the left one is less swollen and the right is peeling. We hope that these are normal healing responses. He sees Dr. Phelan next Wednesday.

From Cadfael, the Book of Days by Robin Whitman from Ellis Peters books. I am too tired to think of much else.

Faith given and allegiance pledged are stronger than fear, an that, perhaps, is virtue, even in the teeth of death.

Love

Mary

P. S. the new and last Harry Potter book will be out on July 21st and Dick has ordered it for me.
I am reading Morgan Llewelyn's 1946 during the hour and a half long sessions and have almost finished it. I read the series about the revolution to the present a bit out of order but now am caught up and I hope that Morgan finishes the next one soon as she left it with the hero, Barry Halloran, going for his rifle.

We do have the nicest nurses. Tonight they put on a movie for us. Tim Allen's first Santa Clause movie was available so we got to see it. We had enjoyed the third one so much that we were planning on seeing the other two, now we only have one to go.

It was only 4 degrees when I took Chelsea out this morning. I am taking my shower first, then her out as 5:00AM is earlier than she is used to going out anyway. We didn't go too far. After the 6:00AM intravenous we went to the Wilderness for breakfast. They have the best fried red potatoes with onion. Their biscuits are good too. Nice and light and fresh.

We had to be back at Valley View at 8:15 for our diabetes education. That went well. There is one other person in our group. The first session went over portion sizes and how to count carbs and how many a person should have. We learned A LOT.

Home again. I actually got to do some sewing today and I picked out some fabrics to go with the fat quarter that I got from Dottie at Blessed Trinity. They are doing a Christmas quilt for the Celtic fair this year and I said that I would do a couple of squares for the quilt. I like doing that. We just have to do stars. There are SO many varieties that I am having trouble choosing.

Tomorrow we will have the two sessions at the hospital and we are grocery shopping. At least we will be close to home all day.

I had my hair cut today too. There was a coupon for a free cut at Shear Delight here in Plymouth and as it has been two months, I thought I would take advantage of it. I will see how it works out. I am so used to Maria and she is so used to me. It always looks OK at first and this is OK - but it takes my own working with it to be sure. I must remember, in any case, that Aunt Ruth Eisman always said that the only difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is two weeks.

Have a nice Thursday. It is supposed to continue cold and was snowing a bit when we came back from Valley View. I hope it doesn't get too heavy. Well, Carpe Diem.

Love

Mary

More of same old, same old today.

I got up at 5 and went right into the shower. Then when I got all dressed and dry I took Chelsea for a walk. When I got back it was time to put Dick's sox on and get ready to go to Valley View for the first of his antibiotics. We were done at about 7:00 It took longer than the half an hour because they had to clean the area of the PICC and change the bandage on it too.

We came home and let Chelsea out one more time and took the trash out on our way to Sheboygan to the Clinic for Dick's blood test. We had intended on going somewhere kind of nice for breakfast but ran late and had to settle for Hardees which is faster. Now, I DO like Hardee's biscuits but am getting a bit sick of fast food.

When we got home we both took naps. This afternoon the Overhead Door Company man came and fixed our garage door opener so it works from the keypad. We have a new keypad too. Now the light burned out in the unit so we will have to change that this weekend. But that is OK. We have a working unit anyway.

We went to De OMalleys for dinner tonight. Dick got their chili which he said he would order again. I had a veggie pizza which was very good. Then we made our last trip for the day to Valley View for the last two intravenous.

Now I am finishing this up and can go to bed. Chelsea is a very confused little girl. She can't figure out what our schedule is at all and is trying to convince me that it is bedtime now.

Just a little story. For some reason, this morning I was taking off and putting on shoes and boots to walk her and get ready to go and a song came to mind.

Those of you who have children know how much they like the familiar. They find a song they like and want it sung over and over and over. Or a story. They will want to hear the same one over and over and over. I remember that Bret wanted to hear One Fish Two Fish by Dr. Seuss over and over. We were visiting Wisconsin during that period and I remember that my brother Matt got very disgusted with us because Mother and I had resorted to reading it in a monotone as fast as we could to just GET IT OVER WITH. He said that that was no way to do it and took the book and read it to Bret with all the drama that he could put into it.

But I digress. I wanted to tell you about a song from MY childhood. Mom and Dad had a phonograph record of a song called We got to get the shoes on Willie. I can't remember the tune but it carried Willie to his wedding day. We loved it and my parents were eternally grateful when it wore out or broke. I can't remember which. Must remember to ask Mom about that . I wonder if she remembers.

Have a nice Wednesday. Dick and I go to Diabetes School.

Love

Mary

Mary

Another of these hectic days that we will be going through for the nest 10 days or so.

It was COLD when we got up at 5AM. I took Chelsea for a quick walk and we got kinda dressed and went over to Valley View for Dick's first intravenous. Just before we left one of the lenses fell out of his glasses. (Go Figure) When we left the hospital we swung by the Eye Clinic to check their hours. Finding out that they open at 8:30, we stopped at the Subway for a breakfast sandwich (Dick promised to take me out for breakfast every morning that we have to get these treatments.) (Where ever I want to go. Cool Huh) Filled the gas tank and then went home.

I showered and took Dick to the Eye Center. They fixed his glasses and we proceeded to Walgreens. They had called really early and told us that they would replace the testing strips free of charge. They do not want the other strips back so we will donate them to the diabetes center at Valley View. I am sure they can use them for demos or perhaps there is someone who needs them that cannot afford them. Anyway, Dick is back to testing. He only missed one day.

I dropped Dick at home and went to Blessed Trinity for Bible Study. We had a good group. Ione was back. She was ill for two weeks. They think they have figured it out now and it will be better for her. We had a good discussion about the readings which dealt with people who are called and don't feel they are worthy. It seems that being worthy doesn't matter if you are chosen. We also decided that it is very easy to believe when you are full of love and a message that really hits your emotions. It is also pretty easy to believe when you are really in trouble and have nowhere else to turn but to God. It can be harder to remember to believe and pray when everything is normal and mundane. It takes a great faith to see God in the ordinary.

After study I visited with Mother for a while and updated her on everything. She is looking great.

This evening we went for the intravenous early because they had to take a blood test to check the (I think) heperin level. The tests are picked up at 4:30 so we went in at 4:00.

Tomorrow, another 6:15AM session and we have to go and have Sue check his bl00d count. With all the antibiotics, I imagine that things are going to be really screwed up. Well, One step at a time. I just hope this gets the infection out of those legs. They are still red and crusted in spots. I am really anticipating the diabetic class that we will attend on Wednesday..

I'll lean on you and
you lean on me and
we'll be okay

-- Dave Matthews

Mary

I was surprisingly quite comfortable out in the woods all morning. The temperatures were only in the low 20s but it was not windy and the cloud cover was mixed with sun. As we pretty well kept moving I stayed quite warm.

We got four rabbits in the group. Jeff got two. I actually got a shot off at one this year. I was behind it but at least I got a shot. Randy and Kenny missed the same one so I didn't feel too bad about missing it.

We were out in the woods from about 8:30 until 12:00. Then we went to the Bar. We always go to the Wierl Wind out on Hwy 67 and have a venison sausage tasting contest. We had 8 separate sausages this year. We got six set out on plates with the name of the maker on the bottom. We were into the contest when the other two entries came in - so we asked everyone to rate the new ones kind of separately. One of the late comers was a Venison/Wild Boar combination. It was really hard this year as their wasn't a bad one in the mix. I will have to find out which one was the winner as I left early to come home and take care of things at home.

Taking care of things at home turned out to be impossible. We had found out this morning that we were given the wrong strips for testing Dick's blood. I took them back to Walgreens and found that we cannot exchange them because we opened the boxes. (They aren't supposed to exchange them anyway but if the seal on the cardboard box had not been broken, she might have been able to do something.) We CAN get the right ones but it will cost an additional $28 plus. Needless to say I am calling Dr. Sharon and June Maile in the morning to ask what we do. We have $28 (200 of the darn things) that are useless to us. (They actually are worth a lot more but Medicare covers much of it.) This really upset me for some reason. I think it is something like the final straw. Hopefully we can get this taken care of tomorrow. Dick was unable to test today. The only good thing is that we have not been instructed as to what to do with high or low readings.

We had bean soup for supper and headed to Memorial at 5:30 0r so for the last intravenous of the day. Got home at about 8:15PM. Chelsea is trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
Tomorrow we have to be at Valley View at 6:15AM. EEWWWW. Dick said he will take me out for breakfast every morning - Such a deal. That helps a bit.

I will keep you informed as we go along.

I read a quote that I liked. I can't credit it because it was on a Tshirt. "We might as well grow old together - we're not doing anything else." It is almost as good as the quote from Pooh (Milne)

If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be
a hundred minus one day,
so I never have to live
without you.

-- Winnie the Pooh

Goodnight my friends. Pray that this stuff really gets rid of Dick's infection.

Mary