I liked to day because I got to shop and shop with a purpose.

Started off a bit early, Chelsea woke me up at about quarter to six but it was not early enough for me to be really irritated with her. We had a nice walk. She took a shortcut through the playground, so we were back a little sooner than expected. It was comfortable. There had been a little rain during the night and everything was very fresh.

I left at 8:30AM for Hunters Glen and ran the water and cleaned the fixtures and sinks with Windex to freshen things up. All of the air fresheners that I had plugged in the walls in the various rooms are gone. Except for the one in the bedroom and that someone took the freshener out of. They may have needed replacing, I was going to check that today too. Tis a mystery.

Then I went over to the Mall and had a ball at the HallmarkKeepsake Ornament Premiere Weekend. I got all but one of the ornaments I need for gifts. I was a good shopper. Had coupons worth $11 and got lots of bonus points for more coupons because I did the shopping this weekend. I noticed when I got my last notice that the Hallmark store's name was Amy's Hallmark. This threw me a bit as it was always Mary Lee's. I found out that Mary Grube sold the business to an Amy, who is very helpful and pleasant.

After I put the ornaments in the car, I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to purchase wax for my hand paraffin dip machine AND shower and wedding presents for Holly and John. Successful there too.

I stopped at Mom's on the way home as I won't be able to go there on Monday because Dick has a doctor's appointment. (As it is I forgot one thing that I was supposed to give her and we will probably drop it off on our way home.) We usually have a good visit after bible study though.

I did some sewing, watering and painting of tile for pot holders this afternoon and now am ready to call it.

I hear this morning about a manager of a business who showed up at his secretary's door nude. He claimed he was sleepwalking ---- All three time.

Love

Mary

It was so pleasant outside that we left the doors and windows open all day and the house stayed very comfortable. I think windows open tonight will keep it that way.

On our walk this morning we felt like we were on a treasure hunt. When we got to the woods end of the park and headed for the path through the woods to home, I found a baseball. So I picked it up and put it in my pocket. Then when we headed into the path and next to the little creek below the culvert, Chelsea started sniffing in back of this tree and there was a plastic bag there. I looked closer and it was full of fireworks, so I picked it up too and brought it home. It had obviously been there since we had rain because there was wet on the outside of the bag.

When I got home, I cleaned the kitchen floor and helped two Culligan men to put salt in the water softener. We think we finally have ourselves on a route. When we moved in we had them bring some, told them we wanted to be serviced. But we had to call them several months later and again thought we were on a route. Obviously we were not because when Dick looked the other day, we were just plain empty. But this time, I am sure they will be back in three months because the manager even called to confirm things.

Jim Bordeau, one of the board members, came over to "interview" us for the newsletter. We learned a lot about the workings of the board and the association. Now I wish I had been able to go to the annual meeting and had run for the board.

Had lunch with Betty, Ceil, Barb and Mary at Dairy Queen today. I was hungry for a "California Burger" So ordered a cheeseburger with nothing but lettuce, tomato and pickle on it and grabbed a packet of mayonnaise. It tasted GOOOOOD!

I picked up some sox and MSM at Walgreens, got gas and YIPPEE!!! found out that Cappelle's is open. That is the local farmer's market. THEY HAD FRESH SWEET CORN! Guess what WE had for dinner. It was so good with sliced tomatoes and fresh green beans from our patio. We wondered, as my brother in law George used to say, "Wonder what the rich folks are eating tonight." They don't eat like that for sure.

I did a bit of sewing tonight, cleaned my desk and got all ready for tomorrow and Monday.

Whew. Another busy one. I hope it rains as they promised otherwise, tomorrow I will need to water.

My friend, Kate, asked me to write a haiku about a rainbow. I have written two, one yesterday and one today, I am not totally satisfied so will try again tomorrow. Her is one

Rainbow arched on high
Appearing as a handle
For the basket - Earth.

Enjoy your weekend. I am going wedding shower shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond and Christmas ornament shopping at Mary Lee's. I like shopping IF I have a purpose.

Love

Mary

Chelsea and I had a lovely walk this morning. We ran into several of our fellow travelers which is always a nice break. The walking temperature was perfect. It was cool enough that we made it through the woods without stirring up too many mosquitoes.

Then I chopped up a bunch of veggies for the pot roast that I was preparing for tonight's dinner. Dick had to be at Advanced Eye Care at 8:30AM for a check on the laser treatment that he had and to be refitted for a new glass prescription.

Home again and then I finished getting the pot roast in the slo-cooker.

Kate Hermann called. She is safely back from the mission trip that she went on to Philadelphia. It was a bit harrowing but she had a good time and felt that the kids were wonderful. We had a lot to catch up on. I am going to speak at her Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday. They are trying to become more aware of the cultural clubs and events in the Plymouth area so I will talk about the Cream City Writers and Sheboygan County Writers and the new Celtic Women Group that we are starting.

Then lunch and a nap.

We had two people come to the door today. Judy Richards, the previous owner of our condo, stopped by for a moment and someone from the condo association dropped off a flyer about the Tallgrass Picnic which is near the end of August. I think we should probably go. Anyway we NEVER have two people ringing our bell so Chelsea was VERY excited.

An appointment with Dr. Hodous to have Dick's callouses checked rounded off the afternoon. They actually look pretty good about now.

The pot roast is delicious. Way too much food of course, but we are looking forward to several more meals out of it. We had some more strawberries and blueberries on pound cake for dessert too. Boy is fruit ever good now.

My desk is SO clean. I have a little pile of stuff in the center that must be done tomorrow or everything will get out of hand again. Tomorrow is a quiet day, the only time I have to leave home is to have lunch with my friends.

When the boys and I would go out anywhere for dinner, we would always order different things and then get to try each other's choices. This was lots of fun. I remember that their father found this to be a very embarrassing thing. Of course, he was embarrassed by doggy bags too. I thought of that because of a commercial on TV. Dick and I sometimes do this, or order a sandwich plain and then one with fries and split the fries. We are amazed at how much food is put on a plate at a restaurant.

Dick is continuing to lose weight. He is not eating much which is OK but I have to keep reminding him to eat the proper things when he does eat. With his pre-diabetes, he must be very careful. We are excited about the weight loss though.

Have a good Friday.

Mary

Today was a big step up from yesterday. The weather was perfect. Maybe a bit cool, but clear and fresh. Not too hot and no rain.

We had to go to the Plymouth Aurora Clinic for Dick's blood tests this morning at 8:30Am. He had to fast so we went out for breakfast afterwards to the Family Restaurant down town. They have SUCH good bacon.

It was also grocery shopping day and that went very well. Dick was tired when we got home but not like yesterday and he no longer is suffering from that chill. He took a nap and I went out to Rhine for the first day of the Summer Trap League. Guess what - I shot an 18. Was I ever jazzed. I signed up a guy after I shot and told him that he was really going to face some stiff competition because I got an 18. He found that amusing.

I spent the afternoon sewing, racking currant wine and stuffing little dolls. It was very productive.

Tomorrow will be rather busy too. We may get some rain which we still need.

The deck plants look great. I wish the tomato buds would start producing little tomatoes. I have nice little peppers growing on those plants and my herbs are really taking off.

Have a great Thursday. Enjoy the following. My friend Janet sent it to me. I think I will take it to bible study the week after next for our opening prayer.

Love

Mary

This Pastor has guts!

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people.

When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.
We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in Protest!

In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.

We had two thunderstorms sweep through the area today, one this morning late and one this afternoon. They both dumped quite a bit of water but passed by very quickly. It was hot too. In the mid 80s.

We had to move "a pace" this morning, as Dick had to be at Sheboygan Memorial Hospital for his MRA by 9:15AM and we knew that meant being there earlier so we could get checked in and all.
Everything went very smoothly. It seemed to take longer than they said it would. The technician/Nurse said it would be 25 minutes but it was a bit over an hour. Dick said it seemed to go quite fast for him except that it is SO uncomfortable for him to lie still in one position for any length of time. But we were home a bit after 10AM so it wasn't too bad.

After lunch, Dick took a well deserved nap but woke up with very severe chills. We wrapped him in that nice wool Galway shawl but he still couldn't get warm. So he went back to bed under the electric blanket. That seemed to help but he really is not feeling well.

Tomorrow he will get two blood tests. One a fasting one for his physical with Dr. Sharon. Then the second for Dr. Phelan. He needs to call Dr. Phelan because we don't think that he really needs that weekly one any more. Dr. Phelan and his nurses are hard to get ahold of though.

On the way home we were listening to the radio to an interview with a banker about mortgage practices. They were talking about redlining, the practice of denying clients from certain neighborhoods. I was remembering how things were when I first started out in the lending business at Pacific Finance Corporation when I was 20 years old. The applications we received were hand filled out by the interviewer. We scored them. The client got points for several catagories and had to have a minimum score to qualify for the loan. They got 0 through 5 points for each catagory. Now, we would be sued for discrimination on a chunk of them. There were points for age groups, gender, whether the party was married or not, the race, job and length of job. Can you even believe it? Credit bureaus were in their infancy. We did have one in the Santa Ana area. We would call with the client's information and they would call us back with "inquiries". Inquiries were calls from lending agencies. They would give us the name of the institution that had called and the date they called and then we would have to check to see if an account had been opened. We also had to call the places the client told us about and get the rating from them.

Now, agencies just contact the credit bureau through the internet and download the information directly onto an application. My friend Evelyn Green told me that recently she requested a hard file from 1992 or sometime there and found that it was one of mine and all handwritten. This was WAY past Pacific Finance but before the great computer boom.

Brave new world.

Love

Mary

We got some welcome rain this morning. Not enough but a nice steady soaking rain that lasted an hour or more. I went to bible study this morning and we prayed for rain. It was just starting to sprinkle when we left. Mary, Shirley and I thought that maybe we had better hurry back to the table and pray for world peace since we were on a roll.

Had a good visit with Mother this morning. She went to Eden with her friends on Sunday for the church's chicken dinner. She said it was very good and the new church out there is very pretty. But she still likes the old country churches better and they tore down several of them.

Tonight I attended a meeting at Beth Hoegger's house to plan the Mass for Celtic Faire at Sheboygan Falls. Jim and Alice Wilsing and Joan and Don Otto also attended and I think we got it all put together. I will get the worship folder put together and email it to Beth who can insert the music and get it to Sandy at the Blessed Trinity office. We have three months actually but it is good to get a head start and to be sure we have our musicians and all.

Now home and ready for bed. Chelsea is really starting to get pushy about that. She spends so much time sleeping. But after 9PM she wants either Dick or I in the bedroom with her. AND she lets us know.

Take care. Tomorrow Dick has his MRA. Please pray for results that can bring some help.

Love

Mary

Another hot one. It peaked out at 97 + according to the thermometers we have on the deck.
Thank heaven's for an air conditioned house.

How EVER did we get by without air years ago. But we did. I remember as a child going to bed on hot humid nights with all the windows open, lying on top of the covers praying for a breeze. We must have slept eventually but I remember feeling sticky and uncomfortable those nights.

Then if there would be a storm, it would sometimes help, but sometimes get so humid that it was almost worse. I remember one summer that Bret, Bart and I were visiting from California. A huge storm came up. Thunder and lightening all around us. There are not storms like that in California. I casually asked Mom if we should be turning off the TV. Bret asked why and we told him that sometimes lightening can come through appliances into the house. (It can too. It happened to Nora and Leif not too many years ago in Texas. They had to replace several appliances. ) Mom said that she thought we could wait and see. So a couple of minutes later, Bret suggested that we go to bed.

The boys were supposed to be sleeping in a different room than I was. BUT suddenly, I had a hot little boy on either side of me. As thunder boomed and lightening flashed they would occasionally ask, obviously scared how close it was. I was all prickly and hot but finally got to sleep. I wonder if they even remember that.

We are supposed to get rain tonight but I am not holding my breath.

I worked the 100 bird Lewis shoot for about three hours at Rhine this morning and afternoon. Got home about 2 and just have been puttering. I am glad the day is almost over. Without my nap, I am a bit tired.

Hope you all have a wonderful week. We are busy. Three medical appointments.

Take care

Mary