Opening day of Deer Hunting today. SO I had to get up at 4:15AM in order to get out to meet the guys and get out to our spots by daybreak. It started out cold but not windy and worsened all day, until it was time for us to leave. At about 9AM it started to mist. That turned to sleet later on which turned to snow flurries. When we left at 4PM it was mighty cold but the precipitation had stopped.

It was not a very successful day overall. Jason got a nice buck on the northside right after the open. Lee and Cory each saw a "half a deer". I saw TWO. I even got two shots off at a nice buck but I missed.

P. S. Lee Carpenter became the proud daddy of a little girl named Brooke 8 months ago. This is since our last hunting trip so I felt I should mention Brooke Carpenter.

Then we went to the bowling alley in Cascade for a drink and something to eat. Jason felt so bad. He usually brings heart sandwiches made from the heart from the previous year. We did not have them this year. His freezer broke and I guess they lost a ton of meat including the heart. So I got home at about 6:30PM which is good because I am of course exhausted.

Naturally I had to attend to the needs of nature out there even if I drank very little fluids. This time I did not slip or goof up despite the cold and wet. It made me, however, remember Ella Jones. Ella and her husband Paul belonged to the Orange County Four Wheelers. Ella had the unique ability to be "caught" no matter how far or how many bushes she chose to use when she had to go to the bathroom. This past month I lost a dear friend, a member of the Four Wheelers, Orrin Nordin. I remembered him too. He used to refer to these bathroom trips at visits to the tickle bushes.

Anyway, one trip found us down in Baja California on the beach. It is a big expanse of dunes and quite nice for jeeping. We did not go there often because it was across the border but it was a fun place to jeep. So, Ella had to go to the bathroom. She asked our friend Rick's wife, I have forgotten her name, to come along to stand watch. She stood watch alright. Noone came across any dune or around any corner but as Ella was crouched, she glanced up and there was a two seater airplane flying overhead with the pilot and his passenger waving like mad.

Nice day. I am very content and tired.

Love

Mary

Sure miss my kitties.

Mary

It was a nice day. Dick and Chelsea let me sleep until 6:30AM which was a real treat. Chelsea and I had a lovely walk. It was cold. 24 Degrees but there was no wind so, as I have said before, if one is dressed for it, this makes nice walking weather.

Then I fixed breakfast and Dick and Chelsea went down for a nap. I cleaned the kitchen while they slept and got things ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, in case you didn't know, is opening day for deer hunting. I hope this is my year. I have been a faithful hunter for about 7 years now and still have not managed to harvest a single deer. I am "almost a hunter."

I did a bit of shopping this afternoon for Christmas and went to the bank. This was Dick's shower day so it was a full day for us.

I fixed chicken legs and colcannon for supper. Nice and hearty and GOOD.

Chelsea is driving me crazy. She is on those water pills and keeps coming up to me and begging. I don't know if she has to go out or if she is just begging for food so I have to keep taking her out. I am getting really tired. She has finally gone into the bedroom and will sleep for at least an hour but when she is up I sometimes take her out every 20 minutes to a half an hour. One can't take a chance. As I said, I am SO tired. Tomorrow, I will have a WHOLE day without the demands. Of course, I will be freezing.

Small price.

I have to get up at 4:30 and meet everybody at 5:30 out at the site. Wish me luck and pray that all is safe.

Love
Mary

It was a strange day. We left at 7:30AM to take Dick to Sheboygan Clinic for a blood test. Then Sue decided that since he is still on the antibiotics and the count will be all screwed up anyway, that we rescheduled for 11/27 when he has been off of the meds for a while and we can truly see what damage has been done to the count.

So we decided to go to Hardee's for breakfast. Guess what, Hardee's on Taylor in Sheboygan is closed. Nobody told us so we stopped at the ParkView Restaurant in Sheboygan Falls on our way home instead.

Chelsea was very glad to see us. I spent the day, cleaning - the bathrooms, my desk etc and we racked the dandelion wine.

Tonight I called Bret. His friend Tony's son was in a motorcycle accident on Tuesday morning and is in critical condition. Please pray for him. They would all appreciate that.

Aside from that Bret himself is doing pretty good right now.

Chelsea is doing OK. She coughs a lot and is drinking so much water that she is in and out a lot but she looks good and still enjoys her walks in the morning. Right now she is sleeping and will start in again about 8:30PM. Thank heavens she still sleeps pretty much through the night.

We are also trying to get Christmas taken care of, at least the out of state people. I like to get their packages mailed that first week in December.

I remember how we used to look forward to getting the Christmas packages when the kids were little. One of the most fun presents that we looked forward to was from my Uncle George Deeley. He was a single gentleman and was my godfather. He always sent us a cheese box. It was one of those boxes with the many many different kinds of cheeses all wrapped up individually and bits of candy and stuff and the kids just LOVED it. With that and the fact that I learned to love all kinds of cheese from my Grandma Deeley and my Mother, they are also cheese lovers.

When Bart and I moved to Minnesota, I remember how grateful we were to a gal that I worked with. I had mentioned that after school and before dinner, my boys liked to have a snack of cheese and crackers to tide them over and when we stopped at her house after work one night on our way to look at a house, she spread out cheese and crackers. We were delighted.


Take care

Love

Mary

Chelsea woke me up at 6:08AM this morning. I had had a nice long sleep and was ALMOST ready to face the day. We had a nice walk. She sat down to rest twice on the walk but then eagerly rushed on.

Dick and I went to Family Restaurant for breakfast and then grocery shopping at the Pig.

When we got home, I finished two Celtic Women sweatshirt jackets that I had started and finished getting what I could this early gathered for deer hunting on Saturday. Tomorrow I will call Jeff or Randy to find out what time to meet them out there.

Dick had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Sharon today. He kind of summarized stuff for us and was quite reassuring. He did suggest that Dick start eating yogurt or taking pills to help encourage GOOD bacteria as the antibiotics do not discriminate.

I made pumpkin bread on Sunday. I reminded me of my Bart when he was little. We went on a boat tour of lights one Christmas around Newport Harbor. I brought Cranberry Bread and Pumpkin Bread to eat on the tour. One of Bart's Dad's co workers.go the biggest kick out of Bart. He was eating a piece of the pumpkin bread and he announced that it was the best bread he had ever eaten. Then he said. "You make good bread, Mom. Your cranberry bread is OK but your pumpkin bread is really good." Bart was always this funny little mix of honesty and sensitivity. I remember a Thanksgiving that we spent with friends. Margie made her stuffing with much more sage than I do and he obviously did not like it too well but he never said a word. Then later we were snacking again and asked him if he wanted more stuffing and he said no he did not like it. Then he realized that he might have hurt Margie's feelings so he looked her full in the face, smiled and said "But you make the BEST pumpkin pie that I ever had." These happened when he was between four and six. What a guy. He still is


Love

Mary

Except for tonight's Adult Education at St. John's, we were able to stay home all day. Chelsea woke me up at 5AM. She is drinking WAY too much water with the pills that she is taking. So. I took her out to go potty and then went back to bed. We went out for our regular walk at 6AM then.

I spent the morning sewing and cleaning the den, bedroom and downstairs kitchen. After lunch I took a little nap until the phone rang. It was Jacquie. I had called her yesterday to wish her a Happy Birthday and she was returning the call. Things are about the same there. She is well.

Dick and I racked a gallon of Lemon Balm wine this afternoon. Tomorrow we will rack Currant then on Thursday we can do the dandelion. Then everything can sit for a month before we do anything with it. Wine takes a lot of patience.

The Study at St. John's was REALLY good. Fr. Van Beeck brings things down to earth and makes them so practical. Talking about Faith and Awe of God and all that is Godly, which is his theme this year, he told a story about when he was in first grade. It was an old old school. Remember those old heavy windows in those old school buildings? Well, the first grade teacher, a nun, pulled up one of those windows at the beginning of class. She got it up a few feet and it slipped and landed on her thumb. She kept her cool and told two of the boys to go and get some eight grade boys from the classroom across the hall. They ran out and in a few minutes came back alone. Where are the boys, she asked. They said they couldn't get them because they were praying. They "knew better" than to interrupt a prayer. Eventually that was resolved and the principal came to the class later in the day and explained to the munchkins that such an event would be a good reason to interrupt a prayer.

He also listed in order bible passages that showed the growing faith of the apostles. That was interesting. They didn't always have enough either. Maybe there is hope for me.

When Bret was four, I enrolled him in a cooperative preschool. We mothers worked and ran it. We took turns working, preparing crafts and bringing snacks. It was quite nice. Anyway, Bret did his first painting. We brought it home and posted it properly on the refrigerator. It was all one big colored blob. When his Dad got home he asked Bret what it was. Bret looked at him in disgust and said and I quote. "It's a painting." Apparently that is all it was or had to be.



The following is just funny, I got it from my friend Janet.

I was depressed last night so I called Lifeline.

Got a call center in the Middle East.

Told them I was suicidal.

They got all excited and asked if I could fly a plane.

Love

Mary

Imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up and found that it was 51 degrees outside. Chelsea and I were quite pleased with that circumstance even if it was a bit damp. It was NOT raining but a bit damp. She was quite the little adventuress going into the park and coming back around to her left instead of to her right. I think she was actually a bit tired as she kept flopping on her little belly to catch her breath. She did do a LOT of coughing last night and had a seizure yesterday.

Bible study this morning. We talked about the end of the world in three different ways. Paul tells people that those who do not work should not eat, referring to some laggards in his time who figured that Jesus would be along any day now so why put oneself out. We wondered how we should handle that statement. How does one know if someone is really in need our just plain lazy. We decided that this letter from Paul was directed more to the laggards themselves than to those who were doing the best they could.

Tom Keyes brought up an interesting term that I had never heard "Dry Martyr" referring to those who die for Christ just by living their lives as they should and are not tortured to death at the hands of the infidels.

Stopped at Mother's after the study. She is doing just fine. She will go to the senior meals tomorrow and is going out for lunch and canasta with her buddies on Wednesday. A pretty busy week.

On the way to Dick's appointment with Dr. Hermann, we swung by the Sheboygan Writer's Club meeting so I could drop of my saddle stapler so that John and whoever can more easily assemble the little booklets they are preparing for this year's Christmas party. The booklets will feature writings from the members.

The appointment with Dr. Hermann went very well. It is a very quick test this cystography. A bit uncomfortable as it is invasive AND Dick had to be on his back again. But it is over and Dr. Hermann says that all looks just fine.

So - we had a GREAT day. Tomorrow, we are home all day until 7:00PM when the Bible Study that Fr. Van Beeck does every year starts. It goes from 7 to 8 exactly. His topic this year is from Luke 18:8 "But when the Son of Man comes will he find any faith on the earth."

I am going to bake pumpkin bread tomorrow using the nice fresh pumpkin that I prepared on Sunday. I feel so frugal.

Will Rogers said. " If there are no dogs in heaven, than when I die, I want to go where they went." Seems quite sensible to me.

Love

Mary

Another very tired day for me. I did not do much but I am exhausted, so you will not get much tonight.

I went to the 8AM mass this morning. Then I fixed a nice BIG breakfast for Dick and me. Chelsea loves that because she gets nice eggy plates to lick.

I took the green food pumpkin from the front porch and cooked it and preserved the pumpkin. We can have four fresh pumpkin pies this year. Isn't that great. I made some pumpkin seeds to snack on too.

I talked to Barb. Bart is back in Oklahoma now. They are trying to entice Barbara to take the position in Florida. It would be a BIG promotion for her but is also a BIG change. They will have to decide.

Any way I am very tired and am heading to bed very early.

Til tomorrow.

Mary.