Talk about cold. It was 5Degrees when I got up this morning. Chelsea and I went for a nice walk but not too long. It was very quiet out there.

At 10AM, we attended the annual budget meeting Christmas Gathering for the Tallgrass Condo association. It was an exciting meeting but I understand, NOT as exciting as the Spring meeting. The budget passed quite easily, then the discussion turned to questions about maintenance and snow removal. I think our board officers handled it quite well. It was pointed out the concerns should be addressed to the board, preferably in writing and that all residents are welcome to attend board meetings. Michelle brought up the fact that there is a limit of one animal per unit and it was noted that it would take a revision of the bylaws to change this. Someone stupidly said that exceptions could be filed for and I jumped in with a resounding "NO." That has been tried and the board is a heartless group of people. I miss my kitties more near Christmas. Isn't that funny? I suppose it is because it is a more emotional time of year. But it is hard for me to get to sleep and I do miss my Oscar. He was very comforting.

This afternoon, I finished wrapping Dick's presents. I hope he likes them. I also wrote several Christmas Cards out. Soon that will be done too.

My brother George called this afternoon. He is such a pleasure to talk to. I was so happy to be able to tell him that I FINALLY framed the print that he and Betsy gave me to remember Courtney by. It framed up beautifully and looks great above our fireplace. For some reason it reminded me of a quote from Little House on the Prairie that Michael Landon wrote. "Remember me with smiles and laughter, For that's the way I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, Then don't remember me at all."

I hope to be remembered that way. Wonder if I will be remembered?

Love

Mary

There was about an inch of snow on the ground and the roadways when I woke up this morning. Actually it was after 6:30AM so I couldn't complain about the time at all. I strapped on my traction boots and Chelsea and I had our first decent, not the best, but decent walk in three days. Boy was she glad. When we got back home she BURST through the door to let Dick know what a good time she had. She is so cute.

Then Dick and I went to the Point in Falls for breakfast. They are now a non smoking place so it is really quite enjoyable. I do like their breakfast sandwiches. They offer them on either hard rolls or English Muffin Bread. Then we went to the bank and paid a bill and came home.

I cleaned the kitchen but with all the snow and more still coming I only swept the floor instead of scrubbing it. Next week will be soon enough.

I joined the gals for lunch at Dairy Queen. Marlene said that she took over for me as Eucharistic minister on Sunday. I told her it was a good thing as I was snowbound.

Then tonight, Dick spoiled me even further. He took me out to Antoinette's for a fish fry. So I ate all three meals out. Boy was Chelsea disappointed in us. Not even one skimpy little plate to beg for.

I finished wrapping all the presents today and they are neatly stacked under the tree which looks beautiful. I love Christmas.

Tonight I did a good hunk of my Christmas cards, both email and snail mail. I figure I am about 1/2 done.

I called my friend Kate. Ron has to go to St. Luke's on Thursday for surgery. Please pray for him. He has to wait til then because he has to stop taking blood thinners before they operate. I told Kate that I would go with her. That is a long scary way to go without a friend.

Tomorrow, we will go to the Condo Budget Meeting. That will be exciting since everybody is all up in arms about the snow plow situation. I am actually content with the second and third snows so hope it is not a nasty time.

Sunday I work at Rhine so the weekend is busy. Sure glad that I have leftovers to prepare for meals. It will be SO much easier.

Hope your weekend is wonderful too. Have a happy season and wish everybody Merry Christmas.

Mary

"Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will ever read!"

I asked the Lord to bless you as I prayed for you today.
To guide you and protect you as you go along your way....
His love is always with you, His promises are true,
And when we give Him all our cares,
You know He will see us through.

As you can see, we did pick up the car today. The coldest day of the winter so far. It was a big 2 degrees when I got up this morning. Chelsea and I did not go for much of a walk because it was WAY too cold.

We went to Mike Burkart Ford at 9ish and went through the paperwork and the rundown of the features of the new car. Then we drove out to Sheboygan Falls to drop some money off at Mother's and to give me a chance to get used to driving it. It is really nice. Mother liked it. Did I tell you that it has a running board so that it will be easier for Dick AND Mother to get in and out of the vehicle.

When we got home it was a stay at home day. I did a bit of cleaning and computer work and fixed a Mexican Chicken Casserole for supper. We both took a nap this afternoon because we were tired after our late night last night.

It has started snowing out there again this evening. I don't think there will be too much accumulation. I am hoping that perhaps Chelsea and I can have a normal walk in the morning. I am getting restless and I am sure that she is. You will be glad to hear that she has not had a seizure for over three weeks now.

I talked to Bret tonight. He is doing just fine. Travis, his friend's son, who was in the motorcycle accident is still improving. He is starting to communicate and is gaining strength every day. That is good news.

He was telling me that they are really "cold" there. It is 51 degrees. I said AWWW. Then he mentioned a day that he spent outside with a friend at a rodeo in temps of 24 degrees with a windchill of mid teens. I agreed with him that THAT is cold. He said he never was that cold before. So I told him that he was, at least once. When he was little, one year we, his Dad, his brother and I and Bret, came back to Wisconsin for Christmas. Nora picked us up at Mitchell and when we stepped out into temperatures of below Zero, I thought that my two California babies were going to freeze in place. We rushed them into the car and warmed it up as soon as we could. That was a fun trip. It was a surprise for Mother and Dad. All the aunts and uncles knew we were coming but not Mom and Dad. That was a fun Christmas, despite the cold.

Love

Mary

Here it is. Not the best picture but I couldn't wait for a warm day to get one outside.

So Far we like it. Easy to drive and nice bells and whistles.

Mary

It is cold and getting colder. We had a light layer of about an inch or so of snow on the ground and roads when I woke up this morning. I strapped on my shoes with the grids and we bravely made our way for her walk. She was quite efficient and it was cold enough that she did not dawdle.

Dick and I went out for breakfast and then did our grocery shopping. We were home by about 9:30. They had plowed, even up our road. It was a bit patchy so I did scrape off the driveway a bit as the last thing I want is an icy path when I go out with the girl. They did come back and cleaned up some but I am still glad that I did some scraping.

The rest of the day we basically waited for the Ford dealer to call to set up the appointment to pick up our new Explorer. I, of course, cleaned and worked on the computer while I was waiting. Finally, I called them at 3:30 and got our answer. We will be picking it up in the morning. I will describe it to you then and throw in a picture.

I picked up Market Day at 4 and then we got all dressed up and went to get Mother for the play and dinner. We went to dinner at Nino's. A very good dinner. Dick had a steak and Mother and I each had a shrimp platter. There were sixteen shrimp: 4 fried, 4 bacon wrapped, four scampi and four garlic. They were ALL good and I have half of them for lunch tomorrow.

The play was wonderful. Michael Eberhardy was indeed Kris Kringle. It was well acted, well staged and totally enjoyable. As we were leaving, Michael was sitting in a Santa Chair to greet the children and when he saw Mother he stood up and grinned from ear to ear and gave her a great big hug.

A lovely evening.

Lets all pray for the victims of that shooting in Omaha and for the soul of the shooter.

Love

Mary

Chelsea woke me up a bit early this morning and Dick was sound asleep. That was unusual but I always figure that if he is sleeping that is a minor miracle in itself and I am not about to wake him. So, since I had really slept very well, I just got up and took the girl out for her morning walk. It was cold but not windy. We only walked for about 20 to 30 minutes and stayed rather close to home because it was slippery. I have put the grids that Dick bought for me last year on my boots and they are really GREAT on ice. After falling twice on the ice that first day, I am not taking any chances. Might not be so lucky the third time.

I watered the plants and got packages ready for mailing this morning. Then after lunch, I took the packages to the post office, stopped at the bank and Walgreens for Mom's prescriptions. Then home for the rest of the day and night.

We had chicken and stuffing for supper again. Still good. I also made some cheese. I got a free gallon of milk last week and we don't drink that much milk. So. I got whole milk instead of 1% and made some Monterey Jack Cheese out of it today. I like playing around with that kind of stuff.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get our new car. We are also going to the Sheboygan Theater Co's presentation of Miracle on 34th Street with Mother. We have decided to go to Nino's for our dinner. Dick was hungry for a steak the other day so this will be his chance to take advantage of a Steak house.

My friend Janet sent me George Carlin's rules for 2008: I liked this one.

New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged . I have a better description for these kids: 'Lucky bastards.'


Enjoy your Wednesday.

Love

Mary

Chelsea woke me up at the ungodly hour of 5:40AM. I took her outside long enough to do what was necessary, gave her some lettuce and went back to bed. I shut the door (A trick we have learned.) and the next thing I knew it was 7:00AM and I was raring to go. It was even light out. We had a reasonable walk but I would not let her go into the park as I draw the line at climbing over snow drifts just for a walk.

Bible study this morning. We had some very interesting pre-discussions today. Tom Keyes had watched 60 Minutes last night and informed us that according to the show, there is no longer a Christian/Catholic church recognized in Iraq. It has, according to his interpretation, become an offense punishable by death to be Christian/Catholic. If this is so, and I must do some investigating, I need to contact Mr. Bush and our representatives and find out why we are sending our young men to this country to die. We are a Christian country who accommodates other religious beliefs. We should not be supporting governments that are persecuting people for whatever their religious beliefs.

Then Peggy Feider, one of our participants, told us of an experience that she and her husband had in Florida. Their daughter lives in "the slums" (her terms). She sent them for Sunday Mass to a church just a block or so away from her apartment. Imagine their surprise when they arrived and found that they were the only white faces in the congregation. Peggy herself is a lovely blond lady. Well, they took a deep breath, walked in and took their place. Shortly, one of the ushers came and greeted them and asked if they would bring the gifts up to the altar at the Offeratory. They accepted. Then at the end of the Mass, the pastor asked if there were any visitors. (Well, DUH!) So they stood up and were greeted with a polite round of applause.

Then we got to the readings. Would you believe that they related to the two above experiences. The first was Isaiah 11:1-10 which talks of lions lying down with lambs and that God does not judge by appearance OR hearsay. Then the Gospel was from Matthew - the story of John the Baptist and we certainly could not have judged HIM by appearance, what with his running around the dessert in camel hair coats and eating honey and locusts. We decided that maybe they taste better covered in honey and would at least be crunchy.

Anyway, we need to pray for tolerance and that means that EVERYBODY may have to develop a thicker skin. Most of the time people, in my experience, don't set out to insult or disparage others. Perhaps a little understanding and patience.

This afternoon, I had my annual mammogram. Will hear in about a week but everything seemed fine on the initial exam.

Tonight was the Rhine Plymouth meeting. The lot wasn't plowed. That turned out to be quite an experience as some of the members were getting stuck. But it all worked out and Crunch had a plow on his truck and got most of it pretty well cleared. The meeting went quite well, even with both the president and vice president were both gone. Guess what, Bobbie let the meeting. Secretaries are next in line.

Now we are home and safe in our nice warm little house. Tomorrow is a stay at home day.

Hope your day is pleasant and safe too.

Love

Mary

We were snowbound, literally until mid afternoon. We were very unhappy with the snow plowing service that we received. What good is our condo fee if we are trapped until after 1:30PM after a snow that ends during the night. Disgusting. I called our illustrious president as was told that they were "working on it."

We had lent Jim and Michelle the Santa Fe YESTERDAY, because they were bringing some file cabinets etc home from her office. So I was driving the Elantra. When I came home from the Tea at the History Museum, I had a heck of a time getting it into the garage. This morning, when we woke up they had plowed the main part of Tall Grass but NOT our little side road. As a matter of fact, they left us with a Huge drift blocking the entrance to the side road to add to the deep snow that had accumulated. Really maddening. I figured I would skip the 8AM Mass and go to the 10:30 but there was no sign of life ALL morning. I called finally but it was after 1PM before they started on our street. Jim and Michelle came home in the midst of this and did some hand shoveling. They noticed that all the OTHER streets and driveways were done.

Anyway, I was unable to go to Mass and I DON'T like that at all.

I spent a lot of time today, going through all the papers from the purchase of this place and from the sale of Hunter's Glen. I shredded a whole bag of stuff.

We had stuffed roasted chicken for supper tonight and a buckeye for dessert. We are a lucky little family.

The upcoming week is moderately busy. The most exciting thing is that we will go to see Miracle on 34th Street at Sheboygan Theatre with Mother on Wednesday. That will be fun. Michael Eberhardy who went to school with my brother Matt, is Kris Kringel.

Have a good week yourself.

Love

Mary