Well, as it turned out I had to leave the neighborhood once after all. I started giving Chelsea her pills this morning and discovered that she only had enough of one of them for TODAY. That would not work well as the vet is closed on Sundays so I called right away and was able to pick them up in an hour. I also got notice that it was time to give her the heartworm pill. Guess what, we were out of them too so I picked up both.

It was really a lovely day today. It did get a bit warm, 83 or something, but there was a breeze and it has now dropped to the low 60s.

Had a nice day, I cleaned the kitchen floor and straighten out my desk and baked cranberry scones.

Jim and Michelle came over at about two oclock to make the very nicest offer. They want to come here one evening a week, probably Fridays when Michelle gets off earlier, and stay with Dick and clean for us. Their only condition is that they want me to leave for some alone time or time with friends. I admit that I cried. What a way to help both Dick and me at this time. He will have company, other than me, I will have help with the work here and get a chance to be on my own a bit. A break. This is a very special gift.

Then at four or thereabouts Dick and Brenda and Bobbie and Bill arrived. Bobbie had all the fixin's for dinner including pasta with a choice of Italian Sausage OR shrimp sauce, salad and fresh asparagus. This was preceded by antipasto. Then it was capped off by Sachertort. We enjoyed the meal and the company so much. This is to honor Dick for Fathers Day.

Now it is after 10 and I am winding down. I do want to tell you what happened to my Mother yesterday.

The night before she lost power for a while in that storm. When she got up Friday morning she noticed that the Carbon Monoxide detector was doing something. She tried her stove and found that one of the burners would not light. So she tried to light it with a match. (Naughty Naughty) Fortunately NOTHING happened so she called the Gas Company. They told her to call the Fire Department, who came right over. They about had a canary when she told them about trying to light the burner. The firemen told her to NEVER do that again with any possibility of a gas leak but they checked everything, made sure all the pilots were lit and there was no buildup of anything bad. They told her to call a repairman for the stove.

WELL, when noon rolled around, so did my brother Randy. He asked her what was going on and Mother asked him how he found out.

Here is a small town event if there ever was one. The Fire Department reported their call to the Police Department. Somebody from the Police Department was over at the middle school during the morning and told Donna, my sister in law, that the Fire Department had been over at Mother's. So Donna called Randy who came over on his lunch hour.

Anyway, Randy told Mother that she should not even think of getting that stove fixed. It is way to old. They had it at the old house and have been here for 18 years. So after work yesterday, he went to Bitter Neumann and found her a new glass top electric. She is glad to go to electric because of the safety factor and will have her new stove on Monday. The nice thing about Bitter Neumann is that they will haul the old one off too.

So she was tired even before we went to that wedding, but she had a good time anyway.

Today was nice. I feel all warm and fuzzy.

Love
Mary

Well, here I am, finally winding down from two of the longest days of the week. One would think that all days, since they consist of 24 hours, would be the same length but they are not.

The night before last was a difficult one, I got very little sleep and then we had to be in Sheboygan to see Dr. Moreno. Dr. Moreno was pleased with the look of the callouses. He said that the big one had shrunk a little bit and was not doing something that it is not supposed to. I guess I need to get a medical dictionary here sometime.

When we got home I took the car for servicing. As it turns out it will come under the maintenance agreement we purchased in about a thousand more miles, so they just made sure it was OK and sent me on my way. I got home in time to fix lunch and have Dick at the table when Sarah, the VNA Physical Therapist arrived. She came back today, Friday at 8AM and we reviewed everything and we have covered lower extremity exercises and the wheel chair transfer tips she. We will now have her come only once a week to monitor his progress but we can call her any time we have questions.

I had my therapy at 1:30. It hurts. I do usually feel a bit better when I leave but the pain comes back with a vengeance by morning.

Today was just as busy. As I said, Sarah came at 8AM. We then had to go to Sheboygan Memorial for Dick's procedure by Dr. Siddique. We only have one more scheduled and then Dr. Siddique thinks that we can take a break. That will be quite a relief. It has been a long haul.

We got home just in time to meet Mary Meschler, the Occupational Therapist. We went over the upper extremity exercises and discussed the changes we are going to make in the shower arrangements and possibly rearranging furniture to make things easier for us.

Tonight I picked Mom up at a little after 5PM to go to my cousin Brian's son Nicholas's wedding. It was out at the Osthoff. A lovely outdoor garden setting. Judge Stengel officiated. They had a violinist for music. The sun shone and the birds sang. Thank heaven, they picked today so the sun COULD shine on their union. Yesterday would have been a disaster with the storms going through here like they were.

We then joined everybody for the reception up in the hotel. The meal was absolutely wonderful. Chicken, fish, great veggies, potatoes and salad. And it was topped off with desserts of Cheescake or Carrot Cake.

I got to visit with several of Aunt Kathleen's children who came in for the occasion and met two of my Cousin Pat's triplets. He could not make this wedding but two of his girls came to celebrate the occasion.

Jim and Michelle came over and had dinner and played cards with Dick so he was not alone for such a long time. He said it was a good time. He won a game and so did Michelle.

So now you are updated on the past two days. Guess what!!! Tomorrow I do not have to go anywhere!!! And Bobbie is bringing dinner over to us too. We will be celebrating Father's Day with the three that live here in Wisconsin. Wish EVERYBODY could be here but we are so glad of any that can be here.

Here is a simple little poem I wrote last fall. At my Plymouth Writer's club, when we leave we all give a word and those who want to TRY to make a poem using all or at least most of those words. The October words were: comfort, the cold is coming, family, warmth, evening and gathering. Here was my offering.

As evening approached
We gathered in the comfort
Of a glass of evening wine
And watched the cold come in.

Have a great weekend. We are apparently looking forward to five or six clear days. A welcome relief after the storms.

Mary

Yesterday, Thursday, was a day much to full of medical appointments and tornado warnings. After the previous night when I got little sleep, I just got to evening and went to bed.

Anybody wondering, be assured we are OK and I will update you this evening. It will be after 9:30PM as I am taking Mother to a wedding and reception, but I will post.

In the meantime, have a good day and stay dry. WE may even start drying out late this afternoon.

Love

Mary

You may boast of your knowledge, and brag of your sense,
'Twill be all forgotten a hundred years hence. "

Rye Whisky". Traditional.

Today was a very quiet day overall. Because it is our grocery shopping day and Dick can't go until his knee is better, I went and got our breakfast at Mc Donalds. We like to keep our traditions going you know. Then I went shopping. That was interesting. I am going to be making June's Mac and Cheese pretty soon and am going to try Wolfgang Puck's recipe. He used truffles. SO, I asked at the Pig if they have truffles (having already checked online and KNOWING that they cost $50 per pound MINIMUM). As I suspected ----- they do not carry them but the expert in produce said that Portabella, would a a possible substitute as a mushroom with an underlying woody taste, so I am afraid that Wolfgang's recipe will have a substitution.

Mary Meschler, the Occupational Therapist from VNA came over this afternoon. She checked out the area available to move around with the wheelchair and gave some suggestions as to how to make more room or perhaps to change our whole HOUSE functioning. We are considering everything. I am going to do some measuring and I know that I have graph paper around here so we can do some "Paper planning."

I also did some vacuuming in the den and downstairs bedroom. That turned out to be a project in itself. The bag on the turbo was STUFFED, so I went up to get a new one and couldn't find a bag that fit. SO I pulled the canister vacuum down and THAT bag needed changing too. BUT I finally did get it done. By then I was exhausted.

We had Chili for supper tonight and the last of the blueberry cobbler. Boy was that a good blueberry cobbler. This week I picked up some raspberries. I do love spring and summer with all the good fruit. Last week I made a pineapple, watermelon, grape salad that was to DIE for.

Hope your week is doing well. Tomorrow I will take the Explorer for it's first oil change. It keeps giving me a message that I should be getting close to doing this. We now have 4000 miles on the car and for the first oil change, that should be just about right.

Have a nice Thursday.

Love

Mary

Another long day. Chelsea woke me up at 4PM but I gave her lettuce and shut her out of the bedroom until the alarm went off at 6AM. I wanted to get up then because we had to have Dick to the Anti Coagulation Clinic by 9AM and there was a lot to do before we left.

Chelsea and I had a nice walk. We saw our lady with the cane this morning. Chelsea has been getting me up so early lately that we are not seeing any of our regulars.

His count was better this week. Still a bit low but better so we made a minor adjustment and went on our way. We go home at about 9:45AM, just in time to greet Josh from the Visiting Nurses bringing Dick his Wheel Chair. He went over everything with us and we made sure it would fit through the doors. It does. We have do do some jerry rigging to get him to his desk but it can be done and it is much more comfortable than on the walker.

After Josh left, I did some computer work and fixed lunch. Then we got Dick down for a nap and I had to head for Aurora for my Physical Therapy. This is my second session and I am doing my homework. So far, with the storms and all, I am still hurting a lot, though I do feel looser tonight and will let you know if there is any relief in the morning.

When I got home it as almost time for Dick's Physical Therapist from the Visiting Nurses to come. Sarah was wonderful. She helped us understand the wheelchair a lot, gave us some tips to help Dick get down the stairs to the garage floor AND put him through some exercises and gave him homework exercises.

She was our last appointment. It makes a long long day. Tomorrow is much better. I will shop in the morning. We decided that I will go to pick up breakfast at Mc Donalds so it will be like we are going out for our usual Wednesday breakfast. The only other appointment we have is with Mary Meschler, the Occupational Therapist at 1PM. We are really hoping that she can help us figure out how to make Dick's showers safer. We are concerned because of the numbness and the pain in the knee. I am so grateful for all the help we are getting. The Visiting Nurses are just wonderful.


Poor Chelsea is very confused. She has never had this many strangers come into her home before in her entire life. And she is old and "sot in her ways". She keeps looking at me like she is just asking that things go back to normal. She is very polite to the people that come. I am proud of her.

Hope you all are well. Saturday we do not have to go anywhere.

Love
Mary

The rain has stopped, at least temporarily. Good thing too, there is flooding in the county and some of the homes on June Grass and Cattail Lanes have had seepage into their basements because the grading around the homes was not done properly.

Chelsea and I had a nice walk. I did not get any mosquito bites. She decided to go through the park and back through the woods. I really had to make her run through the woods. Wasn't easy either, with all the rain, our path is almost overgrown. Saturday, if it is not raining, I am going to spray myself with insect spray and go over it to pull all the overgrowth. I had to fix it last spring too.

I went to Bible Study today. There were 7 of us there. The readings next week are nice and all fit nicely together. We are promised that if we keep the "covenant", meaning the 10 Commandments we are members of a royal priesthood. Sounds like a good deal to me. We also decided that when things are difficult, we are so happy to have Jesus to call on. How sad if people have no God to help. Where does their strength come from.

Then I stopped at Mom's. She looked lovely with a new permanent. She asked me to help her pick out something for the wedding that she I am taking her to on Friday night. It is my Cousin Brian Ayers son. We picked out a really pretty pantsuit. She will look lovely and be very comfortable in it. As we were in her bedroom next to her fishtank, I noticed baby fish. She had not seen them before and we don't know WHO the parents are. There were at least 9 of them. We do not know if they hatched or were live births. There are enough that if the big fish get hungry, some of the little things should be able to make it.

Got home and fixed lunch then tried to nap. The phone rang four times. One was the nurse who came to check Dick out at 4:30 this evening, one was a call for Celtic Women, one was they guy who is bringing the wheel chair tomorrow and the last was the therapist who is coming the give Dick physical therapy. Whew.

Suzi, Dick's niece, called tonight. She has been having some problems too. Notably, a vacation trailer she owned was destroyed in a tornado. Poor thing. That was her retreat. Hopefully something will come up that she can replace it.

Tonight Jim and Michelle and I went to present some requests and questions to the Tallgrass Condo Board. I requested a change to the bylaw that says one can only have one pet. That multiple cats, of a size, if kept inside , would be OK. It will be FOREVER, but will be brought up at the next general meeting.

Guess that is all. This has been a marathon day and tomorrow is JUST as bad. The people who are coming to help us are all just wonderful. We need to address the shower situation. Dick is just in so much pain and so unsteady that we worry.


Love

Mary

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest and actually as I had no specific deadlines it almost lived up to its name. I did stay in bed until 6AM and had a pretty good night's sleep too. Chelsea and I went for a nice walk. I made her stay out of the wooded areas because the mosquitoes are SO bad this year. As it was I got two bites before we got back home.

I went to 8AM Mass. Fr. Van Beeck talked about the shabby, motley group of men that Jesus selected for his apostles. He gave us a message for the week - Acceptance and appreciation. I need to hang on to those.

We got a call from Rachel, our assigned nurse, who told us that she was sending an associate tomorrow. She should be here between 4:30 and 6:00PM. It will be a little tight but will work. Michelle, Jim and I are going to the Tallgrass Condo Board meeting down the street at 7PM.

There has been rain and thunder all day. We lost our power at about 11AM for about an hour. Dick took a nap and I just puttered around and played some solitaire by candlelight. I did cut out some squares for quilting and baked a blueberry dessert during the afternoon.

We had fryout (in California we called it barbeque) for supper. I made brats and ribs. Also
my potato salad and pork and beans. When I fried out, I sat on the deck for quite a while. I sprayed the area with Listerine. I had read that will keep the mosquitoes away. I don't know for sure if that was the reason, but I did not get ONE bite while I was out there. So I will try that again. I also picked up some citrinella candles. We will see, because I REALLY want to spend time on that deck this summer.


Have a good week.

I intend to. We have seven health appointments between us this coming week. Sometimes I feel like I am on a merry go round.

Love

Mary