Today was supposed to be hot and humid. It was rather warm when Chelsea and I took our walk this morning. (She came to get me at about 5AM but I gave her some lettuce and shut the door and then I did not hear from her until Dick woke me up a bit after 6:30AM.) So we got a late start. Not a bad deal when we did not have any appointments today.

I did have to be at the Plymouth Armory to pick up my Share Delivery. We started taking Share last month. It is such an easy way to save on groceries. One gets at least $40 worth of groceries for $18 plus a small delivery fee. This month we got Chicken drumsticks, Pork tenderloin, Meatballs, fresh veggies and fruits and other stuff that I just can't remember. We used to do this several years ago when my friend Jim Fleming had a Share distribution site established in Sheboygan Falls. I can't really remember why we stopped. But with the price of groceries AND gas going up steadily, I think we need to conserve where we can.

While I was out, I picked up some cards for Mother, some wood screws that SHOULD fix the door downstairs AND went to the bank.

The rest of the day was rather quiet until 3:30 when I got ready for church at 4:00. It started to POUR just before I left, but the dear Lord eased up on the torrent while I was making my way from my car to the church. Then we could hear more thunder and lightening and more torrents of rain while the service was going on. But it had passed over before we left church so the Lord was looking out for us. This week we got a sermon. I am not sure exactly what happened, but the lector did not read the first and second readings that were scheduled for today. It was very confusing. Fr. Van Beeck did not refer to the readings in his sermon but chose to speak about the role of Peter and Paul as unlikely people to have managed to get the Church strongly based enough to still be here after 2000 year. He mentioned that perhaps we are unlikely people to be ensuring that it continue for the next 2000 years.

I fixed two potato salads today. The Kunert potato salad and My potato salad. I am sending the recipes in to the Emeril Potato Salad contest on GMA. I made them and then took a picture but now I find I don't know how to get the picture moved from Picasa to the entry form. Isn't that a dilemma?

We had chicken, potato salad and broccoli for dinner with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Do Kings eat better? I think not.

Love

Mary

Another eventful day. I got up rather early. Don't know why except that my arm hurt and it seemed silly to stay in bed when Chelsea came and hinted that she was ready to go outside. Sometimes I just give her some lettuce and shut her out of the bedroom.

We had a nice walk until we got too close to the trees. The mosquitoes were like the legendary herds of buffalo that used to blanket the prairies. It is impossible to stay away from them. So I made her hurry through the woods and we ran into the house.

I went over to feed Boots after I fed Chelsea. He is really easy to take care of in the morning because Jim and Michelle don't spend much time with him in the morning anyway.

We had to be at the Sheboygan Clinic at 11:00 to have Dick's blood tested at the anti coagulation clinic. His blood count is now 2. This is perfect. But guess what. Before we left we received a call from Dr. Moreno's nurse. The blood test showed that he has a slight infection so he is now back on antibiotics and this might throw the count off again. After we left the Clinic we went to the hospital but Dr. Siddiquie put off his procedure for three weeks so that we can get the infection under control.

It was good to get home early. We did the second sequential compression treatment and took naps. Then I spent a lot of time while Dick slept getting information on cushions for the wheelchair, ramps and confirming appointments for next week.

We had ordered desk lamps and they were on the porch like a magic gift. I put them together and on the desks as a surprise for Dick while he was sleeping. They are really nice. Much better than the floor lamp and ceiling lights.

At 5PM Jim and Michelle arrived and I went over to the Herman's. Kate and I drove over to the Depot and picked up a fish dinner for Dick and delivered it. Kate and Jim and Michelle got to meet each other. Dick was delighted with the fish dinner. The Depot does a great job.

After the delivery, Kate and I went back to her place where her son Ron Jr. and his wife and two boys had arrived. They are fun. The boys are handsome and witty. We all walked back to the Depot for a wonderful meal. The mosquitoes were just as thick on Collins Street as they were in Lion's park. I ran into Dennis and Dianne Gatzke dining with Jim and Gail Kapellan. Hadn't seen Dianne in SUCH a long time. We worked together at United Savings and Loan 24 years ago. A great couple.

After dinner, everybody had some form of fish, except for little Riley who had corn dogs, we walked back up the street to the Herman's. We visited for a while and then I went home. They showered me with fresh strawberries and jars of canned pears, tomatoes and pickles.

It was an altogether delightful evening. Kate and Ron are good to me and I love their family. It is such a pleasure to come home after a break to a sparkling home too. Jim and Michelle work very hard and really polish things up for us.

I talked to my brother George today. He is at Mom's. He and Betsy are here for her nephew's wedding this weekend. I will be able to spend some time with him on Monday after Bible Study.

Glad the day is winding down. I am tired and ready to sleep.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Love
Mary

A very stressful day. We had to be at Dr. Moreno's office at 9AM. He checked the open callouses and the one on his right food is MUCH worse. We have new medicine, had to get a blood test and Xray. We also are not going to be putting on the support stockings because they seem to be contributing to the problem by putting bad pressure on that callous.

We are quite upset but have to just keep moving. We received the sequential compression sleeves yesterday which should help keep the swelling in the legs down.

We left Dr. Moreno's and hurried to Plymouth Aurora for his xrays and blood test and my physical therapy. We got done with everything at about 11:30 so decided to go to Chester's for lunch. Everybody raves about their food. We ordered cheeseburgers and fries and brought them home. The fries were OK but the burgers WERE great.

Then we both napped. We were exhausted.

When I got up I took care of registering the sequential compression sleeves, baked some corn muffins and caught up on my emails and that kind of thing.

When Dick got up we put the sleeves on his legs. We are supposed to do it three times a day for an hour each time. Today we just did it once. This will keep us busy - for sure.

This evening after dinner, I went over and fed and watered Boots, the cat, for Jim and Michelle. They volunteered to work for the opening of Summerfest and decided to stay in Milwaukee as they will be up late and Michelle has to work in the morning.

Got nice letter from Fr. Mike today. He was thanking us for the donation that I gave him on Tuesday. It was a nice summary of the current status of his Sarnelli House. Here is a paragraph from the letter.

"We blessed the new two-story' House of Hope' nursery before I came home. It is big, airy, with places to play and much more lawn space than we had before. It has a modern kitchen. It also has a wading pool. The kids play nude, and the first trip into the pool turned out to be a disaster, when a 2-year-old fat little oar named Kane took a huge dump in the pool, sending all the wee ones screaming shoving in their rush to get out. Mis Don Rak is demanding that he be banned from the pool for life!"

I love his letters. He must really love those little people a lot. I asked him if he was ever going to retire and he said. "What would I do." He will stay there I am sure until he is gone. You can check the website at www.sarnelliorphanage.org. Read his brother Jack Shea's letter. It is great.

Have a nice Friday.

Love

Mary

Today was the day for my CTScan. It was not hard but it still wore me out.

I got up at my usual time and walked the girl. Except for mosquitoes it was a lovely walk. We did not meet a single soul EXCEPT as we walked down June Grass, that scary dog Molly suddenly appeared from under an opening garage door. So Chelsea and I turned around and went back up the street. She may be alright but I don't like that she is off her leash and comes galumping down the street right at Chelsea who is SO much littler.

Since I couldn't eat or drink anything after 5AM, I then did the grocery shopping. Got that all done and everything put away in plenty of time to get over to Aurora for the test. It is a weird test. You have to drink two bottles of Crystal Lite that have been laced with iodine. You have to spend an entire hour drinking them so your whole system gets coated with the stuff. Then the technician took me into the room with the big machine that looks like a bagel. I had to lay on my back, she hooked up an IV with more iodine and then I was passed through the "bagel" four times. A voice from the machine tells you when to take in a breath and hold it and when you can breath again. Very simple.

But when I got home I was starved and also exhausted. So I fixed lunch for Dick and me and then lay down for a nap. I slept about an hour when the doorbell rang. It was Mary Meshler, the Occupational Therapist. She is VERY pleased with the progress we have made and will not have to come again unless there are changes. I agree, the things she was assigned to help us with are pretty much solved and we can call if we have questions.

I spent the afternoon getting "ducks in a row" for the Sheboygan CWI trip to Irishfest. I have to forward the ads to the church papers to fill a few seats but have chartered the bus and have almost half of it committed to. We are going on Sunday August 17th if you are interested. It will cost $25 plus a can of food for the Hunger Task Force.

Now I am going to dip you hands into my pariffin dip machine so that maybe my sore finger joints will feel better.

We also got a great UPS delivery. The sequential compression pump for his legs. Tomorrow I have to fill out all the papers and we need to determine how and how often to use it. I am just hoping that it will reduce the swelling in his right leg.

Take care.

Mary

This was a wonderful day.

Chelsea TRIED to get me up at 10 to 5. I staggered out to the kitchen, gave her some lettuce and staggered back to bed until 6. We had a fine walk. It was a pleasant temperature. We saw several bunnies and lots of birds. I saw house finches and those lovely yellow finches and the usual robins and red winged blackbirds. She is so perky in the morning that it is rather startling because she sleeps so much of the rest of the day.

I had a physical therapy session at 8:15 which was good because my arm was SO sore. She did relieve it a LOT. And I have anew exercise to do.

Then Dick and I drove into Sheboygan to have Dick's blood tested. We were quite shocked that his count had jumped from 1.7 to 3.7 in two weeks. We don't know why. It is supposed to be between 2 and 3. Oh for the early days when he went for well over a year right where he was supposed to be. So they adjusted the meds and we will retest on Friday just before he has his procedure with Dr. Siddique. Dr. Siddique likes it low so Dick doesn't bleed so much.

Then for the fun part of the day. I drove over to Mother's at noon and met the people that I mentioned yesterday and we went downtown to The Other Place for lunch. It was so great. Fr. Mike gave us all presents. He gave me a beautiful silk tie (I know that is for Dick but he doesn't wear ties, so I will figure out a way to wear it myself. ) He also gave me a bead bracelet made by his kids and a lovely silver and red stone dragon ring. We spend a nice lunch finding out about how things are going in his world.

He is so good about describing things. He said his girls don't understand why he is buying rice fields and having them planted and plowed by the shared efforts of all the kids. The girls tell him that he really could just go down the road and BUY rice. But the planting they do feeds the whole group for 6 to 8 months and that is a fantastic savings. I told him that I understood how the girls feel and Mother delighted in telling him what a poor "farmer's daughter" I was. Dad always gave each of us kids a row to weed and I always managed to be "sick" when it was time to weed it.

Next year he said he would bring babies. I told him that maybe that could replace the other gifts. He said that the little girl who came to them at about 30 pounds and 12 years old is still hanging in there and finally gaining a bit of weight. She had had a really rough time, but he never gives up on them. He always tries to keep kids with family if they have any that can take care of them but will not give teenage girls back to families who suddenly appear and want them. Obvious reasons. Once they are in his facility it is home as long as they need it.

So a delightful day. Mike said that he WILL be able to say the Mass next year at St. Michael's in August. His scheduled trip home will be later in the summer.

Jim and Michelle stopped by tonight and hooked up the sound, the printer and the backup on the computer so we are all set again. Now it is a matter of getting things put back and rearranging the peripherals.

Tomorrow I have my CTScan. I cannot eat or drink after 5AM so I figured I would get up early, walk the dog, shower and get the grocery shopping done so I won't be thinking about eating and drinking. If I keep busy it will go fast.

For some reason today I was thinking of Uncle John and Aunt Ruth from my previous marriage. We were talking about odd couples and I remembered them. They were married for many many years but there were at least two incidents where they got mad and wouldn't speak to each other. This is not too unusual. However, John and Ruth did not talk to each other for years. I believe their record was 5 years. Their kids were old enough to be furious with them.

Til tomorrow.




Mary

Well, it is almost 9PM and I am READY for a good night's sleep. Got up at 5:30AM because I had to be ready at 7:30AM as Time Warner was scheduled to arrive between 7:30 and 9AM. The technician arrive at about 8:30AM. Not too bad. He was really nice. When I told him where the cable jack was and that we did not think it was hot, he said that he would test it first and if it was hot he would just go away. It is hot and he said there is a good signal too. Since that was all he had to do, he did not charge us either. What a man. I was delighted.

I even got to bible study on time. We had a nice group discussion and went on our way. I stopped at Mother's next. Then home again so I would be there by noon to fix lunch and to take the call when Rachel, the nurse, called to set the time she would be coming. She called just at noon when Dick was thinking of lying down. Since she was coming at 1PM, he just stayed up. She checked his wounds and vitals. Things are looking better and we set another appointment up with her for next Monday aftenoon.

At shortly after 2PM the people from R &R Moving arrived and within an hour, they had moved all the furniture that we needed moved. They also brought in the heavier pieces of computer equipment for me. There is still a LOT of work to do. It is like when you empty your closet to clean it out and find out that you cannot get everything back in. I think items multiply when they hit the air.

Jeff stopped by while the moving people were here and looked at the area we need a wheelchair ramp. We decided that it would be best to buy one. He could build one but it would be permanent and would end up taking too much of the garage. He said that he will go with me to West Bend to look at them. I would like advice.

Now, I am going to tell you something that I am REALLY proud of. I - all by myself - moved the computers into their new spot on the desks in the living room AND HOOKED THEM UP. I first got them fired up, then went in and got the cable, attached it and reestablished our connection with Time Warner. And it WORKS. Jim and Michelle are going to come and help finish. I ran out of places to plug things in and still have the printer, the backup and the speakers to go. I could probably figure it out but Jim and Michelle are SO much better at that kind of stuff.

Anyway, the living room really looks nice. The next project after we get the final touches done will be to clean and fix up the old office into a sitting room. That will be pleasant. I also think that I need a bookcase or tape/DVD case. I think I will go through everything and perhaps get rid of some.

I went over to Kate's at about 4:00PM to join her and the CWI board on a telephone conference. We took about an hour and covered what was necessary. I hope to be able to go the Chicago in mid September for the annual meeting, especially since I will be taking over as president about then.

Michelle called tonight to be sure that we were indeed OK until tomorrow. Very kind. She also told us that Barbara, the kid's mother, will be coming home in a couple of days from the hospital. They are not sure of the prognosis, but she will be able to be home. Pray for her. Also, Michelle is having a bit of problem with the foot that has given her problems before. Pray for her too.

Bret called tonight. It is always so good to hear his voice. He is doing very well. He says he will be able to come and visit next year. He is very close to solvent and is being quite cautious and practical before he commits to any travel, except for going to his place at the river. He would LOVE to live there. Maybe some day.

Tomorrow we have two appointments in the morning, then I will be joining Mother, Uncle Pat and Aunt Joan, Uncle Bob and Aunt Kathleen and Fr. Mike Shea for lunch at noon. That will be all though. Good thing because I am tired.


Take care and be happy

Mary

We are having thunder storms with rain passing quickly through our part of the country. There was even a bit of pea sized hail bouncing around on the deck. Poor Chelsea chose to go out for a bathroom break during the worst of it. I tried to tell her it was not so pleasant but her needs were real. I stayed in the garage and she ran over beside the house to do her business.

With no Mass this morning, it seemed like a very odd Sunday to me. I have been clearing desks and trying to mark wires for the furniture and computer move which will both occur tomorrow. I did take an almost two hour nap which I must have really needed badly. I did have a rather difficult night last night. My arm started hurting so badly that I got up and did some stretches and some of the exercises that Becky gave me to try to loosen it up. Not too successful, which is why the nap was so welcome.

I do not like spiders. I was reminded by a segment on America's Funniest Home Videos. The episode showed a man crawling under a house and having a spider jump on him. Dick says spiders don't jump but that does not make sense. Dad used to try to tell me the same thing. Dad also tried to convince me that spiders are our friends. I know that they eat other insects BUT they are still icky and ugly. And there is not way you will ever convince me that a creature with 8 legs cannot jump.

Tomorrow will be triple busy with the big rearranging adventure. Poor Chelsea with have even more people coming in and out of her house. She is really getting bummed.

Have a good week.

Love

Mary