Chelsea tried to wake me up shortly after 5AM. She kept bouncing on Dick's side of the bed for quite a while but at about 5:30AM she finally came over to my side and managed to make eye contact so I got up and took her out for her walk. It was a strange morning. We walked for a while, then it started to rain, so I turned her back towards home.

It was a quiet morning. Dick had gone back to bed and slept until about 10AM. So we got started on his compressions then. I had a day mostly at home. My only outing was Mass at 4PM.

So I spent the day baking and getting my quilt pieces cut out. I baked a cheesecake and cleaned strawberries and peas for supper and baked some cookies to take to Rhine tomorrow.

On the way home from church I realized that Prairie Home Companion was starting, so Dick and I listened to that show for the first time in a long time. There was a time when we never missed that show. Perhaps that will happen again. It is a perfect time, now that I get home from Mass just as it comes on.

I heard a nice Turkish saying today. I think I need to paraphrase. "A cup of coffee shared, brings forty years of friendship." Perhaps that is why coffee shops have become so popular.

Tomorrow brings another rather quiet day except for a couple hours that I will spend at Rhine helping out at the Pig Roast/Lewis Shoot. It is supposed to be dry for the very first day in several so we can hope for a successful event.

Wish us luck

Love

Mary

Well, here we are at another Friday night. It was a very busy day and I am, as usual, tired.

Started off with a very nice walk, despite the mosquitoes, with Chelsea this morning. Fortunately we walked between the rain. It started much heavier about the time I had to go to PT but was light enough that I could "run between the drops."

PT went quite well. I must keep doing my home exercises as between Becky's work and them I AM feeling better. I went from there to the Blood Center with a side trip to the Bagel Place to pick up a couple of bagels and neat cream cheeses. I was still about 15 minutes early for donating blood and they were a half an hour behind so I spent a LOT of time there and was getting a bit nervous as I wanted to get home to Dick to see that he was OK and fix his lunch. I was OK because I get cookies and juice when I finish donating. My vitals were really good and my iron was at 43% which I guess is really good for a woman. We take pretty good care of ourselves here.

I was really drained when I got home. So we ate and then I put the sequential compression on Dick and laid down for a nap. I did get some sleep, but the phone rang and it was time to "turn Dick off" anyway, so I got up. About that time, the delivery guy from Aurora came with the new inflatable cushion for Dick's wheelchair. The first one had a leak.

I changed Dick's dressings and we hooked him up for another session on the compression machine. We are supposed to do three a day. We finished at about 3:30 just in time to settle things down as Jim and Michelle came over at 4PM. They are coming earlier and leaving earlier. Which is fine with us as I am a 9 O'Clock wonder. Anyway and I think Michelle is an 8 O'Clock wonder because she has to get up for work so early most days.

After I saw that Dick was settled in his chair, I loaded up the car and headed to Mom's. I had some vitamins and hearing aid batteries for her and it seemed like a good time to get them to her and have an extra little visit. She looked so cute tonight. Her hair was SO pretty. We had a nice visit and she gave me some leaf lettuce which we will enjoy tomorrow and a few kohlrabi plants for the garden. I will give a couple to Jim and Michelle too.

I went from her house to pick up Nancy Roehre and we drove out to Rhine Plymouth and shot some pistol. We were really quite pleased. We had not shot for a long time and we did not do too badly at all. My arm was not TOO sore though I could feel it. Then we went to Antoinette's for supper and a visit. Such a pleasant evening. Nancy graduated from high school with me. We cannot believe that it has been 50 years. At the end of this month we will be celebrating with our class. I DO see some of them, especially the girls, as we get together for lunch occasionally but many people I probably have not seen since our last reunion or maybe even further back. It will be fun.


Anyway. It it time to wind down and think of sleep. I remember Mother saying "Up the wooden hill to Four Corners." It took me quite some time to realize that the wooden hill was the stairs to the upstairs where our bedrooms were and Four Corners was our beds.

Sleep tight.

Mary

I got up at six this morning and walked Chelsea to get done in time to shower, hook Dick up to his sequential compression device for the FIRST hour and arrive at Aurora Plymouth by 8AM. Then at just before 8AM we got a call. The person who does the ultra sounds remembered that when she did my gall bladder a couple of months ago, she had also scanned my liver. She said my liver is full of cysts (which I think was a silly thing to say) and that she had passed that information on to Dr. Ghanju who said that it was not necessary for me to go through ANOTHER test. So, I was free for the morning.

I ate first. And made some coffee. I was fasting, you know, and was really glad to be done with that. Then I went to the bank and grocery shopping.

By the time I was done with that and put everything away I had just enough time to rest for about a half an hour before we got Dick ready to go to see Dr. Siddique in Sheboygan. That was successful, we think. Dr. Siddique is also concerned about the bad callous and has ordered a special kind of ultra sound for next Wednesday to see what the arteries in his legs are up to. He told us to continue with Dr. Moreno for the wound care and is also, as well as Dr. Moreno, not adverse to hyperbaric treatments. We will bring it up again to Dr. Moreno and find out if it is covered by Medicare, etc.

It was a beautiful day today. The temperatures were in the upper 60s and lower 70s and there was a pleasant breeze all day. I have buds all over my bean plants and the tomatoes are finally growing and starting to get some buds too. I must remember to fix sandwiches with fresh herbs like Joan did last night. With the fresh mozzarella and the fresh herbs those open faced sandwiches were absolutely WONDERFUL.

Tomorrow will be a much quieter day. I do want to go and check out the Farmers Market in Plymouth in the afternoon but the rest of the day I can stay home. I hope to work on the quilt and do a bit of straightening down in the den.

When they boys were young, we had all kinds of animals for pets. They were like I was growing up. At one point, we had a hamster that lived for all of his two years and more. We named him Spike. He was up in Bart's room. He would occasionally escape. When he did, I learned that if I waited til I got up in the morning, he would have worked his way downstairs and I would be able to catch him scurrying around the edge of the kitchen heading for a certain spot under the cupboards. I would take him upstairs until the next time.

One time, I had purchased a new box of food for him and it was sitting next to his cage. He picked that night to escape, but the next morning he was still in his cage. He was sacked out up in one of his little towers and every piece of that food was stored in every nook and cranny of his hamster cage. He must have worked his little buns off all night.

Have a nice Thursday. I will

Mary

Well, we had a busy day today. Chelsea almost drove me bananas this evening. Before I went to the CWI meeting she had me running her outside every time I turned around and since I have been home, less than an hour, she has begged to go out three times already. I can't take a chance of not taking her out because with her age and the "water pills" she takes she might really HAVE to go BUT I really do get worn out. It would be lovely to SIT for over half an hour without having to get up for something.

Anyway, we did start out the day with a very nice walk. She seemed a little tired though and actually sat down twice to just get her breath. They have torn out the sidewalk on Highland Avenue so we walked on a gravel path. But the temperatures were pleasant and it was quiet.

I had Physical Therapy at 9:45AM. That seems to be really helping. At least my neck and arm are much less sore. I took Dick's walker to Adams to tell Deanna that the left brake was not working. She offered to exchange it IF NEEDED, but suggested that I take it to the Bike Shop on Eastern Avenue. They apparently know just what to do. So I dropped by there on my way to get gas and Josh fixed it. He just adjusted the brake wire at both ends and sent me on my way. He did not even charge me for it which was really very kind. It is fine now and we don't have to worry about Dick falling on his "bumpers" as I used to say to the boys when they were little.

I made an appointment to see Dr. Siddique tomorrow. Hope we can resolve a few things.

Rachel, our Visiting Nurse, came at 1:00PM and gave Dick a good once over. She said that she DID feel a pulse in his left foot and Dr. Siddique's nurse said that Dr. Moreno has sent patients before that he said had no pulse but there was one. So that is hopeful but does not help with the healing of that sore.

Tonight was the CWI meeting. I told you that. Joan Kramer had us to her house. She is an amazing woman. She is a nurse, a teacher and an accredited Reflexologist. She had lovely open faced tea sandwiches and iced tea for snacks. I brought some soda bread which went well with it. But those sandwiches were wonderful. Marvelous mozzarella cheese topped with tomatoes or cucumber and fresh basil or dill. Just to DIE for.

We talked a bit then Joan explained the basics of reflexology to us and led us though a simple hand massage. We did each other. I think it is a wonderful natural healing solution and with her nursing background, she knows when a doctor and medicine are called for. She told us that she recently was treating a patient and found something very wrong in the breast area. She told the patient to see a doctor and it turned out that it was breast cancer and was treated and healed.

It was a great break for me.

Our next meeting is the bus trip to Irish Fest. If any of you want to join us, let me know. You need $25 for the trip and a can of food for the food drive and admission. We would leave Plymouth at 7:30AM and return home at about 6PM on Sunday August 17th. We have 12 seats remaining.

I was touched. Janet, Toni and Joan gave me a gift of a reflexology session with Joan. They say I need it. I am amazed constantly at the goodness of people. God is showing himself to me. Twice today. Josh at the Bicycle Shop and these three lovely women.

Pray for us tomorrow, we both have medical visits.

When Bret was little, (I may have told you this before) we were going through a really bad stretch. His father had broken his arm and a lot of other things were going on. I was hanging clothes out in the back yard and Bret was swinging on his swing set. As he was swinging he was crooning to me, "Don't worry, Mom. It will be OKAY. Don't worry. Everything will be ALL RIGHT!" It was the sweetest thing. He and I still go back to that when we are troubled. My neighbor, Marge Neff, was in her kitchen and heard him that day. She told me later that she heard and was just so delighted with him.

Have a nice day.

Take all the love you can

Mary

A very distressful morning and all discombuerated too. Chelsea tried to get me up at 5:08AM. I gave her some lettuce and shut her out of the bedroom. Then I almost overslept because I wanted to be up at 6 but slept til 6:09AM. (Boy, digital clocks take all the fun out of rounding time.)
We had a quick walk because I still had to shower before we left to get Dick to the Clinic by 8AM.

We did just fine and guess what. He had his blood coagulation checked and it is perfect again. 2.7. We just hope it will maintain. We will schedule his next test when we get all our other appointments figured out.

Next we headed up to see Dr. Moreno. Things are NOT good there. The callous on the left foot is worse again. He cannot detect a pulse in the left foot. We are waiting to hear from Dr. Siddique to get in and find out what has happened. Dr. Moreno said that sometimes, very rarely, stints can clog. We don't know. But in the meantime he can't wear the stockings because they aggrevate the callous AND constrict what circulation there is. We cannot wrap them because that constricts the circulation too. So what to do? He is back on the sequential pump, which we had to abandon for a bit when his legs were being wrapped in the ace bandages and Profor Wraps. Stay tuned for the continuing Saga and PRAY.

On the way home we dropped Mom's meds off to her. She was out in the back yard filling her bird feeder. Such a lady.

We got home and ATE. I am not good at all without regular meals and we ran out of time for breakfast so I was starved. It was almost 11AM so we had our lunch and then took naps. I didn't get moving again until almost 1:30PM.

I made a few phone calls and cut out some pieces for the quilted wallhanging that I am designing. That will keep me occupied. I am also trying to write every day. Got to keep my mind busy.

Tonight was the Rhine Plymouth Meeting. This Wednesday starts the Summer Trap League. I really want to shoot that but will ask Becky, the PT, if it will cause any problems with my arm and shoulder. Perhaps, Nancy and I could go out and shoot a little pistol if nothing else.

Thunder is rolling across the land and rain is pouring down. Chelsea is not to happy with her bathroom being that wet. A little bit is OK but this much upsets her. The advantage to her deafness is that she no longer hears the thunder. Of course, we kind of miss laughing at her. She used to pace around frantically then go and put her head under the bed. Just her head. She did not seem to realize that the rest of her body was exposed.

Be good and safe.

All my love

Mary

Sundays still feel strange to me now that I go to church on Saturday nights. One would think I could sleep late, wouldn't one. But NOOOO! Chelsea the wonder dog woke me up this morning at 20 to 6. Dick was sleeping and I saw no sense in letting her keep whimpering and waking him up so out we went for our morning walk.

When I got back, Dick was awake anyway. So we had our breakfast. Sunday breakfast. We had fried potatoes, bacon, eggs and toast. Nice. Then I took a shower and a nap. I hate to admit it but I think Dick is right. I really need more sleep.

This afternoon, I drove over to Mother's house. I was intending to bring her pills. Guess what. I brought the local papers and some food to share and forgot the pills. Tomorrow, Dick has doctor appointments in the morning, so I can't go to bible study but we will come back home through Sheboygan Falls and drop them off then.

We had a nice visit as usual. I brought her some of the spinach salad that I made for dinner last night. She commented that she had never grown spinach and really never bought spinach either. I don't recall her feeding it to us when we grew up either. I know that she likes the spinach casserole and I think she will like the salad too. Perhaps I have introduced her to a band new taste.

Well we are at the beginning of a brand new week. It is a relatively busy one for us. How about you?

I spent a good portion of the afternoon sitting out on the deck reading. I have discovered that as thick as the mosquitoes are in the grass and trees, they don't spend much time on the deck. I see and hear squirrels, rabbits and lots of birds as I sit out there. Did I ever tell you about the time Chelsea and I were walking around the house on Hunters Glen and I glanced over and saw a little baby bunny huddled up against the house. He wasn't over 4 inches long and his eyes were as big as his head with his little ears flat on his back. I reached over and stroked his little back with my finger. He was too petrified to move. Then I thought I had better move quickly as Chelsea, rotten hunter that she is had not seen or smelled him. BUT if she did notice, she could have hurt the little thing by sheer excitement and clumsiness. So I left him and we hurried on our walk.

But I got to pet a baby bunny. Isn't that neat.

Mary