I was able to stay home most of the day, until after 2PM anyway.

So, Chelsea and I were up at about 6AM as usual. We ate and breakfasted and then I took a nap. I slept for about an hour and a half. I can't seem to get enough naps these days.

After I woke up, I felt pretty good so I mixed and rolled the buckeyes. Everybody can breath a sigh of relief. I have to dip them in the chocolate yet but the hardest part is over. I plan on doing the dipping tomorrow.
That is the last thing I need to do to be able to finish boxes to be sent to the out of staters.

I had lunch at noon then took another nap. See. I told you. I just can't get enough.

When I woke up at about 1:30, I put the lights on the porch. Now I have to figure out how to set the timer. They did not light up tonight so I will have to check in the morning. I left at about 2 to do some shopping and to pick up lettuce at the Pig. They had heads of lettuce for .79. Since it has been as high at 1.99 and is Chelsea's favorite treat, I figured that I had better stock up and got two heads.

Went to see Dick next and we called Leslie and Bill, per previous arrangement. They are doing pretty well, though Bill is having some back problems. The girls were able to spend Thanksgiving together and Nora will be able to come home for Christmas.

Went to church at 4PM so now I can spend most of tomorrow holed up too. I will go to have one meal with Dick. We will decide tonight when I g0 back to bring him his shorts and shirts which are as we speak, in the washing machine. We need to find some shorts that work besides the three pair that we have.

Chelsea will be happy. I will take her with me as I will not stay long. She will be beside herself.

The following was part of a much longer email. I felt it was worth sharing.

"An Angel says, 'Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn't happen, you have worried in vain. Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice."

That is truly the hardest part. Worrying comes quite easily to me.

WE are supposed to be getting snow and quite a bit of it tonight or maybe tomorrow. I am so grateful for cars and not having to go to work any more. When I had my first job at Citizens Bank of Sheboygan in downtown Sheboygan Falls, I did not drive and had to walk there come rain or snow or sleet because I did not have a driver's license. I did not get my license until I was about 20 years old. I had to take the test three time. The first time, was a disaster. My boyfriend at the time let me use his car. The examiner told me to parallel park. A big mistake, I had never done it before. I proceeded to scrape the side of the car I was parallelling too. The second time was bad but at least no accident occurred. The third time, I took lessons and had Time take me out to practice a lot.

It was embarrassing when the two examiners were arguing about who's turn it was to take me out. Finally one took a deep breath and out we went. I was Perfect. Even to the parallel parking test. There was just enough space. I remembered everything that my teacher had taught me and slid right in there. I passed the test to the amazement of my examiner but have never parallel parked again.

Love

Mary

What a night and what a day.

I went to bed last night at about 8:00PM. Slept really good until about 11Pm. Then Chelsea woke me up because she was sick. So. I cleaned up after her and took her out just in case she needed to either be sick some more or go potty. Too much information? Sorry.

Then she woke me up again at 4AM for her usual trip outside. That worked OK though. I let her go out and then went back to bed until 6AM. Then I was ready to get up. We showered and walked and fed her. Richard and Brenda spent the night. They were not up at 8AM so I fixed a fruit cup and my breakfast and ate. I was just finishing up when they awoke so we had a nice visit while they had their breakfasts.

I left a little after 9 to stop off to see Dick before going to Mom's to help butcher the deer. Bobbie met me there and we had to come back here to pick up the meat slicer so that the steak could be cut more easily. It was a long session because there were four deer that needed to be butchered. A LOT of meat. It was good to see Lee and Cory Carpenter and Jason Karls. We only see them once a year. The Carpenter boy's dad Keith came by too. Always too see him. His wife Shirley, usually walks Mother home from church on Sundays. What a lovely lady she is.

Mom had her physical today. Jeff took her. Dr. Hancock said that she is in very good health. All of her complaints can be attributed to her age.

Shane is here in Wisconsin too with his girlfriend Georgina. She is lovely. Shane is planning on making Wisconsin his home again. It will be nice to have him back in the area.

Jessie, Randy's daughter, and the other lady hunter in our midst, (if you remember, a few years ago she got her first deer. So she is a better hunter that I am.) also helped with the butchering. Can you imagine how long it would have taken without all the help. Dick was a bit upset with me because he did not want me to work that hard. He wants me to stay home tomorrow and rest. I will do that but will go to see him sometime around going to afternoon Mass.

Bobbie and I were so delighted. They gave us a whole share to split because we worked so hard. As neither of us hunted this year, we didn't expect more that a package or two.

I had supper in the dining room at the Center with Dick tonight. It was a turkey Croissant and potato soup with strawberry shortcake for dessert. We enjoy that time together. The residents were happy tonight. Lots of joking and laughter going on. Thanksgiving must have been good for them.

I will be going to bed at exactly 9PM tonight. Not only am I very tired BUT Chelsea is really pestering me trying to get me to go to bed right NOW.

Be warm and safe as November goes away and December comes in. Can you believe that Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent? I will put up my Advent Envelope hanging. I showed you that didn't I? I need to pick up some candy canes for the pockets. Maybe not quite so many as I always had Jim to eat them before and since he and Michelle are moving to Oshkosh in the middle of December, he won't be here to eat them all. But I will have to have some for him.

Take care.


All my love

Mary

Just think. Tomorrow will be Thanksgiving already. I am looking forward to it as Richard and Brenda will be here along with Bobbie and Bill and Jim and Michelle.

Today was rather uncomfortable. My tooth hurt most of the day, not bad but just enough to make me unsettled. I stayed with Dick this morning when he was doing his therapy, then came home for lunch here. I went to Rocky Knoll at about 2PM to sit in on the Amputation Support Group which meets once a month. That was nice. There were three amputees and two spouses besides me. Nice and intimate. I know that they will be a good resource. Scott had his right arm amputated and took it off because his stump was cold. He just slings it over his shoulder if he has to take it out. Quite a sight.

I came home after the meeting to feed Chelsea and give her her meds. Then packed up a supper for myself and went off to the Center. Dick and I had supper in the dining room. That was fun. There was a lot of activity and conversation which makes the meal pleasant.


It is almost time for me to go to bed. I will take my last pennicilon and a pain pill and hope to sleep all night tonight. Last night was not too good.

Here is a Thanksgiving story for you that I received by email from a friend. Enjoy


A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad
attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth
was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change
the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft
music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's
vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled
back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John,
in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the
freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then
suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.


Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly open the door to the
freezer, the parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and
said, "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions.
I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully
intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."


John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude.

As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in
his behavior, the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love and Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. Now to pray for health.

Love

Mary

Dick and I had a busy morning. I got over to the Center at about 9AM. He went down for therapy at about 9:30. Boy were they hopping down there. Lori had four residents in a circle doing leg lifts like a marching band and then playing catch with a balloon for about a half an hour. Kerry had three residents, including Dick that she was putting through their paces. Dick got all done with his Occupational Therapy which takes almost an hour before our appointment got here.

I had called the Aging and Disability Resource Center and a Kathy Lee came out to answer our questions along with Carrie, the social worker at the Center. We learned a bit form her. She gave us lists of lots of resources and some other transportation guidelines. Until we have our evaluation next Tuesday, we are, however, in a kind of limbo situation. I told Carrie and Dick at this meeting that if the Hyperbaric does not work we are going to try the honey treatment even if Dr. Moreno doesn't have any faith in it. As a matter of fact, I intend to call UW Eau Claire for some more information in any case.

This afternoon, I ran some errands, got a haircut and took a nap. Boy was I ever tired. Last night was somewhat interrupted. I kept waking up. Morning came much too soon, announced by a furry little beast. We are only going out long enough to accomplish the necessities at 5AM. But I take her for a little walk after breakfast and when the sun comes out. My tooth is still giving me trouble, so we don't go TOO far but she gets some of her energy out of her system and is more than ready to sleep when I leave.

Another Hugging thing:

HUGGING IS HEALTHY

It relieves tension
Combats Depression
Reduces stress
Improves Blood circulation
It has no unpleasant side effects.

Love

Mary

Today was a much better day. I woke up with a very tender tooth but as the day has progressed, the pain has ebbed.

It was snowing this morning when Chelsea woke me up at 5AM. She, of course, was delighted. I let her do her duty, then went back to bed until 6 or so. After we both ate and I showered, we DID go out for a short walk, but it was way too slippery to go too far. We saw a couple of the neighbors as I left for Bible Study. Our neighbor Dick is going to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with his son. Chelsea and I will miss seeing him and his dog, Katrina on our morning walks.

Bible Study was interesting, as always. The first reading from Isaiah was very confusing. We use different bible translations, and the reading skipped a couple of verses. To top it off the different translations had numbered the verses differently. That was really a kick. We did the best we could and are all waiting to see how it sounds on Sunday. Sunday will be the beginning of the new church year, the first Sunday of Advent. All this year we have had the gospels from Matthew, Now we are hearing from Mark and were warned that we have to be ready as we don't know when the Lord will come. Tom Keys was funny. He said that was driving along and saw a bumper sticker that said, "Drive Carefully, In case of the Rapture, this car will be empty." He said he kind of resented it. How do they know that his car won't be empty too.

Mom and I had a nice and successful day. We went out to Gibbsville to do our Christmas cheese shopping and then over to the Parkview Restaurant for lunch. It made a nice long visit. The snow had cleared up just fine so we did not have to worry about her being in a slippery situation and it was a pretty drive with all the trees covered with their marshmallow coating.

When I got home, I called the dentist. He is suggesting that I have a root canal on that sore tooth so we scheduled that for next Tuesday at 4:30PM.

Then I took a nap. I slept for about an hour and a half. I got to the Center to visit with Dick FINALLY at about 4PM. I brought fried rice and teriaki steak for our supper. A couple of the peanut butter cookies I baked made a fine dessert.

My friend Joe from Bible Study gave us some nice prayer cards and one on hugging that I will share with you.

Hugging - The perfect Cure For Whatever Ails You

No movable parts
No batteries to wear out
No periodic checkups
Low energy consumption
High energy yield
Inflation-proof
No monthly payments
No insurance requirements
Theft-proof
Non-taxable
Non-polluting
And, of course, fully returnable.

Have a great day and lots of hugs to you.

Mary

Another day with a toothache. It was somewhat better most of the day but this evening it is bothering me. I took another Tylenol with Codeine. I am not going anywhere and if I get sleepy I will just go to bed. So far that does not kill the pain, but I don't care as much about it. I can take another one at about 9PM just before I settle down for the night.

I took two naps today. Hope that will catch me up a bit. I went over to the Center at about 11:30AM and had dinner with Dick. We ate in the dining room with Ed and Clayt. They served Swiss steak with mashed potatoes, a vegetable casserole AND cherry pie. I managed to eat with only one tooth spasm. Then I stayed until about 1PM when it was time to come home and rest again.

Tomorrow is not TOO busy. I have bible study and then Mother and I are going to go out for lunch and then on to Gibbsville to get our Christmas Cheese boxes. That will be fun. .

So it was a quiet day. I made a batch of peanut butter cookies. I told the Plymouth History Museum that I would bring some over on Tuesday. I also wrapped all of the Christmas presents that we have purchased so far. I am trying to keep up because the way things are happening these days, I don't want to be rushing around at the last minute AND I have to get the boxes to our out of staters mailed by mid next week.

I remember one time when Bart was just little, maybe 6 or 7 years old. He got an ear ache and was in a lot of pain. I dosed him up with Triaminic and tucked him in bed. I stayed with him because he was so miserable. He was so dramatic. He finally started pounding the pillow and wailed "Why is God punishing me like this?"

Poor little guy. I think I know how he feels.

Love

Mary