It was snowing this morning when I got up and continued snowing for most of the morning albeit quite lightly. I got a couple of calls from CWI ladies wondering if we were still having our Christmas Tea. We did.

I had to pick up one of Chelsea's prescriptions this morning, then went over to see Dick for a bit. When I got home, I called Mary Schultse at the hotel and the four ladies from out of town came over here for a couple of hours. Rosemary and Gail stuffed the booklets that Chris Wolff put together for a Christmas gift for all our current members. It is a lovely book, a compilation of stories, poems and recipes by our members and others. We have extras for sale too. Mary and Maureen and I reviewed and worked on the new branch booklet that we are compiling to give to people who would like to start a branch like Plymouth/Sheboygan or Chicago.

I am the new president of the Celtic Women International as of January 1. The main thing that the president does is coordinate the monthly telephone conferences and write the agenda. My push this year is to try to get more local branches started and make the communication between us all as good as possible. I am turning over some of the things that I do for the local group to the others. We are pretty loosely put together also and it amounts to communication but is very important so we keep going. I have one volunteer but she is new and would like a backup.

Then at 1:30PM I went over to the Plymouth History Museum for the Third Annual Christmas Tea sponsored by the Plymouth History Museum, the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center AND the Sheboygan County Branch of Celtic Women International. The History Museum provides the place, the Celtic Women provide the food and the Research Center provides the music and publicity.

Despite the snow and the slippery streets, this year was a great success. We had a wonderful turnout. Would have been nice to have more, but we had lots of people turn out. Beth, Director of the Research Center, hired three musicians that play at the Stafford on Wednesday's and they were wonderful. All of the Sheboygan members (except for Kathy who lives in Kewaskum, kind of far and she called) were there. At least those that have joined the International Group. This tells me something. I think joining CWI as part of joining the branch makes a commitment. They are a great group of women and a wonderful support for each other.

Our next meeting will be music and literature. We want to share our favorite Celtic books, whether fiction or not.

After that was over, I came home to feed our girl and then went to have supper with Dick. I stayed with him until 7:00PM. Now it is about time to start getting ready for bed and am I ever tired. I woke up early this morning, can't even blame the dog and could not get back to sleep. To top that off, I didn't get a nap. To even more top THAT off, I was busy all day. Dick is concerned that I am doing too much again so I need to try to take it easy. But I need to do things that take me away. Otherwise I will burst.

Chelsea finally figured out how to come up the ramp. Bill had to lift her on it yesterday.

The next project is to figure out how to get the door on the bathroom rehung with the wraparound hinges. Then it will open OUT and not block the bathtub or take up valuable maneuvering room.

There was a bible published in England in 1631 that was called the Wicked Bible because an important line read "Thou shalt commit adultery." The printers forgot that all-important "not." They were fired.

Love

Mary

Today was a very eventful day.

Chelsea and I got up early, 6AM and took care of a few things around her. She got a very short walk, (it was 4degrees again so we did not go far.) I made the Guy Pie to feed to the "ramp crew". Then I went over to visit Dick for a bit before they were going to arrive.

Jeff, Randy, Shane and Georgina arrived at about 10AM with the lumber and everything they needed and proceeded to work on the ramp. I had turned on a heater in the garage so they did not freeze to death while working. It was still cool but working and dressed right it was doable.

Bobbie and Bill arrived at about noon. The guys had the platform all framed out already. The Chili was hot so they took a break shortly after that and ate. The chili turned out really good.

Then back to work and they got it all done by 4:30. It is beautiful. I am too tired tonight but will post a picture in the next couple of days. I am SO grateful to them for this. Jeff said they just want Dick to be able to come home as soon as possible.

This evening I met the Celtic Women, Gail, Rosemary, Mary and Maureen who came up from Milwaukee and Chicago to be able to attend our Christmas Tea tomorrow. We ate dinner at 52 Stafford. They were putting together a special memory book for the members. All paid members will bet one. I have seen the draft and it is really special. We hope to use it to encourage new members too.

Now I am home and exhausted. I just get worn out too easily these days and need to rest for tomorrow.

Chelsea is trying to encourage me to head for the bed also. The CWI ladies are coming over her in the morning at about 10 so that we can go through New Branch Guidelines and I can show them the "inventory" of CWI stuff I seem to have accumulated.

I came home to a phone call that Wells Fargo stopped two transactions that I made today because one of them had the expiration date wrong and tried to put it through 6 times which put a flag on the account. I am really discouraged - now I have to redo two Christmas presents. Ick!!!!! I am happy (I guess) that they are watching.

Tomorrow will be ALL good. Right!!!


Love

Mary

It barely broke single digits temperature wise today. When Chelsea woke me up at 5, it was 9 degrees and when I got up for good at 6AM it had dropped down to 8 degrees. Needless to say, we did not walk very far. Her poor little paws got pretty sore anyway, so she did not care to much, at least then.

I went over to spend the morning with Dick at 9AM. I was able to stay with him for all of his physical and occupational therapy. They work him hard. This is good though he does not always think so. The OT suggested that we get him a CD player and books on tape. You know, one of those little ones that he could wear on his belt or just carry with him. A good idea. Then the exercises might not be so boring.

I came home at noon, had lunch and took a nap. I finished decorating the tree today too. Just a little bit at a time. I am almost done. I made chili today for the guys. Jeff, Randy, Shane and Bill are coming tomorrow to put up the ramp for Dick. I need to feed them. I am making a Guy Pie in the morning too. They are so good to do this.

I had some errands to do this afternoon AND called Suzi who had left a massage last night. She is OK but needs to think of herself too. Hazel is up north near Teresa and is in the nursing home that Teresa works in. She likes it and we know that she is safe now. Apparently they are really kept busy and are WELL cared for.


Had to add minutes to Dick's phone. All of a sudden he only had 8 minutes left. Glad I caught that. Whew.

I took spaghetti sauce with noodles, garlic bread and salad to the Center and Dick and I ate together in his room. We like that. It is like a date for us.

When we were dating, it got to a point where we had seen EVERY movie that was showing and as we are not bar people, this left just Friday Fish Fries for dates.
One day I told him that he was welcome to come over for dinner but all Bart and I were having was Kraft Mac and Cheese with hot dogs cut up in it. He said that this was one of his favorite meals and that was a real beginning. It WAS and still IS one of his favorite meals. After that he started coming over for dinner more often and we started playing Cribbage. He had to teach me. I got pretty good after a while and we had fun.

Take care and have a good Friday.

Love

Mary

Today it snowed again, but not as bad as they predicted.

Chelsea and I took the best walk we have had in several days. After dawn, of course. The little "you know what" woke me up at 3:30 this morning. Don't know what her problem was, but I took her out to eliminate, gave her treats and went back to bed until 6AM.

It was a busy day. I left at about 7:30AM to go see Dick and bring him his clean shorts. They had already given him his weekly shower so he REALLY needed them. Now that he can shift around better, we can get them on him with little difficulty. I actually did better than the nurses, I think. Then I went grocery shopping. I got a donut for breakfast. Very decadent, I know, but I wanted one. So there. Jenna and Jennifer sent good vibes to Dick. They miss him.

I came home and put everything away, after filling the gas tank, relished in my donut and then headed over to City Hall for my pre court date. Atty. Ron Damp, the city attorney, was there reviewing the pretrial cases. I gathered that the idea is to see if an agreement can be reached ahead of time to avoid a trial. I was easy. Attorney Damp reduced my charge to one that carried less points and I was very grateful. I now have a charge of impeding traffic which only carries two points. Sounds fair to me. Did I tell you that the other day, I was at the very same intersection and now KNOW what happened.

I am looking both ways twice now because I am so cautious. Last week, I looked right, sat nothing. Looked left, saw nothing. Looked right again and there was a car emerging from the window frame. If I had moved after the FIRST look - Bango I could have done it again.

I mailed all the Christmas boxes on my way over to see Dick. He was doing PT so I stayed with him until he was done, then came home. Everything was pretty slippery so we decided that I should stay home today. It turned out that it was not nearly as bad as we expected but we decided that it does not hurt to be cautious.

I put another box of ornaments on the tree . It is shaping up.

Hello. My tooth feels MUCH better now. It still hurts a little bit BUT I can tell that the infection is gone as I feel alive again.

I picked up Mc Donald's Egg Mc Muffins for breakfast for Dick and me and we were all ready to leave for St. Luke's when Tim, from Custom Care, got to the Center at 8:30AM. The trip both ways was uneventful and easy. Very little traffic and the roads were in pretty good shape.

It was windy however and reminded me of a little even that happened to a friend of mine named Paul Jones. Paul was driving his big truck with a double trailer on the back carrying his jeep over a mountain ridge coming back from jeeping out west. The wind was horrendous and as he was coming around a curvy road the wind picked up the whole rig, truck-trailer and all and moved it right over into the adjacent lane. Scared the dickens out of him. Paul went on a trip to Baja in his jeep several years later and never came back. His wife asked some fellow jeepers to go down to see if they could find him. They went where he said he was going to be but no trace was ever found of him. Isn't that weird?

We were there for about 2 1/2 hours what with history taking and tests and ending with a consultation with a Dr. Simanonok who told us that with the tests done today, Dick is NOT a candidate for hyperbaric treatments. He has however ordered xrays and more blood tests to rule out a bone infection. IF there is a bone infection, that would change things. After he has the results of the tests, he and Dr. Moreno will consult. We will go see Dr. Moreno next, which is much easier as her is in Sheboygan.

The whole day was not bad but a bit of a disappointment.

When we got back at almost 2PM with no lunch as Tim had to pick someone up in Sheboygan AT 2PM, I zipped over to Mc Donald's again because Dick said he wanted a cheeseburger and fries. Mc Donald's may be fast food but it tastes good. Not something we will do often as Dick's sugar level shot up to 201.

Tomorrow is court, grocery shopping and mailing the Christmas packages UNLESS it snows terribly hard again which may happen and cancel everything.

Take care and be safe.

Love

Mary

Today turned out to be much more exciting than it started out.

I woke up this morning to snow. All of the local schools were closed, so it seemed wise to cancel the Bible Study for this week. I emailed those I could and called the others.

So I had a morning at home. I slept for almost two hours this morning. This tooth thing has just taken all the zap out of me. The dentist called at about 10 and said that they had an opening today if I wanted to come right in so I did. They said that I would not need a driver so I didn't call Bobbie who was going to come tomorrow when my appointment was originally scheduled.

It is done but that took even more zap out of me. I left there and came right home and went back to bed for two more hours. When the numbing wore off the tooth started hurting again, but Dr. Joe said that it probably would hurt some for a day or two. I took some Advil and eventually it eased up. I worry only because many years ago, I had a root canal and there was a hidden root there that took three visits to find and clean out. But Dr. Joe said that he was sure there were no surprises and that it looked good.

Tonight I went over to see Dick after dinner for about an hour. We miss each other, but know that I have to get my strength back now. Tomorrow will be a really busy day as we are going to Milwaukee, St. Luke's, for Dick's evaluation. It will be cold but is not supposed to be snowing. Today would have been impossible.

I am picking up breakfast from Mc Donald's for us tomorrow. We thought that would be fun. And we need all the fun we can get these days. We will have to have lunch somewhere too. Someway - Somehow.

I put some of the ornaments on the tree today. I am just doing one box at a time. Should be done by Christmas anyway. The nice thing about Christmas is that when it comes, whatever you have done will be enough. After all it is just supposed to be the Birth of Jesus and the peace and joy that He brings. I used to bake a birthday cake for Jesus when the kids were young and we would sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Just for a reminder.

Have a nice Tuesday and think of us.

Love

Mary

This will be a very short post. It was a very uneventful day.

This morning, Chelsea and I had a short walk right after dawn. Then I finished the outside decorations, dipped the buckeyes and took a nap. I went to see Dick shortly after lunch as it had started to show earlier. A really wet slippery snow and Dick did not want me out driving in it especially after dark.

I spent the afternoon napping and finishing the out of state packages and boxes. They are all ready to be mailed this week as soon as I can get to the post office.

I called both Bret and Bart today. I need to hear my boys voices sometimes. I miss them so much and they are so far away.

Barbara will be having surgery next week. So pray for her.

Outside looks like a fairy tale land of spun silk a white pristine covering over all. So clean and pure.

Now I am tired and will go to bed. Hope I can sleep clear through.


Love

Mary