I think it was a very successful Saturday.

I got two naps. I only had to go out twice. Once to pick up medications for both Dick and Chelsea and once to Mass. Tomorrow I should not have to leave at all. That will be a minor miracle and much appreciated.

Today was bath day which takes quite a hunk of the morning and it made a lot of washing to be done. I am down to two loads now. Of course, washing is never done. We just keep dirtying things.

Last night I was watching a little bit of the Dean Martin Story and when they showed the Rat Pack. It reminded me that years ago on what I think was my first trip to Las Vegas, my ex and another couple went for a weekend, we saw Sammy Davis Jr. performing at one of the casinos. That little funny looking little man had more talent in his little finger than anybody. He sang, he danced and believe it or not he was an expert at doing quick draw and demonstrated that too. I loved the show and most everything else that I ever saw him in.

I am making chili as we speak. I intended to do it earlier in the day but was much too busy. It really smells good. I figure it can cool down tonight and be reheated tomorrow for maximum flavor. I am using half hamburger and half venison. The flavor of the venison is SO good in chili. I use my mother in law, Lily 's recipe. Oops. I just remembered that I usually put chorizo in my chili and I don't have any. Well, for many years, I made it without because I couldn't find it. I must remember to pick some up the next time I go past Woodlake. They do have it and it is very good.

I think I will make a nice cheesy garlic bread to have with it tomorrow.

It is hard to believe that tomorrow will be the first of March already. A week from tomorrow I will be going to an Irish play in Fond du Lac and a week and two days after that will be St. Patrick's Day. Time to decorate. I bought a shamrock shaped cake pan. I will have to make a shamrock shaped cake for the weekend before.

Maybe I will get a corned beef this year. I haven't the past couple of years because it is such a big meal, but I can share. Does anybody want to share?

Oscar has taken to sleeping on the couch during the day. Roxie is on the desk, unless I am napping on the couch. Then Oscar stays away and she sleeps with me.

Have a nice Sunday. I am getting really tired and better stop now.

Love

Mary

Another very good day. We had to be at the Plymouth Center Therapy at 9:30AM. Andrea from Wisconsin Prosthetics was there to measure Dick's foot for the shoe. The premade shoe WILL work with the adaptations that Andrea has to make. As I understand, she will be building an ankle brace onto it and then making an insert to provide the perfect fit. With any luck at all she will have the shoe ready in two weeks. Then he can start walking. Yippee!!!!

You will have to wait to see a picture of the doll that I am making. I am not quite done with it after all. The day got just too busy.

This morning I had to make a second dessert to take to St. John's this afternoon to be served at their fish fry. I made a Cherry Dream Pie, a recipe that my wonderful (I would say sweet, but Lil was not sweet. ) mother in law used to make. It is truely delicious. A bit putzy as you have to make it in three stages but it is easy too.

So at about 3:30PM I took the carrot cake and the Cherry Dream Pie over to church and picked up a fish fry dinner for Dick. I did not eat dinner at home tonight. My friend Toni had invited me to a Tastefully Simple Party.

After I saw that Dick was fed and fed the critters. Nancy Roehre and I met out at Rhine to shoot pistol league at 5PM. Nancy had her grandson, Jack, with her. Jack looked about 9 or 10 and enjoyed watching us "older" ladies shooting our guns. She and Jack left right after we were done so I visited for about an hour with the guys and then went over to Toni's house.

I got there a bit early so I watched Toni and Theresa set everything up for the feeding frenzy that takes place at these parties. We sampled several dips, (Onion, Garlic, Cheese), a beer bread, a soup, a cheese ball, a cake and various chips and crackers. Never Never eat before you go to one of these. I knew that.

I got to meet Toni's new dog, a Shih-tzu, named Roxie. She is still a puppy. John was adamant that he did not want a dog and that Toni would be totally responsible. I wish you could see him now. That little creature has just wrapped him around her little paw. She is a sweety. Toni put her downstairs in her cage for a little while but she cried. So I asked if she really had to stay there. When Toni brought her up she just curled up on my feet and went to sleep. I had a good time anyway.

This weekend will be very quiet. I need to pick up some prescriptions at Walgreens and I also will go to Mass but the rest of the time in ours to just be at home. I want to finish the doll, I have some cleaning to catch up on AND I want to read.

I have a very warm kitty sitting on my lap and purring her heart out as I do this. At least she is not sitting in front of the screen. When we lived at Hunters Glen, Oscar was the one who spent most of his time on my desk. Here it is Roxie. However, Oscar is my cuddler at night. He always comes to be my little friend when I go to bed at night. I am SO glad that they are back with me. I think they are too though I know they loved being in their foster home. Maybe they believed me when I told them that they would be coming back to me.


Love

Mary

Today started off on a very pleasant note. I got up at a bit after 6, took care of feeding the critters and putting out the pills. Then Chelsea and I went for a nice long walk. No deer today but we did see and hear the cardinal and I heard the phoebe singing in the early morning.

We were busy all morning getting Dick bathed, the pad on his foot changed. We had a very good breakfast too. Fried potato, egg, spam and toast. I vacuumed the cat's room and the hall while Dick napped. (He sleeps well to the sound of the vacuum.) I also made a carrot cake for the fish fry tomorrow at St. John's. I will be making Lily's Cherry Dream Pie tomorrow as I said I would make two desserts. I kept two scoops of the carrot cake out and baked cupcakes. BOY are they good. We had them for dessert tonight.

We had rice and meatballs for lunch. Then Dick went to therapy at 1:30PM. That went very well. We went into an apartment area of the Center and Dick practiced standing up in front of a sink. We are going to work on that in the kitchen this weekend. He is getting more and more independent and able to do for himself every day.

When we got home, I found a message from Wisconsin Prosthesis that the shoe we are going to try has arrived. Lori, the therapist called them and we are going to be able to try it tomorrow. I will keep you informed. As I said, if this works, we will probably have the shoe in two to three weeks, otherwise we will have to order a special shoe that will take as long as a month to be fabricated.

The ice storm had started just about the time we left therapy. By morning the sleet is supposed to be done and we should have 3 to 5 inches of snow. I just want it plowed by 9:00AM so that we can getover to the Center and try on that shoe.

I put a beard and hair on my doll. He looks cute. Tomorrow, once I am sure he is finished, I will take picture of him and then post it for you.

Guess that is all for today.

Love

Mary

Today started off with a bang. I had a rather dumb night. Had to take Chelsea out twice and then I got very uncomfortable and had trouble getting back to sleep. Finally did get back to sleep but had to get up at 6 anyway.

Chelsea and I went for a nice walk, not a long one but a nice one, at about 7AM. As we started around the corner she was barking up a storm. I noticed some movement on the railroad tracks between Tallgrass and the park. Two deer must have been discussing their plans for the day and when they heard Chelsea they took off like a shot in opposite directions. We also heard a cardinal singing his heart out again this morning.

I went grocery shopping right after breakfast. I had to hurry because it is Ash Wednesday today and I wanted to go to the 10AM Mass. I was able to finish the shopping and get to Walgreens and home in time to get to Mass on time. I like to start Lent off in a proper manner. I remember when I was a kid, before I started going to the brand new Catholic School , we used to go to early morning Mass, on Ash Wednesday, get our ashes and proudly wear them to the public school. I guess because it was a unique thing to be doing. A badge of our being Catholic.

I ended up doing the same thing today. After Mass, Dick and I had lunch, I rested a bit then went to the Amputee Support Group meeting at Rocky Knoll. Tonight I remembered that I never washed the ashes off of my forehead. None of the attendees said a word. Hopefully they knew what they were and didn't think I was just dirty.

I spent a little time working on my stump doll. He is coming along. I need a collar on his coat and want to give him a beard. Then I want to make a little kilt skirt for another doll that I started wome time ago. She will need more thought.

Tomorrow morning will be quiet. Dick has therapy at 1:30 and I am supposed to go to a Tastefully Simple party tomorrow night. Bad weather is also supposed to be moving on in. Icy roads are the worst part of the prediction. We will just have to see how it develops.

An anonymous poem that I think is beautiful. It comes from Manyoshu a collection of Japanese verse.

If snow falls on the far field
where travelers
spend the night,
I ask you, cranes
To warm my child in your wings.

Til tomorrow


Mary

This was a red letter day. Andrea from Wisconsin Prosthetics and Orthotics accompanied Tim to the Plymouth Care Center Therapy department. She is the shoe specialist. We are excited. She is hoping to be able to modify a premade shoe to work for Dick. It will need an ankle brace and an insert. If this will work, we will be able to have the shoe in two to three weeks. She is ordering a shoe which should be here by the end of the week. Then it will have to be adapted.

If this does not work, she will have to go further and have a custom shoe made for him. This will take at least a month and stretch the delivery time to 5 to 6 weeks. Either way, we are on the road.

The rest of the day was very quiet. I sent out several emails on CWI which caught me up there for the first time in weeks. I also worked on the grocery list.

Leslie emailed today. All is quiet down in Louisiana but now I know that they are OK. It is comforting to have contact.

Now, after watching Bones, one of my favorite shows, the President is going to talk to Congress. It seems that he has to speak very carefully and he has to show conficence. Our economy is going to hell in a handbasket and somehow or other we need to begin the pulling back and rebuilding. There is no one answer. But we need to realize that greed has to stop and that not everybody will be happy with the outcome.

Some facts.

Not everybody is qualified to purchase a home. Just living in the US does not entitle you to this priviledge.

Illegal immigrants are illegal and need to be treated as such.

Golden parachutes, greedy ceos who demand ungodly high bonuses and salaries have to realize they are wrong and will suffer the consequenses.

Our political figures should have to rely on the same SSI and medicare that the rest of the people do upon their retirement.

There is a point in earnings when more money becomes a "trip". There is a point where there is no need for more money. Noone needs three or four houses for example. Not when one can look around and see families living on the streets or even from paycheck to paycheck and not really being able to feed their family adequately.

Well I have vented long enough. Noone of any importance every asks my opinion anyway.

Have a great day tomorrow. I will be going to an Amputee Support Group meeting in the afternoon. Dick is not quite ready to go yet.

Til tomorrow then.

Mary

Here we are at the beginning of a brand new week. It is the last week in February AND the first week in Lent. A lot happening all to-onct. Don't know if that is a word but Dick and I use it often.

Poor Dick was a real sleepyhead this morning so I had to keep pushing him to get him bathed and fed before I left for Bible Study. We managed though. I was able to leave just a little after 9AM. I stopped at Mom's before the bible study to pick up some things that she wanted to go to the church office. She was unable to go to church yesterday because of the slippery spots AND the extreme cold. So I got a bulletin for her too.

We had nice bible study. The readings all kind of reflected the first reading which tells of God's covenant told to Noah which was marked by the rainbow. We commented on how good the rainbow makes people feel and how excited we get when we see one. The reading states that the bow is a covenant for ALL people, not just the Israelites so perhaps that is why it gives us such a feeling of well being.

Ione was unable to come. Please pray for her as she is having some health issues. Also pray for my friend Wally, who is having heart surgery in the morning.

I read Jim and Michelle's blog today. That Jim is becoming quite the cook. Corn muffins from scratch, that is quite a coup. I had a friend who tried that once and he was out of some ingredient so tried another and they turned into monster muffins with funny centers. He said that it was a good thing that Bob would eat anything because he would have had to throw them out otherwise.

I spent a bit of time this afternoon sewing a jacket for the little doll that I am making. He is coming together, just like everything else that I do, one step at a time. I need to decide on his beard and what he will be carrying. When he is done, I will send a picture. I also did a bit of writing today. Hopefully things will stay fairly calm and we will get into a routine that will allow me to do these things that are fun for me and make me feel that I am fulfilled.

Mother was remembering a man that came to visit Dad for a while. He would show up every few weeks and visit with Dad and tell Dad all of his woes and problems, then just before he left, he would hit Dad up for a few bucks to get him by. Finally Dad had to tell him that he did not have the money to give him. Surprise, Surprise, they guy never came again. The last time he came he brought his son who was living at the Salvation Army, the son did get bus fare out of Dad as he said that if he did not get back to the shelter before a certain time he would not have a place to sleep. Dad was such a gentle caring man that I am sure he was taken advantage of many times. He would have shrugged it off as he cared so much for others.

My cousin Patty said one time that his big heart spilled out all over the place out of him and you had to be careful not to step on it.

Have a special Tuesday. Tomorrow is special for us. We are going to have Dick fitted for his new shoe. Yippee.

Mary

No snow today and miracle of miracles, I woke up to find that our driveway plowed and the sidewalk and porch shoveled. Isn't that just the nicest thing to happen?

There was really no good place for Chelsea. The snow Is so deep that the only way she can do her business is to run in cirles as fast as she can to tamp down a spot so she can squat. Quite picture.

Dick and I had the excitement of giving him a bath again. We ARE getting better at it. It is the transfer that gets exciting. But we got it done in record time this morning. In time for me to go to Mass at 10:45AM. I prefer going on Saturday, as you know, but when I got stuck yesterday morning trying to get back into the garage, and the snow continued throughout the day, there was no way on this earth that I would have attempted it last night.

On the way home from church, I filled the gas tank and stopped at Papa John's for a pizza. Dick and I had decided that this would be a good Oscar supper. And it was.

After lunch, I lay down for a nap. That was refreshing. Later I spent about an hour downstairs working on the doll. He now has a face, arms and a vest. Need to work on a jacket and some other touches. I also set up my quilt frame. I have decided that that wall hanging I designed cannot be stretched tight enough and stitched properly except by hand, so by hand I will do it. I am sure the cats will enjoy the hammock.

Now it is Oscar time and it is a good show. We have not been to one single movie this past year and are still enjoying the presentation. So that tells you something.

They just made a statement that struck me. That there was a time when people dressed up to go to work at the phone company. I remember getting dressed up to go to the store oand always to Church dressed up and wearing a hat and gloves. We even had gloves to match our outfits. I remember at one time that Mother, Nora and I had a favorite hat that just matched all of our summer clothes and we would go to different masses so that we could all wear the hat. It was a straw hat with a broad brim and I remeber there were three large silk flowers in the rim, all different colors but they all blended together. In those days there were four masses every Sunday morning as there were a lot more priests. Even little Sheboygan Falls had a pastor and an assistant pastor at all times.

This is a rather quiet week at least so far. Hope yours is either quiet too or super exciting.

Love

Mary