I thought that you might like to see a picture of St. Patrick's Church. The stones were brought by the farmers of the parish and the sand for the morter was brought by wagon from Lake Michigan. Layer by layer they built their church.
Mary
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Despite the wind, which made it a might cool, it was a wonderful day. Chelsea woke me up the first time at 4:30AM. I woke up at about four and kind of wondered if I should be worrying but made up my mind that I was not going to go to check until 6AM when I had to get up anyway. I was really rather relieved to hear her tags start rattling just before she came to get me.
Had a rather busy morning getting ready for everything.
I had to be at the Tallgrass Annual meting at 10AM. That went rather smoothly. We got several reports including the report from our Ad Hoc committee. There were a few questions but people seemed receptive to the progress that has been made. The committee is going to meet next Monday at 7PM. I told them that we could meet here. I will set up a table down in the den downstairs. We also elected a whole new slate of officers. Actually one is staying on which will provide some cohesiveness, but the rest all had expired terms or resigned because they were not happy with the outcome of the vote regarding litigation.
I went right from there to pick up Nancy, then onto St. Patrick's in Adell for the first leg of our cemetery tour. We had a wonderful turnout. There were 18 of us at various times of the tour. St. Patrick's is such a beautiful old stone church. It is only a chapel now, (Beth commented that both St. Patrick's and St. Michael's are now called chapels. In Ireland the Catholic churches were called chapels as the protestant churches were the churches.) There is a preservation committee as part of Our Lady of the Lakes Parish trying to keep St. Pats from being destroyed. As long as they can raise $3500 per year for maintenance it is OK. They are trying to figure out how to get an endowment fund established but that his hard. Sometime, if you want to go out there we can arrange it. Just let me know.
We went from there to Cascade for lunch at the Madison Avenue Inn. Brenda, the owner, is so accommodating. We all had such good lunches and it is so charming. I had their flavor of the day coffee and as cup of Wisconsin Cheesy Bratwurst soup with a half a Veggie panini. Really good. We can go there too!!!
We stopped for a while, as long as we could stand the cold wind in the graveyard next to the now closed St. Mary's in Cascade. Beth told a couple of stories of some of the Cascade Irish,notably the Keyes. I will have to tell Tom about that on Monday at Bible study. One of his ancestors, a young woman, came into the country sick. She managed to get past the inspectors and off the boat and to her relatives. However, they were afraid of her illness. It was winter and they made her stay in a shed out back with no insulation and no help. The poor woman survived but lost all of her toes during that cold winter. When she was well, she walked away to some other relatives and never turned back. She had a very rough life besides that. She married and had 10 children but only one grew to adulthood, this was Tom's relative.
Our last stop was St. Michaels out near Parnel. There Beth told stories of the church and the residents. We finished there and headed home. I was in Plymouth just in time to go to Mass at 4PM. That means that tomorrow I will be much freer.
I am now totally exhausted and will fold up for the night.
Tomorrow will be busy too as I am supposed to go out to Rhine to help out there.
So I will have more then.
Love
Mary
Richard and Brenda arrived this afternoon. Dick said that all of the animals, including Oscar, were very glad to see them. Richard is installing a new computer for Dick. He has been without his all week and is SO grateful. I called and had Brenda put the casserole in the oven when I got back into town so we were able to eat shortly after I got home from church. The spinach casserole was great. We had fruit salads to go with it and topped it off with Strange Chocolate Pie with whipped cream.
I am so very happy with the turnout and enthusiasm of the attendees at the cemetery tour. We even had Mary Malloy, a member of the CWI International board who lives in Chicago come up with her daughter. She told us about some special masses that will be said all around the world commemorating the Famine. We are thinking that this might be something to bring up to our pastors next year as it is always celebrated on May 17.
Had a rather busy morning getting ready for everything.
I had to be at the Tallgrass Annual meting at 10AM. That went rather smoothly. We got several reports including the report from our Ad Hoc committee. There were a few questions but people seemed receptive to the progress that has been made. The committee is going to meet next Monday at 7PM. I told them that we could meet here. I will set up a table down in the den downstairs. We also elected a whole new slate of officers. Actually one is staying on which will provide some cohesiveness, but the rest all had expired terms or resigned because they were not happy with the outcome of the vote regarding litigation.
I went right from there to pick up Nancy, then onto St. Patrick's in Adell for the first leg of our cemetery tour. We had a wonderful turnout. There were 18 of us at various times of the tour. St. Patrick's is such a beautiful old stone church. It is only a chapel now, (Beth commented that both St. Patrick's and St. Michael's are now called chapels. In Ireland the Catholic churches were called chapels as the protestant churches were the churches.) There is a preservation committee as part of Our Lady of the Lakes Parish trying to keep St. Pats from being destroyed. As long as they can raise $3500 per year for maintenance it is OK. They are trying to figure out how to get an endowment fund established but that his hard. Sometime, if you want to go out there we can arrange it. Just let me know.
We went from there to Cascade for lunch at the Madison Avenue Inn. Brenda, the owner, is so accommodating. We all had such good lunches and it is so charming. I had their flavor of the day coffee and as cup of Wisconsin Cheesy Bratwurst soup with a half a Veggie panini. Really good. We can go there too!!!
We stopped for a while, as long as we could stand the cold wind in the graveyard next to the now closed St. Mary's in Cascade. Beth told a couple of stories of some of the Cascade Irish,notably the Keyes. I will have to tell Tom about that on Monday at Bible study. One of his ancestors, a young woman, came into the country sick. She managed to get past the inspectors and off the boat and to her relatives. However, they were afraid of her illness. It was winter and they made her stay in a shed out back with no insulation and no help. The poor woman survived but lost all of her toes during that cold winter. When she was well, she walked away to some other relatives and never turned back. She had a very rough life besides that. She married and had 10 children but only one grew to adulthood, this was Tom's relative.
Our last stop was St. Michaels out near Parnel. There Beth told stories of the church and the residents. We finished there and headed home. I was in Plymouth just in time to go to Mass at 4PM. That means that tomorrow I will be much freer.
I am now totally exhausted and will fold up for the night.
Tomorrow will be busy too as I am supposed to go out to Rhine to help out there.
So I will have more then.
Love
Mary
Richard and Brenda arrived this afternoon. Dick said that all of the animals, including Oscar, were very glad to see them. Richard is installing a new computer for Dick. He has been without his all week and is SO grateful. I called and had Brenda put the casserole in the oven when I got back into town so we were able to eat shortly after I got home from church. The spinach casserole was great. We had fruit salads to go with it and topped it off with Strange Chocolate Pie with whipped cream.
I am so very happy with the turnout and enthusiasm of the attendees at the cemetery tour. We even had Mary Malloy, a member of the CWI International board who lives in Chicago come up with her daughter. She told us about some special masses that will be said all around the world commemorating the Famine. We are thinking that this might be something to bring up to our pastors next year as it is always celebrated on May 17.
Friday, May 15, 2009
The end of a productive, busy and pleasant day.
I got up at about 6AM as usual (with our usual bathroom break at about 3AM for the little old lady, Chelsea.)
Dick stayed in bed until almost 10AM. I really don't know how well he slept during the night as I sleep between 10PM and 6AM like normal people. But since he was asleep, I assembles a spinach casserole for tomorrow's dinner, a vegetable soup that just needs to be heated and have cheese melted into it, and a Strange Chocolate pie. I also mopped the kitchen floor.
I did a couple of errands at about 9. I mainly took the clothes that I had weeded out of my closet to St. Vincent de Paul. No sense cleaning out the closet and leaving everything in the house.
Dick didn't eat breakfast until 10AM. So since I was having lunch with my bank lady friends at the Dairy Queen, I just brought him home the same lunch that I had. A cheeseburger and fries. They were good. But that made us not want supper too. So it was a lousy day for diabetic meals but that's the way it goes once in a while.
At 4PM I went to Wittkopp Funeral Home to give my support to the Robert Fenner family. Robert was at the Plymouth Care Center and died this week. Bob was two years younger than Mother and attended her and Dad's wedding reception. His daughter in law was one of the RNs at the Care Center and she sent a message to Dick that she misses him because she could always escape into his room when she needed to get away for a few minutes.
Tonight I went down to the Plymouth Art Center for their 9th Annual Spring Concert called The Music of Spring. My friend Kate Herman is one of the singers as well as several other of my friends. It was a nice concert. The music was diverse and well selected, some of it very challenging. The chorus did a lovely job.
Tomorrow too will be a busy day what with the condo meeting and the cemetery tour. Richard and Brenda will be here sometime during the day to take care of Dick's computer needs.
Everytime I think things are settling down they rev up again.
Love
Mary
I got up at about 6AM as usual (with our usual bathroom break at about 3AM for the little old lady, Chelsea.)
Dick stayed in bed until almost 10AM. I really don't know how well he slept during the night as I sleep between 10PM and 6AM like normal people. But since he was asleep, I assembles a spinach casserole for tomorrow's dinner, a vegetable soup that just needs to be heated and have cheese melted into it, and a Strange Chocolate pie. I also mopped the kitchen floor.
I did a couple of errands at about 9. I mainly took the clothes that I had weeded out of my closet to St. Vincent de Paul. No sense cleaning out the closet and leaving everything in the house.
Dick didn't eat breakfast until 10AM. So since I was having lunch with my bank lady friends at the Dairy Queen, I just brought him home the same lunch that I had. A cheeseburger and fries. They were good. But that made us not want supper too. So it was a lousy day for diabetic meals but that's the way it goes once in a while.
At 4PM I went to Wittkopp Funeral Home to give my support to the Robert Fenner family. Robert was at the Plymouth Care Center and died this week. Bob was two years younger than Mother and attended her and Dad's wedding reception. His daughter in law was one of the RNs at the Care Center and she sent a message to Dick that she misses him because she could always escape into his room when she needed to get away for a few minutes.
Tonight I went down to the Plymouth Art Center for their 9th Annual Spring Concert called The Music of Spring. My friend Kate Herman is one of the singers as well as several other of my friends. It was a nice concert. The music was diverse and well selected, some of it very challenging. The chorus did a lovely job.
Tomorrow too will be a busy day what with the condo meeting and the cemetery tour. Richard and Brenda will be here sometime during the day to take care of Dick's computer needs.
Everytime I think things are settling down they rev up again.
Love
Mary
Thursday, May 14, 2009
A sunny day today, but the wind was blowing until way after lunch. And it was cold. When Chelsea and I went for our walk I had to walk into the wind which certainly does do a good job of demonstrating that old Irish Blessing which starts "May the wind be always at your back."
Dick had an appointment at the anti coagulation clinic at 10. The count was 4.1 - way up. We can't figure out why. Usually it takes a change in diet or a change in medication to cause a major change and we have had a very mundane life these past few weeks. Hard to figure. So. He has to back off for a couple of days and then he will be rechecked on Tuesday. There goes his whole week without a medical appointment.
I cleaned bathrooms and worked in the gardens a bit today. The workers were out mowing and also thinned out the tall grasses in front or our condo in the berm. They are just beautiful but last year they grew so big that they blocked the whole porch and threatened to take over the berm. So I asked that they thin them. They reduced them by at least half. They will plant some of the weeded out pieced around the tract and left some for Jeff and Kathy. Kathy really would like some at their home.
This afternoon Nancy and I went out to Rhine and I finished shooting my league targets. Nancy has three more to shoot but will go out tomorrow and finish during open hours. We had just gotten a bit behind this league.
Tomorrow night, I intend to go down to the Plymouth Art Center to watch the spring music event that Kate is performing in. Songs of Spring, I believe. Poor Kate, her 10 year old kitty named Riley, was hit by a car early this week and has a badly broken leg. Kate is trying to save his leg for him. She settled him in a box in the kitchen and amazingly that badly injured animal made it upstairs during the night and crawled under their bed to sleep. He had to be close to them. God won't mind if we pray for Riley's recovery.
Tomorrow I will be cooking. I am going to put a spinach noodle casserole together for Saturday night. Dick and Brenda will be here on Saturday and I will be gone on the Cemetery tour MOST of the day so figured that it can just be popped in the oven about an hour before we eat. I am also going to fix a special dessert and some soup.
Haven't heard from Jim and Michelle. Guess they must be very busy.
Tomorrow it is supposed to rain. But Saturday is going to be clear and sunny albeit a bit chilly.
Love
Mary
Dick had an appointment at the anti coagulation clinic at 10. The count was 4.1 - way up. We can't figure out why. Usually it takes a change in diet or a change in medication to cause a major change and we have had a very mundane life these past few weeks. Hard to figure. So. He has to back off for a couple of days and then he will be rechecked on Tuesday. There goes his whole week without a medical appointment.
I cleaned bathrooms and worked in the gardens a bit today. The workers were out mowing and also thinned out the tall grasses in front or our condo in the berm. They are just beautiful but last year they grew so big that they blocked the whole porch and threatened to take over the berm. So I asked that they thin them. They reduced them by at least half. They will plant some of the weeded out pieced around the tract and left some for Jeff and Kathy. Kathy really would like some at their home.
This afternoon Nancy and I went out to Rhine and I finished shooting my league targets. Nancy has three more to shoot but will go out tomorrow and finish during open hours. We had just gotten a bit behind this league.
Tomorrow night, I intend to go down to the Plymouth Art Center to watch the spring music event that Kate is performing in. Songs of Spring, I believe. Poor Kate, her 10 year old kitty named Riley, was hit by a car early this week and has a badly broken leg. Kate is trying to save his leg for him. She settled him in a box in the kitchen and amazingly that badly injured animal made it upstairs during the night and crawled under their bed to sleep. He had to be close to them. God won't mind if we pray for Riley's recovery.
Tomorrow I will be cooking. I am going to put a spinach noodle casserole together for Saturday night. Dick and Brenda will be here on Saturday and I will be gone on the Cemetery tour MOST of the day so figured that it can just be popped in the oven about an hour before we eat. I am also going to fix a special dessert and some soup.
Haven't heard from Jim and Michelle. Guess they must be very busy.
Tomorrow it is supposed to rain. But Saturday is going to be clear and sunny albeit a bit chilly.
Love
Mary
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Would you believe that Chelsea dragged me out of bed at twenty to three this morning. I was not really very happy with her but what can you do with an old lady. I went back to bed of course when we got back in and slept until 6AM.
I decided to try feeding her after her walk this morning. Didn't do any good. So I put the food up on the counter UNDER a basket of veggies while I took my shower. That Oscar jumped up on the counter, pushed the basket off and ate most of Chelsea's breakfast. When we had our breakfast, which I got from Mc Donald's we gave Chelsea more food with a couple of scraps from our breakfast and she did eat.
Then I went grocery shopping and over to Walgreens to pick up prescriptions.
Got home just in time to fix lunch. After lunch and a rest, I spent quite some time going through my closets and drawers. I have two big bags of clothes that will go over to St. Vinnies when I head that way again. I still probably have way to many clothes but the closets are not jammed any more. I probably also at some time wish I had not given something away, but that is OK too.
Now, I will have to wake Chelsea up to take her outside so that I can go to bed.
Tomorrow may be a bit more exciting. I rather hope not though.
Mary
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this -- you cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians .... it creates a hostile work environment.
I decided to try feeding her after her walk this morning. Didn't do any good. So I put the food up on the counter UNDER a basket of veggies while I took my shower. That Oscar jumped up on the counter, pushed the basket off and ate most of Chelsea's breakfast. When we had our breakfast, which I got from Mc Donald's we gave Chelsea more food with a couple of scraps from our breakfast and she did eat.
Then I went grocery shopping and over to Walgreens to pick up prescriptions.
Got home just in time to fix lunch. After lunch and a rest, I spent quite some time going through my closets and drawers. I have two big bags of clothes that will go over to St. Vinnies when I head that way again. I still probably have way to many clothes but the closets are not jammed any more. I probably also at some time wish I had not given something away, but that is OK too.
Now, I will have to wake Chelsea up to take her outside so that I can go to bed.
Tomorrow may be a bit more exciting. I rather hope not though.
Mary
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this -- you cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians .... it creates a hostile work environment.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Chelsea is still not enthusiastically attacking her food, but we are getting her to eat. I am feeding her when she has had a chance to get a bit anxious. For instance, I feed the cats when I first get up but wait to feed her until we are done with our walk and everything.
I spent the morning cooking and cleaning a cupboard. I made beer bread, soup and a salad.
We had chicken and pasta for lunch and chicken soup for supper.
This afternoon, Nancy and I went shooting at Rhine. We have to be done with our league by Friday night. I was able to go out last Friday so only had six to go but Nancy was unable to shoot on Friday so is a week behind. We will go on Thursday and again on Friday so she can finish. The trouble is that all shooting has to be done by Friday. The bust up is in two weeks because of Memorial Day Weekend. We thought that we had another whole week.
Tonight I am watching Dancing with the Stars tonight to see who will be eliminated. It is really hard at this point. I think it will be between Gilles and Melissa but we were so surprised last week that Lil Kim was eliminated. This is the only show that I watch that is even close to a reality show.
The next two days are also comparatively quiet. Tomorrow I have to go grocery shopping and Thursday shooting but that is all. Whew. If it rains and soaks the gardens in back, I may go to do some weeding. Travis from Steger heating came and checked the air conditioner today and said that mosquitoes are out there. I am going to try the Listerine spray to see if I can keep them off of me.
Til tomorrow then.
Mary
I spent the morning cooking and cleaning a cupboard. I made beer bread, soup and a salad.
We had chicken and pasta for lunch and chicken soup for supper.
This afternoon, Nancy and I went shooting at Rhine. We have to be done with our league by Friday night. I was able to go out last Friday so only had six to go but Nancy was unable to shoot on Friday so is a week behind. We will go on Thursday and again on Friday so she can finish. The trouble is that all shooting has to be done by Friday. The bust up is in two weeks because of Memorial Day Weekend. We thought that we had another whole week.
Tonight I am watching Dancing with the Stars tonight to see who will be eliminated. It is really hard at this point. I think it will be between Gilles and Melissa but we were so surprised last week that Lil Kim was eliminated. This is the only show that I watch that is even close to a reality show.
The next two days are also comparatively quiet. Tomorrow I have to go grocery shopping and Thursday shooting but that is all. Whew. If it rains and soaks the gardens in back, I may go to do some weeding. Travis from Steger heating came and checked the air conditioner today and said that mosquitoes are out there. I am going to try the Listerine spray to see if I can keep them off of me.
Til tomorrow then.
Mary
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The end of another weekend. It was Mother's Day today. Both Bart and Bret called me this evening and I received some lovely email Mother's Day cards. I went over to Mother's home with her card after Dick and I had our lunch.
Mother was just fine. Yesterday, Jeff and the family came in and took her out for dinner. Today she stayed home because lots of people call her and come to see her on this day.
I went to Mass at 10:45 this morning. It was a very nice mass. They are not serving wine to everybody as part of the Eucharist. I assume that will last until this swine flu thing is over. No sense in sharing a cup with a couple of dozen people.
Aside from the above it was a quiet day and now I am ready to call it a day.
A nice way to spend a Mother's Day if one cannot gather your "little ones" around you.
Love
Mary
Mother was just fine. Yesterday, Jeff and the family came in and took her out for dinner. Today she stayed home because lots of people call her and come to see her on this day.
I went to Mass at 10:45 this morning. It was a very nice mass. They are not serving wine to everybody as part of the Eucharist. I assume that will last until this swine flu thing is over. No sense in sharing a cup with a couple of dozen people.
Aside from the above it was a quiet day and now I am ready to call it a day.
A nice way to spend a Mother's Day if one cannot gather your "little ones" around you.
Love
Mary
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