It was damp and chilly all day. There was some rain but not enough to be really beneficial or even bad to walk in.

Chelsea and I had a really nice walk though I did shorten it because my knee started bothering me. Every day I am able to walk a bit further before it starts hurting so I think the Celebrex is working.

I just cleaned and stuff today. We also got Dick's bath accomplished.

Then at about 4:30PM I left for Howards Grove and Dolores and Ken's 40th Wedding Anniversary celebration. The boys, Kurt and Todd and their wives did a wonderful job of planning the celebration, putting together a DVD and keeping it a surprise. Dolores and Ken had no clue. It is always a delight when with all the people that end up knowing about a surprise like this can keep it a secret.

It was at the Wagon Wheel and Ken and Dolores thought that they were just meeting their boys for dinner. We had a great meal, as the Wagon Wheel always puts on. Chicken, tips and gravy, with all the good side dishes and cake and ice cream for dessert.

I took Mom home at about 9PM after food some visiting and pictures. She was exhausted and I needed to get home too. What a lovey evening.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend too.

Love

Mary

It was a busy day. And a nice day. The weather was perfect. Chelsea and I went for our walk at about 7AM after I had taken care of feeding kitties, showering and cleaning litter box. I got further today before my knee started hurting so I think that perhaps the Celebrex is working. I had a couple of times today when I twisted it so there is SOME inflammation, the doctor says that the xrays just show arthritis.
Guess I should take it easy for a day or two. That is hard.

I cleaned the kitchen today. So the general cleaning is up to date. I do have to get to the garage soon. I figure I will do 1/2 each day that I work at it. Maybe I can get the first half tomorrow morning.

I had lunch with the Wells Fargo ladies today. It was a good day. Almost everybody had good news. Mary Shroeder was there to tell us that she got promoted to the trust department at Community Bank. All other reports were good. People are doing well at jobs and coming home and attending great seminars. After lunch, I went to Kmart and bought a present for Ken and Dolores for their 40th Wedding Anniversary which we will all be celebrating tomorrow night at the Wagon Wheel. I am looking forward to that.

After I got home, I made a fruit salad and some scones and our dinner. WE had Chicken, red beans and rice, cauliflower and fruit salad. And raspberry bread pudding for dessert.

Now it is time to be settling down and getting ready for bed. I did not get my nap today so I am sure that I will sleep very well tonight.

Chelsea had a very bad seizure tonight. Her appetite is kind of down too. We will be watching her very closely and if this continues, we will have the vet look at her.

Tomorrow will be quiet until evening so I can just putter along, except for Dick's bath. That is still somewhat of a production because of the getting in and out of the tub but we are getting better every week.

Have a good weekend yourself.

Here is a picture of the roadways at this time of spring.

Lavender and white
Blooms of wild phlox punctuate
Green wooded byways.


Enjoy

Mary

I slept until almost 7AM (barring of course, Chelsea's early morning walk). We had a lot to do before 10 when we had to leave for Aurora Plymouth. Dick had to to to the anti-coagulation clinic today AGAIN because he has been off the norm that we are aiming for. For a month, he has been off. First the count was very high. Then low for two weeks but Hallelujah. Today his count was 2.4. Which is perfect. It is supposed to be between 2 and 3.

We came home for lunch and then had to get to Sheboygan to see Dr. Moreno to have him write off the shoes. He is very pleased, declared Dick's feet healed and has prescribed therapy for the next month at which point he will reevaluate. He has stressed that we have to be vigilant to any signs of wounds or changes on his feet.

SO, on the way home, we stopped at Plymouth Care to schedule the therapy. Leah got us all set up for next week. With any luck at all we will have Jaren on Thursday. Jaren started Dick on Therapy before it got to a point that he couldn't stand because of the knee problems. He was working on balance and building strength. It will be good to see him again.

We were able to stay home the rest of the day. I got the vacuuming done. Whew. I hate when I get behind. With the cats back with us it does not bode well to leave the vacuuming to for a week.

I read that David Carradine died. He was "grasshopper" in Kung Fu. He is part of a fond memory. The boys liked watching Kung Fu when it was in its prime. Bart was about four and apparently suggestible. We went to church one Sunday and I was talking to one of the young associate pastors. Suddenly Bart yelled "Kung Fu" and kicked him in the shin. The priest was very nice about it but Bart was excommunicated on the spot.



So. Have a good evening and I will check in again tomorrow night.

Love

Mary

This was supposed to be a quieter week, but the excitement of Dick's new shoe and the extra appointments has kind of turned that around.

I started this day off as all the others. Chelsea had a bad appetite day. I have decided not to worry about it. She is perky enough and all other functions seem fine. She IS eating something and I guess we just have to respect her feelings. (Right now, it is almost midnight and she wants me to go to bed. She has this THING about settling down when I do and gets quite bossy about it.)

Anyway I started on my shopping marathon at about 8. I finally got rid of the old battery backup for the computer. I took it over to the City Yard and asked someone what I was supposed to do with it and he took care of it. What a guy.

Then on to the Pig for our grocery shopping. I also had to go to Walgreens to pick up some prescriptions for Mom and go to the bank to make a deposit for her and to pick up some money for us.

Shortly after I got home and put the groceries away, Bobbie came and we did the next steps on the wines that we have brewing downstairs. The rhubarb was not quite at the Specific Gravity we wanted but one of the recipes said to just rack it without testing so we put it into the secondary fermenters (the glass jugs). So we did and were rewarded with seeing that the yeast is indeed working its little heart out in the brew.

This afternoon we had two repairmen here. The water softener had started just running a couple of days ago so I called for repair and the clothes dryer had blown its heating element. WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO HAPPEN AT ONCE!!! Anyway both repair people were able to come quickly and do the job with little fuss. I am grateful. Oscar, however, is not happy. He stayed put for Bobbie and enjoyed his time with her but disappeared when the Culligan Man came and stayed hidden until dinner time. The second doorbell did him in.

This evening Mother, Kate and I went to see 1776 after a lovely dinner at the Villager. It was one of the longest productions I have been to but worth every minute. The cast was mostly men, except for Abigal Adams and Martha Jefferson, and covers the great debates that led to our Declaration of Independence. The talent was special. We loved it.

My only concern was that it was after 11 when I got home. It was OK but if Chelsea had asked to go out , Dick would have been in trouble. She was fine, she no longer expects him to be able to help her so apparently she stirred once but found that I wasn't home so she went back to bed. Such a trusting little pup. She knew that I would be back.

When I got to Kate's I went to comfort her poor sweet kitty, Riley, who has a severely injured front leg. He was quite accepting of my sympathy. He may still lose the leg, or it may be useless when he heals but they are trying. Kate's other cat, Victoria, is being quite the guardian, she sits with him most of the day and the other day when he managed to get upstairs and Kate couldn't find him, Victoria took her up to him.


So that was the day. We are actually into tomorrow. (AND they say tomorrow never comes.)

Enjoy today!!!

Mary

Pete Seeger was quoting Carl Sandburg who said something like this. "My son, perhaps someday there will be a war and no one will come." I received a letter from Tom Petri, our U. S. Representative who swore that he is on my side as far as our responsibility to support and to take care of them when they return as long as it takes them to be re assimilated into civilian life. We send them over there, our future and they defend us and do whatever we ask them to do. We OWE them. If they cannot return to their previous lives because of injuries, we need to care for them. Forever.

This was a very busy day. Chelsea was a real pest. Very demanding. But she is sleeping now and I am SO glad. Sometimes I just get tired taking her in and out of this house.

Dick had an appointment at Wisconsin Prosthesis this morning to get the new cup for his prosthesis. We had a bonus when we got there. His shoe was there too. So - We spent an hour and a half with Tim learning how to put the new cup on. This is different. The sleeve is put onto the stump and then inserted into the cup which locks in place. It is not easy to get it on as it has to be positioned correctly so that when he stands it is straight. Also there cannot be any air bubbles. Wow. Do we have our work set out for us. Especially Dick. He has to be able to do this himself because he gets up during the night and has to put it on without help.

The new shoe fits very nicely. Dick said it feels good. We have an appointment to see Dr. Moreno on Thursday. He will check it out and then we can start therapy and get him up on his feet walking again. Tim, the prosthesist, says that he believes that Dick can be walking with just a cane and not need the wheel chair except for special long occasions. Yippee.

We stopped and picked up a bacon cheeseburger and fries for our lunch from the Dairy Queen. That tasted good.

Then Dick took Chelsea into the bedroom for a nap. She loves that quiet time with him. So I took care of some calls. I called Dr. Murthy's office about my knee hurting and he had me come in for xrays. Modern technology is wonderful. Dr. Murthy had the xrays immediately but of course he has to find time to look at them. It will probably be tomorrow when I hear from him. He did give me some Celebrex which I hope will help the discomfort. It is just that I used to be able to walk off the pain and now it gets worse the longer I walk.

We had soup and sandwich for supper and now I am just about done for the night.

There was a rather interesting situation occurring in the Town of Plymouth. A local restaurant petitioned the town to allow them to change their restaurant to a "Gentlemen's Club" with topless waitresses serving from 4PM to 2PM every day. It was a shock to everybody and the citizens of the area came through in droves. There were six letters to the editor published in the Review against the "Club". All of them articulate and stating their reasons for their disapproval from several perspectives. I was one of the letter writer's. Here is my letter.

I am a resident of the city of Plymouth. It has come to my attention that the Wilderness Restaurant on Hwy 57 at the gateway to the city has applied for a permit to expand the restaurant into a cabaret (topless bar).

I sincerely hope that the Town Board of Plymouth, where the restaurant is located, will stand up and deny this permit. This is not the image that I believe very many of the residents of the Plymouth area wish to convey to the wold.

We are a small town, proud of our roots, our children and our family values. Let's unite to keep it that way.

Thank you.

That was my letter. I only put the name of the restaurant in this blog because the owner of the restaurant, hearing of the concerted opposition, withdrew his application before the meeting. I think that he should be lauded for seeing the mistake and as soon as Dick is able we will again frequent the restaurant for meals as we did before. They are a pleasant place to eat and it would have been a shame to lose another place to eat breakfast that has a smokeless area.

Take care and pray for my friend Gail's daughter Karen who is preparing for serious surgery later this month.

Love

Mary

Chelsea woke me up at 4:30AM this morning. Unbelievable. I did not reawaken until almost 7AM. That is a record. I cannot remember the last time that I slept that late.

As I had to be at Bible Study at 9:30 this did throw me a bit behind. But it all came together. We had a pretty full table at Bible Study. I think that I mentioned that we have been studying the previous Sunday's readings for three years now and have gone through the entire cycle. We have decided to now take a hiatus from that type of study and pick a specific study. The group has settled on the Gospel of Mark and we will chose which series of study we want to use next week and ask Lynn at the church office to order the books for us.

Then I went to Mom's. She wanted to go to the cemetery to look at the boxes by the graves. They really do look lovely and are healthy and colorful. We noticed that there is nothing at my cousin Michael's grave though, and Mother wants something to go out there. I will try to do something to help with that. It is always good to go out there and say Hi to everybody. It is a beautiful cemetery. They used to say Mass out there on Memorial Day. There is a nice altar out there. The statues on the altar have been changed since my day. I remember going down there sometimes as a kit and playing on that altar.

I picked up a couple of plants at Evans today. I found Rosemary, Purple Basil, some petunias and some vines. That is ALL that I am going to do. I got them all planted, I vacuumed the car and switched the floor mats in the car with the summer mats. The winter mats are washed and put away until next winter.

Tonight was the Rhine Plymouth meeting. It was full of business. The club voted not to rejoin the Sheboygan County Conservation Association. I think this is a mistake but the majority do not find it beneficial. Aside from that it was pretty tame but we got a lot done.

The weather was very pleasant but it has chilled down quite a bit this evening. I almost headed out without a jacket but fortunately put it on before I left. I even needed it in the clubhouse.

Tomorrow, Dick gets the new cup for his prosthesis, so we will be gone for a good chunk of the morning. I hope they have some news on the shoe. He needs to get on his feet and walking again.

I do get to stay home all afternoon tomorrow.

I have to get to bed now. It is getting late and we are, as you see, having a busy day tomorrow. I am hoping on talking Dick into eating out somewhere at noon. Wish me luck. It would be good for him.

Love

Mary

 

Just a really good picture of our Big Oscar. Isn't he a handsome guy.

Mary

Such a nice day. Chelsea DID get me up too early, 2:40AM, but it was at least better than it was yesterday. We did not walk too far this morning, because my knee was hurting and I had to take her out twice before we really got to walking anyway.

When she got me up at 2:40AM, I put a roast in the slow cooker for our dinner. It turned out pretty good. The recipe said to cook for at least 12 hours. You just rub the roast with dry onion soup, lay it on a bed of sliced onion and any other veggies you want and let her go on low until you are ready to eat. It is not dry and the juice makes a dark brown gravy.

I also made a coconut meringue pie for dessert. Since Bobbie and Bill came over this afternoon, I could go all out for our evening meal. Bobbie and I were moving to the next step on her Rhubarb wine and she brought more rhubarb and some elderberries to start another batch. The "winery" looks pretty good right now with three batches of wine going all to onest.

I went over to St. John's at 1PM for Mass and a celebration for Fr. Van Beek's 40th Anniversary as a priest. I had not intended on going to two masses in one weekend, I was a Eucharistic Minister last night and really figured that would be enough. But someone from the church called and asked if I was coming and guilted me into it. It was a just fine, a lovely mass with a choir that sang beautiful special music for the occasion and allowed us to join in on many truly lovely songs also. I wrote a haiku for Fr. Van Beek and put it in a card of congratulations that I gave him. He really doesn't know who I am but has been a good parish priest and I love his sermons and the way he brings prayer to us.

I thing I called the Haiku "Congratulations on 40 Years of Priesthood" but I am not sure. Anyway here it is.

A wink of His eye
This time you labored for Him
And yet eternity.

I visited with several people I know. Kate was there. She and Ron ended up unable to go to their daughter's wedding after all. Ron got weak and the trip became not a good idea. We could not talk too long. She will call when she can. Her kitty, Riley, has a broken leg and got out of his cast and she had to take him to Port Washington to the veterinarian after she left the reception. This is on top of Ron. Pray for Ron. He has not had a bad spell like this in several months and it is not a good thing.

Tomorrow is a new week and a new month all rolled into the one day. It is hard to believe that it is the beginning of June already.

Take care. This will be a busy week.

Love

Mary