I got up at 6AM. Kind of puttered around til 9AM. Dick did walk this morning and I fixed a really good breakfast. We had bacon, eggs and toast.

At 9AM I went to pick up Kate and we drove over to the Armory to pick up out SHARE. I have been getting the smaller portion, but next month I am going for the full portion as the freezer is not as full as it should be and I need to stock up. I also really liked the selection. I think I have told you about SHARE. It is a food program for anybody that supplies food at "discount". For $25. You get a package of groceries that is worth at least $45 to 50 and includes meats, veggies and a couple of extras like, maybe a cake mix, or strawberries. It is a great way to cut the grocery bill.

After we put our groceries away, Kat and I walked from her house on Collins down to Reed Street to attend the 2009 Home and Garden "Porches on Reed Street." Five classic homes on Reed, opened their homes, and/or their gardens for tour by the public. We had a great time. They had reenactor's, high school students who told us about the homes in character of the original builders of the homes. They were all wonderful. They re all trying to get Kate to put her home in next year. I told her I would help hostess if she does.

We ended with the program of the day,Linda Godine of Herbs N' Such gave a presentation on growing and using herbs. We ate like pigs. Starting with herbal dips and working our way through cheese spreads and pastas and rice and moving on to fruit salad and breads that were fantastic. Kate and I are going out to her place in Kiel to stock up on a few herb plants and I want to take her a couple of my favorite recipes to add to her stock. She was really excited about my Lemon Balm Wine.

Got home about and fixed a sandwich for Dick. Then I took a nap as I was exhausted. My knee really hurt during that walk. It got pretty rested while we were listening to the herb presentation.

I went to the 4PM Mass. We had a very special guest at our parish this weekend. An Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, Niagra is visiting our community. He is fascinating. I will be able to meet him again tomorrow a t the Parish Family Celebration Picnic. As Fr. Van Beeck said. They have two bishops in Milwaukee this weekend, but we have an Archbishop in Plymouth. Quite a coup.

So the day is now waning.

Oscar is not eating well. He did not do badly at breakfast for did not eat at all this evening. His big green eyes are so wide. I just hope he is not in any pain. The site that Bobbie sent me about his problem indicates that there is usually not pain involved. I will cling to that.

So it was a pretty good day. Tomorrow should be nice AND busy also.

"Should you encounter a problem along your way, Change your direction, but not your destination."

I need to keep that in mind these days.

Love

Mary

I got to sleep until 6:30AM this morning. Chelsea got me up at four but I got back to sleep OK. I think I could have stayed in bed much longer if it was not for those critters needing food.

This in not a day that I would like to relive. You will see why.

Mom called quite early, about 9:30AM. She got a call from the nurse telling her when her colonoscopy is scheduled. It is next Friday, July 3, at 8AM at the Plymouth Surgical Center with a Doctor Rana Sokhi. I will pick her up at 7:45AM or so on Friday and take her too the surgical center to get her checked in. Jeff will join me that morning, as soon as he can get there. So I won't have to wait alone.

Dolores will be with her on Thursday night and Jeff will take her home from the procedure on Friday. (I will follow if he needs help.) Eileen is coming Friday after work and will relieve Jeff and stay the night if necessary. Randy and Donna will come over as needed and as they can. So I think we have it covered. It is so great to have such a loving support family as we have. But with a Mother and Dad like ours it is not too big a surprise.

The other thing that was difficult today was my Big Oscar. When Bobbie was here the other day, she noticed a lump in his abdomen. We thought it MIGHT be a hairball, but Bobbie looked things up in the computer and lumps are usually something to be concerned with. I had already decided that if he was off his feed one more meal, or did not throw up a hairball I was making an appointment with the Vet. I was able to get him in at 11AM this morning. The news is not good at all. Our Oscar has two enlarged kidneys. One is about the size of an orange. His BUN levels are up and his red blood count is low. With both kidneys affected, there is really nothing that we can do for him but keep an eye on him and when he develops symptoms of pain, or not eating then we will have to probably help him pass on. We have changed his diet and will just keep loving him. He is about the sweetest kitty that I have ever had. This is hard.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning, the kitchen and the bathroom, and ironing.

Then, Nancy Roehre and I went out to Rhine to practice our pistol shooting. Some major renovations have been done to trap one. New cement poured and the electrical wiring all redone. Josh and Dennis and Matt were all there working on it. I guess there was another blow up at the club regarding the camping situation. I told Dennis that maybe I will skip the next meeting. I won't but good grief can't we all get along. I may ask to use the clubhouse for a CWI meeting on July 17. I am going to try the library first because there we could have access to reference material and maybe even computers. As a member, I can use it if it is not in use for a club function.

Guess that is all for now. Enough I think. After all the junk I will end with a joke.

The weekend is here and I intend to enjoy it with a Garden Walk, a picnic at church and a graduation party.

Love

Mary

THE IRISH PROSTITUTE

An Irish daughter had not been home for over a year. Upon her return, her Father cussed her. 'Where have ye been all this time? Why did ye not write to us, not even a line? Why didn't ye call? Can ye not understand what ye put yer old Mother thru?'
The girl, crying, replied, 'Sniff, sniff....Dad...I became a prostitute...' 'Ye what!!? Out of here, ye shameless harlot! Sinner! You're a disgrace to this Catholic family.'
'OK, Dad-- as ye wish. I just came back to give mum this luxurious fur coat, title deed to a ten bedroom mansion plus a $5 million savings certificate. For me little brother, this gold Rolex. And for ye Daddy, the sparkling new Mercedes limited edition convertible that's parked outside plus a membership to the country club (takes a breath) and an invitation for ye all to spend New Years Eve on board my new yacht in the Riviera and... .'
'Now what was it ye said ye had become?' says Dad.
Girl, crying again, 'Sniff, sniff....a prostitute Daddy! Sniff, sniff.'
'Oh! Be Jesus ! Ye scared me half to death, girl! I thought ye said a Protestant. Come here and give yer old Dad a hug.

Got up a bit after six. I would have really enjoyed staying in bed longer this morning. It was a busy day at home.

Dick did get three walks in today. He gets breathless but said he is not experiencing quite as much discomfort in the effort.

I also vacuumed the upstairs carpets and did some other cleaning. The White Zinfandel wine that we are making is now all stirred and just has to sit to clear before bottling. I will also be stirring Bobbie's Strawberry Wine daily until she comes next week to put it into a secondary fermentor.

Bobbie has five batches of wine in various stages. Isn't that exciting and ambitious.

Chelsea had a little seizure this evening. Oscar is kind of off of his feed. (I think a hairball will be appearing soon.) So Roxie is the only totally healthy creature in the house.

Well, poor Farrah Fawcett died today. She certainly showed us bravery as she faced her death. Also Michael Jackson which was a surprise. We will be hearing about him for days. A lost soul. I will pray for both of them along with all the others on my list of needs.

Not anything else to report tonight. I am suddenly very weary and will be heading to bed now.

Take care

Mary

An early morning. We went on our walk after my shower and taking care of the cats at about 7AM. It was already getting warm. 76 degrees at 7AM. It got up to about 94 before the day was over and it is muggy.

Chelsea is always so alert and full of life in the early morning hours. The rest of the day her tail is drooping. We noticed when we first got her that her tail was most always flared up over her back like a fine wagging bustle. When she got very tired, her little tail would drag behind her as she tried to find a quiet place. Now, more and more, her little tail is dragging even when she is just observing things.

I went to Walmart early and got Dick an exercise ball that has been recommended by his therapist. Then I went grocery shopping. I got home at about 9:30AM. I put the groceries away and blew up the exercise ball. It came with a pump. Now the next chore is to get Dick to use it. The exercises are to improve the abdominal muscle strength so he walks more upright and does not lean so on his walker.

Bobbie came over in time for lunch. We had mainly leftovers, venison, bratwurst and carrots, with beans and salad. Then we went down to the wine room and Bobbie mixed up a batch of strawberry wine. She now has five batches going - all to onst.

She mentioned that she was going to have to start writing down when she has to do something on each or she will lose track. So I gave her one of my extra calendars to write everything on.

Two O'clock was the Amputee Support Group meeting. We had a nice turnout and played bingo. Everybody brought 5 white elephant gifts. It was a lot of fun and then we ended by just having a jam session sharing the things we have in common. I came home with a box of keeenix, a bag of hot chocolate mix and a puzzle book. Everybody all wish Dick would come. I certainly do. The wife of one of our amputees was a cookie lady at Plymouth Care and said that I must tell him that she is very disappointed that he has not come.

Bobbie was still here when I got home. She had to wait some time because the must had too cool before she could add the yeast. She will be back in a week now and I will stir the strawberry once a day until then.

Now it is getting on towards bedtime. The temperature has dropped but only to 85 degrees. Heat amd thunderstorms are predicted for the next couple of days though they say this is the hottest day. I hope we do get a bit of that predicted rain. I watered the plants that really need it but rain is so much better for the plants.

I also dried some lemon balm. I now have two jars of that for the year. More than enough as I can use fresh for most of the summer. My other herbs are doing OK but I wish the purple basil would be growing faster. My tomato plants look wonderful.

Tomorrow, I have no scheduled errands so except for cleaning it will be a quiet day. I intend to do some reading and some writing.

Have a nice quiet Thursday yourself.

Love

Mary

Chelsea let me sleep until 4AM this morning. I wish she would be consistant. I finally got up at a bit after 6AM. After feeding everybody, showering and walking Chelsea, we got Dick all ready for his busy day.

We left at about 10:45AM for Plymouth Care Center for therapy. Dick walked several times. Twice on the bars and twice with the walker. Wendy, the therapist, gave us some new exercises to do to strengthen his mid section. I have to go to WalMart to get a proper exercise ball tomorrow so we can start that.

We left there for Dairy Queen. We each had a cheeseburger and shared an order of fries and a Pepsi. Then, on our way to Wisconsin Prosthesis, we stopped at Mother's to pick up her fecal test that had to be dropped off at the Clinic and to leave her prescription for an Iron supplement which we hope will after a week or so leave her with more energy.

At Wisconsin Prosthesis, Tim did some adjustments to the prosthesis cup and his insole on the right foot which we hope will solve some discomfort and/or redness problems. We were home shortly after 2PM. This was our last errand.

The rest of the day I spent working on grocery lists, phone calls and on computer stuff.

Yesterday, at bible study, my friend Shirley Moioffer asked us to pray for them. They have a family of raccoons who have taken up residence in their attic. She was frying out on Father's Day and one came clicking out in broad daylight to observe what was going on. Raccoons cannot just be killed, they have to be trapped and relocated. Shirley has found someone who will come and trap them for her and Dan at $50 a crack. Pray that the mother raccoon did not have the maximum possible litter of 10.

I remember a trip that Dick and I took with our Zero to Wausau. We stopped at a rest stop just shy of Wittenberg so that Zero could relieve himself. We pulled into the stop and into a parking place. I was just about to open the door when we noticed movement in the headlights. To our "almost" horror there were at least 8 full grown raccoons cavorting in front of us. We immediately backed out and left. Zero just had to wait. Good thing we saw it quickly enough. Zero would have been torn to shreds by those raccoons.

Love
Mary

Roxie still hates it when I whistle. I started whistling a few minutes ago, forgetting that she is sleeping on the printer, and her eyes opened immediately. She looked at me, daring me to continue.

Chelsea woke me up at 4AM this morning, a great improvement over yesterday. I went back to bed and was able to sleep until 6AM. We had a busy morning as Dick and I were determined to get his clothes changed AND a walk in before I headed to Bible Study. This on top of all the usual just getting ready for the morning is a LOT. But we did it and did not feel too rushed.

Two people were not at bible study but we still had a good group there. Joe was back after his vacation and brought his wife, Felicia, along today. We had lively discussions about the woman who touched Jesus' robe and was healed of her hemorraging because of her faith AND about Jarius who believed that Jesus could heal his daughter. One a Jew and one a Gentile. So he will heal us all. Next week we are starting a study of the Gospel of Mark. Our books were there so we are set to go. We will read the introduction and decide how we are going to proceed.

Dick and I had pork cop and lima bean casserole for dinner and I went to the Cream City Writer's meeting. It was a good meeting. We only had to tone Don down from his preaching twice. There were two new ladies there who seem to be really interested in being a part of us. I sure hope so. We decided to give the Fourth of July or Independence Day as an "assignment" for next month's meeting.
Don has invited us out to his place for the next meeting. He is out in the country and really wants to share his "inspiration" deck with us.

Dick was sleeping when I got home, so I took care of wine and a few other things before he woke up. I remembered to stir the wine the three times it needs and Dick walked three times so we had a pretty successful day.

Did you know that if you look very closely at the Iwo Jima Memorial statue in Washington DC you will see that there are six figures putting up the flag but there are 13 hands. The sculptor simply said that the 13th hand was the Hand of God.
Also, if you start at the front of the statue and drive very slowly counter clockwise around it, as you come around, it appears that the flag actually is rising. It is phenomenal.

Have a great Tuesday. We are saturated with medical appointments, therapy , prosthesis and some errands for Mom.

Take care

Love

Mary

Two o'clock again. That dog is toying with me. At least I was able to get back to sleep and stay that way until 6AM. Last night was much better over all than the night before but I am still exhausted tonight.

There were several people out and about when Chelsea and I took our walk this morning. She is always such a perky and happy girl that noone believes that she is failing. Today was not great for her. I can tell because her little tail drags when she is not feeling too well.

However, Bobbie and Bill came over this afternoon. Bobbie had to do the next step on her Bay Leaf Wine. We went down to the wine room. Of course, Roxie was right behind us and complaining as usual. She doesn't understand what we are doing down there and tells us so. Oscar followed shortly. Then, to our surprise, we heard funny sounds on the stairs and, for the first time in months, Chelsea had managed to make her way down the stairs to see what was going on. She is really afraid of the stairs, I think because her cataracts are getting worse and she can't really judge the drop. Then, poor thing, she started up the stairs with Roxie and Roxie turned on her and belted her in the face. No claws, but I think it really confuses the her. She really is a sweet dog.

I fried out brats and venison chops this noon. We had brats, fresh cooked carrots and fruit salad with lunch along with pudding and whipped cream for dessert.

Tonight we had chef's salad. and an ice cream cone for dessert.

Dick had a pleasant Father's Day. We heard from everybody which makes him feel good. He walked today but only once. Tomorrow, I am going to push him a bit more. We need to get him moving.

Tuesday, therapy and a visit to the prosthesist again. He will be a busy guy. Wednesday will be the amputee support group meeting. I have been trying to get Dick to go. After all, though it is for caregivers too, he IS the amputee.

Today was the first day of summer. It got up to 82 degrees but has already dropped to 72. We might get a bit of rain tonight but it looks like a pretty good week ahead over all.

You enjoy your week now.

Mary