This was a busy at home day. It was still cold but the temps at least got out of the single digits and even into the low 30s.

I had to be at the Redeemer Lutheran Church for our Condo Association meeting at 9:15 or so to help register. I had a proxy from our neighbor Dick Kastberg and drove another neighbor Jean Steiner to the meeting. It was quite successful a meeting. The budget was presented along with a summary of last year. The president gave her talk. We learned what to expect from the snow plowing crew. They are trying to accommodate everybody in a very small time frame but I believe the plan is good.

Home again, I fixed lunch, sealed up three of the four packages that have to go out for Christmas and took a nap before going to church at 4PM. It was a nice Mass. Fr. Van Beeck talked about St. John the Baptist again. These are the Gospels that tell about St. John's ministry to be the voice in the wilderness announcing Jesus.

The neat message that he had today was that we don't have to go off to foreign lands or convert a whole bunch of people to Jesus. All we have to do is be the best Mom, or Wife, or friend that we can be to the people we have contact with. To, as Jesus said, love one another as I have loved you. Then we have a shoo in to heaven.

Not as easy as it sounds.

Home again. We talked to Jim and Michelle tonight. They are baking Christmas cookies and have acquired a new puppy. A little girl called Mocha. We will be getting pictures soon.

That is the day. Tomorrow I will send pictures to kind of zip up the blog. Dont't want to bore you.

God love you

Mary

It was cold again today. It did get up into the teens but barely and that was a very short window.

Did all my early morning things and went to Aurora to see Dr. Murthy to have my blood pressure checked again. The nurse took it first. My left arm was fine 112/64 then she took the right arm and it was 158/80. She had never seen such a difference in her years of nursing. When Dr. Murthy came in, he took my right reading again and it had dropped to 138/80 which is perfectly acceptable. So, he asked lots of questions. We decided that I will check daily with our home blood pressure monitor and will see him in three weeks. He also gave me a little stronger anti depressant to take before I go to bed at night. He said it will take a few days to begin to work so I must be patient.

I stopped off at home before going to the dentist for my cleaning. That went well. As usual, Dr. Joe and the dental assistant said that I have good teeth and do a good job of caring for them. I can brag about something anyway.

After fixing Dick's lunch, a grilled cheese, I drove over to the Dairy Queen for lunch with my buddies. There were four of us and we are all having little struggles now. Especially, pray for my friend Betty's daughter, Amy, who will be having surgery on her larynx next Wednesday. She broke her food a couple of weeks ago and now this. Pray that it is not cancerous and that all goes well this close to Christmas.

Home again, I took a short nap and made the bed. Then, Dick and I went out on a dinner date to Sweet Basil. We are always happy with the meal and the service there. Dick had a fish fry. Because it is batter fried and that does not agree with me, I got the scallop special. We were both very happy, as usual. My friends, Joanne and Glen Huehns and their daughter and her husband came in. Joanne and I started Kindergarten and graduated from high school together so have been friends for a long time. I worked with Glen when he was manager of the Plymouth Branch of Wells Fargo.

We got home at about 6PM and have just been lazing around. Roxie is being very cuddly tonight. I realized that I needed to put a blanket on the cedar chest at the end of our bed for the kitty. I always had one for Oscar but had moved it. Lately Roxie is showing up during the night and I see her on the cedar chest, so might as well make it comfortable.

This morning was Diane Sawyer AND Chris Cuomo's last day on GMA. I will miss them both. Diane spoke of all of us as being her friends. After 10 years, we all feel like she is our friend. I am a GMA follower and have been for years. I am glad that George Stephanopoulis and Juju Chang are replacing the above two. It will be interesting to see how things develop. Still have Robin Roberts and Sam Champion so we won't be totally revamped. It is exciting to see Diane and Chris to move up in their fields and I am sure that neither of them will miss getting up at 4AM to check in to work.

Guess that's all for now. Catch you tomorrow.

God love you


Mary

It was Artic Cold today. When I got up it was 6 degrees. I never saw anything over 7 degrees on any of our thermometers. Chelsea surely must feel cheated the past couple of days - No walks in storms or when it is this cold. We just go outside the garage and she has to make due.

Joan, our cleaning lady, came at 8AM. She comes from Sheboygan and said that they had rain there yesterday so had much less snow. BUT they had more ice. Snow is better than ice.

I worked on Christmas cards today, I am about 2/3 done. Not too bad. This evening I wrapped most of the presents that have to be mailed and have begun to fit them into boxes. I intend to have both projects completed by next Tuesday.

This afternoon, I went to my friend Joan Kramer's home for a reflexology treatment. It sure felt good and Joan is hoping she massaged out some of the tension from my hips. I could really feel the problem while she was massaging the area that covers that in both my hands and feet and it did relax. However, there was one problem. Joan always takes blood pressure of the people she works on (she is an RN) and my pressure was rather high. So she took it when we were done and I was really relaxed and it was still high. This is NOT like me at all. I have always had low blood pressure. So I have an appointment to see Dr. Murthy in the morning to get it checked again. Weird. I don't like that though. Pray that it was just a fluke.

The best thing that happened today was that Bart called this morning to see how we were weathering the cold and ask about the snow. He sounded good, was waiting to see his doctor and nursing a Latte and is so very happy that Barbara will be home tomorrow evening. He said the kitties have been so very clingy, especially after he was gone those three weeks. They will go bonkers when Barbara walks in the door.

I am going to wrap a couple more presents and then go to bed.

God love you all

Mary

We were snowed in today. It snowed all night and left about 6 inches on the ground. All the schools and public offices were closed. I called at 8AM and told them that I would not be there for my dental appointment.

Tonight was our, (Mom and me) night for the Sheboygan Community players. Needless to say, we are not there. I left a message with the Theatre company. Haven't heard whether they put on a performance or not. But even if everything had been plowed, (which it was not. They just plowed out our driveway about a half an hour ago.) there is a cold spell following and I can't have Mother out in single digit temperatures.

SO - today, I finished decorating the tree and brought up the last of the Santas and Nativity scenes. Sad news, I cannot seem to locate my naked Santa. He has to be around here somewhere, but I can't find him anywhere.

I did a lot of cleaning too. I like to have clutter out of the way when Joan comes to do the floors.

Tonight is quiet. I am watching Shrek's Christmas show and then will begin winding down for the night. Richard and Brenda sent pictures of their snow. They had at least twice as much as we had and Richard is trying to save their Arbor Vitae from breaking with a long extension broom that he invented himself. Good luck, Richard.

So that was our day.

Tomorrow I intend to bake, and get things organized for sending the Christmas packages to the out-of-staters. I am figuring that if everything we order arrives, I should be able to go to the post office on Monday.

So that was today, busy but quiet. Hope that you had a cocoon day too and were able to take advantage of it.

God love you

Mary

Today was another marathon.

I was able to stay home until 10AM. I got a lot done during that time. I heard from Dr. Sokhi, who is trying to fix my tummy. He is pleased that, at least my stomach does not hurt at night anymore, and had prescribed another medication that he hopes will stop the pain during the rest of the day.

At 10AM, I went to Mass. It is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day in our church. I was able to go and did not have to face the weather we may be facing tomorrow, so I went. It was a nice Mass. The church was full. With the school kids and lots of adult members. I do enjoy Father Van Beeck's sermons to the children.

I went directly from Mass to the Sewing Basket and bought my Barbara's Christmas presents. Then I went to Walgreens to pick up my new prescription, a prescription for Dick and some real bargains that Walgreens had for sale. Got some really good prices on groceries and vitamins.

We had soup and quesadilla for lunch and then I took a nap.

At 2:00PM I got up, go the mail and then went to get a haircut. After the haircut I went to the Pig to do the grocery shopping because it is supposed to be REALLY bad out there tomorrow and Dick wanted me to have that chore all done.

So. It IS all done. But I am exhausted. I am supposed to have a dentist appointment at 9AM tomorrow morning. I will look at the streets when Chelsea gets me up at "the Good Lord Knows When" during the night. Mother already told me that she does not want to chance going out for the play tomorrow night. If it is as bad as they say, the play may be cancelled anyway. I don't want to go if it is dangerous either. Sufficient unto the day.

This morning I put a small venison roast in the slow cooker and used my Venison Beer stew recipe to cook it. It worked just fine. Boy is that a good meal. And to think that for years I could not make a good stew to save my soul. Oh. Well. I have this one and one other which is much more labor intensive but good.

Well, I am going to watch, A Year Without A Santa Claus, and have a cup of tea until it is time to go to bed.

Stay safe in all of this bad weather. It seems to be all over the country.

God love you all.

Mary

A usual busy Monday.

It had snowed all night. It was supposed to stop by 9:15, but kept on falling until afternoon. It was not too deep, but we did get between 3 and 4 inches. When I was driving to Falls, it was pretty slippery. I had to put air in my right rear tire which was recording a bit low. I drove between 40 and 45 all the way. There was no wind so there was no drifting, but it was pretty slippery. I slid out a bit once but I was not going fast enough to lose control. By the time bible study was over, the roads were well traveled and plowed and it was no longer slippery.

We were only short three people at bible study. One of our members had surgery so we all prayed especially for her. Jesus walked on water in our reading today. So we had a lot to talk about with that.

Then I went over to Mother's with her prescriptions. We had a nice visit as usual. Wednesday night is supposed to be the Community Play. It looks like there will be a big storm coming in. In that case, we will not be able to go. Too dangerous for Mom and Dick would be very unhappy if I go out too.

Mom said that Sara wants to learn how to make the Christmas Wreath Stolen that Mom made for years and years and years. She actually got the recipe from my Grandma Deeley. She has not made it for the past two years because it is too hard for her to roll it out. I made it those years but am still perfecting mine. Last year I did not roll it out thin enough.

Anyway, Mom gave Sara the recipe. Sara will mix up the dough on the 19th and then bring it over to Mother's on the 20th and they will finish it together. Jessie may join them. Mother is delighted and I think it is just wonderful that their generation is wanting to carry on the traditions. Besides it is a great stolon.

Dick had to go to the anti coagulation clinic today. His blood is just a smidge thin, so Deb adjusted the meds and we will go back in two weeks to check it out.

Then home again and I put the last of the decorations on the tree. I just have to put the garland and icicles on. So. I should be able to finish tomorrow. Then I just need to get the last of the Nativities and my Santas up.

Tonight was the Rhine Plymouth Annual meeting. It was election night. Greg Reich will be our new president. I agreed to serve on the board if elected. I didn't vote for myself, but still got in. I agreed to that because it just means a time commitment of an extra hour at each of the regular meetings. I think I told you that Sara Behr, an active member who had served in many capacities, resigned last month. Well, her husband, Dennis and his brothers, resigned as of the end of the year also. They were hard workers and will be missed. We have, however, recently gained a nice number of new members from the ranks of the parents of the high school kids. Family memberships which I believe will really help the club and by bringing in the high school kids too, insure that we will go on.

I will be working a shoot at the club on Sunday and am making a big pot of chili. We figure it will be cold and chili will be a good treat for everybody. Maybe I'll bake something too.

Guess that is all for tonight. Would you believe, we forgot the Packer Game was on. We have it on now and just watched Rogers throw a pass to Driver for a second touchdown. The score is 17/0. Yippee!!

God love you all.

Mary

A nice stay at home day after all the excitement of the weekend. I did go to Mass at 9:30AM. It was a nice Mass. I met my friend Ceil, who had surgery last week, in the parking lot. He daughter drove her to Mass as she is still not supposed to drive. She looks good though. She said that she should be able to drive next Thursday, but I told her that I should probably pick her up and drive her to our weekly Dairy Queen lunch.

The rest of the day was quiet. I rested after lunch, but did some decorating of the tree and also sent a memo to my Celtic Women in Sheboygan.

We had chicken, veggie loaf and salad for lunch. And miscellaneous leftovers for our supper. And that was the day.

I am ready for an early night. The week ahead is filling up already. So far Thursday is the only day without anything on the agenda. So I think I need to get as much sleep as I can tonight so I am ready for what is coming.

Take care and God Love You All.

Mary