It was a good day. I finished the book of poems for the WFWA Chapbook contest. Dick just has to do a final edit, I will show it to the Cream City Writers and then see if it needs some trimming. It has turned out quite well, I think.

The rest of the day, I was just busy with, as Dick says, things that I do and I am, of course, tired. I made some blueberry scones this evening after church.

During the day I cut the grasses that I harvested to 10 to 12 inch lengths so that we can make St Bridget crosses out of them tomorrow during the CWI meeting. It looks like there will be 6 of us. I have gathered together several sources of legend and facts about St. Bridget which I will present first. I took the grasses in a nice big plastic bag and had Fr. Van Beeck bless them as the directions said that one should have the grasses blessed before weaving the crosses. I will have to take one to Fr. Van Beeck next weekend. Tomorrow I will soak them in water which should make them easier to work with. Our meeting is from 2 to 4PM. I will serve tea and scones and Joan Brigham said that she would bring something too. The first meeting of the year. Hope this year goes well.

We do have a big event that we will cosponsor with the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center. Mary Pat Kelly, who wrote Galway Bay, will come the first week in June to give a talk. This could be a really big event if we advertise. The book is FANTASTIC. If any of you want to read it, I have a copy.

I think I have managed to get rid of most of the ice at the front door, but still weill open the garage door and let the ladies come in through the garage. It is just plain safer.

Roxie is spending an awful lot of time in my lap lately. Just plain needy.

Love

Mary

While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform. 'Are you a cop?' she asked, 'Yes,' I answered and continued writing the report. My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?' 'Yes, that's right,' I told her. 'Well, then,' she said as she extended her foot toward me, 'would you please tie my shoe?'

Chelsea was very weird last night. She started pacing in the bedroom at about 11:30PM but she never put her paws up on the bed to tell me that she wanted to go out, then she went out into the living room again. Then - she did not come to get me until around 5AM. The one thing consistent about her is her inconsistency.

I came back with her from her longer morning walk and Barbara had called while we were out. Dick had answered, of course. Barbara's father, Don died early this morning. Thank you all for the prayers. He is no longer in pain. Please continue to pray for the family. Don was a wonderful man and will be missed by his family and friends.

I had lunch at the Dairy Queen with my bank friends. I fixed Dick a chili dog for his lunch and I had a burger and onion rings at the Dairy Queen. Then I went to Mother's to bring her some meds and make a couple of calls for her. I only have one thing that I forgot to do and will take care of that on Monday. She looked a bit better today but is still very tired. I took her some of the chicken soup too. Donna came while I was there, she had done some grocery shopping for Mom. She is feeling much better.

Got a Factbook message and an email from Bobbie. Her cast is off of her wrist. Yea. She is still stiff and feeling a bit stiff but glad to be free of it. She is going to start skating again but will wear wrist guards when she does.

Nancy and I went shooting pistol league tonight. We each shot three targets. My first two were total manure but the last one was much better. We are numbering the first five this time and then will be put into categories where we will be competing against those who are about our league. I guess if I am going to have an awful day it is better during these first five targets but I sill wish I could get more consistent.

That was the day. I will be fixing myself a nice cup of decaf tea pretty soon and will get to bed by 9 with any luck at all.

Have yourself a nice weekend. I will be hosting a St Bridget gathering on Sunday afternoon. I am looking forward to that and attempting to make a Bridget cross.

God Love You

Mary

Well, today was an at home day but boy was I busy. I got up at 6 on the dot because I needed to finish the tree. I figured that if I got it all down and stowed in its box, Joan, our cleaning lady, would help me carry it downstairs. And she did. So now Dick doesn't have to worry about me trying to get it down to the furnace room alone.

I had several phone calls to make today to doctors and health care workers and veterinarians. And I DID have to go out this afternoon to pick up prescriptions for Mother, Dick and Chelsea. Aside from taking Chelsea for about 8 walks today that was the only time I left the house. It is no wonder that I am tired at the end of the day.

I remembered yesterday that Sunday will be the CWI meeting and we are doing a study of St. Bridget and attempting to make St. Bridget Crosses. I looks like there will be about 7 or 8 of us here so it will be manageable. I cut a bunch of grasses and also have some twisted paper that is suggested in some of the directions so we can all try and see how we do. There are simple directions on the net and I have pulled together information on Bridget both legand and fact to relay to the group. This seemed like a good program as we are planning a trip to Ireland at this time next year to celebrate St. Bridget Day. Did you know that Ireland has three patron saints? They are St. Patrick, St. Columba (Columcille) and St. Bridget.

Tomorrow evening, Nancy and I will start shooting our pistol league at Rhine. She is going to pick me up at about 4:45PM so Dick and I will eat dinner when I get home.

Take care and have a good Friday.

God love you

Mary

A fairly successful day. Dick and I went to the new Roadside Inn on Hwy 57 for breakfast on Bret this morning. The people who ran the Plymouth Family Restaurant opened this one. As I said the smoke drove us out of the old one but they have no smoking anywhere in this establishment so we could just enjoy the food. We both got omelets and brought home enough for lunch tomorrow.

Then I did the grocery shopping and picked up a prescription at Walgreens.

I finished the soup this morning and then took a nap after lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent taking the rest of the ornaments off of the tree and getting them packed away. All that is left is to take one box downstairs and then get the tree stowed in its box and dragged down to the furnace room. I am kind of planning on doing that early tomorrow so that Joan can get the livingroom all vacuumed up. There are little gold stars and bits of tree scattered all over.

Roxie has found the activity of stripping the tree fascinating. She loved all the boxes and activity with just her and me involved. I think she thought that I was playing with her. It made her very hungry. She got very demanding for her dinner starting at 3:30 which was way too early. I finally broke down and fed her at about 4:15 because she wore me down.

Chelsea is becoming a very picky little eater these days. I have to go through all kinds of tricks to get her to eat. I have just about got her eating only the special diet but still she is not eating with much enthusiasm. The confusing part for me is that she is so picky and even special treats are not special to her anymore. She seldom will eat lettuce and the commercial treats that she used to love she sill only eat sometimes. This growing old is sure hard, even for critters.


God love you

Mary

Well it was a very quiet day, but I did end up having to leave the neighborhood once anyway. Dick had something scratching in his eye. It reminded him of a similar situation a couple of years ago when an eyelash was sticking into the eye. He was right. An eyelash was sticking in again. Dr. Cheryl pulled it out and gave him some drops for the irritation. She said it is a condition called tricosis, and if it becomes chronic, we will pursue lazering the offending lash out of there. But we will just have to see what happens.

I started a pot of chicken soup with one of the stewing chickens that Bobbie gave us. I got the stock all ready so tomorrow I can add the veggies and spices and chicken and we can have it for supper tomorrow night.

I also started packing the Christmas tree ornaments away. Tomorrow I will tackle that again. Those things plus phone calls and working on some computer work for CWI and my book kept me really busy all day.

Tomorrow, Dick and I are going out for breakfast. We have not done that for over a year. We are going to the Wilderness which is now the Plymouth Family Restaurant, though I don't know which name it is going under. They always had good breakfasts and I understand are now non smoking. We stopped going there because of the smoke. We are going on Bret's "dollar". He didn't know what to get for Dick so sent money for a breakfast on him. What a guy. He has such an imagination.

So the day is done and so am I.

Til tomorrow. Keep yourself well.

Love

Mary

The day started off rather quietly. The most activity I had was taking Chelsea in and out of the hours. She was a constant nag again today while I was home. I am so glad that she is finally sleeping and will probably sleep until I wake her up just before I go to bed.

I went to bible study this morning. There were only four of us today. Several had medical appointments and two are in Texas for the winter. But we don't let that stop us. We are in the middle of the Gospel of Mark and enjoying the commentary.
We have an awful lot of people to pray for these days, even in our ranks.

Then I stopped at Mothers. She was sitting with freshly washed and trimmed hair for Denise to come back from the store and finish her permanent. Denise was so embarrassed. She forgot her curlers so had to go and get some. Oh well, she can use them at her shop. Mike Gustafson, Mary Margaret's husband was just leaving when I got there. Mary Margaret had sent some fresh soup for Mother's lunch. I brought food too. I put my soup in the freezer and left the meat loaf and kale out for her supper. It was good seeing Denise and catching up with her and her family. I cannot believe that Samantha is graduating from high school this spring and going to college in the fall. Like Dick said. She is only "this" high.
And her Jack is 11 already.

Denise is another of Mom's special people who do things for her. This saves Mom from going to get her hair taken care of and she was feeling not right as the perm was all gone. She is still very weak and going to the beauty parlor would be not very wise.

When I got home I knew that I had the whole afternoon and all of tomorrow at home. Wednesday, Dick and I are going out for breakfast on Wednesday and then I will go grocery shopping. So it is turning out to be a rather quiet week. As I said, no doctor appointments at all. I hardly no how to act.

Have a nice evening.

Mary



"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined,

but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to

maintain a status of independence from any who might

attempt to abuse them, which would include their

own government." -- George Washington

cid:1.2658647179@web81407.mail.mud.yahoo.com



1. "Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not" Thomas Jefferson
2. Those who trade liberty for security have neither. ~John Adams
3. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
4. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
5. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
6. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
7. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.
8. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
9. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
10. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
11. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
12. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved.
13. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
14. What part of 'shall not be infringed' do you NOT understand?
15. Guns have only two enemies; rust and politicians.




16. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.

17. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

A wonderful quiet day at home. I really took it easy. The only real work I did was making dinner and three loads of wash. We had meatloaf. I decided to surprise Dick with that. He loves meatloaf and it goes well with potato salad.

Feeding Chelsea is becoming quite a puzzle. She is being switched over to G D formula Science Diet which will be better for her kidney. So I have to mix half and half for a couple more days to get her used to the new food. Now she is being very picky in he eating anyway and this morning she did not eat her breakfast. I don't know if it was because she was off her food, she did not like the mixture or she did not like the Aluminum Hydroxide that I mixed in to it. It seemed like a better idea than trying to spoon it down her throat. I think we could get away with that maybe once.

Tonight we mixed it with ice cream and she lapped it all up, so that is what I will try tomorrow. Dr. Pat hopes that this might settle her tummy and also the aluminum hydroxide is good for one of the kidney failings. So we will see.

Then tonight we watched the Packers. What a game. They lost, but what a game. The score was 45/48. Unfortunately the Cardinals got the 48 with a touchdown in overtime. Except for our rotten first quarter we would have whipped them. It was the highest ever scoring game in the playoffs EVER.

My week is quiet, so far and I am going to do my best to keep it that way. It willg ive me a chance to put Christmas away and do it in a leisurely fashion. Hope you have a good week too. Would you believe that we do not have even one medical appointment.

God love you.

Mary