I went back to bed three times this morning. I could not really get sound asleep each time but was to tired that it was worth the effort. Chelsea had two good walks today. Tonight she is really subdued.

I spent the morning baking a pie and working on email. I did go to Walgreens to pick up several prescriptions that were waiting for us and I also bought some ant killer stuff as we have black carpenter ants appearing out of the blue these days. I hope that my ant "hotels" will get rid of these irritating creatures.


This afternoon, I went to the neighbor's , Jan Wilkerson's, for a Tastefully Simple party. That was a nice break. I got several things that we like from the Tastefully Simple line. One thing that I got was a new Rye Bread. I did not even get to sample it but it sounds good.

I went to the 4pm Mass and will be able to spend all day tomorrow at home. I want to do some refining on the Schleis part of our family for Mother. She is curious about that.


So here we are on May 1st. I still need to change a couple of calendars. It is only 6 days until Dick's birthday. He will be 80 years old. Somehow that sounds old as the fact that on May 21, I will be 70 sounds old too.

Oh well, We are still here. I hope there are reasons for that and that there are people who are glad that we are still here. I think of that because I know how much we appreciate the fact that Mother is still here and a part of our lives.

Have a lovely Sunday.

God love you

Mary

Today was a nice balance of home and errands.

Chelsea and I had good walks. On one of them I noticed something odd on the road. When I checked closer I found that it was a poor baby turtle, the shell about the size of a silver dollar. He had been run over by a car. I brought it home to show Dick and will see if it dries up and I can keep it.

I cleaned the bathrooms today and watered the indoor plants. I also had several calls to make and people to email.

Then, at 12:30, I joined the bank gals at the Dairy Queen. I had not been there for several weeks so had a bit to catch up on. Mary Schroeder was there. I had not seen her since some time last year. She is now retired so may be there more now.

When I got home, I took a nice nap. Then I took care of all the other creatures, two legged and four legged that live in our house. I fed those that needed feeding and walked those that needed walking and then drove on out to Rhine Plymouth to work. I was the first one there for a long time. I was getting a bit nervous. I can do almost everything at Rhine, but I do not know how to load the traps or how to set up the lines. As it turned out Jimmy is in the hospital, we don't know WHAT is up with two of our team and Harold and Matt was a bit late. We ended up sending Matt home because his son is in the hospital in Milwaukee. They think he has a hear problem. I think he is 15 so everybody pray for Matt's son.

During the day, I called our neighbor Dick because I had not seen him in several days and was concerned. He is OK but is having lots of asthma problems. I also called my friend Doc. He was SO sick a couple of weeks ago. Now he had a very severe nosebleed and is sitting with a "marshmallow" plug in his nose to give it a chance to heal. As I told Doc's wife Judy, I was checking up on all my old men that aren't too well.

So my day is done and I am ready to hit the hay. Dick told me that Bart had called when he was not able to get to the phone, so I called him too. Barb has really bad allergies. Adam has applied at the fire department for a job. Bart and Barb will be here the last week in June. Bret is supposed to come too. Such joy there will be then.

God love you all

Mary

Another day spent at home and I think I am finally getting a bit rested. After the weekend and then Mom's difficulties, I was really very spent.

Chelsea did get me up twice during the night but the last time was at 5:30AM so I just crawled back in for an hour and did get a bit more rest. She had a fairly good appetite today and seemed to enjoy her walks, though she does move slowly after we have walked for a while. This morning, I saw a Sandhill Crane flying overhead. I feel that he was my blessing for the day.

Joan came and cleaned today. I did two loads of wash and we got Dick all cleaned up and lotioned. We are trying to keep dry skin and rashes away and so far do pretty well.

I worked a bit on Ancestry today. I had to call Mother for some confirmation. She sounds pretty good, by the way. I wanted to verify that Grandma Bowser's name was Marie, not Mary or Maria and that her middle name is Josephine. In some of the trees by other relatives, sometimes Grandma was called Mary or Maria and in some of them there is a Josephine or Joesphina listed as another sister. So I will be able to help them refine their trees. Mom is excited that I am looking at that tree also as she is interested in the Schleis family which is on Grandma Bowser's mother's side.

They say cranes bring luck
Today one flew over us
So we have been blessed.





So another day past and only one more day left in April. May is a busy month for us as we both have birthdays and Mother's Day is in there too. Dick and I will be hitting 80 and 70 this year. Somehow those are bridge years. I remember when Mother reached 70 she said that she really had never minded 40 or 50 or 60 but that 70 sounded OLD. I will have to remind her 94 year old little self of that.

Have a nice Friday

God love you

Mary

What a day. Chelsea got me up at about 12:30AM but did not come for me again until 5:30AM which is not a bad deal, in my opinion.

I finally got up at 7AM. (I fed Roxie at 5:30AM and gave Chelsea her medicine in the ice cream) Then I took Chelsea for a nice long walk and gave her breakfast which she totally ignored. We had a nice walk though. We met up with the neighbors across the street,Bill and La Vonne for part of it. Chelsea, of course, has much more to explore along the way so we move much slower than most walkers.

Then I went out to do errands. First I stopped at Wells Fargo to cash a couple of checks. Next, I went to Advanced Eye Care to pick up my new glasses. How fun is that? And Lastly, I stopped at the Pig for my weekly shopping. I saw fellow writer Jena and she noticed my glasses right away. That made me feel good. I also saw Jennifer, who used to be in liquor but is now in deli, and we talked a bit. She told me to give Dick a big hug. So I did.

Then I had to face the Quicken Problem. We were having trouble updating from Wells Fargo. I had forgotten my passwords because I had not been in it for heaven knows how long and Dick was getting an error. Hallelujah, I remembered my passwords and now have them safely updated in my file, which only I know the key to, so I was able to update. Then I spent a couple of hours getting Dick's quicken squared away. An hour before I went to the Amputee Support Group Meeting and an hour afterwards. I finally got it fixed but I cannot really tell you how.

Now, the hard part is over and I wish I could go to bed, but it is much too early as I will have to take Chelsea out at 8:30 or 9PM to have any chance of a long sleep.

Here is a Haiku from yesterday.

The Great Blue Heron
Flew gracefully overhead
Blessing our morning.

Did I tell you that on Friday, when we were walking, we got to the end of June Grass Lane and there were two geese, our resident geese I think. They were within 25 feet of us. Now, Chelsea did not see them so we walked by without alarming them and they were only curious of us. I love those times.

God love you

Mary

 

Me and Marie. Isn't she lovely?

I WAS able to stay home all day today. But it still turned out to be rather busy.

The morning was spent emptying the bags from the trip and putting things away. Chelsea needed two good walks, (she does slow down after getting herself a bit further from home than she should.)

Jeff and Kathy stopped by at about 11:15AM with some cookies that I had purchased from a fundraiser their home and school had put on. Kathy told me that last year they made 23,000 cookies, this year it was up to almost 30,000. WOW. I bought 2 dozen. I can pull out whatever I want and just bake them. (or as Kathy said, thaw and eat the cookie dough.) Jeff, bless his heart, got the light in my oven replaced. I have been trying but there were some problems. He spread the filaments and blew out the dust and I have a light again. Brothers sure come in handy. And I sure am lucky with the ones God gave me.

We had chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and salad for our lunch.

Then at about 1PM the guys from Steger Heating came to do a maintenance check on out air conditioner. They found a couple of things that needed cleaning and/or cleaning so we had them take care of them.

We had Bobbie's chili for our supper. It was good and it is sure nice to have something good just ready to heat up.

While I was on my trip to Lake Geneva, Mary Gorski, Kate Herman and I were sitting at a breakfast table on Saturday morning at the Comfort Suites. A sweet little elderly lady, dressed in bright clothes and wearing a bubushka, stopped at our table to talk. She was charming. We found out that she was there for a weekend reuinion of her family. She herself is a holocost surviver. What a lovely lady. I found out that she is 86 years old and her name is Marie. We will probably hear more of her as her daughter,Ann, joined us for our lecture on the Tinkers on Saturday. She wanted to stay longer with us but, of course, family comes first and this was their reunion weekend.

I will post a picture of our Marie for you to see her joy.

God love you all

Mary

Then

 
 
 

Another very tiring day. I left at about 8AM so that I could get gas in the car and be at Rich's House of Flowers at 8:30AM when they opened. Then I took Courtney's flowers out to the cemetery for her. They are beautiful.

Then I went to see how Mother was doing before I went to Bible Study. Alicia, the caregiver, was there, so I finally got to meet her. Dolores was there too. Dolores and Alicia had worked together when Dolores was still working, so that makes us feel even better about her. She is such a caring, competent aid.

Mother was very very weak after her problems of the night before. We now know that she has a bladder infection and her triglycerides are off balance. So there is some adjustment to her medications and she has to get salt and minerals back in her system and she has antibiotics.

At 9:30 I went to bible study and came back after we finished for a bit. In that hour I was gone, she rallied quite a bit. Just the rest and the sipping of the sports drinks must be helping. So I called the doctor and made sure that we have the instructions all down pat. Then went home to join Bobbie and Dick for lunch at home. Bobbie brought Chelsea back too. Chelsea had a good time. The first day she was full of vinegar. She slowed down some on Sunday but was OK. As Bobbie said, At least, she sure likes her rides.

This afternoon, I dropped some stuff off at Kate's and had a cup of tea with her. Then I stopped at the cemetery to take pictures of Courtney's flowers. (I forgot the camera this morning.) Then went over to Mom's to take her the Vit Eyes that she needed and I picked up hearing aid batteries for her. Dolores had stayed with her until afternoon and Donna will come over to fix her dinner and see that she gets to bed. So she will be fine til tomorrow, then we will see. She was almost back to normal when I was there this afternoon and frankly wanted to have some quiet time alone.

I still have not told you much about the conference but will do more of that as time goes on. We had a very interesting key speaker, Jose Lanters who teaches at UW Milwaukee and wrote a book called The Tinkers in Irish Literature. I learned a lot. And it made me realize the similarities and differences between Traveling People in almost every nation.

I will put a couple of pictures on before I sign off for the night.

I am a bit distressed. I cannot fine three of my favorite rings OR my gold watch that I got when I retired. I wanted to take them with me this past weekend. The last time I remember wearing them was about Eastertime and I must have set them down together, but I am going crazy trying to remember where. Pray that they show up. I am really getting distressed about it.

So I am about ready to take our Chelsea girl out and then go to bed.

God love you all.

Mary

4/25

I am home. I am tired. I had a WONDERFUL time.

Such a dynamic group of women. Not only did I get a two day break in my life but I got to talk, a lot, (all of you who know and love Dick know how much that means.) and to not have to take care of anybody but me for that period of time was a welcome respite.

4/26AM

I had to stop as Mother went to the hospital again. I got there just as the ambulance was ready to leave, as Randy WAS going to make a decision when I got there, but she passed out and he just called 911. So I went back home and Randy and Donna went to the hospital with her.

I will update you tonight. She is home again, so there is, again, nothing that requires hospitalization.

Please Pray.

Mary