[Alffe]

Way too much!! Seeing the surgeon this morning..post op and pre-opt.
Enjoyed the company of my old friend yesterday although we had so many tree people in the yard, driveway, and on the road...so much flying sawdust we thought it was snowing...and noisy!!! It's going to look very different out there in the spring.

Need to make dog food this afternoon and do some baking for sil's arrival on Sunday.... Mustn't mix those two...also need to make more banananut bread...

Got a yummy box of cheese from sister in Wisc. last night..late last night..driver said he couldn't get in our driveway due to the tree people in the afternoon...it always gets my attention when people drive in late...got to love those security lights!

What's on your plate???

[FeelinGoofy]

Getting ready to go to work... its pay day so this evening Rick and I will get a tree and tomorrow, since both my kiddos are home, we will decorate.... LOLOL. Rebecca let me know in no uncertain terms that i was NOT to decorate the tree without her this year LOLOL.... Finals were over for both kids yesterday and she had to be out of the dorms by 3:00 yesterday.... Scott decided to come home too for a long weekend.... i love having my kids home...

[hippiechick]

The last of the shopping is done....so glad. What do you buy for someone who has everything he wants and doesn't want anything??? It's hard... It's for my father-in-law; I hope he likes it. He's the only one in the family who gets a present....and he rakes it in!!! It's so great to watch him! He's like a kid in a candy store! I say he doesn't 'want anything' because that's what he tells everyone....but he'd be crushed if we didn't all (35 of us) find something for him! LOL

Yesterday I went to visit the Convent I used to work in. I was really close to one of the 'younger' Sisters...she's probably late 70's now. We were so close; she's been to my home so many times, I'd take her out to eat and for ice cream, to swim, for drives, etc. and just spend time with her. Yesterday she didn't know me at all. Couldn't even remember me and looked right through me. She told me the same things over and over so many times about all of her brothers and sisters. Of course, I already knew it, because I know them. They didn't tell me that she'd been diagnosed with Alzheimer's earlier this fall. I just saw her in the summer and she didn't seem like this.

I didn't cry in front of her, but I was so totally shocked. I couldn't believe that she didn't remember me. She kept calling me "Sr. Hipchick".....and even told the Superior that I was "Sr. Hipchick" (she knows me, too, and played along)....I just sat in my car and cried for a long time because I never thought it would be her in a million years.

What an ugly beast this thing is. It really makes me angry; I was angry with my disease but Alzheimer's really stinks big time. And I wish that I still ran the Infirmary at the Convent so that I could be the one taking care of her. I know that they're impatient with the ones who get like that because so many of the 12 Sisters that I took care of had Alzheimer's and, oddly enough, I could relate to that. So what does that say about my brain??? Maybe I'm the one who has something wrong!

I guess I'm just a bit surprised by it all...saddened by it all. Maybe that will be my mission for next year.....to take her under my wing and spend as much time as I can with her.

[Alffe]

Will be a very busy week...weather very iffy. We are supposed to go into Chicago today on the South Shore, stay overnite at The Raphael, see sil for breakfast tomorrow and then head home tomorrow afternoon. (part of a lovely gift pkg from two of our girls) There is Lake Effect snow in our forecast...normally we would love an adventure but.......

Mr.Alffe begins his prep on Wednesday for his Thursday surgery..oldest daughter coming home for this...we all have to be able to get in and out of our driveway... 6 to 12 inches of drifting snow might be a bit of a problem. What to do, what to do!!

What he calls an adventure, I call being responsible. Will update later.

The "weather wimp" wins! We are staying home!!

[hippiechick]

I'm a 'weather wimp', too. I don't get out by myself in the snow anymore....only because hubby gave our son his truck, he drives my 4x4 and I have the sports car....well, that's great when the weather is nice....but not when it snows! So far it hasn't...yet! I know it's coming, though, and I dread being 'trapped' in the house....yikes!!

I hope that Mr. Alffee sails through whatever he's doing. We'll have to make him an 'honorary Mr. Alffe-chick'...*grin. That, alone, should get his spirits up!! Or maybe he should be a 'Mr. Alffe-dude'....whichever he'd rather be, I suppose!

A whole new year ahead of me....I'd thought I'd read 150 books last year and failed miserably...not really, I managed to read 106 and that's more than I read the year before, so that's improvement. And I just ordered 27 more and bought 2 today; oh, joy of joys!!! I'm one happy gal tonight.

My BFF and I are planning a trip to the Mall of America later this year....our maiden voyage alone! Yes, we're going to our old "hometown" of Hannibal, Mo. later this summer and having a pajama party on 7/3...we'll be in one motel and poor hubby will be in another, but we'll take him to town with us on 7/4 for the fireworks!!! I'm lucky that she loves him to death and he's a good sport, so he'll be right in the middle of us...oh, lucky man!!!

I think I have way too much fun than a person should be entitled to in this life! But I'm taking all that I can get and I'm not going to feel guilty for any of it this whole year!!!

[barbo]

Way to read!!

[hippiechick]

I'm going to have to change my 'reading hours' before long, I'm afraid. Right now I can read from 10 pm to 4 am and it's perfect....hubby's going to be home for almost a year on a layoff.....so that's going to cut my hours in half! We'll see...I still have great plans, though....I just checked on my order of books from yesterday....it's on the way....27.60 lbs. of books. Somehow that just sounds thrilling to me!!! But they'll be read so quickly!

[Lara]

27.60 lbs. of books sounds totally thrilling to me!

I've been a busy girl...

Been helping out my elderly neighbour. That's a really long story for another time. <sigh> Her family is sending her to a low-care facility and it's all happened within 2 weeks and it's really sad, sad, sad.

I've been in a cooking frenzy making tomato relish, mango chutney (although it was a new recipe and I'm not fond of it really), pickled cucumbers, banana/orange/lemon butter (curd), and about a dozen other things.

Pelting down rain here at present so I've been watching the grass grow before my very eyes and my herbs and hibiscus are blooming. Heat and rain... what a great mix. lol

What's on your plate?

[FeelinGoofy]

father in law back in the hospital.... its been a very tiring weekend... BUT he is doing better and will hopefully come home in the next couple of days. crazy weather here.... it was 70 yesterday and very very windy.... the high today is only suppose to be in the low 40s today. LOL off to work i go.

[Alffe]

Finally got out of the house and met Barbo for lunch downtown. Had a yummy chicken wrap with spicy cheese. Walked a block back to the car and the wind tried to blow us away but we won. Going to hit the couch now and explore some more of Australia.