So are you used to writing 2012 yet?   We are into the New Year.  So far it has been a good one.  We had a great trip to Florida after Christmas.  The weather was wonderful.  It cooled off last week, but on the day we were leaving.    So now hoping for great weather again when we head down January 19th.   Marie will be joining us this time and Chris and Marie will be staying when I come home from the weekend.   It will be good that they get to enjoy time there.   I have told Chris that she could in the past but now she will have some company.    I will head home at the end of the weekend and head back down a few weeks later.      I have started a project on the kitchen, the goal is to update it now that we have the dining room done.   But this will likely be a several year project!     A little at a time on the weekends I get down.   Lot’s of prep work to start with.  So you will hear more for a long time!

We are enjoying the good weather this winter.  I certainly enjoy Florida more!   But it was nice not to come home to below zero and a driveway full of snow.   I am OK if it stays this way!  We had a good time at Chris’s work Christmas party this weekend in Milwaukee.  She does not get many chances to see the people she works with and it is always fun to see some of those that have been there a number of years.    We stayed over night at a nice hotel on Bluemound Road with a nice breakfast included.   And we got to spend some nice time with Mom and do a few things for her.   Then home on Saturday,  a nice sunny afternoon for a drive.  And home in time to do some things here.   This morning church and then afterwards met old friends Deb and John Ebel   It always seems so hard for us to get together but so enjoyable when we do.   A fun time catching up with family and plans.

So now the football games are over.  We know the Giants will be in Lambeau next Sunday.  And New Orleans and San Fran should be fun on Saturday.  Time to prepare for work.   I have to go in for 5 days this week,  that will be tough!

Chris and MJ Dec 2011

Christmas at Denise's condo, women at work

So I am way behind on updates, for a number of reasons.    But life is good for Chris and I .    We are both in jobs that get crunched at month end and especially year end.  but The good news is that we are in Florida doing our last work days of the year!   We are blessed.  Today was cool,  only in the low 70’s.  Tomorrow should be better.  We got down to the pool a couple of days before the cold front came through.

Christmas was good.   Mom is settled in her assisted living apartment and we all feel she is doing well.   Some comments about her having to move from her 2 bedroom apartment, and all we had to get rid of in downsizing.  But even those comments have stopped.  She gets around in her wheel chair well, we don’t think she walks and that is OK.  With that knee it would be too painful.  And her apartment is nice and we tried to move in everything she wanted (well almost).   On Christmas we all had dinner with her in the restaurant there and it was very good.  She says she gets too nervous with too much going on.  So we had dinner and then were invited to Neice Denise’s condo for drinks, snacks and the Packer game.  we had a good time, then flew out the day after Christmas,  Chris Mary Jane and I.

December was a very busy month.  It started out with us going to Detroit on Thanksgiving for the Packer game.     Chris’s sister Marie met us and then came home with us for a week.  On Dec 9th we came down to Florida, Chris and I.  And Marie headed home.  The first time Chris and I got to see our new dining room cabinets!  And good friend Noel picked us up at the airport and stayed with us for the long weekend.  Our annual trip to see the intercoastal Christmas boat parade.  We had a great time.

Then lot’s of things going on and work has been hell.  But I am hoping to be more under control to start the year.       We hope you all had a good Christmas and wish you the very best for a HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR.

We are in Boynton Beach enjoying warm Florida weather.   About 80 degrees, partly cloudy.   Beautiful    Noel picked us up at the airport on Thursday.  He drove over from Fort Meyers and is keeping us company.  Life is good.    Saw the boynton Christmas boat parade on Friday night.   Spent some time at the pool yesterday,   I got some sunburn.  I had figured if we drank 3 beers, at Noel’s pacing of 1/2 hour per beer we would leave before I was sunburned.  But we drank slower and spent more like 2.5 hours.   Have to plan better.

Sitting on the porch now enjoying the warm weather.   Will head to Two Georges shortly so we can catch the Packer Game at an outside bar.  Will eat supper there,  good food and drinks.   Not that I need much more food,   will diet this week!

Mom is all moved into assisted living.   Harbour , 5800 Mockingbird lane, apt 211,  Greendale WI.   We packed lot’s of stuff in that apartment.  But it made her happy.   So now she is working through her Christmas boxes and decorating.  She is working to be positive and was in a very good mood when we saw her on Wednesday.   So that is good we are off to a good start.   When she settles in now we can spend some time at home and Skip and Claire can relax a little.  They made lot’s of trips to settle her in.  Thanks to Bob and Joe for helping us clean out her old apartment in the middle of helping move Jim and Diane also.    Hopefully we can all get together after the holidays to relax!

So Noel will drop Chris and I at the airport on Monday,  hate to head back to the cold but a hard week of work ahead.  Lot’s of things I need to get done before the end of the year, and we come back south after Christmas.   Hope everyone is getting some time to enjoy the holidays.

The end of another weekend.  But a short week ahead.
Time continues to go quickly,  it will be that way through the end of the year.   We have lot’s of plans and some unknowns ahead for December.  And somewhere I have a number of work projects that need some time,  but that is not as important as life.

Tuesday November 29th Mom will move into her new apartment, 5800 Mockingbird Lane apt 211.   It will be much smaller than she is used to  but she will get much more help.  It is hard for her to walk so the smaller apartment will be better.   And she will have much more help.  We had her at her old apartment on Saturday and she helped us decide what to move and what had to go.  She held up very well and is working very hard to be positive.   After taking her back to the nursing home Skip and Claire and Chris and I  worked on boxing up and sorting out, what to keep what to go.  Skip made a trip to Goodwill and we made a lot more progress than any of thought we could in one day.   Then treated ourselves to a pizza and some beers.

Chris and I stayed the night and headed back to Oshkosh this morning.  Unloaded the things we brought home and I made us some breakfast.  Then on to some progress here.   Part of that is preparing to go to to Detroit on Wednesday.   We will come down Tuesday night , I will work from Mom’s apartment on Wednesday until we go to the airport.  We will get to see the airports on the busiest holiday of the year.   More importantly we get to see Mary Jane and John, and Marie, and the Packers beat the Lions.  It should be a great weekend.

Skip and Claire finished taking things to Good Will today.  I was bringing the truck down for that, since there was a good truck load to take to GoodWill yet.  So they must have made many trips.  And we are in good shape for the move.  On Monday the 28th the movers will  come to move the furniture Mom will need.  And then on Tuesday We will bring Mom to her now home.

So we hope you all have some time with family on Thanksgiving.  We give thanks for all the blessings we do have, and continue to pray for the challenges God gives us.

So I have not posted for awhile.   We have been keeping busy though.   We had our first snowfall here in Oshkosh (I could have waited longer).  But the good news is I did not have to plow it and most of it is gone now.  I should change oil on the ATV and put the plow on,  it won’t be long before I will need it.   We do have most of the outside work ready for winter.   Not all yet,  but everything that needs to be.  I guess the garden will need to be tilled in the spring.     I have a fire going tonight,  time to get that going,  probably most days now.  The wood is stock piled and ready to burn.  I may need to go down and check on the fire shortly,  and grab a beer while I am at the bar.   I was not going to drink today,  I had a couple of nights out this week,  but spent most of the day with Mom.   It was stressful for her, and the rest of us.  Even Chris asked for an Old Fashioned tonight.

Mom has a couple of weeks they would like to continue working with her in therapy at Manor Park, and we need to get things in place for her leaving there.  We had hoped she could go back to her apartment and do the assisted living ‘light’ they offer there.  But they are very worried about admitting her to that program, as they feel she needs more help than that.  And they are probably right.   Today we toured the assisted living apartments at Harbour House, in the same community she lives now.  Skip Claire Chris and I all think it will be a good fit for her and give her good care, but it will require some significant downsizing from her current apartment.  But still much larger than the ones we looked at Manor Park.  And much more inviting.  But she would rather stay in her apartment.  But at the end of the day she acknowledged she needed help and would try it if that is what we want.  So more pain to come, but I think a plan is coming into place.

So that is consuming some of our time.  And work is always a challenge.   But we are still blessed to be able to enjoy life and do the best we can.  Last weekend we had a great time at the St Pius auction and enjoyed time with John, Jo Ann, and Father Bob.  And spent a few dollars.  We splurged with a group for Father Bob’s Bar B Que which we let pass last year.  And I missed the dinner, good food and friends.  So this coming year we will enjoy Father Bob’s hospitality, and great food and wine.  And we donated a nice chunk of money to St Pius!   And I had my homebrew club executive board over this week for a business meeting and lot’s of great beers!  And last night Chris and I were out to meet some friends at a great bar in town (missed you being there Marie) and then out for some supper and listening to Mike play with the SNB band.  So we are having fun.  And we pray for you all.  John and Debbie entering the next stage of their life,  Mary Judy and Muriel a safe train ride back to Milwaukee!  So everyone get out there and enjoy life!

Happy Halloween.  I think we will skip dressing up this year,  wait we do that every year?  Not our think,  but enjoy watching the rest of you if you enjoy it!  Nice picture Judy and Mary!    I thought you would go for the playboy bunny or milk maid costumes, but that was OK.   Thanks for the kind words, you have already lived through the homes and aging decisions and I appreciate your counsel.    And you are leaving on your train trip shortly?

We saw Mom on Friday night and Saturday.  She is trying hard and says she has to toughen up and get through this.  She is trying much more than I ever would have thought she could 5 years ago.  She is working hard in therapy and walking and trying to get to the point they sign off on letting her go to the bathroom on her own.    And she wants more  independence and less rules,  but in another way she likes having the nurses and aides around and worries about being on her own.    And she enjoys company and a chance to talk.

We left Mom and headed north.  We spent a very nice evening with Skip/Claire/Denise and Claire’s brother and sister in law at Kessler’s bed and breakfast in Cleavland WI.  Lot’s of conversation , a very nice meal (I pigged out on prime rib) at a restaurant in town, a good nights sleep and German style breakfast and more conversation this morning.  Very relaxing, after leaving Mom,  as hard as she is trying the visits can be ‘trying’ at times.  God Bless Skip.

Made it home this afternoon and took advantage of being home to get some more work outside done.  Cool and rain today,  but I had to get in the lake to work on the shore station and remaining dock pieces, so the rain did not matter much.  And good to have those things done,  I think I worked off last night’s prime rib.

So cold wet weather makes me think of Florida!  Early December before we get down there.   We will get to Detroit first for Thanksgiving, and a Packer Game!  That will be fun.  So November will go quickly leading up to Thanksgiving and finishing fall chores.  And work continues to be trying.  But that’s life.    Hope your week and weekend has been a good one.  At least we are not in the northeast for early snow!

The weeks seem to go by quickly.  Work is still filled with lot’s of challenges and more changes coming.  But it is just work.  We have sunshine and blue sky today, although at 10 am it just made 40 degrees.   I hate seeing that temperature that starts with a 3 when I get in the car in the morning.  Although I will hate 2 and 1 even more!    But the wind is down, after a number of days of strong wind again.  I should stay home and work on getting the shore station ready for winter,   but we will head to Milwaukee shortly.   We will see Mom and then spend a nice evening and over night downtown.  And then stop and see her on Sunday.  Skip bears the bulk of seeing her and giving her company so he can have a little break.   We were down on Thursday for a meeting with Manor Park.   She is progressing and able to walk 150 feet.  And she is not experiencing much pain,  which amazes all of us.  But she still is not getting up on her own without assistance, and they estimate another 3 weeks of therapy.  But by then she should be able to get out of the nursing home.   For now she is trying hard, and lot’s of anxiety over what to do next.  We had looked at some options, but for now have decided on bringing her back to her apartment.  After looking at some ‘dorm’ room assisted living she had some shock.  And with help, we think she can be independent yet.   At her complex, if they qualify her, she can get assisted living ‘light’, which will get her some help and 3 meals.   So we will try that and can take the next step if she is not doing well in that environment.  Our goal is still to start cleaning out things from her apartment.  Lot’s of ‘stuff’ in two bedrooms.   Clothes she wore 100 lbs ago.  She just cannot get rid of things,  so we need to help and see how that goes.  But the good news she is stronger than the therapists would have expected and pain has not become an issue.

Otherwise outside work we are having fun.   Chris had an Insurance Women’s state meeting last Friday Saturday, and it was in Appleton.   Last Saturday I made some more progress around the house, although not much since then.  Sunday I attended the Green Bay-Rams football game with my group of homebrewers.   We start early with a tailgate and my breakfast burrito’s, and lot’s of good beer.   It was a very fun day, topped off by a Packer win.   Wally is happy the St Louis Cards finished the Brewers season,  but at least we have football!

So we hope everyone is enjoying the fall.  Most of us are blessed and have lot’s to be thankful for.  Get out and make someone smile today.

This is really Columbus day isn’t it?  Of course when he became politically incorrect I guess it doesn’t matter.   We have had wonderful Wisconsin weather for fall.  This too will come to an end but it has been a great ride.  I have lot’s of things left to do before winter – finish moving 9 face cords of fire wood for the winter, move trailers, winterize trailers and boats, set boats for the winter, gardens need work, yard needs weed and feed.   But if it doesn’t get done it doesn’t get done!

Noel and Jo Ann were up here on Saturday and helped me accomplish a lot.  We took both boats out of the water and took out the dock.  And took the canvas top off the shore station, and cleaned and put it away.  A lot for one day.   I still have to move the shore station but we made great progress.

We had a meeting at the doctor for Mom today.   Relatively good news.  Her knee is pretty bad.  Bone has degenerated and caused the leg to angle off at 20 some degrees instead of the normal 6 degrees.   But after resting it a couple of weeks he said she can start to put weight on it and work with the therapists on walking.  We worried about her being able to walk again, so this was good news.  We will still need to see how much pain she has, and she will need to wear the brace for walking.  But even if she can only walk short distances her quality of life will be greatly improved.   And we talked about possibly moving her to an assisted living situation.   She is OK with moving elsewhere and agrees she will need more help.  As bad as I think Manor Park is understaffed and needs an attitude adjustment,  she really likes the food there!   So if  their assisted living acomadations looked good she would like to stay there-if she gets the same food.   So she has worked hard on trying to stay positive through this.  She was in an upbeat mood when Skip and I left today.  She had feared the worst and got better news.  Now we see how the therapy goes working with the walker again, and have lot’s more decisions to make.

I am enjoying a long weekend in Colorado.  Weather here is wonderful, as opposed to what looks like cold and windy back home.   We should be in the 80’s today.   Thursday we walked downtown Denver and spent the evening at the Great American Beer Festival.   462 breweries, hard to make choices.   But we did our best.  Yesterday we spent a big part of the day in Boulder.   Deb we skipped Coors tour, although I heard it is a good tour.  But Colorado is home to an unbelievable amount of great breweries!  At Avery Brewery in Boulder they are wonderfully inventive with their brews and barrel aging.  I had beers there that cannot be had anywhere else.   And we went to Mountain Sun, Walnut Street, and BJ’s breweries.  And just walked the fun downtown area.  Then back to the Rehfeldt’s home for their great hospitality.  Will have to see what today brings,  but we need to catch the start of the Brewer’s playoff series and the Wisconsin/Nebraska game!

Mom is at Village at Manor Park,  Maplewood Healthcare Center, room 1405.  Skip said she is settling in pretty well.  Hopefully the bones in her knee heal up and they can teach her to walk some with the brace.  They will give her lot’s of therapy to try and keep her strength up.  And in a few weeks we will see what the next step is.

Judy congrats on selling the big trailer! And on the new one.  It won’t be as much fun pulling it into Penninsula next summer!  Hope you have electricity, I see a lot of people in Door County don’t because of the winds.  Marie I hope to bring Chris back here to Denver one day, and then we can drive down to New Mexico!  So hope everyone is doing well, enjoy the weekend.

A partly sunny Saturday.  Cool at 51 degrees but should get a little warmer.  Chris and I are camping at High Cliff State Park, and have been for 10 days.  It has been relaxing and fun.   Last Saturday we headed to Milwaukee for Noel’s birthday/Octoberfest party.  A great time as it is every year!  Then we came back up on Sunday and had to move camp sites for the duration.   Noel and Jo Ann came up on Tuesday, and the days have gone quickly since.   I head in to work each day, and we are fairly close to Menasha where I work.  Yesterday did not start out well, as my computer would not start up.   Turns out the hard drive somehow lost everything on it.  So now a new hard drive and have to get all my software back on it yet.  And links all gone, and documents, etc.  Sucks.  And I was already behind on things at work!   Tiff and Steve came up for a couple of days of camping also,  and last night we all went out to eat at a restaurant we go to each year when we are here.  Great food and cocktails, and saw the Brewers clinch the division.

Not good news for Mom.   Since she has been home from her last hospital and rehab stay, we have thought her leg seemed to get worse.  She has been very good trying to stay active and not complaining.   Skip got her to the orthopedic doctor this week, and he says the arthritis has deteriorated the knee and there is bone digging into bone.  He was surprised she was not in a lot more pain.   He wants the knee immobilized for at least 3 weeks, hoping that gives the bone a chance to heal.  So obviously she could not be home.  Skip spent the whole day with her being chased around town.  They ended up at West Allis Hospital.  They admitted her and she will spend a few days there.  Then She can transfer to a rehab facility and medicare will kick in.   So we want to find a good place that she will be comfortable at and will keep her as strong as possible.   And hopefully the bone heals and they can do some type of brace to keep her leg straight and usable without damaging it further.  A tough time for Mom.

So hope things are well with you.  Will see what the next couple of days brings for Mom.  We will head home on Sunday, and Wednesday night I have plans to fly to Denver with friends for the Great American Beer Festival!  And visit some great breweries in Colorado!