Celtic Women Concert-Thursday, March 25th

Hi all,
I just want to say...I WANT TO VISIT IRELAND!!!!!
John and I went to the Celtic (pronounced like keltic) Women concert that was held yesterday, March 25th at the Milwaukee Theater, downtown Milwaukee.  Their website is in my last posting, check it out! 
We don't venture into Milwaukee very often, so we were a little uneasy about where the Milwaukee Theater was and where to park.  We Mapquested it and found it pretty easily.  It's actually right next to the US Cellular Arena and the parking lot was right across the street.  Unfortunatly, I didn't think ahead and buy the parking ticket also when I purchasd the tickets,  I could have gotten it for 1/2 price.  It cost us $15 dollars to park for 3 hours.  I guess that's one reason why we don't visit Milwaukee very often.   The concert was to start at 7:30 and we got there around 7:00.   There already was a line of cars going into the parking lot, but we did find a good spot and parked.   It was very cold and windy so I'm glad we wore our winter coats.  We made our way across the street along with another man who was cracking jokes about the good old Wisconsin weather and how they should put a cover over the city of Milwaukee and make a mall out of it...We got through the ticket agent and made our way up to the Mezzanine area # 4.  We were early so we just people watched until it they opened the doors to the theater.  We had somewhat good seats, right on the aisle in the center, but back far enough where a pair of binoculars would have been a good idea to bring along.  It looked like they had a sold out crowd and every seat was taken.  The concert started and I tell you, those 5 girls have the most beautiful and clear voices I have ever heard.  Each girl introduced them selves separatly before each of them sang their spotlighed song.  It was so cool to hear them talk with their Irish accent.  They did perform together at times and also 2 at a time.  They had a light show that went along with alot of their songs, which was very awesome!   Mairead is the violinist and I can't describe how unbelievably talented she is.  She plays the violin while she is dancing, spinning & jumping all over the stage.  Here is a picture of her in one of her spins:

  

















Here is a picture of the girls Alex, Lisa, Chloe & Lynn dressed up in different colored dresses, just beautiful:

Here is a picture of all of them together:

The show was 2 and 1/2 hours long with a few encores at the end.  They had a man that played the bagpipes for some of the songs.  He is Irelands top player, and he played Amazing Grace with the girls singing along.  I tell you...everytime I hear that song I get tears in my eyes...
Everyone in the theater was on their feet at the last couple of songs.  They had everyone clapping and whistling and it was a really good time.  We were fortunate to have a very nice older couple sitting in front of us that had binoculars.  All of a sudden, she turns around and hands their binoculars to us.  It was really nice and I kept thanking her for sharing.  It was really great to be able to see the girls up close and I'll have to remember to bring ours with us the next time.  The concert ended at 10 PM and we arrived home at about 10:45PM.  The family room light didn't turn on for Bailey, so she was very excited to see us when we walked in the door.  Not that she's afraid of the dark or anything, but usually the timed light we have in there turns on about 5:30, but we discovered it had been plugged into the wrong area and it didn't go on.  So Bailey is wired up again after sleeping while we were away, so I stayed up with her to play a little bit before going to bed.  John went to bed then, but this morning said "boy, it feels like I've been out on a drunk last night".   Sounds like we need to get out more, doesn't it??? ha,ha.
This weekend we are puting up the wallpaper border in our bedroom, sorry it's been put off too long!  I will take pictures and post.
Have a great day.

Bounc'n back to normal

Hi all,
It's early Saturday morning and as I'm relishing my BIG mug of coffee, something that I've not had since Wednesday morning, I can safely say my anxiety about my "procedure" yesterday was unfounded.  I will try and not get too technical or gross anyone out in my story, so please bear with me.  The pre-procedure prep was the part to be worried about.  Thursday, I had to fast and could only drink clear liquids..i.e. lime or orange flavored jello, chicken broth for lunch and apple juice & pink lemonaide for fillers.  By the time John came home from work, my belly was a growling!  John felt bad when he ate his organic pizza, while I was sipping my yummy chicken broth for supper, but I kept thinking of all the weight that I was loosing today..ha,ha.  Then the dredded hour of 6PM came around where I had to start drinking the surprisingly not so awful tasting liter of solution to start "cleaning me out".  It had a lemon-lime taste which wasn't too bad, but then the after taste came at me and that wasn't so good.  I stayed upstairs in our bedroom near the bathroom so I didn't have to run up 2 flights of stairs once it kicked in.  And it did.....about 1/2 hour into it.  Every 15 minutes you have to drink down to the next line on the liter bottle until it's gone.  So for the next 3 hours I'm sure I don't have to tell you what I was doing but it finally stopped and I was able to go to bed then.  The alarm went off at 3:30AM and I had to start the whole routine over again.  Unfortunatly, our furnace turns down to 63 degrees during the night, so I was freezing for the first 1/2 hour, until my light bulb turned on in my head to grab my sweater the next time I got up,  DUH!!!!!
Friday morning, we talked to our beautiful daughter Sarah ( I know...too sappy-but it's true) and she told us a story about Shane and his melt down that morning.  While Kaylin was in school, he wanted to use his umbrella outside in the rain in the stroller as Sarah was using her umbrella when they were running errands.  The only thing that stopped him from opening it was the plastic rain covering that was over the stroller.  That set him off and when they got back home, he rolled around on the living room floor with his coat, boots and umbrella for a while.  He was not happy.  Sarah made lunch for him (he refused to eat it) and so she just went along and made her own lunch, ate it, cleaned up and all the while Shane's in the living room pouting and complaining.  Sarah took his coat & boots off, and took him upstairs to take a nap and that's where he was when we were talking that morning.  Once Shane gets something in his head that he wants to do, he just focuses and doesn't let up.
So back to my adventure....We got to the hospital at 7:30AM and got checked in at the G.I. center.  My name was called and John and I were lead into my room to get prepped.  John was allowed to sit in the room with me and also stay there while I was gone.  The nurse "Ashley" was very nice and she went through all of the normal questions she needed to ask.  I got changed into the very fashionable hospital gown, but the black socks I had worn to the hospital just didn't look right with the flowery gray colored gown, so I took off my socks and put on the gray non-skid ones that were provided.  John just rolled his eyes when I did that.  Leave it to a man to question that...ha,ha.  Gray just looked better with the gown other than that awful stark colored black.  Then Ashley said that they had to start an IV.  I thought oh boy here we go....I told her that my veins are very hard to find and that they usually use a "Butterfly" needle when they draw blood from me.  She said sorry...don't have one of those in their dept., but alot of people do ask for them (you would think they would get them ordered !).  She first put a really warm blanket around my arm to "make the veins pop out".  It felt really nice, because my arms and hands were cold.  After that was done, she but the turniquet around my arm and started rubbing my right arm to try and see a good vein.  She stick me in my forearm a few times and no luck.  She stopped and went and got another nurse that is better at getting veins.  "Becky" came in and sat down and started looking at my arm and said "OK I think I got it", so she stick me in the top of my hand on my right arm...OUCH!, but no luck there either.  By this time, the nurse (Jenny) from the room that I was to go to have the colonoscopy done came in. They were waiting for me at this point.  I still needed to get this IV in me, so she tried getting the IV in and started  checking out  my left arm.  She tried and she was lucky and stuck a good vein.  So once she got it taped down with what felt like duct tape....They wheeled me out and got me into the other room to do the proceedure.  Needless to say this morning I have 2 big bruises on my right hand and arm from those "sticks".  Jenny then injected into the IV 2 different types of drugs to make me go into a deep sleep.  She told me that I will start to feel kind of dizzy and she was right...it didn't take more that 15 seconds and WHEW...I was dizzy.  She told me to turn onto my left side and that's all I remember.  The next thing I remember after that was being rolled down the hallway back to my first room.  I couldn't believe it.  I didn't feel a thing nor remember anything after I turned on my side.  It was a nice feeling that it was over and I could get out of there.  The doctor did find 2 polyps, removed them, and is sending them to the lab for analyzing, but he said they looked normal and not cancer, They have to send them off anyway to make sure.  After we left the hospital, we went out to eat at the Waterstreet  Brewery.  I had every intention to get a big, juicy, burger with fries...I WAS STARVING !!!! But my guilty concious kicked in and I ordered a BBQ chicked salad.  I'm sure it wasn't the best choice in salads, because it had Chipolte salad dressing already mixed in with it, but I'm sure it was better for me than that burger & fries.  After eating, we left & had a few errands to run yet, but I still was feeling a little "off".  Maybe it was that I was getting tired or just that the "sleeping drugs" were still wearing off or the combination of both. 
We got home, ate supper, had a bowl of popcorn (I just had a urge for it..) and then settled in for the night.  When that popcorn maker starts up Bailey starts dancing around and sits in the kitchen right below the counter.  She loves popcorn!  I have to watch it though with her, because she's supposed to be on a diet and lose 5 lbs.  I have to take her back to the vet in 2 months to weigh her.  She better be good....ha,ha...
I weighed myself this morning and I lost 4 lbs in the last 2 days, even though I had popcorn last night.  I guess that was one good result from this whole event. I 'm not going to get too excited about that just because it probably was alot of water weight that was lost, but I am going to believe it while I can.
Today we might be going up to visit Sean, I can't wait to see him...It's been 2 weeks since his last visit.
Have a great day.

Celtic Women Concert

If you have not seen the Celtic Women concert or seen their videos or heard their music...You just have to check them out.  John and I are going to their concert in Milwaukee on March 25th.  They are just wonderful!!  Check their website out....www.celticwoman.com

Too many doctor appts lately !

Hi all,
I recently went in for my annual physical check-up on Feb. 24th and for the most part I am a healthy 54 1/2 year old.  Yes....in another 6 months I will be joining the 55 club and am looking forward to be able to get the senior discount on the restaurant menus..ha,ha. I am also 20 lbs lighter from the last time I was weighed, which made my doctor very happy.   During my physical this year my doctor signed me up to go and get an ultra sound to re-check my thyroid.  I have 3 nodules on my thyroid right now which were discovered about 4 years ago.  I had a biopsy done then and no cancer to be found.  So my second appt, was that I went and had the ultra sound and the results came back showing 3 additional ones have shown up. So now I have to go to a Endocrinologist on March 23rd to find out why they are still showing up and multiplying.  The third appt was on March 3rd for my mammogram, which came back normal, so I'm good until next year.  My fourth appt is for the dreaded colonoscopy scheduled for March 19th.  They sent me instructions in the mail on how to prepare for this procedure.  I have to fast the whole day before (Thursday) so I took that day off from work also.  I can only drink water, fruit juices (nothing red or purple/blue) or eat jello.  At 6PM Thursday night I have to drink 1 liter of some stuff to clean me out (if you know what I mean) and then 4 hours before I have to be at the hospital which means at 3:30 AM I have to drink another lilter of this stuff to make sure nothing was missed the first time...Oh Yeah...I can't wait.  I've found out that they do put you under for the actual procedure, so that's a relief, but I'm still not convinced that it's no big thing to worry about.
So, I guess I have some wait and see issues to ponder about, I'm not going to get worried about it until there is something to worry about.
On another subject, John & I still have to get the wallpaper border up in our bedroom.  The problem is that one of the ladders is up north and the other one is up by Sean's house.  Either we wait to go up north again to bring that one down or make a visit up to Sean's place. I don't think I want to wait until that happens. I want to get that done this weekend and I will just use a couple of the kitchen chairs.  I will take pictures and post.  When I painted the room, Bailey helped me out and in doing that, she got paint on both sides of her ears, on her butt and on her tail.  We both were pretty painted up, Ha,ha..  I took some pictures of her painting and will post also soon.

Back from Up North

We are back from going up to the cabin again and we had a nice relaxing time.  We got up there late Friday night about 10PM with another uneventful drive.  No deer jumping out at us or any crazy drivers causing havoc.  It looked like it hadn't snowed very much either since we were up there at the beginning of Feb., maybe a dusting at best.  Bailey slept all the way too.  She is such a good girl, didn't even know she's in the car.  We unpacked the truck and got everything turned on, plugged in and settled in for the night. 
On Sat. morning after coffee, John hopped on his ATV and went down to Dewey's ice shanty on the lake and hung out there most of the day. Dewey, Tom, Skippy, 2 friends of his from Chicago, Skippy's son Sparky & Dane (he own's the Black Bear Bar & resturant on W. Hwy 70) were there too.  I think I would have been out of place if I would have gone down there with all of that testesterone (sp?) in such a small area, ha,ha. There were 2 musky ice fisheree's going on at the same time on the lake, but it didn't look like the big turnout we had for our fisheree the beginning of the month.  It was pretty windy on the lake, which made it pretty cold to be standing out side, so most everyone was tucked inside their shanty's.  I stayed home and made a few more pieces of jewelry.  I have to take some pictures and post them for you, I think they turned out very pretty. One is a watch and the second one is a aqua & gold colored necklace with earrings to match. 
Got up Sunday and had our coffee & breakfast and then prepared for our 4 hour drive home.  Bailey scared up some deer that were standing in the driveway.  She sits in our bedroom window and stares out it hoping something will come by or move.  All of a sudden she starts carrying on, howling & barking and I ran in there and I saw the tails of the deer as they were running off into the woods.  Of course, Bailey wouldn't let up for a while and wanting to go outside.  Needless to say, we didn't let her out to wake up the neighbors, so finally she calmed down.  I think she was just as shocked as those deer were when she started barking at them.  They didn't expect a little dog to be in the window watching them,ha,ha.  
We got on the road around 1PM and arrived in Wales at around 5PM.  We were trying to listen to the USA & Canada Olympic hockey game and heard most of it until the radio faded out.  There was 2 min. left. UGHHH!  We found out when we got home that USA lost......:( :(
Back to work tomorrow....John's birthday is this Thursday, March 4th so Sean is coming down this weekend to celebrate.
Talk to you later and have a nice week.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day !

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day on Sunday.  John and I did not have anything planned, just a lazy Sunday.  I did pick up a small heart shaped chocolate cupcake for a supper dessert for both of us.  It was very good! The valentine package arrived in Amsterdam on Friday with the much needed popcorn seeds along with cheese curls & chocolate suckers. I was worried that it wouldn't make it there before V-Day.  A small package takes about 4 days to get there. 
It was also the Daytona 500 on Sunday, YEAH!  My favorite driver (Jeff Gordon # 24) didn't win :(   but he didn't crash out either, that's a good sign.  It was Danica Patricks debute also, She drives the green Go Daddy car, but she crashed out, not her fault though.  There was a crash in front of her and she had no where to go. LET THE RACING SEASON BEGIN!!! 
I will be painting our bedroom on Saturday.  It is much needed since we haven't painted it in 25 years!!! I think we are in need of a change.  I will post a picture once we are done with it.
Bailey went to the vet last Thursday for  her annual check-up and she is in very good health, except for being 5 lbs overweight.  Her vet suggested I put her on the Science Diet R/D which is a lower calorie dog food.  We are trying it out for 2 months and then she has to go back to see if she has lost weight.  I think her problem is that she doesn't get enough exercise.  In the warmer months, I would take her for a walk right after I got home from work, but with it being so cold outside, I have slacked off.  I am going to Curves for myself, but Bailey's exercise has been overlooked.  I am going to try and get her out for a walk, even if it's just for a few minutes so she gets more exercise.
Have a good week everyone!

Ice Fishing!!

Hi all,
I'm sorry I haven't posted lately, but after our wonderful vacation in Amsterdam, nothing even close can compare to that.  But.....now something fun (and an important sponsoring event) has come up and I would like to share it with you.
John and I went up to our cabin outside of Minocqua Friday through Sunday.  The main purpose of our get- away was for 2 reasons.  First of all, we haven't been up north for over a month and that is a very needed trip just to get grounded again and clear our minds from the everyday rat race.  Up north will relax you even if you are doing work on the house or have had a hard day of playing, it is just a great place to relax.  Secondly, our ATV Club (Lakeland ATV Club) hosted the Kind Gary Fisheree on Sat. Along with that we were sponsoring kids from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Northwoods.  We supplied them with equipment, bait, prizes, lunch and most of all mentoring and fun.
 The story behind the name "Kind Gary" is this:  Gary Miles was a person that lived on Squirrel Lake in a house just outside of our bay area.  He originally started the fisheree which was held every Feb. for years and years.  He was a very nice person and he earned the name "Kind Gary".  When he passed away a few years ago on a 4th of July weekend, the ATV Club decided to continue in his memory the fishing tournament and name it the "Kind Gary Fisheree".   
When we got up there Friday afternoon, we unloaded the truck and then John took off on his ATV to the lake to see if there was anything Dewey (the president) need some help with.  They needed help to set up a large viewing tent that had all the prizes displayed along with the fish board that would list the participants.  There were different categories of fish and then they would list the size of fish caught.  There was a kids fish board with the same information. After the tent was set up, the burning barrel need to be set up, and another one of Deweys ice shantys need to be dragged down to the lake.  After all that was done, John and Dewey then went into town to Kurt's Island Sport Shop to pick up the 10 dozen live minnows that they donated for the fisheree.  Dewey told John that alot of the ATV club's business restaurant members donated the food for the food trailer (Italian beef sandwiches, chili, donuts, brownies, hot chocolate & coffee).  When John got home we decided to go out for a fish fry at Norwood Pines restaurant.  They had all you can eat fish, baked, broiled or fried.  I had broiled, John had fried.  I then had a sweet tooth attack and wanted some dessert.  We decided to go to the ice cream shoppe in town after supper, but when we got to town, they were closed for the winter season...OH NO!!!WHAT TO DO?????  Never fear...I wasn't going to give up.  On the way back out of town, we stopped at SaveMore grocery store and picked up 2 pints (different flavors) of ice cream....and to make it look not so obvious, a newspaper ha,ha.  The checkout lady even remarked "Dessert... huh???"  She caugh on...ha,ha.  It was goooooood!!!!!  And I didn't even feel that guilty, because I knew I was going to get a workout on Sat. walking through the snow on the ice.  That's like walking in sand, you've got your heavy clothing and your heavy 2 1/2" thick soled boots on too.
So on Saturday morning, John took my ATV (because my Arctic Cat has a hitch on it) and went over to Deweys (he lives 2 doors down the road from us) to help him bring the food trailer and bring the prizes down to the tent and get things set up and ready for people to register at 8AM.  There were a total of 140 fisherpeople participating, which was a good turnout.  There were alot of prizes (mostly fishing gear) to be won and there was also a raffle going on too to win some cool prizes.  Heaters, rods, tip-ups,bait, casino stays, $50 Wal-Mart gift cards, numerous dinner gift cert's at local restaurants, ice fishing sleds, duffle bags, tool sets etc, etc, etc......The weather was a little overcast and there was a little wind, but they had set up in the bay so it was more sheltered there.  As the morning went on, the sun came out and the wind died down and it was a beautiful winter day on the lake.
Here are a few pictures:
The tent with the prizes and the fish board.  The food trailer is to the left:

We were also expecting about 15 Big Brothers/Big Sisters kids on Sat., but only 7 were able to come. The rest of them came down with the flu so we had a small turnout. It was going through the school this last week and low and behold the kids got it.  But the kids that came had fun, and they caught 40 fish and lots of prizes were given out.  The kids seemed to have lots of fun just running around when they were not fishing,  and once the fish started biting, then they settled down and got down to business.  John brought along his fishing TV to see down in the hole below the ice.  The kids loved that too. 

Here are the kids with their catch of the day:

One of the fisherman brought his Whale creation/ice shanty.  Here I am standing next to it:

It's a real ice shanty and caught everyone's eye as they were coming onto the lake. He says next year he's going to make a big pineapple (I guess it's the home of Sponge Bob Square Pants)???  Anyway he says he just wants to make people laugh.  He sure is right....
The fisheree ended at 4PM and then it was prize handing out time.  Everyone, it seemd drove their cars/trucks/ snowmobiles & ATVS all into our bay.  Not sure how that all happened with all that weight on the ice in one area.  The bay is only about 3 to 4 feet deep, but no one fell in, so is must have been frozen pretty good. 
Here's John taking a break:

Here are a few pictures of the crowd:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Below is Pat Harkins (Vice Pres.) handing out the prizes to the prize winners:
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Below is a picture of Dewey giving Kathy from Big Brothers/Big Sisters a $500 check that our club donated to them:
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So, after all said and done, I'm thinking that everyone had a great time, thanks to the good weather, good food (it always tastes better when eaten outside!) and good friendship.
On Sunday we drove back home to reality.  We got home around 4:30, just in time for the SuperBowl.  Not sure who I want to win.  I'm leaning towards the Colts.
Hope everyone has a good next week.