¡Buenos días a todos from Milwaukee, Wisconsin! It’s 11:30 am in Milwaukee and 75F with an expected high of 85F. I arrived on Tuesday and have been staying with my sister, Bonny, and her family. I no sooner arrived and we experienced severe thunder storms with high winds that knocked out power lines and damaged large trees that landed on cars and roofs. Fortunately, no people were injured. We were powerless until 2am. There is a lot of tree debris in my sister’s back yard and I spent my first day her helping to clean up. Sadly, we found a robin’s nest on the ground with three deceased baby robins. They are buried now with the other family pets so that they aren’t alone.
Yesterday, I visited my mum at the memory care center. Her dementia is very severe and no longer recognizes anyone. I gave her a bit of a back massage, which she loved…’oh…that feels so good.’ She needs a great deal of help dressing, eating and walking. The caregivers are outstanding and I give them much credit. This is one area of nursing where I would not want to work. Give me hospice any day.
After our visit, we met with family at the Wisconsin State Fair. My sister, her daughter, my daughter and her husband and his daughter from a previous marriage, my other two nieces, one with her husband were all together and a nice person took four stellar photos of all of us. My two nieces, Colleen and Carrie, entered baked goods and won 1st to 4th place ribbons for their entries. We toured the animal barns, watched various shows and pigged out on baked potatoes, corn on the cob, ice cream and cream puffs. My niece, Elyse (the senior nursing student) and I got henna tattoos on our arms. The best was watching the very little pigs and sow at the baby animal barn. Those little ‘Wilbur’ porkers are so cute. I got a chance to see my brother very briefly. He is working Security at the fair and there was so much going on that we barely had time to hug and find out how we were doing. But at least we got to see each other! He also mentioned that he gets daily reports from the hospice nurse who is an adjunct to mum’s memory care. We cannot say enough positives about these caregivers.
I finally got my daughter’s DNA breakdown through Ancestry. I sent her spit in back in March. Her DNA profile (for now) is Irish 31%; Germanic Europe 24%; Scotland 19%; England and NW Europe 12%; Eastern Europe & Russia 5%; Norway 5%; Baltics 3%; and Basque 1%. I spent several months earlier this year working on her WikiTree. Most of her Irish heritage comes from her paternal side. I haven’t been able to trace very far back in that line; however, I’ve made great strides with her Scottish ancestry. I think I mentioned a long while back that her several times grand uncle is American furniture maker Duncan Phyfe (Fife), who came from Scotland with his family. His brother is her direct ancestor and he was a silversmith in New York. One of his pieces is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lately, I’ve been doing her colonial ancestry (when I take a break from the unsourced Richardsons).
My niece, Elyse, is starting her Senior II (her final semester) in nursing school at WU-Oshkosh. She started an internship in July at Columbia/St. Mary’s Emergency Department and loves it. I am driving with her today as she needs to get blood work done to assess her Hep C status in order to maintain her school and work health records. I expect she’s getting more experience than she bargained for now. She also heard that she has been selected for an internship at Milwaukee Children’s Hospital after she completes here internship at Columbia. She’s quite pleased because she wanted to work in either the ER or in pediatrics so these experiences will help her with her career decision-making.
My sister, niece and I have plans to go to Cedarburg, Wisconsin this Sunday. I lived in Cedarburg years ago when my daughter was all of four-years-old. A neighbor couple, my ex-husband and I ran a very successful ‘Old Fashioned General Store’ in a refurbished over 100 year old woolen mill. The second building, part of the mill, was and still is a winery and gift shop. We lived in an old fieldstone farm house that we restored. I was with the Ozaukee County Historical Society and that generated even more interest in history and genealogy in my younger years.
Time to prepare for the ride to Columbia/St Mary’s hospital so my niece can get her testing done. I wish everyone a wonderful weekend! And Pip, thanks again for hosting!
