I wanted to share this pictures with you.

I took these on the day of that blizzard some of us had.

We have about 8 squirrels that live in a tree we have in our front yard.

We like feeding them & watching them play. But we think we created 8

furry monsters. If we don't feed them when they want to eat, they come on

our big bay window sill & look in & tap on the glass. Honest to god!!!!! The first time

that happened, Montana went crazy & we couldn't believe what we were seeing.

It gave us a good laugh. That's for sure.

The above picture of Montana watching the squirrel from the inside, I finally

got a picture of her doing that. She does that all the time. She loves playing

with them, and the squirrels love teasing her. We must have gone though

3 bird feeders this year because they keep jumping on them

and breaking them. The birds are never amused by this.

Who needs T.V. when you have a show in your front yard to watch, right?

Nico is sick again. He has double ear infections. We couldn't believe it.

Enough with being sick already. We just want to be healthy and

stay that way. Vince and I are O.K. Tonight is Nico's swim team awards party.

All of us are pretty excited. It should be a fun time.

Also, I wanted to give you an up-date on my back.

I'm having new symptoms. Sever pain is shooting all the way down to my toes.

This is most likely caused by the next 2 discs above the fusion. They is no more

cushion left. Which means it's bone on bone. It means I

could be looking at more back surgery in the near future. Now, that doesn't

mean I will agree to it. My pain is pretty brutal at times. Other times it's

unbearable. I use my stupid cane more often these days now. My doctor

is trying to keep me as comfortable as possible. Having the pump plus

other pain medicine, it's all we can do at this time. Right now, there

is nothing else to try. We try to keep smiling and stay positive

for Nico's sake but I can't lie. It's very hard. I know in the

long run, we will beat this disease. It's the "when" that's hard.

Vince and I are grateful for the love and the support you give us.

It helps alot.

Well, that is it for now. We send our love & wish all of you a very

Merry Christmas!

Nico showing off his ribbons.

Our little swimmer!

Hi everyone. We hope your Thanksgiving was nice. Well, as everyone knows, Nico is on the South Milwaukee Swim team. He had 3 swim meets this year. So, we would like to brag a little.... His first meet was on 10/9 @ Riverside High school. He competed in 4 strokes.
- Backstroke: 30.74 & he took 3rd place.
- Freestyle: 25.7 & he took 5th place.
- Breaststroke: 43.72 & he took 4th place.
- The Relay: 1 minute & the team took 3rd. place!! Pretty good for his first time competing ever!

His second meet was a home meet on 10/23. He competed in 3 strokes.
- Backstroke: 26.7 & he took 4th place.
- Freestyle: 24.95 & he took 4th place.
- Breaststroke: 46.39 & he took 6th place. Not his best stroke.

His last meet for the year was on my birthday, 12/2. This meet was also a home meet. He competed in 3 strokes.
- Backstroke: 30.66 & took 3rd place. He is 9 seconds away from breaking the record!!
- Freestyle: 24.91 & he took 4th place.
- Butterfly stroke: 36.55. This was the first time he ever swam the butterfly stroke in competition before. He took 1st place!!!

It was the best birthday ever!! We are so proud of him. He has worked really hard to get to were he is now. The coaches have been working with him on his weak areas because they think he his a good swimmer. They hope, as we do, that he keeps going because this could turn out to be something awesome! O.K. I'm done bragging. Christmas is here & so is winter. We are crazy busy every weekend now until Christmas. That's the only thing that we hate about the christmas season. The consent GO,GO,GO. We would love to just sit back & relax a little but I guess that is what the day after christmas We hope everyone stays safe & happy thur the shopping season.
A lot of love to all of you.