Happy New Year! I can't believe its midway through January already. I decided to go back to work last Monday the 12th and although it was a very stressful week, I felt fine and kept a good energy level. While I was gone, a plan that had been in the works for some time started coming together. Aurora has never really figured out how behavioral health was doing financially and they have been paying the therapists alot of money and giving them lots of support staff. Well, they finally figured out that our area is about a nine million dollar loss every year. The VP in Milwaukee, who is a friend of mine, has been charged with cutting that by four million. That means cutting salaries, pushing therapists to see more people, cutting their support staff, whatever it takes. The whole process will likely take at least a year, but I was assured last week that they are looking to me to help realign us and cut these losses. Doubtless, I will be less liked by the jerks who already don't like that I am there, but I do have a good support system throughout the system. The same forces that basically helped shut Jay and I down with our clinic are in place and affecting Aurora, but the contracts were set up long ago and haven't been changed to deal with the changed environment. I may end up with a bigger job when all is said and done.

So, that's happening. Jay's looking for a position to help cover things and we both agreed that H&R Block was not it. In the meantime, he has been very busy with fixing cars, worrying about sick dogs and taking care of me.

I have spent the last two Sundays going to my yoga class, then going with Bridget to the spa at Lake Geneva and doing regular workouts and ending up in the hot tub and steam room. My knee is still stiff, but my range of motion continues to get better and I am walking normally and building stamina. I am very pleased with the outcome so far.

The kids left for Madison this afternoon and we have been busy putting things back where they belong. They both made the Dean's List last semester, and made sure they relaxed as much as possible for the past month. They both worked alot at Alpine which will help this next semester, but managed to have quite a bit of fun also. Bridget had her two roommates down for three days and they snowboarded and shopped. Colin worked, played Halo with his friends whenever he could, spent a weekend boarding at Indianhead in Northern Wi with his buddy, and worked out at the gym. It was really nice to be off when they were home and we did have a lot of nice time with them. We are scheduled to go out with both of them to Denver over their spring break and hope to golf, ski and fish and celebrate Colin's 21st!

So, it was great to see everyone that was here for Christmas. I am jealous that Mom and Dad get to go to Denver and Boise in the coming weeks. We are looking forward to watching as much Inaurguration stuff that we can this week, probably with our new buddies Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman. These last few weeks of Bush/Cheney have been pretty hard to stomach. They both need to be admitted to a psych hospital, along with their staffs, to deal with their delusions. I just want them to go far, far away.

So, hopefully, we will start to get some more posts as people return to normal, or hopefully we do. It was great seeing all the kids returning from their far flung pursuits and doing so well. Hopefully, you are all enduring the snow and cold and soon it will be spring. We love the snowblower. It has made life much more bearable! Love to all, Susan