Thanksgiving 2013...

We anticipated a very quiet Thanksgiving this year.  The only people we thought would be at our home were Papa, Claude and me. This was fine with us.  The Marx family would be off to their Disney cruise with Michael's family.  Jake had an invitation from friends in Chelsea.  Then we got a call from Nissa asking if she and Todd, Aubrey and Paul could come for a visit over Thanksgiving. Well...of course!!

 

I purchased the brisket and turkey for Claude to smoke.  Then I purchased groceries for all the meals.  We did minimal cleaning.  Then we awaited their arrival Wednesday afternoon.  They left early and were able to be here before 2pm.

It was a very different visit.  We are all used to the Mini's filling our lives and schedules with Mini activities.  Aubrey and Paul are usually very much occupied with the Mini's wanting them to play with them.  I do think Aubrey and Paul missed the vitality those two little people bring into this home.

Wednesday evening Claude smoked the brisket and we had brisket for dinner.  I made a Chocolate/Banana pudding cake. It was a nice meal.  Then we settled in for the evening. I pulled out crocheting and got a new baby afghan started.  We watched TV and talked and just enjoyed a quiet evening.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I got Papa at 10am and brought him out to the house.  Claude smoked the turkey and we made the appropriate side dishes and a crumb pie for dessert.  Football was watched.  More crocheting was done.  Papa was going to stay and watch Dallas play, but opted to have his dessert and head home to watch that game on his television.  We divided and conquered for the evening.  The main level had Aubrey and Paul with Claude watching the Men in Black trilogy.  In the basement Todd graciously allowed Nissa and I to watch some Harry Potter movies on television. More crocheting was done.

At one point Aubrey sat at the breakfast table to have a glass of apple juice. She looked down and marveled at the electronics.  This is how we seem to do things in 2013.

Friday morning I learned the 'Ways of the Waffle'.  We have two waffle irons and have had them for about three years and never used them.  We knew Nissa and Todd used one and we thought they could train us up properly.  Nissa and Todd prepared breakfast for us and Paul helped.

 

Friday, we had a day to do something touristy with the family.  I had researched and presented some options.  Todd and Nissa wanted to see some Kentucky countryside.  Aubrey and Paul had no desire to go with us. In truth they were both starting to get sore throats. We left Aubrey in the basement with her own TV and Paul upstairs with his own TV and a kitchen full of all kinds of food and snacks. Nissa, Todd, Claude and I plotted a route and took the back roads from Sadieville to Cynthiana to Paris to Mt. Sterling. Then we drove down the Mountain Parkway to Natural Bridge.  From there we went to Fitchburg Furnace. Then we finished with a stop in Lexington at BD Mongolian Grill for dinner.  Then we headed home.  It was a beautiful day in the Kentucky countryside.  Todd said he saw more deer than he saw in Michigan while hunting.  Nissa even tried to be the 'deer whisperer' while we were a Fitchburg Furnace and found three in a thicket.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday evening we spent cutting Nissa's hair and getting clothes ready and packed for their trip home.

This morning they were out of the house and on the road by 8am after a good breakfast.  It was a wonderful visit and we are so grateful they could come and stay for a few days.

Beginning the Christmas Season...

Friday, November 22nd, Claude and I experienced the first taste of Christmas season fun. While I love to get all my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving, we don't do any decorating or those types of Christmas things until Thanksgiving is over.

However, this year I got an eMail notification that Mannheim Steamroller was coming to the Lexington Opera House before Thanksgiving to do a Christmas music show.  We have one of their Christmas CD's and really enjoy it. We have never seen them in concert before. I asked Claude if he was interested. Claude said he was.  So I set about purchasing tickets.  They were only going to be in Lexington Thursday and Friday evenings, both of which we could not go.  However, as fortune would have it, they were also doing a 2pm Friday concert.  I purchased tickets for that performance.

We very much enjoyed the concert. Our seats were great.  The music was delightful.  The videos they played on the big screen as they played their instruments were grand.  It was just a wonderful afternoon.

The lead violinist was wearing red sneakers.  One of the percussionists was wearing red shoelaces with his dress shoes.  The other percussionist was totally into his art. I really enjoyed the way he handled those drum sticks when he played little drummer boy. When they performed White Christmas with the lights through little specks of light around the audience, I found myself wanting it to snow.  They even came back for an encore.

I can highly recommend their concert and we would definitely go again.  We both found this a delightful beginning to this Christmas season...even if it was before Thanksgiving.

Showing They Care with a Bouquet...

Sunday, November 17th, Claude was actually in Georgetown Ward for church. He was speaking in sacrament meeting.  He did a wonderful job talking about paying tithing.

After sacrament meeting I headed to the Primary room. For the next two hours I was busy with covering the music time for our chorister who had to attend another congregation that day.  After Primary was over, I was busy trying to clean up and also listen as children tried to pass off saying an Article of Faith from memory. While doing these end of Primary things, one of the CTR 6 class members came in and gave me a paper flower they made.  Shortly after another child came and gave me another flower, then another.  I was completely surprised and thanked each child as they came in with a flower for me. 

Amanda Johnson, their teacher, then told me they had a lesson on appreciating leaders.  She was to pick any leader and give clues and have the kids guess who the leader was.  Amanda asked Claude some things about me so she could use them as clues.  Claude gave her things like 'devoted', favorite color is purple, the one thing I would want them to know is that I love them, etc.  As Amanda gave the kids the clues they began to guess. Most were guessing it was their mother.  Rhett Barber thought it was one of his sisters.  I think that is a great thing in and of itself.  When she said that I loved daisies Brinley immediately knew it was me. Then Amanda set them to making flowers to show their appreciation.  The kids wrote little notes on the back of their flowers. Most said "I love you."  One said something about chocolate. 

I have these flowers in a vase and will save them for a great uplift when things are difficult and to remember the kindness of a good Primary teacher and the wonderful children she so carefully teaches.

November Notable Moments...

Moments I want to remember from November 2013...

Item #1:
During this month I finished typing Mimi and Papa's journals.  Now to scan a few pictures that were contained in them.

Item #2:
Claude and I attend the welcoming reception for Dr. Green at the Cordome Center Thursday, November 14th. Dr. Green is the new president of Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky.  This was my first time to be inside the Cardome Center.  The reception was held in the old chapel. The windows are amazing.  The pianist playing background music really, really needed a light on the piano.  I wanted to head back out to the Jeep and get a flashlight and hold it to help her see.  At minimum, Georgetown College should contribute to glasses for her and the young lady that followed her.  I'm just positive that dim lighting may have damaged their vision to some degree.  It was a lovely reception.

Item #3:
I was able to take baptism preparation materials to two young ladies who turned  seven years old.  When I got to Brinley's home, she was anxiously sitting on the front steps waiting for me.  It just made me feel so happy. When I came home I told Claude about how cute she was. Claude simply said, "You got a pay back."  It was a grand reward for serving as Primary president.

Item #4:
We attended the funeral of Tommy Jones on Saturday, November 16th.  Tommy was very good friends with Bobbie Bruner, the Police Chief for Sadieville. Tommy was also a police officer and helped with a school in Lexington. Tommy created a webpage for Sadieville at no charge and maintained it for us. It was a tender funeral.  Once again I saw the value of hugs.  One cannot under estimate the value of a good, appropriate hug.

Item #5:
Sunday, November 17th, we attended the Eagle Court of Honor for Wesley Holt.  The cutest moment came when Wesley asked his younger brother, Austin, to come up and stand with him.  Austin is 11 years old and is in Scouts also. Austin lead the flag ceremony at the beginning of the Court of Honor. Austin stood by Wesley. Wesley put his arm around Austin and gave him some encourgement in scouting. Then Wesley took his scarf from his neck and gave it to Austin and put it around Austin's neck. Before the Court of Honor was over, Rex Holt, the father, had Austin come back up and reciprocate and give Wesley a new scarf for his neck. The boys hugged each other. They genuinely love and care for each other.  Nice moment.

Ladies and Blankets...

Wednesday, November 6th, was Countryside Homemakers meeting.  This time I was the hostess. 

Being the hostess means I get to prepare and serve the entree for our lunch. What to do? What to do?  Since I spent several days cleaning out and putting in order my three binders full of recipes, I determined I would cook something myself. I have been known to ask Claude to smoke a brisket. However, this time I opted to prepare Chicken Divan. I love this recipe and figured I could prepare some of it the night prior and finish it up the day of the meeting. It all worked out perfectly. The ladies loved it.

This meeting was also the time for us be sure we had our four items to donate to the membership auction in December.  We had two items made and donated by the ladies and we needed to make two more.  Detta Wilson suggested at the October meeting that we make tied fleece Christmas throws.  We all agreed to that great idea. I purchased the fabric on sale. And we ended our meeting by tying the fleece blankets.

We are a crafty bunch of ladies. Pretty happy group as well.  Others helped but had to leave before we finished up.  Left to right are Detta Wilson, JoCarol Wilson, Janet Preston and Elaine Rutledge.

Down on the Farm...

Bailey was to have had a school field trip to a farm. The rain was so bad the day before that the fields at the farm would not support the weight of a school bus driving on them. So the field trip was postponed. I was to have gone on this field trip with Bailey.

When the trip was rescheduled, Andie let me know and it worked out that I could still go on the field trip to the farm with Bailey.  I went to LaGrange the night before and stayed with the Mini's. The next morning the family headed out to work and school and I got ready for the field trip.  In Oldham County the adults drive themselves to the field trip site instead of riding the bus with the kids. The farm was about 45 minutes from the Marx home.  I arrived early and was able to begin reading the 2nd book in the '39 Clues' series that Hayden loaned me.

The kids eventually arrived on their buses and we all headed down to the barn building area.  There were three first grade classes. Each class was its own group. They rotated through three different activities on the farm. Then they all met to eat their sack lunches together. 

The first activity for Bailey's group was learning about farm animals and petting the ones you were allowed to pet. The second activity was the horse barn and riding and learning about the horses. The third activity for Bailey's group was the hayride. This ended in the corn field and a guide explained the process of raising corn.

Here are some pictures of our day at the farm.  Bailey is in a pink coat and is usually the first in line or at or near the end of lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful day and the kids had a wonderful time.  Bailey road the bus back to school and I headed back to LaGrange. I would pick the kids up from Bear Care about 5pm. This gave me a few hours to myself. Treasured time. I stopped and bought me a soda and headed to the park. I parked in the parking lot, rolled down my windows for fresh air and curled up with the book Hayden loaned me. I would finish reading it before he got home from school.

 

After picking up the kids, I cut Bailey's bangs and listened while Hayden read his part for the program he would be in the next day.  Michael got home and we looked at the pictures from Bailey's field trip. Then I headed back to Sadieville.

 

On the drive to LaGrange the night before and on the drive home, there was a very bright object in the sky below the moon. It stayed there the entire hour and a half I drove over and then back home.  Michael and I thought it might be the ISS (International Space Station).  I sent Jake an eMail as he is very knowledgable about all things space related.  Jake told me I was seeing the planet Venus.  Amazing!!

Birthday Playdate with Pa and Ma...

Hayden would turn 9 years old in November.  We would not be with him on his birthday. So we headed over the weekend before to have a little playtime with the Mini's in celebration of Hayden's birthday.

Hayden wanted us to see "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - 2".  So we plotted our day around that.  A trip to McDonald's to appease appetites.  A romp in a local park to expend energy.  A quick opening of presents in the car.  A movie to share things kids enjoy with their grandparents. It would fill that day and make for a fun birthday celebration with Hayden.

I only took pictures of the outing at the park.  This is a lovely park and, fortunately, it was warm enough to enjoy. There is a beautiful stream running through the park, a nice bridge over the stream, and lots of leaves and sticks in the stream to occupy little imaginations.

Look closely and you see Andie and Claude on the bridge. Look at the right side of the base of the bridge and you see Bailey putting leaves and little twigs in the stream to float down the stream. Look under and beyond the bridge a bit and you see Hayden catching the leaves and twigs sent by Bailey.

This picture of Andie and her Dad I love...just 'cause.

Miss Bailey was all about pulling limbs out of the stream. Since we had the bad storm with lots and lots of wind about a week before, she had lots of material with which to work.

 

I found great beauty in the ending moments of fall colors.

It was a lovely day. Hayden was so happy with his birthday gifts. He loved sharing a movie he loves with us. It's always a treat to sit in a theater and hear the kids laughing at funny things. Can't believe our little man is now 9 years old. Where does the time fly?

October Extras...

These are a few random items from the month of October 2013.

Sunday, October 20th, Claude asked me to speak with him at the Beaumont Ward Spanish Sacrament Meeting. Claude is a High Councilor at Church. He is asked to speak in the different wards (congregations) on the third Sunday of the month several times during a year. He is to ask someone to speak with him. In September I spoke in the Singles Branch with him.  This time we would speak to the Spanish speaking members of our church. However, we do not speak Spanish ourselves. Hmmm...

I had already been to an 8am meeting at our ward (congregation). Then stayed for the 3 hour block of meetings. Then hurried over to our building on Sir Barton in Lexington, Kentucky to speak in their meeting. 

As I walked the halls, I had the warmest feeling. There are little windows in the classroom doors. Inside each room was a teacher with a class of people listening and participating.  Then I reflected on all the teaching and participating that had happened from the 8am meeting through our three hour blocks of meetings.  Then I thought about Claude and me preparing our talks to teach again.

It felt so good to know we are all striving so hard to be sure the word of the Lord is taught and shared and experienced by so many people.

Since Claude and I do not speak Spanish, we each prepared our talks and typed them up. Claude forwarded them via eMail to the person who would translate for us.  When we gave our talks we read a bit and then the translator would say in Spanish what we read. He had diligently printed our talks and made notes to help him with translating some portions.  Now, I do know some things in Spanish.  In my talk I had the word 'work' in there several times. I know the Spanish word for 'work' is 'trabajo'.  I kept listening for 'trabajo' and not hearing it. I finally paused in my talk and turned to the man and told him I knew the word 'trabajo' means work and I was not hearing it. He assured me there is another word for 'work' and he was using it. We both grinned.

It was a sweet experience to top that good feeling I had as I walked through the hallways and realized all the effort going on in this world-wide Church to teach and train.  Then to realized it really doesn't matter what language, the words can be heard and the truth and be felt in all languages.  Just a neat moment in time for me.

Saturday, October 26th, was the Stake Primary Special Needs Activity.  This is held twice a year and provides a chance for the families with special needs childen to be strengthened and have voice to their concerns and their joys. The first hour the parents meet as a group to have a group session. A person leads and directs the discussion so it stays productive and all are invited and encouraged to share their questions and experiences so that each comes away with tools to help them. The leaders of the Primary axillary were invited to send a representative to gather information to help them in their callings with the special needs children. I'm sure this will be expanded to now include the Young Men/Young Women auxiliaries as well as many of the children this activity was originally organized to support are now entering their teen years and transitioning to the YM/YW programs. While the parents are in this session, volunteers are helping the special needs children enjoy games and activities. The second hour is lunch for the parents in one area and lunch for the children with their auxiliary leaders in another area.

This was a most productive activity and well worth the time to attend and the time used to prepare and execute the event by the stake Primary leaders.

Wednesday, October 30th, Claude and I went to the Scott County Library for free training on using our Kindle Fire's.  Love that free training.  It was a good time and we learned a few things we did not know. We have an excellent library here.  They gave me the advertisement for training going on in Sadieville for computers during November that would be free for the public. I was able to come home and add that to the City of Sadieville and the Friends of Sadieville Facebook pages I maintain.

Halloween was to have been Thursday, October 31st.  Alas, we had the forecast for bad storms that evening with exceptionally high winds, potential for hail, etc.  The exit began when I heard from Andie that Louisville was looking at postponing trick-or-treating until Friday so no one was out in the storm.  She let me know they canceled it for Oldham County as well, which is where they live. Then Claude started getting phone calls as the Mayor of Sadieville. It seems Georgetown had postponed trick-or-treating until Friday for the very same reason. What would Sadieville do?  Well, we postponed it also.  The Fayette Mall in Lexington stayed open and all the stores did trick-or-treating on Halloween. The Kentucky Horse Park was also open on Halloween so the kids could go there and be indoors to enjoy Halloween festivities. The end result was we did have wind and rain.  Then Friday we had the most trick-or-treaters ever on Eagle Bend.  I cracked up at my friend who moved here from Michigan.  She was appalled at the postponing. She exclaimed, "We did trick-or-treating in blizzards in Michigan. What is a little rain?"  It was the first time in my 63 years I have ever heard of postponing trick-or-treating.  My belief, shared with my dear hubby, is it all comes down to our litigious society.  Someone was sure to sue the city, any city, because their child got hurt because they went trick-or-treating in a storm. Not their fault for choosing to take them out in a storm.  Andie voiced the opinion that we just didn't need to be that greedy about getting all that candy for our children. Goodness.  I reflected back to my kids and buying them each a bag of their favorite candy then hiding in the basement Halloween night and watching movies together and eating our own candy that was safe.  That was great fun and we totally enjoyed it.  It was an interesting feeling for Halloween this year.

Two Parks in One Day...

Tuesday, October 22, 2013 Hayden and Bailey were on their Fall Break from school. They had come to visit as part of their break. This was the perfect opportunity to take them to Yuko-En in Georgetown, Kentucky.  I had never walked through this pretty park even though I drive past it often.  Claude had been through it several times with board groups that he sits on. 

Georgetown has a sister city in Japan. There is a lot of connection between the two cities. Yuko-En was created as a tribute to the relationship between these cities. It is a beautiful park with a Japanese theme. The Mini's loved their time there. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of our visit to Yuko-En.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This last picture is Bailey in a little covered spot on the trail through the park. I asked her to sit inside and look like she was thinking. She put her fingers up to her temples and tapped just like "think, think, think".  Andie and I got a good chuckle out of that. I was going for a pensive look and she was literal in acting out my request. Love it!

After visit Yuko-En we picked up Papa and took the Mini's and Andie to Fava's to have 'Frickles'. This is a fried pickle appetizer that Claude and I love. The Mini's really love dill pickles and we have always felt they would enjoy Frickles. They did.

After taking Papa home we still had some good daylight for another park.  The Mini's love Brookings Park in Georgetown so we visited it.  There is a neat twirling thing that they love. Between Andie and Claude starting their turning, both kids got lots of spins on this fun thing. Check out Bailey's cool sneakers.

 

 

Well, the adults were worn out and the kids were happy.  Enjoyed this year's Fall Break.

Bonnie's Visit...

October 5th Bonnie came to visit. Bonnie is Claude's mom. The purpose of the visit was to see her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This would entail a bit of travel and much fun.

Sunday, October 6th we drove to La Grange, Kentucky for her to visit with the Marx family.

Hayden surprised Claude with the Beach Boys song "Barbara Ann".  Years ago Claude shared that song with Hayden and he loved it. This was a cute moment. It even made Claude have a real grin!!

Later Hayden was playing with the calendar in his tablet and this is what he recorded for November 6, 2022. Cracked me up!!!

Claude's birthday was on October 4th. This was a chance for the Mini's to celebrate. Andie made a truly yummy birthday pie for her dad. The Mini's each made him a card.

 

 

We returned to Sadieville that evening but would be back in La Grange on Wednesday, October 9th.

 

Monday the 7th was a rest day.

 

Tuesday, October 8th, we picked up Papa and headed to Natural Bridge in Kentucky. Papa loves this area and we had never driven Bonnie down there.  It was a great trip on many levels. We drove back roads to enjoy rural Kentucky. We found a place called Gladie. There was a big tobacco barn there and and very old wood house. The black tobacco barn had one of the quilt patterns on it.  Bonnie noticed this on a previous visit and really loved them.

When we got to Natural Bridge it was a definite we would not hike up to the top. However, there is a wonderful ski lift that will take you there. We opted for the ski lift ride.

Then a brief hike to the top of the bridge.

Now, this picture takes a little explaining. We lived much earlier in our marriage in California. Claude was stationed at March A.F.B. near Riverside, California. In Riverside was a mountain named Mt. Rubideaux. At the top was an enormous statue of Christ. In a most irreverant fashion, Claude would re-enact that scene for us. Only Claude and I got it but it brought back memories of long ago days.

Like Mt. Rubideaux, the top of Natural Bridge offers spectacular views.

To actually see the bridge, one must hike up from the bottom to the bridge or hike from the top down to see the bridge. I opted to leave the monkeys on the top of the bridge and hike down by myself to see the actual bridge.

 

I have to record this bit for my personal history. My father has no fear of heights. From my childhood I remember distinctly him walking right to the very edge of a high cliff when we traveled to the Rocky Mountains to look off the side. No fear at all. However, he is now 85 years old and not steady on his feet. When he stands still he tends to begin to tilt forward and start to fall. When we got to the top of Natural Bridge and I saw we could walk over it I gently held my father's arm and said, "Now Papa, I know you love to walk to the very edge and look over. However, you are not as steady as you once were and I'm not ready to lose you over the edge. Please don't go to the edge but stay in the middle."  He assured me he would do just that. And he did...thank heavens.

 

After enjoying the scenery and my taking time to hike down a bit, we headed back to the ski lift for our trip back down the mountain to our parking spot. Here is a sweet picture of Claude and his mom in their tram car.

We drove down near Berea and Richmond, Kentucky on those lovely back roads. Our hope was to find the iron furnace Claude and I found on his birthday last year.  Amazingly we did. Papa and I walked out to it and he walked through part of the inside to see how it worked.  Bonnie and Claude stayed by the fence at the parking lot. Bonnie and Papa were just as fascinated with it as Claude and I were.

Wednesday, October 9th, Claude had an early morning Chamber of Commerce meeting. While Claude took care of business, Bonnie and I opted for breakfast at Fava's in Georgetown. Claude would join us as soon as he finished his meeting. I ordered pancakes. Now, I don't like syrup on my pancakes. I opt for extra butter instead. When our server asked for our orders, I told her I wanted pancakes with no syrup but extra butter.  She brought me six, count them, six, packets of butter.  I did manage to put one between the two layers and one in the center of the top pancake. Then I spread two more on the three pancakes.  I found it poetic that our salt and pepper shakers were piggies and that happened to be where my butter wrappers ended up.

After breakfast we headed to Louisville. Our destination...MegaCaverns.  Years ago these caverns were formed when limestone blocks were mined underground.  They are enormous.  They cover a land mass under the Watterson Parkway and from there all the way under the Louisville Zoo. 

They are deep. To be used by the public they have to be filled in so it is not so deep from floor to ceiling.  There are businesses who rent space in the caverns and their offices are built into the caverns.  Some are document storage businesses and the Pod storage units.  There is a visitors center and gift shop.  They have a rope climbing area outside the visitors area. These would be great fun to play in. They also have Zip Lines in some of the caverns that have not been filled in. We took the tram tour through the caverns.

After our MegaCavern tour we headed back to La Grange to play with the Mini's again. Bailey modeled her Halloween costume. She was an Egyptian princess.

After a play at the park, we tried to get some generation pictures.  It was the end of the day and clearly toward the end of picture taking, Miss B was worn out. Still love having these pictures. They are a moment in time.

 

 

Thursday was a day at home.  Saturday would be the Friends of Sadieville Chili Cook-off combined with the Sadie'Hill' Bike Tour. Claude and I would miss it. But we needed to leave chili and cookies to help with the event.  I baked three huge batches of cookies giving me plenty to take some to Papa, take a big container to Michigan and leave lots for the Chili Cook-off. Claude made two crock-pots of chili. We all packed and got ready for our trip to Michigan.

 

Friday we were off to Michigan. We planned to leave in the middle of the day to make the five hour drive the Chelsea to pick up Jake. I went into Georgetown in the morning to visit with Papa, take him his cookies and be sure he was okay for while we were gone. When I came home the warning light was on in my car saying I had air pressure problems in my tire. I told Claude when I got home and he went out to check the pressure before we left. Sure enough, the pressure in the driver's side rear tire was way low. When he went to put air in it he found a nail. Goodness!!!

 

I called Frank Shoop and asked if they could work me in to fix the tire. They were short handed and said I could come but would have to be patient as they fit me in. I told them we would take our air pump that works from the cigarette lighter and pray for the best.  Off we went with that prayer that the tire would hold. It did. It seemed the nail filled the hole enough to allow only a slow leak.

 

Between Cincinnati and Dayton Claude noticed a sign for a Jack in the Box restaurant. When we lived in California this was a favorite place to take our little children for a burger. Loved the Jumbo Jack. Claude made a unilateral decision and whipped off I-75 and into Jack in the Box. We headed inside for a quick lunch break. This is what we found.

That's right folks, we encountered a kiosk instead of a person at the counter. There was a little line but we were doing okay on time. We figured out the kiosk and placed our order. I headed to find a booth and told Claude what soda I wanted with my meal. Claude and Bonnie stayed in line.  After a bit they joined me with the drinks, no meal.  I told Claude I only saw one person working the window, the counter and making food. Then I saw another person around a corner helping make food. Bonnie was able to see a couple more people. No one was getting their food. Then a couple two place in front of us got their food and sat down to eat.  It seems a man came in from a work site and placed an order at the counter for 100 tacos to go.  Yep, that is 100 tacos at 12:30 in the middle of lunch. No calling ahead to warn them.  In addition, a lot of the workers at Jack in the Box had not shown up for work that day. I was amazed at the manager that stayed so polite.  The man in front of us started to rail on her to give him four of the tacos they made for the 100 taco order. She assured him the taco order guy had been in line for 20 minutes and they must finish his order before they did any others.  I'm thinking the first tacos they made must have been really soggy by this time.  Eventually we got our lunch and found the Jumbo Jack was not really as good as we thought it was.  They gave Claude something to get a free meal for each of us the next time we came in.  I'll just state here we did not go back on our way home. We just chuckled at the memory as we drove past.  Okay, we are now a hour behind from waiting for our lunch. That's okay, we would get there.

 

Outside of Dayton we ran into a wall of traffic. Never found out the problem.  All lanes of I-75 were stopped. As we continued to sit everyone started turning off their vehicles, even the long haul truckers. The man in the car next to us got out and cleaned out his trunk while we waited.  I finished a lot on the baby afghan I was crocheting. The man next to us asked us what kind of pizza we wanted, he was considering ordering pizza. We laughed.  People were driving up the left side of all the lanes along the middle barrier trying to get ahead. People were getting out and walking along the sides to see what the problem was.  Then, suddenly the big trucks started up, the cars started up and we began to move.  The comedy was watching all those people walking turn and run for their cars farther behind us.  As we all drove forward one lady was really running down the outside of all the lanes. I could only hope that the car she was looking for was in the outside lane. There was even a car that had given up and turned around and was driving the wrong way on the left hand shoulder. What a zoo. And, another hour lost.

 

At this point I kept sending Jake text messages so he would know we were running a little late and could gauge when we would arrive. They were short clipped messages giving a landmark. When we pulled up in front of his apartment, I said something like "In front of your apartment, now!!"  I was intending to express satifaction at having finally made that drive. Jake read it as, "Get out here NOW!!  Such is the silliness of digital communication.

 

We loaded Jake in the car and headed to Muskegon with a stop near Lansing at Cracker Barrel where Jake bought us dinner. 

 

Saturday, October 12th, we went first to Port City Automotive where Todd could look at our tire and give us his assessement. Nissa was able to get first hugs with her Gramma. Then we got Katelyn, Paul and Aubrey and went to The Pita Place for lunch. After lunch we spent the afternoon playing Apples to Apples. We ended with singing around the piano. Even our Paul sang two solos. My heart was full.

 

Nissa and Todd got home from work and Nissa played the piano and sang for us a bit.  Then we all headed to Mango's for dinner.  This is Nissa and Todd's favorite place and it is usually a place they go to alone. They called earlier in the day and reserved a table for us in the back. It was a delicious meal and we enjoyed the time for food and conversation.

 

Sunday, October 13th, Nissa wanted to hit the punkin' patch.  With Katelyn working and doing college, Nissa doesn't get all three kids home at the same time very often. They have hit that point in life. Katelyn managed to have the entire weekend off.  So we all loaded in the Tyler van and our car and headed through the Michigan countryside. Todd led the way and we followed. Bonnie would get to see some fall color. Gorgeous drive.

 

We totally enjoyed this pumkin patch. Can't remember the name of the place. They have a bison herd and two herd of elk as well as some other farm animals. Jake and I would take a walk out through the countryside to see the animals and take pictures.  The one picture is Katelyn and Paul running toward the pumpkin patch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved this walk with my son. That just doesn't happen often enough for me.  I do enjoy that kind of time with my kids.

 

Then Todd had one more treat for us. He knows a river that has a small dam in it that the salmon jump up to get up stream. The huge numbers of salmon really ran a couple of weeks before we were there but he was hoping we still might see some stragglers.  What a lovely place. There is a big area which is full of fishermen when the salmon are really running.

There is a walk across the dam and we spent a good deal of time on it watching for the salmon. We did see some and marveled at their will to swim against that water and then jump over the dam. There is a lovely deck area off to the left of the picture above. We used it for some family photos.

 

How important and nice to have these family moments when we live so very far apart. Building memories to last a lifetime and beyond.

 

Sunday afternoon late we left to take Jake back to Chelsea. We would spend the night in Chelsea and return to Sadieville Monday.

 

Tuesday would be a down day with the exception of an evening meeting for Claude.  Bonnie and I were invited. It was a time for the community to come and meet and ask questions of their Mayors and the County Judge Executive.  Claude was there as the Mayor of Sadieville. He was eloquent. It was a treat for Bonnie to watch her son in action. She was a happy mom.

Wednesday, Claude took Bonnie back to the airport for her trip home. She had a good visit and got to be with all her family that reside in the middle of the United States. And, after all, that was the whole point.