Christmas 2018 is Finally Finished...

Saturday, September 28th, we finally finished the Christmas gifts Claude received. I purchased him a walking tour by American Legacy Tours in Cincinnati, Ohio. This particular tour was titled "1919 - The Year That Changed Baseball". It is focused on the World Series came of 1919 where the game was thrown by the White Sox players. This happened in Cincinnati as did many of the other firsts in baseball. 

We started the walk at Fountain Square. This was very scenic. It was very picture worthy. Enjoy these views at Fountain Square.

Our tour guide would walk us to the next block. We would enter a building in the Art Deco style. This and all other building figured in the history of baseball and particularly how that fit with Cincinnati baseball. We would walk around that next block where hotels would have been during the 1919 World Series game. There are new buildings there now but our guide helped us feel the way they would have been in the early 1900's. The third and the fourth pictures are the same building. The third picture I am looking up at the first concrete framed building built in the United States. The fourth picture is the reflection of this building in the new building across the street. Cool!

We ended up back at Fountain Square. The tour was about 90 minutes and we both really enjoyed it. They have another tour in Newport, Kentucky (right across the Ohio River) that has to do with the mob and gangsters in that area in the early days. We think we may try that one next. Merry Christmas Claude!

And We're Walking...We're Walking...We're Walking...

Saturday, September 21st, was the Lexington Alzheimer's Walk. Claude and I participated again this year. This time it was held on the University of Kentucky Campus around and inside the football arena. Here are the pictures. My favorite is Claude give us a touchdown sign on the football field. Way to go Claude Jay!

After the walk, we went to Five Guys for lunch. They always post where they get the potatoes from. This was the sign. Can't believe the name of the farm!!

We enjoyed our burgers and then drove all the way home to Sadieville. When we got out of the Jeep I realized I did not have my purse. I quickly called Five Guys. Amazingly, they had my purse and had it locked in the back of the store! Hallelujah!! Claude drove me back to Lexington since my license was in my purse in Lexington. We drove the half hour back to Lexington and picked up my purse. 

Along the way home we saw this cute house on I-75.

After that very eventful morning, I was on the road back to Georgetown to visit Papa. Whew!! Life can be a real whirlwind.

Jake Visits...

Friday, September 13th, Claude went to Cincinnati to attend a funeral. Claude is the Chair for Bluegrass Tomorrow. The President of that organization is Rob Rumpke. His father passed away. Claude attended the funeral. I didn't go as I needed to visit Papa. Claude sent me these two pictures of the Catholic church where the service was held. It seems balloons from a former function had made their way to the ceiling. Claude thought they added a nice touch to the service. He brought the program for the service home. I thought the poem that was printed on a card was nice.

That evening the Boy Scout troop to which Hayden belongs held their annual Spaghetti Dinner. Claude and I drove over to attend this. As we drove, there was a major amount of traffic. Granted, it was a Friday evening. But this seemed like a lot more. Turns out there was a wreck in Frankfort. We got past that snarl and then hit more thick traffic. This turned out to be a fire on the side of I-64. It appeared someone tossed a cigarette out their window. Since we haven't had rain, the grass was very dry and caught fire. There was one fireman with a pack that blew that stuff to put out fires and he was spraying the side of the road to kill the fire all by his lonesome. 

We finally made it to the spaghetti dinner and found Hayden helping out at the dunking booth. We learned that as you get more senior in the scout troop, you don't have to work the dining area. You get to go outside and help with the different booths. We enjoyed our dinner very much. 

When the dinner was finished, they sell the left over food. I purchased a large container of the left over sauce and a bag of the rolls. Claude and Bailey placed bids and watched carefully to be sure they maintained the highest bid. We ended the evening purchasing two crocheted items for Katelyn's little girls for Christmas, gift cards to Red Robin and Hometown Pizza, four filet mignon steaks from Crestwood Meats, four tickets to Keeneland and two tickets for a dinner riverboat cruise in Louisville. A personal best. But all are items we will use. It was a good dinner and we left to get home before Jake arrived.

Jake would arrive near midnight Friday evening. 

Saturday morning we let Jake sleep in a bit. I got up early and went for my visit with papa. Jake and Claude came in and met me at the nursing home at 11am. There were kids doing a car wash at the nursing home. I alerted Claude and he came in and had them wash the Jeep. It seems the new bars Claude added to the top of the Jeep to carry lumber home from Lowe's will not go through the car wash. Having the kids do the washing of the Jeep was just what Claude needed. 

Then the three of us left Claude's Jeep at the nursing home and got in my car to go to the Kentucky Horse Park. It seems Ms. Bailey had a cross country run there Saturday. We enjoyed watching our Bailey run. 

Claude took us to Blaze Pizza for lunch. Then we stopped at Kroger and bought barbeque ribs. Then we headed home. Andie and Bailey would join us for an overnight visit. The weeks tired feeling caught up with our fair group and I heard Andie say as she noticed Jake dozing, "My brother inspires me to take a nap." Then I looked in a bit and she was covered and ready for a nap. At this point I heard Andie say, "We should have Nissa here to nap with us!" I took this picture and sent it via text to Nissa and shared that Andie felt Nissa should be with us. Nissa responded that she was resting in her chair at her house! 

Sunday morning (15th) Claude and I went to Church. After Sacrament meeting, we went to the nursing home to pick up Papa and bring him to the house. We would have a nice visit with Papa. Andie and Bailey left in the early afternoon. I took Papa back to the nursing home about 4:30pm. Then Claude and Jake and I enjoyed a nice evening together. We call this time 'Adult Swim'. 

Monday morning I visited Papa. Then returned home. Claude and I had reservations at Berlin Resort in Ohio for Monday evening. These were made before Jake made his arrangements to visit. Jake told us to keep these reservations. He really wanted this trip to be very low key so he could get some writing done. Quiet time would allow this to happen. So we left Monday morning and drove to Berlin, Ohio.

The purpose of this quick trip was to check out a potential site for a family reunion next year to celebrate Claude and my 50th anniversary. We had a possible place but I received a Groupon for the Berlin Resort and felt strongly we should check it out. We checked into the Berlin Resort and were given freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookies. This is one of Claude's favorites. We went to our room and settled in. Then we were off to walk the grounds. 

One of the neat things at this resort is the Children's Village. It has smaller buildings in a row that children can enter and play. Amazing.

The resort has a lovely back lawn with this Children's Village at the bottom of the hill. There is also a coy pond with little water falls and a bridge over it. There are two putting greens. There is a patio with two fire pits. It has a racquetball court and a basket ball court. There is even a walking path behind the Children's Village. Lots of places to enjoy being together as a family outside.

Inside there is a salt water swimming pool, whirlpool, and 26-seat theater. If we had rain, we could truly enjoy ourselves even indoors. 

Monday evening we tried a local restaurant, Berlin Homestead. The food was quite good. We also found Blackberry Cider for sale here. We purchased a jug to bring home. When I was a child, my parents would make a trip out west each year. While on that trip, Papa would find this Blackberry Cider and bring some home. It was not a common cider and it was delicious. Finding it in Berlin brought back memories. I thought it would be fun to give Papa a taste from his past. I have taken two glasses in to him at the nursing home since getting home. It was fun to see him enjoy it so much.

Tuesday morning we met with a sales person after having breakfast. She walked us through some of the other room types in the resort as well as the theater and the conference room. We gave her a list of our room needs for the family reunion as well as the dates we wanted. The next day she sent us the rates. We agreed to them and she has sent us a contract. We will be having our 50th Anniversary family celebration at Berlin Resort. 

Claude got me back to Sadieville in time to get in to visit Papa. Jake and Claude met me in Georgetown for dinner. We took Jake to Broussard's for Creole/Cajun cuisine. 

Wednesday morning (18th) I was back at the nursing home to visit Papa. Then we were off to take Claude to the airport. It seems there was to be a cousin's reunion of the cousin's on Claude's mother's side of the family on Thursday. Bonnie asked Claude to come. Jake assured him he should go. So, we were taking Claude to the airport with a stop at Smokey Bones for dinner on the way to the airport.

Thursday (19th) would be my last full day with Jake. I asked him on the way home from the airport how he envisioned his last full day of vacation in Kentucky. Jake wanted to write in the morning at a place in Georgetown. Then have lunch. Then spend the afternoon writing at our home. I took Jake to Georgetown and dropped him off at the place he wanted to write. I picked up Papa and took him to the park by the creek during this time. We both picked Jake up on our way back to the nursing home. This gave Jake and opportunity to tell Papa goodbye. Jake and I went to McCallister's for lunch. Then home and Jake would write while I posted old family pictures to an family Facebook page for my Mother's side of our family. I cooked a dinner for the two of us. We had a quiet evening of watching television and Jake packing up during commercials. It was just delightful to have this last day with Jake and him filling it as he wanted.

Friday morning (20th) Jake left at 8am. He had a ticket to a concert by the Cincinnati orchestra. He would attend this on the way home. 

Jake had a good vacation. Even with all the things we had to work around. It was good to have him here. Love this young man.

Catching Up...

Wednesday, September 11, 2019 I went to see Dr. Richardson. He is our ophthalmologist. This is always a fun visit. Not!! They begin with that most awful of test, the flashing light. You press a buzzer-like thing each time you see a little light flash anywhere on the screen while trying to intently focus on the center of the white screen. This checks your peripheral vision. It is so very hard to stay focused on the center of that screen. When I blink, I see the little holes where the other lights flash from and then I look away from the center of the screen. It just drives me a bit nuts. The next thing is to be sure I get to keep wearing my readers. I really don't want to have to wear prescription glasses. That is inevitable. But each time my hope is that the tests will show I can still wear my readers. This time I still have 20/20 vision and my peripheral vision is fine and my eye pressure is fine and...I can still keep my readers. Yeah!! Successful visit to Dr. Richardson.

After this visit, I treated myself to a biscuit from Bojangles. They make great biscuits and you can buy them any time of the day. I bought my biscuit and a soda at the drive-thru, then pulled around to sit in my car under a tree in the shade to eat before going to visit with Papa. As I sat there, I saw these guys taking what appeared to be a motorcycle safety test in the parking lot of the church next door to Bojangles. Floods of biking memories came back. I took this picture and sent it to my hubby to see if he remembered doing this. He took a motorcycle safety course at least every other year, often every year, while we had the Goldwing. He did remember. Riding that bike was great fun and a big part of our lives for many years.

Thursday, September 12, 2019 we attended our Adult Religion class in the morning. This time I had been asked to substitute teach. We covered 1 Corinthians 1-7. It was a good experience. 

Claude and I had lunch and then I visited Papa for a while before heading home. Claude and I would return to Lexington in the evening for our Stake Welfare/Self-Reliance Committee Meeting. 

Friday, September 13 through Friday, September 20 we had a visit from Jacob. I will put that in a separate post.

Friday, September 14th, Claude and I received a thank you not from Breck and Iris Manwaring. They were recently married and we gave them a gift card for their wedding present. We attended their reception and that was not long after I fell and lost my teeth. I just love this very cute card and will share it here.

Thursday, September 17th, Katelyn sent us this picture of Raelyn. When they visited over Labor Day, Claude opened one of his little cans of spaghettio's with alphabet noodles and little meat balls in it for Raelyn to eat. She loved them and loved that she could find letters she knew in them. Katelyn gave her some at their home and Raelyn wanted us to see that she loved eating ABC noodles. 

Wednesday, September 18th, Michelle watched Katelyn's girls. She posted this great picture of our Emelia. Love this happy face.

Saturday, September 22nd, our great grandson Nelson turned 2 years old. I love his smile. He wears it all the time.

That morning we walked for Alzheimer's. I'll put that in a separate post.

During the day, Katelyn posted this picture of Raelyn in a University of Michigan cheerleader outfit. Her Grampa Todd would love this. It appears Raelyn loved wearing it!

Monday, September 23rd, our daughter, Andie, shared these pictures.

The first one is their bathroom on the second floor of their home. The second picture is their kitchen. Andie simply said, "What could I whip up for dinner that would go with this? It would seem our leak was not so small after all..." Ugh...

On this day we got a picture of Emelia...on the counter...oh my!

Tuesday, September 24th someone posted this lovely meme on Facebook. I shared it with my daughters who are on Facebook and sent it to my son who has opted out of Facebook. Just wanted them to be ready for their future with regards to their inheritance!!

My dear hubby also purchased me a ring...well...

Claude posted this with the picture: "Wifey said she wanted me to buy her a ring. Apparently we need to work on our communications skills, or so I'm told..."  After thinking about it a bit, he added this comment: "A thought occurs... If you painted a smiley face on it, would it become a "cheerio"?" A friend from our Maryland days posted this picture as her comment. Oh my!! Our next door neighbor suggested we make a door knocker out of it! It seems there is a never ending thread of fun to be had with this ring gift from my dear hubby!

I get pictures from several sources that appeared or that I saved in years past on the current date. This picture of me on a camel in Israel popped up. I sent it to Katelyn for Raelyn. Told her to tell Raelyn it was taken in Israel where the Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea.

Raelyn had Katelyn take a picture of her riding her horse. It seems she was sure I was on a horse, not a camel. She enjoyed the picture and Claude and I enjoyed her response picture.

We did get a bit more serious in the evening and enjoyed a session at the Louisville Temple. It was a lovely session and I took the name of a relative, Kate Bennett through. We enjoy these times together. 

I love that Katelyn sends us pictures of the girls. On Wednesday, September 25th we got these two pictures. Raelyn woke up and wanted a day in bed. Okay. Katelyn made sure the girls were reading books though.

Later that day we got this fun picture of Emelia laughing at Raelyn. You can't see Raelyn but Emelia is looking at her and totally enjoying her big sister.

Thursday, September 26th we filled nicely. We attended our Adult Religion class in the morning. We had lunch at Bob Evans. Then I visited Papa in the afternoon while Claude attended a meeting in Frankfort. 

While I visited with Papa I went to the dining room to check out the rummage sale the nursing home was having. They had a vast, I mean vast, collection of clothing that they were not able to identify who it belonged to. I was missing a quilt my mother made for Papa. The premise of the 'rummage sale' was to let the residents use pretend money to purchase the clothes. I didn't want Papa's quilt to be given to someone else. I did not find it in the rummage sale items. Friday, when I went to visit Papa, the quilt was returned to his room. How happy I was to find it. A yellow-orange fleece jacket was also returned to his room. I had asked one of the housekeepers to keep an eye out for it. It too was something my mother made. She found it when bringing things up from the basement where the laundry is located and seeing a bright yellow-orange item in the box. Whew!! 

This evening Claude and I dressed up and went to Covington, Kentucky to the Conference Center. Kentucky League of Cities was having their annual conference and that night was their banquet. It was really nice to be back with these people. They are such good people and Claude has very much enjoyed working with them. This is the thing he misses most about being the Mayor, the opportunity it afforded him to participate with KLC. 

Friday, September 27th, I spent all spare time sewing. Katelyn sent me a pattern she found on Pinterest for a bib. It seems our Emelia needed a big that she couldn't try and pull off her neck. Katelyn found this pattern and asked if I would make some bibs for Emelia. The pattern had a little size for Emelia and a larger size that would fit Raelyn. I found princess-like material at Walmart and flannel to back the bibs. As I spent my morning and evening sewing (I spent the afternoon with Papa), I received this picture of two of our great grandmonsters playing on the back of a turtle. I love turtles and I truly love these lovely little grandmonsters, Raelyn and Nelson. 

I finished the bibs Friday evening and sent this picture to Katelyn assuring her I was putting them in the mail Saturday morning. I made 6 pink ones for Emelia and 2 purple ones for Raelyn.

Saturday, September 28th, Claude and I finished his Christmas present with a visit to Cincinnati. I'll put that in a separate post.

Today is Sunday, September 29th. It is Junie's birthday, my sister. I sent her a text and asked if I could call her while I visited Papa so he could sing Happy Birthday to her. She sent me a text when she was home from Church and I called her. Papa sort of sang to her and then he enjoyed a nice little talk with her. It was nice for both of them.

Tonight, Claude prepared a meal for the Jenkins family. Jennie had hip replacement surgery so the members of our ward are taking dinners to them for a while. We delivered it and then went to McDonald's for an ice cream treat on the way home.

Whew, that catches up on the miscellaneous things.