A Week in Review...

Wednesday, November 6th, was our grandson's birthday. Hayden turned 15 years old. I am blown away by that fact. 

That morning we awoke to frost on the pumpkin. We have experienced some record breaking cold air this November. 

Thursday, November 7th, we received an eMail from our realtor regarding our lot that is for sale. She received word from another agent who had a client ready to make a cash offer for the property. Later that day we received the offer for the lot. It was considerably less than the asking price. Claude and I read the offer carefully, crafted our questions and sent them back to Billie Mussman, our realtor. She answered all our questions. We made a counter offer. This offer was accepted on Friday, November 8th. We were very happy with this. We have had very strong impressions we need to go ahead and sell that lot so all we had to consider selling would be our home when the time comes for a move. We have a closing date of tomorrow afternoon. This will be such a nice thing to have done. We have truly enjoyed having the lot and no neighbors next to us for 15 years. It is time to prepare for the next phase of our lives and this is a major step in that direction.

Saturday, November 9th, Claude and I participated in our next to last 5K for this year. It was called God and Country. It was the first annual 5K sponsored by the Kentucky Baptist Convention. There were 49 people who participated. The proceeds will go to God's Pantry in Lexington. This charity helps supply extra food to the local food pantry in Georgetown, Amen House. It was held at Coldstream Park in Lexington. We walked there on Memorial Day with our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a very nice walk and mostly level. It is a down and back walk, you walk half-way and then turn around and come back that same path. It was 32 degrees that morning. I told Claude you could tell we do not to that every weekend. The real diehard's are wearing spandex and we were in our jeans with big sweatshirts, scarves and gloves. Claude finished at 1 hour 23 seconds and was 39th out of 49 people. I finished at 1 hour 26.9 seconds and was 40th out of 49 people. Claude send me a message after getting these stats with this terse phrase, "Please try to keep up next time." Oh My Goodness!! Our final 5K will be at the Kentucky Horse Park again and is Southern Lights. Should be an interesting walk. Hope it is warmer!!

That afternoon we received this picture of our little Emelia. It seems she can sit up by herself. She is not quite getting herself into that position but will sit that way when placed in a sitting position. She is really working on figuring out how to make all those limbs on her little body work together so she can crawl. Katelyn says she may be doing this when they come for Christmas. That introduces an entire new level of things she can get into. And we will be off on the next phase of her learning...

I spent that afternoon with Papa. When we got home from our 5K, there was a package on the front steps. Junie, my sister, had sent me a text saying she purchased and mailed Papa's Christmas gift. I was to give it to him as she didn't want to wait until Christmas. The package was from Junie to Papa. I took it to him when I went to visit and we opened it. I took video of him opening it and pictures and sent them to Junie so she could experience that from her home in Utah. The book Papa is holding in the picture is a huge picture book with pictures of the National Parks. These pictures are all two pages and gorgeous. Junie had tagged several of the pictures and put sticky notes about her experiences with Papa or her hubby, Steve, in these parks. I was back visiting Papa a day or so later and found him asleep with this book by his side. He will enjoy these pictures very much.

Saturday evening was the last performance of the Oldham County High School play "Clue". Hayden did not get a part in the play but was able to help by working the front of the house. Andie shared these two pictures with us of Hayden. He looks very happy to be participating in this way. We missed all the performances of this play. Felt bad to miss them but we are so happy he is happy and enjoying his High School experience.

Sunday, November 10th, Katelyn sent this picture of Drew and Raelyn playing ice hockey in their kitchen. He has left his mark on this daughter of theirs. She loves ice and hockey.

Tuesday, November 12th, Claude and I were able to attend the Louisville Temple. We had such a lovely experience. As we returned home we shared our experience that night. I went to this session with a prayer in my heart to have a better understanding of the Atonement and how it fits into the session. It was amazing the insight I received. I told Claude that we have been going to the temple for 50 years. One would think after that amount of time things would just be rote. But when you attend with a prayer about some thing or to learn something, you always come away with a great experience. Interestingly we both had the same learning experience. I love to attend the temple. Such a blessing to have one close enough to get there easily.

On the way home I received a text from a dear friend. Her hubby's mother has stage 3 dementia. She wanted advice on what to do. I sent her a long text reply, followed by several shorter ones. It stirred up all those feelings of anxiety and concern that I have experience since 2002 when my mother was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's and especially since 2005 when we moved my parents here and I became their caregiver. I also felt the blessings that have come as we have needed them in their care. So many people and articles or books have turned up just at the moment they were needed to help me through each phase of their care. You are thrust into the need to make decisions and know things that you just don't have any experience with when someone is diagnosed with dementia. What a huge blessings to have a loving Heavenly Father make sure people and information are placed there to help at or before the time they are needed. It is still an extremely emotional drain. But I acknowledge the amazing help from my Heavenly Father as I have gone down this path. It was good to share some helpful hints as my friend and her hubby go down this path also.

Tuesday, November 12th, we woke up to the first snowfall this year. We had about and inch or two on the ground. Very pretty. Claude painted a birdhouse and we put it in the tree in our front yard earlier this year. It was covered by the leaves on the tree during the year. With the leaves off you can see it now in the second picture.

Today, Thursday, November 14th, we finally accomplished something Claude and I have talked about for a year. We have felt like our hot water heater was not working up to snuff. We didn't want it to do one of those incidents you hear people talk of with a flood in their basement. Veteran's Day we went to Lowe's and picked out the hot water heater we wanted and bought it. That puts you on a list for one of their installers to call you and set up a time to install the new water heater. Today was the day of installation. We now have a 55 gallon water heater that is heating water as we speak. Yippee!! Now we are ready for company to come for Thanksgiving and Christmas and should have no flooding of the basement. Turns out the old one had coils that were about to break inside and the faucet at the base appeared to have been broken when it was installed 15 years ago. So...it is a good thing we got this one off our to do list!!