All good things must come to an end...or so the saying goes.
January 1st was the day the Ropers would leave and we would take the Mini's home. The Ropers left fairly early as they had a stop to make on their way back to Grand Haven. After they left we started showers for the rest of us and a hair trim for Bailey. The plan was to get all that done and then I would drive the Mini's to Shelbyville and meet Andie who would take them on home. You see, now Claude had the cold. Goodness. We made it through all of these things. I stopped to spend time with Papa on my way home. When I got home we both crashed.
Thursday and Friday we took Christmas decorations down between resting times. It takes a lot of determination to get things done when one is not well. But we persevered and got it done.
Saturday, January 4th, we got this cute picture from Andie. She and Bailey are using their aprons made from Claude's shirts while they are baking. What is the container of vanilla icing. It is my response to them regarding my need for a taste of sweet and having none in the house. I was reduced to finishing the leftover icing from the Santa cookies. The girls are cute in their Claude shirt aprons.
Sunday, January 5th was a big day for Raelyn Jay Roper. She would officially enter Primary at Church. Katelyn let us know that she was very happy and they included her in everything. Yeah!!
Monday, January 6th, I had an appointment with Dr. Fine. He is a podiatrist. I have enjoyed the 5K walks with Claude. When I have to do that with close-toed shoes, it wrecks havoc with my big toes and the long ones next to the big toes. I really messed up my toes in 2002 when we were in New England. I bruised all of my toes in a pair of sneakers during our vacation. They have never been the same. When I had my annual physical in December, I made sure I was fasting when they took blood to test so I could be sure I did not have diabetes issues. The results showed no diabetes. So Dr. Lyon referred me to Dr. Fine to get a really good foot check and see what could be done. X-rays were taken and it was determined that the toes are fine, I just need to find really good shoes that fit a certain way to use when walking like that. Some suggestions of special shoe stores in Lexington were given. I also purchased some gel to use on my toes for a few months. Good visit. Nice doctor.
Bailey got braces on her lower teeth this day.
My sister, Neffie, and her hubby, Mike were headed to Kentucky for a very brief visit. They arrived Monday late afternoon. Mike retired several years ago. They purchased a lot of land in Oklahoma. Part of this land was a pecan orchard. This year they had a bumper crop of pecans. Neffie and Mike brought us a box full of shelled pecan halves. So very nice. The label they put on their pecans is below. It gives a history of the land. Nice. After Neffie and Mike left I would bag the box of pecans and mail some to our kids and three oldest grandmonsters. We had a nice evening visiting.
Tuesday, January 7th, I had a visit with my dermatologist, Dr. Wilson. The visit went well and no additional skin cancers were found. Yeah!!
I picked up Papa after he had lunch and brought him to Sadieville to visit with Neffie and Mike.
Wednesday, January 8th, Neffie and Mike left in the early morning. Claude and I went back to bed for a bit. We were still on the end part of our colds and were simply worn out. This was a good thing for us to do. After the nap, I went in to visit Papa. Claude would come in later at the end of my visit and we would meet for dinner. This would be our date night using Jake's Christmas gift. We had dinner at Cane's. First time to this restaurant in Georgetown. Then we went to Theaters of Georgetown to watch the new Star Wars movie. Excellent evening. I took these two pictures and sent them to Jake with a big Thank You for such a nice, thoughtful gift.
Thursday, January 9th, would have been my parents 70th wedding anniversary.
Saturday, January 11th, Claude installed the blinds he got me for Christmas. We are both very happy with them. It has turned very cold and having the blinds closed helps to keep some of that cold out.
While visiting Papa on Saturday, we took a walk inside the nursing home. Papa went into the dining room. Who should be sitting there but Mr. Tuttle. Hmmm...he was supposed to be in isolation and Papa was supposed to be able to go back to Room 107 when they took Mr. Tuttle out of isolation. As we walked past the nurses station, I asked the nurses if Mr. Tuttle was out of isolation as he was in the dining room and not his room. I also asked if we could move Papa back to Room 107. The nurse checked and told me they had just taken him out of isolation. They would now work on getting Papa moved back to 107. Okay.
Sunday when I visited Papa he was still in Room 105. As I left, I spoke with Laine in the offices. She assured me it was okay for Papa to go back to Room 107. I assured her I would be there some time on Monday prepared to move him back. I would be happy to do that myself as long as it was okay now to make that move.
Monday, January 13th, I went in to the nursing home in the afternoon. Claude dropped me off while he went to a meeting in Lexington. I got to Room 105 and Papa was not there. It seems they moved him back to Room 107 that morning. Yippee!! He was happy to back by his window. He was happy to have all his pictures around him. It is all good.
Tuesday, January 14th was the Tyler's anniversary. I posted their picture of all the kids and grandkids on Facebook with this comment: "This is the result of two people finding each other and sharing a happy life together. Just look at what you have accomplished. Happy Anniversary to Nissa Tyler and Todd Tyler, our first born and her hubby. We Love Ya Bunches and hope you have a lovely anniversary and a great year!!"
Tuesday evening Claude and I went to the Louisville Temple. This is a most pleasant experience. I always find this uplifting.
Wednesday, January 15th, Claude posted something very cute on Facebook with this picture. He posted: "Now that the Holidays are over we're missing the grandkids a bit. Thus we are auditioning these two for noise and devotion factors and how well they get along with the dog. Please understand they are most likely not replacement candidates. But you should stay tuned as the new rankings come out Monday."
Thursday, January 16th, we started the day with our Adult Religion class. This was the first one for this session. It was great to be back in that class. We will study the Book of Mormon.
I received a text with this picture. I have been facilitating a Self-Reliance group who is studying Starting and Growing My Business. Marissa Noe is one of the participants. This is a picture of the booth she and her friend have contracted to use in the Georgetown Antique Mall. They are on their way to their own business. How cool is that? I am so happy for them.
I received this picture from Andie with a text. It seems our Bailey is very happy with her M&M pajama pants.
Katelyn posted this picture of Emelia. It seems she is set on climbing under this end table. She gets under there and gets stuck and can't get out. Drew had to pull her out. Katelyn's comment was that we had a mini-Nissa on our hands. Nissa is our oldest daughter and Katelyn's mother. Nissa was our child who loved to climb and crawl into tiny spaces. At one point she wanted to see if she could fit in the washing machine. She did while wear high top sneakers tied in double knots. It was not easy getting her out of the washing machine. This prompted Andie to comment with this second picture. I love my family!!
We received a phone call in the evening from Hayden. It seams he is directing two plays at school. This is a big deal and we are very happy for him. His desire is to go to a college to study screen writing.
And that catches up with all the news that is interesting. I cannot believe we are 20 days into the new year. Where does the time fly off to??
Thursday, December 26th, we would stay home during the daylight hours. Then have an outing when the sun started to go down. Here are a few pictures of our day.
Claude was helping Emelia dance on the breakfast table. She was loving that movement I tell you.
Andie brought over the makings for a 'veggie lodge'. The big word for it is 'charcuterie'. We pretty much stuck with calling it the veggie lodge. You simply take carrots to make the log cabin-like structure and use other vegetables to decorate it. The 'glue', when needed, is cream cheese. There are no specific instructions. You just create as you go. Here are the efforts and results of those efforts. With all the sugar floating around over Christmas, this was a welcome reprieve.
Katelyn got this picture of our cute great grandmonsters. If you look carefully at Raelyn, you can tell how her left eye was pulling to the center. This is the reason for the glasses.
The adults sat around the dining table playing some games. Raelyn is not quite old enough to play these games. We set her up at a little table with the step stool as her chair and gave her a deck of cards to play. She loved it. We kept the table up and moved it to other rooms throughout the rest of their visit.
I love this picture of Raelyn and Bailey watching a movie on Bailey's telephone. Be still my heart!
Emelia loved this Christmas gift.
In the evening we ventured from our home as a family. It took two cars but we got her done. We went to Burger King in Georgetown for dinner. After that we drove through Southern Lights at the Kentucky Horse Park. We all knew that Raelyn would be fun to watch as she experienced all the lights. The Ropers were in their car because of the car seat needs and Bailey road in the back seat between Raelyn and Emelia. Claude drove my car with Michael, Andie, Hayden and me. To enjoy the excitement of Raelyn, we called the Roper car and put my phone on speaker. Then we all talked back and forth as we drove through the lights. It was a nice family activity and got us out of the house for a bit.
Friday, December 27th, the Marx family would head back to LaGrange. They spent most of the morning with us. One of the things they forgot was their stockings for Christmas day. When they got home, Andie sent us this picture of them with their stockings.
I spent the afternoon with Papa. Time for a confession. I did bring Papa out on Christmas afternoon. We opened presents in the morning. My intention was to have Papa open his gifts while he was in our home that afternoon. I completely forgot to give them to him!! My bad. I thought I would take them in on Thursday when I visited him. I completely forgot to take them in with me!! Finally, on Friday, I got the job done. We gave Papa two big canvas pictures of photos I took when we visit Juneau, Alaska and Kolob Canyon, Utah. I also gave him a blanket with pictures of our family all over it. He enjoyed opening his gifts.
It was at this point that the cold caught up with us. I usually have one really good cold every winter. This was my turn for the cold bug. Because of that, Claude and I did not attend the wedding reception we planned to attend that evening. I have no pictures for that day. Claude tried to off load me so I could sit and rest as much as possible. Saturday was just a resting kind of day. I believe this is the day the Ropers made a drive into Georgetown for a little family time out and about.
Sunday, December 29th, I had to go in to play the organ for church. I left my family at home. After church, I went to visit Papa. While I was visiting him, I get two text messages about a possible fraudulent charge on our credit card. Ugh!! This has happened twice before. I can only sing the praises of Chase every time this has happened. While I was at the nursing home I forwarded the text information to Claude and asked him if he made any of those charges. He said he did not. I told him I would communicate with Chase and let them know those were not our charges. I talked with Chase. They asked about other charges that had not cleared. I verified the ones that were legitimate and the two that were definitely not us. They fixed the charges. I was told to not use my credit card until they sent me new ones. All is well now. A major inconvenience but so much less than it could have been.
I was supposed to facilitate a Self-Reliance Group but got a text message and others were also dealing with a cold. We just cancelled the group for that night. This allowed me to go home after visiting Papa. Grateful for that.
When I got home I went to the basement with Raelyn while she played with the toys. I did not take my phone with me. When I got back upstairs I picked up my phone and realized I missed a call from the nursing home. It seems Mr. Tuttle, Papa's roommate in Room 107, had developed something that required him to be in isolation. They had quickly moved Papa back to Room 105. Ugh! This was good to keep Papa away from whatever Mr. Tuttle had but it is very confusing to my poor father. He went through this when he was residing in Room 105 and Matt needed to be in isolation. That is how he got to Room 107. I can explain why he is where he is and that he will get his pictures back once Mr. Tuttle is well. But after a while he forgets the reason and has to have it explained again. We were told it would be a week or so before he could go back into the room.
Monday, December 30th, had us gathering up the Mini's to come back to Sadieville. I was still full of cold and Claude was concerned about me driving to get the Mini's. We had some time in the morning with the Ropers. Then Claude would drop me at the nursing home and go to Shelbyville where Andie would meet him with the Mini's. They would then come back to the nursing home and get me. We would make a quick stop at Walmart to pick up the few items we needed to replenish and add for New Year's Eve.
Here are some morning pictures.
When we got to the house, the kids started their playing again. Somehow Hayden became a knight in shining plastic armor. Raelyn must have very strong powers.
We worked with Emelia on standing alone. She was trying to do this often with her toy. She would let go and then sit down. So Katelyn and Drew stood her up and she tried to stand alone. The first picture is Emelia with no shoes standing and the second is Emelia with shoes standing. In the first picture she almost has a surf board stance.
Monday night's dinner was Hot German Potato Salad with Kielbasa. We love this dish. However, Hayden has some sensitivity issues to certain food. He really doesn't eat bacon. Hot German Potato Salad had bacon bits mixed in it. We were pleasantly surprised when Hayden wolfed down his Hot German Potato Salad. I sent a text to Andie and share with her that he ate this dish with bacon. We did not tell him it had bacon in it. She share the enjoyment of this feat and told me it was actually the day to celebrate bacon!
Time for Tuesday, January 31st. The last day of 2019. Claude and I have a tradition of watching all three Lord of the Rings movies for New Year's Eve. We start the watching at 3pm and end a little after midnight. Katelyn and Hayden both wanted to watch with us so that is why the Mini's were brought back to the house. Bailey wasn't interested in watching the movies but she felt she could help with playing with Emelia and Raelyn while we watched. Drew wasn't interested in watching and he would shepherd the three girls while we watched the movies.
Once we got everyone to the house, it was time to put together that Oreo Cookie house. They did an amazing job of this while I visited Papa. We would send it home with the Mini's. Oreo's are definitely a thing we do with the Marx family.
Raelyn found the book I bought when Hayden was really into Diego. It is the camera and has a button that you click to take a picture. We all posed for pictures that Raelyn was pretend taking. So cute.
Finally it was 3pm. The food was spread out in abundance. We were ready to enjoy the movies. We set up our bedroom for the girls to watch kids movies. Our bed works like a hospital bed. Bailey set it up so they could sit in it to watch television. Toys were brought up from the basement that the little ones might want to play with. Drew was set up with the television in the living room to watch whatever he wanted to view. Everyone had food they would enjoy. Game on!!
After each movie we pause for a refresh your beverage break. We take the things back to the kitchen from the basement. Claude went up after the second movie to get something out of our bedroom. He came down and said, "You don't even want to see our bedroom!" Well, cell phone in hand, I hurried upstairs to get this picture before the final movie started. Our Bailey is hidden behind the pillow on the bed. It really looks worse than it was. And...they picked it up when the little ones went to bed.
I was texting pictures and happenings to Jake. He started the exchange of Lord of the Rings quotes by sending, "Two great grandkids to rule them all!" I shared his quote with Claude who countered with this quote, "What's good for the goose is good for the Gondor!" On my!! We ended the movie with this quote from Claude after Frodo's finger was bitten off by Gollum,'"Now he can only count to 9 1/2!" Yes, our family is a bubble off center!
It was nice to share this tradition with grandmonsters. We had a great New Year's Eve.
Fortunately, none of our family felt the need to be up an a really early hour to open presents. I got up and took those lovely cinnamon rolls out to thaw and rise for breakfast. When Raelyn and Emelia woke up Katelyn got them downstairs with the Marx family. No one comes up to open gifts until we get the family picture on the stairs. This year someone was clever and got a picture of me trying to get the stairs picture. This is probably the first year I am anywhere near being in this picture!
Katelyn then took Raelyn out to see that Santa and the reindeer enjoyed their treats.
Time to open presents. This year Hayden and Bailey helped pass out gifts. Here are a few of my favorite moments.
A year ago Bailey fell in love with my M&M pajama pants. In February when Claude and I went to Las Vegas we visited the M&M store where I got my pair of M&M pajama pants. They had them again and we got me a new pair to replace the first pair. We also got this pair for Bailey. Great fun to give these to her.
We got Andie some self-inking stamps with things that teachers have to write a billion times. Hayden let her stamp the side of his face with one.
This was a fun gift for each of the Mini's. Street signs with their names on it.
Raelyn got this fun mat with roads and buildings for Princesses. She also got a box with 5 or 6 Princess dolls to play with on the mat. The mat was rolled out and stayed on the living room floor until the Ropers left for Michigan.
This was my gift to Claude. There are two young girls in Oldham County, Kentucky who started this project with the support of their parents. They make these 'Be Kind' signs and ask that you make a donation to some organization to receive the sign. You find these signs in yards all over Oldham County. Claude noticed them on one of our visits to the Marx family who live in Oldham County. He really liked them. I researched and found out the story behind them, then worked to get one for Claude. The Marx family picked it up at Thanksgiving time and brought it to me and secreted it in my sewing room closet. Claude was so happy to get it for Christmas. It now is in our front yard by our mail box.
Katelyn found an apron on Pinterest that she really loved. It was made out of a man's shirt. She wanted me to make her one. I saved the pattern and asked Claude to give me one of his shirts. Then I realized this might be something others in our family would like. Andie always wears an apron when she cooks. So Claude gave me enough shirts for Nissa, Andie, Katelyn, Aubrey and Bailey. I contributed a shirt of mine for Raelyn. I made all of these for Christmas presents this year. The first picture is the first one I made. The second picture is the girls opening their aprons on Christmas morning.
This was a very fun gift. Andie and the Mini's gave Michael a treasure hunt for his gift. They had clues on paper and he had to read the clue and go to the place indicated in the clue to find the next clue. The gift was a scavenger hunt in Louisville as a family.
Claude got me a beautiful silver turtle bracelet. His choice of wrapping paper gave me chuckles. We eat at Jimmy John's frequently. This is the wrapper from my sandwich. I always order a Slim 3 with Cheese. When we are finished I always go refill my beverage to take with me and Claude disposes of the trash. He must of saved this wrapper from my sandwich to wrap my gift in. Such fun.
Part of the fun of Christmas day is thanking the people who gave you gifts. In the digital age, you can see they enjoyed the items you so thoughtfully gave. We got Nissa a stone for her garden and a new garden flag that has a map of Michigan with their last name on it.
Jake gave us a Star Wars Christmas card with money in it for a date to see the new Star Wars movie. We have enjoyed Star Wars since the very first one (which is really the 4th one) came out when our kids were little. We stood in line around the theater the entire length of the previous movie to get tickets and seats for our family. This was a welcome and very thoughtful gift.
After opening the gifts, the cinnamon rolls were out of the oven and we had a sweet breakfast together. Thank you Coyne's.
Claude took Katelyn and Drew downstairs. He had a project he created for them. It is a shoe shelf to go close to their front door. They put their shoes in it before going into their apartment and later their home. Katelyn got to pick out whether to paint it or stain it. Katelyn has chosen stain. Claude has backing for it as well. Now he can finish the project.
I got a turtle blanket. I also purchase reindeer ears for each of our grand and great grandmonsters. I wanted a picture of my little dears in my turtle blanket. Raelyn was crying. This is fine. It is just a moment in time.
In the afternoon I went into Georgetown and picked up Papa. He would spend the afternoon with us watching all those little people play. Papa enjoyed watching the family but by the next day he didn't even remember he came unless I reminded him while we talked. We really are filling only his immediate moments. How important that is.
While I took Papa back to the nursing home, Claude and Emelia had another moment. So thankful for other people taking pictures. These are so sweet.
In the evening we did 'the puzzle'. This was a tradition with my mother when I was a child. I really like to get a challenging puzzle. This year I didn't do that. I picked a puzzle with a picture because Michael likes to do that type of a puzzle and the puzzle had only 550 pieces. I really like 1000 or more pieces. But I didn't want the entire rest of our visit to be spent at the table making a puzzle. We set to work and finished this puzzle in one evening. Yeah us!
It was a full, family Christmas day.
