This would be a visit without a grid. I normally make a grid for anytime we have company for any length of time. This lets us have meals planned and grocery shopping done accordingly. We have a guide to go by that can be adjusted as needed. This time...we went gridless!!!
Friday, July 3rd, 2020
Knowing our time would be very different, Claude and I did our reading for two Sundays and watched the one Darin show that was available. It felt good to be sure we got this completed before company came. We also took a nice treat bag to Papa, had something to eat in Georgetown and did our walk.
While we had our front porch time, Claude said, "What was that?" as he pointed toward the edge of the front porch near the garage. Sure enough, some little critter ran out from beside the house into the front yard and perched itself on the rocks Claude uses to cover the drainage ditch. It was a chipmunk. I took a picture and sent it via text to Bailey asking if her chipmunks that lived under their front steps had made their way to Sadieville. She assured me they may have. The chipmunk is that tiny thing inside the green circle.
Claude and I were up and at 'em after a good nights rest. Claude was in the kitchen doing his cooking thing while I stripped beds and made sure all linens were fresh for visitors. We completed any little things needed to be ready for a week of company.
The Marx family arrived a little after 1pm for lunch. Claude made pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, deviled eggs, a strawberry and bean salad, pickles and pickled beets, etc. It was delicious. I baked a lemon pudding cake that was also yummy. During the week, I cleaned out drawers in the guest room and guest bathroom that had Marx things that stay here all the time. I had it all in order and Andie was able to go through it with me and pare it down some more. Yeah us!! I also had some family heirlooms that I gave to Andie. We are slowly passing these things down to our children. Michael wasn't feeling great so he curled up in the guest bedroom bed and slept the afternoon away. Independence Day was on television so the family watched to its conclusion. Then the Marx family scooped up Hayden and returned to LaGrange while Claude and I settled in with Bailey.
Visits with the Mini's are so very different. When they were little they were like Raelyn is now. The first thing they wanted to do was go to the basement. I have two shelves full of toys, a small train table with lots of trains, a rocking horse, lots of stuffed animals. It is a fun place for little ones to explore and find things to play with. Usually things get pulled out and spread over the end of the family room. I let those things stay out while the kids are visiting and we clean it up when they are getting ready to leave. But now....the Mini's come and they don't even go to that closet. Sometimes they don't even go to the basement. They carry in their hand their toy for every occasion. I just need to be sure there are outlets and extension cords when needed.
Things were prepared for activities with Bailey. Claude had a painting project, I had a sewing project, there was music on the piano to learn some more of that. With the virus, the ability to go to places outside of our home was very restricted. While many are taking cross country trips and visiting all kinds of things that have limited capacity in terms of the number of people who may attend, Claude and I are being very cautious of those things for several reasons. We want to stay healthy. I want to be healthy so I can visit Papa as soon as visitors are allowed. I also can't imagine taking either or both of the Mini's home with them having caught the virus while visiting us. So I will just state that it made this visit different. It truly affects everything we choose to do and do not do.
The Mini's have their hours all turned around. Bailey and Hayden stay up till the wee small hours of the morning and then sleep in till noon or after the next day. Claude and I have kept our hours pretty straight. The beauty of this pattern meant the old folks got up and had several hours to themselves to work on our own tasks before the young folks got up. Then we could devote our time to them and whatever they wanted to do. The one thing Bailey did each day and was very disciplined about was her 9pm run on the treadmill. She is trying to keep in a bit of shape for cross country which they anticipate starting next week. Every evening she gathered her device and tennis shoes and headed to the basement where the treadmill is located. Claude and I did admire her discipline about this.
Saturday we watched the Black Stallion movie with Bailey. She had not seen it before and she loves all animals. Bailey did her run on the treadmill. When she came back upstairs, I took her out to the deck to look at the beautiful full moon. There were also fireworks to be watched on television. However, there was an unusual abundance of them being sent into the air by our neighbors and the people in Sadieville. We found ourselves moving from the back deck to the front porch and back again. Claude and I headed to bed about 11:30pm. Bailey stayed up until she was ready to sleep. The nice thing about the Mini's is they know the house and they are comfortable finding whatever they need. This pleases me no end.
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Today we had one project we worked on. I saw a recipe for homemade honey butter on Facebook. I shared it with Bailey and she agreed we should give it a try. Interestingly, Claude had purchased a pint of heavy cream when he was grocery shopping and he couldn't even remember why. That was just what we needed so we had all we needed right in our home. We also had frozen rolls that Bailey could set to rise and then bake. This is Bailey making the honey butter and the finished product. We totally enjoyed this delightful treat. Who wouldn't enjoy hot home baked rolls with honey butter? I mean, really...
Michael sent us a text telling us there was an Eagles concert on ESPN. We found it while Bailey was running and saved it on the DVR. We were able to watch some of it while Bailey ran. Thank you Michael.
Monday, July 6, 2020
This morning proved again the comfort level of these young ones in our home. Bailey got up and fried herself and egg sandwich for breakfast. Grampa Evan would be so very proud of our girl!
This day we actually left the house. We took Bailey in with us and she walked our path in Georgetown. I thought maybe she would not do her walk at 9pm since she did this walk during the day. Not so. Our intrepid cross country queen did this walk and her run at 9pm. Way to go Bailey.
We dropped a nice treat bag off for Papa. Then we let Bailey pick the place she would like to have something to eat. She was adamant Sonic was the place to go. We all enjoyed a Sonic meal.
Then it was time to go home and watch Hamilton. This is a play that everyone is talking about and all excited about how good it is. It is streaming on Disney+. The Marx family have that and, with their Chromecast, Bailey was able to stream it on our television. Bailey and Andie have seen this play in person in Louisville and she really wanted us to see it. I know we disappointed her but it is all in rap. I don't care for rap at all. And, neither does Claude. Yes, we are old and this is just not our type of music. So the music of it did not appeal to us any some at all. The story was good and the voices of the actors were great. But it didn't seem right to have Hamilton and other founding fathers portrayed in rap. I think the word would be 'incongruous'. We are very happy Bailey provided us an opportunity to see what all the buzz is about. I think we probably did the same thing to Katelyn when we saw Wicked. Neither of us got that one either. Katelyn loved it and the music. We are grateful to have had the experience but neither of these plays were our cup of tea.
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
I had a dermatology visit. I have one every six months. It was at 10:40am. I thought it was at 10am. That is probably because my dental appointment the week before was at 10am. Oh well...it afforded me an opportunity to go to Bojangles and have a biscuit prior to my dermatology appointment. I did have one spot on the tip of my nose that has been a point of concern for me. Dr. Wilson said it was a precancerous spot and he would burn it off. And...burn it off he did!! I was back home well before the girl was awake at 2:30pm.
The nursing home called. Covid-19 testing was done on all the residents and staff on Thursday, July 2nd. The results were in for all the residents and one of them tested positive. They were still waiting on results for 11 of the staff. The positive resident was in isolation in the TCU (Temporary Care Unit). Papa tested negative for the virus. This was great news but concerning to have it in the nursing home. This is a critical care facility and the spread of the virus could be deadly for the residents.
When Bailey woke up at 2:30pm, we told her breakfast would be at Panera in Georgetown. Yep, that is what we did. Wacky times I tell you, wacky times.
Bailey treated us this day to a viewing of the play Newsies. This play we liked a lot more. They sang instead of rapping. I could understand the words a lot more. My problem with this play is it is pro-Union. I worked for a labor union when we lived in Maryland. I don't have good feelings for labor unions. I did remind myself that this was set at a time in history when labor unions may have served a good purpose. But we did enjoy this play a lot more.
I was happy to see Bailey's outfit for the day. She had on a NASA t-shirt. We took a picture and sent it to Jake. He loves all things NASA and Space Program. He pronounced it a good style choice. In the afternoon Bailey came out sporting Claude's Georgetown College sweatshirt. She was just a fashionista today.
Wednesday, July 8 2020
This would be Bailey's day to pack up to go home. We told her she would need to be ready to leave by 1pm. We asked her how much time she needed to be ready and she said we should wake her up at 9am. We did talk her in to sleeping until 10am. When I woke her up at 10am, she was clearly still very sleepy. So I suggested I wake her up at 11am. Which she agreed to and went right back to sleep. Next week is going to be really hard of her.
While we waited for Bailey to finish her sleep, Claude and I logged some more front porch time. I walked around to the Lucifer plant and got these two pictures of this plant. I do love this flower.
Bailey packed and readied herself to leave. Claude had an ophthalmologist appointment at 2:45pm. We went in at 1pm so we could do our walk first. As we started the walk, Bailey stopped suddenly and knelt down over a patch of clover. She hopped right back up with a four-leaf clover in her hand. She saw it as she walked past and just stopped to pick it. She does a lot of four-leaf clover searching while waiting her turn at cross country meets. Seems she had developed quite an eye for finding four-leaf clovers.
After our walk, we went to Jimmy John's for lunch. Then to Dr. Richardson's office to leave Claude for his six month visit. While Claude was doing this, Bailey and I picked up my prescription from CVS Pharmacy, then we went to Burger King and got Papa a chocolate shake. We took that to Papa. When I got back in the car Bailey told me she felt sick. The Mini's both have a hard time with car sickness. Andie, their mom, had this also. Bailey forgot her Dramamine. I picked up some chewables at Love's as we we driving to Georgetown. Bailey took these with her lunch and they were not settling well. Claude and I both keep gallon Ziploc bags in our cars in case the Mini's get sick. I asked Bailey if she thought she could make it back to Dr. Richardson's office. She felt she could. We got a parking spot there and rolled down the windows and had our girl stretch out on the back seat. She just closed her eyes and rested for the next 30 minutes while Claude finished his appointment. She did fine after that.
When Claude finished his appointment, we left Georgetown headed for Shelbyville. Andie and Hayden would meet us there for the exchange.
We had a great visit with Bailey. We did not sew or paint. Bailey did play the piano while doing a video chat with some of her band friends. We did see two of the plays Bailey wanted us to see. We just did things as Bailey wanted to do them. It was her vacation from the pandemic. Although the pandemic did affect what and how we could do some things. She was a happy girl and it was a delight having her around instead of it being only Claude and me for a few days.
Now...on to Hayden...
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