Fresh Out of Clever Title Ideas...

Let's just look at the pictures and think about the day. Thank heaven for pictures to help me remember life!

Monday, September 13th, I woke up early and did some things before Claude woke up. I prepared the Self-Reliance lesson for Sunday and got a treat bag ready for Papa. When Claude got up we would read in our Book of Mormon together. I finished up my Blog which I didn't get finished on Sunday. In the evening, Claude and I read our Come, Follow Me for the week. 

Claude tried another new recipe. My name should be Sandi 'The Guinea Pig' Christensen. I am not complaining, mind you. I am simply stating facts. This one was particularly pretty and particularly yummy. Great combination. Recipe pictures are at the end.

Tuesday, September 14th, was a great day to work in the yard. I weeded the flower beds and cleaned the milk can in preparation for painting it. Then I would pop out and rehydrate my hubby with fresh ice water and help him move some bricks and do some shoveling. We knew our back yard has a good bit of work to make it the way we want it. One of the first items is to get the gates from the back yard (there is one on each side of the house) corrected so that water doesn't stand under them. Claude came up with an idea like a French drain. He dug a trench from the downspout to the fence. Then a trench along the fence line with a pit on the last half of that. He then laid a black rubber pipe with holes in it and a black net sleeve over it in that trench. Then he filled up the pit with drainage rocks as well as around the black pipe. Then he laid new and re-laid the old brick pavers. In this process he also made a flower bed along the side of the house to the gate. He placed a large concrete block outside the gate and we will set a yard feature on it eventually. Lots of dirt to be moved, lots of heavy rocks to be poured, lots of heavy brick pavers to be set in place and leveled. It was an all day job and wore each of us completely out. It looks great though. It lifts out spirits about doing the other gate this coming week.

This day I also tried to program our garage door opener with my car. The end result was I could not and still cannot open my garage door with the hand opener or with the opener on the wall. Fortunately, Claude's garage door still works. We believe it is a problem with the opener itself. Claude bought new batteries for the hand-held opener and it still can't open the door. You can hear it trying but things just aren't responding. 

Katelyn sent us this cute picture of Joel. Her caption for this great shot was, "Excuse me! Can I speak with you about your cars extended warranty??" I have printed this picture and it is now my picture of Joel on my refrigerator.

Wednesday, September 15th, I was to start my day with a Primary presidency meeting. That was cancelled leaving me a day at home. I will never complain about that. Claude had planned to go to Bud's Gun Range and do some target practice. He did do that later in the afternoon. He brought his target home. My thought is, "Don't mess with Claude!" Happy my hubby found this hobby that he enjoys.

We had contact with someone who will find us a person to pour concrete to enlarge the size of our patio. This is something we can't do ourselves. It is also a big step in planning the rest of the back yard. We took these pictures of our patio area and where we want more concrete to send to him with measurements of what we want added. 

Thursday, September 16th, I determined I was going to finish the doily I had been crocheting. This was a tough one to crochet. I determined as I finished it that I believe being able to read a crochet pattern should qualify one as knowing another language. I still have to press and set it but I think it is a really pretty thing. I could see a Christmas decoration sitting on it.

In the evening we went to the Louisville Temple. Love being in the temple. 

Friday, September 17th, I missed the call at 3am from the nursing home letting me know that Papa passed out again. They found him in the bathroom completely unresponsive. I turned the sound on my phone off while we were in the temple. I was sure, as soon as we got to the car, that I pressed the right icon to get the sound back on. I must have pressed it one too many time and turned it back off. Ugh!! I called the nursing home and found out that Papa was okay. He lost blood pressure again. When they finally got him to respond, it was okay and he completely came out of it. He doesn't even remember the loss of consciousness episodes. This time I sent a text to each of my sisters suggesting, if they had something they wanted to say to Papa, they should be writing him a letter and saying it. I assured them I was not telling them that death is imminent for Papa. However, he has had four episodes like or similar to this beginning August 6th on my patio, then September 2nd and 7th in the nursing home where he had fallen and had wounds after the fall, and finally September 17th where he was totally unresponsive again. It sure feels like his body is wearing out. We can't get in to see him. Writing him is our only way to communicate with him at this time.

In the evening, Claude and I went to the Florence Ya'lls baseball game. They are in their Division Playoffs. They were trounced soundly by the other team. We had a few interesting moments. The first was this runner for the other team with this sleeve with a glove on the end. I took this picture and texted it to Michael, our son-in-law, to find out what in the world it was. Michael explained that runners sometimes wear these to protect their fingers when they slide into a base. They may have broken a finger before and bases are hard to slide into on 2nd or 3rd as you can get your fingers caught. There you go. A new wrinkle in my brain!

Claude happened to look up at the score board and there was a picture of the Jeep out in the parking lot on the score board. (The Jeep is not in this picture.) Not sure why they took the picture and posted it. If Claude hadn't been looking there he would have missed it. He had me look and I did see it but did not have time to get my camera ready before the image was gone. That Jeep gets a lot of attention. Today when Claude came out of Church a couple of the teenage girls were standing by it taking their pictures. They told him it was a really cool car. 

Toward the end of the game, the Ya'lls had 1 point and their batter hit an over-the-fence homerun. As the batter ran past third base, he turned to the Ya'lls pitcher and said something derogatory. This is not allowed. The Ya'lls pitcher came off the mound toward the runner. The umpire took the runner to his dugout and gave him a verbal warning. The people in the stands wanted the runner thrown out for his actions. Lots of drama. Lots of excitement. Felt like a major league game there for a little bit. The Ya'lls lost 12-2. 

Saturday, September 18th, was to be a good weather day. We opted to get out and about in the morning before the temperature rose really high. I got a letter to the mailbox for Papa before we left. As I came back into our home, I noticed that we are getting closer to fall. My turtle plant had burst into bloom. Love this little plant the Marx family gave to me. 

The Midway Festival was much bigger than we imagined. We found free parking with a shuttle on a golf cart to Main Street for the Festival. We accomplished everything a Festival should do. We found a Christmas gift for each of our great grandmonsters, Claude had fresh squeezed lemonade and he ate a ribeye sandwich. It was a good morning outside. 

We would spend the rest of the day inside. We had a good visit with Jacob. He is still struggling with the upheaval of closing out a business. We ended our visit by ordering pizza for Jake for his dinner. We had a few things to get done in the house before evening. Claude tried out another new recipe on my (the Guinea Pig). It was good but the flavors caused a conflict in my mouth. It was a tin-foil oven bake of veggies and chicken with an orange glaze on it. 

Sunday, September 19th, has been a full day for me. This morning I played "Litany" by Schubert for the special musical number in Sacrament meeting. Primary had training for all the teachers today so I helped hold down the fort in the Primary room while we had an hour with the music director preparing the music for the Primary Program in November. I took Tootsie Roll Pops for the kids for a treat after. Then I came home and baked cupcakes for this afternoon. In a few minutes, we have the Self-Reliance class in our home. I will facilitate the group. Claude has prepared the two videos to show that go with the lesson. I have gotten the letters written to our missionaries and to Papa. Hopefully I will get the Blog finished. Then, when all is finished, I will plop my happy body down and chill for the rest of the day. I have a bit of crocheting I would like to spend some time with.