Monday Claude had an afternoon dental cleaning. I rode into Georgetown with him and he dropped me off at the nursing home. I visited with Mimi and Papa while Papa finished feeding Mimi. Then Papa took me to his apartment to practice music for Wednesday's singing at the nursing home. The rest of my day was spent getting things done at home to get back on track after a weekend of play with our family. Tuesday was my day at home to get things done here. These days totally at home don't come often and I cherish that time to do things as they come and try and accomplish as much as I can with my day. I got the wash done and the ironing. Yep, I still iron. I finished Hayden's great white shark costume. Claude and I were going to LaGrange on Wednesday evening so I packed up items to work on while visiting there. It was a good full day and I totally enjoyed all I was able to accomplish. Wednesday morning I attended my Countryside Homemaker's Club. We met at Elaine Rutledge's home. It was a nice meeting, well attended, good little lesson, cute thoughts, and lunch was really great. We always have a lunch. The hostess provides the main course and we all brings sides or desserts to go with it. Elaine made a roast and homemade rolls that were just delicious. They were sooooo light and melt in your mouth good. Then Elaine started some of us on a craft project she makes. I'll not talk about that as it will be a Christmas present for someone in my family. I hurried home from Homemaker's Club and Claude had the car loaded. We headed into Georgetown for his meeting at City Hall. I took lots of reading to get caught up on and sat in the Jeep and read until he finished. Then we walked up the street to Fava's for lunch. They have the best 'frickles' there. They cut a big dill pickle in round slices, batter it in the lightest batter, fry it us and serve it with ranch dressing. Claude and I shared an order and totally enjoyed them. They are a must have when you eat at Fava's. Then Claude left me at the nursing home to sing with Papa and he ran errands. I left Papa with all my Church News and MormonTimes I had finished reading. Mimi was in good spirits and it was a nice visit. Then Claude and I drove to LaGrange. We were on tap to watch the Mini's while Andie went to work at the set up for the big consignment sale they have at St. John's twice each year. If she works the set up, she get to go to the early portion of the sale. Michael was to have had soccer games but there was a lot of rain and they were canceled. We made it to Andie's on time but got concerned about the ability to do that when there was a complete traffic stoppage on I-71 and the Hwy. 393. We were on 393 and I called Andie to tell her we were very close and would get there as quickly as possible. Our traffic moved slowly but we managed to get through and be on time to Andie's. The Mini's were very happy to have Ma & Pa around again. Claude headed to the basement to begin his project. He moved the boxes and toys over to the already painted portion of the basement and got his sweeping done of the floor he wanted to complete this trip. Then he came up and helped me get Bailey to sleep and I took Hayden duty. The Mini's were very cooperative and went down without a bit of trouble. Thursday Andie was to have taken Hayden somewhere and I was going to keep Bailey. The person they were to visit called and was sick with bronchitis so that sent us into plan B. Claude went to the basement and mopped the floors. After they dried he began to do the painting of the floor. Andie and I bundled up the Mini's and headed to Louisville to the Science Center. They have an IMAX movie called Animaloplis. Hayden and Bailey loved the huge screen and enjoyed all the animals and their antics. It was a great IMAX for little ones. My favorite scene was all these red crabs. They are born in the forest and walk across the land to the ocean where they lay their eggs. If you have seen the last Pirates of the Caribbean you might remember the scene where the rocks turn into crabs and then lots and lots of them pull the boat toward the water. There were that many red crabs and more. The people in the village they walk through just take it all in stride. The kids on the playground at school lay down in the path of all the crabs and let them walk over them. It was amazing. After the Science Center we stopped a Subway and took Grampa a HUGE sandwich to build his strength after all his hard work. He used an oil based paint this time and the fumes were stronger than the Latex he used last time. We opened windows and turned on ceiling fans to help clear the air and keep it circulating. Andie headed out early to get in line with the others that had helped set up for the sale. She had a list of items she saw while setting up that she was interested in seeing if she could locate. Hayden and Bailey and I played hide-'n-seek. This is great sport with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. Hayden understands it all now but Bailey, not so much. Hayden would hide his eyes and count. I would run to find a place to hide. Once I hid under the dining room table. Bailey ran after me and crawled under with me. Now, when I count and then do the seek part, I pretend to look in all these places and talk about them as I'm looking making sure I note that Hayden is not in that place. Hayden has started to do that with me when he looks for me. Hayden is in the living (toy) room looking behind the chalkboard. He's saying, "Ma is not in there." I hear Bailey beside me giggling. I tried to motion to be quieter but she hears Hayden say, "May is not in here." Then Bailey says, "Here we are!" It is just a hoot. We had a fun evening and then trundled the Mini's off to bed. Claude and Michael watched some TV while I finished with the kids upstairs. Andie returned home with Dairy Queen for all of us. We ate ice cream and looked at all the fun things she had purchased. Friday morning Claude put a 2nd coat of paint on the floor, painted the support poles, and then finished painting the tops of the stairs. While he was painting Hayden and I watched a couple of Magic School Bus shows. He tried watching them with my reading glasses. My he looked intellectual in them. After Claude cleaned up we took Andie, Hayden & Bailey to Arby's for lunch. Then we parted ways.

Claude stopped at Walmart on the way home so I could pick up a few supplies I needed for making my Christmas gift. Then we were definitely on the way home. Today was the last day of Sadieville Clean-up Week. Claude and Cindy (city clerk) came up with a grant to help fund this project. The scout troop at Church was asked if they wanted to do the pick-up of trash on the streets of Sadieville to raise money for the scout troop. So this morning at 8am Claude and I were over at the Depot (City Hall) to get the scouts going on their trash pick-up detail. Bluegrass Pride donated plastic gloves and garbage bags. Someone, it may have been Bluegrass Pride, donated orange vests for the workers. The boys and leaders got their gear and their maps of Sadieville and set out on their cleaning details. Claude has been needing to get pictures taken of the sidewalks and streets of Sadieville and the repair work they need. He wants to draft a plan to attack the repair of the streets and sidewalks and then work that plan by finding grant money where available to get the work done. One of the beginning steps is to take pictures. So while the scouts did their pickup. Claude drove the streets and I walked a lot of them taking pictures of sidewalks and streets showing the work that needs to be done. As much work as there is to do to fix up our little town, I still find little picture moments that bring joy and peace to my heart. Along Highway 32 which runs through Sadieville there are a lot of rock walls. Some are really in need of repair. Kentucky has lots and lots of these beautiful rock walls. A lot of the early settlers here were from Ireland and the land looks a lot like were they came from. They used their rock wall building skills they used in Ireland and took all the lovely limestone we have 6 inches below the surface to build rock walls for their fences. These are all protected historic features of the state now. Today I took pictures of one portion of rock wall with all these little red flowers one it. I don't know if you can tell they are tiny little red flowers. Very pretty little things they were.

A little further down there was a section of a rock wall covered in honeysuckle. It is amazing to me and a real sign of this summer's oddness in temperature that these honeysuckles are blooming in October!! I remember when we were riding the Goldwing that honeysuckle blooming time was one of my favorites. You would be riding along and suddenly there was the fragrance that was totally pleasing to my sniffer. It was the scent of honeysuckles in bloom. Then I would think back to my childhood when we lived on Herndon in Shreveport, Louisiana. We had a hedge that went from the sidewalk in front of the down all the way to the garage at the back of our home. In the front part of this hedge the honeysuckle had taken residence. They would bloom and fill the yard with the sweet scent. As kids we would take a blossom, pop the base open and suck out the nectar. Very sweet and tasty. For a while Avon carried a creme sachet fragrance that was Honeysuckle. I remember that being a favorite of mine when we lived in Denver and our neighbor across the street, Dorothy Charles, was my Avon lady. So I delighted today in finding honeysuckle in bloom on a rock wall.

Then a little further down Highway 32 is the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. In front of it on the sidewalk was an old wooden bench. I just looked at it and thought it was a neat picture. There is no bus service in Sadieville, no taxis. I wonder who put this bench there and how long it has been there. It just made me realize that life can have a slower pace to it. I liked the thought of a couple of neighbors sitting there catching up on the news in Sadieville.

After we took our pictures we met all the scouts back at the Depot (City Hall). They gathered around the rain garden made by the old scouts a few weeks earlier for a picture. This rain garden in a great way of saving the soil and cleaning the water before it hits the streams. The plants in it are native to Kentucky and will flourish in all kinds of Kentuckey weather. It'll be fun to see how much they grow next year. Eventually they will fill in this little rain garden and bloom throughout the summer.

When all the trash was picked up we invited the scouts over for hot chocolate and whatever snack foods we could round up for them. They are good kids and it was great fun having them in our home for a bit.

The remainder of my day was spent getting the pictures of sidewalks and streets and things off my camera and in their proper files on the computer. Now I'll go make a CD of them for Claude and get things ready for Church tomorrow. It was a good day!