Count Down to Saturday...

This week would be a very busy one for me. Our stake Relief Society presidency was finishing up preparation for a special program for all the ladies in our stake title Circle of Sisters. My week would be full of getting ready for this event.

Sunday, Oct. 17th I was able to visit Pioneer Ward. Claude headed in earlier to Georgetown Ward where he was to give his first talk as high councilor in the Lexington North Stake. As I was getting ready I checked my purse to get my glasses to read as I blew my hair dry and curled it. When I opened my purse I found Claude's glasses. He placed them in there the night before when we went in to see the Eagles, just in case he would need them. We had forgotten to take them out.

I went into hyper-speed to get ready and get to the Georgetown Building to get Claude his glasses before he had to give his talk. I got there and the meeting was in full swing but Claude had not given his talk yet. I stood in the doorway at the back and held up his glasses. He saw me and nodded. One of the young deacons came to the back, took the glasses and walked to the front and gave them to Claude. I decided to stay and listen to his first talk as a high councilor. He did great!!

Then I hurried off to visit Pioneer Ward. Followed by a visit to Papa and to Mimi. Then back to home in Sadieville.

Monday, Oct 24th and Tuesday, Oct. 25th, Andie brought Hayden and Bailey out. She always likes to have them go see Mimi in their Halloween costumes. Papa came out Monday evening and we cooked out and had some family fun.

The first picture is Tiny chasing Hayden & Bailey up the hill on our lot next door. The next picture is Papa putting air in his tires. He explained it to Hayden and you can clearly see Hayden explaining it to Papa. It turned out to be a great day to color with chalk on the driveway, play in the fountain grass in the back yard and take a walk down by the creek.

If you note Bailey is carrying a black plastic toy. Yep, it is a rat. While cleaning out City Hall for our Comin' Home Birthday Celebration for Sadieville, this black plastic rat was found. Claude brought it home and I found it on my kitchen counter. We showed it to Hayden and Bailey when they visited and told them it was Templeton from the Charlotte's Web story. Bailey fell in love and carried it with her both days. When she had quiet time on Monday, we could hear her yelling over the monitor, "Mommy, can I take Templeton home with me?" over and over. She did borrow Templeton but if he never returns to Sadieville it is okay with Claude and me.

Tuesday we had our visit to the nursing home. The kids were a huge hit with the residents. Mimi even brightened up a bit when she saw them in their costumes.

A good time was had by all. We thank Ms. Cannon for wearing lots of bracelets to entertain Bailey. Papa was invited to join us for lunch but he stayed to feed Mimi lunch. He told us later that as they were getting ready to feed Mimi he said something to her about getting to see her great grandchildren in their Halloween costumes. She looked up and clear as a bell said, "Yes I did!!" This brought Papa great joy.

We headed to Cici's Pizza for our lunch before Andie and the kids hit the road to return to La Grange. Claude was in the Jeep and got there before us. I got a call on my cell phone as we were pulling up to the light in front of Walmart. He informed us Cici's is no more. It has closed it's doors permanently. This was a crushing blow. We have made that a bit of a family tradition to all go to Cici's at least once when all the grandmonsters are here. Our Paul LOVES pizza. Claude saves quarters and treats all of them to a round of games in their game room after everyone eats. That is not going to happen again now.

A quick decision was made to head to Steak and Shake for dinner instead. We had a good meal and then Andie and kids headed home to LaGrange.

Wednesday, Oct. 20th Papa and I sang at the nursing home.

Thursday, Oct. 21st Claude was in Frankfort all day for training. I was at home so the carpet cleaning guys could come and do their cleaning thing on my upstairs carpet. I expected them to show up at 11am or noon. Claude and I moved as much furniture as we could the night before. I had my sofa and my loveseat in the breakfast area. We moved the dining room carpet out to the deck and put the rest of the living room chairs and end tables in it. The bathrooms were full of furniture. I waited, and I waited, and I waited. They called a couple of times to say they were coming soon. They finally got there about 4:30 or 5pm and were not done until between 6:30 and 7pm. They did a wonderful job. Claude had a meeting in the evening at Church and when he got home at 9pm the carpet was still wet. We couldn't move the furniture back until Friday. This meant Friday evening because Claude was off to Frankfort early Friday morning for the end of the conference.

I did not see this as an issue until I got a call from Papa Thursday evening. I made the Jell-O portion of my desserts for our Saturday Relief Society event. I was about to head to the basement to finish my talk and other things I needed to finish preparing. Papa called and told me he heard from Diane Touchstone, my cousin, and she and her friend Billy were coming for a visit. Now, usually Papa's company stays in my guest room. However, that night I didn't need any walking on my clean and still very damp carpet by anymore people than really needed to be on it. Papa assured me they would stay with him that night. I told him they could come on Friday and help me move furniture back in place and then stay in the guest room if they wanted.

This sent me into high gear to get things done so I could have some time to visit with them in addition to a full list of things to do to prepare for Saturday. I got programs printed and some things collected on Thursday.

Friday, Oct. 22nd I got up and put the light pieces of furniture in place and the things that sit on tops of tables and the plants in place. I left the big stuff for when I had help. I got everything done with the exception of baking the rest of my desserts and finishing my talk. I called Papa and told him I would meet him in Georgetown and take them all to lunch.

We had lunch at Papa's favorite Mexican restaurant. Then they headed out to find Loretta Lynn's home in Butcher Holler. I headed to get Tiny and take her home with me for the afternoon.

Friday evening Claude and I met my presidency and we all had dinner together at Logan's Roadhouse. It was great to be with these wonderful ladies and their side-kicks. Our high councilor, Jaime Kumar joined us. It was great fun. Claude gave them pens and suckers from his campaign for Mayor. I gave my presidency each a journal to thank them for all their hard work over the last 4 years. Then we headed to the stake center to decorate for our big Saturday event.

After decorating, Claude and I returned home. We were surprised to find Tiny still in our house. Papa was going to come by and take her home after their trip into the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Hmm...I wondered what had happened.

I started the baking process and the making of dough to be fried into another dessert Saturday morning. Papa finally got there about 11:30pm. He took Tiny and headed back to Georgetown with Diane and Billy. I continued my baking and dough making. Then I headed to the basement to finish my talk. I got to sleep about 1:30am.

Saturday, Oct. 23rd was an early rise day. I was up by 5am to fry up the Bunuelos for another of the desserts. My home quickly filled with smoke from the grease I used for the frying. I opened windows and doors and continued to fry until 7:15am. Then I hit the showers because we needed to leave by 8am for the Church.

Circle of Sisters was just a wonderful event.

• Our hubby's wore our camouflage aprons from an earlier event and took over the kitchen duties for us. They have worked so well together over the last 4 years in the kitchen, helping us set-up and take down, serve food and whatever we needed them to do.
• We had beautiful music for this event. Lisa Adams, my 1st Counselor, wrote words to go to the music "It's A Small World" that fit our theme. Laura Carter, my 2nd Counselor, wrote a new song and set it to music. Karen Cooper from the Paris Ward sang this as a solo. It was just so tender and moving. Our presidency plans singing and recording it later. Laura has to be gramma to a soon-to-be-born grandson first.
• We invited four ladies from our stake to tell us about their country of origin, their conversion story, what the church was like in their country and bear their testimonies. These ladies were from Ireland, Chile, Ghana and the Philippines. Their stories were so moving and made us truly aware of what blest lives we live here in the United States.
• I gave the key note address about Relief Society and it's being a worldwide sisterhood.
• Our stake president was our concluding speaker.
• Our lunch was Hawaiian Haystacks. To add to the feel of being a sisterhood we asked each of our eight congregations of sisters to bring one of the toppings for our Hawaiian Haystacks.
• Our desserts were recipes provided by each of the sisters from the four countries. Here is where I learned that we are the sugar capital of the world. Without fail as I asked each of the ladies to participate and requested a simple recipe from each of them that I could prepare and serve for the dessert that day, they looked at me with a puzzled expression. You see, we are the sugar fiends. In Ghana and the Philippines they really use fruits and/or vegetables that are available. The Ghana recipe was made with plaintains. The Philippine recipe was a vegetable bread made with casava. The Chilean recipe was a dough that is cut in rectangles, a slit is cut in one end of the rectangle and the other end is pulled thru that slit. The name 'bunuelos' actually translates into 'torn shorts' which is what the shape of the dough is after this cutting and pulling through. The sister from Ireland told me that when she came to the United States she was appalled that we actually put Jell-O on our plates and ate it with our main meal. They never do that in Ireland. She said that if they have Jell-O in Ireland it the red variety and it is served with ice cream on the top as a dessert. So I made red Jell-O and took the liberty of adding some mixed fruit to it. Then Claude bought some vanilla ice cream to go on top. It was a hit for desserts.
• We also showed our slideshow of hands of the sisters in our stake as everyone was arriving.

It was a great morning with all these wonderful ladies attending and participating. Displays of artifacts from these countries were enjoyed as lunch was eaten. We left feeling very good about this event and have had many comments from the sisters who attended that were very positive.

Saturday afternoon Papa brought Diane and Billy out and they watched football on the big screen TV in the basement. Diane did some laundry. Claude grilled chicken and made a wonderful dinner for us.

It was a very, very, very full and rewarding week.