A Few Tidbits...

Monday, June 9th, would have been Mimi's 85th birthday.  I picked up Papa and we went to visit her grave site.  Such a pretty spot. We parked and talked for a long time.  There was a funeral in the little chapel in the center.  The men wore little hats that appeared to be Veteran's of Foreign War hats.  At one point I saw some of them leave the back of the chapel with what appeared to be rifles in their hands. They were marching slowly.  Papa suggested we move the car down and see what was going on.  I did that and as we got further down the road I heard gun shots.  Scared me to death.  They were clearly doing a salute at the funeral of an old comrade. I knew that would probably happen but it still scared me to death.  Papa and I then took a ride in the countryside before I took him home.

Tuesday, June 10th, Claude had his first round at getting his dental implant.  It seems my hubby cracked a tooth. The implant was the best option for dealing with it.  So they pulled the tooth and did something to build up the bone.  That will heal and then he will have the next steps done with it being completed by the end of the summer.  He spent Tuesday and Wednesday home resting.  He began to venture out Thursday in the morning and evening. But was able to sleep during the day. We are pleased with how well he has done.

Wednesday, June 11th, was the Mission Zone Conference at the Lexington North Stake Center.  It was our wards (congregation) time to prepare lunch for these missionaries and their mission president.  I volunteered to help.  Here are the six of us enjoying providing this service.  (Front Row: Me, Luella Alcorn, Beverly Wheeler. Back Row: Shannon Parker, Veronica Holt, Jeannie Watson.)

Thursday, June 12th was the funeral of Mindy Hansen's mom.  It was held at the Salvation Army in Georgetown.  Mindy's son is a Lieutenant there and directs that particular center.  It was a very nice service.

Saturday, June 14th, Claude and I were given tickets to attend the Festival of the Bluegrass at the Kentucky Horse Park.  Claude participates on the Trails Alliance Committee. They are working on a horse, bike, hike path that connects from Lexington to Georgetown and eventually, hopefully, Sadieville.  Roy Cornett, a local land owner and business man, is at the head of this effort. He heads up the Festival of the Bluegrass in conjunction with the Festival of the Horse each year.  He put two ticket in Will Call for us to attend the Saturday performance.  The performances began at 1pm and we were there about 12:30pm.  We set up our lawn chairs and found a nice food vendor selling burgers and fresh lemonade.  Lunch in hand we found our chairs still under the tree and settled in for some pickin' and grinnin'.  We listened to three bands play.  The music was excellent.  Couples danced on the grass, hula hoops were twirled, interesting characters were observed.  Claude went and purchased us an funnel cake for dessert.  It was just a great afternoon.  We left to pick up bananas for Papa before heading back to Sadieville to get ready for Church and Father's Day.

 

Sunday, June 15th, was Father's Day. It was nice this year.  Claude visited the Owingsville Ward.  I attended the Georgetown Ward. The Primary kids sang two songs for their fathers.  One was the old stand by "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home".  The other was sung to another Primary songs melody with different words.  They chorus said something about dad's hair turning gray and hoping dad doesn't loose his hair.  Cute moment for the congregation.

After Church, I picked Papa up and brought him and Tiny to Sadieville.  I cooked lasagna for dinner.  It was just a restful afternoon and evening.  I gave Claude and Papa each the same gift.  A gadget to clean the wax out of their ears.  A truly useful and unique gift. Very, very thoughtful of me, don't you think?

Sunday changes were made in my current Primary presidency. My counselors and secretary were released.  Bernie Bolton was called as my 1st counselor, Eliza Fairbanks was called as the 2nd counselor and Amy Coyne was called as the secretary.  And we are off on a grand adventure.

Tuesday, June 17th, Claude had a meeting to go to.  It was our day to serve at the Family History Center.  I invited Papa to go with me in Claude's place.  He was happy to do that.  I had two computers that would not let me log on and one that wouldn't let the lady accomplish what she was trying to do because it wanted to do an upgrade of some software.  I am not authorized to do those upgrades.  We waded through all of those issues okay.  Then Papa and I took some time to go through some of his family history.  I had the notebook I have prepared for his father's side of the family and the other one for his mother's side of the family. I also had the file folder full of handwritten notes I am trying to locate where to put them.  We enjoyed working with that.  I treated Papa to lunch at Culver's before returning him, worn out and happy, to his apartment.

Tuesday evening I met with Bernie Bolton and oriented her a bit.

Wednesday, June 18th, I met with Eliza Fairbanks and oriented her at 1pm.  Then I headed to Papa's to take him to the nursing home to play a DVD for the residents. Claude and I met after that at Ruby Tuesday's for dinner before I headed home and Claude headed to his meeting.  

Thursday, June 19th, was a beautiful day all about me!!  Claude would be gone all day and into the evening with meetings.  I put my Northern Exposure DVD's in and watched them while I did my ironing and cleaned the upstairs in our home.  It was a great day and I totally enjoyed doing work at my pace with good television from my past in the DVD player.  At one point I realized there were no cell phones or tablets in these programs.  It was an interesting a-hah moment.

Friday, June 20th, was my day with Papa.  I had him plot a drive and I provided the chauffeur services.  He kept it simple. We would drive Hwy 460 from Georgetown through Paris and Mt. Sterling to Frenchburg.  At Frenchburg we chose to drive Hwy 77 through the National Park and mountains to the Mountain Parkway. We planned to drive down the Parkway to Hwy 203 and back up to Hwy 460.  Then we would go back to Frenchburg on Hwy 460 and find Hwy 36. Hwy 36 would take us to Owingsville and then on toward Cynthiana.  Before reaching Cynthiana we would catch Hwy 68 back to Paris. In Paris we would get back up on Hwy 460 and head for home.  This route allowed Papa to see mountains, horse farms and crop farms across Kentucky.  It was a good drive. 

Along Hwy 77 we came to a single lane tunnel  through a mountain.  You just put your car in front of the entrance and, if no one was at the other end, you drove on through.  I started through with three vehicles behind me.  Then a guy started through on the other end.  By this time I had another two vehicles behind me and there was no way in heaven I could back out of there.  I put on my bright lights and slowly proceeded forward.  When I reached the on-coming car he just stopped and waited for me to back up.  That was not going to happen with all those cars behind me.  Finally he started to back up and eventually made it out of his end of the tunnel.  I told Papa that was a nice adventure and I never, ever had to do it again.  He agreed whole-heartedly.  

The rain caught up with us in Slade, Kentucky right about the time we were to get on the Mountain Parkway.  Fortunately we stopped at a gas station to take a quick break. Noting the angry clouds rushing toward us I suggested we wait the rain out.  We did before getting on the Mountain Parkway.  The problem was we drove right back into the back side of the storm.  A tree had fallen over the road in the on-coming lane.  So grateful we were not there when that happened.  We got to our exit and got off the Parkway and headed back north toward Hwy 460.  The rain became intense.  We got to a little town and I found a closed down gas station and told Papa we were going to wait it out again. It was no fun driving in that madness.  We waited and eventually got back up on the Hwy 203 and found another tree down on the back road.  A man was trying to cut it up and get it off the road.  Again, grateful we weren't there when it fell. 

The sun came out and we had a beautiful view of the land the rest of the day.  Papa enjoyed his ride and I again left him worn out and happy at his apartment.

Today, Saturday, June 21st, was my day with Claude.  We slept in and then got ready and went to Windy Corner Market.  I heard about this place from a friend.  It is at the corner of two country roads in horse farm country.  Really out in the middle of nowhere.  It does a huge business and was great fun to have lunch at.  Claude checked out the items on the shelves around the dining area.  There was a hot sauce called Sadistic Mistress and the label said, "I Can't Feel My Face".  We will definitely go there again.  

As it turns out this restaurant was connected to a restaurant Claude had dinner at in Midway, Kentucky Thursday evening.  The name is Holly Hill Inn.  So after our lunch we drove to Midway and checked out where Holly Hill Inn was located.  We will definitely dine there together sometime as well.

These two locations have two other locations connected with them to form this family of food places.  One of them is a bakery in Midway.  The other is a restaurant outside of Lexington.  Claude and I checked out the bakery in Midway.  We bought Corn on the Cob Sugar Cookies.  Yep, they take a cob of corn and slice the kernals off with a knife.  Then they are mixed in the sugar cookie dough and baked up.  Not bad.  We also purchased a cinnamon scone and a white chocolate/cranberry scone.  They were delicious as well.

Claude drove us to Frankfort and then home on back roads.  We did stop in Georgetown for a smoothie.   It was a wonderful day with the hubster.

Now I must move on to preparing music for singing time tomorrow as my chorister has decided to take her five children and head to Las Vegas to visit her family.  Life just keeps on moving.

DeRidder...

I was born and lived the first 7 years of my life in DeRidder, Louisiana.  A few evenings ago, Papa and I were reviewing the two places we lived there during my childhood. I felt those needed to be a part of my Blog.

Below is a map of DeRidder, Louisiana.

When I was born my parents lived on Patton Street.  If you look at the center of this map above Highway 190, I have drawn some lines and put a dot on one of the lines.  The lines going top to bottom are North Frusha Drive on the left and North Texas Street on the right with Bell Street in the middle.  There is one line drawn left to right.  It is Patton Street.  The dot on Patton Street is where our home was located.

Our little home on Patton Street was made from an old Army barracks.  It was divided into two apartments.  My parents owned the entire house.  They used the left apartment as you face the front of the home for storage.  The right apartment  was our home.  I remember a living room in the front with the kitchen/eating area behind. There was at least one bedroom to the left of that and a bathroom.  There may have been a bedroom on the front and the back of the house with the bath in the middle.  

This home had a big back yard.  Papa worked for the telephone company. He was a lineman.  He brought home big telephone poles, sank them deep in the ground and made us a swing set out of them.  

In September 2002, I made a trip to visit my parents in Louisiana.  We made a long day trip driving to places that were part of our family history.  One of the places was to find Patton Street to see if the home and swing were still there.  Neither was there anymore.  We were at the site looking around and a lady came out to find out what we were up to.  Papa explained that he once owned a home on that property and built a swing and we were just trying to find the site.  It turns out this lady owned the property and they tried to take out the swing set.  Those telephone poles were planted too deep and they finally gave up and sawed them off at the ground. Here is a picture of Papa talking to the lady and another of the street sign.

 

My memories of this home are few.  My parents lived here when I was born.  My mother told me stories about how they didn't own a crib and she took the drawer out of a dresser and made me a bed out of it.  

I also remember being very sick and mom making something out of an onion wrapped in cheese cloth and boiled with some other things.  Not sure what that concoction was but I remember it to this day.  

I also had nightmares as a child. They were of living in this house and they were in color.  I was swinging in the swing and a pulsing sound would start.  It was faint and would get louder.  My mother would come to the back door and open the screen.  She would yell for me to run inside quickly.  I would start to run and, as I got to the door where she stood, she took my hand.  A red car was coming up the street while this was happening.  A man would get out and he came to the back door where my mother had my hand to pull me inside.  He would grab my other hand and pull me in the opposite direction.  I remember distinctly it was Satan.  My mother won that tug of war.  Years later Claude and I lived in California.  Just before we were to move from Californis, the movie "Jaws" came out.  Claude and I got a babysitter and went to see that movie.  The sound of the shark coming after people was like the sound I heard in my nightmare.  I only watched Jaws once.  The music was just too much for me.  After we saw the movie, Claude looked at me and said, "Let's get some seafood for dinner and eat the fish for a change!"

Later my parents purchased a home on 5 acres in the country. Looking at the right lower half of the map, this home was located at the very end of Crockett Johnson Road.  I have drawn a line left to right over Ed Jeans Road and top to bottom over Crockett Johnson Road with a dot at the end where our home was located.

We lived at the very end of the lane and Crockett Johnson lived next to us.  As you drove down Crockett Johnson Road toward Ed Jeans Road, you came to where the road curved and this was where Elmo Johnson lived.  He was Crockett's son.  He had two sons and two daughters.  They were older than us kids.  But we still spent time with them.

The first picture is of the home Mimi and Papa bought for our family.  The second picture is Crockett Johnson's home.  The third picture is Mimi and Papa standing at the base of a tree they planted when they lived in this home about 47 years before.

 

 

A few of my memories of this house were a nice big sandbox to the right of the front door as you face the house.  I remember Junie and I playing some little game called "doodle bug".  

As you face the house, there was also a nice porch to the right of the house outside the kitchen door.  The Warren's would come over to visit in the summer.  They had two children.  A boy my age (Mark) and a daughter Junie's age.  We would make homemade ice cream using a hand crank machine.  The kids would put ice down each others back and run all over that yard.  I remember having a big crush on Mark Warren. Years later they came to visit us and Shreveport and I am sure he felt the same crush from our childhood. We wrote each other for a bit after that visit.

Also on the side of the house and set back a bit was a big garden spot my parents made.  I remember armadillos digging in it and Papa taking care of that issue. 

I remember walking with my father past that garden and going through the woods behind to a creek and lake or pond to go fishing. Papa remembers that a man named Morris owned lots of the land around there and the main road was named Morris Road after him.  He was the owner of the lake or pond where we would fish.

As you face the house on the left was a long room and we had beds in that for us kids.  I remember us getting sick with something that cause sores on our legs that itched very bad.  We were not to scratch.  I remember Mimi putting socks over our hands at night so we wouldn't scratch during the night as we slept.

We girls were given some type of yellow tablet to chew.  I don't know if it was a vitamin or what but it tasted absolutely awful.  It was in shape and size like a Necco wafer.  We would take it when Mimi gave it to us and chew, then hold it in our mouth and then waiting till we were outside and spitting it out under the house. 

There is one other line drawn on the map on Crosby Road coming out of DeRidder going south and connecting with Morris Road.  Crosby Road has an asterisk drawn on it.  That is where the creosote plant and it appears there is a plant still there.  I remember the school bus using this road to get us back and forth to school.  We would sing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" all the way home.  I never remember that bus driver complaining. 

It feels good to get these few memories and pictures down as part of my history.

How the Marx Family Rolls...

Friday, June 6th, we were on the road to LaGrange by 7am. Hayden and Bailey had field day at their school. It would also be their last day of school for this school year.  Bailey's field day events would begin at 8:30am and Hayden's would follow at 12:20pm.  Each child would have two hours of fun in the sun.  This all needed to be photo-documented. That would be my job.  Andie and Michael had to work.  Truthfully, we would have been there even they didn't have to work.  That is the joy of being a retired grandparent.  You can be there for the fun stuff.

We were a little late to see Bailey begin because when we arrived to the place where the railroad tracks are located the train was there.  Nothing to do but wait it out.  So we missed the first event for Bailey which was the balloon bounce feature set up in the gym. However, we managed to see all her other events.

These first pictures are Bailey, She is wearing a pink shirt.  Her teacher this year, Mrs. Morrison, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of the year.  Her year has been full of chemotherapy and radiation and lost hair.  Through it all the kids have been informed and she has taught most of the time. Amazing lady. So, as a tribute to Mrs. Morrison and her fight against breast cancer, a lot of the kids in her class wore pink t-shirts. Bailey is also either wearing her glasses or my sunglasses and Claude's hat.

The first three pictures are of Bailey sporting Claude's hat and my sunglasses and a little time with her Grampa Claude between events. These granddaughters have Claude wrapped around their little finger. The rest of the pictures of Bailey are of the events she was in:  3-leg race, water balloon toss, water filled sponge pass, ping pong ball in a spoon relay, bean bag on the head balancing relay, hopping with a ball between your legs relay, carry a ball back-to-back with your partner relay, potato sack race and tug o' war. There was a final obstacle course in the cafeteria but all those pictures are blurred while the kids ran the course.

 

 

 

 

 

  

After Bailey's field day events, Claude and I made a run to the local Subway to get sandwiches for our lunch. We made it back to the school in time to have lunch with Bailey in her classroom.  Then we went to Hayden's classroom and ate lunch with him.  Since the cafeteria was in use for the obstacle course, all the kids ate in their classrooms. 

Here are some pictures of Hayden's field day experience.  The first two are the balloon bounce events held in the school gym. Most of Hayden's time through the first balloon bounce are blurry pictures of him bouncing out and jumping to the ground. This time he realized there was an open room and he paused to stand and check it out. Then it was on to the slide. 

 

Then Hayden's class headed outside for the other events.  He is pictured doing the 3-leg race, water balloon toss, water filled sponge pass, a hug from John (one of he buddies) as they lined up for the relay races, ping pong ball in a spoon relay, bean bag on the head balancing relay, big ball in a spoon relay, hopping with a ball between your legs relay, tug o' war and potato sack race.  Hayden also did the obstacle course in the cafeteria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that was enough to wear Claude and me out for the day. Was it the end of the day. Nooooo...not at all.  This was the last day of school.  

Last year Andie found a fun thing on Pinterest.  She held the event last year on the last day of  school.  It was enjoyed so much by the kids, it was determined it should become a tradition. So, this year the 2nd Annual Whipped Cream Battle took place.  There were about 17 children and quite a few parents.  

Each child brings a can of whipped cream and comes dressed in their swim suit. As everyone arrived they gathered in the Marx family back yard.  Once everyone was there, they took the kids around to the front of their home and had them sit on the grass for instructions.  They kids were told the area in the street they would use for the whipped cream wars. As long as they were in the street in that area, they could be blasted with whipped cream. If they needed a break, they could get on the grass where no whipped cream was to be used. Once everyone understood the instructions they all headed to the street for a picture.

At the signal, the squirting of whipped cream began.  Here are a picture of Bailey and Hayden enjoying this fun game.  I told Hayden he looked like a statue when he was covered in whipped cream.  This is his statue pose.

 

After their cans of whipped cream were empty, they went back to the back yard where the water was turned on the slip n' slide and a hose was set up to rinse the whipped cream off. Popsicles were provided to help with the cool down.  Water was set out for something to drink.  The parents visited while the kids played on the swing set and water stuff.  Michael made a tight rope walk for the kids that they all really enjoyed.  Here are Hayden and Bailey on the tight rope walk.

It was a totally fun last day of school event for all these kids. It is fairly easy to plan and pull off.  Everyone headed home by 5:30 or 6pm.  Now Claude and I knew we were tired. Andie prepared a wonderful orange chicken for dinner.  I helped finish Bailey's tutu for the Saturday festivities.  We headed to bed by 10:30 to rest before Saturday's full day.

Saturday morning found us all ready and out the door at 7am.  That's right folks, 7am.  We were headed to Louisville. All six of us in the Marxmobile.  Michael got us there safely and found a great parking spot. No small feat since 12,000 people were expected to participate in the Color Run in Louisville.  

I have seen others post pictures of their adventures in a Color Run in their city.  It looked like lots of fun.  Andie felt their kids were old enough to actually have their entire family participate.  She told me they were doing it and I suggested I come and take pictures. Game on!!

A Color Run is put on by a company that does them all over the world.  You pay a fee and this covers the companies expenses, a nice donation to the charity of choice, and gear to be given to the participants.  The gear includes a white t-shirt with Color Run printed over it, a wrist band, a head band and some temporary tattoos. The course is a 5K through the streets of a city, in our case Louisville. This can be walked, run or skipped at your pleasure. Wearing of interesting features is encouraged. Throughout the walk there are arches set up in 4 different colors.  The first of these was blue.  After going through the arch there are barrels full of the color of the arch (blue, pink, yellow and purple). This color is made of cornstarch and color. It will be liberally tossed at the participants coloring their white t-shirts in a rainbow of color by the end of the run.  

These are pictures of the first color, blue, for the 5K Color Run in Louisville.  The first is as the participants will walk through.  The second is the volunteers already doused in blue and ready to squirt more color out of bottles and toss it with their hands on the participants.

Here is our Marx family ready to begin their run.

Claude and I left them at the starting line and headed to the blue area pictured above to get pictures of them as they came through.  This was the first runner through the blue color.

As the runners came through, all 12,000 of them, the color blue followed them along and down the street for a long way in the form of a blue cloud.  The Marx family was closer to the end of the 12,000 participants.  Before they arrived, we noticed the tree across the street from where we had positioned ourselves to take a picture.  The little tree, which originally had green leaves, was now blue in color.

The Marx family made it and the Mini's were sure this was going to be a great morning.

My intent was to walk ahead of them and take pictures at each color. Andie did put her cell phone in a Ziplock bag so she could take a few picture through the plastic.  We walked a way with them and then realized the course map we had showed them going all the way down the street to the 2nd color (pink) and coming back to turn down the street we had walked to. As they proceeded down this street they would reach the 3rd color (yellow). Claude and I decided to go the the yellow color and wait for them.  We walked down this street to the next block and there was no yellow arch or color where it was featured on our map. Hmmmm... We walked on down the street and turned the corner and waited on some steps while drinking a bottle of water.  Nice break.

After our break we proceeded on to the last color (purple).  Claude went on past the purple arch and waited under the shade of a tree.  I went back just before the purple arch to look for the arrival of the Marx family.  It turns out the course had a change and the pink and yellow were at the end we didn't walk to.  When I saw the Marx family they were doused in blue, pink and yellow color.

I left them to go just past the purple color to get a picture of them after they went through the purple.

Bailey loved it so much she joined many of the other participants in laying on the street and rolling in the colored powder.

The Marx family would make it through the finish line.  There were just too many people and we didn't see that part.  We met up at the trees on the way back to the car.  These very active Mini's were very tired.

We made our way back to the Marxmobile. I brought 4 old flat sheets and Michael used them to cover the seats for the Marx family.  We loaded up and headed home.  

Hayden headed for a shower, Claude and I figured out what to order from SteveO's for lunch. While the rest of the Marx family ran through the shower routine and Hayden and Michael left for haircuts, Claude and I went to SteveO's to pick up lunch.  We all enjoyed our pizza and salads very much.  Then I gave each of the Mini's little bag of treats I prepared before leaving our home Friday.  I looked them right in their tired little faces and said, "You two find a movie you like and curl up and eat these snacks while Mom and Dad get a nice nap!" This was cheerfully agreed to by the entire family.

Claude and I put our gear in the car and made our way back to Sadieville. Tired. A lot of pictures on my camera.  And having had a delightful weekend.  That Marx family really knows how to fill up a few days!!