Haircuts, Birthday, Music and More...

Tuesday, January 21st, it finally happened. Jenna Thacker gave me a haircut. My last haircut was September 10th before we went on our Route 66 Road Trip. I was trying to let it grow out but, alas, it was not to be yet. I may try again. We'll see. 

Since the Thacker's live in the country down a long lane that they would have to plow, Claude drove me in the Jeep. The good thing about this is we went to 5 Guys for burgers for our big meal of the day after my haircut. What a banner of a day!

When we got home, we decided to start an Indiana Jones Marathon. What a treat. We made it through all four movies. A good day for us by any standards.

Wednesday, January 22nd, I took mail to our mailbox in the morning. So very happy Claude diligently got that three inches of ice off the front door area so I would not fall.

I got a voice message from Raelyn. "Today's my Birthday! Today's my Birthday!" Claude and I responded with a voice message of us singing "Happy Birthday" to her. Raelyn responded with a voice message saying, "Thank you. I'm really excited about today!" Later in the day she opened her presents and was very happy to get her purple coloring kit from us.

Thursday, January 23rd, I learned that Tina, the PT associate who stretches me after I exercise, is going to have a baby in May. This will be her fourth. So happy to hear of a baby coming to such a caring, loving home.

I was extremely happy to get our hotels booked for our Key West Drive. This was very hard for me. To stay on Key West at this time of year, I could only find hotels for $500 per night and higher. This is something I simply balk at doing. I understand it is their peak season and the prices are higher to cover costs in the leaner months. But $500 for a shower and a sleep is still way to much for me. Most didn't even include a continental breakfast for that rate. Ridiculous!!

In the evening we had our January Relief Society Activity about Travel Planning. It was excellent. Andrea Befus let us in a great discussion and everyone shared their tips and potential tourist sites. Andrea had a charcuterie board, cake pops and sparkling water for refreshments. Great fun was had by all.

Friday, January 24th, I slept in till 10am. Oh My!! I never do that. My poor body must have been more tired than I thought. Claude was kind and let me sleep until I woke on my own. I have to say, it felt good!!

Our Hayden always votes on the Oscars. He provides us with a ballot and we all make our choices. Then he tells us who wins. It is always Hayden. He is all about movies. That is is major in college. This year, Hayden sent us a link to a Disney site with a ballot. I went through the hoops to create a Disney account and voted on the Oscars. Ah...the things we do for Grandmonsters.

Saturday, January 25th, it was time for Claude to get a haircut. He was letting it grow. I waited for him to say, "It is time." The great thing about this hair cutting was I was able to keep my arm up through the entire haircut. Claude has had to sit on a step stool for me to get my arm high enough. This time I was able to reach up high enough he could stay in a chair from the dining room table! Progress!!

Our evening adventure started with a drive to Louisville to meet Andie and Michael at Shiraz Mediterranean Grill for dinner. That was a fun treat. Then we all drove to the University of Louisville School of Music. Bailey spent her Friday and Saturday there with the Symphonic Honor Band. We would attend the concert after all their work. We were not allowed to video any of the music this time. It was excellent.

Sunday, January 26th, was a great Day of Rest for me. We attended Sacrament Meeting. Then I taught Relief Society. My lesson was Emily Belle Freeman's talk from the October General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entitled "Live Up To Your Privileges". I loved this talk and was very happy it was the one I would teach. I read and pondered it over the last two months. She tells of her husband having major surgery to be followed by months of chemotherapy. As she sat in his hospital room the Sunday after his surgery, the priesthood brought the sacrament to her. Her husband was not able to partake so it was one little cup of water and one little piece of bread. As she took these emblems of the sacrament, she realized the power that comes into her life by making and keeping her covenants and the strength she gets to be more with the help of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to be more than she could on her own. It is a beautiful talk and will be one I will treasure for the rest of my life. 

After church, we had lunch at Burger King. When we got home, Claude took his Sunday afternoon nap. I stretched out in my recliner and ended up staying there the rest of the day. There is goodness in finding moments to slow down and just be. 

Monday, January 27th, today started with my semi-annual dental cleaning. I am in great shape with my teeth. Thank heavens something works right!

I went to Walmart to get more Oil of Olay face cream. Somehow I wandered through the ladies section and two new tops jumped my cart!! Then my body moved on its own to the bread aisle and found one of only two bags of Thomas whole wheat bagels. I am a bagel snob. Thomas is the only grocery store bagel I will buy and my favorite is whole wheat bagels. They don't carry them at Kroger where we usually shop for groceries. So, when in Walmart, I usually look for Thomas whole wheat bagels. Yes!!

As I drove home, I did another impulse thing. What it is about clean teeth after you leave the dentist that makes you think of something you can eat to start ruining that clean teeth feeling? It was strongly impressed to go to Frank's donuts and get Claude and I each two glazed donuts. When I got home and told Claude I did this, he was very, very, very happy. We are week when it comes to Frank's donuts. 

Once home, I waited till Noon and we called Jake. It was good to talk with our son. He was doing well. Looking at possibly taking a class. It did our hearts good to talk with him.

Claude went for his nap. I came to my laptop. Completed and disbursed the Relief Society Newsletter. And now I am catching up on my Blog. Tonight will be dinner by Claude followed by television and crocheting. We are enjoying these 'golden years'. 

Oh, So Cold...

Well, winter decided to make itself known in Kentucky this year. Some years can be fairly mild as winter goes. This January has really let us have it. The temperatures have been below freezing a lot and the snow and ice are still everywhere. Our poor front yard close to the house gets very little sunshine this time of year. Therefore, we will enjoy the snow that is there until probably summer. The 7+ inches of snow with layers of ice on top are dripping onto the front door area. That will have ice on it until probably summer. Poor Claude keeps chiseling it away. He even got up on a ladder one day and knocked some of that snow on to the ground. Yep, we are definitely experiencing a real winter this January.

Monday, January 13th, I only ventured out to go to PT. In a discussion with Tina (she usually stretches my arm after I do my exercises), we determined I would continue PT twice a week until Claude and I leave for our anniversary trip. When we return, I will go to once a week for office PT. I can see office PT coming close to an end for me. I hoped my arm would be stronger in the lifting things. I will keep working it. But I may need to begin to accept that the new way it is configured, I will only get this much motion. 

I began the research for our Florida Keys Drive. 

Tuesday, January 14th, our evening was spent with a drive to the Louisville Temple. I love going to the temple. I go with a prayer in my heart to help me learn and understand the purpose and plan of life. I go with a desire to feel the Spirit and to be uplifted. I go to provide the possibility for deceased ancestors who have not had the opportunity while living to have saving ordinances performed in the temple. I can be their proxy. So many good reasons to be in The House of the Lord. This night I saw Terry Fiet and Doreen Beaver. When I see friends who live in other areas of the state, it reminds of the wonderful reunion we will have with family and friends in the life after this one. It feels good to see current friends and know I will see others in the future. 

Wednesday, January 15th, this day was a 'get things done' day as we would be home and inside all day long. I was able to gather more information for our Florida Keys drive, get a good first draft of the February Relief Society newsletter, and get the Trivial Pursuit questions updated in my cellphone for November and December. Yeah me! Claude made us stir-fry for dinner. Life can't get much better for two aging people.

Raelyn participated in her school talent show. She sang a solo. Her choice of music was "I Am a Child of God". Katelyn found the recording of the music and sent it to the music teacher to play as Raelyn sang. The music teacher found a different recording. Raelyn had practiced with the one Katelyn found, NOT the one the teacher found. While the music was different, Raelyn trudged on through and sang her heart out. She did great. We are so proud of her.

Thursday, January 16th, at office PT, Tina showed me a couple of new exercised I can do to strengthen my shoulder more. I will do these at home. They will not be part of my office PT exercises. 

In the evening, we opted to go to Fat Katz for dinner. I was having an off day emotionally. Happens once and a while. This was only Thursday. Claude suggested we get out for our meal. What a great idea. I suggested we go to Fat Katz. They are often voted the best pizza in Georgetown. We each had an individual pizza and Claude ordered wings to go. In the evening, he enjoyed his wings while watching television. He pronounced these some the best wings ever. I am not a wing eater so I will trust his palette. 

Friday, January 17th, I wanted to get a good draft of the lesson I would teach on January 26th. I spent my day inside reading, studying, and making a PowerPoint to use with my lesson. 

Little did I know my hubby was outside, once again, to try and get some more of the ice out of the way. I really hate that he is having to do this on his own. I love working with him on this type of thing. He is a diligent soul.

In the evening, I got a text from my BFF. Laura has breast cancer. I am aching for my dear Friend. We had a good talk. She is very upbeat. I will follow her lead. Oh how I love this Sweet Lady.

Saturday, January 18th, Claude and I went of the possibilities for activities in the Florida Keys and decided when we would actually leave. Now I could begin my grid and make some hotel reservations, etc. 

Our evening was spent going to Shelbyville. We stopped in Frankfort and had a very nice meal at Chili's. 

Then on to Martha Layne Collins High School to watch Bailey perform with the KMEA (Kentucky Music Educators Association) District 5 High School All-Districr Band. This is a wonderful honor. One you must audition for. She would play in the Symphonic Band. The Concert Band played first. Then the Symphonic Band. They were excellent. We have come to expect this. 

We were very grateful the real rain held off until we were safely home. 

Sunday, January 19th, had a very exciting morning. We are now on the early schedule for church. This means we start Sacrament Meeting at 9am. We set our alarm for 8am and were out the door by 8:30am. Now, the church building is practically across the street from our home. We were all settled in for the meeting, Claude had posted the hymn numbers on the two boards at the front and was seated to lead the singing as both choristers could not make it. Someone came to me and said, "Will you be able to get in to your home?" What!! It seems there was a wreck in front of the church. I left me seat and went to a front door of the church. Sure enough, a car slid into the light pole at the corner and it was across Payne's Depot and in front of the entrance to Ward Hall. Oh My!! No one was hurt but there would need to be equipment to remove the pole and get the car out of the way. You see, the rain came down during the night, the temperature was in the single digits, the rain froze and we had an inch or two of snow on top of that little ice. So grateful we left so early to get to church. 

At the end of Sacrament Meeting, Bishop Barber gave an announcement. It seems, because of this ice and then snow on top, all the other congregations in our stake had canceled their Sacrament Meeting. Bishop expressed his gratitude for our diligence and getting to church and told us we would not have our second hour and should all carefully make our way home. When we went outside, they had cleared the pole to the side of the road and we had no problem getting through the intersection and up the little hill to our home. Grateful we were able to get the sacrament this Sunday morning.

The picture was taken from a front door of the church. The cars are at the intersection of Paynes Depot and Wellington on the side of the church and Warfield Point directly across that is the entry to Ward Hall Estates. If you count the third house up the little hill on the left side of the picture, that is our home. The light pole is in the street but you can't really make it out. The little car on the right is the one that hit the pole. 

Monday, January 20th, This morning we awoke to really frigid temperatures. We had snow during the night a bit. Claude had an appointment with the dermatologist at 8:30am. I had office PT at 11:30am. Claude left and reported back that the roads were clear for him. I sent these to our family explaining the warmest place for us would be Muskegon, however, they were experiencing a snow shower. Grateful for a warm coat and a warm home and cars that warm up.

Before office PT, I was able to get some Relief Society items accomplished. I talked to my sweet Friend, Velvett Bossio. After office PT, I came home and iced my shoulder. I am catching up on my Blog and will do some other laptop items before calling it a night and curling up in my recliner. 

I had two life lessons in the things that happened around me.

Life Lesson #1 happened Sunday. The Garrett's sat in front of us in Sacrament meeting. They have a little girl, Lily, who is a little over 1 year old. She loved the hymnbook. She knew it was to sing from. She was standing on the floor facing the bench between her parents with the hymnal on the bench. She was singing in baby language. So very precious. As she started to get a little louder, her mother put her fingers to her lips and said, "Sh." and tried to explain Lily needed to whisper or be quieter. Lily looked sincerely at Whitney and said, "Mouth." Oh my goodness. What a revelation to me. Lily knew mouth. She understood that level in her learning. Now, Whitney was trying to teach her being quiet with her mouth. Suddenly, I thought how we are all like that in our learning. I was particularly thinking of gospel learning but it really applies to all learning. We learn line upon line, precept upon precept. Now Lily was ready to learn that next step in how to use her mouth. She could make it loud or quiet. I thought how we all need to be patient with each other as we are all at different place with our learning. Even when we have learned something and feel strong at it or in that principle, we still may have weak moments. Be patient with yourself and you remember that strength you had and that you can be that way again. "Out of the mouths of babe!"

Life Lesson #2 was at PT this morning. I looked over that room full of people, each doing the exercise that is particular to strengthening the particular area of weakness they have. Everyone of us needs the expertise of these people who have studied and know how we can improve that the steps to help us reach our goal. They start us with the smallest of baby steps and increase the difficulty, the weight, the direction until we are as good as we can possibly be. We NEED these people who have a better vision of our situation than we do. We need to trust them, listen to them, then obey the instruction they give us at the office and when we go home. Again, I saw this in the light of the Gospel. We need a Savior, we need our Heavenly Father. We need to listen, learn and obey to reach the potential they see in us and know we have. It is more that I can see even when I think I see a lot. I need them and am grateful I know to have faith and rely on them. 

I love seeing Life Lessons in our everyday life.

The Winter Storm...

Sunday, December 5, 2025 was the day the winter storm arrived. It was predicted well ahead of time. By Saturday the reports were confident that we would get measurable snow followed by sleet and freezing rain followed by more snow into Monday. 

Our Church leaders were concerned and alerted us on Saturday afternoon that they would assess the possibilities and provide direction about church being held on Sunday. The decision was made to not use the church building in all of our stake on Sunday for services or activities. I made sure my ministering sisters received this message. Then we hunkered down (as they say) for the duration. 

Sunday morning, we got this sweet message from our Bishop. He had been traveling a lot in December. 

I got up and did my home PT. Claude woke up while I was doing this. I took this picture about 9am before I iced my shoulder. 

We watched Music and the Spoken Word. Then I took this picture at 11am.

Claude would lay down for a nap. I worked on my Blog. Then I took this picture at 1pm. The snow was still coming down pretty heavy. 

By 3pm, this was what the snow looked like.

I read my novel and stopped about 5pm. By now, the sleet was coming down. This would lower the level of the snow received from the weight of the ice. The windows along the front of our home were covering with a layer of ice. The windows along the back were not. This was due to the direction the snow was falling. 

Dark came quickly and I could no longer get a picture of the outside of our home. Claude fixed a nice baked potato soup and we curled up for our evening together. No loss of power or water. It is good to live in a neighborhood where the power lines are buried. 

Monday, December 6th, we looked out to see the snow had stopped for a bit. Anne Jennings Way had been plowed. There would be more snow during the day. Here are my views at about 10am. We watched our across-the-street neighbor shoveling his drive. Once he shoveled and lifted up a large block of ice. He put the shovel down and lifted the block of ice and tossed it onto his yard. The ice must have been about 3 inches deep. The trees in the back were covered in ice. The forecast had been for 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of ice on top of the snow. I am sure we got the half at least based on the covering of ice on each twig of the tree.

Our day was spent inside watching through our windows and on our devices. Claude made a heated up the leftover Baked Potato Soup and made us BLT's for dinner. I finished reading my book. It was an excellent read. I have given it to Claude in case he wants to read it. Then I will give it to Jake. He used to love and collect giraffes. 

Tuesday, January 7th, the snow had not quite stopped. It would flurry for the next few days with snow again Friday into Saturday. The temperatures were to remain below freezing. 

I started my day with home PT. Claude went to the shed to get the big shovel in case it was needed to start trying to clear our driveway. He told me you put a foot on the top of the snow then it takes a second or two before your foot goes to the ground. Then you had to pull it out of the snow to take the next step. Yuck! 

I went out front to check on Claude. I wasn't hearing the shovel and was concerned. He had removed the snow from the garage door behind the Jeep and was analyzing where he should expend his limited energy next. He pointed out that the resident rabbit seems to have stayed close to our home.

When Claude stopped for a break, this was all he could get done. We had at least 6 inches of snow. That, in itself, would have been fun to remove. Then we had ice come on top of that 6 inches of snow. As Claude shovels, there is about 3 inches of ice on top of the snow. It is grueling work with a shovel. You lift a shovelful and the ice breaks as it fall. The ice makes that shovelful heavier than just snow would. The goal is to get the driveway clear so the Jeep can get out. Then to clear the end of the driveway at the street across to the mailbox. This is very difficult. The snowplows have cleared the street but that means the snow they plowed is mixed with the ice they plowed and rolled over at the curbs. At the end of the driveway is a mixture of ice and snow that will be grueling to clear away. 

I am always fascinated when the tree branches get covered in ice. They have a very thick coating of ice on them. I tried to zoom in to our little birdhouse in the tree. It had ice that dripped and formed little icicles. 

Our very tall grass in the front flowerbed is completely laden with ice. And my two little flower pots with silk flowers are coated with snow that has blown off the roof or in from the front yard.

We did post some requests for help with a friends sons and some local boys. Claude was able to get in contact with the mother of the local boys. They would come Wednesday to shovel out the driveway. When Claude finished, he had a path wide enough for the tires on one side of the Jeep to drive out of the driveway. If he got nothing else done, we could get out of the driveway. 

Staying inside while Claude worked to shovel was very difficult for me. I love when the two of us work together to get things done, especially in the yard. I could do nothing about that work. However, I could fix him a cup of hot chocolate and lure him in for a break. In the evening, I cooked fried chicken with rice and gravy for dinner for him. Claude is usually our cook and he very much appreciate a good warm meal without having to do the cooking himself.

Wednesday, January 8th, the mother of the two boys we found on Facebook let Claude know her boys would be at our home about 9am. I had office PT at 10:30am. They arrived promptly. I sent this picture to our family on the family Facebook page and let them know 'the cavalry had arrived'. 

They shoveled full tilt until 10:15. By then they had the driveway clear and the walkway from the driveway to our front door clear. They did not clear all the turned over snow and ice by the snowplow on my side of the driveway. This is where one sees the difference in a teenagers physical ability and a 75-year old man working alone. We were very grateful for these two young men. Claude paid them what they asked and a bit more. He also alerted them that he might want them when he have more snow. The prediction was for more on Friday. 

Claude drove me to PT and then did the grocery shopping for the next week. He also dropped off some mail we wanted to send. The mailmen had not delivered mail on Monday due to the road conditions in Georgetown. We were not sure he will even stop until that snow is away from the mailbox. 

I spent time cleaning out files on my laptop. In the course of this, I found a poem that Andie sent me about teaching. I eMail it to Andie before I deleted it form my laptop. I received a sweet not from Andie later in the day. She was thinking about that poem and looked in her computer files but could not find it. How fortunate I had it and sent it to her. Andie is an excellent teacher and this year has a class that is the most trying she has ever taught. Oh what our teachers today are called on it do. 

Claude also cleared off the satellite dish. We were not getting our television guide and no shows were recording because of snow and ice on the DirecTV dish. In the evening, we were to have full use of our television. Usually, if service is interrupted, we can still watch shows we have DVR'd. These were running low and no new ones were being recorded. Now we were back to normal with our television.

Thursday, January 9th, I had a restless night and got out of bed early. I went to the living room and sent my Trivial Pursuit questions to the family, read some things on my phone, did my home PT and iced up. When I finished, I went back to bed. Claude was up and left me to sleep a bit more. Thank heavens for retirement so I can do that when needed. 

We decided to go out to a sit-down meal for dinner this day. With promise of more snow coming, we thought we should get out on a day that was not snowing. Our decision was to eat at Cattleman's Roadhouse. We really enjoy this place. Claude had an exceptionally good steak and I enjoyed my salmon with extra dipping sauce. We had a lovely server with a beautiful braid over her long dark hair over her shoulder. As we finished eating, a song came over their speaker. The server was cleaning another table and she turned to Claude and me and asked what musical group we liked. I told her we were Eagles fans. Claude said we liked traditional country. She looked at us and asked, "Do you think you could tell me who this is a picture of?" I got out of our booth and walked two booths down. There hanging on the wall was a big picture of Roy Rogers. I told her it was Roy Rogers. Claude told her his real name was Leonard Slye. She was surprised to find out that the picture was Roy Rogers. She didn't know his face but she did know the name. I left wondering how old Claude and I really are. I thought everyone knew Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Alas, even that is now a generational thing. 

After our excellent meal, I paused to take picture of the icicles on Cattleman's Roadhouse. The sun was shining right on them and they were beautiful. It is truly like looking at crystal reflecting in sunlight. I told Claude I loved how pretty this was. I also told him that the only way we can see this kind of beauty is to endure the storm we just went through. I marvel that it is a parable about life. There are things that we desire that are worthy and beautiful and uplifting but to get to that point we often must wade through the difficult things first. Such a beautiful way to teach me that life lesson.

When we got home, I quickly went to our back yard to check the sunlight on our trees as the ice on them was getting ready to melt. Same crystal beauty!!

In the evening, I checked Facebook and learned that the train in Sadieville had jumped its track. We lived in Sadieville 17 years and never saw this happen. Fortunately there was nothing hazardous on the train and no one was injured. It would cause havoc with Hwy 32 traffic going into and through Sadieville. I wasn't plowed well. That is typical as it is a lesser county road. The people living in Eagle Bend only have and entry and exit to that development at one place. That is off Hwy 32. If they shut that down, there is NO back entrance to their homes. 

Friday, January 10th, we opted to begin our day with our beloved Biscuit Run. Snow wasn't to come till the afternoon, so we had morning to get out. This afforded us a bit more time to plot an anniversary trip in February. We started this over dinner at Cattleman's Roadhouse. We would do a little more reading about possibilities while we ate our biscuits and watched traffic. We blocked off two weeks in February for our adventure. Claude has wanted to drive The Florida Key's Overseas Highway. It is one of the longest over the water bridges. It is actually made up of 42 bridges and runs for 113-miles. It connects that larger keys and goes from Miami to Key West. We are looking at driving for 3 days to get to Miami. Then whatever time we fell we want to take to drive from Miami to Key West. Then return home. I looked at flying and renting a car. It will cost much less to drive it ourselves. Plus, we get a road trip. We have done Key West before, so we will definitely drive to Key West so we drive the entire highway. But we will then focus our visits to some of the other Keys. 

Back home to spend our day at our laptops. I have soooooo many files and pictures on my laptop. I am trying to go through them, delete files I really don't need, clean up duplicates of pictures, and generally tidy up my laptop. I usually do a really good backup in January. That is my goal.

I ended this day so very grateful for our sweet little home. The comfort and peace it brings to our lives. The warmth and shelter in bad weather. We are richly blessed at this point in our lives to have a beautiful home we can manage pretty well. 

Saturday, January 11th, we had about 3 more inches of snow overnight. This was just snow and it was a bit powdery (dry). Claude was able to shovel this away from where we had already shoveled. I noted we had icicles hanging from our roof. This is not really normal for us. We usually have snow and when the sun come and shines on it, even if the temperature is still cold, it will melt away without leaving a lot of icicles. Because of the ice on top of our snow and temperatures staying below freezing for the week, the melt off from the roof is different this time. We have icicles! While they are beautiful, I see them as room and gutter damaging as well. So, a picture to keep is in order.

Katelyn posted this picture showing her hubby, Drew Roper, was selected as Play of the Week for his ice hockey team. Drew loves this sport very, very much. Way to go Drew!

I had two interesting calls from grandmonsters this day. The first was Raelyn. She sent me a message first with a fun question. I replied. Her next message asked if she could call me. I asked if she had her mother's permission. She replied she was going to ask her. You see, Raelyn and Emelia know how to called and video chat. They love and want to do this. However, I have learned that it is often when they have been asked to clean their rooms or lay down and rest by their mother. Not wanting to aid them in getting into any trouble and wanting to support Katelyn in raising four every active little ones, I have learned to ask if they talked with Katelyn about calling first. I quickly got a reply from Raelyn they would call later that evening, now was not the right time. So cute!

I also got a text from Bailey asking if she could call. I assured her that would be fine. She said she would call as soon as she was finished with her breakfast. A couple of hours later, Bailey did call. We chatted for a while, then she got to the need for this call. It seems she finally found out she was accepted to the University of Kentucky Honor Band for January 31st through February 2nd. Since there was not school all week because of our bad weather, it took longer than usual for Bailey's acceptance to filter down to her. Since UK is nearer our home that hers, she was wondering if we could come pick her up on Friday after she finished school, stop and get some dinner on the way and then deposit her at her first practice at the University of Kentucky. Then she wanted us to pick her up on Friday and bring her to our home to stay for the weekend. This would end Sunday in the afternoon with a concert. We would be her wheels to get back and forth to UK. I assured her that was a weekend we could do that. At the end of the conversation, she said, "Well, I'll go talk to my parents now." Later in the evening, I got a call from Andie, her mother, to discuss these arrangements. It seems Bailey set up everything and then came to tell Andie about it. While Andie is pleased and proud of Bailey for being about to make her arrangements, she really would like to get an idea of this plan before Bailey sets everything up. It makes me feel that Raelyn will be in this same situation as she raises her girls! Ha Ha!!

I had a wonderful afternoon at my laptop. Very productive. 

Claude chose Star Wars as our next round of evening movie watching. Fine with me!!

We have some witty and clever people naming their snowplows. Todd, our son-in-law, saw one that was named Clearopathra. 

Sunday, January 12th, evidently they didn't get our church parking lot as clear as it needed to be for two congregations to overlap with parking. We started meeting at 9am this year. Georgetown Ward meets at 10:30am. Today, Georgetown Ward sent out a notice their time would be moved to 12noon so there was no overlapping of need for parking spaces. 

Katelyn sent us this cute picture of Joel from behind. We purchased him as belt while we were in Arizona on our Route 66 trip. We saved it and gave it to him for Christmas. Katelyn assured us he LOVES his belt. How cute is that little backside!

I have been hearing what often sounds like chucks of the back of the hour breaking off or cracking. After church I looked in the back yard. Now, in most places where there isn't concrete, the snow is still smooth. Our backyard looks liked this.

This is because all those little coatings of ice on the branches and twigs of our trees is now melting and falling to the ground and on the patio. It doesn't show up well in this picture, but it looks like little pieces of glass in the snow. That is pieces of ice from the limbs. Isn't nature amazing?

Claude tried to nap. He was unsuccessful. This earlier schedule will be interesting. I watched to shows with Albert Lin. He is an explorer that does everything that other explorer/adventurer types do. The difference is he lost one of his legs in a car accident. He has a prosthetic leg and he climbs mountains and scuba dives with the best of them. I enjoy learning about the places he explores. I greatly admire him for not letting his disability define him. 

Now, I am at my laptop for the remainder of the afternoon. I'll finish my Blog for this week. Then I'll work on all the clearing of files and backing up my laptop I want to get done. That way, on Monday, I can start on that to do list for our anniversary trip, for our Greek island trip, for Relief Society, etc. This is a great Sunday for me.