Graves, Comedy, Neurology, Turtles, Temple, Puzzle Trouble...

Sunday, July 19th, in the afternoon we left for Elizabethtown, Kentucky. On the way we stopped in Frankfort at Sunset Memorial Gardens where my parents reside. I put new flowers on their graves. This is such a pleasant place. This time they have added what amounts to a street sign for the plots. A metal disc had been placed in the ground several years ago to mark the place of plots. Now they have installed a short metal sign with this information. I am sure it will be much easier for someone looking for a plot to visit a family member or friend to find the location of their plot. It simply amused me that my parents are now under a beautiful big old tree with a street sign by their plots. 

The we hustled down the road to Elizabethtown to The State. This is an old theater that has become a performing venue. Claude watches posts on Facebook by Jeff Allen. He is a comedian that is 70 years old. His humor is clean and age appropriate. As in, all the attendees were in our age bracket. His humor is about life at this age. He had been married 40 years and alludes to how marriage works after 40 years together. It is all very real and everyone had a grand time laughing at him and ourselves at the same time. It was quite an enjoyable time.  

Monday, July 20th, was a wonderful at-home kinda day. Our air-conditioner was not working correctly. Claude called for a person to come and check it. Amazingly, they came the same afternoon as he called! 

I got the Relief Society birthday cards for August ready to mail. I also got birthday cards for my the sisters I minister to and with prepared and a birthday card for Michael and an anniversary card for the Ropers. Then I set to work of Relief Society newsletters for August, September & October. We will be doing some traveling and I wanted a head start on all of that. I also read all the missionary eMails. 

Aubrey Anne, who prefers to be called Bre, our grandmonster posted this picture. She is such a pretty thing. She always takes her selfies at an angle. I am no good a selfies so I marvel at those who can do that and have a knack for it. 

Claude made us chili for dinner out of left over roast beef. It was soooo good. Katelyn called to talk about the Denise experiences. Denise is Drew's mother. She is really not well at all. Liver is failing. She is in and out of the emergency room. She has had to be taken to Grand Rapids for medical care. It is a lot to deal with and sometimes, when you are a caregiver, you just need someone to listen to what you feel. 

Tuesday, July 21st, I had a neurology appointment regarding my feet. The forecast was for severe storms. Claude decided he would go with me as I promised to buy him Schlotzsky's for lunch after. It never rained on us until we were almost home and then just a mist. While several tornados touched down in Kentucky and the storm was severe, it seemed to not care about our home. That is a good thing. My neurology appointment went well. I will return in six months for another check. My feet are more numb than six months previous visit. I continue to put the compound cream on every night and take the alpha lipoic acid capsule every morning. The compound cream treats the symptoms and the alpha lipoic acid very, very, very slowly heals those tiny nerves. The loss of feeling causes me to lose my balance more easily. I truly do not want to fall every again in my lifetime. 

In the afternoon I did laundry and cleared the DVR while Claude napped. Katelyn would call again, love her heart. 

In the evening as we watched Castle, I crocheted and got a craving for a Hershey chocolate bar. I have not had one of these in a good while with my intermittent fasting. Claude was happy to get me one from the stash he keeps for me. It was delicious. It is amazing how much better food tastes when you aren't eating all the time!

Wednesday, July 22nd, was a purposeful day. I had a bit of ironing to do. I don't do this as much as I did before my shoulder surgery, but on occasion I do have a bit that needs ironing. I worked on the Relief Society lesson spreadsheet. I had been creating a single file for each six-month period of lessons. I wanted to have all of these on one Excel spreadsheet for easy reference. I combined new tabs of each of these to the current spreadsheet. Now we have a good history of what lessons we have had. I also prepared the spreadsheet for the next six-month period which will begin in November. I cleared out eMails. I keep eMails as a 'tickler' file to remind me something is still out there to be done. I cleared some more off the DVR. 

I received a package from Nissa and Todd. My birthday is coming up and they sent me a gift. It is a turtle made of Yooper Stone. I never heard of Yooper Stone. So much more to learn about Michigan. If you shine a black light on this stone, then orange is visible that you can't see without the black light. The stone had been carved into a turtle. I LOVE turtles and collect them. Nissa and Todd were at a craft fair in Mackinac City and Todd saw the turtle and knew it needed to come to me. It is so cool!!

In the evening, I had a Google Meets Relief Society presidency meeting. It was very productive.

Thursday, July 23rd, was an off day. I had a hard time sleeping at night. I got up and read several chapters in "Little Women". Then I slept in a bit in the morning. When Claude was up and about, I suggested this was a smoothie kind of day. Bless his heart, he always says yes. I spent my day reading "Little Women" and did not finish it. I am a slow reader. But I get there. We paused around noon and went to Tropical Cafe for our smoothies. Yum!! 

In the evening, Claude made baked potatoes for dinner and we watched Castle.

Friday, July 24th, was a temple day for me. Our July Relief Society activity was a temple trip. We had two sessions to pick from this time. I chose to go at 11:30. I met Karen Raulston and her carload coming from Versailles in Frankfort. We had a wonderful time together. This picture is our carload: Diana Tincher, me, Debra Hatchett, Karen Raulston, and Sandra Sexton. 

The other session was at 7:30pm. These are the ladies attending that session: Jenessa Dymock, Rita Thorn, Raina Dunford, Lindsey Claflin, Jennifer Barber, and Whitney Garrett. 

I did not get home until 3pm. Claude and I agreed it would be dinner out. He suggested McCallister's. Always a good choice. Then we spent our evening watching Castle.

Saturday, July 25th, I started my day posting the Trivial Pursuit question for our family, check my eMail and Facebook, check the weather for the day. Input my weight for that morning. Then I get my puzzles downloaded for that day. Two free puzzles each day. I am an addict when it comes to jigsaw puzzles. I love the game on my phone as it gives me a daily dose of Jigsaw puzzling with spending the entire day. After downloading each of the two puzzles, I make the boarder of them and then leave them until I have time to play. This time, the puzzles froze and I couldn't move pieces. I went to something else and when I came back all the progress I had made was gone as though I had not done anything with them. I tried several times to make the edges and then some of the inside only to have the puzzle freeze each time. I went to the store and downloaded the game again. It worked and I was able to complete four of the puzzles I had started. The fifth one froze. I left them and went to something else. When I returned, all of the four puzzles I started were back as though I had not touched them. Ugh!! I found a way to report the issue to the creator of the jigsaw puzzles. If it continues, I will have to uninstall the game and install it again. Then see if that works. I didn't find anyway to update the game. I truly hope it has not ages out. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!

I completed the preparations for the Relief Society lesson I was to teach on Sunday. 

Then, Claude loaded me in my car and we went to the car wash. They were giving way car washes to celebrate an upgrade to their facility. I changed into going out clothes instead of around the house grubbies. I looked at my little pile of clothes in front of my dresser and started to laugh. I cracked myself up. I was sure it looked like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz when they poured water on her. I took this picture and posted it on our family Facebook page with the comment: "I melted!" More chuckles from the family.

Then Claude filled my car with gasoline. We had our meal-O'-the-day at the Chinese buffet. We have not dined there in years and it was fun to go back. Claude said we need to get this one into our mix of restaurants we go to.

When we got home, I posted the pictures from our Temple trip via eMail and Facebook. While I was doing that, I received a call from Kris. She is married to Cordell, Claude's brother. She had only difficult news to share. It seems that Cordell's grandson, Taygen, had committed suicide. It happened that morning. In addition, Cordell, who has Parkinson's, has reached the stage where he can't w

alk, even with help at PT. Kris has something causing a nerve in her tongue to hurt. They didn't get snow this winter so there is an enormous drought. It is a lot. We had a good chat. Then I went to share all this news with Claude. 

We spent a quiet evening at home.

Sunday, July 26th, was a busy day at church. I took roll for Relief Society and then I taught the Relief Society lesson. 

After church, we headed to Arby's for BLT's on their delicious market fresh bread for our meal-O'-the-day. Yum. Claude took his nap. I cleared the DVR. There was a new Josh Gates Expedition Unknown. It was about a group of people in Central American that receded all the Mayan, Olmec, etc. civilizations that I know about. Very interesting. They crawled into a cave that had a hole so tiny I couldn't believe 6' 2" body into. It was amazing and very interesting. 

I tried again to fix my jigsaw puzzle game. It really isn't going well. 

We spent our evening watching Castle. We are on season 8, which is the final season. Claude wants to finish it before we go on our trip to Nashville. 

Birthday, Temple, Mary Poppins, Oldham County Days Band, Flowers...

Monday, July 13th, was Katelyn's birthday. I posted this to our family Facebook page: "It is hard to believe that 34 years ago Claude and I became grandparents for the first time. I flew out to Utah the day Katelyn Roper was born. I had requested time off work and she came the first day of that time! Claude would go out later to give her a name & blessing. We call her mother, Nissa Tyler, our test monkey. I believe KT would be our test monkey in the grandmonster part of our lives. Please join Claude and me in wishing KT Nichols a very Happy Birthday!! We love ya bunches!! Blampa & Blamma

Another bad night of sleep proceeded this day. Ugh. I got up during the night and read some more in Little Women. Then eventually went back to bed sleeping until 10am. This simply ruins the day. I did manage to get my Blog entry for the previous week completed and all the pictures labeled and in their proper place. I also made sure we had temple names for our visit to the temple. Claude gave me pictures from his history of his father in the horsehair coat he inherited. I scanned those for Claude's use. 

Tuesday, July 14th, while this night's sleep was better than the previous, I awoke at 6:30am with a grand hot flash. It went on, and on, and on, and on! There was no relief. I realized I was not wide awake. So, I got up and headed to the living room to read another chapter or two in Little Women. 

I received family file names for Claude and me to take to the temple. I printed those and made sure all were correct. This should get us through our temple trips for the next few months. 

Claude and I stopped at Bojangles before driving to Louisville to attend the temple. As we drove, we passed a car that brought back a flood of memories for Claude. I took this picture of it and shared it with our family on our Facebook page: "Driving to the temple this morning. Claude was pleased to see this 1962 Ford Falcon. He says it's a straight 6 banger. What is that??? Claude's first car was like this only white with 4 doors. It had bench seats. Blast from his past.  Do you think he dated Connie in this?"

Claude's sister, Lynette Drysdale, responded: "Haha, I'm sure he did. I do remember my Easter basket was hidden in it one year." It is always fun to share past memories with kids and grandkids. 

After our temple visit, we had a nice meal at Taziki's.

Once home, Claude went to get light bulbs for the Jeep. One of the tail lights was out. He bought two and replaced both the next day. 

Wednesday, July 15th, it is simply HOT in Kentucky. Summer is definitely making itself known. I started my day weeding in the front and side flower beds. Claude would get the mowing, edging and blowing done on the front yard. That was more than enough as the heat rose during the morning. 

Then I went to Sandiland. I made reservations for us at a Detroit hotel for August, I purchased tickets to see the Celtic Singers in December, I created a one page document of all we were to see and do on our Nashville trip for my birthday, I practiced the hymns I would lead in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, I watched two episodes of Northern Disclosure and made my reservation for the Relief Society temple trip in July. I also got that annual mammogram appointment set up. 

Since we worked outside, that meant burgers for our meal. We drove through Burger King and took it home to eat. 

While we watched television in the evening, I confirmed my playdate with Michelle Hale for the next night, downloaded a QR Code Reader to my phone, and confirmed with Jake the day we could treat him to lunch when we went to Detroit. Then I crocheted a few rows on Raelyn's Christmas afghan. 

Thursday, July 16th, we started our day in the back yard. I did the weeding and cut the grass away from the stepping stones across the top of the back yard. Claude cut the grass, edged and blew the grass and leaves off the patio. The back yard looked so good. It was very, very hot again this day. We headed inside to rehydrate and cool off. 

I purchased tickets to Mary Poppins for myself and Michelle Hale. I am the ministering sister for Camille Klein. Camille and her daughter, Vienna, were both in the play. This was a fun production and Michelle and I enjoyed it tremendously. After, we got a couple of pictures. Don't you just love Vienna's smile. Such a wonderful thing for a mother to do with a daughter. What memories they will share. 

Claude had a steak and watch guy TV.

Friday, July 17th, we determined we would run a few errands together. We started at Bojangles, of course, then on to CVS to pick up a prescription. Then we drove to Walmart. On the way to Walmart, we passed Dairy Queen. It appears they were installing a new sign. You can really tell how big that sign is if you look closely at the top of the crane inside the bottom of the DQ logo. There is a man standing there working. Wow!

I made a list of the things we were to get in Walmart. We reviewed the list and decided to divide and conquer. As I found the items I was to get, I suddenly started to feel very bad. I made it through the Walmart run and then told Claude we should head home, quickly! Very sad as our plan was to end our outings at Tropical Cafe for a smoothie. We haven't had one of those in over a year. It was not in the cards and I got home just in time. After a round in the bathroom that included hurling my biscuit breakfast, I settled down in front the the television to watch my documentaries while Claude got a nap. I eventually sipped a Mello Yello while nibbling on Ritz crackers. 

It would rain in the afternoon. Andie called and we plotted our Saturday in LaGrange and caught up a bit. When Claude woke up, I cut his hair. Claude made hot dogs for dinner with a corn on the cob. We would watch Castle and I stayed down for the rest of the evening. 

Saturday, July 18th, was a day to visit LaGrange, Kentucky. During her summer break, Bailey participated with the Oldham County Community Band. It is directed by her high school band teacher from her senior year, Mr. Klipper. They would perform at Oldham County Days, an annual festival held in LaGrange by the Courthouse. We attended this every year when Hayden and Bailey were in Old County High School band. They always marched in the parade. When Bailey graduated, we were pretty sure Oldham County Days was over for us. Alas, it was not. They band was excellent. The focused on some patriotic music. I loved that they started with the version of the National Anthem that Oldham County High School band always played. It is my favorite. The last number was music from the Music Man. As they played "76 Trombones" for the last number, the train came through downtown LaGrange. The train tracks go right through the middle of downtown. The train has to blow its whistle as it does this. I was quite neat to hear the band playing and the train chugging and blowing its whistle. 

As we left downtown Lagrange, I got a message for Nelson, our great grandson. He wanted to video chat but it wasn't a good time. I also ordered Jake a pizza for his lunch in Chelsea. 

Michael had Andie call ahead and order lunch to go from Cracker Barrel. Bailey joined us and we had a wonderful meal of boneless chicken breasts, biscuits, macaroni and cheese and hashbrown casserole. Yum! Michael even had some chocolate chip cookies for dessert. 

Andie drove Bailey to her pool party with friends. When she returned we watched "Project Hail Mary". It was a cute movie. I got a lot of crocheting done of Raelyn's Christmas afghan. I then cut Andie's hair before we headed home. 

As we were driving home, I looked over at Claude driving the Jeep. His knees were sunburned. Bless his heart...or knees! 

We got home in time for some down time before heading to bed. A good day with lots of family interaction. 

Sunday, July 19th, has been a good day. I lead the music in Sacrament meeting. We skipped Sunday School. We picked up Claude's prescription commenting to each other that we spent a lot of time in the pickup line a CVS Drug. Then we got sandwiches from Jimmy John's. The car in front of us could have probably made their life a little easier had they pulled a little closer to the drive-thru window. Maybe that works for them. Not sure.

When we arrived home, I realized my dinner plate Hibiscus was in full bloom. Isn't it magnificent?

Earlier in the week, when it started to bloom. I took these pictures of the blossoms coming out. The last one reminds me of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors because of its shape. 

We are home for a couple of hours this afternoon. Then we will drive to Elizabethtown. Claude has been following an older guy who is a comedian. His name is Jeff Allen. Claude shared a clip with me and indicated he would like to see him in person some time. I quickly checked and learned he was going to be in Elizabethtown for one night. That is only 1 1/2 hours from our home. So, this afternoon, we will drive to Frankfort and stop at the cemetery to put fresh silk flowers on my parents grave. Then we will go on to Elizabethtown to wash Jeff Allen.

Medical, Books, Museums, Mail Orders, and a Good Sunday...

Monday, July 6th, I had a morning appointment with Dr. Chase Wilson, our dermatologist. It was my annual full-body check. I left 20 minutes early for the appointment. Felt strongly I needed to leave that early. It is really not that far to his office. I got in my car and it would not start. It couldn't find my key. I checked my purse and my key fob was in my purse. Ugh. This meant the battery was probably DOI in the in fob. I hurried back into the house, got Claude's keys to my car and was able to get the car started. Claude would replace the battery in the fob later that day. Bless his pea-pickin' heart!! 

My visit with Dr. Chase is always pleasant. The only issue he found this time was a pre-cancer in the top center of my forehead. He burned that off. Now I kind of look like the ladies in India when they get the red dot on their forehead. I am done with this until next year! Yeah!! I took this silly picture of me as I waited for Dr. Wilson. I thought I looked like Generic Sandi. One size fits all. 

I told Claude I would have earned a biscuit with a good doctor visit. I picked he and I each a biscuit up at Bojangles and headed for home. I was amazed when I got home that all of this took much less than an hour. 

In the afternoon, I finished reading my WDNC Club book. Well, it is really for my girls. I wanted to read it before I mailed it to them. Melani Sanders puts little videos out there. Claude happened to catch some and sent them to me. I laughed hysterically. I started my hot flashes in 1999. I had a hysterectomy in January 2000 and they came on full bore. My doctor came in to check on me after the surgery. He took one look, saw the sweat and said, "We need to get your something immediately." He prescribed Premarin. I took that for several years and then news came it was thought to cause breast cancer in some women. I discontinued it thinking I would rather endure the hot flashes that endure cancer. I had my regular mammogram a few months after stopping the Premarin. They found something that was concerning. I was sent for an immediate ultrasound to confirm their mammogram findings. I was diagnosed with lobular neoplasia. Basically, it was not cancer but was a precursor. The spot was removed and I started taking Tamoxifen for the next 5 years. Somehow, I thought when I stopped taking the Tamoxifen, it would take a bit for all that medication to leave my body, then I would be finished with hot flashes. It is now 26 years later and I still have hot flashes through the day and night. Hence, my laughing and Melani's frank observations of about the changes her body is going through thru with perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause. This is a subject that has not been openly discussed until recently. My girls are both now having hot flashes. I sent them an eMail with a link to one of Melani's little video bits. I told them I was mailing them this book and hoped they would enjoy it as much as I did. Evidently, Melani's WDNC (We Do Not Care Club) handbook is an international sensation. 

We would have McAlister's for dinner followed by Castle on the television and some more crocheting on Raelyn's Christmas afghan. 

Tuesday, July 7th, Claude's sister, Lynette, mailed us a book by the Park Service about the Lewis & Clark expedition. I spent my morning reading through this book. It was a good Reader's Digest Condensed version of their story. 

Then I spent time in Sandiland. Did a refresh on my To Do List, cleared out eMails and text messages, practiced leading the hymns in preparation for Sunday, got the books ready to put in the mail to Nissa and Andie, sent out the Relief Society announcements for the week, send cards to my ministering sisters and typed a Church News article for Katelyn. Whew. I often marvel at the time spent in Sandiland but that really is where I can get a lot done. 

Wednesday, July 8th, we set aside a day for an outing. We started our outing with breakfast on the road from Bojangles. We do keep this place in business. Our destination was the Cincinnati Museum Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The was originally a train station. It is three floors full of lots of museums. We had tickets to two of them - The Legos Jurassic World exhibit and the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center. We have been to this museum before to see an exhibit of Pompeii artifacts. It is a grand building. 

Our first museum was in the Lower Level and was the Legos Jurassic Park exhibit. It was well laid out with lots of stations for kids to make things with Legos. They ask when you enter that, if you make something with the Legos, you return them to the place where you make the item. We didn't make anything but enjoyed watching the kids fingers work quickly as they created things. There would be over 50 Lego sculptures of scenes or creatures from the Jurassic Park movies. They used over 6 million bricks to create all of this. Amazing. 

As you enter, there is a hallway and this video is playing showing them putting together different dinosaurs. 

Honestly, Claude and I have not watched a lot of the Jurassic Park movies. But we love Legos. Claude is standing at the gate that, evidently, features in a lot of the movies. This gate s made of 183,470 Legos and too 1,290 hours to complete. 

The first room had a model of the island where Jurassic Park was located. Note that around the ceiling edge is a monorail system with a train that actually runs on it. 

In this room were these items: 1) a Euro Copter EC 130 B4 or Jurassic One. It is made with 17, 917 Legos and too 106 hours to complete.

2) the Isla Nublar Ferry carries 400 visitors per year. The ferry boat is Navatek I SWATH. It operates from Hawaii. 

3) Super King Air 200 could carry up to 11 passengers. 

4) Sign on the wall made out of Legos

The next room dealt more with fossils and DNA extraction. Again, hands on experiences for those who wanted to create. 

This DNA strand has 3,740 Legos and took 70 hours to make.

The DNA testing setup contains 4,251 Legos and took 66 hours to make. 

The Hammond Creation Lab was visited next. You enter notice immediately the leg of a Brachiosaurus. HUGE dinosaur. You walk under his belly and see lots of smaller dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs. When you come out the other side, you get another view of being under this enormous Brachiosaurus. The Brachiosaurus is made of 171,150 Duplo Blocks and took 1,477 hours to make. He weighs over 2 tons. Way cool.

At the far end of the room is another table full of Legos to try and re-create some of these dinosaurs. Note the cute step stool so all sized and ages of kids and enjoy this hands-on experience. 

Next room had babies they created from DNA.

This is Charlie, the youngest of the Velociraptors. He is made of 3,780 Legos and too 68 hours to create.

This is Echo, third eldest of the Velociraptors. It took 4,120 Legos to make her and 64 hours to do it. 

As we left this room, there was one wall devoted to the Mosasaurus. This is the largest carnivore in Jurassic World. It is really a sea-going lizard. It weighed the same as three adult Orcas and was as long as a Finback Whale. It too 107,688 Legos to build and 399 hours to complete. The Mosasaurus used every shade of blue in the current Lego color palette. 

The final scene in the Legos Jurassic Park exhibit was the Jeep being chased by a T-Rex. The family in front of us had their little girl pretend to scream. Great picture! The front of the Jeep is entirely made of Legos. They back is a platform for you to walk up and sit on inside the Jeep. It is not Legos. The T-Rex is all Legos. 

Then, like all great museums, you exit through a gift shop. There were a couple of dinosaurs in the gift shop. Claude purchased a great shirt.

The final Lego creation was a replica of the Cincinnati Museum Center. Way Cool!

We then had to make several tries but found the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust Museum. We have been to Yad Vashem in Israel. Very sobering museum. This was much smaller, of course. But it was more hopeful to visit. It turns out there were a lot of refugees after World War II and the Holocaust who made their way to Cincinnati. They came through the train station that was housed in this very building. Their stories are told in this museum. Knowing it is all local survivors telling their stories made it very personal feeling. 

The wall as you enter is covered with quotes from these survivors. I learned a new word with the first quote "Shoah". Shoah is the Hebrew word for "catastrophe" or "utter destruction". As a proper noun, it is the standard Hebrew term for the Holocaust—the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of six million Jewish people by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. We have been watching a lot of things about World War II. Claude is the history buff and really enjoys this. I am learning what I did not learn as I breezed through only what I had to know in High School. We did have a History teacher in High School named Mattie Gray Brown. She was an older lady. She had us watch the Nuremburg trials. We had to have permission slips from our parents to watch this would would show some graphic pictures of the experiments done on the Jewish people as well at the gas chambers, etc. As I think about it, I wonder if Mattie Gray Brown was Jewish. Watching that was one of those moments when I was appalled at what man could do to other men. 

Inside was a display of some of the items these people were able to bring with them. They could bring so little. It is amazing these items made it out. I took a picture of a silver dreidel and a picture of the finials from a Torah scroll. I have a great deal of respect for the Torah. These are handwritten scrolls with no mistakes on them. They are precious to the Jewish people. These particular Rimmonnim (or Torah finials) are 300 years old. They belonged to the Levite family in Germany. They were confiscated from Ernest Levite on Kristallnacht. This is night Jewish shops had the glass display windows broken and items were looted. These finials were held by the Jewish community in Nuremberg until they were returned to the Ernest Levite family in 2015. 

This is a Torah scroll that was saved by the friend of a Jew on Kristallnacht. To him, it is a symbol that Hitler did not destroy the Jewish wisdom and culture.

Jews were forced to leave their homes and live in a ghetto. This wall represents the ghetto to which they were consigned. There are holes in the brick wall. You can look through the holes and see pictures of life in the ghetto with some quotes of those who experienced this horror. The second two pictures are of quotes looking through the brick ghetto wall. The second one is a young boy who had his Bar Mitzvah in these conditions. It tore at my heart strings. 

There was a section that focused on the concentration camps. These signs speak to that. There were many camps and some had different purposes. All were wretched. 

This listing of some of the more well-known camps has a container behind filled with shoes. Very moving. 

The final wall as we left has quotes from these survivors. I will share two of the quotes that touched me the most. 

Claude and I really appreciated this museum. It was a good experience. 

As we exited CMC, this is the view of the Cincinnati skyline. 

We found a Mexican restaurant in the Covington/Florence area we had eaten at before for a nice meal-O-the-day. 

When we got home, there was a package for me at the door. It was my new Clark's sandals. Love me some nice Clark sandals. Needed some tan colored sandals. They were on a great sale. Yeah me!

The new DVD was also in a package in the mail. We, alas, have never gotten into the streaming world. We have so many DVD's that we really love and so many things we DVR. We had trouble with the DVD's stopping on a scene and other things. We ordered a DVD cleaner that seemed to help but we still had the issues. We really felt it was the DVD player wearing out and we really didn't want to ruin any of the DVD's we enjoy. Claude found one and ordered it on line. Yeah Claude!

We watched more World War II with Tom Hanks in the evening. I got a nice call from Katelyn. Drews mother is not well. And I was able to text a lot with Laura, my BFF.

Thursday, July 9th, I posted a question on our family Facebook page with the answer of Exodus. This is a book I read when I was much younger. I decided I wanted to read it again. I purchased it for my Kindle. Then I read some more in Little Women. I am currently reading it and want to finish it before I start Exodus. 

Claude had an appointment with his audiologist. One of his hearing aids was not holding a charge. It had to be sent off to be fixed. Claude was wearing a loaner hearing aid till his came back. We went to pick his repaired hearing aid up. 

Then we drove to Dan Cummins, our local car dealership to check out Buick Envisions. We were trolling for information, not to purchase. We are thinking we will need to get me one more car before I get to old to drive. When we bought my current Buick Envision in February 2017, my goal was to drive it for 10 years at least before changing cars. We are close to that now. We may wait until the 2027's are on the market and think seriously about purchasing a 2026 that has never been owned. Maybe save some and still get another 10 years out of it. 

I read a survey that was supposedly made by four great chefs of fast food chicken and biscuits to see which they thought had the best chicken and biscuits. The first place hands down was Popeye's. We now have a Popeye's in Georgetown. We have been there once. We went back. The chicken strips were very good. A little dry but the breading was good and that makes or breaks a chicken strip for me. However, they are way down my list of good biscuits. Way down!! It was fun to eat and compare. Bojangles is hard to beat for a really good biscuit and you can get them anytime of the day. Actually, Bojangles came in second and KFC was third. There were some comments that the flavor if KFC seems to have changed over the years. It seems KFC had changed flour and also spice vendors. Hence, the flavor change. 

When we got home, Claude installed the new DVD player. I was very proud of him. He didn't even have to call Michael, our son-in-law, for any help! Yeah Claude!! I told him the Peace Lily in the middle of the living room was something I could get used to. 

We enjoyed an evening of Castle ono our new DVD player.

Friday, July 10th, was an at home kinda day. I read a bit more in Little Women. 

Then I settled in to work on my Relief Society lesson for July 26th. I made a PowerPoint whiIch I will tweek between now and then. It felt good to get that al down in the PowerPoint. 

We learned of a tribute band doing Carpenter music. I purchased us tickets to go to that in October. 

I kept getting eMails for Kentucky Surgeons. These are the nerve surgeons I saw about my feet. They wanted me to open a medical history account with them. I have put it off and not responded because I don't know that I will ever need to go back there. I decided to try it. In looking at their diagnosis, I came across this word 'claudication'. I told Claude about this word in my diagnosis and shared this explanation of the word.

Claude's response: "I apologize profusely...on the other hand I have a disease named after me. How cool is that!" 

I ordered two dresses from Amazon. One of them arrived. It is purple. Oh My!! I love it. 

Claude and I had one of those moments when we both laughed so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks. Claude's face was beet red. I was trying to tell him something and couldn't think of the word. Claude thought of it and added it and then carried the thought a bit further and couldn't think of the word he wanted. I was able to get that word and then we realized how ridiculous all this sound and the laughter started. It was a really fun moment. Love those moments. 

Katelyn sent us this picture of our Joel. Poor kid. Claude has said his whole life that Joel was an accident waiting to happen. He has healed from his broken jaw. Now his eye is swollen. I am sure it is a bug bite but he looks miserable. It went down the second day. 

Saturday, July 11th, was the day after a bad night...again. I woke up at 5am and thought it was really 7am. 7am is an okay time to get up and get going for me. 5am in not. I went back to bed at 8am and slept till 11am. Not a great start to my Saturday. In addition, it felt like it was Friday and knowing it was Saturday made me feel like I lost a day somewhere. I was definitely out of kilter.

I read in Little Women. Then ordered tickets to the Mary Poppins play a friend is in. 

Then I simply decided I would give up, not have any guilty feelings about doing so, at not do anything of significance the remainder of the day. Claude took note of my out-of-sorts emotional state and decided the best way to help me was to take the same attitude. He also felt like it should have been a Friday. What a weird day for both of us.

Sunday, July 12th, was a good Sabbath Day. Claude and I were asked to give the opening (Claude) and closing (me) prayer in Sacrament Meeting. I was also asked to substitute as the chorister. My arm held out, thank heavens. It gets very sore and very tired by the end of a hymn, but I did it! I also had my ministering interview right after Relief Society.

Claude took us to Jimmy John's drive-thru for our lunch. This time I switched it up and got the tuna sub instead of the Italian. 

Claude took his Sunday nap while I cleared the DVR of some of my documentaries. While watching them I searched for shorts that would be long enough for Claude. I found three kinds that might work. When Claude woke up we looked at all three. He picked a color our of each type and then I placed the order. Hopefully they will work. 

In the evening, we watched movies and I crocheted some. We watched Out of Africa. This is such a good movie, the scenery and music are wonderful. Then we watch Moonstruck. 

We had a good Sabbath Day.