'Y'ittle Things...

I just love that our Bailey puts a 'Y' in the place of an 'L' when she talks. There will come a day when she does not do this but for now I find myself hearing some words as Bailey would say them and it just sounds good. So I title my blog entry for today 'Y'ittle Things...

First...a scripture comes to mind:  "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." (Doctrine & Covenants 64:33)

I kept noticing 'y'ittle things in my day yesterday and then again this morning.

A 'Y'ittle Technology:
Yesterday I spent 1 hour of my morning adding more addresses to Outlook on my computer. It got me into the D's and that felt good. Didn't have a lot of time to devote to this mammoth project but it felt really good to know I had done another hour of it.

A 'Y'ittle Worry:
I wanted to see my parents yesterday. I called Papa about 9am to see if he wanted to practice music and have some lunch together. I got no answer but wasn't concerned because I know he usually goes to the Pavilion around that time for his morning walk. I tried to call again about 11:15 but still got know answer. I left a 2nd voice message and continued with my morning. I got myself ready and headed to Georgetown. I drove to the nursing home figuring I would visit with Mimi and Papa while Papa was feeding Mimi lunch. Papa's car was not in front of the nursing home. Now, I began to be concerned. It wouldn't have surprised me if he just didn't think to return my phone call. But I knew he wouldn't miss lunch with Mimi unless something was wrong. Images of him collapsed on the floor of his apartment raced through my mind. I turned around and headed to his apartment. When I got there his car was not in the driveway. I went in the apartment and no Papa. Tiny was happy to get a chew stick, but no Papa. I checked for his car and it was not in the garage. The answering machine was still beeping indicating he had not been there to get my messages. Back to the nursing home I headed. I went in and finished feeding Mimi her lunch. The CNA said Papa had called to say he wouldn't be there. Hmmmm...  About 1pm I got a call on my cell phone from Papa. He had taken the missionaries to do their exchange of companions that morning. He had been to Lexington and to Louisville and that was why he was not there. I told him I was finishing feeding Mimi and I would like to take him to lunch. He was happy with that idea.

A 'Y'ittle Dining:
I drove back to Papa's apartment and picked him up and told him I was hungry for Arby's. He said that was fine with him. While standing at the counter looking at the menu, I knew I wanted a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. That's my meal at Arby's with a soda and no fries. Papa said, "I haven't eaten a hamburger in so long. I really would like a hamburger." Papa wears false teeth and some things are just too uncomfortable to chew. I told him they don't have hamburger patty burgers at Arby's but they do have a sandwich that is made like a hamburger only it has roast beef in place of the burger patty. I pointed the three choices out to him and he picked the one that looked the best. I assured him they had plastic forks and knives and we could cut it up if he couldn't bite through it. I gave him his drink cup and he went to fill it. While he was gone I added an apple turnover for each of us. They gave me my cup and I went to fill it. Papa found us a table and then he waited for our order at the counter. He was able to eat that roast beef burger. It was a little thick but he made it through it. He was delighted with his apple turnover. The rest of the afternoon he just kept commenting about how 'good' that meal was. It was a 'y'ittle meal, not very expensive, but he meant a world to Papa and as a consequence of him being happy, I was happy.

A 'Y'ittle Planning:
After lunch I drove us to Johnson's Funeral Home. We were going to be sure we had the last of Mimi's funeral arrangements paid for. We met with Tony. He pulled our file on Mimi's funeral and we reviewed exactly where we stood. We were able to pay for all the final pieces of that cost. It felt good to us to have that completed. I made sure a couple of weeks ago we had her clothing all ready. It may seem morbid to some but to me it feels a bit more prepared for 'whenever' with regard to my mom. I know when the time comes that she graduates to the next level of our existence, not having to worry about these arrangments will make the process a 'y'ittle easier.

A 'Y'iddle Music:
When we finished at the funeral home, I drove us back to Papa's apartment. We pulled out the tablet to write the program on, the books with the words to the songs and Papa picked one of his guitars to practice with. We had a 'y'ittle bit of our afternoon picking the next set of songs for us to sing and running through them to find pitches and determine who would sing lead and who would sing harmony. Now Papa could spend some time that evening picking out his songs to sing solo and what to play on the harmonica and mandolin. A 'y'ittle more ready for singing this afternoon. Earlier in the day when I entered the dining room to feed mom one of the ladies looked up at me and grinned really big and said, "Are you coming to sing today?" She was just eager for us to sing for them. It's a 'y'ittle thing that is not very professional at all but is truly enjoyed by the residents at the nursing home, by Papa and by me.

A 'Y'ittle Time to Myself:
We have two graduations this year. Hayden graduates from Pre-School this Thursday. Claude and I will head over early tomorrow morning to witness that major event in a 5 year olds life. I wanted to get him a 'y'ittle graduation gift. Being closer to Lexington while visiting Papa, I determined I would head to Barnes & Noble to check on an item Andie told me about that Hayden would like. This is fun for me. I really don't trek off shopping by myself often. I needed some embroidery thread (and since Walmart determined that is not an item they care to stock anymore) so Michael's was another stop and they are near each other in Lexington. It was pleasant to look for the item for Hayden and then browse through things a Michael's. A crafty girl likes to do that every now and then. I actually only got two things of embroidery thread and 3 Sudoku books and 2 Mathdoku books. But it was a 'y'ittle time to do something I wanted to do for me.

A 'Y'ittle Time with the Hubby:
I headed back to Sadieville and found my dear hubby stretched out on the sofa watching old sitcoms on TV. We discussed dinner possibilities and determined to take the easy route and use up hot dog buns we purchased when the Mini-Marx's visited. Claude made us some killer chili dogs. We sat and had a 'y'ittle bit of dinner together and caught up on each of our days.

A 'Y'ittle More Computer Time:
Then I spent the remainder of my evening working on more names in Outlook's contact list. I'm all the way up to the 'H's' . Not a lot, just a 'y'ittle, but it once again feels good to get that accomplished.

A 'Y'ittle Money:
And finally this morning as we were starting our day, Claude said, "I have a 'y'ittle check for you to sign." I said, "What did we get a check for?"  Claude said, "It was some class action law suit I signed us on."  I said, "How 'y'ittle is this check?"  Claude said, "Two dollars and fifty cents."  At which point I lost it in laughter. Having worked with finances I know it probably cost them more in labor and product to print that check for $2.50 than it is worth. Such silliness. I assured Claude I think we only added weight to the lawsuit for whoever made the big money out of it. But it is fun to start the day with a 'y'ittle bit more money. He said we could have a bite to eat on our day in Louisville on the checks he and I each got for $2.50 each.

A 'Y'ot of Rain:
Now we are having big thunder and lightening storms this morning in Sadieville. I'm going to close this blog and do my 'y'ittle jigsaw puzzle on my BellSouth homepage. Then I'm going to type in a 'y'ittle bit more into my Outlook software so I can get it all to my new 'y'ittle Blackberry. Then I'm going to pull together my stuff for my 'y'ittle presidency meeting this evening.

And now to paraphrase my starting scripture..."By 'y'ittle and simple things, great days are brought to pass."

Mother's Day 2010...

And for Mother's Day I got...another thing to learn how to use and to fill full of information. I've been using a wonderful Palm Pilot we bought before we retired 5 1/2 years ago. I love my Palm Pilot. It contains my life in a nutshell but it is really wearing out. So Claude took me to the AT&T store to get a new Blackberry.

We checked the 4 models they had and found the things each had and didn't have. I'm not really an impulse buyer. I had been in and looked at them before by myself. Claude carried one when he worked for the Peace Corps and has one again. So I was sure of the purchase just not which one to get. I told Ashley, the sales person, that I wanted to think a bit so we would grocery shop and be back when we were finished with a decision.

Well, we delivered Papa's laundry first. Then we went to Taco Bell for lunch where we talked about it a bit. Then we went back to the AT&T store and purchased me a Blackberry.

While we were going through the purchase process, I was looking out the window that is the outside wall of this little store. Claude's Jeep was sitting there. I watched a little bird hopping up on the bumper and then climbing into the grating. I told Claude he may have a nest being built in his Jeep. He assured me it is because a Jeep is a bug magnet. It is not streamlined and literally every bug in it's path is attracted to the front. He said the bird was having a 'bug buffet'. The sales people, Claude and I got a chuckle out of this little bird being so busy.

Now, every time I've gotten a new cell phone they have assured me you can take the phones numbers off the SIM card and transfer them to the new phone saving you LOTS of time. I'm here to say...Not So Much. It transfers just the name and one phone number, not all the miriads of information I feel necessary to tadk onto each phone number. I'm going to be spending lots of time transferring data manually. I did let them try the SIM card thing, but it still just gave me names and phone numbers. They don't sync with the other information I have. Plus my Palm is old enough the CD that you load the syncing software with is out-of-date and they don't have an upgrade. So there is no way to transfer my Palm Pilot info to the new Blackberry. I'm diligently typing things over. I'm happy doing this because it affords me an opportunity to set up things the way the Blackberry and Outlook have them instead of the way Palm has them. Plus I'm cleaning out some old data that I really don't need anymore.

Then we did the grocery shopping and headed back to Sadieville to finish preparations for the Mini-Marx's and Andie to visit.

I did spend part of my afternoon downloading Microsoft Outlook for my computer so I could use it with my Blackberry like Claude does.

Andie and kids arrived Friday around 5pm. This gave me time to play a bit before I went off to a function I was invited to. They brought their butterflies they have been raising. Andie wanted to set them free here but it remained too cold and too windy all weekend to set these little beauties free. We did feed them oranges and flowers, etc.

Friday evening I was invited to the Sadieville Christian Church Ladies Dinner by Detta Wilson. Every year the men prepared and serve and clean up a nice dinner for all the ladies of the church. I was looking forward to this opportunity to visit with the ladies in our community. 

The dinner was in the basement of the church. We were seated at tables with a beautiful centerpiece of tree branches with little apples and hats and flowers glued to them. The theme was about hats. We had a nice salad at our place to begin our dinner. Then the men served us fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls. If you didn't have the piece of chicken you wanted, you just raised your hand and the men would bring you a different piece. They also brought beverage as you wanted it. They cleared the tables as we finished eating and then served us our choice of several desserts. I had a cheesecake with strawberries on it. After dinner we headed outside and upstairs to the sanctuary for the program.

A guest speaker was there and she was a delight. She talked to us about the hats she has worn throughout her life and how they represent her life. She started from babyhood and went through being a gramma. It was really entertaining and fun. Then Detta shared a few stories. Then we were free to head for home. I was really happy I was invited to this event and totally enjoyed myself.

The Mini's were in bed when I got home so we had adult swim. I purchased some Lindor's Truffles and we had a couple. I brought my new laptop upstairs and started the process of typing in the Palm Pilot contact list while we watched TV.

Saturday morning we got up and I fixed cinnamon toast, scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. After a filling start to our morning we called Papa and invited him to join us at Evan's Orchard to watch the kids play in the playland there. Then we all loaded in Andie's van and headed down the highway to Evan's Orchard.

We took Hayden and Bailey there last fall. All the schools were having field trips there for their Fall Festival, so the playland was really full of kids. This time the day was cooler and very windy and the only other kids were for a little child's birthday party. So we had lots of opportunity to play with the things Hayden and Bailey wanted, when they wanted, for as long as they wanted.

Hayden's favorite thing by far is the huge rubber tubes that sit in tracks that you stand in and walk. As you walk the wheel moves down the track. He got his timing back really quick on this toy and could get just before the hay bale buffer at the end of the track and then he would slide down on his back and roll around as the tube finished it's run down the track. He was aided by the strong wind that would really push him as he went toward one of the ends. The first picture is Hayden pushing against the wind to one end of the track, the second picture is of him standing inside and walking the tube to the end of the track. The third picture shows how he learned to let the wind push the tube while he walked back to the other end of the track. He knew where it was about to end and he would slide down and roll inside the tube and laugh as he finally hit the hay bale buffer. 

The wind was so strong at times that it blew the big tube out of it's tracks and across the grass in the playland to the field where they will plant corn. In this picture Andie is rolling the tube back to the track with Hayden inside.

Bailey, on the other hand, was all over the playland. Here are a few of the things she did while Hayden enjoyed playing in the huge wheel. She started out in the hanging tube that is under the big slide. Then she was off to the tire maze. In the next picture she is yelling, "Help me! Help me! I want to swing!" As soon as Claude got there she was off and didn't swing at all. Across the playland, past where Hayden was absorbed in his tires and tracks, to the hay bale maze. Then back past Hayden to the hill of dirt with ropes to pull yourself up and let yourself down. Then she found the tubes that were standing on their end. Andie lowered her into one. Claude assured me we may have found the place to pin down our little angel. The animals were not out yet with the exception of two rabbits in a pen. Andie took Bailey over once. Later in the morning Bailey went again to check on the bunnies. One was in the corner of its pen. Bailey managed to get her fingers through the wires so she could touch it's little cotton ball shaped tail. As soon as she did, that little rabbit hopped to the middle of the pen under their cages which sit above ground. Bailey was saying, "Come back yiddle bunny, come back."

And what would Mother's Day weekend be if Mom didn't get into the action a bit. Andie had some fun with her kidlings as they played with this big tube in the track. Hayden and Bailey are pushing her while she stands in the tube. I'm keeping the one where she fell down for myself. Then Andie was pushing Hayden and Bailey felt she could help by pushing Andie. The last one is Hayden in one tube and Andie in the tube on the track next to his. 

After a while it was time for us to rest for a bit and have some lunch and something to drink. Evan's Orchard has a little cafe and we had hotdogs and rib-eye sandwiches. The kids were especially careful this year not to let their food get near the two dogs that live on the property. They are quite happy to clean up anything you drop or let lean away from your chair.

Then it was back to the playland for one final round of play. This time Hayden and Bailey both headed for the tire maze. In the center are four tires filled with dirt. Some of it had settled and Hayden found a little place that needed to be refilled so they diligently set to bring little handfuls of dirt and filling up this hole.

Then Bailey found some pebbles in the dirt and proceeded to make a nest out of the dirt. Then she put the pebbles on top for eggs. Then she tried to sit on the nest.  Hayden helped her form her nest again and then helped her try to get the dirt to stay in place while Bailey is sitting on the dirt nest. Then Hayden lost it and really started to laugh when Bailey stood up to see what happened to her nest and couldn't understand that sitting on dirt causes it to collapse. Andie is in the background of that picture laughing while she gets a picture too. When it was all said and done, Hayden had to make another nest and try sitting on it just to see what all that fun was about.

 

We ended our morning of play at Evan's Orchard with Claude swinging Hayden and Bailey while they were in the hanging tube under the slides. Bailey and Andie made one final screaming trip down the tall slide. We headed back to Sadieville cold, tired and very well exercised.

Bailey does have a tender, nurturing side. I found one of my turtles under the rug in front of the TV. The rug was the closest thing to a blanket Bailey could find. She is really into 'kissing things better' also.

We had a great visit with the little ones and Andie. It is just always nice when the grandmonsters are around. Love their little hearts they wear us out but in the best way ever.

Andie was going to go with me Sunday morning to visit Mimi. However, Hayden was running a slight fever when they got up so she headed home to LaGrange and chose not to share whatever germs he may have with the residents of the nursing home.

I dropped Claude off at Church and headed to the nursing home Sunday morning to visit with my mom a bit. This was a tender visit. One never knows how many Mother's Days with her there will be on this earth. I have several friends who are at this same point with their moms right now. I knew I was emotional but thought I was really under control. Fortunately Mimi was in her room in her bed for her morning nap.

She woke when I came in the room. She mumbled some things. I sat on the side of her bed. I brought my scriptures with me and I sat there and read out loud from Jeremiah. She would say something every now and then and I would pause and listen to her. As it neared time for me to leave, I closed my scriptures and just sat with my hand on her face. She grinned at me and I grinned back.

Then she looked at the wall by her bed. Hanging on that wall is a beautiful picture of my parents that was taken at Olan Mills. Mimi was looking and talking to that picture a lot. I'm glad it is hanging there for her to see. I know her vision is blurry and she can't wear glasses to fix that but I know she sees that picture and it seems to bring her comfort.

I told Mimi "Happy Mother's Day" again. Then I told her that the rest of her family would love to wish her a happy Mother's Day but circumstances don't make that possible now.
But I told her that her daughters and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren all love her very much. She smiled as I said this, almost like she understood what I was saying. Then I said, "Does that make you happy?"  She smiled again and said, "Yes."

There is no earthly gift I can give to my mother now that she would understand or appreciate. No object she could hold or look at. But that moment was the best she could have from her kids and I just feel like she understood we all loved her and wanted her to know she was appreciated as the mom of our extended family as well as my mom.

I went to my car and wept. Just a bit to ease that lump in my throat. But not enough to ruin my make-up as I headed back to Church for Relief Society.

Mother's Day is an interesting thing to me. I often struggle with it as a holiday that is celebrated. Not that mothers don't need to be honored and remembered. But I've always felt strongly that, if I'm not treated well every other day of the year, one day of flowers, candy, dinner and gifts will not make all the rest okay. I have a family that loves me and I love them with all my heart. I'm truly blessed that way. I had one more Mother's Day with Mimi on this earth. I'm truly blessed. It was a good Mother's Day.

Nissa and her family called and left me a Happy Mother's Day singing message. Jake called and we talked again for a long time. I spent a good deal of time typing things into Outlook to sync to my new Blackberry. Life was really good for me.  I am a blessed lady.

Tickled for Thursday...

Made it to Thursday. Can't begin to count the number of things I haven't accomplished that need to be done. So grateful today is a full at-home day to get through as much as I can. First...catch up on the blog.

Tuesday evening Claude and I attended The Scott Education and Community Foundation dinner at Georgetown College. This is in the Hall of Fame room on campus. I've never been to this room before.

The dinner was excellent with the exception of the dessert. We had some kind of soup that was served with a scoop (like an ice cream scoop) of rice and veggies in the center of the little dish with the broth (tomato based) dished shallowly around the scoop of veggies. It was a very different way to serve that course and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The main course was a chicken breast stuffed with spinach, a big dollop of something that was like whipped stuffing that had been baked, and 4 asparagus spears laying over the top. A white saucelike gravy was poured over the chicken and stuffing before the asparagus was placed on top. Very elegant and delicious. The dessert was a version of pineapple upside down cake. The cake part was an individual round piece of cake with a pineapple on top. The pineapple appeared to have been cooked in a glaze and place on the cake. It was all topped with a tablespoon of whipped cream. By this point we all had no knives and you just couldn't cut through that pineapple with a spoon. I think I would have enjoyed the dessert more if I could have gotten all three of those flavors together in one bite.

The purpose of the organization is to foster the improvement and enhancement of education in Scott County. We sat at a table with two ladies who work for the public school system in Scott County. One was over technology and the other was over the GED program. Anna & Paul Isaacs were at our table. When we moved here Anna was the Magistrate over our part of Scott County. Anna's hubby is a judge on the District Court. Very nice people. There was another man named John Cooper that works in Frankfort over education somehow. And Jim Calloway, the President of Whitaker Bank. Jim is just a really fun person. He sings in a local bank that plays old country/Blue Grass kind of music. The name of the band is the Bull Shifters or something like that. He is just really well thought of in the county. So it was a great table to sit and visit with people.

Before the meal started there was a man being circled about the room and introduced to everyone. I thought, "Hmmm...he looks familiar." But I really couldn't place where. Claude and I had chosen a table by the window and chairs facing the podium (this is a big part of attending these things...finding the perfect table and seat when they haven't assigned you a table). Soon this fella was directed to our side of the room and we were quickly introduced and shook hands. I liked his firm handshake. He was very unassuming. I didn't catch his name as he was introduced. Later in the evening a lady spoke who is a professor over some department at Georgetown. At one point she turned and touched this man's shoulder and said something about how grateful she was for her husband. (It was starting to fall into place.) Then another young man spoke that was sitting at their table (they were doing something they call 'shout outs' where pre-chosen people stood and talked about their part in education). This young man pointed out that the husband was his coach at UK. Now the pieces were really fitting together. The man was Joker Phillips, the head coach of the University of Kentucky football team.

This was a delicious dinner, great conversation at our table, and a very worthy cause.

Wednesday morning was my Countryside Homemaker's Club meeting. This time we met at Frisch's Big Boy in Georgetown. I like this because I don't have to bring a dish. Our lesson was on 'Foodscapes'. Detta Wilson taught it. Since we were in a restaurant she was very sparing with what she brought. Detta and I spoke before about this lesson and she was very excited to teach it. I knew she had been practicing on making 'things' out of food ever since she had the training for the lesson. One thing I never saw before that I'll share in this blog was with carrots and cucumbers. You clean your carrot and peel it. Then you clean the cucumber, cut off the ends, and use a peeler or corer to empty the inside part where the seeds are leaving the fleshy part and the peel in tact. Then you slide your carrot into this hole through the middle of your cucumber. Then you just slice your cucumber and you have this delightful green outer with an orange center in your slices. The food and visit with friends was great. Lots of stories shared about all our flooding.

Then I just stayed in Georgetown. I had some shopping to do. I spent most of my time at Kohl's. I don't do this very often at all, just take a good part or all of a day to shop by myself. It was fun to leisurely stroll through the store and look for things I was needing to find and purchase. What a treat for this old girl!!

Then I headed to the nursing home at 3:30pm to sing with Papa.

Yesterday my Mom was as talkative and had more movement than I have seen in months. She was in her wheelchair at the table when I got to the nursing home to sing with Papa. He was ready to start and his first two songs were duets with me. I quickly put my stuff near my chair. Then I pulled out the plastic bag of pictures and some needlework stuff for Mom to play with. Then I set my purse, zipped close, in front of Mom. Usually she plays with the shoulder straps. It's a purse I made out of purple print quilted fabric. Yesterday she ended up pulling my Sudoku book out of the outer pocket and having the purse in her lap. Then she kept trying to give it to Vina. Vina was very gracious. She just said 'no thanks' and tried to get Mom to keep the purse. Vina has Parkinson's.

I sang with Papa and then went to sit beside Mom while Papa sang a few more songs. First I stopped by Vina and thanked her for being so sweet to Mimi. I gave Vina a kiss on the forehead. She loves to be kissed. Vina grinned and I knew she understood my appreciation.

Then it was my turn to sing with Papa again. I had moved Mom's wheelchair right up under the table and put the purse up on the table again. By the time I finished singing with Papa Mimi had moved her wheelchair so it faced Vina, she had the purse in her lap with a few more things out of the pockets on the other side of the purse. She was happy to just hold the purse in her lap. Amazing.

I helped Papa load his car and then we headed to his apartment. He gave me his laundry and we went over his mail that came in and checked on his computer. Once he was all settled I headed back to Sadieville.

I cleared out my eMail. Claude fixed us a nice dish of spaghetti for dinner. It was delicious. Then we settled down for an evening of embroidery and TV. Claude opened all the windows and we had a nice beginning of the summer breeze flowing through the upstairs.

While at Kohl's I purchased, FINALLY, a pair of blue quilted pillow shams. I've looked for these for over a year. Claude bought me a quilt that has blue roses embroidered on it when we were in Gatlinburg for our anniversary over a year ago. I needed blue pillow shams to go with it so I could use it as a bedspread. I found some a Kohl's after a year of looking for them. They matched just fine and now the new bedspread and shams are on my bed. A great new look for this summer.

And now we are at today. Papa's laundry is going and I'm finishing my blog. Then I have lots of mail to get ready and to the post office. I'll call Tyra and try to reschedule a haircut. Then I have a house to clean in preparations for the Mini-Marx's to come for a visit tomorrow night. Such a full day. But it is full of things I'm eager to get accomplished.

Stranded...

Saturday was a very, very, very rainy day in the Bluegrass of Kentucky area. We were inside all day long. That little red smoker was on the move again. This day it was on the front porch so it could be under cover while Claude smoked us a roast for dinner. It was nice to know it was on the front porch because we put it there instead of it making its way there on its own.

I did get some computer work done in the morning. We ate dinner and watched the Kentucky Derby on the big screen TV in the basement. It's always fun to watch the Derby and all those ladies hats. One of our local newscasters had on a pick hat that looked like it could have easily fit in Alice in Wonderland. I contemplated putting on a hat to watch the Derby just to get in the mood and feel of a Kentucky lady at the Derby. But they were upstairs and I was in the basement so it didn't happen.

The evening was spent listening to the Eagles in concert in Australia. Just love hearing Timothy sing 'Love Will Keep Us Alive' and Don Henly sing 'Dirty Laundry'. I honestly don't think any living, breathing human could listen to 'Dirty Laundry' and not try to dance...no matter how bad you were at dancing. Just gotta move with that song.

Sunday we got up at 7am to get ready for Claude's early morning meetings before Church. I did not look out our bedroom window at the creek (I usually do this for some reason each morning). I knew we had lots of lightening and thunder during the night.

We climbed in my car at 8am to head to Church. There is one entrance into our development. It has a bridge that goes over Eagle Creek. As Claude and I approached the bridge we were amazed that the creek was way over its bounds and was right under the bottom of the bridge. Now I was wishing I had looked out our bedroom window at the creek before we left. I told Claude I wished I had done that. He said he did and the creek didn't look that bad from our home. We have only seen the creek get that close under the bridge one other time. When it does that the water coming over the dam a bit upstream from the bridge is not even visible.

We headed on to Church. As we went down I-75 we noticed a lake on the right side and we commented how it would not take a lot more rain for that to flood onto I-75 making traffic on that busy Interstate difficult, if not impossible. There is not normally even a stream visible at this location.

When we got to the Church I left Claude and headed to the nursing home to visit mom before our meetings.  Mom was back in her bed after breakfast. Her bedroom window was open letting in a little bit of a breeze. She was asleep but I felt it was a little cool so I got the blanket Katelyn made her and covered her up with it to be sure she was warm. 

Of course that woke mom up. She was a little talkative. She would dose off and then wake and mumble a few things. She was happy having that little blanket over her. I believe she loved the bright colors.  One of the CNA's came in to give mom her morning meds. When mom saw her she got an enormous grin on her face. The CNA said they were talking of closing part of Hwy. 25 into Lexington because of the standing and running water over it.

I headed back to the Church and Pocohontas (one of the road to the Church) had a place that was now flooded on it. There was water bubbling from the ground in front of one of the neighborhood homes. I told Papa about it when he got to Church. He reminded me that sometimes where there is this much rain the water finds a grate in the ditch and will bubble up like that. By the end of Church the priesthood was warned not to take Highway 25 back to their homes in Lexington. It was definitely closed. I learned from a friend that the north end of Highway 25 that heads to Sadieville had a church along the road that people could not even get to their building because of the flooding.

Claude and I were to have gone to Andie's on our way to the temple on Friday afternoon. We ended up not having time for that on Friday so had changed our visit until Sunday afternoon. We were going to have dinner with the Marx family and then return home Sunday evening. So after Church we headed toward LaGrange.

As we drove down I-64 the traffic was being diverted at one of the Frankfort exits. There are a couple of places around Frankfort where the Interstate was cut through the little mountain. You have a rock face on either side of the road. Coming out of the layers of limestone rock that make up this mountain were streams and, often, gushing waters. As we drove through our lanes going west Claude commented, "If feel like I'm Moses crossing the Red Sea." Since the highway is divided here we couldn't tell that the lanes going East were completely shut down. Only when we returned home could we tell that a car must have gone off the side of the cliff and into the trees on the other side of the mountain. This is why the traffice was diverted into Frankfort. Later we found another car that slide into the railing. It was a nasty drive and Claude just took his time. We determined not to go down the country roads to LaGrange in case they were flooded and stayed with the I-64, the Snyder, and I-71 to get to the Marx home.

The kids were so happy to see Pa and Ma. Claude picked up Bailey when she finished her nap and I thought she was never going to quit hugging him. She does have a thing for her Pa. Hayden was sharing his litany of facts about the solar systems when I got a call from Judy, our next door neighbor, on my cell phone.

Judy asked where we were. I told her we were visiting Andie and Michael in LaGrange. She said, "Stay there. Don't try to come home. The bridge is completely covered in water and we are afraid the road is washing away on either side."

My first concern was for Pete. He and Nancy live on the other side of Judy. Pete is on oxygen 24/7 and I was very concerned that he have a sufficient supply to get through whatever had to happen to get us a road back up if this one was washed away. Judy told me all the neighbors in Eagle Bend were accounted for. The only ones not land-locked by this flooding were Claude and me and Ray, our neighbor across the street. He manages the Golden Corral restaurant in Georgetown and had been away when the water got so high. All the neighbors were fine. Pete had enough oxygen on hand to get by for a good while.

We determined we would spend the night with the Marx family and see if we could get to our home on Monday. This met with great approval by the mini-Marx's. Andie and Michael got an unexpected date night. Claude and I got a bit more time for hugs and snuggles than we figured we would have.

I called Papa and warned him we were not going to be home that night. I had to tell him I might not be able to take him for his birthday lunch on Monday. Papa was ready to drive out and check the roads for us. I told him not to do that since the neighbors were going to call us regularly and give us updates.

I called home and checked the voice machine for messages. There were two for the Mayor of Sadieville. Claude kicked into Mayor mode and did all the calls necessary to be sure citizens were okay. They declared a state of emergency for all of Scott County. They shut down several of the country roads outside of Sadieville. One of them, Jerry, our police department, put a yellow caution tape across. Some idiot, and I do mean idiot, cut the tape to drive their car over. I do not understand this when it puts you in a position to be swept away and then you expect some other poor soul to risk life and limb to rescue you. Even if you are headed to give someone else aid, you should realize you can't help them if you are floating down stream with your life in danger. Amazing what stupid things some people do.

Once we were sure that all was under control we settled into playing and enjoying the kids. Andie and Michael headed out for their date. We put Hayden and Bailey to bed. I was reading the last paragraph of Hayden's book when my cell phone rang. It was Judy to tell me the water receded enough to get across the bridge. Ray was home now. Only Claude and I were out. Jerry was there to check the bridge with a few of the men in our neighborhood. We could definitely get home on Monday.

Monday we determined to watch Bailey so that Andie could help at Hayden's school. His teacher, Miss Amanda, is due to have her baby any day now. The kids and their moms had a baby shower for Miss Amanda yesterday. The kids made cards for her and they decorated bibs for the baby. Our staying and keeping Bailey left Andie free to help decorate and run the party.

Bailey is just a fun little strong-willed creature. She wanted to wear Hayden's old horse costume from Halloween a couple of years ago. She played outside for a long time in this cute little costume. She is so tall it is short on her but she loves wearing it to play in anyway. It is like a capri horse costume. Here is a picture of her in the back yard heading to the new playset. I didn't take my camera so these are all from my cell phone.

In the picture on the right Bailey is playing with a worm. The poor worms and roly poly bugs need to take cover when this little girl is out.  Bailey carried this poor worm all around with her. She found it in the front yard where the picture was taken. Then she took it to the back yard. She placed it on a swing so it could watch her ride the glider. Then she carried it as she climbed the ladder to the top of the little house part of the playset. Then it took a turn going down the slide. It was a dear friend to her all morning. Amazing.

It did make me think of Katelyn though. When she was a little one about, 3 years old (Bailey's age), Nissa and Katelyn lived with us. Claude would go on business trips. When he would leave he would ask Katelyn what she wanted him to bring her when he returned. Without fail Katelyn would say, "Erms Blampa. I want Erms." Katelyn loved gummy worms and that is what she was asking for. Many a gummy worm was consumed by our little darlin' after Blampa got home from his trips.

I was sharing with Nissa this morning on Instant Messaging how short a time ago it seems it was that Claude would be packing for a trip or unpacking after getting home, Katelyn would be in the room making sure everything was going as it should. Claude would pick her up and put her in the hanging bag and zip her inside. She would laugh and really enjoyed being in his luggage.

But...I digress...At one point Bailey wanted to play on the monkey bar part of the playset. Since my surgery last year I am not supposed to hold her up for that long. I reminded Bailey Gramma could not do that but Grampa could. Like a flash she raced across the back yard and requisitioned Claude to stop watching old sitcoms on TV and help her on the monkey bars.

Bailey found his shoes and I gathered his socks and we headed him out the door.

We had fun finishing playing outside with Pa. Then we headed back inside for a snack, coloring and Play-doh action.

Andie and Hayden got home and Claude and I gathered things and headed for home. I called Papa and we determined to meet him at his favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch on our way to Sadieville. We had a wonderful meal. I told the server it was Papa's 82nd birthday. He asked Papa if he wanted ice cream. Papa said, "That would be alright." They brought Papa a tortillia made into a bowl like you would have a taco salad in. It was full of ice cream and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Papa was in heaven. I was very happy we got to be with Papa on his birthday.

Then we headed to the Scott County Emergency Management office. Part of the stuff Claude called about Sunday afternoon was the declaring of Sadieville and all of Scott County a disaster to get assistance from the county for helping people and roads. By the end of the day the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky was declared a disaster and our governor was requesting Pres. Obama call it a federal disaster to open those lines of money for assistance.

Elkhorn Creek that flows near the restaurant we ate at was way over its bounds still. It was up to the buildings. The parking lot in front of the stores near it was completely flooded still. The parking lot at the end of the restaurant where we ate was also flooded. As we drove down Highway 25 to the Scott County EMA the park across from Cardome Center was completely under water. Clearly there was still a lot of water not under control yet. This morning I heard that the Kentucky River would not crest until today.

Claude signed the documents needed to officially have the state of emergency. Then we headed home. Our creek was very full but within its bounds when we drove over it.

Our neighbor that called us in LaGrange has a 4 year old son. They also purchased a playset like the one Andie and Michael got this year. Dan spent about a week putting it together after work. They set it up on the flat part of their property as close to where the hill starts to go up as possible. They anchored it but did not set it in concrete. It had only been up maybe 2 weeks. The flood waters got to the top beam of this playset where the swings attach to that beam. The waters lifted it and floated it down stream toward the dam and the bridge. Ironically it stayed on the land side as it flowed and Judy and Dan were hoping it would float past the dam and bridge. It made it past the dam staying on the land side but then it was swept into the creek after the dam. We are told it made an awful sound as it crashed into the bridge and broke into a lot of little pieces. Makes one feel for them. Claude and Michael spent 2 days with both of them working to get the Marx family playset together. There was great empathy on their parts for what they had lost.

It was an eventful couple of days. We needed water. Just didn't expect to get it all at once. I would have loved to be home and taken pictures of it. Dan was nice enough to post some on his Facebook page for us to look at while we were in LaGrange. We still have our road although some of the dirt around the base of the bridge will need to be re-worked. It was another evidence of the wonderful neighborhood in which we live. They all checked on each other and made sure we were all in a safe place. It is very comforting to live with such good people.

Our 'Sit In' Day...

What I learned yesterday is -- you can get totally exhausted just sitting all day. So you might was well actually do something and be tired after accomplishing something!!!

Claude and I quickly got through as much stuff as we could at home in the morning yesterday. We needed to leave the house between 11am and 11:30am to head to Lexington for a meeting.

We stopped in Georgetown at the local Burger King for a little bit of lunch before our appointment. This turned out to be a very, very good idea. Little did we know it would be our meal of the day. I had not eaten breakfast because I knew we were planning lunch and dinner. I had my Whopper Junior meal and we were off to Lexington.

We were meeting with a lawyer to finish up the work on a Joint Living Trust for our 'estate'. Sounds like we have a lot when I put it that way. Really...not so much. We just want to be sure it is easily handled by our kids when the times comes.

Our appointment with the lawyer was at 1pm. We got there at 12:45pm. He had us sit in the conference room while he finished his preparations. His son, a lawyer also, was helping him get the final touches on our paperwork. His son brought us a leather binder that was 3 inches thick. Whoa!!! He said we could look through it and his dad would be in, in about 10 minutes.

Claude and I slowly opened this tome and started to scan it's pages. Right off we noticed that Andie's name was misspelled. Since this is a legal document, that would definitely have to change. She is also the executrix of our estate so it really needed to be right. (I get a kick out of the use of 'trix' through this whole process. It takes so little to amuse a simple mind.)

The lawyer came in and we began the process of going through the book and explaining everything, allowing us to ask questions to clarify as we went. Our lawyer had a copy on white paper and we had 'The Notebook'. We began at 1pm and finished at 6pm. Yep, I said 5 hours of going over legal paperwork. At one point toward the end two good people were called in to sign as witnesses. We had to reprint (our lawyer's son did this part while we reviewed the book) and replace all the pages that were misspelled. The signing of pages alone took about 30 minutes.

The good thing is this document contains all our desires for our property and finances. It also contains the desires for being incapacitated. It is a general power of attorney, etc., etc., etc.

In planning this day, we thought we would have been done by 5pm. We were to pick up Papa by 6pm and head to LaGrange. Andie had some plants for us to pickup. Then we had an 8pm sealing session at the Louisville Temple. That was the plan...now we shifted to Plan B.

As Claude figured our way to a main highway and out of Lexington, I called Papa and told him we were just leaving the lawyers office and were headed to his home (6:15pm). I suggested he be out on his porch and we would slow down as he jumped in the car.

Then I called Andie and rescheduled our pick-up of plants for Sunday afternoon.

We got Papa picked up and headed to Louisville. We gott there just before our session started. This was a great trip to the temple. We had so many people from our ward there to participate we had to have a 2nd session started to accommodate all of us. We finished there at 9:30pm.

When we got Papa back to Georgetown it was now 11pm. There was a note on Papa's front door. We waited to be sure everything was okay. He took his stuff inside and read the note. Then he headed next door to his neighbors apartment. Turns out Tiny was outside and they took her into their apartment to keep her safe. Papa is sure he left Tiny inside. Hmmmm...anyway, Tiny was fine and we left him and his little puppy for a happy reunion.

We got home by 11:30pm. Our only meal being that Whopper Junior meal 12 hours before. We sat for everything we did from the time we left our house to go to the lawyers until the time we got home at 11:30pm. We were both just beat, worn out, kaput, done in. It was a good day. Don't get me wrong. We had a very good day. But I just didn't think one could be soooooo totally worn out from sitting all day long!!!