Day-To-Day Livin'...

Sunday, June 27th, I visited Paris Ward. Katelyn said she wanted to go with me on this visit. We drove some Kentucky roads she had not been on to get there. There are some absolutely beautiful back roads (designated as scenic highways even) in Kentucky. We drove over on Hwy 460 to Paris. Coming home we would take Iron Works Pike which comes back in front of the Kentucky Horse Park. Either way we were going to pass beautiful horse farms and stone walls and full trees. Just a pretty drive anyway you slice it.

Katelyn enjoyed visiting a different ward (congregation) from our Georgetown Ward. Lisa was there to visit with me (my 1st Counselor). It was a great Sunday morning. All the talks and lessons were really good.

We spoke with Papa on the phone on our way back to Georgetown. He met us a Arby's for a bite of lunch together. Then we headed back to his apartment to pick songs for singing at the nursing home on Wednesday.

We left Papa and headed to the nursing home. Katelyn had not been to visit Mimi since she arrived and that was part of her motive in traveling with me. She knew I was stopping in to visit Mimi on my way home. Mimi has been vascillating between perky and trying to be chatty and just hang-your-head-down sleepy. This visit she was in a perkier mood and tried to mumble some to Katelyn.

Then Katelyn and I headed back to Sadieville to check on the patriarch of our family. He was in fine shape and we all settled in for a quiet Sunday evening.

Monday, June 28th, was a very full day. We had a little rain Sunday night. Not only is that a cooling off blessing in the south but it also loosens the ground. Time to spend a morning in the yard. Claude and Katelyn headed out to do their tractor thing. Katelyn is getting more proficient all the time on the tractor. She is enjoying the work and having time to clear her head and think things through while riding that noisy machine. She does have ear plugs to wear.

While they worked on cutting grass (the top parts of our two lots), I headed to the bottom sections of our garden spots. There were lots of gray clouds overhead and it was cooler that it had been in some time. I was sitting in the larger plot pulling the weeds that grow more prolificly than the food and I paused for a bit. I just sat there and looked down the hill at our creek and at all the trees full of birds and leaves and who knows what kind of animals living under them. I felt so very blessed and happy to be here in Sadieville. I love living in the country. There is a true peace that can come in this rush, rush world of ours when you live where nature can be heard, seen and felt. Soil in my hands, wind in my face, sweat on my brow...that is a good place to be.

I finished the garden spots and headed up the hill. We sat on the front porch in the shade and had something to drink. Katelyn brought out a sandwich she made for her lunch. We visited a bit and then Katelyn went to get ready for work. Claude would take her. I headed back down our hill to a huge flower bed that needed weeding REALLY bad.

In the early afternoon Katelyn worked at City Hall, Claude cut the flats by the creek of both lots, I sat on my hill and did battle with weeds. I got it all cleared and Claude brought the trailer down with the tractor to haul the weeds away for me. Then we both headed inside to clean up. One thing about pulling weeds out here is the poison ivy. It is a must to get in and washed up as quickly as you can. Our young Katelyn is really having a battle with poison ivy acquired her first time out this summer in the soil. It's finally healing but it is a very unpleasant experience to endure.

We got a phone call from Vernon Morris. He asked us to come to City Hall at 4pm and surprise Cindy (our City Clerk) for her birthday. I quickly entered that date in my Blackberry. Cindy is a bit like me when it comes to wanting their birthday date revealed. I don't mind anyone knowing my real age. I earned every year of it so why not enjoy it. However, I'm not good at the celebrating part of it. Just like that to be kept quiet. But Vernon knew the day and gathered Claude and me and Detta to City Hall at 4pm to surprise our dear Cindy.

Surprised she was. She began to question when Claude showed up unexpectedly. But, afterall, he is the Mayor so that could be passed off. Then I popped in with my camera and said I was going to take pictures of all the flowers donated to City Hall this year by a nursery. Okay, she could buy that. Then Detta came in behind me with a plastic bag from somewhere like WalMart and Cindy was more suspicious. Detta quickly asked me if I was ready for our 'meeting'. I assured her I was there for it. That was quick of Detta but Cindy was really getting suspicious now. Then Vernon walked in behind with a cake in hand and Cindy was pretty sure something was up.

We all paused in our day to sing happy birthday to Cindy and share in some cake and ice cream. Detta and Vernon shared stories of the history of Sadieville. I love listening to these stories. This community has a lot of history. Some of it is funny, some is tender and touching.

Claude headed off to a meeting. I waited for Katelyn to finish her shift of work by taking the pictures I really wanted to take of flowers in Sadieville. Here are a few for your enjoyment:

Cindy even put some in the plant beds around the Pavilion and in the butterfly garden we made several weeks ago:

I'm also going to post a picture of the fireman's bell that hangs in Sadieville. Claude repainted the sign under it last year. A message board has been added under it to post announcement of things happinging in Sadieville.

That brings me to Tuesday, June 29th. Katelyn works Tuesday mornings, usually. We had her at work at 9am. Then Claude and I accomplished what we could on our various 'to do' lists. Then Claude headed in to pick up Papa to go to the Family History Center to work all afternoon. I picked up Katelyn in the afternoon.

Katelyn and I each took naps in the afternoon. This was essential to our survival. We were going to the midnight opening of Eclipse. So a good nap in the afternoon meant we could stay awake throughout the movie.

In the evening Claude took us to the Scott County Farm Bureau Dinner. It was held at the Scott County Extension Office. Donzetta Hughes was the caterer. Stewart, her hubby, is out magistrate and we think a lot of these two people. They are just hard working, salt-of-the-earth people. The dinner was a rib-eye sandwich, some great potatos, beans, salad, and dessert. Judge Lusby pronounced it the best, most tender rib-eye sandwich he had ever eaten. No one disagreed.

Claude treated us to ice cream after dinner at Dairy Queen. The guy knows how to show the girls a good evening.

We headed home for a quiet evening until time to leave to get in line for the movie. Claude did not join us for this adventure. Far to girly for that farm boy. Katelyn and I arrrived to a little bit of a line but we still had a good position for entering the theater. Our tickets were purchased the Thursday before when we headed to La Grange but not for a specific seat. Being close to the front of the line meant a better chance of being in the first wave of people looking for the best seat to watch this movie. The nice man in front of us in the line took a picture of happy Katelyn and Gramma Sandi waiting, waiting, waiting.

I had a game on my Blackberry Katelyn and I both like and a Sudoku book so we had plenty to keep us entertained.

Eventually they opened the theater and we managed to get closer to the front when they 'tried' to make two lines. I held the place in line and Katelyn hit the snack bar for us. She made it back to the line just before they opened the door.

We did find good seats close to the middle and center of the theater. We saw friends from Church. LeeAnn's youngest daughter, Allie, had on a T-shirt that said, "Team Edward". Her older daughter, Maggie, had on a T-shirt that said, "Team Jacob". LeeAnn, the mom, was wearing a T-Shirt that said, "I don't care, either will do." Very cute.

I finished reading Eclipse Sunday evening so I was ready for the movie. I did find the movie good. They stayed very close to the story in the book. It was a lot of fun to be in that theater with all those girls cheering for one or the other. We made it home and were in bed by 3am. We didn't have to call Claude to come bail us out of jail or anything. He was very proud of us for that!

Wednesday, June 30th, Claude had an early morning meeting in Georgetown. Katelyn and I were in the car and ready to go at 7:30am. That is not much sleep folks. Not much sleep at all. But that was why we took the nap the afternoon before. We carried our scriptures and read in the car while we waited for Claude to finish his meeting.

Then we were off to Burger King to grab a to go bite of something and head to the Church for a missionary discussion in the Relief Society room for Katelyn.

Grocery shopping needed to be done and this was a great time to quickly get it accomplished. Lunch was eaten at the Subway inside WalMart. Groceries were then purchased and we headed back to Sadieville.

Thursday Katelyn had to work all day. Because of the 4th of July weekend her hours were changed. She called me when it was time for her lunch break. I picked her up and suggested we eat at home or make a run to Waffle House for lunch. Katelyn picked Waffle House. We zipped down I-75 and enjoyed a nice lunch and some great conversation.

Friday morning had an appointment with the eye doctor. I was craving Dairy Queen's biscuits and gravy.  Claude treated us to breakfast and then we headed to the eye doctor. When we got to the front door, the sign said they were closed. Hmm...that's just not right. We perused the printed copies of eMails and realized I lead us to the wrong eye doctor. Claude drove us across Georgetown and I called the correct doctors office and told them we were running a bit late because of my error. Yike!

They were very nice. Katelyn did the exam and visited with the doctor to pick out glasses. Then she came and got us to see what she had done. She was very careful and happy with her choice. We concurred and the order was placed. She'll get them in a couple of weeks.

After this we headed to Lowe's. Katelyn and I were sitting on the porch swing on the patio one night and we heard a big CRACK sound. We both jumped up as quickly as we could and found the front slat on the swing had a big crack in it. Now...maybe we were just TOO HEAVY for the swing... OR...maybe the swing is very old (it was my mother's parents and hung on their porch for all my life, then my parents home, now my home). Whatever, Lowe's was needed to procure the right piece of wood so that Claude can give a go at fixing the porch swing. I managed to find among the discounted plants $20 worth of flowers for my front flower bed and the flower bed under my mailbox.

In the evening, Claude showed Katelyn the proper way to water his garden and veggies on the deck. I planted all my treasures in the flower beds and Claude watered those beds. Then we nestled in for the evening.

Saturday, July 3rd we would cook our 4th of July feast. Claude taught Katelyn how to smoke the brisket. I taught Katelyn how to make Mimi's banana pudding recipe from scratch. Claude made potato salad & moonshine corn. I made a tossed salad and heated the rolls. It was a real team effort on our meal.

Papa fed Mimi and then brought Tiny out for the afternoon and evening. He was able to stretch out on the sofa and have a bit of a nap. I got some crocheting completed. Katelyn and Claude watched 'Gettysburg'. Papa woke up and we practiced songs for Wednesday's singing at the nursing home. During the day I managed to get my laundry and ironing done and Papa's laundry done.

In the evening we set a buffet out on the island and enjoyed the feast. Here is a picture of Katelyn posing as Vana White with her banana pudding. We had already dished up the servings before I remembered I wanted the picture. Silly Gramma...

This was a fun project for me. We used my mother's recipe, cut the banana's with her paring knife and put the banana pudding in a dish she used to use. This is a 'from scratch' recipe so Katelyn made her own custard. Good experience for both of us. Papa was very happy to get 'nanner puddin'.

Sunday, July 4th was a really good day. We had fast and testimony meeting at Church. The men were the ones standing and bearing their testimonies. There were lots of thoughts about the blessings of this great country, the honor and respect due our armed forces, some thoughts about Pioneer Day coming in a few weeks and the great blessing of religious freedom. These were all strong, powerful testimonies by adult men. It was a really good meeting.

Sunday evening we had tickets to go to the Lexington Legends game. They were to have fireworks after the game. The Legends won. Good food was eaten. The fireworks were great. I started my next crochet project. Such a good night. I tried to take some pictures of the fireworks with my camera. I'll post the one I like best mostly because it has purple in the coloring. I'm a sucker for purple. No apology, just fact.

So that brings me to today, Monday, July 5th. A pajama day, a day to catch up the blog, get some to do's done, and just enjoy life a bit.

Dinosaurs...

In Kentucky there is a place where dinosaurs roam freely. It's a place that beckons you from I-65. You see a huge dinosaur by the road and just wonder what is in that place. And you say to yourself, "Self, someday I'm going to see what is in that place." This summer was the time.

Claude and I went to Mammoth Caves several years ago. This intriguing place of amusement caught our eye and we determined to bring grandmonsters with us some day to enjoy whatever this tourist trap had to offer. We are not doing a 'Camp Christensen' this year. We have Katelyn with us while she works this summer. Aubrey and Paul are spending this summer with David. So we determined we would scoop up the mini-Marx's and have them explore "Dinosaur World" while we had Katelyn here.

We actually met Andie half way (Shelbyville) for dinner at Taco Bell Thursday, June 24th. The purpose of this was two-fold. The first was dinner with our grandmonsters. The second was to transfer ownership of Katelyn to Andie for a bit. Those purposes fulfilled Claude and I headed back to Sadieville and the Marx Mobile headed back to La Grange.

Katelyn would enjoy sharing those HUGE marshmallows that Nissa and Todd brought from Michigan with Hayden & Bailey. Then Friday morning they would get up and go pick a stash of blueberries to be frozen in the Marx family freezer and doled out through the winter in wonderful recipes Andie would try. Then Katelyn was supposed to have Bailey duty while Hayden had a doctor's appointment. The doctor cancelled so she just had more Hayden and Bailey time.

Friday, June 25th, Claude and I were invited to the HMB Gold Scramble Lunch at the Longview Country Club. We filled our morning with home chores and then set out for Georgetown. The lunch was a really good barbequed beef sandwich, potato salad, slaw, chips and banana pudding. They have a covered porch area that we sat in to eat our lunch overlooking the beautiful golf course. Claude introduced me to some of the HMB men that he works with that I had not met to date. It was just a great meal in the open air with good conversation. Thank you HMB for inviting us, we had a wonderful time.

Then Claude and I headed to La Grange. We were able to play with the mini-Marx's a bit and catch up on things with Katelyn.  In preparation for our dinosaur adventure, Hayden made a dinosaur out of his Lego's.

Then Claude and I were off to the Louisville Temple in the evening. We would spend the night in La Grange in preparation for an early departure on Saturday to Dinosaur World.

Saturday morning, June 26th, we all got up early and were on the road around 9am. It is about a 90 minute drive to Cave City from Andie's home. This was easy for Hayden and Bailey to understand because that is the amount of time they have to sit in car seats to get to Ma & Pa's home in Sadieville. Cave City is in the Central Time Zone and our part of Kentucky is in the Eastern Time Zone. This is always a might confusing when we go somewhere in Kentucky over that time line.

The kids settled in with their movie. Miss Bailey likes to hold hands with someone in the car. This trip she held Katelyn's hand (Okay, she thought it was my hand but I couldn't reach her with my seat belt on and Katelyn could. So Katelyn helped and Bailey was happy since she couldn't see in the back seat and thought she was holding Ma's hand. Thank you Katelyn for the assist on this trip.) and Claude reached back and held her hand part way.

I just love pictures and moments like this!!

We made it to Dinosaur World in fine shape with Claude driving. Much reading of Eclipse was accomplished as we journeyed to our destination. We were all happy to get out and stretch our legs.

The entrance to Dinosaur World starts you off immediately with a plethora of dinosaurs and dinosaur artifacts. The entrance has an enormous T-Rex standing astride the door. Hayden is standing my his foot to give you a sense of the size of this giant. There were several dinosaurs in the grass. Bailey is by the brontosaurus tail and then by a dinosaur skeleton adhered to the front wall of the entrance.

Thanks to Andie and Michael's ability to find a deal, I was able to purchase discounted tickets for each of us and Michael found a get one in for free card we used for an adult. Thanks Marx Family for being on the look-out for the deals that save money so we can do more of these kinds of outings. We gave our pre-printed tickets and our coupon and were given entrance into Dinosaur World.

Now folks, it was one very hot day in Kentucky. The temperature was in the 90's. The humidity was very high. We were so happy and blessed this location uses a path that is, for the most part, completely covered in trees. This means LOTS of shade. Thank heavens!!

They have a little playground with lots of dinosaur themed playground equipment. Across from that is a huge boulder with a Pteranadon on top. This is actually a cave with a projection system and it shows programs about dinosaurs. They run continuously. Bailey, who has a logged a bit of time watching Dinosaur Train, was just sure this was the time tunnel.

After a bit of checking out the movie and Hayden discovering he had this movie at home, we began our trek through the world of dinosaurs. Bailey was appropriately wearing her sunglasses.

Now I could never, in a million years, remember the names of all these giant lizards. We wondered about the choice of colors for some (there were even bright blue ones).  We wondered about the choice of skin for some of these behemoths (I mean really, how did they know they had a layer of perfectly formed bumps all over their backs). But our lot was not to fret about these particulars but to enjoy the possibilities of what the dinosaurs could have looked like. Here are some pictures of us enjoying the dinosaurs.

 

Here is Miss Bailey trying to 'be the dinosaur'.

They also had lots of dinosaur eggs with red baby dinosaurs hatching out of them. These were actually trash can covers. Bailey loved these very much. She just loves babies and eggs and all things that are 'yittle'. Sometimes she is such a girl.

We were informed by Master Hayden early on that he only wanted his picture taken with the dinosaurs he knew about. Fortunately, he has a LOT of knowledge in that noggin of his. There was no doubt he held to this principle when we found the T-Rex. He ran up to it and yelled, "Pictures!  Pictures!  Lots of pictures!!"

And there were MORE dinosaurs...

Then we hit the motherlode!!! Hayden and Bailey love the Ice Age movies. Manny is a favorite character. Imagine the joy of the 5 and 3 year old to find an entire mammoth family roaming through the woods. Manny and all his relatives to enjoy and see just how big they really were. What a thrill!!

 At the beginning of this blog entry I mentioned a HUGE dinosaur by the side of the road to draw your attention to this tourist attraction. The signs in Dinosaur World tell you this is a fictional dinosaur made up of parts of different kinds of dinosaurs. It is really there to cach our attention. But they have made a path out to the sign and we enjoyed a bit of a photo-op moment here.

There is a walkway out into a bit of a meadow-like setting. Here you can see lots of different dinosaurs together. The tree covered path we have been walking is actually around this so when you take the walkway you see the groupings of dinosaurs you have been viewing singly all from a different angle and more like they are roaming around together. This is way too long a sentence and should be broken into pieces. I'll let the reader do that!

I have tons more pictures but these will more than suffice for the blog.

After our walk we headed to the museum and strolled through it to get a reprieve from the heat. Outside the museum were several things to entertain us as we waited for the next 'fossil dig'.

One wall had pictures and cubby holes. You lifted the block to see the picture of a dinosaur. Then you felt inside the cubby holes and looked in them to find that kind of dinosaur. Katelyn helped Hayden and Bailey check out each picture and each set of cubby holes.

 

Then we turned our attention to the giganormous puzzle of dinosaurs. Bailey is holding just one of its many pieces so you can see how big it really was. Great fun for kids. Makes a puzzle lovin' Gramma happy to watch them enjoy a puzzle also.

Katelyn was sure it was time for Hayden and Bailey to learn about those penny smashin' machines you find at tourist traps. This was actually a really good exercise for Hayden.

Then someone announced it was time for the 'fossil dig' to begin. We secured our places in the line of eager little ones. A sifter was given to each child by the park employee and instructions were given about digging for fossils. They could find as many as they wanted. But they had to choose their 3 favorites to take home. Only three. And the dig was on!!

The reality is Bailey could have playing in the big sandbox a lot longer. Hayden carefully chose three fossils from his discoveries. Bailey had her three fossils chosen out of her discoveries for her. These were real fossils and bits of tooth and bone, etc.

Our last experience was having each of the kids climb inside the T-Rex head. I found this particularly amusing. Hayden went first and showed Bailey how to do it. They really had to wiggle a bit to get their heads and arms through. A bigger kid would only have managed their head being inside the mouth. Great fun for Hayden and Bailey.

The final stop at Dinosaur World was the gift shop. Claude always purchases one toy for a treasure. Hayden chose a stuffed Mammoth (Manny) and Bailey found a purple Triceratops. She also managed to find a baby dinosaur coming out of an egg. Her not-so-strong-willed Gramma did get her both items.

After lunch at Wendy's, we loaded back in the Marx Mobile and headed back to LaGrange. Here are our bunchkins with their dinosaur treasures in their carseats as we drove home. A bit hot, a bit tired, but very happy kidlings.

After stretching our muscles a bit, Hayden and Bailey curled up with their new friends to watch Ice Age. Hayden got a bug bite on his leg and so the basketball ice pack was on it to help the swelling and itching.

Then it was time for Claude, Katelyn and me to make our journey back to Sadieville. We did stop in Frankfort for some dinner at Chili's.

I'm ending this blog post with a few pictures of just the dinosaurs. I think a real photographer might enjoy some of the photo-ops offered by a visit to these replicas of a by-gone era. Enjoy...we did!