Out and About...

Amidst all the madness that is life, Claude and I still manage to find time for an evening out together. You don't stay happily married for 47 years unless you feed that marriage with time together. So, we try to make that happen whenever we can.

July 21st we ventured back to Louisville to see Mama Mia! We have seen this performance before in Washington DC at the National Theater. We enjoyed it very much so we thought it might be fun to revisit this play. It is based on the music of ABBA which is a group we loved in our younger years and still love to listen to their music.

We had a good evening but there were things they have changed in this play. Neither of us remembered them. Some of it was very cute, like the men doing a dance piece in flippers. Some of it was a bit overdone and not to my liking in other areas. Why we have to up the level of sexual innuendo I do not know. The play was great without that. 

August 11th we decided to try a new restaurant. We had heard of it before. It is in Dry Ridge, Kentucky. It is named Beans. As a non-coffee drinker, I assumed it would have chili and soup. Silly Moi!! It is really a coffee and sandwich place. They sell baked goods also. A friend posted this picture on Facebook and suggested Claude and I would love this restaurant. 

So, that Friday we made our way through the rain to Dry Ridge. I found that amusing in and of itself. We went to the counter and ordered our food and got our soda. Then we found a table and waited. There was another family of four finishing up and a young lady in another room. That was it. After a bit another couple came in and placed their order and took a table in the room we were in. Our food still did not come. The young man that took our order came through and said hi to us but brought no food. Another couple came in and ordered and found a seat. The previous couple was served there food. Still no food for Claude and me. I checked the receipt Claude was given when he paid and found we had been sitting for 25 minutes waiting for sandwiches and soup. Hmmm... I told Claude I would give them 5 more minutes and then I would speak to someone. At about the 30 minute mark, the young man that took our order realized we were sitting with no food. We watched him get his manager, check the register, and then get busy. We were pretty sure they realized something was wrong and were feverishly trying to correct it. The manager brought our food and apologized. He explained something didn't forward from the cash register to the place where you fill the order telling you a new order was received and paid for. Whatever... The food was delicious. The bread was just yummy. We were given a free pastry for dessert to compensate for the 40 minute wait for our food. Claude purchased a loaf of sour dough bread to bring home and make fresh tomato sandwiches. We would eat there again. I truly don't think that is the way their business usually goes and we both really loved the way they prepare their food. 

August 18th was the end of a long, hot week. I was at Papa's and got a text from Claude. He knew I needed to be outside and found that we could get tickets to the Lexington Legends that evening. I texted him back to let him know to purchase them. And we enjoyed a lovely evening in the fresh air, no humidity, and cooler than usual, watching great baseball. Zaxby's had a deal that if the Legends get 10 hits, everybody in the stadium gets a coupon for a free nibbler sandwich. The Legends has 19 hits and we each got our coupons. Nice! The evening ended with fireworks. What a wonderful evening.

This last event has not happened yet. But it is going too!! Claude received a text from our daughter, Andie. She heard the Eagles were coming to the Yum Center in Louisville. Glen Frey passed away January 2016. We attended an Eagles' concert in 2015 unaware it would be our last. Then we heard rumors the Eagles were looking at teaming with Vince Gill. We love Vince Gill. That just might work. Next thing we knew Deacon Frey, Glen's son, was playing and singing with the Eagles where his dad once had. Andie's text was welcome news. 

We checked and learned they were indeed coming to the Yum Center and tickets would go on sale Saturday, August 19th at 10am EST. We were supposed to be weeding and cleaning in Sadieville that morning. We took my laptop in case we didn't finish by 10am so I could stop and try to get us some tickets. We knew they would go very quickly. We finished our weeding and were home in time for me to set up getting tickets. We knew where we hoped to sit. After three tries at getting seats in the area we wanted, the system kicked me out. On NO!! I tried getting in again and after a couple of attempts it kicked me out again. I called the Yum Center to ask about seats in the area we wanted to sit in. I was told they were reserved for something or other. They could not help me but referred me to another number for Ticket Master and I tried that. I was able to get tickets in a section further away from the stage than we wanted. But...we will be in the house for this great concert. Yippee!! Don Henley, Deacon Frey, Joe Walsh, Vince Gill and Timothy B. Schmidt, we look forward to your great concert. This will be fun.

Today...

It has been a month since I Blogged...again, it has been a month. C'est la vie!! 

Today I am safely ensconced in our lovely, warm, homey home listening to rain. Not feeling great so I slept until 7:30am today. And, I took an hour and a half nap today. I may even go to bed early tonight. This is a sure sign I am not feeling great. Just a scratchy throat and very, very tired.

This last week we have experienced Hurricane Harvey. It is a monster storm and has wreaked havoc that will take years to restore. He came up through the Gulf of Mexico and brought lots and lots of water with him. Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 Hurricane along the Texas Gulf Coast. Then he stopped over Houston. I listened to one meteorologist described that it was like a top spinning on a flat surface. If the top came to a rut in the surface it would follow it and move on. Since there is no rut like that in the Houston area, Harvey just sat and spinned and spinned, all the while bringing more water from the Gulf to rain on Houston. Bayous, creeks, canals, and storm drains filled and overflowed. Flood gates were opened to release water to control the flooding that was coming no matter what. And flood it did. Another meteorologist said Houston was like a series of islands where the highest ground was and each island was surrounded by water. 

My niece was working at a hospital in Houston. She was called in and told to be prepared to stay for the weekend. When the day came when she should have gone home, she couldn't. The hospital was surrounded by water and the roads between her home and the hospital were flooded. She stayed several more days before she was finally allowed to leave. Even at that she wasn't sure she could find dry roads between the hospital and her home. She did and was very happy to be home with her hubby and four children.

My nephew posted several videos of them rafting meat from the freezer of one home to another that was not flooded. The water they were in was waist deep. 

I saw another picture of a shark swimming down a street that was flooded several feet deep. Yike!!  Another picture was a person who owned one of those lawn ornaments that is an alligator that positioned down in your grass. Under these conditions the people trying to do a rescue were sure they had an alligator to navigate. This is not far-fetched. In Beaumont they have an alligator farm. Their two largest alligators were in pens and locked up. The hundreds of others were roaming in a huge enclosure and, if and when that flooded, there would be nothing they could do to keep them contained.

One very clever person took large black garbage bags (like you would put in a big garbage can) and filled them with flood water, leaving a little air at the top. They pulled those and placed them around their front door like sand bags to keep the flood waters out. Necessity is the mother of invention. 

I liked these two pictures showing the increase in water level over a few days. You just can't keep up with that kind of water increase.

The rain totals were measured in feet, not inches. The Washington Post stated in an article on August 30th that 24.5 trillion gallons of water had fallen on Texas and Louisiana. That breaks down to 19 trillion gallons over Houston and the Texas coast and 5.5 trillion in Louisiana. For perspective, if all that water were put into a cube, it would measure 2.8 miles on each side!! That is a lot of water.

Now, Harvey is moving on up through Tennessee and into Kentucky and on up the Ohio Valley. We were told to just stay inside today if you could and to anticipate flooding. Our creek is not flooded yet. But the rain is supposed to stay around through tomorrow. I was expecting thunder and lightning. None. We have had some winds that were strong. But a steady rain falls outside as I write this Blog entry. As Papa says, "If it floods your home, the rest of us are really in trouble. We sit on a nice hill and are very protected unless it covers the bridge into our development. 

This is truly a piece of history we are living through.

Miscellaneous Tidbits...

Papa has a new front bathroom. His toilet was leaking. The maintenance guy came to check it on a Friday. Showed me a crack in the toilet and said the entire toilet would have to be replaced. He would have to purchase a new one and could not do that until a Monday. He also felt the flooring would have to be replaced. 

Monday morning I was at Papa's at 9am and would spend the entire day there. The flooring guy showed up at the same time almost at the toilet guy. The flooring guy was not supposed to come until the afternoon. So, the toilet guy had taken out the toilet when he arrived and found the piping into the wall was also leaking and needed to be replaced. He flooded the bathroom with these broken things and had a big fan going to dry it out. The flooring guy put down new vinyl tile as soon as the floor dried. The toilet guy finished the piping but didn't get the toilet in. 

Tuesday morning I was back at Papa's for another day. Goodness. The toilet was fixed though. And, the back bathroom toilet is also leaking. It can be repaired but they want to replace that floor as well. Ball Realty is supposed to call me and set up a time. We are now a week away and no phone call. Hmm...

When we visited Michigan in May with Bonnie, we took the family to the Emporium. It is a great candy store. Katelyn found a huge all-day sucker she wanted for Raelyn. Claude bought it for her. Somehow it made it to Kentucky in our luggage. Oops. When the Ropers were here over the 4th of July, I returned this big hunk of candy to Katelyn and they took it home. Katelyn sent me this picture of tiny Raelyn enjoying her very big candy.

I made Raelyn her second outfit. Bought the fabric to make two outfits before they came to Kentucky and only got one finished. So I mailed the second one this week.

When I drove to the post office in Sadieville to mail the package, this is what I found on Main Street. Now one just doesn't see a rocket on Main Street everyday. It was made for the Eagle Creek Baptist Church's Vacation Bible School. Someone put a lot of effort into that rocket. 

Now I'm off to visit Papa for a bit. 

A Day of Firsts...

My life is so filled and intertwined with Papa and his care. No complaints. Well, maybe a few. One of which is the need to keep some balance in life. I have prayed and pondered over this often. I have found myself pausing at points to say a quick thank you to a loving Heavenly Father for watching over me and prompting me to do or say certain things. Sometimes I do something when I feel an impression and later find it prepared me for the next bump in the road. Again, I pause to thank my loving Heavenly Father. 

One of the things I noticed is the ability to get so consumed in the things that must be done or that I want to be done that time with my hubby can get put on the side burner. He is so very busy with the government, committee and board work he does that we just pass each other between going and coming to things. We did set up a habit at the beginning of this to time our meetings to have meals together. This means a lot of meals out but I love those bits of time together to catch up and visit. 

I have found it needful to visit with Papa every day, not just a phone call but a visit in his home. It allows me to check if he is taking his meds, to see what he is eating and empty trash and other little things that keep his home running for him. At minimum this takes 3-4 hours out of a day. This is important and a must at this point. It doesn't take into account other things I must do at my home for him but it takes a chuck out of each day. Being the type of person I am, I find myself stressing about the things I'm not getting done that I need or want to do. 

I ponder about what I thought retirement would be like with Claude and how this is so not what I thought. If we want to take a long trip, it must be at times when my sisters are free which is not always a time of our choosing. I don't take the little trips with Claude that he does with the things he participates in. Doing a mission for the Church is out the question. There are lots of things we would do very differently if Papa's care was not the priority now. 

One of the answers to my prayers is that I need to fill 6 of the days in the week and try each week to have a day or a part of a day where Claude and I do something we want to do. This has brought me great comfort. I consciously remind myself that this is what retirement for us would be like. Then I revel in that period of time. My cup is then full and I can go back to 'enjoying' time caring for Papa. I am learning about balance.

Last Saturday was a day set aside for Claude and me. We made it a day of firsts. 

Our first, first was lunch at the Blue Door Smokehouse. I simply Googled BBQ places in Lexington and at the top of the list was this place we had never eaten at. Claude remembered hearing about it. It was delicious. A true 'hole-in-the-wall' type place. The guys running it were covered in tattoos and smiles. We loved our meal and will definitely go back.

Our second first was a drive on a country road Papa and I like to get to Ft. Boonesborough. We have tried to visit this re-constructed fort and it was always closed. This time we found it very open and very enjoyable. It is not re-constructed on the exact site. We have been to that location nearer the Kentucky River. But it is a well done reconstruction with modern conveniences that make your visit more enjoyable...like air conditioning in the buildings.

Here are a few pictures of the fort.

One thing they did nicely was have a cabin that was how they originally settled there. Dirt floor, no bed but straw or animal skins on which to sleep. Then followed 3 other cabins that showed how they evolved over time with beds, fireplace, furniture, cooking utensils, etc.  

Okay, we first saw this stump standing on 3 legs. It obviously had been chipped away at the center of the wood. We looked at it and determined it might have been used to generate kindling for a fire. Then in front of the next cabin was a stump with two hatchets on top. Hmm...we found it interesting they were just laying there for anyone to pick up. We visited a couple more cabins. Then a man came out and took the hatchets and had two young boys come with him. They stood a distance back from the chipped stump on 3 legs. The man showed the boys how to hold a hatchet and throw it at the stump on three legs. It was simply a game trying to get the hatchet to stick in the target stump on 3 legs.  

 

We watched this nice lady for a long time. She was weaving bottoms in chairs. She answered all our questions. When we left, Claude said he thought he could take up caning chairs as a hobby. 

This cool bit of chain with that gadget on the shelf was used to measure things for construction like buildings and fences and roads. 

This my friends is a 'brick of tea' from China. This is how they would have received the tea. The tea leaves were crushed into a brick. These were easier and less fragile to ship across the ocean and then carry over land. Pieces were chipped off the brick and crushed again to be used to make tea. We were informed this is the kind of tea that was dumped in the water in the Boston Tea Party.

This is a game we bought for when our family visits. Roll the dice, using any combination of numbers you flip down the tabs totaling that number. The person who turns over the last tab wins that round. 

This guy gave a talk about the importance of dogs and how they were used. Loved that he was bare-footed. My kinda guy!

Our third and final first for this Saturday was a stop at Crank and Book Ice Cream in Lexington. Yummy end to our outing. We will go back there as well.

We headed back to Sadieville and enjoyed a movie together. Great day. Cup was full. Ready for another week.

St. John's Music Camp...

Bailey loves to participate in the St. John's Music Camp each year. For a week they learn a play and then perform for their family and friends on Friday evening and again for the worship service on Sunday. St. John's is the church where Hayden and Bailey attended pre-school. The play is always a religious or moral themed play. Lots of fun music. Lots of opportunity for lots of kids to be involved. Some in more major roles and some in chorus positions. Even the little nursery kids have a place in the play. It is performed in the sanctuary of St. John's. Claude had meetings in Elizabethtown, Kentucky that day so he drove over from there. I came from Sadieville. Hayden and Michael were on the bus driving back to Kentucky from their scout trip and wouldn't be home until 11pm. They would attend the Sunday service.

Okay, I knew I had heard this word 'agape' but it is definitely not of common usage. I found an entry in the Institute New Testament Student Manual for 1 Corinthians 12:31; 13:1-8. This is where Paul emphasizes charity. This is the paragraph in the student manual that helped me understand why the word was familiar. "The word charity is a translation of the Greek noun agape, which can also mean simply "love". Agape is used in other New Testament passage to describe the deep and abiding love between the Father and the Son, the divine love that God has for man, and the love we are to have for our fellowman." That is why I kind of knew about the word but didn't remember it. It is a Greek word and I always read the English translation of the Greek word in my scriptures. 

Bailey auditioned and received the role of Jumper. Jumper is member of the Agape League in the play. This is a group of superhero like characters with superhero powers. Jumper is a very hyperactive person. Hmmmm...Bailey is perfect for this role. She put her heart and sole into it. Learned all of her line and performed with great enthusiasm. She had a rap number for one song and the girl was over the top cute in it. 

Here are a few pictures. Bailey is in the red cap turned sideways, red sunglasses, and red legging with a white t-shirt.

Caught her yawning!! 

 She was trying to get the audience to rise for a standing ovation.

Pose for her mother after the performance. The girl has sass.

She must love the costume because this was the next day at home eating pickled green beans.

Michael and Andie usually buy her a bouquet of flowers to be given after the performance. As I drove to the Marx home Friday evening, I stopped at Kroger and picked up a bouquet of daisies. When I entered their home I put them on a table in the entry and quietly told Andie. She hid them so Bailey wouldn't know we got them. We completely forgot to take them to the church. When I was driving home I remembered and when I stopped for a soda in Waddy, I sent Andie a text to reminder her there were flowers for Bailey and she could give them to her now or wait until after the Sunday performance. Bailey was right there when Andie received this text and told Andie to wait till Sunday because she would have forgotten by then. Whew!! Andie did wait till Sunday and had Hayden give Bailey the flowers. 

We saw the teacher that directed the play after the Friday performance. She just looked at Andie and said, "Was this the perfect role for Bailey or what???" We all had a laugh and then she told us that she was telling this to Bailey about it being her perfect role. Bailey simply said to her in her most sincere voice, "It is the role I have been preparing for all my life!!"  (All 10 years.)

Bailey is about to age out of this performance. She can go back as a helper of the children. She seems to think that would be a great idea. Love watching her perform.