Sleepless again

Sleep came easily to me when I was younger. Jerry even remarked that I slept so soundly that the whole Green Bay Packers could charge across the foot of our bed and I wouldn't wake up. Not so now. Last night my mind bounced around like a man using a TV remote control; it couldn't settle on one thing for very long:
...strolling on a warm, sandy beach
...praying for my niece and her husband as they take on a heavy commitment
...playing poker and imagining the hands I'd get
...making banana pudding
...creating Christmas cards
...cleaning the garage
...reading Loving Frank
These were some of the images flitting through my restless mind before I eventually drifted off to sleep.

Hypnotic paddle wheels on the Belle

Rita and Shawn before boarding the Belle

Amanda and Zuela on the Belle of Louisville

Laid-back Jerry on the Belle.

Mother's Day

We had the most perfect day for a trip on the Ohio River. Amanda and Shawn had made arrangements weeks ago to take the two of us and Shawn's mother on the Belle of Louisville for a cruise for Mother's Day. We weren't even sure the Belle was going to leave the dock since we've had torrential rains and flooding this month. But, since the river was receding and debris was being deposited on shore, we got to actually take the cruise upriver. Yea!! A D.J. provided easy listening music while we gobbled down an extensive buffet lunch then he played "get up and dance" music the rest of the tour. Amanda and I spent most of our time hanging over the back rail watching the paddle wheels slice through the muddy water and dancing in place instead of on the first deck with the D.J. and crowd.

The photo below shows Amanda picking up our tickets for the cruise. Before our computer crashed a while back, I knew exactly how to post photos and writing together but I CANNOT figure out how to do it now that the photos are stored differently. ugh. I think I hate progress in technology. As soon as I feel comfortable with something...blammo!...it changes and I'm back to square one, the kindergarten level in technology. All the next photos being posted are from Mother's Day.

Amish family

Yesterday, on the way home from French Lick, we drove off the main road into what we call Amish country in southern Indiana. As soon as you leave US 150, you can immediately feel a difference; it's like stepping back in time about 100 years. There are "English" who live on the road but most of the road traffic is black, horse-drawn buggies or work horse drawn wagons.

Our friends John and Wilma weren't at home so we opened the back door and left a bunch of empty egg cartons and plastic strawberry baskets, listened to the plaintive wail of their peacock, petted the overly friendly dog (poor watch dog, sweet pet), and looked over the healthy garden. On the way back out, we stopped at another Amish farm where we regularly buy apples, blueberries, rhubarb and bought about 6 pounds of pinkish-red and green rhubarb. Yum. It's delicious with hot biscuits.

Jerry thought he'd spotted John waving at us from a different farm when we drove by so we stopped there on the way back out to 150. We knew the farm had been empty for a while because the family had moved. Not this day!! The place was swarming with many from the Amish community, sweeping, scrubbing woodwork, scouring windows, working in the barn yard. Wilma's sister is moving into the place and they were all helping get it ready for her. We talked to one of her other sisters (There are 12 in the family!) and she said that indeed John had spotted us but he and Wilma took baby Viola into town to do some shopping and that they had left when we were at their farm. We had just missed them.

As we stood talking to her, a buggy pulled up with two young girls, Wilma's sisters, and Perry, John and Wilma's son. We wanted to buy eggs so they got back into the buggy and drove just a short distance down the road to their parents' home to "rob the hens' nests". We ended up with 4 dozen big, brown, fresh, tasty eggs; you know they're fresh if they were just pulled out of the nest!

Every time we go visit their farm, we take some kind of little treat to the kids. We also add two more for John and Wilma since they are very childlike in their enthusiasm for the treats, too! Their little sons, Perry and Benedict, and daughter Laura, now know us and aren't shy about peering into the car trunk when we open it to pull out candy, packs of gum, cookies, a ball, or whatever we've taken that time. I wouldn't feel right going there now without something for all of them.

Being among the Amish gives me a sense of peace knowing that people can live and work closely together, willingly help each other and do it all joyfully.

Old, gold friends

"Make new friends
But keep the old
One is silver
The other is gold"
Bette is one of our golden friends since around 1964 when we were in school at Morehead. That year, Bette was pregnant and, since there was no hospital in town, moved back to Cincinnati to stay with her parents until Heidi was born. After she left, Lance moved out of their little house and into the dorm; they turned their place over to us to live in right after we got married January 30, 1965. They had already paid the rent for the month plus they left the food in the refrigerator, sheets on the bed, towels in the bathroom...everything for us to use. We don't see enough of each other now even though she only lives in Cincinnati (still!). We've vowed to change that.

Ever since we've been friends, people have mistaken us for sisters. Even my great nephew, after carefully looking both of us over on Derby Day, asked if we were sisters. That is her in the yellow jacket sitting on the couch talking to Jerry, possibly arguing politics since they fall on different sides of the political fence. :-)