The Last Day.

It's my last day in Ky and I can't believe I've been here a month already. Most of my time has been spent just sitting and visiting with my mother in law who is a recent widow and in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's....she started crying a couple of days ago about me leaving; shes very lonely.
We had a very quiet, rainy Independence Day, only venturing out for our McDonald's coffee and a biscuit in the morning. The rest of the day was spent watching HGTV and eating . Lots and lots of eating. I've gained eight pounds here...my intention had been to lose weight while on vacation :(
Its raining again today, and I'm waiting for Brewier to get up so he can make the 20 mile round trip to get me a cup of coffee :) I figured out that my .70 cup of coffee ends up casting about as much as a Starbucks fancy drink because McDonalds is so far away.

Never in a Million Years

would I have thought that I would post a close up picture of my face, sans makeup, in full sunlight, just out of bed. No way. Never.

Yet here it is. My reason? This is for my friends and family in FL, who only know me as the sickly looking Tricia who always appears to have two black eyes, even when wearing layers of concealer. After spending a month out of Florida, I realize, I'm a pretty healthy and energetic person and its my environment that is making me so sick....just like my Dr. told me.
(I am sporting a bit of sunburn though....because I've been outside in the land of the living!)

More Photos From the Past Week.

Sorry, couldn't really think of a catchy title....and despite being busier and healthier that I am at home, there isn't a whole lot of exciting stuff to post about. I thought about doing a post with some photos about how so many of the men in KY walk around shirtless, but just as I won't damage your psyche with pictures of all the 300+ pound women in bikinis on the beach, I will not post pics of the shirtless men in KY. Nobody should have to see that.
Last night I went to Monica's for dinner, and this is what greeted me at the door. She put all the scented candles from her house into a jar and drew a skull and cross bones for it. Its called the jar of death. Its nice when you meet someone who has the same weird sense of humor as you.



Monica made us grilled quesadillas for dinner. This was her first attempt at grilling and it was quite successful. I did have to laugh at her trying to light the grill though. The electric starter is broken so she had to turn the gas on, and then would light matches and through them in, but because she was standing a "safe" distance from the grill, the matches would go out in flight.


This is General Butler State Park, where I went to drink my coffee one morning. Alone. Which Brewier pointed out probably isn't the safest thing to do.

Here is a better view. That's the Ohio River in the background.

This amazing sunset was from a few nights ago.

Tomorrow I'm headed back to Danville to visit my Mom and brother.

Life with My Mother in Law.

The road to her house:



The view from the front porch:



and the back porch:



I love all the trees and things but wish there was somewhere I could walk; I'm a bit restless being in the house with her every evening. I used to walk the road in front of her house, but its heavily traveled now by cars and trucks going about 60mph and straddling the double yellow line.

I found a place that has soft serve ice cream and took her out for a cone one evening.... she was giddy over that adventure, and no, I'm not being sarcastic, she was giggling about going out for ice cream.


This is my absolutely favorite meal that she fixes. Pinto beans, corn bread and fried potatoes, (vegetables are rarely seen in this house.) We eat this a couple of nights a week which makes me really thankful that my MIL is slightly deaf and no longer has a sense of smell :)

This table sits by her front door. I asked her what the silver things were. They're rocks she wrapped in foil. Um, ok. What are they for? To keep the table from blowing away. (Except that the table is only holding the rocks that keep it from blowing away......its a different world.

So I'm back in Carrollton, ( the land that Verizon does not service,) after spending a few days in Danville with my brother Ken. Ken is the Fire Marshall in Danville, and gets to drive a huge bright red pick up truck with lights and sirens. One rainy day he picked me up at lunch and took me to McDonalds, because I was having a coffee emergency. He put on his lights and sirens and we blew by all the traffic and through every red light to get there.
Ok, not really...but we could have. He did demonstrate these features to me as we drove through traffic, and that was pretty cool. Next time I see him I'm going to ask for a ride in the BIG fire truck.

Random Fact Wednesday Monday.

Two posts in one day? What can I say? Its a rainy day and I'm at my brother's house with high speed internet. So my random fact today is: I am a chronic under-packer, I hate excess baggage...I once went to Dallas for a three day conference and my only piece of luggage was a small gym bag. For my trip to Ky for 10 days I packed two pairs of shorts, 3 tshirts, a pair of cargo pants, and a couple nicer shirts. Sounds good except that it has been getting pretty darn hot here and I'm living in my, (now too tight,) shorts and tshirts. Imagine my intrigue when I heard about a woman wearing the same dress, (seven identical dress's,) everyday for a year. Of course she is doing some major accessorizing , and lets faceit, everything looks cute when you're young and thin. But check it out at The Uniform Project.

Beautiful Downtown Madison, Indiana

I'm going to be posting quite a few of these photos in the coming days. Madison is such a fun place to walk around and explore....there are so many beautiful homes and an abundance of ornate iron work. This has to be one of my favorite features that I saw on several of the old homes. Iron benchs flanking the front door, offering a place to sit in the evenings. What a great solution to a lack of a front porch!







Sadly, this fence is on one of the homes that is not being taken care of, and rust is slowly eating away at it. I love the swans at the center of the gate.


Aren't they sweet?

This Week.

I am so overwhelmed with photos that I don't know where to start with blogging about what I've down, so I'll start with yesterday. I met Monica at the coffee shop for a latte, then we walked down to the farmers market. This is the the brige you have to drive over to get to Madison. Its really narrow, and every other bridge built by this engineer has collapsed. I think about that every time I drive (really fast,) across it.


The Ohio River. Yes, I took this out the side window while I was driving really fast across the bridge.

The Madison farmers market.


Mundts candy shop..its been featured twice on the Food Network.

Along the river walk are brick paths and some of the bricks are engraved, mostly with names. This brick is my favorite though.

Don't you love it? What a great way to pop the question.

Monica of Madison.

(I like alliteration.) I drove over to Madison, IN today and had lunch with Monica, whom I became friends with through blogging. We've also spent a day antiquing and an afternoon sitting outside listening to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It's so much fun having a friend to visit, especially one who accommodates and understands my weird health issues... like sitting outside to eat lunch even though the heat index is 100 degrees. She also got to experience, (because I went into a Walmart for 5 minutes,) poisoned Tricia today, you know, spacey, random, and just not quiet normal. Yeah, sorry about that Monica.

Today I Was Eight Years Old.

I took my mother in law to the grocery store, and as I'm walking the aisles with her she tells me, "Pick out a cereal you like," "Go down the cookie aisle and get some of your favorite cookies," and "How about some soda and chips? Would you like me to get you some ? Just pick out whatever you want." I could have picked out whatever, and as much of any food I wanted, and she would have happily bought it for me. Seriously. I felt like a little girl with her grandma. It was nice.

The Great American Brass Band Festival.

This year saw the 20th anniversary of the festival, and I was so excited to be able to attend. I think the last one I was at was 16-17 years ago. Brass bands from all over the country come and preform; Saturday was the Brass band parade.

There is a little red wagon contest for the kids. This is my nephew Gavin in his wagon/swimming pool. Before leaving the house he was trying to fill the pool with ice cubes and water from the refrigerator door. Joining him were my brother Ken, (see, I didn't say Kenny Boy!) My SIL Stephanie and my niece, Erin.

Miss Kentucky was there pulling a wagon also. Isn't that a cool pirate ship?

This was my favorite band, The Sidewalk Stompers from Indianapolis, IN.

Vickie, I took this pic just for you. Now that you don't drive a big rig, I could totally see you zipping around in one of these


In the evening on the grounds of Centre College was the Great American Picnic. Bands performed until 11pm.


Shortly after eating our Subway sandwich picnic, Stephanie went home to rest and Ken, Gavin and I drove around the countryside. Before going home we stopped and raided Mom's refrigerator for chocolate cake which we ate on top of the parking garage, while watching the sun set. It was such a fun day, and I love being able to get out and do things. My level of health is SO much better here. I guess my Dr is right about me needing to get out of Florida.

The Knobs

This evening my brother Ken and I went for a drive out to Perryville, where our family had once lived, and through the hills, or "knobs" of the surrounding area. We reminisced about our teenage years there, and Ken pointed out the homes of people who we were in school with 30 years ago. I doubt I'd recognize any of them, just as I'm sure they wouldn't recognize me. It was a beautiful evening for a drive, and so relaxing, surrounded by hills, fields, and forest, with only us on the road. I forgot what it's like not to be pressed in on all sides by buildings, people, cars and noise. I liked it. As we headed back toward civilization, we passed this store and I had to double back to get a picture...or in this case ask my brother to take it for me.
You just can't make this stuff up.

Monday.

Our plan was to go to Cincinnati and hit up the art museum in the morning and then go to Brett and Meghan's and visit with them the rest of the day. Here is a shot going into Cincinnati. There were signs flashing smog warnings all along the interstate, asking that you not fill up your car with gas until after 8pm. As bad as this was, I could still breathe better than I do in Orlando.



We got to the museum, (I love this museum and look forward to visiting it every time we're here,) and it seemed awfully quiet there. As we approached the entrance, I glanced at the sign...um... yeah, they're not open Mondays. To quell my disappointment, Brewier took me to Trader Joes. I haven't any pictures of that because I was too busy roaming the aisles, looking at all the great deals they have. While checking out, our cashier confided to us that there were rumors of 6 Trader Joe stores opening in Florida next year. If this blog were live you would see me jumping up and down with excitement.


When we arrived at Brett's it was lunch time and he whipped us up his amazing spaghetti along with some of his homemade rosemary bread. I dream about, and crave his spaghetti, as it is some of the best food I've ever eaten.



Here are Brett and Meghan.....


and here she is showing off our next grandchild. (Can you tell they're a fun couple?)



And here we are with our adorable grandson, Duncan. Because Brett and Meghan show him pictures of family every morning, and because we get to ichat with him, he knew who I was, hugging me and saying Mae mae. Yes, I melted.

Losing Momentum.

Its so hard to blog after missing a few days. I've found myself putting it off; "I'll do it later tonight," is what I've said for the past 3 days. We arrived in Danville Ky late Friday morning, after leaving Orlando at 6:30, Thursday evening. We arrived hungry, so Mom made us breakfast. Most of the day is a sleep deprived blur, but I remember going to Goodwill, and having a cookout in the evening.



Saturday morning we went to the farmers market for fresh locally grown organic produce, something not really available in Orlando. Everything looked so good, and I bought a bunch of vegetables to cook.

I was very excited by these organic strawberries, $4 for a quart! I'm used to paying $7 for a pint of them at home.




Saturday afternoon Brewier and I walked around the campus of Centre College with Kenny, Erin and Gavin.



Brewier took advantage of some shade and soft grass. Florida grass is hard and crunchy and hurts to even walk through, so this was a real treat.


Camera's...my family never leaves home with one.


Walking down Greek row.