eighty

what could you do in eighty years? have three children? and be a grandmother to six and a great grandmother to two? be married for sixty years? be a loyal friend, mother, grandmother, aunt and sister? could you be instrumental for change? could you support the things you believe in with your time and effort and money? could you teach others to stand up for themselves, about the history of the Bible, about why it's so important that you are always true? could you instill a love of your own self, an appreciation for talent, and teach ladies the proper way to set up a hospitality table? could you receive formal praise from the girl scouts, the kappa deltas and the methodist church for your work and financial support? could you show others how crucial it is that you are close to your family? could you teach people to shop like you have lots of money but pay as little as possible for your purchases? could you impress the importance of giving whatever you can? of eating the leftovers and tailoring clothes and making due? could you survive knee replacements and strokes where they thought you wouldn't recover and huge tumor removals along with all the scrapes and owies that come with living? could you endure sadness and illness and grief and still bring a smile to others faces? could you make people love you by being yourself?

if you're this lady, you could.

on saturday my granny turned eighty years old. EIGHTY years old. folks, that's old. and I can assure you she isn't upset that I'm calling her old. :) I wouldn't call her my hero or my idol (in my mind that needs to be someone you haven't actually known all your life--someone whose accomplishments are on an even grander scale--mine is marie curie by the way), but she surely is an inspiration! And I love her very much. It makes me smile just to hear her voice, and I am SO thankful for the fact that she's not just my grandmother, she is also my friend!

my mom told me that my granny's home was a revolving door of deliveries and visitors--at LEAST seven floral arrangements, plus her daughter's visiting, plus phone call after phone call, a brunch with family and a deelish chocolate cake. clearly I'm not the only one who thinks she's so amazing. :)

come to think of it, there are so many times with her I treasure, and I am so glad for each of them, and the ones yet to be--the bible study she held just so renee and jessica and I could hang out, the trips to chicago for the 4th when I was little, and to family reunions as I grew, and to dc when I was 15--I was SO upset in the 5th grade when it seemed like everyone went on the dc trip but anna and me, but then we went and we didn't just see dc--we saw broadway and went to the rainbow room and to philadelphia to see the bell and have philly cheese steak and saw the ruby slippers and rode in a limo and my oh my! she has afforded me so many opportunities, she was so insistent that I look at many colleges (and interesting tibdit, she REALLY wanted me to go to drury even though she's a TU alum!), she and my granddaddy gave anna and me my first car and she taught me to shop at ross dress for less. :)

and most important to me, when I was initiated she attended the initiation, and since we're both kd's from the same chapter, she gave me my pin. I still wear it today. I was SO surprised to see her there, and even more floored to get to have her pin. I can't believe my granddaddy let her splurge on that (or that she was able to talk him into it!) and I am so proud to wear it.

I'm sure there are a hundred others--these were just the first to come to mind! so yay for birthdays. especially big ones! and if you're lucky enough to have any of your grandparents still living (my granny is the last) I encourage you to give 'em a call to say hello. :)

roadtrip-day 2

helllooooo, kentucky!

I woke up at 930 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I hung out and let matt sleep for another hour. we'd hoped to leave by 1030am, but that just didn't happen. I felt bad for the tired clothes-forgetting driver!

after our gino's disaster the night before we were QUITE pleased to happen upon a sonic and grab our breakfast. mmmmm sonic. next stop, the pharmacy shaped like a mortar and pestle. I thought it was fun since, y'know, pharmacists actually used to use those for medicine. And of course since I've had to use them before in real life. My back hurt and Matt had convinced me to get some of those stick on heat pads (even though I'm like 98% certain I'm allergic to the adhesive) but alas, it was closed.

next we went to the kentucky horse park to look around and see man o' war's grave. here is where we got our first extra kind person--the man charging for parking was like "oh, if that's all you're going to see I won't charge you!" we went to the gift shop and matt got a horse-shaped bottle opener, and we saw the statue of the horse. I tried to tell matt that there was something about if there's a statue of a man on a horse the number of legs raised symbolizes something, but apparently that's hooey.

we putzed around here for a few and then took some pictures across the street. one of these is definitely a "kentucky" picture for me. it was pretty. and again, the sky was BEAUTIFUL. it rained a little the night before but cleared up about 45 minutes after we left the hotel. it worked out that we slept in. :)

next was the disappointing visit to bardstown, ky. on the way we realized that we were on the bourbon trail, and we decided to visit the next distillery we came upon. and that, my friends, was wild turkey. we figured it would be closed, and it was, but we took pictures and matt put our name on the guest log book. it was pretty cool to see the place, even just from the outside, and the wild turkey ended up playing a role later, too.

so once we arrived in bardstown we wanted to go to the oscar getz museum of whiskey history, but they closed early that day. it SAID they were open, even on their sign. I called and left a message telling them how disappointing it was that they closed half an hour early (especially when they're only open for 4 hours on sundays). we took a few pics and I had the brilliant idea to go to a bar and actually have a bourbon in kentucky. the old talbott tavern was less than a mile away and the nice bartender helped us select bourbons that neither of us had ever had. I liked the elijah craig and we also tried the rock hill farms. yum!

slightly tipsy (me) and not at all phased (matt) we went to elizabethtown, ky to see the approximate cannonball. long story short, the cannonball got lodged in the building in the late 1800s, when the building burned down a woman laid claim to the cannonball, and when a new building was built she requested that the cannonball be put back as near as possible to its original place. SUPER random. but kind of neat. we also went to elizabethtown because of the roadtrip in the movie. And no, we did not find exit 63b or whatever. (ps, part of the movie was shot in oklahoma!)

then it was time to visit more states...we went through indiana to corydon, in and it's constitution elm. in 1816 men signed indiana's first constitution under that tree. it's died since and a little building has been placed over the preserved trunk. it's just in the middle of a neighborhood, so random. we had a bit of trouble finding it though and in the meantime visited the town square. very cool. the o'bannon family was apparently very instrumental in founding/developing that city.

at this point we were still almost four hours from our destination, so we hot footed it to belleville, il as quick as we reasonably could. and there we saw my wittle and her boyfriend steve. we drank boulevard at the neighborhood bar and ate pizza, took "family" shots, picked songs on the juke box and the girls played pool while the guys did machine-bowling. we had a GREAT time. we stayed far later than we should have, but I hardly ever get to see ashley, so that made it wonderful. and they also have a pet named hazel--a dog. we thought that was a fun coincidence. :)

we arrived at our union station hotel, unloaded our things and craaaaashed.

roadtrip-day 1

we began the trip a little later than we'd planned--there was WAY too much to find/do/prepare and I'd wimped out and gone to bed earlier than I had intended--that was the night after I got so little sleep.

we said goodbye to the kitties, punched an address into jack and away we went.

our car was SO full. but we were armed with clothes, sunblock, music, drinks, snacks, our garmin and pretty much every corded item we owned (cell phone charger, ipod fm transmitter, aa and aaa car battery charger, garmin charger, etc. we felt a leeeeetle like a radio shack).

first stop: see laura in greensboro. laura is about to be dirt poor and living in a foreign country, aka going to grad school in ireland. people keep talking to her like she's going to go on a year long vacay--not the case! she's a kd from high point and her twin brother is one of matt's best friends. laura and I get along like peas and carrots. she is also the person who told me about our state magazine, and is the reason I knew to submit my photos (and got published) in the first place! we went to chick-fil-a and had these AMAZING shakes. they're the caramel cappuccino something or other and deeelish!

next was Dr Pepper's grave. I told you about it before, but not the details. Matt and I had to search the place. We were in that cemetery for half an hour, easy. the view was spectacular but all in all, it was ODD. I finally found it and we took our pictures. We were so excited we forgot to stop and see the big pencil!

then we saw the peace totem pole. there was a park and a museum/science/learning center right next to it. too cool, too cool. matt kept wishing it wasn't so far away so he could take his students to see it.

we discovered that west virginia drivers are not our favorites and I got a LONG nap. matt is so awesome--he drove the ENTIRE time. all the way to/from ok. I tried to get him to let me drive, but he kept saying that I needed to sleep, this was my only vacay but part of his vacay, etc. plus, he really enjoys driving. :)

in wv we saw a BEAUTIFUL sunset and stopped for dinner. Our Garmin, Jack, said that there were lots of this restaurant called "Ginos." I figured that meant it must be decent. I was wrong. We even hesitated at the door--this was a combo biscuit/pizza place--but went in 'cause we were hungry. mis-take. we ate our very-similar-to-cardboard food while listening to one of those late night mystery shows where someone got killed and they're trying to figure it out--gaudy jewelry, hookers, drugs and three wives were part of the story. and least on our way out we saw the sign. :)

our final (sucessful) endeavor of the day was visiting frostop rootbeer in huntington, per laura's suggestion. it is her mom's favorite root beer. (that was for you, taylor!) it kind of tasted like a root beer float, but without the texture of the icecream in it. it was worth the stop!

we tried to go and get pictures in ohio, but there wasn't much to be seen so late at night. I'd hoped for spot along the river or some cool neon signs or something, but nada. oh well, I will just have to visit the northern parts when I get michigan or something.

and then we went to lexington. we got there WAY late. and we found out that the holiday inn is STUPID. thank goodness I called to confirm my reservation--if you aren't there by midnight they cancel your reservation. it required special approval for them to let me check in by 2 (we got there before then though). and we were in a handicapped room, which was fine, but we were also right next to a dog who freaked out every time we came in and out! BOO! this is also when we found out about matt and his hanging clothes. oh boy. :)

and that, my friends, was day 1.