Friday, July 16

Up around 7:30 a.m. After breakfast, but before I got on the treadmill, I accompanied Mother to our house, and then helped her do a tarjeteria (embossed) greeting card. Her hands are so shaky that she can't follow a design without making squiggly lines. Once I outlined the design, she was able to use colored pencils, embossing tools, and chalks to complete the card.

Then I filled out fair exhibit tags for all the cards we've made. After that, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises, and got ready for the day. Then, Mother and I selected a China place setting to use as an fair entry exhibit. This year, for the first time, there is a category for place settings listed in the fair book. I decided to do a contemporary eclectic setting, using unmatched but complementary China pieces I've collected at flea markets and yard sales. Mother is doing an oriental setting.

After lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands...first Hubbie dropped me by the store that has a sale every weekend, while he went to the pharmacy. I was looking for on-sale swimsuits. I wandered the whole store without locating them, before finally asking a sales clerk. She pointed toward a small rack of them at the back of the store. There was only one style of suit in my size. Since they were half price, I picked up two of the same design (the only two in my size), which meant I was able to use a $15 coupon.

Then we swung by a grocery store for more cottage cheese to serve with sandwiches tomorrow, when Daughter, Granddaughter, and Great-Grandchildren are expected to visit. From there, we went to the Extension Office for more exhibit tags.

As we left the Extension Office, the sky opened up, and there came a frog strangling rain. We made our way to a farm supply store, parked, and waited for the rain to ease. When it did not, Hubbie rounded up his very large umbrella and dashed into the store. He bought a wire cage to hold the two kittens with eye problems...we'll have to take them with us on our next trip, because they are so small and vulnerable that something would probably kill them if we let them roam on their own. Already, three of our kittens have disappeared, snatched by some sort of animal or bird of prey.

From the farm store, we went to the WDCS. It was still raining, but Hubbie let me out near the door while he went in search of a parking space. In the store, he had to call me on my cell to locate me. I was at the back of the store looking for a placemat that would suit the place setting I'm entering in the fair. I found a quilted blue one that matches the flowers on the China dinerware.

Shopped for groceries, then came home. Mother had prepared a salmon loaf for supper, which we had with rice casserole and slices of sourdough bread. After supper, I finished the Thanksgiving card I'd started at the scrapbook club meeting yesterday, and then made a Valentine card, both to be entered in the fair. Then we cleared our stuff away and spruced the living room for company.

I accompanied Mother home, and then Hubbie and I went to a grocery store to get ice cream and a few other items we had coupons for. I had difficulty finding the brand of fat-free ice cream and was fussing about it. I was just about ready to go complain about it, when I stepped to one side of the freezer case and noticed cartons of what I wanted stacked up behind the door facings.

At home, I took a package of chocolate novelty ice cream bars on a stick to Mother, which is the kind she requested. Hubbie and I enjoyed regular vanilla ice cream, and cups of hot coffee. I really like this combination.

Then we watched the movie, "Miracle at St. Anna," an R-rated film, over two and a half hours long, about four soldiers of the 92nd Buffalo Soldier division stationed in Tuscany, Italy, during World War II. Based on true history, the movie explores racism and the atrocities of war, amid which compassion and self-sacrafice emerge.