Dream a little dream - or a BIG one!

When you cease to dream, you cease to live.

- Malcolm Forbes

Week 22: Dream

I don't remember not dreaming.  From long nights as a kid (I'm a long-time insomniac) to daydreaming in class to dreaming intentionally and declaring those dreams publicly, I have always been a dreamer.  Sometimes my dreams were nightmares - I could always tell when I had a fever, because I would have the craziest, scariest, most vivid dreams - the stuff Stephen King novels are made of - but thankfully I always woke up before something terrible happened to me.  Most of my nighttime dreams are good ones, albeit usually pretty mixed up - people and places and times that don't make sense once I wake up.  I dream in color, and I can almost always recall a dream, at least for a short while.  I have a few distinct memories of dreams that seemed so real that even hours after waking I still thought my dream was reality.  As an adult, I learned the power of dreams, even though I think I'd really already learned that lesson intuitively.

Once, my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Crutchfield, took me out of class and led me down the hall to the shelf full of encyclopedias.  There, she pulled out the volume that had the CHE words in it, and introduced me to the word 'Chemistry'.  She told me that she thought I would like chemistry, and that I would be good at it, and I believed her.  I asked for an got a chemistry set for Christmas that year, and when I started college, I was a chemistry major.  While I ended up majoring in zoology instead, I did become a pharmacist - pretty close!  Now, I'm not sure I dreamed of being a chemist, but Mrs. Crutchfield knew what she was doing.

Before Rex and I got married, I was having a conversation with his dad about our plans for children.  I matter-of-factly told him that I wanted two kids, a boy first, followed by a girl three years later.  He threw back his head and laughed uproariously as he told me that was great, but things didn't always turn out the way you want them to.  I nodded, and told him I understood that, but that he'd asked me what I wanted, and that's what I wanted.  I kind of chuckle when I think about my beautiful children - first David and then Kim, who happens to be 35 months younger than her big brother.  Sometimes dreams do come true, just because!

When I was a Creative Memories Consultant, my dear friend Jenny became really invested in the power of dreams and even did dream workshops for us.  I've never forgotten the lessons I learned from her.  I remember declaring in front of a whole CM regional convention that I wanted to visit all fifty states before the end of my 50th year.  I missed it by a week, but made it to state number 50 (Oklahoma) in the same month as my birthday.  A few years later, I attended a workshop where we were prompted to complete this thought: "If money were no object, I would....."  I didn't remember what I wrote, but as I was packing to move here to Texas (years later), I found that paper.  I had written that I would live in a house on the water, near the ocean, and that the house would be big enough for friends and family to fill it with love and laughter.  And here we are...

Travel has always been a big part of my dreams, and many of my younger friends have told me how jealous they are of my travel schedule and ask me how I do it.  I generally laugh and remind them that when I was their age, my travels were limited to trips to the grandparents' houses, annual trips to the beach, and annual trips to CM conventions.  Sometimes you have to let dreams percolate and then wait for the timing to be right to see them fulfilled.  Just like my marriage to Rex - we met when we were 17, living in different states and planning to go to college in different states - him in Texas and me in Tennessee.  We kept in touch (through snail mail and occasional visits) until seven years later, when the time was right.  We were both single and entering in our last years of professional schools (still in different states) but we'd never stopped dreaming of each other - and here we are!

So, if you're not a dreamer, it's time to change that!  If you can dream it, you can do it!

The 'eyes' have it

One of the joys of being a grandparent is getting to see the world again through the eyes of a child.

- David Suzuki

I is for....

I've gotten a little behind this month, missing blogging at Mother's Day and on my birthday, and I'm almost about to miss this week, so I'm remedying that.  Thanks for bearing with me!

Today is Memorial Day, a day when we honor the men and women who have sacrificed their lives in the service of our country.  We Americans remain the land of the free and the brave because of them, and I for one am grateful for all who serve.  My thoughts are with the families of those who were killed in battle or while on active duty.  I was moved by many of the tributes I saw on television today, and I hope I never take for granted the liberties we enjoy because of those willing to defend our freedoms, even at the cost of their own lives.

Even though it's still three weeks before the calendar says it's summer, this weekend also marks the 'unofficial' start of summer here in the States.  At least in the South, anyway!  Here on Tiki, most every house was full this weekend (about half of the houses on our little island are owned by 'part-timers') and the smell of charcoal fires filled the air.  Boats of all sizes came and went all day, every day, and even into the night.  Our house is right at the end of the 'Tiki Cut' - the channel that goes from the intercoastal waterway to Tiki Island, so we see all of the comings and goings if we are outside.  We spent a good deal of the weekend out by the pool and we ate most of our meals outside on the deck.  We were lucky to have Kim, Blake, and Morgan here for the weekend, and it was Morgan's first visit during pool season.

The water baby gene was apparent, as Morgan didn't even whimper when we first dipped her toes into the water (which was not all that warm!!).  Kim had brought a little ring float with a shade on it, and Morgan was happy to sit and splash.  She looked so cute in her little water hats, and I am so impressed with the care that today's parents take with regard to sun exposure.  Morgan, like Elliot and Gray, seemed to love napping outside with a little breeze blowing, which was good, because that allowed Crockett time to get into the water, too.  Our pool is not big enough to share with Crockett!  We are still hoping he will learn how to return the water toys to the tosser this summer....

Morgan has just turned six months old, and she's entering the 'real people' phase of life.  She can't quite sit up on her own yet, but she's getting there.  Her clear blue eyes are huge and round, and she looks like she is questioning everything.  She is enamoured with her fingers and toes, and she's learned how to get her wub-a-nub back into her mouth.  She had her first taste of solid food, and she's gobbling it down.  Here's hoping she will be a good eater!

It was such fun to have the Kim and her family here - I love watching our kids become parents and see them raising their kids.  It does my heart good to see the love and patience and care they show to their babies.  Everyone always told me that being a grandparent was the best - I'm inclined to believe them!

It's been a busy month - Dave's birthday, Mother's Day, our 38th anniversary, the royal wedding, my birthday, and this holiday weekend - plus houseguests, Derby Day, and a yard sale - but that's just how May is at our house.  Dave always called it "All About Mom Month" so I'm hoping that now that he's grown he gets a little more attention.  If he'd been born on his due date instead of two weeks late....  In the middle of all that busy-ness, I managed to finish my Danube Cruise photo book (from our 2016 Viking River Cruise), just in time for our next Viking Cruise.  We'll be heading to Iceland and then an ocean cruise of the Baltics next month, so excitement is high!  Here's hoping you have had a fabulous month and are looking forward to more fun in the months to come.

A Perfectly Fun Weekend!

We're so quick to go to make things black and white, and to put things in their box. But everything is this mixture - and that's what this world is - is this blend of different things.

- Matisyahu

Week 18: Black & White

One of the best things about this past week was having company!  My p2P friends were here until Monday morning, then our Paducah friends Judy and Randy arrived on Thursday evening for the weekend.  I love having the house full of friends or family - it just makes life a bit more exciting.  We have had to laugh since we moved to Tiki - we have probably had more company in the not quite eight years that we've been here than we did in the 30 years we lived in North Carolina.  To be fair, at least one factor in that equation is timing - neither we nor our friends were as free to travel and visit when we were younger and raising kids - but it's still kind of funny. 

Another thing that is interesting about life on Tiki is that once you're here, it's easy to just stay put.  If you follow any of my travel blogs, you know that I tend to pack a lot of action into my vacations.  I go to museums, attractions, restaurants, parks, anything that looks interesting.  So when I moved here, I intentionally did not go to all of the touristy things available on Galveston Island, because I figured I'd be going there often when we had company.  And now, years later, there are many of those attractions that I have yet to visit!  Turns out, it's easy to just sit on the back deck or lounge by the pool and just chillax on Tiki, so that's often what we do.  We may venture across the causeway into Galveston or 'up the road' for a meal or two, but staying put seems to fill the bill.  I love that!

This weekend, we even went all the way to Houston because we had tickets to Hamilton!  Judy and I had seen Hamilton on Broadway a couple of years ago (just before it got really hot!) and Judy and Randy had just seen it there again, but this was Rex's first time to see it.  We all loved it!  The Houston cast was stellar - my favorite actor played both Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson - and all of us who had seen it before got more out of it seeing it again.  It's such a different kind of musical - all of the dialog is sung in hip hop - and there is a portion of the stage that revolves (so appropriate for such a 'revolutionary' play!), so there is a lot to hear and see.  It's almost too much to absorb the first time, so I was grateful for the opportunity to see it again.

We ventured out for a few meals - we stopped at Whiskey Cake on the way back from the airport Thursday night for a late supper, then we had drinks at the Rooftop Bar at the Tremont on Friday before walking down to Riondo's for dinner al fresco.  We had a delicious lunch at The Grove before the play on Saturday, and we had time to walk around Discovery Green while we were there.  We made it home from the play ALMOST in time for the Derby - we watched it on Randy's phone while sitting in the driveway - so we had our mint juleps on the deck afterwards.  Following that was a nice dinner at Number 13 - that was a full day!  Sunday we lazed by the pool after breakfast and watched Crockett enjoy his first swim of the season.  All too soon it was time to get cleaned up and head to the airport...

Now the house is quiet, with just Crockett and me knocking around.  I have work to do (that I'm avoiding) as we are having a neighborhood-wide yard sale in a couple of weeks - so much stuff to go through and purge!  It's funny, isn't it?  We fill our homes with stuff and then get rid of it!  I also have a big pile of photos and slides that need to be converted...guess I'd better stop procrastinating and get to it!

Have a fabulous week and when you need a break, remember you're welcome on Tiki!

Girlfriend Power

“All I can tell you today is what I have learned. What I have discovered as a person in this world. And that is this: you can’t do it alone. As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”

- Amy Poehler

Week 17: G is for...

I've just spent the last few days hanging with some of my best girlfriends, and boy, was it fun! They came to Tiki from across the country - Tameka flew in from New York City, Kim from California, Anne from North Carolina, and Mary drove down from Dallas.  We're not just separated by miles; there is a 30 year age difference between 'Baby Bear' Tameka and 'Mama Bear' Anne, with the rest of us somewhere in between.  Our political views cover both ends of the spectrum and some spots in between.  We don't share the same religion, and our levels of education vary.  You may be wondering what we have in common and how we ever became friends.  And that's what today's story celebrates!

Years ago, and for many years, I was a Creative Memories Consultant.  I helped people organize and preserve their photographs by making scrapbooks that allowed them to share the stories behind those photos while having fun and enjoying a creative outlet.  Originally, this was done in traditional paper scrapbooks, but by 2006, my focus had shifted to digital scrapbooking, as Creative Memories introduced a cool, albeit limited, digital scrapbooking program called StoryBook Creator.  A year later, a more powerful version of the software was released and something ignited in me.  I quickly picked up the program and soon was trying to make it do more than it was designed to.  Since much of my 'real job' life as a pharmacist (back in the day) had involved computers, and since I took my first computer classes in high school, I only had to learn to use the program, while many women my age had to learn to use a computer first.  That meant the software was not intuitive for them, and in fact, it was overwhelming and somewhat terrifying.  Soon, I had found a niche teaching my friends (customers and fellow Consultants) how to use the software.  I even gave people lessons over the phone, without the benefit of screen sharing!

Fast forward to late 2008 - Facebook was a 'thing' and we CM Consultants were given permission to use it as a business tool.  The third version of StoryBook Creator had been released, and the floodgates opened!  We could do so much more with the software, and of course my friends and I were still pushing the envelope to get it to do more.  I joined the beta test team for future versions of the software and I was still providing training for Consultants and customers, but now we could post our completed pages on Facebook, and two friends and I started a Facebook group that provided a forum for people to ask questions and get them answered.  The next year, I was doing live webinars for Creative Memories and I started a blog to help people learn how to use the software.  And now comes the good part!

Creative Memories was an international company, and I started seeing lots of pages posted by women in Australia.  They were beautiful pages using techniques that were different than those I was used to seeing, and then I learned that they were still on version two of the software.  That meant that they were really pushing the envelope!  I had to get to know these women! I watched to see who posted the coolest pages and took names, and then I sent them all a group message.  Soon we were chatting (via Facebook) on a regular basis, and before long, one of them suggested I come to Australia.  Haha - they didn't know me well enough yet to know that casual invitation was all I needed!  By August, I found myself on a flight to Sydney with a gig to speak at the Down Under version of the Creative Memories annual convention.  I met all of the 'Digi Divas' and lots more wonderful women and I stayed there a month!  Rex joined me after the convention and we traversed the county, going to the homes of all of the women I had met on Facebook.  And we didn't just go to their homes - they invited us to stay with them, without knowing whether we were ax murderers or decent humans.

What the Digital Divas didn't know was that I already had this crazy idea to gather together a team who embraced digital scrapbooking and training as much as I did.   I envisioned a website where we could pool our resources and work to our strengths instead of trying to do it all individually.  As great as our little Facebook group was, I found myself answering the same questions over and over, as there was no way for people to search to see if their question had been asked and answered.  (I've since learned that most people don't search for an answer even when they know it's there - it's easier for them to just ask it again!)  Anyway, I thought my new Australian friends might not be willing to join me in this 'adventure' if they hadn't met me in person, so it was important to me to let them get to know me on their turf.

Back home, I was taking names of American and Canadian 'friends' who seemed to know how to use the software and who were patient and friendly when they answered the same questions, over and over, in our Facebook group.  I noticed who had blogs themselves and who had really creative ideas.  By December, I was ready to put my plan into action.  I called or emailed a dozen women, all Creative Memories Consultants, and basically asked them if they were interested in joining me to do something that would probably get them deactivated from CM.  All twelve of them said 'YES!!' and the week before Christmas, we had our first (of thousands) group phone call.  [Side note: while I had met the five Australians in person, I only knew two of the other women personally at that time.  And by 2011, none of us were still CMCs.]

Talk about giddy!  Even though we were only 'meeting' each other by phone and computer, it was so cool to talk to each other and hear all of the different accents.  We very quickly learned that there is indeed a language barrier between America and Australia!  We also learned that we not only brought different skill sets to the table, but that we had almost exactly the skill sets we needed to do what we wanted to do.  Never mind that none of us had ever started a website or a company before!  By January 2010, we had a name (pixels2Pages), a mission statement, and a few domain names - it was really going to happen!  And it did!  We launched the website on 7 April 2010 - happy birthday, p2P!

So that's the beginning of the story of how I've spent the past ten or so years, and how I came to be the best of friends with my wonderful tribe.  When I read today's quote by Amy Poehler, I thought, "I could have said that!" (and I probably have...) and it is so true!  Working together may not have made life easier for any of us, but it certainly changed our lives!  We sold the company we started to Forever.com a couple of years ago, and p2P is currently training on the fifth version of the software, Forever Artisan.  I retired from active service last August, and while the p2P team is only a fraction of what it once was, pixels2Pages lives on and continues to thrive and share the joys of digital scrapbooking with a wonderful community of women around the world.

At pixels2Pages, we have a saying: 'Once a Pixie, always a Pixie', and so it is.  Nothing can take our time spent as p2P team members from us, and each Pixie has made contributions to the team and to the website that are still viable, important, and valued.  And so it was that while Anne, Mary, Kim, and Tameka were working at Tiki this past weekend, we toasted all of our Pixie friends.  Here's to you, Shelley Alexander, Carolyn Bodkin, Tameka Bond, Mary Browder, Jeannine Campbell, Justine Forrest, Janice Gilhooley, Kerrianne Hobbs, Marilyn Innes, Anne Lineberger, Jenny MacKay, Kim Mannino, Penny Peterson, and Allison Woof!  From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for taking a giant leap of faith with me, and I thank you and honor you for being team players and for sharing your hearts, your knowledge, your ideas, your creativity, your lives, your time, your families, your stories, your photos, and your magnificent pages with us.  Thank you for challenging me and inspiring me, and thank you for making a difference in the world. Cheers!

LYMI!!

Jan

P.S.  If you'd like to get a little taste of what pixels2Pages does, take a look at Pages magazine.

What a Wonderful World!

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure.  There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.

- Jawaharlal Nehru

Week 16: Wonderful

When I have the opportunity to spend time with my grandchildren (and their parents, of course), it is easy to find wonder every day.  My most difficult task in making this week's page was choosing which photos to use!  And then I came home to find several long-term projects done or almost done, just in time for spring company coming.  It was a wonderful week!

My son David loved to 'mow' the grass with his fleet of plastic lawn mowers when he was a toddler.  We had a bubble mower (expensive) and multiple versions of a less than $5 plastic mower, and most any day, no matter the weather, he could be found out in the yard, pushing a mower back and forth across the lawn.  When he tired of mowing, he'd hop on his teeter totter and SWING, usually yelling or singing at the top of his lungs.  When teetering grew old, he'd climb in the sandbox and push his trucks around for a while.  Then back to the mowers, and he'd start again.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  Dave's son Gray is always on the go, too.  If he's not riding his Jeep (sit on, push with feet) around the house, he loves to be outside.  This week, his mom brought home a big plastic dump truck and about a dozen rocks.  Boy heaven!  He and I played with that dump truck and those rocks for hours.  Gray would load up the truck with rocks and push it to a different location in the yard.  I had the easy job - I got to build 'houses' with the rocks, then Gray would knock them down, load up the truck, and push it somewhere else, where we would repeat the process.  Every now and then I could get Gray to stack some rocks, but he was much more interested in knocking my creations down.  While we were playing, I met Gray's new neighbors, who just happened to have a son the same age as Gray, and who just happens to love rocks and dump trucks.  I made a mental note to grab another dump truck on my next trip to Target!

We made the happy discovery that Gray could even sit in the back of the dump truck and ride it down the hill, and when Elliot got home from school, she had to have a try at that, too.  Believe it or not, she could ride it down the hill, too!  It was fun to watch Gray and Elliot play with the rocks and truck together - they built a road and then parked the truck.  I did get another truck later in the week, and it was so worth it to see the expression on Gray's face when he saw that he had TWO trucks!!  We may be needing a few more rocks!

At Christmas last year, we took Elliot and Gray to Theatre Under the Stars in Houston to see Sleeping Beauty and her Winter Knight, and they were so enthralled with the live performance than I agreed to take the two of them to Durham to see PJ Masks Live at the Durham Performing Arts Center.  In case you don't have preschoolers or grandkids who are that age, PJ Masks is a kids' cartoon about three crime-fighting kids and the villains they battle at night.  No parents or adults involved in this show! Our seats were up in the balcony (lots of stairs, but Gray was a trouper!) and it was sort of hard to hear the characters, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.  Gray sat on my lap the whole time and Elliot did for about half the time.  It wasn't my favorite show, but it was fun watching them enjoy it, and I love it that they are being introduced to live theater.

Now that Elliot is in school, I don't get to see her as much as I do Gray, but I am looking forward to having her come visit us during her year-round school breaks.  She and I spend time coloring (hearts, flowers, and snowflakes are our specialties) and writing or playing with her dolls.  If you don't believe in gender differences, just play with a couple of kids of opposite sexes.  Not to be stereotypical, but in my experience, boys are BUSY and girls tend to amuse themselves happily in one place for long periods of time.  And girls are generally quiet about it...  I love them both and am blessed to have had opportunities to experience both boys and girls as kids and grandkids.  I am so grateful for time spent with these precious little souls!

Back home in Texas, it's almost our second season, which would be summer.  For those of you not familiar with the climate here, our other season is 'not summer'.  Rex and I did some work around the house this weekend, getting it ready for incoming friends.  We had had a slip-free epoxy covering applied to the concrete in our downstairs outdoor area at the end of the year, and we've been waiting for the perfect time (not windy, not raining, and over 50 degrees for at least three days in a row) to complete the upstairs decks and those days finally came last week.  Hooray!  So we now have a 'Tiki Turquoise' deck (I got to pick the 'flake' colors, and now that's what my custom mix is called) and it looks fantastic with our new house color and our outdoor furniture.  Also last week, our boat dock was repaired and replaced after the damage it sustained in Hurricane Harvey and a couple of previous storms.  Yay!  And, wonder of wonders, the custom-made mailbox that I ordered last SEPTEMBER arrived while I was away, so Rex and I got it put together and installed.  We have been officially Tiki-fied (well, almost - we still don't own a golf cart!) now that we have an appropriately beachy flamingo mailbox.

Yes, life is good here.  If you are stuck someplace that it is still cold or even snowing, God forbid, you know where to come.  We love company!  I can't wait to have some of my p2P friends down this weekend, and then our Paducah friends Judy and Randy here the next.  Bring on the sunshine!

Have a WONDERFUL week!

Jan

Book Report:  I am laughing out loud at the book I'm reading this week!  It's called The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.  I describe it as Forrest Gump meets A Man Called Ove, and it is hysterical.  I finished Flora, by Gail Godwin, but hated the ending.  Happy reading - please share your favorites with me!

Fantastic Family Fun

You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.

- Desmond Tutu

Week 13: F is for...

When I saw that the prompt for last week was 'F is for...' I knew I was in luck, because I knew I would be with my family for most of the week!  I never have any problems have fun when I'm around the people I love most in the world, so I knew finding 'F' pictures would be easy.

Friday the 13th was Kim's birthday, and my sister Kim's birthday is also on the 13th (in a different month), so you can imagine that we do not consider the 13th bad luck in our family! This past weekend was also reunion week for Kim's class at Duke, so it just made sense for us to gather in North Carolina for the weekend.  Kim's and Blake's flight came through Houston, so I was able to join them and sit with Kim and Morgan for the flight to NC.  It was Morgan's first flight, and what a champ she was!  She slept all the way through both flights, coming and going!  We landed on time Thursday evening, gathered our bags and assorted baby gadgets, and took a ride to the rental car place.  Kim and Blake got their first taste of minivan life (as adults, anyway) and I think Markee is ready to make that leap.  Kim is not quite there yet, but those of you with more than one child know how much sense those sliding doors and extra seats make!

I'll never forget our first minivan - we got a Plymouth Voyager the first or second year they were available.  It was blue, and it was the first new car I had ever owned, and the first one I bought myself.  I was thrilled to trade in my two-tone (brown over white) Mercury Monarch, which was not the least bit child-friendly.  Two more minivans followed - a Dodge Caravan and a Dodge Grand Caravan - until I switched to a Lincoln Navigator SUV.  I went from that behemoth (which is still running!) to a Toyota Prius, and I'm on my third edition of those.  Funny how you can track your life through your cars, isn't it?

Anyway, back to the weekend!  We got to Dave's house and were welcomed by him, the kids, and the smell of luscious pork tenderloin, balsamic Brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes, which we were ready for.  They were delicious!  Markee was in California, so we made quick work of getting the kids off to bed and cleaning up the kitchen, then we visited for a while.  On Friday, Kim's birthday, I got Elliot and Gray ready and dropped E off at school and took Gray to T-ball so that Kim and Blake could sleep as long as Morgan would let them.  I have to tell you that watching young adults who clearly have little experience with two-year-olds try to teach them T-ball skills is hilarious.  But it was fun, and Gray expended some energy, so all good.  

We had thought we might make it to Durham with Gray and Morgan at some point on Friday, but that didn't happen.  Naps and meal schedules just didn't coincide that day!  But we took Kim for sushi for lunch, and then we all went out for dinner after Dave got home.  We ate at Leli's Diner in Wake Forest, which was an excellent little place with a huge menu (and equally huge portions!).  Gray and I had gone grocery shopping while we were out earlier and had gotten some yummy looking cupcakes and several flavors of ice cream, so we sang happy birthday to Kim and had dessert at home.  The kids (and adults) were exhausted by the time everyone was tucked in.  Markee got home late and was not feeling great, so we all said goodnight and called it a day.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, but Dave had to work, so the rest of us drove to Durham for a visit to Duke Gardens.  Of course, we were not the only ones who had that idea on a beautiful spring day of a Duke reunion weekend.  It took us almost as long to find a parking place and walk back to the Gardens as it did to get to Durham!  But it was so worth it!  The gardens were beautiful - loads of tulips of all colors, pansies, daffodils, ferns, and many more varieties of flowers.  The wisteria is in bloom, and the dogwoods are just coming out.  The azaleas were blazing!  We threw pennies in the fountain and the kids went gaga over the giant fish in the pond.  We saw ducks and turtles, too, but no frogs.  We got a snack and some Locopops at the Terrace Cafe and had a little picnic while we were there.  Kim's college friend Sara joined us in the garden, and then Kim, Blake, Morgan and Sara went to some of the reunion activities while Markee and I took the kids back home for a nap.  Later, we babysat for Morgan so that Kim and Blake could go to the class party, and Dave grilled some humongous steaks for us.

We went to Simply Crepes (I crave their Creme Brulee' Oatmeal - thanks, Jenny A!) for Sunday brunch, and Kim, Blake, and Morgan went back to Durham for more reunion fun.  Dave watched Elliot and Gray so that Markee and I could get pedicures, then we spent the afternoon just chilling and waiting for the impending storms to hit.  Thankfully, they waited until bedtime to arrive and had fizzled out by the time they hit here.  Greensboro was not so lucky!  We were able to enjoy my favorite meal of burgers on the grill with maybe a little more cupcakes and ice cream.  While I get to stay here all week, Kim and her family had an early morning flight home - thankfully, they made it home safely and on time.

I am so blessed to have kids who love each other and who enjoy spending time with each other and their families, and I'm even more blessed to have gotten to spend time with them.  Sure hope your family has fun together, too!

Jan

PS  Almost forgot to update the Book Report: currently, I'm reading Flora, by an author I used to love and whom I had forgotten, Gail Godwin.  I just finished The Alice Network, by Kate Quinn, The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy, The Mercer Girls, by Libbie Hawker, and The Lying Game, by Ruth Ware.  I really enjoyed The Alice Network and got a kick out of re-reading the Pimpernel - made me want to watch Anthony Andrews again.  I always love reading historical novels of things I never heard of, and The Mercer Girls was one of those.  Except I did know about Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!  Hated the ending of The Lying Game though...

Only in Paducah

Despite the forecast, live like it's spring!

                                                                                              - Lilly Pulitzer

Week 12: Spring

I had the best week last week!  I got to introduce three of my dearest friends to my wonderful hometown of Paducah, Kentucky.  The trip didn't end up being exactly what we had planned - you know how life gets in the way sometimes - but it was just perfect.  Our original plan was that two of my good Durham friends, Dana and Deanna, would meet my ex-Galveston, now Tennessee friend Mary Jo and me in Nashville, make the short drive to Paducah, and spend a few days exploring.  So, while we all flew to Nashville (except Mary Jo, who lives nearby), we didn't get there at the same time or leave at the same time, so we sort of did the town in shifts.  What that meant for me was I got to stay longer and see more hometown friends than I would have, so it was all good.

If you've never been to Paducah before, or if you've only driven through it or spent time there without knowing what to do, add it to your list of places to go when you have a few days to explore, relax, and enjoy all it has to offer.  Paducah is not a place most people just happen on, although four US Highways (60, 62, 68, and 45) and an interstate go right through it - you sort of have to want to be there.  And there are plenty of reasons that you might want to be!  You may not know that Paducah is a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, thanks to the efforts of my friend and high school classmate, Mary Hammond, who works tirelessly to promote Paducah and all of its charm through her position as the Executive Director of the Paducah Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Paducah is also home to the National Quilt Museum (Quilt Week is coming up next week!!) and it brought artists of all kinds to town due to its forward-thinking Artist Relocation Program, which revitalized the Lower Town section of the city.  Situated at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, and less than 30 miles away from the Cumberland and Mississippi Rivers, Paducah is the consummate river town.  In the spring, summer, and fall, riverboats full of tourists dock at the foot of Broadway, and barges pushed by towboats travel up and down the rivers every day.  And you know that where there is river traffic, there are railroads.  I grew up listening to the sound of trains passing in the night, so it was almost comforting to hear the wail of the horn and the clackety-clack of the wheels in the middle of the night.

Because the city was formed due to its proximity to the rivers, you might deduce that flooding can be an issue.  Paducah had three major floods - two in the 1800s and the big one in 1937, when 90% of the town was under water.  After that debacle, a floodwall and earthen levee system were built around over 12 miles of the perimeter of the town.  The concrete wall (3 miles long) is 14 feet high and has twelve pump stations and 47 vehicular openings (which are closed with pressurized gates in case of the threat of flooding).  Tested as recently as 2011, when the river crested at 55.03 feet (the '37 flood was at 60 feet, but flood stage is 50 feet!), the floodwall has saved Paducah more than once.  Gates have already been closed once this year!

The wall was constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1939 and 1949, and today, the downtown portion of the wall is covered in gorgeous murals depicting the history of Paducah.  This project is called Paducah Wall to Wall and was created by artist Robert Dafford and staff of Lafayette, Louisiana.  In addition to being beautiful, these painted panels tell the story of Paducah from its founding by William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) to its heyday in the 50s when Paducah became the Atomic City.  It's a great way for visitors to get a feel for the city I proudly call home.

OK, so much for the commercial - Paducah really is a great place to visit and an even better place to grow up!  But back to the present.  Dana, Mary Jo, and I arrived in Paducah on Monday afternoon and checked in to our downtown boutique hotel, The 1857 Hotel.  Our room was on the front of the building, so we had a great view of Kentucky Avenue and the historic Market House Theatre.  We were really hungry, so we headed off to Tribeca for a quick bite of Mexican food, then we walked by the huge Carson Center for Performing Arts (holds 1800 people - not bad for a city of 25,000!) on our way to admire the floodwall murals and check out the riverfront.  We took the obligatory 'Port of Paducah' photos and I explained about the geography of Paducah and its rivers.  After we'd seen all of the murals, we walked down Broadway to 9th street and then headed back down Kentucky Avenue to our hotel.  Like many small towns, the combination of the interstate (I-24 goes right through Paducah, too) and the building of a mall out by the interstate was almost the death knell for our downtown.  While it is not yet the vibrant downtown full of shops, movie houses, businesses, and people that I grew up with, it is not dead by a long shot!  I love seeing new businesses opening up each time I return.

Next it was time for a driving tour, past the home and neighborhood where I grew up, with detours past my schools, church, and high spots like Noble Park and Hancock's Fabrics.  Dana and I have another friend in Durham who also grew up in Paducah, so we went by her old house, too.  Dana was driving, and I'm telling you that by the time she left, she could have given tours of the town!  As a real highlight, we went out to Barkley Regional Airport and actually saw a plane land!  Paducah is not big on air traffic, but if you want to go to Chicago, no problem!  Thankfully, it's only two hours to Nashville, and you can get most anywhere from there.  Our next stop was the Coke Plant, which is a fun Art Deco building just down the street from my childhood home.  It's been refurbished and re-purposed and is now home to a Mellow Mushroom, Dry Ground Brewing Company, Piper's Tea and Coffee, and more.  Mary Jo and I enjoyed a local brew and then we headed back downtown - it was almost dinner time, and Doe's was calling me.  Doe's Eat Place is right on the corner of 2nd and Broadway, and it serves legendary steaks, tamales, and chocolate cobbler, among other delicious things.  Now Mary Jo and Dana are Doe's fans, too.

Tuesday was our day for the National Quilt Museum, so we needed to start off fortified!  My friend Judy met us at Gold Rush for a hearty breakfast, and then we walked over to the museum, which was the initial reason for this trip.  As always, the museum exceeded expectations - I have never known anyone, male or female, who has been disappointed with their visit to the Quilt Museum.  In fact, "mind blown" is the typical response.  This is not your grama's quilt museum!!  If you like art of ANY KIND, do yourself a favor and visit this museum someday.  Just don't go during Quilt Week if you're not a quilter!  You can read Dana's thoughts about the museum and Paducah HERE.  Although it is mostly under wraps due to renovation, I wanted to show off our impressive City Hall, which was designed by the architect Edward Durell Stone, who designed the Kennedy Center, MOMA, Radio City Music Hall, and loads of other important buildings back in the 60s.  Thankfully, we were able to go inside and get a feel for things, even if we couldn't see the outside.

No one was hungry at lunch time, so we decided to go back to Hancock's while it was open.  Dana may have purchased a bit of fabric after being inspired at the museum.  Since we were practically there anyway, I took my friends across the river to Metropolis, home of Superman.  I think that seeing Metropolis and how depressed (and depressing) it is made me appreciate Paducah and its efforts even more.  Once back in Kentucky, we picked up Judy and took off for Parker's Drive In out in Lone Oak (a suburb of Paducah) for a little afternoon pick me up.  After that, we drove by my mom's last house, returned Judy to her house, and did a drive by of Whitehaven, the only interstate highway Welcome Center that is in what used to be a private home.  Next we were off to see my dear former next door neighbor, Mrs. Yaffe, who is in a nursing home now.  Dana and Mary Jo are good sports, and it was wonderful to see Mrs. Yaffe.  When we left, the nurses admonished us to hurry back to our hotel before the storm hit.  Storm?  Had we missed something?  Turns out we had - major tornado warnings, in fact.  So we moved the cars over to the porte cochere at the Carson Center (in case of hail) and then we hunkered down in the interior hallway of our hotel until the danger passed.  Thankfully, it passed just in time for our evening meal at Paducah's only farm to table restaurant, the Freight House.  One of my oldest and dearest friends, Mary met us along with Judy for this fabulous dinner.  Oh my, was it good!  We closed down the restaurant - it takes time to share three desserts...

Since Mary Jo was heading for home on Wednesday afternoon, we needed to squeeze in a few important bits, namely, lunch at Starnes Barbecue.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, as breakfast comes first.  We walked over to Kirchoff's Bakery and Et Cetera Coffeehouse for some breakfast foccacia and the necessary caffeine, and we may have lingered a bit, as our schedule was light today.  We wandered over to the Paducah School of Art and Design and looked around it, rode around a bit more, and then met Judy for our BBQ fix.  Aaaaahhh.  Now I can say I have been home!  We said goodbye to Mary Jo there, and Judy headed home, too.  Dana was ready for another trip to Hancock's, so I met another good friend, Rick, for a drink while Dana shopped.  Rick and I enjoyed watching the par 3 tourney at the Masters and caught up on each other's lives.  One of the things I appreciate most about going home is getting to see old friends and I especially appreciate that they make time for me.  Dana picked me up and we rode around a bit more before it was time to welcome Deanna and meet Mary and Judy for dinner at Cynthia's Ristorante.  First, Mary and Judy stopped by our hotel for a drink (yes, it has a fabulous bar!) and Deanna got there just in time to share a drink before we walked over to Cynthia's.  Believe it or not, I had never eaten at Cynthia's!  I can assure you that this won't be my only trip there - it was fabulous!  Again, we closed down the restaurant.  Another great day in the books.

Dana would be leaving us on Thursday afternoon, so I asked my friend Kim if he would have any time to take us on a tour around Lower Town.  He's a Paducah Ambassador and a fabulous storyteller, photographer, and lover of Paducah history, and best of all, he was free to show us around!  We opted for a light breakfast at Kirchoff's again, and then we picked up Kim at the auto repair shop - sometimes things just work out!  Dana drove, and Kim directed and narrated - Deanna and I just listened, looked, and learned.  Kim is a wealth of knowledge - I learned so much!  Before long, it was time for lunch, this time with Mary and Mary, who was back from her UNESCO meeting in Iowa City.  Judy had taken off for New York City, so we missed her and Mary Jo.  Kim joined us, and we all met at Artisan Kitchen, which was also a new place for me.  Score another big win!  Everyone's meal looked so good, and they had tea with mint!  We dropped Kim off to get his car, and then we had just enough time to stop by a little shop called Ephemera that I've been wanting to visit for years.  It was so cool - an art studio and shop, run by the delightful Kristen, who I learned is the daughter of Jack Reese, who was Chancellor of the University of Tennessee when I was there.  So fun!  Even better, my friend and classmate Dick was there with some of his friends, so we got to reconnect and see what they were working on.  And even more better - they invited Deanna and me to join them on a guided tour of the Quilt Museum the next morning!

We said goodbye to Dana and sent her off to Nashville, and then Deanna and I did the floodwall murals, the riverfront, and a walking tour of downtown.  This time, I used the Paducah Cell Phone Tour, which was very informative.  Again, I learned a few things.  Oh, and I also re-met one of my junior high teachers, who works at the Visitors Bureau with Mary.  Whenever I'm in Paducah and on my own, I always wonder if I'm seeing people that I used to know.  Then I started recognizing children of people I used to know.  Sadly, now it's probably grandchildren I would recognize!  Mom left here ten years ago, so it's been a long time since I've had family here, but it will always be home.  After walking around as much as we wanted to, it was time for the driving tour.  You may be seeing a pattern here!  We ended up having dinner at Flamingo Row, out near the mall.  Man, they still have some scrumptious burgers there!

On Friday, we started our day at Kirchoff's again (never had the same thing twice!) and then walked over to the Quilt Museum to meet with Dick and his friends.  Our guide, Robert, is also a Paducah Ambassador, and he did a wonderful job.  I will have to share what I learned with Dana and Mary Jo!  They had rotated a few of the quilts in the main gallery, and one of the side galleries had a new exhibit that the early crew would have liked better.  The new exhibit was quilts by Japanese artists, and they were fabulous!  After being inspired by the quilts, we wandered downtown a bit more until it was time for lunch, which we decided to enjoy at Shandie's, also downtown.  This time, I got my catfish fix.  Mmmm....  After lunch, we spent some time in the Market House Museum, learning more about Paducah.  Have I mentioned that my friends are really good sports?  If it was more history than they wanted, they didn't say so!  We opted to take a little break this afternoon and watch the Masters and maybe even have a bit of a nap. After all, we had to rest up for dinner!  Tonight, we met Mary, Mary, and their significant others, Jon and Paul, at Max's, where we had another great meal.  I had to laugh - in landlocked (but near the lakes) Paducah, I had had silver carp, scallops, catfish, and tuna this week, balanced out by my Doe's steak and Flamingo Row burger.  And it was all great!  After dinner, I realized that I had not taken Deanna to the Coke Plant, so off we went!  All too soon it was time to pack up and be ready to check out, because we had an early morning coming, and snow was in the forecast!

Sure enough, it snowed!  In April!  Yikes!  But it wasn't bad, although we did have to clean off the car.  We popped by Red's Donuts and grabbed some of those delicious balls of dough. (Did you know Paducah has a Krispy Kreme connection?)  Paducah is blessed with some really good doughnut shops!  Then we were off to WKCTC (West Kentucky Community and Technical College, aka Wicky Ticky) to meet up for our tour of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which is where my dad worked.  The plant, as it was known, was one of three places in the US that enriched uranium for bombs and later for nuclear reactors.  It was a highly secure place - I really only remember going there once the whole time Daddy worked there (which was from 1952 until 1985).  The Department of Energy offers tours there several times a year, now that it is no longer in operation and is, in fast, being demolished.  It is a HUGE complex - almost too big to fathom - and it is sad to see it in the shape it's in now, even though I understand why that is.  In its heyday, it used as much energy as the city of St. Louis or Washington DC used (in a day).  The tour was largely done in the bus - we got to go inside the communications building and we drove through one of the buildings where Daddy worked - but I'm so glad I went.  Thanks for humoring me, Deanna!

After the plant tour, it was time for Deanna's introduction to nirvana via hickory smoked pit barbecue, so back we went to Starnes.  Had we been in our car out at the plant, we would have dropped into Leigh's, which was Daddy's favorite, but it was too far to go back out there.  We had time to run by the PSAD so Deanna could see it and to drop by Ephemera again - and we saw Dick there, again, too! Oh, that reminds me - our quilt show guide, Robert, was on the plant tour, too, as were Char and her husband, who run the horse-drawn carriage business downtown.  They will be busy in these next few weeks, once the dogwoods actually bloom for the Dogwood Festival and of course for Quilt Week, which is next week.  One last trip to Kirchoff's for cookies for the road, and we were off to Nashville and our respective homes.

It was a spectacular week for me, as I love sharing Paducah with friends.  Let me know when you are ready to go and I'll be happy to show you around!  And I'm thinking Judy, Mary, Mary, and I could be Paducah food ambassadors.....that could be a real business, y'all!  And while it may sound like we did all there is to do in Paducah, I could write an even longer blog about the things we didn't do!  Paducah is full of surprises!

Jan

PS - You may want to plan now for the next full solar eclipse, which will be on 8 April 2024, visible in Paducah (again)!