Wholy Craziness Batman

It has a been a very, very crazy couple of weeks. Of course we had a wonderful little Ice Storm. Which we survived no problem, just a couple of power flickers. Then right after that we had both got sick. Fred was first (for a change), he came down very suddenly with the flu. The nasty one that sticks around for about two weeks. Thankfully we got him in to the Urgent Care Center within 48 hours of onset so they were able to give him some medication. Anti Viral medication and some pain killers. Then a few days later I landed at the doctor. Luckily I didn't have the flu, I had a chest wall infection. Which may sound terrible and worse than the flu but, it isn't really. I went on some antibiotics and some awesome pain killers. Slept for the most of three days and I was back to pretty much normal. The later half of that week was spent getting ready to leave for Cleveland. We cleaned the house, did a ton of laundry, and packed for our week long vacation.
Sunday afternoon we packed up the car and the cat and we took a nice drive up to Cincinnati to see our friends, and pseudo siblings, Dave and Erin. We stopped and had dinner with them, visited for a little while and then headed up to Cleveland. We arrived late Sunday night, and simply set up the bed and crashed.
Monday was spent just hanging out with Janelle and Julie at the house. Fred and I didn't want to go anywhere after spending six hours in the car the day before. Also we wanted to give Raek a chance to adjust to his surroundings with us there. Ben and Janelle went out for their 'Pi Anniversary' while we watched Julie. That was another night we went to bed early.
Tuesday morning, Fred and I woke up on a very deflated air mattress. I'm not sure if I crawled out of bed or fell out. But that morning I had a photo shoot to do. That was the reason we actually decided to go up. After the shoot I spent pretty much the whole day editing pictures. If you would like to see them they are on my business website.
Wednesday was a huge highlight for me. We (Fred, Janelle, Julie, and Me) went to Kirtland, Ohio. I had never been there, and what a wonderful place. The Temple was closed. It is only open on the weekends in January and February. But we were able to go around the church owned sites. What was fantastic was the fact that we were the only ones there. Julie fell asleep in the car so Janelle sat with her while we went on the tour. We had a wonderful private tour with Elder and Sister Harris. We the took us into all of the buildings we wanted to go in. Including the ones that were closed. Usually when it's really cold out they don't go into the Saw Mill and the Ashery. They were soo cool. The mill was powered by water and it took 7 minutes to cut a single length of wood. It may go a little faster when the water level was high but that was the avarage rate. And a lot of the machinery is the original gear. It was escavated and restored to be put on display. And they are all in working order. It could start up tomorrow. Can you believe it. I'd also never heard of an Ashery. But they treated fire ashes and turned it into lye, and then into potash or pearlash. They would use these things to make soap, glass, gun powder, and several other things. I wonder why we still don't uses ashes for those things. It is a great way to recycle things. Yes it requires more labor that way but I'm sure we could find a way to moderize it to be more efficent. Okay I maybe crazy but I thought it was awesome. Next we walked up to the Whitney House. Yes it was small but what an adorable little home. And for the day it was really a large house for only five people. The little room on the right is the kitchen. It was a nice size kitchen. It was almost as big as the one in my house, and almost an entire wall was an oven. There was a big table in the middle to work on. I found myself a little jealous of it. As I stood in the room I could almost feel the warmth from the stove, and smell fresh baked bread. Up and downstairs were bedrooms. We couldn't see those because they were too small for everyone to fit in. The next room was where the main fireplace was, another bread oven, a dining table, and rocking chair. It was kind of the everything room. I was so well put together, I could almost see a family sitting in there. Playing and crawling all over each other trying to keep entertained. Even though no one had lived in it for years you could still feel the love that resided there. Our next stop was over to the Whitney Store. That was a serious step back in time. My family did historical re-enactiments so when I walked into that store I felt like a kid again. I saw things that I used to camping with. Tin lanterns, calico fabics, bonnets, natural leathers and corn cob checkers. A big part of my heart jumped for joy. Those times camping with my family were some of the best I remember. Yes I complained sometimes during it but I look back on them fondly. And that store brought back every happy memory I had. I loved it!
The rest of the week was spent watching movies, eating food, (yes folks I ate) and playing with Julie. Oh how cute she was. By the end of the week she was so comfortable with us around that she would try to follow us around and miss us when we left the room. Of course by tomorrow she'll have forgot we were there at all. Julie loved the cat. Raek wasn't so sure about it. Raek was terrified of Julie. Thursday morning though Raek figured out that he was faster than Julie and that she couldn't climb stairs. So he would get up on the stairs and Julie would sit at the bottom, or hold on to a couple of stairs and standing. She would just stand there and watch Raek as he watched the fish. Also Raek figured out the she could get close enough to her so he could look at her. Then she would move toward Raek and he would walk away and Julie would follow. They did that for almost 30 min. It was adorable. I wanted to get a picture but the camera was upstairs and if I went up there Raek would have gone into hiding.
Today we drove home. Started unpacking and doing laundry. We watched our shows we recorded and had fast food for dinner. A perfect way to end a vacation. I just hope it doesn't take too long to recover. ;)