Spencer County: Lincoln State Park

We want to try to hit as many state parks as we can during our 92 county tour, and there was one in Spencer County! There was also a national park, but we ran out of steam before we got to it. I mentioned in an earlier post that Abraham Lincoln spent most of his boyhood in Indiana, so the national park {we heard} has some of the whole step-back-into-the-time-period thing. It had just been such a hot and humid day that by the end of our visit to the state park, we were done and in need of showers and air conditioning.

But anyway. Here it is: Lincoln State Park.

 We decided to start our visit by heading to the lake to see if they did canoe rentals. They did...and kayaks and paddleboats. Given that my paddling abilities are better than my rowing abilities, we opted for a paddleboat instead of a canoe.

We made our way all around Lincoln Lake, and it was a gorgeous ride, but MAN was it hot out there in that sun! We were soaked with sweat by the time we were done. And I'm pretty sure most of you could smell me from your house.

After we made our way back to the starting line and turning in our boat, we decided to hike one of the longer trails in the park. We were glad to be in the shade with some relief from the blazing hot sun.

Except.

The trails were NOT well-marked at all. We were lost inside of 10 minutes. :(

And there were SO MANY spider webs at face level. Apparently no one had been out hiking for a while. These webs spread all the way across the trails and they were right up there where we couldn't see them until we ate them. After getting tangled up in about the sixth one, even RYAN was so over the hiking. We stumbled upon a driving road, so we made a sharp left and found our way back to our car and just left. We were sad that the hiking hadn't worked out, but honestly it was so hot, that it was probably just best.

So that was our hot and muggy day at the state park!

Spencer County: Santa Claus, Indiana

Okay so remember when I started these county tours and I told you I'm not much of a history buff? I guess it depends on what KIND of history. I didn't fare so well in school learning about battles and war generals, but I'm not gonna lie...learning how Santa Claus, Indiana got its name had me all sorts of intrigued. So if you can believe what you read on Wikipedia, here's the basis of the story.

The town was originally named Santa Fe, but in 1856, when they tried to establish a post office, their application was rejected because there was already a Santa Fe. So they held some meetings, decided on Santa Claus instead...and that's what they became! It's not a very big town, but it's grown tremendously in the last 25 years. They get letters to Santa every year, and a group of volunteers known as the elves {naturally} make sure every letter gets answered. They even have their own postmark for December, and each year it's created by a student at the local high school. I think that's pretty cool.

Ryan said this town should be my happy place since it's all Christmas, all year long. Christmas music, Christmas stores...Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! {He's right.}

And so it was that we set about to see the sights of Santa Claus, Indiana!

Interestingly enough, one thing this town does NOT have much of? Places to eat. So we selected this little pizza joint and went inside. 

It wasn't very busy when we were there, so we had a chance to meet the owner. Super nice guy who treated us like we were his best ever customers. We got the buffet and he brought us breadsticks on the house AND custom made a pizza for us. Impressive!! {And the food was so good!}

After lunch, we went shopping at one of the Christmas stores that was open. {Sadly, not all the stores were open on Friday...by this late in the year, some are only open on the weekends, so we had to miss a few.}

Then we had to find our coffee shop for the county!!

When I did my online research, I could actually only find one coffee shop {if there are others, they must not be online!!} and it was brand new this year! WHEW! Thanks for opening up for us! It's called the Kringle Haus Werkstatt and it's right there in Santa Claus.

It's owned by an engaged couple, Steve and Becky, and their vision was to make a coffee shop that also features the work of local people! So they have a few people who provide baked goods to go with the coffee, a local winery has a satellite location inside for wine tastings, and then all kinds of local artists bring in their products to sell in one section of the coffee shop. They had pottery and furniture and jewelry and woodwork and more. Gorgeous pieces. And Steve has his woodshop right there too, and you can watch him work while you drink your coffee! A unique and creative partnership for a coffee shop!

Because it was SO HOT out, Ryan and I each got white chocolate frappes, and they were magnificent. I so love a frappe.

Thanks, Santa Claus, for giving us such a great time in your town!! It was fun! {And weird...to be in so much Christmas-ness on a 95 degree day with 100% humidity!

I Did It!!!

Oh you guys!!!! YOU GUYS!!! I made it through the Great Dental Event of 2014! I am pre-empting my vacation chatter to tell you how it went...since you were all so great to pray for me!!

Let's start with the night BEFORE, okay?

So the dentist told me that the night before the procedure, I'd need to take some anti-anxiety meds and some sleeping pills. They said they'd call that in to my pharmacy the day before.

Well among my FIVE separate nightmares surrounding this ordeal, was a dream about how the prescriptions didn't get called in and I went in to the whole mess wide awake and wide aware. So the day before, I called the dentist to let them know about my crazy fears and to make sure the whole thing was set for me. They assured me it was. They also said I'd only be getting happy sleepy pills. The anti-anxiety meds had been canceled because the dentist felt like I could handle the procedure without them. Remind me not to put my best foot forward next time I have a consult. I overplayed it, it seems.

Anyway. Around 3 pm, I called the pharmacy to make sure my prescription was ready for pickup. They had no record of it. ANYWHERE. I asked if it might have gotten called into another location. Nope. He'd checked the whole database of all stores. I didn't exist.

So I called BACK to the dentist's office, and the sweet front office girl assured me she had talked to the pharmacist HERSELF and she would call back to find out what was happening. She called me back a few moments later and said he had it ready to go for me. At the right location.

I made my way to the pharmacy counter after work and stood in a long line. It was so long, in fact, that I had to begin making a little curve around the chairs...and then people got in line behind me. I heard the pharmacist tell the lady in front of me there were ONE HUNDRED orders in front of hers, and perhaps she should come back.

Before I could even pause to be thankful that I knew mine was ready, the guy in line behind me walked ahead of me to the counter. Not wishing to be the second grade wannabe who threw a fit and yelled "HE CUTTED!!!!!!!!" I gave the guy behind me a look like Can you believe he just did that?!?!?! and resumed waiting. And then the guy behind me cut right in front of me as well.

Am I invisible? Is there some weird cutthroat free-for-all at the pharmacy that I don't know about that put me behind the game?

At last I got a turn at the counter, and was promptly told my prescription would be ready in about ten minutes.

Of course.

They finally got my prescription in my hands...and out the door I went with two tiny pills destined to make my life wonderful.

I kept myself very busy the night before, and I slept well, with no nightmares.

Woke up Tuesday morning thankful I was hyped up on Ibuprofen because the dull roar of the caffeine-less headache was unmistakable.

Here I am, ready to go:

I felt peaceful at this point - just a bit teary-eyed about the unknown. I took my pills when I got in the car and was pretty out of it most of the way to Fort Wayne.

I don't remember much about walking in; I just remember crying when they said Ryan couldn't let me have his phone and headphones for music. I was counting on that music. But they were afraid it would stimulate me too much and they said no. I sat in the chair, they put some medicine under my tongue and oxygen over my nose.

They also gave me nitrous, which turned out to be a grave error. I remember pulling the mask off my face and throwing up - and I'm so grateful I don't remember any more than that, because I don't do puke.

I was asleep while they did my fillings and who knows what else - and I remember waking up as they finished that. I was getting anxious, so they gave me more medicine. It was at that point that I got the hiccups. BADLY. I never get the hiccups. But it was so bad that the hygienist couldn't even work. So she left me alone for a bit, turned out the lights, and left the room to let me rest and fall back to sleep. I take that must have happened because I woke up later with her promising me we were ALMOST DONE.

{I told Ryan later that I didn't believe them for a minute. I've been to four childbirths. Everyone lies about time and positive progress just to simmer the patient down. I know the drill.}

When they were fully finished, it was 12:45 - almost five hours after they began. I stumbled out into the lobby and out to the car.

I looked a little something like this:

I'm smiling here. I just couldn't move my mouth. AND I had the hiccups again. Ryan took a video and I hiccupped all the way through it.

Ryan stopped to get me a frappe and some French fries. After that, I slept the rest of the way home. He bought me a coke, and I drank a little bit of that and fell asleep on the couch until dinner time.

People have been so sweet to me.

Ryan gave me a card:

And he took good care of me. He kept my coffee cup full and took care of everything at home so I could rest.

Lynne sent me flowers:

And my friend Amy made us chili so we didn't have to cook. And it was SO GOOD.

I rested all evening - with Miss Braeya Jo Jo by my side.

So thanks very much for all your prayers. I am sure the pain will hit at some point, but so far, I'm okay! And I'm so thankful there were no hidden surprises during the event!!!

Spencer County: St. Meinrad

** Before I start this post, can I be so bold as to ask you who are prayer-inclined folks to pray for me today? I have my great dental event this morning, and it's scheduled to last between 4-5 hours. My specific requests are that I will either be fully asleep or seriously SO loopy that I don't know what's happening to me during the procedure - and that my jaw will handle being open that long better than I think it will. And that they don't break my jaw during the thing. I ask for prayer for that only because I had a dream that it really happened, and it has me so. freaked. out. **

Back to our vacation.

Since school is back in session, Holiday World is only open on weekends, so we took our Friday off work to tour Spencer County, where Holiday World is actually located. This county was actually formed from the parts of two other neighboring counties and is named for Captain Spier Spencer, who was killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. A big claim to fame for this county is that President Abraham Lincoln lived in it from the time he was 7 until he was 21. There's actually a national memorial on the land where his family lived.

Please take note of my classy hair. God bless the wind. :)

{Note: over my right shoulder, you can see a cone looking thing sticking up above the trees. That is part of the bridge into Kentucky. Our hotel was literally across the street from Kentucky. The Ohio River is behind those trees, and the state line is right at the start of the river.}

We started our tour of the county by crossing to the opposite side to tour St. Meinrad Archabbey. We aren't Catholic and so I know dreadfully little about these sorts of things, but I did happen upon the information that there are only 11 archabbeys in the entire world, and only 2 of those are in the United States. {The other one is in Pennsylvania.} I figured it was rare enough that we should make sure we visit it to soak up the culture and architecture!

It was founded in 1854 by an Abbey in Switzerland. One of its main purposes is to educate leaders in the Catholic Church, and in fact, the day we visited, the students were arriving for the next term. We passed a lot of signs directing them!

They have a STUNNING church building - built back starting in 1900. Look at it:

 As we walked over the hill and it came into view, I said to Ryan, "How did they even ACCOMPLISH something this amazing in that time period? The brochure we picked up said it took seven years to build, and it was completed by monks and area townspeople who used sandstone quarried right there on the property, and hauled in mule-drawn wagons. The blocks were all cut by hand.

Unreal.

We were fortunate that no one was inside when we went through, so we were able to soak up some of the inside beauty as well:

After touring the church we took a walk through the grounds, enjoying a really tranquil rock garden area and making our way through the cemetery - hundreds of years of men who devoted their lives to this place!

Before we left, we stopped in the gift shop - which also had a casket company. I can honestly say I've never seen that combo before!

I really appreciate all the hard work and thought that has gone into making this beautiful place; it was an honor to visit and absorb everything it stands for!

Road Trip to Southern Indiana!

So here's the deal.

If you're not from Indiana, you might not know about Holiday World. It's an amusement park and water park just north of the Kentucky line. Here's a list of reasons {taken from their website} why you might want to visit it...and some help in understanding my thoughts toward a trip to this fine destination.

1. Two parks – Holiday World Theme Park and Splashin’ Safari Water Park – in one. I'm scared of all rides, so this is like double the fear.
2. TIME magazine named The Voyage the #1 Wooden Roller Coaster in America. Roller coasters make me sick and zooming over wood...well...refer to point number one.
3. Free soft drinks. Just sayin’ …You have my attention.
4. In 2013, USA Today proclaimed Splashin’ Safari to be the Best Water Park in the USA. Well if I'm going to go, I do want it to be the best.
5. The friendliest bunch of employees you’ll ever find – that’s why they’re called Hosts & Hostesses. Okay, I like that. Hope it's still true after they meet me.
6. Holiday World is the world’s first theme park (we opened, as Santa Claus Land, in 1946 – that’s nine years before Mr. Disney got started!). Impressive.
7. Voted the Cleanest Park in the World for more than a decade. We’re a bit fanatical. No wonder Ryan likes it so much! And clean is good.
8. Fun shows – with singing, dancing, and diving. But not at the same time … This sounds good.
9. Free parking. As does this.
10. Yummy food, from pizza and burgers to Thanksgiving Dinner. Reasonably-priced, too! I'll take the pizza and burgers. Not really a fan of Thanksgiving food.
11. Mammoth and Wildebeest – the two longest water coasters on the planet. Pray for me now.
12. Santa Claus. Every day. Now this, I like.
13. Free inner tube usage. Free Wi-Fi, too. Can I use the Wi-Fi in the inner tube??
14. Special menus for those with food allergies. Not me, but that's a nice thing to offer.
15. New for 2014: Mayflower swinging ship ride plus Friday Night Fireworks! I like fireworks but I'm not going on Friday. Sadness.
16. We’ve received nearly a thousand positive TripAdvisor.com reviews. I hope to be 1001.
17. Free sunscreen. (You know you always leave yours at home on the kitchen counter!) Impresive.
18. Holidog hugs. Kitty Claws, too. We left Braeya at home.
19. We’re in Santa Claus, Indiana. We’ve got that whole Mayberry vibe going on here. You’ll feel safe and happy in a sweet, old-fashioned way. I do like Mayberry.
20. Your family deserves it! So my husband says.

Ryan loves this place. LOVES IT. And as soon as we started dating, he started talking about visiting here. But the year we dated, we elected not to come because it would have meant spending the night away from home and that's just a whole can of worms I didn't want to mess with when we weren't married. And then last year we were up to our necks in home renovations, and we never had time to come. So that meant...this was our year.

Gulp.

And so it was that last Thursday, I packed these:

And this one got mad:

And when the husband got home, we did our pre-vacation photo:

And we hopped in the old car to head to Holiday World. I was both grateful and nervous for this trip. Grateful because tomorrow is the great dental event of 2014, and it was a merciful blessing to have this soaking up the weekend before so I didn't think about THAT. Nervous because I really don't like rides and big crowds and things outside my comfort zone.

We ate dinner on the road {It's a four hour drive, so we were going to be getting in late as it was} and stopped for coffee, of course, on the way.

I can only guess that what happened next has to be blamed on the coffee creamer. It was the ONLY thing we didn't have the same that evening. Two hours into our four hour trip, my stomach went on STRIKE. I felt crazy sick. Hot and cold, shaking and anxious, heart racing, absolutely sick to my stomach. There we were, in the winding hills of southern Indiana, as far from home as from our hotel, and I'm sick.

Not. A. Good. Situation.

We stopped a total of three times {where I managed to NOT get sick, but boy did I ever think about it} - and arrived safely at our hotel. I. Was. Exhausted.

And that's how we started our vacation. You can only imagine what was to come.

Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday was a lovely, low key day in our world. After church, we stayed home most of the day, watching Lifetime movies. {Husband of the year award for Ryan for not only enduring it, but kind of suggesting it!} We did venture out in the afternoon for some Starbucks and then while I wrote some blog posts, Ryan fixed our hot-dog-for-two dinner. And we got one of my favorite pictures of Braeya. BUSTED!!!

* Monday, I started getting the sniffle section of the cold Ryan so lovingly gave me. By that night, I just resorted to shoving a Kleenex in my nose to keep it from running. I knew he loved me when he still found me pretty in that state. We also had a chance to show our house {NOT while the aforementioned Kleenex was shoved up my nose} to a nice family, so we enjoyed doing that! And then we just relaxed the rest of the night.

* Tuesday I could NOT wake up. This was because I took Nyquil at midnight the night before, and when the alarm went off less than five hours later...it hadn't worn off. So the Keurig and I were GOOD friends at work that day. I finally woke up shortly before it was time to come home! Found out very last minute that author Colleen Coble would be speaking at the Greentown Library that night, so I took a carload of her fans and we went to hear her. LOVED that evening!! When I got home and hunkered down with Ryan to watch America's Got Talent and write my blog...the computer needed to update, and it took AN HOUR. Imagine my amusement. Some days just don't go as planned! :)

* Wednesday was Mom and Dad's actual anniversary, and they stopped by on their way home from a little getaway...to see us and to bring us treasures from Rise n Roll! We took their official 60th anniversary photo...so proud of them for that accomplishment! Ryan and I had a good day...it was my last day of work for this week. Took a couple of vacation days! And one of Ryan's patients brought him a present...wasn't that nice??

* I was off work Thursday, and it turned out to be a GREAT day to stay home, because it stormed and rained hard all morning. After I saw Ryan off to work {booooo} I became VERY productive!! A quick trip to the grocery...where I purchased my first ever decaf coffee in prep for the day before my dental event next week...can't have any caffeine that day. I also  packed for a quick getaway with Ryan. {I didn't say we packed LIGHT. I just said I packed.} After Ryan got home from work, we hopped in the car and headed south, of course getting coffee on the way!

* Friday morning, we woke up with the Ohio state line in view of our hotel window! We set out to tour Spencer County, which included a trip to St. Meinrad Archabbey, a shopping trip through Santa Claus, Indiana, and a paddle boat ride on a lake inside Lincoln State Park. It was something like 95 degrees that day with almost 100% humidity, so we were POOPED by the end of the day, but we had FUN!!

* And yesterday. OHHHH yesterday. Ryan and I went to Holiday World, marking my first ever time to a theme park. I rode one ride. And THAT was a huge accomplishment. I spent the rest of the day on observation decks, taking pictures of my brave husband, who can ride rides ALONE. We had a great day - despite seeing a lot of ill-fitting swimsuits, narrowly missing a puke fest by some random kid, and some "mild' overexposure to the sun. A great day together!

The Saturday Six

One.

So I pretty much dare you to get through this video without a stray tear or two. I can think of a few teachers who had this kind of impact on my life. God bless them! {Seriously!!!}

Two.

There is a POSSIBILITY that Ryan and I cannot be trusted with these bags opened in our presence. We will not tell you how many workouts we negated this week with the subsequent consumption of iced animal cookies. Anyone else feel our pain?

Three.

And speaking of scrumptious food...found these bad boys at the store and whipped them up to eat with chili. Tastes EXACTLY like the ones at the restaurant. Happiness in a biscuit.

Four.

Source

I don't have kids, but I LOVED this idea Kelly posted about this week. {Most of you probably read her blog anyway, so this is old news...} Her daughter went to kindergarten this week, and so Kelly hosted a back to school brunch for moms after drop-off at school. She thought it would be a good way for moms to get their minds off leaving their kids at school and was a good way to make new friends. I look forward to someday having less busy days when I can host random things like this. {Minus having kids. Maybe I'll host FOR moms so I can cook while they're dropping off!!}

Five.

Source

So last week I was all excited on the Saturday Six because I read that Jessa Duggar got engaged. And then this week...THIS NEWS for Jill. WHEW! It's a busy little time for these people!

Six.

And one more melt your heart video. Saw this one of a family that recorded a snippet every day of the first year of their daughter's life...and then compiled it into a six minute video. This little thing LOVES LIFE. And the dog. The parts with the dog are my favorite.