Another lovely, sunny day here. Yes, two in a row! How wonderful! Today was our 27th Anniversary and we decided to take the day and "wander." We left pretty early in the morning and went to Indiana. Before we got out of our own county, Clint visited a Western wear store and purchased a beautiful dress jacket for a very, very low price. It's very nice and fit him perfectly; no altering needed. That was a great bargain.

We went on to Shipshewana and by the time we got there, it was lunchtime. We ate at a local restaurant and then headed on downtown. We wouldn't have had to eat since so many places were giving free samples of stuff like cheese, bologna, kettle corn, even free pretzels at one establishment! But by then it was too late.

I actually only bought one piece of fabric today and that's really good for me after visiting Ship. I found a piece of muslin discounted to 50 cents. Wow! What a big spender! That's all for me today. No other purchases whatsoever unless you count a jar of honey and two cans of soup because they were grocery bargains. Not even a pop or cookie, which is pretty common for me to purchase at least every few days. I decided I wanted a coke midday and while I was in a store, Clint was going to go get me one out of a machine. When he walked up to purchase it, he noticed another kind of pop had been left there. Apparently someone couldn't get the machine to work and gave up before their pop can dropped into the slot. It was still cold and so I took that instead! How can you beat a deal like that? Happy anniversary to us!

Later in the afternoon we went home through Centreville and visited the Home and Garden show at the County Fairgrounds. We saw lots of people that we knew and did more visiting than shopping. We purchased nothing there, but got a little free candy!

On the way out of town we passed JT and Kori. Soon our phone rang and it ws JT asking us if we'd like to join them for a sub sandwich and trip to the park with Emma. We turned around, met them in Centreville, got subs, and followed them to the old little league field and park for a bite of supper. Emma was all dressed in some cute summer clothes and a little embroidered baseball cap. She looked really sweet. She loved the yard toys at the park and learned that sand is a really fun thing to play in. It seemed unusual to remember that not that long ago JT was a little guy spending alot of his time down at that park. When we lived in Centreville, our house was only a few blocks from the little league field. JT's summers were consumed with little league. He was an excellent player and his team went to state one year and finished very well. That was quite an accomplishment for a little town like Centreville competing against big city teams. He was the 2nd or 3rd place homerun hitter in the derby at state that year. He would have placed higher but some fan on the sidelines reached out to catch the ball he hit as it went by and it was knocked out of the home run range. Really a bad deal for JT. The judges would make no exception even though it was obvious that left untouched it would almost surely have been a homer.

After we arrived home I set to work with the last few minutes of sunlight and raked one of my flower beds. I got it all raked, but didn't get all the debris hauled away. I put much of it in the compost pile. I opened the chicken pen and let the chickens roam the yard til nearly dark. This was a big treat for them. They scratched around the compost pile most of the time they were out. They enjoy getting to eat green grass for a change and hunt for insects around the yard. If I wait long enough, they will voluntarily go into their coop when it starts getting dark and then I can just shut their door without having to "herd" them. Efficient creatures.

It was a lovely day and the commemoration of 27 very happy years. The day we got married it was a typically chilly spring day. If I remember correctly it rained all morning and most of the afternoon. We were married at 5 in the evening. Right before the wedding it cleared off nicely and the sunset was gorgeous. We had a picture taken after the ceremony out along the farm fence at the west end of the Locust Grove parking lot, with the sunset in the background. It's my favorite of our wedding pictures.

Still haven't heard from anyone on their favorite flowers. But here's another clue on my favorite flower: I have read that it derives its name from association with the Crusades. Blessings, LORI