Who Washes Their Buttons?

It will take me awhile to get there, so bear with me and you'll find out who washes their buttons.

We picked up Steph and the girls at 9 a.m. for a little geo-caching. We drove to Thompson Station and then on to Spring Hill, TN---about 45 minutes away. Butch had lined up 8 caches for us. The conversation in the car is always fun---everyone talking over everyone else. Aside from the fact that the girls were with us this past week, we hadn't really done anything all together since August. Jordan had her iPod on and was already complaining that she was hungry. She said the she didn't have time for breakfast because Steph only gave her 15 minutes to get ready. Still she had on make-up, so I guess for a teenager, that wins out over food.

Our first "find" was down a little incline to some railroad tracks. Morgan had the GPS, told everyone the cache was on the other side of the tracks while she backtracked and found it on her own. After that, we didn't trust her. 

Our next stop was the Thompson Station where farmers brought their crops in the "olden" days. It has been re-built due to the history and Civil War battle that took place there. The cache was a good size magnetic box that I found---pretty proudly---I might add---as no one else could. Even Butch---"the pro" passed it up.

The next one was in a park. The name of the cache was "Re-shaping the earth, Tonka style".  We pulled up to a darling little sandbox full of Tonka trucks. What a cute idea! We all searched without much luck for awhile. Butch said we needed to go about it systematically as there at least 50 trucks there. We were looking for something "velcroed" on. We all wondered how it could still be there with kids playing with the trucks. Surely they would discover anything attached to a truck. We looked at all the trucks again, being careful to keep them separated. Even with that second look, Morgan passed it up. The "Master" found it. It was a tiny, bison tube---about 1/2" by 1 1/2" tube---tucked down between the wheels. No child would find something like that unless they were looking for it. Very fun and challenging "find." (Photo above---still can't get these photos to line up right).

From there, we continued further into the park. We hiked down a trail and then ventured into the woods. Jordan found it---a bat house mounted on a tree. When Butch went to open the lid, a mouse jumped out. The girls freaked. The photo below is of the mouse nest inside. Dilemma---disturb the nest to get to the box and log the "find", or leave it alone. We decided that the mouse would re-build if necessary. I'm glad we did because I got this darling little, PINK, Madame Alexander doll. She's a munchkin from the Wizard of OZ. I was happy. 

Steph was complaining that she hadn't found one. Butch set her up with an easy one in a parking lot. Morgan beat her to it. Butch set her up with another easy one in another parking lot and sent Morgan in the other direction. Now Steph was happy. You know how she can be when she's not happy!

There was one we decided not to look for as we were having trouble trying to get to it. It was supposed to be at some rec center. The girls had a fit when we drove up the driveway of what was clearly a farmhouse. We figured we had the coordinates wrong.

We stopped at Applebee's for lunch---they have a great 2 for $20.00 special---choice of 1 appetizer and 2 entrees for $20.00, plus we had a $5.00 coupon. Butch and Steph did the "deal", Morgan had a sandwich and I got the grilled shrimp and spinach salad (fabulous). Jordan wrecked all the savings with her order of the sirloin steak and shrimp skewers. She got away with it because Butch had gotten up to wash his hands. Great meal anyway.

Now we're finally to the buttons. On the way home, the girls were

 talking about someone being A.D.D. I said that

 I didn't really know what that was, but thought I might have that. I explained that I had made my "to do" list for the weekend. I hardly had gotten anything done on my list because I kept getting side-tracked. I spent 3 hours finishing up organizing my fibers from my stitching projects---putting each one in individual bags marked with their lot number and organized by color. When I finished that, I decided to wash my buttons. 

When I said that one line, the whole family chimed in---"why would you wash buttons?" I started to explain that I needed to do it so I could sort them for Christmas gifts. Everyone jumped on that---why would you spend time sorting buttons. Butch interrupted that he wanted to go on record right now, saying that he didn't want any buttons for Christmas. He told the girls that they might want to go on record now too---otherwise it would be dirty buttons for Christmas. Steph was the only sensible one. She said, "wait, if mom's making something, then I might want it." Good answer Steph---but it's not for you. 

Washing buttons isn't really anything I had ever done before. But, I purchased a big jar at the flea market---and they were dirty. Now I'm not an idiot, I didn't wash each one by hand. I filled the sink with hot, soapy water, and dumped the buttons in my large colander. Then I realized that I needed the colander to rinse and drain them, so I had to dump them out. I scooped them up by the handful and swished them around and then rinsed them. Look how filthy the water got! How does a jar of buttons get so dirty? I tried really hard to not let any go down the drain, but I failed to "catch" the straight pin. That can't be good. An $8.00 jar of buttons could cost me a service call from my favorite plumber, Jeff. Yes, I'm on a first name basis with him too. 

I'm actually doing the sorting tonight while I watch t.v. 

Oh, and one last thing---the girls decided that grandpa's "coolness factor" was greatly diminished by the 50's music in the car.