Clarksville Treasures

Here's a post for the benefit of those living in Clarksville. We recently had family visiting and so we finally made it up to the Amish store in Guthrie, KY which really just feels like it's right outside Clarksville. You just go past Sam's on whatever road that is (79, Wilma Rudolph, Guthrie Hwy, etc.) and turn left when you see 181. Just go up 181 a bit and you'll see (or smell) the Country Pantry on your left. They definitely believe in manure for fertilizer at the surrounding farms. Anyway, the store was pretty small and obviously a bit of a tourist trap but they had some really good deals on some things. I got over 2 lbs. of raw sunflowers for just over $4. They have bags of the marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal without the gross cereal part. So now we can put them on everything! I finally found cinnamon chips although they are the really tiny kind. Now I need to go back through Shar's blog and find that cookie recipe. I got an apple peeler for just over $20 and it is awesome. The same one on Amazon is $30. No more torture to make apple crisp and Mel's applesauce. I think the Country Pantry is worth stopping in and checking out.
And then I had to go to Gateway hospital for a thyroid ultrasound and found another awesome little store. The gift shop right inside the front entrance is worth going to the hospital for. They have Willow tree figurines! I haven't seen those anywhere else in Clarksville and the same figure that sells for $29.99 at Deseretbook.com (plus shipping) was going for $27.99 at the hospital shop. They seem to have really good prices on all sorts of cute little things. They have these really cool 3D bookmarks that are better than any I've ever seen before. I wanted to buy all of them. They had this adorable little pink New Testament (KJ version) for less than $10 I think. I was so tempted to get it for Rose so she could have her own special scriptures. There's no cross-referencing like our LDS versions of course but I don't think it'll bother her too much. So don't wait until you're in pain or being rushed to the hospital for an emergency--go now, when you can actually enjoy yourself. You'll be glad you did.
And a little note about my hospital visit itself. Tina and I have both had very pleasant experiences with the new Gateway hospital. Mine was an ER visit though so I didn't really get the full picture. For my thyroid ultrasound, I was told to report to the front of the hospital at noon. I got there a few minutes early and walked up to a desk where a lady gave me one of those coasters that buzz and blink when your restaurant table is ready. So I could walk around the hospital (and obviously the gift shop) until they were ready to register me. I had just finished at the gift shop when the thing went off so I went back to the desk and was sent to a registration booth. There they did the paperwork thing and put a nameband on my wrist and I'm sitting there wondering if I'm being admitted to the hospital or something. So they tell me to go sit in this huge waiting room where everyone had their own "area" of chairs, not just their own chair. A few minutes later I get called back to do the ultrasound and within 10 minutes I'm out of the hospital. The longest part was waiting for the coaster thing to buzz (which was awesome because I was busy in the gift shop) so I wondered if I was supposed to be at the hospital way earlier to do all the registering, etc. I asked the ultrasound lady if I should have done that and she said my appt. was actually for 12:45--they tell you to be at the hospital early on purpose. I got into the ultrasound room at 12:40 so they were even early. It's like they actually know what they are doing or something. I guess the true test would be to have a baby there, but....:-).