Some lovely spring weather we are enjoying. I heard peepers for the first time last week which is a certain sound of spring. Noah and Emily came for a visit Wednesday and stayed until Thursday morning. Noah is now not sleeping in a crib so he took the finch room bed and did just great. He enjoyed Alfred, of course, and the trains downstairs, as usual. He also “helped” me clean the garage while his mom cheered us on. (pictures to follow)
Tuesday was the Ides of March and the CIS drama/music department celebrated with a night of Shakespeare. The choir and orchestra presented a 20-minute program of music inspired by Shakespeare. The orchestra played two numbers from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream – the Wedding March and the Nocturne. Throughout the school were presentations of various acts from Shakespeare’s plays and guests could take in several during the evening. It was quite a shuffling act since many of my string players were also in these dramatic presentations. But, it turned out really well and it gave the orchestra a chance to show off a bit. Up until this year, the CIS advanced orchestra was ……um, well……not that fantastic. It was small and there were amazing musicians that did not participate. However, when CIS changed its start time to 8:30, all the amazing musicians just came out of the woodwork and we have made remarkable strides. And, people are noticing.
Thursday morning, Steve and I had a chat with a fellow at the MU retirement benefits office and were delighted to learn that he can retire with full benefits in four years! Actually, less than four years since his last day could be January 18th, 2015. Wow. That must mean we are old…..
Speaking of old, we oldsters are both assigned to advise the stake Young Single Adult committee (due to our callings) and they had a fun activity Friday night at a city park. It was beautiful weather so Steve loaded up our bikes into the back of the truck and we made a brief appearance with the youngsters before wandering around the park on our bikes. We cancelled out all that calorie-burning exercise, though, with a visit to Culver’s for some frozen custard afterward. But, at least we broke even? We also learned that Culvers is test-marketing a gluten-free bun. How wonderful will that be???
And, speaking of gluten-free, we had a celiac family from the Highlands Ward over for dinner on Saturday night and just stuffed ourselves with all kinds of delicious gluten-free Mexican food and cake. Mmmm. Then, I stayed up too late and watched “Despicable Me”. It was delightful! I want a minion.
Sunday was third for the month so Steve spoke in the University Ward. I didn’t have a speaking assignment but I decided to visit the Fayette Branch where, coincidentally, Steven (jr) had a speaking assignment. So, Steven, Tamara, me, and friend Jason Bell all ventured up to Fayette for the day. It is quite a small branch but full of incredibly nice people and they always have a pot-luck on the third Sunday so we got to stay for that! The Jamisons are in that branch and they are exploring going gluten-free so even I had plenty to eat. They brought tapioca pudding for dessert. MMMMMM – my mom made that all the time and it is so tasty (even though my dad called it “fish eyes in snot”)
So, it was a nice mid-March week here in Columbia.
I am finally taking some time to write a new blog. March just roared in and has left me wondering what happened to the first thirteen days of the month. CIS took students to the music festival at Central Methodist University on Friday, the 4th and that was an all-day affair. I always like going and this year, it was not even too stressful for me. Some years, I accompany someone and I am not very solid on the music and that creates a bit of nerves. Not this year – the music was all very playable and the piano was decent.
We had Stake Conference last weekend. It was a regional broadcast so all the stake leadership had to worry about was Saturday night. As it was, Steve had two talks and a lesson to. I just had to help serve the meal to the Priesthood leaders on Saturday.
We celebrated Tamara’s birthday last weekend. Happy birthday, Tamara.
I’ve watched a few good movies lately. How to Train Your Dragon is really cute. And, I quite enjoyed the A-Team. Crazy, huh? Steve and I have been spending our last three date-night Fridays watching the multi-disc A&E version of Horatio Hornblower. A well done series. And, yesterday, as I was cleaning and fixing food, I watched Calamity Jane – an old 1953 Doris Day musical – on instant Netflix. Very politically incorrect, very corny, and yet, very entertaining. I have been humming the tunes ever since.
Steve and I had some free time yesterday so we visited a dollhouse shop in little, out-of-the-way Millersburg. What a delightful place. Of course, it sold items for doll houses but it was also like a museum with maybe twenty completely furnished doll houses on display. They were just amazing. We stopped in a new antique mall on the east side of Columbia on our way home and enjoyed walking around.
We fixed Chinese food for dinner tonight. I found a recipe for gluten-free egg rolls that uses rice paper. What a strange substance it is – it comes out of the package crispy and brittle but becomes soft and almost squishy after it is moistened. When I make them again this summer (when Kirsti is home), I will wrap the filling in two sheets because some of the rolls broke apart in the fryer. I also used the rice paper to make crab Rangoon and those turned out beautifully! Beckie brought a veggie noodle dish and Melanie brought a lovely spinach, strawberry, Mandarin orange, almond salad. It was a delicious, fattening feast.
Max finally got a haircut – here are before and after pictures.
