Do something days

Since summer orchestra ended, I have been filling my days with numerous “little” projects. Too many to list, I think. However, I am delighted to report that our stairs finally have new carpet. The roll you saw in an earlier photo turned out to be the wrong type of carpet for our stairs. We have a gap between the stairs and the wall and too thin a carpet would eventually begin to sag into that gap. So, we had to load the roll back into our truck and haul it back to Kingdom City where I exchanged it for a thicker, quasi-shag type carpet.

Turns out, I really like this stuff much better – as you can see, it is multi-colored in browns to hide all kinds of muddy paw prints and, come to find out, pet hair. When I vacuumed today, I could have woven a sweater with all the pet hair I pulled up. Yuck! The main culprit in the hair loss is Trissy and I would like to shave it all off for the summer!

Here is a photo of the sports room.

Notice the theme-related curtains I finally sewed? The baseball team border up by the ceiling is also new. We bought Cardinals and Yankees wallpaper borders several years ago and just never put them up. Then, after my ordeal with peeling off kitchen wallpaper, I vowed never to let my walls be papered again. But, when we visited Julina, I remembered that she put up her border with staples. Eureka! If one looks closely, it is noticeable that the paper is not completely flush with the wall but you have to look REALLY close. SO, I stapled Cardinals and Yankees on the sports room walls. (all you can see are the redbirds. Yankees are on the opposite wall)

I have been spending lots of time at Finale doing music arrangements for Prairie Strings. We had a rash of special requests this summer – Michael Buble’s Everything, Beatles Michelle, the Imperial March (Yes, that is Darth Vadar’s march. The son of the bride will march down the aisle to that. I have no idea if he will wear the mask), Coldplay’s Life in Technicolor, and finally, the Mario Brothers music to take you up to the next level (that is when the bride and groom kiss). Ya, pretty crazy.

Emily, Joe, Noah, and Lucy visited us two weekends ago. Emily’s high school friend was having a bridal shower here in town. That is what gave her the courage to venture out of her security zone with a new baby. The visit went just fine but I discovered that having a VERY active 3 ½ year old and a somewhat fussy 2 month old did not mix well with our NINE pets, many of whom were extra needy during that time (Max and Sadie, of course, but Trissy was surprisingly always under foot). We celebrated Emily’s birthday while they were here.

Finally, Steve and I went to Indiana for the 4^th of July weekend. We went as far as St. Louis on Friday, the 1^st, where we ate dinner at the Hokensons. Who??? Paul is the retired CES director for St. Louis and his wife, Julina Smith Hokenson, is obviously a distant relative. They are both temple workers and the last time we went to the temple, Paul said we needed to get together to compare genealogy notes so that is what we did. Paul is an avid genealogist and he was extremely helpful for Steve with the Lambson line. Turns out we are also related to them by the Montague line! After sleeping at Emily’s, we left Saturday morning for Lafayette. Julina’s ward had a potluck picnic that afternoon that we attended (too bad it was sooooo hot and humid).

Here are gluten-free cupcakes we decorated for the potluck

While there, we met a senior missionary couple that gave us the phone number of a young sister missionary in the area also named Lambson (family history weekend!). Turns out his brother and wife were senior missionaries in Novosibirsk while Steven was serving (he remembers them) AND, they have a nephew who lives here in Columbia and is in the Highlands ward. In addition, we ate at a table with an older lady who was visiting her son and family and who lives in Billings, Montana and has Mark Jarvis (he used to live in Columbia) as her home teacher. WOW – super small world.

Julina and Steve at the picnic

After the picnic, we drove to Lebanon, Indiana (half-way to Indianapolis) to link up with Elise at a McDonalds. She shared souvenirs from her trip back east and brought gifts from Sarah to assorted family members here in the Midwest. It was a fun, if brief, visit.

On Sunday, we attended church and pretty much relaxed the rest of the day. Lafayette allows fireworks in the city limits for a few days leading up to the 4^th so that night was ablaze with home-grown firework displays. The house across from the little lake in Julina’s apartment complex had an impressive show – they must have spent $500.00 or more! So, we got to view fireworks from them and from all around the neighborhood in air-conditioned comfort. Monday morning we continued what we started Sunday evening – helping Juli sort and organize several boxes of old papers, photos, letters, etc. that had been accumulating for the past ten-plus years. We were able to get quite a bit done although there are still a few things for Juli to do on her own. We rewarded ourselves with frozen custard and a visit to the city park and zoo.

Julina and I at the city park

butterfly at the insect exhibit at the zoo

eagles at the zoo

Steve and I left around 3:30 Indiana time and drove through beautiful rural Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri past fields of corn and soybeans and got home a little after 9:00 Missouri time. It was a good visit. As I type this, Kirsti and Ryan are driving to Missouri for a week-long visit. Highlights in the next blog……