no photos, just words

Our computer is in the shop.  We took it in last Wednesday and I really hope to pick it up tomorrow.  We have our tablets and phones but there are just some things that the full blown computer does that I can't do any other way.  Finale - the music writing program, for example.  Taking photos off of my phone for another thing.  I suppose I could upload them to Dropbox and gather them from there but that sounds complicated to my poor almost-60-year-old brain.  And, I didn't take many pictures this past week anyway....

As I look over my journal, it was a pretty quiet, routine week.  Bike rides in the morning to Gerbes, the pharmacy, the bank.  Lessons in the afternoon - preparing students for a fall recital in a couple of weeks.  A wedding on Saturday - only two more to go until I am retired from Prairie Strings.  Lots of projects and movies:  I started an oil painting - actually, I started three because I squeezed out too much blue and didn't want to waste it so I have three skies going.  I brought a few quilts home to tie for Laura Jost's on-going humanitarian efforts. And, I did a LOT of chopping with my paper cutter for her.  Her daughter brought home a bunch of used manilla folders from her work and my job was to cut them down to 8 1/2 by 11 size for use as card stock in the picture book project.  She collects calendars and magazine photos of nature and children and makes picture books for daycare centers.  Remember the quilts I made for all the kids about six years ago?  Sarah's suffered at the paws of Bones and I did a rather slap-dash job of mending it.  Looking back, I can't fault Bones too much because I used an old sheet as the backing which made it fragile and easy to tear.  Sarah brought it to me again with more rips and I just decided to take the back completely off and I will put the patchwork top on a nice, newish comforter she was getting rid of.  But that meant carefully ripping out lots of zig-zagging stitches.  I got that done this week.

I watched lots of movies:

Black Beauty - Elise owns this 20 year old movie and I don't remember every watching it.  It was beautiful.
Nightmare Before Christmas - I caught this on Netflix streaming.  I HAD seen this previously and, for some reason, I felt like I needed to see it again.  Very cleverly done but not a clear message given.
Black or White - another one on streaming.  It was good - had a good message.  It was hard to watch the alcohol abuse, though.
Five People You Meet In Heaven - this was Steve's October film and I LOVE it.
Avengers: Age of Ultron -I didn't catch this in the theaters.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I also watched the Face 2 Face featuring the Piano Guys.  It was very good.

The truck is back from the body shop - looking really nice.  We had a gorgeous cherry-red 2016 Ford Fusion as our rental for three days.

Elise is now settling in to the Noah's Ark room downstairs and the two upstairs bedrooms are back to being guest rooms.

And, that, folks, is all.

It's autumn time!

Follow up from last blog post – the truck will go into the body shop this Wednesday.  Our insurance covers car rental and that is all set up.  The other person’s insurance will cover our deductible and, while I am not 100% sure, will also pay for the repairs.

Beckie’s visit was lovely.   

 game time!

We spent our Monday driving all around the north-middle part of the state.  First we went to the Amish to restock.  We found lemon chips again!  YAY!  Then, we drove to Brunswick (north and west of Columbia) to buy pecans at a King Hill Farms – 

 

 it was a delightful roadside stand that sold more than pecans. 

Brunswick is also the home of the world’s largest pecan!  

  Finally, we continued driving north towards Chilicothe and to an area touted in last month’s Missouri Conservationist magazine as a place to enjoy fall colors.  It is called Poosey Conservation Area and it is a good hour and a half drive from Columbia.   Well, we saw NO color but muted green.    But, it was fun to ride around with both Elise and Beckie for the day.   We saw better color here around Columbia the next day as we drove to Millersburg for lunch at Ranchhouse BBQ. It is not Lonnie Rays by any means but it was still yummy. Heck, all you have to do is look in our backyard for autumn color....

Sarah has officially moved into her apartment.  She is training to be a shift leader at Bob Evans – basically it is one step below a management position – and was putting in long hours this past week so Bones came over Monday through Thursday for doggie day care.  But, she felt he was ready to be in his new apartment on his own Friday and he did really well by himself.  What a champ! 

Our computer monitor died sometime in the night on Wednesday so we spent our morning on Thursday at Best Buy getting a new one.  Unfortunately, it is not completely compatible with Windows 10 – the edges of the screen are not visible – and it is a fix that can't be talked through so we will be computer-less for a few days this coming week.  Thank goodness for our tablets and cell phones. 

I substituted in seminary Friday morning.  Steve and I attended the stake sponsored genealogy conference Saturday morning.  A long-time friend and former cello student, Joshua Couture, was married Saturday afternoon and he hired Prairie Strings to play.  Steve and I went to the reception and knew absolutely no one but the Couture family.  Awkward.  We need to quit putting ourselves these uncomfortable situations. 

I picked up my pots from being fired.  Here they are.  

 

 Funny story – our neighborhood has underground utilities and the city has been working along our street at all the utility boxes for the past several months – replacing cables, etc.   It has involved lots of digging.  So, obviously, there has to be a restoring of all the grass that has been removed.  Which is what the city has done.  Only, somehow, the grass seed was adulterated with a broad leafed type plant.  

As we have walked dogs every morning, I would remark that it looked like broccoli.  Well, this week, that observation was confirmed.  It IS broccoli.  So weird.

 

I finished reading a marvelous book – All The Light We Cannot See.  It takes place during World War II in France.  And, I watched a wonderful movie called “Wit”.  It was an HBO movie starring Emma Thompson who gives a powerful performance of a woman facing cancer.  It made me cry when I watched it and even the next day as I tried to tell Steve about it. And, I watched "Night At The Museum III" and it was surprisingly funny.

Watching movies and eating bon bons?

As I review this past week, it looks like all I did was watch movies – The Elephant Man, Somewhere in Time, The Rewrite, and Martian Child.  Wow, what a slug I was because the only thing I sewed was a doggie harness for Sadie and a quilt top for the humanitarian aid effort.  (no, I didn't eat bon bons).   I hadn’t seen Elephant Man in decades and it was a good watch but definitely dated and the director David Lynch had some goofy effects thrown in.  Somewhere In Time was loaned to me and I had forgotten how cheesy it was.  The Rewrite featured Hugh Grant in a somewhat similar role to the one he played in Music and Lyrics.  Same screenplay writer.  It was charming all the same.  Martian Child is one Elise owns.  I have seen it once and it was certainly worth watching again. 

I got a new phone – still a Samsung so the learning curve is not as bad as it could be when one gets a new device.  The old phone was trying to tell me in different ways that it was getting old and tired or I would probably still have it.  I hate spending money and I hate technology changes. 

I had my last pottery lesson this past week.  We glazed my five pieces and I will pick them up this coming week.  My plan is to sign up for the group wheel class the first of the year and continue to perfect my skills at throwing on the wheel. 

Steve, Elise, and I drove to St. Louis yesterday to attend the temple, to pick up Beckie from the airport, and to have lunch at Emily’s.  It was NOT to get into a fender bender.  But, after Elise dropped Steve and I off at the temple and as she was heading to Lucy’s soccer game, that is what happened.  Our truck is bad 

 but the van that rear-ended us is worse!  

 

Thankfully, no one was hurt.  And, thankfully, the other driver has insurance and there was a police report.  The truck battery was jarred out of its casing and a cable broke so, until the fellow at the tow lot was able to jury-rig a connection, our truck wouldn’t start and it will ultimately have to be more properly repaired. 

While Steve and I were waiting to be picked up after the temple, I took some photos of the beautiful flowers….

 

 

 

 

 and of my handsome husband.

 

September moves on to October

Remember this picture?  

 

 

Here’s the rest of the story.  24 Enterprise apples and 2 granny smith apples. We might have had more if not for squirrels and grandkids (Quinn and Lucy were quite enamored with the little green apples back in the summer).

 

 

 

And here is the pie I baked with some of them

 

 New month =  grocery buying time  = all day Friday = this!  Whew!

When I was the orchestra director at RBHS, I would often shake my head at the tragic hemlines on the concert dresses.  “Don’t you have a mom, aunt, or grandma who can sew?” I would ask girls wearing dresses dragging the floor.  Obviously not.  So, I told Alison, the incoming director that I would help with hemming this year.  I went two mornings this week to do the measuring and this is my General Conference weekend project.  (Thankfully, not every student needed alterations.)

 Here is a Steve conference photo.  We loved every minute yesterday and look forward to another great day of conference today.

 Look at the cute quilt I tied this week at Laura Jost’s house.  I made 13 “stripes” with red yarn and made white ties on about 6 stars.  

     I watched an interesting foreign film called “Picture Bride” based upon true stories of the Japanese farm workers in Hawaii in the late 29^th – early 20^th century.  Arranged marriages were the norm and this movie featured a young girl who traveled to Hawaii to marry a man she only knew by a photo – but, upon arrival, she discovered he used an OLD photo and he was actually 20 years older than her!  I also watched a silly “Kronks New Groove” which actually turned out to be a great movie and one I would have in my house if I still had little kids.  It was all about choosing the right.  And, it was funny.