Almost ready to go

We leave tomorrow for our two-week trip out west.  And I am kind of freaking out about all the stuff we have to pack vs the size of vehicle we have rented.  The plan is to camp three of the twelve nights we will be gone but even with major minimalism camping, that is still two tents, three sleeping bags, three air mattresses.  So, do we rent a van and spend a lot more money?  Do we ditch camping and stay in hotels and spend a lot more money? (especially the nights near Yellowstone and Tetons!).  Do we hope everything will fit in the Corolla trunk?  Stay tuned, folks…..

The memorial service for Bob Eschrich went very well.  The music was nice.  The two singers were amazing and I didn’t botch the piano accompaniment nor the cello obbligato.  I have had both tunes rattling around in my head ever since!

I did a teeny bit of re-arranging / re-decorating this past week.  Emily returned a small hall table she borrowed about twelve years ago and I painted it white to go in our bedroom and to take the place of a small bookcase which I moved into the family history room and loaded with all our photo albums.  It had an open back so I needed a piece of wood cut to size to paint and attach to give it strength for the weight of the albums.  And so, once again, in the middle of humid Missouri summer, I was out in the garage painting.  Blaaa.  But, I sure like the end results.

 

 

Steve and I have modified our morning exercise routines to go earlier when it is sort-of cooler. 

Emily and Joe and kids are on their vacation out west.  They stayed at our house Thursday night to shave two-hours off of their drive to Colorado on Friday.  Here they are ready to go….

 

 

I enjoyed some sewing / movie watching the end of the week.  Steve, Elise, and I watched Frequency Friday night.  I enjoyed some of Downton Abby Season 1 last night.  And, I have been on a Greg Kinnear kick lately.  I watched Invincible last week and Flash of Genius this week.   Steven and Tamara, for our birthdays in 2016, treated us to Finding Dorie Saturday afternoon.  It was just charming! 

The week is over already?!?!

 Where did it go?  Well, one day, we were in Nauvoo, Illinois.  Julina, Alex and Shiloh and Stratton took a mini-vacation there Tuesday through Thursday and Elise, Steve, and I joined them on Wednesday.  We left Columbia at 7:00 am and got back after 10:00 pm.  Fairly soon after we arrived at 10:00ish, while Juli and Alex attended the temple, we took the kids to Carthage.   And, then to the Walmart in Keokuk for some forgotten supplies.   

 

 

 Elise, Steve, Stratton, Shiloh

Temperatures were pretty hot so we spent our afternoon in the visitor’s center and the family living center before going to an early dinner (good thing as there was a dinner rush just after we got our food).  

 Elise and me in front of an ancestor home - Winslow Farr.  This is one of the few original buildings in existence.  It is used as a home for missionaries so we could not go inside, darn it!

 

Then, Thursday morning, we learned that our good friend and repairman, Bob Eschrich, passed away Wednesday night and life has been rather unsettled ever since.  I am Katherine’s visiting teacher and my companion, Betty, and I drove out to her place Friday morning to be with her.  She and Bob had flown out to Utah to a great-granddaughter’s blessing on June 6^th and she had not vacuumed since returning so I brought out my Shark vacuum and did that for her.  Afterwards, I took photos of the apartment.  It is the office portion of a business building.  Her son-in-law, a commercial plumber, owns it.  Bob fixed up the office and it is just the cutest place!  Full of antiques.

 

 just to the left of the front door....

 

 living room

 

 dining room and the window into the kitchen

 bathroom

 bedroom

 Katherine asked me on Thursday to coordinate the music for the memorial service on Tuesday evening so I have been pretty busy with that ever since.  Finding arrangements.  Finding singers.  Ultimately, I have a woman singing “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”.  I am accompanying her so I have been practicing – a lot.  I got a man to sing “O My Father”.  The woman singer is accompanying on piano and I figured out a cello obbligato to go with it. 

The Relief Society president was out of town over the weekend so she asked if I would coordinate a meal for the 35 family members after the service.  It will not be at the church but at Katherine’s daughter’s home so at least we don’t have to set up tables, etc. So, Sunday found me passing around a sign-up sheet for helpers.

Steve was asked to help dress the body on Thursday. 

I think you can see how this event has affected our lives ever since…..

We fed the missionaries Friday night.  Saturday was a temple day – 7:00 am to 10:00 pm.  Father’s Day was Sunday and Steve had a good day, I think.  It was busy as he was down in the Jefferson City ward all morning and our ward in the afternoon. 

As I type this, we are getting a wonderful rain!  Finally!!!!  I am weary of watering the yard and garden and flowers.....

It has been a busy week!

Preparing for our trip out west where we will be actually camping (!) for three days, we set up our tents (Elise’s and ours) in the back yard Monday evening to make sure all the parts were present and in working order (ours had a strap that needed mending) and to check to see if our air mattresses fit inside.  Elise’s tent opening can accommodate the full-size air mattress but ours cannot SO I ordered two twin-size air mattresses that very evening.  Temperatures that night and Tuesday night were perfect so Elise slept out in her tent.

 Our pie cherry tree has just had another banner production year.  Total amount picked was probably about 6 gallons.   

 

Steve and I picked for an hour Wednesday morning and then we made two batches of cherry jam!  And, since we were in the jam-making mind-set, we also made two batches of blackberry jam.   

 We picked the last of the fruit yesterday morning. Thank goodness!

Remember my visiting teaching sister who almost died?  Well, she came home Friday morning.  Here she is heading to her front door! 

Neither she nor her son can drive (license restrictions) so I was glad that Betty, my VT companion, was available with her car because our truck was in the shop Friday morning – it had been leaking power steering fluid. 

I substituted in another wedding yesterday up in the Moberly area.  I was with a different string quartet called Heartstrings.  It was an outdoors event and the setting couldn’t have been more lovely 

 except for the heat wave we have been experiencing since mid-week.  Thankfully, the musicians got the trees and shade gazebo.  

Sadly, the guests and wedding party did not.  They had full sun with a minister who didn’t shorten his homily at all and a bride and groom who had to dismiss their guests row by row.  Yuck! 

Steve and I visited Sarah’s new apartment yesterday.  It is quite roomy and very nice.  We took over Trissy’s old dog house and one of our wading pools for Bones and Lilly to enjoy.  The yard, though, needs a lot of work and we helped haul off two truckloads of branches throughout the day.  

 I did, though, get to have some fun this past week.  I did pottery Thursday afternoon – I cleaned up my pie plate and threw two big bowls, a tall vase, and a plant pot and tray.  Thursday evening, the Missouri Symphony put on a free concert at the Stephen’s Lake Park amphitheater so Sadie and I went.  

Two of my music students and their parents also joined us.  

Temperatures were hot by that time of the week but we were up on a hill which provided a breeze and the sun was on its way down so it was surprisingly pleasant heat-wise.  

 I did some sewing and I watched Brooklyn last night and Steve and I watched A Bug’s Life Friday night. 

I will end with a photo of Tonks perched on a stool I had brought down for one of my bass students.  Silly cat!

 

Giveaway time

 I have enjoyed dabbling in jewelry making, ever since Kirsti’s marriage when I put together a necklace that would match Kirsti’s wedding colors.  I have pretty much tapped out this creative endeavor for the time being, though, and I have some jewelry that I want to give away.  I have numbered each item and offer them to all who read this blog.  Let me know what you want, if anything….

 

 

 

 

Numbers 13 -- 27 are polished stones that I have had ever since I was a girl.  I am pretty sure some of them came from my grandfather, who was a "rock hound" and polished rocks he found in the desert.  Actually, #26 is a blown glass faux candy. 

I can’t believe we have lived by the Katy Trail all these years and have NEVER been on it until this past Memorial Day Monday when we joined Doug and Lynne Moore for a little bike ride.   

 

We didn’t go too far.  Mostly because we are all old  :).  

 The Missouri river is pretty impressive – I can’t believe how fast it runs – and we couldn’t go very far in one direction due to flooding from all our recent rains.   

We discovered a cool tunnel along the trail...

 

Otherwise, it was a typical first-of-the-month type of week as well as a first Saturday temple work day yesterday.  On our drive home, we brought Ricky Remus and his bicycle.  He spent three days riding on the Katy Trail from Columbia to the St. Louis temple!  Yeah – he rode his bike all the way!