Beckie is here!

Tuesday, Elise, Steve, and I drove to St. Louis to pick Beckie up from her flight from Hawaii.


She wasn't completely ready to leave the island life (she had been there over four years)

but her roommates were and she couldn't afford to live there by herself.  And, they all three want to pursue their Buttertooth adventures in St. Louis....

Before driving to the airport, we met Emily and Larkin and Quinn at an outlet mall.


Beckie's returned to Columbia with us to accomplish her first and most important objective - to find a car.  We went looking Friday morning and TA DA, found a lovely 2006 Prius with less than 100K miles and at a price she could afford.  She picked it up Saturday afternoon.

Beckie being home has been a magnet for the Lambsons in the area - Elise, Sarah, and Steven and Tamara have all been here most evenings.  Steven and Tamara came over both on Wednesday and on Friday.  In fact, on Friday, we had a wurst dinner thanks to Steven and Tamara who had gone to Hermann in January and purchased several flavors of bratwurst at the Wurst House.  They provided a sampling of four different varieties and we fixed up some yummy sides.

I finished Sarah's quilt top



and started working on Steven and Tamara's joint quilt last night while Steve and I watched 12 Angry Men (the original).  Boy, what a good film!

I picked up my most recent batch of glazed pottery.



Weather has been unseasonably warm this month.  I spotted this hyacinth blooming on February 22nd!

I worry about our "non-winter" this year. No snow or moisture of any kind is not good.  Steve finished emptying the 55 gallon drums of water on our trees and shrubs but that won't substitute for a couple of good snow melts.   Maybe in March???

Finally, look who visited the bird seed on our back deck this morning....

a red wing blackbird - they usually hang around water so he was a surprise.  This is the second day we have seen him.

And, a usual sight....Mr. Cardinal

The week went quickly!

 I made some organization in the family/storage room....

 

 Would you say we have a LOT of DVDs?  I tried to toss that lawn statue with the creepy-eyed kids because one has a broken arm (on the floor in front) but Steve wouldn't let me!  Ruth Marshall gave it to us. 

Steve has drained water from two of the four 55 gallon drums.  He is watering the trees in our yard because we have had NO moisture of any kind for a month.  This “winter” has not acted normal. 

I cleared all my tubs of craft stuff (felt, patterns, fabric, etc) out of the Noah’s Ark room so I could store the boxes Beckie has been mailing home to herself (T-minus two days and counting before we pick her up at the airport!)

Steve and I went to see “A Dog’s Purpose” for a Valentine date.  We just sobbed and bawled our way through it.  Red rimmed eyes as we walked out of the theater.  GO SEE IT!

I am half-way through with Sarah’s T-shirt quilt.  I glazed 12 pots at pottery and threw three new ones.  Steve and I served all day in the temple yesterday. 

Medical glitches on our mission application have been solved and hopefully, it is on its way to Salt Lake now.  Just for fun, I decided to highlight all the missions that we could afford – yellow for domestic and orange for foreign – and it is surprising the possibilities.  

That was our week

And so it has begun

We started dismantling rooms this week.  First pieces of furniture to go were the family room couch, the DVD bookcase,  and the iron bed in the quilt room.  Melanie got the first two items and Katherine Eschrich got the last one.  Delivery was on Saturday.  Here are some before - after photos......

 

 

 

 
 The family room will become our storage unit while we are gone.  The quilt room will hold my sewing machine and supplies because I am certainly not finished with sewing projects and won't be until the very end.  Currently, I am doing t-shirt quilts and I have the tops finished for mine and for Steve's.  I still have Sarah's and Steven/Tamara's to make.
 
 Steve's

 
 mine

We are still looking for a home for our dear old Trissy.  Sixteen years old and still going strong - although she is deaf, getting cataracts, is slightly senile (she keeps forgetting she has already been outside only minutes earlier), is arthritic but still manages to get up and down stairs, and she has this incredibly HUGE fatty tumor on her hip. 

 

 

I am thrilled to report that my bladder is now completely back to normal.  I have cautiously eaten acidic foods this past week and have felt absolutely no pain!  At big test was the lasagne (tomato sauce), salad (dressing) and cherry pie (tart cherries) I ate last night and I experienced nothing but a happy mouth!

The MMCO finally got to perform their winter concert at Parkside Manor on Saturday.  Here we are.

Steve and I had our interview with the stake president on Sunday.  There is a blank on my medical form and one on Steve's that our doctors need to fill in and I forgot to submit our dental forms (they were completed first and I wanted to keep them separate from the unfinished medical ones so I put them in an envelope in the back of our mission application folder and then forgot them!).  So, nothing will be submitted to Salt Lake until we get those three issues solved by Tuesday night.....

Rehearsals for the Easter cantata began on Tuesday and Steve is singing with us this year!  I got to do pottery on Wednesday and I cleaned and prepared six pieces for firing. 

And, on Tuesday, I got to have a deliciously decadent gluten-free patty melt at Oscars in Jefferson City after taking Sarah Everett to the Missouri National Guard headquarters to get a new military ID to replace the one stolen from her wallet.  (Her late husband was retired Navy and she gets medical benefits from his pension).  We were so hungry we didn't stop to visit the museum but I did snap a few photos of the old military vehicles parked outside.

Surgery is DONE!

The bladder stone is gone.  Surgery went smoothly Tuesday morning - I checked in at 5:00 am, surgery started at 7:00, it was finished before 8:00, I was home by 10:00.  Such a short time to knock me flat for the rest of the week.  I cleared my calendar for the surgery day but I was not expecting to be so tired and worn out Wednesday, Thursday, and even Friday.  I cancelled things - even POTTERY!  And, I just slept and hung out on the couch.   I watched "Zootopia".  Steve and I watched two Foyle's War episodes.  We watched the BYU-TV production of "Winter's Thaw" that came out in December and tells the Tolstoy tale of the shoemaker at Christmas time (not the one with the elves...).  It was really well done.  I recommend it highly.  The energy was back on Saturday -  in time for Steve and me to go to St. Louis and serve in the temple.  AND, for me to give Lucy her first piano lesson.
 

Here we are.  (Lucy is wearing a jacket/cape combo from a cartoon she likes to watch)
I found a pre-reading book in the piano method that I like to use.  I hope she has fun with it.  I started to take piano lessons when I was 8 years old and Juli, 2 1/2 years younger, started to imitate what she heard me playing so my mom enrolled her in lessons right away, when she was 5.  Right about the age that Lucy is now.

I have not attempted to start eating acidic foods without Prelief pills, yet.  I am supposed to have a two-week follow-up appointment and I might give it a go after that......

Oh, and we pushed the "send" button on our mission application.  We had the interview with the bishop this morning.  After the interview with the stake president (day TBD), it should take 5-6 weeks before we get the envelope in the mail with our assignment....

AND, on the day of surgery, Steve and I celebrated 42 years of marriage.  We went out to eat BBQ the night before.  And, we cooked steaks for Tuesday night but I was too nauseated to eat :(