the St. Louis Zoo and other fun things

Tuesday was our day to be in St. Louis and, in addition to the temple, we joined Beckie, Emily, and Larkin and went to the St. Louis Zoo.  I am SO happy that admission is free because that means you don't feel you have to stay and get your money's worth.  We were there for almost two hours and I was ready to leave - it was lunch time and it was quite chilly, in spite of the lovely sunshine.  We enjoyed the penguin exhibit, the orangutans, the bears, and the carousel.  The zoo was completely decorated for Halloween.   It was pretty impressive the number of life-size plastic skeletons they had!

We had lunch at a Smashburger (gluten-free buns...yum!) then back to Ballwin for naps, the temple, and then piano lessons. 

We have several new families in our ward so Steve and I resurrected our cookie night on Monday and invited the Foster family over to get to know them better.  

On Wednesday evening, I attended a Youth Symphony concert and heard my one little cello student play in the junior strings.  I sat next to Kelie Morgan as both her daughters were performing.  

Steve and I went to yet another funeral on Saturday.  Sylvia Pites passed away from lung cancer - and she hadn't smoked her entire life!  

We watched two movies - "Inside Out" (such a brilliant movie) and "How The West Was Won".  We own Inside Out but we got the other from the library.  It had a huge, all-star cast and it was filmed in Cinerama - an innovative, three-camera technique.  I remember going to see it in the theater when it came out in 1962.  El Paso was one of the cities that had a theater set up to show Cinerama films - there were three screens that were in a gentle curve.  I also remember seeing two more Cinerama films - "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" and "Seven Wonders of the World".  On the DVD, one can see the two faint lines running down the middle indicating each of the three cameras.

We got very little yard work done this past week - it is getting just too cold to work during our scheduled morning time so we are moving the time to the afternoon when the sun has warmed things up a bit.  James Remus came over Friday morning and measured for new flooring.   

Friday night was our ward chili supper cook-off and Trunk or Treat.  We decorated the back of the Element and wore our Charlie Brown Halloween t-shirts as costume.  Elizabeth Crippen parked next to us and she really did a super decorating job.  Our friends, Betty McKinley and Katherine Eschrich both dressed up in really fun costumes.

No more briar patch!

After almost a month of thirty-minutes a day of working on removing the blackberries, we are DONE!!!  Here are some before/after shots.  I panned out a bit farther but the little tree in the middle of the before photo is more to the left on the after.

Here is the blackberry corner before and after

The back yard project is not finished, though.  More before / after photos to come.....

Fall color is starting to appear.  Steve and I took a lovely bike ride along the Bear Creek trail on Friday afternoon and here is a photo....

other highlights of the week:

Steve saw a dentist in Jefferson City on Monday who specializes in root canals.  He needed to evaluate the viability of his upper jaw root canals before Dr. Griffin determines how to proceed with his lower jaw now that the nubs have been removed.  We had our first over-45 single adult scripture discussion that night.  Five individuals came.  Hey, we were delighted that anyone came!  Going forward, they will be held every other Monday evening.

Tuesday morning was my turn for the dentist.  Just routine cleaning but he observed some older fillings that are starting to fail and he suggested I get them replaced sooner than later - before they totally fail and I have pain and infection.  So, that will happen next month...

Wednesday morning was the funeral for Gerald Neuffer.  He was 97 years old!!!  It was a beautiful service - probably one of the best funerals I have ever attended.  The music was so nice.  The messages were great.  He was truly an amazing man.  And, it was wonderful to see so many people that we hadn't seen in many years.  

Friday we had Melanie over for lunch and Elizabeth Crippen over for dinner.  And, inbetween, James Remus (Ricky's brother who also installed all our new interior doors a few years ago) came over to evaluate.  He and Ricky, between the two of them, will take care of all our handyman needs as we get the house ready to sell.  

Saturday, we drove to Brunswick, Missouri, to buy pecans from King Hill Farms.  It was a beautiful drive there and an even more picturesque drive going home on an alternate route.  I attended a violin recital in the afternoon and, that night, Steve and I treated ourselves to dinner at Culvers.  

Today, at sacrament meeting, I played in a cello trio with two young women in the ward - Mackenzie Moyer and Jenna Morgan.  And, we got a new bishopric.  You might recognize the fellow on the right.  Steven was set apart as the first counselor.  We are so happy and proud of him.

Movie report:  We watched "Stan and Ollie" on Wednesday.  A delightful movie.  We saw "Next" on Netflix on Friday.  It was fairly good but it had some discrepancies that were annoying.  And, Nicholas Cage's toupe back in 2007 was terrible.  And we watched "All Is True" last night.  It was all right.  I love Kenneth Branagh and Judy Dench and the subject matter was the last years of William Shakespeare.  Should have been a win, right?  But, it was a bit depressing.  

It was a full week!

It all started with a phone call from our new dentist, Dr. Griffin, and an email from Steve's primary care physician on Monday morning. These two things set off a chain of events that still haven't been resolved.  Last week, the dentist had a cancellation for Monday afternoon and we plugged Steve in since he needs more dental work done.  Basically, Steve has no bottom molars.  Expensive crowns and bridges have all failed.  So we were SO happy he could get in sooner than December - which was their first offer.   But, the call Monday morning was to see if he could come in right away rather than at 2:00.  So, he hustled about and got there about 9:00.  That meant I had to find a ride to the Food Bank - which happily happened.   From his dentist visit, he booked Wednesday afternoon to have four extractions of molar nubs that were from failed crowns.  And he goes to a dentist in Jefferson City tomorrow who specialized in root canal evaluations.  Then, it will be back to the Dr. Griffin to decide where to go from there.  

The email from his doctor stated that his blood work from Friday showed elevated alk. phos. levels and could he get an ultrasound of his belly to check his liver and gall bladder.  The earliest appointment he could get was last Friday afternoon so now we await another email from his doctor tomorrow to see what comes next.  I hate waiting.  

Tuesday, we left early for a day in St. Louis.  We had temple baptisms scheduled for 7:45 in the evening so we thought it would be fun to go on a fall adventure with Emily and Larkin.  (Sadly, Beckie couldn't join us). Our destination - Eckert's Orchard just over the river in Illinois.  The day was just perfect and we had a delightful time visiting all the animals, riding on the tractor pulled wagon, picking Golden Delicious apples, finding a pumpkin.

This is Steve recreating a Field of Dreams scene.....

After the orchard, we had lunch at a McDonalds that was selling McRibs and then home for naps.  When the older grandkids got home, they got piano lessons.  And, surprise surprise - Quinn wanted to start so that's what I did.  I will now teach three lessons every other week.

Here are the five of us after our temple baptism trip.  It was a really special time.

Wednesday was all turned upside down.  Our repair man came in the morning and installed a new kitchen faucet and repaired one of our toilets and then we talked about all the things we needed done to sell the house.  It took all morning.  Then, Steve had his extraction and we weren't sure how
out of it he would be afterwards so I drove him there and back and did some grocery shopping while I waited.  On the way home, we picked up the missionaries since they were scheduled for dinner.  Beef stew was on the menu so I blended up Steve's portion.  Then, I had a Days For Girls work meeting with our ward Young Women.  I brought pocket squares to iron and top stitch, PUL to cut out, DFG labels to attach to drawstring bags, and shields to assemble and we were a busy little group for about an hour.  Marilyn, our local director, came to give a brief orientation for the girls.  

At that time, Marilyn asked if I would be the "sewing specialist" for our group and I agreed.  That meant I had to have a Facetime visit with a national sewing specialist to have our various items passed off as "Gold Standard".  Our DFG group has been in existence since January and it wasn't officially recognized by the organization until this meeting I had with the specialist!  

Rain, St. Louis, and Steve's dental work kept us from the briar patch most of the week but we did get out there Saturday morning and got all but about three feet tackled.  We made two trips to the mulch site that afternoon.  In between, we took Genny and Lincoln Sheets up to the Amish.  Neither of them had ever been so we visited ALL the shops we knew.  Had a great time!

We checked out "Won't You Be My Neighbor" and "Victoria and Abdul" from the library and watched the first one on Friday and I watched the second one last night.  The Mr. Rodgers one was wonderful.  What a wonderful man.  I enjoyed Victoria and Abdul.  Not sure it is Steve's cup of tea.  

We both were assigned to speak in Sacrament meeting today.  I had a cello trio rehearsal this afternoon (preparing to play in church next Sunday) and we had two families over for cookies tonight.  It was a teeny bit crazy for an hour.  

First week of October

Hmmm - what to write about?  It was all pretty much hum drum stuff.....

The "briar patch" is about half cleared out.  Buying a second pair of leather work gloves and wearing long-sleeved shirts has helped.

We had to replace our windshield after noticing a fairly significant crack on the driver side a week ago.  Safelite came to the house to do the work.  That was nice.  We had a $250 deductible.  That was not nice.

We had a fellow from church who is HVAC trained come over on Wednesday to service our heat pump and to set our really confusing thermostat.  He hosed off a whole bunch of dryer lint and that helped the house feel cooler during our first-of-October heatwave.  Happily, we are now experiencing regular October weather - windows are open and it is VERY nice outside.

I had to have my bow rehaired.  Even though it was just rehaired less than a year ago, it was done in dry Phoenix.  In humid Columbia, the hair absorbed too much moisture and it just couldn't tighten properly. 

I saw the Downton Abby movie with Elise Tuesday night.  Being a huge fan of the television series, I was delighted with the movie.  It won't win any academy awards but it was certainly fun to re-visit all the characters and have some closure.

We did another visit to Home Depot to check out prices, I sent a couple of emails, and we are finally a bit closer to our home improvement decisions.  We ARE going to have the foundation lifted.  We WILL get the huge crack in the driveway taken care of. I just need to see if the polylift solution will work for us.  I will call about that this week.  If we can take care it if that way, it should save about $5000 on driveway repair.  Regardless of how our driveway problem gets solved, we will have to visit the bank because we are going need a loan to get all of this done and just pay it back from the sale of the house.  Ugh!!!

Steve and I both visited the doctor on Friday - Steve in the morning, me in the afternoon.  And, we both watched a movie with Elise that night.  She brought over "Edge of Tomorrow" which Steve had never seen.  I enjoyed watching it a second time.  Earlier that evening, we had Dan and Malinda Crouch over for dinner and catching up on our families.  Steve was their home teacher for years. 

This weekend of General Conference has been wonderful.  Elise watched all the sessions with us.  Julina drove over from Indiana and watched all but Sunday afternoon with us.  She stayed with Steven and Tamara overnight in MUCH more comfortable accomodations than we could currently give her.  We all enjoyed a family dinner Saturday evening and Steve made a huge breakfast for whoever wanted to come this morning.  I had to be gone for two hours both on Saturday and today to substitute for the cellist in the Heartstrings Quartet!  Bill Miller, their usual cellist, asked me to sub for him way back in the spring and I agreed -  not realizing that it was conference weekend and way before Julina had decided to come for a visit.  Happily, by the time I had to play today, Julina was already gone so I only missed out on seeing her yesterday.  The up-side is I made $200 which I will use to buy new cello strings which should have been changed three years ago!

That's all, folks....