3rd Week in November

It has been a BUSY two weeks, folks.  

On Monday, November 18th, we drove on over to Home Depot to pick up part two of our new shower that they forgot to include with our Saturday pick-up.  Happily, it JUST fit into the back of our Element  Still no date for the installation....

Speaking of the Element - look at our odometer reading.  177177.  And that is Al, the Allosaurus who rides with us, thanks to Sister Fairbanks from the Arizona Phoenix Mission.

Steve and I got to go to hear Elise sing with the MU Choral Union on Thursday night, November 21st.  Can you  pick her out of the blurry close-up?  They sang the Bach "Magnificat" and Margaret Bonds "Ballad of the Brown King".  Both were just fabulous.  And, they were accompanied by the MU Philharmonic Orchestra which has really come a long way since I was played in it.  They sounded flawless.  It was fun night that was topped off by us three celebrating with frozen custard from Culvers.

Speaking of fun - Steve and I got a chance to attend an MU football game on Saturday night.  Steven had some free tickets from his boss.   I can't even remember the last time I went to a Mizzou game.  Of course, back when we first came to Columbia, our church had one of the concession stands as a fund-raiser and so Steve and I went to the games all the time - but hardly ever got to actually see the game since we so busy selling hotdogs and hamburgers.  The night was REALLY cold so we bundled up and only stayed through the third quarter.  Mizzou lost.   (photo below:  me, Steve, Steven, Ryan Jenkins)

On Sunday, November 24th, Elise, Steve and I drove to St. Louis to hear Noah give his very first talk in Sacrament meeting.  Being so close to Thanksgiving, he was assigned to talk about gratitude and he did a terrific job.  It was a nice drive there and back as it gave us a chance to chat with Elise both ways.  When we returned to Columbia, we went to an open house given by our real estate agent (he who is going to help us sell our house) at the Boone County Historical Society and we got to bring home a cherry pie (which we saved for Thanksgiving)

That Sunday evening, we had my birthday dinner for our Sunday family dinner.  Elise made the pumpkin cheesecake that I always have to celebrate. In attendance were Steven, Tamara, Elise, Melanie, and Patrick Layton (who we have included in our weekly family dinners since he came to mid-Missouri in September.....recall that he stayed at our house for about two weeks as he waited for his apartment to become ready to move in)

My actual birthday dinner was grilled pork steaks, baked potatoes, asparagus, pineapple.  That night, it was  the bi-weekly scripture study group for the over-45 single adults so I brought a gluten-free chocolate cake to share with everyone.  Steve made me pancakes for breakfast, we worked at the Food Bank in the morning and went to lunch at Culvers.  Turning 64 was not a big deal, I guess.