Remodeling update

Right now, we are in remodeling hell.  The only room that is finished and looks nice is the bathroom.

Literally every other room in the house is a mess.  Our bedroom is because I have not had time to vacuum and there are dust bunnies everywhere threatening to grow into dust bears.  The sewing room is strewn with tubs and stuff needing to go into the closet but there is a ladder there instead - James, our contractor, is waiting for warmer weather to use it to climb up into the attic to cut a vent hole for the bathroom vent.  Evidently, all these years, the vent just sent steamy air up into the attic!!!  The family history room is semi-normal but only just today because until yesterday, it was full of tubs waiting to go to the storage unit we rented.  The living room has plastic over everything while James paints the popcorn ceiling.  It is only about 2/3rds done.  The floor is littered with little pieces of the ceiling.  The dining room was painted  the Saturday morning before I left for Arizona.  Below is a photo of Steve painting.  But, nothing else has been done since because James had to paint that ceiling as well as the kitchen's.  Ultimately, new flooring will be installed in those two rooms but Steve and I have the next step which is to paint the kitchen walls that are currently patched and waiting for us to do that tomorrow.  The floor is spotted with ceiling paint but, since it will be replaced, no worries. We are still waiting on the countertop to be installed as well as the new sink.  

The two north bedrooms downstairs have dry wall repair debris all over the place.  The washer and dryer in the laundry room are askew (but still functional, thank goodness) as one of the walls had to be repaired.  The room I used as my studio has about 10 16-foot strips of molding that have been painted and are awaiting installation downstairs.  THAT won't happen until Steve and I paint the walls.  The 3/4 bathroom downstairs - the boat bathroom - was painted by Steve and me on Friday.  Primer and the first coat - coat #2 will happen tomorrow.  We had to paint over cheap paneling so it was especially tedious - not to mention cramped.  The family room, until yesterday, was crammed full of our storage but we had help moving most of it to a 10 X 20 storage unit nearby.  We had two shifts - 10-12 and 2-4 and miraculously, people showed up and we got it done.  Now we can move around in that room and get it painted.  Everything in the downstairs has to be ready for the carpet layers on March 23rd.  I still have four trees to prune and it is getting warmer so yard work will need to resume.They say it is always darkest before the dawn and that is where we are right now.  I know things will get better and, eventually, we will be on the other side of this project so I just hold on and do what I can do every day.   

Visit to Arizona

I read in a making-good-habits book about a woman who decided that she would choose one weekend a year to always visit her sister.  I liked that idea and decided right then to make President's Day weekend the time to travel to Arizona to visit all my family - especially my younger sister, Juli.  Even though we had just left Phoenix in July, and even though we didn't have a lot of funds set aside for a trip this year, I did have a Southwest travel voucher that I needed to use so it was decided that just I would go in 2020.  Saturday, February 15th, I drove to Kansas City airport and flew into Phoenix that evening.  I stayed with Amy and Cory.  On Sunday afternoon, we had a cousin gathering at Jerri's care facility in the casita in the back yard.  It was a huge success.  Below are photos of all who attended:

Four of the five siblings - Juli, Jim, Jerri, me

Rob Bowden and his wife Joanne

Brent Bowden with Susette and children  

Neal and Paul Fraedrich

Jerri with Jesse and Juli

After that gathering, Amy and Cory had their two married daughters over for dinner so Juli and I got to hang out with the Ellsworth family for the evening before Juli headed back up to Payson.  

Below is a photo of Cory and Amy and Cory with Atley's twin girls, Sophie (dark hair and Evie (light hair).  They are about 3 1/2 years old.

Monday morning, I borrowed my sister Jerri's Honda Pilot (she hasn't driven it in three years - it just sits parked at Amy and Cory's) and drove to Phoenix.  My first stop was to deliver some belongings to the parents of Elder Chase Pottle who is currently serving in our ward.  His father was VERY helpful to our family about a month ago when my 1st cousin, Jan Winfield, needed help moving heavy furniture out of  the condo of her older sister, Kay, who lived in Sun City and now had to live in assisted living.  He had a massive crew to help so I also wanted to express my gratitude to him for that help.  Below is me with the Pottle family of Peoria...

My next stop was to visit Kay Winfield in her new place.  It is a lot like where my sister Jerri lives - a regular home that has been converted to house elderly people.  It is quite nice and Kay seems happy to be there.  

Then, I visited the Deseret Industries right next to the mission office to look for a new purse and I found two!  Yay for me.  I stopped in at the mission office and it was a Monday so President and Sister Collins were there and we had a nice little visit.

Then, I got gas at our favorite Arco gas station on Deer Valley and had lunch at the Culvers we used to frequent.  Next, I drove up to the Anthem area and I visited Lottie Anderson, my cello student, and her family.

Then to the Harris/Murray family where I did not take a photo because they were sick and in pajamas.  Next it was to see Janet and George Wells (and Mochi) where they fed me a delicious dinner.

Finally, I went to the Lucases to end my day.  Erik was another cello student and his family and Steve and I just hit it off with them right away when we moved up to Anthem.  

It was a long day but a great one.  

The next day was also a LONG day - but not so great.  The morning started out relaxed enough at Amy's.  She drove me to the airport at about noon and I flew out at around 2:00.  The best flight I could find was one that took me first to LAX so that is where I went first.  I knew I would have a 31/2  hour layover but it stretched out another 3 1/2 hours due to mechanical issues.  We finally boarded the plane at 9:30pm and I landed in Kansas City at 2:30.  By the time I got a shuttle out to my car in economy parking, it was 3:00.  I had to make two stops along the way - one for gasoline and one to get peanut M&Ms to help me stay awake so the 2 1/2 hour drive home became 3 hours.  Podcasts and the M&Ms helped me through but the last half hour was still really rough. I didn't pull into my driveway until 6:00 am.  I promptly fell into bed and slept until noon.  I still had to work at Music Suite so I ate and showered and headed to work. 

Next year, President's Day 2021, Steve will join me and hopefully, we will have just as wonderful a visit with no flight issues.

First week of February

We are entering the third full week of showering in the RV bathroom.  We thought we might be painting the bathroom yesterday but last week's weather put our repairman behind.  He has been applying dry wall mud to the walls in the bathroom and throughout the house and it is a multi-step process.  I did start painting the 13 sixteen-foot lengths of baseboard molding, though.  That paint is impossible to remove from my hands, though.  I guess I should wear disposable gloves for the last few.

I was able to prune two additional trees last week with Steve hauling about five loads of branches in the Element off to the mulch site.  We have had rain and snow melt today so neither of us will be venturing out in the mud for the next few days, though  

This photo below looks like we are back on our mission, right?  

I helped serve lunch at a Zone Conference Thursday morning.  It was fun to be back among a bunch of missionaries.

Friday, Steve and I traveled to St. Louis where we met Beckie, Emily, and Larkin at the History Museum.  Below is a photo of Steve and Beckie in front of a statue of Thomas Jefferson - who, you will remember, was the one who made the Louisiana Purchase that brought Missouri into the United States.   We have Thomas Jefferson tributes all around the state - another statue on the MU quad, capital city named after him.  The museum was beautiful - and free (thank you, city of St. Louis) - and we had a little lunch there afterwards.  Then, back to Emily's for a nap before the 3:00 temple session.  We returned to the Southerland's for dinner where we babysat the grandkids (and gave them piano lessons) while Emily and Joe had an early Valentine's day date.  

Saturday morning was a Days For Girls meeting.  We had a super turnout and we got quite a bit done.  We have a big push to get 200 kits ready to send with one of our members who will take them to Ethiopia during spring break the end of March.

I will close with a remembrance of our little snowman as he melted

Remodeling has begun!

This is what our main bathroom looks like.  Remodeling started last Monday and MAYBE it will be finished by the end of next week????  In the meantime, Steve and I are showering in our downstairs bathroom - the one I call the "boat" bathroom or "RV" bathroom.  It is SO tiny.  But, at least we aren't having to shower at Steven and Tamara's, right?  James Remus is doing this and most of the remodeling projects.  His older brother, Ricky, is also involved but not as extensively.  He has also been at the house this past week installing light fixtures and GCFI outlets in our bathrooms and the kitchen.  Regardless of the mess, I am so excited that the remodeling has finally begun.  

Other news of this past week is that Steve and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on Friday, the 31st.  We gave ourselves new bath towels, Steve gave me a pretty plant, and we went to dinner both on Friday and Saturday.  Friday was Culvers and Saturday was at an all-you-can-eat buffet that featured ribs on Saturdays.  The ribs were fabulous but the buffet in general was very ho-hum and we probably won't go back - especially since it was also in Moberly area.  But, we had an Amish trip planned for the afternoon so we were already half-way there.  Going shopping at the Amish is always fun and this trip was MUDDY!  Remember all that snow we got last week?  Well, its melting made the dirt roads in Amish country just a mess.  We had to visit a car wash last night .  

I have eight fruit trees that need pruning and I thought I could do them all in one afternoon - HA!  I was lucky to get two done Friday afternoon.  I really cut them back this year.  And, we have SO many branches to haul away.  I had to go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning to get my pruners sharpened for the rest of the trees.

The MU music department has a brand new building as of this semester.  It has been a LONG time coming (think decades) but it is finally a reality and the Civic Orchestra had their first practice in the instrumental music rehearsal room on Thursday night.  It is just beautiful.  

I had my second shingles shot on Friday morning (this is the newer vaccination that requires two shots) and I believe I had a worst reaction than the first one in October.  My arm was sore all day but, by the evening at Culvers, I was chilly.  I thought it was just the weather outside and my raspberry/cashew concrete but as the evening wore on, my chills continued and I realized I was having a shot reaction.  And, boy, it was a doozy!  I haven't had chills like that in over thirty years (because I haven't had the flu since I started getting flu shots in the early 90's).  We tried watching "The Slipper and the Rose" but we had to stop a third of the way in because I felt so miserable.  I piled on the blankets and went to bed.  A couple of hours later, I was burning up.  Steve gave me a Priesthood blessing and I was able to sleep peacefully the rest of the night and, happily, I felt better Saturday morning.  After we got back from dinner in Moberly Saturday evening, we watched "Groundhog Day" and, by the end of the movie, I started feeling achy again.  Today, I am fine.  

I will end with some photos of the plants I get to water every week at the Music Suite.  Some are ancient and massive!  In the first photo, you can see that the "trunk" has grown so long that it is dragging on the floor.  

And, a photo of our little snowman as he melts.