Steve and I drove to visit Julina and Alex in Indianapolis last Sunday afternoon through Tuesday evening. The plan was to help move the ball along on the guest bathroom remodel project in the two days were were there. I can't say we did much on that front. Neither Steve nor I are good at drywall or plumbing. And, we couldn't really do painting because a part of the drywall next to the mirror still needed some drywall patching. It had been started by Stratton but there were sections that still needed some building up with the joint compound. I attempted to do some of that Monday afternoon and it is definately harder than it looks to make everything smooth. And, it takes at least 24 hours to dry so on Tuesday afternoon I had hoped to sand and paint but alas, it needed more compound. So, aside from helping Julina get more sandpaper for the electric sander, some primer paint and paint brushes, we really didn't do much to move that bathroom project forward. I think Alex is just going to hire someone to finish the job rather than try to have Stratton do it under his coaching. Good idea! What we DID accomplish was to have a lovely visit with Julina....and Alex as well when he was feeling up to it. Fall colors in southern Illinois and in Indiana were at their peak. We got in a couple of good walks with Banjo. Steve and had dinner at a Culvers with Shiloh Tuesday evening on our way out of town. Oh, and we got a new catalytic converter....not that we really wanted one but ours was cut off in the wee hours of Monday morning in the hotel parking lot! They are made with precious metals making them of value on the black market and SUVs (like our Honda Element) have a higher carriage making them easier to crawl under to steal. We started the car Monday morning and thought a loud motorcycle had started at the same time. It was so LOUD. Happily, USAA took good care of us and we had it in the shop by noon Monday and were provided with a rental car until it was repaired Tuesday noon.
We got home around 10 in the evening on Tuesday and hit the ground running the next day. St. Louis had a windstorm while we were gone and our driveway and front lawn were covered with long pine needles from the next door tree. I raked/swept up just a fraction. (we had more wind through the week and someday soon, Steve and I will need to tackle both the front and back yards with rakes. We don't have any trees on our own property but the neighbor's trees to the west are sharing leaves and needles with us) Additional insulation was scheduled to be blown in that morning. The city water division was to come by to update the room/bathroom count in our house. Steve had an appointment at the bank for a notary signature. We had laundry to do and a few shopping errands to accomplish. I got my flu shot. Steve didn't get his because of clerical issues but he should be able to get his at no cost when he visits his doctor in a week. It was a busy day and by the evening, we were ready to sit back and watch the Netflix original movie Enola Holmes. It was very good.
Larkin came to preschool on Thursday since we were still in Indiana on Tuesday. I pulled out some stringing beads and below are our creations....
She always eats her lunch with us before Emily picks her up. This week, however, she stayed and watched a bit of Ratatouille with Steve while I caught a quick nap. Then, I drove her back home and gave music lessons to her brothers and sister. That night, it was quintet rehearsal. Long day....
Friday was virtual cello lessons and house cleaning and a watching of the first Harry Potter movie that night.
I found more spring bulbs on clearance at Walmart so I finished planting my daffodil bed in the back yard and I will have some hyacinths and crocus to plant in front in the coming weeks. While puttering in the back yard, I noticed that there were some bricks embedded in the lawn. They were so camoflaged that even Steve didn't notice them as he mowed! As I dug them up, I realized that there were quite a few bricks buried just below the surface layed out in a circle so I dug them up, too. I have uncovered thirteen so far and I believe there might be more to finish a circular bed that existed sometime in the past. Crazy. We finished out our week by feeding dinner to the five (yes, FIVE) missionaries assigned to our ward on Saturday evening. We grilled hamburgers and ate on our back deck since, with the rise in Covid numbers, they are not allowed to go into member's houses. It was somewhat breezy but happily, temperatures were pleasant. I spent part of Saturday making a broccoli salad (which was hardly touched by the boys) and a chocolate cream pie (which they loved). Also that day, Steve and I endeavored to identify what was on all the circuits on our breaker box on Saturday. The brilliant electrician who initially labeled them only wrote "lights and outlets" on them all. So, we turned on all the lights and while Steve flipped switches, I identified which room (s) went dark. Because he was downstairs and I upstairs, we talked on our cell phones. It worked pretty well. We finished up the night watching the last half of Ratatouille that Steve and Larkin started.
We continue to make progress with the "settling in" process.....changing our address in various platforms, sorting through things, discovering new places in our neighborhood....and we now have doctor and dentist appointments coming up. Through it all, we continue to fall in love with our new home and our new life here in St. Louis.
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