Thanksgiving week

Before I go any further about Thanksgiving week, I want to share three photos taken by Emily when the Merrills were here.  I present to you Alice and Larkin!

Okay, now to the week.....Monday was an average kind of day.  Weather has been pleasant enough that Steve and I have been able to take afternoon bike rides and we had a nice one around nearby Carondelet park on Monday.  Tuesday was Larkin Preschool and we did everything turkey - we made the trace-around-your-hand turkey, we read a Thanksgiving turkey book, we made this little pumpkin turkey...

We played with stuffed turkeys and, strangely enough, a stuffed wolf

Steve and I went to IKEA that afternoon and I bought myself a fiddle leaf fig plant.  Her name is Phoebe and I hope she likes her new home (they are kind of tricky to grow, I hear).  Beckie came over that evening and cooked an early birthday dinner for me - ribeye steak with a bleu cheese/cream sauce, spinach and mushrooms, and fresh pineapple,  It was DIVINE!  After dinner, Beckie joined as we watched part one of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

On Wednesday, my actual birthday (at 65, I am now an official senior citizen), Steve and I ventured south to Fenton to a feed store to buy 50 lb. sacks each of millet and black oil sunflower seeds to mix together for the bird feeding station I got as my birthday present.  I had a lovely afternoon nap.  Steve fixed dinner - grilled pork steaks - and we watched part two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Elise arrived to catch the last bit. 

Thanksgiving morning saw all the gang at Forest Park at 9 a.m. for a brisk hike.  

the above photo is from the Art Museum in Forest Park.  It is called "Stone Sea"

After our walk, we all went to our own homes for small Thanksgiving feasts.  Beckie joined Elise, Steve, and me for ours.  We wore masks the whole time.  Poor Elise had to sit at her own table (she works in a public setting which understandibly makes it easier for her to catch the coronavirus) but we were still able to chat and enjoy each other's company....

Our feast which was a bit simplified compared to previous years - there were no sweet potatoes, corn, green beans and only one kind of pie: pecan.  However, Beckie brought a store-bought slice of pumpkin pie for Steve to enjoy.  Pumpkin is high in potassium so one slice is all he would allow himself.

After some visiting, Beckie left to work on Thanksgiving feast #2 with Kyle and Micah, the rest of us took a nap and then we drove to Emily's for an evening fire pit complete with marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers (I brought my own GF kind).  It was a lovely way to end the day and just might become a new Thanksgiving tradition....

While we were at Emily's, we had a Zoom chat with everyone

Friday afternoon, we made a quick trip to Columbia to spend some time with Melanie, who had to work on Thanksgiving.  We dropped off some IKEA purchases I made for my friend Elizabeth and picked up two bags of peat moss she didn't need.  We dropped off a turkey leg for Elise who was at work at Cracker Barrel. And, we briefly saw Steven and collected a bird feeding shepherd's hook that Tamara was no longer going to use.  We got home around 7:30 for a late left-over dinner and the newest episode of the Mandalorian.  

Yesterday, Saturday, we puttered around with various projects including installing my two shepherd's hooks on the chain link fence post right outside our kitchen/dining room sliding glass door.  (photos to follow next week).  Steve has been busy decorating the outside of the house for Christmas and the back deck now has lights and a tree! 

We try to walk every morning and one day this week, we found this huge stuffed gorilla on the ground next to a dumpster.  It was kind of a funny sight so I took pictures.  Kind of sad because it seemed to be in pretty good shape.

Aside from finishing up the Harry Potter movies this week, we also watched "The Family Man" and our traditional Thanksgiving week viewing of "White Christmas" and "Home Alone".  It was a very nice week and I am very grateful for so many things - for Steve, for our children and grandchildren, for our new little home, for our new life in St. Louis, for our overall health, for a car that runs, for food in our fridge and pantry, for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have a wonderful life.  

 

Yard projects, etc.

Temperatures and weather earlier in the week allowed some outdoor yardwork.  Part of Grandma Preschool on Tuesday involved leaf raking.  We have two regular sized rakes and then a tiny one I bought back when Kirsti was little and Larkin was thrilled to use it.  She really got into the activity - it was so adorable!  We had a huge re-usable yard waste bag and Steve and I each took one of Larkin's arms and lifted her into the bag full of leaves and raised her up and down so she could tromp down what was inside to make room for more leaves.  She loved it.

Another pre-school activity was to help Grandpa hang giant unbreakable Christmas ornaments on our backyard deck.  We bought these ornaments for the spruce tree on Parker Street but, since we have zero trees on our property here, Steve thought they could be hung from the deck rail.  He has also wrapped the rail with white Christmas lights since the bushes in front are so tiny.  

Look below to see how tiny they are.  On Monday, we drove to a landscaping supply business (the one that closed early last Saturday) and I picked out three large stones to place at the end of my front flower bed.  I have also been continuing to dig up the grass/weeds behind the garage in back for the wildflower/butterfly garden that I will plant next spring.  I am over half-way finished but I am almost out of the bricks.  I discovered these bricks imbedded in our back lawn about three weeks ago - I eventually dug up fourteen of them that had been laid in a semi-circle for some long forgotten flower bed.  Happily, Lowes has these bricks for sale so hopefully the weather will hold out for a couple more weeks to allow me to finish the job.

 

Elise came to visit this past week.  She arrived late Wednesday evening and left for Columbia after dinner on Thursday.  Beckie came over Thursday morning for a nice visit.  Then, Steve, Elise, and I drove to the Galleria Mall as both Elise and Steve had stores they wanted to visit.  Because of my painful hip, I stayed in the car.  After lunch, Steve and Elise drove to visit the Wild Bird Sanctuary and the Southerlands.  Again, I stayed home because I would not be comfortable walking around the bird place.  We all wore masks during the entire visit (except while eating).  

Speaking of hip - I finally got to see my doctor on Tuesday.  Primarily, it was to establish care at this new clinic but it was to also discuss my ever-increasing hip pain.  I came away with orders to see an orthopedic doctor and to have an MRI of the hip done before that visit.  I also came away with orders for a mammogram, a colonoscopy, and a Holter monitor (my heart beat sometimes feels irregular).  Oh boy!  The doctor prescribed some pain meds for my hip in the meantime (not steroids, happily - those are scary) and most of the time, they help but they don't completely eliminate the pain. I am very grateful for my heating pad that helps when everything else doesn't.  

Movie watch this week:  While You Were Sleeping (we NEVER get tired of that movie), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Jingle, Jangle - a Christmas Journey (a Netflix original musical - it was cute), and, of course, the newest episode of the Mandalorian.  

Not much to write about

 As Steve and I settle into our new lives here on Bates Street, life finally begins to be routine.  That's a good thing.  We did establish care at a new dentist this past Monday.  It is called Borgmeyer Dentistry comprised of three dentists -  a father and his two sons.  It is located just three blocks away from us in a cute, Holly Hills type building.  We scheduled our routine cleaning, just to check them out, and we were very pleased with the whole experience.  While I miss my former dentist who worked in Boonville, I won't miss the long drive to get there.  We are so close we can walk.

I fixed homemade lasagne on Monday and invited Beckie to come over.  It was supposed to be her birthday dinner waaaaay back at the end of March but, thanks to Covid19, that never happened.  So, we just celebrated about eight months late 😀

We drove to Columbia on Thursday for a nephrologist appointment for Steve.  I hope eventually he will find a kidney doctor here in St. Louis but, until then, it gives us an excuse to visit old stomping grounds.  I was able to give an in-person lesson to Ethan.  We enjoyed lunch with Elise at Culvers.  Tamara fixed an amazing dinner of crab legs for us that evening.  Steve was able to help Steven begin putting up outdoor Christmas lights on their roof.  And, I got to ride in my friend, Elizabeth's new (to her) car to Hobby Lobby to help her pick out something for the walls of her newly finished downstairs bathroom.  

I had some assorted projects to work on throughout the week.  I did some Days For Girls sewing and I hemmed a pair of pants for Elise.  I cut out a Christmas dress for Alice.  Many years ago, before Sarah and Kirsti were born, I painted a set of wooden spoons to represent all the members of our family.  A few years ago, I mounted them in a shadow box for display.  When Alice was here, she admired these spoon dolls but wondered where her mother was.  So, I bought two more spoons and I painted a Sarah and a Kirsti spoon and now my shadow box is complete!  Kirsti is right in front and Sarah is in the green sweater.

Another little project was to display two model airplanes Steve bought when we visited Pearl Harbor a few years ago.  One is a United States plane and the other is Japanese.  They came with some descriptive information and I wanted to post that as well as the planes.  I bought small frames and painted them to match the rest of the wall display.  I bought the wrong kind of hanging strips for the planes and I expect them to fall off the wall any time but they have lasted for two weeks now.  Below is a closeup and a full view of the display of WW2 artifacts from Steve's father and uncle. (the uncle was shot down in the European theater)  When our handyman gets back to us, he will hang a large model airplane from the ceiling above this wall.

Plumbing projects are still pending.  At least the home warranty and home insurance companies have not denied them outright.  I started creating a flower bed behind our garage this week.  Rain and cold have put that on hold for now but hopefully by the middle of this week I can resume pulling up grass again.  I am on a quest for largish rocks (the size of a honeydew or a small watermelon) to line a three-foot section of the front flower bed to prevent erosion.  We got to a landscaping supply place too late yesterday so we will try again tomorrow.  We tried to buy some pizza dough for our friend Fred at a nearby Trader Joe's but the line to enter the store had at least thirty people!  St. Louis Covid numbers are alarmingly high and authorities have clamped down on how many people can be in buildings.  Our church meetings were cancelled for the next several Sundays as a result.   So, as holidays approach, we are adjusting our gathering plans.  Stupid pandemic!

Oh, I almost forgot my movie report:  We watched two more Harry Potter movies - Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix.  We watched episode three of the Mandalorian and we watched Wonder.

November begins

 While Kirsti, Ryan, and Alice were here, we had day after day of cold and rain.  They left and we have had sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures - for over a week now!  Go figure.... 

The nice weather, however, has allowed me to work on my last must-do project of the year:  to create a flower bed in front .  The seller planted four small boxwood shrubs to the east of the front porch and right under the front window.  I want to extent the front porch to go under the window and put a flower bed in front of that.  So, every morning throughout this past week, I worked on the bed and dug up three of the boxwoods and repositioned them.  Then, yesterday, I planted hyacinth and crocus bulbs around the boxwoods.  If the nice weather continues, I will go into the backyard and continue to create beds along the east fence line and behind the garage but those projects can also be tackled next spring....

On Monday, Steve and I delivered small plates of cookies to our neighbors east of us (west neighbors got theirs two weeks ago).  Five houses down from us lives a member of the church that Steve has been assigned to minister to.  Fred.  So, we met him for the first time and he is a really great fellow.  He is Steve's age and blind.  And yet, he is so competent and independent.  In the course of our conversation, we mentioned that we walk by his house twice a week and he mentioned how he needed to start walking again so he has been our walking companion since then.  He brings his dog, Stacy, who is NOT a seeing-eye dog but a very calm and sweet German shepherd mix.  We also took him shopping with us on Wednesday.  

Tuesday we voted.  I worried about super long lines so we put off going to the polls until mid-afternoon and I was armed with a book and a folding chair ready to spend a long time.  Well, we walked right up to the door - no lines at all - and we were done in fifteen minutes!   It was great.  Weather was so nice, Steve grilled hamburgers that night for dinner.  Oh, there was no grandma preschool that morning because the Southerlands were on a mini-vacation through Wednesday.

Aside from grocery shopping on Wednesday, we had to configure our stores around a handyman who came in the early afternoon to look at our projects.  FINALLY!  We have been trying to get someone since we moved in - reaching out to four individuals - and this guy, who is a brother-in-law to a friend of mine, was the only one to actually come.  He will have an estimate for us by early this week, we hope.   Some of our repair needs will not be done by him, though... the leaking basement shower and bathtub.  I can't remember if I even wrote about those.   The first time we used the basement shower was when the Merrills were here and water just poured out from under the stall!  And, the first time the bathtub was used to bathe Alice, water dripped in a constant stream down from the ceiling in the basement.  It never leaked when it was just being used as a shower - just as a tub!  So, we submitted a claim with our home warranty company and, on Friday, a plumber came and he took care of the tub issue lickety split.  The shower might not be covered by the warranty - he will have to get back to us.  Our home owners insurance with USAA is looking into the broken sewer pipes right where the foundation of the house starts.  This has been a cloud over our heads ever since Labor Day weekend when we had the huge sewer back up in our basement (luckily, nothing was damaged) and we had to call an emergency plumber to clean out the line.  The line had already been cleaned out by another plumbing company before we bought the house but I am pretty sure they didn't go far enough.  Because the emergency plumber sent in a camera and there is definitely a break where the clay pipe meets the cast iron.  Home warranty will NOT cover that (ugh) but we hope USAA will. 

Thursday, Steve and I checked out a different grocery store close to Beckie (they advertised .65 cent per pound turkeys and $1.99 half-gallons of ice cream) and we went to Ikea for a few houseplants.  We ended up with three.  And a hazelnut chocolate candy bar.....

Friday was lessons day - my two virtual cello students in the morning and Southerlands in the afternoon.  Saturday our windows were finally fixed.  The seller had taken money off of the asking price for this project and a window company came out in September to assess the needs.  Happily, they just needed repairs and not replacement. But, it still took over a month to get the needed parts !?!? and now we have fixed screens and we can open our windows and they stay open.  Which we have been doing with this gorgeous weather.  

Steve and I had a visit from the bishop on Wednesday evening and we have been called to be ward missionaries.  And, I will be leading the music in sacrament meeting every other week.  Since we will be working with our full-time missionaries more closely now and meeting the individuals they are teaching, we attended a baptism that occurred last evening.  

Movie watching this week:  Monday night was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Tuesday was the Current War, Thursday night was the 2009 Star Trek reboot (with Chris Pine as Kirk), and Friday was the second episode of the Mandalorian.  

Happy November, everyone!

 

Last week in October

Get ready......this will be a photo intensive blog!

Sunday, October 25th:  the quintet that I have been rehearsing in gave a live afternoon performance at a park pavilion in Creve Couer.  It was a perfect social distancing setting.  But, it was VERY COLD!  Temperatures were already chilly and the breeze off of the lake made it even more so. Beckie, Kyle, Micah, Steve, and the Southerlands came in support.  Kirsti, Ryan, and Alice were visiting Julina for the day at a halfway point between St. Louis and Greenwood in the cute little town of Casey, Illinois. The draw for Casey is that has BIG things scattered around the town...largest mailbox, knitting needles, birdhouse, barber pole (all in the Guinness book of world records) ...and it sounds like someplace Steve and I will visit in the future.  But, back at the concert, because of the weather, I don't think any of us played at our best but it was still a fun concert to perform and I think to listen to (Mission Impossible theme, America from West Side Story, a Scott Joplin rag, Washington Post March, themes from Pirates of the Caribbean, and a two movements from a rather obscure piece by Villa Lobos).  The photo of us playing and a shot of the family by the lake.  

Tuesday was Grandma preschool with Larkin and Alice.  We visited Kenny and fed his fish, using our umbrellas along the way.  We decorated sugar cookies that Alice and I cut out on Monday.  Grandpa read stories.  We had lots of play time.

Wednesday we visited the World Bird Sanctuary.  No rain but very cloudy and chilly.  Beckie joined us.

Thursday, after an amazing lunch of BBQ from Stellar Hog around the corner, the Merrills flew back home.  It was such a great visit!  Alice loved playing in the toy area of the basement.  On the last day, she discovered Steve's baseball bat and she had to play ball with her mom and dad.  We need to buy a Nerf bat and ball for the future as the real ball, bat, and glove were a bit difficult to handle for Alice.  but she sure gave it a go!

Halloween day, Steve and I visited the Botanical Gardens thanks to the gift of a year-long membership from Beckie, Kyle, and Micah.  Fall colors were stunning.  In the afternoon, temperatures were nice enough - and the sun had FINALLY come out - that we raked up leaves in the back yard.  

And, that night, the Southerlands came to our neighborhood to Trick or Treat.  Several streets south of us are blocked off, families have small bonfires in the front yard, many houses are REALLY decorated, and candy was handed out via a long tube or a kiddie slide or laid out on a table for the children to collect.  Everyone had masks.  I am sure had it not been in the middle of a pandemic that there would have been many more houses passing out candy.  But, I think the Southerland kids did pretty well in the goodie department.  Beckie had the night off and she joined us as we walked around.  Weather was just perfect.  There was a beautiful full moon.  And, Emily, as usual, outdid herself in the costume department.