Happy Anniversary to us

Steve and I have been married for forty-six years today.  As I learn of failed marriages all around me, I am more and more grateful for our partnership and friendship.....

We finally got a bit of snow on Wednesday.  

We keep the dogs in a crate whenever we are gone from the house for any length of time and one of their favorite things to do, once we return home and they are released, is to run the entire length of the driveway to greet us - because I always go to the garage after our morning walks to deposit collected aluminum cans or because one of us is parking the car in the garage.  Very endearing.  The above photo is after our morning walk on Thursday.   They both got baths on Saturday.  Happily, they are tolerant of that chore.  Below is a picture of the two as Steve and I are getting ready to say our morning prayers.  Sally is blurry but it was the best photo showing both of them with their paws on the cedar chest ready to join us...

We took them to Ballwin on Friday for a walk around the neighborhood with Emily and the grandkids.  Noah, Lucy, and Quinn were not really ready for piano lessons but I wanted to see everyone anyway.  The day was chilly but sunny and, as you can see, most of the snow was gone by then.  

We got to see Steven and Tamara on Saturday.  Tamara had cabin fever and wanted to go somewhere so shopping at the outlet malls in Chesterfield seemed like a good idea.  They treated us to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and Beckie joined in.  It was a great time.  I forgot to take a group photo but I inadvertently took this shot as I was trying to use the QR code to read a menu...

I had an MRI on my back on Monday and I saw the orthopedic doctor about it on Thursday.  Because the physical therapy exercises are helping so much, as well as naproxen, we are not going forward with any kind of surgery at this time.  

I turned in about a hundred Days For Girls shields and fifty draw string bags this past week.  I had been working on them since November when I wasn't doing Christmas sewing.  I finished a patchwork quilt created out of unusable scraps of flannel from Days For Girls liner projects.  The long pieces were leftover parts from cutting out the long strips and the squares were from the ends of finished liners that I picked apart, squared up, and repurposed. Kind of wonky looking but it is nice and warm.  And the round quilt frame (that I retrieved from Emily's) has my newest project.  I put the top together while in Arizona.  I plan to make a full-size bedspread with it.

 

Movie report:  Steve and I started our Marvel comic movie marathon with Captain America and Captain Marvel.  We watched the fourth episode of WandaVision and it just gets better and better.  I love how it is pulling in themes and characters from the movies.  We watched Nanny McPhee - a movie that I saw, loved, and purchased a few years ago but Steve had never seen.  He liked it.  And, we saw the newest episode of All Creatures Great and Small.  That show also gets better and better although slightly different from the books.  And, now I want to visit Yorkshire!  Such gorgeous scenery....

 

Happy Birthdays!

In the dead of winter, three bright spots shine - the birthdays of Steve and Kirsti on the 17th and Quinn on the 18th.  We celebrated Steve's quietly here at home, although we drove out to Ballwin mid-day to be present for Noah's ordination to Teacher in the Priesthood.  Steve requested breaded pork chops, gluten-free stuffing, raspberry jello with mandarin oranges, and a gluten-free chocolate cake with white icing.  YUM!  Kirsti celebrated at Zion National Park with Ryan.  Quinn had a quiet celebration at his house on Monday but he was lucky enough to get two birthday cakes!  

Quinn's cake made by Emily - a work of art

Emily, Lucy, Quinn, Larkin on Sunday, January 17th

Monday we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday by helping with a massive food distribution effort at an abandoned shopping mall in northern Saint Louis.  There were probably over 3,000 cars lined up for the drive-through food giveaway and many organizations sent volunteers including about 75 members of the church.  Actually, there were SO many volunteers that we were tripping over each other trying to find something to do.  Steve and I ended up passing out oranges and apples.  The fruit ran out with an hour left to go and, since other commodities were also running out leaving others with nothing to do, we decided that rather than compete with all the other volunteers, we just left.  Overall, it was a gratifying experience and not bitterly cold.  A time well spent.

I am SO glad I brought along my portable camp stool to sit on in between cars.  It helped my back.  Speaking of, I saw the doctor last week and he has ordered an MRI for tomorrow to help determine the next step.  I am grateful to report that, with the exercises and naproxen, I am feeling almost normal....until I walk for longer than five minutes and then my gluts tell me they hurt.  But, happily, sleeping is good again and I have not had to plug in my heating pad for over two weeks.

I am also happy to report that the neighborhood birds have finally discovered my bird feeders.  

the large bird on the left was some kind of woodpecker who particularly enjoyed the suet cake, once the grackles left the scene.

Larkin came over for preschool and temperatures were rather mild that day (precursor to a cold front) so much of our time was spent outdoors - first on a walk with grandpa and the dogs and then with me.  She had a lovely time playing "doctor" to the collection of rocks I have on my side steps.  The long, skinny rock was a thermometer and she would take the temperature of the various rocks with holes.

On Wednesday, I turned in all the aluminum cans I have been collecting along the sides of the roads during our morning walks and got $6.90 cents for the lot!  Steve and I used our Medicare cards and signed up for free membership to the nearby Carondelet YMCA Recreation Center.  I am not sure when we will actually start going because of Covid but hopefully sometime later this year.  In the meantime, we continue to ride bikes some afternoons (we got two rides in this past week) and take walks every weekday morning and then again later in the morning with the dogs.  We both do our stretching and strengthening exercises every day, as well.  

We continue to do our ward missionary work - attending lessons either in person or virtually, helping out with baptisms, finding other ward members to help with lessons.  It keeps us busy. 

Movie report:  Elise recommended Ad Astra so I checked it out from the library and we watched it Friday night.  Another space disaster movie but not quite as compelling as The Midnight Sky (at least, it didn't keep me awake at night).  It was still well made and thought provoking.  We enjoyed episode two of All Creatures Great and Small and all three episodes of WandaVision (really weird and kind of confusing - I hope by the end of the season, we will know what is going on!).  I also watched Soul again this past week.   

 

Oh, January

January and February are hard months.  The holidays are over with all the anticipation and hustle and bustle.  The sun hardly ever shows up leaving day after day of gray clouds and muted light.  Happily, our family has Steve and Kirsti's birthdays to celebrate (today, in fact.  Happy Birthday, Steve and Kirsti) and our anniversary to commemorate at the end of January.  There IS Valentine's day mid-February.  But, overall, these two months seem to last forever.  

With the new year, I have made some resolutions to resume more practicing, to ride bikes at least three times a week, to paint regularly, and to return to doing family history projects.  And, I was able to do a little bit of all of the above this past week.  I pulled out my string bass on Wednesday for the first time since returning from our mission!  And, I couldn't believe how much stamina I have lost just playing the thing.  I could only last fifteen minutes!  So, working up to a thirty minute practice session will be a goal of mine this year.  Steve and I only got out once on our bikes this week.  Weather was mostly to blame.  I actually did a small oil painting yesterday.  That was satisfying.  And, my effort in family history was more last week than in the past six months so that was good.  But, the overall feeling I get when I reflect on the week is that every day felt like the same and what did I accomplish?  I blame it on the clouds. 

Tuesday, I needed to drop off some sewing projects to Kyle and Micah so I loaded up the dogs and we had a nice visit with Beckie and Kyle at her place.  

Larkin came over for preschool on Thursday this week due to Southerland scheduling issues.  She and I took the dogs on a nice walk.  Along the way, she enjoyed the outside Christmas decor that was still up in a few yards.  She loved the purple oversized lights that lined a walkway.  And she spent several minutes petting the rainbow unicorn on another lawn.  I was able to make the walk with relatively minor pain - I guess my PT exercises are working.  Here is Larkin with a stick she found along the way....

The dogs continue to be a joy.  We are settling into a nice daily routine.  Linus gets stinkier faster than Sally so Steve took a turn at bathing him yesterday.  Happily, he is agreeable to the ordeal.  I remember our dog while growing up - Jingles - LOVED bathtime.  Whenever he heard the bathtub water running, he also came running.  A funny story:  Mom and Dad had a shower and Juli and I always showered in our tub/shower so water filling a tub was truly a signal to Jingles that it was time for a bath.  We had houseguests one time and the woman started to fill the tub for HER bath.  Well, imagine her shock when she saw Jingles in her bathwater!

We DID get some good movie watching in.  We saw "The Good Dinosaur" for the first time.  What a quirky, cute movie!  And pretty scary at times.  We watched the Netflix original "The Midnight Sky" and that was very good.  Poignant, compelling.  It caused me to have a restless night's sleep after we saw it because I dreamed about it all night.  We saw the first episode of the PBS reboot of "All Creatures Great and Small" and it looks like it will be an enjoyable series.  And, we watched "Despicable Me" from our DVD collection and that never ceases to make me laugh and feel warm inside.  ("he's so FLUFFY").  

This week is looking kind of like last week (Big surprise - it IS January and a pandemic) but we'll just keep on keeping on.  

 

Family first

I will not to dwell on the horrific political events of the week but will focus on Lambson family instead...

Sarah was still with us until Wednesday morning and we had a lovely last two days with her.   We watched two movies with her:  Wonder Woman 1984 on Monday at Beckie's place and Tenet on Tuesday at our place.  Both movies were OK.  But, not ones I would need to see again.  Sarah spent some of Monday with Beckie and Kyle and Micah browsing an antique mall and she bought a guitar!  Beckie got a cedar chest.  On Tuesday, she and Steve visited a Sam's Club, met Beckie for lunch at a local burger place, and then the three visited the World Bird Sanctuary.  I just wasn't up to walking around in pain so I stayed back and had Larkin Preschool.  It turned out to be a snowman-themed one.  Larkin made a snowman picture by gluing white circles onto blue paper and placing snowflake stickers all around, she used my snowman pen and a spiral notebook and tallied all the snowmen I have around the house for January (I have a LOT!!!).  We sang "Once There Was A Snowman", we watched "The Snowman" video and she got a snowman lollipop.  We also played with the ottoman full of beanie babies upstairs since Bones and Lily were being kept downstairs.  Larkin is still a bit nervous about dogs.  She is warming up to Linus and Sally a bit, though, and she enjoyed the short walk we took with them.  Anyway, back to the beanie babies....she dumped all of them out and climbed into the ottoman and had me pile stuffed animals on top of her.  Photos below followed by pictures at Sarah's departure Wednesday morning...

The rest of the week seemed kind of empty with Sarah and the dogs gone.   I cleaned house Thursday and Steve and I started to transcribe more of his father's personal history.  We watched Steve's January movie Les Miserable while I did some sewing.   Friday morning, I had a quartet rehearsal which was quite enjoyable and in the afternoon, Steve and I drove to Emily's for piano lessons and a visit to the Menards out their way.  My back pain comes and goes.  Mornings are usually better but any type of prolonged walking will be uncomfortable.  I am hardly using the heating pad these days and I am faithfully doing my PT exercises and still taking my Tylenol and Aleve and I see the doctor on Monday, January 18th for follow-up.  

Saturday we went to Columbia for many reasons:  to give Ethan a cello lesson, to take some things to Elise, to buy gluten-free flour ingredients at the Amish, to visit Steven and Tamara and to celebrate Melanie's birthday with her.  It was an all-day affair and we took the dogs with us.  They turned out to be the perfect travelers!  We brought their beds and they slept all the way there and back.  They loved Elise.  Linus and Bacon were friendly but Sally was kind of wary (and growl-y) so I held on to her during our visit with Steven and Tamara.  They loved Melanie.  They behaved in the car when Steve and I went into the Amish stores (we didn't stay in either one very long).  Sally felt like she had to bark at an Amish horse, though!  It was a nice trip.

Happy 2021

Linus and Sally got haircuts on Tuesday.  Without all their hair, they were cold so we used some sweaters from Sadie and I ordered a couple new ones, too.  Poor chilly doggies.  Here they are all "cleaned up".  You can see more how poodle-like Sally is...in fact, I doubt she has any cocker spaniel in her at all.  

The week between Christmas and New Year's felt rather quiet this year.  Often, we use that time to travel to Indiana to visit Julina but, since she came earlier in the month, we didn't make that trip.  On Tuesday, we joined Sarah and the Southerlands on a little trip to Elephant Rocks State Park.  It was combined with having Linus's stitches taken out and their trip to the groomer.  The day was cloudy and raw but the park was so interesting that we forgot about the cold (most of the time).  Larkin wanted to climb just like her brothers so she had to be watched to make sure she didn't fall.  She is also into posing as you will see in one of the pictures.  The last two photos:  one is a ruin of a building used to cut and transport the granite rocks.  You can see the remains of a railroad track.  And the last photo is of a name carved into the rock back in the late 1800's.  It was a really fun outing and happily, my back did not give me problems

We didn't have grandma preschool this week because of our Elephant Rocks excursion but on Wednesday, Lucy came over for some grandma/grandpa time and some doggie time.  She is quite enchanted with Linus and Sally.  We started with a piano lesson and then she and I did some crafty painting.  While the paint dried, she helped Steve bake some cookies.  We worked more on our crafts but didn't quite finish before Emily came back with the rest of the gang - I gave the boys their piano lessons and Larkin just played on the downstairs bed - away from dogs - with grandpa and beanie babies.  Steve was in charge of being the voices for two stuffed chameleons and an "evil unicorn" but, because it was after lunch and during our regular naptime,  he would nod off to sleep so Larkin kept asking "Grandpa, why are your eyes closed?" 

We had a quiet New Year's Eve, playing games and eating snacks with Sarah.  Steve and I did not stay up to midnight.  And, for the first time in many years, Steve and I did not wake up to drive somewhere to greet the dawn.  It was too cloudy and too icy (freezing rain) and we don't have a specific spot to where we can drive and park that gives us a proper overlook.  So, Sarah, Steve, and I just sat in our jammies in the warm living room and reviewed 2020 and discussed our thoughts/plans for 2021.  Earlier in the week, I had packed away all the Christmas décor except the trees and the nativities so we finished all of that New Year's Day.  

On Saturday, I woke up with the sure knowledge that I had a UTI (I had sort of suspected it since Thursday night) and happily, the after-hours doctor on call just phoned in an antibiotic.  We picked up my prescription on our way to help move a woman in our ward to her new apartment.  She had very little stuff so the move went fairly quickly.  Sarah, Steve, and I returned  to St. Charles later that afternoon to walk and shop a little more as Sarah felt like she just didn't get enough on the 19th.  It was misting and cold but we had a nice time.  

We enjoyed watching "The Grinch" (the 2018 animated movie that was quite delightful), "The Man Who Invented Christmas" (Steve's Christmas gift from Kirsti and Ryan), "The Family Stone" and "The Rise of the Guardians" (the last two brought by Sarah).  I have greatly enjoyed my Christmas gift from the six daughters - a weighted blanket!  It is just amazing!  

And so, another year begins.  I hope it brings an end to this pandemic.  I hope I see an end to my back pain (I see the back doctor on January 13th).  I want to start pottery again.  And I look forward to playing in a community orchestra again.  Plus, I will start to collect Social Security by the end of the year.