July heat vs Steve and Jeanne

It has been very, very hot this past week but happily, our low-coolant air conditioner is still managing to keep our house cool (with the big help of three fans) because we finally heard from the Total Home Warranty.  They will NOT pay for anything associated with our air conditioner....not to replace it and not even to repair it.  We jumped through hoops with this claim and paid $300 out of our own pocket and still we were denied.  It has been a most aggravating ride with this company and I would not recommend them to anyone.   

We had a lovely surprise this morning with a big rain storm that dumped quite a bit in about an hour and a half.  It has cooled things down for today but it is supposed to get very hot again this coming week.  

Grandparent Day Camp was on Tuesday and the kids sewed their own pillow cases!  I worked with them one-on-one and I think their creations turned out really nice.  With Larkin, it was mostly her sitting on my lap and helping guide the fabric through the needle but the other three actually used the foot pedal and did their own sewing, cutting, and ironing.  I stayed very close by with Quinn and Lucy, of course.  Noah, who had done a sewing unit in school, just needed me to tell him when to do each step.

We got to see the grandkids (and Joe and Emily) again on Thursday evening at the game.  Steve and I rode the Metro there and back (and caught the correct train back this time😀 ) and, even though temperatures were high, our seats up at the top of the stadium allowed us to catch a very nice breeze.  Our tickets included $6 of Cardinal Cash which we all used to buy our dinners.  I was surprised at how engaged all the kids were throughout the entire game.  Of course, the big jumbotron scoreboard and the two home runs with resulting fireworks helped.  Best part of all, the Cardinals won!

It was a full stadium because we were playing the Cubs.  A Cardinal player got hit by the pitcher at one point in the game and was down for several minutes at home plate.  Larkin observed this and told her mother "Look, those guys are sitting down and telling secrets".  Happily, the player was able to get up and continue to play.  

I had Carondelet quartet rehearsal Friday morning and Steve and went again to the temple Friday afternoon.  

Saturday was a fun day that started with a ward Pioneer Day pancake breakfast.  They even had gluten-free pancakes so I happily pigged out.  There was also a giant slippery slide set up on the north hill of the meetinghouse property and it was enjoyed by all the young families who attended.

Saturday evening, Steve and I went out to dinner at Little Fox where Beckie works part-time and we had the most amazing meal!  Steve described it as "Six Flags for the mouth".  Beckie was the perfect server and it was fun to see her doing so well in her serving profession.

I also trimmed my pots at the pottery studio on Saturday.  Twice, actually.  My two large pieces were not dry enough to work with so I had to set them out to dry a bit and go back to finish.  Good thing the studio is fairly close by.  Steve and I checked out "A Quiet Place" from the library and, even though I typically do not like scary movies, this was pretty good.  We have also been watching episodes of "Manifest" throughout the week.  I just don't know what we will do when we get to the end of Season 3 since making a fourth season has not been picked up by anyone.  

Oh, Neal, our handyman, finished up the guestroom downstairs on Tuesday and Wednesday.  It looks so nice.  I need to paint the bedroom door and the closet doors in the bathroom down there (which he installed several months ago).  They all just have primer at this point.  I had hoped to do this on Saturday but going to the pottery studio twice kind of put an end to that plan.  

So, in spite of the heat, we had a good week.  The garden is producing zucchini like crazy.  I am loving my plentiful cherry tomatoes.  The rabbits are loving my bean plants.  The zinnias are in full glory.

Quiet Week

I have only one photo from this past week so I guess it will be a short post.  It was a quiet week with the most drama coming from my phone calls to Total Home Warranty almost every day to get an update on our air conditioner claim.  A repairman came on Monday and proclaimed that our twenty-five year old unit, that was leaking coolant into the atmosphere, needed to be replaced.  Ya think?!?!?  We received a bid for a new AC on Tuesday and it has been round and round with the warranty company ever since.  I truly believe they wear customers down with their incredibly long phone holds while having to listen to a recording blather on and on about how great their company is.  Then, once you get to talk to a real person, they continue to wear you down making you wait while their "slow" computer downloads all the information they need.  I will continue my battle with Total Home Warranty tomorrow and until I get satisfaction.....

Steve and I braved downtown Saint Louis Tuesday afternoon and obtained a senior citizen Metrolink pass that will allow us to travel at half price.   I don't ever see us using the bus system but we definitely will take advantage of the light rail to go downtown to do tourist-y things.  And, downtown was surprisingly easy - streets were quite empty, parking was easy to find and figure out.

We entertained two sets of dinner guests last Sunday and Monday evening:  Gerry and Julie Van Dielen from the ward on Sunday and John, Sherrie, and Shawn Downs on Monday.  The Downs are in town for Shawn's cancer treatments.  I served the same meal for both parties:  cold sliced ham, a corn/tomato salad, marinated carrots, and potato salad.  It was the perfect summer meal.  And, after Monday night, I told Steve that I was not going to invite anyone over for dinner for at least a couple of weeks as we have had quite a string of dinner guests lately.  Although, we always have Beckie come to dinner once a week and I don't consider her a "guest".  She came Tuesday night and after we eat we sometimes play a game, or watch something.  This week, we took the dogs on a little walk.  I am happy to report that Sally has returned to her usual perky self again after her fireworks trauma.  Yay!

I was in Ballwin on Wednesday for grandchildren music lessons.  Then we went to the fabric store for them to select their material for our next Grandparent Day Camp project - sewing pillow cases.  

Thursday evening we attended a town hall meeting with our state and local representatives.  It was outdoors and the temperatures were mild but it was very muggy with rain threatening.  After we left, the sky opened up and we got almost an inch throughout the rest of the night.  It has been overcast ever since which has made temperatures lower than average.  A tender mercy for our struggling air conditioner.  

Friday morning was grocery shopping, in the afternoon we went to the temple.  I am so grateful we are able to attend once a week.  

Saturday morning, Steve and  I helped clean the church.  There were eight adults to do the job so it went quite quickly.  The pottery studio was closed the first part of July for vacation but reopened last week and I threw a few things yesterday afternoon.  It was fun, as usual.  

We finished season 4 of the Great Pottery Throwdown this past week.  I watched the final show of Loki.  We watched "Radioactive" on Prime and, while it was interesting to learn about Marie Curie, we both thought the storytelling format was kind of dumb.  Last night, we watched "Heaven Is For Real".  It is a DVD we own - I think it was a gift - and we had watched it before but had forgotten the plot.  With this second viewing, I was frustrated all over again at the main character who is a preacher who has a hard time believing his son saw heaven?  Really?  Weird.  

I am back to wearing a mask with Covid cases on the rise.  I have learned that two families in the ward have come down with the virus this past week!  Of course, I want to ask if they were vaccinated but I won't.  And, I find it incredible that they might not be vaccinated.  I just don't get it....

It has been quite the week

The 4th of July fireworks really did a number on Sally.  After she got so spooked on the 3rd in the evening when someone three doors down lit some professional-grade firecrackers, and only getting worse on the 4th, she spent much of last week under our bed.  I'm talking all day, all night.  And getting her to go outside to go potty was a real challenge.  We took to carrying her in our arms out to the garage - that is if we could coax her out from under the bed - to get her to go!  We think she may be getting back to her normal Sally-self a week later.  And, you can be sure we will be contacting our vet for doggie Valium for next year's 4th of July!  This is her hiding under my sewing chair.

Grandparent Day Camp on Thursday didn't help matters, either.  She is not UN-friendly with the grandkids but I think she just prefers a more quiet household.  With the grandkids, we did watercolor with each child reproducing a picture of their choice.  Noah picked a winter landscape, Lucy an ocean sunset, Quinn a trio of parakeets, and Larkin chose a cat (of course)  Here are their masterpieces:

We bought a slip 'n' slide specifically for them to use but I have to admit it was kind of a dud.  But, at least they got wet.  Steve and I had a chance to get wet, too, only in our neighbor Fred's little backyard pool.  He has been on vacation all week and we were tasked with helping take care of his dog, Stacy, and of turning on and off the pool filter each day.  Tuesday was a hot one so the water felt especially delicious.

We didn't have a chance to take a dip the rest of the week because we were entertaining various guests.  Elizabeth Crippen came from Columbia Tuesday evening and stayed through Thursday morning.  Her birthday was Wednesday and she didn't want to spend it alone.  She and I took Linus down to the Open Door Animal Rescue Wednesday morning for his six-month heartworm check and the great news is that he is now heartworm free!!!  There is a scrapbook store in that neck of the woods so we shopped on the way back home and Elizabeth was delighted.  Steve grilled pork steaks for Elizabeth's birthday dinner.  Sally was still in her under-the-bed mode so Linus got to soak up all the attention.

  

Then, Friday was Elise's birthday and she arrived Thursday morning and spent time with us until Friday evening.  Because Beckie had to work on Friday, we had a family birthday dinner Thursday evening.  About that time, our over twenty five year-old air conditioner was struggling to keep up with the heat so our house was not very comfortable.  Therefore, we moved the birthday celebration to our deck where the shade and the breeze actually made things quite nice.  

Elise actually made her own birthday cake - well, it was lemon ice box pie - but I fixed the BBQ chicken wings and the corn on the cob that she requested.  If you have tried to buy chicken wings lately, you will know how difficult they are to find and how pricey they have become.  

Friday morning, I had a string quartet rehearsal but that afternoon, the three of us went to the temple.  Then, Elise bid us farewell to head off to the Southerlands to go swimming with them at the local pool.  It was so great to have her with us for a few days.

Aside from our struggling air conditioner (we have a HVAC person coming tomorrow and happily, weather has been cooler this weekend), we have had some major upgrades on the house this past week.

First, we had the cement front porch doubled in size.  Sergio, our neighbor, had his brother-in-law visiting who also just happens to do cement work and he did the job.  We had been planning to have it done by someone else Sergio knows who was also going to add cement to their back yard (for their dog area) and I am not sure why that never came to happen.  Whatever the case, we now have a place to put two chairs. (once I get them painted)

Speaking of painting, Neal, our fix-it man, has progressed to the point on our downstairs area that painting was the next step (before installing the molding and the door) so Steve and I primed and painted two coats on the walls yesterday.  The outside walls are in the same shade of "modern gray" as the rest of the house but the inside walls are a lovely butter yellow per the suggestion of Lucy.  I confess I was not thrilled to be donning painting clothes again but happily, the job was small and easily done.  

Finally, we had Forever Clean install gutter guards on the west roof of our house.  The east is way far away from any trees but the west side was just always getting clogged to the point that a small trickle of water would leak through in our basement any time it rained really hard.  It was not cheap, especially considering how short our house is, but it works like a dream now.  We had some gully washers after it was installed so we know.  

I picked my first zuccini last week.  I know it is just the beginning of many more.  And, the tomatoes are just coming into full production, too.  

I weeded around my little "Christmas tree farm" all last week and spread mulch and I know you can't see them very well but this is now they look now.  

In addition to painting yesterday, Steve and I attended a new bishopric potluck dinner.  Happily, we didn't have to host it!  Being the newest ones to the ward out of that group, it was nice to get to know everyone.  And, being the oldest people in that group, we probably wouldn't have had opportunities to get to know them otherwise.   Because we were entertaining so much throughout the week, we didn't get time to watch many movies or television but we did catch a pottery throw down last night and we watched some episodes of Star Trek Next Generation on a recommendation from Elise.  The one where Data creates an android child was particularly touching.  And, I was able to catch the most recent Loki.  Whoee, what a fun show

 

Happy 4th of July!

And now it is July.  The year 2021 is officially half over.  I just can't wrap my head around this.   We finished off our Sunday last week with a birthday celebration for Emily.  The Southerland clan came to our house and we feasted on BBQ chicken wings and a beautiful gluten-free chocolate cake created by Emily.  

We saw the Southerlands (sans Emily) again on Tuesday for the second Grandparent Summer Camp.  It was bread and jam week.  Steve helped the kids make their own little loaf of bread and they helped me make a batch of raspberry jam.  Emily contributed four cups of raspberries from their backyard patch and we provided four cups of frozen berries that we got from the store (hopefully, next year we will have our own productive patch).  

Speaking of fruit.....Steve and I noticed a fully loaded apricot tree early last week in the back yard of a house just down the alley and the fruit was just dropping and rotting on the ground.  So, I wrote a note asking if we could come pick (and pay for) the fruit and left it on the windshield of their truck.  Happily, I got a reply that we could get all we wanted and we didn't need to pay!  He, Mark, stated that this tree was about twenty years old and it had never born fruit until this year.  No big surprise.  Apricot trees, being the first to bloom each spring, usually get hammered by a late frost at this latitude.  Steve and I hauled out the tall, antique fruit ladder we got from Bob Eschrich several years ago and we picked about a lug of apricots.  I am going to make jam tomorrow and share a jar with Mark.  I grew up with two apricot trees in El Paso and it is so nostalgic to eat a fresh-off-the-tree apricot again.

In other garden news, about two months ago, I transplanted a redbud sapling from Emily's front flower bed (where it didn't want to be) to our back yard and I feared it didn't make the move well and had died.  In fact, on Monday, I was all ready to pull it out of the ground but when I went over to it, look what I saw....new growth!  I am so tickled. (although, redbud trees are kind of like a weed because they pop up all over the place but when they are in the right place, they are a beautiful addition to a yard)

Steve had a kidney doctor appointment in Columbia on Thursday so we spent our day there.  I usually teach a cello lesson to Ethan during his appointments but that was cancelled so I actually got to go into Steve's doctor visit and meet Dr. Stein and ask some questions.  And, I got good news:  his kidneys are slowly getting better.  The sarcoidosis will likely prevent complete healing but at least they are not getting worse.  He is reducing his steroid intake.  And, he doesn't have to be quite so rigid in his calcium intake because, if he doesn't eat enough calcium, his body will actually leach calcium from his bones!  And, I can make potatoes almost potassium-free by peeling and soaking them in water for an hour.  Hooray - Steve can eat potatoes again.  Also in our visit in Columbia we ate lunch and had a good visit with Melanie.  She provided her couch for a short nap.  We had frozen Randy's custard with Elise.  We stopped in to see Pat Rybolt at the Music Suite and even had a chance to be of service by taking out huge pieces of cardboard to the dumpster.  We visited Elizabeth Crippen briefly on our way to Steven and Tamara's for dinner.  Tamara fixed a yummy seafood chowder and we had a great visit.  And, then back home.  This was our first long trip in an air-conditioned-less vehicle and it wasn't horrible.  With the windows down, I need to wear a hat so my hair doesn't blow all around my face.  Beckie watched the dogs for the day.  I had to take the following photo of Steve and Linus.  Look at how he gazes up at Steve.  He is such a sweetie.  Both dogs are kind of wigged out by the fireworks going off in our neighborhood.  Last night, two houses down let off a bunch of loud ones just as I was out with the dogs on a potty run and Sally dashed back into the house and under our bed.  She didn't want to go out this morning as a result and Steve had to carry her outside!  Poor thing.  

We got to attend the temple again on Friday - it is so nice to be doing that again - and yesterday was a completely "open" day (meaning neither of us had any outside commitments)  I fixed up a batch of gluten-free pancakes and I baked a gluten-free red/white/blue jello poke cake.  Steve mixed up a batch of gluten-full chocolate cookies and I baked them with red/white/blue M&M's and delivered some to women I minister to.  We started watching "Gettysburg" last night (Steve's July movie).  We watched a couple of pottery throw-down episodes throughout the week and "National Treasure" was the Grandparent Summer Camp movie.  I caught up on "Loki" and an episode of "Manifest" while Steve was at church on Wednesday evening.  It has been a good week.