We had a record breaking heat wave this week. Ugh, it is not even officially "summer" yet. I am SO thankful for the new air conditioning unit we had installed last fall because it has worked beautifully all this week. Since Steven and Tamara's South America trip was cancelled yet again (thanks Covid - that makes the third time), Steven came in to town Sunday evening to spend a couple of days. He and Beckie joined the Southerlands at their neighborhood pool Monday during the day and then he and Beckie and Emily and Steve and I attended a Cardinals game Monday evening. It was the hottest game temperature since 2016. And, it was pretty miserable, I have to say. Plus, early on, the Cardinals were not playing very well. Happily, they woke up in the middle of the game and managed to get a couple of home runs and actually beat the Padres so we left hot but happy. There was a full moon that night so what looks like a large spotlight above the stadium is actually the moon. In our group photo, I am wearing a personal battery operated fan around my neck. It sort of helped. What was even better was Emily's combination fan and squirt bottle that you can see her holding.
Tuesday morning, Steven joined us at the temple for an endowment session. Then, he treated us to lunch at Wendy's. He returned to Emily's that afternoon as he and Emily and Joe were going to have dinner at Little Fox where Beckie works. He left for Columbia from Emily's Wednesday morning. It was great to have him here.
Wednesday and Thursday we pretty much hunkered down in the house to stay out of the heat. I taught lessons, Steve made a short run to Aldi and Wal-Mart, I actually practiced and did a little crafting. Wednesday night, I picked up Elizabeth Crippen at the airport and she stayed at our place overnight, leaving for home Thursday morning.
A few months ago, I received an invitation to a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for my cousin Charlotte Reckling who lives in Wisconsin and I thought "that would be fun". So, Steve and I made plans to attend - drive up on Friday, attend the early afternoon reception on Saturday and drive home right afterwards - and we cleared our calendar for Friday and Saturday, June 17 and 18. We planned to bring the dogs. And then, I finally made a hotel reservation and the best price I could get was $200! Oh, my - but, I decided that it was important that I be there to represent the Fraedrich side of the family. Honestly, I am not sure how many of the cousins Charlotte has even met since her family grew up in Iowa. Anyway, I decided to bite the bullet and reserve the hotel room - but leaving it open to cancel since Covid is on the rise. And, then, gas prices just kept going up and up and we were looking at possibly spending almost another $200 just to drive up and back. And, considering that I would only see her for maybe five minutes in a receiving line....well, going up to Wisconsin just didn't seem like a great idea any more. It was a hard decision to not go but happily, Charlotte was understanding. Hopefully, Steve and I can made the trip this fall and spend some quality time with her and Fred. We would travel during the week when hotel prices are lower and maybe gas prices will also be going down. So, Steve and I now had two wide-open days. And, you know me, I filled them up pretty quickly. I went to pottery Friday afternoon to make things less frantic on Thursday since one of the ways we cleared our calendar was to switch working in the temple baptistry from Saturday to Thursday evening. I spent some much needed time on civic orchestra business. I took a very long nap on Saturday. I had planned to go with Beckie to the Southerlands for the morning on Saturday and watch Lucy, Quinn, and Larkin since Emily had a newborn photo shoot and Joe was picking up Noah from young men's camp. But then Steve got chills and a fever Friday night. He tested negative for Covid Saturday morning but, as we all know, that can mean nothing. Emily thought the prudent thing to do was for me to not come. I felt badly leaving Beckie to supervise the kids on her own after a long night of work at Little Fox. Steve has not felt too poorly since getting sick and I have not felt sick at all. We have a few more home-test kits and he will check this morning and I will take a test, too.
We watched more movies and shows than we have in recent weeks: Spiderman - Far From Home was Tuesday night. I watched The Lost City Wednesday evening - it was pretty funny. Channing Tatum is good at comedy, I think, and to see Daniel Radcliffe as a maniac bad guy was a hoot. Steve and I watched Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Saturday morning and it was delightful. While the script added some things outside the book, it was still in keeping with the spirit of the story. The music by Leslie Bricusse was so lovely. I wonder what Roald Dahl thought about it? Steve and I watched another Obi-Wan Kenobi and we started Ms. Marvel. We watched a Great Pottery Throwdown episode and we saw the final two episodes of Picard. Wow, that last episode of Picard was just fantastic.
The heatwave broke Friday morning with a small amount of rain and this weekend has been so nice. I just wish Steve felt better.
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